spies and spells 01 - spies and spells (22 page)

“I know you would never do that.” I said. I could see her now. I bet her ears were as perky as a dog’s when the dinner bell rang. “Did anyone else say anything?”

“Not a word.” There was an amused look on her face. “Lips were tight as the skin of a full tick.”

“That tight, huh?”

“Indeed.” She grabbed one of the boxes that was stacked sky high. “Grab one and hurry. We are going to be late if we don’t get on Gene Snyder Parkway and fast.”

She was right. The Parkway back toward the airport would be bumper to bumper in the five o’clock traffic.

“I thought you said y’all didn’t drink?” I asked a perfectly good question, pointing to the liquor cabinet.

“We might not drink the hard stuff, but it’s only good manners to have liquor for our friends who do.” She stuck her head out from around the box. Her eyes narrowed, brows furrowed. “Dan and some of the guys had come over to discuss the future of Mystic Couture. Not like they could do anything about it.”

“The guys?” I asked.

“Most of the husbands with wives in the Platinum club have been able to retire like Dan. Since Tawny died, everyone has been so upset about the state of Mystic Couture. No one can run it like Tawny. Not even Tessa.”

“I don’t think these are going to fit in my car.” When I had told her I would drive, I didn’t realize there was so much.

“No problem.” She waved my concern off. “I have plenty of space in my car. Besides, I have the pass in there too.”

“Pass?” I asked.

“Since I have a lot of mailings, I have a pass at one of the side security gates at the airport to drive on through.”

We went through a door in the kitchen leading out to her attached garage where her fancy Mercedes SUV was parked. She lifted her foot in the air under the back bumper and the trunk door lifted like magic.

“I told Dan we didn’t need this fancy car, but he insisted since I was always carrying boxes to stick in.” She giggled.

“I thought Dan did a lot of the mailings,” I only mentioned what she had told me at the Mystic Couture party.

“Like I said, he and the other husbands are together again today, trying to figure out the future of their life.” She giggled again and walked back into the kitchen and through the house to get more boxes.

One by one we loaded the boxes in her car in silence. My head wasn’t silent. I continued to go over her conversation from the Mystic Couture party and the conversation we just had. Dan and the other husbands of the Platinum Club seemed to be awfully involved. I get the fact they were able to retire, but they were all pretty young. If they had to go back to work, they should be young enough to do that. It wasn’t like Dan and Drea lived extravagantly. They had nice things, but nothing like Tawny Fawn. Still, something was off.

The traffic on the Parkway was busy, but moving. It wasn’t jam packed yet, but soon it would be. Just like Drea had said, there was no red tape to drive through the security gate at the airport and pull straight up to the FedEx terminal.

“Ma’am.” A man with a FedEx hat walked up to the car. “Can I help you get those boxes into the facility and get you out of here?”

“No thank you.” She slammed the car door and I followed her lead. She swiped her foot under the back bumper and the door lifted.

“They look awfully heavy.” The man wouldn’t give up, knocking me aside.

I was about to threaten to report him to his manager, but he took off his hat.

Mick.

There was some sort of calming feeling covering my body like a warm blanket seeing him there. If there was some sort of international drug ring this would be where it all happened.

“Good evening.” Drea’s chipper voice greeted the man at the counter.

“Coming down to the wire aren’t we, Mrs. Philpot?” The man behind the counter was white, with thinning brown hair. He wore blue pants and a grey cardigan sweater with the FedEx logo on the upper left side.

“But I made it,” pride was in her voice. She winked at him. “This is Maggie Park. I wanted to introduce you because she is the newest Platinum member at Mystic Couture.”

“Nice to meet you,” I held my hand out for him to shake.

He took it gently and we moved them up and down. There wasn’t any sort of alarm making my senses go off. He tried to pull away but I held an even tighter grip trying to get a bad feeling from him. Nothing.

I was getting nothing but good vibes from him. He jerked away from me and rubbed his hands together before he took the package from Drea.

“I wondered if you’d be in since that woman who owns your company passed.”

