A Cold Case Froze (Ice Witch Mysteries Book 2) Read online

  A Cold Case Froze

  J. L. Collins

  A Cold Case Froze © J. L. Collins 2020.

  First Edition.

  All rights reserved. No part of this story may be used, reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission of the copyright holder, except in the case of brief quotations embodied within critical reviews and articles.

  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.

  The author has asserted his/her rights under the Copyright Designs and Patents Acts 1988 (as amended) to be identified as the author of this book.

  Cover design by Cozy Cover Designs - Molly Burton

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  This book is dedicated to my dedicated readers and supportive members of The Chilly Witch Book Club.

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  More from J. L. Collins

  Spell Maven Mystery Series Order:

  Spell Maven from Spell Haven (Book 1)

  Snitch Witch (Book 2)

  Tragic Magick (Book 3)

  Witch Hazel Lane Mystery Series Order:

  Grits in the Graveyard (Book 1)

  Devil on My Doorstep (Book 2)

  Monsters Under the Magnolia (Book 3)

  Ice Witch Mystery Series Order:

  A Cold Case In Spell (Book 1)

  A Cold Case Froze (Book 2)

  Contents

  1. Out Of The Sky

  2. A Fan Fave

  3. Can’t Miss It

  4. Hop Down

  5. Find The Balance

  6. There Better Be Cupcakes

  7. The New Guy

  8. Holmes And Watson

  9. Boss Lady

  10. Faulty Statement

  11. Girl’s Night

  12. Clouded Judgment

  13. The Truth About Ash

  14. Grasping At Straws

  15. If It Helps

  16. Priorities

  17. Take Your Own Advice

  18. Bird Bait

  19. The Cave

  20. Enjoy The View

  If You Like This Book…

  Series by J. L. Collins

  About the Author

  1

  Out Of The Sky

  Next to me, the coffee machine bubbled and hissed while crimson coffee slowly drained into the mug underneath.

  Wait…

  I pinched the bridge of my nose and sucked in a quick breath. “Drusilla? Is that a vamp-rigged coffee machine over there?”

  If she was capable of blushing, I knew she’d be flushed.

  “I wouldn’t necessarily call it a coffee machine…” She batted her long lashes at me, conjuring up an innocent face that didn’t quite match the thigh-high boots she was sporting.

  “Fun. Well, I guess I can’t expect you to start your day off without a nice warm mug of blood…” I trailed off, already regretting looking at the frothing liquid as she scooped up the mug with a guilty smile. I swallowed in an attempt not to offend my new co-worker.

  “I’m not a morning person,” she said breezily, leaning against the counter.

  And that of course, made total sense considering Drusilla was a vampire.

  I’d met her not long after first getting stuck in this lovely but completely cursed town, so I was glad to see a familiar face when the Special Council gave me the keys to the Gazette and my shiny new position, editor in chief. When I asked her why she didn’t want the job, she’d laughed. I don’t like micromanaging. And only witches have been the editors on the paper since the beginning.

  I wasn’t sure how to feel about that one, but what did I know about how things worked around here?

  Have I had experience working on a newspaper, ever? No. Am I experienced in any kind of non-fictional writing? Also no. But the previous editor in chief sort of kicked the bucket right next to my camper one night, so here I am.

  Ignoring the red stain on her teeth, I clapped my hands together. “Okay. Is this the end of the tour?”

  If so, then what a tour it had been. From the outside looking in, the Charming Springs Gazette looked pretty impressive. It stood striking against the snowy scene like a brick sentry standing guard for downtown.

  The inside was a different story. Like a relic of the past, the large newsroom was empty save for the dust motes clinging to the air. More than a dozen old desks and chairs had been pushed to one side of the room, leaving most of the worn wood floor open. The handful of desks left weren’t set in any pattern other than relatively close to one another—something that made the organizer in me cringe.

  Drusilla didn’t seem to mind the dark and dreary building, though. In fact, she was pleased as pie to flit around from one place to the next wearing a proud smile on her face.

  Tapping her long nails along the mug, she winked. “It’s a good place to stop. Oh!” She leapt forward but gracefully enough not to spill her drink of choice. “I can’t believe I almost forgot to show you Henny!”

  Henny? No relation to the notorious chicken, right? Well, this ought to be interesting.

  I gestured for her to lead the way and followed until we stopped in our tracks right outside a door with a doorknob that was held up on a wing and a prayer.

  She gave a little knock and carefully opened the door.

  A short, squat woman with wide-set eyes behind horn-rimmed glasses was busy thumbing through paperwork on her desk. The tiny room was just big enough to fit the desk, the chair, and old news clippings all over the dingy walls.

  She did not look up.

  “Henny, sweet! Look who we have! Our new editor has come to check things out today,” Drusilla crooned, unfazed by the way Henny ignored her.

  I cleared my throat. “Hello, I’m Indie Warren. It’s uh, it’s nice to meet you.”

