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

here, but I can assure you that our female agents do as good a job as our male agents. If we can just stick to the case and find Angelica and the murderer, I would very much appreciate it. I wouldn’t want to have to involve UK headquarters—Angelica is one of their top agents. If they think you’ve botched things up, they might just convince the powers that be to take away funding for your branch.”

Wow, Will was getting serious. He wasn’t usually into threats… well, at least not that I’d seen. And how did that work anyway, with the international agencies? I knew funding for the UK arm was being squeezed, but did funding for other countries’ agencies come from different sources?

Agent Tondato didn’t say anything, but he gave a nod, his face pinched. Right, hopefully we’d be on track to get this place searched. The worry worm in my stomach kept burrowing. We needed to find Angelica today. “Can we move that cabinet and search in there?”

Will turned and looked at me. “Of course.” He turned back to the filing cabinet, and his magic tickled my skull. The cabinet disappeared, then reappeared in the opposite corner of the office. Agent Tondato gave Will an annoyed look—he’d been going through that filing cabinet. The Italian agent stood and pushed his wheeled chair to the other side of the room to continue exploring the cabinet’s contents.

I smiled at Will. “Thank you.”

“My pleasure.” Will placed his hand on his stomach and half bowed. He turned, went to the door, and tried the knob. It was locked. Another tingle of his magic, and the knob turned. My heart thudded, the beat playing in my ears. Was Angelica behind there? He donned a return to sender and opened the door, all of us staring at it… waiting. The urge to bite my fingernails was strong.

Darkness filled the doorframe. Will felt around on the other side of the wall, then click. Light shone from the room. Agent Tondato, maybe satisfied that nothing was going to come through that door, turned back to the drawer he was going through. That suited me—now I could join Will in the other room and take some photos.

Will slipped into the room. Imani and I followed. Once we were away from Tondato’s critical gaze, I slid my phone out and brought up the camera app. Before I asked anything, I gazed around the windowless space. The floor was the same orangey-brown terrazzo as the rest of the hotel. Another filing cabinet sat in one corner, next to a row of boxes piled two high that ran the length of one wall. The musty and slightly pungent odour of damp thickened the air.

Will turned to Imani. “If you can look for any magic signatures, that would be great. I’m going to look for any physical signs, and our little Aussie can do her thing.”

I saluted. “Yes, sir!” He rolled his eyes. I smirked. He hated when I pretended to obey him. Time to get to work. I lifted my phone and drew magic. “Show me Angelica,” I whispered. Might as well get straight to the point.

I sucked in a breath. My stomach plunged. She lay on a dirty mattress in front of the boxes, eyes closed, hands and feet bound. Was she still alive? I walked closer and snapped off two shots. Her lips were pink, not blue, and there was no blood that I could see. Hopefully that boded well. I swallowed and lowered the phone before raising it again. “Show me who brought Angelica here.” Nothing. What the hell? “Argh!”

Imani jerked her gaze towards me. “What’s wrong?” Concern laced her voice.

I showed her the photos. “When I asked who did it, no one showed up.”

Will stood behind Imani and looked over her shoulder. He ran a hand through his hair, and his poker face slipped for a moment, revealing the worry underneath. “So, they magicked her here?”

“I guess. Hang on. Let me try something else. If they put her here, they might have also put Mr D here physically rather than magically.” I lifted the camera and whispered, “Show me the last time Mr Dal Lago was here and who he was here with.”

Just like with Angelica, or not quite, he was unconscious or already dead, hands and feet bound, but he was lying on the hard floor rather than a mattress. Whoever killed him, really didn’t like him. Although, if he were already dead, he wouldn’t feel the discomfort of being on the concrete. I took a photo and showed Will and Imani.

“Well, that’s good,” said Imani. “They had a beef with him, but she’s just getting in the way. Maybe she found a clue where they found the old-lady victim?”

I shook my head. “But how would the killer even know what Angelica found? It’s not like she would’ve called or texted anyone.”

Will shrugged. “Maybe Angelica asked our killer a question that made them balk, or maybe the killer was at the scene of the crime, watching the investigators?”

I sighed. “Well, whatever it is, Angelica’s no longer here, so that sucks. Now what?”

Will straightened his shoulders. “We keep looking.”

We left Agent Tondato in the office. Beren got Liv to come down from their room. She and my mother joined us as we went from room to room, until we’d covered all the guest accommodation—for the second time—storage rooms, and offices. But no luck. We reconvened in the hallway outside the office. By then, Agent Tondato had already left, but he hadn’t bothered texting Will to let him know. Had he found anything worthwhile?

Will turned to my mother. “Did you get any info from your chat with the bartender?”

“I don’t know. I just need to ruminate on my conversation with Mrs D’s boyfriend. Most of it was him complaining that even though Mr D is dead, Mrs D won’t commit to being exclusive with him. I asked if she ever promised to leave her husband for him, and