Cauldrons and Kittens

by R K Dreaming

  But when Percy said hello, Barbie said impatiently, “What do you want? I haven’t got long, so hurry up!”

  She was speaking in a very hushed and hurried tone.

  Percy narrowed her eyes. “Bella and Blanche are with you, aren’t they?”

  “So what?”

  “Where are you? Are you at your house?”

  “That is none of your business,” said Barbie, sounding a little shrill.

  “Nan knows where you live,” said Percy. “You had better make time to speak with me now, or Nan and I will come to your house and knock on the door and tell Bella that we all became best buds during our badminton match, and that you invited us over!”

  Barbie gasped. “You wouldn’t!”

  “Try me!”

  “What do you want?” Barbie whined, sounding much sulkier, but not like she was about to hang up the phone.

  “Tell me everything that you know about Mrs Delancey.”

  “Why would I know anything about her?” said Barbie in a scathing tone, as if Humbles were beneath her notice.

  Nan was practically bouncing with impatience. “Get to the point!” she mouthed.

  “Of course you know things about her,” said Percy. “You’re friends with Delphine, aren’t you? And Delphine was dating Mrs Delancey’s son. So she would have known all about the family and I bet she told you. Do you want to help us or not?”

  Barbie gave a huff of impatience as if all of this was beneath her, but once she started speaking, her voice quickly became animated.

  “Well, I do know that they used to live up north somewhere and they moved to London because Mrs Delancey’s husband went to prison—”

  “Prison?” interrupted Percy. “Are you sure?”

  “Yes, I’m sure,” Barbie said impatiently. “And Mrs Delancey was really angry about it, and she didn’t want to be anywhere near their old home any more. She wanted to get away.”

  “Why did he go to prison?” Percy asked eagerly.

  This was too much for Nan, who’d grown frustrated at not being able to follow the one sided conversation. She grabbed the phone and put it on loudspeaker so that she could hear.

  “You’ll never believe why,” said Barbie gleefully.

  “He was a wizard?” guessed Percy.

  “No,” said Barbie. “He was a Humble. But he was having an affair with a witch! For years and years and years, and Arthur and his mum never knew. So anyway, the witch got Mr Delancey involved in robbing magical goods. It made him rich, but eventually the Conclave of Magic found out and caught them both. But she had done something to his mind so they couldn’t wipe his memories of magic, so they couldn’t even send him to a Humble prison. They had to send him to a witching prison. Can you believe it?”

  “No way!” exclaimed Nan.

  Percy hushed her, so that Barbie could continue speaking.

  Barbie carried on, “Mrs Delancey only found out about the affair when he got taken away. His whole family just thinks he’s off travelling the world or something! Only Mrs Delancey and her son knew the truth, and she didn’t want him to have anything to do with it, so she moved them both to London. Poor Arthur. I think they made a special dispensation to let him visit his dad, but his mum would never let him. And anyway, Arthur never wanted to. He hates him. He was really close to his mum, and now she’s dead, poor thing.”

  Nan’s mouth had dropped open throughout this tale, and she looked very sad for Mrs Delancey and Arthur indeed.

  Percy said, “Thanks Barbie. That’s exactly what I needed to know,” and hung up the phone.

  “Poor Arthur,” said Nan. “Imagine what he must be going through.”

  “Don’t feel too sorry for him,” said Percy. “He’s the one who murdered his mum, and Frank, and tried to murder Delphine.”

  Nan gasped. “But… But… No way! Why would you think it was him?”

  “Didn’t you hear what Fake Floriano said? He said that Mrs Delancey was the one who brought Lucky kitten. He was mad about it because she only paid him a fiver. Arthur must have known that Lucky kitten belonged to his mom, so why did he deny it? He lied to me, when he had no reason to lie!”

  “I don’t know,” said Nan hesitantly.

  “If he didn’t want the kitten, he could have just said that he couldn’t take care of it. He was a grieving kid, and what sort of adult would force him to take the kitten back? He didn’t need to lie. So why the lie? Maybe because he knew the kitten connected his mum to that magic shop and he wanted nothing to do with it.”

