Wicked Charms_ A Lizzy and Dies - Janet Evanovich Page 0,8
I said to Glo.
“I know. I made the most amazing purchase. I passed by a yard sale on my way to work just now, and a voice called out to me.”
“Like when you bought Ripple’s Book of Spells.”
“Exactly! Only this voice belonged to Emily Shipton. It was her yard sale.”
“What did she sell you?”
“A Magic 8 Ball. And she swore it could predict the future.” Glo took the 8 Ball out and held it in her hand. “Emily said it was empowered by her distant relative Mother Shipton.”
“Mother Shipton was an English prophet who lived in a cave and died in the 1500s,” Clara said. “The Magic 8 Ball is a toy invented by Mattel in the 1950s.”
“It could have been Mother Shipton’s spirit,” Glo said.
I looked over at Broom, and I swear I saw him twitch.
Glo dropped the Magic 8 Ball back into her tote. “I asked the 8 Ball if Lizzy would have another exciting night with Theodore Nergal, and it said, ‘As I see it, yes.’ ”
“Who’s Theodore Nergal?” Clara asked.
“I fixed Lizzy up with a date last night,” Glo said. “It was a spur-of-the-moment thing, but he was very cool. A doctor.”
“He’s a coroner,” I said. “And he smelled like formaldehyde.”
—
I was working with the large pastry bag, piping pink cream cheese frosting onto a dozen cupcakes destined for a birthday party, when Diesel sauntered in.
“Are you ready to go?” Diesel asked me.
“Ready to go where?” I asked. “It’s ten o’clock. I don’t even get done till one.”
“So, five minutes?” Diesel asked.
Clara looked over from her workstation. “Is it important?”
“You know how it is,” Diesel said, picking up one of the cupcakes and taking a bite. “The end of the world, maybe.”
Clara shoved a strand of hair back from her forehead with her forearm. “Only maybe?”
“Probably,” Diesel said.
“If it’s ‘probably’ then Lizzy can have another ‘save the world’ day, but you’re using them up fast,” Clara said.
I wasn’t in a rush to get on with saving the world. I’d been there and done that, and I wasn’t anxious to do it again.
“Why can’t you save the world by yourself?” I asked Diesel. “Why do I have to go along?”
“You have to do your touchy-feely thing. I’m big and strong and smokin’ hot, but I’m not touchy-feely.”
This was all true.
“I’ll be with you as soon as I finish this batch of cupcakes,” I said to Diesel.
“I’ll help,” Diesel said, grabbing a second pastry bag off the counter.
“No! I don’t need help.”
“How hard can it be? You just squeeze the bag, and the stuff comes out.”
Diesel squeezed the bag and pink frosting shot out and hit me in the head.
I rolled my eyes up, as if I could see the gunk that was now stuck in my hair.
“You did that on purpose,” I said to Diesel.
Diesel smiled wide and swiped some frosting off my forehead with his finger. “No, but I like it. It’s a good look for you.”
Glo was standing in the doorway.
“It’s true,” Glo said to me. “Pink is your color.”
“Okay, enough fun,” Diesel said. “We need to get moving. Lots to do, and you have a meeting with Martin Ammon at four.”
Everyone froze.
“Martin Ammon?” Clara asked. “The Martin Ammon?”
“He has a map and a diary that I’d like to see,” Diesel said.
I went back to icing the cupcakes. “So why don’t you just introduce yourself and ask if you can see them?”
“Because I might want to see them for an extended amount of time. And it’s more than that. It could be helpful if you got friendly with Ammon. You could keep your eye on him.”
“Why me?”
“You’re cute. And you have a hook. You make magical cupcakes.”
“Yes, but…”
“I was sitting in your kitchen, and I realized it would be easy for you to get friendly with Ammon. He’s a publisher and you have a cookbook.”
“You didn’t!”
“Yeah, I did. You had a copy of your cookbook on the counter, so I messengered it over to him with a dozen cupcakes.”
“Where did you get the cupcakes?”
“You had them in your freezer.”
“Omigod. Crap on a cracker.”
“It’s all good,” Diesel said. “I sent a note with the package saying how you had this amazing cookbook idea, and all he had to do was try one of your cupcakes to know they were like magic.”
“And?”
“And his assistant called right away and said that Ammon would like to see you at four o’clock at his Marblehead house.”
“That is so cool,” Glo said. “He’s like mega rich. He’s a gazillionaire. I bet his