Witch Is Where Magic Lives Now Page 22
“Of course it isn’t. That’s clearly just a serial number.”
“Then what do you mean?”
“Look at the legend printed on the parchment. The answer is right there in front of you.”
“I’ve read it a thousand times. It just says the first one to unlock the vault will find riches beyond their wildest dreams. How does that help?”
“That’s not what it says.”
“Yes, it is.”
“No, it isn’t. It actually says the first one to unlock the vault.”
“Same difference.”
“No, it isn’t.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about, Winky.”
“Look at the goblet again.”
“I’ve seen it a million times. It’s an ugly thing.”
“Look at the engraving.”
“You just said yourself that’s only a serial number.”
“I don’t mean the serial number. I’m talking about the names on the goblet.”
“They’re all the previous owners of Tweaking Manor dating back to when it was first built.”
“Look at the first name on the list.”
“Rudolph Tweaking. What about him?”
“What’s engraved next to his name?”
“His date of birth and death.”
“Bingo!”
“Hold on. Are you saying—?”
“That’s the combination. It’s obvious.”
“It can’t be that simple.” I took the phone back from him. “Someone must have thought of that already.”
“Apparently they didn’t.”
I made a call to Tweaking Manor. Elizabeth Judge answered.
“Hi, Elizabeth, it’s Jill. Look, this is a really long shot and I’m probably wasting your time. I’ve just reread the legend on the parchment, and it occurred to me that it might refer to the first lord of the manor, Rudolph Tweaking.”
“Really?”
“I could be wrong. I probably am, but it might be worth trying his date of birth. Or death. Or both? What do you think?”
“It’s definitely worth a try. I’ll go and do it now.”
“I’ll stay on the phone, shall I?”
“There’s no point, Jill. There’s no reception down in the passageway. I’ll nip down there now and give you a call back.”
“Okay.”
“So?” Winky blew on his claws. “Am I a bona fide genius or what?”
“We’ll soon find out.”
About twenty minutes later, my phone rang.
“Jill, you were right!” Elizabeth gushed. “It was his date of birth. The vault is open.”
“Is there anything inside?”
“It’s full of gold bars. Dozens of them. They must be worth an absolute fortune. Thanks to you, it looks like we’ll be able to save the house. How did you realise that was the combination?”
I glanced at Winky. “It just sort of came to me.”
“We can’t thank you enough, Jill. I’m in the dining room with my sister. She says that when you submit your invoice, she’s going to pay you a big bonus. A very big bonus.”
“There’s really no need.”
“There absolutely is. You’ve just saved Tweaking Manor. Thank you so much. Just a second, my sister is saying something. She says that when the house has been renovated, we’d love for you and your family to come and stay for a few days, to see it in its full glory.”
“That would be lovely. I’ll look forward to it.”
When I’d finished on the call, Winky was looking very smug indeed. “It’s not often I’m wrong, but I was right again, wasn’t I?”
“You were.”
“Sorry? I didn’t catch that.”
“I said you were right.”
“Again?”
“Again.”
“Did I hear that you’re going to get a very big bonus?”
“That’s what she said.”
“Which of course, you’ll be sharing with me.”
***
I’d finished work early because I wanted to be home in time to accompany Jack and Florence to the open day at the revamped hotel. First, though, I had another call to make.
“Yes?” snapped the woman who answered the door. “I don’t buy at the door, and I’m watching my favourite soap.”
“Don’t you remember me, Mrs Mizus?”
“Err, no. Should I?”
“We met when you paid Annabel Versailles a visit a few days ago.”
“Oh yes. Sorry. Julie, wasn’t it?”
“Jill, actually.”
“How did you know where I live? Did Annabel ask you to pay me a visit? Is she okay?”
“Healthwise, she’s fine, but she’d be a lot better if you stopped hacking her YarnAgram account.”
Her cheeks flushed. “I—err—have no idea what you mean.”
“The game is up, Maud. The IP address that hacked the account was traced back to this address.”
Do you like the way I said IP address as though I knew what I was talking about? Good, eh? Winky had asked Nobby the Nerd to talk me through it.
“I—err—”
“Don’t waste your breath trying to make excuses. I can already guess what happened. You knew how popular Mrs V is in the yarn community. That’s why you did your best to dissuade her from going online. When you discovered she’d opened a YarnAgram account, and saw how quickly she was amassing followers, you could see your crown slipping away, so you decided to sabotage her. How am I doing so far?”
“Does Annabel know?”
“Not yet.”
