Free Inconvenient Murder: An Inept Witches Mystery by Auburn Seal, Amanda A. Allen Page A

around the massive fireplace.
    Burn, baby, burn. She closed her eyes and concentrated. Then she heard the crackling of wood and the faint smell of smoke. Yes! She did it.
    She opened her eyes and cried out in horror. The bookshelf next to the fireplace was burning, not the wood in the fireplace. Damn. Damn. Damn.
    She picked up the extinguisher and put out the flames. Damn it. And Ingrid. And her whole “I can light fires in my sleep” thing she had going on.
    Once the small fire was out, Emily looked at the scorched paint and the burnt wood and sighed. She walked to the kitchen, poured herself another glass of wine while she considered her options.
    Finally, she gave up. Screw magic.
    She pulled the lighter fluid from under her sink, doused the logs with it, and then threw a lit match into the fireplace. The flames grew taller and taller as Emily sipped her wine.
    Magic was overrated. She’d have to get a contractor in to repair the fire damage.
    Belatedly, she thought about the wasted opportunity. I could totally have called the fire department and watched some hot guys put out my fire.
    Maybe it wasn’t too late. She picked up her cell phone and called 911. “I’d like to report a fire. My bookcase is on fire.” She faked concern. “Please hurry.”
    Then she carefully pulled a partially burning piece of wood and tossed it onto the bookshelf.
    There. Now maybe something good would come out of this.
     
    •
     
    Saturday Morning
     
    Emily’s phone buzzed on her nightstand, waking her up from a restless sleep. Restless because it was filled with glorious dreams of Sam. The name sounded lovely. Almost as lovely as the so-named super-buff firefighter had looked last night when he put out the fire she intentionally set to her bookcase. He had totally flirted with her. She sensed a rebound in her future. Now that Owen was dead. Maybe his murder would be convenient after all.
    The phone buzzed again. She picked it up and looked at the screen. She groaned, but answered anyway.
    “Hey, Melinda. How’re you doing? Did you make it home okay last night?”
    She heard sniffling into the phone. Melinda was certainly taking this hard. Emily wouldn’t have thought that Melinda would be so emotional over Owen. They’d fought at more than one family Christmas dinner.
    “I’m all right, sweetie. How are you holding up?”
    Emily smiled. They’d already gone over this. She was better than fine. Owen was out of her life, finally. As soon as they could get this mystery solved, she and Ingrid could get on with their plans to finish renovating the bookstore and magic shop.
    “I’m doing okay. I wish you would have stayed last night,” Emily lied. “Which ferry are you guys coming over on? I can pick you up if you want.”
    “That’s why I’m calling, honey. I’m just not going to be able to make it.”
    “Oh.” Emily wasn’t sure why that bothered her, but it did. It made her want to smack Melinda, even though she didn’t want to see the whiny woman. “Why not?”
    “Well, I really didn’t want to burden you with this, but it turns out—even with our arrangement—Davis has been having an affair! I am just devastated. And I’ve got to go get one of those tests done, for an STD. He’s been sleeping around— in secret— for months. It’s not as though this is news. I’m not a complete fool. He just told me this morning that he’s got some itching going on…well, you know, down stairs. He thought maybe with that I should get checked out just in case.”
    Emily was almost speechless. Almost.
    “You mean you knew he’d been having an affair and you just…I mean…it didn’t bother you?”
    Melinda’s voice was calm and soothing through the phone. “Now, now, darling. I suppose it bothered me a bit, but Davis and I, well, we’ve been married a very long time and we’ve had time to work through this sort of thing. As long as the girls aren’t prettier than me and he doesn’t flaunt it, it’s not