‘Hey, why not both?’ he said with a manic giggle as he shook one snow globe and turned the clockwork mechanism on another. Snow fell on a beautiful country mansion in one, while in the other, Santa’s reindeer began to fly through the sky, leaving a trail of glitter in their wake.
As much as we were enjoying playing with the snow globes, there was work to be done. ‘The burgers will take another few minutes,’ I said. ‘Should we get started?’
He shook a snow globe one last time, and said, ‘I guess we’d better. But y’know, I think I’d rather spend the holidays playing with toys than solving crimes.’
‘You and me both, Finn,’ I agreed as we walked into my bedroom. ‘You and me both.’
10. Operation Long Leash
As much as I wanted to find Winnie’s killer, there was another mystery that was never far from my mind. Sure, the ex-Minister was now in jail for drugging my father and imprisoning him against his will for twelve years, but she had done a lot more than that during her time in charge, and she hadn’t done it alone. When I told Finn I felt guilty about lying to Candace, I had meant it. But I wasn’t just lying to her. When it came to Operation Long Leash, Finn and I were lying to everyone.
You might remember that Finn was a key player in one of my more recent pickles. When Will Berry and I discovered the secret facility where Justine Plimpton had been keeping my father prisoner for years, Justine had called in the cavalry. The cavalry being Finn, as many of his Peacemakers as he could take with him, and Justine’s own dodgy security team.
When Finn refused to kill Will and me, Justine had decided that she might as well kill Finn along with us. Never mind that he was her nephew. He was in her way, just like we were, and when you’re an evil megalomaniac witch like she is, then you don’t let anyone stand in the way of your messed-up plans.
We had no way out, except to bargain. Will Berry promised to pay double the end-of-year bonus to any security guards who helped us arrest the former Minister. But that wasn’t quite enough to get them to agree not to kill us. We also had to promise not to make any arrests, other than Justine’s. The deal had made me sick to my stomach at the time. It was a promise made out of desperation, and it was one I had cursed every day since.
I wasn’t the only one who was seething about the unfairness. Finn, too, had been annoyed as hell about having to let so many people away with almost-murder. We both suspected that some of those employees knew my father was a prisoner, and that only made our bargain feel worse.
But we had given our word, and we decided to stick to it. For now. In the meantime, those security guards who had almost killed us, and everyone who had worked for the former Minister, was under close surveillance. They didn’t know it, but their magic was being tracked, their calls were being monitored, and every move they made was on our radar.
If they parked their broom in the wrong place, we knew about it. If they returned a library book late, we knew. We knew what they ate for dinner and what time they went to bed. We knew how often they went to the healer. We also knew what rash cream one of them got when he went to the healer, and where he used it, but the less said about that, the better.
Inside my bedroom, I pulled open my wardrobe door, waved my hands and said, ‘Reveal the room beyond the room.’
A small but well-appointed office appeared, and Finn and I sat at our desks, and checked our surveillance equipment. Some of the equipment was borrowed Peacemaker technology. Some had been bought second-hand or repurposed from Paul, a wizard who lived in my neighbourhood. Paul’s fees were incredibly reasonable – a pound of Stinking Warlock cheese once a week, and he acquired or fixed anything we needed.
‘Candace’s mother has a visiting pass to see Justine in the New Year’ said Finn. ‘And she bought a goose and some cranberries today. Oh my. She did a Find spell too. That was after calling her husband’s mobile twelve times.’
‘They don’t get on, do they?’ I said. ‘I never once saw them together all that time I was looking for Candace.’
Finn shrugged. ‘They go to posh events from time to time, and they’re sometimes seen drinking in the Flying Club bar together. But they’re definitely not a happy couple.’
Given my brief interactions with Candace’s mother, I couldn’t imagine how anyone could be happy with her. But for all I knew, she and her husband were as bad as each other. I scrolled through the logs for Witchfield prison. ‘Justine’s old secretary Barry has a visiting pass, too. Interesting. It’s for the same day as Candace’s mother. A little tactical meeting, you reckon?’
‘I’ll make sure we get the visit recorded. Sound and vision. I don’t want to miss a thing. But speaking of Barry, I haven’t had an update from Gretel yet.’
