by Ruby Loren
He looked surprised. “Well, you could… if you wanted to!”
I laughed and then looked at him and realised he was being serious.
“You’ve got the right sort of heritage in your favour,” he pointed out.
“I’m not going to run for mayor,” I told him, wanting to get that off the table. I had zero ambition when it came to politics. Heck - I hadn’t even wanted to be high priestess of the local coven, but that had pretty much been forced upon me… and letting go of it now would mean relinquishing it all back to Natalia.
It occurred to me that if I were to run for mayor, and win, I might be able to pull the rug from beneath whatever it was that Gareth was planning, but I cut myself off before I contemplated it for too long. I still wasn’t sure exactly what was going on between the mayor and the devils. On the face of it, he might just be acting as paranoid as Jesse was.
“Excellent! That is reassuring to hear, if you don’t mind me saying. You should take that as a compliment,” the mayor said, all bounce and shine. “I didn’t actually call you over to talk about our burgeoning political rivalry. I had something else in mind that I wanted to run by you.”
“Oh?” I said, as neutrally as possible.
For a second the mayor looked awkward. “Well… you may have noticed that things have been a bit rough in town over the past few months. What am I saying? Of course you know! You’re the town’s hero journalist. You’ve practically solved all of the unfortunate cases yourself.”
“Hardly,” I said, self-deprecatingly.
The mayor nodded, his eyes smiling at me, implying that we were sharing a secret between us. “I’ve had an idea about boosting tourism. I would love you to be one of my key consultants on the project. Your magazine reaches everyone, and I really feel as if you can bring Wormwood together… and then we can bring Wormwood to the rest of the world. Tourism up, more money coming into the town, everyone’s happy!” He nodded, as if he’d just solved every single problem the town had to offer - as if money would mean that people would stop disappearing and stop dying.
I suddenly wondered just how much the mayor really knew about the supernatural, before I stopped myself. He’d shaken hands with not one, but two devils, and he’d hired a vampire. At the very least, he was aware of the existence of the unseen world, but I’d never seen any trace of magic around him. I looked again now, just to be sure, but Gareth Starbright seemed to be utterly normal.
His smile broadened. “Are you onboard? I really think we can do great things together.” He looked me right in the eyes when he said it - one business person to another.
I actually respected that.
“I’d love to hear more, and then I’ll see what I can do.”
He laughed. “Look at that! You really are mayoral material. I’ll watch out for you. How about you swing by the town hall offices tomorrow evening? We can chat and hatch plans. It’ll be nice to catch up with you.”
“That sounds fine,” I said, neutrally.
“Excellent. That is just excellent. You’ve made my day! I look forward to it.” He turned back the way he’d come and tossed me a cheery wave as he walked away.
I considered the change of direction and wondered where he’d been going… or had he been out looking for me?
“So, that’s how it is. You’re fraternising with the enemy.”
I turned around to see Jesse leaning up against the wall of the stationery shop.
“How long have you been standing there?” I asked, frowning.
“Long enough to see you make nice with the evil mayor and set up a meeting. I thought we were friends.” Hurt flashed across his face for a moment.
I almost bought it. “Then try acting more like one! You lied to me. I can’t trust you. I don’t trust the mayor, either… but this isn’t about you. We’re meeting to discuss a new drive to bring more tourists to the town - something which I think we could all benefit from.”
Jesse grinned.
“Everyone apart from you - because you’re going to stop making deals!” I told him.
“Why would I ever do that?”
I felt my lips thin. “Don’t you want to at least attempt to do the right thing?”
“Not really,” Jesse said with a little shrug. And there it was - the true nature of the man I’d grudgingly begun to like.
I shook my head. I wasn’t a fool. I knew you couldn’t go round forcing people to change their ways, they had to decide it for themselves.
“Having said that… I might feel a complete moral transformation coming on, if you were to go undercover as an investigator for me?” Jesse raised his eyebrows suggestively.
It took me a moment to work out what he was saying. “You want me to spy on the mayor?!”
“Oh please… shout it as loudly as you can,” Jesse said, voice dripping with sarcasm. He shook his head. “The way I see it, we have a golden opportunity for you to get on the inside of whatever operation he’s planning. Get him to trust you and we can crush him like a bug.”
I levelled my gaze at Jesse. “I’ll get him to trust me… and then I’m going to find out the truth - the truth about everything.”
He didn’t answer back to that.
15
Picking Sides
Detective Admiral entered my shop the next day, just a few minutes after I’d flipped the sign on the door around from open to closed. He looked like a man in need of a stiff drink, but I offered him tea.
“Only if it comes with added vodka,” was his response.
“Bad day at the office?” I said, only just resisting the urge to call him honey. Sean didn’t look like he was in the mood for any attempts at humour this evening.
“Terrible,” he confirmed. “The new evidence found in the case and our lack of progress was reported to the regional department. They decided to allocate more ‘support’ to our police force. They thought they’d do us all a big favour by sending in cadaver dogs to search for bodies potentially buried in the forest. He paused to let that sink in for a bit.
