Witch Hunt

by Morgana Best

  I followed a retreating Cordelia into the bathroom. I leant against the doorway as she bent over the basin and spat the mouthful of toothpaste down the drain. Cordelia was wearing a hotel-issued white fluffy bathrobe, her hair done up in a towel. “You do know that England is further than a hundred miles from here?” I asked.

  Cordelia rinsed her toothbrush under a burst of water from the faucet. “You know what I mean,” she muttered.

  “It’s just that, well, there’s literally a whole ocean and some continents between where we live and where he lives, and you go with a hundred miles. Did you even do geography as a child?”

  Cordelia laughed. “Stop being such a smarty. I thought we were going to have a girls’ night out, even though we aren’t roomies on this trip.”

  I laughed. “Go ahead and get dressed. We can still meet for dinner.” I looked around the opulent suite. “Who knew Skinny would pay for these rooms? Usually everything we get is cheap. I thought maybe she’d only booked a tiny room for the two of us to share. But we both get our own rooms?”

  “In fairness, your room did have a dead man in it, and I feel like we could still blame that on Skinny,” Cordelia said.

  “I don’t see how we could possibly blame her for that.”

  “Okay, so we can’t, but perhaps we should.” Cordelia went to her luggage and searched for an outfit. “If you stand me up for dinner, you’ll be sorry.” She waved a threatening finger at me.

  “I won’t,” I said. “But let’s not talk about how many times you’ve abandoned me for Keith back home.”

  “That happened once.”

  “Once a week, maybe!” I said with a laugh, shaking my head. “You’ve got to be joking!”

  “No, it was once. That one night. We were going to have some drinks at your place. He called, and I cancelled on you. And I felt horrible,” Cordelia said.

  “How about the time we were already out, and he called, and you left me at that club that I hadn’t even wanted to go to!”

  “Oh yeah!” Cordelia said with a laugh. “Okay, so two times.”

  “Two. Yeah, only two. Keep your phone with you, and I’ll text you.”

  “Okay,” she said. “Be safe. Have fun talking.”

  “Hush up,” I said, “and if I don’t make it to dinner, at least we had a drink already.”

  John had asked to meet me in the lobby, and as I caught the lift down to the ground floor, I found myself wondering why he hadn’t just spoken with me down in the restaurant.

  The hotel was busy, as it always was apparently, and I had to wind around groups of people who were going this way and that, or simply just standing in small groups and talking.

  I saw John as soon as I entered the lobby proper. He had been sitting, but must have been keeping an eye out for me, as he stood as soon as he saw me and waved me over.

  “What’s going on?” I asked.

  “I wanted to talk, and I thought there were too many eyes on us earlier,” John said quietly.

  “Okay, well there are a lot of eyes in here, too,” I said with a smile.

  “I noticed,” John said. “Come on.”

  I turned and followed him back to the lift. We rode it up a few floors and then disembarked, heading down a long hallway and turning left. “I thought this could be interesting.” John pointed to a door at the end of the hall. A small sign next to it said, ‘Roof access.’

  “Are we supposed to be up here?” I said.

  John shrugged. “No.”

  I laughed.

  There was a door at the top of the stairs. John deftly picked the lock and then led the way through it, and so I found myself on the roof of the hotel. In front of me was a white wall of sorts which rose and fell, reminding me of an old castle.

  John obviously had something he wanted to speak with me about, but he didn’t cut right to the chase. He brought up Cordelia. “So, does Cordelia still not like me?”

  I pulled a face. “Well, it’s not that she doesn’t like you. She just wants me to date someone in the same country.”

  John laughed. “Sure, I’ll just tell work I’m going to start commuting across the ocean.”

  I grinned, despite the way I was feeling. “They’ll be fine with that, I’m sure.” Cordelia’s words weighed heavily on me. Long distance relationships don’t work, right? I could see no happy ending with me living in Australia and John in the UK.

  “Speaking of work, what does Cordelia think I do again?”

  I sighed. “She thinks you work in IT.”

  “I don’t look that much like a geek, do I?” John asked.

  “Yes, you do,” I teased him.

  “It’s good to see you, Misty,” John said.

  “I know. I just wish, well, things are always so weird with us, aren’t they? The lying to my best friend, the fact that we’re talking on a roof instead of having dinner together.”

  “We can have dinner if you want.”

  I bit my lip. “That’s not what I mean.”

  John stepped forwards and took my hand. “I know what you mean. And I’m sorry. I know I show up, and it’s all work, work, work, but sometimes it has to be.”

  “Is that what this is? Is that what The Orpheans is? Work?” I asked.

  “It is for you,” John said, “and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

  That thought irritated me somewhat. I crossed my arms in front of my chest and sighed. “What did you want to speak to me about? Way up here on the roof?”

  “Have you heard from The Orpheans?”

  “I’ve already told you what Douglas said, that he pretended again to be working for them, and he wants to me to find Lucas Wallace’s journal.”

  John nodded. “I meant, have you had any more of those mysterious texts from the blocked sender?”

