Witch Is When Stuff Got Serious (A Witch P.I. Mystery Book 11) (12 page)

I sneaked out of the room as quietly as I could. I didn’t want to risk waking him.

“I’m nipping out for a few minutes, Mrs V.”

“Okay, dear.”

“Don’t go into my office. Winky is asleep, and I wouldn’t want you to wake him.”

She gave me a puzzled look. “Okay, Jill, but it’s not as though I ever go in there willingly. The less contact I have with that stupid cat, the better.”

I hurried outside, and across the road to the building where Bella lived. The last time I’d been there was to drop flowers off for her birthday. This time, I actually needed to get inside if I was going to get my photograph.

I knocked on the door, and immediately made myself invisible.

“Hello? Hello?” The man who came to the door looked understandably confused.

When he stepped out into the corridor, I slipped past him. Once inside, I quickly found the room where Bella and Socks were still smooching in the windowsill. Although I was angry primarily with Socks, Bella was just as much to blame. She should be ashamed of herself for two-timing Winky like that.

I took out my phone, and snapped a couple of photos of them, and then made my way out. I knocked on the door again—from the inside this time. The man re-appeared—chuntering to himself.

“Those stupid kids are at it again. I should call the police on them.”

When he opened the door, I once again slipped past him, and made my getaway.

I now had the evidence I needed, but how was I going to break it to Winky? I’d sleep on it, and then pick my moment the following day.

Chapter 14

The next morning, I still wasn’t feeling any better about what I had to do. Not only was this going to ruin Winky’s relationship with his brother, but it would probably also signal the end for him and Bella.

“By the way.” Winky jumped onto my desk. “Did I mention that Socks is going to be staying for another two weeks?”

“No, you didn’t. I’m sorry, but that’s not convenient.”

“But you can’t send my bro away. It’s not like he visits very often.”

“Too often,” I said under my breath.

“Pardon?”

“I can’t have two cats in the office. It’s bad enough with one.”

“What am I meant to do for company? I’m by myself all the time. I never see another cat.”

Was that a violin I could hear?

“Do me a favour. You run the semaphore classes. You get to see plenty of other cats at those. And it isn’t all that long ago since you were posing as Madame Winkesca, and fleecing cats out of their—I mean, telling their fortunes. You see plenty of cats.”

“But they’re not family. Socks is the only family I have now. Surely you understand that. I know how important family is to you.”

“Trust me, Winky, you’re better off without him.”

“
How can you say that about my bro? I don’t insult your sister, and she’s always coming around here. It’s only for another two weeks.”

“Winky, I didn’t want to tell you this, but—”

“But what? What lame excuse are you going to come up with now?”

“If I tell you, you have to promise not to get upset.”

“Upset about what? You’re talking in riddles as per usual.”

“Socks has been seeing Bella.”

He laughed. “Is that the best you can come up with? Really, Jill, I’m disappointed in you. Of all the lies you could have dreamed up to try to persuade me to get rid of Socks, you thought I’d believe that load of old rubbish? Bella and I are an item. She only has eyes for me, and besides, my bro would never do something like that to me.”

I held out my smartphone.

“What’s that?”

“Take a look.”

Winky stared in disbelief.

“I’m sorry, Winky, I really didn’t want to show you.”

“I’m going to kill him.”

“There’s no need for violence.”

“He’s a dead cat walking.”

“You mustn’t overreact.”

“When did you take these photos?”

“Yesterday.”

“And you’ve only just told me?”

“I was waiting for the right moment.”

“
Where is he now?”

“I don’t know.”

“Is he with Bella?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t seen either of them this morning.”

“I’m going over there.”

“No, you mustn’t. If you make a scene, Bella’s owners will call the cat pound, and you’ll be locked up. Wait until he comes back, and then have a quiet word.”

“A quiet word? Are you kidding? There’ll be no words of the quiet variety. When he gets back here, he’ll wish he’d never been born.”

Oh bum!

***

I was still mulling over the CCTV coverage. Although Simon Saize had identified the image of the person who had stayed behind in the library, it hadn’t helped. The hat and sunglasses had meant it was impossible to identify the individual.

