Every Witch Way But Dead Page 13

  Chapter Fourteen

  Rose Quartz ~ Rose quartz is a soothing stone with the ability to reduce the sharp edges of our life. Rose quartz is in tune with the emotional aspects of self. Its energies can help us learn to love ourselves, and through this, give us an increased ability to love others. Rose quartz encourages love on many levels, and it can lead to being better able to accept negative situations and aspects of our daily lives. Rose quartz can help with low self-esteem. Its energies are comforting and nurturing, and that makes this stone one of the best choices for people going through emotional strain like divorce or loss of a loved one. It has a sensitive nature and rapidly attunes itself to the wearer. ~ From a lecture given by Marisa Arrucci at a local Gem Show.

  The headlines raged on as the police searched for answers and we were dragged into the limelight once more.

  Psychic Detectives of Sacred Treasures Strike Again

  By Joel Sanders

  The dashing duos of Market Street’s Sacred Treasures are once again in the spotlight. Candice Kane and Marisa Arrucci, owners of the famed occult shop, find they are embroiled in the search for the murderer of Sally Shaw.

  On Saturday, the Fourth of July, at an annual block party on Harbor Drive, Sally Shaw, twenty-four, of Oceanview was abducted and brutally murdered.

  Our own Angelica Kane aided the police by giving them the location in which they would find the murdered woman’s body. It was through a so-called vision that Ms. Kane received her information.

  Sally Shaw, a client of Marisa Arrucci’s, was attending the barbeque with her boyfriend, Kevin Murray.

  The circumstances of the night’s festivities are sketchy at best. The crime lab found skin traces from under the victim’s nails, but no matches have been reported. An abandoned boat was also found drifting across Millers’ channel, which was reported stolen July third. Questioning is still ongoing and no suspect has been named as of yet, and no one has been ruled out.

  These and other types of visions that Ms. Kane experienced helped locate Joey Carbone of Rivers End last year. This reporter will keep our readers updated as more information becomes available.

  * * *

  My next order of business, once Will and Jake were off to soccer camp, was to locate Joseph and have a chat with him. Fortunately, he was functioning on the same frequency and came into the shop looking for me. Deep creases lined his clothes, disheveled hair pointed in every direction. It was clear he hadn’t had a decent night’s sleep in days. The dark half-circles under his eyes gave him a gaunt and hollow countenance.

  We walked into the back of the shop. He fell into a chair at the table, dropped his head in his hands and sobbed. I stood next to him, letting him vent all his pent-up emotions.

  “The police questioned me!” he stammered. “How could they think I’d do such a thing to her or anyone!” His breath caught in his throat. He was near hysterics.

  I desperately tried to calm him down. “I’m sorry, Joseph, they’ve got to question everyone who knew her.” I placed my hands on his back and acted as a conduit. The energy passed through me and into the earth, where it transformed into neutral energy. If he were involved in this, now was my opportunity to read him. “How long had you known her?”

  He rubbed his eyes, which were red from crying. “Not very long. We only just started to date a few weeks ago.”

  I reached over to a basket on the counter that contained a colorful assortment of stones. I found the one I was searching for and gave it to him to hold.

  “What is this?” he asked as he opened his hand to receive it.

  “It’s called lepidolite and it will help facilitate a calming effect on you. It contains some small amounts of lithium,” I explained as I took out the kettle to brew some chamomile tea. I squirted a few drops of flower essence, Relaxing Remedy, into a small cup of water and told Joe to drink it. A combination of a variety of flowers infused into spring water and taken internally, it was nature’s anti-anxiety pill in a bottle.

  “Thanks. I feel a bit better already.” He smiled weakly. “You believe me, Angelica, don’t you? I know we haven’t known each other long, but, well, you can feel I didn’t kill her, can’t you?” His eyes searched mine, pleading for a vote of confidence.

  “Joe, does that mean you believe me?” I countered.

  “After what I’d heard and read about you leading the police to—to Sally, yes.”

  Asking about shop business, Marisa rescued me from having to answer his provocative question.

  I really wasn’t certain how I would’ve responded. I hadn’t felt any overt hostility. He was just a jumble of confusion.

