A Southern Charms Cozy Potluck Box Set Page 46

  The sasquatch pounded on the bakery’s door. “Where are those blasted tooth fairies,” he demanded.

  Noticing a few onlookers standing a bit too close, I leaned in and whispered to my brother. “It’s not like he was handling things all that well. Y'all really need to get Mason back here.”

  Matt nodded. “I called him while Big Willie made me wait outside. He was already headed this way.”

  “Yeah, Willie called him, too.” My heart rate kicked up another notch, and I bit my lip to stop myself from smiling.

  The sheriff stopped knocking on the glass when Twinkle bobbed up and down at the door with a distinctive frown on his lips, unlocking it. Big Willie pushed inside, and Matt and I followed close behind.

  The retired tooth fairy glared at the sheriff. “What in tarnation seems to be the problem? I’ve got baked goods in the oven.”

  Puffing out his chest, the sasquatch spoke with authority. “I need to see Alison Kate.”

  “She's in the middle of making her honeysuckle buns. Can it wait?” challenged the tiny but fierce tooth fairy.

  “Listen, Twinkle. You and me are gonna go a few rounds if you don't rustle her behind out here. Now.”

  I nudged Matt and pointed at the crowd gathering in front of the store gazing through the windows. My brother cleared his throat. “Sheriff, maybe you want to speak with her in the back instead.” He jerked his head at the numerous eyes watching the scene unfold.

  The sheriff shifted on his feet and stroked his scraggly beard. “Yeah, maybe,” he acquiesced, a little less sure of himself.

  Twinkle zipped into the kitchen ahead of us. Unwilling for my friend to be interrogated alone, I followed behind against the protests of my brother. Giving up fighting me, Matt caught up to join everyone in the back room that was hot from hard-working ovens.

  Sprinkle stopped dusting sugar on top of a batch of jelly doughnuts and stared at the sasquatch. Alison Kate pulled out a tray of freshly baked honeysuckle buns and sniffed them. When the sheriff called out her name, she squeaked in surprise and dropped the entire tray on the floor, scattering the sweet buns everywhere.

  “You want to talk to me?” my friend asked, pointing at her chest.

  “Is it true that you were angry with Duke the other day?” Big Willie asked.

  I rolled my eyes. All three of us had been in the Hawthorne’s parlor and already knew the answer to the pointless question. “You know she was, Sheriff.”

  The sasquatch held up his long finger at me. “You stay quiet,” he warned. Turning back to Alison Kate, he prompted, “Answer the question, please.”

  “Yes, I was a bit miffed,” my friend admitted.

  The sheriff scoffed. “Miffed? Is that what you call being so upset that you shot a hex at the cake and blew it up?”

  Twinkle fluttered to Alison's Kate side and crossed his tiny arms. “If I'd been there, it might not have been the cake that exploded. The nerve of an outsider trying to steal from our bakery. I've been waiting to cool off before confronting Hollis and Clarice, but now you've got me all riled up again.” His wings quivered in frustration, and a little bit of his dust floated down on Alison Kate’s shoulders.

  “So I should add you to the list of suspects?” Big Willie asked.

  Sprinkle joined the group. “For what?” she asked in her high-pitched voice.

  The sheriff winced at his mistake. “I’m the one asking questions.” He turned his attention back to Alison Kate. “Where were you all last night?”

  My friend’s eyes widened. “At Meemaw’s house. We had dinner together, and then I helped her set her hair in curlers. She has bridge today with her friends.”

  “What time did y'all go to bed?” pressed the sheriff.

  Alison Kate squinted her eyes while thinking. “I guess Meemaw went to her room at around nine, and I stayed up for a while.”

  “Did you stay at her place all night long?” Big Willie asked.

  My friend nodded. “After she was asleep, I called Lee and talked to him for a few hours until I got sleepy. I stayed over all night and left early this morning so I could change clothes and come to work. Why are you asking me all these questions?” She glanced at me with a worried expression. “Charli?”

  Unable to withstand my friend’s predicament, I broke every single protocol that would have gotten a warden fired. Good thing I wasn’t one. “That chef, Duke Aikins, who stole your frosting spell. He's lying dead on the floor of the old diner,” I blurted out.

