Rocking Out Read online

  ‘Commissioner Wayfair.’ Finn gave Christine a friendly smile. ‘You’ve certainly got things looking … interesting … in here.’

  Christine let out a light laugh. ‘I know what that translates as – you think it looks like a hippy’s crash pad, Finn. And while that might be true, there is a reason.’

  ‘You have a lot of hippies working for you?’ I said as I watched one of the men under her command wave some sage around.

  ‘Well, maybe,’ she admitted, kicking a discarded pair of sandals to the side. ‘But my workers are a sensitive bunch. They need the atmosphere to be just right if they’re going to pick up anything important.’

  I gazed over to the far corners of the room. On one side, three young women were sitting around a small pool, staring into the water. On the other side, a guy and two girls were staring into a large, open fireplace. ‘Scrying at full throttle, I take it?’

  Christine smiled. ‘Sourcing the water for that pool and the fuel for the fire was not easy, but it’s been worth it. We foiled a bank robbery this very morning.’

  I grinned at her. ‘I love the word foiled.’

  ‘So do I.’ She strolled over to a fridge and poured me a glass of orange juice, then prepared a glass of cola for Finn.

  ‘Your psychic skills are on fire today,’ said Finn. ‘This was exactly what I needed.’

  ‘Nothing psychic about it.’ She gave him a wry smile. ‘I just know that you’re a caffeine fiend, and Wanda always needs a glass of juice about this time of day.’

  It was true. I needed a nice orangey sugar rush most days.

  ‘And I also don’t need to be psychic to figure out you’re here about Caitlyn’s and Alicia’s murders.’ She reached into a small freezer and pulled out a tray of snowflake-shaped ice-cubes. ‘Come on. I’ll show you what I have.’

  We sat down at the table, where she had one of her scrying bowls set up. ‘I still haven’t used the pool to envision,’ she said. ‘But the girls across the way picked up one or two of these images there, so maybe I’d better give it a try sometime.’ She took an ice-cube from the tray and dropped it into the water. It was one of Christine’s Frozen Stares. She was able to freeze visions and replay them any time she wanted. A nifty skill to have.

  The three of us looked down into the bowl, and watched the first vision play.

  It was Caitlyn, giving someone a wary smile. Unfortunately, we couldn’t see the other person. What we could see was that she seemed to be looking down.

  ‘No thanks, I’m fine to walk,’ she said.

  The vision faded away.

  Christine gave us a resigned sigh. ‘I’m afraid they’re all like this. Glimpses of something about to happen, but … nothing concrete. I do think that the cobbles she was walking along look like the cobbles on Poppy Lane, though.’

  I had to agree. My favourite eatery, the Hungry Hippy, was on Poppy Lane, so I knew those cobbles well. ‘She could have been looking down into a car,’ I guessed. ‘It’d be about the right angle, I think. And she was on the side of the street that would have meant she was looking into a driver’s window.’

  Christine nodded. ‘That’s about what I was thinking. But I am troubled about it, I have to admit. I mean, I know it’s rare for me to pick up a murder in progress, but I’ve never found quite as little as this.’ She wiped her dark red hair from her forehead, and said, ‘Reform.’ Water rose up in droplets, becoming an ice-cube once again, and Christine popped it back in the tray and took out another.

  This time we were looking at another street, and we could see it clearly. Someone was walking down Lupin Lane, humming a Call of the Wild song. ‘Sounds like Witchy Gal Put a Spell on Me,’ I said. I was getting a bit worried by how well I knew all of their songs. I hadn’t even liked them much to begin with, but somewhere along the way I’d become a bit of a fan. And being a fan of a band who had possibly murdered two young women was not something I was happy about.

  ‘It does,’ Finn confirmed. ‘And I feel like I know the voice, too.’

  Whoever was walking and humming in the vision came to a stop in front of a dilapidated looking wooden door, and pushed it open. As they did, their arm outstretched, and we could see it. It was a broad, tanned arm. And it had a tattoo I recognised very well – a tattoo of a topless mermaid with long blue hair. The vision came to an abrupt halt, and Finn and I stared at one another.

  ‘That was Murphy,’ he said, gasping.

