A Trick for a Treat

by A. A. Albright

  Max began to laugh. ‘You’re drooling, Wanda.’

  ‘What? I’m not.’ I wiped my drool away. ‘Okay, so maybe I am. But I had a really small breakfast.’

  ‘You had two bowls of porridge with raspberries,’ Max reminded me. ‘And a slice of toast.’

  ‘And you had half of Max’s banana smoothie,’ Wolfie put in.

  I glanced over at the cake shop. Emily was out front, handing coffee to two Peacemakers.

  ‘She looks exhausted,’ said Max. ‘Poor thing. I seriously doubt she could have murdered Saskia Monroe.’

  Wolfie, who had been incredibly busy sniffing a patch of grass, looked over at the shop. His great big tongue hung out as he grinned. ‘Dollface!’

  Emily looked over our way, her expression turning from tired to horrified.

  ‘You can’t just go calling women Dollface,’ said Max.

  Wolfie looked confused. ‘Why not? That’s what Jasper called her.’

  My stomach dropped as Emily began to walk in our direction. Her eyes were wandering between me and Wolfie, while she seemed to be doing her best not to look at Max.

  ‘Hi Wolfie,’ she said in a small voice. ‘I thought you’d gone away.’

  Wolfie jumped up on her, licking her and nearly knocking her over. ‘I missed you, Dollface. Do you know where Jasper is?’

  Emily snuggled into him, stroking his fur. ‘Sorry Wolfie. I really don’t know where he is.’ She looked up at Max and me. ‘Hey Wanda. Hey Max. So ... I guess you’re wondering why I lied to you about knowing Jasper. Well the thing is ...’

  I never did get to find out what the thing was. At that moment, my mother, Christine and Ronnie appeared, surrounding us all.

  ‘Emily Caulfield,’ said Ronnie, ‘we’re placing you under arrest for the murder of Saskia Monroe.’

  Emily stared around her in panic. Christine whispered, ‘Bind,’ and a golden rope began to wrap itself around Emily’s body.

  ‘I didn’t do it,’ Emily said. ‘I swear I didn’t do it.’

  My mother caught my eye, gave me an apologetic look, and then returned her attention to Emily. ‘Sorry, love,’ she said.

  ‘We really are,’ said Christine.

  ‘But if we don’t arrest you, the Minister will give the warrant to the Peacemakers,’ added Ronnie. ‘Your chocolate tested positive, love. You have to come in for questioning – and trust me, it’ll be better with us than it would be with that lot.’

  Emily hung her head, and began to cry.

  As the four of them disappeared, I saw Nan and Kevin Caulfield, standing at the front of their shop and looking on in horror. ‘I dunno about you,’ I said to Max. ‘But I suddenly don’t fancy that doughnut anymore.’

  Wolfie took a quick pee against a nearby tree, and said, ‘Good. Because I don’t think Dollface’s family would serve you.’

  ≈

  After Emily’s arrest, I left Max and Wolfie at Lassie’s stall and went home. I had texted my mother about a dozen times since Emily’s arrest, but I only got one reply in return:

  Emily isn’t making it easy for us. Insists she’s not in a relationship with the rock star. We’ll do everything we can, love. Try to put it out of your mind for now, and get some work in before Carmel’s class.

  She had a point. No matter what was going on right now, I needed to pass my final test. So I took her advice and tried to take my mind off things with some wand practice. I did manage to produce a Fire spell focused enough to light a candle on our kitchen windowsill. Unfortunately, focused doesn’t always mean delicate – at least not where I’m concerned. As the kitchen curtains went up in flames, I threw the wand aside and used my finger instead, whispering, ‘Uisce,’ the Irish word for water, and dousing the flames as quickly as I could.

  ‘I see I’ve arrived at a good time, then.’

  I turned to see Finn Plimpton, standing at the back door.

  ‘Your mother didn’t teach you how to knock?’

  He rapped three times on the door. ‘Good enough?’

  ‘What do you want, Finn? Because I’m really not having the best of days.’

  ‘And I am?’ He walked into the room. ‘I just found out from my aunt that your coven has arrested Emily Caulfield. I mean ... what’s wrong with you people? You know perfectly well that she’s innocent. You should have told her to go on the run. Because it’s starting to feel like that’s the only way the poor girl is going to get out of this mess.’

