Westerham Witches and a Venetian Vendetta

by Dionne Lister

The white noise stopped, and Will frowned. “They must have erected a bubble of silence. Damn it.”

  I blew an irritated breath out of my nose. “We have to hurry. Whoever did this could vanish at any moment, never to be seen again, and we’ll never find out where Angelica is.”

  Movement at the door to the restaurant caught my eye. Isabella was holding onto the bellboy’s arm— Francesco if I remembered correctly—as he tried to attack Lorenzo. Then Elena grabbed Francesco’s other arm and looked apologetically at Lorenzo. Isabella’s raspy voice was louder than a normal conversational tone but not exactly shouting. She was trying to get the young man to see reason, if her facial expression was anything to go by.

  Even though the group knew we were there, in the rush of the argument, they must’ve forgotten, but now they realised. Isabella, Elena, and Lorenzo turned to frown at us, but Francesco kept glaring at his foe. What the hell was going on? Was Lorenzo trying to get the money out of them? But if that was the case, why would Elena ask him to come over?

  Throbbing materialised in my forehead. Just what I needed: a headache. My stomach grumbled loudly, likely agreeing with me. It was as if my talkative tummy had broken the freeze spell, and Lorenzo’s gaze flicked to me before he looked at Elena. Something passed between them—it wasn’t anger… maybe an apology? Mrs D gave a slow nod, and Lorenzo made a doorway, then left.

  Isabella yanked Francesco, freeing him from Elena’s grip. She said something to her daughter and dragged the young man away with her. What the hell was that all about? Was Elena trying to sleep with him too? Elena’s shoulders dropped, and she sighed heavily. In that moment, rather than looking like a put-together, gorgeous Italian lady about town, she looked tired, exhausted, even heartsore. Her gaze met mine. She shook her head, made a doorway, then left.

  And after all that drama, we didn’t know much more than when we started, plus Angelica was still missing.

  I sighed.

  Wow, what an awesome holiday this was turning out to be.

  Chapter 8

  That evening, we opted for an early dinner so we could get back to investigating. My stomach cheered at the suggestion, even though not knowing where Angelica was dampened my appetite. Investigating on an empty stomach was a terrible idea. I’d only have half my brain on the job; the other half would be consoling my grumbling stomach. We found a small, quiet restaurant not far from the hotel. We could’ve eaten in the hotel, but we all needed a break from the scene of the crime.

  After our mains were delivered—the pasta marinara I ordered was the best I’d ever tasted—we got to talking. Will cast a partial bubble of silence—it meant people at nearby tables could hear us, but anyone trying to listen in with magic couldn’t. It would’ve looked totally weird if we were talking and no noise was happening. We checked out the staff and the six other diners in there, confirming they were all non-witches. As a result of this, we kept our voices as low as possible.

  Sarah was sitting on one side of me, Will the other. I handed Sarah my phone so she could listen to the recording from earlier. When she was done, she handed it back. “Isabella told her daughter she knows she’s innocent and not to tell the police anything. She also chastised her for sleeping around. Elena told her to mind her own business and that she’ll do as she pleases.”

  My mum looked at her from across the table. “So you’re confirming what I thought. Unfortunately, it doesn’t give us much to work with.” Her gaze shifted to me. “If only you’d started recording earlier.” She gave me a sympathetic look. “But don’t worry. It’s better than nothing.”

  “I know. I’m a bit slow sometimes, but we are supposed to be on holidays. I’m not as on the ball as usual.”

  Will rubbed my back. “It’s okay, Lily. You more than made up for that by taking those photos. At least we have something.”

  I stabbed a mussel with my fork. “Yes, but that something isn’t helping us find her. There’s so much we don’t know.” I lifted my head to meet Will’s gaze. “Why was that other woman murdered? Why did Lorenzo lie about where he was that night? Where is Angelica, and why did someone take her? And what is all that drama with Francesco and Isabella?”

  Imani, who was sitting opposite me, next to Mum, furrowed her brow. “Gee, love, when you put it like that, we might as well pull up stumps and go home.”

  “I’m not saying that. It’s just…. We need to do more, think harder. I’d like to sneak back to Lorenzo’s factory and take more photos. There were parts of the property we didn’t have access to.”

