“Ha, no complaining. Remember?”
“Yeah, yeah.” I finished up, and just before I flushed the toilet, a new voice, one I recognised, echoed from the main bathroom area.
“What are you doing here, fatty?” Liv didn’t respond to Kate’s taunt, and she continued. “Cat got your tongue? Oh, did you like my present?” Huh? I didn’t know she’d given Liv a present, and, in fact, we hadn’t even gotten around to discussing what gifts she’d gotten for her birthday. Did that make me a bad friend?
Liv’s fake-nice voice was in place. “It’s great, thanks. That diet and exercise journal will definitely come in handy.” What the hell? Why wasn’t she telling her to sod off? I wanted to flush the toilet and go and rescue her, but I was worried I’d miss hearing something.
“That’s good, because you need it, fatty. Look at those rolls.” A light, uncomfortable touch of magic, like the scratch of cockroach claws, touched my scalp, which was weird, considering Kate wasn’t a witch, and neither was Liv. Had I imagined it, or was it some strange premonition thing? I stood and pulled my jeans up, just in case I Liv needed rescuing.
“Hey, don’t touch me! Get off.” And that was Liv’s distressed voice.
Ah, stuff it—I flushed and yanked my door. I hurried out of the stall and into the hand-washing area just as Imani did the same. As I got there, Liv shoved Kate, who flew back, tripped, and fell. Her head made a thudding crack as she hit the tiles.
Crap.
Liv’s eyes were wide. She stood deathly still, staring at the horrible woman unconscious on the floor. Imani knelt next to Kate and gently lay her hands on either side of her forehead as crimson flowed across the white tiles from under her head. My scalp vibrated with warmth.
“Can you fix it, Imani?” I asked, hoping she had some healing skills.
She shook her head. “I can only do basic stuff, like sending a bruise away or maybe a small cut. This is much worse. Not only is her skull cracked, but she has bleeding on the brain. She’s still breathing, though.” She withdrew her hands. I snatched my phone from my bag and rang the emergency services. I explained the situation, and they promised to have an ambulance to us ASAP. I hung up.
“Can… can you call B?” Liv’s voice shook. She hadn’t moved, and her dark skin had turned ashen.
“I can’t.” Imani stood and gave her a hug. “We can’t interfere with a crime scene. If he heals her, and there’s been a crime committed, he’s destroying evidence.”
My brow tightened. “But what if it’s the only thing that saves her life? Surely, he can do something, even if it’s small… just enough to help her have a good outcome? And what crime? Liv was just protecting herself.” Then I had an idea. I brought up the camera app on my phone and pointed it at Kate. My breath hitched at the truth—she was see-through. I swallowed. “If we don’t do something, she’s dead.” Imani and Liv stared at me. “My camera doesn’t lie. Can you really let it go knowing this?”
Imani nodded at the security camera in the corner, mumbled something, then pulled out her phone. She dialled. “Beren, yep, it’s me. We have a situation.” She gave him the details, and within seconds, he was exiting from the out-of-order stall at the far end of the toilets.
“Over here,” Imani called.
“Kate? Kate, where are you?” I looked at Imani. She blinked. Crap. Kate’s friend from last night walked in. She took us in, then noticed who was lying on the floor. Her mouth dropped open. “Oh my God! What have you done?”
Beren ran to us at the same time Kate’s friend knelt next to Kate. “Kate. Kate, can you hear me?” She tapped Kate’s cheek, then screamed. “She’s bleeding. You killed her! You killed her!
Beren glanced at me, alarm on his face. Before he could even check Kate out, the main door to the bathroom flung open, and two paramedics rushed in. Damn. We were too late. And it had all been captured on security camera. Beren moved out of the way so the paramedics could do their thing. Then he went to Liv and enveloped her in a hug.
Kate’s friend stood, blood staining the knees of her denim jeans. She glared at Olivia and me. “You better get a good solicitor, murderers.” What the hell? And why was she looking at me? Not that I wanted Olivia to take the blame either, but this idiot had no idea.
