Amanda Cadabra and The Hidey-Hole Truth

Asthmatic furniture restorer and covert witch Amanda Cadabra is a survivor. After all, her family’s bus went over a Cornish cliff. Now the presentable but irritating Inspector Trelawney is dogging her footsteps as he investigates the unexplained deaths. But that’s the least of her problems. Amanda has just got a furniture restoration job at the old English Manor of Sunken Madley with its murky past.

Armed only with a wand and Tempest, her grumpy reincarnated cat, she’s going in. A body, ghosts, hidden tunnels, chills and unexplained lights; can Amanda solve the mystery in time and save the village from the scandal of murder?

Chapter 1

The Day of the Incident

       ‘Fresh blood,’ observed Mrs Cadabra.
       Detective Sergeant Thomas Trelawney looked at her doubtfully. She registered that he was in his late thirties, tall, light-haired, grey-suited and attractive in a manner appropriate to a policeman.
       ‘Do come in.’
       He stepped over the threshold and into the clean, bright hall and she closed the door behind him.
       Trelawney’s boss, Chief Inspector Hogarth, was on the verge of retirement and had sent his junior to acquaint himself with a case that had remained open for 28 years.
Mrs Cadabra led the way into the living room, gestured to the sergeant to sit down, then decisively pulled a photo album from one of the stacked bookshelves flanking the brick fireplace. She laid it open on his knees and pointed to a portrait of a power-dressed couple holding a baby.
       ‘1987. Our darling Amanda, held by my obnoxious daughter,’ she uttered in clipped tones. ’That’s her husband. I need only say that they were well matched. And if that assessment gives me a motive for murder, Sergeant, then you’re welcome to investigate it,’ she declared challengingly.
       Trelawney suppressed a grin. Hogarth had told him what to expect in the redoubtable old lady sitting beside him on the chintz sofa. He had not exaggerated. Senara Cadabra was every inch the imperious aristocrat to which Hogarth had compared her. She lifted a hand to tuck in a hairgrip, pinning her white victory roll even more tightly into place. One of her piercing violet eyes was slightly larger than the other. This, coupled with her upright posture and cut-glass English accent, created an unnerving effect.
       Mrs Cadabra glanced down at the photograph. Mercifully, there was no sign of Amanda’s gifts at that time, she commented to herself. Not then.
       ‘Lamentably,’ she continued, ‘Amanda’s parents had no time for her — or interest in her — and she was mostly cared for by my husband and myself. However, if you were to assume that little Amanda was traumatised by the sudden change in her situation following the “incident”, you’d be wrong,’ she stated, keen to stay one step ahead of any conclusions that the sergeant might be drawing.
       While the detective sergeant jotted in his ubiquitous police notebook, he took a surreptitious look at his surroundings. The Cadabra’s circumstances were noticeably comfortable. Their house lay a mere thirteen miles from The Houses of Parliament to the south and just three miles from the Hertfordshire border to the north. The village of Sunken Madley was populated not only by locals, some with lineage reaching back the 1500s when the manor and church were built, but also by a selection of reclusive celebrities. Seeking privacy, and with a taste for gracious living, the VIPs had acquired several of the grander residences. By contrast, the Cadabra’s house was a modest three-bedroom cottage at the end of Orchard Row, just where the village gave way to a field of apple trees, now flowering with faintly blushing, bridal blossom. Number 26 had a spacious garden accommodating a small neat lawn, well-kept vegetable beds and, most importantly, a sizeable furniture restorer’s workshop.
       Trelawney brought his gaze back to the photograph of the infant Amanda and her parents. Mrs Cadabra flicked towards the front of the album, each page taking them further back in time. Gesturing dismissively, she indicated her three other unsmiling children, Amanda’s aunts and uncles, and their smirking, blank-eyed or scowling offspring. Mrs Cadabra turned a few more pages back to her own generation, remarking on her siblings and their brood with equal distaste.
       ‘As for my own children, I could never bear any of them once they became teenagers.’ She barked out a laugh. ‘I bore them once; I feel that was quite enough.’ Trelawney allowed himself a smile for the first time. It did not go unnoticed by Mrs Cadabra, who awarded it eight of ten for charm.
       ‘Thank you for your frankness, Mrs Cadabra. And now, could you please tell me what you remember of the events leading up to the incident?’
       Mrs Cadabra repositioned herself, straightening her back more than ever. ‘My husband and I had each received a note and —'
       ‘Was there anything that stood out about it?’ interjected Trelawney. ‘Was it typed or written? The kind of paper, the envelope —? ’
       ‘It was handwritten in purple-black ink and —‘
       ‘Did you recognise the —?’ he began.
       ‘— the writing?’ she forestalled Trelawney, 'No, I did not.’
       ‘Normal paper?’
       ‘Interesting that you should ask. It was quite peculiar, thick but oddly transparent.’
       ‘What did it say?’ he asked, making notes.
       ‘It said that transport would arrive on 9th September at 9 o’clock in the morning. We would be taken to a location, and there, apparently, we would learn something to our advantage. It went on to say,’ said Mrs Cadabra, leaning towards him for emphasis, ‘and I remember this precisely: “It is essential, however, that all members of your family be present.”’
       ‘Curious,’ commented Trelawney.
       ‘Exactly. And it was signed “A well-wisher”. Hm! Well-wisher indeed!’ said Mrs Cadabra indignantly, twitching the cushion behind her more firmly into place.
       ‘I see,’ said Trelawney, ‘And what did you and Mr Cadabra make of all this?’
       ‘Why, that it was fishy, of course!’ she exclaimed, stating the obvious.
       ‘But you decided to go?’
       ‘Yes,’ stated Mrs Cadabra, ‘but reluctantly. And not to serve our own interests, of course. Hardly. No, it was so that if we should we derive some benefit from the exercise, we could have left it to Amanda. That is the only reason that it would have been worth enduring the company of our odious family for any length of a journey.’
