Witchslapped in Westerham

by Dionne Lister

  I nodded. “Yes. Follow you. No talking.”

  Golden coordinates appeared in my mind. I made my doorway, stuck them on, then stepped through.

  It was dark. Not pitch, but close. I’d been last to arrive, and James was already out of sight. He hadn’t wasted any time. Angelica stood at the end of the little alleyway created by the side of the brick warehouse and the brick fence. I quietly joined her and slid the walkie-talkie into my back pocket. Distant traffic noise droned, and an owl hooted. The cool night air had me wishing I’d worn my cardie. Goosebumps peppered my arms, and I rubbed one arm.

  I placed a return-to-sender spell on myself, removed my lens cap, and shoved it in my other back pocket. My camera cord was around my neck, and my thumb was ready to flick the On switch.

  The wait felt like forever. It was like having a boring job and watching the clock—time definitely went slower when you didn’t want it to. Another way the universe was actively screwing with us. Stupid universe.

  Where was Will? Was he okay? I bit my lip. What if Witchface knew I was out and was killing him right now? I swallowed and fought the need to throw up. Don’t think about it. Focus on what you’re doing, Lily.

  I shut my eyes momentarily and pictured his face as he stared at me through the rear-view mirror. God, I missed him. I opened my eyes and started counting. One penguin, two penguins, three penguins… I got to twenty-three when Angelica finally took off. She turned right. It wasn’t far from the driveway to the footpath, where we turned left, and then it was only fifteen metres to the driveway I’d so recently run out of in panic.

  We reached the door to Gabriel’s factory unit. James held the door open and motioned us inside. Angelica slipped past him and turned left into the main warehouse area. I flicked my camera on and followed. As I entered, Angelica turned on the light and gave me a thumbs-up gesture. I nodded and positioned myself with my back against the main warehouse roller door. Shelving started about a quarter of the way down the high-clearance room, creating three aisles. Boxes took up every available space on the shelves.

  Angelica had donned rubber gloves. She slid one box from a bottom-level shelf and opened it. She scooped out a handful of what I assumed were tea leaves. Warmth rolled down the back of my neck as she stared at the contents of her hand. Likely satisfied she had evidence, she pulled a plastic bag out of her pocket and filled it. Then she picked another box from further down the row and started again.

  I walked to the beginning of the aisle to my left, my sneakers squeaking on the polished concrete. Lifting my camera to my face, I looked through the viewfinder. “Show me if Gabriel has any accomplices in his scheme to spell the tea to turn the Westerham inhabitants violent.”

  Nothing in the first aisle. I moved across to the second, then the third. Nothing. Without lowering my camera, I turned to the door we’d used that led from off the little entryway.

  Well, this was interesting.

  Gabriel, facing me, had his hand in the air, gesticulating. His open mouth was obviously in the middle of saying something. Two people stood with their backs to me—a tall, dark-haired man wearing a short-sleeved purple collared shirt, and a petite black-haired woman who was short compared to him, but she was at least my height. He had a muscly, tattooed arm around her slim waist. She leaned into him, but her arms were folded.

  I approached them, snapping shots as I walked around and behind Gabriel. When I saw the faces of the two people Gabriel was talking to, I gasped. I shouldn’t have been surprised, though. The woman was none other than Dana Piranha, aka, Witchface, or my favourite, Agent Laaam. She had her PIB uniform on, and that ring was in place. Was the guy her boyfriend?

  The guy with the questionable taste in girlfriends looked to be in his forties and had an olive complexion and brown eyes. If I had to guess, I’d say Greek. He had a thick gold chain around his neck. Ew. I wasn’t a fan of men in jewellery. He had three- or four-day growth happening, and his left earlobe was missing. Okaaaay. Had it been bitten off, or was he born like that? A snake tattoo wrapped around his neck, the letters ISSAM in golden scrollwork forming the end of its tail. I looked closer, under his jaw. There was another word in golden scrollwork that said, REGULA. Was that some weird rap name, or did he have shares in a laxative company and couldn’t spell? Maybe I could put this picture on Facebook later with a tattoo-fail hashtag. I snorted.

