Finn clutched his coffee cup with a vicelike grip; I was afraid the thing might shatter. I understood his nerves, though – the last time we’d had a case involving a book from that section of the library, it had been the Whisperer’s Return. ‘Okay,’ he said after taking in some deep breaths. ‘I’m not freaking out. Yet. Tigger, could she have researched it in the Bad, Bad Books section of the library?’

  The cat gave him a shaky nod. ‘I think she might have, yes. I remember her working there when she was writing this book, because I was trying to have a snooze and a bunch of Bookworms were being really annoying. They woke me up, asking me to get Ariadne to sign books.’

  We all turned to Adeline, who gave a little panicked shriek. ‘What? You think I know which book it could have been? Have any of you seen that section of the library? There are thousands of Bad, Bad Books. I have no idea which one this spell could be in – and even if I did, that doesn’t guarantee that there’d be a counter-spell.’

  ‘Actually, I think it does,’ said Tigger. ‘I might have a Swiss-cheese brain when it comes to the Witch Who Hated …’ His little nose wrinkled up. ‘I want to say holidays? Anyway, I might be forgetful when it comes to this book, but I’m not stupid when it comes to Ariadne. I know my witch. She would never have put a counter-spell in unless one really existed. And we know there was one in her book, because of the ending.’

  ‘Okay, that makes sense.’ Adeline rubbed her forehead. ‘Well I … I suppose I can try to figure out a way to narrow it down. I mean, I could try a summoning spell to find out which book Ariadne based her spell upon, but … I’m really not confident that it would work. Those books are not called the Bad, Bad Books because they’re well-behaved. The chances of them cooperating with me are slim to none.’

  There was a long, strained silence at the table. At some point during that silence, Finn looked my way. I knew exactly what he was thinking, because I was thinking the same myself.

  He drained his coffee. ‘Well then. It’s a good thing that we happen to know someone who’s read some of the darkest books in the world.’

  Melissa groaned. ‘You mean Will Berry, don’t you?’ She shook her head in exasperation. ‘Please don’t be dumb enough to keep consulting him on this, guys. I mean, he could be behind the whole thing, couldn’t he? Becky and Thomas could be working for him. I mean, doesn’t Thomas volunteer as a counsellor at the prison, too? He could have met Will there.’

  I shook my head. ‘That’s impossible. Will never gets to leave his cell – and I’ve seen his visitor log, so I know that Thomas was never in contact with him.’

  ‘Fine,’ Melissa relented. ‘But please promise me that you’ll only use Will as a last resort. Because if you ask me, this has his name written all over it.’

  ‘It might do,’ Finn said with a shrug. ‘I don’t think so, but nothing is impossible. That’s why we’re now going to question Thomas and Becky again. Who knows? Maybe this’ll be our lucky day, and they’ll come clean and tell us absolutely everything we need to know.’

  19. The Best Halloween Ever

  ‘So.’ Finn paced the interrogation room, hands clasped behind his back. ‘You really didn’t like your sister, did you Becky?’

  Becky sniffed. ‘Well, I hated her about as much as anyone hates their prettier, more successful sister. But that’s perfectly natural.’

  ‘Is it?’ I felt my nose wrinkle up. ‘I know a whole lot of gals who are prettier and more successful than me, and I don’t hate them for it. Look, Becky, time is ticking on. We know you killed your sister. What we want to know is why.’

  She picked up her tea, slurping noisily and saying nothing.

  ‘Look, you might as well come clean,’ said Finn. ‘We know you were there. We’ve placed you at the precise area of the room where your sister was strangled, thanks to aura-matching technology. We know you weren’t watching Witch Wars when you said you were. And, lest I forget the most important details – there are traces of your Eau de Mort perfume and your Tragic Black nail polish on your sister’s neck.’

  I watched Becky’s expression – before we’d come in here together to interview her, Finn had briefed me on what Paul and Shane had found. It was rare to have this much proof against a suspect. It was true that if this were a spur of the moment crime, maybe she wouldn’t have been thinking about all the clues she was leaving behind. Even so, I would have expected her to look far more worried about what we had found. Becky looked much, much calmer than the last time we’d spoken.