  My brother smacked my arm and Big Willie whipped around and glared at me.

  Heat rose in my cheeks, but I didn’t feel a bit sorry about what I’d said. “What? It's a small town. The news is gonna spread like wildfire anyway. It's better for you to be upfront.”

  Alison Kate's lower lip trembled. “Are you askin’ me these questions because you think I did something to him?” Tears welled in her eyes. “I didn't like what he did, and I know it was wrong to make a scene at Clementine’s bridal shower, but I would never take a person's life for any reason.” Her voice grew higher in pitch until she squeaked out the last part, breaking down into sobbing tears.

  The sheriff grimaced and backed away from the crying young woman. He turned away and focused on me. “Come over here.” Dragging me by the arm, he pulled me into a far corner of the kitchen. My brother stood behind him.

  “Now, listen here. I'm tired of your shenanigans. Unless you want to go to a wardens’ academy and become one of us, you gotta stop interferin’. I really should arrest you.” Big Willie ran a hand through his beard.

  “But you're jumping the gun, Big Wi—, I mean, Sheriff. You can't go asking questions of anybody for any reason. Sure, Alison Kate might make it on the suspect list, but I'd bet there are others that should be interrogated first. Heck, even I had issues with the jerk.” I clasped my hand over my mouth, silently cursing my own stupidity and slip of the tongue.

  Big Willie grinned like he’d caught me. “Don't stop talkin’ now. Why did you have issues with Duke?”

  I thought as fast as possible. Any observation I told him about what I'd seen at the Hawthorne house would be considered hearsay. I stuck with my own experience. “When Matt brought the contract for Hollis and Duke to sign to rent out the old diner, I stayed behind to listen to some of the chef’s ideas. Except the only ideas he had were to threaten me verbally and physically.”

  Matt clenched his fists. “What did he do to you?” he growled.

  I waved him off. “He didn't actually do anything other than mention that he knew about my tracking powers. Said he'd heard about them from someone, whoever that may be. And when he backed me up against the wall and trapped me between his arms, I gave him two chances to back off.”

  “And did he?” asked the sheriff.

  “Nope. I know how to take care of myself because I had a big brother who taught me what to do with boys who don't listen.”

  Relief and pride replaced the anger in my brother's eyes. “Knee?” he asked.

  “One blow,” I confirmed with a nod.

  “So if Doc finds any injury in that particular area, I guess we know who to talk to.” Big Willie blew out a breath. “It's all a big mess, and we need more experienced hands. But you gotta stay out of this, Charli. I mean it. If you can't help yourself, then I'll throw you in the tank myself.”

  Matt stepped in front of his boss. “You can't arrest her.”

  “Did I say arrest?” He ignored the fact he’d said it a few times already. “I said I would put her in the tank to think about whether or not it's smart for her to stick her nose where it's not needed. At least then, we’d know she wouldn't get in the way.”

  Matt challenged the sheriff. “My grandmother wouldn't stand for it.”

  Big Willie closed the distance between the two of them. “Well, Vivi isn't here right now, and you are my subordinate. And if you don't like it, then you can run for sheriff the next time around, Deputy. Until then, don't challenge my decisions.”

  I open
ed my mouth to ask the question but my brother beat me to it. “Are you arresting Charli or not?”

  The sasquatch looked between the two of us and closed his eyes. “No, I guess not. At least not right now.” He walked back over to my upset friend being consoled by the two tooth fairies. “I guess that's all I need from you right now. I'll be talkin’ to your grandmother to confirm your whereabouts. For now, make sure you don't leave town without notification. I'm going to go see if I can make heads or tails out of this mess.”

  “Sheriff, you might want to use the back entrance to avoid attention.” I pointed at the back door.

  The sasquatch smacked his head. “You really can't help yourself, but I guess it's a good idea. You know that directive I just gave your friend? The same goes for you, Charli. Deputy Goodwin, come with me and maybe you can help out until our detective’s return.”

