Dizzy Spells (2 page)

“Fine.” My response was automatic. It had
been a busy morning, and it was hard not to be affected by the
weird encounter with the strange woman. I frowned and rubbed my
temples.

Thyme laughed. “You say you’re fine, but
there is great unease around you. You have met with an unusual
occurrence today, have you not?”

“I get it now. Cold read?”

“Yep. That’s the part where you would’ve
blurted out your day or given clues that you were stressed, like
you just did. They get a feel for your personality based on how you
talk, what you say, and how you move, and then give you prompts.
They’re a cross between psychologists and body language
interpreters. You never even realize that you’re the one filling in
the blanks for them.”

“So it’s fake?” I was a little disappointed
at the idea that the amazing reads I had seen on TV might be a
game.

Thyme shook her head. “No. Intuition is
real. The point is that not everyone who claims to have psychic
ability actually does.”

“She sounded awfully convincing about
trouble coming, though.” I was uneasy. As outlandish as the woman
was, something about that moment really bothered me.

“Don’t worry about it. It was just a bunch
of badly crafted drama.” Thyme waved a hand dismissively and gave
me a wide smile. “And my grandparents don’t need to bother spirits
to say they love me. They email me every other week.”

I grinned at that, but something about the
woman’s words kept nagging at me.
There is great trouble coming
your way
.

“Seriously, don’t worry about it,” Thyme
said again when she saw my worried expression. “She was wrong about
everything else. How accurate could a drama queen in a cheap Cher
wig be?”

Chapter 2

When I arrived back at my house, the crazy
woman’s words were still whirling around in my mind. What did Madam
Dianne mean when she said that something terrible was looming ahead
of me?

I walked up the pathway toward my front
door. As I passed the large lilac tree in the front yard, I saw
what looked like a hand jutting out into view on the porch.

I caught my breath, the woman’s words
foremost in my mind. I was scared to get a glimpse of what was
waiting for me at the front door. With the bushes obstructing most
of the porch, I couldn’t see enough of the object to figure out
what I was staring at from a distance. When I was just a few steps
away, a corpse came into view.

I stumbled backward in horror. A motionless
body lay sprawled out in front of the door to my house.

I gingerly approached the body, my heart
beating fast. At that moment, my two cats ran up to me and meowed.
Hawthorn looked up at me and hissed before looking back down at the
body. The ginger and white cat, Willow, hissed at the body and then
darted off into the bushes.

I forced myself to look at the body. The
pale, bluish tone of the body’s skin caused my skin to crawl. I
reached for the man’s wrist and touched it with two fingers. There
was no pulse, but the body was so cold that it sent shivers down my
spine.

I shook my head and tried to think what to
do next. The first thing that crossed my mind was that my house
might have killed the man. Perhaps he was robbing the house, and
the house spat him out a little too violently. I shuddered at the
thought. And what about the cats? They were reacting weirdly. “What
did you do now?” I asked the house.

Obviously, I had to call the cops, but I
figured I should get help from my neighbor, Camino, first. If the
house had something to do with it, I needed to speak to her before
the cops looked around.

I took off next door to the elderly woman’s
home. When the front door opened, Camino stood there, her hair up
in curlers as she greeted me with a big smile. “Hello, there. Wait,
what’s wrong?” She motioned for me to come inside.

I shook my head and swallowed the lump in my
throat. “I just got home and found a man lying on my front porch.
His skin was pale and cold. He doesn’t have a pulse. He’s dead!
What if the house did it?” I covered my face with my hands and then
massaged my temples.

Camino, however, seemed to take the news
calmly. “Well, I can assure you that your house had nothing to do
with that,” she said slowly. “Houses don’t kill people. Not even
yours.”

“Maybe it’s not just the house,” I said with
mounting hysteria. “What if the cats did it?”

Camino shook her head. “Your familiars
certainly aren’t to blame, either,” she said. “They are spiritual
creatures that can sense things that you and I just don’t
understand until it’s too late. They were probably watching over
the body.”

