Witch Is Why Time Stood Still (A Witch P.I. Mystery Book 13) (5 page)

Mrs V showed him through, and asked if he’d like a drink.

“Not for me, thank you.” His accent took me a little by surprise. It sounded like he hailed from the midlands.

“Mr O’Reilly.” I flashed a welcoming smile. “Do have a seat.”

He sat down, but didn’t return my smile. “That’s not my name.”

“Oh, sorry. I thought you were Lee O’Reilly.”

“I
am
Leo Riley.”

“I thought you just said you weren’t Mr O’Reilly?”

“I’m not Mr O’Reilly. I’m Leo Riley.”

I was totally confused, and it must have shown.

“My first name is Leo; my last name is Riley. Leo Riley.”

“Ah, I see. Leo Riley, not Lee O’Reilly.” We weren’t getting off to the best of starts. “Sorry for the confusion. I thought—never mind. Do I call you Leo?”

“You can call me Detective Riley.”

“Right, okay. Welcome to Washbridge, Detective Riley. How are you settling in?”

“It’s too early to say, but as I was passing by, I thought I should pop in. It seems my predecessor, Jack Maxley—”

“Maxwell.”

“Whatever. He left me some sort of cryptic note about you and your business.”

“Jack and I are actually in a relationship.”

“I’m not interested in any of that, but I got the distinct impression from the note that he thought I should treat you with kid gloves.”

“I’m sure that’s not what he intended.”

“Regardless, I want to make it perfectly clear that I’m a great believer that the police should be the ones to enforce the law and solve crimes. We don’t need, and certainly don’t want, any interference from
amateurs
.”

“I’m sorry you feel that way. If you check your records, you’ll find that I’ve actually helped to solve several cases—some of them quite high profile ones.”

“I’m really not interested in anything which may have happened in the past. I’m only interested in the here and now. I want to make it absolutely clear that I will not tolerate you or any other amateur sleuth interfering in police business. Got it?”

“Oh yeah. I’ve got it.” The asshat has spoken.

“Good. I’m glad we understand one another.” He stood up. “Thank you for your time.”

With that, he left.

It was like déjà vu, and put me in mind of my early encounters with Jack. It seemed I would be butting horns with the police once again.

Fantastic!

Winky jumped onto my desk. “Making friends and influencing people again, I see.”

“Shut it! I’m not in the mood.”

“Have you figured anything out, yet?”

“About what?”

“About Bella, of course.”

“Not yet, but I’m on it.”

He one-eyed me suspiciously. “You’d forgotten all about it, hadn’t you?”

“Of course not. It’s my very top priority, but I did move house this weekend. That takes a lot of work.”

“Eureka!” he shouted. “That’s it!”

“What’s it?”

“The perfect solution!”

“Will you stop talking in riddles?”

“Me and Bella can move into your new house.”

Oh bum!

“That’s not possible.”

“Why not?”

“We’re only renting, and the lease won’t allow it.”

“Why didn’t you choose somewhere that would allow pets?”

“I tried, honestly, but there are so few properties available. It was this or nothing.”

“Bella is moving out next week, so you’d better get your backside in gear.”

“I will. I promise.”

“You better had. If Bella leaves, I’m going to be unbearable.”

Would I even notice the difference?

Chapter 7

Arnold Halfway had provided me with a list of the other jewellers’ shops that had suffered the same fate as his own. The nearest to my office was one called ‘All That Glitters’, which was a few doors down from Tom Tom. I’d called ahead and been told to ask for the manager—a Mr Poster.

“You must be Jill.”

“That’s right. Mr Poster?”

“Everyone calls me Bill. Would you like to come through to the back? We can talk better in there.” He led the way behind the counter and into a small office.

“Tell me, Bill, how many robberies have you had?”

“Just the one. I know that Are Forever has had three. That’s awful.”

“Would you describe exactly what happened?”

“I will, but this is probably going to sound crazy.”

“Don’t worry about that. Just tell me everything you remember.”

“Okay. I was actually in the shop at the time, but I wasn’t serving anyone. My assistant, Ms Jameson, was attending to a young lady who was looking at some rather expensive bracelets. Ms Jameson had the tray of bracelets on the counter, so the young lady could get a closer look at them. Then, all of a sudden, the tray was empty. Just like that. One minute they were there, the next they’d gone.”

“And you saw this happen?”

“Yes. Ms Jameson is a new employee. I was watching to make sure she was handling the sale according to our procedures.”

“It’s very difficult to understand how the bracelets could have just disappeared like that.”

“I know, and if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I would never have believed it either. But that’s exactly what happened. We have CCTV coverage if you’d like to take a look.”