  She looked at me over the top of her glasses and then back down at the paperwork stacked in front of her.

  For some reason Drusilla giggled. “Henny is our office manager here at the Gazette. Well, she does all of the day-to-day officey type stuff, anyway. She doesn’t like labels. Right, Henny?”

  I was pretty sure she didn’t like much of anything, but I gave her a little wave. “I appreciate the help. I’ll take whatever support you’ve got.”

  Henny made a noise… I think.

  Drusilla nudged my arm and gave me a cheeky grin. “Let’s go check out your desk some more.” She blew Henny a kiss and shut the door before I had the chance to see if there was any reaction.

  “And we round out our tour right where we started,” she said with a flourish, sitting on the edge of my desk. “So. What do you think of the place?”

  I had plenty of words, but even as the editor of a supernatural town’s newspaper, I couldn’t quite find them. When I’d agreed to take up the helm of the Charming Springs Gazette, I knew it would be a work in progress. Glancing around the dark and dusty newsroom wasn’t giving me the confidence I hoped it would.

  But I couldn’t let on. I sat down and flashed her a smile. “I think it needs a lot of work but I’m anxious to get started.”

  She squealed, something I was learning was a pretty common reaction of hers, and hopped back up. “Awesome. And you’re absolutely right, it will take some work. Even Beatrice, may she rest in peace, was considering hiring another person to help out. We had enough in
the budget to buy some new camera equipment for the first time in decades, plus a little left over. And neither of us really got the chance to try it out before well, you know.” She put her hands up to the side of her face, pretending to sleep.

  “Oh, right. The time spell.”

  The time spell that I may have broken just by showing up in town when I did. That was only one of many mysteries my new friends and I were working to solve. Witches? Magic? Curses? Just another day in Charming Springs, I’m afraid.

  “That’s great that we have newer equipment to play around with but I’m not sure we need an extra person on the team just yet. It looks a little well, dead… for lack of a better term.”

  She shrugged. “We just need to get back to business. I’m sure we’ll be busy before long.”

  I nodded. I wasn’t about to disagree with someone who had decades of experience in the newsroom over me. “Let’s put a hold on bringing more people in until we’ve got this baby back on track, okay?”

  Drusilla seemed to blur past me as she took a seat at her desk across from me. “So shall it be written, so shall it be done!”

  “When I finally get that first paycheck, I promise this won’t be an issue,” I said, heaving my tote bag full of groceries over my shoulder.

  Ash looked down at me from the corner of his eyes. “It’s not an issue. Other than the unnecessary hike back to your truck. Really, I don’t see why I can’t just take us back—”

  “Like I said, it’s a nice night out all things considered. They even managed to keep the sidewalks cleared. And I’m passing on the teleporting anyway because I didn’t get my usual exercise in today. I need to get in the steps. Not all of us can be in mysteriously great shape.”

  It was true. Ash always had his nose in a book in some corner of the library he kept up, and I’d never seen him do much else in the way of activity other than walking. Sometimes. Yet his lean muscle and sharp jawline were two of the first noticeable things about him. Well, that and his golden hazel eyes.

  Must be nice.

  As if he could read my mind, Ash sighed. “If you say so.”

  I knew he was still slightly irritated with me after he came by the camper and saw I didn’t have much in the way of groceries. It was like he was some mother hen pecking at me to stay on top of things, making me go out at ten o’clock at night to pick up some groceries with him.

  He had no idea how much I hated showing up to Ye Olde General Store without a dime to my name just yet. Ever since I realized I had to crash here in town indefinitely, I’ve been relying on Ash to pay for my food. Embarrassing was an understatement. I’ve never had to be dependent on anyone for anything as an adult, thanks to what my Nan calls ‘proper raising.’

  “Everything seems sound at the Gazette,” Ash said, his breath visible in the cool night air.

  I nodded. “At least Drusilla knows what to do. I think I’d be lost without her. I have to say, I wasn’t sure what to expect working with her, but she knows her stuff. She said something to me that sort of caught me off guard though, when I asked her why she didn’t just take the editor job herself.”

  “Ah.”

  I squinted at him. “Something about only witches being the editors at the paper? Does that sound about right?”

  “I don’t know how they run it, but as far as I know that’s been the case. Is that the only reason she didn’t want the position?”

  “Well, no. She also said she didn’t want to manage other people, which I get. It’s not my idea of fun, either. I don’t know… I just thought it was weird. Guess I’ll table it for now.”

  “It’s probably best. Last I checked, you already have your hands full with more than just groceries.” The corner of his mouth quirked up and I stared straight ahead, careful not to slip on the nearly-invisible patch of ice in front of me.

  He wasn’t wrong—I did have a lot to deal with already. I was keeping up with magic lessons with my friend Fatima, learning how to control not one but four different elemental powers, and even more importantly, trying to find a way out of town.

