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

Will’s gaze. “Why was that other woman murdered? Why did Lorenzo lie about where he was that night? Where is Angelica, and why did someone take her? And what is all that drama with Francesco and Isabella?”

Imani, who was sitting opposite me, next to Mum, furrowed her brow. “Gee, love, when you put it like that, we might as well pull up stumps and go home.”

“I’m not saying that. It’s just…. We need to do more, think harder. I’d like to sneak back to Lorenzo’s factory and take more photos. There were parts of the property we didn’t have access to.”

Lavender dabbed his mouth with his cloth napkin. “Does he live there?”

“No,” said Will. “When he was initially a suspect, they inspected his apartment and found no evidence of anything untoward.”

I rested my fork on my bowl. “Seriously? Does this mean we have another place to check out? We can’t leave anything unexplored. If only this had happened in the UK.” Or, rather, if only this hadn’t happened at all. My shoulders slumped.

Beren’s eyes radiated understanding. “I know, Lily, but it didn’t, and we’re just going to have to deal. But I have faith in us, and Angelica would too.” Yeah, that was if she was still alive. I didn’t voice what everyone was likely thinking—it would serve no purpose except to depress everyone further. Except, we hadn’t found her made into glass anywhere, so that gave me hope, and I would cling to that hope until I knew otherwise.

I tapped my fingers on the table, then sat up straighter. “What if we waited until dark tonight and checked out his factory; then tomorrow, when he’s at work, we break into his apartment?”

My mother stared at me. “You can’t break into someone’s home, Lily. That’s illegal.”

“Angelica’s life is in massive danger. What happened to your adventurous spirit, Mum? I’d be happy to risk jail time to look for evidence. What if he’s since moved her there? Maybe she was still in that room behind the office, and after he was sure the police were done with his apartment, he sent her there?”

“If he’s the guilty party.” My mother took a deep breath. “Look, Lily, I’m sorry I can’t be happy for you to jump into something that could land you in jail. Being locked up is no picnic.” A haunted look invaded her eyes.

“Argh! I’m so sorry. I know you’ve suffered, but this is different. At least if I’m incarcerated, you guys can still visit. Besides, I’ve done jail time before. Relieving myself in front of people wasn’t much fun, I’ll admit, but I can handle it.”

My mother’s mouth fell open. “What?! Why were you in jail?” I briefly explained what had happened when I’d first gone to Westerham to help look for James. She gave Will and Beren dirty looks. “How could you not trust Lily? What’s wrong with you lot?”

Will swallowed. “Um…. We didn’t not trust her, but we hardly knew her. We were just doing our jobs. To be fair, Angelica was running the show. You might want to have a word with her too.”

“Mum, it’s fine. It’s water under the bridge. The point is, I’d risk that to save Angelica. We can’t afford to muck around.”

“How do we know she hasn’t already been turned to glass?” Liv asked. My stomach dropped.

Imani placed her fork on her plate. “Because whoever it was would’ve displayed her somewhere by now. The only thing we should be worried about is if they chose to just kill her the normal way.”

“But why do that when he or she has shown off their other two ‘sculptures.’” I shuddered.

Mum drained her wine glass. “I’ve changed my mind. You need to get into his place as quickly as possible.”

I blinked. She’d changed direction like an unpredictable kangaroo on a roadway. One minute they’re bounding alongside you, and the next they’re in front of your car. “What?”

“I think whoever it is, especially if it’s that Lorenzo fellow, will turn her to glass—imagine the ego trip of besting a PIB agent, especially when they’ve put you in jail before. The thing is, whoever did it is probably out of the power they need. It would take some recovering from that level of power usage, and they didn’t just change one person, but two people. We might only have a few hours, or we might have another day, but we’re running out of time for sure now.”

“So, are we assuming Lorenzo did it, but do we think Mrs Dal Lago helped?” I wanted to get this straight. We were jumping to conclusions, but lying about his whereabouts on the night Angelica went missing and having close ties to the family meant that other than Mrs D, he was the most likely suspect.

Will nodded. “Yes. I think Mrs Dal Lago had something to do with it, even if it’s just giving Lorenzo access to the hotel on the night or being an accessory. I don’t like that we haven’t proven this beyond a reasonable doubt, but, hopefully, further investigation will get us the answers we need.”

“Right,” said Imani. “What’s the plan?”

Once it was dark, Will and I left the hotel. We’d dressed in black clothes and baseball caps. The less people could describe about us later, the better. We donned no-notice spells as an extra precaution, and Liv had found a self-drive boat-hire place. We would’ve caught a water taxi, but we didn’t want anyone tying us to the scene, and we’d have to drop our no-notice spells to get onboard. The hire place was shut when we went, so we did the next best thing—we “borrowed” one.

Will steadied the small runabout. My hands sweated, and butterflies flew rampant in my belly. There was a foot drop from the wharf into the boat. What if I overbalanced the boat, and we tipped in?

“Come on, Lily. We haven’t got all night.”

“Can you do a spell to steady the boat?”

He shook his head. “No.”

Grrr. I supposed the force