  Christine popped in a few more Frozen Stares, each one just as fragmented and frustrating as the ones before. We saw Alicia’s face, staring at someone in terror. We saw the steering wheel of Mack’s car. We saw a long, dark road. We saw two hands reaching for Pebbles.

  As I looked at those hands, I was almost glad that none of the visions were complete. I had the unsettling certainty that I was looking at the moment right before poor Pebbles lost his life.

  ‘Those hands weren’t Murphy’s,’ said Finn, his expression confused.

  ‘No. They weren’t,’ I agreed. ‘They were paler.’

  We both looked at Christine. ‘Anything else? At all?’

  She shook her head sadly. ‘That’s it. A series of frustrating fragments.’ As she picked the ice tray up and walked to the fridge, Finn’s phone began to ring.

  ‘It’s Sickle Sensible – Murphy’s bank,’ he told us. ‘Let’s hope they have something for us.’

  As he wandered out into the hallway to take the call, Christine sat back down beside me. ‘So,’ she said.

  ‘So. I should … make notes, I guess, while Finn is busy.’

  ‘Sure you should,’ she drawled. ‘Anything to avoid talking about the other matter. Why are you so reluctant to learn more about this, Wanda? You know as well as I do – this prophecy is most likely true. Gabriel Godbody the Twentieth and his creep of a son wouldn’t have gone to so much effort with you if it weren’t.’

  I swirled what was left of my juice around in the glass. ‘I’ll tell you what I told my mam,’ I said. ‘Pish to prophecies. You should know better than anyone – the future is not set in stone.’

  She twirled a strand of her hair, looking all too intently at me. ‘Maybe. So … if I had managed to envision something about this prophecy, you wouldn’t want to see it?’

  I eyeballed her right back. ‘Stop trying to rouse my curiosity, Christine. I don’t have time to think about this right now. Anyway, if it is true, what does it matter? So it says I’m powerful. Big deal. The only thing that matters to me is how I use that power.’

  I wasn’t sure why I was getting so bent out of shape about this. I cared about Christine almost as deeply as I cared about my mother, but right now I really wished the pair of them would butt out.

  She gave me a funny little smile. ‘Yeah. Yeah, that’s all that matters. Oh look – Finn’s back.’

  Finn was back, and he was back with a very excited look on his face. ‘Come on, Wanda. We’ve got to get going. Sickle Sensible have sent over their security footage, and seeing as we’ve only got another couple of hours before we have to let Murphy go, I want to watch it right now.’

  14. The Money Trail

  The money Murphy received was paid in in cash. There were two signed deposit slips, one for each occasion, but the signatures were impossible to read. Luckily for us, Sickle Sensible did know exactly what time it had been paid in, and as there happened to be only one walk-in deposit made when the second amount was paid in, we were certain that the video footage we were about to watch would reveal Murphy’s mysterious benefactor.

  ‘There.’ Finn paused the video and pointed at the man. He was young, possibly in his early twenties, with blond hair and a rugby shirt. ‘He’s turning around now. We’ll get to see his face.’

  As the young man turned, Finn sighed. ‘Sod it, anyway. I was hoping it’d be someone we recognised. Maybe Paul could do some facial recognition for us.’

  I stared at the stilled image. ‘No need. I know exactly who that is.’

  ≈

 
; ‘You have to let me out in the next half an hour,’ growled Murphy as we sat down across from him.

  Finn swung his feet up on the table. ‘Maybe. That all depends on what you have to say about your mysterious benefactor. You know – whoever gave you all that lovely money a few days ago.’

  Murphy gave us one of his usual self-satisfied smirks. ‘I don’t have to tell you that. And I’m not going to tell you that.’

  I looked at him, long and hard. He had the kind of face that brought out an incredibly angry urge within me. I knew that Murphy was no villainous mastermind, but looking at him I saw the kind of person I hated even more than the typical uber-villain. I saw the kind of guy who would be the villain’s sidekick – be anyone’s sidekick, as long as there was something in it for him. I saw the kind of guy who would sell his own mother if it benefitted him. I saw the kind of guy who hung about at the edges of powerful packs, taking whatever came his way, and doing whatever he could get away with while he was there.