I sighed. “Well, who is that man and why is
he on my front porch?”

“That’s something that I couldn’t possibly
answer. Have you ever met this man before?” she asked me. “Perhaps
he had business for the store or something?”

“I don’t believe so,” I replied. “Anyway,
what do we do now?”

Camino frowned. “You haven’t called the
police?”

I shook my head, feeling like an idiot. “No,
I wanted to speak to you first. I was worried that the house did
it. I mean, what if he was robbing the place and the house
overreacted?”

“I’m sure the house didn’t do it,” she said,
“but let’s go back and have a look before you call them.”

We got back to find the cats were still on
the porch, but rather than being calm and quiet like earlier,
Hawthorn was happily chasing Willow around, leaping to and fro as
if the body wasn’t even there.

“At first, all I could see was what looked
like a hand sticking out. I guess I’m happy that it wasn’t just a
hand, though,” I added.

“Did you happen to see any marks or anything
on the body?” Camino asked, crouching beside the corpse.

“No, I didn’t, but this means that Madam
Dianne was right,” I said.

Camino raised an eyebrow. “Who is Madam
Dianne?”

“Oh, she’s the woman that opened the psychic
store in town. She told me that she saw something terrible ahead of
me. This must be what she meant.”

Camino sighed and shook her head. “That
woman is probably selling a load of nonsense and nothing more. I
wouldn’t lend any credence to her words.”

I bit my lip. “Maybe, since she did get
everything else wrong, but it’s still a strange coincidence, isn’t
it?”

“Aren’t all coincidences strange?” Camino
replied.

“I guess so, but it’s still a bit
spooky.”

Camino shrugged. “At any rate, the house
didn’t do this,” she said. “Call the police now.”

I pulled my cell phone from my jeans pocket
and made the call. After several rings, a voice greeted me on the
other end. “Bayberry Creek police. How may I help you?”

“I just came home to find a dead body on my
front porch!” I said.

Chapter 3

I looked up at Camino and frowned. “The
police will be here soon. What about the house? If we go inside,
will it attack them or something if it feels like I’m being
threatened?” I asked, with rising panic.

Camino shook her head. “Not a chance. That
just isn’t how it works, Amelia. Relax, and everything will work
out fine.”

“But we know the house doesn’t like certain
people.”

Camino interrupted me. “Trust me. Nothing
will happen. The house is not going to harm the police, and it sure
didn’t have anything to do with the man on your porch.”

I looked at her and sighed. “I know you’re
right, but I’m just so worried. Why did was that man at my
door?”

Before Camino could answer, two police cars
pulled over in front of the house, and officers hurried over to
us.

“We received an emergency call from this
address,” an officer in a sergeant’s uniform said. “We have a
report of a deceased person on your property, is that correct? And
may I ask which of you is the homeowner?” He pulled a small notepad
and pen from his pocket.

“I am,” I replied. “This is my next door
neighbor, Camino.”

The sergeant nodded. “Do you know the name
of the deceased party?”

Camino and I exchanged glances. “I’ve never
seen him before in my life,” I said.

The cop scratched his chin. “Hmm,” he
murmured. “I’ll ask both of you to stay here while we do a
preliminary examination of the body, and then we’ll need to speak
with both of you. We’ll need to search your house, if you have no
objection.”

“Sure.” I handed him my keys, and hoped that
they wouldn’t do anything to offend the house.

The sergeant joined the others on the porch
while Camino and I remained on the grass. “You don’t think they
suspect me, do you?” I whispered.

Camino shook her head. “Of course not.
They’re just doing their jobs. If you don’t calm down a little,
they might think otherwise, though. Just let things happen as they
are meant to.”

The same police officer soon walked back
over. “Was your door locked when you first discovered the body, or
did you go inside before calling us?” the sergeant asked.

“No, it was already locked from earlier. I
made sure the door was secure when I left this morning,” I replied.
“I haven’t been inside since I found him.”

“You are certain you haven’t seen this man
before?”

