Witches' Spells

by Morgana Best

  “How long before she remembers how to act like a person?” I asked. I shot a look at Hecate, who was now sitting on the floor by the fridge, looking up at it expectantly.

  “I really don’t know, to tell you the truth,” Linda said. “I think the best thing to do would be to keep telling her what has happened to her. Even though it might seem she doesn’t understand, I think she will on some level. Try to treat her as a person more than a cat.”

  “We don’t intend to feed her cat food in a bowl on the floor,” Aunt Dorothy said with a laugh.

  Linda nodded. “I would gently discourage any cat behaviour. You know, this could happen soon, or it might take some time. She will remember, it’s just a question of when.”

  The aunts and I groaned. “There’s a new boarder in the living room,” I told Linda, “and he hates pets. She went in there and sat on his knee.”

  Linda looked shocked. “What, in human form?”

  I nodded sadly. Linda clutched her sides, and I could see she was doing her best not to laugh. “Of course,” she finally managed to say. “Cats always sit on people who don’t like them.”

  “See, I told you so!” Aunt Dorothy said gleefully.

  Something else occurred to me. “This is a disaster of major proportions. Okay, granted it’s good that Hecate has regained her human form, but all that aside, we still don’t know who the murderer is. We went to all that effort, collecting all those personal concerns, and now they’re wasted. I assume we can’t reuse them?” I looked up at the aunts hopefully.

  They both shook their heads. “No, that’s the end of that,” Aunt Maude said sadly. “We’ll have to think of another way to discover the identity of the murderer.”

  Chapter 19

  The aunts had gone to town, and I was left alone at the manor. The unpleasant boarder was in his cottage, and had not emerged for some time, quite to my relief. Actually, I wasn’t alone, because Hecate was with me. She had not tried to escape for some time, and was even starting to eat some proper, non-cat food, although not very enthusiastically.

  I was hanging around the manor while the aunts were out shopping, in case the unpleasant boarder wanted something. I was bored, so I decided to watch a movie. I opened the kitchen door and let Hecate into the hallway. As soon as I did, she walked back and tapped on the door. “Do you want to go back into the kitchen?” I asked her.

  She nodded. I was beside myself with excitement—this was the first human communication she had shown. I walked back and opened the door, and she walked into the kitchen and stood by the door. I walked over to the fridge, wondering if she was hungry. I looked back to see she was tapping on the door again. “Do you want to go back through the door?” I asked her. She nodded once more.

  I opened the kitchen door and let her into the hall. I walked a few paces when I realised she wasn’t with me. I turned around and realised she was tapping on the door again. That’s when it dawned on me—this was typical cat behaviour, not knowing whether she wanted to be in or out.

  “Come on, Hecate,” I said. “Let’s go and watch a movie.” She continued to stand at the door, so I walked away. I was fiddling with the remote when she came into the living room. She shot me a sulky look, and then curled up on the sofa and promptly fell asleep.

  There was a knock on the door, and I froze. It had to be the unpleasant boarder, and I did not want him to have another run in with Hecate. She was still asleep, so I tiptoed over to the door and opened it.

  To my surprise, it wasn’t the unpleasant boarder, but Alec Aldon.

  “Mr Aldon!” I said with surprise. I recovered momentarily, and added, “Please come in.”

  I wondered whether to show him into the dining room or the living room, and opted for the living room. After all, I needed to keep an eye on Hecate, and hopefully she would stay asleep. “Would you like some tea or coffee?” I asked, hoping he would refuse. I really didn’t want to leave him in the room with Hecate.

  “A cup of black tea,” he said. “English Breakfast, if you have it.”

  At least, that’s what I thought he said. He was whispering, as usual. “English Breakfast black tea?” I repeated, to make sure I had it right.

  He nodded. I looked at Hecate, but she was showing no signs of waking up. I hurried straight out to the kitchen to make the fastest cup of tea on record.

