by Adele Abbott
“Amanda Banks? I saw that on the news.”
“He came in without an appointment to ask if I would take on the case. I told him I was too busy. I’m not, but I knew how sensitive Jack was about kidnappings after what happened with the Camberley case. I didn’t want to risk ruining the working relationship we’d established, so I turned down the case.”
“So why is Maxwell angry?”
“Because he heard that Steve Lister had been to see me, and he assumed that I’d agreed to take on the case. You heard—he didn’t give me a chance to tell him I’d turned it down. Asshat!”
I stood up, walked through to the outer office, and had a word with Mrs V.
Back at my desk I punched the number she’d given me into my phone.
“Who are you ringing now?” Kathy said.
“Steve Lister. Who do you think?”
***
I was still spitting feathers long after Kathy had left. I’d managed to get hold of Steve Lister, and arranged for him to come in and see me the next morning. He’d been somewhat surprised to get my call, but I explained that I’d resolved a case early so was able to squeeze him in.
I couldn’t focus on work because all I could think about was all of the things I wanted to do to Jack Maxwell. No! Not that kind of thing. My romantic interest in that man was over. I refused to date an asshat. Turn him into a rat? Maybe—I could get on board with that idea.
It was a beautiful afternoon, so I decided a walk might calm me down and clear my head. I deliberately headed in the opposite direction from Ever A Wool Moment. I couldn’t handle Grandma and her stupid one-size fits all needles. Instead I headed out towards the common where I’d be able to sit on a bench and try to chill out.
So there I sat, minding my own business, and ignoring the ducks which had gathered around my legs. I was obviously sitting on the bench reserved for the professional duck feeders. You know the type: trainers, odd socks and a bag full of bread.
“Billy! Don’t kick the ball near that lady.” The woman’s voice came from behind me. “Don’t kick—”
The ball hit me on the back of the head with a thud.
“Sorry about that,” she said, but she didn’t look particularly sorry. “Boys will be boys.”
I smiled and went back to ignoring the ducks.
“Billy! Be careful where you kick it.”
Thud. Right on the back of the head again. Now, I realise that I have no parenting experience, but even I could see that little Billy was doing it deliberately.
“Billy. Be careful of the lady.”
He’d better be careful.
Thud. Okay, enough was enough.
I picked up the ball and threw it towards darling Billy. As I did so I cast the ‘move’ spell which gave me control of the ball as it floated towards him. Billy had his arms stretched up in the air as he followed the ball’s trajectory.
“Billy, be careful!” his mother yelled.
It was floating inches above his fingertips. So near, yet so far.
“Billy! Be careful of the—”
Splash!
Billy fell into the pond scattering the ducks in all directions. It wasn’t deep, and within seconds his mother had waded in and pulled him out. The little angel was covered with mud and soaked to the skin. Shame. I waited until the ball was over the centre of the pond, and then let it drop into the water.
“Is he okay?” I shouted, doing my best to sound concerned. “Boys will be boys.”
***
Curiously, I felt a whole lot better. The sound of Billy and his mother squelching their way out of the park had taken my mind off Maxwell. I was so over that man now it wasn’t even funny. Just let him say one wrong word to me, and I’d set his butt on fire with a ‘burn’ spell. The Bugle regularly suggested that the police needed a fire lit under them. Well, I’d be more than happy to help with that.
My phone rang. If that was Maxwell coming back for more, I wouldn’t be responsible for my actions.
“Jill!” Pearl screamed down the phone. “It’s Pearl.”
“And Amber.”
“Let me do the talking,” Pearl said.
“Why? She’s my cousin too.”
“Girls, what’s wrong?”
I could tell by their voices that all was not well.
“Miles Best!” Amber yelled.
“We’re going to kill him!”
Miles Best had been at school with the twins. They’d both secretly had a crush on him, and had been hoping to rekindle the flame at a recent school reunion. Needless to say their fiancés had been unaware of all this. Anyway, as it turned out, the years had not been kind to Miles Best, and neither of the twins was now interested in him. He hadn’t taken ‘no’ for an answer until I’d stepped in and warned him off. I had thought that was an end to the matter, but apparently not.
“Is he stalking you again?”
“No. Much worse than that. It’s his shop.”
“What’s his shop?”
“The new cake shop across the road from Cuppy C. It’s his shop.”
“Best Cakes is Miles Best? Are you sure? Have you spoken to him?”
“No, but we saw him, and that new girlfriend of his, in there today. It has to be his shop. What are we going to do, Jill?”
“Don’t panic. I’m coming over tomorrow. We can talk about it then.”
Chapter 7
Steve Lister was waiting for me when I arrived at the office. Stony-faced he seemed to have aged even from the day before.
“Have you been waiting long?”
“Not long. Thank you for agreeing to take on the case. I didn’t know what I was going to do.”
“No problem. I hope I’ll be able to help. Let’s go through to my office.”
“Jill!” Mrs V called after me. “You haven’t forgotten that Donald is taking me out for lunch today, have you?”
“Of course not. I’m looking forward to meeting him.”
