Witch Is Why Another Door Opened (A Witch P.I. Mystery Book 15) Read online

  Witch Is Why

  Another Door Opened

  Published by Implode Publishing Ltd

  © Implode Publishing Ltd 2016

  The right of Adele Abbott to be identified as the Author of the Work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  All rights reserved, worldwide. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.

  The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, dead or alive, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 1

  I kept shouting to her, but Aunt Lucy didn’t seem to hear. I followed her along one corridor after another, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t catch up with her.

  “Aunt Lucy! Wait! Aunt Lucy, wait for me!”

  Where were we, anyway? What was this building? I didn’t recognise it. There were no doors—just corridor after corridor. Eventually, she reached a staircase.

  I shouted again, “Aunt Lucy! It’s Jill! Wait for me!”

  I made my way slowly down the stairs, and as I neared the bottom, I could see Aunt Lucy in the distance. She was standing in front of a door. I knew instinctively that there was danger behind that door—something evil.

  “Aunt Lucy! Don’t open that door!”

  At long last, she turned around to face me. “It’s okay, Jill. There’s nothing to worry about.”

  “No! Aunt Lucy, it’s dangerous! Don’t open that door!”

  She turned the handle.

  I sat up in bed—in a cold sweat.

  Jack was nowhere to be seen, but then I remembered he’d told me the night before that he had an early start. I felt exhausted from the dream. It was horrible! Thank goodness I’d woken up.

  Even after I’d showered, dressed, and eaten breakfast, I couldn’t shake the images of that dream. I’d had nightmares before, but there was something about this one that had really disturbed me. Could it have been some sort of subconscious message? Maybe Aunt Lucy was ill or in trouble.

  I magicked myself over to her house, but when I knocked on the door, there was no reply. Now I was starting to get worried. Aunt Lucy was always an early riser; she should have been up by now. I knocked again. Still no reply. Maybe I’d been right; maybe the dream had been a sign.

  As always, her front door was unlocked, so I let myself in. Once inside, I heard raised voices. Aunt Lucy and Lester were arguing; they always seemed to be arguing these days. I hated turning up like this in the middle of an argument, but I still wanted to make sure everything was okay, so I knocked on the kitchen door.

  “It’s only me.”

  “Come in, Jill. You don’t have to knock.”

  Lester was sitting at the kitchen table. He was dressed, but Aunt Lucy was still in her dressing gown.

  “I’m sorry to call on you unannounced.”

  “You don’t have to apologise for coming to see us, Jill. You’re welcome anytime. I was just going to make some toast. Would you like some?”

  “No, thanks. I’ve had breakfast. I just wanted to check that you were okay.”

  “Why wouldn’t I be? Is there something the matter?”

  “Nothing, really. I just had a horrible dream. You and I were in a strange building that I’d never seen before. I was following you down lots of corridors. I was trying to catch up with you, but I couldn’t. I called to you, but you didn’t hear me—then we went down some stairs. You were about to open a door, and I could sense there was something dangerous or evil behind it. I told you not to open it, but you did it anyway.”

  “And was there? Something evil, I mean?”

  “I don’t know. That’s when I woke up.”

  “I have horrible nightmares too sometimes. I wouldn’t worry about it. Is Jack okay?”

  “Yeah, Jack’s fine. He’d gone to work before I even woke up. Anyway, I suppose I ought to get back.”

  “Don’t go yet. Sit down and have a cup of tea.”

  “I really should go.”

  “I’ve got custard creams.”

  “Mmm—go on then.”

  Aunt Lucy brought out the Tupperware box filled with my favourite biscuits. What better way to start the day than a cup of tea and custard creams?

  “You’re looking very smart, Lester,” I said.

  “I’ve started my new job.”

  “Of course. How’s it going?”

  “Don’t ask,” Aunt Lucy said.

  “Is there a problem?” I could sense that Lester was annoyed.

  “If you must know, Jill. Your aunt is jealous.”

  “I am not jealous,” Aunt Lucy snapped.

  “What else would you call it?”

  “I am not jealous. Why would I be jealous of that person?”

  “That person?” I’d just finished my second custard cream, and was wondering whether I should have another.

  “Your aunt is referring to my ‘buddy’.”

  “Is that what you call her?” Aunt Lucy replaced the lid on the Tupperware box. Drat!

  “As I was saying,” Lester continued. “All new Grim Reaper trainees are assigned to a more experienced operative who they work with on a kind of buddy system.”

  “More experienced, my backside.” Aunt Lucy was determined to have her say. “What can she possibly know about anything?”

  “See? This is what I mean,” Lester said. “Lucy is annoyed because my ‘buddy’ is a young woman.”

  “Woman?” Aunt Lucy interrupted. “She’s barely out of school!”

  “She’s twenty-one!”

  Aunt Lucy joined us at the table. “What can she possibly know about anything?”

