I Put A Spell On You

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?

“Harry,” she whispered as we walked down Star’s road. “Are you sure we’re doing the right thing?”

The same thought had crossed my mind, but I wasn’t going to tell Ez that.

“I liked Star,” I said to Esme. “She was nice. I feel like I owe it to her to dig a little bit deeper.”

Esme pulled her coat round herself a bit tighter.

“It’s funny, isn’t it, that someone can be here one minute then gone the next?” she said. “I wonder if she had a feeling when she woke up yesterday morning?”

“What, that it would be her last day on earth?” I said. “I don’t expect so.”

“Do you think we’d know?” Esme looked serious.

“Because we’re witches you mean? I’m not sure.” I looked at the map on my phone and guided Esme down a side street. “It’s possible. We do know stuff, I suppose.”

Esme gave a dry laugh.

“You know stuff,” she said. “I’m oblivious most of the time.”

“Probably the best way to be,” I said. But I didn’t really mean it. I wouldn’t swap my witchcraft for anything.

I looked at the numbers on the houses around us. “This is it.”

Star lived in a maisonette, on the outskirts of the city. Her street was neat and quiet, with identical houses evenly spaced. It looked like a model town.

“Come on,” I said. I led the way up the stairs, my heels echoing along the road. Esme followed. I tried the front door. It was locked, of course. But we witches are nothing if not resourceful. I waved my hand over the handle and heard the lock click.

“After you,” I said, standing aside to let Ez past. She gave me a look of contempt and walked into the hall.

“Bloody hell,” she gasped. Magic hung heavily in the air. The flat was alive with it like a gas leak in a sealed building. Now we’d opened the door, the oppressive atmosphere was lightening, but it was still really unpleasant.

“Oh Star,” I murmured as I walked along the hall, my skin prickling with enchantments. “What have you been up to?”

Esme was in the living room. I found her looking at a photo.

“Remind me which one is Star,” she said. I peered over her shoulder and pointed. Star had been in her early forties – about five or six years older than me. She had obviously been very pretty as a youngster and she was still working her good looks – almost. Her hair was, perhaps, a bit too blonde, her skirt a bit too short, but it wasn’t a bad package. In the photo she was drinking champagne with two other smiling women. She looked young and happy and I felt a new wave of guilt.

“What was she like?” Esme said, looking at the photo. “Was she married?”

“She had been,” I said. “Her husband cheated on her. They’d been together since school.”

“Like me and Jamie,” Esme said, conveniently forgetting the ten years when they hadn’t spoken.

“Except Jamie wouldn’t cheat on you,” I said. I had a lot of time for Jamie who was fiercely loyal and had been impressively unfazed when Esme had revealed the truth about our family’s odd behaviour.

“I wouldn’t cheat on him either,” said Esme. “Never.”

I wandered round the flat, finding out more about Star than I’d ever bothered to when she was alive. She read crime novels, watched box sets of US dramas – Mad Men lay open on her DVD shelf – and had good taste in interior decoration. I couldn’t see any evidence of her ex-husband, and I wondered if she’d been lonely.

In her bedroom we found a pile of witchcraft books. Esme picked up the top one and began leafing through it.

“I thought you said she wasn’t a witch,” she said. I rolled my eyes.

“She wasn’t.” I picked up a guide to incantations and flapped through it without interest. “What witch would read a book like this?”

Esme made a face.

“Well, there is a lot of magic in here and what with this and the books it looks like she was trying to learn,” she pointed out. “Can you do that?”

I grinned at her.

“I taught you, didn’t I?” I said. Esme and I were born witches, of course. But while I embraced my witchiness, worked hard at it, embraced it, developed it, even made it my career, she shunned it. It was always one of the things that annoyed me most about Esme over the years. Then, last year, when the family business was in trouble and my mum was ill, she finally realised it was time to get to grips with it. And who was there to help her out? To mould her natural ability and teach her everything she needed to know? Her loving cousin, that’s who (that’s me, by the way). She’s pretty good actually – she should use magic more often. She could do with a bit more sparkle in her life if you ask me.

Now she shot me a barbed look.

“I meant can normal people learn?” she said. “People who aren’t witches.”

