by Morgana Best
“But this happened in broad daylight,” I pointed out, “and you and I were standing outside the house at the very time the man must’ve been up on the roof.” At that point, I realised that the man was likely being murdered right when we were on our way up the flagstone pathway. I trembled as a wave of dizziness overcame me.
Aunt Agnes hurried into the room with a large pot of coffee. “I’ve made some sandwiches, but the police told me to hurry, so I couldn’t rustle up anything more substantial. I have lunch in the oven, but it isn’t quite ready yet. I did bring a plate of Tim Tams, too.” She looked at Mr O’Callaghan. “I noticed a hint of an accent, Scottish isn’t it?”
The man looked rather put out. “Irish, actually.”
“If you haven’t been in Australia long, Tim Tams are an Australian chocolate biscuit, quite delicious. Perhaps you Irish call them cookies.”
“Thank you, but I’ve been in Australia for quite some time.” He leaned across and selected a Tim Tam.
I was ravenous. The food on the plane had been scant, so I grabbed a plate and heaped a pile of sandwiches on it, and proceeded to gobble them up. I looked up to see Lucas looking at me with raised eyebrows. “What’s your problem?” I said through a mouthful of crumbs. “Haven’t you seen anyone eat before?”
Dorothy butted in before the man had a chance to answer. “Now, Valkyrie, be nice to our guest. You don’t want to frighten him away.”
She was right. I had been rude to a guest, and I was here to try to grow their business. “I’m sorry, Mr O’Callaghan.” It had been such a strange day—it was all so surreal. I wouldn’t have been the least surprised to wake up and find that it had all been a dream.
He waved my apology away. “You must be hungry.”
I stuffed another sandwich in my mouth and nodded.
Lucas leaned forward. “Do you drink the wine from my winery?”
All three aunts looked startled, as if they had been accused of some heinous crime.
“Well yes, it’s a local brand,” Dorothy said. “We like to support the local businesses.”
“And your uncle gave it to us at a discount,” Agnes added, “for our guests.”
I was perplexed. “I didn’t think you fed the guests. I thought you left breakfast food for them in their cottages, and that was it.”
“There are several vineyards around here,” Maude said, ignoring me, “but Henry’s was the closest. You’re going to continue growing the wine?”
Lucas nodded. “Yes, the business will continue as usual. There’s quite a demand for that type of wine.”
He looked at the aunts intently as he said it. They all nodded, their faces carefully blank.
I was quite sure there was some subtext I was missing, some nuance that was beyond my understanding.
Lucas continued his questioning. “Did you know my uncle well?”
Dorothy and Maude looked at Agnes, who hesitated before answering. “Yes, just as well as we know any other business owners around town. Were you and Henry close?”
“Not especially.” Lucas’s manner was guarded.
Maude leaned forward. “How did he die, if you don’t mind me asking?”
Lucas’s careful mask slipped momentarily, but he was quick to recover. “An accident, when he was on vacation overseas.”
Detective Anderson came back into the room before I could get any further insight as to what was going on, if indeed there was anything going on.
“The crime scene has been processed, and the exhibit has been removed.”
“What exhibit?” Dorothy piped up.
“It’s what we call the victim,” the detective said.
Dorothy stood up. “Well, why didn’t you say so?”
The detective flushed a little, and then said, “You’re all free to go about your business, but you can’t go inside the area surrounded by police tape. We’ll need that for a couple more days.”
I heaved a sigh of relief. “Valkyrie will show you to your cottage,” Agnes said to the new guest. “Dorothy, go get the keys. Mr O’Callaghan, you’ll find everything in order, but feel free to ask should you require anything from us.”
Lucas shifted from one foot to the other. It was the first time I had seen him look uncomfortable. “I’d rather one of you ladies show me to my cottage.”
Dorothy re-entered the room and handed me his keys. “Why?” she said.
“The three of us have things to do, so Valkyrie will show you to your cottage,” Agnes said in a tone that brooked no nonsense.
