A Charming Crime (8 page)

“Mr. McGurtle,
what are you doing here?” I tried to figure out where I was. The round, white table-cloth
tables in the room were decorated. Each had a three-tiered cup-cake stand and a
tea set, as if there was going to be a party. “Where am I?”

“I told Darla I
would watch over you.” Mr. McGurtle smiled. He took a cup from Gerald. “Drink
this.”

Chandra put her
hands on my back and helped lift me to a sitting position. Once sitting, I could
see that we were in Gerald’s shop He steeped a few more cups of tea. Izzy stood
over him.

“How did I get
here?” I was more puzzled than nervous, like I was before. No one wanted to
answer me. Oscar was nowhere to be found, which was odd. He’d never have left
me in Locust Grove if this happened. “Where’s Oscar?”

“Drink, dear.” Izzy
gestured for Mac to give me the cup. “First, swirl it three times.”

Mr. McGurtle got
up and let Gerald sit down. Mr. Prince Charming continued to make circle eights
around my ankles. As silly as it sounds, it was actually comforting for Mr.
McGurtle to be there if Oscar couldn’t. Hopefully, Oscar was on the hunt for
the real killer.

Pweft, pweft
. I spit some of
the tea back in the cup. The loose leaves were stuck on the side of the tiny
cup.

“Oh, can you
flip the cup over on the saucer?” Gerald held a small plate on his hand. Feeling
a little leery, I did what I was told. The quicker I did what they asked, the
quicker I could get out of here. “Now tap the cup three times.”

Tap, tap, tap
. The sound of
my fingernail hitting the cup echoed throughout the shop.

Gerald took the
cup off the saucer and handed it to Chandra who nervously looked at it. He
twirled the plate, and intently stared at it.

“Gerald? What do
you see?” Izzy stood over Gerald, casting a shadow over me. It was too dark to
make out Izzy’s eyes.

“What is going
on?” I asked, looking into the cup that Gerald held. . .the cup I just drank
out of. “What is happening?”

“Give me a
minute.” Gerald smacked Izzy’s hand away. “I see a wavy line in conjunction
with an E.”

“Oh, that’s
good.” Chandra chuckled bring her hands to her mouth. I’ve quickly figured out
that when Chandra was nervous, she giggled. “An O.”

“Shhh!” Izzy
warning was quick and fast. “Keep going.”

“There is an
hourglass without a number. There is a lake with hands.” Everyone but me
gasped.

“I have
nightmares where someone is being strangled by hands, but there is no face and
I can’t see who is in the dream.” I leaned over and looked at the plate. There
wasn’t anything on it but damp tea leaves. “Um. . .you need to strain your tea
better.”

Izzy pulled
back, exposing the light. Fear, stark and vivid, glittered in her eye. “He
reads tea leaves, dear.”

“Don’t worry. I
have a call out to Petunia Shrubwood.” Chandra put Izzy and Gerald at ease, but
didn’t make me feel any better. They ignored me like I wasn’t even there.

“Does anyone
have a Ding Dong?” If I didn’t get a little comfort from somewhere, I was
really
going to kill someone. I could see my purse sitting on a different table. “Get
my purse. There is one in there.”

Mr. McGurtle
scurried to get it and brought it back.

“Who is Petunia
Shrubwood?” I didn’t even bother savoring my chocolaty treat. I just stuffed it
in. I needed instant gratification.

There were so
many questions floating around in my head that I couldn’t help but spurt them
out.

“Petunia will be
able to tell us if Ann is back.” Chandra giggled.

“Shh!” Izzy took
Chandra aside and whispered something that I couldn’t understand. Chandra
glanced back and me. She smiled.

I’m getting out
of here.
I stood up.

“Where are you
going?” Gerald looked up from the cup, and then at Izzy. “Where is she going?”

“I’m going
home.” I grabbed my purse. “And by home, I mean Locust Grove.”

There was no way
I was going to stay another minute in this crazy town. These people were nuts.

