‘Kidnapped? Wow. Did you call the Wayfarers?’

  She let out a loud guffaw and slapped her thigh. ‘Hah! Good one, Ned. No, I did what we all do around here. I made my own enquiries. I went to the Rusty Warlock and asked his drinking buddies, then I popped into the casino and asked his gambling buddies. I even went to the pawn shop and asked his business buddies.’ She put air quotes around the pawn shop. Our local pawn shop was well-known as one of the many places where stolen goods were traded.

  She shuddered. ‘I actually think I might have been followed, too. It was incredibly creepy. This just isn’t like Marlon, you know. No one knows where he is. And I mean, I know we’ve only been together a little while, but he wouldn’t just disappear like that.’

  ‘Marlon?’ My heart began to thud. ‘That’s not Marlon White by any chance?’

  ‘Why?’ Alison’s voice sounded numb, as if she already suspected the worst. ‘Have you heard something?’

  ‘Oh, Alison,’ I said. ‘I have some bad news.’

  12. Let the Hat Out of the Bag

  After my talk with Alison, I wanted chocolate more than ever. She had rushed into my arms with such a force that she knocked my bag from my arms and sent Cleo careening to the corner of the room. While Alison cried on my shoulder, some of her creepy staff picked up my things, continuing to pay me far too much attention all the while.

  When Alison had calmed down (somewhat) she went off to the Wayfarers to demand to know more about Marlon, and I had come away from the Foul Factory feeling a strange sense of foreboding.

  I felt steps behind me as I rushed to the other side of the Unhallowed Ground, but I couldn’t see anyone when I turned around. In an enclave filled with magic, it was possible they were using a spell to conceal themselves – either that, or I was paranoid.

  I dashed into Dolly’s Café, where I bought a chocolate cupcake for myself and a chocolate raspberry cake for Hamish. The rain came out of nowhere as I was in the café, so I stuffed my portion into my mouth and called Hamish to ask him to meet me for lunch, then clicked my fingers and, with Cleo huddled beneath one arm and my zombie ash and cake beneath the other, I headed to the pub known as the Bank.

  I couldn’t see Hamish anywhere when I arrived, so I took a seat at the bar as Cullen approached.

  ‘You look kind of down, if you don’t mind me saying,’ he said, with an order-pad in hand. ‘I know you got a breakfast visit from my amazing girlfriend this morning. She came to see me for a while beforehand. Didn’t the two of you have fun?’

  ‘It was great,’ I told him. ‘It really cheered me up. But since then I’ve had irritating customers and general weirdness to deal with. Hey, has you know who approached you about the you know what?’

  He rolled his eyes and leaned closer to me. ‘You mean has Captain Finn Plimpton, leader of Major Crimes with the Wayfarers, asked me to stick my nose into what happened to Marlon White? You betcha. But he knows the score. I’m busy running this place now, so no more undercover work for me unless my girlfriend’s involved. And seeing as currently, Katy is teaching a bunch of other hunters how not to kill every single witch they come across, that means I’m out, too. Y’know, I’m surprised they only gave her two weeks for the task. Those other hunters are kind of … fervent.’

  Cleo sighed. ‘This is all very interesting, but it’s not going to bring me my food any quicker, is it? I’ll have your fish and chips without the batter or the chips, please. Hamish will have straight up fish and chips – and an extra piece of un-battered fish so he can pass it my way. Ned will have a chicken salad with extra chicken, but you can put her extra chicken on my plate. She’ll have a glass of white wine, because she needs it. Hamish’ll have some wine, too. He probably doesn’t need it, but we all know he likes to day drink.’

  ‘Yes ma’am. I’ll go and fetch your order right away, ma’am.’ Cullen gave my cat a small salute, turned on his heels and headed into the kitchen. A moment later, Hamish arrived.

  After he escaped my enormous hug, he sat down, caught his breath, and said, ‘So. You said it was important?’

  Now that I had him here, I felt hesitant to tell him why. I already knew he was busy with settling back into college life, and his relationship with Eva, and that he had far too much work going on to be able to help find out what happened to Marlon. But if I was going to take this on by myself, I’d need to know more about Marlon.

  Cleo prodded me with a paw. ‘Go on, Ned – let the hat out of the bag!’