  I shook my head. “Not for a while now. Anyway, John, what do you know about The Orpheans? And don’t evade the subject this time, like you always do. I know you know.”

  John clicked his tongue. “They protect the world from incursions of the supernatural kind and things of that nature.”

  “Things of that nature?” I parroted. “Just how many things are of that nature?”

  “More than you could imagine,” John said. “Every scary story told to children, every unbelievable nightmare, all have a basis in truth. Doesn’t everything?”

  I took a moment to consider that. “So are you saying that The Orpheans save the world? Kind of like Maxwell Smart always saved the world?”

  John held up his hands in mock surrender. “Something like that.”

  “Why are you just telling me about this now?” I asked. I didn’t know whether to be cross that he hadn’t told me anything about them before, or happy that he was telling me now.

  “I figured that if they hadn’t told you exactly what they do, it wasn’t up to me.”

  “So, what changed?”

  “It’s just been so long,” he said. “Someone should tell you something. You need to know what you’re getting yourself into.”

  “I’m already in it, and like you said, I don’t have a choice. When Aunt Beth died, I became the Keeper of The Orpheans—hereditary position and all that.”

  John nodded. “Still, you should know.”

  “All I’ve ever received were warning texts. Really, that’s it.”

  “Those probably came from The Leader,” John said.

  “He’s in charge?”

  “Or she.”

  “So why not tell me more?”

  “There’s only one possible reason why The Leader hasn’t contacted you yet,” John said.

  I looked out over the grounds. I should have been admiring the view, which was breathtaking from up here on the rooftop. “And that is?”

  “Whoever The Leader is, it’s someone who is already in your life.”

  Chapter 8

  I let that thought wash over me. I had to admit that it made sense. “They wouldn’t need to contact me, because they’re watching me.”<
br />
  “Right,” John took a few steps towards the edge of the roof.

  “That’s creepy,” I said.

  “It is,” John said, “but it fits what I know about The Orpheans. They have mastered creepy.”

  I shuddered and ran a hand through my hair. “So who could it be?”

  “I don’t know. Who do you see often? Who is in your life the most?”

  “Cordelia. It couldn’t be her, though.”

  John shrugged. “I admit it seems unlikely, but you really can’t discount anyone. Who else?”

  “Keith. He owns the magazine,” I said.

  “All right, who else?” John asked.

  I thought for a minute. I opened my mouth to speak, but then shut it and shook my head.

  “Who?” John asked, watching me intently.

  “It couldn’t be.”

  “Your boss. Skinny?”

  “She’s so horrible. I can’t imagine it’s her,” I said. “I would be furious if it was.”

  “It has to be someone you’re familiar with, if we’re barking up the right tree. For all we know, it could be someone in the UK, but we have to consider all options.”

  “The parcel delivery lady, Julie. She’s very nosey. She always seems to be around,” I said. “Her husband, Craig, too.”

  “Seems unlikely, but I guess we should consider everyone. Anyone else?”

  “I don’t see Craig often,” I said. “But what about you?”

  John laughed, and then he saw I was serious and he shook his head. “Hey, I would just tell you,” he said.

  I thought on that for a moment. Was that the truth? He was a spy, after all. “Well, what about Douglas?”

  “What about him?” John asked.

  “Could he be The Leader?”

  John snorted rudely. “No, not a chance. He’s working for the other side, remember?”

  I pressed on. “But couldn’t he be a double agent?”

  “No, he’s with the Black Lodge.”

  “That’s sort of the point of a double agent,” I said, wondering if John was just discounting Douglas due to his personal dislike of the man.

  “I’m quite sure it’s not him,” John said.

  My head was spinning. We were just going around in circles. “I don’t see it being anyone.”

  “Well, maybe I’m wrong. Maybe it’s not someone you know,” John said.

  “No, I think you’re right,” I conceded. “I just don’t know how I could figure it out.”

  I stepped towards the edge of the roof. The sky above had gone from pink and purple to dark blue, and there were a thousand stars appearing in the night sky.

  I turned to John. I felt frustrated all of a sudden. I didn’t like being kept in the dark, and since The Orpheans had come into my life, in the dark was where I had firmly been.

  And then, the door to the roof opened behind us.

  “Someone out here?” a voice called out, and there was a click, and a flashlight turned on.

  As soon as the door opened, John took me by the hand and pulled me to the side. The torchlight swept over where we had just been standing, but the hotel worker who had come onto the roof had missed us.

  John pulled me along, down the length of the roof. Then he doubled back, coming up behind the door which led to the stairs. The man with the torch had walked out further onto the roof, and he was standing near the edge. We slipped into the door without him noticing and hurried down the winding steps.

  Back in the hotel proper, I couldn’t help but laugh. My heart was pounding, and the whole short episode had made me feel like a teenager, caught somewhere I wasn’t supposed to be.

  John stopped walking and let go of my hand. “Would you like to have dinner?”

  I nodded. “I would. Cordelia is going to kill me, though.”

  “You had plans?”

  “I can break them.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Very sure,” I said.

  “How about an hour from now?”

  I nodded. “Sounds good to me.”