  Lavender dabbed his mouth with his cloth napkin. “Does he live there?”

  “No,” said Will. “When he was initially a suspect, they inspected his apartment and found no evidence of anything untoward.”

  I rested my fork on my bowl. “Seriously? Does this mean we have another place to check out? We can’t leave anything unexplored. If only this had happened in the UK.” Or, rather, if only this hadn’t happened at all. My shoulders slumped.

  Beren’s eyes radiated understanding. “I know, Lily, but it didn’t, and we’re just going to have to deal. But I have faith in us, and Angelica would too.” Yeah, that was if she was still alive. I didn’t voice what everyone was likely thinking—it would serve no purpose except to depress everyone further. Except, we hadn’t found her made into glass anywhere, so that gave me hope, and I would cling to that hope until I knew otherwise.

  I tapped my fingers on the table, then sat up straighter. “What if we waited until dark tonight and checked out his factory; then tomorrow, when he’s at work, we break into his apartment?”

  My mother stared at me. “You can’t break into someone’s home, Lily. That’s illegal.”

  “Angelica’s life is in massive danger. What happened to your adventurous spirit, Mum? I’d be happy to risk jail time to look for evidence. What if he’s since moved her there? Maybe she was still in that room behind the office, and after he was sure the police were done with his apartment, he sent her there?”

  “If he’s the guilty party.” My mother took a deep breath. “Look, Lily, I’m sorry I can’t be happy for you to jump into something that could land you in jail. Being locked up is no picnic.” A haunted look invaded her eyes.

  “Argh! I’m so sorry. I know you’ve suffered, but this is different. At least if I’m incarcerated, you guys can still visit. Besides, I’ve done jail time before. Relieving myself in front of people wasn’t much fun, I’ll admit, but I can handle it.”

  My mother’s mouth fell open. “What?! Why were you in jail?” I briefly explained what had happened when I’d first gone to Westerham to help look for James. She gave Will and Beren dirty looks. “How could you not trust Lily? What’s wrong with you lot?”

  Will swallowed. “Um…. We didn’t not trust her, but we hardly knew her. We were just doing our jobs. To be fair, Angelica was running the show. You might want to have a word with her too.”

  “Mum, it’s fine. It’s water under the bridge. The point is, I’d risk that to save Angelica. We can’t afford to muck around.”

  “How do we know she hasn’t already been turned to glass?” Liv asked. My stomach dropped.

  Imani placed her fork on her plate. “Because whoever it was would’ve displayed her somewhere by now. The only thing we should be worried about is if they chose to just kill her the normal way.”

  “But why do that when he or she has shown off their other two ‘sculptures.’” I shuddered.

  Mum drained her wine glass. “I’ve changed my mind. You need to get into his place as quickly as possible.”

  I blinked. She’d changed direction like an unpredictable kangaroo on a roadway. One minute they’re bounding alongside you, and the next they’re in front of your car. “What?”

  “I think whoever it is, especially if it’s that Lorenzo fellow, will turn her to glass—imagine the ego trip of besting a PIB agent, especially when they’ve put you in jail before. The thing is, whoever did it is probably out of the power they need
. It would take some recovering from that level of power usage, and they didn’t just change one person, but two people. We might only have a few hours, or we might have another day, but we’re running out of time for sure now.”

  “So, are we assuming Lorenzo did it, but do we think Mrs Dal Lago helped?” I wanted to get this straight. We were jumping to conclusions, but lying about his whereabouts on the night Angelica went missing and having close ties to the family meant that other than Mrs D, he was the most likely suspect.

  Will nodded. “Yes. I think Mrs Dal Lago had something to do with it, even if it’s just giving Lorenzo access to the hotel on the night or being an accessory. I don’t like that we haven’t proven this beyond a reasonable doubt, but, hopefully, further investigation will get us the answers we need.”

  “Right,” said Imani. “What’s the plan?”