But then, something occurred to me. Simon had studied the CCTV between the time the doors opened, and the time they were locked again. What about the period of time
after
the doors were locked? The murderer must have made her getaway somehow, otherwise the police would have found her when they took Mad in for questioning.

I contacted Simon to ask if I could take one last look at the footage. He agreed, so I went straight over there. After he’d set me up in the same room as on my previous visit, I fast-forwarded to the point where the doors were locked. Nothing happened for a while, but then suddenly the flashing lights of a police vehicle were visible. The library doors opened—I assumed Mad must have unlocked them—and the police went inside. A few moments later, someone else left the building. It was a paramedic.

Hold on. How was that possible? There’d been no sign of the paramedics arriving. I went to get Simon, and asked if he could zoom in on the paramedic, so I could get a closer look. He did, but it was hopeless; the picture was too fuzzy to see any detail. I was pretty sure it was a woman though. She was the same height and build as the person who had stayed behind. Now, at least, I knew how she’d made her getaway. She must have changed into the paramedic’s uniform after she’d murdered Anita Pick, and waited until the emergency services arrived. Then, she was able to walk casually out of the building—no one would have thought to question a paramedic.

Now, everything made sense.

I drove to Anita Pick’s house, and went next door.

The dogs were barking, but they were locked in the back yard, so I wasn’t worried. Roxy Blackwall answered the door.

“You again? More questions?”

“A few, yes. How long have you been on the organising committee of the Carnation Foundation?”

“Three years. They do an excellent job. Anything to do with dogs, and you can count me in. How did you know?”

“I’ve been doing some checking into the foundation. I was particularly interested in the fundraising evening they held the other night. I imagine you’re able to get hold of extra invitations to those sorts of events?”

“Yes, a few.”

“And I assume you passed two of those invitations on to your neighbour, and her colleague from the library?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I wouldn’t give Anita Pick the time of day, let alone an invitation to a fundraiser.”

“I think you did. You probably told her it was a peace offering, but really you still wanted revenge for Jo Jo. And how better to cover your tracks, than to frame someone else for the murder? The ideal candidate was Anita’s colleague, Madeline Lane—the woman who’d had the audacity to throw you out of the library. You got to kill two birds with one stone. I don’t imagine it was difficult for you to take Madeline’s steak knife. She wouldn’t have noticed because she’d finished her meal. Where did you hide after the library had closed? In one of the store cupboards? Is that where you got changed into your uniform after you’d killed Anita?”

“Jo Jo was my favourite. I’d had her since she was a pup.”

“Anita didn’t poison your dog.”

“Of course she did.”

“Look at this.” I passed her the newspaper, which I’d brought from The Bugle archives. “There was a spate of dog poisonings around that time. All of them Irish setters. They caught the guy who was doing it not long after Jo Jo was killed.”

Roxy began to read the article.

“I had no idea.” The colour drained from her face, and she dropped the newspaper. “I swear I had no idea.”

“Didn’t you get a visit from a uniformed police officer?”

“No. Like I said, the police weren’t interested.”

“I think they will be now.”

I made a call to Jack Maxwell.

***

Ever since my night out with Mad, something had been playing on my mind, and try as I might, I couldn’t shake it.

On that night, I’d left the club earlier than Mad. It had been pouring with rain, and I’d been contemplating whether to go back inside, or go to the high street to try to get a taxi. When Drake had pulled up, I’d been delighted to see him, but I couldn’t understand what he was doing there in the early hours of the morning. When I’d asked, he’d said he’d been at some business function or other, but what kind of business function goes on until that time in the morning? And, why was he on that particular road? The thing which was really nagging at me was that he’d taken me straight home without ever asking where I lived. As far as I could recall, I’d never told him my address.

It probably didn’t mean anything. I was almost certain it was nothing, but I’m a private investigator, and I’m paid to be curious, so I decided to take a look around his flat. I wasn’t exactly sure what I was looking for.

