by Clare Kauter
“The Bluebell Coven,” he repeated.
“Yes Ravi,” I said. “We heard you the first time. We just have no idea what you’re talking about.” I was beginning to grow impatient.
“You guys are from Green Wattle, right? You’re cops.” Ravi said.
“Yes, we’re cops,” I replied, rather too defensively. “Why? What have people been telling you?”
Henry placed his hand on my shoulder. “I don’t think he was questioning your qualifications, Nessa,” Henry said. His tone was calm and I could tell he was trying to comfort me, but his hand on my shoulder was causing me to panic. What did this mean? Were we at the patting-each-other’s-shoulders stage now? It seemed like a big step. I mean, probably not as big a step as making out, but still, comforting each other in public. I wasn’t prepared for such a blatant display of affection.
“No, I didn’t mean – I know you’re cops,” Ravi said. “I just mean that you’re cops from Green Wattle Coven.” He gave us another significant look, and I gave him a look of significant annoyance.
“Ravi, just say what you mean,” I said through gritted teeth. “Your murderer will have died of old age by the time you get through this explanation.”
“They’re a rival coven,” he said slowly. “Your coven has jurisdiction here, but the Bluebell Coven has been fighting to take over law enforcement in this town for years. They’re always bitching about the Green Wattle witches and how good they think they are.”
“How dare they!” I exclaimed. Of course, before I joined the coven, I’d often complained about the witches as well, but now that I was one of them – and bonded to them for eternity – I felt like it was my duty to stick up for them.
“I’m not saying they’re right,” Ravi said quickly. “That’s just what they think. They won’t want to talk to you. Sorry. I thought you already knew.”
“I only joined the coven recently,” I explained. “And Henry’s on assignment from The Department of Magic and Death. We’re not all that familiar with local witchy politics.”
“Right,” he said. “Well, the witches here are not fans of your coven. You’re going to have a hard time getting them to talk.”
“Will they talk to you?” I asked.
He shrugged. “I doubt it,” he said. “None of them can see me.”
Well, that was one thing the Bluebell witches shared with most of my coven.
I frowned. “How do you know?”
“Well, I’ve worked here for years. I think I’d know if any of these witches could see ghosts,” he replied. “Plus they keep giving the two of you weird looks. I’m pretty sure they think you’re just talking to thin air.”
“Ah,” I said, looking over and seeing a group of women in the blue robes standing together, watching us in confusion. “Well, if they won’t come to us…”
I strode towards them as fast as I could, not wanting to give them enough time to escape. Henry and Ravi hurried behind me. As soon as the witches realised what I was doing, they scattered, peeling off in opposite directions. One witch darted one way and then the other, failing to make a quick decision. Ultimately that was her downfall, because it gave me enough time to back her into a corner.
“What do you want?” she spat.
“Your receptionist was murdered,” I said. “I’m here to ask you a few questions.”
“What, you’re going to solve the case?” she snarled. “Ha! Green Wattle witches have no idea what they’re doing.”
“You want to do your own law enforcement, right?” I said.
“Yes. We deserve it!”
“Oh, trust me,” I said. “If it was up to me, I’d hand this case over to you in a heartbeat. I’m sure you’re perfectly capable of investigating.” Especially compared to some of the witches we had in our own coven.
She blinked twice, startled, before narrowing her eyes. “Don’t try to flatter me just to get information.”
“No, really. I don’t want this case. If I could palm it off on you, I’d be delighted.”
This seemed to catch her off guard. “Well, I…”
“Do you know who did it?” I asked.
She narrowed her eyes. “Are you just trying to trick me into helping you?”
“No,” I said. “I’m a police officer questioning you about a murder. No trickery required.”
“Well, I don’t want to help you.”
“Fine,” I said through gritted teeth, bringing my hand in front of me, palm facing up. I formed an energy stream into a pair of magical handcuffs, allowing them to float in front of the witch as a warning. “Obstruct my investigation if you must. I guess I’ll just have to arrest you.”