  With the sheriff gone, my adrenaline evaporated and the weight of the whole morning crashed down on me. I went over to my friend and threw my arms around her, consoling her and letting her snot onto my shoulder.

  After a few shared tears, I looked up and asked Sprinkle, “Do you guys mind if she takes the day off?”

  Twinkle spoke first. “She can have as long as she wants off. I don't know where that bumbling fool thinks he gets the right to treat her like that. Thinkin’ our sweet girl could be responsible for anyone's death.”

  I patted my friend on her back. “Chances are the sheriff would have sent someone to question her eventually.”

  Mason never would have treated her with such disrespect and immediate suspicion. At some point, maybe I needed to talk to Nana about Big Willie and suggest that retirement needed to be in the sasquatch’s future.

  Once she calmed down, Alison Kate sniffed and wiped her eyes. “What am I supposed to do now?”

  I rocked her back and forth. “Oh, Ali Kat. Here’s what you’re gonna do. You're going to go home with me today, and I'll send out the bat signal and call the girls to come over. We’ll make a morning of it and do all kinds of girly things until you feel better.”

  My friend looked at me with hope in her eyes. “You’ll let me paint your nails?”

  “Sure thing, Ali Kat.”

  “And curl your hair?”

  “Okay,” I agreed with some hesitation.

  “And put makeup on you?” she pushed with twinkling eyes.

  My protest hovered at the tip of my tongue, but I noticed the slight quiver of her bottom lip and gave in. “If treating me like your own personal doll will make you feel better, you can give me the works.”

  Sprinkle and Twinkle sent us out into the world with a couple of boxes of free baked goods. We stopped off at Alison Kate’s place, and she packed a small suitcase worth of stuff to take to my house. What had I gotten myself into?

  Chapter Eight

  I parked my bike under the sprawling magnolia tree in front of the school. Students filed out of the doors at the end of the day. The younger ones met up with parents or older siblings to go home. Most of the older kids walked away in groups, busy talking and having more fun than sitting in a stuffy classroom. I remembered not liking attending a school with every single grade level, but in our small town, we never had enough children to justify separate schools for the different class levels.

  Striding toward the front door, I attempted not to throw up from my nerves. Nana had promised me that her friend had left detailed lesson plans that even a monkey could follow. The screams and squeals of the young ones running around didn't help. I needed a distraction, but thinking about the murder case probably wasn't a good idea before walking in to mentor a bunch of students.

  Something hard whacked me on the top of my head. I rubbed the spot where it hurt and found Timmy Belford standing on top of a picnic table, waving a stick in his hand about to hit me with it again.

  “Stop,” I commanded.

  He halted mid-swing and held it behind his back. “Hey, Miss Chawi.”

  His little speech impediment wouldn’t make me smile this time. “Timmy, what are you doing?”

  The little imp dared to giggle. “I put a spell on you with my wand. Just like the movies.”

  I'd forgotten that Honeysuckle had finally gotten around to viewing the series of movies based on a bunch of popular books about witches and wizards with a magical academy set in Great Britain. I watched all the films while traveling during my year away, and wasn't so sure how good of an idea it was to show them here with young impressionable actual magic wielders.

  Distracted with my thoughts, I missed Timmy's swing and got hit again. “Expelliwhompus,” he exclaimed.

  “Expelli-whatus?” I grabbed him under his arms and lifted him down, taking away his weapon of choice. “That's not even a real spell. What are you trying to do anyway?”

  His big brown eyes gazed up at me. “I heard my mommy say that there was something wong with you.”

  My eyebrows rose to the top of my head. “Really? Did she happen to mention what she thought was wrong?”

  He shook his head and stared at the stick in my possession. “No, but she said something had to be ‘cause you keep finding the bodies. What did she mean by that, Miss Chawi?”

  How could I explain the truth of his mother's overheard gossip without scaring the poor boy? I stammered to find a response but failed to come up with a good explanation. “I think she means that I'm really good at playing Hide and Seek and finding people.” Great, I was starting off my career as a substitute teacher lying to a little kid.

  “Can I have my wand back?” he demanded, blowing right past my flimsy explanation.

