One Potion in the Grave: A Magic Potion Mystery Read Online Free PDF Page B

and it swirled around Katie Sue like a mini tornado.
    “Or she’s the one who’s going to end up in ashes,” he said, then added a dramatic
“Duhn-duhn-duhhhhn
.
”
    “Stop that,” I said, swatting him.
    But he was on a roll and couldn’t be deterred. “Seems I’ve heard Warren Calhoun has a reputation for gettingrid of people who cause him trouble. Isn’t that so, Ainsley?”
    Her eyes alight, she nodded eagerly, a willing accomplice to his theatrics. “I heard that, too.”
    Caleb said, “Didn’t he poison a rival who was inching too close in the polls?”
    “That was a rumor,” I said. “That guy died of a heart attack.”
    “Oh, I don’t know.” He tapped his coffee lid. “How about his campaign manager who vanished and still hasn’t been found?”
    “He was found. In Switzerland with a lot of the Calhouns’ money.” I wrapped up my brownie and stuck it back in the bag. My stomach churned.
    “Oh right. I forgot.” He winked. “Well, I’m sure I’ve read in the tabloids that his former mistress went missing.”
    “Mistresses,” Ainsley cut in. “Plural.”
    There was a playfulness in their eyes that told me they were teasing. But this all felt too real to me. “
Alleged
mistresses,” I said, feeling a lump growing in my throat.
    “All I’m saying,” Caleb leaned in, “is that Katie Sue best be careful . . . or else.”
    I could easily picture the “or else.” I had a good imagination.
    Ainsley, however, apparently decided to act it out.
    She staggered around making choking noises. Slamming shut her eyes, she stuck out her tongue, and collapsed into a spasmodic bundle, her yellow dress billowing about until she finally settled in for her eternal rest.
    Her little death scene was loud and dramatic. Much like she was.
    Caleb laughed as the ever-hopeful Poly tiptoed forward to sniff Ainsley’s outstretched fingers.
    My stomach twisting, I said, “Don’t even joke about it.”
    Caleb said to Ainsley, “She’s gone and lost her sense of humor after finding the dead guy in the back of her shop.”
    I glared at him. “I didn’t lose my sense of—”
    The front door whipped open, and an ice-blond typhoon blew inside, her black cape flying out behind her.
    Only one person could get away with wearing a black cape in the ninety-five degree weather of an Alabama August.
    My cousin Delia Bell Barrows took one look at Ainsley lying on the floor, stepped over her prone body, and stormed to the counter. “I can’t believe you hung up on me!”
    “Well,” Caleb drawled, his gray eyes narrowing on my cousin, “look what the devil done dragged in.”
    Delia speared him with a death stare.
    He winked at her.
    No, it wasn’t going to be easy setting these two up, but I was game for the challenge.
    Delia ignored him but grabbed on to the locket dangling around her neck—an identical charm to mine—as if to block his energy. She leveled her icy gaze on me. “It best have been a matter of life and death, Carly Bell Hartwell.”
    “Look,” I said innocently. “Ainsley’s dead.”
    Ainsley’s body jerked twice in deathly emphasis.
    “Nah, she’s not dead.” Caleb straightened. “She’s just doing a fair imitation of Francie Debbs after keeping the Clingons for a bit.”
    “Bite me,” Ainsley said, sitting up. “Your time to have a family will come, Caleb Montgomery.”
    He scooted around her on the way to the door. “Not if I can help it any. Keep me filled in about the—” Drawing his finger across his throat, he winked at Delia again, and slipped out into the sunshine.
    As we watched him go, I caught the reflections of mine and Delia’s faces in the glass door panel. We looked a lot alike, Delia and me, yet were easy to tell apart. Aside from our bitten-to-the-quick fingernails, my blond hair was darker than her platinum, my eyes brown to her frosty blue. Plus I had dozens of light freckles dotting my face, and she had a beautiful clear creamy complexion.
    Six months