  The curtains looked like they were out of danger – destroyed, but no longer on fire at least – so I took a seat in a chair by the stove and said, ‘Sit.’

  He sat across from me and put his feet up on a stool in front of him.

  ‘Make yourself comfortable,’ I snarled.

  ‘Thanks. I will – although a cup of tea might make me even comfier.’

  ‘Really? Because I was thinking of giving you a kick up the behind if you don’t hurry up and get to the point.’

  He held up his hands. ‘Fine. Be rude to me all you want. That’s a really good way to treat your only ally on the Peacemaking force. But seeing as you’re not going to offer me a cuppa, I’ll get on with it. Firstly, my aunt’s just told me that the handwriting test your coven are appealing for is inadmissible. Because you reproduced the pages in that notebook magically, no judge will accept it as evidence.’

  ‘But you have the original page. The first one, anyway. And the handwriting on the note my mother reproduced is exactly the same as the ransom note. If Emily’s handwriting matches neither of those – and I’m sure it doesn’t – then surely it proves there’s something else at work here. Someone outright threatened to destroy everything Jasper Jaunt loves, and now his girlfriend has been murdered. That is not a coincidence.’

  Finn clenched his jaw. ‘I know that. You know that. A blind pigeon knows that. But my aunt is, quite literally, the boss of me. So as far as Jasper’s kidnapping – or disappearance – goes, my aunt has told me to forget about it. She insists that there’s no provable connection between that and Saskia’s murder.’

  I threw a log into the stove, wishing I could throw Finn’s aunt in there along with it. His mother, too. I mean, it was a proven Wayfarer strategy – Gretel herself had chucked an evil old witch into an oven.

  ‘Speaking of ransom notes,’ I said, looking at the flames and imagining Justine and Carmel disappearing from my life forever, ‘I know you think the same as I do. Asking for the Call of the Wild to play the Halloween Ball was a clever ploy. Whoever is really behind Saskia’s murder wants us to think Jasper’s disappearance is just a publicity stunt.’

  ‘So you think that Jasper really has been kidnapped? That there’s a disgruntled ex-girlfriend behind all of this?’

  I sat back and shrugged. ‘Not sure on the kidnapping, to be honest. He dropped his dog off at the shelter, which means it’s more likely that he’s gone on the run, rather than being kidnapped. But yeah. This has disgruntled girlfriend written all over it. I’ve heard a lot about Jasper lately, and if anyone could annoy a woman, it’s him.’

  ‘I agree with you, actually. But I don’t know how we prove it.’

  ‘By calling their bluff. The Call of the Wild are incredibly popular. How about we do make sure they’re invited to play the Halloween Ball?’

  A slow smile spread across Finn’s face. ‘I’ll talk to Arthur Albright. He’s organising the ball. I’m sure he’ll go along with it. And if he does, it’s win-win for me. If Jasper doesn’t turn up, we know that the note was a plant. And if he does turn up, I get to arrest him for wasting Peacemaker time.’

  ‘You look a little too happy at that thought.’

  ‘That’s because I’ve met Jasper Jaunt. The guy is a jerk.’ He sat forward. ‘And now that we have one plan out of the way, let’s get onto my other reason for being here. Thing is, Wayfairs only get to arrest suspects. They don’t get a say in what happens to them once they get to the Wyrd Court, or to Witchfield for that matter. Emily’s interrogation will have bee
n interrupted by my aunt about ...’ He looked at the clock on the wall. ‘... half an hour ago. After that she’ll have been rushed straight into a plea hearing against your coven’s wishes. A plea hearing which should be finishing up round about now.’

  Somewhere in the room I heard my mobile phone beep. ‘That’ll be your mother,’ said Finn. ‘Telling you that Emily pleaded not guilty, and has been sent to Witchfield on remand. Her trial will take place three weeks from now. And yes, the decision was made before she even went before the judge.’

  ‘Of course it was.’ I sighed. ‘I don’t get it, though. Why was this rushed through so fast? I thought your aunt was all for giving witches preferential treatment.’

