by Clare Kauter
I nodded slowly. I wasn't sure if he was right, but it was something to think about.
"So," said Ed, "are you going to visit Henry while you're here?"
"You haven't heard?"
He raised his eyebrows. "Heard what?"
"Henry's The Department's UK ambassador, so he's chaperoning us on this investigation."
Ed burst into peals of laughter. "Are you serious? Oh, that's too good."
"He knows, Ed."
The smile fell off his face.
"Knows what?"
"He knows what I did to Dick, and I think he remembers what happened to the grabbers, too."
Ed nodded slowly. "Right. But he hasn't turned you in?"
I shook my head. "Not yet."
"Why not?"
I shrugged. "I haven't had a chance to talk to him about it."
"OK." He thought for a moment. "I don't think you have anything to panic about. If he's kept it a secret this long –"
"What if he's building a case against me? Collecting evidence?"
"It's unlikely," he said. "Think about it: why would he move here if he wanted to investigate you? It would make way more sense for him to investigate you back in Australia."
"What if he asked Daisy and Hecate to do it for him? He knows that I know that he knows."
"He what?"
"He might have asked the witches to investigate me. Henry told me that he knew I killed Dick, so obviously I'd be on my guard around him. He might have put the witches up to it – getting me to join the coven, bringing me here..." A thought occurred to me. "What if their memories have come back too? Oh god. What if this is a trap?"
"Calm down," said Ed. "You're being paranoid."
"You think I don't have reason to be?" I squeaked.
"I think you should talk to Henry before you jump to any conclusions."
"Talk to Henry?" I repeated incredulously. "Are you serious?"
"Yes."
"How do you think that's going to go? 'Hi Henry, are you investigating me for murder? I'd just appreciate a heads up if that's cool with you.' I don't know if he's going to fall for that somehow, Ed."
"You have a better idea?" Ed asked. I didn't, so I didn't reply. "Just ask him. It's not like it's going to make things worse if he's already planning on arresting you for murder."
"Thanks for that, Ed. You're such a comfort."
"If he was going to arrest you, I'm pretty sure he would have done it already," said Ed. "Still, it's probably a good idea to be cautious around him. I wouldn't trust him too much."
"Rich coming from you, Ed."
He shrugged. "Just trying to help." He sighed. "I should go. Be careful."
"Of what in particular?"
"Everything," he said. "Castles like this are usually full of redcaps, so don't go wandering alone."
"What's a redcap?"
He rolled his eyes at me. "You really need to start learning more about the magical world. You know that, right?"
"Yes, I know," I snapped. "Just tell me."
"They're like mini vampires. Tiny little bloodsuckers, but they're vicious and they usually come in groups. This place is probably crawling with them."
"Great. Yet another reason we should have gone Airbnb."
He smiled. "If you're too scared to be here alone, I'm happy to stay overnight."
"You're despicable," I said in disgust.
A knock at the door interrupted our conversation. "Hide in the cupboard!" I hissed.
He rolled his eyes at me, gave me a small wave and then disappeared from the room. Right, he didn't need to hide. He could just leave.
"Who's there?" I called.
"Daisy," came the voice from the other side. "We're all heading down to dinner. Want to join us?"
CHAPTER 9
THE DINING ROOM was floor to ceiling stone, and despite the roaring fireplace, it was freezing. Heavy red velvet curtains blocked out the windows and two suits of armour stood to attention by the doorway. The table itself was long enough to seat twenty people. We all sat down one end so we could converse without shouting. Personally I would have preferred it if Fach had taken his seat at the head of the table up the other end – I didn't know if I'd be able to stomach the food while I was sitting so close to him. When he reached for the plate of roast potatoes, I saw a thick blob of the mucus his skin constantly secreted drop from his arm to the table. Not the kind of thing that gets the digestive juices flowing.
A popping sound, like a bubble bursting, caused me to jump in my seat. My eyes widened as across the table, just behind Fach, Ed materialised. He put his finger to his lips in a 'shush' motion before grinning at me. My jaw dropped open. What the hell was he thinking?
