ExSpelled (The Kitchen Witch Book 5): Witch Cozy Mystery series

by Morgana Best

  The first thing I noticed was the smell and the cold. The interior of the building itself was warm, but the tunnel had a kind of damp coolness to it. It was as if the walls exuded moisture. It was not a comforting feeling, rather one of some type of hidden threat. And in fact, I supposed that danger did indeed lurk around every corner.

  Mandy clung to my arm. “It’s not too bad,” I said in an attempt to reassure her. “This tunnel doesn’t go for too long, and then we come out into the jungle. Well, it’s not exactly a jungle, but we come out of this tunnel into it, and it’s like tropical undergrowth and stuff.” I knew I was not making much sense, but I continued regardless. “Then we have to sprint to the next tunnel because it’s horribly windy. Then we go uphill and there are lots of stairs, but it’s not as bad as you think, because the tunnel is wide and not at all scary.” If you don’t reckon on the ax wielding murderers, I added silently.

  When we reached the end of the tunnel, I saw that one ax was firmly still in the chopping block. The wind wasn’t as violent now, but I clung to every tree I passed so it didn’t blow me over. Thunder was rapidly approaching, and the air pressure was building. It was as if the whole environment was on an adrenaline rush.

  We all sprinted after Owen across the gap between the tunnels. Mandy did her best to stick closely to Owen, and I did my best to shoulder her out of the way without being too obvious about it. Lightning flashed as I ran between the tunnels, my heels painful and bleeding.

  Vanessa complained at length for the entire second tunnel, saying she was short of breath and needed to sit down. I doubted she would sit in the dirt, and when Michael finally called her bluff and said we should all stop while she rested, she merely leaned against the wall. I was tempted to suggest leaving her there until our return.

  My calves were burning by the time I reached the top of the stairs, but that was nothing compared to the pain in my heels. Again, I would have much rather stayed in the safety of the building, but I figured I had to be the safest person on the island, given my own protection spells and those of my friends. And as before, there was no way I would miss an opportunity to speak with Alder.

  I was relieved when we finally left the tunnel and climbed the rocky embankment to the top of the hill. It was still more sheltered than the place between the tunnels. I thought that strange as it was on the top of the hill, but I supposed the outcrop of rocks provided some shelter. I fell into the same pattern as before, pressing ‘send’ continually until the message sent. This time, there was a message from Alder, telling me that he and the others were doing spells for my protection. He asked me to call him as soon as I could.

  I was able to get through on the third call. “Amelia! Are you all right? What’s happened?”

  “I’ve texted you all the details. There’s been another murder, Alder! They suspect the pool boy, Bazza Aston. Would you see if you could find out anything about him? Alder, I’m really scared.”

  “Amelia…” With that, the connection dropped out.

  Chapter 11

  I looked up to see Mandy speaking, and the others furiously tapping their phones. Owen, too, was speaking, so I tried to call Alder back. I expected I had a different cell phone carrier to Owen and Mandy. Obviously, I hadn’t picked a good one.

  I typed another message and tried to send it. Again, I sat with my back to the rock and watched the others. Abby and Michael presently joined me.

  The thunder was progressing from low rumbles to loud cracks. I counted the intervals between the lightning and the thunder, and soon the thunder was upon us. There was a simultaneous crack of thunder and flash of lightning. I jumped as the lightning struck a tree on the verge of the clearing.

  Electricity reverberated through my body as the ground trembled. The tree fell away from our group, but it nonetheless gave me quite a fright. Mandy and Vanessa were astonished, but Owen had the presence of mind to take them by the arms and escort them to my somewhat sheltered position at speed. “Quick everyone, back into the tunnel as fast as you can. I’ll tell you what the police said once we’re back undercover.”

  We ran to the tunnel entrance and stumbled inside. I pressed my back to the wall and kept an eye on the entrance. I shone my flashlight down into the tunnel to make sure no one was waiting there for us.

