Bewitching Boots Read Online Free Page A

employees congregated on their breaks. The garden was more for the royal personages and their guests.
    What was she doing there?
    It was as much a mystery as Gus’s absence from the gate.
    I could use all of these things to help Bill—if he needed it. I hoped he wouldn’t, but weird things happened sometimes. I knew that better than most.
    But what if Bill was responsible for what happened to Isabelle?
    I had to consider that idea too. I’d been so ready to defend him from false accusations, but what if he killed Isabelle?
    No. I didn’t believe it. I was a pretty good judge of character. Bill was no killer—I’d wager my new sandals on it.
    Still a thought once considered can never be un-thought.  Worry niggled at the edge of my awareness. I’d brought Bill to the Village. If he killed Isabelle, I was partially responsible.
    Police officers were standing guard at the garden, probably waiting for the medical examiner. More people were coming from the Village to see what was going on but weren’t able to get through Chase’s security.
    Going out of the area wasn’t a problem. I grabbed a basket of flowers someone had left on the ground and walked out quickly. I needed to find Bill. I hoped he wasn’t involved in this, but the sooner we started asking questions, the better.
    Maybe this all sounds a little heartless considering that Isabelle was dead. I felt bad about it – really. I wasn’t laughing about her death, but I wasn’t crying either. She would have felt the same about me, if our positions had been reversed.
    I was also hoping she wouldn’t come back as a ghost like Wanda.
     I started checking all the usual places Bill liked to hang out between working on the exhibit. Where would he have gone after dropping off Isabelle’s slippers? I knew he enjoyed the taverns and pubs scattered throughout the Village. It seemed doubtful that he would’ve gone back to the tiny housing space he shared with Fred. He’d complained about it enough that I knew he wasn’t happy there. Maybe he went to his stall or to the museum.
    I wasn’t surprised to see visitors leaving the Village with haste and deliberation. Several uniformed police officers, and security guards, were herding them toward the Main Gate. Detective Almond had apparently decided to close the Village early for the investigation. No doubt it would be less confusing to deal only with the residents.
    But what if one of the visitors had killed Isabelle? He must not have thought of that . He was already sure it was an inside job.
    I had to find my cobbler.
    Mary, Mary Quite Contrary was taking off her blond wig as she headed home. William Shakespeare was still packing up his writing supplies from his podium. King Arthur had Excalibur slung across his back. He pulled the sword from the stone several times each day.
    I saw my assistant, Manawydan Argall, showing his resident pass to a police officer at the gate. I was so glad to see him. Maintenance men were hanging the new banner on the museum announcing Bill’s debut tomorrow. I hoped it would still happen.
    “I’m so glad you’re here!” I hugged Manny. “I missed you. Did you have a good vacation?”
    “It’s wonderful to be back.” He was dressed, as always, in Victorian garb rather than something from the Middle Ages. But with all the steampunk elements coming into the Village, it didn’t seem so out of place anymore. He was always particularly neat and clean and smelled of fresh air and flowers.
    “How was it at home?”
    Manny was from a small kingdom in Africa where he was the crown prince, as wild as that sounded.
    “It was odd after being gone for so long. I kept expecting storybook characters to go in and out of the mansion each day. There were elephants trumpeting during the night, however, so I felt at ease. How is the cobbler exhibit progressing?”
    “Thank you for knowing that you don’t have to eat a cobbler.” I laughed and hugged him again.  He was so much more than just