Page 77 of A Spell of Midlife Mayhem

The mirror bore no image of her. Maybe she was elsewhere in the house or in the grounds or even in Richmond.

I started poking around, opening the dresser drawers one by one. Most were empty. One held supplies, including lightbulbs for the fake gas lamps, which seemed incongruous with the rest of the room.

After searching the dresser, I crossed the room to the basin that originally would have contained cold water for the countess to wash her hands. The seventeenth-century en suite.

It was empty.

I cast around, searching for other potential hiding places. The armchair. A quick search on, behind and under that revealed nothing but a little dust, and I sneezed.

Soon, there was nowhere remaining to search but the bed. I reached up to the canopy at the top and ran my hand around the edge of the entire bed. Nothing there but more dust. I sneezed again, and my eyes started running. Couldn’t Chirtlewood House afford proper cleaners? Must it all be left to us house guides when we’re already overstretched?

I knelt and lifted the valance to peek under the bed. It was too dark to see clearly, so I used the flashlight on my phone. I groaned when it illuminated various small debris items, including chocolate wrappers and discarded entry tickets that had somehow ended up under there, but no hidden book. Worst of all was a used condom. Some visitors must have been having whoopie in the countess’s bedchamber when all the staff were busy elsewhere. And there was something else, or rather, there wasn’t—

‘What are you doing?’

I turned and stood. Melissa stood there with a questioning expression.

‘Checking to see if we need to vacuum under here,’ I said.

‘We haven’t had time, being short-staffed and all.’ She shrugged. ‘You know that.’

‘I’m not judging. I might stay late to dust and vacuum the room one evening, or come early one morning.’

‘Nice idea, but I hope you’re not thinking of cleaning the whole manor house by yourself. You don’t have to do it alone. We’ll set up a roster to share all those chores we don’t have time to do normally. If we all pitch in with overtime, it’ll get done.’

‘All right. Thanks, Melissa.’

‘You’re welcome.’ She left the room and headed towards the stairs.

I waited until I heard her footsteps on the stairs before getting down again to check that I hadn’t been imagining things.

I crawled towards the head of the bed and shined my phone flashlight on the floor between the used condom and a discarded bus ticket.

Yes, I was right. A dustless square was evident where something had sat for a while. The killer had concealed the witch’s spell book there and removed it later. I was sure of it.

On my feet again, I pocketed my phone and did my best to dust off my clothing, but I still looked like I’d had the contents of a vacuum cleaner blasted at me. It wouldn’t make a good impression on the tourists. I went to the bathroom to tidy myself up.

Did Penny and Melissa know the murderer had stolen a book from the library? I hadn’t told them myself, and I’d forgotten to mention it to the police in the first interview, so they wouldn’t have overheard. Either Lydia had told them or they didn’t know. We hadn’t had time to discuss it.

Charlotte materialised in front of me, and I jumped. ‘What, pray tell, wast thee searching for beneath my bed, Heather?’

‘Oh, Charlotte. You startled me. I was looking for the stolen witch’s spell book.’

The countess nodded. ‘Ah, I see. Thee hast yet to locate it, then?’

I shook my head. ‘Or the murderer. The police don’t seem to be making any progress either. Or, if they have, they haven’t told us about it.’

‘Let’s wend investigating again. Thee, me and the others. ’Twast excitement last time.’

‘But where will we go? I haven’t any new leads.’

‘None at all?’ The countess sounded disappointed.

‘Wait.’ A thought occurred to me, but I didn’t like it much. ‘I’ve got an idea.’

‘Splendid. Permit me to call upon the others to make haste.’

‘It’ll have to be after work for this, Charlotte.’

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