Witch Is Where Magic Lives Now Read online

  “Those are the least of your problems, pal.” I reversed the ‘doppelganger’ spell.

  “Who are you?”

  “I’m the person who’s going to put you behind bars.”

  “You think you can capture Romeo?” He scoffed. “You’ll be sorry you messed with me.”

  He tried to stand up, but I was too quick for him. I used magic to tie his arms and legs, sending him crashing back to the ground.

  “Your magic isn’t strong enough to hold me.” He spent the next few minutes trying to reverse my spell, but he’d underestimated my powers, which were far stronger than his. “You can’t do this. Let me go!”

  “I don’t think so.” With the help of the ‘power’ spell, I was easily able to pick him up.

  “Put me down!”

  “Your wish is my command.” I walked over to one of the large industrial waste bins, lifted the lid, and dropped him inside. “That’s where you belong. With the rest of the rubbish.”

  “Let me out!” he screamed, as I slammed the lid shut.

  I called Daze, who was so excited to hear my news that she dropped what she was doing and came straight over, with Blaze in tow.

  “Where is he?” She glanced around. “He didn’t get away, did he?”

  “No, he’s where he belongs.” I tapped the waste bin.

  “Let me out!” Romeo shouted.

  “Well done, Jill.” Daze lifted the lid. “That’s our guy. We’ll take him off your hands.”

  “Before you do, there’s something else I’d like to discuss with you.”

  “Sure.” She turned to Blaze. “Can you take this scumbag back to Candlefield while I talk to Jill?”

  “It’ll be my pleasure.” Blaze climbed onto the bin, took out his net and threw it over Romeo, and the two of them disappeared in a puff of smoke.

  “Take a look at these, Daze, and tell me what you think.” I held out my phone and showed her the photos I’d taken of the girls’ charm bracelets.

  “Where did you get these?”

  “The bracelets belong to my niece and her friends. Are those charms what I think they are?”

  “I have a horrible feeling they might be.”

  “I was afraid you’d say that. What are we going to do about it?”

  Chapter 22

  Mr Bacus, my new accountant, had said I could call around on Friday afternoon to pick up my books. I really wasn’t sure what to expect from a man who didn’t use a computer or even a calculator to prepare the accounts. He did, however, come highly recommended by the Stock sisters at the local store.

  So, it was with some trepidation that I knocked on his door.

  “Jill, do come in. I hope you don’t mind, but I’ve got my flies out.”

  That comment stopped me dead in my tracks. Surely, I must have misheard him.

  “Sorry, Mr Bacus, what did you say?”

  “I make flies.”

  “Oh?”

  “For fly fishing.”

  “Of course.” I followed him through to the front room which doubled as his office. “I take it you’re a fisherman, then?”

  “Not at all. It’s far too boring. I just enjoy making the flies.”

  “I see. Do you sell them?”

  “No, I make them purely for the fun of it. I have them displayed on the walls of my bedroom. Would you care to see them?”

  “Err, actually I’m a bit pushed for time at the moment. Perhaps another day.”

  “I’ve been making them for so long I’ve almost run out of wall space. I’ve already filled three walls, and I’m halfway across the last one. I’m not sure what I’ll do with them once that one is full. Anyway, Jill, you’re not here to listen to me talk about my flies. You’ll want to see your accounts.”

  “Yes, please. If they’re ready. If not, I can always pop back another day.”

  “I promised they’d be ready today, and I’m a man of my word.” He opened the bottom drawer of his desk and brought out a blue ledger. “Voila!”

  I flicked through the pages; a lot of it meant nothing to me, but I could understand the most pertinent information: Profit and loss—a loss, obviously. The money owed to me—not much. Money that I owed—too much. All in all, it painted a pretty depressing picture, but that was nothing unusual.

  “That’s great, Mr Bacus, did you have any problems with the paperwork I left with you?”

  “None at all. It’s all filed away neat and tidy in my basement. If you’d rather take it away with you, I can get it for you.”

