A Charming Voodoo (Magical Cures Mystery Series Book 10) (8 page)

“I have a rose garden.” She squealed and rolled down her sleeve. “I work in it all day long.”

“I love working in mine.” I rubbed my deltoid muscle. “Sometimes I get really sore about here.”

“That’s where my pain is. The doctor said it’s radiating from the rotator cuff and wants me to get a MRI.” She shook her head. “I’d heard about your shop and decided to come see if you got any homeopathic stuff to try before I go under the knife.”

“We don’t want that to happen, do we.” I smiled and took the bottle from her hands. “I’ll be right back.”

I glanced around the shop to make sure everyone was okay. I was more than happy to disappear behind my partition and concoct a potion for my customer. It was a great distraction from what had taken place a couple hours earlier. I snagged my apron off the hook next to the counter and put it on.

Mr. Prince Charming jumped up next to the cauldron and watched as I ran my hand down the ingredient shelf. The Calendula glowed, letting me know it was the perfect ingredient to add to my potion for Hazel’s pulled deltoid. It was a wonderful homeopathic ingredient to help heal wounds.

I sprinkled a dash of the orange ingredient into the cauldron. The thick murky liquid rolled to a boil. The ladle stirred in a counter-clockwise circle three times before changing course to stir in a clockwise circle.

The moving liquid deep in the cauldron swirled the potion to a pink with red accretions on the bottom. It smelled of the most fragrant roses.

“Hmmm.” I took a nice long whiff. It was one of the most fragrant potions I could remember. I smiled, knowing how much Hazel was going to benefit from the special potion.

This was one of the main reasons I loved being a witch. To actually be able to help people with their real problems.

The bell over the door dinged and I stuck my head out from behind the partition to see Faith making her way back to the counter, only to be stopped by Hazel.

I put a sprinkle of Bellis perennis in the cauldron for good measure. As it aids in healing cuts and wounds it would give Hazel a boost to her immune system, not that she needed it.

The baby blue bottle from the shelf glowed. The pink butterfly on the bottle lit up and sparkled, letting me know it was the perfect bottle for Hazel’s potion.

Gingerly, I picked it up off the shelf and smiled. I remembered the day the bottle appeared and I had wondered who the special bottle was meant for.

My eyes slid down the shelf, taking in all the bottles that had appeared in my life. Some days there were more bottles appearing than I had space for, but if they showed up, then I knew they were for me to use on someone special.

When I made a special potion for someone, the bottle that was intended for that potion and that person aligned and would glow so I knew it was meant to be.

I uncorked the top and let it dangle from the brown cord attached to the neck of the bottle and held the bottle over top of the cauldron, allowing the potion to magically transfer from the cauldron to the bottle.

I quickly grabbed the spray bottle that held the cauldron cleaner and spritzed the inside so it would be ready for the next time I needed it.

“I see that you two have met.” I walked around the counter where Faith and Hazel were still chatting.

“Yes, we were just getting acquainted.” Faith looked at me. “Did you know that Hazel lives in the new development?”

“I did. We met last night.” I held the pretty butterfly bottle to her. “She’s got a rotator cuff issue and her doctor said she might need surgery, but we are going to try rubbing this on morning and night. All over your shoulder, down your arm and under your armpit.”

Hazel repeated the direction.

“Don’t worry.” I stuck my hand in the front pocket of my apron and pulled out a card with instructions that just so happened to appear as I need them. I loved how that happened. “Here are the directions in case you forget.”

“Can I take your photo for the art gallery?” Faith asked.

Hazel proudly held the bottle up to her face and smiled real big for the camera as Faith clicked away.

“Now, you two need to come by and see my rose garden. I’ll make up a pitcher of tea.” Hazel paid me for the potion. “Stop by anytime. No need to call!”

Faith and I waved Hazel goodbye.

“I’m so glad you are here.” I glanced around the shop to make sure no customers needed me. I motioned for Faith to follow me behind the counter. “I heard your report in the paper about Patty.”

Since Petunia had notified everyone, I knew everyone knew and it could be discussed outside of Oscar’s pending investigation.

“It’s terrible,” she said. “But he 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 between brothers. But a tiff didn’t involve words
over my dead body
as Patch had promised.

I was definitely going to stop by and see Patch again. This time alone and try to figure out what exactly their brotherly love consisted of.

