Freaks and Felons Read online

  Freaks and Felons

  by

  Constance Barker

  Copyright © 2020 Constance Barker

  All rights reserved.

  Similarities to real people, places or events are purely coincidental.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

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  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Chapter One

  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

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Thanks for Reading

  Catalog of Books

  Chapter One

  Celestial Meadows put a hand to the crook of her back, then straightened sniffing the air appreciatively. The smell of lavender wafted through her gift shop Herbal Heaven, mixed with the aromas from other lotions and oils she had been working on all morning. Thinking again of how much she loved running her little shop and helping others and with the scent of her famous lavender lotion fresh in her nostrils, she took a step from behind the counter to glance out the window to see what was going on in the little town.

  It was already late afternoon and the traffic on the streets was slowly winding down, as the town’s residents headed home from work and play to eat dinner with their families. Lost in thoughts of what she still wanted to accomplish before she closed up shop for the day, Celestial jumped when a large bluish purple dragonfly alighted on her shoulder after flying through the window she always left open for that very reason.

  “Hey Athena.” Celestial glanced over at her familiar. “Where have you been lately?”

  Flitting off Celestial's shoulder and landing on the countertop, Athena paused, as if for dramatic effect. “I’ve just been hanging around town. And there’s been a weird murder.”

  “What do you mean a weird murder?”

  “Virginia Michaels murdered her husband.”

  “Virginia? You mean mousy Virginia, the little mouse of a woman that comes in for my lavender lotion?”

  Athena nodded, but didn’t bother to answer, feeling that her point was clear.

  Celestial stood stunned for a second. In her mind, she was poring over what she knew about Virginia Michaels. The woman was a tiny little thing, who always seemed intimidated by her much larger, intense husband. She knew for a fact that the man cheated on Virginia and often belittled her in public. In fact, he had belittled her in this very shop, not even a week ago.

  Athena pulled her from her musings by speaking once again. “It’s strange. They’re saying that she got fed up with the way he treated her and took a hammer to him when he went to sleep. The thing is Virginia says she doesn’t remember any of it. In fact, she said that one minute she was taking a potion to make herself more attractive to her husband, so he would love her again. The next thing she knew, she was waking up with blood all over her.”

  Smelling something fishy in the works, Celestial asked the only, to her, obvious question. “Where did Virginia get the potion?”

  “You don’t think...” Athena paused at a wave of Celestial’s hand. “She got it from The Witches Corner.”

  Celestial shook her head. “No, I know the woman who runs that shop. That’s Georgia Daniels. We’re good friends and she would never do anything to hurt anyone. No, there has to be another explanation for why Virginia can’t remember. It’s not the potion.”

  With a liquid movement, Celestial leaned her 5’3 frame across the counter and moved a display of essential oils a few inches to the left just in time to keep her best friend Dakota Wells from apparating into them and knocking them and himself for a loop.

  “Lord, will that boy ever get the hang of this?” Athena flitted back onto Celestial’s shoulder to keep herself from being squished by the gangly, lanky witch, who seemed unable to control his own body.

  Dakota had never really grown into his length. But, he was Celestial’s best friend and she knew that no matter what, he’d always be there to listen to her. He’d also help clean up any mess that he made, usually because he was the one making them with his spells that inevitably went wrong.

  “Be nice, Athena.” Celestial shot over her shoulder, as she went to help her friend up from the crumpled pile he lay in on the floor. “You really need to practice your apparating more...maybe just not into my shop..”

  Hopping up as gracefully as he could, which wasn’t very graceful. Dakota shot each of them a goofy grin. “What would be the fun in that? I like to make a grand entrance.” He spread his arms wide, barely missing knocking over a stand of glass decanters in the corner.

  Celestial righted the stand, using her magic to move it to the other side of the room, wondering silently if she might need to rearrange her shop to suit Dakota.

  “Did you hear?” Dakota allowed Celestial to grab his hand and lead him to a stool on the other side of the counter before he could knock anything else over. “There’s been a murder. I’m telling you there is something out to get the witches and warlocks in this town.”

  “Don’t start with the conspiracy theories again, Dakota.” Athena spoke from her perch on Celestial’s shoulder. “This was a witch who was tired of her cheating husband and took him out with a few whacks. Nothing more, nothing less.”

  “Let’s not say that until we have more information,” Celestial said, holding her hands up as a barrier between the two.

  “Just saying...” Athena muttered.

  “Anyway,” Dakota said. “Someone is dead. Someone else has been murdered in our little town. Don’t you all think that’s weird?”

  “A little, but nothing to get up in arms about,” Athena said.

  “Buzz off mosquito.” Dakota said. He loved to tease her about being an insect.

  “I’m a dragonfly!” Athena yelled. Her wings buzzing loudly, she launched herself at Dakota’s head, intent on beating him with her tiny wings.