  We were all breathing rapidly, and Owen, I assume, waited until we were all calmer before speaking. “I got through to the police again. They said they had done background checks on all the guests, and didn’t find anything unusual. I told them all about poor Sarah’s murder, and also that Bazza was still on the island.”

  “Did they do a background check on him?” Mandy asked.

  Owen shook his head, or so I assumed in the dim lighting at the entrance to the tunnel. We were far enough inside that the wind didn’t penetrate it and lash us, but not so far that we were enveloped in total darkness. “No,” Owen said. “I didn’t know that Bazza was still on the island when Benedict and Laura were killed.” With that, he headed into the tunnel, with me right behind him.

  Tears were streaming down my face at the pain in my heels. The blisters were red raw and bleeding, and to say they hurt was an understatement. I did consider taking off my shoes, but that would mean I would lag behind, and goodness knows what was on the tunnel floor. I certainly couldn’t afford to gash my feet, though the blisters were horribly painful. Every step was agony, but the alternative would have been far worse.

  It wasn’t long before I was overtaken, and I struggled to keep up with the others. Even if it weren’t for the bad blisters on my feet, the others were keeping up an incredible pace. I assumed they were as worried as I was about being out in the storm, potentially with a murderer, no less. I called out to them, but the group quickly disappeared into the darkness ahead of me.

  I hobbled forward as quickly as I possibly could, trying my best to ignore the severe pain shooting through my feet. I considered taking off my shoes again, but decided that the pain was only temporary. I didn’t want to gash my feet on something rusty—who knew what was lying on the tunnel floors.

  Alone in the tunnel, the darkness felt more oppressive than ever. I was thankful for my flashlight, but I couldn’t shake the awful feeling of someone, or something, standing behind me. I spun around several times to shine my light back through the tunnel, but each time there was nothing, and it was slowing me down. I had to speed up if I wanted any chance of catching the others.

  Finally, I arrived at the exit of the second tunnel. I had to make it across the clearing, then there was just the other tunnel and I’d be free. I’d hoped that the others would be waiting at the entrance of that tunnel for me, but it was too dark to see inside.

  I looked out across the clearing and gulped nervously. The wind still wasn’t nearly as bad as it had been during our first expedition to the hill, but knowing that Sarah had been murdered here was almost more than I could bear. It did, however, provide plenty of motivation to ignore the stinging pain of my blisters as I sprinted across the clearing and into the next tunnel.

  As soon as I was inside, I fell backward and sat down with a thud, exhausted and terrified. There was still no sign of the group, though of course they had probably made it back inside by now. I shone my flashlight into the tunnel and sighed deeply when I realized I would have to make the entire trip back alone.

  I gingerly stood to my feet, propping myself against the wall for support. I slowly began the walk back through the tunnel, hoping that my feeling of nervousness would pass before long, though I doubted it very much.

  After a few steps, that same feeling of being watched returned. I shuddered and spun around, partially hoping I’d catch someone looking at me, but simultaneously very much hoping I wouldn’t.

  Through the entrance I had just come from, I briefly saw someone dart past the clearing. I barely had a glimpse of whoever it was, but it was enough to make me sprint the rest of the way back, regardless of the pain in my feet. It couldn’t have been any of the group, since the
y had been with me most of the way and I would have noticed if someone had doubled back. If it was anyone else, I couldn’t imagine that they had good intentions.

  About a minute into my record-setting run back down the tunnel, I was temporarily blinded by several bright lights.

  “Amelia!” Owen’s voice sounded out as he ran toward me. I fell to the ground in a heap, barely managing to hold back hot tears. The tears were partly from fear and adrenaline, but mostly from pain. I couldn’t wait to take those stupid shoes off. “Are you all right? What happened?”

  “There’s someone else out here,” I managed to say, shining my light back through the tunnel. There was nothing but bricks and dirt.

  “Are you sure? What happened?” Owen asked, kneeling beside me and putting his hands on my shoulders.

  “My blisters slowed me down, so I fell behind,” I explained, resisting the urge to chew them out for not coming back to check on me, or at least waiting a little while. “Just after I ran through the clearing, I looked back and saw a person.”