"Don't worry," said Ed. "They can't see me. I'm clouded. I'm surprised you can see me, actually. Interesting..."
"Nessa, are you OK?" Daisy asked, head tilted to the side.
"Fine, yes," I lied. "Fine. So fine. Damn fine. Not like, you know, I'm damn fine, but like..." I trailed off.
Henry, Hecate and Daisy all gave me mildly concerned looks.
"This dude is ugly," said Ed. "Yeesh. He's got to be a Fachan, right?"
I nodded my head as though I was agreeing with whatever Fach was saying.
"Wolves? Aye, we've got a few of them around here," Fach told Henry. Henry's face wrinkled in disgust. "Plenty o' creatures around here, livin' in the woods. Wouldn't go wanderin', if you know what I'm saying."
"What else do you have around here?" I asked. "Anything that might have hurt Alora?"
"Oh, aye," said Gladys. "Plenty."
Fach shook his head. "Damn shame what happened to her."
"What happened to her?" I asked suspiciously.
"Nothin'," Fach replied – a little too quickly by my judgment. "I just meant with her going missing."
"Right."
I didn't trust him – at all – and judging by the look on Ed's face, neither did he.
"Back to the magicals that live around here, though," said Henry. "Can you see any of them being dangerous?"
"I can't see any of them not bein'."
We all paused and looked at each other for a moment, trying to figure out what he meant. All at once, we realised he'd pretty much just been saying yes.
"Any in particular that we should keep an eye on?" Hecate asked.
Apart from you, I added in my head.
"The wolves are always dangerous," said Fach.
Henry nodded vehemently in agreement. No surprise there – Henry had been bullied by a wolf while he was at school and he had some issues. Generally it seemed to me that wolves were more dumb than dangerous – not that I'd gone out of my way to test that theory. Maybe the ones around here were different.
"They say there are wolves over at Loch Madadh that were slaughtered years ago," Fach said, sounding like he was gearing up for a story.
"Probably not suspects, then," I said.
Fach gave me a slow blink of disdain – either that or he was hitting on me (it's really hard to tell when someone only has one eye).
"It's said that should anyone disturb their graves, these wolves will return and slaughter the intruders."
The others looked interested, but I was annoyed. Ghost stories? Really? Was that supposed to scare me, a medium?
"Any other suspects?" I asked, bored.
He thought for a moment. "There's the baobhan sith."
"Yes?"
"A faery vampire."
"Sounds like a dangerous combination," I said, shooting a glance at Daisy. She looked worried.
"Does she live around here?" Daisy asked.
Hecate turned to Daisy. "Do you know her?"
"Not all faeries know each other, Hecate," Henry replied.
"I know that," said Hecate. "It's just the way you said that, Daisy, I thought maybe –"
"So there's the baobhan sith," said Daisy. "Any other suspects?"
"You should push her," said Ed. "Daisy clearly knows the baobhan sith."
"If she knew, she'd tell us," I snapped at him.
All heads swivelled to me. "I, um, was talking to Fach," Daisy said.
"Sorry," I said. "That came out a bit more aggressive than I meant it to."
"Apology accepted," said Ed, and I had to fight back an eye twitch.
"That's OK," said Daisy, still looking a bit concerned about me. "Are you alright?"
"I was napping before we came down," I said. "I think I'm just acting a bit strange because I'm tired."
"OK," she said, smiling in a way that I suspected was supposed to be reassuring but really just looked like she was afraid I'd lash out again. I wondered if she was starting to remember the time she'd seen me kill the grabbers. I inadvertently glanced at Henry, who was eyeing me warily.
Fach was talking again. "Well, there's Nessie himself, although it seems unlikely. He's pretty peaceful, as dragons go. And there's always the usual suspects – local vampires, goblins –"
"Redcaps?" I asked.
Fach looked at me blankly for a moment. Well, I think it was blankly – it was really hard to read his facial expressions.