  As I finally did so, Hamish smiled fondly.

  ‘My brown hat!’ he exclaimed. ‘It’s funny, even though I don’t need to wear hats anymore, my head sometimes feels kind of naked without them. I mean, I only really used powerful objects to channel from when I couldn’t use a wand – y’know, because I was stuck as a dog.’ He paused to scratch behind his ear. One of his legs twitched a little as he did so, as though in memory of when it was the limb he scratched with most.

  Cullen dropped off our food and rushed away again after a quick greeting to Hamish. When he was gone, I said, ‘You bought it from Marlon White, didn’t you?’

  Hamish began to eat. ‘Aye, I did,’ he replied between bites. ‘And I’ve only just heard about his murder this morning. I cannae believe it. I wish Katy were here to get to the bottom of it, I really do. Marlon might have spent his life dealing in stolen goods, but he wasn’t a bad fella.’

  ‘No, he wasn’t,’ I agreed, starting on my salad. ‘Hey, did you know he was dating Alison Fouler from the Foul Factory?’

  ‘I did, as it happens. I was over at his place a couple of weeks ago, looking through some …’ He cleared his throat, ‘… some objects of arguable origin, and I met Alison there. They seemed happy.’

  ‘Well, she only just found out this morning that he’s dead,’ I said. ‘And I was the one who had to tell her. She em … she asked if you and Katy could investigate, because she doesn’t trust the law. But I told her it’s probably not possible right now.’

  Hamish had finished his lunch (he was a fast eater) and he moved on to his cake. ‘Well, it’s not the ideal time, no. I know a lot of Marlon’s contacts, though, so I’ll ask around and see if I can sniff out anything helpful. But what about you? You seem … I dunno … you’ve got a strange energy about you, Ned. Antsy.’

  I took a large gulp of wine before saying, ‘Yeah, I guess I am kind of antsy. Tell me about when you bought the hat from Marlon. Was he offering you other stuff at the time?’

  He frowned. ‘No. No, like all of the dealers in the enclave, he knew I was only really interested in hats or magical material I could turn into a hat at the time. He told me it belonged to an incredibly powerful witch, and there was a lot of latent power that I could channel from it. But there wasnae. It was one of the most lacklustre hats I’ve ever had. I liked the look of it, though.’

  ‘You didn’t try it before you bought it?’

  ‘Well no, because Marlon wasn’t the kind to lie.’

  Cleo sniggered. ‘Listen, I liked Marlon too. But he dealt in stolen goods. Of course he was the kind to lie.’

  ‘Not stolen goods. Objects of arguable origin. And if he ever did lie, it wouldn’t be to anyone from Samhain Street,’ Hamish insisted. ‘I thought maybe he just got it wrong about the hat, so I decided to let it go.’

  ‘Well, maybe he didn’t get it wrong about the hat belonging to a powerful witch.’ I was still clutching the hat, reluctant to slide it across the bar. ‘Because as it happens, it was once my father’s.’

  Hamish’s eyes widened. ‘You don’t say! Well, you must keep it then, Ned. My stars, I wonder how it got to be in Marlon’s possession. He really wasn’t a thief, you know. A buyer and seller, a middle man, but never a thief.’

  ‘No,’ I said. ‘But my sister was. It seems that Angelica might have stolen this along with a bunch of other stuff my dad meant to leave to me. How it got into Marlon’s hands, I don’t know. I’m going to Witchfield to talk to her about it this afternoon. I’m kind of afraid of what I might find out, actually. Because, well … the hat was part of a whole set and it’s … well, it’s …’

  As I struggled for words, Cleo gave me a look of irritation. ‘You made a million excuses about why you didn’t tell Katy about this,’ she said. ‘And not a single one makes sense. Tell Hamish the full story, Ned. And be quick about it.’

  After another slug of wine, I did as my cat ordered (she was, after all, my boss) and told Hamish everything.

  ‘Well, I’ll be a son of a human!’ He shook his head in shock. ‘You know, I know you don’t want to hear this, but Shane might be right. He’s a good guy, you know that. If he thinks that stuff needs a more thorough vetting, then maybe it does. Maybe you ought to get a check-up, too.’

