Witch Silenced in Westerham

by Dionne Lister

  I gave her a worried side-eye glance. “I don’t want to talk about poo… or vomit, or black pudding. Spending my day with nausea is not my idea of fun.”

  She laughed. “But you eat Vegemite.”

  “Ha ha ha. Very funny.”

  “He he, I know. But actually, you’re right. That’s the third time he’s grossed me out with a story about his dog.”

  “And you’d think you would have learned your lesson. From now on, don’t ask him about his dog, at least not when I’m with you.”

  “Fine.” She snorted.

  We took the elevator to the floor above, and she turned right, then went left at the T-intersection. I hadn’t been down this corridor before. She opened the second door on the right, which led into a reception area. It had a two-seater pale-blue fabric couch, and the receptionist’s desk actually had someone sitting behind it. The old lady—she must have been sixty-five in the shade—looked up and smiled. “Can I help you?” she shouted.

  I started, not expecting the loudness.

  “Sally, it’s me, Olivia. I’m working with Millicent. Remember?” Olivia had raised her voice as well. Was the old lady deaf?

  Sally smiled and patted the white bouffant that stood atop her head. It was a two-storey hairdo—it rose two head heights from her scalp. That type of hairstyle was quite rare and must have required an entire can of hairspray to maintain. Thank goodness the PIB was a smoke-free zone, or she’d be at risk of catching fire. “Oh, yes, Olivia! How could I forget? And who’s your friend?”

  “This is Lily, Millicent’s sister-in-law. She’s helping me out today. Lily, this is Sally, Millicent’s secretary.”

  “Lovely to meet you, Lily,” she yelled.

  “Lovely to meet you too.”

  “What?” Her white brows drew down.

  Oops, I forgot to yell. I pitched my voice louder. “I said, nice to meet you too!”

  She smiled. “You can go on through. Millicent’s not here at the moment, but you know where your desk is.”

  When we got into Millicent’s office and Olivia shut the door, I whispered, “I didn’t think Mill had a secretary.”

  “She didn’t until two weeks ago. You know Tim, head of our IT department?”

  I nodded.

  “His dad died a few months ago, and his mother has been at a loose end. She was suffering from depression. She used to be a secretary, so Tim thought if he could get her a job doing simple things like filing and running errands around the PIB, it would give her a sense of purpose. She’ll only be here for a few months.”

  “But she’s deaf. Should she have a hearing aid? How’s she supposed to answer the phone?”

  “We don’t get landline calls. Anyone who wants Millicent just calls her mobile.”

  “Fair enough.”

  “So, let’s get to work.” Millicent dragged a chair from in front of Mill’s desk and placed it next to an office chair in front of a second desk, which had two monitors on it. “We’ll sit here.”

  Olivia sat in one seat, and I sat in the other. She turned on the computer. Once the programs were up and running, she turned to me. “So, great witch, please cast a spell and give me quick searches.”

  I looked around and back at her. “Um, I don’t see any great witches here.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Oh my God, you’re so funny today. Did you put a spell on yourself giving yourself an awesome sense of humour?”

  “No, but I put a spell on you taking yours away.” I poked my tongue out at her. She laughed.

  “Seriously, though. I have to think. Maybe get started, and I’ll chime in as soon as I can.”

  “Sounds like a plan.” She got to work, and I rummaged around in my brain. It was messy, and none of my thoughts were where I wanted them to be. This was going to take a while. I bit my fingernails and stared off into space.

  “Ooh! I know.” I had only taken ten minutes, but I’d finally come up with something. “I’m ready to make magic.”

  “Yay! Just in time, too, because it’s taking me ages to get the reports on how many witches have died at that care home recently and who they were. I hate to think how long digging for the other info is going to take.”

  I shut my eyes, pictured the golden river of power, and reached my thoughts towards it, imagining I was dipping my hand in. Tingles vibrated across my fingers and up my arms. “My friend Olivia is searching online, for information to solve a crime. She needs speed to get results fast. Help her get the right answers within two minutes of starting the search.” I opened my eyes. “Done.”

