Free 2 Witch and Famous by Eve Paludan, Stuart Sharp Page B

received.
    The tortoise shell and lacquer work trinket box didn’t look like much, but I could feel the emotion swirling around it. Niall’s emotion. Clearly, the contents of the box were important. It was locked, but it was a simple thing for me to take some of the emotion around me and form it into the shape of an unlocking spell.
    I opened up the box and sorted through the contents. Some of them were press clippings, obviously taken from very old newspapers. Most of them talked about accidental or unexpected deaths in locations as far afield as Paris and Toronto. There were a couple of small pieces of jewelry, along with a photograph that looked like it had been taken back in the 1920s, judging by the way Niall was dressed. The woman with him looked elegant in black and white, a hat half obscuring her features.
    “Elle, did you find what you needed?” Marie called from outside the door. Quickly, I locked everything up again and went out to her.
    “Yes,” I said. There was no point in taking it out on Marie. “I think I did.”
    I left then, needing to talk to someone about this, but knowing that it couldn’t be with Niall’s assistant. I liked Marie, but she owed Niall her loyalty, not me. It wouldn’t be fair to her to ask.
    I headed to work, still in my clubbing dress, still attracting fewer stares than I might normally have done, thanks to all the tourists on the streets. For all they knew, the way I was dressed was normal for Edinburgh during the Fringe. As I walked, I tried to think. What did I make of what I’d found? The files? The photo? The truth was that I didn’t know. Why would Niall have clippings about sudden deaths? Who had made all those gifts to him?
     I still didn’t have any answers I liked by the time I reached the office. Fergie was already there, looking pretty happy with himself this morning. Apparently, Marie had phoned him.
    “Did you say something to Marie this morning?” he asked softly, as I passed his desk.
    I smiled. “Who? Me?”
    The other figure there was one I hadn’t expected. Siobhan sat waiting for me, her hood down to reveal the odd prettiness of her features, the bruises from the other day already almost healed.
    “Siobhan, what are you doing here?” I asked. It probably wasn’t the most tactful way to put it, but I wasn’t in the mood for it this morning. And she had broken into my office before.
    “I… I came to see you.” Siobhan frowned. “Are you okay, Elle?”
    I was about to say yes, of course, but honestly, I’d known Siobhan longer than most of the people around me. I sat down on the edge of Fergie’s desk. “No, not really.”
    “What’s up, boss?” Fergie echoed. “More on the Jessica Hammersmith thing?”
    Maybe I shouldn’t have said anything. Maybe Niall deserved a chance to explain things. But at the same time, I knew if I didn’t tell someone about what I’d found, I’d go mad thinking about it. I’d certainly go mad waiting to talk it over with a man who thought that distracting me with sex was the best way to handle a conversation that he would rather not have.
    So, I told them. I told them about the club. I told them about Jessica going there. I told them about what I’d found in Niall’s study, and about just how evasive he’d been when I’d asked him to talk to me about it all. I told them everything, until by the end of it, I just felt empty, because laying it out there for them, I already knew what they would say.
    “Niall did it, didn’t he?” I said.
    Fergie shrugged. “There could be an innocent explanation. We’ve discussed a few possibilities to explore.”
    “Do any of them actually explain the facts, Fergie?”
    “Well, maybe not all of them,” Fergie admitted.
    “Did you find some perfect alternative explanation for the disappearances of the other people?” I asked. “The ones the coven is so upset about?”
    Fergie shook his head. “I’ve only just managed to compile a list of likely looking