It Must Be Magic by Jennifer Skully Read Free Book Online Page A

repeat
not
dating a man who touches dead people.”
    “Just because he runs a funeral home doesn’t mean he actually touches them.” Lili liked to think the crinkles at his eyes were laugh lines, but she hadn’t seen him laugh much, which was expected since he dealt with grieving families all the time. That must be the worst, your whole job spent working with people who were crying, shell-shocked or inappropriately happy because Grandpa had left them a chunk of money in his will. Or mad as a rattler because he hadn’t.
    That didn’t make Joseph Swann a bad guy. “Give him a shot.”
    Kate bared her teeth. “No!” Then she started on the coin count. “Now, about calling the cops.”
    That was the thing about Kate. You couldn’t sidetrack her. She always came back to her original point if you didn’t let her make it the first time.
    “You know I can’t call the police. If there’s a whiff of trouble again at the halfway house, they’ll shut the place down like they did when Elvira Gulch complained about that man peeing on her roses.” It had taken six months to reopen the home after all the red tape. “Those people need a place to live.” Although Lili agreed it wasn’t right for him to pee on the roses.
    “Her name isn’t Elvira Gulch.”
    “But she reminds me of the wicked witch on her bicycle when she tries to take Toto to the pound. I hear that music playing every time I see her. Doo-dee-doo-dee-doo-doo.”
    Kate laughed. “You are so funny. But you need to do something about that woman hassling you every day.”
    “It’s not every day. Only every couple of weeks.” Whenever the woman happened to catch her alone on the sidewalk. Lili had first encountered her while she’d been soothing a puppy’s nerves when his owner had tied him to a lamppost outside the Coffee Stain. The poor little thing had been experiencing separation anxiety.
    And Lady D. had started experiencing
something
toward Lili.
    “It’s scary,” Kate said.
    It wasn’t so much scary as unsettling. Lili wasn’t afraid. Not in an oh - my - God - she - might - have - a - meat - cleaver - in - her - purse kind of way. Lady Dreadlock didn’t have a purse.
    The woman didn’t terrify her as much as Fluffy’s images slamming into her mind had done. That was something she had to take care of ASAP. Or at least before the sun went down. “Can I leave a little early today, Kate? I’ve got some errands I want to run, and I don’t like riding my bike home after dark.”
    “At least you’re sensible about
something,
and yes, I can lock up tonight.” Kate was the
best
boss.
    “Thanks.” Lili scuttled past into the back room before Kate could return to talk of the dreadlock lady. The back area was much bigger than the front of the shop since that’s where the majority of the work was done and the flowers were stored.
    “You’re avoiding the issue,” Kate’s voice followed.
    Lili set down her coffee and Danish. The issue. What was the issue? Lady D.? Or Fluffy and what he’d seen? Or Tanner Rutland and what he wasn’t willing to do about it?
    She poked her head out the door. “Can I ask a question?”
    Kate glanced over her shoulder. “You can ask whatever you want. After I hear it, I’ll decide whether I want to answer.”
    “Deal.” She took a deep breath and spilled the whole story. “Erika Rutland is the girl who lives next door to me, and her cat saw a murder in the woods, and the body hasn’t been discovered yet, so I can’t go to the police because they won’t believe me unless I find the body, but Tanner — that’s Erika’s father — won’t let me talk to the cat or Erika about it, so I have no idea where the body is, and what would you do in my place?”
    Kate smacked a roll of quarters on the counter and poured them into the cash drawer. “How old is this Tanner guy?”
    “Thirty-five, thirty-seven, something like that.”
    “Is he a hottie?”
    He was definitely a hottie — better than funeral