  “Who was it?” Mandy asked, clearly terrified.

  “I don’t know,” I sighed. “I barely saw them, and I didn’t exactly want to stick around.”

  “It was probably just a large bird of some kind,” Owen said dismissively. “We get them around here from time to time. That, combined with the stress of everything and your pain, probably made you assume the worst.”

  I was a bit annoyed at Owen’s condescending attitude, but I had to admit that he had a point. Did I really know that it had been a person? Could it have been something else? I thought back to the moment, trying my best to remember. The figure had been moving quickly, but I was sure it was human. I looked up at the group.

  “It was definitely a person,” I said with a nod. “I just can’t say for sure who it was. I don’t even know their gender.”

  “But who else could it be?” Michael asked. “We’re the only ones on the island, aren’t we?”

  The question caused a wave of uneasiness to shoot through me. After all, we had always thought we were alone on the island, but then Bazza had shown up. Anybody else could have skipped off the boat onto the island, or even come here by some other means entirely.

  Chapter 12

  “Let’s go and see how Lisa is,” Owen said as soon as we emerged from the tunnel into the safety of the office. I knew he really meant to say to see if Lisa was still alive, and that’s what I had been thinking, too. I had a lump in my throat as we all followed Owen down the corridor to Lisa’s room. Owen and Abby spoke at once and asked her to unlock the door. She did presently, and looked none the worse for wear.

  “How are you feeling now?” Abby asked her.

  “Fine, thank you. I only woke up a few minutes ago. Is everyone all right? How did it go?”

  “I’ll tell you when we get to the dining room,” Owen said. “Meanwhile, Michael and I will go check on Bazza.”

  I went with the other women to the dining room, but Mandy turned.

  “Where are you going?” Abby asked her.

  “I’m just going to make coffee.”

  “Not by yourself, you’re not,” Abby said with a shake of her head. “Take two people with you, but wait until the men get back.”

  I wondered why Abby had snapped at Mandy like that. Perhaps she suspected that one of us, rather than Bazza, was the murderer.

  I jumped when Michael and Owen burst into the dining room, worry etched on their faces.

  “Bazza’s gone!” Michael exclaimed.

  “What do you mean ‘gone’?” Abby asked.

  “Gone,” Owen said. “He forced the door open.”

  Abby clutched her throat. “But how?”

  “It seems he used a wrench,” Owen said. “Someone gave him a wrench.” He and Michael looked at Lisa.

  “I didn’t give him a wrench,” she said. “I wouldn’t even know where to find one.”

  “There was no wrench left in the room, so he’s taken it with him, but the marks on the door are obvious,” Michael said. “And there was a kitchen knife there as well. Someone has given him kitchen knife to try, and then a wrench.”

  “You don’t know he’s a criminal,” Lisa said angrily. “You should never have locked him up there in the first place.”

  “You’re very quick to jump to his defense,” Vanessa said. “I think we need to lock Lisa up now, in some other room if the lock on that room is broken now. Obviously, she was the one who gave him the wrench so he could free himself from the room. She was the only one left here, and it couldn’t have been any of us because we were all together. She’s the only one who could have done it.” Vanessa’s voice rose to a high pitch.

  Lisa’s face flushed beet red. “But you keep saying there’s someone else on the island, someone wandering around loose. How do you know it wasn’t that person?”

  “So you’re saying that Bazza’s innocent, but you’re saying the murderer broke into the resort to release him?” Vanessa said. “Why would the murderer release an innocent person? Lisa, you’d better get your story straight. There’s no point lying. We all know it was you.”

  Lisa pointed at Vanessa. “She’s the murderer! She’s the murderer for sure! She was with Sarah when Sarah was murdered. And just because you all didn’t know Bazza was on the island, you said he must be the murderer, but it’s obvious it’s Vanessa. Why can’t you all see that? And I saw Vanessa arguing with Sarah. Didn’t you all hear at dinner how Benedict told Sarah he was going to give her a big scoop on someone? Well, that person surely was Vanessa! Benedict knew Vanessa’s family and he must’ve remembered something bad about her and was going to tell Sarah. That’s why Benedict was murdered. It all fits! And Laura was murdered only because she was with Benedict at the time. Vanessa had the motive to kill both Benedict and Sarah.”

