Witch Haunted in Westerham

by Dionne Lister

  We all nodded. No one wanted to jeopardise Will’s safety, and most of the people around the table were seasoned agents. The only non-agents were Olivia and me, and we were totally trustworthy, which Ma’am knew, or we wouldn’t be sitting here.

  Beren sat forward and directed his question to Ma’am. “How were they haunting the houses?”

  “We haven’t quite worked that out yet. I’ve asked the forensics guys to grab one of the cameras Lily found at the mansion today, and tonight, we’ll grab the whole system from Mrs Soames’s place. There might have been projectors as well as spying apparatuses. As for the traces of magic left over from them moving things, we’ll have to work it out. We didn’t search Mrs Soames’s place after we were attacked that night, but we’ll investigate tonight. If they used a strong spell, we’ll find traces. Does anyone have any other questions?”

  I wanted to ask when Will could come home, and whether this would all be over if we caught that guy from the snake group, but she couldn’t answer those questions. Was that guy acting alone, or was he under orders from Dana? And if so, would this ever be over? Would they start their little haunting scheme somewhere else? And why? Were they just trying to make money, or was there something even more sinister going on? My head throbbed.

  “Hey, girl, stop thinking. Those wrinkles are going to be permanent if you don’t relax.” Olivia looked at me, concern in her eyes.

  I rubbed my forehead. “I’m sorry. There’s just so much we don’t know. What if we can’t catch that guy and this happens somewhere else?”

  Ma’am interrupted. “We’re not the only PIB around, dear. We have branches in other countries. I’ll put the word through to watch out for similar schemes, okay?”

  I nodded. That was better than nothing, but it led me to other questions. How big was this snake group, and how far was its reach? Gah, at this rate, I’d never get rid of my headache. Weariness drained each of my limbs, and the need to lie down and sleep became overwhelming.

  No one else asked anything, so I stood, despite my body’s protests. If I’d listened to it, I’d have crawled under the table for a nap, like we used to do as kids when we stayed out at dinner with our parents past our bedtime. “Ma’am, can we get this house clearing over and done with? I’m exhausted, and tomorrow’s going to be horrible too.”

  “Right you are, Lily. Thanks, team. We’ll gather together tomorrow night for another update meeting, and, Beren, can you have Imani attend? I’m giving her tomorrow off—Lily will be with me, so Imani can rest.”

  “Will do, Ma’am.”

  Ma’am and I said our goodbyes and went to the basement. With Mrs Soames at home, we couldn’t use the reception room, and we had a lot of houses to get to tomorrow, so the car it was. At least the Porsche was nice—I wasn’t a snob, but I could appreciate luxury if I had to.

  The car was obviously comfortable because I fell asleep within five minutes. By the time we pulled into our driveway, and I opened my eyes, I’d managed to drool onto my jacket. I didn’t want to get out into the freezing night, and I sat there as Angelica hopped out. She bent down to look back inside at me. “What are you doing?”

  “I’m tired. I don’t wanna get out.” I affected a whiney child’s voice. Maybe she’d shut the door and let me get some more sleep.

  She sighed. “I’m sorry. I know you’ve had a hard day, but we’ve just got this one last thing to do.” I didn’t move. “Come on. I got you all the food you loved for dinner. Surely that counts for something?”

  I looked at her, and guilt nipped my heart. She had dark circles under her eyes—she was almost as tired as I was, by the looks of it. Damn. “All right. You win.”

  She smiled, and I slid out of the car and shut the door. “Brrr, it’s bloody cold.”

  “It is almost winter, dear. That would be why.”

  “Ha ha, thanks for pointing that out.”

  “Ready?”

  I held my camera up. “Ready.”

  We walked across the road, and Angelica magicked the door open, as we hadn’t gotten the key from Mrs Soames. I didn’t think either of us wanted the added annoyance of chatting to her first. Plus, it wasn’t a good idea to get her hopes up until we knew it had worked—she was ridiculously vocal when she had something to be upset about. I did expect it to work, though, and I had gotten my hopes up. Fingers crossed for a sleep-in tomorrow.

