Three Witches and a Killer: Wicked Western Witches Book 1 (6 page)

“I agree and I’ve already told my dad about it. He doesn’t believe it of course, but I did tell him.”

“We should really start digging then. If the police aren’t going to take it seriously, we should,” he stated the obvious.

Just then my eyes fell on a sign that featured three little pigs and a wolf. “I think I’m going to stop by the butcher shop and get some supplies for Mickey D.”

“Okay, I’ll see you later.” Pax picked up his equipment and started toward his yellow VW Bug, which he’d managed to park in the square nearby.

Waving, I started toward the Wolf and the Pig Butcher Shop. A little bell rang when I the glass door open.

Dino Bradford was behind the display case that showed off expensive cuts of meat, such as steak and prime rib. There were also a few chickens and other animal parts that I didn’t recognize and had no desire to know about.

“Hello there, Sadie. What can I do for you today?” Dino asked as he was wrapping a roast in white butcher paper.

“I was hoping you had some more cow parts you were wanting to get rid off.”

“Sure do,” he said with a wink. “It’s a good thing you stopped by, I was just ready to throw them out.”

Dino Bradford had been the butcher for several years. Before Dino took over the shop, his dad was the town butcher for longer than I’d been alive.

Dino was just as odd as his dad, but he kept mostly to himself.

Although he was only thirty-something, Dino looked much older. I figured that probably had something to do with the fact that he kept his head shaved bald and rarely smiled. His milky blue eyes were a mite creepy too.

“That’s great.” I forced a smile.

“I’ll get those for you,” he said, disappearing into the back.

I have a tendency to get restless when I have to stand around waiting for someone and today was no different. While waiting for Dino to package up the cow innards, I started looking around the butcher shop.

There wasn’t much to look at. It was like most butcher shops – very white and sanitary. It would have to be since the Wolf and the Pig was the only place in town to buy meat, except for Toad’s Pantry - Shadow Crossing’s answer to a supercenter.

My eyes fell on a door that stood part way open. I assumed it led to Dino’s office. I mean, even a butcher had to have a business office, right?

Being snoopy is the part of my personality that spurred me into being a detective in the first place. That was the only excuse I had for sneaking around the display case and taking a peek into Dino’s office.

Pushing the door open, I stuck my head inside the tiny room. It didn’t contain much other than a little desk and a computer, but I barely noticed those things. It was the wall next to his desk that drew my attention. It was covered with photographs.

It wasn’t so unusual to have photo’s in one’s office, but these pictures were all of the same person.

Rainy Petrova!

I would have known Rainy anywhere. Ten years ago she won the Miss Shadow Crossing crown and went on to the Miss Wyoming pageant. She hadn’t won that pageant, but she’d come close.

Rainy had the same dark wavy hair as her mother and was just as beautiful. I clearly remembered wishing I had even a smidgen of her looks and curves, not to mention money. Rainy might have been beautiful but she was a spoiled rich girl and had the attitude to match.

The surprise was that Dino had pictures of Rainy on his wall and that all of them appeared to have been taken from a distance. There was one of Rainy lying out by the pool at Draven Court and another of her walking through Specter Square, along with dozens of similar photos.

It was obvious that Rainy had no clue she was being photographed.

“Are you looking for something?” Dino asked from behind, a hard edge to his voice.

Startled, I jumped and spun around to face him. “I was just curious about the business side of your shop,” I told him, saying nothing about the pictures. “Sorry,” I added with a nervous laugh.

Although he put on a smile, his eyes were slicing me to shreds. He obviously wasn’t too happy with my curiosity. “It’s about the same as any other business in town,” he said.

“Okay,” I muttered, taking the package he was shoving at me.

“That will be five dollars,” he said as he stepped over to the cash register.

Damn! I wasn’t sure Mickey D was worth that much!

Digging into my handbag, I fished out a five-dollar bill and grudgingly handed it to him.

I figured it wasn’t a total waste. The cow guts would keep Mickey D quite for a day or two, plus I now had a suspect in old man Petrova’s murder, if indeed he had been murdered.

