Harper Grant and the Poisoned Pumpkin Pie Page 4

“I don’t know why you would say that,” Bruce blustered. “That’s absolute nonsense. She’s my brother’s wife.”

  I nodded. “I know, but you’re in love with her anyway.”

  Bruce’s face crumpled, and I thought he was about to confess to everything when his expression hardened, and he said, “I know what you’re thinking, and you’re wrong! Yes, I care for Claudine deeply, but she is Leo’s wife. I love her, but I would never do anything to hurt my brother.”

  His cheeks were still flushed, and his eyes burned with conviction. He did sound convincing. Was he telling the truth? Before I could ask him any more questions, he flapped a hand at me. “I can’t talk about this now, and really it’s none of your business anyway.”

  Bruce walked off, leaving me alone with the security guard in the corridor.

  “That wasn’t very nice,” the security guard commented.

  I nodded. “You’re right. I just thought he might have had something to do with it and…” I let my voice trail away. There was no point trying to explain. I held up the get well card I was holding. “Is it okay if I give this to Leo?”

  The security guard nodded. “He’s still asleep. But you could leave it on the nightstand.”

  I walked into Leo’s hospital room. He was lying on the bed with his eyes closed, sleeping peacefully. He looked a little pale, but other than that he looked absolutely fine.

  I tiptoed over to his bed and placed the get well card on his nightstand and then left the room, closing the door softly behind me.

  “Thanks,” I said to the security guard and walked off along the corridor. I was almost at the swinging doors when I heard a female voice behind me. I turned and saw a medic wearing green scrubs talking to the security guard.

  “There’s a phone call for you,” she told him.

  The security guard frowned and pulled his phone out of his pocket.

  She pointed behind her. “They called the nurses’ station and said it was urgent. It’s your boss apparently.”

  The security guard grumbled under his breath and stood up. He opened the door to Leo’s room, stuck his head inside, and then satisfied that all was fine, he followed the woman wearing scrubs along the corridor and disappeared out of sight.

  I walked on, pushing through the swinging doors, but paused on the other side. That had been very suspicious. If it was his boss, why didn’t he call him on his cell phone? It seemed to me that somebody wanted the security guard out of the way. Bruce hadn’t yet returned and so Leo was all alone. I decided to wait. Just in case something happened before Bruce or the security guard returned.

  I stood beside the door, peering out of the small, square window.

  I didn’t have to wait long.

  A few seconds later a man entered the other end of the corridor. He was carrying a gift basket in front of him, partially obscuring his face, but I would recognize that red velvet jacket anywhere. It was Jonathan Copeland, Leo’s agent.

  When he reached the door to Leo’s hospital room, he looked over his shoulder to check if the coast was clear, and when he saw he was alone, he went inside the room, leaving the gift basket outside on the floor in the corridor.

  What should I do? Where was Bruce?

  I had no idea why Leo’s agent would want him dead. After all, if Leo died, there would be no more bestsellers. But I couldn’t stop to think about that now. I was the only one who knew Leo could be in danger, and I had to do something about it.

  I rushed forward, pushing open the swinging doors and darting down the corridor towards Leo’s room.

  When I burst into the small hospital room, I saw Jonathan Copeland leaning over Leo, holding a syringe in his hand.

  “Stop!”

  Jonathan barely bothered to glance at me. His lips curved up in a tight smile. “I’ll deal with you in a minute,” he said as he brought the syringe close to Leo’s neck.

  Without stopping to think, I muttered a spell under my breath. It was the arrestiva spell, or at least, I thought it was. It was supposed to make the subject of the spell stop whatever they were doing. As you may have gathered, spells are not my strong suit.

  But something worked because the syringe suddenly jumped out of Jonathan’s hand and floated in midair.

  Jonathan let out a shriek of surprise and staggered backwards. The syringe began to spin and dance in front of us.

  It probably would have been impressive, if I’d meant to do it.

  “What’s going on?” Jonathan screeched as the syringe swayed dangerously close to his face.

  He turned on his heel and tried to bolt from the room. Unfortunately for him, his foot caught on the leg of a visitor’s chair, and he went sprawling forward. He hit the tiled floor heavily and whacked his head.

  In the next moment, the syringe clattered harmlessly to the floor. The door burst opened, and the large security guard towered over me. He did a double-take when he saw Jonathan on the ground with a hand clamped to his head and moaning in pain.

  “What happened?” The security guard asked as he checked on Leo.

