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Downstairs, Judith, Yousef, and Abbie arrived in the dining room and found the table already set for lunch. Not only had someone retrieved the groceries she dropped in the entryway, but put lunch together. The children and Robert carried in dishes while Comet supervised. Abbie’s empty stomach purred in pleasure.
They were well into a discussion of their finds this morning when the doorbell rang.
“Are we expecting anyone?” Yousef asked Judith.
Robert laid a restraining hand on Jimi’s shoulder. “I’ll check who it is.” He vanished before the boy could protest.
The kids were sitting on either side of Abbie, and she placed a restraining hand on Jimi’s arm in warning as he squirmed in his seat. “Robert will be back soon with our guest.” She then sent a nervous glance toward Judith. “I might know who has arrived.”
“Who?” her friend asked.
“I sent Bran to do some legwork for me,” she replied, cutting into her chicken. Hopefully, he hadn’t brought Ducky.
“Why do that?” Judith asked. “It’s unsafe for him to work with us. He hasn’t any defenses. He’s not even a PC.”
“With Talin away, we’re short-handed,” Abbie said in a reasonable tone. “I sent him to check out an address Klaus showed me. He wasn’t alone, he went with Ducky.”
“Ducky?” Judith sounded even more scandalized.
Robert entered the dining room at that propitious moment with Bran at his side. Sans Ducky. Good lad.
Jimi cried out, “Uncle Bran, Uncle Bran, Uncle Bran,” and ran to his hero. He then rattled off all about their day from the witch fight at the Silk Quilt Den to the discovery of the ultra-secret hidden room in this house.
Judith glared such daggers toward Comet, the broom slunk behind Abbie’s chair. Comet must have blabbed to the kids and Robert about the secret study room.
Bran glanced over at Judith, but once she lost sight of Comet, she ignored their unexpected guest by turning her baleful glare toward her half-finished plate.
“Afternoon, Bran,” Yousef said. “All okay at work?”
“Yes, boss,” he replied.
“Join us for lunch?” Abbie pointed to a chair on Nica’s other side, far across the table from where Judith sat.
“Love to.” He ruffled Nica’s hair. “Hello, my lovely.”
Nica straightened her fringe. “Hello, Mr. Grimshaw.”
“Why so formal?” he asked. “I used to be Uncle Bran.”
“Some of us know how to keep our boundaries up,” Judith replied for Nica.
The little girl ducked her head and Abbie recalled Nica’s words from this morning when she admonished Jimi that Bran wasn’t their uncle.
Why was Nica distancing herself from Abbie and her brother? Nica’s psychologist had warned Abbie that children sometimes made the oddest connections, which could easily grow into huge fears. Then she realized Nica had recently lost the last of her close blood relatives—her mother and uncle. Could the little girl be afraid that if she and Jimi grew too close to Abbie’s family, they would lose them, too?
At that possibility, Abbie’s heart squeezed with pain. How could she convince Nica that neither Abbie nor Bran nor her parents would ever stop loving her? That Nica and Jimi were in no danger of losing them?
This brewing angst between Judith and Bran probably wasn’t helping matters. Abbie was about to suggest the two of them take their quarrel elsewhere when Nica spoke.
“Uncle Bran,” she whispered under her breath, warming Abbie’s heart, and relieving some of her rising worry.
Her brother bent and kissed the girl’s head. “Glad I haven’t lost both your and Judith’s love,” he whispered.
Nica vehemently shook her head and whispered, “I love you, Bran.”
That left Abbie thoroughly contented.
Returning to his seat on Abbie’s other side, Jimi vigorously patted Comet on his way. As the broom was still hiding behind Abbie’s chair, his action made the broom’s handle knock her chair back with a rapid tap-tap-tap before Jimi took his seat and shifted his focus to his meal.
At least he had no issues with his food. Nica was back to picking at her lunch.
Robert paused across the table so he could better observe Bran. “Any luck with your mission, Mr. Grimshaw?”
Bran didn’t take offense at the ghost’s formal address, no doubt recognizing it reflected Robert’s more formal upbringing. “Yes, more than I expected.”
Judith glanced over with a frown before she turned her focus to Abbie. “What address did you send them to?”
Abbie cringed, knowing she had instigated this next looming fight.
At her hesitation, Bran gave the information.
Judith still didn’t address him as she asked Abbie, “Why there? That’s my...” she stopped herself and bit her lip.
“It’s Judith’s teacher’s home,” Bran finished.
“Really?” Abbie said, delighted by this revelation. “How fascinating.”