I picked up my phone and checked it for messages. ‘Me neither. I hope her glamour holds up.’
‘It’ll hold up,’ Finn said with confidence. ‘She’s been following him for days now, and he hasn’t noticed.’
‘True. But he’s gone to the bank almost every day since she’s been on him, and we still don’t know what he’s up to. I mean, five minutes precisely in the manager’s office each and every time? And they have crazy-strong wards up on the door. We need to figure out a way into that office.’
‘Don’t worry. We’ll work on it. And if she can keep on him and find out where he goes after the bank, that might be just as important. Today could be the day we find out if he’s paying someone off.’
I sighed. ‘Let’s hope so. Because all that the trackers we have on him have shown us is that he does hardly any magic, and he eats microwaved chicken by himself every single night. Gretel really is our best hope on this.’
She really was. Gretel’s chameleon-like abilities blew me away every time I saw her in action. She had gotten us some amazing information so far, which was why she was the only person, other than Finn and I, who knew the full scale of Operation Long Leash. Paul, the cheese wizard, knew little other than the fact that we wanted the best tech he could find us. As long as we kept him in Stinking Warlock from Dervla’s Deli, he kept quiet.
Obviously, Dizzy knew that I had a secret room within my room – seeing as he spent most of his time hanging upside down on my light fittings, it was hard to hide anything from him. But he had the same attitude to secrets as Paul. The only difference with Dizzy was that his payments were mango instead of cheese.
Max hadn’t yet stumbled upon the room, although I’d come close to telling him at least a dozen times. I mean, it was Max! He knew almost everything about me. And he was livid that Candace’s mother had gotten away with barely a slap on the wrist. But Finn reminded me (daily) that the reason Max was so angry was because he and my father had developed a close friendship. If I told him, he might let something slip over one of their chess games, and I didn’t want to get my parents’ hopes up until I had something concrete. Still, it was growing ever-more difficult to convince myself the end-game was all that mattered.
Finn peered closer at his screen, wiping his eyes. ‘Not one vampire has visited my aunt in prison. Whoever these Dark Team assassins are, they sure know how to keep their distance.’
‘Maybe that’s who Barry is paying with all the money he keeps taking out?’ I suggested.
‘But if he is paying them,’ said Finn. ‘Then that means that their work isn’t finished. She could have them killing more people.’ He looked around the room and whispered. ‘She could even have them following us.’
‘Nah.’ I shook my head. ‘I have wards up against vampires. Maybe she’s paying them on an instalment plan.’
‘Very funny,’ said Finn, deadpan. ‘Come on. Let’s get lunch and then we’ll head over to see Mrs Dove.’
≈
When we walked down the stairs, Max was just coming home from doing his latest bout of Christmas shopping. His arms were laden with bags, and his lips were blue with the cold.
‘Oh, you poor thing,’ I said. ‘You look so chilly. Come and have some lunch.’
He followed u
s into the kitchen, shivering. ‘I left my hat, scarf and gloves in a shop. I don’t know what shop because I’ve been to nearly every single one in Dublin City,’ he said. ‘And on a totally unrelated note, do not look in my bags, because there’s no present for you in there.’
My eyes strayed to the bags. ‘Well, that hasn’t at all roused my curiosity,’ I said. ‘So well done on that one, Max. I am now going to pretend those bags do not exist, and concentrate on dishing up our lunch.’
I had put four burgers on the grill, because I’m greedy, so there was more than enough food for us all. I quickly put the burgers together, gave us one each and cut the fourth up into three pieces. I then remembered how much junk food I’d eaten lately, and added some extra salad to each plate.
As we sat down to eat, Max asked (a tad too casually), ‘So, um ... what were the two of you doing upstairs?’
I felt a guilty swell in my stomach, and pushed it down. ‘I was showing Finn the snow globes upstairs,’ I said. ‘He loves them, don’t you Finn?’
‘I’m kind of surprised by how much,’ Finn replied. ‘And, um, Wanda was telling me that Lassie likes Christmas just as much as you do. So ... would a snow globe be a good present for her, do you think?’
