Chocolate Truffles and Trouble Read online

  A few hours later, I was finished and happily surveying my handiwork. I had not only finished both orders, but also made another batch of s’mores. This time, I had gotten inspired and placed some broken-up Oreo cookies on top of the s’mores, making them look—and, I hoped, taste—even better.

  I also had two large bags filled with the bars I had been working on, each individually wrapped in a sleek paper, and as I crossed both items off my to-do list, moving the bags to the side table by the front entryway so I could deliver them tomorrow, I felt a strong sense of accomplishment. I had gotten my work done, I was working on growing my business, and tomorrow, I knew, I was going to head out and work on sales, trying to get some more orders.

  A couple of minutes later, as I was relaxing on the couch with a book and a glass of much-deserved red wine, my sister Andrea came back from work.

  “Hey, how’s it going?” she asked, sniffing the air. “You’ve been making chocolates. Are there any to taste test?”

  I grinned. “Yeah, something Tina inspired me to make. But you should probably wait until after dinner before you eat it.”

  “Ok, mom,” Andrea replied with a grin. Still, she made her way over to the plate of s’mores that I’d covered with a paper towel and snuck a look. “Oooh, these look delicious.”

  “Sherlock can confirm the taste for you,” I said, glaring in the direction of my corgi, who was just starting to stir. Boy, could he ever sleep.

  “Really?” Andrea said with a grin. “That must have been fun to deal with.”

  I shook my head slowly as I recounted the entire story, leaving Andrea in stitches.

  “Amazing. What an awful dog. Hey, I assume you heard about what happened in Spellford?”

  I nodded sadly. “Yeah.”

  “Did you know her?”

  “I did. Not well, but to say hi to.”

  “I’m sorry, Meg,” Andrea said, coming over to give me a hug. “Even if you weren’t close, I imagine it sucks.”

  I nodded. To be completely honest, I had tried to push the knowledge of what had happened out. I didn’t really want to deal with grief right now, even the low-level grief one feels when an acquaintance they didn’t know all that well dies.

  I moved on to other topics, but little did I know Olivia Stone’s death was going to become a major topic in my life, and soon.

  I spent most of the next morning working—I did my deliveries, made some more chocolate, and found Akari, giving her a s’more from a small batch I had made that morning.

  “Oh, these are so good,” she said, her eyes widening. “What did you call them? Shoe mores?”

  “S’mores,” I answered with a smile. “They’re something from the human world. I don’t know where the name came from.”

  “Well, they’re a paranormal-world thing now. Seriously, these are so good. You need to package them and sell them immediately and you’ll become a worldwide sensation.”

  “Thanks,” I said with a smile. “I think I do plan on selling them. I crunched the numbers this morning and I think they could be pretty profitable.”

  “Then do it. Heck, even if they lost money, I bet you could convince one of those super-rich elves who’s been building a fortune for like two thousand years to fund you just so that everyone could have one. Because these are good.”

  “Always nice to get that kind of feedback,” I said with a smile.

  “Hey, listen, you were telling me the other day about your parents and how you think Las Brujas might be involved in their framing?”

  “Yes,” I said, immediately on high alert. I had no solid proof, just some murmurings here and there, but I needed to get to the bottom of this if I was going to prove my parents were innocent.

  “Well, I was speaking to a friend back in California yesterday. She works at Spellford now, though we grew up together in Los Angelwitch together, and the word that’s going around is that Olivia Stone was neck-deep in some Las Brujas stuff.”

  “Really?” I asked, my eyes widening.

  “Yeah. The word is she was selling some potions for herself, but she was also selling some for the gang on the side.”

  “Interesting,” I said, biting my lip. I knew that Las Brujas had been getting one professor to sell things on their behalf, helping them keep an extra layer of distance between themselves and the customers—and more importantly, the Enforcers—and I wondered if maybe they had done the same to Olivia.

  “You’re going to go see what’s happening, aren’t you?” Akari asked, and I nodded.