  * * *

  The remainder of the day passed by fairly uneventfully, thank goodness. Tonight was the full moon and the esbat was taking place at Ivy’s Dune Road estate. I loved going to her place on the ocean side of the Island. She always had food brought in from the Gourmet Pampered Palate, which was a wonderful treat. All the other trimmings were from Sacred Treasures. With what had transpired over the past few weeks, I was especially looking forward to tonight’s ritual, especially after the horrors I’d recently experienced. Ouida brought her youngest daughter, Lily, to the ceremony, along with a couple of bottles of Pinot Grigio. I tried to get Amber to come, but, as expected, she turned me down. Again. In retrospect, it was a good thing she didn’t attend.

  Ivy’s home was magnificent. It wasn’t enormous, as Hampton homes go, with only three bedrooms, a dining room, a large formal living room, a den and—well, maybe it was enormous. Plus it was Hampton chic, overlooking the ocean, with an oversized back deck done in rich teak wood. Ivy had adorned it with varieties of plants and tchotchkes.

  Tropical palms, hibiscus, gardenias and jasmines perfumed the sultry air. In the center sat Ivy’s large cauldron, set on slates, where the fire was slowly burning. On the altar, which was a converted bar, she had drums and rattles she’d collected over her many years of world travel.

  With the moon peeking over the horizon, we were all smudged with sage, lavender and sweet grass and ready to begin. Lily sat on an oversized pillow and drummed a slow and steady beat. She looked like a Caribbean goddess with her red caftan and silk flower in her hair, which fell in mahogany ringlets. Ivy, all in white, cast the circle using her willow wand, straight from Salem. Ouida, Marisa, Heena and I invoked each of the elements. The drum kept its steady beat, and we could feel the energy rising.

  “We’re at the fullness of the moon tonight, when all our wishes and dreams come true,” Ivy said. “Love and abundance are at their fullness, we’re here to rejoice in the Mother Goddess. We invoke her and ask that she hear our prayers, including an added dose of protection. Also tonight, we keep in mind the souls of Sally and Diane. May their journey into the Summerland be smooth and their reunion with family members be sweet. Ladies, keep your desires in your mind’s eye now.”

  Ivy handed out the rattles and cradled a drum in her arms. We began to dance around the cauldron. Each of us had written on a piece of paper our secret desires and wishes. The beat quickened and the energy rose higher and higher. ‘Round and ‘round we danced, feeling fantastically gypsy-ish. We each dropped our written wishes into the kettle, continuing the dance. I kicked off my shoes as I twirled around the fire, losing myself in the moment. Wonderfully carefree, I danced, feeling the recent burdens slowly peel away from me.

  “When I say, ladies—release the energy.” Ivy was monitoring the apogee of power. We were a collage of colors, blue, green, yellow, orange, white and red dancing under the jeweled night. I gazed at the moon, a pearl in the sea of stars.

  That was the last conscious thought I remembered.

  “Now!” Ivy called out, and we yelled in unison, “Ho!”

  The teak wood slammed under my head. The sky blinked in and out of my vision. I heard a dissonance of voices and had difficulty determining which ones were astral and which were earthly. My arms and legs grew rigid as the familiar swirling energies enveloped me.

  �
��Shit!” I vaguely heard Marisa moan. “Not again!”

  “The spirits have her,” I thought I heard Ouida say.

  “Momma, can you do something?” Lily whispered.

  “You have to help her—she’s in danger. Now more than ever.” The voices phased in and out, from specter to human. “You’re the only one who hears me! He is going to try again!”

  “Angelica, who?” Ivy asked.

  I gasped for air. “He killed Diane…and Sally…they won’t tell me,” I said.

  “Stay with me, Angie, who won’t tell you?” Ivy asked.

  “I don’t know who they are, they’re others like me. They say they are guides, that all this was her destiny. No names, I don’t know their names.”

  Heena sat beside me; I felt her energy. “Her pulse is too rapid,” she reported.

  Ouida ordered, “Keep her in the protection of the circle! Who are you? What do you want from Angelica?”

