Slippery Saturday

A winter solstice festival, a dangerous high-wire act, and a premeditated murder.

Tabby is excited for the winter solstice festival, where she plans to gently introduce her little sister to the magic of Crystal Cove. But when the local witches act evasive rather than friendly, and when one of them falls to her death from a high-wire act that appears to have been rigged, Tabby has no choice but to give her sister a crash course in magic-led sleuthing.

All clues lead to a surprising suspect, but when it appears this death could be connected to a long-ago tragedy, Tabby may be too emotionally involved to see past the shroud of illusions.

Will she be able to harness her gifting and catch the killer?

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Excerpt from Chapter One:

The Heirloom Café was abuzz on Saturday afternoon for the upcoming solstice festival. I was at least as excited as the group of witches lined up for their caffeine-to-go, but my anticipation had nothing to do with their latest festival.

My sister Pepper was coming for a visit, and should be here any moment.

I did my best to quell my perma-grin and took the order of the next witch in line. When I rang in Ruth’s Mocha Cookie Crumble, Katie, the barista who had just come on shift, slid two paper cups in front of me.

Katie had ultra-neat handwriting, and I attributed it to her still being in eleventh grade. I read the notes from the cups and called them out.

“Sheena? Here’s your Beet Latte.” I was particularly proud of this coffee creation. While it didn’t taste as unique as it sounded, it was delicious. As Sheena moved up through the line to get her drink, I read the other name. “Juliana?” This was one of the witches I didn’t yet know by name, so I tried to commit her blonde hair and blue eyes to memory as she retrieved her drink.

“I’m sorry I’m late, ladies!” Marigold Weathers swept into the café and the vibe immediately took on a frantic nature. The line cleared and she made her way toward the counter. She was known as the Queen Witch of Crystal Cove, and while she had made some poor decisions in recent months that had most of the town unsure of how they felt about her, the witch crowd still quickly fell in to her authority without a second thought.

“Americano with cream?” I asked, as she approached me. She usually only purchased the cheapest coffee on the menu, but on special occasions, I knew her to splurge for an Americano.

She brightened at my quick knowledge of her, but as I passed her order along to Katie, I couldn’t see anyone else but the girl in the doorway.

“Pepper!” I practically squealed.

I raced around the counter, leaving Katie to take over. In truth, my shift was already finished. I had been helping her get through the rush while I waited for Pepper, who now pulled me into a hard hug. “Tabby Chase! It’s been way too long!”

Pepper had called me by my full name since we were kids. I think it started when our dad had yelled at me, calling me by my full name in admonishment, and Pepper had been too young to realize she probably shouldn’t have mimicked his words. Except when Pepper said it, even to this day, it came out as one word. Tabbichase!

When I’d first arrived in Crystal Cove, I’d gone to great effort to hide my last name and my relation to the state senator from the locals, but I soon learned that no one here cared. The Crystal Cove locals cared a lot more about the type of person you were than what family you’d come from. However, feeling Pepper’s infectious energy, I couldn’t wait to introduce her around and claim her as part of me.

Over her shoulder, I could see that things had gone tense among the witches since Marigold’s arrival. “…another death threat on my car,” I heard her tell the others with a serious gleam in her eyes. “I really need all of you to keep an eye out tonight,” she added.

Did she say death threat? I could barely pay attention to what Pepper was saying.

“Even the drive here was freeing,” she told me with her arms wide. Under her wool coat, she wore a blouse and slacks and I wondered if she’d come straight from campus, without even stopping at our parent’s house. She was in medical school, which had been her dream, but her schooling had been a struggle the last several months. “I can’t tell you how happy I am to be out of school and away from Dad’s questions.” She looked around the café. “You may have trouble getting rid of me, Sis.”

While a big part of me wouldn’t mind my sister staying indefinitely, I knew this wasn’t what would ultimately make her happy. She and my older brother Zach had been born with the driven gene. Neither of them would survive living in slow-paced Crystal Cove for more than a few days.

“I’d be happy to have you,” I told her, regardless.

Before I could move us closer to the witches, introduce Pepper around, and ask Marigold what she was talking about with a death threat, the whole group of them moved toward the door.

Only about half of them had coffees in their hands, but Marigold was saying, “We really need to get busy if we’re going to have everything ready for seven o’clock.”

I watched them go, wondering if Marigold had been serious about receiving death threats. Had she told the police about them? I could always ask my detective-friend, Jay. Or at the very least, I could mention to him what I’d overheard, just so he could keep his ears open as well.

Then again, part of me wondered if this was just another stunt of Marigold’s—something to bring on some extra drama to keep the witches focused on her agenda for the upcoming festival.

