Murder Most Fowl

by Elle Adams

“Then do as you like.” Mum descended from the platform, leaving me alone with Chloe and Tansy.

  “I should have gone after the chicken myself.” Chloe hung her head.

  “She was too fast for me to even use my magic on,” I said. “I had to use the sceptre instead. I am sorry I left without you, though. I’m not used to having an assistant… or a bodyguard, either.”

  “I don’t mind,” she said. “Where do you want to go now? To your brother?”

  Ramsey had taken over the questioning himself, but until I figured out how to undo the spell I’d cast on the chicken, I’d just be getting in his way. I had a few hours to myself before the trophy ceremony, but the odds of finding the killer in the interim were questionable.

  “No,” I said. “I think we should head back to my office.”

  Aunt Shannon would have to return home eventually, so I’d have no better chance to ambush her and demand to know what she’d done to scare the chicken so badly that she’d flown all the way across town.

  Chloe and I walked in silence down the street towards home, and even Tansy seemed subdued. I can’t believe Vanessa won. Mum might have been watching her every move, but I had a hard time believing she’d won the contest entirely on her own merit.

  As I reached the coven’s headquarters, Carmilla sat expectantly on the doorstep, waiting for me. “It might interest you to know the chicken has escaped.”

  “I’m aware of that,” I said. “Didn’t you try to stop her?”

  “I’m too old to chase around your pets.”

  I scowled. “Was it Myrtle who chased her off?”

  “Yes, it was.” She yawned. “Rather mean of her, though I can’t complain about how quiet the building is now she and the police have gone.”

  “Vanessa won the contest.” A rush of anger hit me when I recalled Aunt Shannon’s smirking face when she’d come downstairs to see Malcolm’s body. I had a hard time believing she’d had no involvement. “Aunt Shannon isn’t back yet?”

  “No, she isn’t,” said Carmilla. “I gather she’s pleased with herself.”

  “You might say that.” Magic hummed in my fingertips in response to my growing fury, and the sound of birdsong echoed above as the local wildlife reacted. I clenched my fist. “Is Grandma back? Or is she still hiding?”

  “Hiding?” Carmilla echoed. “She wouldn’t like that tone of yours, you know.”

  “I’m used to that.” The glow in my fingertips spread to the gem on the end of the sceptre too. Whoa. That was new. “My mother seems to think being Head Witch means taking a back seat.”

  “Of course she does,” said Carmilla. “She expected to take the job herself. She’s never been much of a fighter, despite her sharp tongue. Now, your grandmother, on the other hand… back in her prime, she used to take pride in turning her enemies into stone.”

  “She did?” I asked, disarmed. “I thought the title of Head Witch was supposed to be ceremonial.”

  “Obviously it is.” The cat nudged open the door to the witches’ headquarters. “Are you planning to come in?”

  I didn’t move. “I’d like to be the sort of Head Witch who fights her own battles. It’d have been nice if Grandma had told me that was an option.”

  “Talk to her yourself.” Carmilla approached the door to my office. “Coming?”

  “Wait, how did you get out? I thought the door was locked.”

  The cat raised her head. “I wouldn’t be much of a Head Witch’s familiar if I could be so easily trapped.”

  “I’m the Head Witch’s familiar,” Tansy announced. “And I hope nobody else got in.”

  “I can check,” Chloe said quickly. “If that’s okay with you, Head Witch.”

  “Go ahead.” I walked over to the office door and unlocked it. “In fact, I have to do something else first. Can you check my desk and see if there’s anything I need to attend to? I’ll be back soon.”

  “Sure.” Chloe went into the office, while I left the building with Tansy at my side.

  Turning my back on the witches’ headquarters, I strode down the road towards the house next to Mum’s. Aunt Shannon wouldn’t be back yet, but Vanessa would need to return home to get ready for the trophy ceremony at some point, and I was perfectly happy to wait outside her house for as long as necessary.

  As it turned out, it took only ten minutes before Aunt Shannon and Vanessa approached the house. Aunt Shannon spotted me first. “What are you doing on my doorstep?”