“Uh-oh,” I said, thinking about the number of weird things the dogs would smell in the forest and the potential for them to find a great number of other forgotten buried things that might raise more questions than answers. How many people were buried in Wormwood Forest? I wasn’t sure I wanted to know. But what I did know was that anything found would hardly help the big tourism drive the mayor had planned for his new look Wormwood. “Can you try to persuade them not to do it?”
“It’s already happened. They took the dogs out into the forest today.” He sat down in a chair by one of the tea tables and slumped.
I contemplated him for a moment before inviting the detective through the kitchen and then into to the living room, where he could slouch and sulk in comfort.
“Thanks,” he said, when he was settled on the sofa.
“How’d it go?” I asked, not sure if I was ready to hear the answer.
He sighed. “About as well as it could, if truth be told. The handlers reported that the dogs showed signs of confusion and didn’t follow orders. They did manage to locate something, but when it was dug up, it became clear that it was just an animal carcass. Someone’s pet dog, probably.”
I flinched when he mentioned the word ‘animal’ and looked up when he claimed it was a dog. We both knew what kind of ‘dog’ roamed the neighbouring forest in a pack… howling at full moon. “It’s lucky it wasn’t something more… exotic,” I commented.
Sean nodded his agreement. “I want Witchwood and its surrounding towns, like Wormwood, to be crime free, but I know it’s not a good idea to go stomping around with a pack of dogs. Much as I believe in justice, there is such a thing as too many mysteries at once. If they dug up every single missing person… or even half of them…” He looked guilty for voicing the truth out loud - sometimes it was easier if people stayed missing. “I just want to solve this case without any further mistakes.”
“Did the diary not help?”
Se
an hesitated before speaking, but quickly gave in. “I suppose you’re going to be working as a consultant,” he muttered, even though I didn’t recall ever agreeing to it. “I spoke to Daryl Hex and Hannah Regal about it. Both of them knew of the diary but neither of them claim to have touched it, or even noticed it was on the bookshelf. Apparently, Helen kept it with her at all times. In case you’re wondering, there were no fingerprints on the book - even yours weren’t present, which was tricky to explain.”
“It was probably the spell,” I said, thinking about the tingle I’d felt. “It must take your identity as well as alerting the diary owner that the book’s been touched.”
“Wouldn’t that mean that Helen would have known if someone had interfered with the book prior to whatever happened to her?”
I shrugged. “It’s probable, but not definite. She might not have noticed that her spell had been triggered. Or the person might have been able to get around the spell she put on it… if they knew that the diary was protected.” My own magic would have been useless when it came to circumnavigating something like that, but I knew plenty of sneakier magic users who’d be up to the challenge.
“I don’t think I want you to explain any further,” the detective said with another sigh. “I’ll just say you didn’t touch it after all. Sometimes, simple is best. If only it were the same with the case…” He ran a hand through his short, dark hair, and looked for a moment as though he were going to pull it out. “I don’t know if you know, but we let Ms Kirkus go without any charge. I’m not even certain how that happened. Her lawyer managed to convince me that there was only proof she’d sent one letter, and everything else was circumstantial… and someone had framed her, and it was also an honest mistake.” He blinked. “It’s unbelievable.”
“Don’t be too hard on yourself,” I said, knowing who, or rather what, Emma’s lawyer was.
“This whole thing is a mess. We missed the body in the cupboard under the stairs. The first disappearance still looks like an elaborate hoax, and… I just don’t know what to think. Nothing adds up.”
“You’ll figure it out,” I said, hoping to reassure the detective. There were many things I could tell him that I’d learned today, but I still wasn’t sure if any of it was relevant to the case. In truth, I was just as stumped as the detective.
We sat in silence for a few moments, both realising that there was both nothing and everything to discuss about the case, but none of it seemed to jump out. After a while, I stood up and offered Sean some food.
Together, we ate a dinner I’d planned for Aunt Minerva and me without knowing that both of my aunts would be long gone by today. There was just enough time to enjoy it before I had to start thinking about leaving for my appointment with the mayor.
I watched the detective eating on the other side of the kitchen table. He never seemed to let his guard down around anyone, but I thought it was starting to slip in these moments we shared together. Dare I say it… I even thought he might be beginning to trust me.
Most surprisingly of all, I thought that he might be the one person in Wormwood I could trust in return.
It had been strange to walk through the empty corridors of the Town Hall after hours, but my meeting with the mayor was by far the strangest thing to happen that night.
Gareth Starbright stood up and looked out of his office window across the green space below the building and the woods beyond. I glanced at the drawer of the desk from where I’d once witnessed him take out a gun. And then I looked upwards at the skylight I’d been spying through at the time. The hole the accidental shot had made in the glass was still up there - small, but noticeable, if you knew what you were looking for.
A knock on the door made me jump. It was hours after I’d assumed everyone else who worked in the Town Hall would have gone home.
