A Charming Wish (18 page)

“
You don’t want me to get
you a remedy?”

She stiffened, her jaw clenched, and
she stopped stirring. “You couldn’t help me a few days ago. Why are
you so eager to help now, June?”

“
I…” I didn’t like the way
she asked. “I need to use your bathroom real quick.”

“
Fine.” She pointed in the
opposite direction from which we came from. “Second door on the
right.”

I couldn’t get to that second door
quick enough. From behind the door, I took a big whiff. Something
had to come to me. I had to tap into Adeline’s soul and see if she
was going to kill me.

“
What have I gotten myself
into?” I murmured.

“
What did you say?”
Adeline asked. There was a small shadow coming from the crack at
the bottom of the door.

“
I love your bathroom
too.” I lied again, and bent down to put my nose next to the crack,
inhaling deeply.

She knows.
The smell of a cheater filled my lungs. She was a
woman scorned and she was going to do what she needed to do to keep
George.

Did she plan on breaking into A
Charming Cure to steal a potion the night Kenny died and Kenny got
in her way? When that backfired, did she resort to breaking into
Wicked Good?

Was George next?

Oh no
! Faith’s beautiful little face came to mind. Was Faith
next?

Thrusting my fists to the side, I knew
I had to do something before it was too late.

Chapter Twenty-Two

“
I’m loving this,” I
whispered when I landed in A Charming Cure, referring to the
teletransporting gift. The shop was dark and dusty, it had only
been a couple days since any customers had walked through the door.
The place looked dead.

The drapes were pulled, a few of my
precious bottle looked like they had been taken, probably from
Officer Gandolf, and it was freezing.

Luckily, I knew the place like the
back of my hand so I didn’t have to turn on the light to feel my
way around. All I had to do was count down the ingredients on the
shelf to know exactly what I needed for the first
potion.

There were two cures I needed to put
together before I came out of Adeline’s bathroom. I had to work
fast. I could only pretend to be going to the bathroom for so long
before she got suspicious.

I had to get Oscar to Adeline’s house
without telling him why. I had to get him a lead. I hated to put
magic into it, but I had to protect George and Faith from turning
up dead like Kenny. And I couldn’t directly go to anyone because I
didn’t have any proof.

What was I supposed to do? Go to Oscar
and tell him I had a hunch? I couldn’t tell him that I’m a
spiritualist – well, it would be a witch in his
vocabulary.

Flipping the cauldron on, I went down
the row.

1, 2, 3,
4.
I counted the ingredients.

“
Wormwood.” I took the
bottle from the shelf knowing it was a great ingredient to help
banish anger. Anger was one thing that needed to immediately be
taken from Adeline. Going back down the line, I gathered the bottle
of graveyard dirt for a little sleepy time and a couple sprigs of
spearmint to help Adeline breathe in some clear
thoughts.

With Adeline in mind, I threw in the
ingredients in no particular order. There wasn’t time to go slow. I
had to get this potion to her. I needed her to go to sleep so I
could get to Oscar.

The bubbling oily tonic, that is black
with crimson, glows. It smells exactly like vegetable soup, but
with a hint of chocolate.

That was the strange part about being
a homeopathic spiritualist. When I make a potion with a specific
person in mind, the potion takes on the smells and tastes of the
recipient. The vegetables didn’t smell good to me, but the
chocolate smelled delicious!

With the substance at a fast boil, I
put my hands over the cauldron and chanted, “Angels of power,
Angels of might, Let Adeline sleep through a few days and
nights.”

The cauldron shut off and the liquid
stopped rolling. A bright denim glowed from the empty bottle shelf,
illuminating the dark shop. The bottle let me know it was the one
that I had to put the potion in and somehow get it down Adeline’s
throat.

Just looking at and holding the flask
with the enamel light pink roses and light green stems made me
relaxed. It was perfect for a few days sleep.

Setting it aside, I had to get to work
on a potion for Oscar. Thank goodness he wasn’t a spiritualist
anymore or I wouldn’t be able to do this. I had to get him to
Adeline’s house. This potion was guaranteed to not only get him
there, but to put the suspicion in his mind to investigate her for
the crimes. He won’t stop until he figures it out. He might not
know he’s in love with me and I’m the one for him, but he does know
he can’t stop helping me until he figures it out.

Quickly, I cleaned out the cauldron so
the potions didn’t mix. The last thing I needed was the only person
on my side sleeping on the job as well as the suspect sleeping.
That wouldn’t solve anything.

“
Dirt.” I bit my lip. I
needed dirt from the Locust Grove police station. This potion is
meant to be sprinkled around Adeline’s house to attract the police.
“Dang.”

I thrust my fist to the side with the
front of Locust Grove’s Police Department in mind and instantly I
was standing there. I hurried to the side in fear someone might see
me. The last thing I needed was to explain to Oscar, if I saw him,
where my car was.

“
Hey, man.” A male voice
boomed from the front of the building. “Where are you off
to?”

“
I have to run into
Whispering Falls for a few minutes.” Oscar answered the man’s
question.

I peeped around the brick building and
saw Oscar standing on the sidewalk with another officer.

“
I’m doing June a favor.”
He shuffled his feet.

“
When are you going to
tell her?” The man asked.

Tell me? Tell me
what?
I leaned in a little
more.

“
It has all changed since
she moved to Whispering Falls.” He squinted in the sunlight as he
looked up. “It’s like she is too busy to remember our friendship,
much less have time to go on a date.”

“
If you don’t do it now,
you might lose her.”

Oscar shrugged. “She’s been acting a
little strange lately. All this talk of voodoo and crap. I think
I’ve already lost her to that silly little town.”