I knew that Grandma had a set of keys to his flat, which she kept in the back office of Ever. She didn’t know I knew, but I don’t miss a thing. Like I said, I’m a P.I.

I had to wait until Grandma wasn’t around, so I asked Kathy to give me a call when she’d gone out. Of course, Kathy had wanted to know why, so I’d fed her a line about organising a surprise birthday party. On reflection, that had been a mistake because Kathy would no doubt be hankering after an invitation.

When I got Kathy’s call, I hurried down there.

“When is this party?” Kathy asked as soon as she saw me.

Thank goodness for the ‘forget’ spell.

I hurried to the back office, grabbed the key off the hook, and made my way up the side stairs to Drake’s apartment. What exactly was I looking for? I had absolutely no idea.

As I let myself in, something Grandma had said came back to me. I’d accused her of carrying out surveillance on the flat to keep an eye on me, but she’d insisted it wasn’t about me; it was about Drake. She’d asked what I knew about him. The truth was, I knew very little about him. I didn’t even know what line of business he was in. Maybe, I’d be able to find something which would fill in the gaps.

I started in the bedroom, and pulled open the drawer of one of two identical bedside cabinets. It was empty. The drawer below was also empty. As were the other two. I walked around the bed, and checked the matching bedside cabinet. Again, all of the drawers were empty. I tried the wardrobe. Empty! It was the same story in the living room. Twenty minutes later, I’d covered the whole flat.

Every drawer and cupboard in the place was empty
!

I couldn’t get my head around what I’d found at Drake’s flat. Or more accurately, what I hadn’t found. It would have been nice to talk to someone about this, but who? I didn’t want to mention it to my Candlefield family because it would inevitably have got back to Grandma. She had a habit of acting first, and asking questions later. I couldn’t talk to my Washbridge family for obvious reasons. There was always Daze, but I’d already recruited her to follow my father who I’d suspected of being TDO. She had enough on her plate. My only option was to confront Drake myself, but that wasn’t going to be easy. How would I explain why I’d been in his flat?

***

When I got back to my office, I found Winky sitting on the windowsill next to the open window. His brother’s microlight was next to him. Socks was sitting on the floor looking up at Winky.

“Bro, be careful. What are you doing with my microlight?”

“Chill, bro. I just brought it up here, so I could get a better look at it. It’s one mean machine.”

“Sure is. I’ve only had it a couple of months. It’s much faster than the old model.”

“How much did it cost?”

“Just over four hundred pounds.”

“As much as that?”

Then, without warning, Winky pushed the microlight out of the open window.

“Whoops!”

“What have you done, bro?” Socks looked horrified, and jumped onto the windowsill, next to Winky.

“Sorry, bro.” Winky didn’t look the slightest bit sorry.

It took all of my efforts not to burst out laughing. Socks was staring at the pavement below. I could only imagine what state his microlight was in.

“Why did you do that, bro? It’s totally wrecked. I’ll never be able to repair it.”

“How very sad.”

“I don’t understand. Why?”

“There’s your answer—over there!” Winky gestured across the way, where Bella was in her window. Socks knew the game was up.

“This is your fault!” He glared at me, accusingly. “You grassed me up, didn’t you?”

“Never mind who told me,” Winky said. “How could you do it to me, bro? How could you steal my girlfriend? Bella and I go way back.”

“I didn’t mean to, bro. I can’t help it if I’m irresistible. You didn’t have to break my microlight.”

“If you don’t get out of here right now, I’ll break more than your microlight.”

“You wouldn’t hurt your own brother.”

“Don’t kid yourself.”

Socks took one look at Winky, and knew he meant business.

“Don’t expect me to come back.”

“Good. Now, get gone.”

Socks jumped off the windowsill, and started for the door. As he passed by me, I felt a sharp pain in my calf. He’d scratched me!

“Come here, you!” I screamed, as he bolted for the door.

I chased him through the outer office, but he was too fast for me. By the time I reached the top of the stairs, he was already out of the building.

“What’s going on, Jill?” Mrs V looked puzzled. “Was that your cat?”