Witch War in Westerham

by Dionne Lister

  “I’m in.” She smiled.

  “Yes! Let’s do this.”

  After an hour and a half, we had a good—at least I thought it was good—plan worked out. Annabelle woke up, and I got to have a cuddle before Millicent gave her a feed. Once that was done, Millicent’s phone rang. The shrill ringtone made me jump. Every time someone’s phone rang recently, it was bad news. Was it possible to have PTSD—phone traumatic stress disorder?

  Millicent handed Annabelle to me and answered the call. “Hey, darling.” Her face fell. I let my head fall to my chest. Not more bad news. “Okay, I’ll tell her. Thanks for letting us know. Bye.” She looked at me with her best poker face. Maybe I should tell her it didn’t work anymore. “Well, Lily, you were right. RP were waiting for our agents when they went to Julien Chevrolet’s house.”

  My stomach dropped faster than a person with a faulty parachute. I couldn’t find any words to ask who and what.

  “Oh, honey, you’ve gone white. I should’ve led with the fact that none of our agents went. They sent two agents from the Paris office.”

  It was as if my heart started beating again. I found enough breath to ask, “What happened?”

  “The place was booby-trapped. Shortly after they went in, it exploded. Both agents were killed.”

  My mouth fell open. “Are they crazy? They’ve basically declared all-out war on the PIB.”

  “They already had, Lily. Well, not in that sense, but they know we won’t… can’t stop until we’ve arrested them all. But by attacking our French co-workers, they’ve ensured it’s not only the British headquarters that will be dealing with this. And Chad can’t slack off now. He’ll have the Paris guys on his back.”

  “Well, that’s something. Quick question: if the UK branch is defunded, do the other branches survive?” It was something that constantly niggled at me. With everything that had been going on, all my loved-ones’ jobs were threatened. Annabelle made happy gurgling noises. I smiled down at her and gave her a kiss on the forehead.

  “No. The main directors make all the decisions regarding funding. It’s government-funded. But they have to prove we’re earning those funds. They’re constantly schmoozing government officials, from what I understand. The directors have old money. I’m sure some of them make political donations from their own pockets.”

  “What a surprise. I bet those donations find their way back home in the form of government grants.” I shook my head. The world worked on a stupid system that was always ripe for abuse. How could anyone doubt the PIB made a positive difference?

  “Probably with interest.” She rolled her eyes. “In any case, we have an escalating situation, and Chad’s called a meeting for four o’clock today. James wants you there, but he said to say as little as possible about your trip. Make sure you frame everything as if you’d been on an actual holiday.”

  “Understood. There’s a mole at headquarters. I don’t think it’s Chad, but you never know.”

  “No, you don’t.” Annabelle scrunched her face and made a straining noise. My eyes widened, and I gently grabbed her around the waist, ready to hand her to her mother. When the little explosions in her nappy started, I thrust her at Millicent and coughed. I was pretty sure my eyes were watering. “Gah, the smell.”

  Millicent chuckled and took her. “You’re such a wuss.”

  “I know. And that’s okay. We can’t all be brave nappy-changing heroes.” I grinned, then put my hand over my nose and mouth to block out some of the smell.

  “You sure you don’t want to be a good auntie and help? You can do it by magic, you know.”

  “Oh, that’s right! I forgot. Still, no thanks. It would be like me to get it wrong and end up with a worse mess than I started with. I’ll leave this to the expert.”

  Millicent shook her head. Her magic tingled my scalp, and she whispered something, then Annabelle’s outfit changed from a purple onesie to a white one with mice on it. Annabelle smiled. And no wonder. The smell had been bad. I couldn’t imagine how it felt to be sitting in it.

  As the odour faded away, the outside world nudged into my thoughts. Those poor French agents. Had Will warned them? He must have. If only we hadn’t gone digging around looking for evidence. I couldn’t help but feel guilty about this too. The bodies were piling up, and the only way to stop it was to destroy RP.

  Was that possible? I didn’t even know anymore. But bad luck to me because I was still going to try. The course had been set. The only thing to do now was hoist the sail, point the tiller, and hope the next storm wasn’t a hurricane. Those were deadly.

