Murder Most Fowl

by Elle Adams

  “I think we know who’s going to win,” Tansy whispered in my ear. “Shame, really. I’d have liked to see Vanessa knocked out by her sister.”

  “You never know.” The contest had thrown in several surprises so far, and at least Vanessa staying in the contest meant she’d remain where I could see her. While she couldn’t have been the one to break into my office, I wouldn’t rule out her mother’s involvement entirely. “Where’s Aunt Shannon?”

  “Must have taken off,” said Tansy. “So much for supporting her favourite daughter.”

  “Your five minutes are up,” Mum called out. “Head Witch?”

  I raised the sceptre. “Begin.”

  Both groups of familiars departed for the woods while their owners looked on from their positions on the hillside.

  Tansy bounced up and down on my shoulder. “Anyone in particular you want me to watch?”

  Between Vanessa’s antics and Malcolm and Nolan’s wandering around the woods during the interlude, I had no shortage of potential troublemakers to keep an eye on, but after my chat with Aunt Shannon, my cousin still ranked at the top of the list. “Vanessa’s familiar.”

  “Gotcha.”

  Tansy scaled a tree to watch from above as the familiars disappeared amid the forest. The two birds on the first team had an advantage over the familiars who had to walk on the ground, but Malcolm’s familiar did his best to make up for it. I watched the tiger-striped cat climbing the trees and leaping between the branches with ease, though Roxy’s raven easily outpaced him. Nevertheless, Malcolm’s cat was the first to return with one of the painted tokens in his mouth, followed shortly by Roxy’s raven. They remained more or less neck and neck, but smaller familiars like Nolan’s rat were at a disadvantage compared to the larger or airborne ones. As for Rowan’s tarantula, he remained nowhere to be seen until long after the others had returned at least one token each.

  When Ralph finally emerged from the trees, he was limping, two of his legs bent at odd angles. Rowan called his name and ran to his side. “Ralph, who did that to you?”

  I didn’t hear Ralph’s response, but Rowan gingerly picked up the tarantula and then glared at the other contenders. “Which of your familiars attacked mine?”

  Nobody answered, but when Piper’s blackbird was the next familiar to emerge from the forest, Rowan marched over to her. “Was it you?”

  “What?” Piper held out a hand, and her familiar flew over to land on her. “Don’t be ridiculous. We’re on the same team.”

  “You don’t even want to win, though, do you?” Rowan’s face reddened. “I don’t believe this.”

  “We have ten tokens!” Vanessa shouted.

  Cheers rose up from among the other team, while Vanessa in particular looked incredibly pleased with herself. So did Persephone, though she backed away when she saw Rowan barrelling towards their team.

  “Hey!” Rowan shouted at her sister. “Did your familiar attack mine?”

  “Of course not,” Vanessa said, and her blackbird chirped in agreement. “She was nowhere near that spider of yours. Maybe a wild bird mistook him for a snack.”

  “That’s not funny.” Rowan looked down at her familiar, who’d curled up in her hand. “You haven’t heard the end of this.”

  Rowan stormed away to the woodland path. I found Piper standing beside me, wearing an expression of disbelief. “I don’t believe she accused me of attacking her familiar.”

  “She’s upset,” I said in a low voice. “I think it was Vanessa. It must have been.”

  “It wasn’t.” Tansy scurried uphill to join me. “You aren’t going to like this, but I was watching that sparrow the whole time, and he didn’t go near Ralph.”

  “Then who was it?”

  “Malcolm’s familiar,” she said. “I saw him take a few swipes at the others too.”

  “They were on the same team, though.” That made no sense. Why would he attack his own teammates? “Is that cat of his really that badly trained?”

  “I’d ask him, but he’s gone,” said Tansy.

  I spun on my heel to face the other contenders, but both Malcolm and his cat were nowhere to be seen. “Where did he go?”

  “I bet he ran off before he got caught,” Piper said. “I knew there was something I didn’t like about that guy.”

  “Really?” I asked. “Why?”

  “He seemed… sketchy,” she said. “He told me this round was going to be a scavenger hunt like he was doing me a huge favour.”

