by Mara Webb
Dominic Elderport is to receive a photograph of myself flipping the bird. Leslie is to receive the deeds to my Taurus City penthouse, the controlling shares of the company and all money to my name. She also has my heart, now and always.
Dominic, I sincerely can’t stand you.
Nicholas Blatham-Ford.
Ryan carefully tucked the papers back into the envelope and lifted his head to the sea of faces that were now staring at him. I hadn’t really been to a will reading before, so it was impossible for me to know if this type of passive-aggressive letter from beyond the grave was normal.
He had only really dished out pleasantries to Monty and his wife, but his family had all been criticized and short changed. Leslie would be a millionaire in her own right now, which was astonishing, but had been exactly what she and Jonny had been banking on. Jonny was visibly upset, possibly at realizing that he had remained in the will despite the argument with his father.
“Just like that, she gets everything?” Stephanie barked, pointing at Leslie. “She swoops in at the final hour and takes every penny, I don’t think so. I will be challenging this, mark my words. You think I killed my own father, when you clearly had the most to gain?”
“I’d give a billion dollars to whoever could guarantee that I never have to interact with you again. You got shares in the company, what more do you want? Oh, that’s right, a handout. You don’t want to have to work a day of your life, you’d rather have diamonds and yachts rain from the sky and fall into your lap as you swan around pretending you are important. No one here is going to pull out the tiny violins because you inherited a multi-million-dollar business.”
I wondered how much longer this would go on for, these two women both had magical powers and a deep-seated dislike of each other. Jonny stood up and struggled against the two officers that were holding each arm.
“That is the woman I love, Steph. I didn’t stab you the other night, but I wish I had.”
The officers escorted him down the stairs back towards the brig and the rest of us watched him leave. Stephanie watched her brother as he walked away in handcuffs and I could see her trying to figure something out. “So, it was you,” Stephanie said to Leslie.
“Excuse me?” Leslie asked.
“My intuition was all over the place before I got on this damned boat. Something told me to get Jonny a lawyer, something told me he needed defending. You and Jonny were together the other night, weren’t you? It wasn’t him that caused the distraction, it was you. You had the whole lot of us fearing for our lives and then you came for me. Is this because I caught the two of you Frenching? You would seriously try to kill me because of that? Daddy already put you in the will, you heartless witch.”
“I just wish I’d stuck you in the neck, but you started screaming about daddy rejecting you, you wriggled right out of the path of my knife!” Leslie screamed, pulling a wand from nowhere.
Stephanie produced her own and the two of them were now walking around in a large circle like prowling tigers preparing to strike. Everyone else had pulled out their own wands, apart from Rose. Monty stepped in front of her to shield her body from whatever was about to happen.
“This time I won’t miss!” Leslie roared.
Leslie shot light from the tip of her wand at Stephanie who ducked in time, causing the spell to shatter a tray of martini glasses behind her. Monty began working on a bubble of safety to encase himself and Rose, and Ryan stepped in front of me to do the same.
“Oh, knock it off, I can look after myself,” I complained, shoving him back to stand beside me. This wasn’t the time for Ryan to live out his ‘knight in shining armor’ fantasy, if we didn’t all act fast then one of these two women would blow a hole in this yacht and we would all be bobbing around in the ocean in no time.
Stephanie straightened up and fired at Leslie, who stepped back and allowed the magic to blast a hole into the wall. The boat was beginning to sway noticeably and now all of us were staggering back and forth to stay upright.
Leslie picked up wooden chopping board and launched it at Stephanie, hitting her in her injured shoulder and causing her to scream out. “Are you out of your mind? Who brings wood to a magic fight?” she yelled.
“It was already here!” Leslie snapped, raising her wand to strike again.
I wasn’t sure now if they were actually trying to kill the other one or just win enough ‘points’ to be crowned the winner of a scuffle. Either way, somebody was going to get hurt. Before Leslie could fire her magic, Stephanie shot at her feet causing Leslie to jump suddenly backwards.
This was when we learned that Leslie was seasick, incredibly, disgustingly seasick. As the boat began to sway more violently, Leslie vomited onto the ground and her dress. As soon as she was sick, Stephanie began to gag and the two of them seemed unable to continue the fight. The boat was still swaying, causing Leslie to stagger until she slipped on the newly wet floor and fell over.
I don’t know what exactly had attracted Rick’s attention, but he emerged once again from behind the bar with his palms out flat. An invisible shockwave burst through the air and both Stephanie and Leslie froze in place. Rick glared at the huge holes blown in the wall and floor and scowled.
“Hey!” Leslie said between frozen lips. “I can’t mooth!”
“Me neefer!” Stephanie said.
“Damn right. Have you seen what you’ve done to my ship?” Rick growled. He walked over to Stephanie, lifted up her static body and carried her over to Leslie.
“Unfreeth me now!” Stephanie tried to yell.
“Yeah!” Leslie mirrored.
Rick pulled out a pair of handcuffs from his pocket and slapped them around one wrist of each woman, attaching them to each other. The cuffs glowed briefly and then returned to a dull silver. Both women were now able to move again.
