A collective gasp rose from the crowd as people turned away, some covering their mouths, others reaching for their phones to get the gossip chain started. Prudie had chosen her spot well for dropping her gossip bomb. The news would be all over town in under five minutes.
“That’s positively horrific,” I said, and Prudie sniffed, nodding once to agree with me, while she ran her hands nervously over her pearls. I was still in her personal space, after all.
“It was just awful. The paving crew found him this morning. We’re all just horrified, you know. Dead bodies aren’t something we’re used to around here.” Prudie cast her eyes over me as though I was used to dealing with dead bodies.
Okay, so I’ve dealt withonedead body before. One.
“Who was it?” I asked, dread filling my stomach as my thoughts flashed to Beau, Trace, and Cash.
“I guess it was the guy who mixed up the tar? The pavement? Whatever it’s called.” Prudie waved that away. “Kurt something. He makes sure the asphalt is right before they lay it.”
I couldn’t help but feel a sense of relief wash through me, even though I felt sad for Kurt. He was bound to have had a family, people who cared about him.
“What an awful way to die,” I murmured, nodding my thanks to Katy as she slid me a to-go cup full of iced coffee.
“I’ll add it to your account,” Katy said.
“Add a nice tip too,” I smiled at her and she smiled back, clearly not thinking that I was the one who had committed the murder.
Taking a sip of my coffee, I turned back to Prudie.
“Now, you listen here, Prudie Whittier,” I said, leaning in so close I could have kissed her. Her chest began to rise as she gulped for air, her myopic eyes all but bugging out of her head. The circle of people around us collectively held their breath. “If you so much as mention my or Luna’s name around this murder, I will see to it that you never get to shop at Barney’s again.”
Prudie gasped and covered her mouth.
What can I say? I know how to hit them where it hurts.
“And that goes for the rest of you here. Most of you know Luna and me, and are customers of our store,” I said, “and that includes your son,” I added, turning to glare at Prudie. “We dedicate our lives to helping others. Remember that.”
I pushed through the throng of people as Katy said across the counter to Prudie, “Leave them alone. It was probably the people at the Pagan festival, anyway. Sounds like an offering to the earth or something.”
I would’ve slapped my hand to my forehead if I hadn’t been holding an iced coffee in it.
I had forgotten the Mabon Festival this weekend in the rush of hearing Prudie’s news. Granted, the murder didn’treally seem like something that normal Pagans would do, but I wasn’t so sure about ol’ Horace.
That man screamed crazy.
“Let’s go, Rafe,” I shouted to the ghost, who was still hovering around inside. Startled, he zipped through the window and fluttered behind me as I aimed my bike toward the shop.
And tried not to let the niggling worry that I had forgotten something major eat at my stomach.
Chapter Thirteen
I almost spilledmy coffee all over my dress – I was moving at a dead run as I hit the front door of our shop. I stopped short when I saw Luna was with customers, though she darted a quick glance at me and shook her head once.
“Fine,” I muttered, moving past a table of crystals and pushing the privacy screen aside to go into my shop. Flicking on the lamp in the corner, I patted my skeleton on the head before sitting down at the table and staring at my pack of tarot cards.
There was something I was missing here.
“Did you kill him?” Rafe asked companionably and I jumped in my seat.
“Rafe, you were with us last night. You know I didn’t kill him,” I hissed as the pirate sat in the chair across from me.
He cocked his head at me in confusion. “I know you didn’t kill that one. I meanthim,” he said, pointing with his thumb to where my skeleton sat in the corner.
“Ohhh. No, that one’s fake. Made of rubber,” I explained, and Rafe immediately jumped up to go examine the skeleton. My screen moved as the front door chimed and Luna poked her head in.
“What happened? Did Rafe do something he wasn’t supposed to?” Luna said, glaring over at the ghost. Today she wore what she considered color, a soft mint colored skirt that ran in a column to the floor and a white crochet crop-top that revealed a sliver of a tanned tummy. She looked cool, funky, and way more expensive than any outfit that I managed to pull off. See? That’s why I stuck to maxi dresses. Pull it over your head and call it a day.