There were still a couple of people left in line at the counter, so I told Pepper, “Just give me a second. I’ll help Katie finish up and I’ll make you a hot drink to go. You still like gingerbread lattes?”

She grinned. “My favorite!”

I directed her to a chair and raced behind the counter.

“That’s your sister?” Katie asked, in between taking orders.

Out of convenience, we had switched places. Katie was now ringing in orders, and I quickly looked over her notes to get busy on the Espresso machine. This was better, anyway. Katie wasn’t a huge fan of the witches, but now that they had cleared out, she was more comfortable with the customers remaining. She had been finding her footing with many of the other locals and knew more of them by name than I did, even though she’d only lived in Crystal Cove for three months.

“Yes, that’s Pepper. I’ll introduce you when we’re through this rush.”

It only took another three orders, and we were on top of it. People were eager to get home for dinner before the festival tonight.

I beckoned Pepper over. “Katie, this is my sister Pepper. Pepper, this is my favorite barista, Katie.”

“How many baristas are there in this town?” Pepper asked, jokingly, and then added, “Nice to meet you, Katie.”

Katie asked Pepper about medical school, the awe evident in her voice as I headed to the back room to retrieve my purse. When I returned, they were on the subject of the witches.

“I mean, I guess they’re real witches, but it’s not like I’ve ever seen them perform any magic,” Katie was saying.

“So strange. I’ve had a hard time believing the stories Tabby’s been telling me about witches here until I saw them.” The interest in my sister’s voice was surprising. I hadn’t told Pepper much regarding the local witches. I’d always thought of the rest of my family to be too rooted in realism to have any interest in the underlying magic of Crystal Cove, but now both my mother and my sister had surprised me.

“If you stay for any amount of time, you’ll definitely get to meet them,” Katie went on. “If you want to, that is. They’re pretty cliquey, if you ask me.”

I didn’t know why, but Katie warning Pepper away from the witches bothered me. Maybe because some of them had become my friends. Rachael Adams, while she wasn’t terribly skilled with magic, had become a good friend. But Katie wasn’t completely off base, either. Many in the local witch population acted standoffish to those who weren’t firmly in their coven.

Whatever the reason, I spoke up. “Ready to go? Let’s go get you settled on the Lady of Fortune for your stay.”

Before I rounded the counter, Katie switched subjects, and asked, “Hey, do you know about a surveyor that was supposed to be here at the café today?”

“Surveyor? No, why?” I grabbed my latte and took a sip.

Katie shrugged. “There was some guy outside taking measurements a couple of hours ago. He didn’t come inside, and I didn’t get a chance to go out and ask him why he was here.”

“What did he look like?” This definitely seemed odd, especially if he hadn’t come inside. Then again, it could be he was hired by Olivia for something and when he didn’t see her behind the counter, he didn’t bother to stop in.

Katie shrugged again. “He was wearing a baseball cap, so I couldn’t see his face. He was in a navy suit.”

A suit with a baseball cap? Then again, I barely had a better grip on the Crystal Cove locals than Katie.

“I’m sure Olivia knows about it, but you can mention it when she comes in to lock up, to be sure.” I waved to her. “Have a good night.”

She said the same thing back to us and we headed out the door.

It was only a short drive to the marina, but Pepper spent the three blocks gazing out the windows in awe. “I can’t believe this is your home now.”

It was definitely a far stretch from Portland. As she followed me down the wharf, Frank, the marina owner, and another man were chatting near the office. Or, as I moved closer, I wondered if they were arguing.

“I swear, I’ll pay the rest off by the end of the year,” the man I didn’t know said. His jeans were worn and he wore a thick red and black plaid jacket. He looked like a fisherman.

“That’s only a little more than a week, Henry,” Frank told him. “After January first, I can’t keep it for free.”

I slowed up, not wanting to eavesdrop, but also wanting to introduce Frank to Pepper, since she would be staying on my houseboat for a few days.

“I said I’d have it!” The gruff man spun on his heel and almost knocked into me and Pepper as he marched for the marina’s parking lot. I grabbed Pepper’s arm, as she wasn’t as used to the instability of the wharf.

Once I had us both righted, I said, “Frank?” before he disappeared into the marina’s office. He was usually more outgoing when new people visited the marina, but I guessed he was distracted. “Everything okay?” I asked, before introducing my sister.

He turned back with his brow furrowed, but just now seemed to see that I had company and pasted on a smile. “Oh, yeah, yeah. Just another guy struggling to pay for his slip. I’m pretty sure the guy has a gambling problem.” He sighed. I’d seen him have to evict a boat owner who hadn’t paid a couple of months ago, and I could tell it was the one part of the job Frank hated.

