I Put a Spell on You (2 page)

“Gotcha,” I said.

I opened it to check Star’s address was written inside, then I opened my bag and stuffed it inside. Taking a last look at Star’s desk, I left the building. I politely thanked the police for their time, as though they’d been customers who’d booked a spa day, handed over my spare keys, and left.

It was freezing. I thought it might snow though it hadn’t yet, and it was dark. I huddled down in my coat and pulled my hat down over my ears, feeling sorry for myself and very alone as I tramped along the main road to home.

I was unsettled. Really unsettled. We – me and my family – had had a rough couple of years. About eighteen months ago my mum, Suky, had been diagnosed with breast cancer and at the same time we’d been the target of a pretty nasty hate campaign aimed at driving my mum out of the café she runs with my Aunt Tess – who’s my mum’s twin sister. I’d split up with my girlfriend Natalie, leaving me with financial troubles and a broken heart, and my cousin Esme – Tess’s daughter – had almost ruined her own love life. It wasn’t a great time for any of us.

Thankfully Mum was now well on the mend, the café was secure once more and all the trouble seemed to be behind us – at least it had been, until now. I was really worried this might be the beginning of another bad patch. Though, obviously, it was going to be a whole lot worse for poor Star’s family. I shivered as I hurried along in the biting wind, desperate to get home and hoping I’d have the flat to myself for once. I shared with my cousin Esme who rented a swanky New Town flat in Edinburgh from a banker friend of her boyfriend. It was huge – too big for her on her own – so I’d moved in when I sold my place in Leith to fund the spa. Ez and I were like sisters with all the bickering, sniping and affection that entailed. Esme and I were living together like a couple of students – though without the fights over who cleaned the loo – as witches we could simply do the cleaning with a wave of our hands. Things were fine until she decided she missed her boyfriend too much. Jamie was a GP. He had been planning to take over his dad’s practice up in Claddach in the Highlands, where we’d all grown up. But his dad wasn’t ready to retire quite yet and after rekindling their teenage romance, he and Esme were inseparable… So we all ended up living together. I adored Esme, and I loved Jamie, who’d been a brilliant support to my mum when she was ill. But even so, our living arrangements weren’t exactly where I’d intended to be in my late thirties, but needs must, I told myself, and it was a great flat.

Anyway, after everything that had happened, I was desperate just to be by myself and as I walked up the stone stairs that led to our front door, I crossed my fingers that Esme and Jamie were out tonight.

Chapter 2

I was out of luck. As I opened the door I was greeted by the sight of Esme and Jamie snogging. They sprang apart when I came in and grinned at me, identical stupid love-sick grins. In the mirror on the wall opposite I caught a glimpse of my reflection; my face was ashen and my lips white, stark against my dark brown hair. Then I looked at Esme, who was glowing with health and happiness.

“Why are you standing in the hall,” I asked, though I didn’t really care. Then I burst into tears.

Esme exchanged a glance with Jamie – he looked concerned, she looked more pissed off. Then, together, they bustled me into the kitchen, and sat me at the table. Esme put the kettle on and Jamie found a bottle of brandy in one of the cupboards and poured me a stiff measure.

I knocked my drink back in one mouthful and wiped my eyes carefully to avoid smudging my make-up.

“What’s happened, Harry?” Esme said.

I shuddered.

“God it was awful,” I said, reaching for the brandy bottle.

“I’d been with clients all day – I hadn’t had more than five minutes to myself all afternoon,” I explained glugging brandy into my glass. “Star wanted to speak to me though, and she said she’d wait for me to finish. So when I was done, I went into reception. And that’s when I found her.” I took a long jagged breath and stared into my glass.

“Who?” Esme said. “Who did you find?”

“Star.”

“But you wanted to see her, surely?” Esme looked confused and I rolled my eyes.

“Not like that,” I said.

“Why, what was she doing?” asked Jamie.

“She was dead.”

Esme gasped.

“I’ve been with the police for hours,” I continued, rubbing my forehead as I thought about how to explain it all. “The paramedics said it was a heart attack and the police aren’t suspicious. And yet…”

“And yet…” repeated Jamie.

I leaned forward so they knew how important this was.

“I saw her face,” I whispered. “She was terrified.”

“Really?” Esme said doubtfully. “Can you tell?”

“Oh you can tell,” I said, with all the wisdom of a woman who’d seen her first corpse just a few hours earlier.

Jamie nodded.