  Once it was dark, Will and I left the hotel. We’d dressed in black clothes and baseball caps. The less people could describe about us later, the better. We donned no-notice spells as an extra precaution, and Liv had found a self-drive boat-hire place. We would’ve caught a water taxi, but we didn’t want anyone tying us to the scene, and we’d have to drop our no-notice spells to get onboard. The hire place was shut when we went, so we did the next best thing—we “borrowed” one.

  Will steadied the small runabout. My hands sweated, and butterflies flew rampant in my belly. There was a foot drop from the wharf into the boat. What if I overbalanced the boat, and we tipped in?

  “Come on, Lily. We haven’t got all night.”

  “Can you do a spell to steady the boat?”

  He shook his head. “No.”

  Grrr. I supposed the force of the water pushing against it, making it rock, would take a lot of power to quell. Damn it. He couldn’t give me his hand because he was holding the dock so the boat didn’t float away since he’d already untied it. I stared at the ebony sky and took a deep breath. Here went nothing. I tried to step down but had to do a little jump because the boat was so much lower than the dock. I landed with a thud, and the boat wavered underneath us, pitching me forward towards the water.

  Crap.

  My hands shot out in front of me. Will grabbed the back of my T-shirt. I jerked backwards, and as I hit him, he fell onto the bench seat, his arms snaking around me, securing me safely on his lap. He laughed. “I should’ve known you’d almost fall in. You owe me one.”

  “Well, if it wouldn’t have used so much power to keep the boat steady, I would’ve done it myself.”

  “Huh?”

  “I figured that’s why you refused to do it.”

  He smirked. “I could have, but I chose not to.”

  My mouth dropped open. “You did it on purpose, hoping I’d go flying?” Anger funnelled up from the depths of my body. I didn’t know whether to punch him or bide my time and push him in later.

  “Something like that. Also, remember when I said when you least expect it to expect it?”

  “This is payback for the anchovies?”

  “Yep. Be thankful I didn’t let you fall in. I really, really hate anchovies.”

  I narrowed my eyes. “Big baby.” I slid off his lap and carefully sat next to him. He chuckled as we drifted away from the wharf; then he started the outboard motor. I cringed at the noise and stared back at the building next to the wharf. Hopefully no one was watching, ready to come after us. After we’d made it another minute with no movement on the shore, I sucked in a deep breath. So far so good. But I’d have to give the universe a chance to stuff us up. Sigh.

  As we motored across the lagoon, salty air whipped past my face, cooling me down. The distinct odour of Venice—briny with a generous dollop of sewerage—was unmistakable. We didn’t say much on the way. Will’s jaw was set as he steered in the dark—there were buoy markers to navigate by, but it wasn’t like he did this every day. I ruminated over what we should do next if both the factory and Lorenzo’s apartment turned up nothing. I chewed my nail, and my leg bounced up and down. Gah, stop thinking. I was pretty sure my death grip on the seat was going to give me hand cramps. I needed to relax and not use all my energy before we even got there.

  Finally we reached Murano. He pulled in at the same wharf we’d been on yesterday. Was it only yesterday? It felt as if we’d been looking for Angelica for weeks. Time… the construct that was always against us—if we needed it to slow down, it went faster, and during the times we wished it would go faster, it slowed down. Totally disagreeable if you asked me.

  Will tied the boat up and stepped out, giving me a hand up onto the wharf. At least we’d done it sans drama this time. I checked my no-notice was still activated. The path was void of anyone else, but nerves still churned my stomach. Lights shone from buildings where people probably lived, and it looked as if there was a small restaurant on the other side of the narrow canal. Fingers crossed no one lived above any of the factories near Lorenzo’s place.

  Will wasted no time and hurried towards the factory. I had to jog to keep up. He made a BOS. “Once we’re there, I’ll disable the alarm and cameras. Until I give you the nod, you need to stand guard outside and keep facing away from the wall. We don’t want our faces on camera. I’ll chuck on a balaclava before I go in.”

  “Okay.” My scalp itched—from the humidity or fear, I didn’t know. I wasn’t going to argue with anything right now. I just wanted to get in and out.

