Claw of Attraction

Claw of Attraction A CRYSTAL BEACH PARANORMAL COZY MYSTERY CRYSTAL BEACH MAGIC MYSTERY SERIES BOOK TWO KAREN MCSPADE Copyright © 2022 by Karen McSpade All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, in whole or in part, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without written permission from the publisher except by reviewers who may quote brief excerpts in connection with a review in a newspaper, magazine, or electronic publication. Edited by Darci Heikkinen Cover art by The Cover Coven This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. Created with Vellum FREE GIFT Receive your FREE copy of Dog Gone Troubles, the Crystal Beach Magic Mystery series prequel, and get notified via email of new releases, giveaways, contests, cover reveals, and insider fun when you sign up for my Mystery Book Club mailing list! Click Here To Sign Up and Claim Your Free Cozy Mystery Book NOTE: If you’re already a member of my VIP Mystery Book Club, your email will not be added again. Contents Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Next in Series Sneak Peek Would you like more Crystal Beach mysteries? Free Gift Books By Karen McSpade About the Author Chapter One As I ran back through the foyer of the main building, Ernie came in behind me, heading toward the far corner of the lobby as I had instructed him to do. I kept going, rushing to the elevator and pressing the button several times. When the red LCD display showing the floor that the elevator was on didn’t change, I lost my patience and rushed to the stairs, taking them two at a time despite my short legs. Ada-Mae was on the fourth floor, and my legs and chest were burning by the time I reached it. I rushed along the carpeted hallway, with only the numbers on the doors guiding me. When I reached Ada-Mae’s apartment, I turned the door handle, which, of course, didn’t open. “Aagh!” I screamed in frustration and started to bang furiously on the door. “Ada-Mae!” Time was getting away from me; every moment I spent outside this door was another moment that this killer was alone with my grandmother. Desperate, I took a step backward and braced my shoulder, ready to barge in—although with no real expectation that the door would give. I charged forward, and suddenly, the door flew open in front of me. Yet I continued moving until I lost my balance and fell to the floor of Ada-Mae’s entryway. “Sidney,” I heard my grandmother’s voice saying close by, “do be careful, dear.” I looked up, still confused why the door to the apartment had suddenly opened without the help of my shoulder and even more perplexed by the relative calmness in Ada-Mae’s voice. Looking up, I saw something impossible—Hampton Harper suspended in the air in the middle of the room, his feet at least six inches from the ground as he appeared to struggle and kick. Ada-Mae stood several feet away from him and vigorously shook a small bottle she was holding between her fingers in Hampton’s direction. “Is this it?” she demanded of him. “Is this what killed poor Marie?” Getting up onto my hands and knees, I could see an outline trying to take shape in front of me. It flickered a little like a failing light bulb, then burned proverbially bright for a moment—as clear as I had yet seen the ghost of my grandfather. He looked so angry, his face twisting with rage. Gramps held onto the front of Hampton Harper’s shirt, hoisting him up into the air. I could see the powerful man he had been when I was young—not a giant of a man, but all brawn and sinew. Finally, all his power seemed to run out at once. Whatever means it was that he could transfer his strength through from the ethereal or spiritual realm in which he now existed was suddenly spent, and my Gramps flickered out. As a result, the man that I now knew had murdered Marie Beauchamp dropped to the floor. Hampton slowly raised his head, glancing around and over at Ada-Mae. He was no doubt looking for an explanation for why he had a moment ago been impossibly suspended in the air. “Sidney?” Ada-Mae asked, glancing about the room. She had known it was Gramps but could not actually see him. “He’s gone,” I told her as I stood up, “I think that’s all he had.” “This one was going to poison me,” she said, shaking the tiny brown bottle in her hand in the legal guardian’s direction. “Going in my tea, was it?” she growled at him, indicating two steaming cups on the low table in front of the couch. “Just how stupid do you think I am?” “How did you know?” I asked her. I had the benefit of Linda Epps, but Ada-Mae didn’t yet know that Hampton Harper was the murderer. “The mark,” Ada-Mae answered, tapping her own forehead. “Or lack of one.” I looked at Hampton Harper and then back to Ada-Mae. There was still the hint of the red mark on her forehead, while Hampton—who kept an office at Shifting Sands and so could be thought of as a “resident”—had none. “So why did you come up here with him?” I asked, exasperated. She would have saved me a run up four flights of stairs, for one thing. Ada-Mae grinned, although there was no hint of smugness about it. “I knew my Sidney would save me, of course.” I knew she was talking about Gramps because I couldn’t even make it through the door to the