by Sarah Kelly
Mrs Rowan shook her head as she wiped off the wooden kitchen island. “That thing is a mystery. A total mystery. A bit scary, really, to think that someone could sneak in a freezer and dead body and I wouldn’t notice. There really aren’t enough staff here. It’s such a large house.”
“Don’t beat yourself up about it,” Xavier said. “You’re right, there are so many rooms here. Laurence himself said he’d need an army of Mrs Rowans to keep it all maintained.”
She chuckled. “That boy. Now, will you be needing anything for breakfast? I could make you some porridge, before or after your… investigation.”
“Is that oatmeal porridge?” India asked.
Mrs Rowan had to think for a moment. “Yes, dear.”
They both replied that they’d love some, then got started trying to work out where anyone could bring in a freezer. The day was only just beginning to pull the heavy darkness out of the sky, and the whole world seemed to have a dark blue cast as they stepped out through the front door.
“Remember Mrs Rowan said yesterday that the only entrances are the kitchen to the back and the main door to the front?” Xavier said. “I think it’s more likely they came through the front.”
India nodded. “Yep. When we were in the kitchen just now I was checking out the island and where everything else is placed. There would be enough space to carry the freezer through but it would have been real hard at the corners. And I can’t see anyone lifting a chest freezer up and over the kitchen island and twisting it to get it out through the door.”
Xavier nodded. “Me either. Which means they must have come through the front. But how on earth could they do that without Mrs Rowan noticing?”
“Unless they did it when she wasn’t here,” India said. “Maybe like Laurence said, they climbed up into one of the upstairs windows. With a ladder, I guess. Then they came downstairs and opened the door and brought in the chest freezer.”
“Which must have been brought in on a vehicle.” Xavier turned to look down the long winding driveway that led in from the village of Aston Paddox. “It was long enough yesterday when we were going to see Geoffrey Forsythe. I wouldn’t relish the idea of carrying a chest freezer down that path.”
“Ha!” India said. “No chance.”
“It would have had to be a large vehicle of course,” Xavier said. “A box van, probably.”
“With space for a ladder, unless they found that here already. I guess that’s a question for Liam.”
Xavier looked at India, and she could practically hear his mind ticking. “I wonder if Liam has a van.”
Eating their porridge, India with chocolate drops and Xavier with a drizzle of honey, they waited for Liam to turn up at the kitchen.
“He always comes in for a cuppa and a bacon sandwich, soon as he arrives,” Mrs Rowan said. “Sweet tea, he likes. Five sugars. Rot his teeth, it will. I use the opportunity while the kettle boils to try and get him to take some responsibility for this child he has coming along, but he just grunts at me and nods and laces up his work boots. He’s like a closed book, that lad. Loves his gardening, though. Could make flowers grow up out of stone, I reckon.”
India blew on a spoonful of porridge with a melted chocolate chip making a dark delicious swirl through the fluffy oatmeal. “Has he always been closed?”
“Yes, but not to such an extreme,” Mrs Rowan said, heading to the fridge and getting out some rashers of bacon. “Ever since Tasha’s been pregnant, I would say.”
India wanted to ask about the potential affair between Liam and Felicia, but couldn’t bring herself to. She exchanged a look with Xavier, hoping he might pick up on her idea that they should ask him directly later. They had not quite mastered telepathy yet. The lines for thought communication were set up strongly with a mentor, so a new witch had someone to call whenever they felt lost or confused. But establishing mind-to-mind connections with other witches was no easy task, even spouses. When they’d asked Luis about it, he’d said, “It’s a matter of soul connection, of energy. The Magic knows I’m gonna teach you guys energy and spells and powers, so it’s cool to make that channel. But think about it, right? Married couples. They fight. They argue. About half of them get divorced. Trust me, I know. You think the Magic is gonna make some channel between you two? What if you split up? You wanna read each other’s thoughts then?”
“But we’re not going to divorce,” Xavier had protested.