“May I speak to you in private, Mrs. Jasper?”
Agnes was clearly put out, but nodded and followed Mr O’Callaghan into the foyer. They returned moments later, with Agnes wearing a scowl on her face. “Valkyrie will show you to your cottage,” she said once more. “Valkyrie, it’s the Atlantis-themed cottage. Come back as soon as you’ve done that, and have some lunch. It will be ready by the time you get back. You must be ravenous.”
I was dumbstruck, wondering why Mr O’Callaghan was so insistent that I not show him to the cottage. Did he think I was going to berate him for splashing mud over me? It didn’t make any sense at all. Still, my aunts didn’t make any sense either, so I supposed I’d have to get used to this sort of thing.
Mr O’Callaghan shrugged, a dark look spreading over his face. “I’ll just get my suitcases,” he said. I nodded and followed him back out the door to his car. I looked at the key, and it had the number five on it. To my horror, it was the closest to the cottage that the aunts had promised to me, the Assistant Lighthouse Keeper’s cottage. My cottage-to-be had been removed from its original place many years earlier and placed at Mugwort Manor.
“Follow me,” I said. I took off at a pace, half hoping to lose him. Why was he so concerned about me showing him to the cottage?
I unlocked the door and held it open until he walked inside. I had hoped to be shown over the cottages in person before I had to show any guests around, but I had seen them many times in my youth.
As soon as I opened the door, my jaw dropped open. It was a bit worse than I had remembered. For some reason, the aunts insisted on cottages that were heavily themed. This cottage was called the Atlantis Cottage, but sported mainly a pirate theme. The walls were adorned with a particularly garish wallpaper of pirate flags, fake cutlasses, and cannons. As far as I could tell, the only nod to Atlantis was the appearance of space-age prints in frames.
I showed him the kitchen and the bathroom, and then walked into the bedroom to open the curtains. I winced when I saw the double bed. It was in the shape of a ship, complete with a ship’s wheel as a headboard. Over the headboard in a chrome frame hung an illustrated timeline of all the shipping disasters in the Bermuda Triangle. “There’s a lovely view over the hills from this window,” I said, hoping to draw his attention to the only positive I could see. When there was no response, I turned around to see he wasn’t in the room.
I hurried out, for a minute worried he’d been mauled by some sort of animal just like the victim. To the contrary, he was standing in the living room, his arms crossed, looking at a silver-framed photo.
“Is something wrong?” I asked him. “You didn’t want to see the bedroom?”
“I’ll see it soon enough,” he said gruffly, setting down the photo directly in front of me.
It was a black and white photo of a beautiful young woman, her long blonde hair streaming in the wind. She was smiling at someone, I assumed the photographer—Lucas? “Your wife?” I asked before I could catch myself.
“Someone very dear to me. She couldn’t come with me this time.”
I looked at the photo again, and then forced myself to look away. “Is there anything else I can do for you?”
His face paled, and he took a step backwards. “No, you can leave now.”
I was horrified to realise how he had taken my words. I tossed the keys to him and he caught them with one hand. “I hope you enjoy your stay,” I said, doing my best to inject sincerity into my v
oice. I hurried to the door, the thought of a wonderful home cooked meal, one that I wouldn’t have to pay for, beckoning me to the manor. As my hand reached for the door knob, he spoke. “You’re leaving so easily?”
I spun around, confused. “What do you mean?”
He looked a little embarrassed. “Oh, nothing. Thank you.”
I nodded, and shut the door behind me. My duty was over, and the police had removed the body. I breathed a sigh of relief. Now I could settle in, the only black spot over my existence being the murder. Surely the police were right—people would know if a lion or a tiger had escaped from a zoo. Besides, what sort of animal could climb onto a high rooftop?
I hurried to the back of the manor, and into the kitchen. There was no sign of the aunts, so I assumed they were in the dining room. I walked through to see them sitting there, clearly waiting for me. I stifled a laugh. The dining room looked like something from The Addams Family. In fact, the whole house did, for that matter. The furniture was antique, and the room was completed by an ornate antique pump organ. The room was largely wooden; well-maintained floorboards covered the entirety of the floor, and the walls were set with heavy wooden panels.
