I held my hands up in front of me. “Oh, no. I’m not drinking another tea from you. Not with the way those things backfire. Besides, it’s probably for the best if I throw up every time I see Striker. The last thing I need is to get involved with him.”

Pepper stopped what she was doing and turned to me, her hands on her hips. “Actually, Willa, I think you do need to get involved. How long since you and Jake split up?”

My heart twisted at the thought of my ex-husband. Our break-up hadn’t been pretty. “Two years.”

“Right, so it’s about time you got interested in someone else. I’m not saying you have to marry the guy, but go out and have some fun, at least. You don’t want to end up a shriveled up old maid, do you?”

Did I? The thought didn’t seem all that unappealing if it meant I could avoid another heartbreak.

“I’ll think about it,” I said, mostly to get her to stop talking about it. “I did find out a new clue, though.”

“When you were at the Bates mansion?”

“No, but come to think of it something strange happened there.”

“What?”

“I was talking to Derek and there was a big crash. Felicity came out of a side room and then everyone got all weird and Derek rushed me out of there.”

Pepper’s brow creased. “Did Felicity drop something?”

“I’m not sure.” I chewed my lower lip trying to remember what she’d said. “She said something strange … that she was practicing something. Maybe she does karate or something.”

“Or maybe she was practicing her spells and they went haywire.” Pepper looked at me out of the corner of her eye as she dunked the infuser in the hot water she’d poured into a teacup.

“Spells?” I wrinkled my face up at her.

“Some people say she’s some kind of witch.” Pepper slid the teacup across the counter at me and I eyed it suspiciously, wondering what might happen to me if I drank it. Would it cure me of throwing up on Striker, or simply cause me some other embarrassing malady?

“That’s silly.” I lifted the cup to my lips and sniffed. It smelled like mushrooms and dirt. “There’s no such thing as witches.”

Pepper simply shrugged and I thought back to my conversation with Elspeth about magic. I’d never been one to believe in magic or paranormal activity … but that was before I started talking to ghosts.

“So what was the clue?” Pepper prompted.

“Oh, right.” I took a tentative sip of tea. It was actually pretty good. “Striker said they found some gray hairs clutched in Lavinia’s hand.”

“From the killer?”

“Presumably. Although, we don’t know for sure. I plan to ask Lavinia if she remembers pulling her killer’s hair.”