Free A Charming Voodoo (Magical Cures Mystery Series Book 10) by Tonya Kappes

was a little nasty. He threatened me to stop taking pictures.”
    “Really?” I asked as if I hadn’t already known. “Why?”
    “Didn’t you hear him at the fight between him and Colton?” She shook her head. “He was so mad.”
    “Oh that’s what you meant when he threatened you?” I asked again to make sure.
    “Yeah. I guess he didn’t want anyone to see him fighting. But I’m sick over Colton.” She shook her head.
    “What do you mean?” I asked.
    “You can’t tell me that Oscar doesn’t think Colton is who killed Patty.” She drew back and held the camera snug to her chest.
    “I don’t know. You know Oscar.” I pish-poshed her thinking. “He doesn’t tell me anything that goes on outside of the office.”
    “You’d better get going.” Faith tapped the watch on her wrist. “You are going to be late for your own smudging.”
    I looked up at the clock on the wall and noticed it was already time for the council meeting.
    “I figured I’d watch the shop so you didn’t have to close.” She walked around me and put the camera down on the counter.
    “You are right.” I was thankful for Faith being there to help out. She was a great part-time employee. I untied the apron and hung it up. “Do you really think Colton killed him?”
    “Absolutely.” Her quick-to-judge answer rang deep in my soul. “What?”
    I didn’t have a very good poker face.
    “I don’t know.” I grabbed my smudging materials from underneath the counter and stuck them in my bag. “Patty and Colton had words, but I just don’t see Colton as the killer.”
    Though I had the information about Patty and Colton’s history, my intuition told me there was more to the story. By no means was it telling me that Colton didn’t do it, but it also wasn’t jabbing me to say he did.
    “From what I heard,” Faith leaned in. “Ophelia was leaving Colton for Patty.”
    “Who did you hear that from?” I was curious as to where the gossip mill had started.
    “You tell me.” Faith shrugged and began to straighten the bottles on the display table in front of the counter. “I heard you were with her last night.”
    “Gerald?” My brows lifted. He was the only person who saw us last night.
    “Gerald?” Faith tsked . “He’d be the last person to gossip.”
    “Then who?” I asked.
    “Patty Porter.” Her eyes darkened.
    “June,” the voice called from the door of the shop. It was Chandra Shango from the shop next door, A Cleansing Spirit Spa. “Do you want to go together?”
    A cool morning breeze shuffled a few leaves across the floor. Mr. Prince Charming scurried across the room and batted at them as if he were playing a game.
    She referred to the council meeting. We usually left our shops the same time and walked up the hill together.
    “You talked to Patty last night after he got into a fight with Colton?” I asked.
    Faith nodded her head.
    “Well?” Chandra stuck her hands on her hips, hiking up the side of her cloak.
    “I’ll be back.” I held my finger up in the air. “And I want to hear everything he had to say.”
    “I’ve got you covered.” Faith walked over to another table and straightened more of the displays.
    There was a purple mist that hung over the mountainous background. The sun was trying to burst through to give a little warmth to the crisp fall day.
    “I think I need to hire someone.” Chandra made simple conversation. “I’ve been so busy and having these meetings in the middle of the day makes me close down and I simply can’t afford to have that reputation with the new citizens.”
    Reputation? Her word struck a chord with my intuition.
    “Chandra.” I kissed her on the cheek on our way up the hill to The Gathering Rock. “You are a genius!”
    Colton and Ophelia might be the obvious suspects, but that was too obvious for me. I couldn’t forget the fight I had heard between the brothers and Oscar didn’t seem to take that into consideration. He assumed it was just a tiff