Witch Swindled in Westerham

by Dionne Lister

  “No, it wouldn’t.” Great, Angelica had just confirmed this was really it. He was cheating on my friend. My heart broke for Olivia. How would she find out? It couldn't be from me. I wasn’t looking forward to the time it would take her to discover he was gone. It would be like waiting for a bomb to go off. Nausea filtered up my throat, making my mouth water.

  “Oh!” Angelica’s cheeks were bright red. Oh, crap. She’d seen the photo. William took the camera from her. Prickles of heat assaulted my back. He and Beren stared at the screen. William’s eyes widened, and Beren’s mouth dropped open. Well, this was awkward, and it was all my fault.

  William’s heated gaze met mine. He cleared his throat then turned to my brother. “James, your sister’s trying to corrupt us. I feel violated.”

  Beren tried not to laugh, but it burst out from between his clenched lips. “Oh my God. You should see your face, Lily. Classic. You’re redder than a baboon’s bum.” Ugliest analogy ever. Thanks. I was sweating too. I finally gave in and fanned my face with my hand. Kill me now, or beam me up. Something… anything to get me out of here.

  “That’s enough!” Angelica grabbed the camera, turned it off, and handed it to me. “We have to go, and next time, Lily, a bit of warning would be nice.”

  “But I—” Her raised hand cut me off. I had tried, dammit!

  Beren shook his head, but his grin ruined the chastisement, and William waggled his finger at me.

  “James, can we go now?” The sooner we got out of here the better; otherwise, I was going to spontaneously combust from embarrassment.

  He laughed. “Yes, dear sister. Follow me.” A black hole opened up in the hallway.

  I followed him through… to a stinky men’s toilet. I obviously hadn’t thought things through properly. I should’ve gone with Angelica. That’s what happened when I was distracted—bad decisions ensued.

  He hurried us out, past three men using the urinal. I gagged and rushed out into… an airport. Oh my God, I was in Paris! Even if we were just in the airport, we were still here. I grabbed James’s arm. “We’re really in Paris?” Travellers pulling wheeled suitcases hurried past.

  “Yes, Lily. This is Charles De Gaul Airport.” He smiled.

  “Can we visit the Eiffel Tower and Monet’s museum?”

  He looked at me like I was stupid. “We’re in the middle of an investigation. This isn’t a holiday.” Why couldn’t my brain focus on just one thing without getting distracted?

  A message came over the loudspeaker in French, then English. “British Airways flight BA 8752 is now boarding. Last call for passengers, Miss Smith and Mr Bergerac.”

  It sure sounded like we were on holidays. I resisted the urge to pout. “Okay, don’t remind me.” My life had been anything but a holiday since I’d arrived in the UK, and it seemed like the fun times were never going to end. It wasn’t like I was supposed to be working for the PIB full-time, but I was under contract right now. Maybe once this whole thing was over, I’d hop on the train and have a few days here. That sounded like a plan. Maybe Olivia would need a holiday to forget about everything she didn’t know about yet. Yes, that made total sense.

  Beren and William had followed us out soon after we arrived, and now Angelica joined us. “Now what?” I asked Angelica.

  “I’ll need you to take some photographs. Since we can assume he took all his clothes, he would have checked baggage. We’ll concentrate on the carousel where he would’ve collected his bag.”

  “But we can’t access that area.” Unless they had an invisibility spell or a cubicle back there, I wasn’t sure how we’d get in. Security was tight these days, and I had a feeling the no-notice spell wouldn’t cut it, especially since there were cameras everywhere, and we’d be sure to be chased down later.

  “We have a landing place back there,” Angelica explained.

  “You mean another toilet cubicle?” Why sugarcoat it?

  She threw me a stern look. “Come on. I’ll take you this time. We’re not jumping far.”

  She mumbled a few words, probably a no-notice spell, hustled me into the women’s toilet and into a door at the end. We went in one cubicle and came out another. We exited the toilets. Angelica took stock of the gates we walked past. We turned left again. A couple of minutes later, we came to the baggage-claim carousel. Angelica whispered, “Pretend you’re taking photos of me. Cover the whole area. Once we confirm he was here, we can go back out and see if we can track where he went next. He either got a hire car or jumped into a taxi.”

