Rocking Out

by A. A. Albright

  I left Finn questioning Jasper, and strode over to the body. Dennis and Shane were bent down over Alicia, examining her. Now that she was lying on the floor, she looked all the more gruesome. There was an oddly-shaped mark on her throat, as though something small and sharp had cut her.

  ‘I’d say it happened about ten this evening, give or take,’ said Shane. ‘And there’s something else. Do you want to tell her Dennis?’

  Dennis shook his head. ‘You’ll be taking over from me come tomorrow. Telling the Wayfarers what you’ve found is all part of the job.’

  I stared at Shane. ‘Taking over? Tomorrow? So … you’re taking the job?’

  He gave me a red-faced shrug. ‘Yeah, well … it’s not as bad as I thought it would be. Anyway, I told you earlier on that the bite marks seemed to have been cleaned?’

  I tamped down my happiness and nodded.

  ‘Well, it seems to be the same here. I think she was bitten after death. And just like with Caitlyn, the marks are totally clean. No saliva. No DNA traces to identify the biter. But …’ He shuffled to his feet and stuffed his hands into his coat pocket. ‘We em … we finally have a match on the teeth that bit Caitlyn.’

  I looked closer at him. He had reluctance written all over his face. ‘Why do you sound so hesitant to tell me?’

  Shane sighed. ‘Because I am. I’ve been a Call of the Wild fan for years, Wanda. But as much as I wish otherwise, there’s no doubt about it. The bite marks on Caitlyn’s body are a definite match. She was bitten by Mack McAdams.’

  My stomach sank. Without saying anything more to Shane, I crossed the room. ‘Mack McAdams,’ I said, preparing a binding spell as I spoke. ‘You’re under arrest for the murder of Caitlyn Daly.’

  11. Die Hard Fans

  It was four a.m., and I was tired enough to consider magicking a sleeping bag over to the Wyrd Court. Just as I was nodding off in one of the canteen’s chairs, Shane woke me up.

  ‘I got a rush job on the result on the second set of bite marks,’ he told me, passing me a cup of coffee and sitting across from me. ‘There’s good news and there’s bad news. Oh, and then there’s some more bad news.’

  I took a sip of coffee. ‘Hit me,’ I said. ‘I can take it.’

  Shane laughed. ‘I doubt anyone would dare to actually hit you. You’re just about the only person to tangle with the Dark Team and live to tell the tale. Anyway, the good news, if I can call it that – the bite marks on Alicia’s body weren’t Mack’s. But … and here’s the bad news – they are a match for another band member.’

  ‘Jasper?’ asked Finn, arriving at the table. He had carried on questioning the band members while I took a break. I could see that the interview had taken its toll.

  Shane shook his head. ‘Oddly, no. I have a funny feeling that Alicia was just left in Jasper’s closet for dramatic effect. The teeth marks were a match for Bryce Blue’s.’

  Finn’s expression said it all. Bryce Blue was the band’s lead guitarist. I barely knew him, because he didn’t hang about with Jasper or Callum much. He was far too busy spending time with the love of his life, Veronica Berry.

  ‘Good goddess, if this comes to a trial the whole thing’s going to be a circus,’ said Finn. ‘Being in a relationship with a Berry makes you a Berry. They’ll have their best lawyers defending Bryce. But … what actually cut through Alicia’s throat like that?’

  Shane bit his bottom lip. ‘Yeah, that’s more of the bad news. It was a guitar pick, thrown through her with a lot of force and a perfect aim. There’s no way to tell if it was one of Bryce’s picks. Just like with the microphone cable, it’s clean. And so are the bite marks, again. Yeah, they match Bryce’s teeth, but there’s no saliva, no DNA, and there’s something else Alicia’s body has in common with Caitlyn’s – Alicia was bitten after death.’

  ‘Another set-up?’ suggested Finn. He sighed. ‘It doesn’t really matter though, does it? We have to go and arrest yet another rock star. Unless … What about Marion? You said she was annoyed with Alicia for defecting to the Alpha Babes. Maybe Caitlyn wanted to do the same? Or maybe … maybe Marion was just jealous?’