“Please don’t tell her. I’m really sorry.”
“Sorry doesn’t cut it. If you don’t want me to tell her, you’d better remove all your posts from her account before the end of the day.”
“Okay. I’ll take them down.”
“Then, you’re going to follow Mrs V’s account.”
“Alright.”
“And from now on, you’re going to share all Mrs V’s posts with all your followers.”
“But, I—”
“Or I tell Mrs V it was you.”
“Okay, okay, I’ll do it.”
***
As it was pouring with rain, we drove the short distance from the old watermill to the hotel.
“Look what I’ve found, Mummy,” Florence said from the back seat.
“Mummy’s driving, darling.” Jack turned around. “What is it?”
“I think it’s about freaky.” She passed Jack the crumpled flyer.
“Where did that come from?”
“Beats me.” I shrugged, and quickly changed the subject. “Winky cracked the combination of the Tweaking Manor vault.”
“Winky did?”
“Yeah, he’s going to be unbearable for the next few days. Still, it’s worth it because Caroline said she’s going to pay me a big bonus.”
“That’s brilliant.”
“I know and very timely too. Profits are down.”
“You made a profit?”
“Almost, but let’s not spoil the day by talking about that. There had better be a good spread at the hotel. I’m really hungry.”
“Do you think there’ll be many people there?” Jack said.
“I doubt it.”
As it turned out, I was wrong. The function room where the event was being held was full. There were lots of familiar faces in the crowd, including Donna, her husband and Wendy. Olga, her husband and kids were there too. As were the Stock sisters (who was manning the shop?), scary Miss Drinkwater, and the vicar. As soon as Florence spotted Wendy, she asked if she could go over and talk to her.
“Yes, but you mustn’t leave this room.”
“I won’t, Mummy.”
“The food is magnificent,” Jack said. “We’ll definitely have to visit the restaurant when it’s open.”
He was right. It was top notch and there was plenty of it. “I bet it’ll be expensive.”
Florence came running over to us.
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“Mummy, look at this!” She was holding a snow globe.
“You mustn’t pick up the ornaments, darling.”
“But look! There’s a little man inside it.”
“I’m sure there is, but you still shouldn’t—” That’s when I spotted him. Florence was right, there was a little man inside; he was thumping on the glass, and obviously shouting something, but I couldn’t hear what he was saying.
“Jill?” Jack looked at the globe. “What is that?”
“I know him.”
“Who?”
“The man in the snow globe.”
“What do you mean, you know him?”
“It’s Aunt Lucy’s next-door neighbour, Charlie Roundtree.” I turned to Florence. “Why don’t you go and talk to Wendy?”
“What about the snow globe, Mummy?”
“I’ll see to this.”
“Okay.” She ran back across the room to Wendy.
“Hello, you two.” The familiar voice caught me by surprise.
“Grandma, what are you doing here? I thought the open day was for Middle Tweaking residents only?”
“It is. Oh, I see you found my snow globe.”
“Did you do this?”
“Do what?”
“Put Charlie Roundtree inside the snow globe.”
“Of course I did.”
“Why?”
“I would have thought that was obvious. He wrecked Lucy’s garden.”
“Charlie did it? But he’s been so friendly to Aunt Lucy.”
“He just pretended to be when all the time, he was scheming to make sure that he won Candlefield in Bloom. When he realised he couldn’t beat Lucy fair and square, he destroyed her garden during the night.”
“How can you know that?”
“Because, Jill, I saw him do it.”
“Just a minute. Was it you who repaired the garden?”
“Of course it was, but don’t tell Lucy. I don’t want people thinking I’ve gone soft.”
“And then you put Charlie in here?”
“A fitting punishment, I thought.”
“You can’t keep him in there indefinitely.”
“Of course not. Just for a few days. Or weeks.”
“Hold on, did you just say you were a resident of Middle Tweaking?”
“That’s right.”
“Since when?”
“Since I bought this hotel of course.”
Oh bum!
What next for Jill?
Don’t miss all the fun and excitement in the next book:
Witch Is Where Clowns Go To Die
(Witch P.I. Mysteries #38)
ALSO FROM ADELE ABBOTT:
Whoops! Our New Flatmate Is A Human
Susan Hall Investigates Book #1
Take a shy werewolf, a wizard who fancies himself as a ladies’ man, and a vampire dying for her first taste of human blood. Then add a human for good measure.
Web site: AdeleAbbott.com
Facebook: facebook.com/AdeleAbbottAuthor