  Just like RP.

  Chapter 8

  When I buzzed the PIB reception-room door at three fifty-five, Gus answered it. “Hello, Miss Lily.”

  “Hey, Gus! How come you’re answering the door? I thought they’d found a replacement for the last guy.” I didn’t want to name the last guy—the vampire witch who’d almost killed me. The less I thought about that horrible time, the better.

  “They have.” My brother stepped into view. “Gus is my assistant, so he’s coming to the meeting, too, but I wanted to be here to open the door.”

  I furrowed my brow. “Why?”

  “Just wanted to make sure that Millicent passed on my message.”

  I stepped out of the room, and Gus shut the door. “Yes, she did. It kind of didn’t need saying. Will and I have already talked about it.”

  “He told me.”

  I rolled my eyes. “And yet….” Gus looked around the hallway nervously, studiously avoiding looking at James or me. I shook my head. “You’re making Gus uncomfortable.”

  Gus’s eyes widened, but he stared at the floor. “Ah, I’m fine. I’d prefer not to get involved, Miss Lily.”

  James smiled. “Gus, you’re a smart man and a loyal assistant.” James folded his arms and gave me a “gotcha” look.

  “It’s okay, Gus. I understand. It’s scary when you work for an ogre.” I gave James a sarcastic smile, then headed for the conference room. James and Gus soon caught up. Thankfully, no more was said. When we reached the conference room, Gus knocked, then opened the door for me. I smiled. “Thank you, Gus. You’re such a gentleman, unlike other people I know.” As I stepped into the room, James grunted. Ha! I loved getting on his nerves. Who knew why siblings liked to tussle?

  The table had extra chairs around it, and all but three were taken. Actually, they’d magicked an extension onto the table as well. Eight chairs were on either side, plus the two heads had a chair each, or was that the head and the foot. Ew, who’d want to sit at the foot of the table? Feet grossed me out. Why were they so ugly and smelly?

  Someone cleared their throat. “I said, hello.” Oops. Chad glared at me. What a great way to get started. Everyone at the table stared at me. Yikes.

  “Oh, hello.” Chad frowned, and James jabbed me in the side with his elbow. “Ouch.” I gave him a dirty look. He gave me a dirtier one. Oh, right. I looked at Chad again. “Hello, Sir.” I smiled as if nothing had happened. He wasn’t my boss, for goodness’ sake. He really only deserved a hello, but whatever. I didn’t want to hold things up. This was going to be boring enough without dragging it out. While James and Gus made their appropriate, non-Lily-inspired hellos, I went around the table and sat in between Will and Imani.

  James sat to Chad’s left, and Gus sat next to James. Liv was here, as was Beren, but Millicent wasn’t. Maybe she was getting things ready for tonight and catching up on some time with Annabelle? So, who were the other eight people at the table?

  Chad leaned back in his chair, rested his hands behind his head, and clomped his feet on the table. “Right. Let’s get started.” Hmm, looked like I wasn’t going to find out. James probably knew, and he could fill me in later. And if Ma’am were here to see this…. “Today, we’ve had an unfortunate event. Two agents from our sister agency in Paris have been murdered by the snake group.” He looked at a short, balding man in a PIB suit sitting to his right. “Our deepest sympathies to you
and their families.”

  The man nodded, his poker face in place. I imagined that if he didn’t don it, he might cry, although maybe he was a toughened agent who’d dealt with this kind of thing before. Had he hardened himself to these tragedies? Or maybe he was just good at staying strong for his agents. That was one reason I’d make a terrible agent—I’d be bawling my eyes out if any of my co-workers had been killed. Hiding my emotions was my non-talent—I couldn’t be worse at it if I tried. “Merci, Agent Williamson the Third. I will pass your message on to my colleagues.” What was it about the French accent that made it so enjoyable to listen to? It was like I imagined a cappuccino would sound if it could talk—smooth, full-bodied, almost sensual. Yes, I knew coffee was more Italian than French. I reckoned an espresso would have an Italian accent if it could talk.

