The Gathering by Mary Bowers

Author:Mary Bowers [Bowers, Mary]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2016-04-10T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

Saturday is our busiest day at Girlfriend’s, so I sometimes go into town to help Florence out if I get the chance, but my first stop that morning was going to be at The Bakery. It was their busiest day, too, so I planned to get there after the morning rush, about a quarter after eleven.

Silly me. Of course The Bakery had been invaded by the Florida Division of Hotels and Restaurants. The food police SWAT team, no doubt. Somebody who’d taken a bite of one of the cakes from The Bakery had just keeled over and died, and they needed to look into it. I walked in anyway and was greeted by an inspector who explained the situation.

“Where are the owners?” I asked her.

“Upstairs. They live in an apartment on the second floor. I haven’t seen them come down this morning. Are you a friend?”

I told her I was, and said I’d go around and use the back entrance to get to the apartment.

After dodging through Girlfriend’s so I didn’t have to walk the length of the block to get around, I was allowed to go in and up to the apartment by a cop I happened to know.

Rosie let me in, breathing, “Thank God,” when she saw me. She waved me through a short hall into the kitchen, and there at the table was that champion of fairies and elves, Purity LeStrange. She looked up, smiled sadly and said, “Ah! There you are. I summoned you. I hope you don’t mind.”

Nobody had called me, but that wasn’t what she meant and I knew it. Purity had probably used a crystal ball or a magic mirror.

“Always happy to oblige,” I said, letting it go. “I came to see how Rosie and Poppy were doing, but it’s always nice to see you. Is Poppy here, by the way?”

“Oh, I summoned her too. She’ll be joining us. I should have done it sooner; she’d never have left for Publix if I had, but I naturally assumed that the twins would be consoling one another at home this morning. We simply must put our heads together. You know what I mean, of course.” She stared at me, as serious as a baby-faced middle-aged woman with big blue eyes can look. Her long blond hair was forming loose banana curls and her bangs were hanging down almost over her eyes. I had to restrain myself from pushing them aside; I can’t stand seeing anybody’s hair sticking into their eyes.

“Oh, sure.” Ready for anything, that’s me. “Don’t you have any activities this morning at ParaCon? Who’s manning the potions booth?”

She shrugged. “I summoned Ariel. She’s very competent, especially at the time of the full moon, which, of course, is tonight. We all come alive a little when the moon is full.”

I nodded knowingly. I had no clue who Ariel was, but I hoped Purity had summoned her by phone, and not by whatever method she’d used on me. It was purely an accident that I happened to show up at The Bakery when “summoned.

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