Death of a Wicked Witch - Lee Hollis Hayley Powell Mystery

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Hayley looking at her, confused, and explained, “Off Broadway Theatre Awards.”

      “Ah, thank you,” Hayley said, smiling, as she gripped the wheel and fixed her eyes back on the road.

      Conner scowled. “It wasn’t Off-Broadway. It was off-off-Broadway, practically in Jersey.”

      “Well, I still would have loved to have seen you act on stage,” Hayley said, glancing at the rearview mirror to see him frowning in the backseat.

      “It’s a really dark play and I was way too old to be playing the lead, but it didn’t matter anyway, because something like six people showed up on opening night,” Conner said.

      “I was one of them and you were wonderful in it,” Gemma said, turning around in the passenger’s seat and smiling at him, trying her best to be supportive.

      Conner stared out the window. “Gemma’s career is skyrocketing, but I seem to be stuck in the same place I was two years ago.”

      “That’s not true,” Gemma scoffed, swishing back around and looking at Hayley. “He had a really good role on Law & Order: SVU and got to play a scene with Ice T.”

      “It was one line. I was a bartender and Ice T came in looking for the owner, and all I had to say was...” Conner cleared his throat and adopted a detached tone. “ ‘He’s not here.’ That was it.”

      “But you delivered it really, really well,” Gemma said with an encouraging smile.

      Hayley felt sorry for Conner, who continued staring blankly out the window. It had to be hard for him to see Gemma excelling in her chosen profession while he felt as if he was wallowing. “I’m sure it’s just a matter of time before you get your big break, Conner.”

      He didn’t answer her. Instead, he just offered her a half smile and then looked back out the window, lost in thought.

      Gemma clammed up after that, deciding not to push the conversation any further, and Hayley could plainly see that this frustration on Conner’s part regarding his career was having a serious effect on their relationship.

      Chapter 5

      It had been Hayley’s idea, when Gemma announced that she and Conner would be visiting Bar Harbor on Halloween and would be in town for the Garbers’ Witches Ball, that she and Gemma should go as a pair of iconic witches from the 1939 classic film The Wizard of Oz. With her cascading, silky blond hair that she had clearly inherited from her father’s side of the family, Gemma was the obvious choice as Glinda the Good Witch, leaving Hayley to slap on some green makeup and a crooked black hat and try out her full-on Margaret Hamilton–inspired evil laugh as the Wicked Witch of the West. Gemma had instantly jumped at the idea, and the two of them got to work assembling their costumes.

      Luckily, Liddy still had her frilly white dress from her disastrous ill-fated wedding day over a year ago boxed up and shoved in a corner in her attic. She was more than happy for Gemma to take it off her hands, and she certainly didn’t care that it needed to be altered and hemmed to Gemma’s exact size. They still needed a magic wand and a cheap tiara to complete the look, though. As for Hayley, she had already ordered some green water-based face and body paint from Amazon, ironed the black cape and dress she had worn to last year’s ball, and had found a crooked black hat at a yard sale the previous spring. On her list remained a broom to carry around, and so she and Gemma stopped into the local hardware store to find one. Hayley wanted a broom with a wooden handle and quickly settled on one she liked. She held it out to Gemma.

      “What do you think?”

      Gemma, who appeared to be lost in thought, didn’t answer her at first.

      Hayley tried again. “Gemma?”

      Gemma turned to her mother. “What?”

      “Are you okay? You’ve been quiet all morning.”

      “No, I’m fine.”

      Hayley knew her daughter well enough to know she wasn’t being completely honest, but she didn’t have to say anything because Gemma could easily read her mother’s skeptical face.

      “I’ve just had a lot on my mind lately.”

      “Would you like to tell me about it?”

      “Not really. I’m hungry. Can we get lunch somewhere?”

      Gemma knew her mother’s weakness was food, and so when she wanted to change the subject, that’s where she would usually steer the conversation.

      Hayley decided to drop it for now. “Sure, I know the perfect place we can go.”

      After paying for the broom and walking back to the car, Hayley had barely strapped her seat belt on when Gemma suddenly blurted out, “I’m thinking of breaking up with Conner!”

      Hayley gripped the wheel and slowly turned to her daughter, mouth agape. “I certainly didn’t see that one coming.”

      “I love him, I do, or at least I think I do. I don’t know anymore . . .”

      “What’s changed?”

      Gemma shrugged. “Nothing, really. I mean, we get along great, and I know he’s been down lately because his career hasn’t turned out the way he had hoped it would, at least not yet, and I don’t think he resents me because I’ve been kind of on an upswing career-wise, but sometimes when I talk about working for Cyndi, he gets really quiet and I can sense he’s frustrated.”

      “It can be hard on a relationship when one person is succeeding and the other is struggling, but that’s something that can be worked on...”

      “I guess so, I just feel we’ve been in a rut for a while now and I don’t know how to get out of it. I just wish I felt more confident that we can go the distance, you know, make a future together...”

      “How does Conner feel?”

      Gemma thought about it for a moment, and then nodded. “I’m sure he feels the same way. He has to...”

      Hayley shifted the car in reverse and backed out of the hardware store’s gravel parking lot. “Well, whatever you decide, I support you one hundred percent.”

      “Thanks, Mom...” Gemma whispered, staring absently out the window.

      Hayley left her daughter to ruminate until they pulled up behind Trudy Lancaster’s food truck, Wicked ’Wiches.

      Suddenly Gemma snapped out of her reverie and bolted upright, excited. “When did Bar Harbor get a new food truck?”

      “It hasn’t even been a week. Her gourmet subs are amazing. Trust me, I’ve sampled most of the menu.”

      They hopped out of the car and walked to the window where Trudy was slapping together an Italian Combo for a balding, potbellied, middle-aged lobsterman with a scraggly beard, still in his waders from hauling traps all morning.

      Gemma grabbed a paper menu off the pile that was set out on the counter and held down by a rock to keep them from blowing away in a sudden gust of wind.

      After serving the lobsterman, who gratefully took a giant bite of the sub as he ambled away, Trudy happily waved at Hayley. “Good seeing you, Hayley.”

      “Trudy, this is my daughter, Gemma,” Hayley said.

      Trudy smiled. “I’ve heard a lot about you, Gemma. Welcome home.”

      Gemma’s eyes were glued to the menu. “Thank you. I want one of everything.”

      “May I recommend today’s special? It’s a bacon cheddar grilled cheese with sweet mustard,” Trudy said, pointing to a chalkboard listing her off-the-menu items of the day. “It comes with waffle fries.”

      “Please, you had me at bacon,” Hayley said with a laugh. “I’ll take one.”

      “Make it two,” Gemma said.

      Trudy

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