by R K Dreaming
“You reckon Noah knew The Reaper?” whispered Oberon. “Maybe hired him? He was rubbing shoulders with glitzy showbiz types. I always thought The Reaper might be part of the rich and famous crowd.”
Charming shook his head. “You’ve read The Reaper case files. I don’t think he hires out his services. He’s a maniac who kills for his own pleasure.”
Oberon nodded in agreement. “How do you think he finally found her?” he asked. “I mean, it’s like he knew exactly how to get into her house and kill her and her friend.”
“I don’t know,” said Charming. “But he’s the type to plan it meticulously. Maybe he crossed paths with Amelie in recent times without her even knowing it. Or crossed paths with her husband, who wouldn’t have known his face.”
That was the hope that Charming was clinging to.
He didn’t want to think that Sigourney was right. That this was not really The Reaper’s doing. Sigourney had admitted herself that she had no way of knowing it, that her psychic gifts had not told her this, just that she had concluded it herself.
Charming didn’t tell Oberon about Sigourney’s theory.
He didn’t know what to think any more. He only knew that he had to find this killer for Amelie, who he had only ever caught a glimpse of once when she had been a child.
“I saw her once,” he said softly.
“Who? Marilyn Hepburn?” said Oberon curiously.
Charming cursed himself silently. He had slipped up. Oberon did not know he was a genie. He nodded, and shrugged it off.
But really it was Amelie he had seen, as just a little girl, playing with her cousins in the park while her exhausted mother had snoozed on a picnic blanket nearby. This had been before Amelie’s mother had been murdered by The Reaper. This had been before eight-year-old Amelie had witnessed that horrific scene, and then gone on the run herself when she had been twelve and just coming into her powers as a witch.
She had disappeared off the face of the planet while Charming had been stuck inside that darned lamp, bound to it, unable to help her in any way.
Even as a child she’d had the look of his mother, with her olive skin and her big almond eyes and her dark ringlets. She had completely transformed herself. Strange what a difference blond hair and sultry make-up could make. He had never guessed that the actress Marilyn Hepburn could ever be his long-lost little Amelie. And now she was dead.
Like his mother was dead, and his son was dead, and everyone he had ever loved was dead. Long dead.
Feeling agitated, he got up and began to pace beside the pool.
“Uh dude. Not a good idea,” said Oberon.
Charming realised that he was in plain view if the Clooneys should return, and he didn’t want to frighten them off. So he lay back down on his deck chair, flat against it, hidden by its back from anyone’s view.
Lying down was the last thing he felt like doing. He hated inertia. He hated being stuck in that damn lamp.
A long while passed, and the cops from the car out front even came to do a couple of cursory checks on the property, during which Oberon and Charming ducked low in the deck chairs and out of sight.
Charming had finally almost been lulled into sleep, tired as he was from a sleepless night, when the sound of a car approaching made him stiffen. He sank lower down into the deckchair, just to make certain he was out of view.
The luxury Jaguar passed the pool and parked up outside the guesthouse.
Garrett Clooney got out of the car, saying to Noah, who had been driving him, “Life doesn’t stop, old chap. You’re young yet. You’ll soon bounce back.”
Charming saw them out of the corner of his eye, young Noah trudging out of the driver’s seat looking haunted, and wordlessly going to the boot of the car to take out bags of shopping.
“Doing you a favour,” said Garrett cheerfully. “Can’t let you waste away at home, thinking of her. You have to admit that getting out of the house did you some good, no?”
Noah didn’t say anything. He just carried the bags into the guesthouse, shoulders slumped. All the while determinedly looking away from the main house, where his wife had died, as if he couldn’t bear to acknowledge the mansion’s existence.
Before the two men could disappear into the guesthouse, Charming jogged lightly over to catch up with Garrett who was dawdling some way behind Noah.
Garrett looked surprised to see him and Oberon. “Can I help you?” he said lazily, every inch the magnanimous film star.
