Wicked Witch Murder Read Online Free PDF Page B

house. There was no sign of fire that she could see, but she still hesitated at the door, remembering that you should never enter a burning building. There was no scent of smoke when she opened the kitchen door. The kitchen was cool and fresh from the breeze blowing through the windows. There wasn’t even any sign of cooking in progress, although she could hear voices coming from upstairs, in between the strident wails of the smoke alarms.
    Climbing the back stairway that led from the kitchen to the bedrooms, she became aware of a smoky scent, and she found herself taking the steps two at a time. What was going on? Had the girls been smoking and started a fire? Were they trying to put it out themselves?
    In the hall the scent was even stronger; it was clearly coming from Sara’s bedroom. Lucy pushed the door open and saw the room filled with a bluish haze. Sara, Zoe, and a third girl had opened the windows and were waving pillows around, trying to dissipate the smoke. Libby was following her, barking anxiously.
    â€œWhere’s the fire?” demanded Lucy.
    â€œNo fire, Mom,” shrieked Sara over the smoke alarms.
    Lucy grabbed a chair and took it out into the hall, where she climbed up and disconnected the alarm. The sudden silence was a huge relief. She took a deep breath, then stepped down and marched back to question the girls. “Were you smoking?” she demanded angrily. Cigarettes were strictly forbidden.
    â€œNo, Mom,” said Sara. “We were casting a circle.”
    â€œWhat? And who’s this?” demanded Lucy, afraid she knew the answer. The girl was about Sara’s age, fourteen or fifteen, wearing a long summer skirt that fell below her knees. She had her long, blond hair pulled back into a thick braid.
    â€œI’m Abby Stoughton,” said the girl, confirming Lucy’s suspicion. “It’s nice to meet you, Mrs. Stone.”
    â€œI met your father today. He said we’re neighbors.”
    â€œThat’s right,” said Abby. “We just moved into a new house down the road, on the other side of the bridge. Well, new to us. The house was built in 1799.”
    Lucy sat down on the bed, and Libby rested her chin on her knee. She was beginning to get the picture. The girls had apparently struck up a friendship with their new neighbor, they’d even met her father, but they hadn’t bothered to inform her. She had the same unsettling feeling she’d first encountered when Toby, her oldest, began going to kindergarten and was occasionally greeted by people she didn’t know. Her first reaction had been suspicion but they usually turned out to be parents of other students who’d visited the class. It was ridiculous, she thought, but she’d never quite come to terms with the idea that her children had lives of their own.
    â€œSo what set off the smoke alarms?”
    â€œWe were casting a circle,” said Zoe. “We were going to make a spell.”
    Lucy’s heart sank. “A spell?”
    â€œTo get rid of pimples,” volunteered Zoe. “Abby’s been collecting rainwater under the moon.”
    â€œRainwater didn’t set off the smoke alarms,” said Lucy.
    â€œNo,” confessed Sara. “First we burned a bundle of sage to clear the circle of evil forces.”
    Spells, circles, evil forces, thought Lucy. “This sounds a lot like witchcraft,” she said.
    Sara produced a well-thumbed paperback book with a gorgeous, raven-haired woman pictured on the cover. Witchcraft for Teens was the title. “I bought it at that new shop in town,” she said. “And the sage bundle too.”
    Now, not only was Ike her neighbor, but also her girls had been practicing witchcraft with his daughter. Lucy sat there, stroking the dog and staring at the pink and green braided rug that covered the floor. It occurred to her that so far, Diana Ravenscroft’s predictions had been right on