  I took close-ups of the tattoos. Shame I couldn't take his shirt off and see what other tats he had. Not because I wanted to see him semi-naked, but maybe they’d give us a clue as to who he was. Maybe his face would show up in PIB records?

  And then there was Dana. Had she orchestrated this scheme, or had Gabriel just paid her to keep the PIB out of it? Was this about money and power? Ha ha, Lily. Stupid question. Wasn’t most dodgy stuff about that? Silly me. Again.

  Without telling anyone what I’d found, I went upstairs. Maybe I could find additional information that would let us know her motive, as well as the identity of that guy. According to my magic, he was involved too. He wasn’t just arm candy. My camera would have likely shown me a different scenario with just Gabriel and Dana, or just Dana herself, if that guy wasn’t involved. As much as things had been hit-and-miss when I first started, whenever I asked to see something, it was usually accurate, even if I couldn’t figure out how at the time.

  I had no doubt these three were in it together. I just didn’t know who was running things.

  I reached the landing. There were two doors to choose from off the short hallway. One to the left, and one straight ahead. The door to the left was open. Footsteps came from inside. I tensed. Then James appeared at the door. “Lily? What’s wrong?”

  I huffed out a huge breath. Thank God. “I heard a noise and thought we might be busted, but it’s only you.”

  “Only me? Gee, thanks.” His lopsided grin told me he was kidding.

  “That only was said with much relief, I’ll have you know. Have you found anything?”

  “Yep. Supply receipts, all on paper. Maybe they didn’t want the proof to be a forever kind of thing. It would be easy to burn all this when they were done.”

  “Are you going to copy it or take it? I imagine we don’t want them to know we’ve been here until they’ve been arrested.”

  “I’m copying each sheet as I find it with just a wave of my hand. The copied receipts are sitting in boxes at Angelica’s.”

  “Nice work.”

  “What about you?” He pointed to my camera.

  “Getting there. I just want to finish up here before I tell you what I found.”

  He raised a brow. “If you’re keeping me in suspense, it better be good news.”

  I smiled. “You’ll see.” He he. I enjoyed teasing him. “Okay, bro. Out of my way so I can get this done. Then I’ll spill.”

  He stepped out of my way and back to one of two filing cabinets against the wall to my left. I stood just inside the doorway. “Show me who came up with the idea for the tea-spelling operation in Westerham.” Gabriel appeared, sitting at a desk. He was alone. I clicked a couple of frames, then photographed the papers on his desk.

  “Now show me who’s in charge of the tea-spelling operation.” I expected Dana to appear after what I saw downstairs, but I was wrong. Gabriel was sitting in the same chair as before, but he had on an orange shirt rather than a green one. His face wore an expression of pain, scrunched and grimacing. He gripped the edge of the desk, his fingers white. The big guy with the snake ink had one mammoth hand on Gabriel’s shoulder and was squeezing. The effort didn’t show in his face, which was relaxed and smiling. Click. Click. Click. Click.

  Who the hell was this guy? I was a bit afraid of Dana, but only because she was in a position to hurt my friends, but this guy? I wouldn’t want to mess with him. Whatever his name was, I was not going to make fun of it, not even a little bit.

  I lowered my camera. Now was probably the time to tell James what I’d found. He may need to look for evidence of who this guy was, and e
vidence of what role Dana played in all this.

  “I have something to show you.”

  James looked up from the drawer he was perusing. I handed him my camera, took the walkie-talkie out of my pocket, and sat in Gabriel’s chair. I may as well have a rest and look at the paperwork James found. Hmm, this receipt was for tea delivered to that café I’d gone to with Patrick, the last person I’d helped arrest. I shuffled through more and found a receipt for Costa. Nooooo! Not my favourite place. Although, again, I should not have been surprised. By the looks of the amount of paper, every place that sold tea had taken delivery of this stuff.