His eyes scanned the dark sentinel uniform that Charming had conjured up for himself, and didn’t bother to ask for any identification. He merely held the door open for Charming and Oberon to come inside.
Charming followed both men in through to the lounge.
“Have you heard from the coroner yet?” asked Garrett. “Any news?”
Charming opened his mouth to give Garrett some standard line about it being too soon to discuss the details of the case, but Garrett clearly had not finished his question. He gave Charming a knowing smile and continued, “Were they at it? You can tell from the forensic evidence these days, can’t you? Fluids on the bedsheets, and all that?”
Noah made a strangled sound and spun to glare at his cousin.
Garrett merely shrugged. “You may as well hear the truth before you find out about it in the press. Trust me, it hurts less that way.”
“Marilyn was not cheating on me!” hissed Noah.
“Then what the hell was that wizard doing here in the middle of the night?” demanded Garrett.
“Rodan was her good friend,” insisted Noah. “They’d known each other for years!”
“Some friend,” said Garrett casually. “Cops said he’s the one who let the murderer in. Went to the stairs to call up to Marilyn, and got his head bashed in for his trouble, poor chap.”
“They said that, did they?” said Charming, letting his voice trail off in a way that invited Garrett to carry on talking.
“Yep,” obliged Garrett. “The murderer followed him and picked up some statue of a cat, big metal thing, and bashed his skull in. Whack! What an idiot.”
“Rodan would have never done that,” said Noah heatedly. “He was protective of Marilyn. She trusted him. The killer probably came disguised as a food delivery driver. You know that Marilyn never liked to cook.”
“Sounds like you knew all about the guy,” said Garrett sarcastically. “It’s like you were practically giving them permission. I’d never let my wife spend the night alone with some other man.”
Noah had slumped down onto the couch, but at this he got up so fast, his fists clenched tightly as if he was about to charge at his cousin. Instead, he rushed into the kitchen.
Charming was about to follow, but halted when Oberon spoke up. “Excuse me, Mr Clooney,” he said. “Can I ask why you’re staying in this cottage? Don’t you have your own home in town with your wife? She’s one of the Raine witches, isn’t she?”
Garrett flushed like he had been caught out. “Just between us chaps,” he said a little awkwardly, “I’m afraid I didn’t tell my wife I’d come back yesterday. She’s got her sister staying over. House full of screaming kids. It’s enough to drive a man mad. And now that Marilyn’s been killed, I thought it was best to stay here and keep an eye on the poor chap. He’s not taking it well.”
He eyed up Squeak on Noah’s shoulder and added, “Nice chicken.”
Oberon only grinned and didn’t bother to explain himself.
Charming went into the kitchen and found Noah busying himself making coffee for everyone with a great clattering of cups. His hands were still shaking with anger at Garrett’s insinuation, and he splashed milk all of the counters as he poured it into the mugs. He wiped it up angrily with a dish cloth.
Garrett and Oberon followed Charming in. Garrett leaned suavely against the doorway, shaking his head as if Noah was making an unseemly scene.
“I keep telling the kid he’ll get over it,” he said to Charming, “but you can’t tell them any
thing if they don’t want to listen.”
Personally, Charming thought Garrett was going about it the wrong way.
Noah slammed the coffee cups down onto the kitchen table, slumped into a chair, and buried his face in his hands. His shoulders were shaking, and he looked very much like he was trying his best not to burst into tears.
“Come on, kid,” said Garrett bracingly. “It’s not that bad.”
Looking embarrassed, he sat down on the chair opposite Noah and cleared his throat awkwardly.
It was Charming who patted Noah on the shoulder to comfort him.
“She was the love of my life!” the kid burst out.
“You must miss her,” said Charming quietly.
Noah finally picked up his coffee with shaking hands and took a sip. It seemed to help.