  I gritted my teeth. I knew perfectly well that Shane was a nice guy to everyone but me. And something about that was, well, kind of embarrassing. He went out of his way for people. He was friendly, and charming. It was only me he treated with contempt, and I didn’t want to hand my things back over to someone who seemed to loathe me. I definitely didn’t want him giving me a check-up, either. I fixed a bright smile upon my face and said, ‘I’ll wait to see what Angelica says, first.’

  ‘Aye.’ Hamish sighed. ‘Well, you know best, I suppose. But I don’t like the sound of what happened to you. I wish Shane would have told me about it. Look, if you don’t want to give the Infernal Artefacts back over to the Wayfarers, fair enough. But maybe you ought to leave the stuff alone until Katy and me can work on it with you. I’ll have some free time by Halloween, and Katy’ll be back then, too. Just … shelve it all until then, all right? It’s not safe to be messing about with this sort of thing without help, and you know it.’

  As I finished my wine I really wished I could have another, but I had far too much to do for the rest of the day, and being drunk wouldn’t help matters.

  ‘Hamish, Marlon is dead,’ I said. ‘And the missing knife from the Infernal Artefacts could have been the murder weapon. I’d love nothing more than to wait – or to forget about it altogether – but the longer I do, the longer Marlon’s killer gets away with it.’

  ‘I know.’ His face was grave. ‘I wish I could go see that sister of yours with you this afternoon, I really do. But I’ll ask around about Marlon like I said, and just … be careful, Ned. We really don’t know what we’re dealing with.’

  Once again, I gave him a bright smile. ‘Of course.’

  ‘Well, speak of the divil.’ Hamish nodded across the bar. ‘There’s Shane now, at the exchange counter. I’d better go and have a word with him before I leave.’

  Hamish gave me a quick hug, and rushed away to greet his friend.

  13. The Anniversary of When We First Met

  The Bank was so named for a reason. To the left of the main bar there was a small counter where money could be exchanged – human currency for supernatural, and vice versa. The Bank gave better exchange rates than the actual banks, so even people from other enclaves tended to come here to convert their money.

  While Shane made his way through the queue, and he and Hamish chatted, I did my best not to look over. Something about the stubborn set of Shane’s jaw told me he didn’t want to acknowledge me, either.

  ‘Good, then,’ I mumbled, wishing I hadn’t already eaten my chocolate cupcake and finished my wine.

  ‘What’s that?’ Cleo looked up from her plate. There wasn’t much left on it, but she was determined not to waste a morsel.

  ‘Nothing.’

  ‘Oh? So you weren’t annoyed that Shane Moore is heading our way, then?’

  I snapped my head up, saw that Cleo was correct, and then (because I’m such a grown-up) I buried my head in my hands.

  ‘You know,’ said Shane behind me, ‘I would have figured that if you wanted to pretend you weren’t here, you might have at least gone for an invisibility spell instead of the old if I can’t see him, he can’t see me trick.’

  Crap. As I peeled my head out of my hands in shame, I could see my face reflected in the mirror behind the bar. It was red. Very, very red.

  Cleo had vaulted from the bar onto my lap as Shane approached, and now she dug her nails into my thighs. ‘Do you want me to scratch him?’

  ‘What?’ I lifted her back onto the bar. ‘Like you’re already scratching me?’

  ‘Ah, but I give you loving attention from my nails. Shane will receive something very different.’

  ‘Well, either way, no. Don’t scratch him.’

  ‘I am still here, you know,’ Shane reminded us.

  Behind me, I could hear a whole lot of whispering. As a Wayfarer, Shane was far from popular around here. If I spent too long chatting with him, people would start to talk. I turned to him, about to tell him as much, but I stopped short when I noticed the dark rings beneath his eyes.

  ‘You look awful,’ I told him.

  ‘Gee, thanks.’

  ‘I mean … you look tired,’ I amended. ‘Are you all right?’

  ‘Are you serious, Ned? Yesterday morning you died on my office floor, and you’re asking me if I’m all right? No, I’m not all right. I’m bloody worried about you, so I am.’

  ‘Oh. Well, I’m fine. So um … exchanging money, I see?’

  ‘Yup. My lease just ran out on a flat I was renting in the human world, so I decided to move back into the enclaves again.’

