Chapter 1
Euclid, the Roseland family’s huge, orange Maine Coon cat sat on the top step of the Victorian’s porch sniffing the air as his enormous plume of a tail swished back and forth over the porch floor. Circe, the family’s sweet black cat with a dot of white on her chest, jumped up to sit on the porch railing and she lifted her pink nose to better catch the current of air moving past. After she inhaled, her ears flattened against her head and she growled low and deep in her throat. No one sitting on the porch heard the cat’s warning because when she let out her growl, Courtney pushed the screened door open and it slapped back into place with a bang.
“I brought out lemonade,” the honey-blond, youngest Roseland sister announced as she set the tray down on the side table. “Who wants some?”
“Yes, please, Miss Courtney.” Mr. Finch, an older gentleman who had become part of the family a little over a year ago, reached for the tall glass. “Even with the overhead fan moving, the day is a bit warm.”
“That’s an understatement,” Angie said. “I’m sweating bullets just sitting in this rocking chair.” Angie, the oldest sister, ran the Sweet Dreams Bake Shop and café out of the Victorian mansion she’d inherited a year ago and she’d just closed the shop for the day. “I think we should go down to the beach for a swim when Ellie is done with her paperwork.” Ellie ran a bed and breakfast inn out of the mansion.
Courtney handed her sister a glass of lemonade and Angie held it to her cheek before taking a long swallow.
“The air-conditioning in the shop didn’t seem to be able to keep up with the temperature today,” Angie said. “I guess I should call for service. The customers appreciate a nice cool spot to sit and relax to enjoy their coffee and tea.”
Angie’s twin sister, Jenna, a jewelry designer, had a workshop and small store at the back of the house and ran a busy online business selling her designs. Rocking in the white wicker chair, she pulled her long, brown hair off her shoulders up into a ponytail. “I’m melting. If Ellie’s not done in her office soon, let’s go for a swim and she can meet us at the beach.”
“You know, you could all come into the house where it’s nice and cool instead of sitting out here sweltering.” Ellie Roseland came out to the porch, her white-blond hair plaited into a long braid.
“We all spend too much time inside,” Courtney told her sister. “When we’re not at work, we like to be outside.”
“Even if the humidity is smothering us.” Jenna smiled and sipped from her glass.
“At least, we’re not wearing fur coats like the cats,” Courtney kidded as she caught Euclid’s eye. “Should we shave off all that orange fur, Euclid, so you’ll be more comfortable?”
Euclid gave the young woman a death stare.
“I think you should take that as a no,” Jenna said.
Circe jumped down from the railing, padded over to Mr. Finch, and leapt onto his lap where she sat and sniffed the air.
“Do you smell something, little one?” Finch asked the cat as he ran his hand over the sleek, soft fur.
“I smell something.” Courtney moved in her chair to sit straighter and inhaled deeply.
“Like what?” Ellie picked up a glass and poured herself some lemonade.
“I don’t know.” Courtney scrunched her forehead. “Like … something hot.”
“What does that mean?” Ellie questioned, leaning back against the porch railing. The blonde looked as cool as a cucumber.
“Why doesn’t the heat ever bother you?” Angie asked.
“Sometimes it does,” Ellie said.
“It never does,” Courtney countered and then teased her older sister. “I think it’s because Ellie has ice in her veins. She has no feelings.”
“I have feelings.” Ellie’s lips turned up into a pout. “In fact, at this moment, I’m feeling anger and it is directed at my twerp of a sister.”
“I’m just kidding you, sis.” Courtney chuckled and pulled her legs up under herself. Her quick, sudden movement caused the rocking chair to almost flip over backwards.
Ellie put out her hand to catch the rocker and kept it from tipping. “There I saved you,” she told Courtney. “You have to be nice to me for the rest of the day.” An odor drifted past Ellie’s nose. “What’s that smell?”
“See I told you.” Courtney adjusted in her chair. “It smells hot, doesn’t it?”
“It sort of does,” Ellie said softly, her eyes narrowing as she took in a deep breath.
“What are you two going on about?” Jenna asked. “I don’t smell anything at all.” She glanced at Angie and Mr. Finch. “Do either of you smell something?” When she saw the looks on their faces, she tensed. “You do, don’t you? What is it? Angie?”
Angie sighed. “I don’t know what it is.”
Jenna got up, a concerned look etched onto her face. “Should we check around the house? Is something wrong? Is it electrical? Is there a fire?”
When no one else moved, Jenna put a hand on her hip and stared at her fraternal twin. “Why aren’t you looking around?”
“Because it isn’t coming from here.” Angie’s blue eyes clouded as an unspoken thought ran through her head. But it is going to touch us.
Jenna’s eyes widened when she noticed Mr. Finch give Angie a serious look. “Oh, no. You feel something, too?” She flicked her eyes from Angie to Finch. “Since June, the summer’s been nice and quiet. I hoped it would stay that way a little while longer.”
“I don’t think you’re going to get your wish,” Courtney told her. “Something’s brewing.”
Ellie bristled. “It’s just a smell. Someone’s probably got a fire pit going or somebody’s burning brush somewhere in town. There’s no need to jump to conclusions and get all concerned over nothing.”
Four sets of eyes … six sets, if counting the cats … focused on Ellie.
Ellie’s body stiffened. “Oh, for Pete’s sake. I’m going inside to think about dinner. You go ahead and go to the beach without me. Jack is coming over as soon as he gets out of work. Maybe we’ll come down and join you then.” Heading inside, Ellie paused. “Would you like to have burgers for dinner or should I make Chief Martin’s favorite lasagna?”