“Yes, please. That would be very helpful.”

A few minutes later, we were seated in front of the computer. Bill Poster soon located the correct recording.

“That’s Ms Jameson. And that’s the young lady she was serving. You can clearly see the bracelets in the tray on the desk.”

He was right. The recording quality was very good. The tray was obviously full of bracelets.

“Keep watching,” he said. “Any moment now.”

I stared at the screen in the hope that I’d spot something everyone else had missed. But then, suddenly, the tray was empty. I’d seen nothing. No one had come into the shop; no one had approached the counter. And yet, the tray had been emptied of its contents.

What was going on?

***

Alan’s other friend, who had also been taken ill, was Bobby. From what Alan had told me, the hospital had once again put the illness down to a virus. Bobby lived at home with his parents, even though he was about the same age as Alan. It was his mother who greeted me at the door.

“You must be Jill Gooder; I’ve heard so much about you. It’s awfully good of you to do this for us.”

“I’m glad to help. Is it okay to speak to your son?”

“Of course. Bobby’s been expecting you. He’s still quite poorly, but much better than he was. For a while there, we were worried we might lose him.”

“So I understand.”

“He’s in here, I’ll leave you two alone.”

Bobby was sitting up in bed. He looked very pale, but his eyes were bright.

“Hi there, I’m Jill.”

“Have a seat. Thanks for coming.”

“Look, I’ll get straight to the point. The medical profession and the police are saying this is some kind of forty-eight-hour virus. Alan and David think otherwise. What about you?”

“I’m convinced I was poisoned, and no one will persuade me otherwise.”

“Tell me what happened.”

“I’d just taken delivery of a new supply of synthetic blood. I had my first drink in the morning, and in the afternoon, I started to feel really ill. The next thing I knew, I woke up in hospital.”

“Do you still have the bottle you drank from?”

“No. According to my mother, the police took away the complete supply.”

“Did they get back to you to tell you what their tests showed?”

“No. My mother had to call them. They said the tests didn’t show anything unusual.”

“But you don’t believe them?”

“Not for a minute. I think they just wanted to dispose of the evidence. My mother says I should let it drop, but I can’t. This could happen to someone else, and they might not be as lucky as I was.”

By the time I left, Bobby was starting to flag. The more I learned about this, the more I was beginning to buy into the cover-up theory. But why would the authorities be so keen to bury this story? Who were they trying to protect?

***

It would have been more than my life was worth to go back to the office without at least trying to find out what was happening with Bella. I dropped into the building across the road from my office, and made my way to Bonnie and Clive’s apartment.

“Hello, Jill.” Bonnie had never answered the door to me before.

“Hi. Is Clive in?”

“He’s in bed, I’m afraid. He hasn’t been well for quite some time.”

“Oh dear. I’m sorry to hear that.”

“He’s going to be okay, but it was touch and go for a while. It’s going to be a long process. We’ll be moving soon to more suitable accommodation.”

“So I heard.”

“Really? Who from?”

Oh bum!

“From—err—I—err—I don’t actually remember who told me. Where are you going?”

“To Lakeminster.”

“That’s quite a long way away, isn’t it?”

“Yes, but it’s close to our daughter. It’s a retirement community with bungalows. There are no stairs for Clive to have to deal with. It will be much better for him.”

“That makes sense. When will you be moving?”

“Next week, actually. Our problem now is what to do with Bella.”

“Aren’t you taking her with you?”

“We’d love to. She means the world to us, but they don’t allow pets. We nearly didn’t agree to go for that very reason, but our daughter insisted, and she’s probably right.”

“What will happen to Bella?”

“I don’t know. We’re desperately trying to find someone to take her. Actually, we should have thought of this before. Would you take her, Jill?”

“Me? I’m sorry, but I can’t. I’m not meant to have any pets in the office. I can just about get away with the one.”

“That’s a pity, because you’re obviously a cat person. We want her to go to someone who loves cats. Do you know of anyone who could offer her a home? Preferably someone who lives in this area.”

“Not offhand, Bonnie, but I’ll certainly give it some thought. If I come up with anything, I’ll pop back to see you, or give you a call.”

“Thanks. We’d be so grateful.”

“Give my best wishes to Clive.”

What was I supposed to do now? If Winky found out that they’d offered Bella to me, but I’d said no, he would probably kill me. I had to find someone who would take Bella in. But, who?

***

To my amazement, Jack was already home when I got in. I could smell something cooking as soon as I walked through the door.

“Jill!” he shouted from the kitchen. “I’m in here.”

“Wow, what’s all this? How come you’re home?”

“I got finished on a case early, and couldn’t see any point in picking up the next one so late in the day. And besides, I’ve worked a few lates recently, so they owe me a few hours. I thought I’d come home and make dinner for us.”