  “Yes, I think so. I need to see if I can find a contact among Olivia’s things, or find out who might have killed her if it was someone in the gang. I need someone from the gang I can talk to, who I can ask about my parents.”

  “Well, I’m coming with you, then.”

  My eyebrows rose slightly. “Are you sure? I mean, I’d appreciate the company, but you absolutely don’t have to.”

  “Meg, it’s way too cold here, even in the spring, and I relish any opportunity to go back home, even if it is a few hundred kilometers north of Los Angelwitch. Besides, we can go and visit my friend and see what she can tell us.”

  “Alright,” I said with a smile. “Thanks for offering. Although I must say, while I will do my absolute best to avoid this situation, it has happened in the past that I’ve had to, erm, bend the law just a little bit in order to find out the information I needed when we looked into other murders.”

  Akari gave me a sly smile. “Trust me, I wasn’t the best-behaved witch a few years ago. I’ll be okay.”

  On that note, Akari and I made our way to the portal, and a few minutes later, we were back in Spellford. I had been back here once since moving back to Pacific Cove, but it still felt a little bit strange. What was most interesting was that I didn’t miss my studies at all. I was so content with running my new chocolate company and being back home in Pacific Cove that I didn’t miss studying to be a Healer at all. Maybe it had never really been the right thing for me after all.

  “Let’s go see my friend,” Akari suggested as soon as we got there. “She can tell us everything she knows.”

  “Sure,” I nodded. “That sounds good.”

  It turned out Akari’s friend was an assistant professor in the witchiology department. I had been to this part of campus a couple of times—after all, all potential Healers had to take classes in other subjects to round out their knowledge—but I didn’t know it incredibly well. Akari led us straight into an old, gray brick building and straight up to the fourth floor. We passed through hallways that made me think of old England until finally we reached a small door on which Akari knocked.

  “Come in,” came a voice from inside, and the two of us entered to find ourselves in a tiny office that had a desk, two chairs in front of it, a single filing cabinet, and not much else. After all, just that furniture took up a good ninety percent of the space in the room.

  The witch sitting at the desk wore thick glasses and had luscious, wavy brown hair. Her mouth was small and her eyes huge, but it somehow worked for her, and as soon as she saw Akari, her face broke into a huge smile.

  “Akari! I wasn’t expecting you to come by.”

  “I hadn’t planned on coming. This was kind of a spur-of-the-moment thing,” Akari said with a smile. “This is my friend Megan from Pacific Cove.”

  “Nice to meet you,” I said, reaching across and shaking the witch’s hand.

  “Likewise. I’m Charlene. What can I do for you?”

  “We were hoping you could tell us everything you know about Olivia Stone,” Akari said. “You said that she might have been involved with Las Brujas?”

  “That’s right,” Charlene said with a nod. “But you’re not the type to come over here just looking for gossip. What’s going on?”

  “A few months ago, my parents were arrested for fraud,” I explained. “They admitted to doing it because that got them a lighter prison sentence, but I’m certain that they’re innocent. They’ve been frame
d, and I want to know by who. I’ve been looking into it, and I think Las Brujas might be involved. So I’m trying to figure out whatever I can about Olivia’s death to maybe get in touch with a contact with the gang or something.”

  Charlene gave me a skeptical look. “I do hope you understand who you’re dealing with,” she said. “Las Brujas are brutal, and they’re not going to be very pleased to see you sneaking around trying to get information about them.”

  “I know,” I replied. “I’m going to be careful about it. But I need to know. Besides, you never know. Olivia’s death might be linked to my parents somehow.”

  I didn’t really believe that last part. An image was forming in my head, an image in which my parents had been forced by the gang to commit the fraud despite not wanting to do it. Much like Professor Oak in this very college found himself in the same situation. Maybe Olivia had found herself in that situation as well, and if I could find her killer, I could find a connection to my parents in the gang.