"But that Alora, she was a good lass," he said, ignoring me. I looked at the others, trying to make eye contact, but none of them noticed me. Even Ed didn't look suspicious. Surely he'd caught that! Fach had completely ignored my question. "Wasn't she a good lass, Gladys?"
"Hard to say, really," Gladys replied.
"What do you mean?"
Gladys shrugged. "Didn't get to know her much."
"Oh?"
"Alora only stayed one night," said Gladys, pouting as she finished her sentence. "I don't think she liked us."
"Oh, now, Gladys," said Fachan, patting her with his shrivelled up chest hand and leaving a trail of slime on her sleeve. I had to fight my face to stop my upper lip from curling. "I'm sure that's not true. She was probably just very excited to go and see the monster. I'm sure that's why she didn't remember to say goodbye, and then she disappeared while she was out."
"She took her bags!" Gladys shrieked, and for a moment I thought I saw her face change. Not change expression – actually change into another face, complete with red eyes and pointy teeth. I gulped and glanced at the others to see if they'd seen the same thing. None of them seemed concerned. "She wasn't coming back and you know it. The ungrateful little witch. We showed her nothing but kindness and hospitality and she didn't even thank us!"
"Now, darling," said Fach, not appearing at all concerned. "It's OK. I know you're very upset about Alora going missing, but there's no need to start crying."
He stroked her face with his slimy hand and I looked away. It was still too gross for me to handle. I studied the faces of the others at the table and was shocked to see them all watching Gladys with sympathy. Even Ed appeared to be buying her act. It wasn't even a good act! Had none of them seen her face change?
"We'd better call it a night," said Fach. "Gladys has been so upset by this whole affair."
"Of course," everyone murmured, standing.
"We could do with some sleep, anyway," Daisy said with a smile.
"I hope you're feeling better in the morning, Gladys," said Hecate.
They were all acting as though she wasn't suspect number one. Hadn't they noticed her outburst? We were all at the same table – surely I wasn't the only one who heard what she said. If it was up to me, she'd already be in cuffs, but the others didn't seem to think anything was amiss. What the hell was going on?
CHAPTER 10
"I THOUGHT you'd used up all your clouding cones," I said when Ed and I were alone in my room again. He'd stolen the cones from Witches' Brew, the café/bookstore/police station back in Hellfire Shire before he'd committed his first murder, and given how many people's memories he'd altered in the meantime, I'd figured he would have depleted his supply pretty substantially.
"Not even close," he replied. "They raided a whole lab, remember? The evidence locker was chock full of cones. I'll be stocked up for a while yet."
"I don't know about that. You're popping them like candy."
He shrugged. "I'm not even close to running low, but when I am, I know another lab I can tip you off about – you'll be a cop by then. Big bust for you."
"And you think you're just going to be able to steal the cones from the police station again? Even with me there, knowing that you're going to do it?"
He smiled. "We'll see."
I rolled my eyes. "Maybe I should take some of them off your hands," I said. "If I could make Henry forget everything again, that would solve a lot of my problems."
Ed grimaced. "I wouldn't recommend it. If you cloud him again, he might actually go crazy this time."
I sighed. He was probably right.
"Why did you come back?" I asked.
"I wanted to see if Henry and the others were acting strangely," he replied. "To see if I thought you were in danger or not."
"And?"
"And I think you're definitely in danger, but not from the witches or your shifter plaything."
I gave him a disapproving look. "He's not my plaything."
"Whatever. My point is, Gladys and the troll that owns this castle are dodgy as Hell. Maybe dodgier."
"What do you mean?"
"I could feel his energy, but I couldn't feel hers."
I frowned. "That's weird," I said. "I could feel her energy. She's definitely not human. I saw her hooves."
"I know," he said. "That's why it's odd that I didn't get a sense of her energy. I mean, I'm pretty new to practising magic, so it might just be that I'm not strong enough yet."
I nodded. Ed had been raised among humans, and while he'd spent a lot of time studying the magical arts, he'd only been practising for a short time.