  Dakota laughed, jumping up and pretending to flap his arms like wings and fight with her.

  Celestial sighed, rushing to stop the two from destroying everything in her shop. “You two have got to stop. You’re my familiar and you’re my best friend. Why can’t you just get along.”

  “Because he’s a cretin with very little magic to speak of.” Athena flitted back over, landing gracefully on the counter.

  Dakota made caveman noises at her, hopping from one foot to the other and pounding his chest.

  Celestial gave them both dirty looks, trying not to laugh at their antics. “Look, you two, let’s try to behave at least for a bit. Remember, a man was just murdered, and someone sweet is accused of doing it. We need to get to the bottom of this, pronto.”

  Chapter 2

  Celestial got to the shop early the next morning, hoping to catch up on some of
the lotion making she hadn’t gotten to with the ruckus from the day before. She hadn’t slept well at all. Thoughts of poor Virginia kept running through her head, and she was finding it hard to see the cowered, mousy little woman as a cold-blooded killer. She was half-way through a lotion of cinnamon and cloves, when Athena flitted in through the open window, landing on a stack of postcards in front of her.

  “There have been two more murders.”

  “Who were they?” Celestial set down the vials she had been filling and rushed around the counter to sit on an available stool.

  “Noah Jones and Jeremy Tucker. Both murdered by their wives.”

  Celestial was just as shocked at the idea of these two men being murdered by their wives, as she was the idea of Virginia being a murderer. “That seems totally impossible.”

  “Just telling you what I heard.” Athena flitted her wings, in a dragonfly shrug. “Jeremy Tucker’s wife took an iron and bashed him in the head while he slept.”

  “That’s terrible!” Celestial exclaimed. Her face went white.

  “Do you want me to tell you how Noah died?” Athena asked a moment later.

  “Yes, please!” Celestial said, a little too fast.

  “His wife Mikaela apparently used some of the rope from their clothesline to strangle him,” Athena said. “She came to and had no idea she did what she did.”

  “Just like Virginia,” Celestial mused.

  “Yeah,” Athena said in agreement. “With absolutely no recollection of what happened.”

  “So odd.”

  “Yeah but think about it. All three of them were classic bullies. All three were womanizers and their wives barely raised their heads to look around when they walked down the street.”

  “That’s not all.” Athena paused for dramatic effect, then went on. “All three women were in The Witches Corner that day, at the same time, and they all three bought that same potion.”

  “There’s no way that anything in that potion could cause them to kill their husbands and not remember doing it.”

  “Unless someone put a little something extra in their potions.”

  “What do you mean? What do you know that I don’t?”

  Before Athena had a chance to answer, the windchimes over the door tinkled wildly announcing a customer. Celestial stood to welcome them, then saw it was Detective Nikoli Brewer, resident wolf shifter. Taking a seat at a corner table, Nikoli ran his hands through his short silver streaked hair. Celestial could feel the exhaustion coming off him in waves.

  Nikoli went to school with Celestial but left Brightbororogh after high school to join a big city police force. He worked his way up the ranks but missed his home town and also Celestial.

  Celestial knew him to get a little wolfy when tensions were high but he had extreme control due to working with a mundane police force. Nevertheless he tried to solve cases without using his abilities because it would be hard to explain.

  Celestial knew he was equally frustrated but relieved when Celestial did it for him.

  Correctly guessing that the hunky detective needed something stronger than a cup of herbal tea, she made a pot of strong, black coffee and carried a mug over to the table. Setting the mug down in front of him, she took a seat on the other side of the table. “That bad huh?”

  “Pretty much. All three wives claim that they remember nothing past taking the potion. They remember drinking it, then the next thing they knew their husbands were dead and they were covered in their blood.”

  Athena flitted over, settling on the corner of the table so she could listen to what the detective said.

  After acknowledging the familiar, Nikoli went on. “We took all three wives to the hospital and had them tested. They were each dosed with a drug called Scopolamine, also known as Devil’s Breath. The dose each of them took in was high enough that it could have killed them.”

  “I know what Devil’s Breath is and it’s extremely powerful. How on earth could anyone even get a hold of it?”

  Nikoli shrugged. “It’s easy to really. It can be gotten on the streets or for someone like us it would be easy to break into a pharmacy or hospital and swipe a few doses.”

  “Well, now that’s scary to think about.” Athena piped up from her spot on the corner of the table.

  “Yeah it is, very scary.” Nikoli gulped down the rest of his coffee, then rose. “Back to the trenches.”

  “If you need anything let me know.” Celestial rose with him, putting a hand on his shoulder. “You look exhausted.”

  “Thanks, the coffee helped some.”

  “Well, there’s always more where that came from.” Celestial laughed, pointing to the pot in the corner of the shop. “Come back anytime.”

  It wasn’t ten minutes after the detective left that Virginia’s parents walked into the shop, followed by Celestial’s other best friend Tamara.

