“Ignore him.” She appeared to be mulling something over, puzzled. “Just one last question.”
“What?”
“The flat you went in. You said it was the one above the café?”
Scarlett nodded.
“What number was it?”
“2B.”
Raven sat still and unblinking for a long moment, staring into space. It was an expression not unusual for a cat, but it still struck Scarlett as worrying.
“Raven? You OK?”
“Oh, yes I’m fine. Why don’t you crack on with dinner so you can relax in the bath?”
Scarlett nodded and turned towards her bedroom. “You know what, I think I’ll just take a shower and start cooking afterward.”
Raven flicked her tail dismissively and padded her way over to her food bowl. “Whatever floats your boat, then.”
Even in the relaxing warmth of the shower, Scarlett couldn’t stop her mind from racing. In particular, she thought about the card and what Rosa had told her. A bird’s name, she thought, and laughed when she recalled the name, “Blackbird.”
She was just about to turn the shower off when a spark of electricity shot across her mind, widening her eyes to the fullest. Blackbird or—Raven. She was no ornithologist, but she knew the two were closely related. If the name was Raven, then this would explain the obscure reference to blackbird. That had to be it.
Scarlett turned off the shower, got dressed and joined Raven in the kitchen.
“That was quick,” Raven said, hopping up on the table. “You must be hungry.”
“Well, yes I am, but that’s not the reason I was quick. I, err, had an idea.”
Raven’s ears pricked up, but when she spoke her tone was mocking. “Oh? An idea?”
“Don’t say it like that!”
They both cracked up laughing at Scarlett’s self-deprecating humor.
Once they’d calmed down, She took a deep breath, crossed her fingers under the table and popped the question.
“Raven, there’s no easy way of saying this, so I’m just going to come right out and ask you.”
“Oh dear, sounds ominous. Should I sit?” She leaned back on her haunches.
Scarlett shook her head. “No, I was just wondering if maybe—”
“Oh come on, spit it out.”
“Okay, okay, I’m getting there. Raven, are you the girlfriend?”
Raven’s ears pressed flat against her head, and Scarlett sat down, giving her a moment.
Finally, she spoke. “Yes.”
Scarlett smacked the table. “I knew it!”
Raven settled down on her paws and tucked her tail over them. Her ears were back up, but she still seemed upset. “Yes, I think it was my boyfriend. Robert McMillan, that was his name.”
Scarlett nodded away any remaining shred of doubt. “McMillan—that was the name I saw under the buzzer. And the cleaner said it too.”
“You’ve cracked your puzzle. Well done. Congratulations.”
“Oh Raven, I’m sorry! Please forgive me for getting carried away. What happened? Do tell me.”
“Well it all started when we were having a row, and to teach him a lesson, I tried to turn him into a toad—just for a minute, mind you!”
Scarlett nodded. “I understand completely. What was the row about, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“Some crazy woman had been sending him gifts for months. I kept asking him to put a stop to it, but he wouldn’t. Said it was some kind of stalker, but he wouldn’t go to the police about it. I started to think he was seeing someone behind my back.”
Scarlett nodded, determined not to let her emotions get in the way of her inquiry. “All the signs were there. Who could blame you? Who was the woman? Do you have any ideas?”
“Only that she always signed the gifts in the same way… with the letter V.”
Scarlett nodded sympathetically. “So what happened?”
“Well,” Raven looked a bit sheepish now. As sheepish as a cat could possibly look, at least. “You remember before, when I said a powerful witch had turned me into a cat?”
“Yes of course.”
“That may not have been the entire truth…”
Scarlett blinked. “Then what is?”
“Well, the spell I was trying to cast went a little… wrong. Oh, it’s embarrassing to say—that’s why I lied before.”
“You need to tell me all the facts here, Raven.”
She sighed, then spoke quickly, as if the faster she said it the less she’d have to think about it. “We fought, I cast incorrectly, I turned myself into a cat, and then I ran away. That’s the last time I spoke to him. You know the rest.”
“But how did you get… captured?”
“One day I was out hunting for food, you know, getting used to my new lifestyle. The water in my flat tasted peculiar so I was on the lookout for something to drink too. And then, out of nowhere, the military guys jumped out of some bushes and took me.”
“How did they track you?”
“Goodness knows. That, my friend, remains a mystery.”
Scarlett moved in to sympathetically stroke her under the chin. “Sounds terrible.”
“Oh, it was. It was.”
“So all this time, you had no idea that Robert was dead?”
“Absolutely not. Why would I?”
“Don’t know. Thought you might have gone to see him.”
Raven pressed her head into Scarlett’s palm, then moved away. “We didn’t end on good terms.”
“Right. I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine. If you’ll excuse me, Scarlett, I’m pretty bushed myself. Think I’ll just go and curl up on the sofa while you make your dinner.”
“Be my guest.”
As soon as she had dinner started, Scarlett took out her phone and found Tim in her list of contacts. Tim. I need to see you.
Finger over the send button, she paused. He’d already canceled her once and she didn’t want to come across as clingy—or worse still, desperate. After much debating, she decided these were special circumstances. Taking a deep breath, she pressed the button and exhaled.