  “He did the same to Rowan. Said he overheard Aunt Shannon telling Vanessa.” His familiar’s behaviour had rubbed me up the wrong way from the start, but I’d been so fixated on Vanessa that I hadn’t thought to give him any more attention.

  Mum raised her voice to address both teams. “You all have an hour until the next round of the contest begins. I’d advise you to grab something to eat and calm down.”

  The crowd began to disperse, winners and losers alike. Before Nolan could leave, I waylaid him. “Did you see where Malcolm went?”

  “That way.” He pointed downhill. “He looked like he was in a hurry. What happened?”

  “It sounds like his familiar attacked Rowan’s tarantula,” I said. “Do you know why he’d turn on his own teammate?”

  “No.” He looked down at his rat familiar, who shrank backwards. “I guess he’s not well trained.”

  “He attacked your rat yesterday, didn’t he?” Not just him, either. “I have to find him.”

  Well trained or not, Malcolm and his cat had a track record in entering similar contests, so his behaviour couldn’t be accidental. I ran to Mum’s side, Tansy clinging to my shoulder. “What’s the policy if one person’s familiar attacks another?”

  “Disqualification,” she said promptly.

  “Malcolm was already on the losing team,” I said. “But attacking his own teammate makes no sense unless he was trying to lose on purpose.”

  “Robin, if you want to talk to him, by all means, do so.”

  “I would if I could find him.” I turned away and rejoined Piper. “Malcolm is staying at the same inn as the others, right?”

  “I assume he is,” she said. “Do you think he’s going to try to do a runner?”

  “He might. I need to catch him first.” I wanted to check that Rowan’s familiar was okay, but her tarantula was pretty resilient after a lifetime of running away from her sister’s and mother’s familiars, and it was Malcolm I needed to catch before he and his familiar left town altogether. “Let’s find out what he’s up to.”

  8

  Piper and I headed downhill, Tansy scurrying at my side. Malcolm didn’t appear, which seemed to back up my suspicion that he’d gone straight back to the inn to prepare to flee town.

  “Does he have a habit of doing this sort of thing?” I asked Piper. “His record says he’s placed in the top eight in every contest he’s entered but never higher.”

  “You’re asking the wrong person,” said Piper. “This is my first time entering the contest, remember? I know the names of the past entrants, but I couldn’t tell you if any of them got up to anything dodgy.”

  “I know,” I said. “Why would he sabotage his own team, though? I can understand him cheating to try to win, but this is different.”

  The murmur of voices behind me made me glance over my shoulder, and I spotted Roxy talking to Vanessa of all people. My cousin shot me a smirk when she saw me looking at her.

  Keeping my expression pleasant, I approached the pair of them. “Did either of you see where Malcolm went?”

  “Why’s that?” Vanessa asked. “You want to ask him for tips on training that squirrel of yours?”

  “No, I’d like to know why his familiar attacked your sister’s,” I said. “Considering they were on the same team.”

  I turned my attention to Roxy instead, but she simply looked confused. “Why would he do that?”

  “Exactly what I’d like to know.”

  “Sounds like an excuse to me,”
said Vanessa. “It’s typical of my sister not to accept defeat without a fuss.”

  “She didn’t care about the contest,” I told her. “She signed up as a favour to me. Not that you’d know anything about that.”

  I rejoined Piper, annoyance flaring inside me. It’d make far more sense for Vanessa to be responsible than Malcolm, but I had no proof of foul play on her end. I just had to hope she got thoroughly trounced in the next round.

  Piper and I left the woodland path and continued down the main street into the middle of town.

  “Which inn is Malcolm staying at?” Wildwood Heath had two main inns, neither of which was particularly big, so the contenders had been placed in hostel-type dormitories unless they’d paid extra for a single room. Roxy and her raven headed towards the Owl’s Nest, the nearest inn, so Piper and I followed her. “Excuse me. Is Malcolm staying in here?”

  “He is,” she said. “I can see if he’s in the dorm if you like.”