  When I returned with the cup of tea and a plate of Tim Tams, the first thing I noticed was the shocked look on his face. I swung around to see that Hecate was no longer on the sofa. Alec pointed under a big cedar drum table. “She woke up and then ran under there, on all fours.”

  I set the cup of tea and plate of Tim Tams on an English oak coffee table in front of him. “I’m so sorry. I should have warned you. She’s um, a drama student, one of the new boarders. She has to act like a cat for an entire week.”

  He nodded slowly. Hecate carefully crawled out from under the table, but sat there on her haunches. A blowfly buzzed past, and she swatted at it.

  “She’s very talented,” Alec said in a soft tone. “You’re probably wondering why I’m here.”

  I didn’t know whether or not to answer in the affirmative, so I smiled at him.

  “It was something you said,” he added quietly. “I don’t know whether it’s important or not, but the more I thought about it, the more concerned I’ve been.”

  “What was it?” I asked him, intrigued.

  He ate an entire Tim Tam before answering. “You asked me if Beckett had a housekeeper.”

  I nodded. “And you said you didn’t know.”

  He shook his head. “No, I didn’t answer, because your aunt thought she saw aphids on one of my rose bushes.”

  I tried to recall the conversation. “Did he have a housekeeper?” I said after an interval.

  “I’m not sure whether he did or he didn’t, but he used to call his nephew, Weston, his housekeeper. He paid Weston to clean his house for him once a week, and he paid him to do odd jobs around the house, and occasionally cook for him,” Alec added.

  I tried to process the information. Weston was Beckett’s housekeeper? And if Weston was in the house when I came, was he the murderer?

  “Did you tell the police?” I asked him.

  He shook his head again. “The police think Beckett’s death was accidental. And as far as I know, it was. When I mentioned the possibility of his death being accidental, you didn’t seem surprised, and then I realised you thought his housekeeper did it. I didn’t get the chance to tell you that the housekeeper was Weston, so I thought I should, for what it’s worth. Not that I’m a gossip.”

  I was about to say something, when Hecate crawled onto the middle of the carpet and proceeded to roll around on her back, her legs in the air.

  “She’s a gifted actress,” Alec whispered.

  I nodded, lost with my thoughts. Was Weston the murderer? It certainly seemed so. Unless, of course, Alec was the murderer and was trying to implicate Weston. Still, I had passed Alec on the way to Beckett’s house and I didn’t think he would have had the time to get there and murder Beckett. It suddenly occurred to me that he could be a vampire and so would have moved with vampire speed.

  I couldn’t decide who to suspect, Alec or Weston, but one thing was clear—I was down to two suspects.

  Alec suddenly stood up. “I hope you’ll forgive the intrusion.”

  “Not at all,” I said. “I’m most grateful to you for driving here to give me the information.”

  He made a slight bow and headed for the front door. I hurried past him and opened it. “Thanks again,” I said to his departing back.

  I walked back into the living room to see what Hecate was doing. She was sitting on the large Turkish rug. “I don’t suppose I could interest you in a cup of coffee?” I asked her.

  She looked at me blankly.

  “I suppose not,” I said.

  She opened her mouth, and tried to make a sound. I was encouraged—maybe she was trying to speak? At that inopportune m
oment, there was another knock at the door. Hecate ran behind one of the sofas.

  “Alec must have forgotten to tell me something,” I said as I walked back to the door. I considered him a suspect, so I was a little uneasy that he had returned.

  Chapter 20

  It was not Alec, but Weston. “Weston!” I exclaimed.

  It was then I noticed that he was pointing a gun at me.

  “You need to come with me,” he said. “I don’t intend to harm you, not if you do as you’re told.”

  “If you don’t intend to harm me, then why are you pointing that gun at me?” I managed to say despite trembling violently.

  He jerked the gun in the direction of the car. When I didn’t move, he grabbed my arm and pushed me in front of him. “What’s this?” he said, and I felt him pull the phone out of my pocket. He threw it to the ground and stomped on it.