  “As far as the Special Council goes, no one seems to have heard anything about your… magic. So far, so good there,” he added. “Are you still trying to—”

  I quickly nodded. “Definitely,” I said, already knowing exactly what he was talking about. “The moment I figure out how to get past the barrier, I’m out of here.”

  Whenever the topic came up Ash went quiet. He was trying even harder than I was to figure out how to break the curse that kept Charming Springs trapped in an eternal winter and within a barrier where no one can get in or out.

  He pushed his dark hair away from his face. “Of course. Which is why I think you should take it easy at the paper. The town will be okay if the news is lagging under new management.”

  My jaw dropped. “Are you insinuating that I’m not cut out to be the editor? Wow, such faith you have in me. Some friend you are.”

  “Mmhm. Such a terrible friend,” he said, making a show of adjusting the tote bags he was carrying as well.

  My cheeks burned. “Still. I don’t think the Gazette is necessarily going to crash and burn around me just because I’m a little inexperienced. It can’t be that hard to keep up a small-town newspaper.”

  “I wouldn’t know. But I also wouldn’t underestimate it.”

  “No one’s underestimating anything here. I’m an English professor, remember? I know words. Okay yes, an assistant professor,” I amended, seeing the look on his face. “But a professor nonetheless.”

  The sudden incline of the sidewalk had me huffing and puffing until we reached peak of the slope that led up to the college campus. It sat high on the hill, looming over everything else. I looked up at it, a wave of loneliness catching me right in the chest. It’d been months since I last checked in with the English department at UMD. I could only imagine what the professors and staff must think of my absence.

  As much as I was surprised to admit it, I missed teaching.

  We started to cross the long drive that led up to the campus when a herd of large flying creatures bumrushed us all at once.

  I shrieked and ran like mad through the crowd, trying not to drop my groceries.

  “Watch it you idiots!” Ash shouted, flashing a dirty look at all of the fairies who were colliding with each other in mid-air, flopping into the snow, and roaring with laughter.

  They were drunk. Most definitely.

  “Shut up, old man!” one of the smaller guys wearing a fraternity sweatshirt laughed, smacking his friend on the back as he stumbled forward out of the snow.

  There were easily a dozen of them, laughing and carrying on, most of them with red cups in their hands. Girls were giggling nonstop at the frat guys, whizzing around with their gossamer wings impervious to the weather. Everyone was so loud you could barely make out a slurred word.

  Two of the guys pitched forward into the snow, their matching green hair sticking up in wet tufts as another guy shoved at them, laughing so hard he was practically squeaking.

  “Ugh. Must be an initiation thing. Gross,” I mumbled, readjusting my bag over my shoulder. “Come on.”

  Ash shook his head and followed after me only needing a few long strides to catch up. “I’ll never understand fraternities.”

  “You and me both. And I bet fairy frat guys are even more obnoxious. All of that flying and being fifty-percent more attractive than everyone else is probably such a headache for their poor professors to deal with.”

  Fairies were an interesting bunch of supernatural creatures. They were the ones you would see wearing short-sleeve shirts and shorts outside in freezing conditions, waving at you in your puffy coat and snow boots.

  I threw one last look back at the morons still rolling around at the bottom of the hill and sighed. “I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the students I taught in school were secretly fairies. There were a couple suspects, for sure.”

  Ash let out a bark of a laugh. “Oh yeah?”
/>   “Yep. Or maybe it was somewhere down the line in their ancestry. Fairies and non-magical humans can have kids, right?”

  He shook his head. “No. There must be enough magic coming from both parents to produce a child. A witch or wizard and a fairy, yes.”

  I recalled the last witch/fairy halfling I ran into. Hopefully they weren’t all as snooty and crotchety as she was.

  “Speaking of ancestry…” Ash began. “I’ve been doing more research…”

  I pretended to cover my mouth. “You? Doing research?” I may have let out a howl of laughter at my own sarcasm.

  “Ha. Ha. Yes, research on your behalf, might I add? I really think if we look further into your bloodline we might find some potential hits on where the trace of magic came from. At least if we can find it on your mother’s side.”

  My mother’s side was really all I knew, and I was good just knowing my Nan. As I’ve always explained to people, my grandmother is a saint, and her daughter ain’t.

  “I’m telling you, there’s no point. My Nan is not a witch. And I think she would’ve told me if anyone in her family was.”

  Ash had been floating this idea between me and Fatima lately. That somewhere along my family’s history someone moved out of Charming Springs and let the magic in our bloodline die out without telling anyone. Whenever a witch or wizard leaves what he calls an ‘anchor’ town for magical folks, they lose their ability to use their magic.

  Then there’s the fact that all witches and wizards can only wield one type of elemental power. Except for me, apparently. No, I have to be the weirdo who can use all four of them. I’m just waiting for the day that someone calls me ’the fifth element’ and I have to get on a spaceship with Bruce Willis.