  “But his own mum?” Nan was shaking her head as if this was impossible to believe. “Barbie said he was close to his mum.”

  “Barbie said he was angry with his dad. Angry with him for getting involved with a witch and her magic.” Percy started pacing up and down as she thought out loud. “And then his mum uprooted him from his home, took him to a new city where he had no friends. And to top it all off, she started dating other men and using love potions on them. She started using magic herself. He must’ve hated magic by then for what it did to his family. Maybe it made him angry. Maybe he started blaming her like he used to blame his dad. Maybe he didn’t even mean to push her out of the window, but they had a row and it just happened!”

  “But then why Frank… Why murder Frank? They didn’t even know each other.”

  “Once he’d killed his mum, it must have all just got out of control. I think he got angry at anyone who was using magic. Maybe he found out Frank was using it too. It would have been easy to see if you knew what you were looking for. Or maybe he just waited outside this magic shop to see who would go in and out, and he picked his victims that way.”

  “And Delphine? She was his girlfriend…”

  “And she was using a heap of potions. Maybe she even told him about it. He told her about the stuff that had happened with his family, and she told him about her own private stuff too. And he just couldn’t take it.”

  “But Delphine jumped. She jumped by herself!”

  “I don’t know how he did it,” said Percy. “There was something about the look on Delphine’s face when she jumped. It was like she thought that nothing would happen to her.”

  Suddenly Nan gasped and her face went pale. “Oh my gosh! Shara!”

  “What about Shara?”

  “Shara told me that she had found someplace that she can get a magical cure for her brother. But she wouldn’t tell me where it was. She said someone at school told her where to go! It had to be Ye Olde Magyk Shoppe! We have to warn her the potions are dangerous!”

  “We have to warn her about more than that,” said Percy in panic. “Call her. Check if she’s somewhere safe.”

  Nan called Shara, pacing frantically as the phone rang and rang.

  “She’s not picking up. It might mean nothing, but what if it means… ” Her voice trailed off in horror.

  Percy nodded grimly. “What if she went to the magic shop and Arthur Delancey saw her? What if she is his next victim!”

  19. Shara Greyshale

  “This is all my fault!” Nan wailed. She looked frantic.

  Percy put a hand on Nan’s shoulder to calm her. “Why is it your fault?”

  Nan didn’t answer. She had started running down the road. Percy followed, and soon realized they were heading south towards the River Thames.

  Of course! Shara would live next to the river.

  “How long until we get there?”

  “Don’t know,” panted Nan. “But this is going to be quicker than the tube.”

  She kept ringing Shara as she ran, but Shara did not pick up. In the end Nan left a voicemail saying “Shara please call me urgently if you get this. We think you might be in danger. We think Arthur Delancey might be coming to hurt you.”

  She had been panting so hard that the voicemail she left must have sounded completely garbled. She gave a hysterical laugh as she put down the phone. “We have to be wrong about this. This is mad.”

  “I don’t think we are,” said
Percy .“It must’ve been driving him crazy that he couldn’t get to Delphine in that hospital with all the nurses and visitors around. Imagine how angry he must have been when Delphine survived. He’s probably been desperate for a new victim.”

  They ran in silence after that, Nan going red in the face and heaving for breath but refusing to slow down. They got to some narrow, twisted roads near the river, crammed full of little terraced houses. Nan sped up, her legs pumping. Percy kept pace with her long easy lope, but even she was feeling tired by now.

  Nan flung herself towards a house with a blue door, and had pounded on it before Percy could stop her.

  “Shara!” she yelled. “Are you in? Let us in!”

  Percy dragged Nan away, hissing, “Are you mad?”

  Nan realized what she had done, and her mouth dropped open in dismay.

  But before either of them could back away from the house, the front door opened, and Shara was standing there looking at them both with a strange expression on her face.

  “Tell them they had better come in,” said a voice behind Shara.

