Chapter 9 #2
They were at Suzanne Parker’s wake with the coven. Why would a local coven put on a wake for a National Office rep, unless Suzanne was a local member? Mia hadn’t known that.
“Will everyone gather around?” Brandon called from his new standing spot near the picture.
Mia turned back to Finn. “Do me a favor and watch what goes on today. Come up to the apartment tonight and I’ll cook. I need to know if anything weird goes on.”
“I can do that, but I’m working the dinner service at the Lodge. How about breakfast tomorrow? I’m going into the Lodge around noon to help James with the prep for your event later that day.” Finn rubbed her fingers together. “No fresh crab to shell for prep tomorrow, thank goodness.”
“Don’t tell Abigail I said this, but you work too hard.” Mia took the plate Finn had made for her and walked over to stand by Christina. “Finn’s here. This is a coven event.”
“I found that out from Carolyn over to the left. She was in class with me. She said that Brandon never thought you’d come, so they hired an out-of-town caterer.” She glanced around. “I think the level five thing is freaking people out.”
“What, they think I’m going to blow up the building?” Mia smiled as someone came by to greet her. When they left, she turned to Christina. “Any idea who lives here?”
“Not a clue. Will you excuse me? I need to use the restroom.” Christina walked to the back of the room, then pulled aside a woman who pointed her in the right way.
Instead of speculating about what her friend was up to, Mia focused on Brandon as he started talking.
“Suzanne Parker was a beloved elder in our coven. Her commitment to the coven and our way of life was strong. She moved back East to serve the National Office in the testing and verification of new witches everywhere. She mentored several witches during the time she taught at our old academy—many who have gone on to be leaders in our organization, including myself. I had the honor of taking potions from her all four years of academy. I was a mess in the class, but she never told me to give up. Instead, she gave me biographies of witches who took years to settle into their specialty. She was always telling me to focus on what I loved doing, not what someone else was doing better than me. Suzanne Parker, you will be missed.” He held up his glass for a toast. Then the next speaker came up to the lectern and started talking.
He too had been a former student, but his ramblings made Mia wonder if he’d ever given a speech before.
Christina came back around his fourth or fifth story that had nothing to do with Suzanne Parker or her life. “We need to leave. Finn should come too.”
“I’m not sure she can; she’s working.” Mia took a look at Christina’s face. “Oh. I think she looked sick. Let’s get her out of here.”
Finn didn’t question the urgency. She went to the back, grabbed her keys, and told her boss she was throwing up and must have a stomach flu. The woman blanched, then shooed her away from the table.
As Finn and Christina got into the car, Finn looked back. “I hope they don’t throw away all that food I made.”
Mia climbed into the car after catching up with the group. “She won’t. I told her you took a pregnancy test at home but left before it was done, and that I told you it was a test for the flu.”
“She believed that?”
“I told her you were a little na?ve.” Mia shrugged as Christina laughed, and Finn groaned. “What? The next time you talk with her, just tell her you must have lost the baby early.”
“I’m such an idiot, I can’t keep a baby alive?” Finn got out her phone. “At least she knows I’m a good cook.”
“A lot of people lose babies in the first trimester. That’s why doctors say not to get too invested,” Christina said.
“Oh, have you had that experience?” Finn asked, not looking up from her phone. “I just sent you a bunch of pictures I took of the house and the people who attended the wake. I have a cute one of you two as well.”
“You’re amazing.” Mia grabbed her phone and opened the photo app. “Oh, Christina, why did we have to leave so soon?”
Christina shivered, digging through her purse as she drove. “I was looking for the main bathroom to find a medicine cabinet. Everyone keeps medicines near their bedrooms. Anyway, I found a bathroom that had another door. I looked in the cabinet and found these.”
Mia caught the bottle of pills with Suzanne Parker’s name on it. She didn’t know the name of the medication. “This prescription was from last month. Did this woman stay here? Was the Magic Springs house a vacation home?”
“I don’t know, but in the attached bedroom there were two beds.
One seemed to be a hospital bed. A woman was hooked up to wires and stuff, including a breathing tube.
She looked young.” Christina paused as she stopped the car at a stop sign.
“Mia, I swear the woman on the other bed was Suzanne Parker. She looked like the picture. What on earth is happening over there? Or did I just have a vision, like you did at the restaurant?”
“Those are both excellent questions.” Mia texted Grans to see where she was. They needed a meeting of the society, and now. Some of the group needed to be caught up on the practices of the coven. “I don’t know the answer. But maybe the society will.”
Mia looked behind her and into Finn’s eyes. One other member needed to be added to the group.
Thomas couldn’t get away from the store until three, so Mia spent that time explaining to Abigail and Grans why they needed to drop Finn into the deep end of her witch education.
“She lives here. The ghosts have accepted her. And she knows we’re not normal.
She might as well know the whole thing.” Mia stirred the batch of cookie dough she’d made to keep her mind off what could have been happening over at the house that shouldn’t even be there.
“Finn is either part of the group or we set her up in Twin Falls, where she’ll be safe from all this.
We can’t just keep pretending that we’re normal.
She also needs to know the full truth about Dorian. ”
“You mean Damien,” Grans corrected her. When Mia stared at her, she shrugged.
“I think you’re right. If Finn’s going to be here, she needs all the information.
If she chooses to leave, we’ll wipe her memories and set her up in Twin.
Damien will provide her with a war chest. He set aside money for years, and I mean years, for something like this. ”
“That’s kind of you, or him, or you on his behalf.” Mia laughed as she pulled out a cookie sheet. “Finn will be at the meeting tonight, then she can make up her mind. Unless you want to go chat with her now.”
“I’ll wait for the cookies to be done. I find disturbing news always goes down better when you have a little bit of sugar. Just like in Mary Poppins.” Grans turned to Christina. “Now, before you reach for a second glass of wine, tell me everything you saw in that room.”
Christina told Grans everything, just like she had to Mia.
After she finished, Grans took a breath. “Did you notice anything weird or off about the scene?”
“Besides the dead woman come back to life and the girl on the hospital bed?” Christina clarified as she took the last sip of her wine.
“Yes, dear, besides that. You said you recognized Suzanne Parker from the picture. What clothes was she wearing? A nightgown, a hospital gown?”
Christina blinked several times. “Huh.”
“What’s huh?” Mia put the tray of cookies into the oven and got out a second tray.
“In the picture, Suzanne Parker was in a classic Chanel suit. I know the suit. My mom bought one off the Paris runway that year and she still owns it. It’s ivory, and I can’t believe it still fits, but when she wants to look perfect, it’s her go-to outfit.
Suzanne Parker had on the same suit in the bed.
Powder blue, but the same. She was wearing it as she lay in that bed.
Mom wouldn’t even sit down in her suit. She didn’t want to wrinkle it.
Now I don’t think I was seeing some sort of body-swapping vision at all.
The room was probably empty. I got sent a false vision, didn’t I? ”
“I believe you did. The coven doesn’t have a body-swapping ritual, at least not one I’m aware of.
Something triggered the glamour—maybe you sneaking off to find out who lived there.
Or, more likely,” Grans picked up the medicine bottle, “you removing this from the cabinet. Someone is going to great lengths to keep us from solving Suzanne’s murder. ”