One Potion in the Grave: A Magic Potion Mystery Read Online Free Page B

one of Warren’s reelection campaigns, several gossip magazines reported that Landry had been caught cheating during hisfinal year of law school and that Warren bought him out of trouble. The family denied everything, but Landry never graduated and Warren’s poll numbers tanked until not long after when tragedy struck the family. That’s when Landry’s older sister, Cassandra, had been hit by a car while crossing the street near her daddy’s Washington, D.C. office, where she worked as an aide. She survived, but a broken back left her paralyzed from the waist down. The doctors were hopeful at first that she’d walk again, but it wasn’t to be, and she was still bound to a wheelchair. Heartbreak for the family, but the sympathy vote bumped Warren’s numbers through the roof.
    I was about to click off the search engine, when a location caught my eye.
    Shady Hollow.
    It was where Katie Sue mentioned she lived—but it seemed the town was also home to the Calhoun family. On a whim, I typed in her new name along with “Calhoun” and was surprised to see her pictured at several Calhoun fund-raisers over the past couple of years, often framed in the same shot as Warren himself.
    “Looks like Katie Sue
is
one of Warren’s campaign donors.” I showed Ainsley the photos.
    “Or she’s one of his mistresses,” she said, her eyebrows raised and wiggling. “It wouldn’t surprise me none with Warren’s reputation.”
    It was a theory I couldn’t dismiss even though I wanted to. Warren was known for chasing after young, beautiful, accomplished women.
    “And if she recently found out he has himself another woman on the side . . .
Shoo-ee
. She might have gotten a hex from Delia to make his willie fall off or something.”
    I couldn’t help but laugh. “I didn’t need that image in my head.”
    But the more I thought about Katie Sue and Warren being together and her strange warning about bitter medicine, the more worried I became.
Mercy.
How’d I get mixed up in this mess? “I’m calling Delia. If she’d sold Katie Sue a revenge potion, a warning to the Calhouns might be in order.”
    “I don’t know,” Ainsley said. “I think it’s high time Warren’s willie shriveled up. If I were his wife, I’d be buying that hex myself. Cheat on me, will he? I don’t think so.”
    I studied my friend. “Carter knows about the vigilante side of you, right?”
    “Of course.”
    Shaking my head, I grabbed up the phone and punched in the numbers I now had memorized. Delia answered on the second ring, and as soon as she realized it was me, she said, “I was just about to call you.”
    “What’s wrong?” I asked. The tone of her voice immediately set me to worrying.
    A dog barked in the background—Boo, Delia’s little black puppy. “You’re not going to believe the—”
    I glanced up as the bell jingled on the door, and a woman came inside. Ainsley shot me an incredulous look, her eyebrows practically in her hairline.
    “I have to call you back, Delia,” I said in a whisper.
    “But Carly—”
    “I’ll call you right back.” I hung up in a hurry.
    The customer was Gabi Greenleigh, Landry Calhoun’s intended. Oh, she tried to hide behind a big straw hat and sunglasses, but there was no concealing a beauty like hers. Tall and lithe with sleek auburn hair spillingdown her back, I could see why she’d been crowned Miss Alabama two years ago.
    “Hi there,” I said. “Come on in, take a look around, let me know if you need any help.”
    “Thank you,” she said softly as she approached the counter. Nervously, she bit her lip. “I do actually need some help. I hear you make potions.” Her brow wrinkled; then she smiled, and it lit the whole room. “Your mama sent me over. She’s ah . . . something.”
    It was a statement I heard often. “That she is.”
    “She said your potions are magical. Is that true?”
    “Guaranteed to fix just about anything,” I said. “You have something that needs