“I didn’t do anything, and neither did Liv. If Kate hadn’t been attacking her—"
The bathroom door opened again, and two police officers, a man and a woman, walked in. I clutched my stomach as it dove to the floor. This didn’t look good at all.
The taller officer, a twenty-something-year-old with kind brown eyes stopped when he saw Liv. “Olivia?” She nodded, and I was pretty sure his question was really, “Don’t tell me you’re in trouble?” They likely had worked together. He frowned, his expression sad as she shrugged.
She held her hands in front of her, and the policeman shook his head. “Just questions at this stage. So, what happened?”
“Oh, I can tell you what happened.” Kate’s friend stood between the police officer and Olivia.
I jumped in, wanting to defend her. “You weren’t even in here, whatever your name is. Kate”—I gave a nod to the body on the floor—“was harassing Olivia. Liv was just defending herself. She pushed her away, and she fell. It was an accident.”
Beren shook his head at me and pursed his lips. He must’ve wanted me to be quiet, but how could I not defend Liv? The second officer, youngish but female, gave me a condescending stare. “We weren’t asking you.” Oops, sorry. My face heated. I guess making them angry wasn’t going to do Liv any favours, but they had to see she hadn’t done anything wrong. And why pick on me? The stupid witch who hadn’t even been in the room when it happened was trying to tell them what was going on.
Beren whispered something to Liv, then stood in between Liv and the police. “I’ve advised her not to say anything until we get a solicitor. I’m not exactly sure what happened either, but Olivia has nothing to say at this time.” He fixed a serious stare onto me. “And neither does Lily.”
The policewoman rolled her eyes and looked back up at the security camera. “It doesn’t matter at this stage. All the information we need will be on that.” She turned to us. “We’ll want you at the station for questioning later.” She handed me her card. “There’s the address. When you come in, you can ask for me. If I’m not there, they’ll assign someone else to take your witness statements. If you haven’t come in by tomorrow afternoon, we’ll come looking for you.” She then asked for Imani and my names and contact information, which we gave her. I considered not, but that would just annoy her more and probably end up in me getting arrested or fined or something.
One of the paramedics stood and cleared his throat. The police turned and looked at him. He shook his head and looked down. I sighed, sadness and fear coalescing into a lead weight in my belly. It was true that I didn’t like Kate, but I didn’t want her dead, and certainly not in a circumstance that would get my best friend in trouble.
The police looked back at Olivia, and the guy said, “You’ll need to come with us for questioning. I’m sorry, Olivia, but you’re under arrest on suspicion of killing the deceased.” He quickly looked at Kate, then back at Olivia. “You do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence.”
She nodded, her face despondent. Shoulders sagging, she shuffled to them and let them cuff her and lead her out. I blinked back tears. This couldn’t be happening. I wanted to run after them and grab my friend, steal her and travel us both somewhere far away. She didn’t deserve this or the humiliation of being led through the movie theatre foyer like a common criminal for all the world to see.
Two more police officers entered the bathroom. “Time for you all to leave. We’re setting up a crime scene.” The middle-aged man waved police tape in front of me.
“Why aren’t you arresting her too?” Kate’s friend glared at me. If she didn’t
shut up soon, maybe they would have to arrest me for murder. Yes, I was feeling rather aggressive, but could anyone blame me when someone was trying to have my friend and me arrested for something we didn’t even do, something that was clearly an accident?
Beren looked at Imani and I as the paramedics stood to the side, allowing a forensic police officer in to take photos. At least the other police ignored Kate’s friend, who put her hands on her hips and spat, “You won’t get away with this. I’ll make sure.” She turned and stomped out.
The guy with the police tape raised a brow. “Do you think you could leave now, if it’s not too much trouble?”
None of us spoke as we walked out, but our faces said it all—this was the worst night ever. Seemed the universe wasn’t in a good mood, or it had something against me and my friends.
