One Potion in the Grave: A Magic Potion Mystery (22 page)

“I, um, think I might have something,” I murmured.

As I bustled about, I kept thinking about Landry and his hair. And wondering how in the world he’d been the one who’d gotten hexed.

*   *   *

An hour later, Warren was long gone and I was still trying to figure out the hex situation when John Richard
Baldwin sailed through the door. He was dressed in business casual, and I had to wonder if he was working today or, like his boss, always dressed in his Sunday best.

“Hey, Hilda,” he said.

I smiled. “Hi, Uncle John Richard.”

“Well, sadly,” he said, ducking his head as he walked toward the counter, “I believe you may have to drop the uncle part. Hazel has informed me that her attentions have swayed elsewhere. She cut me loose.”

I didn’t know whether to think it funny or sad that she actually believed she had a relationship with him.

He said, “Such a shame. Just when I was getting used to the thought of us being family and all.”

I eyed him suspiciously. “You didn’t whack Earl, did you?”

He laughed. “No, but I’d like to thank whoever did. I had no idea how to dissolve an imaginary relationship.”

“That’s a new one for me, too, and I’ve helped plenty of people end relationships.”

His smile lit his face. “Can I still call you Hilda?”

“It might be time to switch to Carly.”

“Maybe so,” he said. “The end of an era. Let’s have a moment of silence.” He dropped his head again.

He’d clearly spent much too much time with my dramatic family. “What brings you in? You looking for a love potion now that you’re a free man?”

“No, thanks. I think I’ll bask in my bachelorhood for a while. Caleb sent me over. I’ve got the goods on Kathryn Perry’s will. You didn’t hear it from either of us, though. Sharing this kind of info before the will is probated is strictly verboten.”

“Look at you throwing around fancy words.”

He grinned. “Helps me remember that I actually went to college for seven years.”

“And also helps you forget that you’re now the best-educated administrative assistant in Alabama?”

“That’s right.”

“My lips are sealed. What’s the scoop?”

He leaned in. “It’s not terribly exciting. Everything she has goes to her younger sister, Jamie Lynn. An estate upward of four million dollars. She’s invested well.”

I knew. I’d seen the financial papers.

In another month, on her twenty-first birthday, Jamie Lynn would have access to a trust worth a million dollars. Now she was set to inherit another four million on top of that.

My word. I couldn’t even fathom that kind of money.

“When will Jamie Lynn find out?” I asked.

“Probably in the next week or two. Kathryn’s lawyer will contact her directly. Unless she shares the info with you . . .” He zipped his lips.

“Got it.”

The door shot open and Gabi came rushing in. Her hair was tucked into a ball cap, she didn’t have on a speck of makeup, and there were still vile-looking stitches on her face, but she was still stunning.

“Carly, you’ll never guess!” She pulled up short. “Oh, sorry!”

“Gabi Greenleigh, John Richard Baldwin,” I introduced.

“Hi,” she said to him. “Sorry to interrupt.”

“It’s okay,” I answered, because John Richard had gone suddenly mute. “What’s up?”

“I thought about what you said this morning, about
having time to decide what I want to do. And that moment, at your kitchen table, I realized I didn’t want to leave.”

“I, ah—” I stuttered, wondering what to say without hurting her feelings. “There’s no room at my inn.”

She laughed. “I didn’t mean with you. I meant here in this town. I like it here.” A smile lit her face. “I like the people. So, I went into town to find an apartment to rent, but bumped into your mama and next thing I knew I signed a lease to rent the apartment above the chapel.”

I’d lived there for years before buying Grammy Fowl’s house. “You’re sure you want to stay here in Hitching Post?” I asked Gabi. “This town isn’t like what you’re used to.” She had loads of money and could go pretty much anywhere she wanted in the world.

“I think that’s why I like it so much,” she said. “I just need to find a job now to keep busy, but I can tackle that later. Your mama said I could move in on Monday. Right now she’s using the apartment to store all the flowers from my wedding until she can figure out what to do with them.” Her eyes glistened.

Maybe a change like this was exactly what she needed.

