“The one that no one wants to talk about?” I asked carefully.
“Yes, that one.” Mrs. Chen’s tone indicated the topic was terminally closed. She eyed me steadily. “You visiting Ellie?”
“We’re here to see you actually,” I admitted awkwardly.
The witch’s expression didn’t change. She proceeded toward the building entrance, her silence an invitation to follow her.
There was a suspicious stain on the floor of the lobby.
“That will be the subject of our next residents’ association meeting,” Mrs. Chen stated coldly when she caught Bo and I eyeballing it warily.
I could tell Bo was thinking the same thing. This had Mr. Kowalski written all over it.
We followed the witch up the stairs to apartment 1B with a mixture of dread and anticipation.
Mimi sat on her velvet armchair in the sitting room and watched our entrance with a look that said she considered herself superior to everyone in the room.
Bo plopped down on his rump and wagged his tail. “You’re looking very witchy today.”
Mimi blinked slowly. “And you look like your normal self, mutt.”
Bo’s tail accelerated. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that was probably an insult.
“Sit,” Mrs. Chen instructed, gesturing to a settee. “Tea?”
“Yes, please.”
Bo licked his chops, his eyes sparkling with hope. “You got any of those mean steak sandwiches?”
“You just had breakfast,” I told the Husky.
“I’m a growing dog.”
“I’ve got wieners,” Mrs. Chen said.
Bo swept the floor with his tail. “I like wieners.”
Mrs. Chen disappeared into the kitchen.
Bo settled at my feet and carefully avoided my pointed stare. His nose twitched at the various magical scents permeating the air.
“I can smell at least seven different kinds of herbs,” he reported. “And something that might be eye of newt.”
I smelled fifteen herbs and more gory things than eye of newt.
“There’s no such thing as eye of newt,” Mimi told Bo disdainfully. “That’s a myth perpetuated by humans who watched too many Halloween movies.”
Bo cocked his head. “Then what’s that jar on the shelf labeled ‘eye of newt’?”
Mimi’s tail flicked. “Marbles,” the cat lied.
Mrs. Chen returned with a tray and a couple of hot dogs that Bo wolfed down in the flick of a tail. The witch poured two cups of jasmine tea and offered me one before sitting in her chair.
“You’re here about the Lincoln sisters.”
It wasn’t a question. And somehow, that didn’t surprise me.
“You said to come to you if I ever needed information about oldwitch business.”