I eyeballed Finn and smirked. He’d already gotten Lassie a scarf set, now he was talking about snow globes? The man had it bad.
‘Definitely.’ Max nodded, picking up his burger. ‘As far as Lassie is concerned, you can’t have too many snow globes. Speaking of Lassie, you should go visit her, Wanda. She’s got some big news.’
11.Lonesome Dove
Just as Finn and I were about to leave, we received simultaneous messages from the Wyrd Court.
Finn looked in disgust at the screen of his phone. ‘Can you believe this?’
I glanced at Max, who wasn’t doing a very good job of hiding his curiosity.
‘A bunch of witch kids have just robbed an old weredog lady at wand-point,’ I said, reading from my screen. ‘They’ve put her in hospital. It’s okay, though. Passers-by stepped in and held the kids until a Peacemaker could get there. They’re all in the holding pen at the Wyrd Court already.’
Max’s jaw began to saw. ‘Well, it’s nothing new. It’s happening all over.’
Finn squeezed Max’s shoulder. ‘It seems that way, but it’s not. Witch on weredog crime has gone down by a lot in the last few weeks. And thankfully, those remaining idiots who are still doing it are just as dumb as today’s bunch of kids – and idiots are easily caught.’ He turned to me. ‘There’s still that pesky little problem of not having enough staff right now. One of us will have to process them. Do you want to take Mrs Dove or the kids?’
I thought it over for all of three seconds. Max might be an orphan, but I felt as angry as if they’d done this to his mother or granny. ‘You’d better take the kids,’ I said. ‘I’ll go talk to Mrs Dove.’
≈
Mrs Dove lived on the posh side of Riddler’s Cove, in a long line of nearly-identical looking mansions. As I rang the doorbell, I was sure I heard the sound of sobbing inside. I stood there for quite a few minutes before the door was drawn open.
A short, stout woman with bobbed grey hair and red-rimmed eyes looked at me. ‘You’re ... you’re Wanda Wayfair,’ she said in a shaky voice. ‘Gertrude Fox phoned me to tell me you’d be coming. I suppose you’re here to question me about Wi-Winnie!’ As she stuttered Winnie’s name, she broke out into a fresh fit of sobbing.
‘Oh, Mrs Dove!’ I gave her a sympathetic look. ‘I know how hard this is. So far, everyone I’ve spoken to has told me Winnie was just about the nicest woman they had ever met.’
Mrs Dove nodded miserably. ‘Sh-she was. She was my best friend. My only friend.’ She looked hopefully at me. ‘Would you like to come in for a cup of tea?’
‘I would love to,’ I told her, and followed her in.
I always felt perplexed when I walked into enormous houses. Why would anyone want a house that would take hours to clean? I knew from my own attempts at cleaning spells that they could be as taxing as simply doing the cleaning yourself. But if you could afford a big house, you could probably afford to have someone clean it, too.
Mrs Dove certainly could, anyway – the place was spotless. Just like in Winnie’s house, there were photos on every wall and shelf – but there was a lot more wall space, and therefore a lot more pictures, in Mrs Dove’s. It made me feel slightly hemmed in. Most of the pictures featured a handsome young man in wedding garb, with a smiling woman beside him. There were others of the same couple, posing with children, and dozens of photos of the children on their own.
‘My family,’ said Mrs Dove, following my eyes to the pictures. ‘Not that you’d know it, the amount I see them.’
She began to sob all over again as she led me into a huge kitchen. Even though it was large, there was food on every surface. For a moment I thought she just hadn’t had the chance to put her shopping away, but a quick glance at the glass-fronted cupboards showed me that they, too, were bursting with food.
‘Getting ready for Winter Solstice,’ she said. ‘I h-hoped that my son would bring his wife and children to mine for the occasion. But it seems that all this food will just go to waste. Take a seat. Would you like some cake to go with your tea? I have some mini chocolate yule logs. Or some mince pies. Oh, I have some of those big tins of biscuits, too. The kids love those pink wafers.’
‘A pink wafer would be great, thanks,’ I said as she opened a tin and passed it my way. ‘The Crafty Ladies told me how much you loved Winnie. I imagine they missed you at their meeting today.’