He said, “She was the best thing that ever happened to me. I can’t believe she’s gone. It’s not fair. We were supposed to spend our lives together, but now… It’s too late.” His voice trailed off quietly, as if this reality was still too shocking for him to comprehend. “It’s not fair,” he said again.
“You must feel terrible,” said Charming. “To not have been here when it happened?”
Noah just looked at Charming as if Charming had stabbed him in the heart. This time tears did really trickle down his face. He bowed his head, and started to sob.
Charming squeezed his shoulder, and felt a tad guilty for having goaded him.
“Come on, kid,” said Garrett, looking even more awkward. “Not in front of people!”
He turned to Charming and said, “If we’d been here, we would have killed him! The monster!”
“But you weren’t here,” said Charming, nudging him in the direction he wanted him to go.
Garrett frowned. “We’ve already told all this to the cops.”
Charming made an apologetic face. “Sentinels,” he explained. “Joint task force. I need to hear it from you.”
Garrett made a face, and nodded as if he full well understood that anybody with any sense would want to hear it straight from the famous Garrett Clooney’s lips.
He shrugged magnanimously, and said, “Yeah, sure. I’ll tell you what I told them. A director friend invited me down to his set in Ireland. He name-dropped a very famous director, and looked at Charming and Oberon as if to check that they were suitably impressed.
Oberon obliged, and Garrett looked satisfied.
He continued, “We flew out a week ago, on Thursday. Noah was with me. I told Noah he should have made Marilyn come with us, but he didn’t. But hey, I guess he couldn’t have known what would happen.”
Noah looked tortured at this.
Oberon opened his mouth to ask a question, but Charming scowled to remind him to stay quiet.
“Didn’t you want her to go with you?” asked Charming.
Noah turned haunted eyes on Charming and said, “Of course I did! But she didn’t want to come. She said she was tired of being on sets all the time. It would feel like being back at work again.”
“But you were newly married. Didn’t she want to spend time with you?”
Noah flushed. “Yes, she did! We both did. It’s just that life kept getting in the way.” He threw an accusing glance at Garrett. “She said I would be working all the time anyway, and she’d never get to see me. And it was true.” He slammed his fist onto the table and all of the coffee cups rattled.
Garrett looked defensive. “Hey, you’re the one who wanted to work for me. I told you it’s a full-time job!”
“You wouldn’t let me end my contract early after we got married,” said Noah defensively.
“That’s not my fault!” said Garrett. “How was I supposed to replace you at such short notice? You’re the one who decided to get married out of the blue. Without even a word of warning, all top-secret like.” He glowered at his cousin.
“Natalie didn’t want any press attention!” said Noah heatedly.
Charming found this odd. Amelie Assisi had vanished out of this world, hiding herself in plain sight, and Natalie Hepburn had emerged, craving the media spotlight, glorying in it. She had been a woman who enjoyed press attention. So why get married in secret?
“Why not?” Charming asked.
Noah shrugged. “She said it was private. Our secret wedding. She didn’t want the world to intrude. She wanted it to stay special.”
“But then you went right back to work afterwards?”
Noah threw another accusing look at Garrett. “I had to. But we called each other every day. She missed me. Wanted me home.”
“She didn’t call you every day,” said Garrett. “You said she’d stopped calling you!”
Noah flushed. “Only the last couple of days! It all got too much for her after the press found out about our wedding. They kept hounding her, and she got angry that I wasn’t there with her. And then she had to fire the housekeeper, and that made her mad too. But she soon got over it. She said she knew it wasn’t my fault.”
“When did she stop calling you?” said Charming.
“I don’t know. A couple of days before… Before she… Before I came home and found her like that. I told you! We made up before I came home.”
“So you mean that you argued over the phone?” said Charming.
Noah looked mortified, and horribly guilty. “It was nothing,” he said in a small voice. “It was just the stress of it all. We were missing each other.”
Garrett sniggered. “Yeah, she was always hot-blooded.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” snapped Noah.