They had been strolling through the quiet streets of Gaborone, the capital of Botswana. Shining skyscrapers rose up into the richly blue sky, and businesspeople and expensive cars passed by. Luis always clicked his fingers whenever they met, transporting them to a whole new place. “That’s what you say now,” Luis said with a knowing smile. “That’s what I said in every single one of my three marriages before they broke up. She’s the one. This one’s different. We’re going to be together forever. Ha.”
“You’re such a cynic, Luis,” India said, feeling annoyed. “Me and Xavier are going to be together forever. We’re totally right for each other.”
Luis pressed his lips together and said, “Mm hmm,” in the most infuriating way. “Well, when you’ve convinced the Magic of that, that’s when you’ll get your telepathic connection. Simple.”
They still hadn’t gotten it yet, though sometimes they caught a snippet of the other person’s thoughts, or a vague, sketchy idea of what they might be thinking.
“I feel very sorry for the poor thing, in truth,” Mrs Rowan said, who by then was frying the bacon. “Actually, both of them. Tasha, the dear girl trying to make him see sense. And Liam, so locked away in his own little world that he can’t. It’s not a happy situation. It would be nice if he could get his act together before the baby comes, but… I don’t hold out much hope.”
A couple of minutes later, Liam came in. “All right,” he said roughly. He wore the same style of tracksuit with a matching hat and stripes down the side. Expensive looking Nike trainers were on his feet, and he began to change out of them and into boots as soon as he got in the door.
Mrs Rowan nodded at India and Xavier with wide eyes, as if to say, “What did I tell you?” She took glances at Liam as she flipped the bacon over in the pan. “Everything okay, Liam?”
“Yeah, you?” he said, a robotic, knee-jerk reply.
“Well, still unsettled about this whole murder business,” Mrs Rowan said. “You liked Felicia, didn’t you?”
India and Xavier looked toward him, interested.
He shrugged and talked at his laces. “She was all right. Nothing special.”
There was nothing in his response that made India think there was anything between them. Maybe Geoffrey Forsythe had been making up stories. Or maybe Liam was a very practiced liar. No matter how much time India spent around magic, it could be extremely hard to tell when someone was lying. Luis had commented, “That’s what life’s about, truth and illusions.” India remembered it vividly. They had been sitting in a stadium watching a baseball game, Luis kitted out to the max in the super-fan outfit of the red team. “No idea who these people are,” he’d whispered to her with a grin, after cheering wildly for a home run. “If you could see when everyone lied you’d have mastered the whole world. But illusions have sunk so deep into our reality you’ll have a hard job extracting them. You know, like hot toast. Spread butter on it. It sinks in. Can you get it out?”
“Bacon sarnie on hot bread,” Mrs Rowan said. “Here you are, love. And your tea.” She went over to him and placed it next to him as he finished lacing up his work boots. “You have a good day now, dear.”
“Thanks,” he grunted, then was up to leave.
“We’ll come out,” Xavier said quickly. “Could do with some fresh air.”
Liam didn’t even turn around, but didn’t close the door behind him either.
India got to her feet. “Thank you for the breakfast, Mrs Rowan.”
“You’re more than welcome, dears. Now go on and catch him before he scarpers.”
>
Xavier and India dashed out the back door to find Liam had nearly the reached the end of the herb garden.
“Hey wait!” Xavier said.
“What?” Liam put his hand in his pocket and drew out a rolled cigarette. India wondered if it was just tobacco or something stronger. “You might as well just come out and tell me you think I killed her.” He lit the cigarette with shaking hands. “We should just get this all over with and out in the open. Go on, say whatever you wanna say.” Then he walked away through the open doorway and through the stone arched gardens.
“We don’t want to accuse you of anything,” Xavier said, hurrying along behind him. “We just wanted to ask you about the freezer.”
He stopped and took a deep hit of the cigarette. “Yeah, what of it?”
“We’re trying to work out how it got in the house,” India said.