“Good afternoon.” I smiled at the village council members that included Petunia, Gerald, and Izzy, while Chandra joined them.

They stood at the front of The Gathering Rock. I placed my smudging items next to the rock and got them set up so when all the members of our spiritual community showed up, we were ready to go. I was on a mission to get back to the shop and see exactly what Faith had to say and then make another trip over to the new development.

“June, may I speak with you for a moment?” KJ appeared next to me. He stood in his traditional headdress and loin cloth clothing I was used to seeing him in. He tilted his head to the side and slowly walked into the wooded area next to The Gathering Rock space.

The ceremony wasn’t ready to begin and there were spiritualists still climbing the hill, so I walked over to him.

He pulled a smudge stick from underneath his loin cloth and jerked a feather from his headdress.

“The time has passed.” He held them out for me to take. “The connection between the people and our plants are lost. There is discord within our spiritual community. We are losing our spiritual connection to Turtle Island.”

I knew from the past, he was referring to America but calling it Turtle Island because it was his native tongue.

“The importance of what you and I do with our herbs and homeopathic cures can help bring peace and harmony while we are going through the change of growth. Please consider doing a smudging for every person at the meeting.” His voice was disciplined and maintained complete control though my insides were a jittery mess.

I sucked in a deep breath as I reached out to take his smudge stick and feather. I glanced over his shoulder and noticed there were a lot of spiritualists gathered in the space.

“This is going to take a while.” I wasn’t sure how much time we were going to need, but I did know that if I had to smudge every single person, it would go well into the afternoon.

“I think a little more time to save our culture and world is worth it. Don’t you?” he asked, but didn’t wait for my answer. He simply turned and walked back to the meeting space leaving me as his words hung in the air in front of me.

When I first started to do the smudging ceremony, I wasn’t really sure how to do it. I was told that I needed to rely on my intuition to guide me. I did that and it didn’t let me down. It never has and I knew more than ever that I was going to have to rely on that gift now.

I dragged the smudge stick under my nose and let the smells pass through my nose and down into my soul. I closed my eyes and held my breath as the scent seeped deep into my soul and my being.

My intuition took over and I knew exactly what I needed to do.

“Good afternoon.” I held the smudge stick up in the air letting everyone know that I was about to start the sacred ceremony. “Please gather in a circle.”

I walked into the middle.

“This is a cedar smudge ceremony.” I referred to the bundle KJ had given me. My intuition told me it was cedar. “Cedar is a medicine of protection. Cedar trees are very old, wise and powerful spirits. Since we have new citizens joining our spiritual community, I’d like to use this ceremony to help with moving in, inviting unwanted spirits to leave and protecting each one of us and our places or objects from unwanted influences.”

I lit the bundle setting it on fire and let the flame grow taller and taller as the black smoke started to curl in the sky. With a few swipes of the feather in the smoke, I twirled, fanning the protection to the north, south, east and west before brushing a few strokes to Mother Earth, the ground.

 With the bundle and feather, I walked over to Petunia who was the Village President and first in the circle.

“Place your hand over your heart.” I instructed her.

“June, are you doing everyone?” she asked in a whisper.

“Place your hand over your heart.” It was as if her words didn’t register as my intuition took over and the words fell from my lips.

I looked into Petunia’s eyes for a moment to “greet” her and let her know I came in peace. I fanned the smoke at her heart and then up to the right side of her head. I took a step back as a bird flew from Petunia’s messy up-do before I walked around her, clockwise, gently washing her body in the smoke of the cedar.

I continued to brush the smoke down over her left shoulder and the length of her arm and back up again to her shoulder before I moved to the left side of her torso.

Using the feather I dragged the smoke up her left leg and foot, smoothly dragging it over to her right foot, up the right leg, torso and down the length of the right arm and back up to her shoulder.

I turned Petunia around to her right and repeated these movements as I smudged the back of her all while I chanted, “I welcome the energy of within, the principle of being connected, the energy and spirit of within. I welcome the gifts of balance, oneness, and the connection with all things, for all things are one and all things are related.”

The smoke billowed around her and circled her like a tornado. It darted straight up into the sky in a fluid motion.

“Ho!” I flung the feather at her face as the last bit of smoke dissipated.

No matter how fast I went, it seemed like it took forever to smudge each person at the meeting. It was great to see all the new members of our spiritual community, including Violet and Gene, the mother and son duo Oscar and I had met on our honeymoon.