Before I could
make it to the door, a woman walked in. Her brown hair was pulled up in a messy
bun that overflowed. There were flowers stuck in the mess of locks.

“I came as fast
as I could.” She had a leash dangling from her wrist, but no dog on the other
end. “I checked the kennels. I looked around the streets, the lake, but
nothing. Not a sign of a new animal.”

Mr. Prince
Charming sniffed the leash and batted at it. He didn’t care that I was upset.
Traitor.

“That is not
what I wanted to hear.” Izzy took Petunia into her arms. Petunia let out a
little weep, the leash dragging along side of her. “Petunia runs Glorybee Pet Store,
along with the SPCA and the grooming business.”

I didn’t even
know there was a pet store around here.

“That means Ann
was a bad soul.” Chandra’s snort was more of a sorrowful sigh. “Bad soul.”

“Bad soul?” I
looked towards Izzy. She seemed to be the glue that held Whispering Falls
together. “Didn’t you see her dead body?”

Were these
people delusional? Ann was not coming back to life. I knew it and Oscar knew
it.
Where the hell was Oscar?

“If she had had
a good soul, I bet she’d been a pig.” Chandra drew back and covered her mouth
like she had just let the cat out of the bag.

“She might have
looked like a pig, but she wasn’t cute and sweet like one.” Mr. McGurtle joined
in on the conversation.

“That’s enough.”
Izzy tried to stop them from saying anymore.

“She not only
threatened to sue me, but she called me in front of the council and I’m on the
council.” Chandra reminded everyone in the room. I took note because it was the
first time I heard it. “The nerve of her thinking that the front step of our
shop caused her to slip and hurt her back.”

“That’s right,
she sure did.” Petunia agreed. “I remember the two of you fighting about that
right in front of your shop, and her holding on to her back like she had hurt
it.”

All of the
sudden it was dead silence.

“But I never wanted
her dead,” Chandra nervously chuckled.

Just for a
moment, I looked around the room. Gerald was whispering in Petunia’s ear while
she tried to cover her smile with her hand. Chandra traced the lines of her
hand with her long, blue fingernail, and Mr. Prince Charming continued to do
figure eights around my ankles. Oscar was still nowhere to be found.

“What is going
on?” I asked. The madness had to stop. I brushed my bangs to the side to make
sure I had a good view of everyone.

“Honey, if Ann
was a good soul, she’d have come back as an animal.” Petunia stared at me with
a baffled look on her face. “That’s my spiritual guidance. I’m the animal
spiritualist.”

“What is that?”
I was beginning to see what Whispering Falls was all about.

Palm reader,
crystal ball, tea leaf reader, and now animal spiritualist? What have I gotten
myself into?

She shrugged
like I knew what she was talking about, and I wasn’t going to stand around any
longer. Izzy planted herself in front of the door alongside Mr. McGurtle.

“June, can you
please sit down.” Mr. McGurtle pulled a chair out at the closest tea table. “I
told Darla I would look out for you.”

“You’ve said
that over and over, Mr. McGurtle and look where that got me.” I crossed my
arms. “I’m going to jail for a murder I didn’t commit, and you let me move to a
crazy town!”

“Honey, we
aren’t crazy.” Petunia shook her head back and forth, a few leaves falling out
of the mess. “We are a spiritual village, as in psychics. And apparently you
are too.”

Everything
around me spun around my head, and the room darkened to a dull grey. I gripped
the chair to keep myself steady. Petunia’s words twisted in my head.

Psychic village.
. .
everything
went black.

Chapter
Eight

“Does
she do this a lot?” The giggle rang in my ears.

I
didn’t have to be fully conscience to know Chandra was standing next to me and
that I had passed out. . . again. I was sort of hoping all of this had been a
nightmare and I was going to wake up in my bedroom in Locust Grove. After all,
they had sprung the whole spiritual village thing on me without a warning.

One
minute I was flying by the seat of my pants mixing ingredients to sell at the
flea market, and the next minute I was number one murder suspect AND a psychic
rolled up in one June Heal.