“Ain’t Laurence told you?”
Xavier and India glanced at each other. India frowned. “Told us what?”
Liam laughed, evidently enjoying have some information that they didn’t know. “He told me to put it up there.”
India’s heart started to beat faster.
“When?” Xavier asked.
“I dunno, two weeks ago or something,” Liam said. “When he went away he gave me a list of stuff to do. Like clean the plants outside the studio, and try and put the tarpaulin back on the bloody roof. Get the rose bushes looking nice for his fundraiser or whatever. And take the freezer up to a particular room on the first floor.”
India felt a bit like the world was closing in on her. Perhaps she and Xavier had been duped by Laurence all along. “Do you still have the note? Where is it?”
He gave her a withering look. “Do you keep to do lists when you’ve finished them?”
“Where is it?” she pressed.
“I don’t know. I chucked it in a bush somewhere or something. I can’t remember.”
India frowned. “You chucked it in a bush? Aren’t you a gardener? Surely you would—”
“Spare me the lecture, yeah,” he said sharply. “Paper’s biodegradable, right?”
“Where was Laurence going?” Xavier asked, seeing that conversation was going nowhere. “Do you know?”
Liam shrugged, disinterested. “Some art thing.”
“But wait,” India said. “Where was the freezer in the first place? Like, where did you get it from?”
“Some guy delivered it the night Laurence left. The note said to stay late. An extra twenty quid was attached.”
Xavier nodded. “You know who the guy was?”
“Nah, never seen the bloke before in my life. White van. Didn’t get his name.”
India’s heart was pounding. “Do you remember anything different about him? Anything at all? Was he with a company? How did you get it up there?”
“Jeez, talk about twenty sodding questions,” Liam said. “The man was just by himself. And I don’t remember nothing about him. And my mate Charlie helped me take it up there. I gave him a fiver.”
“Is that Charlie Tomlinson?” India said, remembering what had been said at flower arranging.
Liam’s eyes flashed wide, then he scowled with suspicion. “You know him?”
“Don’t worry,” India said. She held out hope that maybe Laurence was innocent, and had just not mentioned the freezer in order not to incriminate himself. “Did Laurence mention why he wanted the freezer put there? Did you ask him?”
Liam flicked his cigarette butt to the floor and stamped on it. “We don’t talk much, everyone knows that. He left the note, I did what it said. End of. Now I’ve got stuff to do.” He walked off, shoving his hands deep in his pockets.
Xavier and India stood among the shrubbery, looking at each other in shock. “I didn’t expect that,” Xavier said.
India caught a flash of red somewhere in the bushes, but then it disappeared, and she was sure she’d just imagined it. She shook her head. “Wow. Do you really think Laurence did it? I mean, he requested the freezer go upstairs, then lied about it. And he was at Geoffrey’s the same day Felicia disappeared. It doesn’t look good, does it?”
“Nope.” Xavier squinted toward the house in the early morning sunlight that was just beginning to creep up over the horizon. “But I still don’t get it. Why put her body in a freezer? There are so many places on the estate to bury a body. If it is him, he obviously wants the body to be found, that’s for sure. But why?”
India shook her head and slipped her hand into his. “I have no idea. Why don’t we go for a little walk? Get some breathing space?”
“Sounds good to me,” Xavier said, and kissed her on the forehead. Their height difference made that the perfect type of kiss. “Why don’t we go out to the meadow? It was real nice out there, I bet it looks awesome at this time of day.”
“Ooh, yes,” India said. “Good idea.”
So they followed the winding paths through the flowers and ferns and stone paths until they reached the part where the gardens opened onto the meadow. They walked for a good while, allowing themselves to get lost in the gentle breeze and calmness of the early morning.
Across the way, they could see the door to the ornamental pond area was open. India spotted Laurence’s tall wiry frame. “Look,” she said to Xavier.
“So? It’s Laurence.”
