Witch Haunted in Westerham

by Dionne Lister

  After saying goodbye to the homeowner, who’d decided not to sell but was also two hundred quid richer, we went to the next house. Ma’am received a call on the way. Once she got off the phone, she turned to me and smiled. “We beat them to Samuel’s files. We’ve got twenty-eight properties to go.”

  Why was she smiling? I was going to be dead once it was over. Twenty-eight! “I hope you’re going to help with the spells. I’m tired already, what with everything that happened this morning.”

  “Don’t worry, dear. I’ll do my share. Why don’t you call my nephew and see how Imani is doing?” Her kindnesses surprised me because I was used to her cracking the whip, but I should’ve known she really cared about all of us—she’d demonstrated that time and again over the last few months. And surely she was hurting almost as much as I was at Will’s betrayal, but she’d pushed it to the side to do her job.

  I dialled Beren. He picked up quickly, thank God. “Hey, how’s the patient?”

  He took an audible breath. “She’s good, other than her missing memories. I did find a magic signature though, one that’s in our database.”

  “Oh my God, that’s wonderful! When do we arrest the evil witch?” Unless that evil witch was Will. I shut my eyes. This was getting worse.

  He lowered his voice. “It’s not quite that simple. There’s something else too. I need more time with Imani to sift through, go further into the network of memories. Just tell Ma’am we’ll need to have a meeting when she’s done in the field.”

  I didn’t want to ask anything specific in case he wasn’t talking about Will. I didn’t think blurting out about his betrayal over the phone was any way to tell his best friend what was going on. I’d have to hold it in until tonight. “Oh. Why do you sound so worried?”

  “I can’t talk about it now. I’ll see you later. Okay?”

  “Ah, okay.” I scrunched my forehead. I hoped Beren’s news wasn’t going to make me hate Will even more. Although I wasn’t sure I hated him. I was angry, yes, but I couldn’t make up my mind how I felt because maybe this was all part of his undercover gig? I sighed.

  “Be careful out there, Lil. Promise?”

  “Yes, of course.”

  “Bye.” He hung up.

  I looked over at Ma’am, who was focussed on the road. A mist of dread filtered through my lungs until it was hard to breathe. Something was very, very wrong.

  Without taking her eyes from the road, Ma’am asked, “What’s wrong, dear?”

  “I don’t know. Beren hasn’t finished with Imani. She’s okay, for the most part, but Beren thinks he knows who hurt her. He says we have their magical signature on file.”

  Her shoulders slumped.

  “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

  She sighed heavily. “Probably. If the who is who I think it is, the why will be most important, which is probably Beren’s problem. He needs to find out the why before we discuss the who.” Strangely, that made total sense. “Now’s not the time to talk about it, dear. We have some work to do yet.”

  “Bu—”

  “No buts, I’m afraid. Just trust me on this. If it’s any consolation, we should have an answer tonight. Beren’s rather resourceful when he sets his mind to it.”

  It wasn’t really any consolation because when I studied Ma’am’s side profile, there was nothing poker-faced about it. She looked like a woman who had all her money on the table and a hand of cards she wished she hadn’t been dealt.

  I stared out the window as we passed fields and houses, random strangers going about their happy lives. Why couldn’t I be one of those oblivious people? Maybe someone riding a horse or having a picnic, even someone milking a cow and worrying about getting their product to market. Instead, I had the most horrible feeling that when the cards fell, we were going to lose… big time.

  By 7:00 p.m. we’d covered half the houses. As Ma’am drove us back to the PIB, my eyes shut, and I yawned. My magic had exhausted me physically, and this whole thing with Will had exhausted me emotionally. My condition could be described as totally wrecked. Would I ever recover? If Will had defected to the other side, what did that mean? Would we be after him now? How could we all ignore we cared about him and try and capture him, maybe kill him trying? And if he had done this to pretend to be in with the group, how low would he have to stoop to find what we needed and not get killed? Pain throbbed in my forehead.

