Ghostly Paws (Mystic Notch Cozy Mystery Series) Read online

  Pandora narrowed her eyes. “How can we help them?”

  “We must make sure the evil ones do not gain ground,” Inkspot said in his usual vague manner.

  “Anyone got an idea on how to do that?” Sasha’s luminous blue eyes scanned the crowd.

  “Only true magic can stop them for good,” Otis spoke from his perch on top of the hay. “But it’s not time for that. The best we can do is to guide the humans to slow down the evil ones.”

  “And how do we do that?” Pandora asked.

  “By helping them find the killer before he gets what he wants,” Otis replied.

  “But how can we help them if we don’t even know who the killer is?” Sasha asked.

  A small cat padded into the middle of the circle. Her name was Truffles and she was a Tortoiseshell, predominantly black with orange mottling. Her large, greenish-yellow eyes glowed with excitement. “I think I know how.”

  “You?” Inkspot turned his green eyes on the small cat. “Have you been talking to the wild ones again?”

  The wild ones were the feral cats of Mystic Notch. They served no humans and lived on the streets of town and in the forests, surviving on scraps and taking shelter as they could. They had eyes everywhere and knew much about what was going on in Mystic Notch.

  “The wild ones found something.” Truffles turned with a flick of her tail and headed toward the door. “Follow me, and I’ll take you to it. I think it might help reveal the killer.”

  Chapter Seven

  I traipsed back through the woods toward my house, feeling the absence of Pandora at my side. She hadn’t been in Elspeth’s house when I left and I didn’t see her outside.

  Where was she? I glanced back over my shoulder as I pulled my cell phone out to call Augusta.

  “Pandora!” I yelled. Was I expecting her to come bounding through the woods? She’d never come when I called before.

  I felt a stab of worry for the cat—I had to admit, I was getting kind of attached to the fur ball even though she did act strangely at times.

  I waited a few seconds, then turned with a shrug. It would be dark soon and I didn’t want to be in the woods after sunset. Pandora would find her way home—she always did.

  I pulled Augusta up on my contacts list and pressed the button. She answered on the first ring.

  “Hey, Willa. What’s up?” Her voice was muffled like she had a jelly donut stuffed in her mouth.

  “Are you eating?” I asked.

  “Yep. Chocolate cruller.” Not a jelly donut, but I was close. I wondered how she could eat so many donuts and still not gain an ounce.

  “I was just calling to see if there was anything new about Lavinia. Do you have any idea why she was in the library that early?” I asked.

  Augusta paused. I could hear her swallow the cruller. “You know I’m not supposed to talk about ongoing cases.”

  “Oh, so it is still open?” My house came into view in the distance and I picked up the pace.

  Augusta laughed. “I guess I can tell you that I have some doubts. I can’t just write it off if I have a doubt, so I sent the body from Stilton’s to the medical examiner.”

  “Ahh … so you do suspect foul play.” I said it as more of a statement than a question.

  “Not necessarily. But I have a funny feeling and my duty is to err on the side of caution.”

  Augusta often had ‘funny feelings’ about cases and they usually turned out to be quite accurate. She was a natural cop, with good intuition.

  “Okay. Well, let me know what you find out,” I said as I jogged up the farmers porch steps and opened my back door.

  “Will do.” Augusta said. “Hey, wait a minute. Why are you so interested?”

  “Oh, no reason, really.” I stepped into the back entry, the back stairs were in front of me, the kitchen to my right and a small area for boots and coats to the left. I turned to the left, placed the bag with the pie on the floor and slid my left boot off with my right toe. “It’s just that I found her, so I kind of feel like I want closure or something.”

  “I hope that’s all it is, Willa,” Augusta warned. “I don’t want you going off on some wild investigation.”

  “Who, me?” I asked as I slid my right boot off. “Never.”

  Augusta laughed. “Okay, just be careful, then.”

  “I will.” I snapped the phone shut and shrugged out of my coat, hanging it on the hook.

