I Put a Spell on You (9 page)

“Excuse me,” she said. “I’m just going to powder my nose.”

I leapt to my feet.

“I’ll come with you,” I said.

“Me too,” said Louise.

As we negotiated our way through the tables on our way to the loo, Louise took my arm.

“I heard what happened last week,” she hissed. “With the music, at the spa.”

I looked at her in alarm.

“How did you hear?” I asked, pushing open the door to the thankfully empty toilet.

“Someone at work was in having a massage when the music went on,” she said, leaning against the sinks and looking at me. Esme went into a cubicle and shut the door.

“Talk louder,” she called. “I do really need a wee, but I want to know what you’re saying.”

“This isn’t just a run of bad luck?” she said.

I shook my head.

“Not really,” I admitted. “Have you got time to help me?”

She looked directly at me.

“Not really,” she echoed. “But I will. I think you’re right. The photos alone are enough to make me think there’s more to this. Don’t worry, I’m on your side.” We were facing each other, quite close, and she reached out one finger of her right hand and briefly touched my left hand. It was a tiny gesture but it felt so intimate I blushed. So did Louise. She looked away and rubbed the back of her hair with her open palm.

“I’ve just had all my hair cut off,” she said, looking flustered. “I keep forgetting it’s not there.”

I chuckled.

“I need to go,” she said, as Esme emerged from the cubicle and started washing her hands. “Can you meet tomorrow?”

I nodded.

“See you then,” I said.

Chapter 12

It was still dark when I left home the next morning to meet Louise before work. It was freezing outside and the puddles on the pavement glinted with ice. I shrunk into my coat and rushed along the street towards Raeburn Place, and into a coffee shop. I ordered a large skinny latte and found myself a table tucked into the corner at the back to wait for Louise.

I fished my iPad out of my bag and read the paper as I waited. It was actually quite nice to sit there, not doing much, watching the world go by. It was very busy and the staff were rushing around clearing tables.

My phone buzzed with a text from Louise saying she’d been held up but was on her way. And then I heard a familiar voice.

“Skinny, decaf latte?” Xander was saying. “Seriously, what’s the point in that? You need fat and you need caffeine.”

I looked over. Xander was standing next to a table talking to Esme who was sitting down and taking off her coat. She’d not mentioned they were meeting up today. I watched them carefully. They hadn’t seen me and I was pleased. Not only did I not want to share my meeting with Louise, I kind of wanted to see how Xander and Esme interacted when I wasn’t there.

I gently waggled my fingers. Witches are brilliant at disappearing in plain sight. We can’t make ourselves invisible but we can sort of stop people noticing us. It’s not easy to do, but once you’ve cracked it it’s a brilliant skill to have. Mum was amazing at it. She’d been a nightmare when I was a teenager and tried to get the better of her. No sooner would I light up an illicit cigarette or produce a sneaky bottle of vodka than Mum would appear to stop me. Now, though, I sent up silent thanks that she’d taught me so well, then I concentrated hard on tuning in to Esme and Xander’s conversation, blocking out the other voices in the café. I wondered if Esme might sense me listening in – she did sometimes and when we were kids we’d often ‘spoken’ to each other in our heads – but Xander had her whole attention, though an old woman sitting nearby gave me a sharp look. I grinned at her. There were witches in the most unexpected locations.

“I just really want Harry to be able to rely on me,” Xander was saying. “She’s under so much pressure and she’s always been so good to me.”

I admired his dedication to me. Bless him.

“I’m not sure what else I can teach you,” Esme said, blowing the froth on the top of her coffee. “I’m not like Harry,” she added.

That was true enough.

“I think you’re already a better witch than I’ll ever be.”

Xander looked pleased. I wondered if Ez was just flattering him or if he’d really picked everything up so fast.

“It’s just so interesting,” he said. “I love hearing about how you learned, and all the stuff your mum – and Harry’s mum, does.” He reached across the table and took Esme’s hand and I froze.

“I like spending time with you, Esme,” he said, fixing her with one of his killer smiles.