  Chad looked around the table as he spoke. “The Paris office is gathering evidence and will notify us when everything’s been analysed. It was a non-witch explosive device, so we’ll be looking at the materials and the way it was constructed. Now, moving on. I believe we have some leads to chase from the rest of the factory workers. In light of what’s happened today, we’ll be more than careful with our investigations. We’re also short on staff, so this is going to take longer than we originally anticipated.”

  Will raised his hand. Chad gave him a nod. “How long are we talking, Sir?”

  “Months.”

  My eyebrows shot up, taking my eyelids with them. My eyes couldn’t be any more open if they tried. Was he kidding? Did he plan on letting RP run around meting out death sentences for the rest of the year?

  “Excuse me,” said the agent sitting next to the French man in a delicious cappuccino accent. Seemed he was French too. He was maybe in his late thirties. His dark buzzcut hair, wide shoulders, and ramrod-straight posture gave him the air of someone in the military. “We need to act now. The longer this takes, the more time they have to wreak havoc.”

  “I agree.” Imani hadn’t bothered to raise her hand. That was my girl.

  Murmurs around the table indicated Chad was alone in his opinion of how to handle the situation, but, as usual, he was dancing to the beat of his own drum, one that was being played by the directors, and badly at that. I wanted to snatch their drumsticks and shove them where the sun—

  Chad jerked up and slammed his feet on the ground. “The decision’s already been made.” He pinned Will and Imani with a sly smile. The only thing he needed to look more like a crocodile was some brownish-green lumpy things on his back and tail. Okay, so he didn’t have a tail, but could’ve fooled me. “You’re up first. Tomorrow, I’m sending you on an assignment. One of the first victims, who is still alive thanks to us, has a wife and two children. They live in a small village on the Italian border with France. The rest of the details are in the files in front of you.” Chad’s magic prickled my scalp, and two folders appeared on the table in front of Will and Imani. If anything happened to them during this investigation, I would kill Chad. Unfortunately, I couldn’t tell him that—there were too many witnesses. Guilt stretched its arms behind its head and yawned as it woke up, but I smacked it on the head with the idea that Chad was out to get my friends, not to mention, he’d called us vermin that day he banned me from the PIB. Guilt promptly fell unconscious. Good.

  My vindictive nature scared me. Since when had I turned into someone who threatened murder, even if it was in my own head?

  Since the people I loved were in the line of fire. That’s when.

  “Find out what you can.”

  “Yes, Sir,” they answered. Anger simmered in my gut.

  Chad narrowed his eyes at me. “Have you got something you’d like to say, Miss Bianchi?”

  Oops, I’d thrown a facial expression his way. “Yes, but I won’t because, well, I know if Ma’am were here, she wouldn’t want me to.” So there. Your authority is not the one I answer to.

  Liv mashed her lips together, trying not to smile. Beren studiously looked at the table, his face schooled into stillness. The two French agents shared a look that could have meant anything. Chad’s reaction, however, was as clear as a newly cleaned window. He spoke through gritted teeth. “Well, she’s not here, is she. And she never will be again, so get over yourself.” I bit my lip, trying not to laugh. He was such a teenager sometimes.

  “Lily,” Will hissed out of the side of his mouth. “Please don’t.”

  I sighed. Why I was even here, I didn’t know. Oh, that’s right, we were supposed to answer some questions. “Look, I don’t want to be here as much as you don’t want me here. Ask me what you want to know, and once I’m done, I’ll be happy to leave.” More than happy, actually. Plus, the longer I was here, the more likely I’d make things more difficult for Will.

  With a flourish of his arm, Chad conjured a large screen on the wall behind him. The black-and-white picture of a woman’s face was on it, larger than life, her eyes closed. “Is this the woman you think was spying on you yesterday at the hotel?”

  “Yes. That’s her for sure.” Even with closed eyes, I could tell it was her.

  Chad nodded. “Right, well, about two hours ago, her body was found floating in the sea off Mont Saint-Michel.”

  I swallowed. RP was leaving nothing behind. No one to question. If they kept that up, there’d be none of them left to arrest. Unless their army was way bigger than we imagined.