“Chief Martin is coming for dinner tonight?” Mr. Finch asked.
Angie raised an eyebrow and said to Ellie, “Why don’t you go ahead and make the chief’s favorite.” Leaning close to Finch, she whispered, “I think she just did it again.”
Despite her protests denying her unusual skill, Ellie had the ability to occasionally sense when someone was about to call or show up at the house. “Okay, lasagna it is,” the tall blonde said and went back into the house.
“Does this smell on the air you’re all experiencing have anything to do with Chief Martin coming unannounced to the house later today?” Jenna asked.
“It might,” Angie said, her mind raced and anxiety pulsed in her blood. All day while working in the bake shop, she’d felt uneasy and anxious and now, the reason for her worry seemed close to revealing itself. “If Ellie senses that the chief will be coming by, I’m going to make a prediction that his visit probably won’t be a social call.”
“Here we go,” Courtney told the group. “What it will involve this time is anyone’s guess.”
Since moving to the seaside town of Sweet Cove, the Roseland sisters had developed some unexpected skills. Angie could put intention into what she baked making people who ate her baked goods feel happy or energetic or feel compelled to tell the truth about something.
Even though she didn’t want anything to do with paranormal skills, Ellie, on a couple of occasions in moments of duress, had demonstrated the ability of telekinesis … she’d moved objects by only using her mind and had saved her loved ones from being hurt, or worse.
Jenna was able to see and sense ghosts and Courtney could feel things that were about to happen and could sometimes pick up on the details of a crime. Mr. Finch had previously worked as a fortune-teller and, in addition to that skill, the man had several unique abilities, one being able to sense things about a person when they both held an object at the same time.
The sisters’ grandmother had similar “gifts” and Chief Martin had worked with her many years ago when he was starting out in law enforcement. Now, he called on the family’s help when a criminal investigation needed some special skills and when he did, the Roselands and Mr. Finch stepped up to the plate, although some more reluctantly than others.
Circe let out a trill just as the hoot-hoot of a bicycle’s bell sounded and the people on the porch looked up to see Rufus Fudge, Courtney’s boyfriend, turning into the driveway.
“Good afternoon, Roselands, Mr. Finch, and cats,” Rufus said in his English accent as he stopped the bike on the brick walkway and leaned it against the side of the porch. The young man was a newly-minted lawyer working in the law office of Jack Ford, Ellie’s boyfriend.
Both felines went down to the grass to greet Rufus and he bent to pat the two cats. “Jack closed the office early today, so here I am.” He smiled at Courtney. “Anyone interested in a swim in the ocean?”
Courtney walked down to give the good-looking attorney a hug and a kiss. “We were just talking about heading down to the beach. I’ll go change into my swimsuit. Want to stay for dinner? We’re having Chief Martin’s favorite lasagna.”
“I saw Chief Martin on my way down here,” Rufus told the family. “There’s a mess over on one of the roads near the state park.”
“An accident?” Finch asked with concern.
Rufus said, “When I rode by, I heard people talking. It’s not an accident. There’s a car on fire, it’s parked along a dirt road leading into the woods. Some woman said a police officer seemed to think it had been set. You should have seen the clouds of black smoke. It stunk, too.”
Euclid let out a long, loud howl causing everyone to jump.
“The car was set on fire?” Angie’s heart pounded as she stood up from her rocking chair. “Was anyone inside?”
Rufus shrugged. “I don’t know. I didn’t hang around. I got out of there as fast as I could. The smoke was terrible.”
The sisters and Mr. Finch exchanged quick looks with one another.
Jenna stepped next to Angie, leaned close, and kept her voice down. “And, it begins.”
Chapter 2
After spending a refreshing hour at the beach swimming and bodysurfing in the cool, ocean water and sunning themselves on the white sand, Jenna, Angie, Courtney, and Rufus returned to the Victorian to shower and help prepare dinner. Ellie and Jack had preferred to stay in the air-conditioned house and Mr. Finch and the cats declined the invitation to the beach in favor of taking a nap on the family room sofa.
With the delicious odor of baking lasagna drifting on the air, Courtney and Finch prepared a cinnamon cake for dessert, Angie made a salad, and Jenna cut the Italian bread, sprinkled the slices with oil and rubbed them with fresh garlic. Rufus set the table with the cats supervising from their perch on top of the China cabinet while Ellie and Jack carried glasses of wine into the sunroom.
“Tom is working late so he won’t be joining us for dinner,” Jenna said after ending a phone call with her new husband. “When do you think the chief is going to show up?”
“As soon as the lasagna gets put on the table.” Courtney placed the cinnamon cake on a rack to bake in the wall oven.
“I wish he’d come by soon.” Angie started for the dining room with the salad bowl in her hands. “It’s worse waiting around than actually hearing what’s going on.”
The seven people gathered around the table to enjoy the food with a few of them on edge throughout the meal waiting for the doorbell to ring. When the dishes had been cleared and the dessert served, Jenna said to Angie, “Maybe it’s a false alarm. Maybe the chief isn’t coming after all.”
“I don’t know. It’s not that late.” Angie looked up at the cats sitting at attention on the China cabinet. “Euclid and Circe seem tense.”
Josh Williams, Angie’s fiancé, stopped by for coffee and cake and, for an hour, the group watched a baseball game on television before the young men yawned and stretched and decided it was time to head to their homes since tomorrow was a work day.
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