“Business as usual.” Drea didn’t skip a beat. She took the package out of my hands and set it on the table, waiting for him to check in the package she had carried in. “It’s a shame, but life doesn’t stop just because she passed. Bless her soul.”

There she went again with that whole business of the sign of the cross. I rolled my eyes and walked back to her car where Mick was still waiting.

“I don’t think the guy in there knows anything,” I said grabbing another box. “He doesn’t seem fishy or suspicious.”

“What do you think he’s going to do? Introduce himself as a member of an international drug smuggling ring?” Mick also took a package.

“You better put that down before she comes back here and gives you a good cussing.” I laughed.

He didn’t listen; he snuck the package into his waiting Caprice.

“Thanks, Maggie!” he called out when he threw the package in his car. “You are doing great undercover work.”

“Wait.” I put the package back in Drea’s SUV and walked over to him. “Where are you going with that?”

“All I needed for you to do was distract her so I could get one of the packages in question and take it back to SKUL so we can get it analyzed.” He slammed the door and threw the car in drive, taking off without looking back.

I shook my head, realizing there was no true undercover work SKUL wanted me to do. They wanted me to be a distraction while they did all the work. I wanted to do more. After all, my family was in danger of being discovered and I had to make sure they weren’t. And if that meant I had to do my own digging, or magic, I was going to.

“Say,” the man stopped weighing and putting stickers on one of the packages and looked at Drea. “How is Dan doing?”

“He’s fine,” she said with trepidation. “He’s keeping himself busy with the guys right now doing God knows what, but it keeps him out of my hair.”

“I saw him the other day at the coffee shop on Fifth and he looked good.” He went back to the package. “It makes me happy to see him doing better.”

“Some days are better than others.” Drea sighed.

They continued idle chitchat between them and I continued to be the workhorse by bringing the packages from the car to the counter. There was nothing unusual about the transaction.

“It looks like there were three packages returned.” He gave her the receipt.

“Three?” Her face drew in disappointment. “Just send those over to the hanger.”

He agreed, they said their goodbyes and we were back in the car.

“That was simple.” I kept an eye out for any other type of suspicious demeanor but nothing. If Drea was part of an international drug ring, I’d be surprised. “Can I ask what is wrong with Dan? I mean, the guy back there made me think something was wrong.”

“Dan is in remission from cancer and it’s been a rough road.” She gripped the wheel, her knuckles whitened. “I try not to dwell on it. I don’t know what I’d do if Mystic Couture went under.”

Suddenly she started to cry uncontrollably. She pulled over on the side of the road before we got back on the Freeway toward her house.

“I’m so sorry.” I gulped. “I had no idea or I wouldn’t have asked.”

I waved my hand over my clutch making a travel pack of Kleenex appear inside. I took it out and handed them to Drea.

“No, no.” She tried to smile through her pain and took the Kleenex pack. “You didn’t know. Damn Tawny,” she muttered through her tears.

“Excuse me?” I asked.

“I don’t know what we will do if Mystic Couture goes under. I just can’t believe she died. I mean.” She tried to compose herself. She straightened her shoulders and pulled down the visor. She took a good look at herself. She laughed. “Mystic Couture mascara is supposed to waterproof, but just look.” She pointed to the black lava flow down her face.

“It’s not tear proof.” I tried to make a joke to make her feel better. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. But I rely on these international sales to pay for our medical expenses.” She dug deep in her purse, pulling out a makeup bag. “A Mystic Couture Platinum member can’t look like this.” Her voice became stronger with each word. Her tears dried and she had her
face
back on in no time.

“I’m sure Tessa knows what she’s doing,” I assured her, but not truly believing it.

The entire way back to her house, she told me about all the times Tawny had really stepped up to the plate and helped out when Dan was sick. She was there for Drea when Dan was in the hospital and going through treatments and surgeries.

“Not only did I lose a boss, a mentor, I lost a true friend.” She took a deep breath and pulled into her garage. “I hope I can be as good of a mentor to you as Tawny had been to me.”

“You are going to mentor me?” I asked.

“I am.” She smiled and we got out of the car.

“I better go.” I pointed to my car and took the keys out of my clutch. We hugged and promised to get in touch once my orders from the party came in so she could show me the ropes. Plus I was on target to get some international orders via email, but when?