Charming couldn’t help but feel sorry for the kid, because that’s what he was really. Just a kid in love. He wondered if Noah had known that Marilyn had really been Amelie.
For Charming it was hard to keep referring to Amelie as Marilyn. He kept having to check himself to make sure that he didn’t slip up.
“Was Marilyn the sort to keep secrets?” he asked.
“No,” said Noah hotly.
“Yeah,” said Garrett at the same time.
“Like what?” Charming asked Garrett.
Garrett shrugged. “I don’t know. She liked to say she’d spent her childhood on the mean streets, homeless kid and all that, but wouldn’t ever really tell you the details, you know?”
“It was a tough time for her!” insisted Noah. “Painful memories. She didn’t want to talk about it. So what?”
“How did she go from being a street kid to being a superstar?” asked Charming.
“She was talented was how,” said Noah hotly.
“You got that right,” said Garrett.
“Do you know anyone who might have wanted to hurt your wife?” asked Charming.
“Never,” gasped Noah. “She was the sweetest girl in the world! Everybody loved her. She lit up every room she walked into. Nobody would want to kill her. Nobody!”
“No strangers hanging around? No obsessive fans?”
“It wasn’t like that. She might have been a superstar to the rest of the world, but she was very protective of her privacy. She never tolerated fawning fans. She only had a few close friends. Not many, really. Mostly Rodan and me.”
“How did she meet this Rodan?” asked Oberon quietly, despite the look Charming shot him.
Noah shrugged. “He does lots of charity work. I think Marilyn met him when she was a teenager still living on the streets in America. But like I said, she didn’t like to talk about that time much. Rodan moved to England some years ago to work in Brimstone Bay with a new partner, Bridgit Corkmony. She’s older, but really gorgeous. I always wondered if she and he might be more than just business partners.”
“And you’re sure that he and Marilyn were just friends?” said Charming.
“I said so, didn’t I? And anyway, if she had liked him, why would she marry me? I told you. It was true love. We met each other, and we knew right away.”
“Whirlwind romance,” said Garrett, rolling his eyes.
“But The Reape
r came for her,” said Charming, pressing to find out what Noah really knew. “Could he have been following her around, keeping an eye on her? Posing as someone harmless?”
“I don’t think so,” said Noah. “She never mentioned anything like that, and she was always paranoid about strangers. It doesn’t make sense. Why did he come for her? We don’t even have any children. Doesn’t The Reaper always kill mothers who have kids?”
This was almost always true. Charming was certain by now that neither Noah or Garrett knew that Marilyn had really been Amelie Assisi, someone who the Reaper had every reason for coming after.
“So no one that you know of had a reason to hurt her?” Charming frowned. “Didn’t you say that she had a fight with your housekeeper?”
Noah suddenly gasped. “Yes! Muira Pike! Marilyn got mad at her and fired her, which wasn’t like Marilyn. She wouldn’t say why she did it. Maybe it was Muira who… who left the door open that night. Maybe it was Muira who let The Reaper in. She must have been mad at Marilyn!”
“Domestic staff can be so nasty,” said Garrett with a frown. “You have to be careful.”
“Well it’s too late for that now, isn’t it, Garrett?” snapped Noah.
“Are you saying that you think your housekeeper was The Reaper’s accomplice?” said Charming sceptically.
“No, he’s not,” said Garrett suddenly terse and impatient as if he wanted this interview over. “That would be ridiculous.”
Noah nodded in agreement.
Garrett was looking at Charming with narrowed eyes. “It’s you who thinks that the Reaper had an accomplice, isn’t it? Are you trying to imply that Noah was The Reaper’s accomplice? Or hired him? Are you looking to leak that story to the press?” He got to his feet and stabbed his finger at the door. “If that’s what you’re after, you can get out.”
Noah looked alarmed.
Charming remained seated and calmly said, “It’s procedure for us to interview the victim’s spouse. To check alibis etc.”