She frowned. “You won’t say anything stupid to him, will you?”
“Me? Why would I?”
“I know you think you’re funny, but people don’t like to have their names made fun of.”
“I promise to be on my best behaviour.”
Such promising material too. Seriously, what kind of parents with the surname ‘Hook’ would come up with the name Donald? Surely they must have foreseen the consequences. Had they never watched cartoons?
“Thanks again, Miss Gooder,” Steve Lister said.
“Call me Jill, please. Obviously I’ve seen the news reports, but it would probably be best if you brought me up to date with events as you know them.”
That didn’t take long. It turned out that he didn’t know much more about the actual kidnapping than had been reported in the press.
“What about Amanda’s parents?”
“They won’t even speak to me.”
“Why not? Did you fall out with them or something?”
“They’ve never liked me—right from the get-go. They didn’t think I was good enough for Amanda. They were right in some respects, but they could see she was in love, so they were forced to tolerate me. Since she was abducted, they’ve refused point blank to speak to me. They won’t let me in their house. They basically refuse to acknowledge my existence.”
I could see that he was barely holding it together. Didn’t Amanda’s parents understand that he was hurting just as much as they were?
“Where was she snatched?”
“No one saw her being taken. The first anyone knew about it was when someone found the note.”
“The ransom note?”
“No. There hasn’t actually been a ransom request as such.”
“How can you be sure if her parents won’t talk to you?”
“They’re divorced. Her mother remarried—a man called Bob Dale. He’s a fantastic guy—more of a parent to Amanda than her birth parents have ever been. He and I get on great too. He’s been keeping me posted.”
“Yo
u mentioned a note?”
“Yeah. Like I said, it wasn’t really a ransom note. It said something like: ‘We have Amanda. Don’t call the police or she will die. We will be in touch’.”
“But they haven’t? As far as you know?”
“No. Bob would have told me. Is that unusual?”
“I’m not sure.” I was no expert when it came to kidnapping. I had no doubt that Jack Maxwell would know, but I could hardly ask him. “What are the police doing?”
“Not much. They say they are, but nothing seems to be happening. They talked to me a couple of times, but I couldn’t tell them anything. I think everyone is waiting for the ransom note to arrive.” He wiped away a tear. “Do you think she’s still alive?”
I had no idea. “I’m sure she is. Whoever has got her is in it for the money. They have to keep her safe if they want to get paid.”
“It doesn’t always work out like that though, does it?”
“What do you mean?”
“Look at the Camberley kidnapping. The ransom got paid and they still killed her.”
“That isn’t going to happen here,” I said with as much conviction as I could muster.
Maybe I’d been too rash in deciding to take on this case. Maxwell had been an asshat on the phone, but it was understandable given what had happened in his previous kidnapping case. I should have kept my cool and stayed out of it, but how could I back out now that I’d built up Steve Lister’s hopes?
“I need to speak to Bob Dale,” I said. “Can you arrange that? Do you think he’ll talk to me?”
“He definitely will. I’ll sort something out and either he or I will give you a call.”
***
I was just starting to feel peckish when I heard a man’s voice in the outer office.
“You must be Jill. Annabel has told me so much about you. It’s a pleasure to meet you. My name is Donald—”
Please don’t say it. I’ll never be able to keep a straight face if you do. Mrs V was looking daggers at me.
“Donald Hook.”
I grabbed a tissue from my pocket and pretended to sneeze. It was the only way I could stifle the laugh.
“Sorry about that,” I said.
Mrs V’s face reddened with anger. Oh dear, I was in for it later.
“Pleased to meet you,” I said. “I hear you and Mrs V—I mean Annabel, go way back.”
“We do indeed. We were something of a ‘thing’ back in the day. Weren’t we Annabel?”
Mrs V giggled like a young school girl. This was definitely a side of her I hadn’t seen before.
“Did she knit back then?” I figured small talk might take my mind off his name.
“Knit? Annabel?” He laughed. “No, she was quite the wild child.”
“Really? Tell me more.”
Mrs V grabbed Donald’s arm. “No time for that now. We’ll be late for our reservation.”
“Oh, okay,” Donald said, as he was dragged to the door. “Nice to meet you, Jill.”
“You too. See you later, Wild Child.”
***
I didn’t feel like driving, so I used magic to transport myself to Candlefield. I misjudged the spell a little, and landed on the next street to Cuppy C. As I turned the corner, I immediately knew this was not going to be a good day. The queue outside Best Cakes stretched half way down the street.
“Have you seen that?” Amber yelled at me as soon as I walked through the door. I was the only person in the cake shop.
“How’s the tea room doing?” I said.
“The tea room’s okay—for now. But how long will it be before that snake across the road decides to open one of those too?”
“Where’s Pearl?”
“She’s gone upstairs for a lie down. She’s got herself all worked up. What are we going to do, Jill?”
“It’s too early to start panicking. It’s his opening day—he’ll have lots of silly offers that he won’t be able to maintain. Give it a week and see how things are then.”
“But what if no one wants our cakes any more?” Pearl had appeared, red-eyed at my side.
