Free Charms and Chocolate Chips: A Magical Bakery Mystery by Bailey Cates

Mimsey insisted.
    Sighing, Wren reached into her backpack. She fished around a little before pulling something out. She stretched her hand out toward me, then opened it.
    I stared down at her palm. Sitting there, pretty as could be, was an origami bat.
    Neatly folded from maroon paper.
    A shiver clawed its way up my spine.
    “Did you make that?” Bianca asked.
    Jaida looked mystified. Maroon bats had not been on the conversational menu during our gathering the previous evening.
    Wren shook her head.
    “Of course not,” Mimsey said. “I took her home this morning and discovered that someone had slipped that, that
thing
under the front door of her apartment. She told me it’s just like the one Autumn was holding when she found her yesterday.”
    Beside me, Lucy’s quick intake of breath mirrored the alarm that passed between Jaida and Bianca. Mimsey crossed her arms over her ample chest.
    I rubbed the back of my neck. “It sure looks the same to me.” At least it didn’t have the same weird energy that the first bat had given off, even through Quinn’s plastic evidence bag.
    Mimsey nodded emphatically. “We came straight over here to tell you. Now you can see why you have to help the police. Wren’s life is in danger!”
    “Grandma, we don’t know that.”
    Mimsey shushed her.
    “I take it you didn’t report this . . . gift . . . to the police?” Of course they hadn’t, or they wouldn’t have the crumpled paper to show me. It would already be in the lab having goddess-knows-what tests done on it.
    Mimsey frowned and looked at the floor.
    “Mims!” I protested. “I can’t investigate a crime
instead
of the police. I can only help them.”
    She smiled in triumph. Jaida snorted.
    Darn it.
    “I’m not that worried,” Wren said. Of course everything about her belied that statement. Something in my expression must have conveyed my disbelief because she went on. “No, really. At least not about this.”
    “Perhaps you should be,” I said in a quiet voice. “Whoever left this origami model knows where you live, and at the very least it has some connection to Georgia Wild.” I felt my shoulders slump. “Probably something to do with Autumn’s death, too.”
    Wren’s swallow was audible.
    Vindication warred with worry on Mimsey’s face.
    “What do these things
mean
?” Wren asked in a tight voice. The bat spilled off her palm and landed beside me on the bistro table. Unlike the one Autumn had, it hadn’t been crumpled in a fist, and I wasn’t looking at it through a thick layer of plastic. If I hadn’t known better, I would have thought the detailed folded sculpture rather adorable.
    “I don’t know.” I felt helpless. “Mimsey, did you try to find out anything about it in your shew stone?” She was the only one of us who used a polished sphere of pink quartz crystal—literally a crystal ball—for purposes of divination.
    “I haven’t been home yet,” she said. “But I can try when I get there.”
    “Katie, the police have declared the G.W. office a crime scene and won’t let me back in,” Wren said. “I can’t work, I can’t pay the bills, and now some nutcase is leaving folded bats under my door. I don’t know what to do.”
    Bianca reached into her purse. “Here. At least I can give you the money for the rent.” She extracted a checkbook and began to write. “You said that you’re expecting a grant to come through soon?”
    “Two,” Wren said. “I can pay you back then.”
    Waving the check in the air, Bianca said, “No, this is a donation. I added in another thousand, but you’re going to need more cash soon to keep things going. What about applying for a short-term loan at my bank? I’d be happy to vouch for you.”
    Wren’s eyes welled. “Thank you. I’m willing to try anything. I’ll go to the bank tomorrow.”
    “Sweetheart!” Mimsey was beside herself. “I know you’re committed to your work, but will you please focus on the matter at hand? You are