       ‘Did anyone in the family encourage you to go?’ Trelawney enquired.
       ‘Oh yes.’ Mrs Cadabra’s face registered her distaste. ‘We received quite a flurry of unwelcome messages from them, but we’d already made up our minds to attend. They were all desperately keen, needless to say. A more mercenary bunch you’d be hard pushed to find.’ She snapped the album shut and put it down on the inlaid coffee table.
       Trelawney sat back. ‘So what happened on the day of the incident?’ he asked.
       ‘Poor little Amanda had been awake all night with a frightful cough. She was only three, and she’d never been a very strong child. And since she’d developed asthma, we’d had to be especially careful. Well, by that morning, Amanda's condition had worsened, and she was clearly not fit for the journey,’ recalled Senara Cadabra with an emphatic shake of her head. ‘And considering our unease about the whole affair, we decided that neither we, nor our Amanda, should have any part of it. So when the transport arrived, we didn’t get on board. It sat there and waited for fifteen minutes and then finally left.’ She folded her hands. ‘And that was that.’
       ‘You didn’t go out to tell the driver that you weren’t going?’ pressed Trelawney.
       ‘No,’ replied Mrs Cadabra. ‘We simply didn’t want anything to do with it.’
       ‘Did you notice the vehicle?’
       ‘I did. It obscured the view of our Princess Margaret roses,’ said Mrs Cadabra indignantly.
       ‘And what did it —?’
       ‘Horse manure.’
       ‘I beg your pardon?’ asked Trelawney, startled.
       ‘Oh, I mean no disrespect to the dear Princess herself,’ Mrs Cadabra assured him. ‘No, indeed. Just that it’s the best thing for roses. But only after three years of composting. Not when fresh. I’m sure Her Royal Highness would echo my every word.’ Having successfully diverted the subject to horticulture, she placed one still delicate hand over the other, signifying that she considered the discussion of the transport to be closed.
Trelawney, however, returned to the matter at hand. ‘But the vehicle, what was it like? Can you recall?’
       ‘It was a grey minibus of some description,‘ she answered.
       ‘Good condition?’ continued Trelawney.
       ‘Yes, I think so,’ she answered, with a careless shrug of her shoulders. ‘I am not a motor car engineer, but it certainly didn’t seem to be in an advanced state of disrepair, if that’s what you’re asking.’
       ‘You didn’t notice anything special about it?’ Mrs Cadabra shook her head. ‘The registration?’ Trelawney looked at her hopefully.
       ‘No idea. I heard it start up. By the time I went to look out of the window, it had gone.’
       ‘And these notes that you received. What became of them?’
       ‘They disappeared,’ she declared.
       ‘Disappeared?’
       ‘Vanished. Without a trace.’
       ‘Really?’ Trelawney remarked. He wrote in his book. ‘Mr Cadabra’s note as well?’
       The back door to the kitchen closed audibly followed by a hollow clatter as discarded work boots hit the mat. There came the sound of a tap running.
       ‘You can ask him yourself,’ Mrs Cadabra said.
       A tall, grey-haired man, in dark work trousers and jumper over shirt and tie, opened the living room door, and entered the room. He was of that generation of craftsmen who took so great a pride in their occupation and appearance that they wore a shirt and tie even to work. The persistent briskness of the British climate had prompted him to cover up with a sweater. He smiled a kind welcome at the case officer.
       ‘Ah, very generous of you to come all this way, Mr Trelawney, is it?’ Mr Cadabra held out a clean but French-polish-stained hand.
       ‘Detective Sergeant Trelawney, sir,’ said the policeman, accepting the handshake.
       ‘Please call me Perran. Although my wife likes strangers to call me Mr Cadabra.’ He gave her an affectionate twinkle, which she returned. ‘Has Senara been making you feel at home?’ The trace of a West Country burr in the man’s gentle voice appealed to the Cornwall-born-and-bred Trelawney.
       ‘Pleasure to meet you. Perran? A good Cornish name, if I may say so. Yes, Mrs Cadabra has been most helpfully relating the events of the day when …’ Trelawney paused, tactfully avoiding an explicit reference to the sensitive details of the incident.
       ‘Yes … a tragic business,' said Mr Cadabra, helpfully filling the gap. 'I will say, it’s good of the police to keep taking an interest after all these years. We’ve given up any hope of a resolution. But at any rate, is there anything I can tell you that my good lady hasn’t already shared with you?’
       ‘If you have time,’ said Trelawney politely.
       ‘Of course.’ Mr Cadabra carefully sat down on the edge of a Queen Anne armchair, aware that he was in his work clothes.
       ‘Your wife told me about a note. I understand that you received one of your own,’ Trelawney prompted.
       ‘Yes, that’s right.’
       ‘And there were some distinctive things about it?’
       ‘Oh, yes, purplish ink and odd paper,’ replied Mr Cadabra confirming what his wife had said.
       ‘Do you still have it?’ asked Trelawney, checking Senara's statement.
       ‘No. No, it disappeared,’ Mr Cadabra said in a regretful voice. ‘I could have sworn I’d put it in my overalls pocket, but when I went to look for it, it was gone. I remember I turned out all of my pockets, thinking it might have got lost amongst the bits and pieces. But no.’
       ‘Thank you.’ Trelawney left a brief silence while his pencil scribbled away.
       ‘Now, could you both tell me what happened later that day?’ asked Trelawney looking from one to the other.
       After a brief exchange of glances between the couple, it was Mrs Cadabra who answered,        ‘About six hours after the car left, the telephone rang. We were in here. Perran was having his afternoon tea-break with me. I remember it as clearly as if it happened yesterday. It rang, and he put his hand on my arm and said the oddest thing.’ She looked at her husband. Perran nodded supportively. Trelawney’s pencil hovered about his open notebook, waiting.
       Finally, Mrs Cadabra spoke.
       ‘“Senara,” he said, “Whatever you do, don’t answer that.”’

