All Hallowed Out Page 6

  For a moment I just stared stupidly at her, with no idea what to say. If she was here, then she probably thought exactly what Florence and everyone else did – that Will was somehow behind all of this.

  ‘You’re here to see if I’m dragging people into my dreams again?’ he said dryly.

  She smiled kindly. ‘No, Will. I’m here to see if you can help me figure out who is behind it all, as a matter of fact. But I see Wanda’s pipped me to the post.’

  ‘Actually,’ I said, ‘I was just leaving. Will, if you think of that thing that’s just out of your grasp, I’ll come back again. You can get a message to me through one of the guards. Or Miles, seeing as he seems to be your lawyer now.’

  He stood up, awkwardly leading me to the door of the cube, while the Queen sat on his bed and swung her feet, humming a tune beneath her breath. ‘Well … goodbye then,’ he said.

  ‘Goodbye, Will,’ I replied as I rushed outside, working very hard to push back the tears.

  10. A Vision of Now

  After leaving Witchfield, I headed for the Water Bowl. I needed a hug – a very long, very warm hug.

  As I entered Rover’s office, he and Max were deep in discussion about Paws. They were looking over pie charts, bar charts, and a whole lot of charts I didn’t know the name of (but I did, for some reason, have a sudden craving for some pie and a bar of chocolate).

  Seeing as their meeting involved the use of many kinds of stationery, Max was in his element. He had a highlighter in one hand, a pointer in another, and a pen behind each ear.

  Wolfie looked happy, too – he was snoring in front of Rover’s gas fire, his legs twitching as he slept. He didn’t even notice when Max left the room to spend a little time with me.

  Once Max and I were finally alone, he gave me that long and warm hug I’d been so much in need of.

  ‘So what do you think, now you’ve seen Will?’ he asked.

  ‘I think he has absolutely nothing to do with any of these people falling asleep,’ I mumbled into his chest. ‘But I do think he could be able to help us. And the Queen seems to think the same. I just hope I can convince my coven to let him help.’

  Max pulled away slightly, so he could look me in the eye. ‘Hey now. You’re the one who lost the most in that messed-up dream of his. And you’re the one who got us out, too. So if you think he’s got something to offer on all of this, then they’d be idiots not to listen.’

  I sank back against his chest, sighing contentedly. ‘Maybe. Either way, I guess I’d better go home and face the music.’

  ‘Sure,’ he said, the vibration of his deep voice rumbling through my body. ‘But first, let’s just hug a little while longer.’

  ≈

  By the time I got home, the table at Wayfarers’ Rest had been laid with an amazing dinner. There was my mother’s three bean stew, followed by a crumble my dad had made. They’d prepared a whole lot of food – which was just as well, seeing as Finn and Lassie had joined us for dinner.

  ‘The Queen’s been and gone,’ said Finn, helping himself to some crusty bread. ‘She said that she’s almost a hundred percent sure that Will Berry isn’t behind any of this.’

  I was relieved to hear that the Queen had done my dirty work for me. Sure, Finn didn’t look completely convinced about her assessment of the situation, but he was hardly going to argue with the most powerful woman we knew. I pulled off my hat and gloves and said, ‘That’s what she thinks, yeah,’ while Dizzy attached himself to my shoulder, and Tigger leapt into my arms.

  ‘I knew Bilberry couldn’t have done it,’ said Tigger. ‘Like I said, he didn’t even know Ariadne’.

  ‘I keep telling you, it’s not Bilberry.’ Dizzy rolled his eyes. ‘It’s not Bill, full stop. His name is Will.’

  Tigger licked his mouth (there were traces of a Kapow Meow moustache, if I wasn’t mistaken). ‘Well, either way, if it’s not Bilberry, then it must be Thomas or Cecily. Or … someone. I mean, we’re all agreed on that much, right? Someone is behind this?’

  I sat down and accepted the bowl of stew my father passed my way. ‘Yip. Pretty sure someone’s behind it, Tigger. But as to who it might be, well I’m just as flummoxed about that as ever. We’ll need to do a bit more digging, I think. And we’ll need to head to the Tearful Tea Drinkers tonight.’ I glanced at Lassie. ‘How come you and Finn are here, anyway? Didn’t you win a night at Braggs of Wondermare in some radio competition?’