  Shara shook her head a tiny bit. She mouthed, “Run away!”

  She looked very pale and very scared.

  “I said, tell them to come in,” said the boy’s voice angrily.

  “No,” said Shara. “Leave them alone. They have nothing to do with this. Run. What are you waiting for? Go!”

  But Arthur Delancey was now visible over Shara’s shoulder. And so was the gun that he was pointing at Shara’s head.

  There was a slightly maniacal look in his eyes as he pressed the gun behind Shara’s ear.

  “You’d better come in or she gets it,” he said.

  He meant it too.

  Percy nodded. She stepped closer, Nan following her. Shara and Arthur moved aside to let them into the house.

  The hallway inside was small and felt crowded with the four of them in it. A set of stairs led up to the first floor, and beside it ran a corridor leading to a kitchen at the end.

  But Arthur pointed with his gun towards a nearer door. Percy and Nan went into it, and found themselves in a small lounge. It was a cozy room with plump blue couches and pale blue walls on which was hung up framed photos and art of beautiful places under the sea.

  “Naughty, naughty, Shara,” said Arthur Delancey in a cold voice. “You didn’t tell me you were expecting guests.”

  “I wasn’t,” whispered Shara. “Please. They’ve got nothing to do with it.”

  “To do with what?” said Arthur Delancey in a sly voice. “Are you finally going to confess to your sins?”

  “What did I do?” pleaded Shara. “Just tell me what I did, and I won’t do it again. I’m sorry!”

  “Magic,” said Percy quietly. She and Nan was standing very close together next to one of the couches. “You used magic and he doesn’t like it.”

  Shara’s eyes widened in surprise. She looked from Arthur to Percy and back again. “Magic?” she asked in confusion.

  “For your brother,” said Percy.

  Nan nodded.

  Shara licked her lips nervously. “But he’s sick,” she said desperately to Arthur. “I had to get it.”

  “No you didn’t,” he snarled. “You should have put your faith in modern medicine like normal people. Only freaks dabble in magic!”

  “You don’t understand,” said Shara. “I tried to get a permit for it, but the council wouldn’t give it to me. And I asked a friend for help but —“

  She had looked at Nan, but she quickly looked away and abruptly stopped speaking.

  Percy stiffened up, but Arthur Delancey had not noticed. Percy suddenly had a newfound respect for Shara. Here was a new patsy that Shara could have used to distract Arthur’s attention from herself. All she had to do was say that Nan was a witch, and Arthur would stop pointing that gun at Shara and would immediately point it at Nan. But Shara refused to say it.

  “What council?” Arthur Delancey asked suspiciously.

  Percy nodded at Shara, silently telling her to keep talking. The longer Shara spoke, the longer the delay before Arthur finally shot her.

  “There’s a council you can ask for help,” said Shara. You need a permit to use magic unless you’re a witch. They refused to give me a permit. And then I asked people at school who knew a councilor if they could help, but they said they couldn’t.”

  So that was what Shara had been pleading with Octavia for last week. She’d wanted her to ask Councilor Strickt to help approve her permit request, but Octavia had said no. Percy felt an intense jolt of dislike for Octavia.

  Shara was looking at Arthur with desperation. “You have to understand. I couldn’t bear for my baby brother to die. You’ve lost your mother. You know what that’s like.”

  “He doesn’t know what that’s like,” said Percy, “because he killed his mother, didn’t you Arthur?”

  “I DIDN’T KILL HER!” Arthur roared.

  He turned his gun on Percy. He was so angry that his hand was shaking.

  Percy swallowed hard. “You didn’t?” she asked him quickly, desperate to calm him down. “Sorry. My mistake. I thought that maybe you were mad at her for using magic.”

  He turned pale. “You know about that?”

  Percy nodded.

