Witches and Whatnots: An Izzy Cooper Novel (3 page)

It was well after lunch by the time I made it back to headquarters, which happened to be housed in the basement of the Shipwreck Point Lighthouse. Aside from being a tourist attraction, the lighthouse served a couple other purposes.

The Monster Squad took up the basement of the old lighthouse, while Uncle Aaron rented the lantern room and converted it into his radio station. The main floor had some historic displays and a gift shop. This was also where the Mystique Island Historical Society had its office.

I hoped to catch Dorothy Bell before she left. Since she was the president of the historical society, along with the lighthouse curator, I figured she’d have to know something about the Dell.

This time, luck was on my side. I caught her just as she was coming down the stairs from the front entrance of the lighthouse.

With Dorothy being near seventy, I couldn’t help but wonder how long she’d be able to handle so many stairs every day, but I couldn’t see her giving up her job voluntarily. She loved it too much.

Like most days, Dorothy was wearing one of those wide brimmed sunhats that she always had decorated with pink ribbons and flowers. It did a good job of hiding her silver gray hair.

“Hey Dorothy!”

Dorothy’s chubby cheeks puffed out a little more when she smiled. “How are you doing today, Izzy? I heard about that messy business on the old path. Do you all know what happened to that poor boy?”

“We don’t know anything yet,” I said, shaking my head. “But I was wondering if I could tap you for some of your history knowledge?”

“Well sure. I have to be down at the Senior Center in about an hour. The girls and I are having our weekly game of canasta. You know we do that every Wednesday.”

“That’s okay. I’ll make it quick. I was just wondering what you knew about Moonlight Dell?”

Her brows furrowed. “Oh, that old place?”

“Yeah.” I nodded.”

“Not a lot. In the 1800s, some witches settled there. According to legend, the founders of Moonlight Dell descended from a few of the Salem witches who’d been lucky enough to escape the burnings, but then something happened. About a hundred years ago there was a big to-do up there and some of them witches were killed. That’s about all I know.”

It wasn’t much info, but a bit more than I’d had before. “Okay, thanks. Tell Stena, and Jan I said hello.”

Stena and Jan were Dorothy’s best friends. The three of them had been hanging out for as long as I’d lived on the island.

“Will do.” Dorothy continued down the stairs, but stopped suddenly and turned back. “If you go into the gift shop, don’t forget to turn the lights off when you leave. Someone keeps leaving every light in the place on. It’s running our power bill sky high.”

“Sure,” I called after her as she descended the last few stairs.

I knew exactly who was turning all the lights on, and she was standing next to me at this very minute. “Muriel … are you playing games with Dorothy?”

Muriel was the ghost who haunted the Shipwreck Point Lighthouse. She’d been murdered in the 50s while on an outing at the lighthouse with her friends. She claimed it was Captain Marsh’s ghost that had killed her, but I knew better. Ghosts didn’t kill people. At least I’d never come across an authentic case of it happening.

Muriel shook her wispy head. “It wasn’t me. The old nag is probably doing it herself. She’s been hitting the bottle a little too hard lately.”

“Muriel! You shouldn’t spread rumors like that.”

Her face twisted into a sour scowl. “Who’s going to hear it but you? Anyway, she is. I saw the bottle of whiskey hidden in her desk drawer.”

I wasn’t sure if I believed the girl or not. Muriel did have a habit of being mischievous, especially when it came to messing with Uncle Aaron while he was broadcasting at night. Mostly she left the rest of the lighthouse tenants alone, except for me. She really liked bugging me. It felt something like having a sixteen-year-old Annabelle following me around again.

Well not really. Annabelle was worse.

Now that I’d already talked with Dorothy, I no longer had a reason to go into the gift shop. Descending the stairs, I started around to the back of the lighthouse, which is where the ACMU office entrance was located.

Muriel followed. “When are you going to work on my case. You’ve been promising for months now.”

I winced when I realized what she said was true. For months, I had been promising to look into her case, but somehow a sixty-year-old murder just didn’t seem to be as urgent as one that happened last week, or last night. There was always something getting in the way.

“Sorry Muriel. I’ll check into it as soon as I can. We already have another case.”

“Yeah, your boss and the nerd have been talking about it all morning.”

“You might want to be careful about calling Tim a nerd. I found out that he is actually an angel that was sent down here thousands of years ago to fight against evil.”

“No kidding?” Judging by the tone of her voice, she wasn’t buying it.

I nodded. “He sure is … in fact, I can’t understand why you don’t just manifest yourself to Tim and ask him to help you. He’s good at that sort of thing.”