“You can, actually,” he said. “I’ve seen all sorts of strange facial expressions on bodies.”

Esme shivered and I scowled at her.

“That’s not all though,” I said, perhaps slightly over-dramatically. “There was magic there. Dark magic. Hanging – you know how it does – like a heat haze. Over Star’s desk.”

“Oh that’s not good,” Esme said with a shiver. “Do you think something sinister has happened? Something that could have hurt Star?”

“That’s what I’m afraid of,” I said. “I just don’t understand why anyone would want to hurt her.”

“Is Star, erm, was she, you know?” Esme began.

“A witch?”

She nodded.

I shook my head.

“She was interested,” I said. “Actually she was really interested. She was always asking me stuff and I’d helped her out a few times with advice and explanations about spells and things. I know that was why she took the job in the first place. She dabbled in a bit of aura cleansing and she did a lot of our yoga classes. But she wasn’t a witch – not by birth. It’s not in the terms and conditions of our contracts, you know.”

I call my spa a holistic life centre. We offer things like yoga, acupuncture and Pilates, slightly more off-the-wall things like Reiki and aura cleansing and, what I like to call, spiritual counselling. That’s spells to you and me. People come to see me, they tell me their problems and I give them a spell to help. My mum, Suky, and Esme’s mum, Tess, do a really similar thing in their café up in the Highlands – it’s where I got the idea from, if I’m honest. They sit people down with a cup of tea, have a chat, find out what the problem is and cast a spell to help. Sometimes they don’t even wait to be asked. I took it bigger, giving people the chance to ask for help online. But I found I was missing the personal touch, so now I’ve gone back to basics – meeting clients at the spa and offering them one-to-one counselling. We’ve not been going that long, but it’s all working out brilliantly – or at least it was. Until our receptionist turned up dead.

I pulled Star’s HR file out of my bag.

“She wanted to tell me something,” I said. “Maybe she was worried about something – or scared even – so I’ve had an idea. This is her address. I thought we’d go round and…”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” said Jamie. “You’re not going anywhere. You can’t break into a dead woman’s flat.”

“I agree,” Esme said firmly. “Even I know Star had health problems and she didn’t always look after herself. If the police don’t think there’s anything to worry about, then we should listen to them.”

I got up from the table.

“You didn’t see her face, Ez,” I said. “I can’t get it out of my mind. And I can’t help thinking that it must have had something to do with me. It’s my business, after all. What if she was just in the way? What if I was the real target?”

We all stared at each other for a moment and I could see I’d struck a chord with Esme. It had been awful when we’d been targeted before – one of the worst times of our lives.

I saw Jamie catch Esme’s eye and shake his head ever so slightly. She looked at me and I could tell she was wavering. So she was a lawyer and I was asking her to break into a house. We wouldn’t get into trouble – we had ways round that and she knew it.

The ring of the doorbell made us all jump. Esme gave me a glance that said ‘we’ll talk about this later when Jamie’s not around’ and went to answer it. Jamie and I looked at each other awkwardly. I thought Jamie was lovely and, like I said, I’d always be grateful for how caring he was with Mum, but he could be a bit risk-averse sometimes.

Esme poked her head round the kitchen door.

“Harry,” she hissed. “The police are here.”

Alarmed, I followed her back out into the hall. The tall detective I’d seen at the spa stood there.

“Harmony McLeod?” she asked, showing me a warrant card.

I nodded.

“DI Louise Baxter,” she said. “I just have a couple more questions about what happened today.”

“Let’s go into the living room,” I said, directing her. She walked into the room, looking round her – I could tell she was taking everything in. Then she turned round and smiled at me. She was very pretty.

“Call me Harry,” I said. “Please sit.” She sat on the sofa and I sat opposite her. Esme, who’d followed us into the room, perched on the arm of my chair nervously. She was one of those people who always got stopped on her way through customs because she looked guilty even when she hadn’t done anything and she was very twitchy now.

“I’m Harry’s cousin,” she said in a rush. “My name’s Esme. McLeod. Esme McLeod. I’ll help you as much as I can.”

“This isn’t really an official visit,” DI Baxter said, giving a quick, amused glance at Esme then turning her attention back to me. “I just thought you looked a bit odd back there. I wanted to see if there was anything else you wanted to say.”

I shrugged, wondering how much I should say.

“Just shock,” I said, not looking her in the eye.

“What was in the folder you took?” she said.

