Page 26 of Real Fake Hauntings

Dru planted his tea on the counter, then dragged me aside.

“What’s all that about?” she whispered. “Does it have to do with Sonia’s visit?”

“Yup.” I glanced at the busy shop and smiled at Hannah, who was watching us with some curiosity. “I’ll explain later.”

Dru wanted to argue, but she also saw the futility of trying to keep a secret in this crowd. Giving me a look that promised retribution if I dared skip on her again, she said, “You better.”

NINE

It wasn’t until we closed the shop for the day that we had a chance to be alone. By then Dru was all but boiling with curiosity.

I really needed to hire another helper. But who? With Key and the strays busy with the tour, there wasn’t anyone else I trusted enough. This was my and Grandma’s dream, after all. I couldn’t let just anyone handle the clientele.

“Well?” Dru urged. She was sitting on a stool at the counter, an open pizza box between us.

I told her about the pentagrams and Sonia’s request.

“If we wake up to a bloody pentagram on the door, I’m out of here,” she warned with a glare.

I squirmed a little. “I checked. No pentagrams.”

Mollified, she bit off a mouthful of pizza. “Any leads?”

I detailed my visit to all the pentagram sites and my questioning of the owners except for the Cabinet, which had been closed.

She wiped her hands on a paper kitchen towel and made grabby hands. “Let me see them.”

“Them?”

“The pentagrams, Hope, not your shifter fanfiction. You took photos, right?”

Shaking my head, I gave her a look of disappointment. “That was unkind. I don’t read shifter fanfiction.” On my phone, anyway. I downloaded the photos to the laptop so we could study them on a bigger screen and placed it on the counter.

Poking the screen, I said, “The pentagrams are well made, but the symbols are odd.”

Dru leaned in. “They look like gibberish.”

“A lot of witches’ shorthand reads like gibberish to others,” I said, although why I was defending a vandal’s handwriting was anyone’s guess. “Let me try something.”

I cropped some of the symbols and did a reverse image search. The returns were underwhelming.

“Are you sure they’re not gibberish meant to sell the whole scary pentagram thing?” Dru asked.

“I thought of that,” I admitted.

“Now there’s a miracle,” Bagley said, loud and clear from the ceramic pumpkin arrangement on one of the tables.

Dru and I froze, our gazes locking.

I laughed awkwardly. “Someone must’ve forgotten their speakers.”

There was a snort. “As if.”

“I, uh…”

“Oh, give it up, child. I might not have a physical head, but I still got all my brains. I can tell she knows about me.”

“If she didn’t, she sure does now,” I snapped. Bagley was getting more and more cheeky with people around. It was concerning. “Dru, meet Bagley, the mistress of all evil.”

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