Murder At The Coven: A Witch Cozy Mystery (A Bluebell Knopps Cozy Mystery Book 3)

by Nancy McGovern

  Oliver gaped at her. “How did you know?” he asked. “How did you know that the chimney would have a teddy bear in it?”

  “The same way I knew Hector isn’t the murderer,” Bluebell said. “We’ve all made a mistake where he’s concerned. He may have stolen from the treasury, but he’s no killer.”

  “I always thought so!” Oliver exclaimed. “It just didn’t sit right with me. Hector didn’t look like the sort of man who would ever kill.”

  “But if Hector didn’t do it, who did?” Gertrude asked. “And what does this teddy bear have to do with anything?”

  “I believe that the teddy bear was instrumental in carrying out the murder and helping the murderer get away,” Bluebell said.

  “How so?” the Officer asked. “It’s just a cute little teddy bear.”

  “If you’ll get out the remote, it’ll explain everything,” Bluebell said with a smile. “I think the teddy bear has a hidden record player inside it.”

  “Oh?” The officer got out the remote, and pressed the button. They waited. Nothing happened.

  “Well, so much for that theory,” the officer said. “Never mind, Bluebell. We can all be wrong.”

  Bluebell was baffled. “But… how… no that’s not possible. Maybe..? No. The teddy bear has a tape inside it… I’m sure of it!”

  “Well, you’re clearly wrong,” Ewan said. “Now why don’t you tell us what it was that you were thinking, just so that we can tell you how wrong you were.”

  “I…” Bluebell took a deep breath and shook her head. “I just can’t believe it. I was so sure. It explained everything, all the voices.”

  “What voices?”

  “Murgatroyd the ghost butler said he heard voices in the chimney.”

  “Oh, that?” Mathilda sighed. “Ghosts can be absent minded sometimes. Maybe he imagined it. Or maybe there are some poltergeists up there.”

  “But there’s simply no other way to explain it,” Bluebell said.

  “Explain what?” Gertrude asked a little sharply.

  “You and Mathilda both heard voices, didn’t you?” Bluebell asked. “Mathilda heard the voices at 5pm. You heard it at 6pm. Right after that, we discovered Sutter’s body.”

  “Yes? So?”

  “So all this time, we assumed the murderer had to be a man, because how else would you explain the large boots, the angry voices,” Bluebell said.

  “But… how do you explain it?” Gertrude asked.

  “The voices you heard, Mathilda and Gertrude, were played after the murder had already occurred,” Bluebell said.

  “Impossible!” Gertrude said sharply. “What are you suggesting?”

  “I’m suggesting that the teddy bear was a remote controlled speaker,” Bluebell said. “Someone who wanted an alibi played it after the murder was done.”

  “But who was it?!”

  *****

  Chapter 11

  A Murderer Revealed

  The attic was an old and dusty room, and the officer who held the sooty teddy bear gave a little cough. Everyone else was staring at Bluebell, waiting for her to continue.

  “Explain your logic,” the Officer said.

  “First you can answer a question of mine,” Bluebell said. “When exactly do you think the murder occurred?”

  “Well, shortly before Hector found him or claimed to find him, I assumed,” Officer Chadwick said. “Why?”

  “It must be after 6pm,” Gertrude said. “That’s when I heard the voices in the room.”

  “Exactly,” Bluebell said. “You heard the voices in the room at 6pm, and Hector discovered the body at about 6.30pm. We all assumed that the murder took place between then. But it isn’t what you heard that counts, it’s what all of us didn’t hear!”

  “What does that mean?” Ewan asked.

  “How did Sutter die?” Bluebell asked.

  “When the chandelier fell on him of course,” Ewan said. His eyes widened. “Oh, I didn’t realize that until now, what we didn’t hear!”

  “What are you talking about?” Gertrude asked sternly. “Speak plainly!”

  “What we didn’t hear,” Ewan said. “If Sutter died because the chandelier fell on him, why didn’t we hear the chandelier fall on him?”

  “Oh.” Gertrude was taken aback. “Er… I suppose the thick doors obscured the sound. When I passed right by them, the angry voices sounded like they were coming from far away.”