  “No, I’m glad to see the back of it. How much do I owe you?”

  “That’ll be fifty pounds plus VAT, please.”

  “Right. Is that your monthly charge?”

  “No, I don’t believe in those. I’ll just charge you every time you bring the paperwork in. With your level of turnover, you’ll only need to do that once a quarter.”

  “Right, thanks.” That was less than Luther had charged me, and I was certain it was much less than Starr would have expected. “Do you take credit or debit cards?”

  “I’m afraid not.”

  “A cheque, then?”

  “I’m afraid it’s cash only. Sorry, I should have mentioned that before.”

  “Not to worry. I don’t actually have that much cash on me at the moment. I’ve never really taken any notice, is there a cash machine here in the village?”

  “There’s just the one. It’s inside Tweaking Stores.”

  “I can’t say I’ve noticed it when I’ve been in there.”

  “When you walk through the door, turn left and it’s at the very bottom near the back wall.”

  “Right. I’ll pop over there now, draw out some money, and be back in a jiffy.”

  “As you wish, but there’s really no hurry. You could drop the money in later if you like.”

  “I’d rather do it now. I’ll only be a few minutes.”

  I made my way across the village to Tweaking Stores. Once inside, I followed Mr Bacus’ instructions, turned left and walked to the far wall, but there was no sign of the cash machine. I was just about to go to the counter to enquire of its whereabouts when I spotted it, hidden behind a pile of plastic buckets. I managed to move them to one side, just far enough to give me access. After I’d put my card in the slot, entered my PIN and the amount I wanted to withdraw, the machine churned away for a few seconds, then beeped and displayed a message that informed me it was out of cash.

  I couldn’t believe it. This store was beyond useless. Not only did they not have custard creams, bread or butter, but they didn’t even have money in their cash machine.

  After retrieving my card, I made my way over to the counter where Marjorie Stock was busy writing in the ledger.

  “Jill, did you find what you were looking for?”

  “Actually, I’m not here to buy anything today. I came in to withdraw some money, but the cash machine says it’s out of cash.”

  “Oh dear. Someone mentioned it was empty yesterday, but I thought Cynthia had been in touch with the people to get it refilled.”

  “It’s still empty.”

  “I’m so sorry. How very annoying for you. I’ll give them a call straight away. I’m sure it’ll be refilled by tomorrow morning. Tomorrow afternoon, at the latest.”

  “Right. Thanks.”

  I nipped back to Mr Bacus and explained that I wouldn’t be able to pay him until the next day. He was very understanding and said I could drop by anytime with the cash.

  There was just one final thing I needed to do.

  She answered the call on the first ring. “Starr speaking.”

  “Hi, it’s Jill Maxwell.”

  “Jill—?”

  “The private investigator.”

  “Oh yes, of course. Good afternoon. Are you ready for me to go through your accounts and plan your strategy going forward?”

  “Actually, no. I’m afraid that I’ve decided I won’t be needing your services.”

  “Really? That is disappointing.
May I ask why?”

  “It turns out that there’s an accountant a few doors down from me in the village where I live. I’ve decided to use him because it’s much more convenient.”

  “I see. I trust he’s going to review your business strategy, and put a management reporting system in place?”

  “Of course. He’s got all of that in hand.”

  “In that case, I wish you the best of luck. You know where I am if you need me.”

  ***

  Florence came running up to me as soon as I walked through the door; she was clearly bubbling over with excitement about something.

  “Mummy, Daddy says we can go freaky on Sunday.”

  “Huh? Did he? Let’s go and find him, and he can tell me all about it.” She took my hand and led me out into the back garden where Jack was trying desperately to get Buddy to run after the ball.

  “He won’t fetch it for me,” Jack said. “He’ll do it for Florence, but not for me.”

  The bargain I’d struck with Buddy was for him to play ball with Florence. If we wanted him to fetch the ball for us too, we’d no doubt have to renegotiate the terms of the deal.