  “So you didn’t find my killer yet?”

  I whirled around, my heart seizing in my chest. The cell phone slipped from my hand and clattered to the floor.

  Lavinia’s ghost sat at the oak claw-foot kitchen table, her hands folded in front of her as if she were waiting for me to serve tea.

  “Lavinia! You scared the crap out of me.”

  “Sorry, dear. I just wanted to catch up and see if you’d made any progress.”

  I blew out a puff of air, picked the bag with the pie up and headed toward the fridge. On the way, I grabbed a tube of Iced Fire out of the basket I kept handy on the kitchen island. My leg was starting to hurt and I needed something to ease the pain.

  “Myrna saw Ophelia Withington in town that morning.” I put the pie in the fridge, then sat across from Lavinia, pulling the chair next to me closer so I could rest my leg on it.

  Lavinia pressed her ghostly lips together. “That woman! I wouldn’t put it past her to push me down the stairs.”

  I raised my brow at her as I eased up the leg of my jeans. “You didn’t get along?”

  “Not one bit. Oh, she was fine when she first came to town, but after Pete died she turned into a miserable witch trying to make everyone else around her just as bitter as she was.”

  “So you think she did it? But why? Why would she be in the library?” I opened the tube of Iced Fire and rolled some of it onto my leg, the medicinal peppermint smell tickling my nose.

  “I’m not sure … unless …” Lavinia’s voice trailed off.

  “Unless, what?” I massaged my leg, the ache starting to disappear as the sensation of cold and hot from the Iced Fire worked its way into the muscle.

  “No, I can’t say.” Lavinia shook her head. “Anyway she wouldn’t have any reason to be in the library. She’d already scoured it.”

  “Scoured it? For what?”

  “Oh, that’s not important. It has nothing to do with my murder,” Lavinia said, pushing herself up from the table. “You keep looking, and please do be careful. There may be danger about.”

  And with that, Lavinia disappeared, leaving me staring at the empty chair across the table from me.

  Her parting words caused a chill to run up my spine … Elspeth had said almost the same exact thing to me.

  Shaking my head, I stood up. I was getting creeped out for nothing. A good, hot bath would fix that and make my leg almost as good as new. I tossed the Iced Fire into the basket and walked through the living room to the front stairs.

  A sound made me pause at the foot of the stairs. Was that the flap of the cat door? Peeking back over my shoulder into the living room, I strained my ears, listening for the sound of Pandora’s paws or her subtle meow. My heart hitched as I realized it had only been my imagination—Pandora was still outside.

  I turned back to the stairs with a sigh. Pandora had been taking care of herself long before I came along and she certainly could take care of herself without me worrying about her, I thought, as I ascended the stairs.

  Below me in the living room, the paperweight lit with an eerie glow. If I’d noticed, and cared to investigate further, I would have seen Pandora running through the streets of downtown Mystic Notch deep inside the globe.

  But I didn’t notice, so I went ahead with my bath and climbed into bed with a good book, never knowing that my furry feline friend was running around in the night, miles from home.

  Chapter Eight

  Pandora must have returned sometime during the night because I woke up with her tail flicking me in the face as she sat on my chest, kneading
my bladder. She really knew how to wake a girl up.

  I pushed her off, but not too hard. Truth be told, I was relieved she was safe. I sat up and pulled her onto my lap, scratching her behind the ears. She rewarded me with a few seconds of purring before wriggling out of my arms and running downstairs.

  I used the bathroom, took a quick shower and threw on jeans and a sweatshirt before trotting downstairs where I fed Pandora and myself a quick breakfast. Fancy Feast for her—Corn Flakes for me.

  We got to the bookstore late again and I was just turning the sign to ‘Open’ when Hattie, Cordelia, Bing and Josiah filed in through the door.

  Bing handed me a Styrofoam cup filled with coffee just as my cell phone made a noise.

  “Damn, I thought I shut this thing off.” I pulled it out of my pocket. The display showed a text from another antique dealer friend, Maggie.