The
rough tongue licking my nose reinforced that I was, in fact, in Whispering
Falls. And it wasn’t a dream.

“I’ve
known her all my life and I’ve never seen her do this.” Oscar’s much welcomed
voice rung in my ears. It was not a nightmare. “June, can you open your eyes?”

There
wasn’t a sweet smell to the room. It was more sour. Vitamin like. Slowly, I
opened my eyes. Oscar sat on one side and Chandra on the other.

“Hi
sleepyhead.” Chandra patted my hand. Her turban reminded me that she was a palm
reader.

I
tried to keep my thoughts free of any negative thoughts or mean-spirited words.
Izzy had made it clear that she could read some of my thoughts.

“Welcome
home.” Oscar smiled as if nothing had happened.

“Are
you kidding me?” I whispered. “Firstly, someone is framing me for murder, and secondly,
I find out that this is a psychic town. Third, “I held up three fingers, “Mr. McGurtle
is involved. And I’m psychic. What’s next, you?”

“We
need to talk.” Izzy came out of a different room with another cup of whatever concoction
they gave me at the Gathering Grove.

“No
thank you.” I pushed the cup aside. “I like my tea without the leaves and tons
of sugar.”

All
the lights in the room came into focus. The little family room had all the
comforts of home. The natural wood walls accented the vibrant orange fabric on
the chairs and couches. I sat up, taking in my new home. I wanted to go back to
my little Cape Cod in Locust Grove.

I
shook my head when the last few hours of memories crept back into my head. “Mr.
Primrose is a psychic?” I recalled how strange it was that he would just show
up at my house with an offer I couldn’t refuse. “Why do you want me to live
here so badly? Was Darla. . .psychic?”

Psychic
or not, I didn’t want to be here anymore. Selling remedies at the flea market
was looking pretty good right about now.

Fear
knotted in my stomach. How could Darla, my mom, be psychic and me not know it?
We were poor. We were at our flea market booth every day trying to make ends
meet.

“No,
she was not. But your dad was.” Izzy’s words were lagging as she carefully
picked them. “He was a spiritualist and your mother was not. But she had a
wonderful spirit that was very welcoming to the village. We loved her store.”

Oscar
didn’t seem as taken aback as I was.

“Did
you know this?” I asked him.

“Not
until today.” He looked at Izzy for approval. She nodded for him to continue.
He held up a manual of sorts. It was thick. “Izzy felt it was important for me
to understand how the spiritual village laws work.”

Izzy
and Chandra set a cup of tea and plate of cookies in front of me as if I were a
child. It was all crazy to me and something I couldn’t even begin to
understand.

“Your
father was our police officer. By Whispering Falls law, there can be only one
shop per spiritual family and that includes if you are dating, living, or
married to a spiritualist. One shop.” Izzy took the packet from Oscar and
flipped it open. She pointed to Number Three under the Bi-Laws page. “Your
mother opened a little shop and sought some outside spiritual guidance since
she wasn’t psychic. She made the perfect cures.”

Was
she talking about
my
Darla? Darla couldn’t find half the ingredients her
recipes called for and then she’d substitute. Most of her remedies didn’t work.

“Outside
guidance?” I questioned.

“Someone
who doesn’t live in the village.” She handed the packet back to Oscar. “You
don’t need to worry about that. Anyway, when your father passed,” Izzy looked
out the window like she was playing it in her mind like a movie, “Darla, your
mother, tried to keep up the shop, but it was hard with a toddler. You.”

“You
were so cute.” Chandra’s adjusted her turban. “So cute.”

“When
you got older, she realized you didn’t have any spiritual gifts, and wanted you
to have a normal life. That is when she decided to open the booth in the flea
market.” Izzy ignored Chandra and watched me, intently.

I
tried not to show any unusual facial features or freak out. Who was I fooling?
They were psychics.

Chandra
took my hand and followed the crease along my palm.