‘Missed me! I doubt it. The only one of them who had any time for me was Winnie. I don’t expect I’ll go back, now that she’s gone. I don’t have any friends in that group, nor anywhere else. Not a single one. This is going to be the worst Winter Solstice ever. My son said I could go to his. To his! After I’ve bought all this food!’
‘Oh.’ I nibbled on the biscuit. ‘Maybe you could take some of the food over there?’
She snorted. ‘His wife wouldn’t like that. She hates me, that woman. Always has done, always will do. Just like those horrible Crafty Ladies. You’d think at this time of year people would make an effort, wouldn’t you? But no one’s come to visit me. You’re the first person who’s been to see me since Winnie died. The first. How do you like that?’
I blinked, unsure of how to respond. Her mood was making me feel a little uncomfortable, to say the least. ‘I know how hard it must be,’ I said carefully. ‘Of course, I do need to ask you a few questions. About where you were when Winnie died. It was yesterday afternoon, probably between twelve and two.’
‘Twelve and two.’ She turned pale. ‘Yes, yes, that’s when it was. I ... I don’t have an alibi, I’m afraid. I was here all alone, you see. As I said, Winnie was my only friend. The only one who ever gave me the time of day. Would you like another biscuit? Please, take as many as you like. No one else is going to eat them, so you might as well.’
12. Craving Constance
After my meeting with Mrs Dove, I could feel the Solstice spirit slipping away. Luckily, I had three blind mice to cheer me up. When we left the house, they poked their heads out of my pocket. Dumpling whispered, ‘She was definitely there the day before Winnie was killed. They had a big row in the kitchen.’
‘Wow. Winnie certainly had a lot of rows in the days leading up to her death. Weird, for such a popular woman.’
‘Well, she wasn’t rowing with Mrs Dove, exactly,’ Dumpling amended. ‘It was more that Mrs Dove was arguing with Winnie, and Winnie was trying to calm her down.’
‘So what were they arguing about?’
Dumpling disappeared back into my pocket. I could hear him whispering to the other two for a few seconds before he poked his head up again. ‘Mrs Dove came over to show Winnie the scarves and hats and things she’d knitted for Candace’s charity sale. We were bored, so we fell asleep by the fire. When we woke up, Mrs Dove was crying and screa
ming and saying that Winnie didn’t understand, that she had no idea what it was like to be alone at Winter Solstice. She said it was all well and good for Winnie, because Winnie had lots of friends and family. Then ... then ...’
When Dumpling came to a halt, Curly peeped her head out and took up the story. ‘That bit was confusing,’ she explained. ‘We’re not really sure what happened. They were both really agitated by then. They were out of breath, and they were fighting over something. That’s what we think, anyway, because Winnie kept saying, “I’m keeping it, I’m not letting you do this,” and Mrs Dove kept saying, “I’ll do what I like. No one can stop me. Give it back.” And ... then we heard the back door slam, and Mrs Dove seemed to be gone. Winnie came over and gave us a cuddle. We asked her what happened, but she told us not to worry about it. She said it was all done and dusted, and then she went and got us some milk.’
I pulled my scarf tighter around me, mulling over it all. Mrs Dove certainly had issues with her family, that much was clear. Perhaps Winnie had tried to calm her down and things had gotten out of hand. But what, I wondered, could they have been fighting over? What was it that Mrs Dove wanted Winnie to give back to her?
The unfortunate thing was that, after only a short time in Mrs Dove’s company, I was feeling sapped. If I was going to think this through properly – and especially if I was going to have to talk to her again – then I would need calories. I pulled an energy bar from my bag, and walked along, sharing it with the mice.
Whatever about stirring my brain into action, the food was certainly cheering me up. Although I think that the walk into the centre of town might have had something to do with that, too. Witches’ decorations were so much more low-key than mine and Max’s, but they were just as pretty in their own way. Solas spells lit up the shrubbery all along my path, and natural wreaths decorated doorways. The sight of all that light and greenery on such a cold, dark day was making me feel happier with every step I took.
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