Page 14

Chapter Fourteen

Ezra’s text was a simple one, welcoming me home and saying he was looking forward to seeing me. Nothing salacious, much to Maddie’s disappointment. She’d sighed so dramatically that I was surprised the house didn’t collapse under the weight of her crushed expectations.

After the pizza we mulled over what could have happened to the Eternal Flame, but the truth was we didn’t have a clue. There had to be a reason it had disappeared: a cause . And if there was a cause we could undo it, damn it. What was weird was the fact that the wards were still intact; wherever it was, it hadn’t gone far.

We spent the rest of the night renewing our friendship. Our easy camaraderie had clicked back into place like no time had passed but we still had a decade to catch up on – and it was clear that Maddie still resented me for my absence, for which I didn’t blame her a jot.

I told her about teaching self-defence, and she shared details of her ‘minimalist’ dating life – which appeared to be her choosing a series of ‘bad boys’. There was a clear pattern of her dating guys who wanted her to tattoo them and their friends for free before they lost interest – until a full moon was near or their current ward was fading. I didn’t point that out; I suspect she already knew she was making bad choices.

‘Maybe you should be the one thinking about dating Ezra,’ I suggested lightly.

Maddie looked faintly green, like she’d imagined licking a troll. ‘Eww. He’s like a brother to me. Don’t get me wrong, he’s been my first port of call since you left – but no. There’s nothing romantic between us and there never will be.’ She hesitated then sipped her drink; letting slide whatever she’d been about to tell me.

Curiosity gnawed at me but I didn’t press. She wasn’t a suspect to interrogate, she was my friend and I needed to respect her lines in the sand. I wanted to get to know her properly again, to show her how much her friendship did truly matter to me.

‘Wine?’ I suggested.

‘Sure,’ she agreed easily. ‘I have a bottle of Oy Bay in the fridge.’

I couldn’t help but smile. It had always been our drink of choice, while Ezra was mainlining real ales.

‘Perfect. ’

Maddie poured us each a glass of wine and we settled on the sofa. I took a sip, liquid heaven. ‘So,’ I said, ‘tell me about your plans for a tattoo shop.’

She lit up as she gushed excitedly about finally having enough clients to justify opening her own office premises. She talked about equipment, overheads and her bottom line; she sounded so unlike the ditzy girl I’d once known who hadn’t understood the difference between gross and net income.

‘I’m so proud of you,’ I said, the thought slipping from me before I could stop it. ‘You’re going to crush it.’

Her bright smile faded. ‘Without the Witchlight…’ She trailed off, shaking her head. ‘Without the Eternal Flame, my dreams are dead in the water.’

‘We’ll get it back,’ I promised fiercely. ‘Of course we will.’

‘I’ve missed that Stonehaven bullishness,’ she laughed.

‘We will,’ I repeated. We had to.

Maddie’s passion about her business had burned through our entire bottle of wine and the time was waaaay later than I’d intended to go to bed. I gave a yawn so wide that my jaw clicked. Maddie chucked a cushion at my head. ‘Go to bed! We need you in Nana’s office so you can dig up dirt on Fraser,’ she ordered. ‘We can’t afford you being late on your first day. You know Nana hates it when people are tardy. Go. Sleep. Now.’

‘Yes, Mum,’ I sassed, as I stood up.

I let Eva out for a wee, then we went up to my old bedroom. I set my phone alarm for the obscenely early hour of 7.00am and settled into my old bed.

Thankfully Eva was by my side and she chased my memories – and nightmares – away.

When the alarm went off at the crack of dawn, I hit snooze. I did so repeatedly until I clawed my eyes open enough to see it was 7.30am. Fuck!

I had no time for a shower so I hastily brushed my teeth and hair, chucked on some clean clothes. Eva had done her favourite trick of hiding my keys, so it took a fraught five minutes to find them, then Eva and I jogged to the police station. We arrived, panting, at 7.55am. Perfect timing, and I wasn’t even sweating that much.

I sat in the waiting room for all of two seconds before Yanni barrelled out of her office. ‘You’re here!’ she said, her tone reflecting pleasant surprise .

‘Of course I am,’ I replied, as if affronted. I tried to make sure my breathing didn’t give away my last-minute sprint. Eva, meanwhile, flopped onto the floor like she’d climbed Everest.

‘Oh well,’ Yanni sounded slightly apologetic. ‘I expected you to be late. You were never an early bird.’ She smiled. ‘More of a permanently grumpy pigeon.’ Her words were warm and teasing. ‘Come on in.’

She led me through a door to the right of the reception area into the bowels of the police station. We went into a room with a few desks in it. Filing cabinets lined the walls but didn’t appear to be in use because there was paperwork everywhere. Yeesh: they didn’t need someone to answer the phones, they needed someone to sort out this shit.

‘The phone is here.’ Yanni gestured to a desk piled with paperwork but with no visible phone. She frowned. ‘No, wait. It was here but I moved it last week. Hold on. I need to move a couple more of these. I promise I’ve been meaning to tidy this lot up.’