Muriel gave me one of her sarcastic half smiles. “Like I believe anyone that nerdy could be an angel.”

I shrugged. “That’s what he said, and I don’t think he’s ever lied to me about anything.”

Muriel frowned. “Tim sees me all the time. He just pretends that he doesn’t. If he is an angel, he’s not very good at being angelic.”

“You need to give him more of a chance,” I said, as I was walking into the office.

Ayden looked up from the notepad he was writing in. “Who are you talking to?”

I stopped, trying to think of how to answer, without causing havoc in the office. Ayden hated dealing with ghosts.

The boss held up his hand. “Never mind. If it isn’t the ghost of our murder victim, I don’t want to know.”

“Okay then … I take it you’ve decided that we do have a murder?”

Tim looked up from the book he was reading. “That depends on if we can figure out how someone could dry out a body in just a couple hours. That’s what killed our victim.”

“Poison might do that … I think.”

Ayden sighed. “We won’t know about anything like that until the toxicology comes back.”

“What did you find out?” Tim asked.

“Well, there are some new residents on the island. Four girls have moved into the old cottages in Moonlight Dell.”

It was obvious by the blank stares I received from both Ayden and Tim that the significance of someone living at the Dell was completely lost on them.

“The Dell has been a forbidden zone for over a hundred years. I just think the fact that new people are suddenly living up there, and then we have a strange death, are too much to be a coincidence,” I added, hoping the explanation would help them understand why I thought it was important.

The expression on Ayden’s face grew even more serious, if that were possible. “It wouldn’t hurt to look into it … but right now we need to be questioning the victim’s friends and relatives. Find out who the last person was to see him alive … and find out what those vampires were up to last night.”

I thought pinning this on a vampire was a bit of a stretch, but Ayden hated vampires, including our newest islanders at the Misty Haven Resort.

“Did you want me to question Zane?” I hoped the anxiety in my voice wasn’t too obvious.

I had a sort of love-hate relationship with Zane. I loved the way he made me feel when I was around him, but I hated his arrogance, not to mention his high strangeness.

But he sure was a good kisser.

These days I wasn’t sure whom I liked to kiss more, Elias or Zane.

Ayden stood and grabbed a manila folder from his desk. “I’ll take care of questioning the vampires this time. Izzy, you see what you can dig up on the new residents … Tim will go out and question some more of Jason Robinson’s friends.”

So it was settled. I was going to be stuck in the office for the rest of the day. Surfing the net wasn’t too bad, except that after two hours of doing it, I still couldn’t find a single thing on the Dell, or the girl I’d met up there. Tanna Aster didn’t seem to exist.

By the time I was switching off the computer, I was reasonably sure that Tanna Aster wasn’t the girl’s real name.

But why lie about her name, unless she was hiding something?

After spending the night tossing and turning, I needed something refreshing. The salty sea breeze did the trick. There was nothing better than ocean air to give you a boost. At least that’s the way it had always been for me.

Growing up on an island had its advantages, and the ocean was one of those advantages. I actually felt sorry for people who lived too far inland to enjoy it on a daily basis.

The cool sea air reminded me of eating outside at Granny’s. There was nothing like an ocean view for breakfast, and Granny’s homemade omelets.

The memory fueled my hunger.

Leaving Lady Luck in the port parking lot, I eyed Pies & Stuff. My first thought had been to have breakfast at the Bayside Grill, but Pies & Stuff served up a killer breakfast sandwich, plus it would give me a chance to talk to Josie Baker.

Josie had been Charlie the Ripper’s girlfriend, and now she was running the café during his disappearance. Not that it would do much good for Charlie to show his murdering ass back up. As soon as he did, he’d be arrested.

Charlie must have been prepared for his eventual, death or disappearing act, as he’d put his business in a trust, and named Josie as the trustee.

Once I’d made the mistake of asking Josie if she’d considered changing the café’s name to Ripper Pies. She’d burst into tears and ran into the back of the café. That was the last time I’d brought up Charlie.

But that was about to change. I believed she knew something about where Charlie disappeared to, even if she didn’t realize she knew. Charlie had to have said something to her in the time she’d been seeing him.

True, I was supposed to be investigating the Jason Robinson case, but a little investigating Granny’s disappearance wouldn’t hurt anything. After all, a girl needed to have some breakfast. Besides, Granny’s case was still considered an ongoing investigation. It wouldn’t be closed until we knew what had happened to Granny, and Charlie.

Judging by the crowd that had gathered for breakfast at Pies & Stuff, it didn’t appear as if Charlie’s villain status had done too much damage to his business. In fact, being this close to Halloween, it was probably good for business.