Amanda Cadabra and The Cellar of Secrets

Description

Amanda Cadabra, covert witch with irascible feline familiar, always said that was no place for a research centre. The lost village in Madley Wood, where the leaves don’t grow, and the birds don’t sing.

An old secret. A new build. A body. Only one witness. Only one person who can see that witness: Amanda Cadabra.

Only one place that can tell the story: the Cellar of Secrets, in 1940.

And only one person who can go there: Amanda Cadabra. With, of course, only one grumpy cat.

But this is a peaceful English village … who would do anything as criminal as murder? Will she find them before they find her?
"A cozy mystery that has it all; there’s even a sprinkling of romance".
This book is set in England, so the language reflects how we spell nd speak here (however strange!). This may be a little different from what you’re used to, especially in the US, but never fear, there’s a glossary at the back of the book if you need help. Amanda Cadabra and The Cellar of Secrets

Chapter 1

Why Amanda Found the Body


Call a doctor or search for clues? Amanda Cadabra took the few vital seconds to make the decision.
       But then, she had never been impulsive.

*****

‘Mrs Cadabra, with the best will in the world from you and your husband, your granddaughter could not have had a normal childhood.’
       In response, the lady seated with regal posture on the chintz sofa, inhaled, and raised an eyebrow, rendering her larger violet eye even more magnified than usual. Her piercing glare demanded an explanation. Detective Sergeant Thomas Trelawney of the Devon and Cornwall Police was not easily intimidated, as Vic ‘The Headbanger’ Hardy could have told anyone brave enough to have asked him.
       However, on this, his first visit, to 26 Orchard Row, Sunken Madley, Trelawney needed to make some kind of connection with Senara, Perran, and their beloved granddaughter and adoptee Amanda. These three were, after all, the only witnesses to the day of the incident, 28 years ago, that he was here to continue investigating.
       ‘Here’ was a village that had grown up out of the rural landscape over a period of 800 years. It lay 13 miles to the north of the Houses of Parliament, and three miles south of the border of Hertfordshire. Herts, as the abbreviation is styled, was home to Jane Austen’s Emma and the seat of the burgeoning aircraft industry in the last century. Since those days, the county boundaries had been moved so that Sunken Madley was now, technically, on the outskirts of Greater London.
       Nevertheless, Sunken Madley still was, in spirit, a country village, off the beaten track, hidden by the encircling trees. It was distinguished only by its orchard of Hormead Pearmain apples, and fine stained-glass windows, adorning the medieval church of St Ursula-without-Barnet. Of particular interest to students of the art, was the composition of the saint and the little bear with the bag of apples.
        A gust of wind cast a pink handful of cherry blossom against the living room window as Trelawney’s hazel eyes returned Mrs Cadabra’s gaze politely but unwaveringly. He said mildly, ‘In other words, Amanda wouldn’t always have been able to play in the fields, run up and down the garden, maybe eat anything she wanted, like the other children here could.’
      ‘One couldn’t expect you to know this, Sergeant, not having any of your own,’ Mrs Cadabra pronounced with sympathetic condescension, ‘but,’ and she took a loose hairpin from her white victory roll, ‘children … adapt.’ She speared the accessory back into her coiffure to signal that the subject was closed.
       Trelawney hadn’t finished. He thrived on puzzles, bringing order to chaos, and justice to the wronged. However, above these assets, his soon-to-be-retired boss, Chief Inspector Hogarth, trusted his seasoned judgment, especially of when to operate with a light touch.
       He swivelled his tall, slim, grey-suited form towards Perran, who smiled kindly and said, with his gentle Cornish-flavoured voice, ‘I know what you mean, Sergeant. But Amanda was always a very special little one. Since she was a bian, a baby, she spent her fair share of nights in the local hospital when we didn’t know if she’d pull through. We did our best to help her, but in the end, she learned the hard way that her choices had consequences.’
       ‘Did that make Amanda fearful? Wary?’
       ‘Oh no, Sergeant, just careful, wise even, beyond her years. Though in others she’s young for her age. But, as Senara said, she got used to things, like carrying her inhaler, avoiding certain food, watching the pollen count. Amanda always says, ‘It isn’t terminal, after all, it’s just asthma.’

