Westerham Witches and a Venetian Vendetta by Dionne Lister (top rated books of all time TXT) 📕

sighed. My first holiday in ages, and now I was going to be banned. Argh! Why did this stuff always happen to me? “I’ll just have to find somewhere else to stay. But you need me to look in other rooms.”

“Maybe. With a bit of luck, we can dig up some more evidence later today. Who knows? We might get enough to figure out where Angelica is.”

“Actually, you should see this. She could be on-site for all we know.” I pulled out my phone and brought up the photos I’d taken. I handed it to Imani. “See that door. I wonder where it leads.”

“Hmm, interesting. But to be fair, there are probably dozens of rooms we haven’t seen. They could’ve put her in a room in the attic.” She handed my phone back and slid hers out of her pocket. “I’m going to call B.” She dialled and put the phone on speaker.

He answered quietly. “Hey, Im. Just a sec.” There was the sound of a chair scraping on concrete, and voices in the background. After a bit, he spoke again, his voice not full volume, but louder than before. “We’re still interviewing the suspect. What’s up?”

“Assuming you end up with probable cause, can you make sure you get a search warrant for the whole building? Lil and I are thinking that Angelica might be somewhere in the hotel.”

“What makes you think that?”

“Well, we have no other leads right now, so that’s where we want to start.”

“Makes sense. Okay. I’ll see what I can do. She’s still denying having anything to do with it, but we’ve matched her magic signature with one of the three we found on him, and he had a life insurance policy of a hundred thousand euros.”

“Oh, wow about the magic signature, not so much about the amount of the insurance. It’s not even enough to pay back Lorenzo.” Yes, it was Imani’s conversation, but I couldn’t help it.

“Hey, Lily. Yes, on both counts. Anyway, was there anything else? I don’t want to miss anything.”

Imani shook her head. “No. That’s it. Oh, Lily almost got busted in the hotel office today. We need to know whether there are video cameras in there or not. If there are, there’s no way she can come back, and Will might get funny looks from the old lady who works there.”

“You talking about Isabella?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, noted. I’ll get back to you when I know something. Bye.”

“Bye.”

I sighed.

“What’s up?”

“I just thought of something. If Mrs D had help, and whoever it is knows she’s being questioned, they might move Angelica if she is there. We need to go back and search now.”

“Dammit. You’re right. I can’t believe I didn’t think of that.” She jammed her teeth together and squeezed her eyes shut for a moment. She opened them and blew out a big breath. “I think being on holiday has dulled my edges.”

“So how are we going to do this without getting arrested?”

“Let me think.” She sat in the chair, leaned back, and got comfortable, then stared at the wall.

Hmm, were the squirrels outside, just a few feet away right now? Had Imani brought the key? Maybe I could go and have a little hangout with them? If only I could understand squirrel speak—they might be able to help us sort this out. I slapped my hands together. That was it! “Hey, Cinnamon and Bagel! You could take them to the hotel, and they could get into the rooms without anyone noticing.”

She quickly sat up straight. “You’re a genius!” She stood. “Next stop, your brother’s place.”

I dialled James’s number. “Hey, boofhead.”

“Hello to you too. What’s up? Any news on Angelica?”

“Um, things aren’t going too well. We haven‘t found her yet. It’s actually why I’m calling. I need Millicent and the rats.”

“Dare I ask why?”

“We think they might be hiding her in the hotel, so we need to look in every room. We don’t actually know she’s there, but just in case. And the rats are the perfect small creatures to do that without alerting anyone.”

“Okay. I’ll let Mill know—she’s working a case out in the field today.”

“This is urgent. We were hoping to go to your place and grab the rats and Millicent right now. We only have about an hour, maybe less before they potentially move her.”

“Struth, Lily. You don’t make things easy.”

“It’s not my fault. Jeez.”

“I know. Sorry. Anyway, let me go, and I’ll get onto Mill ASAP. If I haven’t heard back from her in five, I’ll let you know. Just wait in my reception room.”

“Okay, thanks. Bye.” I explained everything to Imani.

“Fingers crossed, then, love.”

“Yep. Let’s go.”

We made our doorways and stepped into James’s reception room. I knocked on the door on the off-chance Millicent had ducked home for lunch or to use the toilet. There was nothing worse than having to go in a public toilet. A dog barked and scratched on the other side of the door. “Hey, buddy. It’s just Lily.”

Imani sat on the love seat. “Looks like she’s not home. Do her dogs know how to open the door?”

“I thought I’d try… just in case, and no, they don’t.”

“Miss Impatient. Now we have to listen to that.” The dog kept barking, and another one joined him. Now both my brother’s dogs were in on it.

“Oops. Sorry.” Just so I wouldn’t create more havoc, I sat next to Imani, out of the way in case Millicent stepped through. My phone dinged with a message. I looked at my screen. “It’s from Millicent. She can get here soon—she just has to find somewhere private to travel from.” I tapped my foot on the ground and tried to tune the barking out. They were loud. My toe tapping didn’t work. Funny that. I raised my voice to be heard over the dogs. “Wanna play I spy?”

Imani threw me an unimpressed gaze. “Are you serious? There’s like five things in here.”

“We could pretend we’re in the bar at the hotel and do stuff that was in there.”

“Has