Fortunately, I found a little booth tucked away at the back of the café. It was nice and secluded, which meant I could have a good chat with Josie.

Wendy, one of the new waitresses, came over to take my order. “Hey, Izzy. What will it be this morning?”

“I want a coffee with two creams, and a Cove Breakfast Muffin.”

The waitress scribbled something on her order pad. “Good choice. I love the way they cook the bacon right into the muffin. I’ll be right back with your coffee.”

“Hey … is Josie around?”

She looked up from her order pad. “I think she’s in back doing inventory.”

“Can you tell her I would like to talk with her … if she doesn’t mind? It’s kind of official.” I figured I better add that last little bit so Josie wouldn’t come up with some kind of excuse to keep from talking to me.

“Sure.” Wendy nodded before disappearing to the kitchen.

Several minutes later Josie made an appearance, carrying a tray with my coffee and breakfast.

Josie wasn’t a bad looking woman. True, she was a little old fashion in her pastel pink waitress uniform, and her auburn hair in a ponytail, but still not unattractive. I would never understand what she’d seen in Charlie.

It must be that vampire magnetism. Nothing else explained it.

Smiling, she set my coffee and breakfast in front of me. “Wendy mentioned you wanted to talk.”

Nodding, I motioned to the bench on the other side of the table. “Do you have a few minutes to sit?”

Jodie’s perky ponytail bobbed when she nodded. “Is this about Charlie?”

“I’m sorry, but it is. I hate to bug you about this right now.”

“It’s okay.” She waved away my words with a swish of her hand. “I just overreacted last time. I’m sorry.”

While listening to her explanation for running out on our last conversation, I took a couple swallows of my go juice, also known as coffee.

I knew I had to play this different than last time, so I drew on my non- narcissistic side. I knew I had to have one somewhere.

“No, not at all. I apologize that I wasn’t a little more sensitive. I guess I didn’t realize how close you and Charlie were.”

“It’s okay. We didn’t talk about our relationship much. He figured people wouldn’t understand.”

My curiosity got the best of me and I couldn’t help it. I had to ask. “But how does it feel knowing that your lover was a sadistic murderer?”

As soon as I saw her eyes widen, I expected her to dash away, but she surprised me. “I had no clue what he was doing. You have to believe me.”

I kind of believed her, and kind of not. It didn’t matter since busting Josie on an accomplice to murder charge, wasn’t why I was having breakfast at the Ripper Café. I figured if she wasn’t going to officially change the name, I could at least think about the place as the Ripper Café.

Reaching over, I placed my hand on hers. “Josie, I guess I believe you. My mouth just gets away from me sometimes.”

She cast her eyes down to the table. “If I would have known, I would have told someone. I swear.”

“What I’d really like to know is if he ever mentioned where he was from, and how he came to be here?”

Josie began fidgeting with the salt shaker. “Well he said he was from London, and wanted a change of scenery, so he came here. He never really said how he got here, but I would guess he would have had to have gotten here in the normal way.”

She was holding something back. My bullshit meter was going crazy. “Are you sure there’s nothing else you can tell me about him … anything that might help us find my grandmother?”

I wasn’t above using a little guilt to prod someone into talking.

Leaning closer, she whispered, “I think he might have been a vampire.”

My eyes widened in mock surprise. “You think?”

“He liked to bite me when I was half asleep. I think he believed I wouldn’t remember, but I did.”

“Anything else?” I wanted to move past the vampire thing. Talking about something we already knew, wouldn’t garner much in the way of new information.

“He also had the habit of disappearing for two or three days at a time. I thought his explanations were a little corny, but I never pressed too hard. Do you think he was off killing people when he was gone?”

It was another one of Josie’s duh moments, but I decided not to point it out. Putting her on the defensive wouldn’t get me far. Instead, I kept my answer short and sweet. “I don’t know.”

“That’s really all I can tell you.” She lifted her shoulders.

“Okay, well if you think of anything, it would be very helpful if you’d get in touch with me.”

“I will.” She forced a smile.

After Josie left, I noticed a newspaper that someone had left on one of the empty tables. Snatching up the paper, I took it back to my table and gazed down at the front page while eating my muffin.

Of course, the front page was filled with news of Jason Robinson’s mysterious death. It wasn’t until I flipped to the next page that something caught my eye.

Life Returns to Dell

Moonlight Dell has been lifeless for nearly decades, but no longer. Rayanne Bovine has come home to claim her inheritance. Miss Bovine is the great-granddaughter of Bridgett Melby; the lawful owner of the property that the Dell sits on.