  We reached the factory wall. I made sure I stayed a few metres from it and turned my back. As Will broke in, I slid my phone from my pocket and brought up the camera app—better I was occupied than freaking out. If I didn’t keep myself together, I’d be in a foetal position on the ground in no time. Come on, Lily. You’ve been in way more dangerous situations. Worst comes to worst, you magic back to the hotel reception room or home. Surprisingly, that thought took the edge off my fear. No one was about to kill us…. But then again, they’d managed to take Angelica by surprise. Gah!

  Once the camera app was ready, I kept an eye on the path and my ears strained. I couldn’t look for people coming the other way because then my face would be visible to the camera. I bit my fingernail. How long was Will going to take? I checked my phone again. A minute had passed. At least no alarm had gone off.

  A seagull cawed loudly in the distance, and I jumped. Seriously? I tried to slow my sawing breaths. I so wasn’t cut out for this kind of stuff. Give me a face-off any day compared to sneaking around.

  Tick, tick, tick. Bite, bite, bite. At this rate, I’d have no fingernails left by the time we got back on the boat.

  Two minutes.

  A hand landed gently on my shoulder. I slammed my hand over my mouth and tried not to scream.

  “Hey, it’s just me.”

  I spun around. “I know that… I mean, I figured once I’d survived another shock. Sneaking up on me isn’t the answer to all life’s problems, you know.”

  He chuckled. “I didn’t think it was.”

  “You scare me enough that I’m beginning to wonder. You know what I’m like.”

  “Lily squirrel—yes, I know. Anyway, cameras are disabled. Let’s go.”

  I hurried in after him and shut the door. The showroom door was already open, thanks to Will. We slipped in. I got straight to work and called up my magic. “Show me the last time Angelica was here.”

  Light filled the space, and I flinched, looking away from my phone screen and checking out behind me. It was dark in real time. Doh, Lily. What is wrong with you tonight? I took a few deep breaths and looked at the screen again. Angelica stood with my mother. They were looking at a glass bird. “The last time she was in this room was when we all were.”

  “Okay. Let’s try the factory.”

  I followed Will in and asked my magic the same question. Again, it showed Angelica standing near the bleachers talking to Lorenzo on the day we’d come to watch him. After that, Will led me to a storeroom where I got nothing, then to two offices…. Again, she hadn’t been there at all. This was a bust. Hmm.
Maybe if I tried something else. “Show me Lorenzo and Mrs Dal Lago last time they were here.”

  I blushed. Yikes. It was dark except for the lamp sitting on the desk. They were naked and going for it on that desk. She was under him, and that’s all anyone needed to know. I took a photo, which I didn’t want to do. Now there was porn on my phone. Porn that wasn’t okayed by the perpetrators. When did I turn into a creep?

  I showed Will while my gaze looked anywhere but at him and the photo. La, la, la, la, la. Awkward. Well, not as awkward as if my mother were here. At least it was just Will. “Can you take another look and see if that calendar over there is set to a recent date?”

  “Okay.” I called up my magic and asked to see that again. I stepped around the figures who weren’t really there and zeroed in on the desk calendar. I took a photo. “Wow, no wonder his alibi didn’t check out. He was here having sex with Mrs D the night Mr D went missing. But why wouldn’t they just say?”

  Will looked at the photo, then at me. “Because it would be too convenient and make them both look guiltier. At least if his family alibi checked out, it would make him safe. Who wouldn’t assume they’d murdered him together knowing what we know now?”

  “Hmm, good point.”

  “If we can figure out what time this was, it’ll help. I know she finished work at the hotel at 7:00 p.m.—we have video footage of her in the hotel before that time. Think you can get your magic to work out a time?”

  I scrunched my forehead. “I have no idea. It usually does what I say, but I’ve never been so specific about time before, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t.” I lifted my phone. “Show me this room two nights ago between seven thirty and eight at night.” Faded light came in the window, but that was it. Empty. “Show me this room two nights ago between eight and eight thirty.” Still Empty. “Show me this room two nights ago between eight thirty and nine.” There they were, on the table. “Okay, we have them here between eight thirty and nine, but not before. At least, not in this room. Hang on.” I asked for a nine to nine thirty timeline. They were still there, just in a different position. Oh my God. Were you kidding me? Maybe he took Viagra? He had to be at least in his late fifties. I snapped a shot.