  “What do you want, Robin?” asked Vanessa. “You already said congratulations. Unless you want to do it properly this time.”

  Anger sparked, bringing light to my fingertips and the sceptre too. Aunt Shannon’s gaze landed on the gem on the instrument’s end, her eyes narrowing a fraction.

  “It’s your mother I wanted to talk to, Vanessa.” I turned to my aunt. “Aunt Shannon, your familiar chased that chicken across town in order to disrupt the contest. Carmilla confirmed it was Myrtle who drove her out of the garden.”

  Aunt Shannon didn’t even blink. “You trust that mangy old cat?”

  “She’s your late mother’s familiar,” I pointed out. “I’m inclined to believe her given that Myrtle has been tormenting the chicken—a familiar of a murder victim, I might add—for the past day.”

  “My familiar has good instincts,” she said. “Right, precious?”

  The magpie flew to land on her witch’s shoulder and cawed loudly. “For a Head Witch, you’re rather dense, aren’t you?”

  “And just what is that supposed to mean?” I asked. “You expect me to ignore your tormenting an innocent familiar who belonged to a murder victim?”

  “There is nothing innocent about that chicken,” said Aunt Shannon. “She and her owner have been scheming together for years.”

  “How’d you figure that one out?”

  “I did,” said Vanessa. “I spoke to the other contenders on the first day, and they told me the chicken’s owner was friends with Malcolm.”

  “Excuse me?” I looked between her and her mother while Tansy’s tail began to wag. “Do you have proof of this? There’s no documented connection between the pair of them at all.”

  “Obviously they didn’t talk about it in public,” said Vanessa. “But it’s true. Malcolm sold potions to the entrants, while Anne made bets on who would emerge victorious. They raked in a fortune.”

  “Bets.” That would explain what Malcolm would have to gain from rigging the contests, but how had Vanessa of all people managed to wring a confession from the other contenders? “Roxy always won, though. She never took him up on his offer.”

  “Doesn’t matter,” said Vanessa. “Enough people did that they had a nice little scheme going. You’re welcome for the tip.”

  “There you have it,” said Aunt Shannon. “Consider yourself lucky that my daughter was willing to share anything with you after the way you have treated her.”

  “I haven’t treated her any differently from the other contenders,” I said. “Also, when I questioned her earlier, she claimed Malcolm never offered her any potions and acted as if she knew nothing at all.”

  “He didn’t,” she said. “But people talk. It wasn’t hard to figure out what was going on.”

  “And—the murderer?” I shouldn’t believe a word she said, yet her claims filled the gaps in my theories that even my brother had been struggling to figure out. “Anne and Malcolm both died. Are you saying it was a dissatisfied client who was responsible?”

  Aunt Shannon laughed. “Leave the investigating to your brother, Head Witch. But I’ll give you this information for free: that chicken and her owner came to murder you, and when Anne was foolish enough to get herself killed in the process, her familiar tried to finish the job.”

  Her words sent my mind into free fall. I gaped at her for a second, unable to believe she’d voiced my initial theory—that Anne had brought the cursed pens herself and accidentally died in the process.

  “You’re lying,” Tansy said. “You can’t
know that.”

  “Ask the chicken yourself,” added Vanessa. “Don’t fall for her pathetic excuses this time.”

  “I don’t think you’re telling the full truth,” I said. “What do you have to gain from helping me? You’re waiting for me to drop dead so you can snatch the sceptre from my grip, aren’t you?”

  “Oh, I wouldn’t presume to challenge the will of the sceptre,” said Aunt Shannon. “You are undoubtedly its wielder… for now, anyway. Assuming you don’t get yourself killed first.”

  She’s lying. Or omitting the truth, anyway. Aunt Shannon was trying to make me doubt myself so she could get one step closer to taking my place as Head Witch.

  I gave her a glare. “What I do is none of your business, Aunt Shannon. I haven’t forgotten Rowan.”

  I turned my back and left her and Vanessa behind, trying not to walk too fast as I retraced my steps to the coven’s headquarters. Upon ducking into the lobby, I all but ran into the office.

