“Why don’t you come and join our game?”
“Thanks for the offer, but I have to go soon.”
I’d finished my drink and was about to leave when in walked Blaze.
“Hi, Jill. I see you’ve just polished off another muffin.”
“Err—no. That must be someone else’s plate. I only had a coffee.”
“Of course you did.” He grinned.
“I’m glad to see you’ve recovered from the Dominitus.”
“The what?”
“Your allergy to dominoes. Daze told me all about it.” I glanced over at the counter to see her bent double with laughter. “You’re not allergic to them at all, are you?”
“Err—no. Is anyone? Daze was covering for me while I went to the dentist.”
***
I’d no sooner left Coffee Games than Betty Longbottom came rushing across the road to me.
“Jill, you haven’t forgotten about the big event, have you?”
“I know I can be forgetful at times, Betty, but I’m hardly likely to forget my own wedding, am I?”
“I’m talking about the grand opening of The Sea’s The Limit. It’s this Friday. You have to come.”
“It’s finally ready, then?”
“Yes, thank goodness. We’ve had so many delays and setbacks that I was beginning to think this day would never arrive. We still haven’t received the licence to allow us to keep the dangerous species yet, but hopefully that won’t be much longer. You will come, won’t you?”
“Yeah, sure.”
“Bring both of your PAs, too.”
“I only have the one now. Jules left to go and work at Washbridge police station. I’m sure Mrs V will come though.”
“Great. It starts at ten o’clock. Don’t be late because there’s likely to be a big crowd.”
“Okay. See you then.”
Betty skipped back across the road, full of the joys of Spring.
“Did I hear you correctly, Gooder? You’re getting married?”
I turned around to find Ma Chivers standing behind me. I hadn’t seen her for over a year—the last time had been shortly after Grandma’s moles had undermined Yarnstormers and caused it to collapse.
“Hello, Ma. I thought you’d crawled back into your hole and decided to stay there.”
“I’ve been on a sabbatical, but it seems I came back just in time.”
“For what?”
“Your wedding of course. I assume my invitation is in the post?”
“I wouldn’t hold your breath.”
“It would be a shame if anything happened to spoil your big day.”
“Is that a threat?”
“Of course not. I’m just saying that it would be terrible if something awful happened.”
“You don’t scare me, Ma.”
“That’s exactly what Alicia said.”
“Where is Alicia, anyway? I haven’t seen her for ages. What did you do to her?”
“Me? Nothing. You know me—I wouldn’t harm a flea. Anyway, nice speaking to you as always, Gooder. My regards to Jack.”
It took all of my willpower not to use a lightning bolt on her, there and then. Where was Alicia? It was over a year since I’d seen her too, and I had a horrible feeling she might have met a sticky end.
I was still seething about Ma Chivers when my phone rang.
“Jill, it’s Desdemona Nightowl.”
“Is everything okay?”
“I’m afraid not. We have a bit of a problem, and I’m hoping you might be able to help. Do you think you could pop over to my office straight away?”
“Of course. I’ll be with you in a couple of minutes.”
I magicked myself to the west wing of CASS, and from there made my way to the headmistress’ office.
“Come in, Jill. Thanks for coming over so quickly. I know how busy you must be. Please, take a seat. Would you like a drink?”
“No, thanks. I’ve just had a coffee. No muffins, though—in case you were wondering.”
“Right.”
“It’s ages since I had one. A muffin, that is.”
“Okay, I’m glad we’ve cleared that up. As I said on the phone, we have something of a tricky problem. As you know, it’s the inter-house sports competition a week on Friday. Unfortunately, the cup has gone missing.”
“Really? I only saw it yesterday when I was in the Nomad girls’ dorm with Beth Nightling.”
“It disappeared overnight.”
“Do you have any visitors here at CASS at the moment?”
“None, which I’m afraid must mean it was taken by one of the pupils or a member of staff.”
“I can’t imagine why anyone would want to steal it. It’s rather ugly.”
“Granted, it isn’t the prettiest trophy in the world, but it is quite valuable.”
“Really?”
“You realise it’s made of real gold?”
“I never would have guessed, but then it looked in dire need of a clean when I saw it.”
“That’s the problem with allowing the winning house to keep it in their dorms. There are so many grubby hands on it.”
“I’m surprised you allow them to keep something of such value on open display in there.”
“It’s a school tradition which dates back to the start of the inter-house sports competition. This is the first time we’ve had a problem.”
“I assume you have no idea who might be responsible.”
“None, but the accusations have already started to fly.”
“Oh?”
“A number of people have pointed the finger at Toyah Harlow, the Nomad house captain.”
“What makes them think she might have stolen it?”
“There’s been some suggestion that she’s hidden the trophy because she fears Nomad will lose out in next week’s competition. That’s complete nonsense, in my opinion, and I’ve warned the children that if I hear anyone make any more unsubstantiated accusations, they’ll have me to answer to. The whole thing has left a dark cloud over the school and has put next week’s competition in doubt. That’s why I called you.”
“It might be best if I start by speaking to all of the house captains together.”
“I agree, but as important as this issue is, the children are all sitting midterm exams today. I couldn’t justify pulling them out of those. What about tomorrow?”
“That’ll be fine.”
“Excellent. I’ll call you later to arrange a time.”
“While I’m here, Headmistress, can I ask you about Mr Shuttlebug?”
“Cuthbert? Such a terrible loss. What did you want to know, exactly?”
“I believe he had an interest in the exotic creatures of these regions.”
“An interest?” She smiled. “An obsession, more like. He spent every spare minute on that book of his.”
“He wrote a book?”
“It was his life’s work. Unfortunately, it was never published. He couldn’t get a publisher interested, which is a tragedy when you consider some of the rubbish they publish these days.”
“Do you know what happened to the book?”
“I imagine his widow will have it. Poor Deloris. She took Cuthbert’s death very hard, as you might imagine.”
“I’m sure. You don’t happen to have her address, do you?”
***
Midway through the afternoon, I got a call from Jack to say he was on his way to my office. I asked why, but he said he was only two minutes away, and that he’d explain when he arrived.
“What do you think?” Winky swaggered up the office in his tux.
“You have to hide. Get under the sofa.”
“Why?”
“Jack’s on his way over. He can’t see you dressed like that.”
“Why not? He’s going to see me at the wedding.”
“I—err—I want it to be a surprise for him on the day.”
“That makes sense, but I can’t go under the sofa. It’s dusty under there.”
“Okay. Get in here.” I opened the cupboard door.
“I can’t go in there either. I’m claustrophobic.”
“It’ll only be for a few minutes. Go on.” I gave him a gentle nudge.
Okay, so it wasn’t all that gentle.
“It’s dark in here.”
“Shush!”
Just then, Jack arrived.
“What’s wrong?” I said.
“I can’t believe it. Chris Jardine has been charged with Bill’s murder.”
“What?”
“It’s insane. Chris wouldn’t hurt a fly.”
“You said Bill had been poisoned, didn’t you?”
“Yes. I assumed it was food poisoning, but it sounds like the poison was on his fingers when he bit his fingernails.”