“She had a go,” I said, sitting on the bed. “But there’s only so much you can do without natural talent. And it’s always dangerous for anyone to dabble in things they don’t understand.”

Ez nodded and I was grateful that she didn’t mention that out of the two of us, I was the one who’d dabbled dangerously in the past. She wasn’t so bad, really.

I picked up another book and a sheaf of papers fell out. Esme bent down and picked them up.

“Photos,” she said. “Oh god.”

She spread them out on the bed. They were mostly pictures of Star, selfies, obviously taken with her phone, and printed out onto A4 paper. And they were pretty shocking. One was a photo of her hand, covered in blood, with jagged pieces of blue glass sticking out of her palm. In another, she had a nasty bruise and a cut on her browbone. In another she had bruised knees, in another burns on her arm, and in yet another a neck collar.

“Shit,” Esme said. “Was this her husband’s handiwork?”

“I don’t think so,” I said. “She had this neck collar just before Christmas – she said she’d had a prang in her car. I remember her saying she’d missed spending the weekend with her best friend because of it. The burns on her arm were from the accident, too. Air bags burn apparently. Her husband’s not been around for ages as far as I know.”

I looked at the photo and shook my head.

“She said it was an accident,” I said. “Why would she take photos if she believed that?”

I picked up the book again.

“There’s some more,” I said, pulling them out. There were two more. Both of the outside of the spa. One showed a broken window with a board nailed over it. I remembered that happening a couple of months before. Just kids Xander, my deputy manager, had said at the time. The other, more shockingly, showed the front door of the spa scrawled with graffiti reading WITCH.

I felt sick.

“Look,” I said to Esme. She put her hand over her mouth in horror.

“Who would do that?” she said. “That’s awful. Did you know about that?”

“Didn’t have a clue,” I said. “Not about the graffiti anyway. “Star must have scrubbed it off before I saw it. She was protecting me, Ez. Do you think that’s why she died?”

Esme looked terrified.

“No,” she said firmly. “That can’t possibly be it. She was ill, Harry. She had a weak heart. Her bathroom cabinet’s full of medicine. No one would have hurt her deliberately.”

I gathered up the print-outs.

“But what about all these injuries?” I said, waving them in her face. “And Star wasn’t a witch – this abuse wasn’t aimed at her – what if she got hurt trying to stop whoever it was hurting me?”

“Right, well there’s nothing we can do about it now,” Esme said, all business-like. “Let’s go home and think about what we should do from here.”

She was right. I got up off the bed, and Esme did the same. After a moment’s consideration, I put the printed photos into my bag, and we left, putting everything back the way we’d found it with a quick wiggle of our fingers.

As we walked down the stairs a voice called out.

“Who are you?” A woman stood at the bottom of the steps, arms folded in front of her.

“Star’s not here,” she said.

I nudged Esme out of the way and held my hand out to the woman.

“I’m Harmony,” I said, shaking her hand and keeping hold of it. “I was Star’s boss – and friend.” My eyes filled with tears. They were genuine, but behind me, Esme harrumphed. The neighbour tried to take her hand away, and I held on.

“Were you in Star’s house?” she said. “I heard the door go.”

Gently, I squeezed a pressure point on her palm.

“We weren’t in her house,” I said. Around her the air began to shimmer. “We just came to see if we could help.”

“To help,” the neighbour repeated. “You weren’t in her house.”

Smiling at her, I let go of her hand and pulled Esme past her.

“Bye then!” I called. The neighbour raised a hand to wave, a confused look on her face.

“Well done, Obi Wan,” said Esme as we rushed along the road towards home. “But that was a bit too close for comfort.”

I ignored her. I was too busy wondering what we should do next. I thought perhaps I should phone DI Baxter. It would be tricky though, explaining what had happened without explaining exactly what had happened. I wondered if we could tell her the whole truth. She’d seemed very nice, but that didn’t mean she’d understand when I told her what we were. I really needed to meet her again to check her out.

Chapter 4

We talked about everything on the way home, except Star. I asked Esme all about how Jamie had proposed – in the kitchen while she was washing up, apparently. “How romantic,” I said, dryly. I would never understand why she washed up when she could simply do the dishes with a wave of her hand. But she claimed she liked it.

