Page 12 of Haunted Eclipse

Charity finished her coffee. “All right, I’ll talk to her tonight. Thank you. This has been hard, but it helps, though I may not be thrilled over the answer. It would be so much easier if she wanted to see some landmark or something on her bucket list.”

“Bucket lists might be what wewant, but they aren’t always what weneed.” I leaned across the table and rested my hand on Charity’s. “You’ll be okay, Charity. Everything will be okay.”

She thanked me again, and then handed me her credit card. I ran it and then handed it back to her. “Feel free to call if you need my services again. And…good luck to you, and I hope your mother…I hope she passes gently.”

After Charity left, much calmer than when she entered, I sprayed the shop with sage water to clear the energy and then shuffled the cards to set them for my next client. All the while, Ihad the feeling I would be seeing Charity again, though I wasn’t sure why.

By the timemy next client arrived, I had started researching star witches. I needed to know more about them. I had begun to enter info into the database, but soon realized that finding the right match for Brenda was going to be difficult. For one thing, they were the rarest form of witch—or rather, they had one of the rarest magical connections with the elemental forces.

There were a few in the database, but my gut told me that they wouldn’t pan out. I decided to check them out anyway, but I needed more to go on.

At my old job, we had a long list of candidates waiting to be matched up. But my old boss had not encouraged success.

“We want them to keep coming back,” he said. “You don’t make money off of success. At least, nottoo muchsuccess. Give them enough hope. Like gambling. Let the player win a few times, but not big—not the jackpot. They’ll lay their money down every time after that.”

ButIalmostalwaysmade successful matches. My boss had specifically told the others to keep quiet about my success rate, because he knew I hated deliberately mismatching couples.

Eventually, though, some of my colleagues grew irritated and finally my boss let me go. He didn’t exactly say why during my exit interview. He used the excuse that they were overstaffed and that he had to lay off someone. And, regardless of the fact that I was a senior member of the staff, I was the one escorted to the door.

Now, I stared at the database. “Well, I suppose I can try her out with a couple of these guys,” I said to myself. “But I knowthat none of them are it. So, where am I supposed to find therightstar witch? I should have thought of this before I opened my doors.”

I didn’t have any big database for myself, nor had I accumulated listings to start with. But regardless of the difficulty, I knew he was out there and I was determined to find him.

I glanced at the clock. My next reading was due in half an hour. But before she arrived, a light bulb went off. Midnight Point had several social clubs. And one of them happened be sponsored by the Dark Moon Society. At least, it had been in existence when I lived here as a teenager.

I put in a call to Crystal. “Hey, Crystal? Do you remember the name of that social club when we attended when we were kids? Well, teenagers? The one we went to when we turned eighteen and thought we were so sophisticated?”

She thought for a moment. “Oh, you mean theMidnight Hour Social Club?”

“Yes, that’s the one. I was wondering, is it still up and running?”

“I think so. I haven’t gone in ages, but it was still active a few years ago. Why?”

“Oh, I plan to—” I paused as the door opened. “I have to go. My next client is here. I’ll talk to you later, but if you could get any information about where and when they meet, I’d appreciate it.”

“Sure thing,” she said. “Have fun.”

“I hope so,” I said. “My last reading wasn’t exactly a bowl of cherries.” As I hung up and turned to greet my client, I wondered how much the Midnight Hour Social Club had changed. Hopefully, it would still be the soirée that I remembered.

CHAPTER FIVE

The second readingwent far easier. My client — Emily Markwood — wanted advice on a new job she had accepted. Luckily, it was pretty run-of-the-mill stuff. She had a good chance of success if she did her work, follow directions, and didn’t try to change things for a while. Given she was an Aquarius, and it was second nature of her to try and fix things that may not even be broken, I gave her chances about seventy-five percent. It wasn’t that shecouldn’tdo the work, but I spied a rebellious streak in her. She was an individualist through and through. But she seemed content with the reading, paid me with no problem, and said she would come again.

I sighed, deciding it was time to tackle the insurance company again. As I put in a call to them, I prepared myself for another run-around. I finally got hold of a customer service rep.

“Hi, I’m calling to see if there’s any progress on my check. My house burned down.” I gave her my case number and waited.

Ten minutes later, she said, “I’m sorry for the wait. It looks like the claim’s been approved and the check will be sent out with the next batch, at the end of the month.”

“Are you sure?” I asked. “They said that last month.”

“It looks like there was a glitch. But it’s in process right now, and you should receive it shortly after the beginning of February.”

I took down her employee number and the call number, in case there was another glitch, and thanked her. After that, I plastered a sign on the door that I’d be back in half an hour, and headed next door to the Mocha Express, after locking the door. Midnight Point might be a small town, but I was used to high crime rates in Seattle, and didn’t want to take any chances.

The Mocha Expresswas busy as usual. In fact, there was a line out the door. Four people were standing outside, at the back of the line. For a town the size of Midnight Point, that was an impressive queue. I glanced across the street at the Rialto theater. Midnight Point was still small enough of a town for going to the movies to be an event, and they were advertising a new musical that was coming out. I’d heard that it was good, and thought about asking Crystal if she wanted to go.

After juggling my way through the door, I slid inside and looked around to see if there were any tables available. There weren’t, but Crystal saw me.

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