  “But that wasn’t because of the doors,” Bluebell said. “The voices were coming from far away.”

  “Please, I beg of you, speak plainly,” Mathilda said. “I’m getting a splitting headache from this roundabout talk.”

  “All right, the way I thought of it, the murder was committed far earlier than we thought,” Bluebell said. “In fact, it was committed at 4.30pm.”

  “How can you say that with confidence?” Oliver asked.

  “Because that’s when I heard a large crash,” Bluebell said. “I didn’t hear any crash again, although I should have heard one.”

  “But… but that crash was caused because Angelina bumped into the butler,” Ewan said.

  Before Bluebell could say more, the teddy bear had started speaking. The officer holding it gave a jump and dropped it on the floor.

  From the teddy bear’s mouth came the violent sound of two men fighting.

  “Give me my magic back, you coward, or I’ll kill you!” one voice said.

  “You don’t deserve it! You’re still a fraud and a thief at heart!”

  Recognizing the voices, everyone turned towards Ewan. He was white, and shaking.

  “That’s me,” he said in a voice that trembled. “That’s me. The teddy bear is a recording device, it somehow recorded me saying that!”

  “That’s the voice I heard!” Mathilda exclaimed. “I was too far away to make out the words, but that’s definitely the voices I heard.”

  “Me, too,” Gertrude said. “Though they didn’t sound this loud. What’s happening?”

  “How did the teddy bear start speaking now, of all things?” Officer Chadwick asked.

  As one, they looked at Bluebell, waiting for her to answer. She put her hands up to ask for peace.

  “One minute,” she said. “I’ll answer all of you. First things first. Ewan, the murderer did record you threatening to kill Sutter. They did that yesterday. That’s when you went to talk to Sutter, right?”

  “Right.” Ewan nodded.

  “Hear me out now.” Bluebell took a deep breath. “This might get a little complicated.”

  “All right, we’ve got time,” Oliver said. “No one is going anywhere, are they?”

  Everyone shook their heads.

  “Well, this teddy bear is unique,” Bluebell said. “It has a recording and playing device inside it. But it is programmed a little differently, it doesn’t start playing the record immediately after the remote control is pressed. There is a time delay of about twenty minutes after the remote control is pressed.”

  “So, you mean the teddy started talking now because I pressed the button twenty minutes ago?” the officer asked.

  “Exactly,” Bluebell said. “Now, the murderer gifted this teddy to Sutter, who kept it on his desk. The murderer recorded your fight with Sutter, Ewan, and then used it to create an alibi.”

  “Who is the murderer?” Ewan cried. “Who is she?”

  “I think we already know, don’t we?” Oliver said. “It says I <3 LA on the Teddy.”

  Everyone turned to Angelina.

  “What sheer nonsense!” she exclaimed. “I never heard of such preposterous notions.”

  “You not only heard of them, you plotted them,” Bluebell said. “Rather a complex plot to kill off Sutter, but then, he was too powerful for you to kill him upfront. You had to be very careful.”

  “Just for laughs, let’s hear your theory,” Angelina said.

  “You killed Sutter at 4.30pm,” Bluebell said. “To disguise the crash, you pretended that you’d run into the butler
and he’d dropped the tray. Ewan and I saw you scolding him and took it for granted that that’s what had happened. Yet when I mentioned it later, Murgatroyd didn’t remember you running into him. Because it hadn’t happen. You murdered Sutter, then ran out of the room and hypnotized Murgatroyd. You made up the whole scene for the benefit of your witnesses.”

  “Ludicrous!” Angelina said, turning red.

  “Then, to give yourself an alibi, you announced you were going to take a bath,” Bluebell said. “Only, you pressed the button on the remote, and hoped that someone would hear the voices in the library. When Ewan and I went off to play tennis, you actually made an excuse to borrow shampoo from Mathilda and gently nudged her to go down to the library.”

  “She did!” Mathilda exclaimed. “I wouldn’t have gone there but she told me perhaps you were there.”

  “Preposterous!” Angelina said again.