In the early nineteenth century, Bridgett Melby was one of the original founders of the village of Moonlight Dell. Unfortunately, rumors got started that Miss Melby, along with the other residents of the Dell were really a coven of witches known as the Black Moon Sisterhood. It was also rumored that Miss Melby was descended from Miranda Hubbard, one of the original Salem witches. Allegedly, Miranda Hubbard escaped Salem just before the witch trials began, taking members of her coven with her.

It was the winter of 1836 that tragedy struck Mystique Island with the deaths of several infants. Suspicion fell on Moonlight Dell, and the citizens of that village were subject to mob justice. Most of the residents were burned at the stake, though some did manage to escape, one of those being Miss Melby’s daughter.

Later, it was discovered that the infants died of a repertory virus that had been rampant that year, but by then it was too late. The residents of the Dell were already either dead or had fled the village. Until recently, the Dell has remained deserted.

After the tragedy that was visited on Moonlight Dell, it is only right that Storm Cove and the rest of Mystique Island welcome our newest citizens with open arms.

Although the article gave me a little more information about the Dell than I’d had before, I found it a little strange that the editor of the Storm Cove Herald would do such a big article on the new residents of the island. Ruth was more into community events and headlines, than fluffing up some new resident. She hadn’t even given that much attention to Zane Dupree and the Misty Haven Resort, which in my opinion had been bigger news.

I’d only eaten about half of my breakfast muffin when I heard the wail of sirens.

Whatever was happening, it was close.

Downing my coffee, I grabbed the muffin from the plate and made tracks for the door. All the hubbub seemed to be down at the docks. There were police cars everywhere. As I was standing there gawking, the coroner’s van pulled up.

That could only mean one thing - another body.

I decided I might as well check it out now, instead of waiting for someone to call me.

Stuffing the remainder of my breakfast into my face, I trotted to the docks. Hopefully, whatever they’d discovered, it wouldn’t be so gross that I ended up chucking it all back up.

When I got close enough, I saw that the commotion seemed to be at one of the boats that had been towed in by the coast guard.

Standing on the dock, I called to Sheriff Bourne, who was busy examining something on the boat. “What’s going on Jeb?”

He glanced up, not too surprised to see me. “Looks like we have another like Jason Robinson. You will probably want to call your boss in.”

After sending out an urgent status text to Ayden, I boarded the
Celia
, which was nothing more than a small fishing vessel, but every boat had to have a name.

“Who is it?” I peered over Jeb’s shoulder.

“Looks like Keith West. This is his boat.”

I wasn’t familiar with all the fishermen in the area, so I had to take Jeb’s word for it. Just like Jason Robinson, this victim was as dry as a raisin.

“What’s the story?” I asked.

Sighing, Jeb stood up and motioned for me to follow him back to the pier. “The coast guard found the
Celia
drifting. They got close enough to board, but then saw the body and decided to just tow her in.

“And there was no one else on the boat?”

Jeb shook his head. “Nope.”

That didn’t make a bit of sense to me. How could you have a murder, without a murderer?

“That can’t be right.” I shook my head. “Obviously someone else was on the boat at some point.”

Jeb shrugged. “Maybe Keith was hailed by another boat while out on the water.”

Just then Ayden approached us. “Is it the same MO?”

Jeb and I nodded at the same time.

“Except the victim was out on the water, apparently alone from what we can tell,” Jeb informed him.

Ayden shook his head. “Not going to be the case. Someone was with him. The mystery here is how they managed to get off the boat and back to shore. People don’t get murdered unless there is a perp.”

“Maybe we’re missing something. Is it possible this is some kind of illness, instead of a murder?” I suggested.

Myron decided to chime in. “Nothing that I could find. I looked for every kind of disease and virus I could think of, even some that are not normally associated with people. I couldn’t find a thing wrong with the last victim, except he was just dried out.” Myron’s pale complexion was even more pronounced in the stark light of day. His black eyeliner was smudged, giving him more of a clown look, than the Goth look he was trying to achieve.

Ayden’s mouth twisted all funny like, which meant he was sifting through it all, trying to come up with his own conclusion.

He wouldn’t of course. Ayden was by the book, which meant he wouldn’t come up with a theory until we had more information.

“Izzy, why don’t you find out who was working the port last night. Maybe they can give us an idea of when the victim went out, and if he had anyone with him.”

“Okay … also, I have a couple other stops before I go into the office.” Lately, going into the office really meant stopping by there for an hour or so. I thought my boss was starting to catch on, which was probably why he’d had me stay and do research the day before.