I screwed my nose up.

“You saw that?” I said, wondering if she’d seen how I’d found the right folder. She didn’t seem the type who missed much. She certainly wasn’t fazed by it though, even if she had seen, and that intrigued me.

“Uh huh.”

I thought about lying then changed my mind.

“It was Star’s HR folder,” I admitted. “I just wanted to have a look at it.”

“Why?” she asked. I felt like squirming under her cool, clear gaze.

“I just think there’s more to Star’s death than her dodgy heart.”

“Why?”

I looked at Esme for guidance – it wasn’t easy explaining witchcraft to people who thought it was all Harry Potter and Muggles.

“I just had a bad feeling,” I said pathetically.

“Why?” she said again. She was beginning to annoy me.

“It’s complicated.”

I paused for a moment, staring at DI Baxter. She was maybe a tiny bit older than me and a tiny bit taller. She had blonde hair in a pixie crop and cool grey eyes. She looked back at me and I knew she thought I was up to something.

“Try me,” she said.

A tiny smile edged its way onto my lips.

“I might,” I said. “But not now.”

DI Baxter stood up.

“If you change your mind, you know where I am,” she said, giving me a business card. Her long strides meant she reached the front door in seconds. “And Harry? Don’t try anything, will you? You’re not Miss Marple.”

I tried to look innocent.

“I wouldn’t dare,” I said. “Keep in touch.”

On the surface I meant she should keep in touch with any news on Star’s death, but deep down I was intrigued by her and I couldn’t help hoping I’d see her again.

I reached past her to open the door and as I did, Jamie came out of the kitchen.

“Lou?” he said in surprise.

“JB!” DI Baxter – Lou apparently – threw her arms out in joy. Jamie walked into her embrace and they performed a complicated manoeuvre that began with them bumping stomachs and ended with DI Baxter holding Jamie in a headlock. They were both laughing uproariously. I was not. Nor was Esme, who was watching on in something resembling horror.

“Ez,” said Jamie, unravelling himself from DI Baxter’s grip. ‘This is Louise. We played rugby together at uni.”

Esme smiled a small, tight smile.

“Lou,” Jamie continued, “this is Esme – she’s Harry’s cousin – and my girlfriend.”

“Fiancée,” Esme said, frostily.

“Really?” I said in surprise. “Since when?”

Jamie took Esme’s hand and grinned at DI Baxter and me.

“Oh yes,” he said. “Earlier I asked Ez to marry me and she said yes.”

Esme beamed in pride and snuggled up to Jamie in a proprietorial manner.

“That’s great news, guys.” I said, giving them both a quick hug. For some reason I felt very close to tears again.

DI Baxter looked awkward.

“I’d better go,” she said. Jamie looked crestfallen.

“Let’s get together soon,” he said. “We’ve got years to catch up on.”

She felt in her pocket and handed him the same business card she’d given me.

“I’d love to,” she said. “Good to meet you, Esme.”

She let herself out of the door and I heard her footsteps disappear down the stone steps.

“She seems nice,” Esme said. I could read Esme’s thoughts as easily as I read my own – it was partly witchcraft and partly just that I knew her so well – and I knew she was lying.

“I liked her,” I said just so she knew I knew what she thought.

“I’m going to bed,” I added. “It’s been a hell of a day.”

Jamie slapped Esme’s bum gently.

“Come on then, Mrs B-to-be,” he said. Childishly, I made sick faces behind his back. Esme grimaced at me.

“I’ll be there in a minute,” she said to Jamie. She waited until he’d gone down the hall to their bedroom, then she took my arm.

“I’m in,” she whispered. “ I’ll come with you to Star’s flat. Jamie’s playing rugby tomorrow anyway.”

I was pretty certain she was only saying it because DI Baxter had told us not to do anything, but I didn’t care.

“We’ll go tomorrow,” I said.

Chapter 3

I love Esme. I do. But she’s always been a bit of a goody-goody. When we were younger, she followed me round like a lost lamb and I must admit, I wasn’t always very nice to her. In fact, in the spirit of full disclosure, I will admit I’m still not always that nice to her. She just, you know, rubs me up the wrong way. But, I can’t lie, I was amazed by how she handled all that stuff last year. And, I was really pleased – surprised but pleased – by how quickly she agreed to come with me to Star’s flat, even if she’d only agreed to go because she knew it would annoy Jamie. It didn’t stop her going on about how bloody scared she was though, did it?