  “Oh, it gets better,” Bluebell said. “Then, you shimmied down the side of the house, and planted a footprint in the garden. You then planted another footprint inside the library. As for the Teddy, with its job done, you threw it up the fireplace, hoping to retrieve it later. But you made a crucial error. You dropped your remote control, and I saw it. Just like I saw you shimmying down the pipes. That’s why I always thought the footprints were planted, the person I’d seen coming down the pipes was definitely not Hector. Too slender to be Hector. It was you, wasn’t it?”

  “This is just a plot against me,” Angelina said tightly. “I won’t say a word.”

  “You don’t need to,” Bluebell said. “As I said, you made a mistake. You dropped the remote control. I happened to come upon it, and pressed the button. Nothing happened so I went inside to drink coke. You met me there. Remember that?”

  “So what?”

  “Twenty minutes later, Gertrude heard voices from inside the library, only she said they sounded far away. They were far away. You’d thrown the teddy up into the chimney, and it had gotten stuck there. That’s why they sounded far away.”

  “But… how did you figure it was in the chimney?” Oliver asked.

  “Well, when I handed you the remote in the library, you pressed it. Nothing happened, then, twenty minutes later, Murgatroyd heard voices in the chimney, like I said, delayed timer. The recording always plays after twenty minutes!”

  “And we’d already sealed off the library by then.” Oliver nodded. “The officers were taking interviews and the rest of us were in the bar, so we didn’t hear the voices.”

  “Exactly.” Bluebell smiled.

  “Look, it’s all very well to go on about voice recordings, but that doesn’t mean it’s Angelina. After all, those were Hector’s boots.”

  “Hector’s room is right next to Angelina’s,” Bluebell said. “My guess is, before she shimmied down that pipe, she stole his boots. Afterwards, she planted it as close to the library as possible so they’d be easily found. Why on earth would Hector have done that?”

  The officers nodded. Angelina was a brilliant actor, but even she couldn’t hide the patches of red that were forming over her face, or the blood rage in her eyes. “Beast!” she spat at Bluebell.

  “What was her motive?” Mathilda asked. “Why would Angelina do such a thing?”

  “That’s the one thing I was confused about,” Bluebell said. “Till I remembered exactly what was on Sutter’s desk. When we had all had that meeting at 3pm, Sutter had a few things on his desk. The teddy was one of them, as was the ashtray with his cigar. There was also a mug of tea with Happy Birthday written on it.”

  Gertrude nodded. “Oh, I gave him that last year.”

  “And, finally, there was a copy of Us Weekly opened to page 3, the celebrity section.” Bluebell smiled. “Now why would Sutter, who hated all things non-magical, going as far as to refuse to use telephones, ever read a tabloid magazine about Hollywood?”

  “Why?” Ewan asked.

  “He was reading about a string of recent celebrities who had lost their looks after taking a drug,” Bluebell said.

  “Oh, I’ve read about that,” Ewan said. “They’re called bath salts. Apparently drive people mad and make them look horrible, too.”

  “I think you’ll find that they steal the user’s looks and vitality,” Bluebell said. “Or didn’t any of you find it funny that Angelina looks better at 45 than she did at 20?”

  “Beast!” Angelina hissed again.

  “Sutter figured it out. He figured out you were giving actresses tablets promising that they’d look better if they took it, but actually, these dangerous tablets, once they were swallowed, would transfer the looks and vitality of that actress to you, Angelina, a good way to get rid of the competition while becoming even younger.”

  With a scream of anger, Angelina rushed toward Bluebell, her hands hooked into claws. Immediately, Mathilda and Oliver bought out their wands, and shot spells at her. Angelina found herself suspended in mid-air, her hair flying around her face. Her beautiful face itself was contorted with rage. Even though she was safely bound by a bubble of air, she tried her hardest to claw towards Bluebell.

  “To think I once loved her,” Ewan said with regret and disgust.

  “I think we all owe Hector an apology,” Gertrude said.

  “My mind is still spinning,” Officer Chadwick said. “But there’s only one thing to say. Angelina Dubois, you are under arrest for the murder of Sutter Cutler!”

  “I don’t care anymore!” Angelina shouted. “He deserved to die. He was just an old fool who didn’t understand that Hollywood is my life.”