  I shook my head. ‘I don’t think she had anything to do with this. Even if we weren’t putting Alicia’s time of death at ten or so – when Marion was at the same gig as me – she also has an alibi for the whole afternoon. I spoke to her husband and he confirmed it. They rowed shortly after Gretel and I left Marion’s bedroom. Then they went to marriage counselling – which the counsellor has also confirmed. Then they had dinner together – and rowed some more – before he dropped Marion off to meet the rest of the She-Wolves at the gig. She might not have a happy marriage, but she does have an airtight alibi.’

  ‘Oh.’ Finn banged his head on the table. ‘So … we’re back to where we started. We have to arrest yet another famous rock star. The one who goes out with the famous actress. The one who has a whole lot of Berry lawyers who are going to make our lives a misery.’

  I shrugged. ‘Look on the bright side. At least we don’t have to travel far to do it. He’s already in one of our interview rooms.’

  Finn let out a bleak laugh. ‘Yay. And after we do that, I reckon we might just be able to get about an hour’s sleep each before we head off to search Bryce’s and Mack’s houses. Remind me again why I took this job?’

  Shane patted his arm. ‘You’re making me so happy I’ve agreed to work here, mate. Cheers.’

  ≈

  Finn was wrong about the wonderful, blissful, hour-long sleep. In truth, I only got about twenty minutes before Wolfie woke me up with a lick. I guess I could have stayed there and enjoyed a little more of his morning slobber, but instead I showered, dressed, and dragged my body downstairs.

  It was early enough in the morning to confirm that Melissa was right. Max was sleeping on the couch. Alone. I knew that they’d made up their argument of the night before (I still had many vivid memories of them stuck to each other’s faces) so I guessed he and Emily were simply taking things slow.

  ‘Why is he on the couch?’ asked Wolfie with a mournful whine. ‘He was making kissy faces on his bed with Emily so I ran away. I could have slept with him if I knew he was on the couch.’

  I stroked the dog behind the ears. ‘Well, if you had then you wouldn’t have been able to get my bed all hairy, now would you?’

  He grinned at me. ‘That’s true. I made it smelly, too. What’s for breakfast?’

  ‘Let’s go see, shall we?’

  We made our way into the kitchen, where Melissa was standing in front of the refrigerator, staring in, her pyjamas still on. I knew that today was a day off for her, but even on weekends she got up at the crack of dawn to exercise. This morning, though, she was pulling a box of éclairs from the fridge and cramming one into her mouth.

  ‘It’s coconut cream,’ she said between mouthfuls. ‘Do you want some?’

  I grabbed one and bit into it. ‘Oh, my stars! This is so good. What happened to doughnuts, though?’

  She wiped her mouth and took a sip from her coffee. ‘I figured you’d be straight back to work as soon as you got up from your five minutes in bed. But I’m up for cartoons and a good face-stuffing, if you are.’

  ‘I think I’ve got the face-stuffing sorted,’ I replied, wiping my mouth and grabbing a second éclair. ‘But I’ve got to go and search Mack’s house, and Bryce’s, and get onto Sickle Sensible about where Murphy’s recent windfall came from. So cartoons are off the table, unfortunately. But you and Max could always watch together.’

  Melissa’s face darkened. ‘You mean me, Max and Emily. Why Bryce’s house? He’s the guitarist, right?’

  I groaned. ‘I guess you’ll hear about it soon enough. The bite marks on Alicia were Bryce’s. And the murder weapon was a guitar pick.’

  Melissa looked thoughtful. ‘This is all so strange, Wanda. It’s not even full moon yet. I know werewolves can turn whenever they want, but most of them don’t because it’s dangerous to do it too much at the wrong time
. If they wanted to turn those girls, they would have waited. And I’m fairly sure those girls would have been happy to wait, too.’

  I was about to reply when my attention was distracted by the announcer on the radio.

  ‘And that was Alpha’s latest song,’ he said. ‘It hasn’t made it to number one in the charts yet, which means I’ve lost a bet. I told my mate that what with Mack McAdams being arrested for murder, Alpha were sure to knock the Call of the Wild off the top spot. I guess I owe someone two gold rounds. Here’s the number one single, folks. It’s the Call of the Wild’s latest. A little ditty called Red. I guess those boys really do have some die hard fans.’

