Three Witches and a Killer: Wicked Western Witches Book 1 (5 page)

The room behind the door was even more luxurious than what I’d seen in the house so far. Decorated in shades of pink and gold, the sitting room resembled something out of Versailles Palace. The elegant antique Victorian style furniture was upholstered in white velvet and trimmed with gold.

Although the room was beautiful my attention was drawn to the woman lying on the chaise lounge, near a large white-stone fireplace.

“Madam Petrova, may I present Miss Costello … the private investigator working with the police,” the butler added.

“Hello,” I nodded. “It’s nice to meet you.”

Actually, I was surprised that Madam Petrova looked much the same as I’d imagined she would. She reminded me of the mother of the world’s spookiest TV family. If her hair were straighter and if she were wearing less fashionable clothes, they’d look exactly alike.

I’d seen Mrs. Petrova once before, though it had been from a distance. It was during the town square ribbon cutting. All three of the founding families had gathered at the square for the cutting ceremony.

Today, Glory Petrova was dressed in a white silk robe with matching slippers. Her red lips spread into a tentative smile, though that smile didn’t reach her dark eyes.

“Mercedes, I’m surprised they would send you to take care of this task.”

There it was - that snootiness the Petrovas were so famous for.

“It’s my job.” I shrugged. “We are only concerned with putting to rest any unanswered questions about your husband’s death.”

Glory lifted her thin shoulders. “What unanswered questions? I believe Canton took his own life. He wouldn’t have gone out to the pool with any other intention.”

Madam Petrova’s nonchalant attitude was a little disturbing. For someone who’d just lost her husband a short time ago, she didn’t seem at all distraught.

“You are probably right, but it never hurts to be thorough,” I said, painting on my own smile.

If there was any foul play involved in old Canton’s murder, I didn’t want to alarm anyone of my suspicions, including his unconcerned widow.

“I suppose that’s why we pay taxes,” she nodded.

“So, you’re sure it wasn’t an accident?” I asked.

Glory nodded. “Canton had a sun allergy, as do many in the family. I can’t imagine he would have gone out at that time of day with any other intention.”

“Do you mind if I record our interview?” I asked, pulling out my mobile phone. An actual digital recorder was a little beyond my budget.

“Not at all,” she said with a wave of her hand.

Pushing the record button, I asked, “Who found Mr. Petrova and at what time of day?”

“That would have been Tristan, my oldest son. It was around lunch. Tristan had just returned from a business trip,” Glory explained. “When he couldn’t find his father in his rooms, he started searching the house.”

“According to the police report, Mr. Petrova was fully clothed. Is that correct?” I asked.

Glory nodded. “He wasn’t dressed for a social event by any means, but he was wearing his pajamas and robe.”

“If he actually did commit suicide, how would he have managed to get out of the chair and into the water?” I asked.

Before Glory could answer, I heard a male voice from behind.

“It wouldn’t have been too difficult. My father could move around some, but it was difficult for him.”

Spinning on my heels, I came face to face with Tristan, the new patriarch of the Petrova family.

The last time I’d seen Tristan it had been from a distance and that was years ago. It was when his father was campaigning for mayor. Tristan had stood by his father during one of his campaign rallies. Of course, Canton hadn’t won. No one in Shadow Crossing would trust a public office as important as mayor to one of the heads of the founding families.

He was still just as hot and hunky as he’d been back then. His black suit fit his muscular body so well; it had to have been tailor-made. There was no doubt Tristan resembled his mother. He had her dark hair and dark eyes.

And at that moment, those dark eyes were laughing at me.

“Do you believe he killed himself?” I asked, putting on my most professional face.

“What I believe doesn’t matter. It’s what the police believe, right?”

Damn! For just losing a family member, the Petrovas sure seemed nonchalant enough.

I was beginning to suspect murder, and an inside job at that.

Chapter Five

I was relieved to be back in Dad’s car, although now the Lexus was a fiery oven.

Rolling down the windows, I blasted the air conditioner. I’d intended to listen to the recorded interview so that I could evaluate the tone of their voices and reactions, but that wasn’t to be.