  “Chloe.” I exhaled in relief when I found her sitting at her desk with Grandma’s laptop open in front of her. “Is everything okay?”

  “Sure,” she said. “There’s another letter on the desk for you to sign, by the way.”

  “Is there?” I picked up the container of pens, but Tansy moved in a blur, tackling it out of my hands. The pens scattered on the floor while Tansy landed on all fours on the desk.

  “Someone else was in here.” Her tail wagged, pointing over my shoulder. “Look.”

  I spun around, seeing the window was open a crack. “Carmilla? Did you see anyone come in?”

  “No, but I was sleeping.”

  Chloe rose to her feet with an expression of complete horror on her face that matched my own sinking dread. The intruder had tried to get into my office again… and this time, they’d succeeded.

  13

  “Don’t touch the pens,” I told Chloe when she moved towards the fallen container. “We don’t know which are cursed, if any of them are.”

  Someone had definitely been in here, but that didn’t mean they’d tried to use the same method as beforehand. How did they get in? The window hadn’t been forced, and it couldn’t be opened from outside without an unlocking charm—which was impossible to cast without a wand.

  Chloe wrung her hands. “I’m sorry. I should have seen.”

  “It’s not your fault.” I pulled out my phone and called my brother. “Hey, Ramsey. The intruder got into my office this time, and I’m pretty sure they left some cursed pens behind.”

  I hung up before he could do more than utter a sharp curse, which seemed utterly out of character for him. My nerves jangled as I paced around the desk, trying to figure out how the intruder had entered the office.

  Carmilla perched on Chloe’s desk, standing on her hind legs to look at the window. “It was opened from the inside.”

  “So the intruder got out through the window but not in?” I trod carefully around the spilled pens and peered over the cabinets. Given how cluttered the office was, there might well be a secret door back there that nobody had told me about. “Carmilla, are there any hidden entrances to the office behind the cabinets?”

  “No,” she said. “There are not.”

  So much for that theory.

  “Well, they didn’t walk through the wall.” I made my careful way past the first row of cabinets, only for Chloe to grab my arm and drag me backwards.

  “Don’t touch anything! We don’t know what else might be cursed.”

  “Not the cabinets.” I obliged, though, since moving to the back of the office meant I was more likely than not to bring a mountain of paper crashing down on my head. “I’ll let Ramsey search, then.”

  “Good idea.” She stood stiffly beside the desk, looking at the pens as if they might leap up and bite her. “I can’t believe someone did this.”

  “Really, this ought to be an argument in favour of me using computers instead of writing by hand.” I did my best to keep my tone light despite my racing heart. “Grandma won’t be able to complain if I tell her I narrowly avoided death by cursed pen.”

  Tansy snorted. “Do you think she’d accept that excuse?”

  “Nah, probably not,” I admitted. “I’d also like to know what she was doing during the break-in. A ghost who can travel through walls ought to be a better security guard than she has been.”

  Grandma hadn’t shown her face in a while. Ghosts didn’t need to sleep, so it was anyone’s guess as to where she’d wandered off to, but her absence was the least of my worries. I stepped over the pens again as I crossed the room to the door, belatedly remembering the invisible ink I’d left outside. If the intruder hadn’t entered that way, they wouldn’t have had any traces on their hands, but this wasn’t the first time someone had tried to get into the office.

  A faint herbal smell caught in my nostrils. Frowning, I nudged the door open and followed the scent across the lobby to the area behind the front door. “Who put sage in here?”

  “Certainly not me,” said Carmilla.

  “Sage repels ghosts.” It couldn’t have been an accident. The person who’d left the herbs out must have known Grandma’s ghost was here. I’d thought only our coven was aware of her continued existence as a ghost, but if Aunt Shannon was responsible, was she the intruder?

  I crouched down to pick up the sage, only to spring to my feet when the door opened and Ramsey almost tripped over me. “Whoa. Robin, what are you doing down there?”

  “Someone put sage on the floor,” I said. “Not inside my office but outside. I assume they knew we had a resident ghost.”

  “I thought you said someone broke into your office.”

