Page 15

Chapter Fifteen

I immediately recognised the voice and a smile crept onto my face. As I stood and faced him, my breath hitched. Maddie hadn’t been kidding: Ezra had grown up good.

Yanni huffed. ‘Just let yourself into the office,’ she grumbled to Ezra.

He blew her a cheeky kiss then turned his attention to me again. ‘So you’re back and you still haven’t come to say hi. You’re making me hunt you down and do the hard work like always.’

‘Ezra.’ I smiled and shook my head. ‘Ezra Bentley. You look … different.’

‘Yeah. I grew up a bit.’ He grinned.

Ezra had absolutely grown up a bit – well, a lot. He was easily six foot six, and any jokes about being the runt of the werewolf litter were very much in the past. In fact, if he got any taller he could rent out his forehead as a billboard. He had a scar through his right eyebrow that gave him a “tough guy” vibe, and I wondered how he’d gotten it.

As I stood there struggling to find my voice, I couldn’t help thinking back to when we were kids and I’d used him as my sparring partner. With his quick werewolf healing, Mum didn’t feel too bad when I’d thrown him across the floor and, on more than one occasion, broken his nose.

I wasn’t so sure I’d get the best of him so easily now. He was dressed in a plain black T-shirt that hugged his torso, hinting at the chiselled abs underneath. Not that I was looking. Much. Just scientifically observing for the sake of research. He had a paper under his arm and he was holding two paper cups.

‘Here,’ he said, passing me a drink. ‘Maddie mentioned you’d had an early start after a late night. She didn’t think you’d had time to grab a coffee, so I thought I’d bring you one.’

‘Thank you.’ I reached out and took the cup, not realising until the smell wafted under my nose that I was desperate for a caffeine hit. I took a long sip. ‘Oh my God, this is divine.’

‘And where’s mine?’ Yanni complained. Without missing a beat, Ezra offered her the other cup. She sighed. ‘It’s fine. I don’t actually want to steal your coffee.’

‘I had mine in the shop,’ he promised. ‘I really did bring this for you. ’

She eyed him dubiously but took him at his word and accepted the hot drink. ‘I’ll leave you two to catch up. Bea, I’ll be in my office if you need me.’ She went through a plain wooden door to the right and shut it behind her.

I looked after her then turned back to the fibbing werewolf. ‘You totally forgot about Yanni.’

‘I did. I never could get anything past you.’ He shrugged. ‘I’ll grab another one later.’

I finished one gulp of coffee and promptly took another. ‘What the hell is in this? It’s amazing!’

‘Sonny’s special brew. If the guy didn’t hate witches, I swear he’d had one put a spell on the beans.’

‘He hates witches?’ I asked, my interest piqued. Anyone who hated witches might want to do something to screw with them. Like stealing the Eternal Flame.

‘Sonny hates everyone,’ Ezra clarified. ‘His motto is “customer service is for those with shit products” and I think he genuinely believes it. Anyway, he has reason to be grumpy. It’s pretty well known in the village that he’s been all but disowned by the other vampires, including his older brother, because apparently selling coffee and pastries is below a vamp.’

‘Hmm.’ I took a mental note. Sonny might have beef with a lot of people, but that wasn’t a reason to wipe him off my list of those who’d want to steal the Witchlight .

Ezra went on, ‘Maddie mentioned you might be up for a drink at Shady’s on Friday night.’

Damn it, Maddie! ‘I’m not sure what my shifts here will be,’ I said. ‘Or if I’m going to have the energy to head out, if I’m honest.’

Ezra’s face dropped a fraction before it reformed into a perfect smirk. ‘I’ll ask Yanni for you. She has a soft spot for me – she’ll give you the time off. She knows we need a proper catch-up.’

I could already tell there was no way I was going to get out of it. Still, catching up and having a drink wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. After all, if Shady’s cocktails were half as good as his brother’s coffee, it would be worth it.

I rolled my eyes. ‘We both know she likes me more than you. I’ll ask.’

His grin faded slowly and he looked at me as if truly seeing to the heart of me. ‘You’ve changed, Beatrix Stonehaven.’

‘We all have. A decade is a long time.’

‘It is,’ he agreed solemnly. ‘But no matter the length of time, it’s still the Three Amigos together forever.’

I smiled, but he didn’t. ‘You owe Maddie an apology, Bea. You cut her off without a backward glance. I know you were hurting, but so was she. We all were. Losing you on top of everything else…’ He shook his head then fixed me with a firm look I’d never seen from him before. ‘If you’re going to leave again, just know that there won’t be any fixing what’s broken after that.’

Guilt swelled, thick enough to choke on. I managed to nod because I knew he was right. ‘I’m sorry.’

‘It’s not me you should be apologising to, it’s Maddie. She’s the one who’s been tied to the house guarding your inheritance for you.’

‘I’ve apologised to her and I will again, but you deserve an apology too. Don’t think I don’t know it. I’m sorry, Ezra, I didn’t mean to ever imply by thought, deed or action that you weren’t important to me. You were. You still are.’

His eyes softened. ‘Then let’s start over, Beatrix Stonehaven, and see where this road takes us.’

‘Deal.’

‘Deal. Well, I’d better get off.’

As he took the paper from under his arm, I caught a glimpse of the cover and leaned forward, holding out a hand to stop him from leaving. ‘Is that a photo from the pasty eating contest?’ I asked.

Ezra glanced at it and nodded. ‘Yeah – before it all went to pot. Mrs D actually looked like she was in with a chance of second place. Not that you get anything for second other than bragging rights.’