  Tamara’s green eyes were full of concern for Virginia and her parents. Knowing that Tamara was too shy to really talk to them, Celestial set her up in the back of the shop with Athena for company.

  Taking a tray of coffee and herbal tea to the table for Virginia’s parents, she sat down with them. “I’m so sorry for what’s going on with Virginia. I know it has to be hard on all of you.” Celestial put a hand over Mrs. Donovan’s hand to comfort her.

  “It is.” The woman said, then paused, looking over at her husband. “We were wondering if perhaps you could look into Virginia’s husband’s murder.”

  Mr. Donovan flushed red, then spoke forcefully. “We know our little girl didn’t do this. He was a bad man, but she would never, ever hurt anyone, even that piece of trash.”

  Mrs. Donovan put a hand over his to calm him. “Henry, this isn’t good for your heart. You need to calm down. The truth will come out in the end.”

  “Yes, it will.” Celestial reached out to comfort Mr. Donovan as well.

  “So, you’ll help us?” Mrs. Donovan looked at Celestial, her eyes silently pleading for help. “We respect and admire the Detective, but he’s super slow in these matters.”

  Celestial sighed, looking over at Tamara, who nodded as if encouraging her to take the case. “I’ll see what I can do. I’ll look into things. But,” she said, holding up a hand to stop their thanks, “I can’t promise anything.”

  “Just your promise to look into it is a relief.” Mrs. Donovan stood, pulling her husband up with her.

  Mr. Donovan leaned down so he was on face level with Celestial. “My little girl didn’t do this. Someone is framing her. Please find out who it is.”

  Meeting the older man’s eyes, Celestial nodded. “I’ll do my best.”

  “Good enough.” Mr. Donovan stood, put his arm around his wife and walked out the door, leaving Celestial feeling sorry for the couple and determined to prove their daughter didn’t do this horrible thing.

  “Do you think she did it?” Tamara asked, coming up behind her.

  “I couldn’t say for a fact.” Celestial watched the older couple walk across the street. “But I’m going to find out.”

  Chapter 3

  Though Celestial busied herself about the shop, she couldn’t get the image of Virginia’s parents out of her mind. They had begged her to help clear Virginia’s name, but Celestial just wasn’t sure about launching herself into another investigation. For now, she would focus on her shop and let the police crack the case.

  Just as she cleared her mind enough to focus on putting together a decorative arrangement of candles for each phase of the moon, a familiar looking butterfly fluttered into the store. It spread its wings and landed gracefully on a wooden table.

  Letting out an exasperated sigh, Celestial trudged over to the butterfly with a few choice words on the tip of her tongue. “How many times do I have to tell you the same thing, Tamara? No landing on the tabletops.”

  In a split second, the butterfly assumed her human form. Tamara flushed as she crossed her lithe legs and flipped a dark strand of hair over her shoulder. “If I remem
ber correctly, you specifically asked me not to sit on the counters, and I sat on a table this time.”

  Tamara Scott was quiet and shy except with Dakota and Celestial. She hated confrontation unless someone she loved was in danger.

  Celestial knew her to be a very good listener and she tended to pick up on the things people meant, even if they weren’t saying it.

  “So now that counters are out of the question, you’ve graduated to sitting on my wooden tables?” The shop owner threw her hands in the air before reaching for a feather duster and ushering Tamara to the back room.

  Tamara looked smug, but followed Celestial down the hallway nonetheless. “You may ask me not to land on counters and tables, but for each and every time you’ve told me that, I’ve told you to order a couch. Plus, I have some news for you that you won’t want to hear standing up.”

  Celestial rolled her eyes, but couldn’t help matching the sly smile on the other woman’s face. Though Tamara was always sitting on her freshly dusted surfaces, Celestial was ultimately happy to see her friend. “Good thing I finally ordered that couch. How about some rosebud tea while we sit on it?”

  “Of course.” Tamara seemed highly satisfied with the new purchase once they settled down in the breakroom, but her smile gradually fell as she remembered the recent events in town. “Celestial, have you heard anything more about the murders?”

  The rosebud tea began to steep, and as the steam curled up into the air Celestial’s spirits dropped. Virginia’s parents entered the forefront of her mind once again. “I haven’t, but after talking to Virginia’s parents I’m thinking I believe them.”

  “That’s good that they reached out to you though, that means people are satisfied with the way you solved your cousin’s case. Are you going to help them?”

  “I’m considering it.” Celestial sighed. The mention of Isabella’s case triggered a flood of emotions, most of them negative. She wasn’t sure that solving another case was the smartest thing for her to do, but she did want to help Virginia’s parents.

  Tamara shook her head as she lounged against the plush couch cushions. “Come on, I know you better than that, you’re more than just considering it. You have to get involved, you won’t be able to resist the call of a good case.”