“Ducky once showed me a photo of Judith embracing a man who lives there,” Bran added for everyone else’s benefit. “He claimed they were lovers.”
The silence that descended on the room felt thunderous.
“I wish I’d known back then that he was your teacher,” Bran finished in a dispirited tone.
“You didn’t bother to ask me who he was,” Judith spat. “You called me a...” she cut off the rest of her words as her furious glance fell on the children.
Bran took a deep breath and Abbie worried he was about to defend his action. She girded herself for a full-on fight to erupt. Instead, he simply said, “I should have trusted you.”
“Instead of your chum, Ducky.” Judith’s tone was scathing. “I hope he kept your bed warm these past two years.”
Jimi’s eyes were wide as he swung his attention from Judith to Bran.
“Later,” Abbie said.
“Sorry,” Judith muttered.
“Me, too,” Bran said.
This time the awkward silence lasted longer and gave off a frosty vibe.
Yousef finally broke the sullen mood by asking in a conversational tone, “Was that all the info you found, Bran, or was there more that might be pertinent to our current case?”
“I learned which spell Granny Chan might have been casting,” Bran said.
“Spill,” Abbie said, her attention riveted by her brother’s news. She flicked a glance toward Judith and noted Bran’s words had mesmerized her witchy BFF, too, though she appeared more wary than excited.
“I spoke to Ru this morning,” Judith said. “He didn’t mention anything about knowing what my grandmother might have been working on. He’s never even spoken to her.”
“I didn’t talk to him,” Bran said without affront. “Ducky told me to stay in my Roadster while he approached the house’s residents. I was watching the neighborhood when I noticed an older woman gardening in that house’s front garden.”
“You spoke to her, Mr. Grimshaw?” Robert asked.
“Before I could, Ducky returned. He said the fellow he met inside the house claimed to be a Taoist. Ducky assumed he was a Chinese fortune teller.”
Abbie hoped Judith wouldn’t mind them speaking of this topic since Bran had brought it up. “That’s an ancient form of eastern Chinese magical practice,” she explained.
Bran nodded. “I know, I googled it. Besides, I’d already learned I can’t trust anything Ducky says.”
Judith gave him a sharp glance at that, but Bran missed it as he served himself a left-over chicken leg from a serving dish.
“Wise.” Yousef slid a bowl of salad down the table.
Bran adeptly stopped it from tipping off the edge and served himself the rest. “After saying this man knew nothing about the murder case, Ducky said I’d wasted his time and left.”
“You did not leave,” Robert said with confidence.
“No,” Bran said, with an unrepentant grin. “I approached the gardener and asked if she knew Granny Chan. I explained she was missing, and we were looking for her.”
“We?” Judith asked, but her tone was milder, more sarcastic than murderous.
“I plan to help you get her back, Jude,” Bran said. “If you want me to or not.”
Nica reached over and took Bran’s hand to show where her allegiance stood.
Abbie hid her delighted grin. The young girl’s compassion was as fluid as her mood, flowing where it was most needed. With Judith yesterday. Today, Bran had claimed it.
“Carry on,” Robert urged.
“Turns out she and Granny Chan were chums.”
“What?” Judith said, sounding shocked. “That’s impossible. Gran would have said something when I told her I was taking up my Taoist studies there again.”
“The two of them belong to a ramblers club,” Bran said.
“The Ashford Ramblers?” Abbie asked, chuckling.
“How did you know?” Bran asked.
“Small world,” she said. So, Poppy hadn’t lied about everything. She’d mentioned Granny Chan’s keen interest in attending the Ramblers’ upcoming Elephant Walk.
Abbie determined then that she would somehow get the old witch back home in time to attend that walk. Scheduled for tomorrow afternoon, if she recalled correctly. A tall order.
“Continue, Mr. Grimshaw,” Robert said.
“Peng TingTing, that’s the elderly woman’s name,” Bran said, “told me her grandson, Ru, is a thirty-five-year-old Taoist Master. He’s also a vegetarian celibate monk who visits his grandmother for six weeks each year to ensure she’s well cared for. She’s very proud of him.”
“A man of sound sense,” Yousef, the vegan, said with a teasing smile at his employee.
The gaze Bran flicked to Judith softened as he added, “Since Granny Chan mentioned to her friend that Judith was interested in learning Taoism, TingTing asked her grandson if he would teach Judith. He agreed. He’s been training her ever since.”
“What?” Judith said, looking utterly shocked.
“You didn’t know?” Abbie asked.
