Chapter 8
Chapter eight
“What exactly were you looking for? Only the box?” I asked in return, before Cosmo got sidetracked again..
I crossed my fingers in the hope that she would not say spell-book. She did not.
Adriana’s face turned tragic. “It was mine and I need it,” she whispered.
“Yours?”
“It’s what seems to power my great-great-aunt,” Genie said. “Everything that once used to belong to her allows her to leave our home. That—and this.”
She opened her handbag to show me a piece of brick. “This is from the Darling villa back home in Cobblewood Cove in New England. That’s where she was born, where she grew up, and where she died in 1929.”
“And you are trying to buy back as many of her old belongings as possible? Like the ebony box?”
“You really are on the ball,” Adriana said with flattering admiration. “But if you think that’s a cakewalk, you’d be surprised. Last year Genie and I had to go all the way to Italy, and Christmas we spent in Scotland in a castle. Have you ever been in a castle? It’s the bee’s knees!”
“You have traveled a lot,” I said with a tiny pang of envy. “I would love to do that one day, but something always happens. And currently, since my aunt died—well, let’s just say my midlife is turning out to be a lot different from what I thought it would be.”
“You can say that again,” Genie said. “I didn’t expect to come home one evening and, a few minutes later, have a new roommate in the form of my lovely, lovely, lovely great-great-aunt. Not that I would want it to be any other way, but at least—” She broke off.
“Is there something you’re not telling us?” I asked.
“What Genie is trying to say,” Adriana said, “is that she thinks if we find a necklace that once belonged to me, we’ll also be able to figure out who bumped me off.” Her voice was surprisingly cheerful, given what she just said.
“Bumped you off?” I goggled. “You’ve been—”
She mimed a slit across her throat.
“But not literally like that,” Genie hastened to add. “From what we’ve pieced together, it’s very likely that Adriana was meant to drown instead of just catching her death by developing double pneumonia.”
“Anyway,” Adriana continued, “I went out with my necklace on. Next thing—hey presto—I’m back a century later, without my necklace. Everything else,” she added, smoothing her evening dress and wriggling her fingers, which were clad in silk opera gloves, “seems to be present and accounted for.”
“And that necklace is in the box?” I wondered.
“Unlikely,” Cosmo pointed out. “But the box is still important.”
That, I understood. “It seems, we have common goals,” I said. “All we want is the book or paper, and all you want is whatever used to be yours. How can you be so sure that there is something?”
Genie tapped on the catalog in her room.
“If you look at page three, it says from the estate of Franklin Ward, and that name belonged to a prominent member of the high society of Cobblewood Cove. Anything even remotely connected to the town and the era gets our attention, so we traveled here. And yesterday Adriana confirmed it.”
“How do you do that?” Cosmo asked.
Genie blinked. “Did your cat just say something? I’m not touching Adriana.”
“Yes,” I confirmed. “I guess you can understand him the same way I can hear Adriana.”
It didn’t explain much, but it was enough to satisfy her.
“Yep, I get a tingle,” Adriana said. “The closer I get, the stronger it is. And it gives me that feeling, like when you have a champagne cocktail or two and you feel all oopsie whoopsie.”
“I haven’t been drinking much these last couple of years, but yeah, I think I understand what you’re trying to say. It’s giving you a feeling of being on top of the world,” I guessed.
“Exactly. When Genie and I arrived yesterday and did our recce, those things gave me goosebumps all over in the best possible way,” Adriana confirmed.
“So you know exactly which of the lots contains your possessions?”
Adriana bit her lip. “That’s where it got all screwy, because one second, I was tingly all over and the next instant I felt nothing. But I’m sure it must be the box.”
“You felt nothing? Not even a sensation as if somebody had thrown a thick blanket over you? Or a ringing or humming in your ears?”
“Yes,” she said. “Just—or rather, no. More like when you should be floating, but it feels as if every step you take is stuck in molasses.”
“Suddenly everything was cloaked,” I said.
“Exactly.”
I turned to Cosmo. “We are not the only ones affected.” It was a sobering thought.
“Can someone please explain what you are trying to tell us?” Genie asked.
Since she was sitting down already, I took a deep breath.
“The truth is, I am a witch—I’m using what is called white magic —and we might be up against someone else who is using occult powers too.”
“Someone like you? Shouldn’t you spot your own kind?” she asked. To her credit, she’d accepted my revelation without so much as blinking at the idea. Neither had Adriana. Then again, Genie lived with a ghost.
I admitted, “It’s not that easy. I’ve only inherited my powers last fall, and I’m in the learning stage. Also, it’s strictly limited what I’m allowed to do and what not, to remain a good witch.”
Adriana tapped her nose. “I hear you, sister. You don’t know if we’re dealing with another nice one or a bum.”
“That’s it. Add to that the fact that I have to be very careful not to out myself, as long as we are in the dark about the opposition.”
“We already have some information,” Cosmo said quietly.
“We do?” I asked him.
“Outside, in the tree, when we noticed the ghost of a crow.”