*****

It was asthma that had brought Amanda Cadabra to this moment, this room … this body.
She felt for a pulse.

*****

       It had all happened a great deal sooner than anyone in the village could have expected. Even Dr Sharma, who was in the know, when she told Amanda about the new allergy clinic, had said that it was months away.
       Amanda had dropped in, to collect a repeat prescription for her asthma inhaler, on her way to see about a furniture restoration job. An eager trainee from infancy, Amanda had taken over her grandfather’s business.
       Asthma and furniture restoration were unlikely bedfellows, with the toxic chemicals, dust, and hard physical labour. This had niggled Trelawney from the first time he had read the case file three years ago.
      Amanda’s secret levitation skills enabled her to cope covertly but ably. Trelawney, however, was a long way from even contemplating this possibility. And even if he had been able to, it would have been only with extreme scepticism and inexplicable discomfort.
Still, Amanda took sensible precautions and always had her inhaler handy. Dr Sharma was a respected and gifted physician, and between her own magic and the general practitioner’s medicine, the asthma was under reasonable control.
       However, there was no denying that Amanda’s chest momentarily tightened when Neeta Sharma had told her where they were going to build an allergy research centre.

Amanda Cadabra and The Flawless Plan

Description

An accident waiting to happen. Sunken Madley village church hall seems safe enough for a dance class. Now there’s a body. Or is it two? Only ghosts for witnesses. Covert witch Amanda and her grumpy feline familiar must look for answers in the past. But whose past?

With a spy, a saboteur, an uncooperative ghost, multiple puzzles, and herself as the number one suspect she’s going to need backup.

There’s only one choice: the personable but intractable Inspector Trelawney. Only if Amanda can dare to trust him can they survive and solve the case before the murderer strikes again.

But who, in this peaceful English village would resort to murder?

In the words of Grandpa: ‘This one is going to be more complicated than the last one. Possibly ... probably. Definitely.’