  “I’m Katherine. He’s getting closer! He’s come back.” I frantically uttered the words of the phantom. “He will not give up. Ever.”

  “There’s no man here, Angie—who’s getting closer?” Ivy asked.

  “He wants her—dead! You have to help her, you have to stop him.” My body began to quiver and my eyes rolled back.

  Heena demanded, “Oui, we have to do something.”

  “Katherine, you must leave Angelica’s body, now. She can’t go on like this. Please go,” Ouida asked of the spirit.

  I heard Marisa speak. “It’s Ronnie’s mom,” she said. “It has to be.”

  My hands reached for my throat and I coughed violently. My head banged against the decking.

  “I beg of you, help my daughter. It’s not her time.”

  Ouida fired out the questions in rapid succession. “How—when is he going to try? What’s his name?”

  “He’s the one—”

  “She’s turning blue,” Kara shrieked.

  “Call 911!” Heena yelled as she kept her fingers on my pulse point. “Oui, we have to do something now!”

  Ouida instructed the circle. I heard the strength in her voice. “Hurry, sisters, imagine energy going back into Angelica to heal her. Put your hands above her root chakra. Now!” Ouida offered her astral lifeline to me. “Come on, peu une, come back.”

  I felt the tugging of my coven sisters’ energy pulling me out of the etheric realm.

  The whispered echoes pleading for assistance gradually evaporated into walls of haze.

  My eyes suddenly flew open and I gulped in the sea air.

  “Shit—you scared us to death!” Marisa bawled. “Are you okay?”

  I sat up slowly and the dizziness ebbed away. “I think so,” I answered, rubbing the back of my head, which now had a large bump where it had hit the deck.

  Tears welled in my sisters’ eyes. Kara was quietly sobbing. Lily tried to comfort her.

  “Her heart rate is normal, forget the paramedics.” Heena sighed as Lily put her cell phone back in her bag. “We need ice for her head.”

  “Let’s get her something to eat,” Ivy suggested as she helped me to my feet.

  Handing me a glass of water and an ice pack, Kara asked, “What was that all about?”

  Marisa hovered over me like a nursemaid, leading me to a lounge chair. “You sit here and let me get you something to eat.” Anxiety lurked behind her golden eyes.

  “I wish I knew.” I looked around at my friends, trying to focus in the dark.

  Heena took my arm. “Was it the same type of vision?” she asked, checking my pulse once more.

  I rubbed my neck with my other hand. “Not really. I felt I was in both places at once this time, here and…there. Wherever there is.” I looked into Heena’s sapphire eyes and my pulse slowed to its normal rhythm.

  “Do you think the warning is about Ronnie?” Ivy asked Marisa. The rest of my friends seated themselves on reclining chairs and sipped white wine. I felt closer to normal after eating some grounding foods and drinking more water.

  Heena poured some tea. “Ronnie Arthur? That’d make sense, after what happened at the concert. I know it wasn’t an accident.”

  Marisa picked on raw carrots and celery. “Yes, she’s involved. Ronnie told me about your warning to her. I just don’t get why Sally was killed.”

  I thought about Veronica Arthur and her polka-dotted aura.

  Ouida settled down on a pillow next to her daughter. “I overheard Ronnie talking to you, Marisa, at the block party. Something about her being stalked?”

  “Yeah, an overzealous fan or something.” Marisa’s usually calm face now wore an aggravated expression. “Ange, this was Ronnie’s mom that came through to you tonight, wasn’t it?”

  “Yes, it’s the same energy that’s been communicating with me. I still don’t understand Sally’s death, though,” I thought aloud. This time, Ouida checked my pulse.

  Kara said innocently, “You know, the three of you do look related, Angie, Sally and Ronnie.”

  “Yeah—maybe the killer got confused,” Ivy commented as she filled her plate with fruit salad.

  We all sat in silence, staring at Ivy as she looked innocently at us.

  “What? What’d I say?”

  “Could it be he’s after Ronnie and accidentally grabbed Sally?” I wondered to my friends.

  “Oh, Great Lakshmi! Do you really think so?” Heena asked.

  Kara reached for the wine bottle. “I wonder if the detectives figured this out,” she said.

