I stared as Luci stood at the stove, dishing himself up a bowl of stew as Sammie kicked his legs at the table, eating and wearing most of his dinner. “This smells amazing,” Luci said. “Sammie here tells me he caught this delectable fish. Good man, Sammie-boy.”
Olivia rushed to sit beside her son. Her face was as white as, well, a ghost, which was one damn dead thing I’d yet to deal with—and had no desire to.
It was one thing for me to go on a date and end up double dating with Luci and Carrie. It was another thing to walk into the kitchen and find little Sammie happily eating with the devil himself.
“What are you doing here?” I scowled at him, crossing my arms.
He turned and winked at me. “I hear you’ve got a corpse problem.” Pausing with the ladle in one hand, he gaped at Larry. “Larry Parks? I wondered where you’d got off to.”
Larry froze. “You know me?”
Luci nodded. “Of course! There are not many souls that escape Hell.”
We all slowly turned to stare at Luci. “Larry was in Hell?”
“I mean, he was a witch. What do you think happens?” Luci shrugged and looked at all of us. “But don’t worry. It’s not all as bad as it’s cracked up to be. I mean, sure, we torture evil souls for eternity, that much is right. But not everyone that comes to my domain is evil.”
He walked to the table with his bowl of stew. “Even Hell needs bureaucrats.”
“How’d you recognize me?” Larry asked.
“I never forget a face,” Luci said. I wasn’t touching that comment. “How are you? What are you doing here?”
Never forget a face. I studied the skeleton for a long moment, trying to find the face Lucifer mentioned. Nope, just a skull.
Larry glanced at me. Like turned his eyeless, fleshless face toward me. Then he directed his attention back to Luci. “Man, do you know who murdered me?”
Luci sighed and sat down while the rest of us stood in a huddle and gaped at him. All but Olivia, who had her arm around Sammie, glaring. “I’m sorry, Larry, I don’t. I’m not privy to most things that happen up here. Unless Larry knew and told me himself, I wouldn’t have that 411. Or maybe when his murderer dies, I’ll find out then. But in the meantime? Zip. That’s why this time here with you all is so fun.” He grinned and took a big bite. “Oh, heaven. Absolute heaven. Nothing like a good winter stew.” He seemed to realize for the first time we weren’t all comfortable with him there. “What?” he asked. “Sit. Eat.”
I would figure out a way to get this—erm, man?—back to Hell. In the meantime, I surely didn’t want to piss him off.
“Thank you,” I said. “Alfred and I made it.”
Luci narrowed his eyes at Alfred, and to my shock, Alfred was glaring right back. “I’m afraid I don’t know your Alfred. Either he looked different from his persona in my realm, or he’d been in Heaven before he was resurrected.” Luci shrugged. “Either way, I get the feeling he’s not a big fan.”
“Alfred is just ornery,” I said. “That’s all. He means no offense, do you, Alfie?”
Shaking his head and looking away, Alfred shuffled over to the stove and began rinsing out dishes, preparing them for the dishwasher.
“What was all the kerfuffle about?” Luci asked. “Where’d the handsome Sheriff and Deputy go?”
“There was a death in town,” I said as I tried to relax and act normal. I didn’t think he meant us any harm, but he was volatile and unpredictable at best.
“Oh?” Luci’s eyes flashed and he leaned forward conspiratorially. “I thought I heard something about you wanting to go. Is that true?”
Nosey much? I nodded. “We’d like to know if this murder relates to Larry’s.” Or my mother’s, but we had no proof that her death was the fault of anything but a freak lightning storm. But two murders so close to each other over thirty years ago raised a butt load of suspicion inside me. Especially when the two who died were witches.
Then it dawned on me that Larry might have known Aunt Winnie.
Luci tapped his nose. “I’ve just the thing. Come here.”
Larry, Alfred, and Sammie jumped up as the rest of us did, but Luci winked at them. “Alfie, be a good man and take the children out to play, would you?”
Snoozle growled from the corner. I hadn’t even realized he was in the room. “Shoo,” I said.
“Cute cat,” Luci drolled. “Okay, now if I can draw everyone’s attention to the pot of soup.”
“Stew,” I muttered, then glanced up to see Luci arching an eyebrow at me. “Sorry,” I whispered.
He winked at me again and waved his hand over the pot. I leaned in closer and Olivia did the same on the other side of Luci. We watched as the dark liquid began to swirl as if it was being stirred by an invisible spoon.
The stew stirred faster until an image formed in the center of the whirlpool in the pot. I’d seen Yaya and Winnie do this type of scrying before. I’ve even attempted it a few times but never mastered it. Maybe since I was all open to my full powers, I could.
Focusing on the image in the stew, I scrunched up my nose and tilted my head to the side. “Is she wrapped in yarn?”
Luci nodded. “It appears her auto-knitting machine went on the fritz and trapped her in a skein of yarn.”
“That’s crazy,” I said in disbelief.
“A freak accident,” Olivia added.
Larry leaned over my shoulder, resting his skull on it. I tried not to jerk away from him. I didn’t want his head falling into the stew pot. “Magical accident.”
Luci eyed the scene with a raised brow. “I’d have to agree with Larry. But what a way to go. Death by a yarn cocoon.”
“Lucifer! That’s not funny.” I pushed him, but the demon didn’t move. He just laughed.
Poor Miss. Miriam.
Just then Drew and Sam came into view. Drew directed another officer to cut her out of the yarn.
We watched in fascination as she was cut out. Sam put on latex gloves, knelt, and searched her pockets. After reaching in the second pocket of her long coat, he pulled out a coin.
The coin was nothing like I’d seen before. It was silver and looked to be as big as silver dollar. Then again it was hard to tell from a vision in a pot of stew. It had a bird that was surrounded by flames.
“That’s it!” Larry jumped with excitement. “That’s the coin the witch put in my pocket.”
Chapter Five
“Not like that!” Owen called. “You’ve got to mean it. If anything is buried nearby, you’ll raise it.”
I sighed and sat back down. We’d been at it for hours, practicing while everyone else was busy with their lives. Wallie was back at college, Olivia was doing her turn as room mother for Sammie’s kindergarten class, and Sam and Drew were working the murder case. Not that there’d been any leads. A big crock of nothing. I would’ve much rather worked the murder case with them, but I did need to learn to work my powers more effectively.
Snooze was on his back all stretched out in a patch of sunlight. Snoozing, of all things. Did I tell you that’s how he got his name? That lazy cat was a master of naptime.