“
Cut your loss and find a
new girl.” They guy slapped him on the back with an evil grin.
“I’ve got a girl that will show you a good time anytime you want,
if you know what I mean.”

Oscar shook his head. “I’ll keep that
in mind.”

Oh! No! You! Won’t.
I glared at the other guy. “I wish you would just
disappear,” I whispered.

Right in front of my eyes, the officer
was gone.

“
Don?” Oscar turned in
circles looking for his friend.

Did I just do that? Shock and awe took
over my soul. I really had to read the Powers of the Village
President manual that Izzy had left for me. But I had been a little
busy trying to stay out of jail and being the president to do any
reading.

“
I wish you would
reappear.” Reluctantly, I pictured the officer and just as the last
word left my mouth, he stood next to Oscar again.

“
Dude, how did you do
that?” Oscar asked with a confused look on his face.

“
What?” Don’s eyebrows
came together in a scowl. “Man, that girl has got you seeing
things.”

Oscar rubbed his eyes. “Yea, I guess.”
He shook his head like he was trying to shake out his mind what he
had just seen. “I’ve gotta get out of here.”

“
Give me the word and I’ve
got you a date!” The officer yelled after Oscar.

Without turning around, Oscar waved
his hand in the air. I gathered a little dirt and glared at the
officer before I disappeared back to the shop.

Mewl, mewl.
Mr. Prince Charming sat next to the
cauldron.

“
It’s about time you
showed up.” I threw the dirt in the cauldron and dusted my hands
off. “Some fairy-god cat you are. I had to go steal my bracelet and
solve my own crime. Which by the way, I do believe Adeline is knee
deep in.”

I really wanted to believe she was the
mastermind behind the crimes, but I couldn’t rule out Petunia and
Faith.

“
I just wish Raven was
able to talk to me.” I knew if I could talk to her about what I
saw, she might be able to clear up some of my muddy intuition
feelings.

Meow, meow.
Mr. Prince Charming stretched out his paws and
yawned before he curled up on the counter.

“
Why do I get all the
mismatched spiritual tools: A lazy fairy-god cat, a cranky crystal
ball, and a big purple blob?” I tapped down the ingredient shelf to
start working on my potion for the perimeter of Adeline’s house.
Only one problem, the potion called for the mixture to be dripped
off the plucked feather of a macaw.

So that meant I had to make a pit stop
at Glorybee.

“
A dash of laurel, a pinch
of mint and a skosh of sage should do the trick.” I flipped on the
cauldron once the fixings were in.

The moving, chunky substance was amber
in color with blue oddiments. Taking a whiff, it smelled exactly
like Oscar’s natural scent of pine and wood, but I knew it was
going to taste just like Chinese---one of his favorites.

“
Higady, digady, flong.
Bring Oscar to Adeline’s and feel something is wrong.” I waved my
hands over the liquid right before it shut off. The onyx bottle
glowed yellow from the far left of the bottle shelf. Grabbing it, I
quickly used the small ladle to drip the potion into it.

There wasn’t much more time to waste.
I had to get over to Glorybee, get a feather from that macaw and
get back to Adeline’s bathroom. I glanced at the clock, it seemed
like I’d been gone for an hour, but in real time, it had only been
ten minutes.

Gathering all my potions and putting
them in my bag, I pictured Mr. Prince Charming and me underneath
the tree in Glorybee without anyone else around before I thrust my
fists to the side.

Squawk, squawk!
The macaw flapped and flopped as Mr. Prince
Charming made his way to the top of the tree.

“
Yes, be sure to get a big
fat feather.” I ordered Mr. Prince Charming. “A big one so we don’t
screw this potion up.”

I wasn’t going to risk just any
feather from that macaw.

“
Hey there, hey there.”
The macaw held a leg up toward a creeping Mr. Prince Charming. “Bad
ostrich, bad ostrich.”

Mr. Prince Charming stopped, watching
the bird dance from one clawed foot to the other.

“
I really like your
wings,” he chirped. “Yes, I like them.”

“
I do like your wings, but
I only need one feather.” I begged the macaw.

“
Got the wrong bird, wrong
bird.” He spread his wings out and the feathers on his back fanned
around him before he jumped from the limb.

Hiss, hiss. Mr. Prince Charming batted
at the air as the bird soared over top of me. I reached up and
grabbed a fistful. Feathers flew all over the place.

“
Wrong bird, wrong bird!”
The macaw squealed.

“
What is going on here?”
The lights of Glorybee turned on as I thrust my fist to the
side.

“
Are you okay in
there?”

I was back in Adeline’s bathroom and a
little shaken. Am I ever going to get use to these new powers? My
stomach was a little queasy when I realized I had left Mr. Prince
Charming to face the music.

“
I’m fine,” sniff, sniff,
“I just got back from a funeral for a friend of mine in Whispering
Falls and I thought that I was going to be okay.”

Dead silence.

“
And that’s why I came.” I
paused to see if I could hear anything from the other side of the
door. I reached over and flushed the toilet as if I had used it
before I opened the door. “I thought some yoga could help
me.”

Adeline’s eyes were as big as the full
moon. Did I throw her off guard? Was her mind reeling, wondering if
I saw her return to the city of the crimes?

“
I’m so sorry.” She
followed closely behind me. “I had no idea.”

I busted out crying like I
was torn up. I actually
was
torn up thinking she was trying to get away with
pinning these crimes on me.

“
Was it the Indian?” She
disappeared into the other room, leaving me alone with her cup of
tea.

I pulled the rose potion bottle out of
my bag and tapped a few drops in her tea before she returned with a
couple of tissues.

“
It was.” I blew my nose.
“They still don’t know who killed him. Which reminds me,” I wiped
my eyes with the other tissue to really play the role, “why were
you at A Charming Cure that night?”