  She drank her tea right to the end, put down the empty cup, and then said, ‘That could have been from when I hugged her. Tightly. With my hands around her neck.’ She rolled her eyes and let out a groan that sounded almost humorous. ‘Oh, I can’t keep up with this farce! You got me, guys!’ She held up her hands. ‘I did it. I killed my stupid sister Cecily. But anyone would have, in my position. She was horrible.’

  I couldn’t force myself to argue about that. I waited a beat or two, hoping that now she’d begun to talk, more of her confession would follow. Instead she just sat there, looking around her and smiling with amusement.

  ‘It doesn’t really matter what her personality was like, does it?’ I said finally. ‘It doesn’t give you the right to go killing people.’ I glanced down at her file. ‘You’ve recently started to retrain as a healer, Becky. You even volunteer with Helpful Healers, going in to prisons and orphanages to give free medical care. That’s admirable. But it’s also something that doesn’t easily match up with the things you’ve done. I mean, what about the Healer’s Oath – isn’t one of the things you swear to uphold “First, Try Not to Kill Anybody”?’

  Becky’s face was placid. ‘What can I say? I was driven to it by a combination of her personality and her relationship with Thomas.’

  ‘Really?’ Finn sat down, kicking his feet up on the table and leaning back in his chair. ‘So you weren’t driven to it by the fact that Cecily figured out what you and Thomas were up to, then?’

  She let out a light tinkle of laughter. ‘What? Me and Thomas aren’t up to anything. No sinister spells. No dodgy dealings. Nothing. I swear to the Triple-Form Goddess.’ She grinned. ‘You believe me, don’t you? Sweet, innocent, little old me?’

  I cradled my chin in my hands. ‘No. I don’t. Although it’s interesting that you should mention sinister spells, Becky. Because there was a very sinister spell in the book Cecily found at your flat, wasn’t there? The Ariadne Albright manuscript – a book that you were not supposed to have. Did you and Thomas use this book for inspiration, by any chance?’

  There was a long, quiet moment, finally interrupted by the loudest, most crazed laugh I had ever heard. Becky would have put the Society of Cacklers to shame. Her laugh stretched on, and on, and on …

  When Finn and I began to shuffle in our chairs, her laugh came to a sudden, abrupt stop. ‘Fine,’ she said with a smile that was even more disturbing than the laugh. ‘To be honest, I can only put up with you two idiots asking me dumb questions for so long. So let’s bring this to a close, shall we? Yes. The answer is one hundred percent, categorically yes. Thomas and I are working together. I killed Cecily, just like I told you – but he’s the one who told me to do it. And the reason he wanted me to kill her was because she figured out what you idiots are just now beginning to cotton on to.’

  ‘You did use the book, didn’t you?’ Finn’s voice was hoarse.

  ‘Good goddess! Haven’t I just said as much? Look, I’ll fill in the gaps, if I absolutely must. Thomas was the one who brought the book to me, originally – I did say he recommended some amazing reading material, didn’t I? I just didn’t tell you about this particular book, because we still weren’t finished everything we needed to do. That novel really helped me, I can tell you – it helped Thomas and me with our grief. I mean, who would have thought a story written by his idiot wife Ariadne could actually be in any way decent, let alone as wonderful as that?’

  She let out an airy sigh. ‘I still remember how I felt the day he brought the manuscript to me. It was as though the book and I were meant to find one another. And Thomas felt the same. When Cecily found it at my flat she went a little bit mad – first with me, then with Thomas. She kept going on and on and on about how Ariadne warned her about this book. It was ever so dangerous, she said.’

  Becky rubbed her hands together. ‘Well, duh! Of course it’s dangerous. All the best things are. So as you can see, I had no choice but to kill my sister. For one thing, she was going to come and tell you people that Thomas and I had begun the spell. For another, she was just plain annoying – if anyone deserved to be murdered, it was Cecily. So we divided up the tasks – I agreed to kill her, mainly because I really wanted to get my hands around her uppity, arrogant neck and squeeze the life out of her. And Thomas agreed to burn the book that I took from her bag after I’d done the deadly deed. He ran off to Ariadne’s to do it – he thought it’d be fitting. He likes things to have a sense of poetry to them, you know.’