  “Florence has just told me that we’re going freaky on Sunday?”

  “Oh yes.” He grinned. “She’s talking about Freaking Tweaking.”

  Oh bum! I’d been hoping that we might escape the village on Sunday to avoid that.

  “What is Freaking Tweaking?” I asked, all innocent-like.

  “It’s the annual festival that takes place on Tweaking Meadows,” Jack said. “It sounds great.”

  “Daddy says there’ll be lots of rides and games and toffee apples and candyfloss,” Florence said.

  “Great! How did you happen to hear about it, anyway?”

  “Kathy rang about an hour ago to see if we were going. She was surprised I didn’t already know about it. You would have thought there would have been posters or flyers, wouldn’t you?”

  “You would, yeah.”

  “I told her it sounded great and that we’d definitely be up for it, so she and Lizzie are coming over on Sunday.”

  “What about Peter and Mikey?”

  “Pete has persuaded Mikey to go go-karting.”

  “Freaky sounds fun, doesn’t it, Mummy?” Florence said.

  “It sounds absolutely brilliant.”

  It was my turn to read Florence her bedtime story. I’d tried desperately to persuade her to let me read a different book, but she insisted on the same one again. Her favourite. A story about a worm who wanted to live in a tree. It’s hard to adequately describe just how much I hated that stupid book. If you were a worm, why ever would you want to live in a tree where all the birds live? The whole premise was beyond ridiculous.

  What do you mean, I’m overthinking it?

  Fortunately, Florence fell asleep halfway through the second reading, so I sneaked downstairs.

  “Freaking Tweaking sounds brilliant, doesn’t it, Jill?” Jack was way too excited.

  “Fantastic.”

  “It’s lucky Kathy told us about it. We might have gone out and missed all the fun.”

  “That is lucky.” I was going to kill that sister of mine the next time I saw her. “Jack, now that Florence is asleep, I have to go out.”

  “Why?”

  “I want to check on Caroline. I popped in there this morning and she didn’t look very well at all. Her brother’s staying with her and I wouldn’t trust him as far as I could throw him. I’m worried something really bad might happen.”

  “Will you be gone long?”

  “I don’t know. Possibly.”

  “Be careful, Jill.”

  “I always am.” I gave him a kiss. “Don’t wait up for me.”

  ***

  I drove to Tweaking Manor, but instead of pulling into the driveway, I parked some distance up the road and made my way back to the house on foot. There was no point in knocking on the door because even if Ransom did answer it, there was no way he’d allow me inside again. Instead, I made myself invisible, and then magicked myself inside the manor house.

  Standing in the large hallway, I listened for any sounds of life, but the house was silent. I made my way upstairs to Caroline’s bedroom and slipped quietly inside. She looked just as bad as she had earlier, so I walked over to her bedside, to make sure she was still breathing. She was, but she didn’t stir. Where was Ransom? He was supposed to be looking after her.

  Once I was out of the bedroom, I cast the ‘listen’ spell. I figured that if there was anyone in the house, it would help me to hear them. The spell did the trick because I could hear a voice in the distance. It sounded like Ransom, and it appeared to be coming from downstairs somewhere.

  Still invisible, I made my way down the stairs and followed the voice to a corridor with doors on either side. I expected the sound to come from one of the rooms, but it didn’t. Instead, it appeared to be coming from the very end of the corridor, but that didn’t make sense because it was a dead-end. As I stood there, trying to work out what was going on, I heard footsteps on the other side of the wall. Moments later, the wall slid open, and Ransom stepped out. As he walked away, the wall began to slide slowly closed, so I quickly slipped inside.

  This was clearly the ‘lost’ secret passageway; its bare stone walls were illuminated by a series of lanterns. My sense of direction is not the best, but it was obvious even to me that the passageway led outside, under the rear garden. I’d walked at least a hundred yards, and still seen nothing of interest. Where did it lead to, and who had Ransom been shouting at?