  There wasn’t a camera in the hallway, but when I photographed her bedroom, I found one. There wasn’t one in the bathroom—no one wanted to watch that—so I continued into the second bedroom—found one camera—and living room, where there were two. I was pointing out to Ma’am where they were—I didn’t want to show her the photos in case the snake group was watching, and they figured out that my talent revolved around my camera.

  I was about to head to the kitchen when a figure appeared—the fat, half-naked ghost. Great, just what I needed to cap off a truly craptastic day. We hadn’t worked out how to get rid of it last time, but then, we’d thought we were dealing with a real ghost—at least, I had. As the beastly sight floated towards us, a sick smile beaming from his see-through face, I risked a glance at Angelica, hoping for some guidance. She gave me her poker face and turned back to watch the “ghost.” So it was every witch for herself. What should I do?

  I started by conjuring my return-to-sender spell, and I could see the symbol wrapped up in Angelica’s aura too, so at least I’d done something right. We were in the middle of the lounge room, and there were two of us and one of him. When Angelica stepped to the right, I stepped to the left—it made total sense to surround him if we could.

  The ghost floated in front of the wall and glided to the left—well, his left, my right—so he was directly in front of me. No prizes for who he guessed was weaker. He was probably correct—Angelica had way more experience, and I was still weakened from my near-death thing and today’s efforts. I didn’t like my chances of beating this guy by myself. If Angelica wasn’t here, I’d be running away about now.

  “Hey, bozo,” I said, “put a shirt on.” Taunting had never worked as a defence strategy before, and I had no idea why I thought it would work now, but at least it got out some of my nervous energy.

  He roared. A picture on the wall to my left dropped and smashed on the floor. More glass. The witch-ghost laughed, his hairy man boobs and stomach jiggling. His glowing yellow eyes—did I forget to mention that last time—turned to me. The glow seemed to pulse when he spoke. “You’re first.” Some of the glass shards, long, sharp, deadly things, floated into the air and pointed at me. Crap. My return-to-sender spell wouldn’t work against those—they weren’t a spell; they were real things. Even if a spell propelled them, they could still be fatal.

  My scalp prickled. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Angelica’s lips moving. I didn’t just want to leave it to her. I needed to protect myself—the fear icing my veins demanded I take action. I mumbled, “Disassemble the glass, and make it harmless sand.” Power shot from my fingers. The glass glowed blue. The shards became the sandy colour of, well, wet sand, and then fell to the ground with little splots. There was a loud rustling behind me, and I spun. Oops. My magic hadn’t been discerning. The windowpanes had turned to sand, which lay clumped on the floor.

  The witch-ghost screamed. I slammed my hands over my ears and pivoted around—I should never have taken my eyes off him. He flew towards me, crashing into me, knocking me down. I slammed into the ground, back first. “Oomph.” His solid mass landed on top of me, forcing the air from my lungs. Which was weird. He had substance. He’d knocked me over and was squashing me. His body had been way firmer than I’d thought a ginormous stomach would be too. And even though I was having trouble wriggling out from under him, he was not nearly as heavy as I expected such a big person to be.

  I was almost free when he shifted and sat on my stomach again, legs on either side of me. He reached down and gripped my throat. Just as he tightened his fingers, cutting off my air supply, Angelica,
turning, kicked him in the face. His hands released as he fell backwards. She didn’t let up, though. She forced him onto his stomach on the floor and bent his arm behind his back till he screamed. Then she pulled the other arm around and said, “Cuffs on.” The magic-blocking PIB cuffs appeared on his wrists. Angelica stood and put her foot on his back. He lay with his head turned to the side, blood trickling from his nose. And then something else happened….

  The fat ghostly form seemed to drip away and dissolve until we were looking at the guy who’d killed Samuel. Oh my God. Had we really caught him? Okay, so Angelica had done all the work. Now we could get some answers. Was he the missing piece of the puzzle that would help us bring Dana and her group down?

  Angelica read him his rights whilst dragging him off the floor. He resisted the whole way, turning this way and that, even trying to headbutt her face with the back of his skull. “Settle down,” she cautioned. “Do you want me to break something else?”

