A Charming Spell (Magical Cures Mystery Series) by tonya kappes Page B

looking at the broader picture.” He tapped his finger on the counter. “Ophelia is not a Dark-Sider. She’s a Good-Sider witch. She has no use for the darts.”
    “And she wouldn’t have been able to get her hands on some poison.” My eyes flew up and out the window as I thought about all the impossibilities of Ophelia killing Alexelrod. “She couldn’t have just turned him into a frog.”
    Frog? Animals? Did Colton hit on something? I bit my lip trying to concentrate on him but my head played pictures of the stray animals. Ophelia and the strays were the only two new things in Whispering Falls and they showed up about the same time. And I couldn’t help but feel that there was some sort of connection to the two, but what?
    “Right, but…” he shook his head, “there is more. There is a dart missing from the book and I’m afraid the killer is going to strike again.”
    “Missing? You said that the book had two darts and that was exactly what was found at the scene.” I recalled seeing the book high above Gandolf’s head when he had confronted Ophelia and seeing the two darts were missing, but not a third.
    “Right. Two darts. One of the darts didn’t fit in the space the book provided. We only found one of the darts to have a poison tip and it wasn’t the dart that came from the book, which means that someone had different darts with a more powerful punch to do the job and frame Ophelia. Someone who knew exactly what they were doing.”
    “You are telling me that someone is framing Ophelia Biblio, and they are still out there?” I tried to keep control as the fear of a killer on the loose knotted in my stomach.
    Slowly he nodded his head up and down. The words eerily dripped from his lips, “That is exactly what I’m telling you.”
    “Did you question Faith Mortimer?” That was a valid question. Not that I was accusing her, but it did seem fair to ask in case she saw someone running from the scene of the crime. “I’m no detective or anything, but did she see anyone other than Alexelrod?”
    “Gandolf is in charge of the investigation since I’m in training, but he said that he questioned everyone at the scene and everyone came up clean.”
    What Colton was telling me didn’t send my gut into radar, but what Colton didn’t tell me did give me some questions. My intuition told me that something about the whole investigation was missing. But what?
    Did they ask Faith the right questions? It wouldn’t hurt to pay her a visit and get her to do a cover story on Ever After Books. That way, I’d be able to ask her some things without her being suspicious.
    The cure I had started for Oscar would be fine in the cauldron over night. The concoction was just a simple power booster for an existing spiritualist. I had yet to add the memory portion of the cure. It was getting late, and I didn’t want Gerald to leave the shop before I spoke to him.

Chapter Eighteen
     
    After countless times of telling Colton I was fine and that I would be fine going home alone even this late at night, he finally left reluctantly. If it had been Oscar not wanting to leave me, then it would have been a different story, and I might have played the defenseless shop owner with the big bad killer on the loose. There was nothing telling me that someone was out to get me.
    I was going to make sure that Gerald answered my tea-reading questions.
    I gathered all my stuff, including a light sweater because the air had a chill to it along with Madame Torres. With A Charming Cure locked up tight and Mr. Prince Charming at my side, we headed down Main Street to The Gathering Grove.
    Rowl! Mr. Prince Charming reared up on his hind-legs and batted into the air before he darted off in the opposite direction of the teashop.
    “Chicken,” I murmured. There was nothing there to make him run off, or so I thought. “Some fairy god-cat you are!” I hollered after him.
    A cloud drifted in front of the moon, leaving Whispering Falls in