A Charming Wish (8 page)

Told me what?
My hands began to sweat, and my face felt
flush.

“
June?”

I heard someone call my
name, but I couldn’t focus on anything but Faith’s words,
“
told ya”.

Instantly my mind flooded
with her words,
you will regret trying to
tell me how to be a clairaudient.

What did she mean by ‘regret’? What
did she mean by ‘told ya’?

“
June?” Oscar grabbed my
arm. “You need to take a seat before you pass out.”

Feeling a little bit like a zombie, my
eyes lowered to Kenny’s body as I walked past him to a stool to sit
on. My intuition tugged in the pit of my stomach. This was not a
coincidental murder.

Once the sisters had collected Kenny,
Petunia and Gerald left. Adeline stood hunched in the corner. I
swear I could hear the chattering of her teeth. She looked so
scared. Or maybe it was my own teeth. Either way, the smell of
death hung in the air like a heavy wool blanket.

I told Adeline to stop by in the
morning, not asking her why she was here tonight. Reluctantly she
agreed and left, but not without leaving me sick to my
stomach.

Every time I got near her and Petunia,
something told me everything was off with the world. But what? Why
those two?

“
Are you okay?” Oscar
locked the door behind everyone.

“
No.” I ran my hands along
and under the counter to find my all-important stress relief, Ding
Dongs, but there were none there. “Damn! I’m out of Ding Dongs!
June’s Gem isn’t going to cut it.”

I made a mental note to drive into
Locust Grove tomorrow for a Piggly Wiggly run and stock up on my
delicious treats.

“
You know I’m going to
have to ask you some serious questions.” Oscar lowered his big blue
eyes, and I saw a seriousness that I didn’t like. “It seems that
asked a lot of villagers how to get in touch with Kenny. Then he
showed up dead in your shop.”

“
I know how it looks.” I
buried my head in my hands. “But I didn’t do it.”

“
What did you want with
him?” Oscar pulled out his little notepad.

“
Are you interrogating
me?” I stumbled back and caught the wall behind me. I felt faint,
and had a history of fainting.

“
I told you that I needed
to question you.” He sat the pad on the counter, and then helped me
sit on the stool Petunia vacated earlier, making me feel like I was
in the hot seat. “I’m the sheriff. I have to ask these
questions.”

“
All I know is I saw Kenny
running toward A Charming Cure when Petunia was throwing her hissy
fit about me being named the new village president.”

“
You saw him?” Oscar
stared at me as if he didn’t believe me. “June, he had been dead
minutes before that, meaning there was no way you saw
him.”

“
Seriously, are you
interrogating me?”

“
Not without her lawyer!”
Mac McGurtle burst through the door with briefcase in hand. “I’m
the village president’s attorney. I need to speak with my
client.”

Village president?
I’d forgotten about that.

Mac pushed his black-rimmed glasses up
on his large nose with his thick little fingers, not taking his
eyes off Oscar.

“
Is my client under
arrest?” Mac’s briefcase made a thud when he sat it on the
counter.

Meow, meow.
Mr. Prince Charming danced around.

There was something else going on.
Madame Torres glowed from the bottom of my bag and Belur
illuminated from the shelf.

Oscar looked around and shook his
head.

“
Fine.” Mac took him by
the elbow. “If you’d kindly leave while I discuss the events of the
night with my client.”

Oscar strained his neck trying to look
back at me, but Mac kept him walking toward the door.

“
Here is my card.” Mac
handed his business card to Oscar. “If you should need any more
assistance or contact with my client, please call me, not
her.”

Reluctantly Oscar took the
card.

“
Oh, and as of right now,”
Mac pointed between Oscar and me, “you two are no longer
a

couple.”

Chapter Ten

Meowl, meooowl.
Mr. Prince Charming pranced around on my bed and
finally settled on my pillow.
Meoooowl.
His paw landed on my
tear-stained cheek.

I could never have imagined what had
happened today. First, I got a crazy genie lamp. Second, I was
named the new village president. Third, Kenny was found dead on my
shop floor. Fourth, my relationship with Oscar was over, and fifth,
my shop was closed until further notice.

“
I told you all this was
trouble.” Madame Torres appeared in her globe. Sitting on the
table, she filled the room with a warm brown glow. I was sure she’d
picked the tone to match my somber mood.

“
I don’t want to hear ‘I
told you so.’” I rolled her to the other side so I didn’t have to
look at her. “I want to hear solutions. Mainly, how to get my name
cleared and Oscar back.”

Rolling her over didn’t help. Belur
was sitting on the dresser across the room from Madame Torres. I
didn’t have the energy to referee them.

“
Your wish is my command,”
Belur belted out from the bottle. His voice trembled.

“
Belur?” I propped myself
up on my elbows. “Is there something you need to tell
me?”

“
I can’t stand that ball
of fur sitting on your table.” The bottle shook, tipping
side-to-side as if walking itself to the far end of the dresser.
“The further away I am from
her
, the better.”

“
You are going to have to
find a way to get along. Especially now, since we are in this big
mess and your master is dead.” I whispered the last part because I
hadn’t told him about Kenny. I assumed he didn’t know because he
hadn’t mentioned it. “Wait!”

I jump to my feet.

“
Did you see what happened
last night at my shop?” I took his bottle in my hand and uncorked
the top, hoping he’d pop out.

Nothing.

“
Hey?” I held the bottle
upside down and shook it. “Come out of there.” I
demanded.

Nothing.

“
Oh, Belur.” I put the top
back on and sat him back on the dresser. “I wish I knew how to use
a genie.”

Meow.
Mr. Prince Charming nudged me.

