Mochas and murder, p.1
Mochas and Murder, page 1
part #17 of Witches of Keyhole Lake Series Series
Mochas and Murder
A WITCHES OF KEYHOLE LAKE MYSTERY
WITCHES OF KEYHOLE LAKE
TEGAN MAHER
© 2023 Tegan Maher
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This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual people, places, or institutions is entirely coincidental.
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Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Connect with Me!
Also by Tegan Maher
About Tegan
Chapter
One
"We're never gonna have enough pastries to get us through the weekend," I said to my cousin Raeann, eyeing the four measly boxes of my goodies left in Brew4U's freezer. “I just made ten boxes day before yesterday.”
I pulled one from the stack and slid it onto the black faux-marble counter of the coffee shop to thaw.
“Take a break,” she said when I stretched to work the kinks out of my aching back. “Sit for a minute. You’ve been going all day.”
I plopped down on a plastic bin of her herbal coffee blends and sighed in relief. It had been a long day, and my dogs were barkin’. Wednesdays were usually slow as molasses, but today had been an exception. When I’d volunteered to fill in for Angel, Raeann’s assistant manager, little had I known we’d be swamped all day due to early arrivals for our Fourth of July celebration.
I kicked a shoe off and stretched my foot. “If it’s like this today, how’s it going to be this weekend?”
Rae reached around me for the case of hazelnut creamers. Unlike me, she was still fresh as a daisy. The woman never seemed to tire, and she always looked amazing. Well, almost always. "I’ve been thinkin’ about that, too. We've torn through everything this week. People are already settin’ up their booths for the festival and don't feel like makin’ breakfast before they leave the house."
I sighed and tucked a frizzy curl that had escaped my ponytail behind my ear. "I know, and tourists are already pouring in, too. That’s why I made two extra cases of pastries and croissants. Just the extra would usually get us through two or three days, so I thought for sure I'd baked plenty to account for the fair."
Raeann laughed and bumped me with her hip on her way past me. "Silly Noelle. There you go thinkin’ again. Besides, weren't you wantin’ to make some patriotic-lookin’ cupcakes anyway?"
"Yeah," I replied, rubbing my face. "But I wasn’t gonna do that ‘til tomorrow night so they’d be fresh for the weekend. I'm not even sure we have enough here to get us through tomorrow, and it’s only Wednesday."
She plucked a towel out of the small red bucket of sanitizer and wrung it out. "We’ll be fine until then. If we run out, they’ll live. You and Hunter’ve had dinner out with Shelby planned for a week and a half. You're not canceling just to bake turnovers and scones."
Even though I knew she was right, I didn't like leaving money on the table, and I didn't want to get in the habit of running out of stock. Folks came to Brew primarily for the coffee, but my pastries were a close second. Still, I hadn’t seen my little sister in two months, and we’d missed her birthday.
I shrugged as I pulled some of her Mocha Loca blend from under the counter and refilled the rubber-sealed glass jar. "I don't necessarily have to cancel. I can always stay up a little bit later. I’ll suck it up and get it done tonight.”
“Well, you’re a night owl anyway,” she replied as she wiped the espresso machine down. “Bakin’ at midnight’s kinda your jam.”
That much was true. I did my best thinking at night when everything was quiet. The serenity that came with the rhythmic mixing and kneading allowed my magic to seep into the doughs and mixes, giving them that little extra something that took my baking from amazing to extraordinary. It was a great way to clear my head, too, so losing a bit of shuteye was totally worth the clarity.
Raeann tossed the rag back in the bucket, then leaned a hip against the counter. "So, this will be the third anniversary of when Hank Doolittle keeled over his coleslaw. And it’s when you met Hunter."
Usually, the thought of having somebody drop dead right in front of you would be terrible, but that man had taken way too long to leave this earth. As the sheriff, he’d been a menace to society and a stone around the neck of every citizen of Keyhole Lake. Well, except for those who were as crooked as he was. He’d robbed everybody by doubling or tripling property taxes and had shaken down businesses to the point that they could barely stay afloat.
Once he’d dropped dead with a little help from a woman he’d treated like dirt, we’d managed to take out the group of goons, thugs, and crooked politicians who’d helped him rob and bully everyone in the town for so long. Plus, I’d caught myself a whale of a good guy in the process.
I smiled. "Now that was a good day. I doubt anything can top it."
She raised a brow at me. "I talked to Martha Jane from the ladies’ auxiliary yesterday. She said the hotels are booked, and we have twice as many folks registering for the competitions as we usually do. If what she’s saying is right, this is gonna be our biggest Fourth of July yet. Honestly, I sometimes wonder if they don't keep pilin’ in from everywhere and beyond in the hopes that somethin’ that exciting will happen again."
I laughed. “For our sake, let's hope they don’t get their wish. I just want a nice, calm festival."