She talked a bit about how she wanted to get married back home in the Highlands, and I offered some suggestions about dresses she might suit. But we didn’t mention Star, or the horrible photos.

Wearily we made our way through the heavy door at the bottom of our tenement block and up the worn-away stone steps. As we reached our flat, a tall, lean figure uncurled himself from where he’d been sitting leaning against our door.

“Xander!” I called. I flung my arms around him and leaned against his chest. He kissed the top of my head.

“I got your message,” he said in his soft Dublin accent. “I couldn’t let you deal with all this by yourself.”

Beside me, Esme stood up a bit straighter. I wasn’t surprised. Xander was gorgeous, and very charming. He had quite a staggering effect on most women. He even had me wrapped round his little finger.

I hadn’t known Xander that long, but he’d made himself indispensible to me at a time when my business plans had been about to derail.

I’d launched my website alone, but when I’d come up with the idea of the spa, my girlfriend Natalie had been right behind me. I’d met her when I was studying business in the States and she was a high-flyer for a management consultancy. When I’d decided the time was right to expand, she’d offered to invest. I was thrilled. Not surprisingly, it was quite hard to find investors in a witchcraft-led business. You can’t just go to the bank or approach a venture capitalist and tell them you’re selling spells. Anyway, Nat seemed the perfect business partner and for a while things were really exciting. Then she went home to Connecticut for a few weeks – and she never came back. Suddenly I was single, heartbroken, and my career had taken a battering too.

I wallowed in self-pity for a while, then I brushed myself off and set about raising the money I needed to buy the surprisingly spacious mews house that would become the spa by selling my flat. Once my flat was sold, the house was signed and sealed, and the builders had started work, I knew I had to make some contacts, so I forced myself to a networking event.

I saw Xander as soon as I walked into the West End hotel where the event was being held. He wandered over to me in the casual way I now knew so well, handed me a glass of Buck’s Fizz and said: “Thank god you’re here.”

“Have we met?” I said in surprise.

“We have now,” he said with a grin. “You look a lot more fun than the rest of these stuffed shirts.”

I glanced round me at the many middle-aged men chatting and laughing in a self-congratulatory way and drained my glass.

“Let’s go?” I said. So we escaped to a little deli, treated ourselves to brunch, and chatted for hours. He didn’t so much as try to flirt with me, which was refreshing if a little unusual. I don’t want to blow my own trumpet but I know I’m what you might call good-looking. I’ve got long dark hair and good skin, and I really love clothes so I make an effort with my appearance. And though I’m gay and have no interest in men in that way, they seem to like me. Well, they like the way I look at least – I can’t imagine I win them over with my sweet personality and happy demeanour, because frankly that’s not me at all. Anyway, Xander seemed oblivious to my charms, which I loved. And he was very easy to talk to. I told him all about my plans for the spa and he revealed he had a head for business himself. He worked for a big international hotel chain.

“I’m bored,” he confided, tearing a croissant in half. “I thought I’d enjoy working a hotel but I’ve had enough of people telling me what to do. And I like Edinburgh. I don’t want to have to move again whenever they decide it’s time.”

I sipped at my latte thoughtfully.

“I’m going to need a deputy,” I said. “A right-hand man. Someone who can look after the business and the customers.”

Xander smiled at me, that devastating, heartbreaking smile. He would be perfect with my clients.

“Me,” he said.

“You.”

And that was that. He handed in his notice and had been by my side ever since. He offered to buy into the business, but though we’d hit it off, I wasn’t quite ready to hand over complete control yet.

He had been a brilliant choice as a deputy manager. He was sharp-minded and we thought alike when it came to business decisions. Plus, my clients loved him. He was tall and slim, with wide shoulders. He had dark curly hair, a bit like Orlando Bloom’s, that fell across his perfect eyebrows. His bright blue eyes were clear and his smile was wide. Many women had come in just to book a yoga class and ended up splashing out hundreds of pounds on ten Reiki sessions.