Her eyes widened. “You wouldn’t dare,” she hissed.
“Oh, but I would.”
“Arrest me and there are ten witches here who would come running.”
“To help free you, you mean? Fine. I’ll arrest them too.”
She laughed humourlessly. “You really think you could take on that many highly skilled witches, girl?”
“I wouldn’t push her,” Henry said, slipping into the role of good cop.
“Oh, please.”
I narrowed my eyes and the handcuffs in front of me brightened, the energy surging with my anger. The items hanging from the chain around my neck burnt hot against my skin, almost like they were egging me on. They wanted me to hurt this witch. She was getting in my way. She was being disrespectful. But there was a crowd here – too many witnesses. Attacking her wasn’t a good idea. I took a couple of deep breaths to try to cool my anger along with the companion items.
“Seriously,” said Henry, shifting uncomfortably. Now it sounded like he was almost pleading with her. “Don’t do this.”
“No one asked you, mutt,” she spat.
That did it. Raising my other hand, I shot energy at the woman. I ditched the handcuff idea and instead bound her with ropes of magic. They snaked around her, pinning her hands to her sides before she had a chance to move. I lifted her up into the air and threw her backwards, slamming her into the wall. She cried out as I continued to press her against the wall. Despite what the witch had told me, no one came running to her aid.
“Where are your friends now, crone?” I asked. My voice sounded strange, as it often did when I lost my temper.
Ravi, rather than seeming scared, looked thrilled with the situation. “She has no friends,” he said. “She’s evil. No one likes her. They’re probably hoping you’ll kill her.”
Henry put his hand on my shoulder. “Ness, as much as I appreciate you fighting for my honour, please don’t kill her,” he whispered. “At least not here. Too many witnesses.”
Did they actually think I was going to murder her? Why would… I blinked a couple of times and stopped pressing her into the wall quite so hard. Right. Maybe I’d been a little more aggressive than necessary. I set her down on the floor and loosened her bonds slightly. Not enough that she could raise her hands, but enough that she could breathe. In my periphery, I could see that we’d attracted something of a crowd. Not that I cared. I walked towards the witch.
“Obstructing a murder investigation and attacking a police officer,” I said loudly.
Her mouth dropped open. “I didn’t –”
“Doesn’t look good for you, I have to say,” I continued, ignoring her protests. “Do you have something to hide? Maybe it was you who killed Ravi.”
Her face turned red. (It had been purple a moment before, presumably from the lack of oxygen caused by my, ah, innovative interrogation techniques.) “I didn’t kill that stupid little normal,” she hissed. Wow. I guess Ravi was right about the witches not being able to see him. “I have no idea what happened to him.”
“You sure?”
“I’m hardly likely to lie in a situation like this, am I?”
I narrowed my eyes at her. I wasn’t convinced. “Really.”
“Yes, really.”
“So Ravi came to work on the day of his death, just like normal?�
�
She nodded. “Yes.”
“And nothing unusual happened?”
She shook her head. “No.”
“What about after work? Did he mention where he was going?”
I figured since Ravi couldn’t remember anything about that day, I might as well ask his co-workers. Maybe he’d talked to one of them about his plans. The witch in front of me shook her head.
“No. He and I weren’t really friends, though, so he wouldn’t tell me what his plans were.”
“Yeah, she was a horrible boss,” said Ravi. “I wouldn’t have made conversation with her.”
“Who would know?” I asked Ravi.
“Susan,” Ravi and the witch said in unison.
I turned to face the crowd. “Is there a Susan here?”
A terrified looking witch stepped forward. She was small and round and kept looking between me and the other witch, panicked.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” I assured her. She raised her eyebrows. I don’t think she believed me. Nodding towards the witch I had bound in my energy bonds, I said, “This one was behaving suspiciously. I was worried she was going to attack us. After what I’ve heard about her, I didn’t want to take the risk.”
