by Kennedy Kerr
‘It’s very… scenic,’ he said.
‘Hmmm.’ Temerity decided not to push Angus any further for a compliment of any kind; clearly, that wasn’t his thing. ‘One thing I’ve been wondering. Ben McKinley was the one that put what he thought was a love potion into Molly’s mug at school, right?’
‘Yes. He’s admitted that. I think when it goes to trial he’ll get a reduced sentence, but he still stalked the girl. And he had no way of knowing that whatever was in that paper sachet wasn’t harmful. He may not have intended to kill Molly, but he still spiked her drink.’ Angus was always much happier talking shop; he visibly relaxed as he talked about the case.
‘Agreed. The thing is, how did he get it in there? And what about the mirror? It was next to Molly’s body when I got there that day.’
‘Well, McKinley says that he made Molly’s tea for her most days. That day, he made it as usual before he went outside for playground duty and added the contents of the sachet into the cup. The other teachers assumed she’d made it herself because McKinley had popped in quickly just before break and done it and so by the time they all came in, she was probably already drinking her tea.’
‘Okay… so, the mirror?’
‘As to the mirror, he says that Liz gave it to him. She told him that it was an extra part of the spell and that if he could get Molly to look into it, it would complete an enchantment on her. He’d brought it into school that day, intending to show her at break time, then forgotten he was on playground duty. He says he left it on the side of the chair in his rush to make the tea and have it waiting for her. He intended to put the mirror away in his locker and show her later.’
‘If he’d remembered to do that, the case would have been much harder to solve,’ Temerity mused. ‘So the series of events must have been that he went up to the house to ask for the potion. While he was there, Liz overheard, realised there was a way to poison Molly and made her plan. She put some kind of masking spell on the mirror and gave it to Ben before he left Dalcairney Manor that day. In fact, she’d enchanted it to deflect attention from herself as murderer and towards Ben. Muriel gave Ben the potion when it was ready, a few days later: Lady Dalcairney likely needed a few days to make it. Then she got a message to Muriel that she had a package that needed delivering.’
Angus nodded. There was a silence in which one of the cats snored.
‘Well, that’s everything, I suppose,’ Temerity said, after a pause.
‘Um. Right. Yes.’ Angus smiled uncertainly. ‘Oh. While we’re on the subject of drugs – the surgery break-in. We couldn’t really find anything, but Theakstone has confessed that he thinks he might have left the surgery unlocked one night; he knows he’s not been that alert these past few weeks, being sleep deprived with the new baby and all that. Anyone could have got in.’ Angus shrugged, open-handed. ‘Probably a tourist found the door open and tried their luck; looking at what went missing, it was a random selection of stuff that just happened to include the atropine. A quick grab of what was closest, what they could carry, probably. Thing is, with it being a doctor’s surgery, if we fingerprinted the place, we’d find more or less everyone in the village in there, plus a lot of unknowns. We’re just going to write it off as a mishap.’
‘He hadn’t slept much when I saw him last,’ Temerity admitted, though she thought it prudent not to mention the circumstances of her visit.
Angus stood awkwardly, shifting his weight from foot to foot.
‘What?’
‘Oh. Errr. It’s a nice day outside. I was just wondering… Do you fancy a walk or something?’ He looked at his shoes. ‘I’ll be on my lunch break in a few minutes, so…’
Maybe he wasn’t so much raised by wolves as just painfully shy, Temerity thought.
‘All right,’ she said. ‘I could do with some fresh air, I guess.’ She picked up her baby blue cardigan and slung it over her shoulders.
‘Frrreshhhh!’ Hebrides called out in a shrill voice from his perch, making Angus jump.
‘Damn. I didn’t see him there,’ he muttered.
‘You’re still afraid of Hebrides, aren’t you?’ Temerity grinned.
‘Of course I am. He’s a killer,’ Angus said, seriously.
‘Hebrides is not a killer! He’s a sweetie. You just have to let him get to know you.’
‘Hmmm. I might not, if it’s all the same to you.’ Angus grinned as Temerity locked the shop door.
It was certainly a bright Spring day and Temerity was grateful to feel the sun on her face. Happening to look at the other side of the road, she noticed Beth Bennett going into the bakery. She nudged Angus with her elbow.
‘Look,’ she hissed, aware she was acting like town gossips Muriel and Brenda. ‘Beth Bennett. Your biggest fan.’
‘Could you not?’ Angus rolled his eyes at her.
‘Avoiding her, are you?’ Temerity teased.
‘No, I am not. Mind you, I did find something out about Miss Bennett.’ Angus raised his eyebrow. ‘It’s not particularly relevant to the investigation, but Muriel told me – heaven knows how she knows, of course – that her boyfriend, the guy that Molly apparently stole from her? Molly didn’t – he left Beth. She lost her job after they found out about her little shoplifting adventure, too.’
‘Oh.’ Temerity was surprised that she felt sorry for Beth. They weren’t exactly ever going to be best friends, but Temerity could still sympathise with the girl. Everyone made mistakes. ‘I mean, we’ve only got Beth’s word that Molly and he were ever involved. She denied it to Ben McKinley, but then, she would,’ Temerity mused. ‘It might have just been sour grapes on Beth’s part, if Molly flirted with him a little. She wouldn’t be the first person to try and make it sound like someone had tempted away their lover when in fact they’d just been dumped.’
‘Possibly. We shouldn’t really gossip,’ Angus chided her.
‘You started it!’ Temerity elbowed him again. ‘So, the Laird’s in custody now?’ she asked as they walked along the main street of Lost Maidens Loch. As if she had conjured them be saying their names, Temerity could see Muriel and Brenda, the primary school cook, on opposite sides of the counter inside The Singing Kettle. Their heads were together and Temerity had no doubt that they were chewing over the details of the case just like she and Angus were.
