All Was Revealed (3 page)

Chapter 3

Looking back on it the next morning, the murder mystery evening hadn’t been quite the disaster I’d expected it to be, even though I’d had to endure a certain amount of mocking because I’d failed to pick out the murderer. Or at least, the person they claimed to be the murderer. I still had my doubts.

The most difficult part of the evening had been the questions about my birth family. The ‘forget’ spell had got me out of that jam, but it was an ongoing problem, and one I was going to have to address if Jack and I were ever to have any kind of meaningful, long-term relationship. I could always get the twins and Aunt Lucy to come over to Washbridge to meet him. And, Grandma spent almost as much time in the human world as I did. But, eventually he was bound to ask why we never went to visit them. Being in a long-term relationship with a human wasn’t going to be easy. Maybe, I should talk to the girls at Love Spell. They presumably encountered this same problem all the time with the witches they matched up with humans.

My head was spinning just thinking about it. That’s probably why I didn’t sleep very well; I was tossing and turning all night. In my dream, Jack was trying to follow me to Candlefield.

I was eating breakfast—only half awake, when Kathy phoned. She was no doubt going to rub it in about my failure in the murder mystery.

“Jill, have you seen the news?”

“Not yet. What’s happened?”

“Apparently, Madge Hick has been murdered in Middle Tweaking.”

“Very funny. You’re hilarious. Did you really ring me at this time of day just to have another laugh at my expense?”

“I’m not kidding. She really has been murdered.”

“How do you mean, murdered?”

“It’s not a difficult concept to grasp. She’s dead. Someone killed her.”

“For real?”

“Yes, for real. Check the local news. They found her body in the early hours of this morning. Anyway, I’ve got to see to the kids. I just thought I should let you know.”

The main story on the local TV news was indeed the murder in Middle Tweaking. Madge Hick, the postmistress, had been found dead in her flat above the post office in the early hours of the morning. I gave Jack a call to see what he made of it.

“Have you heard about the murder in Middle Tweaking?”

“Yes. We received word a short time ago.”

“Are you going to be working the case?”

“No, it’s outside our area. We won’t be involved.”

“Don’t you think it’s a bit creepy that last night Madge Hick was the victim in a murder mystery, and now she’s been murdered for real?”

“A little, yes, but when you’ve been in the job as long as I have, nothing surprises you anymore.”

“I guess.”

“I had a really good time last night, Jill. I really like Kathy and Peter. Kathy’s a hoot!”

“She is when she’s not trying to interrogate you.”

“You’re too hard on her. She’s your sister. Of course she’s interested in what you do.”

“She’s not
interested
. She’s
nosy
.”

“And you’re not?”

“When am I ever nosy?”

“Obviously never.” He laughed. “Okay, well I’ve got to get to work even if
you
haven’t. I’ll catch up with you later.”

***

“Mrs V, you’ve had your hair done.”

“Do you like it?”

“It’s very—blue.”

“But do you think it suits me?”

Blue hair had never suited anyone—not even the Smurfs. “Yes, it looks—err—great.”

“I thought it was time for a change.”

“Would that have anything to do with a certain gentleman in an office not too far from here?”

“It might have.”

“Have you heard from Armi, then?”

“He gave me a call late last night to say he was sorry he hadn’t been around. He’d thought it best to let the dust settle for a while.”

“Good for Armi. I’m glad to hear that he’s not letting that despicable brother of his bully him. I’m sure he’ll love your hair.” Always providing he’s colour blind.

When I opened the door to my office, I heard the sound of balls dropping to the floor.

“Great! Thanks very much, Jill.” Winky glared at me.

“What have I done now?”

“I was juggling.”

“Of course you were. How remiss of me not to knock first—just in case you were juggling.”

“I’m practising for a world record attempt, and now I’m going to have to start all over again.”

“I’m very sorry about that, but this
is
my office.”

“Couldn’t you have just waited for another five minutes?”

“You should have put a notice on the door:
‘Cat juggling—do not disturb
’.”

“Now you’re just being silly.”

“Anyway, how did your date with Katrina go?
”

“Not great.”

“Didn’t you hit it off?”

“She slurps her milk.”

“That’s not good.”

“Tell me about it. And she burps.”

“Gross!”

“I know. I couldn’t possibly live with that. I mean, she’s very pretty, but I couldn’t focus with all the slurping and burping.”

“So you won’t be seeing her again, I take it?”

“I said I’d call her.”

“That’s rather a cowardly way out. Why didn’t you just tell her you don’t want to see her again?”

“Oh yeah. And what would I have said when she asked why?
It’s because you slurp your milk, and burp
?’ I’m not sure that would have gone down very well.”

“I guess you’re right. Where does that leave you, date-wise?”

“I’ve got a few other candidates on my Purrfect Match list, so I’m hoping to arrange another date soon. What about you? How did your foursome go?”

“I’d rather you didn’t refer to it as a foursome.”

“How many of you were there?”

“Four, but—”

“That’s a foursome in my book. So, was it a roaring success?”

“It wasn’t as bad as I expected.”

“That good, eh?”