  “Thanks, Lily. Yet again, this information is invaluable. I’m going to go down and show Angelica. If anything happens, transport straight home. Got it?”

  “Yes, of course. But I thought we’d be okay for now. Wouldn’t Gabriel be home not even thinking about this place?”

  “You never know. I’ll be back.” He walked out, leaving me with tension in my shoulders and sensitivity to any kind of noise. I stood and slid the walkie-talkie back in my pocket. I hadn’t checked out the other room, and I didn’t know if James had gotten that far. Considering I’d been downstairs for only a short while, it wasn’t a shock to find nothing had been touched.

  This room had three more filing cabinets, another large desk and office chair, and a water cooler. I went to the first cabinet and opened the bottom drawer. It was filled with suspension files holding manila folders. I leafed through them. More receipts. Holy moly, they were doing big business. But these receipts were from three years ago. Gabriel had obviously been planning for this for a long time.

  He’d built his network and hadn’t acted until he had maximum exposure. Had he used magic to persuade the retailers to buy his tea? I would imagine he had lots of competition.

  I slapped my forehead. Light-bulb moment! Dana could have persuaded shops to take the tea, unless Gabriel had that particular talent, but it wasn’t a super common talent, and if he’d been caught, his plan would never have come to fruition. It would be much easier for a PIB agent to get away with something like that.

  I skipped the middle drawer, figuring the more recent stuff would be in the top one. I slid it open. It was only a third full. I pulled out the first manila folder. Oh, crap. Things were about to get way worse. There were receipts in here for cafés and supermarkets in London. The tea had been delivered yesterday and the day before. I quickly checked the other folders. There were one hundred and forty businesses we had to confiscate tea from.

  I ran downstairs, folders in hand. Angelica and James were standing in the main warehouse, at the beginning of the nearest aisle to the door. They both turned to me when I rushed in. I held the folders up. “We need to hurry. They’ve delivered the tea to a hundred and forty places in London. The deliveries happened over the last two days.”

  Angelica’s eyes widened, which was the reaction of the century for her. She pressed her lips together. James put one hand on his hip and ran the other hand through his hair.

  “Can you bring those here, dear?” Angelica held her hand out. I walked over and gave them to her. She and James leafed through them, James mumbling something, which I assumed was the copy-and-deliver spell he’d mentioned earlier. He didn’t exactly call it that, but I needed to name it, and that was nice and obvious, which was necessary if I wanted to remember it existed.

  “It’s time to clean up and go,” Angelica said.

  James nodded and turned to me. “Go home, and wait for us. When we get back, we’ll have another meeting, but we need to get this cleaned up. Then we have some businesses to visit in London.” He looked at Angelica, and she gave a nod.

  “Can I help?” It didn’t seem fair that they had a whole night’s worth of work ahead of them, and I just went home.

  “No, dear. We know what to do, and I’m sure James will agree with me when I say I’ll be able to concentrate better if I know you’re safe at home.”

  “Okay, then, but if you need me, just walkie-talkie me. Stay safe.”

  James handed me my camera. “Thanks, Lily. We’ll probably be a few hours. It wouldn’t hurt to gather some evidence while we’re out and about, and I think more interviews are in order tomorrow. I’m going to grab a PIB photo of Dana and show it around, see if she was helping sell the tea. With the magic signatures Angelica’s collected tonight, I think we’ll have a good case. We can also pull security video from different shops, proving she was involved.”

  I gave him a quick hug. Feeling as if I was abandoning them, I made my doorway and went home.

  Olivia was waiting outside the reception room when I came out. “I’m so glad you’re back. I was worried.” She looked over my shoulder. “Where are James and Angelica?”

  I made a bubble of silence. “They’re fine, but they have stuff to clean up. Then they’re going somewhere else. We found a trail to all the places selling the tea. They want to find more evidence and interview people. They’ll be working all night and into tomorrow. They’ve just delivered that tea to a lot of places in London.”