  She had her lips pressed together, her eyes shining with barely contained laughter.

  “What?”

  She sputtered as her self-control waned, and she gave into the guffaws she’d been holding back. Eventually she stopped laughing. “Oh my God. You can’t rhyme to save your life. Hilarious!”

  I shrugged. “Yeah, yeah, I know. Apparently spells don’t have to rhyme—that’s just to make them easier to remember. By the way, has anyone told you lately how ungrateful you are?” I folded my arms and glared at her.

  She bit her bottom lip, still wearing a cheeky smile. “Sorry, hon. It was just funny. That’s all.”

  I sighed and smiled back. “I know. I sometimes laugh at myself. I was only joking about being upset.”

  She shook her head. “So, it should be faster now?”

  “I have no idea. I hope so.” I snorted. “Give it a go and find out.”

  She typed away and hit Return.

  Within seconds, a list of document links appeared on the screen. “Wow, nice!” Liv clicked on one of the links, transferring her to another screen filled with information on the last person who died at the care home: Agnes Porter. It stated she’d died a month ago.

  “What the hell? It looks like they haven’t been reporting properly. This makes the manager look pretty damn guilty. Can you save that and look at the rest?”

  “Of course.” Olivia went through each document and saved and printed them.

  I got up and collected the twenty sheets from the printer. I sat down again and looked through them all. “The earliest one we have is from fourteen months ago. Peter Klein. Cause of death listed as heart attack. Then a month after that was Catherine Hayden. Cause of death: food poisoning.” One by one, I read out the names and causes of death. By the end of it, there were two food poisonings, one complication of the flu, and all the rest were heart attacks. “Can you google what percentage of elderly people die of a heart attack?”

  Liv tapped out the request on the keyboard. “It’s not very detailed. They talk more about people with heart disease. Hang on…. Hmm, here we go. It’s around 35 percent for over 75s.”

  “Wow, so the percentages are way out at this place. Why don’t we check other care homes in the area?”

  Olivia searched for the other care homes and then pulled up their death notices. After looking into details for five other care homes, whose statistics fell in line with the 35 percent, I could only draw one conclusion. Except… “Liv, those were all non-witch care homes, weren’t they?” I knew witch care facilities were few and far between after discussing it with Will before.

  “Yes. There aren’t many around.”

  “Can we do a search of the other two near here? There’s one in London, maybe more, and one towards the coast. I can’t remember exactly where. Maybe being a witch gives someone an increased risk of having a heart attack?”

  “Maybe. Let’s see.”

  I gathered all the new printouts and sat. “Hmm, they seem to be in line. Actually, they’re a bit under. The London one is around five in seventeen deaths over the same time period, and the other one is four in eighteen. Most of the causes of death seem to be Alzheimer’s. I didn’t know that was an actual cause of death.”

  “I supposed if someone deteriorates and their body finally gives up, it’s because of that rather than being fairly well and dying suddenly.”

  “True.” The unreported deaths worrie
d me, though. “The other thing we need to find out is how many deaths occurred that were unreported. And can you check how many residents each of the three care homes have?” Those numbers would be crucial in figuring out if there was an unusually high rate of death and could help us prove our case later. It would at least give us a stronger reason to be investigating the whole thing.

  Olivia looked at me. “I think I need another cup of tea to think this through. Do you want a coffee?”

  “Cappuccino? I can’t drink the instant stuff.” I shuddered.

  She grinned. “Yes, Miss Coffee Snob, I know. I was going to order from the PIB café.”

  “Yes please.”

  Olivia put the order through, and within five minutes, our beverages had arrived. The office smelled so much homelier with eau de café. Hmm, maybe someone should make a perfume that smelled like freshly brewed coffee. Or, I could just dab some coffee onto my wrists each morning. I chuckled.

  Olivia gave me a “what’s so funny now” look and shook her head. “Do I even want to know?”

  “Probably not, but I’ll tell you anyway. Coffee perfume! Why has no one invented it yet?”

