Pumpkin Spice & Poltergeist (Maple Hollow #1)

Rudy had been close to the demon side of Lou’s family. He had performed the autopsy, delivered the news to her parents, and had even given a eulogy at her funeral. I didn’t blame him for hating me or blaming me for what had happened to Lou.

“I wasn’t grieving,” Lou protested.

“She wasn’t grieving,” I echoed, folding my arms over my cable-knit sweater.

If Rudy had eyebrows, I swore he would have arched one. “I’ve worked in this job long enough to see people do all sorts of surprising things.” His voice was an echoey baritone, reverberating around his hollow pumpkin skull. “I also know that when people lose someone they care about, they try to make meaning out of things.”

I balled my hands into fists and took a step forward. Iris swept in front of me, always covering my bursts of anger.

“How’s Sheila doing, Rudy?” Iris asked in a saccharine falsetto. “You know, I’ve just made a delectable new perfume that, um, really gets the passion going, if you know what I mean.”

Rudy’s head swiveled toward Iris. It was a poorly kept secret that he and his pumpkin-headed wife were having marital troubles. I had to bite my lips together to keep from smiling. Iris had an innocent face, but she was a witch through and through.

Iris lifted the flap to her leather messenger bag and fished out a vial. She waggled it and then set it on Rudy’s desk.

Rudy’s gaze dropped to the vial. “I suppose you’ll be wanting to barter this toxicity report for it?”

“A gift for a gift,” Iris said. “Let poor Jordyn get some closure.”

Rudy let out a breathy sigh and turned his chair around to the filing cabinet behind him.

“That sweet little doe is a master of manipulation,” Lou said with an impressed nod. “You hang on to her. Everyone needs a best friend like that.”

I smiled down at my shoes, unable to relay the message to Iris aloud.

“Here ya go.” Rudy dropped a thin file onto his desk with an unceremonious smack. “I expect that to be returned by this time tomorrow.”

“Of course,” Iris crooned. “Enjoy the perfume,” she added with a wink and grabbed the file.

Lou dropped to the floor. The cabinet she had been perched on wobbled, catching Rudy’s attention. Could he see Lou, too? Or maybe feel her the way Iris had? He was the medical examiner in a spooky town; he had to have seen or known ghosts before.

I wasn’t given the chance to think on it more, though, because Iris practically shouted, “Have a good night—I mean, day,” then hustled me out the door.

We were two buildings down when she started waving the folder in front of her. “Goddess, I was choking on that disinfectant smell. How does that not bother him?”

“He doesn’t have a nose,” I pointed out. “Here. Let me look.”

I grabbed for the file right as a figure came barreling out of the alley. We collided, papers flying everywhere as a familiar voice started saying, “Sorry! Sorry!”

I glanced up from where I was crouched collecting the papers and saw Harlow, who propped a stuffed trash bag against the corner of the building before she joined me to help.

“Harlow!” I squeaked as she passed me a wayward sheet of paper.

“Sorry, I was trying to get the bag in the dumpster. The one behind the bakery was full so I had to hunt for one all the way over here. I must have swung it a little too forcefully,” she said, her cheeks turning a shade of tomato.

I chuckled. “Just a little.”

Iris had darted onto the grass to grab the last two sheets of paper. “Got ‘em!” she shouted as she grabbed the last page from where it clung to the fake cobwebbing around the gazebo.

Harlow looked down at the file in my hands. “A coroner’s report? Do I even want to know what witchy ritual involves medical documents?”

That made a little burble of surprised laughter escape my lips. “Witchy rituals?”

She waved around the square. “I don’t know! It was the first thing that came to mind.”

Goddess, her smile was incredible. It was this shining, megawatt sort of smile that made my insides light up. It was like even the ether around her had a shimmer to it.

“Jordyn?” she asked, and I realized I was just gaping at her aura.