I took my seat at the table, next to Aunt Maude and opposite Aunt Dorothy. Agnes sat at the head of the table. I suppose that suited her, because she was something of a control freak.
“This smells delicious,” I said.
Aunt Agnes nodded. “Tuck in, everyone. We need to keep up our strength. It’s my signature kale soup. There are tomatoes, beans, potatoes, parsley and more, but it’s entirely tasty. It’s good for you, full of iron. Just what you need.”
I was surprised. “How did you know?”
Agnes looked blank. “Know what?”
“That my iron levels are low. I have to take a supplement every day.”
Agnes shook her head. “Isn’t everybody low in iron these days, what with fast food and the like?” She tut-tutted. “That’s what I meant. Now eat up, dear. And let’s have some of this nice wine.”
I declined. “It’s a bit early in the day for me to drink.”
The aunts exchanged glances. “Nonsense,” Agnes said brusquely. “Think of it as an elixir rather than wine. It’s full of vitamins and minerals, just what you need,” she said again. She poured the wine into a beautiful crystal goblet, decorated with blood red inserts in the shape of a pentacle, and handed it to me.
There was no point arguing. I gingerly placed my lips around the gold rim and took a sip. It smelled of blueberries and chocolate and happiness, if that were even possible. “It’s surprisingly good,” I said, and all three aunts nodded their approval. “Aunt Agnes, if you don’t mind me asking, do you know why that guest was so weird about me showing him the cottage?”
“He seems to be a little afraid of women,” Agnes said. “Pass me the bread rolls, would you, Maude?”
I set down my wine glass. “What do you mean, afraid of women?”
Agnes shrugged one shoulder and took a sizeable gulp of wine. “He told me that women always throw themselves at him. He didn’t want you to try to put him in a compromising position, so he wanted someone our age to take him to his cottage.”
Chapter 4
I laughed, thinking she couldn’t possibly be serious, but then it dawned on me that she might be telling the truth. “Are you joking?” I asked her.
“No, not at all.” Agnes took a large mouthful of bread, chewed it, and then busied herself buttering another slice. “He said if you made advances to him, it would make his time here difficult.”
“Why, of all the arrogant…” I managed to stop before I said some words that would make my aunts’ hair stand on end. “He certainly has a high opinion of himself. That arrogant jerk! How dare he think that I would want to...?” I hesitated once more. My original opinion of him had been right. “Come to think of it, that woman constable was drooling all over him. Did you find that strange?”
I addressed the question to Agnes, but Maude spoke up. “There’s a shortage of handsome men in Lighthouse Bay, apart from Sergeant Carteron, of course, but he doesn’t seem interested in Constable Walker. I think the sergeant took a fancy to you, Valkyrie. Anyway, the constable is probably too young to realise that she doesn’t need a man. They’re nothing but trouble.”
I rolled my eyes. I hoped the aunts wouldn’t start one of their usual rants against the male of the species. Although, having met Lucas O’Callaghan, I was beginning to think they were right.
Detective Anderson entered the room, startling me. “Please continue your meal, ladies. Until we know the identity of the victim, I was wondering if you could all leave here and stay with someone for a few days, perhaps a relative.”
Aunt Agnes jumped to her feet. “Absolutely not!” she exclaimed. “We’re running a business here.”
Detective Banks poked his head around the door and shook his head. “They won’t go.”
Anderson nodded to him and wiped his brow, before turning back to us. “It looks as if all your guests are refusing to leave, as well.”
“Do you think we’re in danger?” Aunt Agnes asked. Her voice held no trace of fear.
“I don’t have enough evidence to answer your question, Madam,” the detective said solemnly. “I only know that a murder has been committed in your home, and at this stage in the investigation, it’s too early to know whether or not you’re in danger, but common sense would dictate that you leave for a few days until we look into it.”