“I need to get my things from Shady Hollow, so I’m headed back there today to pack up. I’ve got to run, so much to do, but I wanted to let you know. I can’t thank you enough for being a friend to me when I needed one most.”

I couldn’t help but smile at her sincerity. “You’re very welcome, Gabi.”

“I’ll be back on Monday morning. ’Bye, John Richard.” She waved as she zipped toward the door as fast as she’d come in.

He waved back.

After she was gone, he finally found his voice. “She’s moving? Here?”

“Yep,” I said. “It seems that way.”

His eyes went round as MoonPies.

I couldn’t help but tease. “How’s that bachelorhood looking now?”

“Like the most foolish decision I ever made, and oh, I’ve made a few.” He ran his hand through his hair. “I think I need to get a haircut. See you later,
Carly
.”

“Thanks for the info,” I yelled as he beelined for the door.

I shook my head, grateful that he hadn’t asked for a love potion to use on her, because I wouldn’t have given it to him. She needed time to figure out who she was. If love came on its own, that’d be fine, but I wasn’t going to push it on her. I would have given him a phony potion, a fake. The old switcheroo.

The old switcheroo.

Mercy!
Suddenly, I recalled something Gabi had said about switching her drink for Landry’s when she changed her mind about giving him the potion.

She’d given him
her
drink.

It had been the one hexed, not his.

Katie Sue Perrywinkle had wanted Gabi’s hair to fall out, and had gone to great lengths to make it happen.

Chapter Twenty-seven

A
little while later, I still didn’t have an answer to why Katie Sue would be so vindictive toward Gabi. I’d read Gabi’s energy the day we’d bumped into Katie Sue behind Marjie’s house—there had been nothing but mild confusion at Katie Sue’s behavior. No ill will. No hostility.

Whatever it was between them had been one-sided.

It was obvious now, too, that Katie Sue had lied to me about not liking Gabi. The anger she’d felt
had
been directed at Gabi. I’d dismissed it, wanting to believe her, and that was foolish. I needed to learn to trust my instincts more.

I’d called Delia to talk it over with her, but she didn’t have any ideas, either. They didn’t know each other well at all, had no tiffs with each other, and it left both Delia and me puzzled.

Katie Sue’s words rang in my head.

She’s just so perfect, isn’t she? Perfect upbringing, perfect skin, perfect manners, perfect everything.

Maybe as Ainsley had suggested, Katie Sue
had
been jealous of Gabi’s hair all along.

But I kept going back to Katie Sue’s last comment that afternoon—the last ones I ever heard her say.

Well, despite her perfection, I actually feel bad for Gabi because she doesn’t have any idea that her
perfect
little world is about to fall apart.

In all that had happened, I’d forgotten those words, but now they rang in my head like a big ol’ warning bell.

My palms dampened, and I wiped them on my shorts. Katie Sue certainly couldn’t have predicted her own death, which was the catalyst to Gabi’s world falling apart, so what had she been referring to?

Gabi’s perfect world . . . Her relationship with the Calhouns? The wedding? Landry?

I have plenty of ammunition and a plan to use it to get Warren to see things my way. Love is worth fighting for, Carly, even if I have to fight dirty.

Love—but not for Warren.

Warren’s a puppet master, Carly, and he’s pulling a whole host of strings.

My mind spun round and round until it stopped on something Gabi had mentioned the first time I met her.

He’s only marrying me because his daddy is forcing him to. Some sort of political ploy, an agreement they made years ago.

Oh. My. Word. My heart hammered in against my breastbone as I connected dots. Was it . . . possible?

My head snapped up as Dylan came into the shop. There was a look in his eye, a gleam that had me thinking he’d discovered something big on his trip to Nashville. Something beyond finding Katie Sue’s jewelry.

“What, what?” I asked, unable to hide my curiosity as I motioned for him to sit down at the worktable. My theory about Katie Sue’s love life could wait a minute or two.

Dylan and I sat face-to-face, our knees touching.
Dang
, but he looked good in his uniform. Not as good as he did in faded jeans and a thin T-shirt, but it was close. Real close.