Susan appeared to relax a little. “W–what can I do to help you?”
“I know you were a friend of Ravi’s,” I said. “Is there anything you can tell me about the day he died? Anything unusual? Do you know where he was going after work?”
Susan opened her mouth and then shut it and swallowed.
I frowned. “Susan?”
“It’s – I –”
She looked over at the other witch and began to breathe faster. Something was worrying her.
“You’re not going to be in trouble, Susan,” I said. “Just tell me what you know.”
“Like she’s going to believe that!” cried the other witch. “I insulted your friend and you nearly murdered me!”
“I came here to try to find a murderer and you threatened to have your entire coven attack me,” I said. “I restrained you, as any sane person would have done. You were behaving suspiciously. Susan, on the other hand, has done nothing wrong.”
I turned back to Susan, who still looked uncertain of whether she should tell me what she knew or not.
“Susan,” Henry said, “I know this might be hard, but a man has died. Your friend. We need to make sure this doesn’t happen to anyone else. Please help us find who did it.”
Susan took a deep breath and nodded once. She spoke quickly, as if afraid she might lose her courage. “He was going to the Fang and Goblet,” she blurted.
Henry and I both frowned. That didn’t sound like the kind of establishment where a nice normal would be hanging out. Was there something we didn’t know about Ravi?
“Why?” I asked.
She wrung her hands. “He… he was…”
“Yes?”
“You’re not going to be in trouble, Susan,” Henry said again in a soothing voice. “Please just tell us what you know.”
“He wanted to score some potions,” she said quietly.
“I knew it!” screeched the other witch. I’d almost forgotten she was there. “I knew he was a junkie!”
Henry and I both turned to give Ravi surprised-slash-disappointed looks. The onlookers watched us in confusion. I let my bonds slip off the evil witch boss, figuring we’d be leaving now seeing as we’d gotten the information we needed.
“Really?” I said to an embarrassed Ravi. “Were you ever going to mention this to us?”
Evil Witch Boss was now free and rubbing her limbs as the blood returned to them. Watching us speak to Ravi, she demanded, “Who on earth are you talking to?”
Chapter 13
When we left the rental place, after questioning all the other witches present about Ravi’s movements just in case they had more information for us (spoiler alert: they didn’t), there was an icy breeze blowing down the street.
“I guess you should lead the way,” I said to Ravi, raising my eyebrows at him. He rolled his eyes and took off.
I’d been planning to question Ravi about the best models of broom and carpet, but I didn’t feel like talking to him now. How dare he keep something like that from us? Besides, he’d just answered the phone and done admin for Zoom. He probably didn’t know that much about the products anyway.
“Tell me, Ravi, did you really lose your memory or was that a lie so you didn’t have to tell us about your little habit?”
Ravi stopped and turned to me. “Do you have a problem?”
“Yeah, I do,” I said. “You.”
“Does the fact that I occasionally sampled some banned brews mean that you don’t think it’s worth finding my murderer now?” he said. “Do you think I deserved it?”
“No,” I said. “I just don’t like being lied to.”
“Tell us about this bar,” Henry said, trying to smooth the conversation over. “I’m assuming it’s frequented by creatures of the night?”
Ravi nodded. “Yep. All kinds. Goblins, orks, vamps, werewolves, shades –”
“Shades?” I repeated. I’d never met a shade before. They were supposed to be ridiculously powerful. A lot of grabbers had shade ancestry, which is part of what gave them their insane abilities. The other part came from performing the kind of rituals that turned even my stomach.
“Yep. Plenty of the rarer creatures of the night as well as the common ones.”
“Goblins and werewolves in the same place?” said Henry. “That seems like a recipe for disaster.”
Ravi nodded. “There are brawls there at least three times an hour. Roughly one death per night.”
“I guess you became one of those,” I said.
