Page 19 of Spell Check

After moving away from the table, I went to all corners of the room, letting the purifying smoke fill the space as I murmured the words of a cleansing charm under my breath.

Once that was done, I made a small paste of salt and spring water and dabbed it in all the corners and above the window and door — I had to go on my tiptoes to do that, but luckily didn’t have to stop the ritual to search for a step stool — then headed into the kitchen and washed off my hands.

Was it enough?

I moved to the center of the space and stood there for a long moment, holding myself absolutely still, doing my best to reach out and see if anything had changed.

The space felt utterly calm. The only sound I could hear was the faint hum of the air conditioner, and I made a mental note to turn it off before I left so Victoria wouldn’t have to pay for energy she wasn’t even using.

Problem was, everything had seemed fairly serene here even before I performed my smudging ritual, so I really couldn’t say whether it had had any effect at all.

“Are you here?” I asked the room. My voice sounded odd to me, almost strained, although I told myself that was probably just because I didn’t make a habit of talking out loud when I was alone.

No reply…not that I’d really expected one. Whoever that man had been, it seemed to me he’d decided he didn’t have any reason to hang around this plane of existence.

And even though I should have been reassured by that, I still couldn’t help feeling just a little disappointed. If nothing else, he might have been able to provide me with the information I needed in order to find out who had killed him.

Because I knew it sure as hell hadn’t been Victoria Parrish.

But it looked as though the blackmailer had moved on, and that meant I needed to do the same thing.

Even if I had absolutely no idea what I should do next.

7

Private Eyes

Any hopes that I’d have a completely uneventful rest of my day were dashed when Josie Woodrow swept into the shop a little before noon and announced, “I just heard!”

I didn’t bother to ask what she’d heard, or where. Gossip ran through our small town like a wildfire through dry brush, and Josie was generally at the nexus of Globe’s neighborhood network. Also, I knew she loved Victoria like the daughter she’d never had, and therefore would have her ears pricked up especially high for any news that involved one of our most recent transplants.

All I could do was thank the Goddess that I’d let Melanie leave for lunch a little early, and so she’d wandered over to Cloud Coffee to get herself something to eat. Not that Josie and I would discuss anything that wasn’t fit for my assistant’s ears, but since Globe’s mayor wasn’t exactly the most discreet person in the world, it was just better that the two of us were alone in the shop.

“It’s awful, isn’t it?” I said, figuring I might as well get ahead of the conversation. “Victoria’s a little shaken up, but she’s doing okay. She’s working from home today.”

“I would think so,” Josie replied. “Honestly, I’m not sure if I could ever go back to a place where something like that happened.”

“Well, Victoria has sunk a lot of money into fixing up the studio,” I said, which was the simple truth. I might have given her the place free and clear, but I knew she’d spent a decent chunk remodeling the apartment and creating the lobby area at the back of the building so people could either walk up the stairs to her studio or come through the new glass doors that led into the rear of Once in a Blue Moon. I’d offered to go halfsies on that part of the project, but she’d insisted on covering it all herself, saying the setup had been her idea and that she didn’t want me to pitch in.

Because although Victoria looked like all sweetness and light on the surface, I knew there wasn’t much that would budge her once she had her mind set on a matter. Typical Taurus, really, and I thanked the universe — not for the first time — that Archie’s one true love had also been astrologically compatible with him. I could only imagine what a mess it might have been if she’d been a hot-headed Aries or a moody Cancer, rather than a fellow Earth sign.

“True,” Josie allowed. “Still, I’m glad she’s taking some time to work from home.” A pause, and then she added, “And I assume you’re going to help her get all this cleared up.”

I’d kind of been wondering how long it would take for Josie to ask if I was going to step in and use my unusual set of skills to exonerate our friend. “I’m looking into it,” I said vaguely, which was about all I could commit to right then. Although Josie wasn’t really on board with all the woo-woo stuff, she also couldn’t deny that I had a better track record when it came to this sort of thing than our local police chief.

Of course, that had been when I had full possession of all my not-so-mainstream talents…not that I planned to mention my misgivings on that subject to Josie. She was already clearly worried about Victoria, and telling her I wasn’t sure I’d be able to help in any material way this time would only make her fear the worst.

Then again, I should have known Josie would see right through my off-hand reply.

“‘Looking into it’?” she repeated, russet brows drawing together. She had flaming red hair that I doubted was natural, and she always leaned into the warm tones when autumn came around. Today, she wore a brown pantsuit with a rhinestone pumpkin brooch on one lapel, even though Halloween was still weeks away and one would have thought it was still way too warm to be wearing any layers.

Then again, Josie always had seemed impervious to heat, while these days, I felt as if I was roasting most of the time no matter what I wore. With my internal thermostat so haywire, I could only be very, very grateful that I’d be at my biggest in the depths of winter.

“I went up and smudged the studio,” I explained. “I wanted to see if there was any trace of the man who died there, but I couldn’t sense anything. His spirit has obviously moved on.”

“Hmm,” Josie responded, which could have meant just about anything. While she probably would have liked to pretend I had no ability to commune with the spirits, my success in removing the Bigelow mansion’s ghost in the nick of time right before my wedding had proved otherwise. Then she went on, her tone turning brisk, “You know that Victoria’s wedding is only a week from tomorrow.”

While I wanted to say, “must have slipped my mind,” I knew Josie wouldn’t be happy to hear me being so flip about such an important occasion. All the same, I couldn’t quite ignore the way she’d referred to it as “Victoria’s wedding,” as though Archie had very little to do with any of it.