The Girl with the Uninvited Ghost: Pandemonium Cozy Mystery #1

Chapter 4

Mahogany stomped through the kitchen door, into the house she'd called home for the last twenty years, and slammed the door behind her. The house, a modest craftsman, was attached to the back of the Haughty Hemlock. A second later, Guy Miller's ghost emerged through the closed door.

"Oh, that's so weird," Guy said, convulsing as his feet floated an inch above the black and white tile floor. "I imagine this is what clouds experience when a bird or an airplane flies through them. That's if clouds weren't just water vapor and had a central nervous system."

Mahogany rolled her eyes. "You don't have a central nervous system either." She lifted Bazgul off her shoulder and placed him on a plush cat tree standing in front of a bank of windows lining the kitchen wall. The massive spider turned several times before finding the right spot and settled his many legs under his furry body. He gazed out the window, his four black eyes shining as they scanned for the neighbor's tabby cat.

"You're home early. How did it go?" Neema's bosomy frame leaned against the granite countertop, a steaming cup of hibiscus tea in her hands. She wore her fuzzy blue robe cinched around her thickening waist. Next to her, a mortar filled with half pulverized herbs sat on the counter.

"And you're up late," Mahogany said, kicking off her beloved boots and dropping her backpack next to them. "I've been better. Thanks for asking."

"I needed the full moon," Neema said, eying the abandoned pack as Mahogany opened the refrigerator. What happened? Where are the artifacts?"

"I don't have them. But I did bring home an uninvited ghost." She gestured over her shoulder to where Guy hovered.

"A ghost? I thought all the magical Folk was already dead when you arrived." Neema said, her dark eyebrows raising.

"That's how it's supposed to work." Mahogany yanked open the fridge and grabbed the milk. "The wizard was dead when I arrived, but his apprentice was taking his last breath." Mahogany popped the lid off the bottle and drank straight from the container.

"Dying? Did they make a suicide pack?" Neema asked. She set her mug of tea on the counter, picked up the mortar, and sniffed the herbs. A slight frown creased her smooth complexion. For a woman in her mid-fifties, Neema had remarkable skin. She walked through an open door leading to the apothecary and grabbed a jar of rosebuds. She grabbed a small handful, added it to the mortar, and proceeded to pulverize it again. She sniffed her handiwork and smiled.

"Not unless the young one brained himself with a bust of Mother Shipton after stabbing the older one." Mahogany set the milk on the counter and glared at Guy. "You didn't kill the old wizard, did you?"

Guy had wandered over to a large hutch standing against one of the kitchen's flowered walls and browsed the collection of ancient tomes on magical herbalism. Guy shook his head. "Absolutely not. I was preparing a decoction in the dining room when I heard Mike yell. He was lying on the floor with the dagger sticking out of his back when I got there. Then I heard something behind me, and--" He trailed off, his hand going to the back of his head where he sustained the blow from the bust.

"He says he didn't do it," Mahogany said, placing her head in her hands with a sigh.

At the mention of Mother Shipton, Neema almost dropped the mortar. She turned to look at her own bust of the Prophet Ursula Southeil and made the sign of the horns to ward off evil. "To use the Prophet to take a life will bring about calamity. This is a message."

"More like a crime of opportunity. Whoever killed them tried to hit me with a fireplace poker," Mahogany said, raising her head from her hands. "I don't think they were thinking about consequences."

"The murderer was there with you?" Neema set the stone mortar on the kitchen island with a clatter and hurried to Mahogany. "Are you all right?" She grabbed the younger woman by the shoulders and turned her this way and that, searching for signs of injury.

"I'm fine," Mahogany said, pushing Neema away. "Bazgul bit them. A bite from a demon, even a lesser one, is not something one wants to experience twice. I'm sure it's festering as we speak." Mahogany placed the milk back in the fridge and let the door swing shut.

Bazgul lifted his head and chattered at Mahogany from his perch on the cat tree.

"What do you mean you aren't sure you bit them? They screamed like they'd been bitten," Mahogany said, her hands on her hips.

Bazgul chittered again. The giant spider lifted itself onto its hairy legs and turned to face Mahogany.

"You closed your eyes?" Mahogany shook her head. "Well, so much for festering wounds."