Toil & Trouble by Emery Belle

Author:Emery Belle [Belle, Emery]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-07-28T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

Auggie’s funeral was held the next morning at a small garden near the butcher shop he owned. The bright, beautiful day was a stark contrast to the wails of grief emanating from the first row of folding chairs, where the leopard shifter’s mother was rocking back and forth, inconsolable, as her son’s body, in leopard form, was carried into the garden by equally grief-stricken pallbearers. He was laid on a bed of grass in a mahogany casket, his sleek coat and powerful body magnificent even in death.

I watched the scene from the very back corner of the garden alongside Garnet, who’d tagged along to help me scope out any suspicious-looking characters in the crowd. “What about that woman over there?” she hissed, pointing to a stooped-over witch who was standing behind the casket, arms folded serenely. “She looks like she could be capable of murder.”

“That’s the minister,” I said with a snort of laughter, and Garnet’s face fell. She shot me a dirty look, then continued surveying the garden, her mouth set in a determined line. The funeral was packed with every type of creature big and small, most weeping softly into tissues or offering condolences to Auggie’s family. As I looked around at the mourners, I was struck by just how beloved the leopard shifter must have been.

“What about him?” Garnet nudged me hard and jabbed her finger in the direction of a brownie hovering at the edge of the crowd, darting nervous glances all around him and every so often throwing an air punch at an imaginary foe. “He looks like a weirdo.”

“He is.” I kept my eyes locked on Pete, Auggie’s roommate, as he made his way to the food table. I watched as he stuck his finger into a bowl of pudding, sniffed it, and dabbed at the pudding with his tongue before gagging and wiping it off on the back of his pants. Then he repeated the process three more times before wandering away, muttering to himself and repeatedly checking over his shoulder to see if he was being followed. I remembered the housekeeping staff warning me that Pete was the paranoid type, but why? What had happened in the brownie’s past to reduce him to such a fearful creature? I made a mental note to broach the subject when I interviewed him, which would hopefully be soon.

And speaking of suspects… I swept my eyes over the garden once more. There she was, in the back, arms crossed over her chest in a defensive position. Despite her fury at him over Ollie’s untimely demise, Meryl, Auggie’s ex-girlfriend, had decided to make an appearance at his funeral. And she appeared to be arguing with someone—a skinny, beak-nosed man who was gesturing wildly at the sky before turning and stomping off, leaving Meryl staring after him before she stormed away in the opposite direction.

“I wonder what that was all about,” Garnet breathed. As the man slid into a seat in the front row beside Auggie’s mother, Garnet gasped.

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