Just before I hit the playback on my phone, it rang and my cousin, Pax’s mug flashed onto the screen.

“Hello,” I answered.

“Are you busy?”

“A little. Why?”

“Holly thinks she has a demon haunting her bookstore. She nearly blew the place up trying to perform some kind of exorcism. She wants us to get rid of it,” Pax explained.

Now he had my full attention. “A demon? That’s not too likely”

“That’s what I told her, but she’s convinced. You know how stubborn Holly can be. I’m afraid that if we don’t help her, she might actually try burning down her own bookstore, which means she’ll burn down the entire town square.”

I was very familiar with how stubborn my cousin could be. Once Holly got an idea in her head, talking her out of it was nearly impossible. When we were in high school, she’d been convinced the principle, Mr. Benny, was really a vampire. She’d gone to great lengths to prove it too, short of shoving garlic down his throat.

Holly never managed to expose him as a vampire, but she did get suspended from school.

My cousin Pax was Aunt Selena’s son, while Holly and Adel were Aunt Sophie’s daughters. Although we were all close in age, we couldn’t have been less alike. Both Holly and Adel had their father’s blue eyes and blond hair. Holly was the serious one while Adel was just kind of ditzy.

Out of all of us, I was the only one who still had both my parents. My cousins’ fathers had both succumbed to the curse. Sophie’s husband died in a freak accident while working in their garden and Aunt Selena’s husband bit the big one when his plane went down over the Pacific.

The aunts certainly had good reason to suspect the family curse was directed at the females.

“Are you still there?” Pax asked.

“Yeah,” I said, snapping back to the moment. “I was on my way to Moonstone Manor to find out if your mom has made any progress with my Mickey D problem.”

“Can it wait? This is kind of important.”

“I think a zombie in my closet is kind of important too. What if he escapes and eats someone?”

At a loss for words, Pax went silent. Not too unusual. My cousin was as smart as a whip when it came to nerd stuff, but he did tend to get tunnel vision, just like Holly.

“Well, didn’t you go to the butcher shop this morning?” he asked, finally breaking out of his dazed and confused state. “A well fed zombie is a well behaved zombie.”

I couldn’t help the eye roll. “You think?”

“Okay, in all seriousness, we should get over there and help her before she does something drastic,” he sighed. “You can always talk to my mom at the BBQ tonight.”

Damn! I’d totally spaced the Full Moon Dinner Aunt Selena put on for the family every month. Those dinners were one of the few occasions that our entire family was in one place.  Even Mom went, though Dad still refused to attend.

“You’re right,” I sighed. “I’ll meet you at the Catnip then. Give me about half an hour.”

After ending the call, I backed out of the little parking space and headed down the tree-lined road to the gate. I couldn’t say I was sorry to leave Draven Court behind. It was one of those places that had a heavy atmosphere. What I needed to discover was if that negativity was due to family secrets, such as murder, or if they just had a ghost or two in their closet.

* * *

The Catnip Book Boutique was on the southwest corner of the town square. Holly’s quaint little bookstore served coffee, soda and offered patrons overstuffed chairs to sit in while they browsed the new releases.

My cousin was a smart businesswoman, but hardly creative when it came to advertising her business. The front window of the Catnip featured two black cats looking down at a bubbling cauldron.

In a normal town, Holly’s storefront would have been considered very imaginative, but not so much in Shadow Crossing. We already had an excess of promotion featuring witches.

Parking Dad’s Lexus in front, I got out and trotted to the door, only to find that it was locked. Holly had a closed sign in the window.

“Holly, it’s me!” I yelled while knocking on the glass.

“She’s expecting us. Why is the door locked?” Pax asked from behind.

Pax’s arms were full of ghost hunting equipment, which probably explained why his black-framed glasses were slipping down his nose.

Unlike Adel and Holly, Pax looked more like a Costello. He had the same dark brown hair and nearly black eyes, though I thought he looked a lot like a nerd.

Shrugging, I knocked again. “Dang it, Holly! We came rushing over here to help you; the least you can do is answer the door.”

It was a good thing that the door swung open about that time since I was just getting ready to kick it in.

Holly stood there, staring at us with a dazed look on her face.