  “Did she have a snake tattoo?” Will asked.

  Chad magicked a yellow manilla folder to himself and opened it. He rifled through it until he came to the piece of paper he wanted. He slid it down the table to Will. We both looked at it. I placed my hand over my mouth.

  The dead woman was lying naked on a stainless-steel table, likely at the coroner’s office. There was no snake tattoo. She did have a pretty, colourful butterfly tattoo on the inside of her wrist though. Other than that, there were no other markings to speak of. Was she with RP and just didn’t have a tattoo yet, or had they paid her to spy on us? “What was her name?” Seeing her helpless, dead, and naked gave her a vulnerability not evident yesterday. She looked more like someone’s daughter, like a victim rather than a criminal out to get us.

  “We don’t know. She didn’t have any ID, and the DNA results aren’t back yet.”

  The bald French man spoke up. “We are sending two agents to the island to ask the locals if anyone had seen her recently. Maybe someone can identify her.”

  Not for the first time today, I missed Angelica and her steadfastness and confidence in the face of an almost-unsolvable mystery. Chad was fumbling along, and if he solved anything, it would only be because someone else actually did it or he’d tripped over it and fallen face first into it. “Is there anything else you’d like to ask?” Looking at a dead body, even if it was just a photo, was enough to take away the joy of needling Chad.

  “The man who attacked you, have you ever seen him before?”

  “No.”

  “Did he say why he was there?”

  I gave him a “you’ve got to be kidding me” look. Was he there for a late-night supper or a drink at the bar? I didn’t think so. “He was trying to kidnap me. That’s it. He didn’t say much else.”

  “So, it wasn’t an accidental thing. You sure he wasn’t there to rob the place, and you bumbled into him at the wrong moment?”

  Oh, for goodness’ sake. Deep breaths, Lily. Deep breaths. I shrugged. “Maybe? Maybe he saw me and forgot everything else and just had to have me? It’s not the first time that’s happened, so who can say?”

  Liv’s mouth made a small O, and her eyes shone with what might be excitement. She must be waiting for the fireworks sure to come. Chad was a few stubbies short of a six-pack, though. Maybe he’d disappoint us.

  “Ah, right, Miss Bianchi. If you say so.” Mmhmm, so disappointing, yet so predictable.

  I smiled. “Yep, I do.” It’s not my fault you asked a stupid question. “If that’s all, am I free to go?”

  Chad stared at the desk for a momen
t, likely trying to activate some brain cells, but he must have failed. “Ah, yes. You can go.”

  I stood. “Thank you.” I placed my hand on Will’s shoulder and squeezed. Then I walked around the table and found a spot big enough for me and my doorway. I made my doorway and left. Will would fill me in on everything else I needed to know later. There was no use suffering and dragging everyone else with me. Life was too short. Who knew, I might only have a few weeks left, and I wanted to spend as little of it as possible in Chad’s presence.

  As I unlocked Angelica’s reception-room door and went into the hallway, I considered the unidentified girl. Was she a criminal or another victim in this? Who was she, and where was she from? Was she even worth thinking about? Priority wise, she was low on the list. Getting into that chateau was likely to be way more informative.

  Besides, Chad had the French agents on it. I mentally crossed it off my list. Oh well, that only left another two hundred and fifty-seven items—at least that’s what it felt like.

  I locked the door and bent to pat Abby and Ted. “Hey, cuties. It’s so nice to have a welcome party come to greet me.” I made my way into the living room and magicked the fire on. It was time to prepare for tonight, go over the plan Millicent and I had come up with and look for any holes, because if we got this wrong, RP would make sure we paid the price.

  And what a hefty price it would be.

  Chapter 9

  Just after 7:00 p.m. and I found myself sitting at another table between Will and Liv. Beren sat at one end of the table and James at the other. Millicent and Imani sat opposite Will and me. The whole gang was here… well, everyone except for Angelica. I looked around the table and made a bubble of silence. “Has anyone heard from Angelica?” Everyone shook their heads, and I sighed. “I hope she’s okay.”