  “Thanks,” I said. “I don’t see him sticking around town for long, not if he knows we’re aware of what his familiar did.”

  “Nor me,” said Piper. “He ought to be put on a banned list for future contests.”

  “Mum didn’t seem too fussed.” I belatedly remembered I’d left Chloe back with the other contenders, but at least I had Piper with me for moral support. “I know he’s already disqualified, but still.”

  Roxy emerged from the inn. “Malcolm isn’t here. According to the guy at reception, he hasn’t come back yet.”

  “Weird.” Was he still wandering around in the forest? He’d left all his possessions behind, including his wand, so he couldn’t have sneaked out of town already, surely. “Right… I should grab lunch and head back to the office.”

  “Good call,” said Piper. “I’ll come and watch the next round of the contest if you like. Keep an eye out for trouble.”

  “Thanks,” I said. “I expect Vanessa will get more and more desperate to win as we get closer to the final round.”

  “Yes, she will,” said Tansy. “Also, you should go and check if anyone else has tried to break into your office.”

  “Good point.” I’d have thought the intruder would’ve had more sense after their previous failure, but I was frankly lost as to why they’d break into the office to begin with. If they wanted me dead, there were stealthier ways to go about it than to risk drawing the attention of the entire coven.

  Come to think of it, if Malcolm turned out to be the person who’d killed Anne, he didn’t need to stay in the contest in order to reach another target. Being out of the spotlight might play in his favour. At the thought, I quickened my pace when I drew closer to the coven’s headquarters while Tansy hurried alongside me. She then came to a dead stop, her tail sticking straight up in the air. A sense of foreboding washed over me when I spotted Chloe standing frozen in the doorway of the witches’ headquarters, her back to me.

  “Chloe?” I asked. “What’s going on in there?”

  She swayed a little. “Oh… he’s dead.”

  I approached the door, my heart plummeting downward. Malcolm lay on the lobby floor, one hand outstretched and his eyes partially open. He was dead, all right, and when I walked closer, I glimpsed what appeared to be a pen in his outstretched hand.

  Chloe moved to let me past, her expression stunned, while I mechanically reached for my office door handle. Locked. He hadn’t got inside. No… someone else had reached him first.

  How is that possible? If he was the pen’s owner, then it made no sense for him to have touched it with his own hand, but if someone else had used it to kill him, then how had they got close to him without being noticed? And where were they now?

  “Chloe,” I said numbly. “Can you search the building and garden in case the person responsible is still here? I’ll call my brother.”

  “Of course, Head Witch,” she said in a choked voice.

  I unlocked the office and stumbled inside, Tansy leaping over Malcolm’s body to join me. Carmilla lay napping in the same spot as beforehand, while Grandma’s ghost was nowhere to be seen.

  “Carmilla,” I called to the cat. “Carmilla. Wake up.”

  “This had better be good.” She opened her eyes a fraction. “What is it?”

  “We have another intruder, and he’s dead.”

  “Well, that’s inconvenient.”

  “Didn’t you hear him?” asked Tansy.

  “No,” said Carmilla. “I heard the last one because he tried to use a spell to open the door. Who killed him?”

  “Haven’t a clue.” He’d left the woods before all the other contenders had—and if he hadn’t returned to the inn, he must have come straight here. Had he had an accomplice who’d turned against him? Or was he the person who’d brought the cursed pens here to begin with?

  “Do you recognise him?” Tansy asked Carmilla. “Come and look.”

  “I didn’t see the last intruder’s face, did I?” Carmilla hopped off the desk and padded towards the doorway, peering around the corner. “I don’t know him.”

  She wouldn’t have seen most of the contenders, of course, since the only time I’d seen her leave the office was when she’d come to disrupt my conversation with Harvey yesterday. I pulled out my phone to call my brother, but a sudden loud screech came from the other side of the lobby.

  Alarmed, I darted out of the office, seeing that the chicken had come waddling in from the garden and had spotted Malcolm’s body. Did Chloe let her out of the cage?

  “Dead!” screamed the chicken.

