Page 28

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Yanni and Dove sat at the table opposite Mrs D while I was banished with Eva to the room behind the mirror. In another situation, I’d probably have been excited to be in the type of room that featured so heavily in the crime shows I loved to watch, but at that moment I couldn’t see any positives at all.

In all the years I’d known her, I couldn’t remember seeing Mrs D look so fragile. Yes, she had always been old, but she’d never been frail. As I sat down I found myself absently rubbing Eva’s fur. I needed something to occupy my hands and distract my thoughts.

Yanni cleared her throat slightly, making Mrs D jump as though a gun had been fired next to her. ‘Amara,’ she said gently. ‘I assume you know why we’re here.’

‘It’s true, then? He’s actually dead?’

Yanni nodded. ‘I’m afraid he is.’

‘Oh God. I’m so sorry. It wasn’t … it wasn’t the chili peppers, was it?’ Mrs D looked close to tears.

Yanni smiled. ‘No, it wasn’t the chili peppers.’

‘Oh, thank goodness.’ Relief flooded Mrs D and she sagged into the chair, clutching at the pearls around her neck. The gesture was so classic, I half-expected her to start fanning herself and calling for smelling salts. That anyone in their right mind could think Mrs D was guilty was beyond belief.

‘But you understand the predicament we’re in, don’t you?’ Dove said, taking over the questioning. ‘You can see how this looks? And why we have to ask you a few questions – questions that might not be comfortable? We’ll try and make it as quick and painless as possible.’

The only professional environment I’d seen Dove in was at the crime scene on the boat. Now I was impressed by how well she handled herself, how she’d mastered that voice of firm, caring command like Yanni’s.

Mrs D wrung her hands. ‘Of course I understand. But you have to know I wouldn’t do something like this. I didn’t want to hurt him – that wasn’t my intention. I needed to raise the money so the children could go on the trip to London. That’s the only holiday some of them get every year.’

‘We understand,’ Yanni said. ‘Do you know why Warren stopped giving you the money?’

Mrs D shook her head. ‘I don’t have a clue. The news came out of nowhere – he sent me an email saying he would no longer be supporting any of my charities or clubs. He didn’t even sign it in the way he normally does, with a little smiley face and a “W”. There was just his name at the bottom. It was so impersonal! I tried emailing back, but I guess he’d blocked my email or something. I wanted to speak to him at the fayre. I’d decided I would only use the chilies if I couldn’t get him to see sense, but he was so busy and he seemed to be ignoring me. I didn’t feel like I had any choice.’

I watched Yanni and Dove exchange a look. Surely they could see something suspicious was going on here? If Warren hadn’t signed his email in his usual way, maybe he hadn’t sent it.

‘Can you tell us what you were doing yesterday at about eleven o’clock?’ Yanni asked.

‘I went for a walk – I always go for a walk, just around the seafront. I like to feed the birds when I’m in my human form.’ She hesitated. ‘I may have plucked off one or two – you know, when I’ve transformed – but I always feel a bit guilty about it so I take some homemade seed balls for them. As an apology.’

I couldn’t imagine Mrs D in any form plucking off living creatures. Yanni had been right: I didn’t know everything about my old teacher, no matter how much I wanted to believe that I did.

‘Did anybody see you?’ Dove asked.

‘I don’t think so. I try to go at quiet times in case my instincts get the better of me and I fancy a snack. That’s not something I’d want any of my students – past or present – to see me do.’ She looked flustered.

‘So you have no witnesses. And you have a motive,’ Dove said.

Mrs D nodded. Tears started to trickle down her cheeks. ‘I know.’

‘I’m afraid this doesn’t look good,’ Yanni said. ‘I think it’s best that we keep you in for further questioning.’

‘Keep me in?’ Mrs D looked horrified. ‘Does that mean I’m officially a suspect?’

My stomach twisted. That was it – I was done listening to this! I swivelled around, ready to march out of the door and into the interview room, only for Eva to block my path. ‘I need to go in there,’ I said.

She tipped her head to the side then made a quiet noise that was something between a bark and a squeak. I thought I knew what she was trying to tell me: this was an official police investigation and I had no business sticking my nose in. After all, if Mrs D was innocent as I was sure she was, the evidence would point to that, wouldn’t it?

But I wasn’t so sure. How many crime dramas had I watched in the non-magical world where false evidence was planted to bring an innocent person down?

Yanni walked out of the interview room and came through to me.

‘You have to be joking!’ I snapped. ‘You said it was questioning!’

‘It was questioning,’ she replied evenly. ‘And the questioning leads us to believe that she could’ve done it. She had a motive, priors and no alibi.’

‘But it’s Mrs D!’

‘I understand that you’re mad.’ Yanni’s voice was calm but firm. ‘But I’ve got the council on my back – and not just the shifters. Everybody is freaked out by what’s happened. This is the first murder we’ve had in Witchlight since … since—’

‘Since my grandmother came in and killed everyone,’ I finished for her. And I had shouldered a lot of ill-feeling about it because my grandmother had come here for me.

‘You must understand why everyone’s on edge. You might not remember, but it started with a murder back then, too.’

‘I remember.’ My voice was sharp. ‘My parents were among the dead.’

Yanni shook her head. ‘No, before their deaths, Bea. Your grandmother killed a shifter and took his power so she could get through the ward.’

‘ What ?’ I shook my head, struggling to take in her words. ‘She could take a shifter’s power?’

‘She could take whatever power she wanted. After she’d tracked you and your father down, she needed to get past the wards that were intended to keep people out. She waited. When a fox shifter went too far one night and travelled beyond the barrier, she killed him and transformed into his body to disguise herself. That’s how she got through.’

I sank into a chair. ‘I … I didn’t know any of that. Why didn’t anyone tell me?’

‘Because we were trying to protect you.’

None of it made sense. I thought I knew everything about my grandmother and what she’d done but apparently I still didn’t.

‘But this isn’t the same,’ I said. I couldn’t change what my grandmother had done but I wouldn’t let Mrs D go down as a scapegoat for a scared community. ‘Magic didn’t kill Warren. It was a gunshot.’

‘I know, but we need people to see that we’re taking action, that we’re keeping them safe.’

‘And you’re doing that by arresting a little old woman?’ I snorted.

‘We’re doing that by arresting the person that the evidence points to. Mrs D knows that. If you can find someone else, please do because I don’t want this any more than you do. But right now, it’s the right thing to do.’

‘What about Toby? What about the stepmum, Angelica?’ I insisted.

‘We’ll talk to them. Just because we have Mrs D in custody doesn’t mean the investigation has stopped. But Toby sounds like he has a solid alibi, and from what I saw of Rory’s message Angelica’s alibi seems good, too. Regular dance classes in the non-magical world where she can cheat and use her powers? That sounds exactly like the type of thing Angelica would do. We’re speaking to her today. It’s on my to-do list.’

As she spoke, the phone started buzzing. ‘You need to answer that,’ she said. ‘That’s your official job, remember? And if you’re not careful, it’ll be your only job.’

I gave a frustrated huff and picked up the phone. ‘Witchlight Police Station,’ I said.

‘Beatrix? That is Beatrix, isn’t it?’

‘Yes, this is she. Who is this?’

‘It’s Selena Brown, Toby’s mother.’

‘Hello, Mrs Brown, is everything all right?’

‘No. It’s not all right.’ Her voice wobbled. ‘Toby didn’t come home last night.’

Oh, shit. Just what we needed. Should I schedule a village-wide panic for later, or were we already booked up?