All three aunts shook their heads. “It’s not going to happen.” Aunt Agnes took her seat.
The sergeant turned to me. “Miss, do you insist on staying in this house with your aunts?”
Agnes interrupted him. “Valkyrie was going to stay in one of the cottages, but given the circumstances, I think she should stay in this house, with us.”
“Yes, absolutely. There’s no question about that,” the detective said firmly. “I’d ask you all not to leave the house after dark, and to stick together as much as you can.”
I made to protest, but then thought it over. Homicidal maniac or my aunts? It was a tough choice. “All right then, I’ll stay here,” I said. “I wouldn’t be able to sleep at all if I were living in one of the cottages, to be honest.”
My aunts exchanged glances, clearly pleased with my decision.
“And we’ll feed you up, Valkyrie,” Dorothy said. “You’ve clearly starved yourself.”
“Not out of choice,” I muttered.
“I’ll have one of the uniformed officers drive by Mugwort Manor every few hours, night and day, until we find out what’s going on,” the detective said. “I assume you have security here?”
“Yes, we do,” Agnes said. “We’ll be quite safe inside this house.”
“That man wasn’t safe in the house,” I pointed out.
“He didn’t die inside the house,” Agnes countered.
“Well, I’ll leave you ladies to it,” Detective Anderson said.
Aunt Maude stood up. “I’ll show you to the door. Valkyrie has had a hard day, her first day helping us in the business.”
The detective nodded to us and left the room. I spread some vegemite on a crusty bread roll and consumed it greedily.
“Now don’t you worry about a thing,” Agnes said to me. “You’re not in any danger here. Just don’t go outside without one of us.”
I forced a smile, wondering what help one of my aunts could possibly be if we encountered whatever creature or human had attacked the man who had been recently lying on the parquetry floor not far from where I was eating now. I fought a wave of nausea.
Aunt Maude walked back into the room, and before she had even reached her seat, spoke. “So, Valkyrie, are you still doing your spells?”
I gasped and dropped my butter knife. “How did you know?”
“Your mother told us, of course.”
I frowned. “I didn’t know my mother knew.”
“Mothers know everything,” Aunt Maude said, and t
he other two aunts nodded.
“So do the three of you practise witchcraft, too?” I asked them.
“Of course, dear. We practise traditional witchcraft, just like you.” Aunt Agnes produced her knitting from a bag on the floor. “We mainly practise knot magic. We weave our spells into our knitting. Now the question is, dear, have you had much success with your spells?”
“I’ve had mixed success,” I admitted. “I did spells that I’d find things on sale all the time, and that worked, and I was always able to find a parking spot whenever I wanted one, even in the middle of Sydney, but I always failed in two areas.”
I looked up to see all three aunts leaning across the table, their eyes beady and glittering. “And what would those two areas be?” Aunt Dorothy asked me.
I had probably said too much, but there was no turning back now. “I did spells to find a nice boyfriend, but I never met anyone, and I did spells to get a job that I’d really like. The other spells I did always worked, even if I had to repeat them until they actually happened, but those two spells never worked.”
I expected the aunts to say something philosophical, or to say I was better off without a man, but they did not.
“That’s because you were going to find better options elsewhere. Just think, if you had found a job in Sydney, you wouldn’t be here now!” Aunt Agnes’s voice ended on a note of triumph.
I resisted the urge to say, ‘That’s exactly my point.’
“And that’s why you haven’t found a boyfriend,” Aunt Agnes continued.
“Yes, men are no good,” Maude said.
Aunt Agnes narrowed her eyes. “Hush, Maude! Valkyrie, the right man hasn’t come along yet, not that you need a man. Well, you go and take a nice relaxing bath, and we’ll attend to the washing up. You’ve had a long day, Valkyrie.”
“Pepper.”
“Quite so. Your room is the one you always stayed in when visiting us. Off you go!” Aunt Agnes shooed me away.