Adelaide Hoy, one of the witches in my coven, peered into the room and smiled at the mayor. “Sorry to bother you, Gareth. I just wanted to bring round the Burrell accounts I finished off for you. I’m off home now. Did you want to get something to eat together?”
I tried to keep my eyebrows from raising… especially when Adelaide noticed I was sitting in a chair previously screened by the door (when she’d first opened it). The smile slid from her face faster than jelly thrown against a wall.
“What’s she doing here?” she said, visibly furious.
“Hazel is here to discuss tourism in Wormwood. I think she will be a valuable asset to our cause,” the mayor said, smiling warmly at me - apparently oblivious to the outrage he was causing.
Adelaide looked at me for a second longer, before she made a sound of annoyance and left the room, slamming the door behind her.
When the mayor turned back from his window again with the same smile warm on his face, I began to wonder if he was deaf, or blind… or both. Was he really just going to ignore whatever it was that had just happened?
It would seem so.
“Wormwood has witnessed a number of hiccups recently,” he began.
“That’s one way to put it,” I replied, not sure our mayor should gloss over these ‘hiccups’ so lightly. People had died.
He sat down in the chair opposite me and leaned forwards. “Our town is in trouble and I think you are someone who can help save it. I know we already spoke a little about this before, but your shop, your magazine, and you yourself are a shining light in our community.”
I felt myself frown a little as I wondered where I’d heard similar sentiments before. Oh, right - when a vampire working for the man I was sitting opposite had tried to kill me. It was a cold hard reminder to be on my guard. I didn’t know what game the mayor was playing, but I knew he, or at least the people he employed, were dangerous.
I still didn’t trust everything Jesse had told me, but I also didn’t trust the man I was alone with right now.
“That is kind of you to say. I’m just trying to make a living doing the things I’m passionate about.”
The mayor smiled and nodded, like I’d said something meaningful and deep. “And you’re doing it so well! You’ve been a real asset to the community since you returned. I know I speak for the entire town when I say we’re glad to have you back.”
Now he was laying it on way too thick. I could name several people living in Wormwood who would rather I moved to Timbuktu. One of them had just stormed out of this office.
“What exactly is it you think I can I do for you?” I asked, eager to get away from the compliments and onto whatever it was the mayor really wanted from me.
His brown eyes narrowed and focused on me for a second, and I got a glimpse of the man behind the politician’s mask. “I want you to keep doing what you’re doing, but do it even bigger and better than you’ve done it before. I have ideas for features that can be added to your magazine to keep tourists coming back when they do start flocking to our town in their droves - events and special offers, things like that - but the important thing is for you to keep shining. Your shop is the way we want things to be around here. Bright window displays and cheery faces. We don’t want the gloom and doom of some of the town’s other establishments.” He arched an eyebrow. I found myself thinking of Jesse’s grim little agency - just as the mayor probably intended.
“I’d be happy to do all of that. Is there nothing more?”
The mayor clapped his hands together, making me jump. “I wish everyone was as agreeable as you are. That is everything I could ever ask for. There are going to be changes around here happening soon… changes for the better,” he assured me.
I nodded, certain that most town mayors had big ideas for their towns. It was in the job description. The difference with Gareth Starbright was that I thought he actually meant it in a slightly terrifying way. Like… forced changes.
Until I knew what his end game was, I would have to be a part of his plan… a piece of the puzzle that he thought fitted perfectly.
“Mayor Starbright, I don’t know how to say this but… don’t you feel as though th
ere is a cloud hanging over this town?” I didn’t want to leave this office with nothing to show for it. It was time to dig a little deeper.
“It’s Gareth. We’ve known each other for years, Hazel - no titles. I know we’ve both grown up, but do any of us really change?” He smiled genuinely for the first time as he reminisced.
I found myself considering his words. Everything had changed for me, but also… nothing at all had changed when I thought about Wormwood - the place I’d come from and the place I’d returned to.
“I do think there is something in the air,” he confessed. “A cloud of negativity pulling this town down.”
We were back to political soundbites.
“But the cloud will lift and a new Wormwood will be revealed. House prices will rise for the first time in decades, businesses will boom, and absolutely no one will go missing or be murdered. No more weirdness.” His eyes flashed dangerously when he said the last part. It was almost as if he genuinely believed he could forbid everyone from doing bad things, or simply being strange, and they’d have to do it.
Was that the deal he’d made?
I bit my lip, wanting to ask him straight. But I’d been back in Wormwood long enough to know that being straight with people didn’t work. I needed to take a leaf out of everyone else’s book and keep my cards close to my chest.
“What this town needs is leadership, even if there are those who don’t want it. I’m merely an elected official, but I’m willing to put my future as mayor on the line for the chance to achieve something that will benefit everyone.” His gaze was focused and cool and without any doubt. “Even a tyrant is better than no leadership at all.”
I wasn’t sure what to say in response to that unusual statement.
He smiled again. “That was an extreme example. I’m no tyrant! I’m just anticipating a certain amount of resistance. But you’re going to help me with that, aren’t you? Just keep doing what you’re doing!”