Hunter, who was the sheriff in addition to being my boyfriend, had been working with the city council for months. They'd organized a ton of fundraisers, and so had the ladies' auxiliary and every other civic organization in town so that we could have fireworks that would rival even Atlanta’s. Donations were critical for all of that. Our annual celebration went back to Keyhole Lake’s founding, and with the exception of the carnival, it had always been free.
We were a small Southern town with a lot of folks who were rich in many things, but money wasn’t one of them. At its core, the festival’s a community event, and everybody should be able to participate no matter how poor they are.
"Have you talked to Bobbie Sue?" Raeann asked. "Last time I talked to her, she said she was gonna be overloaded with stuff for the potluck. She's gonna need extra tables."
Bobbie Sue and Earl, my godparents and the owners of Bobbie Sue’s BBQ, put out a big spread every year at their restaurant and didn’t charge a cent. She and Earl provided the meat, beans, and slaw, and everybody else filled in the blanks with everything from peach pie to creamed greens.
“Holy cow!” I exclaimed. “She already has four tables, and they’re the long ones. Still, if she needs ‘em, I’ll tote the ones from my shop up. They’re stained with paint, but it’s nothin’ a tablecloth won’t cover.”
Lavonne, the third girl working with us, smiled as she came around the counter from the dining room. "I was thinking about making one of those Jell-O rings with pineapple in it. Betsy down at the bingo place told me it's really good if you whip some Cool Whip into it." She wrinkled her nose. "She said you could add mayonnaise and ham instead, but that just sounds gross to me."
"Yeah, that’s nasty, and I’ve lived here all my life," I said, sticking my tongue out in disgust. “Especially once it sits in the heat half the day.”
Her full lips curved into a smile. “I think I’ll stick with the fruit. I’ve learned there are some things that we wouldn’t even have eaten in my time, and food was often scarce.”
That made me laugh because she didn’t look like she was kidding, and that spoke volumes. Not only was Levana not from Keyhole, she wasn't even from this time.
Raeann shuddered. "I realize mayonnaise is one of the staples of life, but I’m with you two. Especially when it's gonna be a hundred degrees outside. Maybe just stick with the sweet instead of veering to the savory."
"When's Shelby to arrive?" Levana asked. "It's been so long since she's been in, and I worry about her. Sometimes I wish she would have never met that angel, but I suppose if she hadn't, I wouldn't be standing here."
She was right, though that whole situation had been a hot mess. To make a long story short, Shelby had gotten stuck in the same snow globe that had been Levana’s prison for over two centuries. It had taken a true Christmas miracle complete with an honest-to-God angel to get them out, but my little sister had ended up with a small mark on her shoulder that had led her to a dangerous destiny.
I glanced up at the clock on the wall and was su
As if we’d summoned her, my little sister strolled through the door. I grinned when I saw she wasn't alone. "Kira! Shelby didn't mention you were coming, but I sure am glad you did."
The petite blonde angel—not the same one who had marked Shelby—smiled. "Yeah, she talked me into it, and since I’m in a holding pattern until another soul pops up for me to catch, I decided to take her up on it."
Raeann drew her brows together. "How's that going for you?"
Kira lifted a slender shoulder. "I'm getting closer, but it's becoming more difficult. In the beginning, the dumber lower-level ones were easy pickings, but the handful of higher-level ones that have managed to evade me are better at hiding. According to the ledger, there are only ten or twelve left that Mama let loose when she ran off, but it’s a struggle."
I wasn't a hugger, but the wide array of emotions ranging from sadness to guilt to anger that crossed her face made me want to scoop her up. Kira's family were soul keepers – they guarded the gates to The Valley of Lost Souls, which is sort of what some people would call purgatory and hell depending on the level to which they were sentenced based on their misdeeds during life. Kira's mama had fallen in love with a con man's soul and had opened the gate to let him out.
What had happened after that is kind of fuzzy, but somehow the gate had been left open and way more souls than just his had managed to escape before the gargoyles who guarded it managed to get it closed again.
Technically, Kira’s mom had told her what she was going to do, but the young angel hadn’t thought she was serious. Still, the higher-ups had taken the sins of the mother out on the daughter. They'd stripped her of her social position and locked her out of her hometown, Celestial City. To get her life back, she had to catch every last one of the souls. Even then, it wasn’t a guarantee. I’d never met her mother, but just thinking about the woman’s carelessness made me seethe.
"Well, I'm glad you came," Raeann said. "Help yourself to whatever you want, and I hope you have a great time."
Kira climbed onto a stool at the counter, and I caught a glimpse of the diamond-forged dagger on her hip when her oversized pink tank top slid up. “Thanks. It’s great to take a break. I’ve been stressing, and this is a good distraction.”
"Speaking of breaks, it's almost closing time," Shelby said. "Do y'all need me help?"