  “Alright, well, I can’t say that I have definite proof about any of this. Honestly, it’s all college speculation and gossip. But from what I heard, Olivia was a hard partier.”

  “That’s definitely true; up until recently I was studying to be a Healer and I was in the same class as Olivia. She could party with the best of them.”

  Charlene nodded. “I kind of figured. Anyway, apparently Olivia had a habit of making potions that weren’t exactly on the authorized potions list, and taking them herself. Eventually, the demand for them grew, and she started selling them to friends as well. From what I’ve heard, someone in Las Brujas found out that she had quite a network and approached her about selling for the gang. For the last four months, apparently, Olivia has been selling not only her own stuff, but also other potions on behalf of Las Brujas.”

  That story sounded a lot like what had happened to Professor Oak, and what I suspected had happened to my parents as well. I wouldn’t have been surprised if Olivia hadn’t wanted to be involved at all and ended up finding herself in an impossible situation. By all accounts, the gang was not easy to deal with at the best of times.

  “Do you know anybody in Las Brujas that she might have dealt with?” I asked, and Charlene shook her head.

  “No idea. I didn’t know her at all, and everything I’ve heard is just speculation. Apparently her boyfriend has holed himself up since her death. A few people are saying that he was the one who encouraged her to start selling the potions, and he’s feeling extremely guilty about it now. You might want to see if he’s up to talking to you. But don’t be surprised if he isn’t; I believe he got taken to the college hospital last night and is on suicide watch.”

  “Ok, thanks,” Akari said.

  “Are you staying around? We should catch up for lunch,” Charlene said.

  “Yes, send me a text later. It’s been way too long.”

  Akari and I made our way back into the hallway, and I stared at the hardwood floors as my feet tapped along them. Was Olivia being blackmailed into selling for the gang? Were my parents lucky that they only ended up in jail, and not worse? I didn’t know, but I was going to do my best to find out.

  Chapter 4

  While I didn’t know my way around the witchiology building, I could make my way around the college hospital completely blindfolded. After all, this was where I had spent years of my life, and where I had expected to spend a few more years before becoming a Healer.

  As soon as I walked through the doors, an Assistant Healer walking past flashed me a smile. “Hey, Megan. Good to see you again!”

  I waved, and Akari followed after me as I made my way through the halls to the psychiatric part of the hospital where I suspected they were keeping Olivia’s boyfriend.

  When we reached the area in question, I made my way to the front desk. Luckily, I knew the Assistant Healer working there today, a witch named Esme with curly blonde hair that would have been incredibly popular back in the eighties, cat’s-eye glasses, and big blue eyes.

  “Oh, Megan! How lovely to see you again,” she said when I reached the desk and she looked up. “But what brings you here? I thought you’d moved back to Pacific Cove.”

  “I did,” I said. “I had to take care of the family business.”

  “Right. Such a shame, what happened,” Esme said, shaking her head sadly and tutting. “I didn’t know your parents, but I’m very sad for you and for your family. I do hope you’ll be able to come back in the future and finish your studies; you were such a promising student.”

  “Thanks, Esme,” I said with a smile. “Listen, I heard about Olivia.”

  “Right? Such a shame. What a bright young witch. Didn’t make the best decisions in life, that one, but you could tell her something once and she had it stored up in here forever,” Esme said, tapping herself on the temple. “They always say, never drink anything you don’t know the origins of. But my goodness, the old people who came up with that obviously don’t remember what college was like. After you’ve had a few—whether drinks or potions—you’re not exactly thinking with your head screwed on tight. Besides, you ask me, they shouldn’t be blaming Olivia for getting herself killed. They should be blaming the nutjob who poisoned her in the first place!”

  I smiled. I had forgotten just how much I liked Esme. She acted a little bit like a mother hen to the new Healer students, which was very nice of her, especially since a few of them just thought of her as a lowly Assistant Healer not worth their time.

  “I agree. Was she still with…what was his name? Ryan?”