“You’re not going to believe what I’m about to tell you,” he said.

I gave him a gentle shove. “I might die of suspense before you spill it. Come on!”

“Katie Sue’s jewelry—all of it—is now in the evidence room.”

His excitement was contagious. “Tell me everything.”

“One of those lucky breaks,” he said. “Turns out it wasn’t a pawnshop, but an upscale jewelry store that had her things. The owner recognized them as quality pieces, and questioned the seller for the history of the items, guessing correctly that they had been stolen. The seller became squirrelly, and when the owner pushed, the seller said he’d found the jewelry in his truck, just sitting there like Santa dropped it off. When the owner insisted on checking to see if the jewelry was stolen, the seller asked for it back. The owner then suggested they call the police and let them sort it out. The seller ran, leaving the jewelry behind. The shop owned tried contacting the designer of the ring—it was marked—trying to figure who the jewels belonged to, but didn’t get in touch with him until early this morning. Wham, bam, boom, my phone rings.”

“
My
phone rings.”

“Same difference, right, Care Bear?”

“You’re killing me here. Who was the seller?”

“Surveillance footage captured his ugly mug perfectly. It was none other than Cletus Cobb.”

My exuberance turned to dread. Even though Cletus was a suspect in what had happened to Katie Sue, a part of me hadn’t wanted to believe it true.

Family first,
Warren had said.

Not always.

“But that’s not all,” Dylan said.

“What else?”

“I spoke to the designer of the ring.”

There was a strange tone to his voice that had me taking notice. “Oh?”

“He gave me the ring’s full history. It was commissioned eighteen months ago as an engagement ring. He waxed poetic about the couple, how in love they were, how beautiful a couple they were, blah, blah, blah. It was quite the impression they’d made, and he never could understand why they’d broken up. He himself was heartbroken upon learning the two were no longer together . . . Katie Sue had been engaged to none other than—”

“Landry Calhoun,” I said, beating him to the punch.

His mouth fell open. “Again, you’ve surprised the hell out of me, Care Bear. How did you know that?”

“I just figured it out few minutes ago.” I told him about my morning with Warren (including how he hadn’t been the one who killed Katie Sue) and how Landry had been hexed. “It all makes sense now. Katie Sue had to be using her ammunition to stop the wedding between Landry and Gabi. She was fighting for love, all right. Her love for Landry.”

“You didn’t find out what Katie Sue had on Warren, did you?” Dylan asked.

“No. He clammed up and told me to forget I ever saw that envelope.”

“Sounds like it was something big,” Dylan said, his eyebrow raised.

“I’m not sure we’ll ever know.”

“Well, there’s an arrest warrant out for Cletus and Dinah—she was driving the truck. If nothing else, they’re facing federal charges because they crossed state lines with the stolen jewelry. I’m hoping that’ll scare them enough to spill what they know about Katie Sue’s death.”

What they
knew
. What they had probably
done
was more like it.

I kept shaking my head. “I feel sick.” This wasn’t how families were supposed to be. Families were supposed to be about love and happiness and forgiveness. My heart was broken for Katie Sue . . . and for Jamie Lynn, whose dreams of a big happy family weren’t ever going to come true.

He pulled me off the stool and into his arms. “I’m sorry, Care Bear.”

I buried my face in his neck and breathed in the scent of him. It soothed, it comforted, but it couldn’t shut off my thoughts.

“If not for that stupid wedding,” I said, “Katie Sue wouldn’t have come back to town in the first place, and wouldn’t have even been put in the path of Cletus and Dinah. Cletus probably caught sight of Katie Sue’s jewelry and hatched his evil plan.”

“Probably,” Dylan admitted.

I lifted my face to him. “Louisa Calhoun holds some
guilt in this as well. She wrote the note to Dinah and Cletus, telling them Katie Sue was back.”

“Why would she do that?”

“Revenge is my guess, for Katie Sue threatening to interfere with the wedding.”

“While we wait to hear news on Cletus and Dinah, I think we should pay a visit to the Calhouns before they leave town. Get this full story. Even though it looks like none of them had anything to do with Katie Sue’s murder, they’re still guilty as sin for those attacks on Earl and José.”