  I was beginning to think this was a wild goose chase when I saw it: Embedded in the rock wall was a huge vault. So, the legend of the parchment was true after all. There was a vault, but it wasn’t in Tweaking Manor. It was beneath the grounds behind the manor house.

  Next to the vault was a small wooden table and a single wooden chair. The table was covered in sheets of paper. As I got closer, I noticed that someone had stuck another sheet of paper onto the wall in front of the desk. On it was a series of numbers, which I recognised as those that had been engraved inside the goblet. The papers on the desk were filled with rows of numbers, each one clearly a different combination of those same numbers. Ransom must have been trying to find the combination that would open the vault. The shouting I’d heard had not been directed at someone else. It must have been out of sheer frustration as his efforts to find the correct combination kept failing. I’m certainly no mathematician, but even I knew there had to be millions of possible combinations. He could be at this for years and still not find the right one.

  I heard a sound behind me; it was the wall sliding open again. Ransom was on his way back. What to do? I could have stayed and confronted him, but I didn’t feel that I had enough information to act yet. I was still invisible, so I could easily have slipped past him, but I wanted to know where the passageway led to.

  I hadn’t gone much further before I came to what appeared to be yet another dead end. I was convinced it must be another exit, but how to open the wall? I touched one stone after another, but with no success. Maybe the lanterns? I tried pulling on one of them, but it wouldn’t budge. I was running out of options. I tried the next lantern, and eureka, the wall slid open.

  I emerged into a thick clump of bushes. As the wall slid closed behind me, I forced my way through the foliage, getting scratched several times for my trouble. Once I was clear of the bushes, I could see the rear of the manor house in the distance. In front of me was a large expanse of grass, which had probably once been a magnificent lawn, but had long since gone to weed.

  Under cover of darkness, I made my way back to the car. When I arrived home, Jack was still up.

  “How did it go?” he asked.

  “Let’s just say it proved to be quite interesting.”

  “How’s ‘her ladyship’?”

  “Not great. I’ll need to go back there in the morning, and I’m going to need your help.”

  Chapter 23
/>   By the next morning, I’d formulated a fantabulous plan.

  Once Florence had finished her breakfast and gone outside to play with Buddy, I explained to Jack what I needed him to do.

  “I’m not sure about this, Jill.”

  “Why? What’s wrong? It’s a fantabulous plan.”

  “It’s dangerous.”

  “I scoff at danger.”

  “If anything goes wrong, I’m going to be left with some serious egg on my face.”

  “You’ve already got marmalade all over it now, so what’s the difference?”

  “This isn’t a joking matter. I may not be in the police force anymore, but I still have my reputation to think of. If this goes pear-shaped, I could end up being charged with wasting police time.”

  “Come on, Jack. I know what I’m doing. I need you to trust me on this one.”

  “Okay, but there’s still one big flaw in your plan.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Have you forgotten that it’s Saturday, and Florence has her dance class this morning?”

  Oh bum! “Yes, I had forgotten.”

  “We can’t let her down.”

  “Of course not, but it’s okay, I’ve got an idea. Wait there.” I hurried through to the lounge and made a call. “Is that Donna?”

  “Speaking. Jill?”

  “Yes. Good morning. I’m sorry to call you so early.”

  “That’s okay. There’s nothing wrong, is there? Is Florence alright?”

  “She’s fine. I need to ask a really big favour of you.”

  “Ask away. If I can help, I will.”

  “Something urgent has cropped up that needs both Jack’s and my attention. I don’t want Florence to miss her dance class this morning, so I wondered if there was any chance you might be able to take her with you and Wendy?”

  “Of course. No problem. I can pick her up on our way past if that’s okay?”

  “That’ll be fine. I’ll be out, but Jack will be here. We were planning to drive into Washbridge afterwards, to buy Florence a bead kit like Wendy’s. Do you think Wendy would like to come with us?”