  This whole thing was a bit like finding a needle in a haystack. My photography wasn’t always that accurate, and a city was a big place to try and find someone when you had no idea where they were. What if they had an apartment here and weren’t staying in a hotel? They could be anywhere. What if they’d hired a car and driven out of Paris?

  “Could Camilla be leading us on a wild goose chase?”

  “She could be, but she doesn’t know what your talent is, and she hasn’t left any other clues, so she’s not expecting us to get this far. Let’s not stand around too long. We’ll look suspicious.”

  Angelica approached the carousel and mingled with the crowd, pretending she was looking for a bag. I stood back with my camera. “Show me Ernest from today.” I scanned the crowd that appeared, clicking as I panned across the room. If only the video function worked with my powers. I’d tried a few times, but it never switched to the other reality. I guess it would have taken too much magical power to leave more than a static image behind.

  So many people, all crowded together, and three of them ghostly—one older lady with short grey hair, an older man, and a slim forty-something-year-old woman wearing a pretty printed scarf on her head. Maybe she had cancer. That was so sad. Although, I didn’t know for sure they would die.

  I shrugged off my unease and walked closer to the herd of travellers, looking for Ernest’s familiar face. I slammed into someone.

  “Merde! Regardez ou vous allez.” I lowered my camera to an angry sixty-something-year-old French man, his beret askew on his bald head. Generalisations were there for a reason. Some French people really did wear berets.

  “Sorry! Pardon.” I said “pardon” in what I hoped was an authentic French accent. I had no idea what he’d said. The only French I knew was what I’d learned in early high-school French, which is to say, hardly anything.

  He looked to the ceiling and mumbled something, then walked off.

  Oops. I needed to remember the real world was different from what I saw with my camera. I repeated my request to the universe and lifted my camera, careful not to run into anyone this time when I wandered around. The scene had changed, although I recognised some of the people and clothes from the last image. Was that? Yes! Click, click. I carefully picked my way through the travellers to the outskirts of the press of people. One more click and I was done. I put my camera in my bag and grabbed Angelica.

  “I got it. Let’s go to the car-rental booths.” This had been easier than I thought it was going to be. Looked like the universe and I were in tune now. Angelica and I meandered back to the toilet, travelled, then found the guys.

  “Any luck?” James asked.

  I nodded. “He picked up two checked suitcases. I’m going to see what I can find at the car-rental places.”

  There they were, not far from an exit, a row of desks. I peered through my camera. “Show me Ernest from this morning.” I swept the camera back and forth a few times. Apparently, he hadn’t hired a car. I lowered my camera and shook my head. “Time to head outside.” Everyone followed me.

  Outside, cars zipped past, driving on the wrong side of the road. Yikes. I was likely to look the wrong way and get squished. Note to self: don’t rush across the road over here.

  Everyone who walked past was dressed elegantly, unless it was me being influenced by the fact I was in Paris. A young woman wore a bright-red T-shirt with an image of a poodle on the front, and a white miniskirt only just covered the tops of her sex
y thighs. Large white-framed glasses covered more than half her face, and her lips were painted the same crimson shade as her T-shirt. She sauntered along on white sandal high heels wheeling a small hard-case carryon. How did she walk so fast wearing those heels? The guys watched her as she passed, her slim hips swinging from side to side, side to side. It was kind of mesmerising. I shook my head.

  Angelica clapped her hands together twice, the loud cracks putting the traffic noise to shame. I cringed. Was that the loudest clap ever? My ears rang. James looked guiltily at her, although Beren and William just shrugged. I guess they weren’t married so they could look at whatever they wanted. And it didn’t make me jealous. Not. At. All. Ah, the lies we tell ourselves.

  “Gee, there’s a lot of footpath to cover.” There was more than one exit. I repeated my request to the universe and checked out the area around each exit. At the last one, there he was, getting into a taxi. I made sure to snap the number plate and the driver’s ID in the bottom left-hand side of the windshield. I had to zoom in on the ID, because I couldn’t get too close to the phantom taxi or I’d hit the vehicle that was occupying the same spot in real time. Done.