  Everyone looked at Vanessa, who sighed. “I’ll tell you my story, but I need a glass of wine first.”

  Michael obliged by pouring her a glass. He offered one to all of us, but we all declined and helped ourselves to water instead.

  Vanessa sighed again. “It’s a horrible, long story,” she said. “I had a sister, Victoria. We had no siblings, and our parents died in a car wreck when we were teenagers. I went to Oxford University, and met my husband there. He was a professor, a much older man, and he died one night of natural causes. It was most unexpected.” She paused at this point to dab at her eyes, but I could see they were completely dry. Call me cynical. She pressed on. “Without going into all the details, Victoria became unbalanced. She was always unhappy, because my parents favored me, to be honest. Anyway, I was the heir to my husband’s fortune, and I’d lost touch with Victoria, who had fallen into poverty after becoming addicted to prescription drugs. She contacted me and said she wanted to meet, so I invited her to a spa by the sea in Essex. We had a good time and reconnected nicely, but I had no idea that she was going to kill herself. Looking back, I can see that she wanted to reconcile before she committed suicide, and at the inquest, the psychiatrist said she’d mentioned that, too. If only I’d known that at the time. She threw herself off a cliff on the last day we were at the spa.”

  Vanessa stood and crossed her arms. “Benedict thought I was my sister, that’s all. My sister and I were only a year apart in age. I myself had never met Benedict, but my sister mentioned him.” She snorted rudely. “Benedict and my sister went to Cambridge University together for a semester, if I remember correctly, then my sister needed surgery and dropped out after that. You can see why Benedict got an awful shock to see me. He must’ve thought he’d seen a ghost. And if Benedict was talking to Sarah about me, then it would have been over the fact that my poor sister threw herself to her death from the cliffs. It was all over the papers in England at the time, so it’s hardly a scoop. Anyway Lisa, you’re only saying that to throw suspicion off yourself. I saw you have quite a nasty argument with Benedict.”

  “You’re lying!” Lisa said. “You’re the one who’s saying that to throw sus
picion off yourself. You’re the murderer!”

  Owen held up his hands. “Everyone calm down. Tempers are running high, which is understandable due to the circumstances, but it doesn’t help.”

  “Are you going to lock her up?” Vanessa asked.

  “I might just as easily lock you up,” Owen said. “Everyone here is a suspect, and so is Bazza, but he’s missing now.” He shot Lisa a look as he said it. “All we can do is stay calm and wait for the police. They’ll be here as soon as the storm breaks. Meanwhile, we all have to stick together. We don’t have any other options. And now, let’s all prepare dinner.”

  Vanessa stomped her foot. “You need to lock Lisa up!” she screeched. “She let that pool boy go, and you’re not punishing her. She’s probably a murderer, too.”

  Michael moved to Vanessa and put his hand under her elbow. At first, I thought she would kick him, but she stood still. “Come on, Vanessa,” Michael said soothingly. “You’ve had a fright. Sit down and I’ll pour you a nice glass of wine. We can’t go accusing each other, because any one of use could be the murderer. We can’t go and lock everyone up, now can we?”

  I thought Vanessa would be affronted by his tone, but she seemed to calm down, much to my surprise. She did keep shooting dagger looks at Lisa, who returned them, but at least the verbal accusations appeared to have ceased.

  Chapter 13

  “That’s ghastly!”

  I swung around to see what Lisa was complaining about. I hadn’t prepared anything yet, so she couldn’t be talking about my cooking.

  She was pointing to my blisters. I had removed my shoes, and was standing barefoot in the kitchen. “They must really hurt.”

  “They sure do,” I said. “I’m going to put more Band-Aids on them later, but I’m airing them for now. Going up the hill and back twice in one day in soaking wet shoes did it.”

  “My feet are sore, too,” Mandy piped up.