  ‘Oh, that’s nice,’ I replied. I had no idea if it was actually nice from his perspective or not, and I didn’t care to ask.

  Cleo snorted. ‘Good small-talk, Ned. Next of all you’ll be asking him if he walked here in the rain.’

  I glanced at Shane’s soaking wet jacket, and his dripping black hair. ‘I mean … did you? Walk here? In the rain?’

  He sighed and sat into a seat and called out, ‘Coffee please,’ to Cullen. When the drink was quickly set in front of him, he added some milk and said, ‘You like to bury your head in your hands instead of actually disappear. I like to walk instead of using magic to get around.’ He patted the front pocket of his jacket, where I could see a plain-looking wand sticking out. ‘The truth is, my wand is more than up to the job, but I’ve just never been any good at travelling spells.’

  ‘Really? But you’re clearly good at channelling magic, otherwise you wouldn’t be working for the Wayfarers as a healer.’

  He shrugged. ‘Well, like I told you before, I never really cared about magic. You know all about how I grew up as an unempowered witch, and how I trained as a doctor in the human world. You know that I only decided to learn wizardry and how to channel when I almost lost a patient and decided to get over myself. Plus, well … I had those other reasons I told you about, too.’

  I touched my forehead, wondering if I were suffering from some sort of feverish hallucination. He seemed to think I knew things about him that I definitely didn’t know. Had I been more out of it yesterday than I believed?

  ‘Em … yeah,’ I bluffed. ‘I … I do know about those other reasons. It’s … awful?’

  ‘What’s awful, exactly?’ His face twitched with irritation. ‘You think it’s pathetic that I’m not into magic for magic’s sake, don’t you? That I save it for healing? Even though you know everything that happened with me and my sister, and how it put me off the entire supernatural world for a really long time. Well, I don’t really care if you think it’s pathetic, Ned. And let’s face it, it’s not as if everything that happened with you and me was going to change my mind about life in the enclaves, now was it?’

  Okay, the time for bluffing had come to an end. What was he talking about? ‘Listen, Shane, I think that you and I are talking at cross purposes here. Is this … is this something you told me yesterday when I was feeling faint, or …?’

  ‘What?’ His brow furrowed. ‘Why do you look so confused, Ned? You’re not all right, are you? Crap. I should have done more than just call you last night and this morning.’

  ‘You called me? Oh.’ I felt myself turning red again. ‘You might have been calling the fake number that I filled in on the form. Possibly.’ I cleared my throat. ‘Years of not giving details to the law doesn’t just go away in a blink, you know. Why were you calling me, anyway? It’s not as if we parted on good terms.’

  ‘Oh my stars.’ He shook his head in frustration. ‘You’re crazy, do you know that? It wouldn’t matter if you’d beaten me black and blue yesterday, Ned. I’m a healer. It’s kind of my job to give a crap if somebody dies in front of me. I almost talked to my boss about it, but I knew that would just rile you up even more, so I hoped I could appeal to your sanity and ask you to let me run some tests so I can be sure you’re all right.’

  ‘You know, when you say you’re appealing to my sanity, it makes it seem as though you think I’m insane not to want to go near you again. Good way to win me over, Healer Moore. Not quite as much of an insult as yesterday, when you called me a necromancer, an idiot, bigheaded and stubborn. Well, you know what? Even if I am all of those things, I’m also perfectly healthy, and anything else is none of your business. So why don’t you just run along and get yourself far away from this ever-so-foul enclave and its ever-so-flawed residents?’

  His jaw sawed, and he stared at me. ‘Nedina Marvin, dismissing me once again like I don’t exist. I don’t even know why I’m surprised.’

  I stared back at him, seething with anger and confusion. ‘You … you … I’m not dismissing you like you don’t exist. I’m responding to you being, once again, really, really mean to me. Why do you hate me, Shane? Why are you so nice to everyone else, and such a prat to me? What have I ever done to you, huh? Because you and all of your colleagues ought to know by now that I’m not some big, bad necromancer. So if it’s not that, then what is it?’

  ‘You can’t be serious.’ He shook his head. ‘Look, I don’t hate you, Ned. I barely even think of you. But it does get on my nerves just a little bit to see you act like you have no idea why I might not like you. I mean, come on, it’s practically the ten-year anniversary of when we first met.’