  A look of desperation came into his eyes. “It wasn’t her fault!” he said almost pleadingly. “She was lonely when we came here. And so angry at my dad that she wanted revenge. She wanted to find somebody else to love, so she turned to that despicable wizard for those disgusting potions! They worked for a bit, and then they stopped working, and she got more and more desperate every time. She was depressed. Couldn’t he see that? He should have helped her but he only made her worse! Because magic is evil. Magic makes you evil.” He spat out those last words as if he fully believed it.

  “Were you angry with her for using it?” asked Percy, her eyes on the gun.

  She had to force herself to look at his face instead, to make eye contact with him so that he might realize that she was a human being.

  “Not angry with her,” he spat. “I tried to help her. I thought she was going to get better. But then dad wrote to her from that stupid magical prison. They should never have allowed him to do it, but they don’t care! Whatever he said to her was the last straw. She was so upset. It was all too much. Then she jumped. She killed herself!”

  His voice broke on this last bit. He started sobbing. His shoulders shook, and the gun trembled even harder.

  Shara was nearest to him. She was now eyeing up the gun as if looking for an opportunity to snatch it away. He seemed to sense this, because suddenly he turned the gun back on her.

  Shara immediately backed away a couple of paces. She hit the wall and there was nowhere else left for her to go.

  His face filled with rage again. “It’s the fault of people like you!” he shouted. “If you didn’t buy magic, those disgusting witches and wizards wouldn’t sell it. I had to get that shop shut down. So I watched it, and when I saw that lumpy faced Frankenstein coming out of it, I knew I had to kill him. It was so easy. I just forced that booze and pills down his throat, and all he did was sob and say he wanted to live. Stupid git. He shouldn’t have used magic, should he?”

  “And Delphine?”

  Percy immediately regretted asking it, because his face turned red with anger this time.

  “She was the worst of them all. She tricked me. I thought she was normal like me, but then… then…” He shuddered as if the thought of it was so repulsive that he didn’t know what to do with himself.

  He had to take a deep breath before he could continue. “She told me she was a succubus. It made me sick. The thought of witches and wizards was bad enough, but a succubus?” His face twisted until it looked ugly. “I never knew there were things like that.”

  “But how did you get her to jump?” asked Percy, injecting an almost admiring hint into her voice.

  An idea had occurred to her, but she was going to have to be very caref
ul about how she handled it.

  He looked pleased. “Clever, wasn’t it?” he boasted. “I knew that she was desperate to be part of Bella’s little clique, so I told her I had the perfect way for her to do it. Bella hated you after you got her arrested. All Delphine needed to do was help Bella get revenge on you, and what better way than to accuse you of being a murderer?”

  “That was really clever,” said Percy in a simpering voice. “I mean, if it hadn’t been me, I would have thought it was genius.”

  “It was genius!” he snapped. “She thought she was going to jump out of the window and I would have prepared a magical trampoline for her so she would bounce right up and be fine. Can you believe she fell for it?”

  And then he laughed and laughed. “She did fall for it! Aha ha ha ha!” He wiped the tears of his face. “Stupid demon.”

  “It served her right for what she did to you,” said Percy, looking at him adoringly as she couldn’t take her eyes off him.

  Nan was looking at Percy strangely, and Shara had shot Percy a confused look that verged on dislike.

  “It did serve her right, didn’t it?” he said smugly. “I’m still going to get her. Can you believe her disgusting parents wouldn’t let me in to visit? They called me a Humble. Said I wasn’t good enough for her! I’ll show them! They’ll be crying when I’m done with her. She’s just lying there like a vegetable. A helpless stupid demon. All I need is a pillow to finish her off.”

  And then he looked suspiciously at Percy. “Don’t pretend you’re on my side. You’re the one that we trapped.”

  “I don’t care about that. To be honest, I’m surprised that you even knew I existed.” She opened her eyes wide and batted her eyelashes. “Was it your idea to get the Three Bees to film me, capture it all on camera?”

  He nodded smugly.

  “Very clever,” she said.

  His eyes narrowed. “You’re trying to trick me!”

  She shook her head. “You don’t understand. Bella is a succubus too. Did you know that? Why do you think I was desperate to prove that she was involved in that talent show murder?”