On the way back to the café, there was only one connection left to Nigel, and that was Dot. She knew about the money, or the money she thought Nigel had. I rushed into the café, not sparing a moment to greet Dannika behind the counter or ask how her mother was. I went straight to the backroom and plucked my notebook from the table.

  “Are you okay?” Tana asked, still sat on the floor, breaking her meditation to speak.

  I held my forefinger to her as I flicked through pages to find the information I’d noted about everyone who was a suspect. “Ah-ha!” I said.

  Dorothy Druiminn was her full name. I recalled seeing it on the table at the bake sale.

  “What is it?” Tana stood by my side, looking at my handwritten scribblings. “What does it say?”

  “Dorothy Druiminn,” I said. “It’s her.”

  “Who?”

  “She’s in control of a brownie.”

  If I was to take a guess, I’d say Druiminn was of Gaelic ancestry. And the name from the letter, Drummond, was most likely the English translation. Tana nodded along to my hypothesis as I explained briefly.

  The signs were there. I’d only thought of Michael because the letter I’d found had been with all the letters he’d sent.

  “So, what are you going to do?” Tana asked, clutching the blanket.

  “That’s on me,” a figure spoke, walking through the closed door into the backroom. Beneath the shadow, it was revealed to be Nora’s stout frame and giant frizzy hair. “This case has tested me.”

  “Nora,” I said, “please, come and take a seat.”

  “I see we’ve both come to similar conclusions,” she said, pulling out a chair at the table.

  “Perhaps, how did you find out?” I asked.

  “Firstly, I had to find out where the suspect lived, and I did that by looking at where most coins were found and where the most thefts were being reported,” she said, her eyes flickered from left to right. “I pinpointed Belsy last week, but once I visited and made myself known to you and the coven on Friday, I found myself pulled in a multitude of directions.”

  “What? How?” Tana sat, propping her chin on her hands, captivated by Nora’s words.

  “Time and effort,” she said. “When you learn to channel your energy, you can feel everything around you. All the different energies, pushing and pulling at you.”

  “What can you feel now?” I asked.

  “The black tourmaline you told me you were going to use,” she said with a side smile. “I feel that. I also feel a number of different wards in this room.” I watched as Nora closed her eyes, almost plucking information from the air. I was impressed. I’d never seen another witch outside of the coven use their abilities like this. Before I could speak again, Nora took a sharp breath and held it. “I know both of you have sensitive gifts,” she revealed. “Gwen, as a clairsentient, and Tana, you’re very gifted, but also very vulnerable.”

  “That’s why I’m here,” Tana said. “Gwen is the only one who can really understand in the coven. Nobody else has these abilities.”

  “Gifted indeed,” she said. “There’s a reason for everything, a reason your coven formed, and the two of you were brought to each other.” She turned to me. “But right now, I need to know what you know.”

  “I thought you knew?” I said.

  “I know the area I’m supposed to be looking at, but you know the people, and last night, there were too many people around to find anyone.”

  Tana glanced at me. “Is this about Dot?”

  I nodded. “Well, I believe it’s a lady named Dot, or Dorothy, it all adds up. She’s a distant relative of Nigel, she’s from Belsy, and her surname is of Scottish descent.”

  “And you know where she lives?”

  “I can find out,” I said. “She has friends out there.” I gestured to the café behind the door.

  She smiled. “This is my last job for the Council. I think should join me.”

  “No thanks,” Tana said pre-emptively.

  “Yes,” I said. “I know there’s more to this, I know Nigel’s death is connected, even if the police don’t think so, but I can feel it.”

  Her smile grew. “Then it’s settled, I’ll meet you here tonight. Prepare with crystals, a natural cloaking would be fluorite and something to see beyond your natural sight; jet stone perhaps.”

  “Of course,” I said, recalling my teaching on crystal energy.

  “I’ll need to prepare to capture the little creature,” she said. “8—sharp.”

  I nodded, a large smile of excitement beaming on my face. “How will you do it?”