  “I don’t care what you do to me. I won’t be alive much longer. You have no idea who you’re dealing with. You’ll never stop us.”

  Angelica ignored his little speech and told her phone to call headquarters. She paused and stared into space briefly, then mumbled something. The tingle on the back of my neck lasted only a second, and then she said a string of numbers. “Okay, see them soon. Yes, four agents. Thanks.”

  She hung up and slid her phone into her pocket. The air shimmered in front of me, and a form appeared. I was exhausted, but I repeated my return-to-sender spell. It was probably just the agents coming to take him away, but I wasn’t taking the chance.

  But then I sucked in a breath, my heart frantically beating.

  Will.

  His gaze caught mine, a fountain of regret and grief. He shook his head but said not a word before turning, then calling down a zap of lightning to fry our prisoner. The man screamed for a second, then lay still, eyes wide. Dead. The stench of burnt skin and hair made me gag and cough. What the hell?

  Angelica’s mouth fell open. “Will, what are you doing?”

  His shoulders slumped. He shook his head silently, then made a doorway, and disappeared.

  The other four agents arrived, one by one. Realising the prisoner was dead, they all threw questions at once. But the only thing Angelica and I could do was look at each other.

  There was nothing to say.

  Chapter 16

  Late the following afternoon, after clearing the rest of the properties booked in for selling because of “ghosts,” we pulled into the PIB car park. Fatigue was an understatement for the heavy drag on my body and mind. Last night, we’d magicked new windows into Mrs Soames’s frames and cleaned the mess so it didn’t look as if anything weird had happened. We’d magicked incense into the house and taken her over, telling her we’d cleared the ghost with smudge sticks.

  She bought it.

  This morning, we moved her back in—cockatoo, table, and all. It was a shame I couldn’t enjoy the moment because of Will. It was clear he hadn’t wanted to do what he’d done last night—he’d been forced. But by whom, and was he in more danger than he’d been able to let on? Our meeting would hopefully bring an action plan into being for how to extract him safely.

  As we went up in the lift, Ma’am whispered a bubble-of-silence spell that included normal hearing too. “Go along with me in the meeting. I’ve invited a few extra agents. Act just as surprised and upset at the news as everyone else. Okay?”

  “Of course.” I gave her the most intense gaze I could. “You can always count on me.” Hmm, what did she have up her witchy sleeve? It had better be good, or we may never see Will alive again. He’d lost control of the situation. We’d all underestimated this snake group. Maybe they’d been right to be cocky about their operation? I shivered and hugged myself, my chest tight with pent-up grief and fear.

  Ma’am led the way into the conference room, which was good because I almost stopped and ran back out. Conversations rumbled through the room. The table was full, and extra chairs had been brought in to accommodate even more agents. What was she doing? Sitting at the table was one of the agents we suspected as being one of Dana’s lackeys. Hmm.

  Ma’am pulled her chair out and stood in front of it at the head of the table. Liv and James were sitting closest to her, but Beren and Imani were sitting amongst the plethora of black-suited agents. There was one empty seat, which just happened to be to Ma’am’s right and out from the table a bit, as there wasn’t room. She nodded to me and gestured to the seat. Crap.

  I sat and clutched my bag in my lap, using it as a shield against the stares. There was no table to protect me. Everyone was probably wondering what I was doing here, or maybe they thought I was one of them since I was wearing the uniform, but still, my lack of confidence probably screamed “imposter.”

  Telltale warmth spread across the back of my neck. A brass-coloured gong appeared in Ma’am’s hand, a little metal hammer in the other. She hit it against the gong three times, and everyone fell quiet. Why was three such an oft-used number? When people raced, it was on three, when anyone wanted to countdown, it was from three. Why not four? What had four ever done to anyone? Although that was the Chinese word for death. Okay, so use five.

  “I’ve called an emergency meeting today because we have a dire situation.”

  I focussed on Ma’am and pretended some of the agents weren’t still staring at me. Apparently me being shocked and reactive was important to pulling this off—whatever this was.

