by Mara Webb
“I don’t remember. I knew I needed to get away, but... no I think the rocks were already gone.”
“Okay, so our suspects are from opposing families and we need to be sure before we go any further, otherwise things will get worse. We need to speak to Rosie before we do anything else,” I said, putting Greta’s shoe back in the bag and closing the box. Miller put the box back on the high shelf and we walked out of the evidence room back towards the sunlight outside the station.
I looked at him as if to make an assessment, maybe I was curious as to my own safety when wandering around the island with a werewolf. “You’re scared of me,” he said, clearly reading my expression.
“No, actually I’m not scared at all which is the part that is worrying me,” I smiled. He scratched the back of his head and when he noticed what he was doing, we both laughed.
“I think wolf-me spent most of the time scratching behind his ear, my ear, I don’t know who owns what,” he chuckled. We approached the café and when Rosie caught sight of us walking through the door, she seemed to fidget with her apron awkwardly and fluster about the counter as if searching for something to make her look busy.
Miller looked at me, but I kept facing forward. I felt as though I could sense what he was thinking; Rosie has been hiding something. “Rosie?” I said, forcing her to acknowledge us. Our shadows were growing eastward as the sun sank into the sky. Rosie was excused by an obliging Effie, and we beckoned her to join us outside so that we could speak privately.
“I didn’t mean to cause any harm,” she said, unprovoked.
“What do you mean?” Miller asked.
“Simon broke up with me and I knew he had made a mistake, so I thought I would help show him that he still loves me,” she squirmed. Her fingers interlocked and twisting, she was nervous. This was a confession, but what was she confessing?
“What did you do to make him think that?” I said.
“I had the idea that if I was in danger, or you know, he thought that I was in danger, that he would come running to my rescue.”
“This is about the stalker...” Miller said, his voice trailing off as he made the same realization as me. The stalker wasn’t real.
“I just told a few white lies about someone following me, you know, waiting outside the café or whatever, and I think that’s why he has been hiding by your house, trying to see if he can catch the guy. He told me that you saw him, and he thought he was in trouble,” Rosie sobbed. I had to consider that they were crocodile tears as she had just revealed herself to be quite manipulative.
“You said he was a tall guy, you described him!” I said.
“Not really. You seemed to think he was tall, and I just agreed with you,” she said.
Urgh.
18
It was time to head to Port Wayvern. Rosie had been let off with a stern word from Miller and a disgruntled look from me. The stalker angle had been a dead end. My suspicions that this was the beginnings of a new war between the Conerty’s and the Davick’s might be right, no matter how much I didn’t want it to be true.
When I was a kid, the drama of the school yard felt like the most important thing that would ever happen to me. I could never have pictured a version of my adult life where those types of disagreements would escalate to the point of murder. It was like the two families were frozen in time, trapped in the mindset of squabbling children. Had there been any attempts to fix this?
We boarded the small boat and set off for Port Wayvern, the captain signing some old pirate song loudly to himself and making up new words when he began to switch on a set of powerful flashlights so others could see us. “Ninety-nine shiny flashlights on me ship, ninety-nine shiny flashlights,” he crooned.
“When were the treaties signed?” I asked Miller.
“I think the most recent ones were about six years back. It seemed like everything was peaceful enough, or at least people were behaving themselves. It’s hard to say what has triggered this,” he shouted. The boat had picked up speed and the singing captain had also added to the noise, meaning that our conversation had to come to an end until we were back on land.
As we approached the island, it was clear that we had no welcome party waiting for us. I wondered if there was anyone in the Conerty family with the ability to anticipate our arrival. Being so new to magic it was impossible for me to even know what types of powers existed, never mind who had those powers. I had to trust Miller, trust that he wouldn’t spontaneously turn into a wolf and sprint away, leaving me alone with a family of murderers.
“Do you want me to wait?” the captain asked.
“Yes!” I replied quickly. How else would we get back to the main island? If we found someone that needed arresting, we could hardly swim back to the police station with the guilty party on our backs.
“Alright, I’ll be here working on my jams,” he said, pulling a guitar out of thin air and beginning to pluck at each string as he tuned it. I hadn’t considered that he might have magic, but the boat didn’t have enough storage to be hiding an acoustic guitar without me seeing it earlier.
“Where should we go first?” I asked Miller.
“If the Conerty’s have done something they shouldn’t have, then the head of the family would know about it. All moves have to go through Link,” he explained.
Even though it made perfect sense, I had been hoping that Link wouldn’t be involved. He was physically intimidating and the fact that I hadn’t seen any gyms around her suggested that he was strong from working the land, lifting heavy rocks and fighting. I couldn’t compete with that. Even Miller’s muscular arms couldn’t compete with that, not in his human form at least.
“Where would he be?” I asked. We both stood on the dark sand, staring towards the lights of the buildings before us, yellow pin pricks in the blanket of night. I suppose it’s too much to ask for streetlights in a place like this. I felt as though we were at a disadvantage coming here so late, we didn’t know the island as well as the locals and if they decided to run, or attack, then we wouldn’t know what to do or where to go.