“We?” He
wanted
my help?

“Let’s double-team them,” he explained. “I’ll ask the questions; you read their energy.”

I smiled. “I really do like it when you fight dirty.”

“That’s because I learned it from you.”

“Hush. When do you want to go?”

“Now?”

“Let me lock up.”

*   *   *

“We met a couple of years ago. I’d just left law school and Kathryn was finishing up medical school—her rotation was on Cass’s floor. It was just after her accident.”

I looked at Cassandra, who was intently studying the grain in the wood flooring. I recalled what Gabi said about why Cassandra didn’t want Landry marrying her: That she wanted him to marry for love. Had she meant Katie Sue?

“Landry,” Warren said, a warning in his voice.

He stood next to the fireplace, one hand in his pocket, the other gripping the mantel. He wasn’t pleased by our conversation with his son. Neither was Louisa, who sat
in the library nook. If looks could kill, Dylan and I would be in coffins right about now.

Sitting next to her mother, Cassandra continued to keep her gaze averted, as though she couldn’t bear the words Landry spoke.

Sitting across from Dylan and me, Landry said, “Enough, Daddy.
Enough
. I’m tired of the lies.”

He’d finally grown a backbone, it seemed. Too little, too late.

Dylan had already informed them that arrest warrants were out for Dinah and Cletus, and that they were the prime suspects in Katie Sue’s death. It had been a tactical ploy on his part to tell them, hoping it would lower their guard. They were likely to be more forthcoming if they knew they weren’t viewed as murder suspects any longer.

The inn was empty save for the lot of us—an order carried out by Warren. Hazel, Earl, and the lug nuts were out in the garden. No doubt their curiosity was killing them.

After a few minutes of speaking with Landry, it was clear why he’d been locked in his room and refused to see Gabi: Grief had stolen the soul straight out of the man.

Dark circles colored ashen skin beneath red swollen eyes that kept looking over our shoulders, as if waiting for someone to walk through the door. His face was set in a tight grimace, his shoulders hunched, his body weak from not eating.

His devastation pulsed through me, and I clamped on to my locket and willed the emotions to stop. But even then, I could still feel the pain thrumming beneath the
surface of my skin. The ache. The desperation. The yearning to be with her. The overwhelming longing to be dead, too.

Did his parents have any idea how suicidal he was? I imagined not, or they’d show some measure of sympathy for the man.

Instead, they seemed more worried about the secrets he might reveal.
Family first,
my ass. That phrase was just a justification to keep a reputation intact. It had nothing to do with actual love for a family member.

A cowboy hat was pulled low on Landry’s forehead, probably to cover up his rapid balding. He clasped his hands tightly, squeezing, squeezing so hard my knuckles ached.

“Why the secrecy about the relationship?” Dylan asked.

Landry looked toward his father.

There was moisture shimmering in Warren’s eyes. Maybe the man had a lick of decency after all.

“As soon as it became clear that the two were serious, my team ran a background check. Kathryn’s colorful history was . . . an obstacle,” Warren said. “We advised Landry to sever ties with her. For the family’s sake. Landry knew there were other plans in place for his future. Plans he’d agreed to when he left law school,” he added pointedly.

“Is that when he agreed to marry the woman of your choice in exchange for getting him off the hook from that cheating scandal?” I asked, figuring that was exactly what happened. Had his marriage-of-convenience to Gabi already been set in motion at that point?

“Yes,” Landry answered. “The plan was to start making music and in a few years settle down with someone suitable who’d help bring in younger votes. After a few
years of marriage and a kid or two, and once I was
respectable
again, I’d then run for governor. Only, except for the music, I didn’t want any of that. It was a future that had been planned for me by my parents, without much of my input at all.”

Warren flushed a dark shade of red, his anger infusing his skin with color.

Louisa went to get a drink from the wet bar.

I fisted my hands so tightly my nails bit into my skin. I wondered whether Landry would have opted for the jail time back in law school if he could have peeked into the future to see how his “agreement” with his father ended up.