Page 21

Chapter Twenty-one

Five minutes later, a car pulled into the driveway and two young guys joined us. The oldest looked stiff, visibly braced for bad news after Jennifer’s warning. They sat either side of their sister and she reached out to grasp their hands, her knuckles white.

‘I am so sorry,’ Yanni started. ‘We found your father dead this morning. It wasn’t the poison,’ she went on, forestalling the inevitable question. ‘He had a silver bullet wound to the back of his head. If it is any consolation, he didn’t see it coming. He wasn’t scared.’

Jennifer let out a sob. Rory stared forward, looking numb. Gilbert’s jaw worked then he put an arm around his sister, pulling her into him as her crying gained momentum. ‘The poisoner at the fayre came back to finish the job,’ he snarled. He was tall and gangly with narrow features; assuming he was a water shifter too, the only sea creature he reminded me of was an eel. Not a comparison to voice aloud .

‘We don’t think so.’ I jumped in before Yanni could say anything damning. The last thing I wanted was Mrs D being implicated for a murder. My boss shot me a glare, telling me to shut the hell up. There may even have been an expletive in it. She’d told me to stay quiet and let her do the talking but I couldn’t help myself.

‘I know this is a very difficult time for you all,’ she said, ‘but we need to ask you some questions if you’re up to it.’

Jennifer wiped the tears from her face. ‘Of course,’ she sniffed. ‘We want to do everything possible to help catch this son of a bitch! Ask away, Yanni.’

‘Is there’s anyone you can think of who might do this to your father? Any enemies he had?’

Jennifer shook her head. ‘He’s well-loved within the community. No one that knows him would harm him.’

Gilbert scoffed, ‘Well-loved people are always the most well-hated, too. Depends on which circles you move in.’

‘What do you mean by that?’ I asked, intrigued that his response was so different to his sister’s.

‘Dad was generous but some people didn’t like that. Take Sonny at the coffee shop – Dad was always pestering him to show that same spirit – you know, help with charity events, donate a few free coffees, that sort of thing – but he wouldn’t do it. Dad made others feel bad about their lack of philanthropy. ’

Rory shook his head. ‘Sonny isn’t going to kill Dad for pestering him to donate free coffee.’

‘I agree,’ Jennifer interrupted. ‘That’s a stretch. Sonny complained about Dad, sure, but it was good natured. It’s not like they ever fought.’

‘Is there anyone your dad did fight with?’ I pressed.

At my question, the two older siblings went quiet and their gaze shifted to their younger brother. ‘Rory?’ Jennifer said softly.

Rory folded his arms. ‘No way. You can’t be serious.’ He was far shorter and stockier than Gilbert, dressed in ripped jeans, and he looked like he was in the throes of teenage angst. If he hadn’t been before, he certainly would be now. Losing a parent would do that to a kid. I knew it all too well.

‘I’m sorry to press,’ Yanni interrupted. ‘Can you give me a name? Someone who fought with your father?’

‘No.’

‘Yes.’

‘Yes.’

The siblings spoke over each other but only Rory went red in the cheeks. I’d tried to get a reading on the emotions in the room but there were so many ping-ponging around that I couldn’t untangle them and they threatened to overwhelm me. I hastily drew my shields back up again.

Rory sighed. ‘They’re talking about my mum, Angelica – their stepmum,’ he said finally. ‘And yes, she and Dad fought a lot, but usually through lawyers. They’re still in the midst of their divorce and they barely see each other these days.’ Under his breath he muttered, ‘ I barely see her.’

I felt a sharp pang of sympathy; his father was dead and his mother was absent. He had it tough.

‘Have you seen her recently?’ Yanni asked.

He shook his head. ‘It’s been a couple of weeks.’

‘She doesn’t live locally?’

‘Oh, she lives locally.’ Jennifer’s lips were pressed together tightly in disapproval. ‘The lazy bitch lives about ten minutes down the road.’

Rory scowled but didn’t object and the ache within me deepened. If my mum could have been with me, she’d have been there in a heartbeat. The idea of a mother living so close to her children but not caring enough to see them...

‘Mum would never hurt Dad,’ Rory interrupted. ‘I promise. Look, I’m not her biggest fan – but no. I can’t imagine her doing that.’

‘You know she’s tried to squeeze Dad for every penny he had,’ Gilbert said. ‘Maybe he wouldn’t be squeezed any longer. ’

Rory’s scowl deepened. ‘He’s her source of money and you don’t kill the golden goose, do you? Besides, she couldn’t be behind it. You said Dad was shot today, right? Mum isn’t even here. She goes into Southampton for her dance classes on Tuesdays, she’s there all day and normally stays overnight with some non-magical friends. She’ll be back tomorrow morning.’