  “You’ll find out.” She stood, clapping her hands together once.

  “And what about Dot?”

  She shuffled around on her feet. “It depends on what the brownie has done and whether she’s been controlling it. Either way, the Council will want to deal with her discretely.”

  “Ominous,” Tana said with shaking breath.

  “Quite,” Nora chuckled. She waved before leaving in a snap.

  We stayed in silence for a moment.

  “You’d best not leave the coven to work for the council,” Tana said with a sigh.

  I scoffed at the thought. “I already have a job.”

  But right now, my job was to coerce Dot’s address in Belsy from Margery and Ethel, although I knew I wouldn’t have to do much to get it from them. Throw in some fresh chocolate cake and a little whipped would do it.

  CHAPTER 15

  August wasn’t pleased I was leaving to investigate, and Rosie wasn’t happy that I was doing this with someone else. But my curiosities had the better of me, it was the first time I was doing something with another witch outside the coven. None of them approved either.

  I wasn’t privy to Nora’s plan. All I was told was to meet her in the carpark outside the café at 8 P.M. I didn’t know when I’d be home or where this would take me. None of the coven witches thought it was a good idea, but they were always trying to play it safe anyway, so I didn’t suspect I’d receive anything but their concerns. Although I did tell my mother to keep an ear out for me calling and to make sure August was taken care off, even though I’d just fed him less than an hour ago.

  Tap. Tap. Rapped on the window.

  Dressed in a black cloak, Evanora stood, smiling at me.

  “Get in,” I said.

  “It’s chilly,” she noted, opening the passenger side door. “I smell cake,” she said, rubbing her hands together.

  I nodded. “I didn’t know what your plan was, so I’ve packed cake. I can always deliver it to Dot without being too suspicious.”

  “Good initiative,” she said. “That’s always a good trait to have.”

  “It’s in my blood,” I stated, even if it didn’t appear to be in my mother’s blood, it was certainly in my grandmother’s.

  “And you brought protection?” she asked.

  “Always,” I said, nodding to the glove box. “I have a couple pieces, and I have some embedded in my necklace.” I fished my necklace out from inside my blouse to show her.

  The roads were clear, but the air was still cold. The drive to Dot’s house in Belsy was over twenty minutes in the increasingly darkening sky. The only light visible came from the headlights of the car and the poorly lit streets with sparing streetlamps.

  We arrived at 24 Pine Road. A bungalow in a cul-de-sac. There were high brown fences caging the tall grass inside.

  “It’s a mess,” I remarked as we sat in the darkness of the stationary car.

  “A surprise,” she said. “Brownies help around the house, but it doesn’t look like any work has been done here in quite some time.”

  “Maybe we have the wrong house.”

  Nora pointed, noticing something. “Can you see the three circles carved into the fence?”

  I couldn’t. “Not really, why?”

  She handed me something cold and hard, pressing it into the centre of my palm. “What about now?”

  Everything around me illuminated. “I can now,” I said. Like night vision, I wasn’t squinting to see.

  “That’s a dwelling mark,” she said, pulling the stone from me. “It’s also a ward, we have the right house.” She leaned back to grab the plastic bag I’d packed.

  “You want me to go?” I asked, trying to appear less apprehensive than my body was allowing me.

  She nodded. “Jet and fluorite,” she said, opening the glove box to take the smaller stones I’d brought. “Keep hold of these.”

  I did. I kept them in my hands and screwed my hand into a tight fist. In my other hand, I held the plastic bag. It was now or never, I wasn’t scared to confront her, I was scared to see a brownie, or more excited than scared.

  Approaching Dot’s door alone, I turned once slightly to see Nora’s in the car. Once through the gate, I was unsettled, the tall grass was uncomfortable. I twitched at the sound of rustling, anything could’ve been living there.

  Before I could knock, I heard a cough from behind the door. “I’m sick,” Dot called out. “Come back tomorrow.”

  “It’s just me,” I said, “Gwen.”

  “Yes, I know.”