“At this hour? Either at home or at the bar. I’d try the bar first,” Miller said, standing taller as if he also was feeling the need to psych himself up for this. He led the way and I followed close behind. The air grew brighter as we neared the small business district, the bakery on our left, the wooden structure that housed the treaties, then right in front of us, a sign pointing to the bar.
“Wait, it’s underground?” I said, feeling even less confident that this was a good idea. There was a staircase twisting downwards from the dirt sidewalk and I felt claustrophobic at the thought of it. Light and music escaped from the bar and it reminded me of a clue in a video game, as if the universe was saying ‘it’s this way’.
My feet rose, then fell, rose then fell. A slow walk in the direction of what could be a trap. I couldn’t lose sight of what I was accusing them of, among other things, I think that someone on this island killed Greta. The peacekeeper was murdered, and now all of her responsibilities were on my shoulders, I was as much of a threat to her killer as she was. I was at risk here.
On the stairs, Miller was three steps ahead of me. I turned my head rapidly between looking over my shoulder, and peering down over Miller’s, certain that we were walking into a dead end and we wouldn’t be able to escape once we got started. As soon as we asked the right questions, it would become clear what our suspicions were and that might rattle the guilty party.
It wasn’t as dank as I had expected. I guess my pre-conceived notions of an underground bar included cigar smoke, dim lighting and weathered old men sharing stories from their glory days over glasses of scotch. It was vibrant and colorful, youthful faces twirled on the dance floor as the seated few looked on. Everyone was tapping a foot to the music.
The bartender was throwing bottles into the air, watching them spin and catching them before pouring into glasses. He didn’t need to weigh it out, or use measuring cups, it was all done
by eye after years of experience. Were it not for the fact we were here to investigate a double homicide, then I’d be tempted to try a cocktail or two.
“Sadie! Good to see you again, pull up a stool!” Link bellowed from the corner of the room. They were still ignoring Miller, but I wanted them to see that I had back up. I hadn’t walked into a trap by myself, I had a police officer with me, the sheriff no less.
“Thanks,” I mumbled as I shuffled across the dance floor to Link’s table. He was surrounded by large men that looked similar to him, I guessed they were his brothers. They shuffled their chairs closer to Link so that there was space for me to join them, reluctantly continuing to shuffle after Miller approached with a chair and tried to squeeze into a spot beside me.
“What brings you to Port Wayvern tonight? Our night life can’t be beaten, so I can’t say I’m surprised,” Link laughed, clicking his fingers obnoxiously towards the bartender and holding up five fingers to suggest that we should all be brought a drink.
“Nothing for me thanks, I’m on duty,” Miller said.
“I don’t really drink all that much either so...” I tried to protest, but my voice went unheard.
“We have some questions about Chris Davick,” Miller began. That seemed to get their attention. “We have reason to believe that harm has come to him and we wanted to find out if you had any contact with him recently, or know of any reason that someone would have wanted to hurt him.”
“Which question should I answer first?” Link said with a smirk. “I’ll say this, with a last name like that, you are likely to run into trouble at some point. I won’t personally lose any sleep over it; the whole family should be avoided like the plague.”
“When was the last time any of you saw him?” I asked.
“He came over with those cupcakes and—” one of the brothers said. I saw the movement of an elbow jabbing into the guy’s ribs and he stop speaking.
“What are you hiding Link?” Miller said, noting that the elbow had belonged to the family’s leader and was clearly trying to censor the truth.
“Nothing. Look, if a Davick has gone and gotten himself shot then I won’t shed a tear, but I also won’t have you coming onto my island and harassing my family,” Link said. “Last time I saw him he wanted to negotiate new terms of the treaty. He was keen to loosen restrictions and I doubt his brother liked that idea too much, so if you are looking for a murderer then you’re on the wrong island.”
Out of the corner of my eye I could see Miller slowly placing his hand on the heel of his gun. Neither one of us had mentioned that Chris was dead or that he had been shot. As the music died down, it became clear that we were in trouble. No one else had a gun, but that didn’t put us at any advantage. This was an island filled with witchcraft, they didn’t have weapons because they didn’t need them.
A few people from the dancefloor decided to run up the stairs and make a break for it, we wouldn’t get so lucky as the exit was closed by a wall of Conerty’s giving us a mean glare.
“Now now, Sheriff. I think you forget that your law doesn’t work here,” Link said. He was still seated and was flanked by his two brothers that were on his feet.
“Doesn’t mine?” I asked. “That was why you killed Greta, right? You don’t want to be held back by other people’s rules anymore.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Link scoffed. I could see that his eyes were shifting over to the area of the bar behind me, I turned quickly to see if there was one of his family members charging at us. In the split second that I was looking away, Link made a break for it.