Esme looked into his eyes and I could see she felt something for this handsome, charming man, despite how lovely Jamie was. Under the table, I waggled my fingers and twisted her engagement ring in a subtle shimmer of sparkles, so it caught the light and twinkled at her. She pulled her hand away. Excellent.

“I’m getting married,” she said. Xander’s eyes narrowed for a second, then he grinned.

“But you’re not married yet.”

He was terrible. I almost felt a bit sorry for Esme – she had no chance.

“I’m marrying Jamie,” she said. She looked flattered and flustered at the same time. “Maybe we shouldn’t have any more lessons, if this is going to be too tricky.”

Xander gave her a knowing look.

“It’s fine,” he said. “I’ll back off.”

Esme let out her breath. She looked relieved but I could sense her disappointment, too.

“So can we carry on?” Xander pleaded and she smiled.

“Okay,” she said. I tried to send her a message, straight into her mind, to tell her to say no, to say it was a mistake. But her mind was completely shut off to me – that was a first – and utterly focused on Xander. I’d never seen anything like that before.

“What do you want to know next?”

They stayed in the café for a while longer, chatting about designing charms for specific problems; something Xander would have to do if he was helping me. I sat there too, unnoticed and listening in. It was all above board, with no dodgy flirting on Xander’s part. I was worried Louise might arrive and blow my cover, but actually just as Esme stood up to leave, I got a text saying Louise was five minutes away and no sooner had Xander and Esme disappeared off down the road, she arrived. Perfect.

She sat down opposite me and gave me a tired smile. She was wearing the same grey suit she’d worn the first time I’d seen her, and her hair needed a wash.

“I’ve been working all night,” she said. “I went straight from work to the restaurant then straight back again. I was lucky I had a change of clothes at the station.” She yawned, then swigged her cappuccino. “I’m buzzing from the caffeine.”

“God,” I said. “I feel terrible for dragging you out to meet me. Do you want to go home?”

She shook her head.

“I wanted to see you,” she said. “I’ve been thinking about you a lot.”

Did she mean about the stuff that was happening or me? I wasn’t even sure what I wanted her to mean.

She pulled an iPad out of her bag, and searched her emails until she found the one I’d sent with Star’s photos attached.

“Do you know what order these photos go in?” she asked.

I thought for a moment.

“Sort of,” I said. “I remember the window being broken – that was back in November, I think. Or maybe even late October. I never saw the graffiti – she must have cleaned that before I got to work, bless her. Xander might know – though I can’t imagine why he wouldn’t have told me at the time.”

I thought about Xander and how he looked out for me.

“Maybe he wanted to protect me,” I said. “Maybe he knew and didn’t tell me. He definitely knew about the windows, but we thought it was just kids.”

Louise jotted something down in a notebook then scrolled through the photos again.

“The rest of them were near Christmas,” I said. “Fallon, our yoga instructor, said the glass was a bauble from the tree. She bandaged Star’s hand for her. The cut eyebrow was about the same time, I think. I don’t know about the knees – it looks like she’d fallen. And the car accident, where she hurt her neck, that was just a week or so later – quite close to Christmas.”

Lou wrote some more.

“And Fiona, Star’s best friend, she says Star was really jumpy all over Christmas. She thought her pills weren’t working and she was trying to persuade Star to go and see her specialist. She said Star was distracted and distant, and broke a few arrangements they’d made.”

“It sounds like it had ramped up,” Lou said. “It started with the graffiti and the broken windows. Star wasn’t scared off, so it got worse. Like bullying – or a hate campaign.”

“Why would anyone hate Star?” I said. “She was lovely.”

“I’m not sure it was Star who was the target,” Louise said, biting her lip.

I knew exactly what she meant.

“You think it was me?”

“Makes sense,” she said. “The first things that happened took place at your work. Your business. Your pride and joy. But Star got in the way – she was like a bodyguard. I expect whoever’s behind this didn’t mean for her to die – they probably didn’t know she had a heart condition.”

“She didn’t talk about it much,” I said. “She didn’t like people making a thing of it.”

“So perhaps they just wanted to scare her,” she went on. “Stop her blocking the way to you.”

“And now she’s gone – she’s out of the way – they’re targeting me again,” I said. “Well, my business really.”