My mouth fell open when I saw the man standing behind her.

Although he wasn’t dressed the same, there was no way I would ever forget those eyes. The incredibly hot and sexy man standing behind her, with his mouth spread into a drop-dead gorgeous smile, was the same man I’d hit on the highway. I was sure of it.

“What’s going on? Why do you have the door locked in the middle of the day?” I asked, suddenly very suspicious.

“Oh, we were just in the middle of discussing a business arrangement,” Holly answered, but it didn’t really sound like Holly.

I knew my cousin and she definitely wasn’t acting like herself.

“I thought you had a ghost problem?” Pax decided to put himself into the mix.

“Sorry about that,” Holly gave us a sheepish grin and a nervous laugh. “I think I was just overreacting. It must have been my imagination.”

My brows shot up. “Really? Supposedly it was a matter of life and death, at least that’s the way Pax made it sound.”

“Well, you know how Pax can overreact when it comes to ghosts and stuff.” Holly was still smiling that unnatural smile.

Now Pax was glaring at her.

“Are you going to introduce us to your new friend?” I asked, raising my eyes to the man standing behind her.

“This is Garrett Bray,” Holly said, turning to face the man with the linebacker shoulders and shoulder-length platinum blond hair.

“Garrett.” Holly pointed in our direction. “Meet my cousins, Pax and Sadie.”

“I swear I’ve met you somewhere before, like in the middle of the road on Highway 2 …  about half an hour ago,” I said, not bothering to hide my skepticism of the entire situation.

His smile widened to reveal dazzling white teeth. “You must be mistaken. I would certainly remember meeting someone so lovely.”

Not only was he a suspicious character, but it would seem he was also a womanizer.

“I have a pretty good memory. Keep that in mind,” I said, glaring at him through narrowed eyes.

“What is this about a business arrangement?” Pax asked.

Garrett spoke up without waiting for Holly to answer. “Your cousin has graciously agreed to rent me the back of her bookstore for my business startup, but it will only be until I can lease my own shop in the town square,” he added.

“What kind of business?” I asked.

“A coffee shop.”

“That doesn’t make any sense,” Pax frowned. “Isn’t that going to eat into your own profits, Holly?”

My cousin shrugged. “No problem. Maybe it will bring in more customers.”

Although Holly was smiling, her eyes were empty. There was unquestionably something wrong with this picture.

No doubt Mr. Mysterious would bring in more customers. As soon as word got out about the new hunk working with Holly, every woman in town would start reading.

Maybe my cousin wasn’t so crazy after all.

Of course a great business plan didn’t get her off the hook for calling us over on an emergency and then brushing us off. Not to mention the fact that I’d just hit her new business partner and killed him, but yet here he was.

“I guess there’s nothing for us to do here.” Pax shrugged.

“It would seem not,” I frowned. “I’ll see you at Aunt Selena’s dinner,” I told Holly before turning away.

Pax followed. “What do you think is going on with that?”

“I have no idea,” I told him with a shrug. “But what I can tell you is that I just run over that guy on the highway less than an hour ago, and he was dead.”

Stunned, Pax stopped. “Are you sure?”

I nodded. “No way would I have forgotten that face or those eyes. He was dead as dead. I’m sure of it.”

“Well, you had to have been mistaken. Maybe it was just someone who looked like him. Besides, if you ran over someone why are you here instead of at the police station getting questioned?” he asked.

I’d known that question was coming.

“By the time Buck got out there the body had disappeared,” I admitted, though reluctantly.

Setting his equipment on the sidewalk, Pax pulled off his glasses and started cleaning the lenses with his black t-shirt. “It looks like we might have a mystery to solve.”

“Yeah.” I nodded. “And not just the mystery of Holly’s new business partner.”

I proceeded to tell him about my mysterious new client and the possible conspiracy to kill the heads of the CO5.

Pax appeared appropriately horrified, as he should since his mother was the head of one of those families. “Shouldn’t you have said something to Holly about this?”

“Not yet.” I shook my head. “There isn’t enough evidence to back it up,” I added.

Pax slipped his glasses on. “I don’t think this is something we should keep to ourselves for too long.”