  ‘I wonder,’ I said, grimacing at him. ‘How do you think the money wound up in there? Do you think that your benefactor used some sort of subterfuge to deposit it? Some way to cover his tracks?’

  Murphy’s face betrayed his confusion. ‘I … well …’

  ‘I mean, the way you were going on the other day, I assumed we’d have a really hard time figuring out where that money came from,’ I continued. ‘You seemed to think we’d never be able to find out. Except … we did find out. Really, really easily. Your benefactor just walked right into Sickle Sensible in the middle of the day and paid it in in cash.’ I pushed the still we’d printed off towards Murphy, and his face fell. ‘Do you recognise that young man?’

  He clenched his jaw. ‘No. No clue who he is.’

  ‘Oh?’ Finn cocked a brow. ‘So a total stranger paid that money in? Out of the goodness of his heart, I suppose.’

  Murphy pushed the photo away and shrugged. ‘Must’ve been. Like I said, I don’t know him.’

  ‘Well, luckily for you, we do. Wanda’s very into her rock music these days, aren’t you Wanda?’

  I nodded. ‘I am. I’m a total rocker. Recognised him the second I saw him. Are you really telling me that you don’t recognise a member of Alpha, the Call of the Wild’s biggest rivals? I mean, Alpha are awesome.’ I’m not really sure how I managed to say all of that with a straight face. I’d only recognised Alpha’s singer because Alicia had shown me one of their videos on her phone. And their music, well, the only way it could be described as awesome was if you meant awesomely bad.

  Murphy’s face grew pale. ‘I … well … oh, yeah. Sorry, I did know about it, as a matter of fact. Yeah, that’s Frenton. He em … he was headhunting me. Wanted me to be their roadie. I said I’d think about it. The money was just as a sort of incentive.’

  I studied him. He was sweating. His skin was bulging while he tried to hold the wolf back, and his fingernails were beginning to look awfully long. ‘Incentive my behind,’ I said. ‘Why did Frenton give you that money, Murphy?’

  He shot me a cold smile. ‘I told you everything I’m going to. And you can’t keep me in here unless you charge me. It’s coming to the time where you have to let me out, or get me a lawyer.’

  ≈

  Finn kicked the wastepaper basket next to his desk, spilling his rubbish all over the floor. ‘I hate having to let scumbags go. He had something to do with this, I know he did. Let’s go over it again.’

  I slugged back some coffee, and nodded. Sure, all I wanted to do was sleep for three days straight. But I needed to see anyone but Mack go down for this. And if that meant I was going to bear a strange resemblance to a zombie for the next few days, then so be it.

  ‘We know Murphy creeped out the She-Wolves,’ I said. ‘We know he was sneaking around taking photos of them. We know he had access to Mack’s car on the night Caitlyn died.’

  Finn picked up a pile of his spilled papers, rolled them into balls, and began to throw them back into the bin.

  ‘We saw his tattoo in Christine’s vision,’ he said as he threw the first ball. ‘And,’ he added as he threw the second, ‘we think that could have been him trying to get Caitlyn into the car on Poppy Lane. Because no witch would be seen driving there, but a werewolf would. What else …? Well, there’s obviously the whole Alpha connection.’ He stopped and gave me a pensive stare. ‘Any luck with finding a phone number or an address for any of the band?’

  I looked at my computer and gave an irritable shake of my head. ‘There’s a record company listed on their website – Weresome Records. But there’s no number or address for anyone at all. I did get somewhere when I looked up the name Frenton because, let’s face it, it’s not exactly common. There’s a Frenton Carver who runs Big Wolf Bank in London. All of the richest werewolves bank there, apparently. Maybe he’s Frenton’s father?’ I sat back, massaging my temples. ‘I could really use Paul’s help on this.’

  Finn sighed. ‘It’s his anniversary dinner with his girlfriend tonight, and I’ve given him tomorrow off as well. He’ll figure it out when he’s back. But am I going mad here, Wanda? Is my latest theory totally crazy, or does it seem like these girls were murdered just so Alpha could steal the Call of the Wild’s fans? Because I mean, that’s just …’

  ‘Horrific?’ I finished. ‘Yeah. It is. But Finn …’ I paused. ‘Don’t you think there’s something off about it all? I mean, I don’t think we’ve ever come across a money trail so easy to follow. Murphy was sure we’d never find out who deposited that money. He thought he was doing all of this on the down low. So why would that Frenton guy make it so easy for us to see the connection? It all seems way too convenient. If it was Alpha, then I can see why they’d want to set Murphy up to take the fall. But why would they be dumb enough to set themselves up in the process?’