Ravi ignored me. “They hate cops, so I don’t know if they’ll talk. Of course, being bent, you guys might have better luck.”
My jaw dropped. “Bent? How dare you!”
Ravi frowned. “Uh, you realise I just saw you attack that witch and rough her up to get information, right?”
“I had a perfectly legitimate reason to do that,” I said. “Besides, you’re one to talk, potions boy.”
I knew working with a murdered ghost again was a terrible idea. Just when I’d started to trust him, something like this came up.
“It wasn’t like I was hardcore into them or anything,” he said. “I just picked them up occasionally around the time of the full moon parties.”
I ignored him. “If you actually managed to buy a vial, that might explain your memory loss. Or you just hit up the wrong seedy magical in a pub and they decided to tear you up and leave you in my cemetery.”
“That’s a long way from here,” Henry pointed out. “A lot of effort to kill him here and then drag his pieces to your place.”
I nodded slowly. “You’re right. Why would they dump him there of all places?”
Henry just raised his eyebrows at me.
“No,” I said. “Please. Please don’t say this has anything to do with me.”
“Why would it have anything to do with you?” Ravi asked.
“It wouldn’t,” I snapped.
“Have you roughed up anyone else lately who might have left my mangled corpse outside your house?”
“I didn’t rough her up!” I said. “And just FYI, your corpse was well past mangled. It was decimated. It was more mince than body.”
Henry gave me a disgusted look.
“What? He started it!”
As we drew closer to the pub, I noticed a wooden sign hanging out the front with a painting of a goblet on it. Even from out on the street I could feel the dark energy emanating from the place. It rolled out in waves. This place was hardcore.
“Ravi, you’re an idiot,” I said. “This pub is no place for a normal guy. Even I don’t feel safe going in there. It’s no wonder you ended up dead.”
“Way to blame the victim.”
“OK, obviously they shouldn’t have killed you,” I said. “I’m not saying you deserved
it – even though you’re a dirty liar and I’m going to find it very hard to forgive you for that – but you can’t honestly say you’re surprised.”
“Not totally surprised,” Ravi conceded. “Still pissed about it, though.”
That seemed fair.
We entered the room, Ravi leading the way. Unlike at Zoom Brooms, when we walked into the pub, everyone could see Ravi. A couple of people nodded to him, apparently recognising him.
“Always knew it was coming,” growled a gork (goblin-ork hybrid) sitting by the fire, apparently noticing that Ravi was now significantly more transparent than he had been previously.
While Ravi’s reception was relatively neutral, the patrons’ reaction to me and Henry was a little different – and not in a welcoming way. Once they noticed me, or more specifically my robes, they put two and two together and a hush fell over the room momentarily as they sized me and Henry up. They apparently decided that we weren’t a threat and they all went back to their conversations.
Henry, Ravi and I walked up to the bar. The bartender just stared at us.
“Recognise this ghost?” I asked.
He shrugged. “Might.”
“We’re trying to figure out who killed him. He was here the night he died.”
“We get a lot of people coming through here,” he said. “I don’t think I’m going to be able to help you.”
“A lot of normals?”
He shrugged again.
“He’s been here more than once,” I said.
“Don’t recognise him.”
“Come on, Derik,” said Ravi. “You know exactly who I am. I was here the night I died. What happened? Do you know who did it?”
I turned back to Derik the bartender and raised my eyebrows. “Well?”
“Never seen this guy before.”
“That’s cold, Derik,” said Ravi.
“You should leave,” said Derik. “This isn’t the kind of place that nice light dwellers like you want to be hanging out. It might be light outside, but if you don’t leave it’s going to get a lot darker in here real soon.”
Again, the stone, key and arrowhead attached to my necklace began to heat up, like a way more dangerous (and accurate) mood ring – instead of changing colour, they grew super hot and gave me death-dealing powers. An essential winter accessory for all female Kings of Evil.