“What do we do now?” I asked, my voice almost cracking with tears.
Beren’s jaw clenched, the muscles bulging. “I’m going to grab a solicitor and go to the station. Imani, if you can notify my aunt, I’d appreciate it, and Lily, just go home and wait. There’s nothing you can do right now.”
Well, that answer was unacceptable. “Are you sure? I mean, how the hell am I just meant to wait? My best friend’s been arrested. I have to do something.” Nausea bubbled up my throat. I forced it back down.
“You can come with me, love.” Thank God Imani understood. I’d go mad at home by myself. “Come on then. Let’s get on with it.” As we made our way through the foyer, moviegoers, their hands full of popcorn, soft drink, and chocolate, stared at us, likely wondering what the hell was going on.
Well, I could tell them what was going on. A big fat nightmare none of us were going to wake up from anytime soon.
Chapter 5
Eight thirty the next morning, and nothing had improved. She hadn’t been charged yet but was being held at the Kent police lockup until they could determine her bail conditions, which would hopefully happen on Monday. They called it pre-charge, which sounded ominous. I figured they intended to charge her, but they weren’t sure what they would charge her with. Will had explained they had a choice of involuntary or voluntary manslaughter or even murder, although there was nothing premeditated about this. There was no way they could charge her with murder, could they?
“So, you didn’t see what happened before she pushed her?” Ma’am leaned towards Imani and me. She and Will sat on one Chesterfield, Imani and I on the other. Beren was busy getting Liv’s solicitor up to speed before they went to see her at the station.
“No,” we answered in unison.
“But before I ran out, she told Kate to get off her. She was obviously just defending herself.” I folded my arms. I would defend my friend to the death, or at least shout out her innocence until I’d run out of people to shout to.
Ma’am pursed her lips. “I also understand she and Kate didn’t get along, that there have been a couple of incidents lately where Kate’s antagonised her?”
Everyone looked at me. Of course they did. Now I had to practically dob my friend in. “Yes, but Liv took it well. I mean, I was the one telling Kate off. Liv was just upset, as in sad. She never said anything threatening, not even in private to me later.”
“And you didn’t know Kate was going to be at the movies?”
I shook my head. “No. Liv suggested we go, and I left it up to her to choose the movie and time.”
Ma’am nodded slowly, her tone just on the wrong side of judgemental. “I see….”
My eyes widened. I’d inadvertently dropped her in hot water. Crap. But there was no way she would have known Kate would be there at that time. “Look, we didn’t even see Kate when we got to the movies, and it was only that the movie was so bad that we left early. We’d travelled there, so we were having a quick toilet stop on the way out. All that soft drink, popcorn, and Maltesers will have that effect.”
Will scrunched his face up. “TMI, Lily. TMI.”
Okay, so I was the queen of too much information, at times. “I’m nervous, okay? I don’t want to say anything that gets Liv in trouble. She’s innocent.”
“So it’s possible she could have known Kate was going to be there?” Ma’am pinned me with her stern gaze. I was an easy target, especially compared to veteran-agent Imani. She knew when to shut up. My brain went into blabbermouth mode at the slightest provocation.
I wiped sweaty palms on my jeans, then shrugged. Maybe I should invoke the right to remain silent, lest I incriminate Liv.
“There was something unusual.” I swivelled my head around to shoot daggers at Imani. She wasn’t going to put Liv further in it, was she? I couldn’t believe she would. We were all friends. I liked Imani, and she was sworn to protect me. She was a good egg. She raised a brow at me. “Oh, for goodness’ sake. I’m not about to say anything that would get Olivia into trouble. You know me better than that.”
I sighed. “I’m sorry. I know I do. It’s just….” I slouched. “This all looks so bad.”