  “Have they given you a new room yet?” John asked.

  “No, not yet. I need to go check on that, I guess.”

  “Get it settled, and don’t forget, an hour. I’ll meet you in the Darley’s restaurant.”

  “All right.” As I watched John head back down the hall, my mind went into overdrive. Was it possible that someone in my life was watching me, making sure I stayed safe, and making sure I did what The Orpheans needed me to do? In a way, it would be comforting, if it were true. It would mean they were not leaving me out on my own. Yet it was also infuriating. Why not just come forward? I was working for The Orpheans and in fact I was important to them. Why not come clean? Why keep me in the dark? Why would they need me to be confused? I did not have a good answer for that.

  I headed down to the lobby, but first I stopped near the door that led to the grounds out back. I stood just outside in the dusk, watching the moonlight play over the treetops.

  Out the back were two children, a boy and a girl. The boy was ten at least, the girl older at twelve or thirteen. Their parents weren’t with them, but they were old enough to handle themselves. The boy wanted to play, but it was obvious to me that the girl considered herself too old for such things. He kept running around his sister. “Come on, chase me!” he yelled.

  “No, I just want to relax,” the girl said.

  “Relaxing isn’t fun.”

  “It is when I have to live with you all the time,” the girl snapped back.

  I smiled. It was nice to see the children playing, and even bickering, but something gnawed at the back of my mind, and it wasn’t until I had turned away and started for the lobby once more that it dawned on me.

  There had been a body discovered in the hotel, that very day. The body of the man who had been missing. And some parents had let their children go off by themselves. I didn’t have children, unless you counted Merlin, the unsociable cat who didn’t even particularly seem to like me a whole lot. I didn’t know what raising children was like, but I figured there was no way I would let my children run around unsupervised in a place where a body had just been found.

  I turned, intending to go back to the garden and ask the children if they were okay. When I got there, they were gone. There was no one there, and really, it was a bit too dark to be outside anyway. I assumed the children had gone back to their parents. At least I hoped that’s what they had decided to do.

  As I was going once more to the front desk, I saw three police officers in the hall speaking, all of them sipping coffee. I wondered what they were talking about, so got as close as I could without being obvious.

  “Yeah,” one of them said to the others. “Well, the victim had some bruising on his body, and some cuts, like nothing I’ve ever seen, to be honest. Just a lot of cuts, but none of them were too deep. But there was one strange thing…”

  “What?” another asked.

  “One of his hands was burnt. His palm. Like he touched something hot. But there weren’t any other burns on his body.”

  The officers noticed me, so I hurried away, making my way to the front desk.

  When I identified myself, the concierge nodded. “I was just sending someone to find you. Your room is ready.” As he spoke, he reached down behind the counter and then slid a keycard in a paper sleeve across the desk.

  “Room two thirty-one?” I asked. The number seemed familiar.

  “It was poor Mr Wallace’s room,” the concierge said. He shook his head, as if he were just hearing the terrible news. “I’m sorry, but it’s all we have available.”

  I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.

  “It’s all you have available?” I said, setting the keycard down.

  “Yes,” the man behind the counter said. “I would rather no one take that room, not for a while, but we have no choice. We’re such a popular destination, you see.”

  “But you have so many rooms.”

  “Which
have all been booked. I’m sorry, but a company today booked all the rooms, all except for Mr Wallace’s room. Asked for everything we had, except that one.”

  That sounded hard to believe. “You’re kidding,” I said.

  The concierge’s expression was solemn. “I’m sorry.”

  “What company?”

  “I’m sorry, but I can’t share that with you.”

  “All right, but what about my old room?”

  He frowned, and then smiled, showing a row of impeccably white teeth. “The one in which you found a dead body? The police have asked us to keep that room empty until they’ve finished with it. It is a crime scene, you realise.”

  And his old room wasn’t? I sighed. Aloud I said, “Shouldn’t they need his room as well?”

  The man behind the counter shrugged. “I asked them before moving you there. They said they’ve finished with that room.”

  I sighed again, more loudly this time. I picked up the keycard once more. “Fine.”

  “Please, take this,” the man said before I could turn away. He reached once more beneath the counter and withdrew a small slip of thick stock paper. It was a card of sorts, good for a free entrée in one of the hotel’s fancy restaurants. I forced myself to smile as I pocketed the card.

  “Thanks so much,” I said.

  While I waited for the lift doors to open, I pulled out my phone and called Cordelia.

  “What’s going on?” Cordelia asked. The mountains wreaked havoc with my phone reception, and I had to strain to hear her clearly.

  “I just got the key to my new room,” I said.

  “Where is it?”

  “The dead guy’s old room.”

  Cordelia laughed. “That sounds like your luck!”

  “Tell me about it,” I said, as the lift doors opened once more. I stepped into the hall, and turned towards my new room. “What are you doing?”

  “People-watching,” Cordelia said. “Well, listening, out on the grounds, seeing if anyone is mentioning anything strange. Really, most people are talking about the body of course. Everybody now knows that it was Lucas Wallace.”