A Charming Wish (11 page)

Picking a feather up off the step, I
held it up in the sunlight, wondering how many more feathers Kenny
was going to lose until he was laid to rest. More importantly, my
gut told me these feathers meant something. But what?

Chapter Thirteen

“
I dare you to think that
you can just close my shop,” I muttered, ripping the police line
tape off the front gate of A Charming Cure. The Police Station
looked dark, but I was sure Oscar watching nervously as I wadded
the yellow tape up and threw it in the street. “I’ll show you who’s
boss.”

Rowr!
Mr. Prince Charming batted at the dangling tape.

I stomped up to the door and marched
in before I let this little ole mix of a murder stop me from my
job. I was innocent and I was going to prove it.

Rolling up my sleeves, I flipped the
light switch on. All of the little table lamps, sconces, and
overhead cane lights illuminated, bringing a soft, inviting glow
into the shop. The bottles on the tables sparkled, showing off
their magical cures inside.

A warm fuzzy feeling came over me, as
it always did when I was in the store. My intuition told me
everything was going to be fine.

Meow, meow.
Mr. Prince Charming jumped on the counter. I set
my bag next to him and gave him a nice long rub down his back. He
purred and arched his back with delight.

“
You are going to have to
leave this instance, Ms. Heal.” The baritone voice growled from
behind. “You are violating police procedure, and I can put you in
jail for this.”

The man stood in the entrance of A
Charming Cure tapping the police baton in the palm of his
hand.

“
Who are you?” I asked. “I
mean, I know you are a police officer by the outfit and all. But
what do you have to do with Whispering Falls and my
shop?”

“
You will have to see the
Order of Elders for the answers you are seeking.” He stepped inside
the shop. “This is a police investigation and I’m in
charge.”

“
He wasn’t found
dead
in
my shop,”
I reminded him. I crossed my arms and tried to hone into my
intuition. Was he who he said he was? And where was
Oscar?

“
Ms. Heal, everyone knows
that the perimeter of the crime scene is blocked off. And this,” he
circled his hands in the air, “is considered the perimeter and part
of the crime scene. I told all of this to Mr. McGurtle and he
should have told you.”

“
He did, but that was
yesterday.” I played stupid. “And what is that about an Order of
Elders?”

I flipped to the appendix in the back
of the Magical Cures Book to see if there was anything at all about
this order, but there wasn’t.

“
When a village president
is involved in a crime, the Order of Elders then step in.” He
picked up a bottle of potion for hair, which he definitely didn’t
need. He had the thickest head of unruly black hair I had ever
seen. “You are in big trouble, Ms. Heal. So I suggest you get in
contact with the Order as quickly as possible.”

“
How do I do that?”
Big trouble?
I swallowed
hard because that didn’t sound good at all.

“
I do not know that.” He
set the bottle back down and started to tap the baton
again.

“
Where is Oscar?” I
gathered some of the items I needed at my house to create a
makeshift shop just in case I needed to make a potion. “I would
like to talk to him about all of this before I leave you
here.”

I picked up the Magical Cure Book and
held it tight. It wasn’t that I didn’t believe everything he was
saying, but it was strange no one, including Mr. McGurtle, had told
me this information.

“
He is no longer on the
case.” He held the door wide open, as if for me to walk through.
“He has been transferred for the time being.”

Transferred?
My mind went cloudy. I grasped the corners of the
book. The room spun in circles and then up and down. I tried to
take a couple of deep breaths, but then everything went
black.

Chapter Fourteen

“
Oh, dear.” The sweet
angelic voice rang in my ears. “Do you think she’s all
right?”

“
She better be all right.”
Another unfamiliar voice broke with huskiness.

“
I honestly can’t believe
she’s the new village president of Whispering Falls.” The third
unknown voice was much calmer. “It’s such a wonderful community. I
hope it doesn’t start going downhill.”

“
It will all be fine,”
Eloise said in a hushed whisper. “June is wonderful. She has to get
used to all the magic. She only found out about all of this a few
years ago. Unlike us. We’ve been doing this all our
lives.”

Open, open.
I begged my eyes to open. My lids felt heavy as
if there were dollar-sized coins taped on them.

“
Gandalf said she fainted
when he told her that Oscar had been transferred.” The angelic
voice whispered. “Young love.”

“
Who cares about love when
we are in crisis mode?”

“
Now, now.” Eloise tried
to settle down the feisty one. “Let’s be calm so we can figure this
mess out.”

“
Look,” the sweet voice
gasped, “her eyes are fluttering.”

Fluttering?
Please open, please open. I continued to will my
lashes to pop open.

I tried to focus on the blurry images
as the sound of footsteps gathered around me.

“
I told you,” she
confirmed. “June?”

“
Move, let Eloise try.”
The husky voice was patronizing. “She knows her. You will only
freak her out more.”

“
June, dear?” Eloise had
always been so comforting. “Mr. Prince Charming is
here.”

Mewl,
mewl
. The long tail wrapped around my neck
as Mr. Prince Charming slowly dragged it across.

“
I…” I stammered,
“Oscar.”

The last thing I remember was that man
telling me that Oscar had been transferred. I didn’t believe it. He
would have found a way to say good-bye to me.

“
Yes, June.” Eloise sat
down next to me. My eyes focused on her face, though I could tell I
was in her tree house. I saw three other shadows around me that had
not yet come into focus. But I knew they belonged to the three
voices I did not recognize. “We can talk about Oscar when you are
well.”

“
Has he been. . .” I
looked deep into her emerald eyes and began to sob when I could see
that Oscar was gone.

