Page 40 of Bewicched

18

Actually, I Do Know a Demon

“We have potion makers in the family,” I suggested. “Maybe one of them—Wait. Do we have any who are sensitive to poison who could check out her tea jars?” Serena and my mom both kept their teas in oversized glass containers with airtight lids. They were labeled and stored in lightless storage rooms. They both had smaller jars out in the shop for brewing each day, as well as special foil-lined packets of their most popular blends to sell to customers.

I was given the vision so we could stop it. Therefore, there had to be a way to intervene.

“Perhaps,” Mom said, lost in thought.

Gran nodded. “Yes, we’ll talk with Bracken. He’s not a Corey—”

“Or terribly stable,” Mom interjected.

“—but,” Gran continued, “he’s quite skilled and he owes me a favor.” She turned to her daughter. “Leave this one to me. He knows me, and his instability will work in our favor. Serena will hate him, but once given the task, he’ll sit in her storeroom, checking the teas over and over. No one will be able to tamper with them. No one will die.”

Gran took another sip of tea. “The child coloring. I didn’t understand that one.”

“Is it related to where you were today?” Mom asked.

I nodded. “Yeah.” I explained what had been going on, my visit from Detective Hernández, Christopher, the killer, and what might have been driving him.

“Do they have ties to the magical community?” Mom asked.

I shook my head. “Not that I know of.”

Mom and Gran wore matching expressions of consternation.

“Why the boy then?” Gran pushed her rocking chair into motion. “Or the girl in the vision, for that matter?”

“We’ll come back to that,” Mom said. “You need to call Phil and have him add fire alarms and sprinklers to the outside of your cannery. Now. Call him.” She looked and sounded angry, but I knew she was just worried.

When she continued to stare at me, I got up and walked to the kitchen to make the call. I went through Gran’s refrigerator while we talked. Phil obviously thought it was a strange request, as we’d already installed smoke detectors and sprinklers inside the gallery. As it meant more money for him, though, he agreed to start that project soon.

Not finding anything to eat, I went back to the living room. “I’m ordering a pizza. Do you guys want some?”

“You can’t order delivery here,” Gran said. “The delivery people can’t find me.”

I thought about that for a minute. “When they get close, I’ll run out to the road and wave them down.”

“Check the freezer,” Gran said. “I usually have one of those French bread pizzas you like in there.”

“Score.” I turned back around and hit the freezer. Yes! I put it in the oven to bake and then went back to the refrigerator for a soda.

When I returned to the living room, Mom and Gran were deep in discussion of how to test and keep her teas safe as well. Mom and Serena had different shops in different areas. Serena catered more to the tourist trade, her shop being on Cannery Row. Mom had a very loyal following that drove into Carmel to visit hers.

“It was so sweet of Calliope to speak to the reporters, to try to clear her sister. She’s a good girl,” Gran said.

“Hey, can’t you get the poison guy to test Mom’s place too?” I sat down and opened my soda.

“We’re going to try,” Gran said, “but he may consider that two favors.”

“Call me crazy, but could you just offer him a lot of money? That usually does it for most people.”

“What a novel approach,” Mom snarked while Gran shook her head.

“He won’t do it for money. He’s quite wealthy already.” Gran held up her empty tea cup.

I hopped up to fill their cups. “Okay. Do any of us have something he wants?”

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