There was no doubt in my mind that Rainy Petrova didn’t know she was being stalked.

Perhaps this had nothing to do with the CO5. Maybe the old man somehow got in the way of Dino’s stalking and paid the ultimate price for it, though I had no idea how he would have gotten in the way. The man could barely walk.

Something wasn’t adding up.

Either way, someone had to let Rainy know she had a stalker.

Chapter Six

Although Moonstone Manor would be considered a mansion, the old Victorian was nowhere near as elaborate as Draven Court. The Costello family had never been as flashy as the Petrovas.

The aunts kept the old place up pretty well, considering they were both widows and Pax wasn’t exactly the handyman type.

Of course, it had the wrought iron fence and gate, as well as a spooky look to it, but in a nice and orderly sort of way.

It was a good thing that Aunt Selena had done some improvement by adding a parking area at the side of the property, otherwise I would have had to park on the road and walk down a driveway that was several hundred yards long.

The little parking area was full. There was Pax’s VW, as well as Adel’s red
Porsche and Holly’s purple Jeep. If nothing else, my cousin’s were colorful. Mom had already arrived, as was evident by her little blue Honda. I didn’t see Day’s car anywhere, so I assumed she must have car pooled with Mom.

The aunts always kept their vehicles in the garage behind the house. Sophie drove an old black truck while Aunt Selena had a white SUV.

If anyone had been watching, they would have been floored to see Dad’s Lexus drive up, since he hadn’t been to the old homestead in years. Too bad he wasn’t the one behind the wheel.

One day I would mend the rift in the family, unfortunately, that day wasn’t today.

Grabbing the tub of store-bought potato salad from the passenger seat, I headed toward the back garden. That’s where the cookouts were held and where I’d find the rest of the family.

I could already see Mom and Day’s disapproving looks when they saw a store bought potato salad, but what the heck. It wasn’t as if either one of them had to work for a living. They had more than plenty of time to play Holly Homemaker. I didn’t.

To get to the shade of the pines and aspens in the back garden, it was necessary to make my way along a yellow brick path through a shrubbery maze. It was one of Aunt Sophie’s cute additions to the house. If one was close to suffering a heat stroke beneath the scorching sun of late afternoon, the maze was a major pain in the ass.

When I emerged from the maze, I found the entire family in the garden.

Sophie was in her usual place in front of the gas grill, flipping hamburgers, while the rest of the family mingled. Well, they were mingling if squabbling counted.

Pax was pointing out the flaw in cousin Adel’s logic on her career choice. Our cousin was determined to go to Hollywood and become a big star. I had to agree with Pax on this one. She really needed some kind of backup plan. Cashiering at the Pantry probably wouldn’t get her too far.

Selena was looking over Sophie’s shoulder and pointing out all the burnt hamburgers while Mom and my sister argued over what color Day should paint the nursery for the new baby.

The entire family was excited for the new addition, as was I, though I thought arguing over the color of a nursery was a mite stupid.

The only family member not engaged in some kind of disagreement was Holly, which was unusual. Her snarky attitude always caused arguments during our family dinners.

This apparently wasn’t the case today. Holly was sitting alone and staring at the trees.

“Hello,” I said. “How is everyone doing on this sweltering afternoon?”

My greeting earned me a bunch of dirty looks.

“You’re late,” Aunt Selena said, a critical tone to her voice.

“Sorry, I’m working on a new case.” I didn’t bother to tell them I’d slept in my clothes at the office the night before and had to shower and change before coming over, though my new choice of clothes probably wouldn’t earn me many brownie points with Mom.

I was wearing blue jean shorts and a lacy summer top, which she would have considered too revealing for a young lady. Sarah Costello would have preferred me to dress like I was going to church. At least I’d put my hair back in a nice conservative ponytail.

I handed the tub of potato salad to Mom, who was always in charge of setting up the buffet table.

Taking it, she gave me another look of disapproval. “I honestly don’t understand why you can’t find the time to make a homemade dish at least once a month,” she said in her sugar sweet southern drawl.

“I was too busy,” I told her with a shrug of my shoulders.