“What’s the big idea?!” Stephanie said. “You can’t just chain us up like animals!”
Rick laughed dryly. “You’re behaving like animals, so I will, and I can. As Captain of this boat I am well within my rights to restrain dangerous passengers.”
“Restrain this!” Leslie said, zapping her wand at the cuffs. She tried a few times, but nothing happened. “Huh?”
“Such an amateur,” Stephanie snapped. “Let me try!”
Both of the girls tried to break the cuffs with their wands.
“Do I have to spell it out for you?” Rick said. “Your magic is on lockdown until you learn how to behave. Put your wands away, the charm on those cuffs is the only thing stopping you idiots from sinking this ship.”
Leslie and Stephanie, both their faces sour as grapes, shoved their wands away and shot daggers at the captain.
“Sean, help me fix this will you?” Rick asked and pointed at the wall, leaving the women on the floor.
“Err, what’s the plan here captain?” Ryan asked while cautiously looking at the scowling captives.
“The plan is that you all calm the hell down. You’re acting like caged chimps. Enough is enough! This is my boat and you will treat it with respect.”
“And the girls?” Monty asked casually.
“They can stay chained together until they learn to get on! If there’s any more fighting from you lot, then I’ll double the time they’re chained together.”
A stony silence swept over the floor as Rick and Sean began to repair the damage. I glanced at the frozen women again, I had to give it to Rick, it was a pretty stellar tactic to put an end to the fight. If anyone else put a toe out of line Rick would just extend their time together and we’d all have to sit through that horror show.
Somehow, I felt like we were the ones being punished.
18
Stephanie and Leslie were trapped together and due to the charm on the handcuffs, were unable to perform any magic. It was some sort of twisted parenting trick to make two unruly children get along, and the rest of us were about ready to jump overboard.
I foolishly thought Rick’s tactic would have driven
sense into Leslie and Stephanie, but as soon as the captain left the deck the pair of them went back to their war of words. No one else wanted to be in earshot of their endless cattery, so we quickly filed up to the top deck one by one.
The girls initially tried to follow—I believe they required an audience at all times—but the restraints on their ankles meant that some form of cooperation was required if they wanted to climb stairs, meaning we were rid of them while they carried on roaring at one another on the lower deck.
“Sean,” Monty said. “How about some music? I can still hear those nincompoops caterwauling.”
“Right away sir,” Sean said. A few seconds later gentle Baha music had drowned out the faint remainder of Stephanie and Leslie.
With Leslie admitting to her involvement in Stephanie’s attack, Jonny had been released from the brig and had run up to our deck, ignoring his girlfriend and sister on the way.
“Does anyone have any clue about what happened to my father then?” Jonny asked, lying back on a sun lounger and pulling his hat down over his eyes. He had a crazy straw that twirled round on loops and bent down into the cocktail he had on the ground beside him. After a big slurp, he spoke again. “Did you say that the coroner had made an assessment?” He was asking me, despite not looking up in my direction.
“The gunshot to his head was shot after he was dead,” I replied. “Someone wanted to give him another injury when he was already down, I don’t understand that, but when we reach land maybe the justice department can have a proper look into it.”
Kimberly dropped another tray of drinks and that clattering of smashing glass was enough for Jonny to lift the brim of his hat just enough to see what had happened. Sean ran over to help her clear away the mess.
“Well, I have a girlfriend that was happy to let me take the heat for her mistake, who also has been dating my father for over a year and has inherited the family fortune, and now apparently I am also a business partner with my sister. If it wasn’t for alcohol this trip would be a total disaster,” he said sarcastically.
As I tipped a mouthful of white wine into my mouth, I couldn’t help but agree with him, this trip had been a series of catastrophes strung together with vodka. It reminded me of my college days.
The island that we were headed for was now visible on the horizon and it brought a sense of relief to the group as we had a tangible countdown to our escape from this sea vessel. With almost half of the original travelling group either dead or under arrest, it would be a vacation that I wouldn’t be bragging about when I got home.
Rick had informed us that we should be able to get a signal on our cellphones again soon, the closer we got to the island the better the chances of being able to make a phone call. I had charged my cell phone overnight and not had a chance to use it yet, normally I spent at least an hour playing tap-tap games where I was managed a small gas station or a bank, but with all the chaos I had forgotten about it completely.
I had more missed calls than was reasonable from Quin, he had outdone himself. I told Ryan I would be back in a few minutes and wandered to the furthest end of the top deck to call my familiar.
“Nora!” Quin yelled as soon as he answered. “Oh Nora, I was so worried about you! Is everything all right?”
“Yes, I’m fine. I didn’t have signal for a while, but I see that it didn’t stop you trying to call me. How is it going on land?” I asked.
“Well, I wanted to call you to say that I was watching Storage Wars and that I had tried to series link it on the TV thing, but I couldn’t work out how to do it. Then I called you again to see why you hadn’t answered the first call. Then I called again, and it escalated from there really. I called the coast guard anyway and they said they would send out a helicopter to look for the boat because I was so concerned, they had tried to radio the yacht and there had been some difficulty so they are out hunting for you guys!”
