by Morgana Best
That remark was met with deathly silence. I stopped dabbing at my eyes and looked at the aunts. Their mouths were all forming perfect Os.
“Is that the first time he’s kissed you?” Dorothy asked me.
Aunt Agnes made a snorting sound. “Honestly Dorothy, sometimes you can be so dense. Of course it is not the first time he’s kissed her. You know that.”
Dorothy crossed her arms over her chest. “Of course I didn’t know that. How would I know that? If I had known that, then I wouldn’t have asked her, would I?”
Aunt Maude sighed. “It’s obvious that they have kissed, Dorothy. Honestly!” She looked at me, and then added, “You weren’t happy that he kissed you?”
I shook my head. “It wasn’t a nice kiss.”
“Aha!” Maude waved her finger in Aunt Agnes’s face. “I told you he was drugged, and this proves it. You wouldn’t believe me, but I told you that Lucas was drugged.”
“I knew he was drugged, too,” Dorothy said in a whiny tone. “Agnes was the one who said he wasn’t drugged. Isn’t that right, Agnes? Are you still saying he wasn’t drugged?”
Aunt Agnes’s eyes narrowed. “I still don’t know whether he was drugged or not, but something funny is going on with Lucas.”
“We’ll send a sample to that lab today, by Express Post,” Maude said. “Then in a week, we will know whether or not Lucas was drugged.”
“A whole week,” I said more to myself than to anyone.
Aunt Maude shot me smile of encouragement. “I know it sounds like forever, dear, but it will be over before you know it.”
“I don’t want to be around Lucas for a whole week, not the way he is now. I hope the lab finds something, and I hope there is an antidote, and what’s more, I hope the antidote works fast.”
“That’s a lot of hoping,” Aunt Dorothy said, as she picked up her knitting and sat on the sofa.
“There’s no time for knitting,” Aunt Agnes scolded her. “We have to find a bottle to send the Witches’ Brew to the lab in, and it can’t be a contaminated bottle. By that I mean it can’t have had other substances in it, so it should be a bottle we haven’t used before. We’ll need to wrap it well so it won’t break, and take it to the Post Office and send it by Express Post.”
Dorothy jumped to her feet. “Oh no! I’ve just realised something.”
CHAPTER 17
“What is it, Dorothy?”
“The murderer is Barnabas’s heir. Barnabas’s heir is the faction member. The murderer had to get both Collier and Barnabas out of the way.”
“I realise that, Dorothy,” Aunt Agnes said through clenched teeth, “but we had no idea who Collier’s successor was, and now we are no closer to finding out Barnabas’s successor.”
Dorothy shook her finger at Aunt Agnes. “That’s where you’re wrong. We have Barnabas’s address. We gave it to the police.”
Aunt Agnes’s face lit up. “Yes, you’re right, Dorothy.” She took off at a fast pace to the office, with all of us hurrying behind.
When Dorothy brought up the booking records on the screen, we saw that Barnabas’s address was in Bulahdelah, a small town on the river between Lighthouse Bay and Newcastle. “That’s good news,” I said.
“What makes you say that?” Aunt Agnes asked me.
“Bulahdelah is a small town, so there can’t be too many lawyers there. What if Barnabas had lived in Sydney or Melbourne? Then we’d be really stuck.”
Aunt Agnes nodded. “I take your point. Valkyrie, google the names of lawyers in Bulahdelah.”
I squeezed past the aunts and made my way to the office desktop. It didn’t take me long to find the lawyers. “Oh my gosh!” I said.
“What is it?” Aunt Agnes looked over my shoulder.
“There are fifteen lawyers in Bulahdelah! I thought there would be only one or two.”
Aunt Agnes pointed to the screen. “See that there? It just says these lawyers service the Bulahdelah area. They might not be from Bulahdelah itself.”
“But it doesn’t matter whether they’re in Bulahdelah itself or not,” I said. “It just means that Barnabas had more options than I thought.”
“Oh, I see what you mean.” Agnes nodded. “Well then, let’s get started.”
“Get started?” I echoed. “What do you intend to do?”