  Melissa’s cheeks flushed as the song began to play. She pointed at the radio, sparks flying from her fingertips. The force of her spell sent it hurtling towards the far wall, smashing it into countless pieces.

  ‘Die hard fans,’ she said with a scowl. ‘What kind of idiot makes a joke like that about two young women being murdered?’ She narrowed her eyes. ‘A man, that’s who. I hate Mack McAdams. The stupid murdering idiot. I’m off men for life.’

  I picked up the radio, decided that it was too far gone for even Paul to fix, and threw it in the bin. I didn’t know what to say to Melissa. If I were in her shoes, I would be off men for life, too. I mean, I was off men for life, but that was less through choice and more through sheer bad luck.

  Wolfie, who had been quiet since we entered the kitchen, suddenly piped up. ‘Mack wouldn’t bite anyone,’ he said. ‘He’s the only one of the band who didn’t laugh when I chased birds.’

  Melissa frowned. ‘Yeah, well, maybe that was only because he preferred to chase a different kind of bird.’

  Princess jumped out of the fruit bowl, hopped off the table and curled her way around Melissa’s ankles. ‘Maybe we should wait and see what else Wanda and the Wayfarers find out,’ the cat said. ‘The second teeth marks were Bryce’s, not Mack’s, so maybe …’

  Melissa picked up Princess and stroked her head. ‘Maybe what, Princess? Maybe he only murdered one innocent young woman? I’m afraid we just have to face it, kitty cat – when it comes to men, I’ve got the worst judgement in the world.’ She looked at me, her eyes swollen and red-rimmed. ‘I meant what I said last night, Wanda. I’ll be on that prosecution team. And it won’t be about me being a woman scorned. It’ll be about justice. Because it doesn’t matter how famous you are – you do not get to do that to a girl and get away with it.’

  12. The Cabin in the Woods

  Gretel was working in Riddler’s Edge again that morning, so Finn, Shane and I made our way to Mack’s woodland home without her. We had already been to the small flat Alicia shared with two other female witches. There was nothing there to help us – not even a familiar.

  One of Alicia’s flatmates told me that Twinkles, Alicia’s cat, hadn’t been seen since the morning before. I hoped that Twinkles would show up soon – preferably alive, and with some information to impart. But I had the sickly feeling that we would find that poor kitty with her twinkling light gone out.

  We had a small team with us, but that morning I was convinced that the most important member of our team was Shane. Despite being unempowered, he was a man of many talents. He’d studied wizardry at Wentforth’s College, and had devised a spell that would match any soil residues or plant matter on the body within seconds.

  Mack’s house in the Wandering Wood was less of a creepy shack and more of a paradise. His property was built close to the point where the Rabblesome River joined Willow Lake. The house was constructed on stilts, and crossed over both the stream and the lake, with see-through bridges and floors looking at the water below.

  Inside was almost as good as outside. There was natural wood everywhere, and huge glass windows that made me feel like the forest was inside the house. All in all, Mack’s home was the stuff of fairy tales. As I walked around, all I could think was how much Melissa would have loved this place.

  There was an enormous music studio, and instruments spilled out of it and took over every room in the house. Pages of music and lyrics were littered everywhere, but music didn’t seem to be Mack’s only love. He had the sort of kitchen that even a professional chef would envy, and I could see by the home-cooked leftovers in the fridge that he actually used that kitchen. There was a plate of chickpea moussaka in there that was making my stomach rumble.

  I closed the fridge, shutting it out of my sight. While Shane put his wizardry to work, Finn and I searched the house with the rest of the team.

  ‘There are magic traces here and there,’ said Finn as we picked our way through the rooms. ‘Quite strong, some of them.’

  I looked at his scanner. Yeah, a witch had been in Mack’s house, that much was certain. And like Finn said, the readings on the scanner suggested a lot of magic was used.

  ‘This case gets more confusing by the minute,’ I said. ‘If Caitlyn was here, and she used magic to try and fight Mack off, then there’s no way he would have been able to bite her or strangle her. I’ve checked her school records. She graduated first in her year from Riddler’s Cove School of Magic. This year was a gap year for her, but she was all set to study Materialization at Crooked College in September, with Developmental Incanting as her secondary subject. She was powerful, Finn. She would have easily been able to cope with Mack.’