“Do you have any idea who could be behind this?” Louise said. “A business rival perhaps?”

I shook my head.

“I’ve had nothing but support,” I said. “We’re quite niche – we’re not really in direct competition with anyone.”

“Have a think if there’s anyone you might have annoyed,” Louise said.

“I will,” I said, looking at the photo of the broken windows again. “I’ll get Xander on the case too. He knows the business inside out.”

Lou looked doubtful.

“I wouldn’t,” she said. “In my experience, disgruntled employees are top of the list of suspects.”

I waved aside her concerns.

“He’s not disgruntled,” I said. “He loves the business like it’s his own.”

Lou shrugged.

“If you’re sure,” she said.

I nodded. “I’m sure.”

“Okay,” she said. “So, we can’t really do anything about what happened to Star officially, because it’s all just theories at the moment. But I can do something about what’s gone on at the spa since she died. Tell me again what’s happened.”

I went over the power cuts, at home and the spa, losing the files and the fire at the back-up company’s HQ, and the music blaring.

Louise made a face.

“Could that just be an electrical thing?” she said. “Have you had your wiring checked? It’s an old building.”

“I had it rewired before we opened,” I said, slightly defensively.

Louise shut her notebook.

“I was going to get you to make an official complaint,” she said. “But I’m not sure this is enough. Altogether it sounds fishy, and I personally don’t think it’s coincidence, but I just don’t think I could persuade my colleagues.”

She looked so tired suddenly, I felt sorry for her.

“You should go,” I said. “We can talk about this another time.”

She nodded.

“I will,” she said. “In a minute. But I think there’s something you’re not telling me – something about what’s been going on.”

I hated telling people I was a witch. The few people I’d told in my life had generally been positive, but it was hard just saying the words. I felt comfortable with Louise, though, and though it was a risk, I knew I had to trust her.

I picked up the iPad again and scrolled through the photos until I found the one of the graffiti. The horrible, black scrawl that screamed WITCH.

“It’s this,” I said. “This is what it’s all about.”

Louise looked at the screen, then up at me.

“I thought it was a bit of an old-fashioned insult,” she said.

“It’s not an insult,” I said. I looked up at the ceiling so I didn’t have to look her in the eye. “It’s what I am.”

Lou leaned back in her chair and ran her fingers through her hair.

“Witch?” she said, looking at me in a puzzled way. “You’re a witch?”

I grimaced. This was always the worst bit.

“Basically,” I said. “Yes.”

There was a pause. Louise and I looked at one another. And then she spoke.

“I knew it,” she said. “I bloody knew it.”

Of all the reactions I’d expected, that was not one of them.

“You knew?” I said, shocked.

“Well, no, I didn’t know,” Louise admitted. “But my granny, god love her, had a friend called Florrie. She was a lovely old lady and she was a bit, you know, spooky. My family all used to take the mickey but there were some things – a lot of things – that happened when Florrie was around that we could never explain. Something about you reminded me of Florrie.”

She tapped her fingers on the table.

“Plus, of course, I watched you find that file on the day Star died.”

“You saw that?” I said. “I did wonder. What did you think?”

She shrugged.

“That I was tired. That the light in there was funny. That you’d just pulled it out so fast I hadn’t seen it properly.” She smiled. “But now I know.”

I beamed at her. Finding someone who understood – like Xander understood, or how Star had understood – was worth millions to me. I bought her another coffee, and while she drank it, I described our kind of witchcraft. Louise didn’t look surprised, or shocked. She listened, made a few notes, and asked some thoughtful questions.

Eventually she shut her notebook.

“I’m really flagging,” she said. “I’ve got to go and sleep.”

I passed her iPad back to her.

“Thanks for today,” I said.

“I’ll have a think about the best way to go forward from here,” she said.

I nodded.

“Keep me posted,” I said.

Louise put her fluffy hat on, and picked up her coat.

“I will,” she said. She leaned over and kissed me on the cheek. “I’ll ring you.”

I grinned at her.

“And tell Jamie I’ll call him as well,” she added as she pulled her coat on. “We’ve made arrangements to meet next week and we need to sort some bits out.”