Excerpt from Amanda Cadabra and The Flawless Plan

Chapter 1

Crypt and Cellar

      Amanda found her lying on the floor of the crypt. Her head was up against a medieval stone coffin where it must have struck. One arm was hidden beneath the long raised form of the sarcophagus.
        She hurried down the stone steps, her soft soles silent as the grave.
       ‘Please, no, not another body, oh please no,’ she murmured, gazing in dismay at the sight of her friend’s black cassock-clad body.
       Amanda knelt beside the fallen rector of Sunken Madley church. There was no blood in the dark brown bobbed hair. Perhaps there was still life. Amanda laid a hand on her shoulder.
       ‘Rector!’
       The body convulsed. The head turned. The alarmed face of the shepherd of St Ursula-without-Barnet looked up with alarm.
       ‘Good heavens, Amanda! You gave me the shock of my life. You really mustn’t creep up on people like that.’
      ‘Oh Rector, I am sorry, I just saw you lying there, and I thought …’
       ‘Of course, dear, after that dreadful affair at … aha!’
       The Reverend Jane Waygood withdrew her arm from beneath the sarcophagus and knelt up, looking at Amanda’s feet.
       ‘Yes. Trainers. I see why you apparently stealthed up. Well, you’re just the person I wanted to see, and even more so at this moment. I believe your arms are slightly longer, not to mention slimmer, than mine or, at least, those craftsperson’s fingers of yours may be more agile.’
       ‘You were trying to get something out from under there?’ asked Amanda, leaning down.
       ‘It’s the keys to the church hall. They slipped out of my fingers and slid away into inaccessibility, and I wanted to have them ready to take you down there. I’m hoping that you’ll be involved in my plot,’ said Jane, in mysterious but hopeful accents.
       Amanda was mindful that 5th November, Guy Fawkes Night, was soon to be upon them, celebrating the attempt, or possibly failure, of a group of 15th-century activists to put paid to the Houses of Parliament by the use of then state-of-the-art explosives.
       ‘If you’re planning to blow it up, don’t you think we should visit it under cover of night?’ suggested Jane’s parishioner helpfully.
      ‘Oh, if only we could,’ sighed the rector wistfully. ‘Claim on the insurance and rebuild the wretched thing from scratch. Unfortunately, my calling prevents me from engaging in such deception even if it wasn’t a listed building. Meanwhile, do you think you could be a dear and get those keys out from under there?’
       Amanda looked at the floor with concern.
       ‘It’s as clean as a whistle in here,’ Jane assured her. ‘You don’t need to worry about dust setting off your asthma. Mrs Scripps cleans down here regularly. You could eat your dinner off those flagstones. Not that anyone else comes down here but there’s always hope of a rare visitor.’
       ‘Then of course,’ Amanda replied cheerfully and lowered herself onto her stomach. She reached between the coffin’s carved bears’ feet.
       ‘Here,’ said Jane holding her phone with the torch app on shining a light into the narrow space.
       ‘I see them! Thank you, Rector.’ Amanda slid her arm in the direction of the glint. ‘Yes … oh, there’s something else … it’s small … I can reach both … ah! ... got them!’
       Amanda pulled out her arm and stood up. She opened her hand, passed the keys to the rector and frowned down at the remaining ite m sitting on her palm. ‘Whatever do you suppose ...?’
       ‘Bless my soul. It looks like a tiny little gold … cup or something. It’s quite thick, and look at all of these close-set wavy marks. Do you think it’s something to do with the sea? A fitting on an instrument that maybe was used on one of the old ships? An ornamental screw cover on a … sextant or something?’
       ‘Well, whatever it is, it’s the property of the church,’ said Amanda holding it out.
       ‘No,’ Jane replied thoughtfully. ‘No … you keep it. I have a feeling …. I think it’s an apport.’
      ‘A what?’
       ‘An apport. Hmmm. Ask your Aunt Amelia. She’ll tell you about them.’
       ‘Oh. Ok. Well, thank you, Rector.’
       ‘And now to business. You got word through the grapevine, yes?’
       ‘Sylvia said you wanted to see me about something.’
       ‘Well, thank you for popping in, dear. Got your car with you?’ asked Jane, leading the way up out of the artificially lit crypt into the daylight in a corner of the west end of the church.
       ‘Yes, as it happens.’
       ‘Good. Go and fetch a dust mask.’
       ‘Oh?’
       ‘I'm taking you down into the bowels!’
       With the mask secured, they took the path between the mellow stones of the higgledy-piggledy graveyard to the hall at the boundary of the church property. The rector used one of the newly retrieved ornate keys to open the side door.
       ‘I had no idea that this door existed,’ commented Amanda.
       ‘I know, we always herd people through the front. But here we are now. Come inside so I can push the door to, and get to this.’ There, at right angles to it, was another one, also locked. The rector opened it, switched on a light and led the way down some wooden stairs into the space below.
       With difficult progress and in insufficient light, they passed between old rolls of carpet and backdrops, cardboard and wooden installations, trunks, suitcases, boxes, crates, a basket of stage swords, a golf  bag of spears, and a large vase of Japanese parasols, as well as all manner of paraphernalia that it was hard to identify.
       It was unexpectedly high-ceilinged for a cellar, and roomier than the hall because there was no stage or anterooms as there were above. Eventually, they came to an area that was even more challenging to traverse. A group of upright posts of wood were set at intervals, piled around with crates and cases that barred the way.
       ‘Right,’ Jane began briskly, ‘look up there. See those joists?’
       ‘Yes.’
       ‘They’re rotten. Not too bad for most of it, but along this section here, they’re as weak as water. That’s why the hall has been closed for as long as it has. It’s all a bit unsolid, but here it was dangerous.’
       ‘I see,’ said Amanda.
       ‘Well, I’ve been wanting to repair and reopen this hall for years, but, of course, the church roof had to come first, and now it has … and, well, I didn’t want to ask the kind benefactors to put their hands in their pockets again, especially so soon, without some effort on my own part and contributions from the community, towards restoring this lovely old hall. Except … no one was interested.’
       ‘I suppose the church with its medieval pedigree and the famous St Ursula stained glass window —'
       '— and the bell tower, yes,' concurred Jane. 'That was comparatively easy to attract donations to. Well, I said, “If you want this church to still be here for your enjoyment in 100 years, or even 50, you have to be willing to support it,” and so they were. But this hall. You see, it’s only late 1800s or even later and that’s no great shakes, is it?’
       ‘Not really,' agreed Amanda.
       ‘So, what would make people realise the worth of the hall?’
       ‘Using it?’
       ‘Yes, but what’s the most exciting thing people can do on a floor?’ asked the rector blithely.
       ‘Erm.’ Amanda was unprepared for the question, and her mind boggled.
       ‘Dance!’ uttered Jane enthusiastically.
       ‘Ah.’
       ‘But no one could dance on a dangerous floor. So … I had it repaired! See, these wooden posts are supporting that group of floorboards above? Taking over from where the joists are rotten.’
       Amanda squinted into the gloom. 'I think I need a better light. Let me go up to the car and get a torch.’
       ‘No, no, you stay there,' Jane insisted. 'I’ll get one.’
       The rector hurriedly picked her way across the stored goods and up the stairs. Amanda stood alone in the dusty silence, her breath contained and amplified by her mask. She felt a little dizzy, her vision fuzzed. Suddenly it was as if something shot down through the ceiling of floorboards above and would have hit her if she had not dodged back, tripping over a wooden case and stack of props. She got to her feet. But there was nothing there. Nothing above or below that had not been there before.
       But now there was the faint sound of music. Maybe someone had a car radio on loudly nearby. And yet … there was singing too …. It was a waltz … an old song … Grandpa used to sing it … yes, to Granny … ‘Roses are shining in Picardy … in the hush of the silver dew’, and there was thumping above — no, not thumping exactly — feet ... walking — no, they must be dancing … waltzing across the boards above her head, and people singing their hearts out. It wasn’t frightening … there was something wonderful and free and heartbreaking about it all at once. She wanted to be up there with them ….
       ‘Here we are, dear!’ came the rector's voice, and, at once, it stopped. The music, the singing, the waltzing feet. As if it had never been.