  “You’ll get life all right,” Officer Chadwick said. “But I can promise you, it’ll be in jail not Hollywood.”

  *****

  Chapter 12

  Afterwards

  “I’m so sorry about everything,” Mathilda said. She and Bluebell were sitting on rocking chairs in the garden. Beyond them, goldfish swam round and round in the little fishpond. Behind them, the french windows leading to the bar stood wide open.

  It had rained all night, and the trees looked greener than ever. The mountains beyond looked cleaner too, like well dressed schoolboys in a line for check-up. Bluebell inhaled the fresh smell of pine and roses, and gave a little sigh of happiness. Peace like this was so rare, and you only appreciated it after you’d lost it for a while.

  “I can’t believe how quickly things have changed,” Mathilda said. “I’m glad you’re going to be here for Sutter’s funeral tomorrow. I think he would have liked that.”

  “I think I owe it to him,” Bluebell said. “Poor guy. He had his flaws, but he didn’t deserve what happened.”

  “No, he didn’t,” Mathilda said. “But I’d like to think that Angelina deserves every bit of what’s going to happen to her.”

  Bluebell nodded, and took a sip of her drink. It was ginger fizz with gin in it. Gertrude had made it for her, and to Bluebell’s surprise, she rather liked it. Mathilda was sipping on a glass of wine.

  They both stayed silent for a while, watching the clouds drift slowly across the sky. The birds chirped, calling to each other across the valley.

  “So, what now?” Mathilda asked finally.

  “Now, I go home,” Bluebell said. “Back to where I belong.”

  “You could belong here if you liked,” Mathilda said. “This coven will welcome you anytime.”

  “Will it?” Bluebell asked. “Sometimes, Mathilda, I believe I bring bad luck with me wherever I go.”

  “Why would you say that?” Mathilda’s eyes were alert.

  “It’s just… since my 21st birthday, this is the third murder I’ve encountered. A little bit much, don’t you think?”

  “It’s also the third murder you helped solve,” Oliver said. He was dressed in navy shorts and an oxford button down shirt, with neon green sunglasses perched on his head. He held a martini glass with a cherry sticking out of it in one hand.

  “I don’t know,” Mathilda said. “There’s something to what she says, Oliver. It’s no coi
ncidence. There’s something more at play here.”

  Oliver gave her a look. “Like what?” he asked. For a second, Mathilda looked as though she were about to tell him. Then she shook her head. “I’m leader of the coven now,” she said. “I can’t tell you everything I know. But Bluebell, remember you can choose to stay with us.”

  “Right now, I’m just going to listen to the voice inside me, the one telling me it’s time to go back home,” Bluebell said. “I don’t belong to this coven. I belong back in Lledrith, Wisconsin.”

  Mathilda smiled. “Just remember you’ll always be welcome here.”

  “High priestess,” Ewan said. “It’s almost time.” He was hopping from one foot to another in excitement.

  “Yes.” Mathilda nodded. Turning to Bluebell, she asked, “Would you like to witness the ceremony?”

  “Ewan getting his powers back? No, thank you. I’d feel like I was intruding,” Bluebell said. “By the way, what happened to Hector?”

  “He promised to get help for his gambling addiction,” Mathilda said. “We decided against taking his powers away, mainly because being fired from his job was punishment enough. Plus, he did seem to show genuine regret. Even before he was caught, he’d replaced the money.”

  Bluebell nodded. “Poor guy. Quite a bad scare for him.”

  Gertrude came out holding a drink identical to Bluebell’s. With a happy sigh, she sank down on a chair next to Oliver. “A good day, today,” she said. “Tomorrow, we have the funeral, and a few hours from now, we have Ewan’s ceremony, but for now, there’s just us, and these drinks, and a general feeling of contentment.”

  “Speak for yourself,” Ewan said. “I’ll only be content after my powers are restored back to me.”

  “What naughtiness are you planning as soon as you get them back?” Gertrude asked.

  “I’m going to fly,” Ewan said. “That’s what I missed most. Running through green hills, jumping and then just taking off. Whoosh.”

  “We can do that?” Bluebell stared at him, wide-eyed. “That’s amazing!”

  “You could learn,” Mathilda said. “We could teach you.”