  “Because it’s a terrible idea. Seriously, stick to your day job.” She laughed.

  I rolled my eyes in mock offence. “Why do people have no vision? I’m surrounded by idiots.” I grinned, and it was Olivia’s turn to roll her eyes.

  Olivia had a couple of sips of tea, then put her cup down. “I’ve got an idea, but I’m not sure if I have the skills to do this. We may need to get Tim’s help.”

  “Which we’d need to clear with James first. I’m not sure how secret this investigation is. Are you sure it’s not something my magic can help with?”

  “I honestly have no idea. We’ll need to hack into the care home’s database, see what residents they had and now don’t have. And if someone died, they would have at least recorded it on their own system because they can’t keep getting the benefits, and the family of the deceased would have notified authorities, surely.”

  “I’ll call James.” I rang and updated him on everything.

  “I actually had all that on my to-do list, but I’ve been caught up with a different case that has escalated quickly. I’ll call Tim now and have him come down. Don’t give him all the details of the case. Just ask him to do this specific search.”

  “Won’t he be curious?”

  “He’s used to it. I have to go now, but give everything to Mill once you have the results. Bye, Lily.”

  “Bye.” I turned to Olivia. “He’s sending Tim to help us. We aren’t to elaborate on what we’re doing. Just ask him to search what we need, and that’s it.”

  Her brow furrowed. “Okay, cool.”

  Within five minutes, Tim was walking through the door, his grey hair pulled back into its usual low ponytail. “Hello, ladies. I hear you need some hacking help.” He grinned, his smile standing out now that he’d shaved off his beard. He looked so much younger without it. I would have pegged him as being in his fifties when we’d first met, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he was ten years younger than what I’d thought.

  I stood and sat in Millicent’s office chair. Olivia scooted over to where I’d been sitting, and Tim took her seat.

  Olivia said, “We need you to hack into the Saint Catherine Laboure Care Home database and get a printout of all the residents who have died in the last twelve months. We may need to go back further eventually, but for now, that’s it.”

  He nodded slowly, likely thinking about how to go about doing what we wanted. “Righto, then. This may take a while. Is it urgent?”

  “Super urgent. Sorry. Also, we need details of every staff member—name, address, whatever’s in the system.” I tilted my head to the side and pressed my lips together in the universal sign for “I’m sorry to ask but not sorry enough to retract my request.”

  He smiled. “Okay. I’ll get to work. You ladies may want to find something else to do for a couple of hours. Unless I get very lucky, this is going to take some time.”

  “Not a problem. Thanks for helping.” Olivia stood and looked at me. “Is there anything else we can do while we wait?”

  “Shopping in London?” Now that I was stronger, transporting both of us to London would hardly put a dent in my energy. And even though I wasn’t okaying this with anyone, if anyone from Dana’s evil crew was following me, they’d never know where I’d popped off to.

  “Sounds good. I need a new pair of boots.” She grinned.

  I texted my plans to James, so he’d know where we were, and grabbed Liv’s hand. “Ready?”

  She nodded.

  “Harrod’s toilets, here we come.”

  Chapter 7

  We returned to Millicent’s office just over two hours later. Liv had found herself a gorgeous pair of high-heeled ankle-length leather boots, which we dropped at home first. Millicent was sitting at her desk when we walked in, two piles of papers in front of her.

  “Hey, ladies. How was shopping?”

  “Good for some.” I jerked my head towards Liv. I hadn’t seen anything I liked, at least nothing I wanted to pay a gazillion dollars for. There were a couple of lovely pairs of boots, but they would have set me back four-hundred quid each. I wasn’t into spending stupid amounts of money on clothes or shoes. Maybe if I was rich, I could justify it, but my wages were so sporadic, I had to be sensible. I’d just live vicariously through Olivia, who was used to the finer things in life—not that she didn’t earn it, but she had her parents for backup if anything went horribly wrong.

  “Did Tim get the information we needed?” Olivia sat at her desk, and I took the chair next to her again.