  “One of our agents has defected to a life of crime. He was working undercover, but it appears as though he’s decided to join an organised-crime syndicate.” Oh, so that’s where she was going. “He’s now a wanted man. Anyone with information as to his whereabouts is to let me know. If anyone hears from him, I want to be informed immediately. If found, he will be arrested and charged with murder. That agent’s name is William Blakesley.”

  There were gasps and murmurs around the room. My gasp wasn’t quite the loudest—I didn’t want to overdo it and be obvious—but it was up there. My hand was plastered across my mouth. Some of these agents would know that we’d been an item… once. I let my tears come to the surface. I hated crying in front of people, but let them see how upset I was. I still wasn’t sure where she was trying to lead everyone, but I would do whatever it took to get him back. God, how I wished we’d never sent him undercover. There had to be a better way to find out what happened to my parents. I couldn’t risk any more people I loved. It wasn’t worth it, was it?

  Ma’am rang her gong once to quieten the chatter that was getting out of control. It wasn’t often an agent defected, but when it happened, it was serious. Will knew many PIB secrets, and I imagined everyone was worried—well, everyone except that crappy agent who was probably on Dana’s payroll. He sat there with a surprised expression, but as soon as he thought no one was watching him, his face went into poker mode. Even so, he nodded slowly, probably thinking about how well things were going. I turned my gaze away, not wanting him to catch me. I was close to narrowing my eyes in anger and giving myself away. This spying thing was way harder than it looked.

  She was still standing and held up the gong, mallet poised to strike again. “Quiet please.” Mouths closed, and heads turned her way. “This meeting was to advise you of the situation, but by no means do I want anyone to act on their own to apprehend him. I’m putting a small team together to find him and make an arrest. If we can’t apprehend him, we will kill him if it looks like he’s getting away. We have new information on the group he’s defected to, and we’re closing in on them, so any information William has may not be important anyway.”

  The bad-guy agent tried to keep his face neutral, but I saw the miniscule widening of his eyes. Ma’am opened her mouth to keep talking, and his hand went to his pocket and pulled out his phone. Hmm, had Ma’am spelled it? Was she looking for him to lead us to Will? “I’m going to call three names. The rest of you can go.” She paused and surveyed the room.
“Agent Bianchi.” She gave my brother a side-eyed glance. “Agent Price.” She looked down the table at the enemy agent. He smirked and nodded. Idiot. He probably thought he was being favoured above other agents. I was betting Ma’am had chosen him for a different reason. “And Agent Bradford.” She stared at a guy in his thirties, whose straight dark hair was cut short, making his square jaw more pronounced. I had no idea if he was trustworthy or not, but like everything else she did, Ma’am would have her reasons.

  Ma’am turned to Olivia and spoke loud enough that everyone exiting could probably still hear over the new chitchat. “Take Lily back to your office. Have her do some filing, please.”

  Olivia stood, the skin between her eyes furrowed. “Yes, Ma’am. I have a ton of that.” My friend looked at me and jerked her head to the door. I sighed, trying to look as sad as possible, and joined her at the door. We exited together, bumping at the hip as we tried to fit through. A giggle bubbled to the surface, but I quickly schooled my face—I was supposed to be the grieving, disappointed ex-girlfriend. We hurried to her office and shut the door. Once we were safely inside, I made a bubble of total silence—it had taken me a while, but I’d finally come up with a new name for the spell that stopped every kind of listening in.

  I sat in the chair next to Olivia’s and twirled it around. Oops, bad idea. I was going to make myself sick. I stopped and looked at her as she sat. “Do you know what Ma’am’s plan is? What if someone sees Will and decides to kill him for the PIB?”

  “Don’t worry. She’s had James and Beren develop a spell. No one knows about it yet. It’s groundbreaking and taps into telephone conversations and messages coming from any phone within one mile of this building. She’s goaded that agent into acting. Ma’am made sure he’d make a phone call too—she put the suggestion in his mind. It’s not legal, I know, but I’m sure we all agree this is one time we need to break the rules.”