  She looked gleefully at us both. ‘And of course, the next question you’ll want to ask me is how far along we got with the spell. You’ll be wondering if we have all three offerings – because obviously, a childless weirdo like Ariadne Albright couldn’t possibly count. Well, you’d be right about that. Ariadne hasn’t taken the same potion as the others. She’s been given a very strong Sleeping Beauty potion. Oh, and if you’re thinking of trying to wake her to find out the counter-spell for the others, I wouldn’t. She’ll wake up when this is all over and done with. A moment before, and she’ll die a quick but extremely painful death.’

  Finn and I both sat forward, staring at her. ‘You’re acting awfully cocky here, Becky Fox,’ Finn told her through narrowed eyes. ‘But maybe you just don’t have an especially good grasp of this spell. Because for one thing, you need three offerings. And for another, you and Thomas would need to be at the Witches’ Graveyard on Thursday night.’ He folded his arms, giving her a cold smile. ‘And that, Miss Becky, is never going to happen.’

  Another one of those strange, long laughs came from her. When this one subsided, she looked more deadly than ever. ‘Oh, is that so Mister Policeman? Well, let me tell you something – we do have three offerings in place. We’ve also taken steps to ensure that the spell will be completed, even with us both behind bars. So do your worst, Wayfarers. Because it doesn’t matter. You’ve already lost and there’s not a thing you can do about it. This Halloween is going to be the best Halloween ever.’

  At those words, I began to shiver. ‘So you’re willing to turn the entire world upside down just to bring your mother back? Can’t you see how selfish that is? You’ve taken Veronica and Hailey away from people who love them.’

  Her jaw grew tight. ‘Why should I care about them? Thomas and I are grieving. You have no idea what that’s like – to want someone back so much that you’d do anything to make it happen.’

  ‘Becky, I thought my father was dead for years,’ I told her. ‘And believe me, I grieved. So I do know what it’s like. But I also know that this won’t end well. Do you even realise what this spell will do? Your loved one might stick around in this forever Halloween of yours, but it won’t be all sweetness and lollipops. It’ll be night forever. No one will die again. No one new will ever be born. Do you really think that’s what your mother would want?’

  She gave me a half-smirk. ‘I see you never met my mother, then.’

  ‘Fair enough,’ I said. ‘But it won’t do you much good in the end, will it? Because even if your mother does get to walk the earth forever, you won’t get to see her. You’ll be stuck in prison.’ I sighed. ‘Becky, it’s not too late to stop this. Who knows? If you cooperate, the judge is much more likely to give you a shorter sentence.’

  ‘True enough.’ Finn gave her a curt nod. ‘We can even make it part of a deal, put it in writing if you want. We need to stop this eternal Halloween before it begins, Becky. So if you tell us how to counter your spell, we’ll make sure you get special consideration.’

  She stroked her chin thoughtfully. ‘Hmm. Special consideration, you say? You know, I might be swayed by that, if I didn’t know exactly how things were going to go down on Thursday night.’ She let out another of her cackling laughs, before turning a venomous smirk our way. ‘You really think that in this Halloween world, the Wayfarers will have any say in what happens to me?’ She cackled again. ‘As if! Darkness is going to rule over you all. It won’t be people like me who need to watch their backs.’

  She sat back, closing her eyes. ‘Now, are you going to let me return to my holding cell or what?’

  20. A Great Big Jar of Nutbutter

  We sat in Finn’s office with Paul, who had just finished searching the publishing house’s computers for traces of the deleted files.

  ‘I came up with nothing,’ he said, through a mouthful of Stinking Warlock on crackers. ‘It’s just like Ariadne’s own computer. And I’m not tooting my own horn here, but I can normally retrieve most things. It seems to me like there’s some magic involved, except it’s a magic that’s managed to leave no trace behind.’

  ‘Like with the missing pages!’ Tigger piped up. He was playing with the paperclips on Finn’s desk, trying to get Jewel (Finn’s familiar) to join in. ‘Dee Dee wouldn’t have lost them. Bookworms might spill stuff on books, and dog-ear them sometimes, but they would never, ever lose part of a story. And no one else could have gotten into that section. So how did those pages disappear?’

  ‘You’re right,’ I agreed, throwing a paperclip his way and watching as he pounced on it with a manic meow.