  ‘Sure. If the murder victim is a weredog or a wizard or something. But in this case the murder victim was a werewolf whose pack have a lot of sway in the Wyrd Court. Not to mention that Saskia was also the most famous supermodel in the world.’ Finn ran his hands through his hair. ‘And there’s more. Before I came here, my aunt told me that she wanted me to go to Witchfield and force a confession out of Emily.’

  I stood up, ripped the stool out from under his feet and gave him my fiercest glare. ‘Say that again, Plimpton.’

  He held out his hands and stood up in front of me. ‘Look. I don’t even have to be here, telling you this. But you guys did me a favour and let me question Emily yesterday, so I’m returning the favour now. My aunt wants me, as the captain of the Peacemakers, to do what the Wayfairs couldn’t – get a full, signed confession from Emily. She wants to use this case as a landmark. To prove to the people that Peacemakers are the way to go if we want a swifter justice system.’

  I kicked the hearth stone. ‘I might not have made it to Crooked College yet, Finn, but I have read up on Magical Law. This is not allowed. You can’t just bully a suspect into admitting guilt. I’ll report this. It’ll be all over the news.’

  He shrugged. ‘You could do that. Or you could come to Witchfield with me instead.’ He took a step closer, giving me an all-too serious look. ‘Here’s the thing, Wanda. I know that Melissa reports everything she hears at the Department back to this coven. So I know that you’re already aware of my aunt’s agenda. She wants the Wayfairs out. Wants the Peacemakers in charge of everything. And although I think one unified police force is a fairly sensible idea, you can bet your unicorn horn that she’s not going to go about it sensibly. She’s going to wipe you out, like you never existed. And I don’t want that.’

  I narrowed my eyes. ‘Sure you don’t.’

  ‘I don’t. Believe me. I get why it would be hard for you to understand this, because you get along so well with your family. But you can be related to someone and disagree with pretty much everything they do. She wants to bring about big changes, and not the good sort. But if you and me set a precedent now – show what we can achieve when we really work together – that’s going to go a long way to changing things for the better.’

  I wanted to disagree with him, simply because he was a Peacemaker – and a Plimpton Peacemaker at that. But the thing was, everything he said made sense. I rushed to the coat stand.

  ‘You’ll come with me?’

  ‘I have the feeling you’re going to question her no matter what I say.’ I gave him a tight smile as I did up my buttons. ‘So I want to be there when you do.’

  ≈

  Like all supernatural enclaves, Witchfield had been constructed within a sub-dimensional region. Unlike other supernatural enclaves, the coordinates of that region changed from hour to hour. It was meant as a deterrent against escape attempts and any other magical tinkering.

  I don’t know if it managed to achieve those aims. I do know that being in the place made me feel sea-sick. Looking around at the inmates as we passed through the minimum security wing, I could see that they were all feeling the same. Greenish complexions and jittering teeth reigned.

  The prison guards turned out to be Peacemakers. I don’t know whether it was the dull light or the concrete walls, but they seemed even more menacing than usual.

  There were magical suppressants everywhere in the prison, which only added to how unsettled I felt. Finn, as a Peacemaker, was immune to such discomforts. Their whole uniform was designed to make sure that their magic could never be subdued. But as for me ...

  ‘Hand over your wand and hold out your wrists.’

  An enormous guard had issued the command. He was as wide as he was tall, and he held two dull metallic bracelets towards me.

  ‘She’s with me,’ said Finn. ‘No bracelets. And she doesn’t have a wand with her, either.’

  The guard peered out through tiny slits in his helmet. ‘She’s not a Peacemaker. She’s not a guard. And she’s not the bloody Minister for Magical Law. If I tell her to hold out her wrists, she’ll hold out her wrists.’

  I cast a nervous look at Finn. He took a step in between me and the guard, and pointed at his chest. ‘See that? That’s a star. I know you don’t see many of those, seeing as we seem to hire anyone to work as a Peacemaker, but it actually means something. It means I’m the captain. Of the entire force. Which makes me your boss.’

  The guard stepped back and said, ‘Sorry Sir,’ in a sullen voice. He lowered the bracelets, and we walked on through.

  ‘He wasn’t too happy about that,’ I whispered.

  Finn let out a dry laugh. ‘Yeah, for some reason my usually winning charm doesn’t seem to work on my staff. Go figure.’