“We’ll call all the lawyers that service the Bulahdelah area, and ask them if Barnabas was a client of theirs.”
Aunt Maude shook her head. “What if he had a lawyer from Sydney? Or Newcastle? We can’t call thousands of lawyers.”
Agnes pursed her lips. “You’re right, Maude, we can’t. We can, however, call these fifteen lawyers that service the Bulahdelah area. If he didn’t use one of these, then we will have to think of something else.”
“Or give up,” Maude said.
Aunt Agnes shrugged. “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. I’ll tell the lawyers that Barnabas died here, at our Bed and Breakfast establishment, and that we want to know if he has any relatives to attend his funeral. That sounds believable.”
I had to admit that it did.
After Aunt Agnes called ten lawyers, I was not so optimistic. However, she struck gold on the eleventh call. “Hello, my name is Agnes Jasper. I run a Bed and Breakfast at Lighthouse Bay. One of our guests, Barnabas Butler, passed away and the police could find no record of his relatives. He gave his address as Bulahdelah. We wonder if he was a client there. We wish to contact his relatives to inform them of what happened to him.”
“I’ll check. Could you hold the line a moment?” The voice spoke again after an interval. “That’s right, Barnabas Butler, of 88 Willow Lane, Bulahdelah. Would that be the same gentleman?”
“That’s him,” Aunt Agnes said, giving us the thumbs up.
“His lawyer is, rather was, Mr Bob Watson. Mr Watson is out of the office at the moment, but could I have your number and he can call you back?”
Aunt Agnes beamed from ear to ear as she supplied the number to the receptionist. After Agnes hung up, she turned to us gleefully. “Let’s go to Bulahdelah right now.”
“But it’s two hours away,” I protested. “Come to think of it, why was Barnabas here when he lived so close?”
“He said it was a painting holiday,” Aunt Agnes reminded me. “There’s a river at Bulahdelah, but it’s a long way from any beaches. Besides, I have to think it had something to do with meeting Collier here.”
“Yes, that had to be it,” I said. “It would be far too much of a coincidence to have Collier and Barnabas in the same place, and right near another member of the Council.”
Aunt Agnes looked at her watch. “Hurry, let’s go to Bulahdelah. The lawyer will be well and truly back from lunch by the time we get there and we’ll give him the third degree, in a nice way of course. We can go to the Post Office on the way.”
Fifteen minutes later, we were squeezed into Aunt Agnes’s little car, speeding down the Pacific Highway to Bulahdelah. It was a good stretch of road, although quite boring, with the same bushland scenery on both sides of the road. All the towns were bypassed, so there wasn’t much to see.
We had only been driving for half an hour, when Dorothy piped up. “I’m hungry. I’m thirsty, too. I didn’t want to drink any water at home in case it was poisoned.”
Aunt Agnes grunted. “I’m sure the murderer didn’t poison the town water supply.”
“Why you always treat me as if I’m stupid, Agnes? Dorothy leant forward from her position next to me in the back seat and stuck her head between Agnes and Maude. “You know we have that jug that turns water alkaline, and I was worried that someone poisoned it. I’m going to buy a bottle of water at the next place we stop.”
“It won’t be alkaline water,” Aunt Agnes said.
“They sell alkaline water now,” Dorothy said angrily.
“Only at health food shops, I’m sure,” Aunt Agnes said. “Anyway, stop talking. You’re distracting me. I need to concentrate on my driving.” She abus
ed a driver who had overtaken her. “I’m doing the speed limit, you fool!” she called to the passing car. “I hope the police get you! You shouldn’t be allowed on the road.”
“I need a bathroom break,” Dorothy said.
“Didn’t you go before we left?” Aunt Agnes asked her.
“I did, but I had too much coffee this morning.”
Aunt Agnes muttered to herself. “All right then. At the next town. The next town, Maude? Can you check it on the iPad?”
Aunt Maude did as she was told. “It’s a town called Coolongalook. It’s not far from here, Dorothy.”
We fell into silence for a while, though I noticed Aunt Agnes kept checking her rear view mirror. Finally, I asked, “Are we being followed?”