  I pointed at Jonathan. “He snuck in here with a syringe and was about to inject Leo when I caught him.”

  The bulky security guard reached over and grabbed Jonathan, putting his hands behind his back and clamping on a pair of handcuffs. “I’m a fool,” he said. “I just fell for the oldest trick in the book.” He looked at me and shook his head. “When I got to the phone, there was nobody on the other end of the line. I strongly suspect this gentleman was responsible for the phone call.”

  Jonathan began to blubber. “Okay, you caught me red-handed, but just keep her away from me.”

  The security guard blinked in surprise and looked me up and down. “Did you take him out? Have you taken self-defense classes?”

  He looked impressed.

  I shrugged. “I’d like to take credit for it, but actually he just fell over and hit his head.”

  The security guard chuckled.

  I was surprised Leo hadn’t stirred through all the commotion. “He’d sleep through a herd of stampeding elephants.”

  “He was heavily sedated,” Bruce said as he walked into the room. “What on earth is going on here?”

  The security guard and I looked at each other, and I shrugged.

  “I think you’d better telephone for the police,” the security guard said. “It looks like this young lady has discovered who tried to murder your brother.”

  Chapter Eight

  The security guard pulled Jonathan Copeland outside into the corridor and made him sit on the chair he’d been using earlier. Jonathan sat staring at the floor, muttering to himself. Every now and then, he’d shoot me a fearful look.

  It wasn’t long before Chief Wickham and Deputy McGrady arrived. I wasn’t exactly looking forward to seeing them. Of course, I was glad they were taking Jonathan Copeland into custody, but Chief Wickham and Joe had a bee in their bonnet when it came to my involvement in some of their investigations. It really wasn’t my fault…most of the time.

  When Joe arrived, he looked down at me with his serious, blue eyes and shook his head. “I would ask what went on here, but I’m not sure I really want to know.”

  Chief Wickham clamped a large hand on Jonathan Copeland’s shoulder. “Right, Mr Copeland. You are coming with us.”

  Since Bruce had telephoned for the police, Jonathan Copeland hadn’t been able to string a coherent sentence together. Now, to my horror, he found his voice.

  He pointed at me. “She’s a witch! Yes, take me with you. Arrest me, throw me in jail… anything. Just get me away from her. She made the needle float in mid-air!”

  I swallowed hard.

  Chief Wickham frowned. “Did he stick himself with the needle? The way he is talking, it sounds like some of the drugs got into his system.”

  I shook my head. “I don’t think so. He dropped the needle, and it fell on the floor after I startled him.”

  Jonathan Copeland’s eyes widened. “I didn’t drop it!
You made it jump out of my hands and then made it dance in front of my eyes!”

  The security guard, who was standing behind me, chuckled and then everybody began to laugh. I nervously joined in.

  No one believed Jonathan’s claims. I’d had a lucky escape. It could have been much worse. I thanked my lucky stars the security guard hadn’t come into Leo’s room a couple of seconds earlier. Otherwise, I really would have some explaining to do!

  I was relieved to get back to Abbott Cove and put the nasty business of Leo’s poisoning behind me. Before I went home, I called in at the diner to thank Loretta for her help and tell Archie about my eventful afternoon.

  News had already traveled back to Abbott Cove. I would never understand how the gossip network worked so quickly. The internet had nothing on the Abbott Cove grapevine.

  Sarah put a cake box into my hands and gave me a bag of freshly baked rolls. “Your Grandmother ordered them. She wants you to take them to her.”

  I beamed at her. “What kind of cake is it?”

  “Chocolate,” Sarah said with a wink.

  I thanked her and put the food down on the table as my cell phone began to buzz in my pocket. It was Deputy Joe McGrady phoning to give me an update. Jonathan Copeland had been charged. Apparently, he promised to cooperate and tell the police absolutely everything as long as they kept me away from him. I cringed and thanked Joe for the update before hanging up.

  Grandma Grant insisted on making my favorite soup —leek and potato— and served them with Sarah’s fresh rolls. She grinned at me as she gave me a second helping.

  She was proud of me, though she would never say so in so many words.

  As we ate, I told Jess and Grandma how things had unfolded in Leo’s hospital room. They both agreed that the spell I’d used hadn’t been the arrestiva spell, but neither of them knew what spell I’d actually cast.

  “It sounds like a mixture of the spinning spell and the temporary floating spell. I’m surprised it worked. Very interesting,” Jess said. “I’ll have to look it up later.”