Chapter Four
Thursday Evening
Slater residence, Bicester, England
Finished with dinner, and sitting beside Raven on the sofa, Scarlett felt suddenly relaxed and sleepy. Tim hadn’t replied to her message, but to be honest, it was what she’d been expecting. Now she’d eaten and changed into her pajamas, the world seemed a much friendlier place.
A car screeched around the corner and proceeded along the road towards them, coming to a halt right outside their house. Hoping it was someone visiting the neighbors, Scarlett increased the volume on the TV and relaxed. It was only when her phone vibrated and pinged that she started to suspect it might be Tim. Come out to the car. Sorry, can’t come in, just stopping by for a mo.
“It’s Tim,” Scarlett announced to Raven, getting to her feet. “Don’t think this will take long—would you mind if I put the TV on pause for a minute?”
Raven sighed and curled into a ball, tail on her nose. “Sure, why not?”
Scarlett put on her coat and scurried along the garden path, eyes darting around the road, praying for everyone to stay inside and keep away from their curtains.
Tim leaned across and opened the passenger door. “Darling, get in.”
He watched her make herself comfortable on the cold leather seat and said, “You look gorgeous in your pajamas.”
Scarlett looked at him, assuming he was taking the piss. After seeing no sign of regret or embarrassment at all on his face, she laughed. “Thank you.”
“So what was it you wanted to see me about, exactly?”
Scarlett was about to protest that as his girlfriend, she didn’t need a reason to see him, when she decided to bite her tongue. The last thing she needed was an argument to finish off an extremely tiresome day. So instead, she blurted it all out. From the woman in Costa to her conversation with Raven.
/> “Wow.” He looked at her for a silent moment, clearly worried about her. Then he shook his head, and suddenly was all business once more. “Sounds… intriguing. What would you like me to do about it?”
“Well, just so that we can see if the times match up, I was wondering if you could help me learn the time and date of death. Judging from the smell, he’d been dead for weeks, but I couldn’t get anything beyond that.”
“Smell?”
“There was this really terrible smell that was evident as soon as I set foot in the place. It got stronger and stronger the nearer we got to the flat, until we found the body and I discovered it was…”
“It was what?”
She heaved a breath. “Rotting flesh.”
“I see.”
“Honestly, you should have smelt it. It was absolutely disgusting. I hope I never have to smell anything like that again.”
Tim nodded.
“Well?”
“Well, what?”
“Can you do anything to help?”
“I’m not really sure...”
“Oh, come on. I need your help with this. Raven could be in trouble here. Please. Pretty please.”
He grimaced. “Darling, it’s not as simple as that.”
“You could help if you wanted to, just like you did before.”
Tim took a long, long breath. His eyes bounced to the clock on the dashboard, then to her face. “Scarlett I… let me think about it. Give me a moment, okay?”
Scarlett leaned back into her seat. “Okay.”
Right at that moment, a flurry of raindrops hit the windscreen. They petered out a tad, then came again, harder and faster, until it was positively pouring. Even though she was shivering, tired and emotionally exhausted after her ridiculously eventful day, Scarlett found herself wondering if this was finally the moment she needed to talk to Tim about her recent worries about his well-being.
Keeping her head perfectly still, angled upwards at the mirror just above the windscreen, she shifted her eyes sideways to glance at him. Like her, he was staring through the window, without flinching. This was obviously his work persona. She’d seen it at the base that night when they’d rescued Ronnie, but never before had he brought it home with him. It made her heart ache a little bit; to feel so far away from him, even though they were inches apart.
A car honked as it drove past and came to a halt outside a house a few doors along. A woman got out with three small children, who were laughing, larking about, and generally misbehaving by the looks of things. The woman pulled one of them up, shouted in his face and marched him up the garden path. By the time she’d knocked on the door, everything looked like it had been forgotten about.
Once they’d gone inside, Scarlett thought about what she’d just witnessed, imagined the cozy atmosphere within, and considered if there was a lesson to be learned from the exchange. After a few minutes of listening to the pouring rain, she concluded that people can be instinctive liars in certain situations.
She rubbed her shoulders and then her thighs, which were now like ice. Raven was going to be fed up. Hopefully, she would have unpaused the TV and not be sitting there twiddling her claws, waiting for Scarlett to return. She strained to look through the window to her house.
“Okay, I’ve thought it through,” Tim’s voice interrupted her thoughts.
Scarlett jumped.
He smiled. “You okay there?”
“Yes, you just gave me a fright, that’s all. Look at the rain, now.”
“The rain?”
“Yes, I’m not looking forward to going back in. I’m going to get soaked through. My slippers will be squelching.”
“Yes, that’s true.”
“So, come on then, don’t keep me waiting. Do you think you can help me? Poor little me, with the soon to be squelching slippers?” She chuckled.
He sighed expansively. “My fear here is that, because it’s a civilian case, it’s out of my jurisdiction.”
“But you have access to some files. You could easily find out when Raven was brought in. That part isn’t even civilian, that’s your work exactly.”
“As I’ve already explained, it’s really not as simple as that.”