  “Her parents are Grim Reapers, and she’s been working as one since she was eighteen. She’s fully qualified, and she’s my buddy.”

  “She’s your buddy, alright. Too buddy buddy for my liking.”

  “Enough, Lucy!” Lester thumped the table. “Monica is a very good tutor, and I’m lucky to have her.”

  “Says you.”

  There was a knock at the door.

  “That’ll be her.” Lester was about to stand up, but Aunt Lucy beat him to it, and hurried to the front door.

  “Come in. He’s in the kitchen.”

  Aunt Lucy showed the young woman in. Monica was a stunner with beautiful, long, curly brown hair, a complexion to die for, and a great figure. She had the most gorgeous smile.

  “Hiya, Lessie!”

  Lessie?

  “Morning, Monica.” Lester beamed.

  “Are you ready for your next day’s training?”

  “Ready and willing!” Lester stood up, grabbed his bag, and followed her. “Bye, Jill. Bye, Lucy.” He tried to give Aunt Lucy a kiss, but she turned her face to one side, so he only brushed her cheek.

  “See ya, everybody
,” Monica said, and the two of them disappeared out of the door.

  “Do you see what I mean, Jill?” Aunt Lucy was still seething.

  “She seems pleasant enough.”

  “Pleasant? Don’t give me ‘pleasant.’ I don’t trust her.”

  “How’s his training going, anyway?”

  “All right, or so he says. I still don’t know why he took this job. I’ve been trying to persuade him to look for something else, but unbelievably he seems to be enjoying it. Can you imagine?” She shuddered.

  “Apart from the whole Monica thing, are you okay, Aunt Lucy?”

  “I’m fine. I shouldn’t let it get to me. Anyway, let’s forget about Lester and his buddy. I’ve got something to show you.”

  “Anything exciting?”

  “I think so.” She glanced through the window. “After all the problems I’ve had with gardeners recently, I’ve decided to look after the garden myself. The only problem is that I find mowing the lawn hard work. But when I went into Candlefield the other day, you’ll never guess what I found.”

  I was getting bad vibes about this already.

  “An enchanted mower!” She beamed.

  “Enchanted? What does that mean, exactly?”

  “Sorry. I should have explained. The mower has a mind of its own. Well, sort of. I don’t fully understand it myself.”

  “I didn’t realise it was possible to enchant things.”

  “Only the most powerful level six witches are able to cast the ‘enchantment’ spell. I’m surprised that you didn’t come across it in Magna Mondale’s book.”

  “Come to think of it, I do remember seeing a section on enchantment, but at the time I didn’t think it was something I’d ever have a use for.”

  “Come outside, and I’ll give you a demonstration.”

  Aunt Lucy led the way out to the garden. I stayed just outside the back door while she walked over to the shed, and fetched the lawnmower. On the face of it, it looked just like every other lawnmower I’d ever seen.

  “What do you think?” Aunt Lucy was glowing with pride.

  “It’s, err—it’s very nice. It doesn’t look particularly enchanted, though?”

  “Just watch.” Aunt Lucy addressed the lawnmower. “Matilda!”

  “Matilda?”

  “All enchanted objects are given a name, so they know when you’re speaking to them.”

  “Of course.”

  “Matilda, cut the lawn!”

  Suddenly, the lawnmower sprang to life. It edged its way slowly to one side of the lawn, but then took off apace. It sped to the other side, spun around so quickly that it almost tipped over, and then shot back. It repeated this time after time.

  “Are you sure we’re safe here, Aunt Lucy?” The lawnmower had started to head towards us.

  “Perfectly safe. Matilda knows where the edge of the lawn is.”

  The lawnmower was moving so quickly that I was convinced it was going to leave the grass, and crash into us. I closed my eyes, but then heard it skid around, and start back in the opposite direction.

  “It’s good, isn’t it?” Aunt Lucy said. “Just look how quickly it can get the job done.”

  “It’s certainly quick, but it does seem awfully dangerous.”

  “Not at all. Matilda is as safe as houses.”

  ***

  After leaving Aunt Lucy’s, I made my way over to Cuppy C. Laura and Flora were behind the counter. When they saw me, they smiled. There was something about that pair I didn’t trust, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. I was just about to ask them where the twins were when I heard raised voices coming from over in the corner. Amber and Pearl were obviously arguing about something. Nothing new there.

  “Hi, you two.”

  “Hiya, Jill,” Amber said.

  “Morning, Jill,” Pearl said.

  “Is it okay if I join you?”

  “Yeah, of course. Take a seat.”

  They were both still looking daggers at one another.

  “What’s the matter with you two? What are you arguing about this time?”

  “Amber doesn’t know how to add up,” Pearl said.

  “Yes, I do. I checked it, double checked it, and triple checked it. The figures are right.”

  “They can’t possibly be right!”

  “What figures are you talking about?” I asked.

  “Yesterday’s takings,” Pearl said. “Amber must have made a mistake when she cashed up.”