“Sadie!” Miller yelled. I whipped my head back round and saw him disappear through a doorway into a dark room, his brothers on his heels. We ran after them, thundering into the darkness only to realize that this was not another room at all. This was part of the underground tunnel system.
Where were they headed? I had only just discovered that these tunnels existed, I had no idea how to navigate them or where they all went. Link could be anywhere. I was so grateful to have Miller by my side, but unless he developed the ability to see in the dark, we were screwed.
What could we do if more members of the family followed us? We would be surrounded. Innocent people don’t run. If crime dramas on TV have taught me anything, it’s that sometimes a suspect running away is your proof that you have the right person. Or at the very least, they have done something that they aren’t proud of.
“I have a flashlight; do you want me to switch it on?” Miller whispered. He was close enough to my ear that I could feel his breath.
“Will that make us an easy target?” I replied.
“Only one way to find out, stay behind me,” he ordered. The tunnel was pierced by the beam of light in Miller’s hands, his gun tight in his grip beside the flashlight like a secret agent in a blockbuster. We heard footsteps that were approaching fast.
19
“Simon?” I said, realizing that the approaching footsteps belonged to the tall, gangly ex-boyfriend of my café employee. “What are you doing here?”
Miller didn’t lower his gun. This clearly made Simon uncomfortable, but we were in a situation where it wasn’t clear who was a threat and who wasn’t. I tried to channel my intuition to guide me, to warn me if we were caught in a warzone between the two families in these tunnels and needed to find an escape. I had nothing.
“I don’t want to go into it, but we have a bug in the bar,” Simon panted. He was then joined by his father; he too was out of breath and slightly red in the face from running. “Link killed my uncle, he killed Greta. He is trying to frame us and end the peace.”
“Why would he do that?” I asked.
“If you think my dad killed his brother to become head of the family, then killed the peacekeeper, then it wouldn’t be hard to get everyone else to believe it too. Our whole family would be ostracized, tourists wouldn’t visit our island anymore, we’d be finished. Then they would be free to take over, the treaties would be ignored even more than they already are and...” Simon paused for breath.
I had fallen into the trap that Link had set. Maybe I didn’t consider Kieran had killed his brother to take over the Davick family, but I had still been pointing fingers in their direction.
“We came to help,” Kieran wheezed. He took a deep breath with an inhaler pressed to his lips. “What? Witches can have asthma too!”
“I didn’t say anything,” I smiled.
“Greta was kind to us, she kept everyone compliant as much as she could. My uncle was a good guy, we didn’t always see eye-to-eye and I know you must think we are terrible people for not reporting him missing, but he used to go off on self-discovery missions all the time. We reported him missing once when he was on some nudist beach on one of the outer islands and he got really annoyed with us, the police raced onto the sand, waving their badges around. He was told not to come back,” Simon explained.
He was laughing at the memory initially, but then realized that he would never have that moment again. He would never have to worry about his uncle, never have to wonder how long he would be gone this time. He was never coming back.
“You shouldn’t be here,” Link snarled from the shadows. “We don’t welcome Davick’s on this island.” He stepped forward, his brothers by his side.
“It’s over, Link. You’ve taken your feud too far and two people are dead. The only family I had left in the world has been taken away from me before I even had the chance to meet her,” I hissed. I didn’t think it was worth mentioning that Greta had been hanging out with me in her ghost form.
“Only family left? You really have no clue,” Link laughed. “We have been held back long enough. Do you know that we can’t open a business if they already have something similar over on Tivercana? We burned down their bakery and opened our own before they could re-build. I can’t open a dive center because you have one, you have a golf course, you have a dolphin swimming experience package... what’s left for us?”
“Why not me?” Link barked.
“You killed my brother and Greta, you will be in jail for a long time,” Kieran replied.
“Oh yeah,” Link sighed. “Not if you can’t find me!” He turned and ran. His brothers both looked like they had loose wires in their heads, neither seemed to realize that they had been ditched and didn’t have the quick reactions to turn and chase after him. Miller slapped handcuffs on them both and Simon and Kieran agreed to wait with them until we returned.
Maybe it wasn’t the best idea to leave the four of them together like that, but we didn’t have much choice. If I was keeping score correctly, it seemed that Link had admitted to arson, as well as the two murders we suspected him of.
I was right by Miller’s side, running aimlessly in the direction that Link had gone but soon we came to a junction. The tunnel split into three separate tunnels and with the space having such a powerful echo, the voices of the bickering group we had left behind were the only sounds we could hear. We couldn’t track Link by the beat of his feet hitting the ground.
“Any chance you can sniff him out?” I asked, only half joking. Miller looked over at me and I couldn’t work out if I had crossed the line or suggested something useful.
“You want me to shift and hunt him down?” he said. I shrugged with a smile, hoping that I could pass it off as a joke if he was offended. “Sadie, it just happened to me. Once. I don’t know how to control it, I don’t know how to trigger it, and...” he trailed off. A sound of scuffling bounced off the walls, was Link fighting with someone?