Judith shook her head, lost for words. “Someone from a forum I joined at my Chinese family’s recommendation offered his name.”
Bran nodded. “Your gran asked her friend to join that site. Granny Chan was worried Judith wouldn’t be open to her help or any of her contacts, so she had TingTing pass on her grandson’s name to you anonymously.”
Judith covered her mouth as if suppressing a cry.
Nica ran around the table to comfort her.
Once Nica returned, Abbie kissed her head. The little girl had done what Abbie had wanted to do.
Laying a comforting hand on Judith’s shoulder, Robert said, “Mr. Grimshaw, did your contact know anything about her friend’s current activities?”
Bran nodded. “She said that Granny Chan had recently consoled a customer at the quilt shop. Seemed the woman believed her husband had lost interest in her. She knew the shop fronted for witches and wanted a potion that might help her catch his attention again.”
“A love potion?” Nica asked with an excited grin. “I’ve read about them.” She glanced at Judith. “Are they real?”
“Some coven members brew such concoctions,” Judith said, sounding discouraging. “My grandmother didn’t believe in them. She wouldn’t have sold such a spell.”
“She didn’t,” Bran said. “She told this customer to ask her husband why he’s distracted.”
“Typical Gran,” Judith said with a wry smile.
“She also wanted to take her own advice,” Bran said.
“About what?” Judith asked. “Grandfather adored her.”
“While on a recent ramble,” Bran said gently, “it seems Granny Chan confided to TingTing about a lost love.”
“Liwei?” Comet asked from behind Abbie’s chair.
Abbie raised her eyebrow in surprise at that question. “Comet, come out here.”
The broom warily peeked out.
“Who is Liwei?” Abbie asked.
“Wen Liwei,” Comet said in a soft voice. “The man Granny Chan loved before he broke her heart by leaving her and never returning. She spoke about him a lot.”
“Why didn’t you say something earlier?” Judith asked.
“You didn’t ask me?” Comet said in an uncertain tone.
“Why did she never mention him to me?” Judith asked.
“You can ask her that once she’s home,” Abbie said, her thoughts on the missing photo. “What did she plan to do about her old love, Bran?”
“She wanted to find out why he left her,” her brother said. “At least, that’s the spell TingTing procured for her.” He fished in his pocket and passed a slip of paper to Abbie. “This is its duplicate.”
With building excitement, Abbie passed the paper with Chinese lettering on to Judith. This might be their first real clue. “Can you make heads or tails of that?”
Judith read the sheet over carefully. “It’s a See-into-the-past spell. It calls on ancestral wisdom to seek information about something that’s already happened. The spell uses a picture for focus, candlelight to call on spirit, and water as the vehicle for knowledge transfer.”
“The empty bowl on the counter,” Abbie said. “The water could have evaporated when everything burnt up.”
“Nothing should have burnt,” Judith said. “This spell doesn’t call for an explosion or burning of any kind, except to light a candle.”
“What do you suppose went wrong, then?” Yousef asked. At Abbie’s questioning glance, he added, “Something must have gone wrong or Granny Chan would still be here.”
“The murdered neighbor,” Robert said. “He could have interrupted Mrs. Chan’s spell.”
“My gran didn’t kill him!” Judith protested.
“What if he interrupted whoever did?” Abbie asked. “Someone who was outside this house spying on your gran as she cast this See-into-the-past spell.”
“The woman in pink?” Robert said.
“Who’s that?” Bran asked.
“Yesterday,” Abbie explained, “Figg, the immortal’s dog, told us about his master gifting a pink scarf with a dragon design to a woman. He mentioned my name during the encounter.”
Judith pulled out her mobile. “I’ll text Ru to ask about the meaning attributed to water, in case that’s relevant.”
Into that pause, Jimi pushed his empty plate away. “Abbie, I want dessert.”
“We have strawberry ice cream,” Judith said while thumbing her text. “Want some?”
“Yes, please!” Jimi replied with enthusiasm.
Abbie checked on Nica, noticed she hadn’t finished her lunch, and her heart sank.
“I’ll get it,” Judith said, still looking at her mobile, but Yousef waved her back and rose. “Allow me. But don’t anyone say a word about this case until I return.”
While they waited, Comet sprouted stick arms and played a pattycakes game with Jimi.
Yousef returned soon with a tray of bowls and they dug into their ice cream, while Yousef munched on apple slices that he’d sprinkled with brown sugar.
Robert returned to stand beside Judith’s chair and brought their discussion back into focus. “Could this dragon scarf woman have gone after Mrs. Chan?”