  “I did not make a mistake! You can go and check for yourself; the money’s still in the safe!”

  “I don’t need to check it. We can’t possibly have taken that amount of money yesterday.”

  “Are the takings down?” If they were, I knew who my prime suspects would be: The two ice maidens.

  “No, they’re not down,” Pearl said. “They’re up!”

  Colour me confused. “Surely that’s good, isn’t it?”

  “Yes and no. Having more money is good, but we can’t possibly have earned this amount from what was sold yesterday. It doesn’t make any sense. Unless Amber miscounted.”

  “I did not miscount.” Amber was losing patience with her sister. “When I counted it last night, I knew the figures seemed wrong. That’s why I checked it, and checked it again. I still got the same amount.”

  “Impossible!”

  “Possible!”

  It was time to change the subject. “How did the housewarming parties go? Was a good time had by all?”

  The way the twins were glaring at me suggested that the answer to that question probably wasn’t ‘yes.’

  “It was a total disaster,” Pearl said.

  “Oh? Why?”

  I hadn’t been able to attend the house warming-athon because I’d come down with a bad tummy.

  What? You would have made an excuse too if you’d been in my shoes. One housewarming is bad enough, but two in one day? I don’t think so.

  “The bus turned up at the wrong house because Amber gave them incorrect instructions.” Pearl rolled her eyes.

  “No, I didn’t,” Amber spat back. “You were the one who told them where to go.”

  “No I didn’t. That was your job!”

  “So, what happened exactly?” I said.

  Amber sighed. “The bus was meant to turn up at my house at four-thirty to take all the guests and me over to Pearl’s. But it went to the wrong house—it went to Pearl’s.”

  “What happened then?”

  “It had to turn around, and come over to my place. We lost three-quarters of an hour right there.”

  “Surely, that wasn’t the end of the world?”

  “It wouldn’t have been if the bus hadn’t broken down on its way from my house to Pearl’s. It took another hour to get that sorted, so by the time we got there, we were almost two hours late. All the guests were totally fed up by then. You can imagine what kind of party we had after that. And then to top it all, the bus driver forgot to load the presents, so Pearl’s gifts are still at my house.”

  “Oh dear. But, apart from that, did everything go okay?”

  They glared at me again.

  Chapter 2

  My phone rang. It was Kathy.

  “Hi, Jill. How are you?”

  “Okay, thanks. You sound very bright.”

  She was way too bubbly for that time in the morning. Normally, it was almost impossible to get two words out of her so early in the day.

  “I have big news.”

  “Something good, by the sound of it.”

  “You must promise not to say a word to anyone.”

  “Okay.”

  “I mean it, Jill. Not to Jack. Or Mrs V. And definitely not to your grandmother.”

  “Okay. I promise.”

  “You know Lucinda Gray, don’t you?”

  “The name doesn’t ring a bell.”

  “She’s the news anchor on Wool TV.”

  “Oh, that Lucinda Gray. No, still never heard of her.”

  “She�
�s a minor celebrity in wool circles.”

  “I’m going to have to take your word for that.”

  “There’s a rumour going around that she’s landed herself a new job at another TV station. If she leaves, that’ll mean there’s a vacancy on the news desk.”

  “Do you think you might get the job?”

  “Why not? I’m already presenting the weekly magazine show on Wool TV. It’s the logical next step.”

  “But you’ve only been there five minutes.”

  “Yes, but you’ve seen all the rave reviews I’ve been getting, haven’t you?”

  “I can’t say I have.”

  “I’ve got four and five star reviews from all the yarn magazines.”

  “Are there many of those? Yarn magazines?”

  “Are you kidding? There are dozens of them. The next time you go into the supermarket, just take a look at the magazine racks. They all love my show. I’ve started a scrapbook, and pasted all the reviews into it. I can let you borrow it sometime if you’d like?”

  “Sure.” It sounded like the perfect cure for insomnia.

  “Anyway, who else are they going to give the job to? The only other option would be to bring in someone from outside. I don’t want to count my chickens though because she might not even be leaving, but fingers crossed, eh?”

  “Yeah. Fingers crossed.”

  “I’d better go. Pete’s calling me. See you.”

  “Bye.”

  Wow! Kathy, news anchor at Wool TV? How would I cope if my sister became such an ‘A’ list celebrity?

  ***

  “This is for you.” The man at the toll booth held up the latest copy of Mr Ivers’ newsletter.

  “Is it really that time again, already?”

  “Yeah. Mr Ivers insisted I get it to you as soon as possible. He knew you’d be counting the days until the next issue. He said you’d particularly like the article on page three.”

  “Right. Thanks.”

  “That will be three pounds ninety-five.” The man held out his hand. “Plus forty pence for the toll.”

  “I don’t suppose you’d like to keep the newsletter for yourself, would you?”

  “I’ve already read it.”

  “You’ve read my newsletter?”

  “The first couple of pages, but then I fell asleep.”