Amanda Cadabra and The Rise of Sunken Madley

Description

Amanda, covert witch and asthmatic furniture restorer, finds a body at The Grange. Accident or murder? It matters; she had no alibi.

But a far more pressing problem is afoot. Amanda has cast one spell too many against a human. Now there is no stopping the attack of the Flamgoynes on Sunken Madley. When they will strike, who will come to her aid, how she will defend the village, she knows not. The key to her promised Home Guard is the mysterious Viola, whose identity is a secret.

They are coming. Can Amanda buy the intrepid Inspector Trelawney the hour he needs to complete his own dangerous mission? Was it the Flamgoyes who sent her unpleasant family over the Cornish cliff all of those years ago? Can Amanda find Viola in time? Will her familiar, grumpy cat Tempest, stay awake long enough to help? In the moment of truth, will she stand alone as her recurring dream shows her? Or will she see The Rise of Sunken Madley?
Action, adventure, humour, spies, ghosts, murder and revelations abound in this climactic tale.

"The tension in this quintessentially English cozy paranormal mystery franchise just stepped up a notch; I couldn't stop reading."

Chapter 1

Into the Globe

      ‘It will all be over very quickly. One way or another,’ said Aunt Amelia. She stared intently into the glass sphere on the round, lace-covered table.
       ‘Very quickly?’ asked Amanda Cadabra, pushing back her mouse-brown hair and glancing up from following the goldfish. Unlike her aunt, it was pretty much all the ball ever showed her.
      ‘An hour only, perhaps.’
       ‘And the villagers? Everyone will see it. If the magical world is supposed to be so secret and the entire Flamgoyne witch-clan descends upon Sunken Madley with fire, brimstone and hurricane, that is going to raise more than a few eyebrows on a whole lot of Normals, assuming that any survive.’
       Amelia frowned into the globe ‘The village will empty.’
       Amanda looked at her in wonderment. ‘How come?’
       Her aunt shook her head, ‘That is not shown to me …. The glass is clouding … I’m sorry, Ammy, that’s all.’
       ‘I’ll have an hour to somehow repel them — without striking a single blow — but the village will empty?’
       ‘Yes.’
       ‘And I will have to defend it alone? — But no, you said I’d have help.’
       ‘That’s what it showed.’
       ‘So just me and my … helpers ... whoever they will be.’ Amanda pondered, doubtfully.
       ‘Rrrrrr,’ interjected Tempest, in a marked manner.
       ‘Principal among whom will be Tempest, of course, ‘she added for the benefit of the thick, grey ball of grumpy cat, curled up in the most comfortable chair in the room.
Amanda’s familiar preened himself.
       Not that I’m getting involved, he thought. This is a test for my human. But I’ll lend a paw if absolutely necessary. Dear me. The very idea is exhausting. How tiring this species is.
He shut his eyes and went to sleep.

*****

       Amanda Cadabra stared at the sky. The thunderous swirl of cloud was racing towards her village of Sunken Madley. She stood at its heart, before the green, opposite The Sinner’s Rue, on the old crossroads. She stood, feet planted apart, wand pointing at the ground, ready. Tempest sat by her side.
       ‘How?’ she wondered. ‘I’m just a furniture restorer. I have asthma and an annoying cat. I should be in my workshop, polishing Mrs Kemp’s aunt’s commode. How in the world did I come to this …?’