  I considered using my vampire speed to escape from him, but I figured that he too, was a vampire. After all, he was Beckett’s nephew, and he was probably involved with The Other. No, my vampire speed would not help me now.

  As we reached the car, I looked back at the living room windows and saw Hecate peeping through the curtains at me. That gave me a small glimmer of hope. I had said Weston’s name aloud, and she saw him take me away at gunpoint. If only she could somehow communicate that to the aunts.

  It was the white Four Wheel Drive that had chased me. The windows were so darkly tinted that no one would know I was in the car.

  Weston opened the car door and told me to get in. He was around the car and into the driver’s seat in double quick time. I had been right about him being a vampire.

  “Where are you taking me?” I asked him.

  “It’s nothing personal, Valkyrie,” he said. His tone was so cold that it sent shivers through my body. “I’m taking you back to my farm. You can have a little holiday there until I make the exchange.”

  “The exchange for what?” I asked him.

  “The exchange for whom, not what,” he said.

  When he didn’t say anything else, I risked another question. “Why did you kill your uncle?”

  He snorted rudely. “You’re a big girl, Valkyrie. I’m sure you can figure that out for yourself. To cut a long story short, my uncle was on the side of the Council, but I’m working for The Other.”

  Despite my fear, I noted that he said working for rather than on the side of The Other. That would explain his source of income. “But he was your uncle,” I protested.

  “Yes, it’s a shame we were on opposing sides,” he said blandly.

  “Why did you kill him just as I was visiting him?”

  He shot me a look. “I thought he was going to tell you something about your parents. I overheard him tell you that your parents were alive and had gone into hiding to protect you. Of course, we all knew that. I had to silence him before he told you anything else.”

  “Before he told me what?” I asked him.

  He laughed and shook his finger at me. “Now, that would be telling.”

  Relief flooded through me at his words. That meant he didn’t mean to kill me. If he intended to kill me, then he would tell me everything, and not be careful to keep anything from me. That seemed logical to me, and I hoped I was right. I concentrated on taking slow, deep breaths to try to calm down. My heart was racing, beating out of my chest. I wiped my clammy hands on my jeans.

  “How did you know I’d be home alone just then?” I asked him.

  “I’ve been watching the manor, looking for an opportunity to kidnap you,” he admitted. “I found a nice place to hide my vehicle in the bushes down the road. I was about to drive up to the manor when that awful busybody, Alec Aldon, went to your door. Thankfully, he wasn’t there too long. I saw your aunts leave earlier. I know that they go shopping once a week and this is their shopping day, so it wasn’t much of a stretch to know you’d be alone. I know the Cleaner is away, and that there is only one boarder. This was the perfect opportunity to snatch you.”

  Thank goodness he doesn’t know about Hecate, I thought. Aloud I said, “Why were you following us that day, tailgating us?”

  “Simply to scare you, to threaten you. I hadn’t expected you would investigate. That came as quite a surprise, especially after the police were so sure my uncle’s death was a heart attack.”

  “So you weren’t going to run us off the road at a bridge or something?”

  He seemed surprised. “No. If I wanted to do away with you, I would have done it when I killed my uncle. At any rate, I’m sure you’ll come over to our side in time. You’ve been brainwashed by your aunts and your Shifter friend, so you really need to hear our side of the story.”

  “Your side of the story?” I said without thinking. “Surely you don’t think I’ll ever trust you? You killed your uncle!”

  He seemed to think that was particularly funny. “This coming from you, you who are dating a Cleaner? That’s rich!”

  One thing was bothering me. “How did you kill him?”

  “That was easy,” he said. “He was a diabetic, and I knew where he kept his insulin. I knew he would make you a cup of tea, so I filled the syringe and waited in the kitchen.”

  “What if the police had thought it was murder?” I asked him.

  “I took steps to make sure they’d think it was a heart attack.”

  “What steps?”

  He laughed. “Never you mind.”