“
You are right.” I glanced
at the clock. “Since we have nothing to do all day, we can run into
Locust Grove to stock up on some Ding Dongs.”

I bet I wouldn’t be as stressed if I
had a treat to snack on.

Mr. Prince Charming jumped off the bed
as I searched for my sweats.

“
I know.” I smiled,
looking down at him doing figure eights around my ankles, letting
me know that everything would work out. “I hope it all does. But
this time… I looked out the bedroom window and into Whispering
Falls. “I think we are in big trouble.”

I’ve been in a pickle or two, but no
one was ever found dead in my shop before with no way to explain
it.

Luckily, I had grabbed Belur before
Oscar told Mac I wasn’t going to be able to use the shop until
further notice. I wasn’t sure if it was Oscar’s way of being in
charge of me during this time or not, but Mac made it loud and
clear we were not allowed to see each other during this
investigation.

“
Just where do you think
you’re going?” Mac McGurtle stood outside of my cottage door as
soon as I opened it.

“
I’m going to Locust Grove
to the Piggly Wiggly.” I looked down in my bag, moving Madame
Torres over to fetch the Green Machine keys. “I need some Ding
Dongs.”

“
I’m going with you.” He
didn’t ask me—he told me. “We have some things to discuss. Some
things about a bird and classes for level twenty-eight.”

There wasn’t going to be any arguing
with Mac. I had learned that a long time ago. Mac was our neighbor
in Locust Grove. He was always in our business and watched over me
like a hawk after Darla died. Little did I know, the village
council had placed him next door to keep us safe and sound from any
dark spiritualist trying to find us. My father was killed, and his
killer hadn’t been caught. Once I moved to Whispering Falls and
found out I had inherited my father’s spiritual abilities, Mac had
informed me why he was so nosy all those years.

“
Fine, hop in.” I unlocked
the driver’s side door of my old green ’88 El Camino, and leaned
across the cracked leather seats to unlock his door. Mr. Prince
Charming perched on the headrest behind me as he always does. “Hold
on!”

I put the Green Machine in gear and
floored it. Mac grabbed the handle of the door, holding on for dear
life.

I rubbed the dash as we made a mad
dash out of Whispering Falls. “Still purrs like a baby.”

I tried not to look in my rearview
mirror as Whispering Falls got smaller and smaller. I never went
anywhere without telling Oscar. With one hand on the wheel, I
placed my other hand on my heart. It ached for him.

“
I’m sorry, June.” Mac’s
knuckles were white. He was gripping the door handle so hard. “But
this isn’t looking good. The evidence is mounting against
you.”

“
Like what?” Sarcasm
dripped from my lips. I had an ironclad alibi. “I was at the
smudging ceremony the entire time.”

“
Not necessarily.” He must
have been getting brave since he let go of the door and slightly
turned to face me. “As village president, you automatically get
powers that you will have to learn to control.”

“
Is that why Petunia was
so mad?” I heard her say a million times how she wished she had
more powers than talking to spirit animals.

He nodded. “She was next in line
before Izzy figured out you inherited your father’s
ability.”

It all made sense now why she was so
mad.

“
What about her?” It
wouldn’t have been impossible for her to have killed the Kenny “She
was standing in the door of my shop. She could’ve killed
him.”

“
Gerald said they tripped
over his feet, they were hanging out the door.” Mac pulled out his
notepad and started to write some things down. But she could have
done it. “My old mind isn’t good for remembering things like it
used to be.”

I smiled. I wasn’t sure how old Mac
was, but he sure didn’t look like he had aged.

“
Now,” He clicked the pen,
“tell me everything that happened yesterday.”

“
I had customers and
potions to make. I have a list of the potions I did make.” I eased
the Green Machine around the curvy road that led to Locust Grove.
“I went to Wicked Good to talk to Faith about her predictions being
wrong.”

“
Hmmm.” He scribbled
something down.

“
What?”

“
She can go on our suspect
list.” He looked over, pushing his big-rimmed glasses up on his
nose.

“
Faith wouldn’t hurt a
fly.” I bit my lip, wondering if I should tell him I gave Faith a
little Mugwort to help her hone her spiritual gift. Nah!

“
Spiritualists don’t like
to be called out for a bad job.” He said.

He was right. I’d never intended to
hurt her feelings. I just want her be successful. Over the past few
months, I had seen some spiritualists try to make their way in
Whispering Falls, only to fail. Would she get back at me by framing
me for murder? After all, I did just save her life a few months
ago.

I shook the thought from my head. “I
saw Petunia chasing that ostrich down the street.”

“
Yes, yes.” He shuffled a
few papers around, some spilling on the floorboard.
“Here.”

He held up a piece of paper with his
chicken scribbles on it.

“
She said that you were
very suspicious of the ostrich. And you asked a lot of questions.
It says here that you hindered her from catching the bird by trying
to pluck a feather.”

“
And that’s a crime?” I
shrugged. “It had very pretty feathers.”

“
It is, since the bird
seemed to have been kidnapped.”

“
You mean birdnapped.” I
couldn’t help but laugh. If I didn’t laugh at myself, I’d go
crazy.

Mac glared at me, not amused at my
joke. “The lock on his cage was cut with potion cutters.” He ran
his finger along the paper as he read her claim. “You can’t deny
the special cut they make.”

He was right. I rarely used potion
cutters, but I had them. They were intended for cutting thick
potions that were meant to be eaten. I specialized in the liquid
potions.

“
Automatically, they are
mine?” I couldn’t remember the last time I used them. “I bet mine
are still hanging on the hook.”

“
Nope.” He said. I shot
him a look and slammed on the breaks. “I checked, and so did
Oscar.”