  Picked up a box of old books for you.

  “More books?” I said to myself as I shut off the phone.

  “What’s that about books?” Bing looked at me curiously.

  “Oh, nothing. Maggie picked up a box of old books for me.”

  “Where?” he asked. Maggie had grown up in Mystic Notch and Bing had known her since she was a kid, just like he’d known me since I was a kid.

  I frowned at him. What was he so interested in that for? “Umm… I have no idea. We do that for each other sometimes—you know—if we see something cheap enough that the other might be interested in. Barry has a box for me, too. Remember last summer when I gave him those nut dishes from the yard sale?”

  “Oh, right. Of course.” He shrugged, and then took a pack of cards out of his shirt pocket and joined the others who were already lounging on the couch. “So, did you find out any more about why Lavinia was in the library?”

  “Not really,” I muttered. It didn’t seem fair to mention Myrna had seen Ophelia that morning until I knew exactly what she was up to and I sure as heck couldn’t tell them that Lavinia’s ghost had told me her death was no accident.

  Bing raised a bushy eyebrow at me as he made a card disappear in thin air, then made a show of retrieving it from his sock.

  “We checked in the Gazette and there was no notice of a book sale at the library,” Hattie said as she sipped her tea.

  “But she could have come in early for another reason,” Josiah said.

  “Right,” I offered. “There are probably lots of reasons she could have come in early.”

  Cordelia bit her lower lip. “I never knew her to come in early, Josiah.”

  “Well, something brought her there,” Bing said.

  Hattie shrugged. “I guess it really doesn’t matter. It was an accident, right?”

  Everyone looked at me and I felt like a deer trapped in the headlights. Thankfully, I was saved by Pandora, who let out an ungodly wail from the other end of the bookstore just before something landed on the floor with a loud crash.

  “What the heck?” I sprinted toward the source of the noise and found Pandora sitting in the mystery aisle amidst a pile of books.

  “Did you knock these down?”

  “Mew.”

  “That’s not nice.” I stooped and picked up the books, putting them back on the shelf while she watched with her golden green eyes.

  I stood and pointed my finger at her. “Don’t do that again.”

  She gave me a bored look and started washing her face.

  “Is everything okay?” Cordelia yelled.

  “Yep. Pandora just knocked some books down.” I walked back to the front, picking my coffee up from the counter where I’d left it.

  “So, anyway, we were saying that Lavinia’s unfortunate accident was just that.” Bing slid his eyes over to me. “That’s what Augusta says, right?”

  “That’s what she thought when we were in the library, but you know how she is … she won’t say a word about an ongoing case to me.” I crossed my fingers behind my back. It wasn’t exactly a lie. She really didn’t like to talk about cases. I was sure she wouldn’t want me repeating her doubts to everyone in town.

  “All this talk is making me depressed,” Hattie said. “I think I need to visit the chocolate store.”

  “Me, too!” Cordelia jumped up from her seat.

  Josiah drained his coffee cup. “Yep, guess I better get going and let you do your work.”

  The four of them made their way out the door. Bing was last and he held back for a second, half-closing the door, then turning to look at me.

  I’d busied myself with some work behind the counter, but sensed him looking and glanced over at him, my brows creeping up my forehead.

  “Willa … it might be best if you didn’t dig into this whole thing with Lavinia. It could be dangerous,” Bing said, ducking out the door before I had a chance to answer him.

  I stared at the door. Was that a warning … or a threat? I couldn’t tell by his tone or the look on his face and I didn’t have much time to think about it because just then I heard another crash and Pandora’s wail.

  I ran to the back of the store. Pandora sat amidst a pile of books … again. The same darn books.

  “Really?” I bent down to put the books back. “What is wrong with you?”

  Nothing. I’m trying to give you a clue. Her meows almost sounded like words as I put the books back in their place.

  “Now, no messing with these books again.” I tapped my finger on her pink nose.