“
June, he will be back
when all of this is cleared up.” Eloise swept her arms around me,
practically lying on top of me. “He hated it so much he had to
leave without a good-bye, but that is the way they do things around
here when the village president finds herself in a sticky
situation.”

I turned away. The thought of Oscar
having to be sent away was more than I could bear, and the fact I
hadn’t been without him since we were children didn’t help
matters.

“
I told you Petunia was a
much stronger candidate for the job.” The deeper voice of a shadow
moved away from me. Her footsteps were solid and loud.

I laid there for what seemed to be
forever, but knew it was only a few minutes so my eyes could
adjust. When I felt somewhat more myself, I propped up on my elbows
to get a better look at what was going on around me.

Blinking my eyes, I did realize the
three women I didn’t know were sitting with their legs crossed in
mid-air. Each one was older than the other.

“
Hi,” the little old woman
with the sweet southern voice was suddenly hovering over me. She
was no bigger than four feet tall with a small black pillbox hat
nestled on top of her tight curled silver hair. The fox stole
wrapped around her neck was perfectly attached to the collar of her
black suit. She looked like she had class. “I’m Mary Lynn, one of
the Elders, here to help you.”

“
Howdy!” Another shadow
came into focus. A much younger, more hip woman floated next to
Mary Lynn. Her one-piece black bodysuit was barely visible under
her long leopard mink coat “I’m Mary Ellen. The fabulous Elder.”
She cackled aloud.

“
I’m Mary Sue, the other
one.” The third and last Elder didn’t move from her invisible chair
in the air. “We make up the Order of Elders. We are all past
village presidents of different communities. You have been accused
of murder, and if you ask me, I am not sure you didn’t do
it.”

“
Mary Sue!” Mary Ellen and
Mary Lynn shouted.

“
Don’t you mind her.” Mary
Lynn patted my hand and sat next to me. “Sometimes witches do
deserve the ugly image of having warts on their noses when they act
like Mary Sue.”

“
She’s just an old coot!”
Mary Ellen floated down, sticking her tongue out at Mary Sue.
“Besides, we are here to get to the bottom of who killed poor
Kenny.”

“
What about Oscar?” I sat
up; Mr. Prince Charming jumped off the couch and darted out the
front steps of the tree house. “I can’t do anything without
Oscar.”

Eloise stepped up, her cloak creating
a wind tunnel as she sat next to me on the other side. “Oscar
wanted to tell you good-bye, but he wasn’t allowed. He went to
sorcery school early. He will be fine. Everything will be back to
normal soon.”

“
First we have to take
care of business.” Mary Sue came down and stood next to the couch,
her body casting a shadow over me. “Why did you want to get in
touch with Kenny? Everyone in town seems to think you were
desperate to talk to him. Then he shows up dead. Suspicious!” She
pointed a finger at me and a spark flew from it.

I ducked, not sure if she was
casting.

“
Stop being so dramatic.
You are going to scare the poor girl.” Mary Ellen stood up, placing
herself between Mary Sue and me. She planted her hands on her hips.
“We know you didn’t do it, but we don’t know who did.”

“
That is why we are here.”
Mary Lynn stood up. There was a little rattle as she adjusted her
suit skirt. “We will leave you to get some rest. We will be back
later to ask some questions, but only when you feel
well.”

The Marys stood next to each other and
with a flick of their hands, they disappeared.

“
If I’d only known what
Whispering Falls was all about, I doubt I would have come here to
live.” I sat with my face in my hands.

“
That is no way to act.”
Eloise brought me a cup of tea from the kitchen. “We are here to
help figure this out. Don’t mind Mary Sue. She’s the oldest and
really she should retire. She’s a softy at heart.”

“
They are fine.” I took
the cup from her and took a sip. “Thank you.”

“
Can you tell me why you
wanted to see Kenny so bad?”

“
This.” I reached into my
bag and pulled out Belur. Slowly I wiggled the cork off the top.
Immediately a stream of purple fog filled the air and Belur stood
in the middle.

“
Your wish is my command,
Master June.” He bowed with his hands clasped in front of
him.

“
Kenny left that at my
shop.” I bit my lip waiting for Eloise’s reaction.

“
Oh, no.” She shook her
head. “A genie.”

“
And what is wrong with
that?” Belur crossed his massive arms in front of him and tapped
his toe. The bell on the pointy tip jingled with each
tap.

“
There’s nothing wrong
with it if you were in a different type of spiritualist community,
but your type isn’t allowed in Whispering Falls.” She got up,
walked over to the shelf of books and pulled down a binder that
clearly read Whispering Falls By-Laws. She opened it and tapped a
page, showing Belur. “See, right here.”

“
Why don’t I have one of
those?” That would have definitely come in handy when I decided to
move here and take the village president position.

“
Yours is coming,” She
confirmed. “You were just sworn in as the President.”

“
Why aren’t I welcome?”
Belur pushed his chin in the air, casting his eyes down on
Eloise.

“
Who doesn’t want their
wishes granted? If you got into the wrong hands, everything could
go horribly wrong.”

“
See? That is why I needed
to get in touch with him.” I threw my hands in the air.

“
Did you break into Wicked
Good?”

“
No!” I
protested.

“
What about the ostrich?
Did you kidnap him?”

“
Me? No.” I knew I was
going to have to spill the beans about the spell I gave Faith to
drink. “I needed feathers from an ostrich for a potion.”

“
Who did you give Mugwort
to?” Eloise asked. “Remember I was best friends with your mother
and we always dabbled in that book. Besides, you aren’t a level
twenty-eight yet.”

There weren’t too many things I could
keep from Eloise. She had known me since birth and she did sorta
replace Darla when I moved back to Whispering Falls.

“
Faith,” I
whispered.