“I know, but doesn’t he look a bit… suspicious? He keeps looking around, like he doesn’t want anyone to know what he’s doing. Everyone thinks he’s in the studio right now. I swear he’s up to something.”
Xavier looked doubtful. “Maybe.”
“Why don’t we just walk around by the door and look over the hedge?”
“No,” Xavier said quickly. “He’ll see us.”
“Well, we could try to get a view through the sparse parts. Or maybe we could just listen.” She was already making her way over there but Xavier pulled her back.
“What if he catches us?” he said urgently. “If he really is doing something and he finds out we’re onto him, it could be seriously dangerous. We don’t have enough evidence to go to the police and we’d have to just go for our own safety. That means abandoning the case, and maybe putting more lives in danger.”
India sighed. “I suppose you’re right, but…” She watched as Laurence disappeared out of sight, by the side of the pond. “I just need to know what he’s doing.”
“I know!” Xavier said, suddenly animated. “I know I saw a gate at the other side of the pond. It had gaps small enough to stay hidden but big enough to see through. I’m sure we can find our way around the back.”
“Yes!” India said.
CHAPTER 7
India and Xavier made light footsteps toward the gate, barely daring to breathe. When they reached it, they carefully leant forward to peek through the gaps, making sure not to lean onto it and cause any inadvertent creaks.
India could see Laurence, an entirely new expression on his face, a dark, angry one, as he berated Liam about something in hushed but aggressive tones.
“Yeah, yeah,” India heard Liam say. She could only see the stripe of his tracksuit pants. A metallic clang kept sounding, like he was loading something into his wheelbarrow.
“Keep your bloody voice down,” Laurence hissed. “Now what do I have to do to stop you going to the papers?”
“I want all that money Felicia took. Where is it?”
Laurence looked like he was about to explode with anger. “How many times do I have to tell you? I have no idea!” He cursed heavily and his voice trembled, like he was struggling to keep it in check.
Liam shrugged, sounding cool and in control. “Just give me the same amount, then. Out of your own money.”
Laurence shook his head over and over, seemingly in deep thought. “All right. But after the ‘exhibition’.” He put his fingers up to make air quotes.
A lump formed in India’s throat. Laurence had been so convincing, weaving his story about young artists and the power of art to bring new meaning to life.
But he was evidently not a good man at all. She wondered what on earth his plan was, as it seemed the exhibition was just a cover for something else, maybe? Perhaps the roof was not even damaged and it was just his big sob story to raise money for himself. She made a mental note to go investigate that with Xavier.
Liam had been silent for a while. The air around them smelled different – sweet and green and dense. India knew immediately Liam was smoking pot. “Nah,” he said eventually, sounding like he was still inhaling. “I want it now, init. Tomorrow at the latest. I’ll be here at—”
“Six,” Laurence sneered. “I know what time you get here. I’ve had my eye on you for a good while. You think I don’t know what was going on between you and Felicia?”
“But—”
India had been listening so intently that her concentration lapsed, and she leant on the door a little too hard, making it creak.
“Who’s there!” Laurence cried out immediately.
His footsteps sounded on the flagstone, and India and Xavier looked at each other in terror for a split second. Xavier grabbed her wrist and yanked her into the space between the climbing peas on frames and the wall. They shimmied through, their feet silent on the moist, soft soil. The creak of the door opening rang out just as they turned the corner where the wall skimmed the other side of the pond.
“Who’s there?” Laurence called again, stomping through where they had been, wrenching pea frames from their places and tossing them to the side.
India’s breath caught in her throat – they were going to be found out. There was nowhere else they could go. The wall was too long for them to get around to the other corner in time, and the vegetable frames were too sparse and bare for them to hide behind.
And then Laurence stood above them. “Ha!” he said, making a dramatic turn around the corner.
India, her heart flooded with fear, was about to try and explain, or at least to talk her way out of it, when a hand closed around her mouth.
“Shh,” Xavier whispered, so close to her ear and so quiet it almost got lost in the gentle breeze.