  We wound our way through to Emily’s cell. It was tiny, and completely open to view. The ‘bars’ surrounding her were magical, and very nearly invisible unless you looked at them in the right light.

  ‘Watch out, Wanda,’ she said as I entered. ‘They give a hell of a shock.’

  Finn shook his head. ‘They shock you because they react to your prison uniform, Emily. Wanda and I will be fine.’

  The prison uniform Finn had referred to was a dishwater grey jumpsuit, and judging by the way Emily was constantly scratching at her arms, I was guessing the material wasn’t exactly comfortable.

  She curled up onto a narrow bed – the only furniture in the room – and said, ‘I wasn’t particularly concerned about you, Peacemaker.’

  There was nowhere to sit except the bed, so we both stood, looking down at Emily. ‘My mother tells me you’re insisting you’re not in a relationship with Jasper Jaunt.’

  ‘I’m not. I swear to you, Wanda, I barely know the guy. I already told your coven, I saw him as nothing more than a customer. Yeah, he bought a lot in the shop. And yes, he called me Dollface and asked me out and sent me presents. All the usual sleazy stuff. But I never once went out with him. I walked Wolfie a few times a week because Jasper was too lazy to give the dog any exercise.’

  I sank onto the floor and sat cross-legged. Finn looked at me like I was crazy for a moment, but then he joined me. ‘Sounds like you’re not the only girl who walked Wolfie,’ he said. ‘Do you know any of the others? Would one of them have reason to be jealous? To frame you?’

  Emily’s head went into her hands. ‘If anyone is actually jealous of the relationship I had with Jasper, they need their heads examined. I told you, he’s just about the sleaziest guy I’ve ever met. What kind of woman would lose their head over a guy like that?’

  ‘But he’s a werewolf,’ said Finn. ‘That alone is enough to make most women lose their heads.’

  Emily snorted. ‘Yeah, right. Because that’s just what every woman needs in her life. A guy who has almost as many days of the month as she has.’

  Finn’s serious expression cracked, and he smiled at Emily. ‘I really love your mint choc chip ice cream, y’know. It’d be a shame never to have it again. I want you out of here as much as you want to get out yourself, Emily. You really can’t think of anything that might help us?’

  She waved her hands in the air. ‘Look at where I am. If I’d thought of something, I would have told you by now.’

  I stood up and reached across to her hands, concentrating on soothing thou
ghts, trying to send them through to Emily. She blinked up at me, smiled softly, and relaxed.

  I was a little shocked that it had worked, but now wasn’t the time to pat myself on the back. I stayed on the bed, and kept my hands in hers. ‘Emily, I know you’re not with Jasper. And I don’t think you killed Saskia Monroe. But I do think you’re holding something back. Do you know anything about Jasper’s disappearance?’

  ‘I don’t know where he is. I swear. But ... okay, he was trying to get me to put him up before he disappeared. He kept asking me to do a concealment spell on my bedroom, so no one would find him in there. He said it was the only way he and Wolfie would be safe from his crazy ex-girlfriend.’ She looked plaintively at me. ‘I thought it was just another come-on attempt. I honestly did. By that stage, he’d tried everything else, so it didn’t seem like a stretch to assume this was just more of the same.’ She sighed. ‘Now I wish I had done what he asked. Because I have the feeling that if we could just find that jerk Jasper, we’d know who really killed Saskia Monroe.’

  11. Three Witches Brew

  I went straight home after Witchfield, snapping my fingers and arriving in the hallway to hang up my coat. Just as I was about to climb the stairs, I heard loud voices in the kitchen. I approached cautiously, with my finger out and ready. As I neared the doors, though, I moved back. No one was in danger – unless you consider romantic misery danger. The loud voices were coming from Kevin Caulfield and Christine.

  ‘You know I don’t think she’s guilty, Kevin,’ I heard Christine say. ‘But what do you expect me to do about it? I can’t not arrest someone when all of the evidence points in their direction. Even if I am having a thing with their father.’

  There was a beat of silence, before Kevin’s voice reached my ears. ‘I’m not angry with you, Christine. I know you’re only doing your job. That’s not the reason I’m cancelling our date. It’s just that I have to concentrate on Emily now. On finding her a good lawyer and getting her out of prison.’