“I know, love, but Liv is the sweetest person I’ve ever met. There’s no way she meant to hurt Kate. Anyway”—she turned back to Ma’am—“as I was saying, there was something not quite right. It’s nothing I can prove, but I felt a sensation, magic maybe. It was so subtle and gone so quickly that I can’t be sure. I scanned for a magic signature before we left, and there were six different ones. I can’t be sure if any of them were related to what I felt. Come to think of it, it was similar to what happened at the dance recital. Also, Kate’s friend came in looking for her, and she’s a witch.”
I sat up straighter. “I felt it too… at the movies. It was familiar, but I wasn’t sure because it didn’t last long at all. It could definitely have been magic. Do you think it was Kate’s friend?”
Imani shrugged. “Anything’s possible. But why would she want her friend to get hurt?” If Kate treated her friends like she did her enemies, I could think of plenty of reasons.
“Right. We’ll leave that friend angle alone for the moment—we can always follow it up later. I want you to get back to the cinema now. Use the cubicle and no-notice spell. Record whatever’s there. We’ll try and match the signatures against what we found at the community centre the day of the dance.” Ma’am stood. “I have to get back to headquarters, but I’ll check in with you all this afternoon.” She built her doorway and stepped through, disappearing.
Imani stood. “I’m off. Catch you all later.”
After she left through her doorway, Will and I remained, looking at each other across the low coffee table. “Now what?” Something was niggling deep in my subconscious, but I couldn’t figure it out. It was likely super important. In the meantime, maybe Will had something to offer. He stood, came around to my couch, and sat next to me.
He put his arm around me, and I snuggled into his side. “Lily?”
“Yes?”
“The night we went to see the Christmas trees at the church. You remember that?”
I half laughed. “Of course I remember; it was a week ago. I know my memory sucks, but I’m not a goldfish.”
“You know fish can probably remember things for months, right?”
“Actually I didn’t. Interesting. Maybe I am a goldfish, then. What about squirrels?”
“They have good memories. They can remember things for years. You’d starve if you were a squirrel. You’d forget where you left your nuts.” He chuckled.
“I’m not going there. Nope.” I grinned. “Anyway, what about the night we saw the trees?”
“You and Imani mentioned a weird and very quick sensation that might have been magic. I felt something like that in the church, just before that tree fell on the old lady. I didn’t think anything of it at the time, but now….”
So, that was a good thing, and a bad thing. Maybe something else was at work here. But what? And how would we find out exactly, since my talent was useless—proven at the community hall. If it was magic related, the spell was an unusual one, where the caster wasn’t present. We also
had the problem of the magic being so faint that there was virtually nothing left to find. “I suppose it would be useless to go back to the church and look around now.”
“Definitely. Any trace would be long gone. I’d be surprised if Imani finds anything at the movies.”
I stopped leaning against him, pushing away quickly to sit up straight. “You don’t think the snake group has anything to do with this, do you?” Just what we needed—more Dana Piranha drama. I snorted. Funny how Dana rhymed with drama, even funnier that I hadn’t realised until now. Sometimes I was slow on the uptake.
“I have no idea. And what’s so funny?”
“Nothing. Just my brain being stupid.”
“How unusual.” He shook his head.
“I couldn’t pick up anything with my camera at the community hall, but maybe I should try at the church. Just in case.”
“I suppose it can’t hurt, and, to be honest, other than interviewing a lot of people, we have no other direction to take.”
“Who would you interview, other than Kate’s friend?” I wouldn’t dismiss her part in this until I knew for sure. She was just as horrible as Kate, and there was no honour among thieves, as they say.
“The two men in the altercation at the church. The old lady’s family. The families of the kids who were hurt at the dance recital. There might be a common thread, but at this point, I’m not sure where to start, other than with the ‘do you know if anyone is out to get you’ question, and my gut tells me this isn’t quite like that.”
The familiar niggle I’d felt in the movie toilets was back. “I feel like I’m missing something too.” Come on, subconscious. Do your thing, figure it out, and get back to me. My stomach grumbled. I rolled my eyes. “Don’t go getting jealous on me. Or are you just hungry?”
Witch Oracle in Westerham Page 5