  He was driving fast now, and I recognised the road as the one that led to his house. I allowed myself another small measure of relief. It would be ideal for him to take me to his house, because if Hecate could somehow convey to the aunts that someone called Weston had taken me away at gunpoint, then the first place they would look would be his farm. My relief was short lived, as I remembered Hecate swatting flies and rolling around on the floor. Perhaps she was still too far removed from human communication.

  Weston drove straight into a barn. It was a rickety old barn filled with old bales of rotting hay. At least, that’s how it looked on the outside. He drove around the back and pressed a remote in his car, and a panel swung open. I gasped with surprise. The whole hay bale look was a clever disguise. He drove straight in. “Get out,” he said, jerking the gun at me.

  I did as he asked, and walked around the back of the car. “Outside,” he said.

  I walked out into the sunlight, and the panel swung shut. There was an old red Land Rover in his driveway. I assumed that was the car he usually drove, considering he was keeping the white Four Wheel Drive hidden. I hoped that blue heeler dog of his was tied up somewhere.

  I wondered if he had CCTV cameras on his property, and thought I might as well ask. “Do you have security cameras around here?” I asked him.

  “No, why would I?” he said. “No one knows I’m involved with The Other.”

  I was relieved. That meant he didn’t know that Linda and I had taken his personal concerns. I didn’t want Linda to be in danger, too.

  I was surprised when he marched me towards his house. Given my experience of late, I thought he would lock me in an old barn or a shearing shed. The blue heeler did meet us at the door, but didn’t so much as bat an eyelid in my direction, given that Weston was with me.

  Weston marched me into his house, and then into a spare bedroom. Still keeping one eye on me and the gun trained on me, he pushed the small single bed across the room, and then opened a trapdoor. He leant inside the hole in the floor and flicked a switch, and then beckoned me to go over there.

  “Climb down in there.”

  I froze with fear. “What’s down there?”

  “Your new accommodation,” he said. “Go on in. It’s not dark.”

  I walked over to the hole and looked in, and saw a ladder. At least I didn’t have to jump. I could also see the floor, and that was a plus. As I climbed down the ladder, I heard the trapdoor over me shut.

  Disappointment flooded me. I knew the aunts would come looking for me when they discovered I was missi
ng. If Hecate managed to mention Weston’s name, they would head straight to his farm, but they would never find me here so carefully concealed. I was also certain the room was soundproofed.

  I surveyed my surroundings. There was a bed, and even a TV. I remembered hearing once that prisoners were given TVs to keep them more docile. The room was long, but narrow. I saw a small refrigerator on the other side of the bed. I opened it and discovered several wrapped sandwiches, and numerous bottles of cold water. Sadly, the bottles were plastic and not glass, so I wouldn’t be able to use one as a weapon.

  I walked along to the end of the room and opened the door on the far wall. To my surprise, there was a small bathroom with a toilet, a vanity basin, and a shower. This probably meant he intended to keep me here long term. On second thoughts, surely he had not built this room just for me. There was a pile of men’s clothing on the shelf above the bed. Who had he kept here before?

  My thoughts immediately went to Scorpius Everyman, the evil Cleaner heavily involved with The Other. This would be a good place to hide out, and not simply a place to keep prisoners.

  I knew there was no way to escape, but I looked, anyway. There was ducted air-conditioning through several small grilles at the top of the wall, and a small hole that looked like some sort of ventilation shaft. The walls were of concrete brick, and the floor was concrete.

  My spirits sank. That was it: escape was impossible. I had to wait for someone to rescue me.

  Chapter 21

  Weston did not reappear. I had expected he would check on me, but he didn’t. I paced up and down for ages and looked for a way of escape, even though I knew there wasn’t one, and then I looked for something I could use as a weapon. I even considered smashing the TV and using part of it as a weapon. I considered trying to strangle him with the cord, but there was nothing to cut the cord with, and he appeared much stronger than I was.