She shuffled a stack of papers from one side of the desk to the other before picking it all up and dumping it on the floor next to a massive heap of folders – and more paperwork. That was some filing system. Organised chaos? More like chaotic chaos .

I sat and waited as Yanni tried to find the phone I was supposed to be manning. After a solid ten minutes had passed, I broke into her mutterings. ‘Yanni, don’t take this the wrong way but it seriously looks like you need help.’

She grinned suddenly. ‘What gave it away? The mountains of paperwork or the missing phone?’ She sobered. ‘I know – I know we need help,’ she said. ‘But it’s so tricky to find someone to do the job. You’ve got to be impartial if you’re working for the magical police, and it’s difficult to find someone like that around here. We’ve got covens, clans, shifter groups –people feel like they’re being disloyal to their own sect if they take a job with me.’

‘Rather than thinking their loyalty should extend to all types of magic folk and helping the whole community?’ I said incredulously.

‘I know. It’s ridiculous, but that’s the way it is. I’ve got a couple of years till I retire and I’m sure I can find somebody to get this place shipshape before then. Dove is coming along wonderfully – you’ll like her. She’s on leave for the next day or two, but she’ll need some help when I go.’ She eyeballed me pointedly.

‘Yanni, I’m here to earn some money and help you out, but this won’t be my forever job. I’m laying that out for you now. I’m a PI – that’s what I do. I set my own hours, I take the cases that I want. I’m not made for nine-to-five work.’

She sighed. ‘Well, I appreciate you stepping into the breach for now. And I appreciate your honesty, though I can definitely say there is nothing nine to five about this job. I’m on call the whole time.’

‘That must be hard.’

She beamed. ‘I love it. Retirement’s the thing that will be hard for me. A few years more yet,’ she said firmly. ‘I’m not ready to slow down.’

Yanni may have liked her job, but she clearly didn’t like the paperwork. I’m an untidy soul, but the state of this room was making me itch to start filing. How could she find anything in this mess?

‘Oh, there it is!’ she said triumphantly, pulling out a heavy, outdated piece of technology that I half expected to be steam-powered. It was a large plastic phone with several lights labelled Line 1 , Line 2 , Line 3 , and Line 4 . Considering there was only one other office in the station, I couldn’t imagine where those lines went unless they had telephones in the interview room and cells, though that didn’t seem likely.

Yanni found a clear space to put it down. ‘All you need to do is answer it and find out the issue. Most of the time it will be people wanting reassurance, like old Mr Margate who lives on his own by Wheatsheaf Grove. He’s convinced that banshees keep announcing his death. He’ll probably ring up, tell you it happened last night and we should get ready to make arrangements.’

‘Is that something we have to deal with?’ I asked. ‘Someone’s death being foretold?’

‘It’s his own death and it hasn’t been foretold at all,’ she said. ‘According to him, they’ve been predicting his death every week for the last decade. No, it’s all fuss and nonsense. Another thing, we’ve had a bit of a problem with young water shifters leaving puddles with fish on people’s doorsteps. It’s hardly the worst type of criminal activity, but it’s worth keeping an eye on in case it starts getting out of hand. If there are some repeat offenders, we’ll speak to their parents.’

‘Sounds good,’ I said. ‘And the rest of the time, when I’m not answering the phone?’

‘Up to you, I suppose. I’m sure you’ve got things to keep you busy.’

‘Yes. Yes, I have.’ My mind went straight to Fraser Banks – and the way his broad shoulders filled out the top of his shirt perfectly .

I hurriedly brushed aside the image and remembered why I was meant to be thinking about him. ‘Yanni, is it possible for me to access some of the police files online? That way, if names come up on calls I can check if they’re repeat offenders. It’d save time going back and forth and bothering you.’ I looked at her, wide eyed and innocent.

She looked back at me cynically. ‘That look didn’t fool me when you were a teen and it doesn’t fool me now.’ She studied me. ‘It’s important?’ I nodded. ‘You want to tell me about it?’

I grimaced. ‘I can’t. Not yet, anyway.’

She sighed. ‘Okay. Well, I trust you and one day soon I hope you’ll trust me too. Dig into whatever you need, Bea. I’ll give you general access.’

‘Thank you. And I do trust you, Yanni. I really do.’

‘Come to me when you’re ready,’ she said. ‘Whatever it is, I can help.’

Her words made me feel both warmed and incredibly guilty. I did trust Yanni, but she was one for the rule book and I didn’t want to put her in an invidious position by telling her about the Eternal Flame’s absence. Being between me and the covens would be one heck of a hard place.

She cleared her throat. ‘Alright, let me sort out those logins for you. You make yourself comfy.’

Given the mess, making myself comfy was easier said than done. I pulled out the wheelie desk chair, only to discover it was also covered in papers. I’d just leaned down to pick them up when I heard the door creak open. A moment later, someone cleared their throat.

‘Hey, Trixie.’ The voice was deep and husky, like a whisky-soaked promise of trouble. ‘Did you miss me?’