Raeann motioned with her chin toward the overflowing trashcans. "I hate to put you to work, but if you'd take that out for us, we can get the rest of the stuff caught up. We're running low on everything out here, and if things go like they did yesterday, people are gonna make a mad rush soon because they know we’ll be closing."
"Sure thing," Kira said, heading toward them. "I'm planning to eat my weight in pastries while I'm here, so I might as well earn my keep.”
She lifted a finger and started to use magic to levitate the bags from the cans. Before she could, Shelby managed to push her hands down, motioning to the customers scattered around in small groups at the tables. "We're not in the Gate. Humans, remember?"
Kira grinned sheepishly. "Oh yeah, sorry about that. I’m not in the human world often, so sometimes I forget."
Shelby wrinkled her nose. “You can make them lighter, but we still have to look like we’re carrying them. It’s a pain in the butt, but we don’t have a choice if we don’t want a bunch of freaked-out folks and the Witches Council on our tails.”
I shook my head and smiled as they plucked the bags from the two overflowing cans and headed out the back door with them. "It sure is good to have her home," I told Rae and Levana. "I know she's her own woman now and has important things to do, but in my eyes, she’ll always be a kid. I worry about her constantly."
Raeann dried her hands on a dish towel and squeezed my arm. "Me too, especially considering what she does. I wish we could just zip back in time and—"
Before she could finish the sentence, Shelby's voice sounded in my head, tinged with urgency. "Call Hunter. There's a woman’s body out here, and I'm pretty sure she didn't get dead by herself."
I closed my eyes and pulled in a deep breath before hustling toward the back door as quickly as I could without drawing anybody's attention. Shelby must have transmitted to Levana and Raeann too, or maybe they just picked up the change in my vibe because they dropped what they were doing and followed me.
"Where?" I asked the girls as soon as I was outside. I glanced up and down the alley but didn't see anything.
"In the dumpster," Kira replied. "We checked to make sure, and she's definitely dead."
I pulled in a deep breath before I looked in. I wasn't sure what I was going to find, so I wanted to be prepared for something brutal. Levana nudged me out of the way with her elbow. Though I'd seen my share of bodies and then some, my experience didn't hold a candle to hers. Life in her time had been much harder, so between lack of medical care and unbridled murder, she’d seen things.
Though her mouth was pinched in chagrin, she squared her shoulders and lifted the plastic lid. I steeled myself and looked with her. Sure enough, a blonde woman in jean shorts and a yellow tank top lay sprawled on her back as if somebody had thought no more of her than of the garbage bags beneath her. She looked like she was in her mid-thirties or so, though it was hard to tell because of her ashen skin and blue-tinged lips. A beauty mark just above the right corner of her mouth stood out in stark contrast to her waxy complexion.
"Here we go again," I muttered, pulling my phone out to call Hunter. It looked like yet another Fourth of July was going to be marked by murder, and this time, not in a good way.
Chapter
Two
"I can just go get him," Shelby said when Hunter didn’t answer either the text or my follow-up call. "Seeing as how this is, you know, kind of important, we don't have any time to waste."
Before I could stop her, she snapped her fingers and disappeared. Ten seconds later, she reappeared with Hunter, who promptly rushed as far away from the crime scene as he could before tossing his cookies in the bushes.
I scowled at my sister. "You know he hates doing that. It would've only taken ten minutes to get there and back if that. It's not like his office is twenty miles away."
Kira huffed out a breath and shook her head. "I really don't understand why anybody would want to travel by car or by foot when they can be somewhere instantly."
"Right?" Shelby agreed, her forehead knitted. "I love driving my bug, but you have to admit teleporting is a lot faster and easier. And cheaper when you're living on a budget."
Hunter approached us, still a little bit green when he glowered at Shelby. "Because not all of us were raised doing it. I don't want to say it's unnatural, but it is for me. I’d say welcome home but I’m not feeling particularly lovey-dovey toward you right now."
Levana waved a hand. "I agree it was a teensy bit rude but save it for later. There's a body in the dumpster."
Hunter blinked a couple of times as if trying to catch up, then cleared his throat and moved toward the container. I suppressed a smile due to the situation when he cut his eyes at Shelby a couple of times on his way. Even though all the witches in his life could teleport, he'd never developed a taste for it. To be fair, I wasn't a fan either, but it did come in handy.
Careful not to touch anything, all of us gathered around and took a closer look at the woman. Unlike some of the other bodies I’d seen, she looked peaceful, almost like she was sleeping. Other than her color, of course.
"I don't see any marks on her," I said.
Hunter walked around the dumpster so he could see as much of her as he could. "I don't either, but we won't know for sure until we get her out. I'll have to call Jim. His mom's entering her quilts in the competition, so he took the week off to help her get ready."