  We’d been running around all afternoon, and my feet were aching. I could‘ve done with having a seat. This hopping from toilet to toilet didn’t allow for rest periods while travelling, and I wasn’t used to using my magic so much.

  “I’m just going to the bathroom while you decide what we’re doing. And can I just say, I could do with a bit of a rest. I’m pooped.”

  James looked at me. “You do look tired. Not used to your magic yet?”

  “Not really.” I yawned, and then James and Beren did too. I grinned. “Sorry, made you yawn.”

  James smiled. “I’ll come with you.”

  “I can go to the toilet by myself. Sheesh.”

  He came closer and lowered his voice. “You’re not safe anywhere, Lily. Just because we’re in Paris, doesn’t mean we haven’t been tracked or followed. Okay.”

  “Oh, yeah. Okay. I forgot.” How did life get so complicated? He escorted me to the bathroom and waited for me outside. Thank God he didn’t insist on coming in.

  There was a commotion on the way back to the exit. People circled around something. There was shouting, and one woman had her hands in front of her mouth, and she was crying. A man and woman hurried their young son past. I shared a glance with James, and we cautiously approached. I looked over the shoulder of one of the people observing.

  An old woman lay on the ground, unconscious. Her glasses lay on the ground beside her, and a young man was performing CPR. I sucked in a quick breath and slapped my hand to my mouth. It was suddenly chilly, and goose bumps spread across my scalp and arms. A tear slid down my cheek. Damn.

  I stepped back. James was still watching, so I grabbed his arm and pulled him towards the entrance. He was about to say something but then shut his mouth. Maybe I looked as pale as I felt. Once we were outside and clear of the action, I stopped and bent at the waist. Resting my palms on my thighs, I took some deep breaths. I told James about the photos between breaths. “Have a look on my camera. She was ghostly. I’m sure it was her. I was hoping I couldn’t really see that someone was going to die, but I can.”

  I straightened. James took the camera from Angelica and turned it on. He showed me the screen and flicked through the images.

  “Stop. That’s the one.” I sniffled. Yep, that was the same lady. Even though she was faded, you could tell it was her hair, and she was the only one in the airport wearing pink trousers. Her face wasn’t clear enough to be sure, but the rest proved it.

  James blew out a huge breath and enveloped me in a hug. “I’m sorry, Lil.” I shrugged. What could anyone say? It was what it was.

  “What happened?” Beren had moved next to me. James explained what we’d seen. “Oh.” That about summed it up.

  William clapped James on the back. “Why don’t Beren and I catch a cab with Lily while you and Ma’am check out the taxi records? We’ll meet you at Castel Café. The view of the Eiffel Tower should cheer Lily up.” He smiled at me. “Come on. We’ll have a coffee and get going again.”

  I stepped away from James, who handed me the camera. I put it in my bag and waved goodbye. James and Angelica headed back into the airport, no doubt to find a cubicle while we jumped into a taxi. Being nestled between two hunky Englishmen wasn’t the worst thing that could’ve happened. I relaxed and settled back into my seat.

  “Thanks, guys.”

  “Our pleasure.” Beren gently shoulder bumped me.

  My gaze was glued out the windscreen the whole time as I soaked Paris in. This was surreal. Pretty apartment buildings with ornate façades and iron lacework balcony railings lined the streets. Rows of plane trees created avenues of green. I even spotted someone walking a giant poodle. So cool!

  William shifted, and I was sure I could feel him staring at me. Don’t look. Don’t look.

  I had no self-control.

  I turned my head. Our gazes met. It was like plunging down a roller coaster. I was falling, and my weightless heart was at risk of floating out of the atmosphere.

  His pupils dilated, and his blue-grey irises darkened, reminding me of the ocean on a stormy day. Deep and dangerous. I think it was my new favourite colour. He kept staring, but I chickened out and jerked my head forward. My cheeks heated as I pretended I hadn’t just flirted with him. Pretty lame flirting, but I was sure staring into someone’s eyes for longer than two seconds meant you were interested. Don’t go there. It was bound to end badly, as in me falling for him big time, and him having one night of fun, then trying to avoid me for eternity. Plus, James wouldn’t be impressed.