Shaking her head, she placed my potato salad next to Day’s homemade gelatin fruit salad.

Mom opened her mouth to say something else but Aunt Selena stepped in. “Store bought salad isn’t a problem. They make some good stuff at the Toad’s Pantry.”

I gave my aunt a smile of gratitude.

Both the aunts were a little on the chubby side but they carried it well. Aunt Selena was dressed in a purple sundress and had her dark bushy hair in a bun. She always wore purple or black.

Aunt Sophie wore her brown hair in a French braid and looked great in her orange tank top and shorts.

No matter what time of year it was, Aunt Selena looked a little witchy, but not Sophie. She could have been anyone’s auntie.

As much as I loved these little family dinners, it was time to get down to business.

“Can we talk?” I asked Aunt Selena.

Both Day and Mom gave me one of their
what’s going on
looks, but I ignored them.

“Sure. I need some help in the kitchen with the lemonade,” she said, motioning for me to follow her.

This I did. We went through the back door and into the large old-fashioned kitchen.

Aunt Selena pointed to a sack of lemons. “You can start by squeezing the juice out of them.”

Picking up a lemon, I started cutting. “Have you made any progress with my zombie problem?” I asked in a low voice, just in case someone decided to follow us into the house.

Selena shook her head. “I’ve gone over the spell a dozen times. It should work. The only thing I can think of is that you don’t really want to turn him back. Maybe you should try it again and really mean it this time?”

That was going to be a problem. Personally, I didn’t care if he stayed a zombie forever, though it could prove to be a problem for the rest of the world.

“I guess I can try,” I agreed, though without much enthusiasm.

“Good,” she said with a nod.

I then proceeded to tell her about my new job, the butcher, and even the man I ran over and how he now worked with Holly.

“Eek!” She made a sour face. “A butcher for a stalker could be a real problem. Someone should let her know.”

“Yeah, that’s what I intend to do, but what about Holly and the guy I ran over?”

A somber expression settled over her face. “Holly
is
acting very strange. I guess that’s something else I need to look into. It sure would be nice if you girls would stay out of trouble long enough for me to catch up on a few things.”

Aunt Selena had a point. She did tend to put off her own problems to help us out with ours. I for one was extremely grateful for the help, though I couldn’t speak for my cousins.

“As for your new job … I’m happy you’re getting some extra money but I think someone in the CO5 got wind of old Canton’s death and panicked. Probably isn’t anything more to it than that.”

I wasn’t sure I agreed.

* * *

It had been a long day and I was glad to be home. Considering my apartment was actually the converted attic above Buckeye’s Saloon on 3
^rd
Street, it wasn’t exactly what one would call cozy, but it was home.

The one thing I didn’t like about the location of my apartment was going through the saloon to get to the staircase that would take me upstairs. For the most part, the Buckeye’s patrons were harmless locals, but every now and again they could get rowdy.

As I passed by the bar, the owner of the Buckeye’s Saloon and my landlord, Jackson Taylor, waved at me and I waved back. All I could do was hope that no one else would greet me; otherwise, I would be stuck downstairs for twenty minutes saying hello to everyone. Although that wasn’t really a bad thing, I was tired.

At the top of the narrow staircase that led to the attic, I unlocked the door to my little four-room apartment. Well, it was four rooms if you counted the bathroom. It wasn’t much, but it was a place to hang my hat at night.

Dropping my purse on the tiny kitchen table, I picked up the stack of mail I’d been putting off going through for the last week. Mostly I’d been put it off because the majority of my mail was bills. I figured as long as I didn’t look at them, I wouldn’t have to deal with them.

Of course, that only lasted so long before they turned off your electricity or repossessed your car.

Giving up after only opening two envelopes, I stared out the kitchen window at Sleepy Hollow Park. That was the one good thing about this apartment; it did have a great view of the park.

Sleepy Hollow Park had been kept as natural as possible, though the city had installed some playground equipment and a few picnic tables, along with jogging trails. The trails were my favorite part of the park. I loved the way they weaved their way through the massive Pines and into the woods known as Sleepy Hollow Forest.