“Why would she?” Bran asked. “Sounds like the immortal was targetting Abbie.”
“We wondered if Granny Chan’s disappearance might have been to interrupt my travel to London,” Abbie said.
“Are you saying this woman meant to harm Granny Chan to delay you?” her brother asked. “And ended up killing the neighbor?”
“Could she have killed both of them?” Yousef asked and gave Judith an apologetic smile. “We must consider that possibility.”
“Gran’s not dead. I’d know it here if she was,” Judith said, pounding her chest. “Also, we didn’t find Gran’s body.”
“Good point,” Robert said. “If the intruder killed Mrs. Chan and disposed of her body, why not do the same with Mr. Brown? Why leave him outside covered by that incriminating quilt? That speaks to an impromptu act. Whatever this woman came to do, her plans went awry when Mr. Brown showed up.”
“What would we do without interfering neighbors?” Judith rolled her eyes. “I’ll never take umbrage at that again.”
“He was covered by a quilt from your gran’s shop,” Abbie added. “Nica found a matching pattern there. I told Callum about it and he’s contacting DI Turner to check it out.”
“A witch would know how to use a magical scarf,” Yousef said. “So, it makes sense if this killer worked at a quilt shop run by a coven.”
“It could have been Poppy or Mrs. Moore,” Abbie said. “Or any other witch from that coven. How do we narrow down our suspect pool?”
“Abbie,” Nica said, swirling her ice cream, “if Granny Chan’s alive, where is she?”
“The million-dollar question,” Bran said.
“I didn’t gain any indication,” Judith said, “that anyone other than you lot entered this house. Even the police couldn’t get in until I let them in. They even tried breaking down the front door. Since Gran was expecting you, she must have adjusted the wards to allow you access.”
“If a commotion occurring outside her kitchen window interrupted Granny Chan,” Yousef said, “could it have affected the spell she cast?”
“Klaus showed me Granny Chan’s younger self last night,” Abbie said, an astonishing thought swirling in her mind. “What if he was not merely showing me who she was interested in, but where she is right now?”
They all sat quietly with that extraordinary possibility and its ramifications.
Nica tugged at Abbie’s arm. “I don’t understand. Did Granny Chan go somewhere?”
Comet, who’d been resting against the table, whipped upright. “Oh!”
Jimi said, “Comet says Granny Chan might have gone somewhen. To visit Liwei.”
“Is that possible?” Robert asked, sounding shocked. “Is a witch capable of such a feat?”
A phone ringing startled everyone, and they all checked their mobiles.
“It’s Ru,” Judith said. “I mentioned the pink scarf, and he says dragons are masters of waters. And water symbolizes many things, from finding the right place, forming deep feelings, showing kindness, achieving clarity, or exercising great skill, ability, and timing.”
“Could that last one, about timing, be travel related?” Abbie asked.
“Are you suggesting,” Bran mused, “they can also journey into the past?”
“Oooh,” Jimi said. “Can I go, too?”
Abbie glanced at him in surprise. “Go where?”
“To see Mummy again,” he replied instantly.
“No.” Nica shook her head at his suggestion. Abbie had rarely heard these two disagree on anything. Now, Nica was adamant as she told her brother, “We’re supposed to stay here, together, with Abbie.”
She was impressed by the child’s insight. She caught Robert’s somber gaze and wondered if he were remembering his dead child, while she had to force her thoughts to release a lingering longing to see her lost friends. Yousef’s sister also died last year. They had all lost loved ones, and a chance to save any of them was incredibly alluring. Nica, however, had the right of it. Abbie and her friends belonged here, now.
“Nica’s correct,” Abbie said in a firm voice. “The SB club was formed for us to focus on each other, and the lives we have ahead of us, not brooding on what we’ve lost.”
“I agree!” Judith said with vehemence. “Besides, Gran is not dead and I intend to ensure she finishes the life she is meant to live.”
“I doubt Granny Chan meant to go into the past,” Bran said. “According to TingTing, she wanted to take a peek into her past. If the interference sent her there instead, she’s probably desperate to return home.”
“Rescuing Mrs. Chan remains moot,” Robert said, “unless, one, we know for certain where she has gone and, two, we can travel through time to bring her back.”
“Yes,” Judith said, waving Bran’s sheet of paper. “All this spell does is help us look into the past. Not go there.”
“Instead of simply showing me the picture of your gran as a young woman,” Abbie said, “I felt as if Klaus took me into the past. If so, maybe the book can also help us figure out how to go there and bring her back.”