  Lassie shuddered. ‘I did. We were supposed to have dinner, followed by spa treatments, followed by a night in one of their most expensive suites. But dinner was more than enough. Their vegan option was a plate of lettuce for starters, and a dry baked potato for the main course. They told me they could probably rustle up a sliced apple for dessert, if I wanted it, but they said it’d be easier if I got the apple unsliced. I got the impression they didn’t like weredogs much.’

  Finn squeezed his girlfriend’s hand. ‘Who cares what they think? They’re a snobby, overpriced bunch of idiots. Anyway, we’ve got a mystery to solve.’ He grinned at Christine, who was absentmindedly chewing some food, while her attention as focused on one of her scrying bowls. ‘Any luck, Christine?’

  She looked distractedly at him. ‘What? No. Nothing I can make sense of just yet. My whole department couldn’t find anything today. I feel like we’re being blocked from envisioning anything of importance. Melissa, can you–’ She broke off, looking in confusion at the empty seat beside her.

  My mother patted her shoulder. ‘Melissa went out the back five minutes ago, Chrissie. Miles turned up just before the Queen, and Melissa said she needed a word with him. Remember?’

  Christine frowned. ‘No, actually. I don’t even remember the Queen being here. I’ve been far too involved in what I’m seeing. Or rather, what I’m not seeing. I thought I had something decent for a second there, but now I think it’s just pages. Blurry pages being waved around, like someone’s using them as a fan or something.’

  ‘Pages?’ My mother gazed into Christine’s bowl with interest. ‘Maybe it’s something to do with Ariadne’s book.’

  I thought about taking a look into the scrying bowl along with them, but it could wait for a moment – first, I needed to find out why Miles had decided to become Will’s lawyer.

  ‘Just going outside for a breath of air,’ I said, heading for the back door. Dizzy was about to come with me, but my father placed a plate of sliced mango on the table, and the bat decided he had better things to do. Tigger soon abandoned me, too, when he spied a dust bunny beneath an armchair.

  It smelled more stagnant than ever in the garden, so whatever was going on was growing worse. A quick glance at the trees confirmed that the leaves were staying firmly in place. Of course, the deadness in the air no doubt helped with that.

  I spied Melissa and Miles, standing close to my father’s workshed, their arms flying as they argued. Good goddess, Melissa always managed to look magnificent when she was angry. Her green eyes blazed and her red hair glimmered in the light of the garden lamp.

  ‘You should have told me before now!’ she shouted, not noticing that I was heading their way. ‘We’re supposed to be partners, Miles!’

  ‘I would have told you, once there was anything to tell,’ he argued. ‘But I had to see him for myself, first. See if he was someone I could work with.’

  ‘Oh?’ I tapped my foot on the ground, staring at him. ‘And what was your conclusion, Miles?’

  He jumped, his hand to his heart. ‘Holy Hecate! Wanda, how do you sneak up like that? I mean, my hearing is excellent, and yet you always manage to creep up on me.’

  Melissa crossed her arms. ‘She didn’t sneak. If anyone’s a sneak, it’s you. You weren’t in that dreamworld of Will’s. You don’t know what it was like, Miles. He made all of us less than we are. He took away every single achievement I’d earned. I had to work for Darrell Plimpton, of all people, when I was stuck in that messed-up dream. And I didn’t even have the worst of it. Poor Wanda didn’t even have any power. Because Will took it away from her, all so he could play the hero.’

  Miles began to twiddle his cufflinks, a sure sign that he was incredibly distressed. ‘I know what he did in that dream. But I’ve already explained that that’s precisely why I wanted to visit him a few times before I told you about it. You have a blind spot when it comes to him, Mel. And I don’t blame you for it, but you knew when you began working with me that this is what I do. I help the ones that everyone else assumes are a lost cause, and Will needs my help. What he did to all of you was monstrous, but he’s not a monster. He’s a man who was possessed by a great evil. And he wants to make amends.’

  ‘Amends?’ Melissa glared at Miles. ‘The best way he can make amends is to stay where he is, forever. He doesn’t deserve day breaks or parole or whatever it is you’ve been hatching behind my back. Because look around you. Look at what’s happening right now. He’s clearly doing the same thing all over again. And I hope to the goddess that you get dragged into his world this time, so you’ll know what it’s like!’