  “I brought you some cake, from the ladies at the café.”

  Dot continued to cough and sniffle from behind the door. I had no idea she was ill, not that Ethel nor Margery had told me. “I might be able to help you out,” I said. “I have healing hands.”

  A hard click sounded as Dot unlocked the door. “I’ll take the cakes,” she said. The door opened an inch as Dot glared at me through the small slit. “I’d invite you in, but this place is a mess.”

  “Nonsense,” I said, reaching forward to push the door. Dot didn’t have much choice of letting me enter, but I immediately regretted it. There was junk everywhere, in piles and in boxes, there was so much here it was like a hoarder’s paradise.

  “Gwen, I’m really not well,” she said. “Please, leave.”

  “Let me help,” I said. “I can get you feeling better.”

  Dot closed the door, locking it shut. “I can’t let you do that.”

  From outside, a loud muffled shouting came. The sound was matched inside by a loud wailing. I cupped my ears at the shrill sound. Dot prodded me forward into the living room with her bony finger as I dropped the stones on the ground.

  I hunched my back, careful as I stepped over the mess. “Ouch, Dot.”

  Thud. The front door sprang open with a whoosh.

  “Yorne!” Dot called out.

  Nora stood in the doorway as Dot glared at both of us.

  A grumble caught my attention, turning forward. Two tall stacks of papers crumbled to the ground. The grumbling grew coarser as it came closer.

  “What is it?” I turned to ask Nora.

  Dot rushed outside, her hand on the handle, ready to slam the door shut.

  “Stop!” I shouted, extending myself forward. I grabbed Dot’s hand. “What are you doing?”

  She chuckled to herself, yanking me forward with a surprising force of strength. “You don’t know, do you?”

  “The jet,” Nora shouted, on her knees picking the stones I’d dropped.

  A hot-breathed howl spat in our faces. I pulled Dot inside again, getting closer to Nora. She passed me the jet. Filling the height of the room was a giant brown furry being with two red eyes beaming down on us.

  “Is this—is—a—” I dropped Dot’s hand, stood looking up at the being with the body of a wild bear, the face of a tiger, and the red eyes of pure demonic possession.

  “When they go bad,” Nora said, loudly over the heavy grunting. “It makes more work for me.” A smile formed on the side of her lips, almost like she was enjoying this.

  “Enjoy, ladies,” Dot said, slamming the door shut.

  “Get her,” she shouted, “I’ll deal with this.” She pulled a chain from around her neck, revealing a small cage at the end.

  I squinted at it, there was zero chance it would fit inside, but I hadn’t the time to question her. I jerked the front door open to see Dot almost at the end of the garden. “Dot!”

  “Leave me, Gwen,” she called. “You should’ve let it be.”

  I chased after her, swishing my wrist. The gate stuck shut before she could leave. “I didn’t want to believe you could’ve done this,” I said.

  “Done what?” she turned to me, cocking her hands on her hips.

  “You tell me,” I said.

  A wail cried through the house, shaking the foundations of the bungalow.

  Dot dropped to her knees. “No, not my baby.”

  Nora stood at the door with a larger metal cage in her possession. She held it up, revealing a small humanoid figure with a long nose, claws, with red eyes, wearing a green and brown striped outside. “Easy,” she said, wiping her brow and pushing her glasses up.

  “He deserved it,” she said, sobbing into her hands. “Everything that happened, he brought it all on himself.”

  I stepped closer. “Who?”

  “Nigel,” she spat. “He was my sister’s son.”

  “Why did you kill him?”

  A menacing chuckle broke from her sobs. “He was a nasty piece of work. He didn’t even have any money.” Her laughter turned to tears as she pulled at the weeds in her garden. “Imagine, going through all the trouble, only to find out they wanted someone to foot the bill for his funeral.”

  “You did it for money?” I asked. “Why?”

  “Look where I live,” she screamed. “He could’ve helped. He should’ve helped me.”

  The question I really had. I glanced from Nora to Dot. “How?”

  “Yorne did it.”