But then he seemed to shake off the stress of it and extended a hand. “Is this the sister I've been hearing so much about?”

“Yes, this is Pepper. She’ll be staying…” I trailed off, as Pepper still hadn’t given me a clear answer on how long she planned to stay.

“…On our aunt’s boat,” Pepper finished for me. “The Lady of Fortune, right?” She looked between us.

Frank smiled. “Any family of Lizzie’s—” he glanced at me “—and Tabby’s, is welcome here.”

As Pepper followed me across the gangplank onto the Lady of Fortune, Sherlock, my late aunt’s cat, watched us through his spectacles from the front deck with interest. Pepper didn’t seem to notice him, and while Sherlock could communicate with me with mind-speak, that particular talent didn’t go both ways, so I tried to indicate with my eyebrows and smile that Pepper was family and he could trust her.

However, he stayed out on the cold deck while we went inside.

But then I let out a huff of a laugh under my breath when I saw that during my shift at the café, Sherlock had pulled a dozen detective novels out of their piles and onto the floor of the houseboat.

“Sorry about the mess!” I rushed ahead to sweep them back into piles. While Sherlock could be helpful in solving investigations using these books, I often thought he just made a mess of them as a means of getting attention, like a toddler acting out. I couldn’t very well explain that to my sister, at least not yet, so instead I made up a vague excuse. “I was just reorganizing a little before you got here.”

She didn’t seem to notice the mess and instead went straight for the galley, where she helped herself to a glass from the cupboard, as though she’d been in the boat’s small kitchen a hundred times, and opened my small fridge to pour herself some juice.

“You can stay in Aunt Lizzie’s room.” I motioned toward the door that led to the upper deck of the houseboat. I had hoped one of the neighboring houseboats may have been free when Pepper came for a visit, but I hadn’t known how popular the winter solstice festival would be. Every houseboat and bed and breakfast in the area had been reserved months ago.

“Where will you sleep?” Pepper looked around and I motioned to the camping mat I kept folded in the corner. After Mom’s visit and trying to make the couch cushions work on the floor, I’d decided to stop by Happy Hardware to find a more comfortable solution.

As kids, whenever we went away as a family, Pepper and I usually slept in a hotel bed together, while our brother took the floor. It felt a little strange, offering Pepper the bed on her own, but we were both adults now, and the upper cabin would be pretty cramped for two people.

She stared at me for a long second, then placed her empty juice glass on the counter grabbed for her suitcase and headed up the stairs.

“I wanted to take you to a festival tonight, so put on something warm and comfortable,” I called.

While she was gone, I washed her glass and filled Sherlock’s food dish. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught movement as my cat crept toward the stairs.

“No, Sherlock,” I told him. “My sister’s up there for the weekend. Remember?” I had told Sherlock this several times in the last week, plus he’d seen me cleaning up the room and moving some of my clothes to a downstairs closet to make room for her. Then again, my cat tended to have a selective memory.

Either that or his kitty rebelliousness made him automatically want to do whatever I’d told him not to.

“We’re leaving the upstairs for Pepper.” I added again.

I didn’t think Pepper was allergic to animals, but we’d never had any pets, and I honestly didn’t know how she’d react to having a cat aboard the boat with us. Sherlock headed for his kibble, and that was when I noticed he’d knocked over another pile of detective novels.

I rolled my eyes and went to restack them, wondering what Pepper would think if she saw my cat in the act of tossing books around the living space. Then again, I’d never actually seen Sherlock actually move the books from their stacks. It always happened when I wasn’t watching, and part of me still wondered if it was the cat, or if it was the magic-infused houseboat I lived on.

When I turned back around, Sherlock was gone. I sighed and rolled my eyes, about to go up the stairs after him, but before I could, Pepper appeared in the doorway.

“This is so cute!” She held up a navy dress with tiny white polka dots that I’d never seen before. “Can I borrow it for tonight? I’ll wear it with some leggings underneath for warmth.”

I forced a smile and a nod. It wasn’t the first time my late aunt’s houseboat had delivered new clothes to my closet, but how was I going to explain these magical happenings to my very reality-brained sister if they kept happening?

She disappeared back up the stairs, calling, “And your cat is so sweet!” as she went.

Sweet? Sherlock? He was clearly up to something.

I sighed to myself, hoping I could break the idea of magic to my sister gently, before he started mind-speaking to her, too.

Half an hour later, I had put on a dress with leggings to complement my sister’s and we were headed out the door.

If anything would introduce my sister to the magic of Crystal Cove, it would be the witches’ winter solstice festival.