  At least the problem of Mrs Soames had been solved. Her house would be our last job when we returned home tonight. We would banish the witch haunting her house. We hadn’t worked out exactly what spells they’d used to do it without leaving a magical trace, but we’d get there. Maybe there was something built into the camera equipment? Instead of disappearing all of them from Mrs Soames, we should grab a couple and study them in the lab.

  Ma’am parked in the underground car park, and as we went up in the lift, my stomach gurgled.

  “Someone’s hungry. When was the last time you ate?”

  “Breakfast.” That was about eleven hours ago, but seeing as Will had destroyed my desire to do anything that would prolong my life, eating was counterproductive.

  “We’ll have dinner while we have the meeting.”

  The doors opened, and we got out. “That’s okay. I’m not hungry.”

  She grabbed my arm and stopped us in the hallway. She turned me to face her. “Lily, you can’t go without eating. We need you strong. We have all those houses to clear tomorrow, and Mrs Soames’s tonight. I know you’re concerned about Will, but you can’t let it affect you to the point it’s self-destructive.”

  I searched for my anger at being told what to do, but I found nothing. “I’m sorry. I’m just not hungry. I’ll still do everything you need me to.”

  “You need to toughen up. Your happiness is not dictated by your relationship with Will, or any man, for that matter. Why do you fight in the first place?”

  I shrugged. “Because I want to help people. And when unfair things happen to people, it really ticks me off.”

  “Right. So don’t let whatever this is stop that from happening. We need you healthy, Lily. I may be selfish demanding this of you, but we need you. So much more is at stake than even I realise. But it will come to light soon. I’m sure of it. Don’t forget your parents. Your mother wouldn’t approve of you giving up.”

  Bam. Bullseye. It was a dirty move but effective. “Okay, I’ll eat something. Maybe if it’s a double-chocolate muffin and coffee, or I could go for some Indian.”

  She smiled. “That’s better, dear. Now come on. Everyone’s waiting for us.” She mumbled something and set off down the hall. I reluctantly followed because not everyone was waiting for us. Will wouldn’t be there. Gah, now I sounded pathetic even to myself. I just didn’t want to believe he’d abandoned us for Piranha. He had ethics. In fact, he was one of the most reliable, fair people I’d ever met. I had to believe there was a good reason he’d done whatever he’d done. And the connection between us… I hadn’t imagined it. He wouldn’t walk away from that willingly.

  I took a deep breath and tipped my chin up, literally. I was going to assume the best until the worst was proven. My mother would expect nothing less.

  When we walked into the conference room, Olivia took one look at me and ran over. “Are you okay? You look terrible.”

  I laughed. “You always know how to make me feel special.”

  She blushed. “Oh, gosh, I didn’t mean that. Sorry! I just mean—”

  “It’s okay. I know what you meant. And I’ll explain later. I want to hear what Beren has to say first.” I met his gaze over her shoulder. He gave a gentle nod, but his sad eyes reflected my own state of mind. Olivia hooked her arm through mine and led me to the table. She sat next to Beren, and I sat on her other side.

  My brother’s smile was small, but at least it was there. “Hey. I heard you’ve had an eventful day. Are you okay?”

  “Yeah, kind of. I’m tired.” My stomach gurgled again. “And hungry.”


  “So predictable.” He winked. I rolled my eyes, but I appreciated him trying to cheer me up. A bit of light-hearted banter was welcome.

  Millicent sat next to him. I guess this conversation was big enough for us all to hear. “Look at your tummy! It’s only been a week since I saw you last.”

  She patted the offending lump and grinned. “It won’t stop moving either, especially at night. I’ll be happy when it’s out; then I won’t be the only one not getting enough sleep.” She tipped her head towards James.

  The only one who wasn’t here was Imani. I looked across Olivia to Beren. “How’s Imani? Will she be all right?”

  “Yes. She’ll be fine, but she’s asleep. I actually managed to recover some of her memories. Delving so deep isn’t only taxing for me. She probably won’t wake up until tomorrow. We have her safe.”