  She looked at me defiantly, reached out her paw and pulled a book off the shelf.

  I rolled my eyes. “Cut that out!” I picked up the book and shoved it back into its spot.

  “Mew!” She pulled it out again.

  I felt my temper starting to rise. What was up with her? I glanced at the title as I picked up the book to put it back, yet again. Murder Weapon Mayhem. How appropriate, given what was going on with Lavinia.

  I slid the book back in place.

  “Wait a minute … murder … weapon.” I looked at Pandora, who stared at me expectantly.

  “Of course!” I snapped my fingers and stood up. “Why didn’t I think of that before? Lavinia said she was whacked on the back of the head, which means that somewhere out there is a murder weapon that might have a clue to the murderer … all we have to do is find it.”

  ***

  The rest of the day was uneventful. I spent most of it trying to decide where to search for the murder weapon. As the day drew on, doubt bloomed in my gut. The warnings I’d had from three people—well, two people and a ghost—echoed in my head.

  It could be dangerous to look for the murder weapon on my own, but I couldn’t very well tell Augusta I knew someone had clonked Lavinia on the back of the head.

  It was up to me to find the murder weapon. I wasn’t sure how I’d explain finding it to Augusta, but I was sure I would come up with something.

  Of course, if I knew what I was looking for, it would make it a lot easier to find. Something heavy that one could easily use to whack someone else on the back of the head with.

  I figured the best place to start was the library, so I closed up shop at five and headed down the street with Pandora following me … well, I should say in front of me. The cat had the strangest way of following me by walking ahead of me. I had no idea how she knew where I was going, but somehow she did.

  I thought back to the morning I’d found Lavinia. Impossible to believe it was just yesterday, but it was. She hadn’t been dead long when I’d found her, so that meant the killer had to make his—or her—escape through town in the morning hours. If I were a killer, I’d want to ditch that murder weapon as fast as I could, which is why I figured it would be somewhere near the library.

  As I stared at the gothic stone building, I realized the killer wouldn’t have come back out the front. There were too many people around on Maine Street.

  “Meow.” Pandora peeked out from the side of the library, then turned, her tail flicking like a finger beckoning me to follow her.

  “Good idea, Pandora.�
� The killer would have gone out the only other door, which was in the back. I followed her around the corner of the library. I’d never been behind the building before and was surprised that the area behind it was so small. It was paved, and there was a dumpster that I hoped I wouldn’t have to jump inside of to find what I was looking for.

  I chose to look everywhere else first. I walked around the edge of the pavement and looked in the corners of the building. I was squatting down, the side of my head almost on the ground so that I could peer under the dumpster, when I heard a low, guttural animal sound coming from behind me.

  The hairs on the back of my neck stood up and I jerked my head around to see Pandora, her back arched, having a stare down with another cat. The other cat was a raggedy looking ginger-colored thing with wild yellow eyes. Three other cats stood about five feet away behind it.

  I’d heard there was a feral cat colony around here and I guessed these cats were part of it. I noticed a small black and white kitten that couldn’t have been more than six months old with a torn-up ear and my heart tugged. They looked well-fed, though, and I wondered briefly how they found shelter and what they ate.

  I stood motionless, not knowing exactly what to do. Pandora and the other cat must have come to some sort of agreement, because they stopped making their noises and the other cat and his minions backed up.

  Pandora trotted off after them and I could just barely make out a trail into the woods. The train tracks were back there somewhere—it would be a perfect get-away route for the killer! The tracks wandered behind several buildings then crossed Main Street at the other end of town. The killer could have run down them, then popped back out onto the street as if he had never been near the library.

  I rushed in after Pandora, scanning the ground for something that could be the murder weapon.

  She stopped in front of me and that’s when I saw it.

  It had been thrown off to the side and was half-buried in the leaves, but I recognized the part of it that was sticking up … it was the heavy metal embosser Lavinia used to emboss the pages of the books with the library insignia. The library had three of them and, apparently, no one had noticed one was missing.