I paused for a moment to consider what he had just said, why would the radio not have worked?
Rick had put the ship on lockdown after Nicholas was murdered on our first night here, I wonder if that blocked communication with the coastguard. Either way, there would be humans looking for us, and we had continued a trip after the boat’s owner was mysteriously killed and everybody was in handcuffs.
It would take some explaining.
“Thanks, Quin. Helpful as always,” I groaned.
“Oh you got a letter from O.W.L and it said you hadn’t replied to an email and something about a new assignment that they wanted to make sure you knew about and I called them to say that you were missing and that you might have drowned in the sea! So, they said something about sending out the witch equivalent of the coastguard to look for you.”
“Quin! Is there anyone you haven’t involved in this ocean chase? Nothing bad has happened, just one murder, and two attempted murders, normal stuff!” I complained. I appreciated that he cared enough to check on me, but in typical Quin fashion, he had gone too far.
“Murders? Tell me everything,” Quin said.
I looked up at the distant island and, after realizing that we still had a while on board, decided to fill him in. I told him about every little detail, as much as I could remember anyway, starting with stepping onto the yacht, the Cadbury eggs, discovering the body, the conversations with every suspect. Quin was such a great audience, he gasped and made audible sounds of relief at every twist of the story.
I told him about the scuba murder plot, the free diving, the CCTV camera footage and the dropped room service list. Quin suspected that Sean had dropped the list on purpose to guarantee that Leslie didn’t get away with it, he asked me if boat staff have to protect confidentially of clients.
I told him that I thought confidentially only really applied with medical staff, lawyers and therapists but honestly, I wasn’t sure. Some people in the service industry must see some crazy things and pretend they haven’t to maintain customer dignity.
“Where is this island that you are going to anyway?” Quin asked.
“No idea, we were told to charge full steam ahead to this place regardless of what happened to Nicholas so it’s anyone’s guess. Did I tell you I found a bunch of stuff in the office, like order forms for flowers and stuff? I can’t remember the date on the sheets but I’m sure it was supposed to be for the day we arrived. Rick said, ‘things had been moved around’ so I think something is planned for us.”
“Go check the forms!” Quin replied.
“You want me to go back into a dead guy’s office? His ghost was crying last time I went in there and it is really just a sad place to be on a vacation, reading a stranger’s emails in a small room.”
“It might help you solve the murder! We have worked on so many mysteries together, I think it’s only fair you include me on this one, seeing as I am home alone and literally no one has been killed around here for weeks. Come on, please!”
I sighed but resigned myself to going downstairs. I waved to Ryan as I walked past him, gestured that I was going down, and kept Quin on the phone as I went.
“What is that noise?” he asked, hearing Stephanie and Leslie’s faint arguing.
“Oh, that is two witches handcuffed together, one stabbed the other,” I replied, and I made my way down from their deck to the murder deck. I opened the office door and went to look into the mirror opposite the desk. Nicholas faded into view and still looked quite upset, he appeared to have calmed down slightly.
“How are you feeling?” I asked.
“Oh, betrayed, confused, lost…hungry maybe? I think the feeling of hunger will go away, right? I can’t eat anymore, it would really suck to be hungry all the time and unable to do anything about it,” he said.
“My aunt said the hunger tapers off, it’s a rough few days though apparently. Do you remember anything that might be able to identify who did this to you?” I was optimistic, but in my experience, it would be too soon for him to remember much about his death.
“I don’t know exactl
y. I felt so sad all of a sudden, I don’t know if it was my sadness or someone else’s though. I’m an empath you see, I feel other people’s emotions as if they were my own. It has helped to make me a very successful businessman you know, but sometimes it can leave me exhausted. I wanted to sit down or have a stiff drink. I can’t remember clearly now. It’s gotten a little foggy.”
“It’s okay. Is there anything I can do to help jog your memory?” I asked.
My aunt Edith had been murdered and not known the identity of her killer; he had snuck up behind her. I had met another ghost called Joanne, she had been hit on the head and her attacker was also behind her. No amount of time or prompting would have helped them, this was different.
“I’m not sure,” he said. “Any ideas?”
“Monty gave me the key to your safe for your will, I came into the office and saw all these print outs, had you just been in here before you were killed?”
“Possibly…wait yes! I had been in the office and then got up to grab another snack. Sometimes there are little bags of salted pretzels lying around and I sneak them back to my desk, I’d already had one or two. I am supposed to be a bit careful with salt intake you see, I’ve had some heart problems in the past, so I have to watch my…wait. I remember!
“I felt sad, then I was floating up out of my body. I was looking down at myself lying on my back motionless, I probably waited there for a few minutes before I realized I wasn’t trapped in a premonition. The sadness was gone then though, I didn’t feel anything. That’s when they came in and shot me.”
“You saw who shot you?” I asked.
“Oh, my goodness, tell us right now!” Quin screamed over speakerphone. Nicholas raised an eyebrow as he hadn’t been aware that I was on a call. I had put my cellphone down on the desk and Quin had managed to stay silent until the drama picked up and he had to involve himself.