*****

       It was a recurring dream, but the situation was imminent, and the question was both real and pressing. The answer might have been said, and was by Granny, to be that Amanda had brought it on herself.
       ‘If only,’ Senara Cadabra had lamented, ‘you had not cast that spell. The very one your Aunt Amelia warned you not to perform, if you didn’t want to bring the Flamgoynes down upon the village.’
        On the other hand, Grandpa, in his light Cornish accent, said that she had had no option.
       ‘When the crunch came, it was a choice between saving herself and the inspector, or sending up a beacon that Sunken Madley was the epicentre of powerful magical activity.’
       Former Chief Inspector Hogarth of the Devon and Cornwall police saw it another way: an opportunity to solve a cold case that was over 30 years old.
       Aunt Amelia, Amanda’s confidante and would-be divination tutor since she was nine years old, not only refrained from repeating I-told-you-so but was both sympathetic and constructive.
       It was January, one of their regular Tuesday dinners together. Leaving the tea brewing in the kitchen, Amelia Reading, in deep red velvet splendour, sailed into her sitting room, her long dress wafting behind her, and seated herself.
       ‘Let’s see if the crystal will tell us more about the help that will come to you.’ Amanda, sitting opposite, could only see, reflected in the glass surface, Amelia’s bright brown eyes in a face framed by a chestnut bob. Apart from that, all she ever got was goldfish or a plastic Paris in a snowstorm. This had been the case for more than 20 years. Until now.
       Suddenly, Amanda was electrified. ‘Wait!’ she cried excitedly.
       ‘What?’
       ‘Aunt Amelia. I see something!’
       ‘What, Ammy? What do you see?’
       ‘It’s … a big … banjo? …. No! Cello. It’s a big cello … it’s getting smaller … a violin? No. Oh.’ Her enthusiasm deadened. Amanda looked at Amelia questioningly. ‘A viola?’
       Her aunt chuckled. ‘Ah, well that does happen in divination if you ask the same question twice or more. You get a joke or gibberish. At least this wasn’t the latter.’
       ‘The message is the same as the one I got from our conversation about having help to defend the village: find Viola. Except it’s not vee-oh- la, it’s Vie-oh-la.’
       ‘It shows you’re on the right track, and what a break-through for your divination, sweetie!’
Amanda was cheered.
       ‘You’re right, Aunt, on both counts. OK. So, what do we know about Viola? She was a friend of Granny’s. They met during the war. She was living here back then and told Granny, or “Juliet”, as you called her in your story, that she and Grandpa, “Romeo”, could have a peaceful life here. Yes? There wasn’t any more than that, was there?’
       ‘I’m afraid not.’
       ‘So, at least, the crystal ball confirms that this Viola is still alive. Unless … she’s not a ghost, is she?’
       ‘Was the cello — viola — clear or transparent?’
       ‘Perfectly clear,’ answered Amanda.
       ‘Alive then, I’d say.’
       ‘She must be old then …. I’ve thought of three people that she could be — Ah, the tea must be brewed by now. Shall I go and get it?’
       ‘Oh, use magic to bring it in. It’s perfectly all right here,’ Amelia assured her. ‘I’ve got this place as psychically secure as Fort Knox.’
       Amanda pulled a certain Ikea pencil out of her orange woollen jacket pocket, flipped up the end and extracted a tiny slim wooden shaft topped with a citrine. She leaned across so that she could see into the kitchen, pointed the wand and said,
       ‘Aereval.’ The tea tray, bearing its load of Devon rose-patterned Wedgwood pot, cups, and bowls containing milk and sugar, two silver spoons and a plate of gingernut biscuits, rose from the worktop beside the kettle.
      ‘Cumdez,’ instructed Amanda. It glided through the air, along the passage to the sitting room and hovered.
       ‘Sedaasig.’ The tray lowered itself gently onto the table beside them. Amanda would not usually have bothered with a wand, but there was hot liquid involved, so extra control was needed. Hopeless though she was at divination, this was her special, and exceedingly rare, magical talent: a Cadabra family trait inherited from her grandfather. It enabled her, in spite of asthma that was all too easily agitated by physical exertion, to carry on the family business of furniture restoration, with all of its strenuous activity. Of course, any spell-working had to be conducted out of sight of Normals.
       ‘You were saying, dear,’ Amelia reminded her, adding sugar lumps to the teacups. ‘Three possibles.’
       ‘Yes,’ replied Amanda. ‘Mecsge,’ she added. The spoons began stirring. ‘There’s Mrs Uberhausfest, who distinctly told me that she and Granny had been friends for over 50 years — and you know how fond Granny is of her, invoking her whenever she talks of how, “we both did our bit in the War”.’ And with her line of work, if anyone could organise a Home Guard, she could!’
       ‘And the other two?’ enquired Amelia.
       ‘Sessiblin,’ said Amanda. The spoons stopped stirring. ‘The ladies who live at The Grange. Miss Armstrong-Witworth — the one who worked as field agent for the government many years ago, I told you? But I gather she always operated alone, so not an organiser, I’d say — well, she and Granny never seemed very close at all, so, out of the two of them, I’d plump for Miss de Havillande. Both she and Granny are strong-minded, outspoken, definitely organisers, and with Views on every subject. In fact, I’d often thought they could have been two peas in a pod!’
       Amelia laughed. ‘I know what you mean.’
       ‘Although,’ remarked Amanda suddenly, then stopped to think.
       ‘Yes?’ encouraged her aunt.
       ‘Well, what if … Viola isn’t a woman, at all?’
       ‘I think I see where you’re going with this, but carry on.’
       ‘Well. Viola isn’t from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, is she? She’s from Twelfth Night. She’s the sister, cast up on an enemy shore, who, believing her brother to be drowned, takes on the disguise of man and gets a job working for the local count. So what if Viola is a sort of code name, but for a man?’
       ‘Or a woman pretending to be a man?’ Amelia hazarded.
       ‘Possibly, but I don’t think you could live in Sunken Madley and carry off a disguise like that for the better part of a century.’
       ‘True. What men would be eligible for the role of Viola, then?’
       ‘Well … old Mr Jackson, but he retired to Eastbourne to live with his son, so I don’t think it can be him.’
       ‘Someone at Pipkin Acres Residential Home?’ suggested Amelia.
       ‘Possibly .... But ... well ... what about Moffat?’
       ‘The Grange ladies’ butler?’
       ‘He’s far more than the butler,’ Amanda pointed out. ‘He’s pretty much run the house and estate for them all these years, and no one knows how old he is.’
       ‘That gives you four candidates then: Mrs Uberhausfest, Cynthia de Havillande, Gwendolen Armstrong-Witworth and, er —  does anyone know his first name? — Moffat.’
       ‘Yes. And, I gather, Viola will be the means of assembling the rest of the people who will help on the day that the Flamgoynes attack.’
       ‘What’s your next move then, Ammy?’
       ‘Well ... what I need is a reason to visit Irma Uberhausfest. And soon.’
       Fortunately, thanks to stilettos, a spanner and a piano, one was in the making.

