“Man of the badge, or man of the gavel!” Serena shouts. “The paternity of this child, we shall unravel!” Her voice echoes through the room, and all four ghosts that take up supernatural space in this B&B are suddenly hovering over my head. I give a little wave to Winslow since I didn’t have a chance to say hello to him yet and he offers a somewhat mournful smile back.
“What in the fresh heck!” Carlotta dances over while doing an odd little jig, trying to balance the tote bag weighing down her shoulder. “Free candles to all card-carrying magic mavens. Just don’t kill my Lot Lot!” She dumps her bag, and almost every woman here swoops on over.
“I’m fine, Carlotta,” I say as she helps me off the table.
“In that case—all candles fifteen percent off!” She tucks her head close to mine. “It sounds like fifty, and at this time of the year people are desperate for a steep discount.”
I land back on my feet as Suze surges her way through the crowd until she crops up next to me.
“Don’t stop now, Serena.” She practically shakes the woman. “I need to know whose baby she’s carrying.”
Elodie leans in and looks deep into my eyes. Her own eyes are a strange combination of amber with yellow glowing specks. I’ve never seen anything like them.
“It’s the man of the gavel.” Elodie offers a somewhat prideful smile my way.
Serena grunts as she, too, looks deep into my eyes. “You’re wrong again. The girl child belongs to the man of the badge. And you need more iron in your diet, Lottie.”
She takes off for the refreshment table, and Suze stalks off after her—wanting a refund on her presumed grandchild, I’m guessing.
“Wait!” I call after Serena. I still need to ask if she’s a beguiler. If anyone in this room is a beguiler, I’m betting it’s her. It’s not the entire lot of them, is it?
Mom hops over. “Lottie, the women just love your eggnog trifle. Double my order for the craft fair,” she says as she skips over to the candle bonanza, and Carlotta joins her to do the requisite cash grab.
“Elodie, I’m sorry about your loss.” I shrug because I really didn’t know how to segue into this one.
“Ooh!” Kringle hops from my shoulder to the top of Elodie’s head. “We’ve got a live one, haven’t we, Lottie? Shall I pluck an eye out so she’ll tell us the truth?” A knife-sharp claw erupts from his tiny paw and I quickly shake my head his way. Why do I get the feeling he’s auditioning for the part of the Grim Reaper? Hey? Maybe Kringle killed Gloria Abner?
Elodie sighs. “I know it’s a very sad thing. And to think our own Suze pulled the trigger.”
My lips part. I’m unsure of what to say next. “Allegedly. Did you know of a feud they had?” Not the direction I should be headed in, but I’ll admit, it feels right.
Elodie lifts her chin and her exotic beauty shines through. “Gloria was a piece of work. I’m sure she had a beef with Suze over something.”
“Did you have a beef with her?” For some reason, just the word beef sends a wave of nausea pulsing through me.
Not now, not now.
I clench my fists so hard, my fingernails press into my flesh. And oddly, it curbs the urge to upchuck my cookies.
Elodie blows out a breath. “Gloria and I used to work together back before she retired—at Aunt May’s Chocolatiers.”
“Sounds like a delicious job.”
Her lips flicker into the hint of a smile. “It was once she left. Gloria had secrets and, well, let’s just say I had a few myself.” She cranes her neck over at the Carlotta-sponsored chaos taking place. “Oh, I have to go. I just have to get my hand on a half a dozen of those three wicks. I’m a sucker for a good deal.”
“Wait!” I step in front of her and nearly get run over in the process. “Who do you think could have done this to Gloria? Outside of Suze, of course.”
I give Suze the side-eye from across the room. There she is trying to get the leader of this coven to backtrack on my baby’s paternity prediction, and here I am trying to defend her questionable honor.
“Honestly?” Elodie twitches like a horse anxious to get out of the shopping gate. “I never did trust, Candy.”
“Candy Brighton?” I toss out her name as if we were old friends. But we’re far from it. And seeing that she’s friendly with Cormack, we won’t be bonding over pendants and nooses anytime soon like I am with good old Elodie here.
She gives a curt nod. “I invited her to a few places, and she’s not very friendly. In fact, I’ve only ever seen her at the Christmas Angels club. She’s sort of a snob that way.”
“Was she a snob to Gloria, too?” I ask just as Kringle flicks his sharpened nail in her direction and she inches back as if he nicked her skin.
Her hand touches her cheek and she inspects it. “I could swear I just got bit by something.”
“Probably a no-see-um.” I shake my head at Kringle. I’ll have to have a talk with the sneaky specter. “So you were saying about Candy?”
She tries to step past me, but I step right along with her.
“Candy was nice to Gloria.” She shrugs. “I don’t know. Everything about the girl is off-putting to me. Probably because I wasn’t raised the way she was. You know the type, the boarding school socialite that makes everyone feel they’re either in or out of her clique?” She says clique in air quotes. “She made Gloria feel in and, well, she makes me feel very out. I’m not a fan of that behavior.”
“That’s not really a reason to kill Gloria, right?”
Kringle holds his hands out by his fuzzy little face and shrugs, and I bite my lip to keep from cooing over at the little pointy-tailed angel, he’s just that cute.
Elodie glances to the ceiling a moment. “Maybe. Or maybe that was a part of the plan. Excuse me.” She glides past me and dives straight into the middle of the candle chaos, scooping up as many three-wick jars as she can hold.
Candy Brighton?
I glance over at Suze as she rants away to Serena and shake my head.
All right, Suze. I’ll talk to Candy next.
Don’t say I never did anything for you.
The baby kicks and my hand quickly clamps over my belly.
Huh. It makes me wonder if I’m in the process of doing something much bigger for Suze—like giving her a grandchild she already wants nothing to do with.
Don’t worry, Sugar Cookie. Mommy wants you here, plenty.
And I want that killer put away, too.
It’s almost Christmas, and I want this holiday homicide solved long before Santa ever hops into his sleigh.
And if I can make a prediction myself—it will be.
I’ll make sure of it myself.
Chapter 6
“Other women wish they can be you, Lot Lot,” Carlotta says after I finish up puking into the bushes.
Once Everett texted and said the house was ready for me, Carlotta and I packed it up and headed back to Country Cottage Road. We made it a little more than halfway before my stomach became a spin cycle and I had to deposit my lunch into the bushes in front of my sister Lainey’s house. A part of me is tempted to run on in and see my new little niece, Josie. And the other part of me doesn’t want to tell my sister the real story behind my impromptu visit, so I decide to do a quick rinse with the travel-size mouthwash I keep in the glove compartment, chug some water, and soldier on.