I nodded. “Yes, I’ve never seen him
before.”

The sergeant scribbled in his notepad. “The
man’s identification shows that he’s from out of town.”

“That just makes it even stranger,” I
said.

The sergeant frowned. “Can you explain what
you mean?”

“I mean, why would some random man travel a
few towns over or whatever, just to show up on the doorstep of
someone he had never met?” I asked.

“That’s exactly what we have to find out,”
he replied. “The forensic people are on their way. When they remove
the body from the scene, you’ll be able to go back to your
routine.”

“Thanks, but what about until then? Can I go
inside my house?”

The cop looked over at the porch for several
seconds and then turned back to me. “Hold on just one second. I’ll
have a word to Constable Walker.”

I strained my ears to overhear what the
police were saying, but the only words I could make out were,
“There’s nothing inside as far as evidence goes.”

The sergeant’s next words were louder.
“Constable Walker, you’re going to be in charge of questioning the
older woman. I’ll speak to the homeowner. Tell the others to make
sure that nobody steps an inch near that body until forensics
arrives.”

The sergeant walked back to us and nodded to
the front door. “We can head inside now.”

When I passed the body, I did my best to
avert my eyes.

Constable Walker took Camino into another
room, and the sergeant scribbled on his pad. “Where were you
earlier today? You mentioned that you locked up before leaving.
Where did you go?”

“Excuse me?” I asked, caught off guard by
the question.

“We don’t yet have a precise time of death,
but the lack of rigor mortis points to a short timeline. The victim
was probably dead for a couple hours at most before you reported
it, so we need to know your whereabouts during that time.”

I froze, my mind going blank. I couldn’t
help but feel that the sergeant suspected me. My heart beat faster
and faster as my anxiety increased. “I was with my friend, Thyme.
We went shopping and then had lunch. Why did he die? Was it a heart
attack?”

The sergeant tilted his head and squinted.
“Would you say that for the last three to four hours, you were with
your friend rather than here?”

I note that he hadn’t answered my question.
“Yes,” I said. “You can check with her.”

“I will. And you say that you’ve never seen
him before? So you would have no reason or motive for killing
him?”

My jaw fell. “Of course not!” I said, a
little too loudly.

“These questions are just routine, miss.
That will be all for now.”

Chapter 4

I was sweeping the floor when the bell above
the door chimed, and a customer walked in. It was toward the end of
the day. Business had been steady, but was now dying down. I craned
my neck, and saw Madam Dianne, the fortuneteller. The woman came in
quickly, a flurry of scarves and the sleeves of her flowing dress
billowing out behind her. She certainly dressed like a
fortuneteller; I had to give her that.

Thyme was in the back, cleaning the kitchen,
so I leaned the broom and dustpan against the wall and hurried
around behind the counter.

“Hey, Madam Dianne,” I said with a smile.
“What can I get you?”

Dianne smiled back, but it was a slight and
forced smile, her lips barely turning upward at the corners. “I
need cake, or cupcakes. Or both,” she said, her voice wavering.

I looked her over. The woman was obviously
distraught, but we barely knew one another. I didn’t think it would
be proper for me to ask if she was all right, so I nodded and
reached for a box. “Well, we have plenty of both,” I said, trying
to sound upbeat.

“What’s this one?” Dianne asked, pressing
the end of her index finger against the glass front of the
case.

I bent and opened a sliding door at my side,
so I could peer into the case and see which one she was pointing
at. It was a cake, small and round, sitting on the bottom shelf.
“Oh, that’s our triple chocolate cake.”

“Triple chocolate?” Dianne asked.

“Yes. Chocolate cake with a fudge core, and
chocolate icing.”

“I need chocolate,” Dianne said, nodding
softly. “I’m having dizzy spells.” She suddenly pressed a hand to
her nose, as if she were stopping a sneeze, although I figured
Dianne was actually trying to keep her tears at bay.

For the most part she succeeded, but one fat
drop of salty water leaked from the corner of her right eye and ran
down her cheek, leaving a wet line down her face.