“I’m liking that idea.”

“Don’t get used to it. I don’t know how often I’ll be able to get away early.”

“It smells good. What is it?”

“I’ve made a beef casserole. I hope that’s okay.”

“Yeah, lovely.”

And it
was
lovely. I had to hand it to Jack, he was a much better cook than I was, but that wasn’t difficult. We finished off the casserole between us. I was absolutely stuffed.

“Oh, by the way,” I said, after we’d finished eating. “I met your replacement today.”

“What’s he like?”

“We didn’t get off to a very good start, and it’s all your fault.”

“My fault? How come? I left him a note telling him to go easy on you.”

“Why didn’t you tell me what his name was?”

“I did. I’ve mentioned it several times.”

“Yeah, but I thought you said, Lee O’Reilly.”

“I
did
say Leo Reilly.”

“But I heard that as Lee. O. Reilly. Not Leo Riley. I thought he might be Irish.”

“He’s a Brummie.”

“I know that now. I made a right fool of myself. I kept calling him Mr O’Reilly.”

Jack burst out laughing.

“It’s not funny.”

“It really is. What do you mean he gave you a hard time?”

“Just that. He came in specifically to say he didn’t care who I was, or who I was in a relationship with, he didn’t want me anywhere near any of his cases.”

“That doesn’t sound very promising. I’m sorry, Jill. It doesn’t look like the note I left him did any good. If he’s too hard on you, let me know.”

“So you can do what? Stick up for me? I’m a big girl. I can look after myself. If I can handle you, I can handle him. I’m sure he’ll grow to love me, eventually.

“Fair enough. Anyway, look, there’s something I meant to mention to you earlier.”

“What’s that?”

“One of the guys from Washbridge station called to ask if I wanted to go bowling tonight.”

“Did he now? So
that’s
why you made dinner.”

“No, of course not.”

“Liar. You made dinner to butter me up so you could go bowling.”

“I don’t have to ask your permission.”

“I know you don’t, but it’s rather curious that you would choose the same day to make dinner. Anyway, yeah, you should go.”

He checked his watch. “I’m actually meant to be there in thirty minutes, so I really need to get going now.”

“Sure, why not?”

“So you don’t mind doing the dishes?”

Oh bum! I hadn’t thought about the dishes. The sink was stacked high with pots, pans and all manner of cutlery. Jack was a good cook, but he had a habit of using every pot and pan in the place.

“Err—yeah. It’s okay, I guess. You get off.”

He rushed upstairs, got changed, and then gave me a peck on the cheek.

“See you later.”

“Yeah. Have a nice time.”

I stared at the mountain of washing up. It would take me ages to do that lot. Unless, of course—

A little magic was called for.

During the six months we’d lived together, I’d been ultra-careful not to use magic in Jack’s presence unless it had been unavoidable—an emergency of some kind. This was definitely an emergency—a washing-up emergency. It was his fault anyway; he’d been the one who’d said we couldn’t afford a dishwasher. The ‘take-it-back’ spell wouldn’t normally have been strong enough, but with my added powers, I was able to increase its scope so it went even further back. As soon as I’d cast the spell, the pots, pans and all the cutlery had reverted to their state before Jack used them. They were all sparkling clean. All I had to do was put them away.

“Jill?”

Oh bum!

“I forgot my car keys. Have you seen them?” Jack shouted from the hallway.

Oh, bum, bum, bum!

I rushed to the kitchen door to try and intercept him, but it was too late he was already inside.

“Jill, have you seen my—” He stared at the sink. “What—huh—how?”

“Your keys? Yeah, they’re in there.” I pointed to the bowl on the kitchen table.

“Right, thanks.” He picked up the keys, and looked again at the sink. “How did you—?”

I cast the ‘forget’ spell.

“Hurry up, Jack, or you’ll be late for bowling.”

I ushered him out of the door.

“Yeah, okay then. Bye.”

Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! There was no excuse for what I’d just done. It had been laziness—plain and simple. I should have sucked it up and got stuck into the pot washing. Instead, I’d been forced to use magic on Jack—something I’d promised myself I would only do in a ‘real’ emergency.

When I walked into the living room, I felt a chill. There was a ghost in the room with me, but they weren’t showing themselves. Somehow, I could sense that it wasn’t my mother or the colonel.

“Hello? I know you’re there. Please, attach yourself to me, so I can see and talk to you.”

“Jill.” The voice was very faint; I could barely make it out.

“Who is it? Do I know you?”

“Jill, can you hear me?”

The voice was so quiet that I couldn’t even tell if it was a man or a woman.