  It seemed like she might be about to shout at him for quite a while more, so I sounded a loud ‘Ahem!’

  ‘What?’ She spun to face me. ‘You want to give him a piece of your mind, too?’ She held an arm out to indicate Miles. ‘Be my guest. But don’t go easy on him.’

  ‘Actually …’ I looked from Miles to Melissa. ‘I don’t want to give him a piece of my mind. I mean, sure – he should have told you what he was up to sooner than this. Why did he tell you today, as a matter of interest?’

  Melissa narrowed her eyes. ‘Because he heard you were there, and he knew you’d see the visitors’ book and tell me. If it weren’t for that, I wonder if he’d ever have told me at all.’

  ‘I would have. Of course I would have, Mel. But like I just said, I had to be sure before I told you. I didn’t even know if I could work with Will. But now that I’ve gotten to know him better, I truly believe he’s sorry for what he did to all of you. And I’m just as distraught about Hailey and the others as you are, but … I don’t think Will is the one behind it.’

  Their eyes met, and a staring contest ensued that I didn’t think would ever end if I didn’t put a stop to it. ‘Calm down, guys. Please. And if it’s any consolation, Melissa, I agree with Miles on this much – I don’t think Will is the one putting people to sleep.’

  Melissa’s green eyes widened. ‘How can you be sure? I mean, no offence Wanda, but … you thought you were in love with the guy at one time. Maybe you’re not the best judge.’

  ‘You’re right.’ I flopped down onto the nearby bench. ‘I’m not the best judge when it comes to Will. But if you’d been inside instead of arguing with Miles, you’d know that the Queen has just paid our coven a visit. And she agrees with me. This isn’t Will’s doing. It’s something else.’

  I reached out for her hand, squeezing it. ‘We have to figure this out, Melissa, and we can’t do that if we’re all fighting about Will. Ariadne knew this was about to happen – or she knew something was going on, at least – and she seemed to think the culprit was one of the Tearful Tear Drinkers. So come on – let’s have some dinner and then go check the group out. Okay?’

  Melissa came to the bench, sat down beside me, and hugged me close. ‘You’re right. We’ll go check them out,’ she said. ‘But I’m telling you, if Will so much as looks at you wrong, Wanda, I won’t be held responsible for what I might do.’

  ‘Thanks and everything,’ I murmured through a mouthful of red hair. ‘But if you actually go that far, then you really need to stay friends with Miles – because next to you, he’s the best lawyer in Ireland.’

  Miles chuckled, and it seemed – for the moment – that things had calmed down. Just then, the back door was flung open, and my mother cried out, ‘Get in here! All of you! Christine’s just seen something terrible!’

  ≈

  We all stared into the scrying bowl. There was a woman in an impeccable white suit with a shiny bob, splayed out on the ground. All around her, Jack O’Lanterns flickered.

  ‘That’s Cecily Fox,’ I said, my throat dry. ‘In the community hall. I don’t like the woman, but I don’t want her to die. We’d better get over there before she’s murdered. Do you have a timeframe on when it might happen, Christine?’

  Christine pulled her eyes from the bowl. ‘You don’t understand. This isn’t the future I’m seeing. This is the present. This is a vision of now. Wanda, Cecily Fox is already dead.’

  11. World’s Greatest Agent

  As we burst into the upstairs meeting room of the community hall, we saw that Christine was right: it had already happened. Finn had called in who he could from the Major Crimes team – Gretel, Paul and Shane.

  Shane moved immediately to Cecily’s body, shaking his head sadly. ‘She’s gone,’ said the healer. ‘Strangled by her chain, by the looks of things.’

  It was clear that Shane was right: we could see the marks around Cecily’s neck, where the links of the thick golden chain had dug into her neck as she was strangled. The chain was attached to a gold medal, which said: World’s Greatest Agent, the Year of the Misfit.

  Paul, our tech wizard, had clearly been in the middle of eating when Finn called him in. He had toasted cheese in one hand and a cup of tea in the other. ‘Right then. I’ll go check the security footage,’ he said.