“It would’ve been okay if Kathy hadn’t kept bringing up the subject of my birth family, and asking why she never got to visit them.”

“Oh yeah, I’d forgotten about that. You have to hide your witch stuff from your sister, don’t you?”

“And from Jack now, too. It’s not easy.”

“What about the murder mystery? Did you pick out the murderer?”

“Of course. I was the only one who did.”

What? Of course I wasn’t lying. I was just being economical with the truth.

***

I had zero cases to work on, so halfway through the morning, I decided to take a trip over to Candlefield—a blueberry muffin was called for.

Amber and Pearl were sitting at a window table. They looked very serious, and were deep in conversation. I hadn’t intended to interrupt them, but they spotted me at the counter and called me over.

“Hi, girls. Is something wrong?”

“What gave it away?”

“Is there a problem with Cuppy C?”

“No, the shop’s doing okay. We had the origami demonstration yesterday afternoon. We thought you might have dropped by to watch it.”

“I really wanted to.” Like I wanted a hole in the head. “But I’ve been so busy; you know how it is. How did it go?”

“It was better than the pottery day.”

“That’s good. Did many people turn up?”

“More than for the pottery day.”

“Right. So, how many people altogether?”

“Including us?”

“Yes.”

“And, including the two assistants we brought in specially to deal with the crowds?”

“Yes.”

“Eleven.”

“So, that’s you two, plus the two assistants. Eleven minus four. That’s seven?”

“More or less.”

“Less actually.” Amber sighed. “Two of them were here to clean the windows.”

“I’m not sure these craft days are working out, girls.”

“We’ve come to the same conclusion. They can’t compete with Miles Best’s circus performers. We need to have a re-think.”

“Is he still running the circus days, then?”

“Yes, and they seem to be doing really well. Some of our regular customers were talking about it the other day. They said how much they enjoyed the fire eaters.”

“Is that why you two are so down in the dumps?”

“No, it’s got nothing to do with the shop.”

“What then?”

“It’s Alan,” Pearl said.

“And William,” Amber said.

“What’s the matter? Are they both okay?”

“Yes.” Amber sighed. “Except that they’re not talking to us.”

“Neither of them? Why?”

“You remember how we told you about the double wedding?”

“Yes.”

“Apparently, we should have told them, too.”

Oh dear.

“We kind of forgot,” Pearl said.

“They are rather integral to the event. Don’t you think it would have been nice to let them know that you were planning a double wedding?”

“With hindsight, yes, we probably should have.” Pearl conceded. “But we were too busy thinking about the important things, like what colour dresses to wear, and what flowers we wanted, and what food to order for the reception.”

“But, not your future husbands?”

“You’re really not helping, Jill. You make it sound like we were in the wrong.”

“You kind of were. What’s happening with them, now?”

“They’re not sure if they want a double wedding or not. They want time to think about it.”

“So, it might be off?”

“Not if we have anything to do with it. We just have to talk them around. We can usually wrap them around our little fingers; we’ll come up with something.”

“I just bet you will. By the way, how did the vote go for the new name?”

“We’ve changed our minds about that,” Amber said.

“Really? You both seemed so keen.”

“Nah. We’re not going to bother.” Pearl shrugged.

“Wait a minute.” I could smell something, and it seemed awfully rat-like. “What happened with the vote?”

The twins looked at one another.

“I’m not going to let up until you tell me.”

“It’s all your fault, anyway,” Amber blurted out.

“My fault? What did
I
do?”

“You were the one who said we should include the third option,” Pearl said.

“Yeah, we just wanted to have them vote on the two names,” Amber agreed.

“So you did include the third option—to keep the name?”

“Yeah.” They both nodded.

“So how many votes did ‘Cuppy C’ get?”

“I don’t remember,” Amber said.

“Okay. I’ll make it easy for you. How many votes did the other two names get?”

“They both received the same number of votes,” Amber said.

“Yeah.” Pearl nodded. “People liked both of our names equally.”

“How many people?”

“I don’t remember exactly.”

“Was it more than twenty?”

They shook their heads.

“More than ten?”

They shook their heads again.

“Was it more than—”

“Okay, okay, if you must know,” Pearl interrupted. “It was two.”

“Two?” I laughed. “That wasn’t you two, by any chance, was it?”

They glared at me.

“Priceless! How many voted for Cuppy C?”

“One hundred and seventy-six.”

“So, a close-run thing, then?”

“No one likes a smarty-pants,” Amber said, under her breath.

“I still think BunBun is better,” Pearl said.

Just then, Daze rang me.

“Where are you, Jill?”

“I’m in Calypso BunBun.”

The twins looked daggers at me.

“Huh?”

“Sorry, I meant Cuppy C.”

“Good. I’m only a couple of minutes away. Can I come and talk to you?”

“Yes, of course. Come on over.”

When Daze arrived, she grabbed a coffee, and we took a table on the opposite side of the shop from the twins, who were still debating how best to talk their fiancés around.

“I wanted to bring you up to speed about your father,” Daze said. “And to let you know that I won’t be able to follow him anymore. I’m stacked with other work.”

“That’s okay. I appreciate what you’ve done so far. Is there anything else to report?”