  Jess had always had an odd fascination with spells and studied them just for fun.

  “Did you try to use magic to help Leo?” I asked. I hadn’t dared attempt a spell with my track record but I was curious to know whether magic could help someone who’d been poisoned.

  “I saw Grandma Grant was muttering an anti-choking spell,” Jess said. “But of course, it didn’t do any good because he wasn’t choking. He was poisoned. Sometimes spells can help, but if you don’t know what’s causing the trouble, it’s very hard to create a spell as an antidote.”

  I nodded thoughtfully and swallowed another mouthful of soup.

  “I think we can all agree that Harper got lucky on this occasion,” Grandma Grant said, spreading butter on her roll. “But, Harper, you really do need to work on your spells!”

  I was glad when Jess changed the subject. “One thing I don’t understand is Jonathan Copeland’s motive. I mean, how did he benefit from Leo dying? Surely, he would want him to stay alive and keep writing as long as possible.”

  “I’ve been thinking about that, too. I overheard a conversation Jonathan had, and it sounded like he owed money. Leo wasn’t writing anymore, and Jonathan was losing hope. I think he had a crazy theory that if Leo died, it would create a lot of publicity, and Leo’s old books would shoot to the top of the bestseller lists again.”

  “Makes sense,” Jess said. “You see albums selling in huge numbers after musicians die. I suppose it’s a similar thing. Do the police know how Jonathan Copeland got hold of the poison?”

  "From his Grandmother. Jonathan found the poison in her garden shed when he inherited her house. She made the herbal mixture, which contained aconite, to kill mice, but Jonathan had the bright idea it would work equally well on humans."

  Jess grimaced.

  “I’d liked to know why he picked my pie!” Grandma Grant grumbled.

  “Oh, he didn’t,” I said. “Your pie was ruined by Mrs Townsend, but Joe told me the poison was sprinkled on top of Adele’s pie, not yours. They got the full toxicology results back a little while ago.”

  Grandma Grant grinned. “Really? I can’t wait to tell her.”

  “Grandma…” Jess and I both said simultaneously in a disapproving tone.

  She shrugged. “What? I was just going to offer my sympathy.”

  A likely story. I had a feeling this feud between Grandma Grant and Adele was going to run and run.

  After polishing off Sarah’s delicious chocolate cake for dessert, we sat around the cozy fire with Athena stretched out on the rug in front of us, luxuriating in the warmth from the flames.

  I sighed with contentment as I watched the yellow flames lick the crackling logs.

  “Back to work tomorrow,” Jess said, yawning sleepily. “No more excitement.”

  I reached forward to stroke Athena and said, “I’m looking forward to it. I’ve had more than enough excitement to last me a lifetime.”

  “You say that,” Grandma Grant said. “But there will be another mystery along soon, and you’ll have to stick your nose in. You won’t be able to help yourself.”

  I looked at Grandma Grant and narrowed my eyes. “Stick my nose in? I was only investigating because I thought you would be the prime suspect! You could show a little gratitude.”

  “Of course, I’m grateful, but I can’t give you too much praise. It’ll go to your head.”

  “Fat chance of that with you and Jess around,” I said dryly. Athena jumped on my lap and curled up, and I smiled. “At least someone appreciates me.”

  A note from Danica Britton

  Thank you for reading my Harper Grant Series. I hope you enjoyed this book! If you have the time to leave a review, I would be very grateful.

  If you would like to be one of the first to find out when my next book is available, you can sign up for my new release email here: Newsletter

  For readers who like to read series books in order here is the order of the series so far: 1) A Witchy Business 2) A Witchy Mystery 3) A Witchy Christmas 4) A Witchy Valentine 5) Harper Grant and the Poisoned Pumpkin Pie 6) A Witchy Bakeoff.

  http://www.dsbutlerbooks.com/danicabritton/

  Also by Danica Britton

  Harper Grant Cozy Mysteries

  A Witchy Business

  A Witchy Mystery

  A Witchy Christmas

  A Witchy Valentine

  Harper Grant and the Poisoned Pumpkin Pie

  A Witchy Bake Off

  Acknowledgments

  To Nanci, my editor, thanks for always managing to squeeze me in when I finally finish my books!

  My thanks, too, to all the people who read the story and gave helpful suggestions.

  And last but not least, my thanks to you for reading this book. I hope you enjoyed it.