  Finn patted him on the back. ‘Thanks Paul. Appreciate it. Listen, I can hear a couple of people down below. It’s probably the Tearful Tea Drinkers. I’ll have to set aside a room for questioning them, I suppose – can’t very well have them walking around the crime scene.’

  ‘Arthur’s office is near the main hall,’ I suggested.

  ‘That’ll do. I’ll secure the perimeter, too, while you guys handle things up here – make sure none of the Tearful Tea Drinkers try to leg it.’

  As Paul and Finn headed downstairs, I looked around the room. There was a stack of leaflets laid out, detailing how to deal with grief. There were chairs arranged in a circle – presumably where the group sat, talking through their issues. A table at the side of the room was laid with cups and a large plate of chocolate biscuits, as well as an urn filled with tea.

  ‘Guess they do only get one choice of drink,’ Dizzy commented.

  I resisted the urge to laugh, and joined the others where they stood gathered around Cecily’s body.

  ‘So is this a real award, or someone’s idea of a sarcastic joke?’ My mother stared in horror at the medal.

  ‘There actually is a World’s Greatest Agent award,’ Melissa informed her. ‘It’s from the Plummy Support and Technical awards. They happen at about three o’clock in the morning, after the main award show. I guess Cecily was just as big a deal as she thought she was.’

  My mother sniffed. ‘Well, fine. I won’t speak ill of the dead. I’m sure she was much lovelier than she seemed to be. But it seems a little tacky to wear it around the place. Did she have it on earlier?’

  I shook my head. ‘Nope. I would definitely have noticed something like that.’ I turned to Shane. ‘We’ll scan anyway, but have you come across any obvious magical signatures yet?’

  Shane shook his head. ‘Nothing near the body. The culprit didn’t use magic to do it. Just plain old-fashioned strangling.’

  ‘But who knows what we might find in the rest of the room?’ Melissa pointed out. ‘And doesn’t Paul have access to aura-matching software now?’

  ‘He does,’ my mother confirmed. ‘His friend Greg licensed it to the Wayfarers recently. It’s much more sensitive than anything used before. So even if no magic was used, we’ll soon know the auras of every single person who was in this room tonight.’

  Shane was busy with the body, but he glanced up at my mother and grinned. ‘It’s good to see you on the job again, Minister.’

  Her face coloured. ‘Why thank you, young man. But … speaking of being on the job.’ She looked gravely down at Cecily. ‘I don’t think I should be working on this, anymore. I certainly shouldn’t be quite this involved.’

  As the rest of us began to protest, she shook her head. ‘Remember when we dissolved the Peacemakers and started up this new and shiny police force? Back then we were determined to make sure that the police were a separate entity – that they couldn’t be bribed or controlled by the government – the way Justine Plimpton used to basically use the Peacemakers as her own private army?’

  She winced and continued. ‘Well, I am the government now. I’ve butted in far too much today already. And this all feels very, very serious, now that Cecily is dead. I have no doubt it’s connected to Ariadne and the sleepers, and I don’t want to risk any guilty parties making a complaint about my involvement. So, fun as it’s been, I’ll leave the rest of you to the questioning.’

  The room went silent for a moment, until Tigger hopped into my mother’s arms. She stroked the cat softly. ‘Don’t worry, Tigger. Every single one of us Wayfairs is going to keep right on helping you. But right now, I’m going to do so from my ministerial position, instead of playing detective.’ She kissed his head and passed him to me. ‘But that doesn’t mean you can’t all keep me updated on the nitty gritty.’ She ruffled my hair. ‘In fact, I expect you to – join me in Three Witches Brew afterward for a drink?’

  She snapped her fingers as soon as I’d nodded. I stood, looking at the spot where she’d been.

  ‘She’s right, Wanda,’ Christine said sadly. ‘Bea might have a say in our budget, and in making the laws we work to enforce, but she’s not supposed to work cases with us. It doesn’t look right. Not after a Minister like Justine who always had an agenda of her own.’

  Melissa bit her lip. ‘Actually, I think I should bow out now, too. I don’t always get to pick and choose my cases, so I could easily wind up having to defend one of the suspects – if there ever are any.’ She shrugged. ‘Anyway, Miles has headed over to the hospital to visit Hailey, so I should go and join him.’