Free A Sprinkle of Magic (A Sugarcomb Lake Cozy Mystery Book 4) by Alaine Allister Page A

around a teensy, tiny little clutch that barely held anything?  Giant handbags were simply more practical.
    The larger the handbag, the more stuff you could cram in it! 
    Sure, it did get kind of heavy sometimes…but it was well worth the back strain.  Clarissa had lost count of the number of times her rumbling stomach had been silenced by the candy bars she always kept stashed away in the depths of her handbags.
    It was especially handy to have various tiny vials of potions on hand.  So far Clarissa had only dabbled in magic.  It wasn’t a huge part of her everyday life – yet.  But being able to cast spells on the go was wonderful.  It was incredibly convenient to be able to, for example, turn the clock back when she spilled the sugar down at the coffee shop. 
    “All done,” Clarissa murmured to herself, sounding pleased.
    She was eager to go administer the truth serum to Vinnie.
    She was nearly out the door when Kimberly called out to her.
    “Clarissa?  Are you still out there?” Kimberly’s voice didn’t even sound like her own.  It was dripping with sugar – and so very, very phony.  “Um, there’s no toilet paper in here, Clarissa.  Can you hand me some from the next stall?  Please?”
    Maybe it was evil, but after the way Kimberly had spoken to her, Clarissa had no desire to help her out.  So she held her head high and walked out of the bathroom.  Was it terribly immature to pretend to have not heard Kimberly’s request?  Definitely!  Was it satisfying?  You bet!
     

Chapter 11
    Clarissa was relieved to see that Vinnie was still seated at the bar.  He was slouched over on his stool with a drink in his hand.  Parker sat to his immediate right, casually sipping a soft drink.  The two men appeared to be deep in conversation.
    When Clarissa walked up, Parker glanced over at her.  Their eyes met and they exchanged a look.  She was pretty sure she knew what he was trying to tell her.  He was saying “let me handle this” – so she did.
    Like Clarissa, Parker was a journalist.  They shared a passion for telling stories.  They both loved investigating, interviewing and reporting.  It was the very thing that had initially pitted them against each other as professional rivals.  It was also what had ultimately brought them together.
    But now Parker was set to take over his father’s media empire. 
    While it sounded great on the surface, Clarissa knew it wasn’t what her boyfriend wanted.  These days he was mostly confined to the office where he spent long hours pushing paper and doing management type things.  He was exhausted, bored and overworked. 
    Though he had never admitted it out loud, she suspected that Parker missed investigating leads.
    Clarissa decided to let her boyfriend have this one.  If he wanted to interview Vinnie, so be it.
    Not wanting to interrupt, Clarissa decided to simply sit at the bar and listen in.  Clarissa took a seat on the stool to Vinnie’s left.  He glanced over at her briefly, but she pretended not to notice.  In fact, she went out of her way to ignore the two men. 
    She picked up her handbag and rifled around.  To a casual observer, it probably looked as though she was in search of a tube of lipstick or her cell phone.  What she was really doing was waiting for an opportunity to use the truth serum she had stowed away inside her bag!
    “So my old man dies and my good-for-nothing sister doesn’t even tell me,” Vinnie ranted, obviously inebriated.  “No phone call.  No text.  Nothing!  Can you believe it?  I had to hear about it second hand from my aunt.”
    “That’s a shame,” Parker said sympathetically. 
    He glanced over at Clarissa. 
    She caught his eye and motioned for him to keep talking. 
    “Do you have a sister?” Vinnie asked Parker.
    “I do,” he confirmed.
    “Would your sister keep something like that from you?” Vinnie demanded.
    “No, I don’t think she would.”
    “See?” Vinnie nodded.  “My family