  “Oh no.” The last thing she needed was to see a reminder of how her witch had died, but it was too late to stop her from launching into another panicked sprint around the lobby. Tansy tried unsuccessfully to herd her back outside while I called my brother.

  “Hey, Ramsey.” I had to raise my voice over the chicken’s screaming. “I have a dead body outside my office.”

  “You’re joking.” There was a heartbeat’s pause. “I’ll be right there.”

  The chicken disappeared into the garden with a wail of despair at the same moment as Aunt Shannon came down from the upper floor.

  “Who is that?” She eyed Malcolm as if he was a misplaced textbook, not a dead body. “One of your contenders?”

  “Yes, and I think he was trying to get into my office.” Had she been in the building the whole time? If so, she’d surely have heard him come in, but I doubted she’d have been keeping an eye out for intruders. She’d probably been responsible for letting the chicken out of her cage too. “Didn’t you hear him?”

  “No, I didn’t.” She studied his splayed hand and the gleaming pen in his grip. “Foolish of him to attempt to strike the Head Witch.”

  “You don’t seem shocked.”

  “Do you have any idea how many assassination attempts your grandmother dealt with in her time?”

  “I have some idea, since she told me herself.” Goose bumps prickled my arms at Aunt Shannon’s calm tone. She hadn’t killed him herself, had she? Vanessa couldn’t be to blame, since she hadn’t been here, but her mother was certainly ruthless enough. Question was, what would killing someone who’d already been disqualified from the contest achieve? Had she wanted to stop him from getting at me? Surely not. If an assassin came looking for me, she’d be more likely to give them directions than stop them.

  Chloe came hurrying into the lobby again and ran upstairs. A moment later, the front door opened, and Ramsey walked in, his gaze travelling between Aunt Shannon and me before landing on the body. “Oh no.”

  “Don’t touch the pen,” I said hastily. “Unless you’re sure it isn’t still cursed, that is. I don’t know how it ended up in his hand. None of us saw him come in.”

  “What about her?” Ramsey indicated Carmilla, who peered out into the lobby from behind my office door.

  “She didn’t hear him, and the door was locked,” I said. “Chloe has gone to look for any possible intruders, but I don’t know who else is in the building.”

>   I gave Aunt Shannon a significant look, but she didn’t even blink. “Nobody as far as I’m aware. Does it matter?”

  “Yes, because they might have looked out the window and seen him come in.” I glanced through the doors to the nearby classrooms, but I was pretty sure that if anyone had been around, the noise would have drawn their attention by now. “And his… his familiar. Where is he?”

  “His familiar?” asked Ramsey. “It’s that cat, right?”

  “Yes, but I don’t know where he is.” I approached the back door, but I could only see the chicken running in circles while Tansy sat guard outside.

  Chloe came hurrying downstairs, breathless. “Nobody else is upstairs.”

  So it was just Aunt Shannon. Why had she been here while everyone else had been watching the contest? I doubted I’d get a truthful answer from her, but before I could ask any questions, the front door opened again. This time, Mum strode in, immediately seeing Malcolm’s body.

  “What is going on in here?” she demanded.

  “The Head Witch seems to have intercepted a potential assassin,” said Aunt Shannon.

  “I found him like this,” I corrected her. “Outside my office. He never got inside. Aunt Shannon was the only other person in the building at the time, as far as I’m aware, but I need to find his missing familiar.”

  “Where’s your familiar?” Mum asked.

  “Keeping an eye on the chicken. She freaked out when she saw the body.” I faced Aunt Shannon. “Did you unlock her cage?”

  “Why would I do such a thing?” she asked.

  Ramsey cleared his throat. “Can you all stop crowding me, please? This is a crime scene. I’ll call in the rest of my team, and we have to get rid of that pen.”

  And find his familiar.

  “Where are you going?” Mum said to Aunt Shannon, who’d made a move towards the front door. “Stay here in case we need your input.”

  With her and Ramsey already competing for authority, I didn’t need to throw my broomstick in as well. Instead, I went to talk to Chloe. “Did you find him?”

  “No, but I found the chicken,” she said.