  “That’s good. So they didn’t do anything else?” If Will had hit her or worse, I didn’t think I could ever forgive him.

  “You mean physically? No. They tied her up, then put her to sleep, and wiped her memory, all with magic. There were no wounds or blunt-force trauma.”

  I blew out a huge breath. Olivia squeezed my hand. Did she know what part Will had played?

  “Right,” Angelica said. “Let’s eat.” Food appeared on the table. From the scents wafting over me, there was Indian, chocolate, coffee, and cinnamon. A plate had come out of nowhere and sat in front of me, waiting to be filled. There was also a takeout coffee cup next to my right hand with a Costa emblem on it.

  I looked at Ma’am. “How did you do this? I thought it was stealing if you just popped food from somewhere.”

  She smiled. “Don’t be ridiculous. There’s a witch service that has an account with witchy food providers, and they take what they want; then their account is charged. We pay the account of the person who arranges for this to appear. They’re called Witcheroo.”

  “Oh, like Deliveroo but, yeah.”

  She smiled. “They’re owned by the same company. Anyway, dig in. We’ll have a chat when we’ve finished eating.” She raised her brows, giving that statement emphasis. I was pretty sure that was an order to eat rather than a suggestion.

  I grabbed some rice and spooned beef vindaloo over the top. I also magicked a glass of water to myself because you never knew how hot vindaloo was going to be—and yes, I knew people said milk was better for extinguishing a curry inferno, but ew, not with dinner. I sniffed the delicious fragrance before forking some into my mouth. It set a small fire, but it wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle. Once I started eating, I realised how famished I was—sad or not, I really did need food. When I’d finished dinner, I grabbed dessert—a double-chocolate muffin and the coffee. Once everyone was finished, Ma’am waved her arm and magicked the rubbish away.

  “Right, time to get down to business.” She fixed her gaze on Beren. “I understand you have some important news regarding what you found in Imani’s mind. As a precursor, I’d like to enlighten you all as to what happened today. In fact, I’ll get Lily to start.” She nodded at me.

  I started my story at the beginning of this morning, which now seemed like a week ago. So much had happened, none of it good. That wasn’t exactly a fair balance, but the universe wasn’t known as being a fair master. When I got to the part about almost being electrocuted in the bath, James’s face drained of colour. I shrugged. “You know anything can happen out in the field. I told you that I didn’t want to be an agent, but you guys keep asking me to do things. Besides, people need help, and what good is my talent if I refuse?”

  He shook his head. “It doesn’t make it any easier. If you died….” Millicent reached out and took his hand in hers. At least he had his family if anything happened to me.

  “Anyway, after I killed him, I met Samuel on the stairs.” Hmm, that sounded blasé, like killing people meant as much to me as making coffee, which was far from the truth. The mantle of sadness draped over me seemed to get heavier whenever I thought about it. Guilt was a good thing—it meant I was still me. If I ever did get to the point where I didn’t care, I wasn’t worth anything to anyone, least of all myself.

  I told them the rest of what happened upon my arrival at the PIB. Ma’am took over, explaining about finding Imani and what my photos had shown. “Please show everyone the photos, dear.”

  I passed my camera to Olivia, and it slowly made its way around the table, everyone’s faces contorting in surprise and confusion as they recognised Will. I sighed and let my frown take over. Why bother hiding how I felt? Everyone else probably felt the same.

  After James had perused the photos, he slid my camera across the table to me. Angelica folded her arms. “We won’t dissect Will’s motives just yet. I want to hear from Beren first. I have a feeling he’s going to be able to answer some of the questions we have. As bad as this looks, we all know Will, and in my experience, he’s not going to disappoint us. So, Agent DuPree, what did you find?”

  I swallowed. Please be good news. My leg bounced up and down, and I resisted the urge to bite my fingernails. Beren cleared his throat. “The magic signature I found on Imani was Will’s. He bound her and wiped her memories. He had to make the memory thing look a bit clumsier so it would look like someone else did it. That’s my estimation anyway. The other thing he did was to implant a false memory of a conversation he never had with Imani.”