I had to get more scoop on the international side. But where was I going to find the information I needed?

Mick had said it was going to take a few days to get established, but with Tawny gone, was Tessa on board? Did she know what was going on?

Drea waved from the threshold of the garage when Vinnie and I pulled out.

“I’m assuming you didn’t get any information because my circuit connected to your necklace didn’t go off,” Vinnie grunted over the roar of his acceleration.

“I’m glad you were on alert. But she doesn’t seem to know anything.” I sighed waving back at her. “She’s lonely. I think she just needs a friend.”

“We aren’t in the market for friends, Maggie.” Vinnie reminded me I was here to do a job. Not a job for SKUL, but a job to get the heat off my family, which meant I had to help Mick get the information he needed.

Chapter Twenty-Three

“I’ll let Mick know you are here.” The receptionist told me when she saw me walk into the dentist office. She didn’t hesitate to pick up the phone. I waited patiently by the door. “I don’t know what you did to me last time you were here, but you aren’t allowed to just walk in. You are not an agent. You are only helping with the case.”

I smiled, and waved my hand in the air, sending a little stomach flu her way.

“I. . .” Her hand flew over her mouth and she jumped up, running into the door with the gold plate that had
bathroom
stamped on it.

I didn’t wait for Mick to come up to greet me. I took the elevator on my own and found him at the bottom.

“Maggie,” there was an element of surprise on his face, “I was just coming up to get you.”

“Oh, I know my way around now.” I brushed him off and stepped out.

“Yes, but you need to wait for me to come get you.” He sounded annoyed.

“I’m your partner so I figured—”

He stopped me, “We aren’t partners. You are a citizen who is aiding with this one investigation. It happens all the time. After this one case, you will go back to your illegal diner and I’ll go back to fighting the bad guys.”

“Sounds good to me.” I followed him down the hall. “But I don’t think we are on the right track.”

We walked into Burt’s office. The contents of Drea’s Mystic Couture package was strewn out all over the desk.

“As you can see, we have ripped apart all of these products. We have sent out the samples of the moisturizers, the lipsticks, even the Mystic Couture hairspray. Nothing.” He gestured to all the test tubes.

“I don’t think we have the right in,” I referred to Drea. “She is working hard because Dan is in cancer remission. They have a ton of hospital bills—that is why she works so hard. She’s really torn up about Tawny’s passing too. In fact,” I shook my head, “she’s really worried about Tessa taking over. I really think you should look into Tessa. I think she knows more about Mystic Couture then she wants anyone to believe.”

“Off the case!” Burt busted through the door.

“What?” Mick ran his hands through his hair. “I knew this was going to happen once you told Tessa Fawn about what was happening.”

My phone chirped an email from inside my clutch. As Mick and Burt talked, I opened the email.

“Guys,” I held my phone out to them. “I just got an emergency meeting email from Tessa.”

Mick took my phone and read it out loud, “There is an emergency Platinum meeting at my mom’s mansion right now. If you want to continue to be a Mystic Girl, you will drop everything. If you are not at the emergency meeting, you will be dropped as a Mystic Girl and a Mystic Couture consultant.”

“You didn’t tell them I was working for you?” I asked.

“No. But you can’t go. Tessa refuses to believe Mystic Couture is a cover up for the international drug smugglers. She said she would not cooperate with SKUL.” Burt took the phone from Mick and handed to back to me. “Thank you for your service, Maggie. The receptionist will have a check waiting for you upstairs.”

“But, Burt,” Mick protested. “We have been on this case for over a year. Let Maggie go in and see what is truly going down.”

“I mean I could go to the meeting. It’s not like it would hurt.” I shrugged. If Burt wanted to drop the case, Mick would automatically drop looking into the diner, leaving my family out of it. But my witchy sense wouldn’t let me drop it. I had to go to that meeting. “Besides, you’re SKUL. Undercover is your thing with or without Tessa’s permission.”

Burt took a deep breath. His eyes stared at me. “Fine.” He threw his hands in the air. “Go see what you can find out and report back.”