I stared at the photo for a minute. Mrs D was there with a single pasty in her hand, while next to her Warren had his nose buried in a mass of them like he was a bear shifter, not a water one. Next to them the other contestants were using their own methods of getting the food down their gullets, but they were certainly being daintier than Warren who was totally going for it.

My eyes kept going back to Mrs D. Something about the photo didn’t feel right; then again, maybe it was simply that I would never have expected her to do something like take part in a pasty-eating contest.

‘I can leave it here if you want.’ Ezra’s voice broke into my reverie and made me realise I was still staring at his paper. ‘Although I’m pretty sure the station gets its own delivered.’

‘Sorry, no. It’s fine, thank you,’ I said. ‘And thanks for the coffee.’

‘No problem. You can pay me back with a drink on Friday night.’ He winked. Just like that, my Ezra was back, persistent and cheeky. Maybe Ezra hadn’t changed all that much because he’d always had a stubborn streak a mile wide .

Several minutes after he’d left, I was still thinking about the photograph. What had bothered me about it? I wished I’d taken up Ezra’s offer to leave it because my subconscious was buzzing away, telling me I’d missed something – something important. Maybe there was someone in the background, someone my brain hadn’t latched onto at the time? I’d have to look at the article again.

Knowing I wouldn’t rest until I did, I opened up my laptop and a new YouTube page. As well as all the physical wards around Witchlight to stop non-magical people stumbling on the village, there was a hefty array of other safeguards.

One of the covens, which specialised in elemental magic, had found ways to disrupt electromagnetic signals so that anything posted online inside the barrier couldn’t be viewed outside of it. Even if someone accidentally typed in the correct link, all they’d find would be a video of cute otters playing in the snow. From what I heard, the otter shifters were pretty mad about it but, hey, village safety came first.

I typed in Witchlight Cove followed by the date and finished up with the words ‘pasty contest’ .

More than a dozen videos pinged up. The first one had a deliberately click-bait title about the contest ending in disaster; exactly the kind of thing I was looking for.

The video was three minutes long and started at the very beginning of the contest. The contestants were announced one by one and walked down to take their places. Mrs D was up first – and the old woman looked terrified; she certainly didn’t look like she was doing it for fun. In fact, she was so confounded by what was going on that she sat in the wrong seat and picked up one of the pasties straight away, like she was going to start eating then and there.

Claude nearly had a fit. He jumped in before she could take a bite, made her put the pasty down and move up to the place with her name on it. After her, Warren came in followed by the others. Claude gave his spiel about how this was the oldest pasty shop in the country and thanked everyone for coming while mentioning the cash prize at least a dozen times. It wasn’t until someone from the crowd called ‘Get on with it!’ that he finally huffed and moved across to the buzzer.

Was the heckler keen to get started because they didn’t want their poison or potion to wear off? It was possible.

When the buzzer sounded, the contestants threw themselves into the competition – literally, in one case. The woman on the end, a redhead about my age, tipped herself into the bowl. Okay, maybe Warren hadn’t been the messiest one. It was hard to draw my eyes away from her – it was like watching a car crash – but she wasn’t my focus so I restarted the video and concentrated on Mrs D and Warren.

Ezra hadn’t been joking. Mrs D was funnelling those pasties into her mouth like a professional, but even so she wasn’t a patch on Warren. For every bite the old woman took, he had three – until he suddenly stopped.

The whites of his eyes bulged and he started rocking from side to side. A minute later, the pasties made their reappearance and that was when Mrs D started looking peaky, too. She lifted her gloved hand to her head and wiped her brow before she started retching. It was only when she was doubled over the bowl clutching her stomach that the other contestants finally looked up and stopped eating.

I paused the video; I didn’t need to see any more. It made sense that Warren would have had a stronger reaction given how many more pasties he’d eaten, but there was something that didn’t make sense.

I stood up from my desk, went to Yanni’s office and knocked on the door. ‘Everything alright?’ she asked. ‘You haven’t had a call already, have you? I didn’t hear anything. ’

‘No, it’s not that. I wondered what time my lunch break would be.’

Her lips parted in surprise and I realised it sounded like I was trying to get out of the job before it had even started. ‘I wanted to pop out and see Mrs D,’ I added.

Relief flowed over Yanni’s face as she realised she hadn’t employed the world’s laziest person. ‘Oh, right. It’s supposed to be at half past one but I can be flexible. Mrs D left the hospital yesterday, though, and I’m sure she’s fine. They wouldn’t have let her go otherwise.’

‘That’s great news. Even so, I have a couple of questions for her.’

Yanni’s brow furrowed. ‘Anything you fancy sharing with the chief inspector?’ she asked.

Maybe it was the PI part of me, but I wasn’t ready to spill any ideas yet, not even with Yanni. Not when they could be so far off the mark. But I wasn’t a PI now; my job was answering calls in the police station and this was official police business. I was likely to get myself into a heap of trouble if she found out I was snooping into an official investigation. Besides, I already felt bad enough not telling her about the Eternal Flame. The last thing I wanted to do was add even more to my burden of guilt.

‘There was something in a video I watched,’ I said. ‘Mrs D sat in Warren’s seat first and picked up one of his pasties. I think that might have transferred the poison from the pasties to her glove. If she still has the glove, we could confirm it.’

‘That would explain why she got a smaller dose,’ Yanni mused. ‘Are you sure you want to talk to her about this?’

‘I think so. I mean, I work for the police now.’

Yanni arched an eyebrow. ‘Tentatively.’ She sounded a little amused. ‘But okay. Just let me know what you find out.’

‘Of course.’

This was it: my first bit of official police business while simultaneously helping out an old friend. Maybe this temp position wasn’t the worst. Even if I hadn’t actually answered the phone yet.