My only complaint was that he was perhaps a bit too keen. I’m ambitious, of course, and I admire ambition in others, but not when their ambition is centred on my business. I know I’m a bit overly controlling, but it’s mine, you know? So Xander was a little too eager to take over, in my opinion. He kept offering to do more and more at the spa. He was like my shadow, which most of the time I didn’t mind, because he was such good company. I was a solitary soul by nature, though, and every now and then I just had to be alone so I made an effort to shrug him off occasionally. Yesterday I’d almost pushed him out of the door when he’d mentioned he had a date with someone he’d met at the gym. And then typically, when he wasn’t by my side, I’d found Star.

Anyway, he was here now, and I had to admit though he smothered me at times, I was delighted he’d arrived on my doorstep.

“Am I pleased to see you,” I said, opening the door. Together we all trooped into the flat and straight into the kitchen.

Esme was obviously very taken with Xander.

“Tea?” she asked in a funny voice. Xander grinned at her and I shot him a warning glance.

“Please,” he said, winking at her. Esme blushed and, turning on the tap to fill the kettle, splashed herself from head to foot with water.

“Back in a mo,” she said brightly, obviously hoping Xander and I hadn’t noticed. Xander, bless him, pretended not to spot the huge wet patch down her front. I didn’t bother to disguise my laughter.

I took over the tea-making duty and told Xander all about how I’d found Star.

“So the spa’s sealed off?” he said. “Is it like CSI Edinburgh?”

I squeezed a teabag against the side of the mug.

“Not really,” I said. “They’ve got one poor community support officer standing guard outside.”

I concentrated hard on stirring the tea.

“They’re doing the post-mortem today,” I explained, trying hard to keep my voice steady. “Once they’ve confirmed it was Star’s heart condition that killed her, we’ll be able to go back in.”

“But it was, though, wasn’t it?” Xander said. “Her heart condition I mean. So there shouldn’t be any problem.”

I handed him his tea, giving him a fake, bright smile.

“Oh I’m sure it’s just ticking boxes,” I said. “We all knew Star had health problems.”

I leaned against the counter and sipped my tea. For some reason I didn’t want to tell him about the expression on Star’s face or the magic that I’d seen hanging in the air.

Xander was cool when it came to magic. I told him about my, ahem, talents shortly after we’d met – sooner than I’d ever told anyone, even Natalie – and he didn’t so much as bat an eyelid. He was really interested and was always asking me to teach him a few spells. I hadn’t, yet. But despite how accepting he’d been, something made me hold back from telling him my fears about Star.

Esme came back into the kitchen. She’d changed into a fitted pink T-shirt, which really suited her, and if I wasn’t mistaken she’d put on a bit of make-up. Bloody Xander was like the Pied Piper when it came to women. Even ones who’d recently got engaged.

“Sounds like it’s been pretty horrible,” Xander said. Esme nodded and I was a bit put out. It hadn’t been horrible for her. I didn’t say so, though, because my phone rang. It was DI Baxter. My stomach fluttered, ever so slightly at the sound of her voice. I told myself it was hunger.

“The post-mortem’s been done,” she said. “We’re satisfied there are no suspicious circumstances. You can reopen whenever you want.”

“Okay,” I said doubtfully. “You didn’t find anything at all?”

“Nothing,” she said firmly. “But if you have any worries, about anything at all, please call me.”

I said goodbye and hung up, feeling a mixture of relief and disappointment.

“Well, let’s go,” Xander said.

I looked at him blankly.

“We can go back to the spa, right?” he said. “Let’s go now, and make sure everything’s ready to open up on Monday.”

“I suppose so,” I said. I was nervous about going back to where Star had died.

‘I’ll come,’ Esme said, she was looking at Xander, but I thought she should be looking at me.

“I can help you get stuff sorted out. I’m sure I’ll be useful,” she added weakly and unconvincingly.

Xander was obviously a hit with my cousin.

“Okay. There’s not masses to do, but you’re very welcome,” I said, giving her a sly, sideways look. “I know Jamie’s busy today, right?”

I wanted Xander to know Esme was spoken for.

“He’s er playing rugby,” she stuttered. She turned to Xander. “Jamie’s my erm, my erm, boyfriend,” she said.