  Marisa chuckled. “I doubt it. Diane doesn’t look like Ronnie or Sally. I don’t think they realize the connection.”

  “No, I don’t think so either,” I said. “From the questions that were asked of us, none of them pointed to any theory of a connection.”

  Ouida sat back on the recliner. “You do look a lot like Ronnie, Angie. And Sally could’ve been your little sister,” she said, with Heena nodding in agreement.

  “I don’t think he wants to kill me,” I said.

  Marisa sighed deeply. “How can you be so sure? From the reading I did, you are smack in the middle of all this.”

  “Did you see me in that much danger, Risa?” I squealed.

  “No. I don’t know. There was danger indicated, it didn’t give me a scale of one to ten.”

  Ivy flitted about, filling wine glasses and passing more shrimp to each of us. “Well, I would tell that handsome detective about this theory. You can’t be too sure.”

  Marisa added her opinion to the mix. “Yeah, Angie, if you don’t call him, I will. I know you’ve spoken to Ronnie. She must be scared shitless. She’s in desperate need of help. Your kind of help, Ivy. Why don’t you see patients anymore? We could refer lots of clients to you.”

  Ivy breathed out a long sigh. “No, I’m not ready yet. It’s too soon after Ed… I—I don’t know if I really want to. I have thought about it, though. Who knows what the future will bring. I learned that one the hard way. Who thought my Ed would be killed in that horrid car accident and so soon after we both retired.” Ivy shook her head as tears shone in her eyes.

  “How long has it been?” Ouida asked.

  “Two years.” She sniffled.

  “Let us know when you’re ready,” I said.

  Oudia filled in the awkward gap of the conversation. “You better call that detective, sister.”

  “Yes, Angie, you really should,” Lily quietly spoke.

  “I feel the same thing,” Heena added.

  I reached for more shrimp cocktail, “Okay, tomorrow I’ll call him.”

  “Good. Leave room for dessert ladies!” Ivy announced as she brought over strawberry shortcake. “The strawberries are in season and they’re like candy! Anyone for coffee? Decaf, of course.”

  We all managed to taste the delicious cake and had coffee as well.

  Ivy escorted all of us out, after dousing the cauldron, leaving the rest of the clean-up to her quirky housekeeper, Sandra, who preferred the title of assistant.

  We all stood o
ut front for a few minutes longer, admiring the new plantings Ivy had of crepe myrtle and dogwood trees. Her property was a living work of art.

  A sense of uneasiness tickled my senses as we said our good-nights. I suppose it was the calm after the first half of a storm, and I was caught in the eye. The stygian clouds just peered over the metaphoric horizon. Their presence was menacing.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Jasper (General, All Types) ~ Jasper is a stone of gentleness and calmness. It augments one's ability to relax and brings harmony, comforting, wholeness, healing, and gentle endings. It is every so often called the nurturing stone for its nurturing and protective energies. Physically it’s used for the liver, gallbladder, soothing the stomach and balancing yin/yang energies. ~ From Angelica Kane’s Book of Shadows

  Sean Bennette was still busy trying to put the pieces of this homicidal puzzle together. He took the theory of mistaken identity quite seriously. He also began checking up on me at the shop almost daily, with either a phone call or a visit.

  One day he unexpectedly showed up at the shop to go over a few things with me. He didn’t come empty-handed, either. He brought sandwiches from the Healthy Harvest, brownies and two Chai lattes.

  “Detective, you didn’t have to go to all that trouble.” I smiled as I led him to the back kitchen, placed the food down and grabbed some paper plates.

  “I owe you a coffee, so I thought I’d add lunch. You have to eat, right?” he said as he helped with the napkins and plates.

  “Yeah, I suppose, though lately I haven’t had time. It’s been really busy.”

  “Angie, don’t forget you have a two o’clock reading coming in,” Marisa called out to me, underscoring how busy we really were.

  We sat across from each other, unwrapping our sandwiches. He looked lost in thought, his eyebrows furrowed. “I’ve been wanting to ask you something. It’s not about the case, though. How’d you know about Rita? Really? Do you remember reading it in a newspaper article?”