“Are you okay?” I put an arm around her shoulder.
“Cuppy C is our baby. It means everything to us. What will we do if Miles Best drives us out of business?”
“I think you two are over-reacting a little.” Something I was never guilty of—obviously. “You have first mover advantage.”
Listen at me with my ‘first mover advantage’. I’ll be ‘blue-sky thinking’ next.
“Once Miles’ opening sale is over, you’ll see business pick up again.”
“I hope you’re right.” Pearl sniffed. “I couldn’t bear it if I had to go and work for someone else.”
“I do have one suggestion,” I said. “But I’m not sure you’re going to like it.”
“Any ideas would be welcome,” Amber said.
“You should ask Grandma for help.”
“Any ideas except that one.”
“Hear me out.”
“Grandma?”
“Look, you know that I’m no fan of Grandma, and there’s no love lost between us, but you should see what she’s achieved with Ever A Wool Moment. That place has only been open for five minutes, and it’s going from strength to strength. It pains me to admit it, but the woman is a marketing genius. That shop of hers is always full. She must be making more money in a month than I make all year. There isn’t a week goes by that there isn’t some new marketing initiative. You should ask her to help you.”
“But—but—it’s Grandma.”
“Isn’t there something else we could do instead?” Pearl sounded desperate.
“You could offer up a prayer, but I’m not sure that would be as effective. You have to bite the bullet, and ask her.”
“Will you do it?” Amber said. “Ask Grandma, I mean.”
“Me?” I laughed. “She hates me. She came to my office a couple of days ago, and accused me of setting Trading Standards on her.”
“Did you?” Pearl asked in all seriousness.
“No! Of course I didn’t. I’m not her biggest fan, but I wouldn’t do anything like that.”
Not strictly true—I had considered reporting her for using magic for financial gain in the human world, but there was no reason to tell the twins that.
“Please, Jill!” Amber said. “You’re much better at this kind of thing than we are. You’re not scared of her.”
“Okay. I’ll have a word, but don’t blame me if she says no.”
***
Cuppy C was so quiet that the twins left the staff in charge while we all went to Aunt Lucy’s.
“Jill’s right,” Aunt Lucy said. “It’s too early to panic yet. Wait until the dust settles and then see how things are.”
I was pleased to see that Lester was at Aunt Lucy’s house. They’d recently become an item, but there was a brief hiccup when Lester had discovered that he’d lost his magic powers. He was so embarrassed that he’d been avoiding her. I’d been able to help by putting him in touch with Annie Christy, who was involved with SupAid, a charity which helped sups who lost their powers.
I waited until I got Aunt Lucy alone, and then asked her about Lester.
“Things are much better, dear. Thanks to you and Annie Christy. The specialist she put Lester in touch with has worked wonders.”
“Does he have his powers back?”
“Not yet. It’s going to be a long job according to the specialist, but there are no physical reasons why he shouldn’t make a full recovery in time. We just have to be patient.”
“Nonsense.” Grandma did her usual trick of appearing out of nowhere. “I assume we’re discussing Fester?”
Aunt Lucy’s face flushed red, and I thought for a moment she was going to launch the rolling pin at Grandma.
“His name is Lester, as you well know. And yes, we are discussing his rehabilitation.”
“What’s wrong with him?”
“He has temporarily lost his power
s—you know that.”
“Do you know what you call a wizard with no magical powers?” Grandma said, and then paused a moment for dramatic effect. “A human.”
“Mother!” Aunt Lucy lunged for Grandma who disappeared before our eyes. “I’ll swing for that woman one day.”
“I’m sure she didn’t mean it.”
“Oh, she meant it. And I’ll mean it too when I strangle her.”
Needless to say, we were all incredibly disappointed when Grandma sent word that she wouldn’t be joining us for dinner.
“After all I do for that woman,” Aunt Lucy said. “No one else would see to her bunions.”
“Mum!” Pearl screwed up her face.
“Gross, mum. We’re eating,” Amber said.
“Sorry girls. Sorry everyone. It’s just that she drives me to distraction. She never has a good word for anyone. If I ever get like that, I want you to shoot me.”
“Don’t worry, I will.” Amber laughed.
“You’ll have to get there before me,” Pearl said.
Chapter 8
I didn’t need to ask Mrs V how her lunch date with The Captain went. She’d done nothing but smile and talk about him since then. I should have been pleased for her—I was pleased for her—but I still had a nagging doubt. There was something about The Captain that didn’t ring true to me.
“When will you be seeing The Captain again?” I enquired.
“I do wish you wouldn’t call him that. It’s rather puerile.”
Rather harsh—a bit childish maybe, but not puerile.
“Sorry. Just my silly joke.” “When will you be seeing Don again?”
“His name is Donald. He doesn’t like to be called Don. I saw him last night actually. He made me a proposition.”
“Mrs V! It was only your second date.”
“Not that kind of proposition. Really, Jill, your mind could do with a good scrub.”
“Sorry, I just—I thought—I’ll shut up.”
“That’s the best idea you’ve had for a while.”
Ouch.
“Donald thinks we should buy a property together.”