Wilds of Wisteria (Wisteria Witches Mysteries Book 16) by Angela Pepper

Author:Angela Pepper [Pepper, Angela]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-03-21T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 22

Tuesday, October 23rd

Pre-Sunrise

The sky was still dark when I stood outside the Carmichael residence, pressing the doorbell exactly three times.

It went ding-dong, ding-dong, ding-dong on the other side of the door.

I muttered under my breath, “Doorbell, doorbell, doorbell.”

I missed having a doorbell. I was back to having the less-good version of the doorbell, the intercom. My visitors didn’t make a ding-dong. They made a buzz-buzz, which wasn’t nearly as pleasant.

These days I didn’t have the hassle of worrying about maintaining a big house, but I did miss my ding-dongs.

From the other side of the door came my boss Kathy’s voice. “Whooo could that possibly be? Whooo’s ringing my doorbell three times?”

The door whipped open. Kathy sometimes reminded me of an owl, and today was no exception. She wore a brown velour house robe and fuzzy yellow slippers. Her pointy nose was beak-like, particularly when her round-framed glasses had slid partway down.

“Ah, fluffernuts,” she exclaimed at the sight of me. “What’s wrong now? Has the ground opened up and swallowed the library whole? I did hear some rumbling underneath us yesterday.”

“Rumbling?” I hadn’t noticed that, but I’d been floating from the Big Kiss.

“Just spit it out,” Kathy said, flapping her elbows, and looking even more like an owl.

But I wasn’t there with bad news. I lifted the lid on the box of pastries I’d picked up on my way. I waved the scent of vanilla and cinnamon, wafting it her way.

“Can’t a friend stop by with breakfast for no reason?”

Kathy licked her lips. “Fresh pastries? But it’s only Tuesday.” We usually held off on such luxuries until Friday.

“May I come in? I’ll be quiet in case your guys are still sleeping.”

She waved me in. “Be as loud as you want. They’re all out of town.”

Kathy’s husband and grown sons were all involved in professional sports. They were rarely home, which was why Kathy had so much time for craft projects outside of her full time job as head librarian. It also explained why the cupboards at work were crammed full of handmade pottery. She’d even made the NO SHENANIGANS sign herself at a screen printing workshop. There were also matching T-shirts.

I walked in, and squeezed through a narrow hallway. The walls must have been originally constructed at a standard width apart, but Kathy had shrunk the hall with her crafting and collecting. Both sides were covered in a base layer of hand-woven rugs and macrame, followed by old windows made into mirrors, framed embroidery, paint-by-numbers landscapes on canvas, decorative plates, novelty spoons, ceramic masks, wooden clocks, dried flowers, souvenir thimbles from around the world—Nova Scotia in particular—and a surprisingly large collection of acorns.

“Nice acorns,” I said.

“They keep the invisible spiders away.”

“Really? That actually works?”

“Well, you do have to hit the spiders with them.”

“Ah.”

We squeezed through the adjoining hallway that led into a tiny breakfast nook. It had once been a large, formal dining room, before the taxidermied animals. The stuffed birds and reptiles didn’t take up much space, but the Grizzly bear—dark-brown with a fringe of white under its chin—dominated one corner.

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