“I’m not entirely sure,” Aunt Agnes said. “We will know once we stop at that town. There’s a white car that has been sitting the same distance behind us ever since we left Lighthouse Bay. If I drive slowly, it goes slowly, and if I speed up, it does too. It might be nothing, but it’s making me a little nervous.”
Aunt Dorothy and I turned around and looked out the back window. “I can see the white car,” I said.
When we reached Coolongalook, Aunt Agnes stopped her car behind the petrol station on the left side of the road. Aunt Dorothy jumped out of the car and made a beeline for the bathroom. “See, that white car hasn’t passed us, yet I saw it just before we pulled in,” Aunt Agnes said.
I looked out the window. “It will be interesting to see what happens when we leave here.”
After we all had a bathroom break, and bought sandwiches and bottles of water, we were back on the road. We had only gone about five kilometres when Aunt Agnes spoke again. “Yes, that car is following us again.”
Aunt Dorothy looked out the back window. “Are you sure it’s the same car? White cars are a dime a dozen. It would be hard to know one from the other.”
“I’m pretty sure it’s the same car,” Aunt Agnes said. “It has Victorian plates.”
The car continued to maintain the same distance behind us all the way down the Pacific Highway. Aunt Agnes deliberately pulled over into two roadside rest stops, even though no one was now in need of a bathroom break, and just as well too, because the rest stops had composting toilets. While composting toilets were allegedly good for the environment, they certainly weren’t good for anyone with a sense of smell.
Each time Agnes drove out of the rest stop, the car with Victorian plates appeared the same distance behind her. “We have a tail for sure,” Aunt Agnes said.
“Who do we know from Victoria?” Aunt Dorothy asked her.
Aunt Maude turned around. “It’s likely a hire car, Dorothy.”
I thought the whole thing to be a consummate waste of time, but I was hardly likely to point that out to the aunts. Besides, I expected Aunt Agnes felt better being proactive, rather than sitting around at the manor waiting for the lawyer to call, and more to the point, waiting for someone to make the next attempt on her life. If I were in her shoes, I would certainly be restless.
My head collided with the window as Aunt Agnes veered the car suddenly off the road to the left. “Sorry everyone,” she said, pointing to a sign. “I didn’t realise Bulahdelah was bypassed.”
Bypassed it was. We drove up a hill and across a high bridge before winding our way down to the little township itself.
“It’s quite a peaceful little town, not many houses here,” Aunt Dorothy said.
“We haven’t reached the town yet,” Aunt Agnes said with a note of exasperation.
Dorothy was unperturbed. “Oh, that explains why there aren’t any houses.”
I wondered how the town was faring given that it seemed to be only recently bypassed. The petrol stations we passed were empty and there was barely any traffic on the road. Finally, Aunt Agnes turned the car into what was clearly the main street. There was a park next to a large pub on the river, and several other shops. “There’s the lawyer’s office,” Aunt Agnes said. “Right next to that fish and chip shop.”
We climbed out of the car. I stretched and clutched my back. “How are we going to play this?” I asked Aunt Agnes.
“Follow my lead,” she said as she took off across the road. Dorothy, Maude, and I had no option but to follow her. She opened the door and we filed in behind her. It was a small office, although nicely painted, and had several large potted plants. The receptionist looked up and smiled. “How may I help you?”
“I called earlier,” Aunt Agnes said, “and one of the lawyers, Mr Bob Watson, was going to call me back. Barnabas Butler, a client here, died at our Bed and Breakfast establishment at Lighthouse Bay, and we need to know who we can contact about him.”
“Oh yes, I remember!” the receptionist said in an animated voice. “I’ll get Mr Watson to call you.”
Aunt Agnes was visibly taken aback. “You haven’t given him the message yet?”
The receptionist shook her head. “No, he’s away for the day, maybe two. As soon as he gets back to the office, I’ll have him call you straight away.”
My spirits sank. This had been a wild goose chase.
Aunt Agnes thanked her. “Would you ask him as a matter of urgency, please? We need to contact his relatives as soon as possible, as you would understand.”
The receptionist nodded vigorously. “Of course, of course. Well, have a nice day!”
We all walked out of the lawyer’s office dejected. “That was a waste of time,” Aunt Dorothy said sadly.