“I thought you knew people, though. Don’t you have a relationship with the ME?”
“Yes, I do and that’s why I can’t go prying. I don’t want to put our relationship in jeopardy.”
“You could persuade him. Show him my photo first, then tell him I have a problem and need his help. You know, lay it on thick.”
Tim guffawed. “He’ll see through that in no time.”
Scarlett laughed, despite her annoyance. “Not if you do it subtly.”
He frowned back. “Scarlett, darling, I don’t think any part of that was subtle.”
They both scowled at each other for a tad too long. After a moment, Scarlett caught the corner of Tim’s mouth twitching, and she had to laugh. Then they were both giggling, the tension broken. Suddenly the atmosphere was entirely different and she felt closer to Tim than she had for a good while.
Tim’s face had come alive again. “I love it when you laugh.”
“Me too… when you laugh, I mean. So… ?”
“Oh, okay,” Tim said, relenting. “Fine. Damn it all. I’m a fool to myself, honestly, I am.”
She took hold of his arm and pressed her face into his shoulder. “Thank you. I mean it. I’m not just trying to get you in trouble with work, I think this could be really important, and I care about making it right.”
He looked at her softly. “I know.” He took a breath. “So I’ll help under one condition.”
“Oh?”
“That you promise me that you won’t go getting yourself tied up in it all. Don’t go doing anything even remotely risky, okay?”
She smiled. “Okay, I promise.”
“Thank you.”
“No need to thank me. You’re right. Getting myself involved in another investigation is the last thing I need right now.”
“Well, there you are then.”
Scarlett reached for the door handle. “Well, think I’ll—”
“Just hold your horses a minute.”
“What now?”
“What if it turns out that Raven is involved?”
Scarlett’s face turned serious. “Oh, I err… we’ll just have to figure out a way of dealing with that, won’t we? I don’t know her all that well.”
“No, you don’t. And yet she’s living in your house.”
Scarlett ignored the knowing look he gave her. “No telling what she can do. But she doesn’t have her magic, not whilst she’s in cat form.”
“You’re absolutely sure of that are you?”
“Yes. I’m absolutely sure.”
Tim stretched and took a deep breath. “Well, in that case, my dear, I think our business is concluded for the night.”
“Okay.” She smiled. “You go and tend to your business now. And thank you. This means a lot, it really does.”
“I know, love.”
Fortunately, the rain had subsided a little by the time she stepped out of the car, but that didn’t stop Tim’s car from soaking her ankles as he sped off into the night. Halfway along the garden path, shaking her head, she turned to watch his red taillights all the way to the end of the street, where they turned and disappeared from view.
Chapter Five
Saturday
Aunt Tabitha’s Residence, Bicester, England
Scarlett looked through the kitchen window at her aunt’s vegetable plot and smiled.
She sighed to herself as she turned her attention back to the task in hand, pouring vinegar over the vegetables she had prepared and fastened the lid as tight as she could. After sliding the jar towards the others at the back of the worktop, she scooped up some more vegetables and repeated the process.
Standing back to examine her handiwork, she considered how it was often the simple things in life that gave her the most pleasure. Maybe someday, in
the not too distant future, she’d be standing in her own kitchen, pickling vegetables with a daughter (or son) of her own to help her. There was a lot to sort out before she could think about making that little dream come true though. Perhaps too much.
Tabitha sealed the jar she was working on, pushed it to the back of the worktop below the cupboards, turned to face the window and walked across the kitchen. “How you doing with those?” she asked, shaking Scarlett out of her daydream.
“Oh, fine.” She glanced at the legion of completed jars by the wall.
Tabitha followed Scarlett’s gaze and beamed at her niece’s handiwork. “Oh, thank you very much. You’ve been a great help. I can’t stand to see all these uneaten, delicious vegetables go to waste.”
When Scarlett didn’t reply, she placed a hand on her shoulder. “You went quiet.”
“Did I? Hadn’t realized.”
“Yes, you had. There’s nothing bothering you, is there?”
“Oh, no, I was just thinking about when I was a kid. When I used to come here with my mom.”
Tabitha smiled. “Oh, those were the days. You’re not getting broody are you?”
“Well, no, not broody as such. I have far too much going on to think about having children of my own. But maybe someday in the future… I was thinking I might have a vegetable plot of my own.”
“Or this one, when I’m gone.”
“Oh auntie, don’t go saying that. You’ll be around for a long time yet.”
Tabitha returned her hand to Scarlett’s shoulder. “Well, I certainly hope so, dear.” Tabitha made the short journey across the kitchen to the opposite worktop, where she turned her back on her and continued with the pickling. Scarlett had no doubt her aunt had probably done some kind of spell to keep the pickles from spoiling.
For roughly ten minutes, Scarlett’s mind wandered whilst her aunt hummed some song from way back, sending them into a rhythmic harmony. Until the humming stopped.
She looked over her shoulder at her aunt, who was now filling up the jars in silence.
Still with her back to Scarlett, Tabitha broke their silence, “how’s your studying going?”
“Oh, err… ”
“Your studies, dear. The spells.”
A Very British Witch Boxed Set Page 65