"Do you think they could have murdered Alora?"
"Definitely," said Ed. "But you might have to come up with a motive before you go accusing them."
"Gladys seemed to have a bit of a temper."
"Did she?" he asked.
I frowned. "You didn't notice?"
He shook his head. "She seemed pretty nice to me."
"You and I have different definitions of nice."
He seemed confused. "Did I miss something?"
I frowned and shook my head. "No, it's... it's nothing." Maybe I'd imagined her outburst. I sighed. "We don't even know if Alora's alive or dead."
"Seriously?"
I nodded.
"And you couldn't think of a way to establish that?"
"What do you –" I paused. Face palm. "Right. I should ask the Reaper."
Ed nodded. "Should I call him?"
I sighed. "Probably a good idea."
Ed dialled Death while I stood by, still bitter that Ed had the Reaper's number and I didn't when I'd known him so much longer. What had Ed done to deserve that treatment, apart from dying? He was a known criminal who'd murdered several people, which meant he'd basically intentionally created extra work for the Reaper. (Yes, OK, I had too, but not intentionally!) Did Death have no sense of loyalty to me?
Ed put the phone on speaker and after a couple of rings Death answered.
"Any news?" he asked.
I cocked an eyebrow at Ed. "News?" I repeated.
"I'm here with Nessa," Ed said quickly.
His hasty response did not escape my attention. "And Nessa would love to hear this news, too," I said.
"Evening, Nessa," Death said smoothly. "How's the case going?"
"It's fine," I said. "I'm more interested in your news."
"I don't have any news."
"Ed's news, then."
"She wants to know if you've ferried her witch across to the afterlife," Ed said, obviously trying to distract me.
"Alora?" said Death.
I sighed. "Yes, Alora."
"Haven't seen her," he said.
"So she's still alive?"
"For now."
"Uh, excuse me?" I said, suddenly panicked. "What exactly does that mean? Do you know where she is?"
; "No idea," said Death. "But I wouldn't dilly dally."
"I wasn't planning on it."
"So don't go getting distracted."
I rolled my eyes. "I'm not going to get distracted."
"Good," said Death. "I've gotta go – Rupaul's on. Ed, keep me posted on the other thing."
"What other thing?" I asked.
"I thought you weren't going to get distracted."
Death hung up and Ed slipped the phone back into his pocket. "OK, so we know she's not dead. I think we should –"
"Ed, if you think I missed that exchange between you and Death then you are sorely mistaken."
He sighed. "I didn't think you'd missed it."
"I'm not going to let it go."
"I'm not going to explain it to you."
I crossed my arms. "Death's got you doing a job for him, hasn't he? That's why you have his number," I said thoughtfully.
"Tell yourself that if it makes you feel better," said Ed.
"Tell me what Death's up to."
"He's not up to anything," Ed lied. "Anyway, seeing as Death hasn't seen her, that means she's still alive. I think you should try scrying her."
"We already tried that back at the church," I said. "That's how we knew she was missing in the first place."
"You should still try doing it from here," he said. "Maybe now that you're closer it'll be easier for you to see her."
I nodded. "I guess."
"I'll help you," said Ed. "Not quite as good as a whole coven, but it's worth a go."
"I should ask the others to help," I said. "For the extra boost."
Ed screwed up his nose. "We should try by ourselves first. If we can't find her that way, then you can ask the others. No point waking them for no reason."
"Are you just looking for excuses to hang out with me?"
He smiled. "Do you have a bowl?" We'd need some sort of receptacle to hold the liquid for scrying.
I bit my lip. "No," I replied. "Maybe there's something in here we can use, otherwise we might have to raid the kitchen downstairs. I'll try the ensuite."
While I was searching the bathroom, I heard Ed raiding the cupboards in the bedroom. There was a clang and then he said, "I've got it."
"Why do you sound so unenthusiastic?" I asked, emerging from the bathroom. "It was your idea to – is that a chamber pot?"