  The brownie cried inside the cage as its name was spoken. Nora shook the cage to hush it. “This doesn’t look good for you, Dot,” Nora said.

  “Are you going to tell the police?” she laughed. “What will they do?”

  I had no idea. Nora stepped toward us. “What will happen to her?” I asked.

  “I told you,” she said, referring to our conversation earlier in the day. “The Witches Council will decide. It’s a magical crime.”

  “So?” Dot asked, struggling to stand. “So? What will happen to me?”

  “Nobody knows,” she revealed.

  My brows knitted together, searching Nora’s face for a bluff. “Really?” She wasn’t bluffing.

  Nora snapped her fingers, cuffing Dot’s hand together. “You’d be a good investigator, Gwen.”

  “Thank you.”

  “I’m not just saying that either, you should really think about applying.”

  Dot’s sobbing broke the moment. “I’m too old to go to prison.”

  I wasn’t sure if prison was the exact place the Witches Council would send Dot. I’m sure it would be much worse. “Searching for clues, finding out what happened is what I enjoy,” I said, looking at Dot’s face. “I don’t enjoy this part.”

  “I can take care of it from here,” she said. “I’ll get these two transported. Thank you for all the help, Gwen.”

  “Anytime.”

  “You can’t leave me with her,” Dot said. “Please, tell her.”

  “Nora.” I had no words. “I hope I’ll see you around.”

  She nodded. “Safe journey home.”

  Once I was out of the gate, there was no turning back to see Nora standing with Dot and the brownie locked up. I drove away without a second glance.

  There was closure. The beastly brownie that Tana had seen in a dream must’ve been that one. Having a second one on the loose around the village wasn’t worth thinking about or stressing over. I was now ready for a long soak in a bubble bath.

  August was at the door, sat on the mat, licking at his winter coat when I entered. I wanted to sink to the ground beside him.

  “How did it go?” he asked.

  My bag dropped to my feet. I pulled my coat away, letting them drop to the ground. “I’m drained,” I said. “Let’s hibernate.” Pursing my lips into a smile, all I needed now was to embed myself into my mattress and duvet.

  “Yes, yes!” August rushed off upstairs.

  I took a long bubble bath with some scented oils before climbing into bed after 10 P.M. ready to let my brain process the day with some odd dreams.

  A Week Later

  I’d taken the day off on Saturday, expecting my son home. I finished washing the dishes after dinner, cleaning away the cold tea from the pot. I was already mentally preparing myself to see my son after being away from him for so long, the longest time since he was born, and it was only four months.

  “He’s here, he’s here!” August screamed, skittering into the kitchen.

  I dried my hands on a towel quickly before rushing to the door. I played with my necklace as my heart thumped in my throat. I stood by the open door.

  “Mum,” he said, hauling a large bag onto his back from the car he arrived in. “You didn’t answer my text message last week. I’ve brought a friend, he’s staying over Christmas.”

  From the other side of the car, a taller man stood with a slight bit of facial hair on his top lip. He was slightly older than my son.

  “Ms. Waterhouse,” he said. “Thanks for letting me stay.” He hauled a large gym bag over his shoulder.

  “Oh, oh.” I clutched my necklace tighter.

  “This is Michael,” Jack said. “He doesn’t really have any family, so I said he could stay.” He dropped his bag by the door and wrapped his arms around me. “Missed you.”

  “Missed you too,” I said, planting a kiss on his cheek. “Does he—” my throat clenched.

  “Know about you and August?” he laughed.

  August stood behind my legs, apprehensive about the new person.

  “August, don’t be a stranger,” he said, grabbing the cat from the ground. “Say, hello to our guest.”

  He hacked at his throat, grumbling. “Hi,” he said.

  Michael laughed. “Damn, he wasn’t joking,” he said. “It’s so cool, being a witch. When Jack’s grandma came by, it was crazy.”

  Ack! Now I had two of them to deal with. Whatever my mother had been filling their heads with, I needed to get to the bottom of it.

 

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