  I gathered up all of my futile babysitting skills and replied, “Only if you promise not to hit anyone with it. That's not how we cast spells in the real world anyway, and you're gonna hurt someone. You promise not to use this to hit?” I held out his treasured stick.

  With great earnestness, Timmy nodded. “I pwomise.”

  Against my better judgment, I let the little boy with big eyes have his pretend wand back. He immediately ran off and chased a little girl, coming awfully close to hitting her over the head. So much for my ability to teach. Thankfully, his older brother intervened and grabbed him, giving him a little whack on his behind that only a sibling could get away with.

  The good news was that I had been indeed distracted, letting my nausea subside. The bad news was that I still had to get inside to teach. I walked up the small set of stairs to the front doors, catching my reflection in the glass.

  Despite the bike ride over, my hair still held the curls Alison Kate gave me, and the makeup she’d applied made me look like myself, only better. I smiled at the pretty me staring back, enjoying my berry lip-stained grin, and pulled open the door.

  New layers of paint brightened the walls and different banners hung from the ceiling, but the familiarity of it all transported me back in time. I knew all the hallways and staircases, the best way to get to where my last locker was, and where I'd enchanted a permanent mark under the bleachers in the gym, stating Charli wuz here. But I didn't know in which classroom the spell prep class was being held. I wandered the empty halls, listening for clues.

  An enormous figure popped his head out of one of the rooms. “Miss Charli, what brings you forth to our hallowed halls of education?” Horatio smiled a toothy grin.

  “Horatio, I didn’t know they had you here teaching.” I hugged the troll, stretching my arms as far as I could to reach around his wide body.

  He released me and pointed to the poster taped to the door with the Shakespeare quote, There is no darkness but ignorance. “I’m filling in for Kelly Miller while she takes care of her newborn babe. However, I strive to impart knowledge to the young minds with such alacrity that I may procure the opportunity to continue on a more permanent basis.”

  I chuckled. “Sometimes I feel like I need to carry a dictionary around with me to speak to you. I’m guessing you hope you’re doing a good enough job that if the former teacher chooses not to come b
ack, you can stay on?”

  “Your ability to detect the truth from the clues of my words remains at the highest level, Holmes.” He tipped an invisible hat to me.

  Glancing inside his new domain, I spotted a poster of a famous Shakespeare play. “Horatio, did you teach A Midsummer Night’s Dream this semester?”

  His eyes brightened. “Why, of course. In fact, I obtained permission for a field trip to view a production in Charleston. They were quite taken in by seeing the venerable Bard’s words performed live. They especially enjoyed the thespian who played Robin Goodfellow.”

  “You mean Puck?” I asked. “The trickster character?”

  Horatio pondered my question. “Yes, he went by the moniker of Puck as well as Robin. I believe that Will did a fine job of characterizing young Goodfellow, but maybe wrote in a bit more mischief than the actual Puck in real life.”

  My jaw dropped. “He’s real?”

  The troll guffawed, his scraggly hair shaking. “Oh, very much so. And a merry fellow he is. I do not think he would be so bold as to go against King Oberon nor Queen Titania’s wishes, but I do recall he found great amusement in tricking humans.”

  I tried to imagine the fantasy world of the fairies and humans, forgetting where I lived for a second. “So Shakespeare's play is based on reality? I thought he made it all up.”

  “My gracious, no.” Horatio stroked his chin. “In fact, it was my meeting with the great Bard that brought about his awareness to those of our kind. I must admit that it ruffled many feathers of the fae that I exposed a mortal to our world. But Will’s gift of words and a quick-witted tongue charmed them all. They fell in love with him as much as I had. Members of the royal fairy court were the first to view his finished work. King Oberon particularly enjoyed the transformation of a man's head into that of a donkey.”

  “So your students enjoyed watching the play with Puck and his pranks.” Perhaps the little class trip had encouraged the current atmosphere of walking through the Wild West on Main Street with hexes and spells being shot at each other. “You might want to impress upon your students that it was just a play. I could have cracked my tailbone when one of the Mosley boys missed his target for a slipping spell and hit me instead.”