  Hopefully Beren was oblivious to our little moment. The cab pulled into a side street and stopped near the corner. “We’re here.” Beren leaned forward and handed the driver a credit card. William got out and held the door for me.

  “Thanks.” I avoided looking into his eyes this time and took in the Parisian city instead.

  Holy cow, the Eiffel Tower was right there, at the end of the street! My mouth dropped open, and I reached for my camera. The tower’s golden spire rose above tall green plane trees, shining against a backdrop of blue sky and smattering of white clouds. The staunch yet elegant beauty stood proudly. I snapped a few frames and then headed towards it.

  “Hey, Lily. Wait. Where are you going?” Beren ran over and stood in front of me, blocking my way. Oops. Sometimes I got carried away. And let’s face it: I was in Paris, and the Eiffel Tower was within spitting distance. As if I wasn’t going to get carried away. My subconscious was obviously trying to let me sneak without making me feel guilty.

  “Are you sure I can’t just go visit for a little bit?” I stared longingly at the icon. So close yet so far.

  He shook his head. “We’re on the job. Maybe I could bring you back when this case is done. Sorry, Lily.”

  William stood on the corner watching us, his arms folded.

  My shoulders sagged, and I put the camera back in my bag. No one could say I hadn’t tried. “I’ll be back later, Eiffie.”

  “Eiffie?” Beren shook his head. “Come on.”

  Castel Café stood on the corner, maroon awning over the footpath and about six levels of units above. All the café’s outside chairs and tables were occupied, so we wandered into the dimly lit interior.

  Divine aromas of garlic and coffee with an underlying hint of natural gas permeated the café. Come to think of it, that hint of natural gas was in many of the older buildings I’d been into. It was almost synonymous with Europe for me now. Interesting. I remembered it from our time in Italy.

  Beren sat at one of the only empty tables, which was in the middle of the room. French and English conversation intermingled, as both tourists and residents chatted and enjoyed the fare. Rustic orange light shades with prints of French buildings hung throughout the café, and a bar with shiny glasses dangling from racks took up one side of the place. A black-shirted barten
der filled a glass stein with beer.

  I hung my bag from the chair back and sat.

  “What would you like, Lily?” Beren handed me the menu.

  Everything was listed in French and English, although I probably could’ve guessed most of the French. “I’ll have a cappuccino.”

  “Tell us something we don’t know.” William smiled.

  “Yeah, yeah, but what if I don’t say it and I end up with none. I can’t risk that.” I eyed the food a waiter had just put on a nearby table. Saliva exploded into my mouth. Oh my God. “Lemon meringue pie.”

  Beren turned to see what I was looking at. “Mmm, that looks good. I think I’ll get one too.”

  I turned to William. “What are you having?”

  “Cappuccino and custard tart sounds good.”

  “Nice choice.” I shut the menu and tried to catch the waiter’s gaze. He came over and took our order. His French accent was divine. I absolutely had a thing for accents. I hoped nobody noticed me drooling. After he left, I spoke quietly. “How long do you think they’ll be?”

  William shrugged. “Hopefully not long. James can nudge them with some suggestions. They’ll have no problem getting the information.”

  “I thought it was illegal to do that?” Isn’t that what Angelica told me when I’d first arrived?

  “There are varying degrees of it. It’s frowned upon but not always illegal. Forcing someone to do something that goes against their normal behaviour or beliefs is illegal, but when it’s done during an investigation, it’s legal. If you were to try and put a suggestion into my head to plant a flower, well, that’s hardly damaging to anyone, so you probably wouldn’t get into trouble, but if you tried to plant the suggestion to kill someone or for me to give you all my money, well, if we caught you, you’d go to jail. I wouldn’t worry, though, Lily, as it’s a super hard skill to learn, and there are only a few witches who have the natural talent to get away with it. James is one, but I don’t sense that’s part of your skill set.”

  “I hate manipulation and dishonesty, so even if I were capable, I wouldn’t want to use it. James isn’t like that either, so I’m sure he only uses his powers for good.”