  Her face paled, and she put her hand to her stomach. “Oh my God. I’ve had some of the tea I bought in London.” She stared at me for a moment, her eyes wide. She ran past me and up the stairs. Her thudding footsteps went all the way to the top floor, and then came the slam of a door.

  I knew I shouldn’t, but I chuckled. The poor thing. I’d have to set her straight, so I trotted upstairs and knocked on her door. I spoke through the closed door. “Liv, there’s nothing to worry about. The tea was only delivered yesterday and the day before. It likely hasn’t even been unpacked yet, let alone sold. We have all the receipts. I’ll ask James where he put them, and we can go through them and check. Okay?”

  Her muffled voice came through. “Are you sure?”

  “Yes. How long ago did you drink it?”

  “Late this afternoon. About five.”

  “What time is it?” My phone was off and somewhere in the house, so I couldn’t check.

  “Five past ten.”

  Was that enough time for it to have taken effect? I’d say it was close but not definitive. “What was the shop called?”

  “Tealicious at Leadenhall Hall Market.”

  “Okay. Just wait there, and I’ll contact James and check the receipts. Maybe go to bed. It’ll save me from having to transport you there later.” I snorted.

  “Ha ha, very funny. You know, if I had had the bad tea, I would totally attack you for that comment.” I heard the smile in her voice.

  “I wouldn’t expect anything less. Now, sit tight, and I’ll be back.”

  I magicked James a note. He quickly responded. Apparently, the receipts were in the spare bedroom next to Angelica’s. The most recent receipts were in the top box. When I went in there, I found it immediately. There were quite a few boxes lined up next to the bed and two high. I went to the top box nearest the end of the bed. It took me a while to sort through the lot. And then I found it.

  Damn! I lowered my head, shut my eyes, and took a deep breath. God, it’d been a long day. I needed sleep, but now I’d have to keep an eye on Olivia. I packed everything away and trudged up the stairs to her room.

  “I don’t want to worry you, but don’t open the door.”

  “You’re kidding.”

  “I wish I were. The good news is that they only took delivery yesterday afternoon, so chances are that they hadn’t stocked the shelves with it.” I gently head-butted the door. “I’m so stupid!”

  “Why?”

  “I could’ve just gone and checked the actual tea. I’ll be back in a sec.” Why was I so dumb? I shook my head as I clomped down the stairs. It took me only a few minutes to find and test the tea. I threw my head back and looked at the ceiling. “Thank you, Universe. It’s about time you were nice to me.”

  I hurried back and relayed the good news—her tea was fine.

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes, of course I’m sure. Why would I lie about it? I
don’t have a death wish.”

  She opened the door slowly. “You could have fooled me when you ran off to find Will.”

  “Yeah, well….” I shrugged, then let my shoulders fall into a slump. Where was he? Was he okay? Sadness and worry coalesced into a heavy mass that turned my tiredness into exhaustion. “I need to go to bed. I’m done for the day. Angelica and James probably won’t be back until tomorrow, but as a precaution, I’d keep that walkie-talkie on. Is that okay if I leave it with you?”

  “Of course! Come here.” She wrapped her arms around me and squeezed.

  “Thanks, Liv. It’s just been a long day.” I blinked away unwanted tears. “Night.”

  I showered and got into bed. I snuggled under the covers, trying to chase away the cold that had settled bone deep. We were getting so close to shutting this thing down and catching Dana, but in the meantime, she had free rein to cause as much havoc and heartache as she wanted.

  We were nearly there. But if we weren’t in time to save Will, it wouldn’t be near enough. I lay on my side, stared into the darkness, and tried not to think of never seeing Will again.

  A tear escaped and rolled down the side of my face and onto my pillow. The shabbily constructed barriers I used to keep my thoughts away from tragedy were far from watertight. I wanted that tear to have company in the thousands, but it wasn’t time to mourn yet. It was time to fight, and for that, I’d need my wits and strength.

  I turned on my other side and closed my eyes. Falling asleep was one of the first battles I’d have to win to get to Will. And if I was anything, it was a fighter.