  While Tigger was playing, the door to Finn’s office was pushed open, and Gretel and Shane walked in.

  ‘How did round two go?’ Finn asked.

  Gretel chuckled darkly. ‘Oh, it was a whole lot of fun.’

  She and Shane had interviewed Thomas Flowers twice this morning. The first time, he stuck to his original story – that he was burning the book because Cecily insisted it had to be destroyed, according to Ariadne’s wishes. He said he was doing it in Cecily’s memory. But once they learned what Becky told us, Gretel and Shane headed in once more.

  ‘He completely changed everything he told us in interview one,’ said Shane with a shake of his head. ‘I mean, I don’t get to question people often but … is it always this ridiculous? One second he’s sticking to his guns, the next he’s telling us an equally unbelievable pile of crap. He now says that he burned the book in a panic, because when he was in the loo at Three Witches Brew, it suddenly appeared in his jacket pocket.’

  He pointed to the HVR machine, and hit Play. Immediately, I found myself watching the holovisual recording of Gretel’s and Shane’s interview with Thomas. I hated looking at HVRs. The people were in 3D – so real that, if you played it at full size, it felt as though they were in the room. In this holovision, I could even see the sweat that ran down Thomas’s forehead.

  ‘I swear,’ Thomas was saying. ‘It’s like the book just … appeared. And I panicked, all right? I admit it, I panicked, and I was stupid. Because the first thing I thought was that Becky had gone and killed her sister, and she was trying to frame me.’

  The holovision of Gretel wrinkled her nose. ‘Convenient conclusion to leap to, Thomas.’

  ‘You wouldn’t say that if you knew Becky. See, Cecily had accused me of giving this book to Becky, only I didn’t. I swear I didn’t. And when I stormed out of the meeting room, I could smell Becky’s Eau de Mort perfume. I knew she was lurking. Then, when the manuscript turned up in my pocket, I came to the correct conclusion. Becky’s killed her sister, and she’s trying to frame me. I don’t know why, except she’s – as Cecily’s familiar would say – a great big jar of nutbutter. But I sensed it. I knew it the second that manuscript turned up in my pocket. It would put me right at the scene, even though I did nothing. So I went into self-preservation mode. I teleported the manuscript to Ariadne’s, and figured I’d deal with it later.’

  His head went into his hands, and he sighed. ‘I’ve gone and done it now, haven’t I? I’ve helped that crazy Becky to set myself up. Even though I’m just an innocent, caring man.’

  Shane turned off the recording. ‘He wouldn’t say anymore after that. What do you think? Is he just an innocent, caring man?’

  ‘Well, he’s not humble,’ I said. ‘And I really doubt he cares about anything except his own needs. But … I don’t know about innocent. He’s certainly taking a different course to Becky, that’s for sure. She acts like she doesn’t have a care in the world. And the way she admitted to killing Cecily was just crazy. It’s like she had no feelings about it whatsoever.’

  Vix had been curled up on a chair in the corner, but she turned to glower at us now. ‘That’s because she didn’t do it. She’s obviously covering for someone to throw you off the scent.’ The fox sprang from the chair and grabbed the chicken sandwich Finn had been about to eat.

  ‘She could be right,’ said Gretel. ‘Now that Becky’s been arrested and owned up to the murder, shouldn’t Vix be joining Cecily in the afterlife?’

  Vix finished Finn’s sandwich in three big gulps, before giving us all a haughty smile. ‘Exactly. Becky didn’t kill her sister. She would never do that. Despite what she said, Becky worshipped the ground Cecily walked on. Everyone did, because Cecily was brilliant. And Becky … Becky …’ Vix quivered and shook her head. ‘What was I saying? I … I … I feel rather sleepy. And cold. And …’

  With that, she dropped to the ground, dead.

  ‘Well then,’ said Finn. ‘I think that answers one question.’ He let out a shuddering, worried breath. ‘I guess em … I guess we’ll bring Vix to be with her witch. Then Ronnie wants you to run through a test in the lab with her, Wanda – she wants to check that Becky is telling the truth about what happens if we wake Ariadne. But after that, I think it’s time we went and paid a visit to our last resort at Witchfield.’