It sounded like a too-perfect alibi. Apparently my dubious expression betrayed my thoughts because Rory looked at me and continued. ‘I promise. Look, she sends me videos of her at the lesson – she does that every week. It’s basically the only communication we have. She never askes after me or my life, but she sends these videos of her looking young and beautiful, dancing perfectly.’

Jennifer rubbed his arm sympathetically as he pulled out his phone and passed it to me. ‘She sent one from this morning’s class about fifteen minutes ago. See?’

After a nod from Yanni, I pressed play. The video showed a beautiful woman in her mid-fifties dancing with a gentleman half her age. She had a full face of makeup and hair that was dyed a startling white with streaks of icy blue through it.

I couldn’t take my eyes off her. Her feet were gliding across the dance floor so smoothly it was as if she were skating on ice. As the light glinted off the floor, I realised that was exactly what she was doing. ‘Your mum’s an elemental witch,’ I observed. ‘Ice magic.’ Okay, maybe she’d come by the icy hair honestly.

‘An elemental who’s seriously into younger men,’ Gilbert commented.

Rory shot a glare at his half-brother and snatched back the phone. ‘She got chucked out of magical dance classes because she kept using the ice to her advantage. And she likes younger dancers because they can do the moves more easily.’

‘ All the moves,’ Gilbert said, waggling his eyebrows.

We all shot him a glare and he flushed with embarrassment. Apparently he’d forgotten for a moment that they were there because their dad was dead.

Rory took a long breath and flashed a reluctant glance at his half-sister. ‘Look, if we’re going to talk about people Dad had a fight with, we need to mention Toby, don’t we?’

‘That’s out of order!’ Jennifer snapped instantly. ‘He would never harm anyone!’

‘You don’t know that!’ Rory shot back. ‘If Mum is a suspect we have to consider Toby!’

‘Sorry, who is Toby?’ I interrupted.

Yanni’s lips pursed; clearly, that was a question she’d been about to ask. I was supposed to be a silent observer but I was too used to asking the questions .

I sent her an apologetic glance; I wasn’t trying to piss her off, it was wholly accidental. I would have to keep my mouth shut or she wouldn’t let me ride shotgun again and I didn’t want that to happen. The PI side of me much preferred talking and interviewing people to looking for information online.

Which reminded me: I still needed to dig into Fraser Banks. Hopefully when I did there would be more dirt on him than you could buy in a garden centre.

‘Toby is my ex-boyfriend,’ Jennifer said finally. ‘Toby Brown.’

I held my tongue with effort.

‘And he and your dad didn’t get on?’ Yanni asked.

‘Well, they used to…’

‘Until Toby went psycho,’ Gilbert interrupted. ‘It was bad enough that he was a land shifter!’

‘Psycho?’ I asked, the question slipping out before I could stifle it.

‘No.’ Jennifer shook her head firmly. ‘He was not a psycho and he never went psycho. He was protective, that’s all. There was a merman who tried it on with me one night at Shady’s – really tried it on. He was a water shifter and he thought he had more of a right to me than Toby did. Toby didn’t take kindly to anyone thinking they had rights over me, himself included. It got a bit … heated.’

‘They had to split up afterwards,’ Rory said. ‘Dad was pretty insistent.’

‘Is that right?’ Yanni asked Jennifer gently. ‘That must have been hard for you.’

Tears welled in Jennifer’s eyes. ‘Yeah. Dad was on the water shifters’ council and it didn’t look good for my boyfriend to attack one of them. And the merman… He was pretty powerful too. It was making the political landscape difficult for Dad and he asked me to break up with Toby – told me to,’ she admitted.

‘But that was months ago,’ she went on. ‘Toby wouldn’t hurt Dad – he’s a teddy bear. Literally. That incident was a one-off. Ask his family, ask him, ask anyone who knows him. There’s no sweeter guy than Toby in the world, I promise you.’ The way she was speaking about him wasn’t the way people generally spoke about an ex. Not in my experience, anyway.

‘Don’t worry,’ Yanni said. ‘We’ll look into everything. Now, could you give me the addresses for your stepmother and for Toby? We’ll be in touch as soon as we know more.’

Jennifer nodded and scribbled a note on a scrap of paper. The room stayed thick with tension, grief pressing down like a weighted shroud, and beneath it that gnawing guilt. It was the kind of guilt that whispered, ‘ you should have been there’ or, even worse, ‘ it should have been you instead’. I knew it only too well.

Yanni shot me a pointed glance and rose. We were done for now.

The worst part was over. Now came the hard part – finding the killer.