‘Yes, but the Inspector doubts he’s going to make it to trial. Alf says his cancer’s progressed pretty quickly. He’ll likely be in hospital before long, maybe a hospice.’
Temerity blew out her cheeks.
‘That’s tough. I mean, I know he’s not exactly a great person, as it turns out. But that’s no fate for anyone,’ she said. ‘Do you think the Inspector knew that the Laird once trained as a witch, with Liz? They seemed to know each other quite well.’
Angus shook his head.
‘I don’t think so. Dalcairney kept that pretty secret and so did Liz. They’d known each other a long time, but only socially. You know, local council, dinner dances, that kind of thing. And it turns out that David Dalcairney didn’t have any close friends for a good reason.’
‘Hmmm.’ Temerity nodded. ‘What’s Anthony going to do now? He hasn’t got much of a house to come home to.’
‘I spoke to him this morning. Nice lad. The good thing is that he did invest in that insurance policy when he found out Lady Dalcairney had taken to arson, so he’s intending to rebuild. It’ll take some time, though.’
‘He was pretty withdrawn after the funeral. Understandably, of course.’ Temerity shaded her eyes from the sun which glinted off the flat, black water of the loch. ‘He was mourning Liz.’
‘It’s such a sad story. Liz didn’t have anyone except Anthony. And he loved her like a mother.’ Angus sighed.
‘He survived. Not everyone does,’ Temerity said, looking at the still water of the loch and thinking about Patrick, Liz, Lady Dalcairney and Molly Bayliss, who had come home only to join the ranks of the disappeared in Lost Maidens Loch. The loch itself might not have taken Molly, but her heritage
had. She looked at Angus and touched his shoulder gently.
‘You survived, too. You faced your fear.’
He gave her a questioning look.
‘You went into the fire and you survived,’ she continued. ‘Don’t you think you’ve conquered your fear, just a little?’
‘Maybe. Maybe we’re both survivors.’ Angus took Temerity’s hand. ‘You know what you should do? Now this is over?’
‘What?’ Temerity smiled, glad to be outside on a sunny day, holding the hand of someone she liked. Maybe life could be simple sometimes, if she just let it.
‘Go to that conference. The one in Alaska. There’s still time, isn’t there?’ Angus asked, looking at her, seriously.
Temerity frowned. In fact, the conference organiser had emailed again this morning: the programme was about to be finalised and she wanted to try one last time to persuade Temerity.
‘Yes… I mean, it’s very last minute… I wasn’t intending to go.’ She looked away, embarrassed. ‘I thought you understood.’
‘I do understand, Temerity. I understand you’re scared. But sometimes we have to do things that scare us. As survivors.’ He stopped walking and gave her a meaningful look. ‘You can do this, Temerity Love. I believe in you. And I’ll be here when you get back. Believe me, nothing in Lost Maidens Loch will change when you’re away.’
Angus squeezed her hand, leaned forward and kissed Temerity on the cheek.
‘I’ll be here,’ he repeated. ‘I’m not going anywhere. You’ve got this, okay? You’re a world-renowned psychic provenance expert, remember.’ A grin twisted his mouth at one side. ‘I believe in you.’
‘I didn’t think you believed in anything that wasn’t logical.’ Temerity grinned.
‘I didn’t… and then I met you,’ he replied and Temerity felt herself blush.
Nervousness danced in her belly, but there was excitement, too. Everything was changing.
‘Okay.’ She took a deep breath. ‘I’ll go.’ She realised she’d made the decision this morning, reading the email in the shop; she’d started thinking, would it be so terrible to go? But, somehow, it took Angus asking her to make it real. ‘I’m going to Alaska.’
Angus whooped.
‘Good on you, Temerity Love!’ he cried, picked her up by the waist and swung her around. Laughter bubbled up from inside her. She felt freer than she had for a long time.
She wasn’t betraying Patrick by leaving; all of this had made her remember how much Patrick loved an adventure. If he was here, he’d have decided he was coming with me the first moment I was invited, she realised. Patrick would be appalled if he knew that his memory was keeping me here. And I’ll be back, anyway. She could leave Lost Maidens Loch; it was her home, but not her prison.
And when she got home, Angus would be waiting.
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Books by Kennedy Kerr
A Spell of Murder
Writing as Anna McKerrow
Daughter of Light and Shadows
Queen of Sea and Stars
A Letter from Kennedy
Hi! I hope you enjoyed A Spell of Murder. If you did enjoy it and want to keep up-to-date with all my latest releases, just sign up here. Your email address will never be shared and you can unsubscribe at any time.
Scotland is such a beautiful country, imbued with thousands of years of magic and mystery among its purple mountains, green valleys and mysterious, silent lochs. It also has its own tradition of witchcraft. My family, though not witches like Temerity and Tilda, are originally from Ayrshire, a place of great rural beauty.
I adore curling up with a mystery book and a hot chocolate on a rainy afternoon and I began to want to write my own book about a little Scottish village alongside one of those strange, sometimes ominous lochs. A gossipy, cosy village where, sometimes, strange things happen and two local and very modern witches are on hand to investigate…
I hope you enjoyed reading all about Tilda and Temerity’s adventures in Lost Maidens Loch as much as I enjoyed writing them.
With all my good thoughts,
Kennedy
Published by Bookouture in 2019
An imprint of StoryFire Ltd.
Carmelite House
50 Victoria Embankment
London EC4Y 0DZ
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Copyright © Kennedy Kerr, 2019
Kennedy Kerr has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers.
eBook ISBN: 978-1-83888-095-8
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places and events other than those clearly in the public domain, are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