  “They did.” Chloe beckoned him through the door. “Don’t touch the pens. We don’t know which might be cursed.”

  “Or how they got in,” I added. “The window was opened from the inside. The door was untouched.”

  “I’ll take care of the pens.” He moved into the office, pulling on a pair of thick gloves. I, meanwhile, set about searching the rest of the lobby for any more sage that might have been “accidentally” left lying around. Once I’d tossed it outside, I returned to the office.

  “Where’s the chicken?” I asked Ramsey.

  “Still at the police station,” he replied. “And yes, she’s still frozen. You did a thorough job.”

  “Good,” I said. “Possibly. Aunt Shannon seems to think she’s the murderer.”

  “I’m sorry, what?” He blinked at me. “You spoke to her? When?”

  “A few minutes ago, I confronted her over her stunt with that chicken,” I said. “She claimed that Vanessa still won fair and square, and that Anne and her chicken were the ones who originally wanted me dead.”

  “You don’t believe her, do you?” said Tansy. “She was deflecting blame.”

  “She raised a few questions, though,” I said. “Also, her theory explains how Anne showed up with that cursed pen in her pocket after everyone else had already surrendered any magical objects they possessed.”

  “You think she brought it herself?” Ramsey asked. “That’s an interesting theory, but given that it came from Aunt Shannon, I’m not sure how much weight we ought to give it.”

  “I wouldn’t believe her, but there’s something not right about that chicken,” I said. “Besides, who broke into my office? Everyone else was at the contest. All the humans were, anyway.”

  “You think the chicken broke into your office?” Tansy snickered with laughter. “Sorry, Robin, but can you imagine that ridiculous bird being stealthy enough to break in without leaving a complete mess everywhere?”

  “I gave her free run of the building,” I reminded her. “Which I shouldn’t have done, considering she’s still technically a suspect.”

  “I can’t arrest a chicken,” Ramsey said. “You’re not joking… are you?”

  “That’s not all Vanessa and her mum told me,” I said. “Vanessa claimed that Anne and Malcolm were working together to rig the contest, and the
y placed bets on the winners. That’s what they had to gain from it.”

  Ramsey frowned. “How exactly did Vanessa find out?”

  “She claims she talked to the other entrants,” I said. “It’s worth asking, at least.”

  “That will have to wait,” he said. “I’m not inclined to believe her mother, certainly, but as long as that chicken remains under your spell, she can’t be questioned.”

  Didn’t I know it. I turned to Grandma’s familiar. “Carmilla, do you think there might be some truth to that idea?”

  “You think the chicken is the intruder?” She gave a yowl of laughter. “Even I couldn’t sleep through her endless whining.”

  “Hilarious,” I said. “I got rid of the sage. When will Grandma come back? Do you know?”

  “I have absolutely no idea.” She curled up on Chloe’s desk again and closed her eyes.

  Exasperated, I turned to Ramsey. “What do you suggest I do? Should I tell Aunt Shannon the police want to question her and see if she repeats the same story to you?”

  “You can try, but I don’t have time to deal with her,” he said. “If anything else in this office is cursed, I need to remove it. Preferably before Mum comes back.”

  Right. Mum would want to hear an update, too, and I could only imagine her reaction when she found out I’d confronted Aunt Shannon and Vanessa alone. She might think Vanessa had won her victory fairly, but I couldn’t see her readily accepting a chicken as a potential killer. In fairness, I wasn’t so sure myself either.

  “I’ll leave you to it, then.” I made my way out the back door to the garden, more to get out of the cramped space than anything else.

  Tansy ran along the lawn which dominated the back garden. “I bet Tiffany’s fuming over Persephone getting kicked out of the contest.”

  “She bought into Malcolm’s scheme,” I said. “I think Vanessa might have been telling the truth about him and Anne working together. Or at the very least about some of the contenders making money from placing bets. It’s the logical way to explain Malcolm’s methods.”

  “Except that implies most of the winners’ victories have been invalid,” said Tansy. “Unless Roxy was telling the truth, and she didn’t cheat.”