  Millicent smiled. “He sure did. He finished about half an hour ago. Apparently, it was easier than he anticipated. That nursing home needs better online security.”

  “Lucky for us.” I smiled. “So can I have a look?”

  She handed Olivia one pile of paper and me the second pile. “Olivia, I’ll get you to go through the death records. Crossmatch the care-home records against the official ones; then give me the ones that haven’t been reported.” Mill turned to me. “Lily, I’d like you to start by going through these employee records. Make notes on any staff you’ve met. Once you’ve done that, you and I will go through all of them and put them in order of who would have had the easiest access to Will’s grandmother. Then we’ll need to dig deeper online—previous jobs, social-media pages, school records, etcetera. We want to draw as complete a picture for each employee as we can. Anything that needs hacking, we can refer to Tim.”

  “Sounds good.” I started leafing through my pile, and Olivia did the same. Millicent made a few phone calls as we got stuck into the work.

  After thirty minutes, I’d done all I could. Out of the thirty-two employees, I’d met two, and just seen one other. So, the boss, the guy who loved purple—what did I think of him? Did he seem like the kind of person who would be killing the elderly residents? He wasn’t the friendliest of people, and he would have the run of the place and be able to falsify records and lie to patient families. But why? Wouldn’t the high patient-turnover rates look bad on his resume? Except he could lie about it and already had, according to what we’d discovered so far—Olivia had handed fourteen sheets back to Millicent. Fourteen unreported deaths over the last twelve months.

  I stood and moved to sit opposite Millicent at her desk. I slid the manager’s information across to her. “That’s the care-home manager, Mr Hyde. Will said he’s all about cutting costs, so maybe that’s some kind of motivation for killing residents, but I have no idea how. He wasn’t very friendly. When we dropped in to see him, he wanted to get rid of us as quickly as possible. I’m not sure if he has something to hide or if he just hates dealing with patients’ families. On a scale of one to ten—ten being guilty—I’d put him at around a six. He has access to all residents and can change records to suit himself. I’m just not sure on a motive, plus, he wasn’t very nice.”

&n
bsp; “Okay, fine. What else have you got?” She held her hand out, and I passed her the second piece of paper.

  I took a deep breath. “This woman gives me the creeps.”

  “Elizabeth Phillips. She’s been working there for two years. Why does she give you the creeps? She looks normal to me.” Millicent leant back in her chair and rested her hands on her pregnant belly. It seemed to be growing by the day. I couldn’t wait to meet the little cutie inside. Would it be a girl or a boy? And what would they call it? I still had to get Millicent a baby shower gift. I really should check with James and see what she needed. “Lily? Hello, Earth to Lily. Come in, Lily.”

  “Oh, sorry.” I smiled and shrugged. I needed to work on focussing on the moment, especially when I was at work. I told her what happened when I’d wandered off in the care home, and she’d found me, then told me to get back to where I was supposed to be, or she’d kick me out. “For a short woman, she was scary. And she didn’t seem upset at all about the recent deaths.”

  “Well, everyone who goes there ends up dying, pretty much. You’d get used to it. It doesn’t mean she wasn’t sad. Some people are really good at hiding their feelings.”

  “She didn’t bother hiding how cranky she was with me. She had no reason to be.” I folded my arms. “Anyway, I give her an eight out of ten. She definitely has the knowledge and opportunity, and if she’s always that cranky, the motive. She’d probably kill someone for not eating their rice pudding, considering how angry she was with me wandering the hallways.”

  Millicent raised an eyebrow. “Don’t you think you’re being a little bit harsh? They probably worry about security. Maybe you were there to rob the elderly patients or steal drugs? Nothing’s impossible.”

  “Rob them of what? Their false teeth and slippers?”

  “Some of them have valuables locked in their bedside drawers. My great-grandfather died ten years ago. He had dementia and was in a care home in London.”

  “I’m so sorry. I don’t know much about your past—before you were with James.” What a rotten sister-in-law I was.