  “That’s right,” Esme nodded. “Ryan Montlake. He’s in here now, actually, poor thing. Olivia’s death just broke him completely.” She shook her head sadly.

  “We heard,” I said softly. “It can’t have been easy for him.”

  “No, it wasn’t. They brought him in last night, after a couple of his friends called the college administration and said they were worried for his health. I was actually one of the Assistant Healers called in to go help get him.”

  “Oh?”

  “Yes, it was quite the scene. We made our way late last night to the house Olivia and a number of their friends shared. He was in her bedroom, lying on her bed. He kept claiming that she didn’t want to do it, that they made her do it.”

  “Who? Who made her do what?” I asked, leaning forward.

  “Who knows? I asked him, but he wasn’t making any sense whatsoever. He kept repeating that over and over. He said everything was going wrong, that it wasn’t supposed to happen that way. He said that Jasmine was going to pay.”

  I raised my eyebrows. I couldn’t help but wonder if Jasmine was Jasmine Sky, another student here at Spellford. She was also studying to be a Healer, but as far as I was aware, she and Olivia ran in very different circles. Still, I had no recollection of any sort of beef between them. If anything had happened, it had to have been recent. I made a mental note to try and find out.

  “Could I see him?” I asked. “It’s really important. It has to do with my parents.”

  Esme shook her head. “Sorry, dear. I’m afraid hospital regulations say you can’t see him until he’s been declared mentally sound. And let me tell you—I was just in there an hour ago—he’s got some ways to go yet.”

  I sighed disappointedly, and Esme gave me a kind look. “Besides, you’re not going to get anything useful out of him, anyway. Trust me on that one. The poor boy stopped talking as soon as they brought him into the hospital, and for the last few hours all he’s been doing is crying and moaning nonsense to himself. Not even words.”

  “Alright,” I said. “Thanks, Esme.”

  “Of course, dear. And listen, if you need anyone to talk to, there’s a Healer working on call right now. She’s in the student area at the back of the hospital. I think it’s probably a good idea for you to speak to her, since you knew Olivia. I know you might not feel it now, since you weren’t good friends with her, but you’re likely grieving. You really should consider it.”


  “Thanks, Esme, I will,” I said with a smile.

  “And your friend is welcome to speak with her as well, if she’d like. The Healer is here on behalf of the school, and for anyone who requires her services.”

  “Thank you very much,” Akari said with a smile.

  “Now, off you go. I do hope life is treating you well in Pacific Cove.”

  “Very well, thanks, Esme. I’ll have to remember to bring you some chocolates next time.”

  “Oh, you know the way to my heart all too well,” Esme winked as Akari and I left.

  “Do you know this Jasmine?” Akari asked when we were back out in the hall, and I nodded.

  “Yeah. She wasn’t friends with Olivia, as far as I know. She’s another Healer student.”

  “Where to next, then?”

  “I want to chat with some of Olivia’s friends,” I said. “Maybe they’ll know what Ryan was talking about when Esme and the others came in to get him.”

  “Alright,” Akari said. “I think that might be best to do on your own. After all, you’ll know her friends, whereas I don’t, and they might be more open with an insider. I’ll go hang out with Charlene for a while and have that lunch. Why don’t you text me when you’re ready to head back to Pacific Cove?”

  “Sounds good,” I said. “Have fun!”

  “I won’t say the same to you, but good luck,” Akari replied. With a quick wave, she headed back off in the direction of the witchiology building. I pulled out my phone and started texting to find out where the Healer students were, and where I might find some of Olivia Stone’s friends.

  A couple of witches that I’d studied with a fair bit told me there was an informal memorial for Olivia happening at the giant house where she and a number of other students lived. I got the address and made my way there.

  I wondered if the memorial would draw too big a crowd to fit inside the house where Olivia had lived. I found the address and dropped my broom off with a pile of others against the front gate. As I gaped up at the home in front of me, I realized my fears were unfounded.