“It gave me the creeps,” Adriana said.
My familiar's whiskers trembled. “It should. It’s been summoned from the grave, by someone with evil intentions.”
Cosmo’s words sent a shiver down my spine. “Don’t say we’ll soon have to deal with another murder.”
“You too?” Genie gawked at me. “I thought we were the only ones having to help out the police with cases of homicide.”
“It’s apparently part of my new job description.
Guardian of Willowmere, defender of the innocent.
” I tried to sound light-hearted, but I don’t think I fooled anybody.
I loved being useful. Yet I’d be more than happy to simply bake, make tea, and run the library.
Solving crime demanded that there were victims.
“That’s what we’ve been doing ever since I met Adriana,” Genie agreed. “I thought it’s a fluke, or that she’s a magnet for murder and mayhem. Not that any of this is her fault.”
“Maybe there is an occult force, and any disruption to its natural state creates chaos in its wake,” I mused.
Cosmo swatted me with his paw. “You can exchange philosophy later. We were talking about the crow.”
“It’s a familiar, right?” Adriana rubbed her hands with glee. “I’ve read about them.”
“It’s going to be one. When its new mistress or master has gathered enough strength to transform it, it will become whole again,” Cosmo said.
“I didn’t know a familiar could be raised from the dead. Is that why it looks as if it’s going to crumble to dust any moment?” I asked, chilled to the core.
“Yes.”
“You’re saying, it’s currently the evil spirit of an evil spirit?” Adriana sounded intrigued. Easy for her, she didn’t have a life to lose. Unless she did. Genie watched her with too much undisguised worry and affection to put my mind at ease about Adriana’s state of existence.
“It’s not evil in itself, and I’m sure it used to be a friendly familiar. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have been out there, searching. An evil spirit would have made the summoner come to it. They don’t like wasting time.”
My stomach knotted. Grimoire had sounded bad enough. Yet this was worse.
“You know an awful lot about these things,” Genie said.
“My aunt was a witch, and he’s been with her for ages until she —” I gulped. “Until she was murdered.”
“So was this crow, judging by its state. With a natural death, powers either die with the creature or they’re being passed on the second the soul leaves the body.” Cosmo rubbed his nose.
“Please don’t tell me once they’ve met, the bad witch will be unstoppable,” I whispered.
“No, Bex. She – or he – will be stronger, but only if she’s mastered the new powers. That hasn’t happened yet.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“Because otherwise you and Adriana wouldn’t have noticed the telltale signs of witchcraft.”
“That’s good. At least, I hope it is.”
“That’s all fascinating and enlightening, only I still have no idea what our plan is. What do we want? To find the stolen things, to return that poor ghost crow to its grave, or what else is on the agenda?” Genie asked.
She had a good point, or rather, several good points.
“I think it’s all interlinked. I couldn’t say for certain which of the three lots is the one that matters to me.
I’m pretty sure that whoever broke into the auction house either wasn’t certain themselves and took them all, or the theft of three lots was supposed to hide the fact that only of them was important.
In that case, there might be a link between the item and the thief.
What I’m willing to bet on is that it’s about the spell-book,” I explained.
“Unless it’s about Adriana’s stuff. If the missing necklace is the object, it’s worth a lot of money – and it might prove a connection with the man responsible for her death,” Genie pointed out. “It could be hidden in that large gramophone cabinet. It’s the right vintage.”
A loud crackle startled me. The bedside lamp, which I’d switched on to check the auction house website for updates (I foresaw reading glasses in my not too far future), emitted a hissing sound, and the lightbulb shattered.
“Oopsie.” Adriana stared at the ground.
“That’s alright. I’ll buy a new bulb,” Genie said in a resigned manner. To me and Cosmo she said, “Adriana’s the literal embodiment of someone blowing a fuse. She’s usually on top of it.”
“You control electricity?” Cosmo asked Adriana, in a surprised tone.
“Piece of cake. Coffee, anyone?” The coffeemaker sprang to life.
“Not right now, thanks,” I said.
The coffeemaker stopped.
“Can you switch everything on and off?” I asked, fascinated.
“Mostly.”
Genie wandered over to her suitcase that sat on a rack and took out a loosely knit scarf, made of metallic threads. “This is our safety net. It works as a Faraday cage for plane travel.”
“Smart.” I’d never thought about the complications of moving around with a ghost, but then I’d never had a reason to before.
I had another, less pleasant thought. “What if our burglar has already fled town? Our landlady says that the auctions regularly attract people from outside Crystal Springs. We won’t be the only ones who came here specifically for this occasion.”
“Don’t say that,” Genie pleaded. Then she knitted her brows. “That’s our first step then, verifying if the objects are still around.”
“But how? If the thief used magic to cloak them inside the auction house, it’s unlikely he stopped the spell now. I can’t overcome it.”
“What if you don’t have too?” Genie chuckled.
“I don’t understand.”
“You may not be able to combat witchcraft with witchcraft, but we have a secret weapon of our own. We’ll use Adriana.”