  ‘I know,’ he agreed with a frown. ‘But look – the magical signature has been scrambled. So there’s no way to tell if it was Caitlyn or somebody else.’

  I took the scanner in my hands, fiddling about with the settings. No matter what I tried, I couldn’t find a clear magical signature, and I doubted Paul would have much luck either. ‘Caitlyn wouldn’t have tried to disguise her own magical signature,’ I said. ‘Why would she? So either Mack had someone come in here and try to clean up any traces of her after he killed her. Or …’

  ‘Or someone else has been here,’ said Finn. ‘Bringing us back to my weak but unshakeable theory – that someone is setting these guys up.’

  Shane appeared behind us. ‘Guys,’ he said. ‘I’m afraid I have to deliver one last nail to Mack’s coffin. The soil traces on Caitlyn’s shoes are from the lakeside here. The fern spores in her clothing are from the same spot.’

  I squeezed my eyes shut. ‘It looks like we’re building a pretty strong case against Mack for Caitlyn’s murder, then. And when we go to Bryce’s house after this, I have a funny feeling it’ll be just the same.’

  Finn picked up his truncheon, tapping it against his hand in irritation. ‘Me too. But let’s go to Bryce’s anyway – y’know – just for kicks and giggles.’

  ≈

  Unfortunately, Finn and I were right. Because there we were, at the house that Bryce Blue shared with Veronica Berry – a palatial townhouse in Warren Lane – discovering all the evidence we needed to put him away. Fibres from his couch matched fibres found in Alicia’s hair. The pile from his carpet was found beneath her fingernails. This should have been the easiest case ever, but I had to ask myself – when were cases ever easy?

  ‘I dunno,’ said Paul when we landed back at our temporary offices that afternoon. ‘If it looks like a duck and walks like a duck …’

  Gretel, just back at the office, gave a reluctant nod. ‘I kind of have to agree. I’m not sure why you’re even struggling with this, Wanda. The guys in that band are creeps. I mean, Jasper has animal-print covers on his bed.’

  ‘Yeah,’ I said. ‘But Jasper’s not the one the evidence is against, is he? It’s Mack and Bryce. Bryce, who happens to have the most famous actress in the supernatural world on his arm. And Mack who … I dunno. I just don’t see him as a killer.’

  Gretel shrugged. ‘I know what you mean, but the evidence is there. And Melissa’s certainly not letting the fact that she likes Mack get in the way. I ran into her a little while ago. She’s already talked to Christy Dempsey, the Wyrd Court’s chief prosecutor. It looks like she could be working for her very soon.’

  I felt a weak smile
form on my face. For months now, Melissa had been struggling to find lawyers willing to work with her. Most of the Wyrd Court’s lawyers were of the old guard, and they weren’t too fond of the Wayfair coven. I mean, what with our irritating quest for justice, equality, and a better world for all … who wouldn’t hate us? Melissa had been jumping from lawyer to lawyer, as one after another they found flimsy excuses to let her go.

  I knew my mother had given them a warning. But they weren’t accustomed to seeing a Minister for Magical Law use her powers for good, and I don’t think any of them took her seriously – certainly not seriously enough to take Melissa on as their clerk.

  But Melissa needed a lawyer she could stick with. Every day she spent clerking earned her some points towards her final result. If she wanted to ace the LOL examination at the end of the summer and become a fully qualified lawyer, she needed to find someone who would let her clerk for more than five minutes. Oh, and someone who would also give her a glowing report at the end of her clerkship, because without one, she might not get the points she needed to pass.

  Christy Dempsey was one of the most successful lawyers around, and so far she had shown no interest in letting Melissa clerk. Perhaps Melissa’s newfound hatred of Mack had given her the determination she needed. If so, I wasn’t sure how I felt about that.

  Finn sensed my worry and gave my shoulder a squeeze. ‘Come on. You and me have a meeting with Christine.’

  13. Frustrating Fragments

  Although Christine’s current place of work was just as temporary as ours, she’d managed to make hers a lot more comfortable. There were essential oils burning, sending wafts of rosemary up into the air, while her staff sat around on beanbags and cushions. There were even one or two people on yoga mats, stretching languidly with faraway expressions on their faces.