  Finn finally stopped throwing things and dropped into his chair. ‘They wouldn’t. We have no arrestable evidence on Alpha, or on Murphy. All we can do is wait for Paul to come back to work so he can track them down and then … then we’ll go ask Alpha some questions.’ He ran his hands through his hair. ‘I’m getting off home now,’ he said. ‘You should too. You look about as good as I feel.’

  ‘Aw, shucks,’ I smiled at him. ‘You always know exactly what I need to hear.’

  We were just picking up our things when the phone rang. ‘It’s Marion,’ I said, looking down at my screen. ‘The She-Wolf leader. I’d better get it, because you never know – she could be calling me with a clue that will solve this whole case.’

  Finn patted my head. ‘You are in need of sleep if you think that’s going to happen.’

  15. Protecting His Interests

  Okay, so Finn wasn’t wrong. But he wasn’t right, either. Marion might not have called to give us the clue that would break this whole case, but she did have a decent clue for us. We met her in Luna Park, where she was sitting on a bench and crying while a dead white cat lay in her arms.

  ‘Th-this is Tw-Twinkles,’ she stammered, sniffling back tears. ‘Alicia’s familiar. I was looking for her. I thought … I felt so terrible about the last time I saw Alicia, so I thought that if I could find Twinkles, and her family could bury them together, it might make me f-feel b-better.’ She sniffled again. ‘I mean, it was a long shot. Familiars mostly just wander off and die on their own when their witch dies. But I knew how m-much Tw-Twinkles and Alicia loved this spot. Alicia would work on her art, Twinkles would chase mice and birds. It was their special place. I knew if I was going to find her anywhere, it would be here.’ She paused to let out a long wail.

  ‘You said you found something else at the same time you found Twinkles?’ I questioned softly.

  Marion took out a handkerchief and blew her nose. ‘Just before, actually.’ She reached into her bag and handed me a sketch pad. ‘I found the sketch pad in my bedroom. It had fallen down behind my bed.’

  I opened the pad and leafed past sketches of topless rock stars in one disturbing pose after another. The most di
stressing of all was a picture of Jasper on all fours, looking coquettishly over his shoulder. Thankfully he was wearing jeans.

  ‘She didn’t draw these from real life, did she?’ Finn asked, sounding horrified.

  ‘Every single one,’ Marion confirmed. ‘That’s why I knew I had to tell you about the last one.’

  I finally reached the sketch in question, and felt a cold chill work its way through me. The picture was of Murphy and Frenton, sitting on a bench. Frenton had a smile on his face and a piece of paper or card in his hand. He seemed to be holding it out towards Alicia.

  ‘That’s this bench,’ Marion said. ‘You can tell by the sign behind it.’

  Finn and I squinted closer. Sure enough, Alicia’s sketch depicted the same sign as the one that was right behind the bench – the sign that said, ‘Werewolves and weredogs must not pee on the grass.’

  ‘And look.’ Marion pointed at the bottom of the picture. ‘Look at the date she drew it.’

  I looked down at the date. Alicia had sketched this picture on the day she died.

  ‘And you say she left this behind in your bedroom?’

  Marion nodded. ‘Which means she must have met Murphy and Frenton in the park that morning, before she ever heard about Caitlyn’s death. I knew she was keeping something from us. And I think that might be a ticket to a gig.’ She pointed at the piece of card Frenton was holding. ‘To an Alpha gig. That night. And I have a theory. I think she went to that gig.’ She held up her hands. ‘Now hear me out, because I know it sounds crazy. But what if it’s true? Alicia as good as told us she was going to go to the Alpha gig instead of the Call of the Wild gig that night. What if Alpha are killing She-Wolves just to make the Call of the Wild look bad? And what if Murphy is helping them pick out the very fans they’re going to kill?’