“I’ll say it was.” Aunt Agnes seemed quite annoyed. “If only the receptionist had told me that the lawyer was out of town, not just out of the office. I thought he had just gone to lunch.”
“You know what they say about assumptions, don’t you, Agnes?” Dorothy said.
“No. What do they say?” Aunt Agnes snapped.
We had reached the car, and Aunt Dorothy’s hand paused on its way to the car door. “Oh, I don’t know. Nothing good, anyway.”
Aunt Agnes grunted as we got into the car. “Has anyone seen that white car with Victorian plates?” she asked.
I got back out of the car and looked up and down the street. “I can’t see any plates from here because it’s all angle parking. That could be it down there. It’s a white car, but like I said, I can’t see the plates from here.”
Aunt Agnes waved her hand at me. “Never mind, sure as eggs it will follow us all the way home.”
“Should we do something to confuse whoever it is?” I asked her. “Like, maybe going to the pub, or going to the fish and chip shop?”
Aunt Agnes was silent for a moment, and then said, “It might be an idea, but whoever it is would have already seen us going to the lawyer’s office. I think we have given the game away, not that it probably matters too much. Now, is anyone hungry?”
Soon, we were driving north on the Pacific Highway, headed back to Lighthouse Bay, clutching bags of hot chips. Sure enough, the white car with Victorian plates was following us at a distance. “If anyone needs a bathroom break, you’re going to have to wait until we get to that town with the funny name,” Aunt Agnes said. “I don’t think it’s safe to pull over in one of the rest areas in case whoever it is in that car confronts us, or worse.”
I was on edge all the way home. I felt under siege with someone following us, and we had run out of suspects. What’s more, it looked like we were some time away from finding out Barnabas’s successor. Lucas was still acting weirdly. For all I knew, he could have been the one following us. It seemed that nothing was going right.
CHAPTER 18
“T hat was a relief. The car with Victorian plates didn’t follow us here once we turned off at Lighthouse Bay, and we didn’t have any close encounters with kangaroos on the way home.” Aunt Agnes brought the car to a stop. “There’s nothing worse than driving through the bush at dusk. Too risky for the roos, and too risky for us.”
“I’m exhausted,” I admitted. I yawned widely.
Aunt Agnes turned around to loo
k at me. “Valkyrie, you mustn’t stay in your cottage until all this is over. I know you’re not a target, not as far as we know, but we need to err on the side of caution.”
I didn’t need to be told twice. “Sure, I’ll stay at the manor.” I was too scared to go back to my own cottage, truth be told.
“I think we should all have a nice dinner and then go to bed early,” Aunt Agnes said.
My spirits lifted. That sounded a good idea to me.
“First, we will do a protection spell.”
My spirits plummeted. “A protection spell? How long will it take?’
Aunt Agnes shot me a look of disapproval. “As long as necessary. We need to do a protection spell for the manor and for each one of us.”
I sure hoped it wouldn’t require much energy, because I was beat. It was all I could do to drag my tired body to the front door of the manor. Once safely inside, Aunt Agnes sent Dorothy to fetch four railroad spikes. “What do you know about railroad spikes, Valkyrie?”
I searched my memory banks. “Nothing really, only that Spike from Buffy got his name from railroad spikes.”
Aunt Agnes’s jaw fell open. “We don’t mention that show within these four walls.” She shuddered. “Railroad spikes are valuable as they are forged iron. We will drive one into the ground at each corner of the manor, after we dress them with Fiery Wall of Protection Oil.”
I nodded. “Oh yes, I know about Fiery Wall of Protection: frankincense and myrrh, as well as the Indonesian resin, Dragon’s Blood.”
Aunt Agnes beamed. “That’s right. Dorothy, do you have those spikes yet? We don’t want to be out in the dark for too long.”
The four of us stayed close to each other as we walked around the manor, using a hammer to drive in a railroad spike at each of the corners. The aunts then drove sticks of Devil’s Shoestring into the ground to keep enemies away. Agnes unlocked the front door and let us back in, along with Hecate, who was sitting on the porch, demanding her dinner.