  Okay, so that actually made sense. If the guy standing over him making him do everything was watching, Will couldn’t have told her what he really wanted to say. I guess that was my hopeful version. The other reason could be because Will was guilty and wanted to point the finger at someone else. But he wouldn’t be so obvious about it then, would he? Gah. Stop thinking, Lily.

  Beren continued, “I’m assuming Will wouldn’t have had time to implant much, but his message to us using his exact words was, ‘Trust me. But be wary.’”

  I wrinkled my brow. What did that mean? Trust him but don’t? “Um, were they two separate things, or does he want us to trust him but not?”

  Ma’am nodded slowly. “He wants us to trust him, but something else is coming. It’s hard implanting memories, especially after wiping some. He would have had a couple of seconds, if that, and when you implant memories, you can accidentally overwrite other ones. He’s done the best he could. So we do what he’s asked: we trust him, and we watch out for something else that’s coming from the snake group. Whatever it is, I’m sure he’s doing his best to stop it, but I imagine he has little to no influence. I wanted him to gather information, not blow the whole thing open wide by himself when he has no support.”

  “So now what?” I asked.

  “Tonight we clear Mrs Soames’s place of ghosts.” She rolled her eyes, then smirked at me. “I told you they didn’t exist.”

  “Yeah, yeah. And I believed you, except for that guy who almost killed Imani and me. And we weren’t the only ones fooled. How many homes have we seen today?”

  Her poker face came back. “Yes, I know. So, tomorrow you and I have to clear out some more homes, and then there will be an investigation into Samuel’s murder, although I’m hoping Will can help us with that when he resurfaces. At this stage, the regular police will be notified of his disappearance by his family, I would imagine. When that comes through, I’ll notify my guys there about what we know.”

  Worry for Will gnawed on my insides, but I pushed it away. I needed to use my energy to problem-solve right now. Stressing wasn’t going to get him back to us safely. “I’d just like to mention, in case no one else noticed, that guy who was involved in Piranha’s tea debacle was there today, with Will, and he killed Samuel. Should we be trying to find him?”

  James looked at me. “Piranha?”

  Olivia giggled. “Didn’t you know? Lily calls her Dana Piranha.”

  “Why?” He narrowed his eyes and lifted one side of his top lip in a way that asked me if I was stupid.

  “It rhymes, plus she likes eating her own kind. She’s vicious, and she
has sharp teeth.”

  He shook his head. “You’re a nutter.”

  I shrugged. “It’s only a bad thing if you want to think it is.” I grinned.

  He shook his head, then turned to Ma’am. “So that snake guy has managed to keep his magic signature off everything because he’s gotten Will to do his dirty work for him. Did you test the magic in the bathroom?”

  “The forensics guys would have, but I haven’t gotten the results. I’ll see if they’re finished.” Ma’am pulled out her phone and made a call. “Jeffrey, yes…. I am, actually.” She drummed her fingers on the table while the guy talked. “Right. If you could have them on my desk by tomorrow morning. Yes. Highly classified. Tell no one. Thank you.” She put her phone on the table. “We have no magic signatures in the bathroom. The only person we can implicate in this whole thing is Will, but no one knows that we have other evidence.” She looked at me pointedly. “Although, as you know, we can’t reveal that evidence to anyone unless we can come up with a good excuse as to how we managed to be in a position to take the photos without anyone seeing us.”

  “Could we maybe say I came up with a spell to take a photo of the bathroom when I couldn’t be there? The barn would be a stretch, although maybe we could say there were security cameras there that the snake group missed—providing we catch the guy, and we need an excuse?”

  “That’s a possibility since we don’t have to explain how we managed to photograph an event that happened ten years ago. You were there when it happened. The photo from the barn is another matter though. It would be wonderful to show that Will was there with someone else—prove duress—but it would be video footage, not still shots, and we can’t fabricate that. Besides, Will has immunity at the moment because he’s undercover. Everything is highly classified—you’re the only people who know about any of this or Will’s involvement, and I’d like to keep it that way.”