Amanda Cadabra and The Hidden Depths

Description

Furniture restorer and covert witch Amanda is being good. Or at least she's trying.

The cold case of the Cardiubarn murders is on the cusp of closure. Meanwhile, the body she found in her obscure, quaint, English village of Sunken Madley is becoming a high profile case.

Letting the persistent Detective Inspector Trelawney do his job is one thing. But how long can she sit on the sidelines while a beloved member of the community is hours away from arrest?

The real killer must be found. It takes a witch of a sleuth to plumb the depths of both village and villagers and face the perils of what lies beneath. And there's a catch: Amanda must accomplish her task in a single day.

"It always kept me guessing whodunit. I couldn't put it down."

       Had she heard it, felt it or sensed it? Time stopped. She caught Jonathan’s eye, as he stood still with a slight furrow between his brows. And then the moment was whirled away in the bustle of The Event. That was when it must have happened. All Amanda Cadabra could tell Detective Inspector Trelawney, afterwards, was that Jonathan had been there.

***

       Inspector Thomas Trelawney, of the Devon and Cornwall police, passed a hand through his light brown hair, and wondered if he would ever get used to interviewing dead people. Especially so, the white-tressed and victory-rolled lady, seated ramrod upright beside him, upon the chintz sofa of number 26 Orchard Way, on this February afternoon.

       He reminded himself, as he added two sugar lumps to his tea, that the politically correct term for ‘deceased’ was ‘transitioned’.

       ‘You’re looking well, Inspector,’ the lady commended him, in cut-glass English tones. ‘No one would put you a day over 40, and I am sure you look quite 10 years younger.’

       ‘Thank you, Mrs Cadabra.’ He wondered at her affability.

       ‘Surely the inspector is barely a day over 40, Granny,’ pointed out Amanda, pushing her untidy mouse-brown plait back over her shoulder and handing him his favourite shortbread. ‘I do hope that that was an attempt at a compliment. Anyway, you know why he is here.’

       ‘Once again, my dear, you confuse the state of what is so indelicately referred to as “death” with omniscience. I believe I have made full disclosure of the events leading up to the incident. At least, my part in them.’

       A tall silver-haired man, seated in an armchair on the opposite side of the comfortingly blazing fire, was appearing as solid and unghostlike as his wife. Perran Cadabra was gently splitting a scone with a porcelain-handled knife, and looked up mildly at his wife’s words.

       ‘But the case isn’t closed, my love,’ he pointed out in his gentle Cornish-flavoured voice.            ‘Not until they have the last bit of the picture.’

       ‘Yes, Granny,’ Amanda put in, in support of her grandfather’s observation. ‘We know what you intended and why. That you planned to send the minibus carrying the whole of our family – loath as I am to own them! – over the cliff that day.’

       ‘But I was rudely pre-empted,’ said Mrs Senara Cadabra, née Cardiubarn, indignantly. ‘If I had known the letters would be hijacked …’

       Perran met the eyes of his granddaughter and the inspector. All three of them shared the unspoken thought. Senara baulked at the notion that she had been bested by a Flamgoyne. The house had been the rival of the Cardiubarns for centuries.Senara’s own homicidal clan should have perished at her own hands. She had gone to the trouble of setting up a booby trap on that treacherous Cornish bend, had lured her venal relatives into a journey that hinted at great financial reward, and been thwarted.

       Before the trap could be sprung, the ordinary letters of invitation that should have gone out had been replaced by magical parchment. Each sheet had released a toxin. That had put an end to them all before ever the minibus hit the sharp crags at the bottom of the sheer drop.‘

       What your Granny is saying,’ Perran explained, covering his wife’s discomfiture, ‘is that she wants to know who told the Flamgoynes about her plan, as much you, Ammee love, and the inspector do.’

       ‘So you will help, won’t you Granny?’ asked Amanda, her blue-brown eyes looking into Mrs Cadabra’s violet orbs in what she hoped was a persuasive manner.

       ‘I really don’t see what I can contribute,’ Senara replied. ‘But very well, young Thomas Trelawney, ask away.’

       His pleasant features broke into a smile at her use of his first name. Trelawney owed her his life, as he had recently become aware, and had hoped his acknowledgement of this connection between them would make her more approachable. However, there was no dimming Senara Cadabra’s love of the cat-and-mouse game she so enjoyed playing with him.        She was not about to abandon her entertainment.

       'I expect you want to know what connections I had with your family,’ she continued.

       ‘I prefer not to think of the Flamgoynes in that light, Mrs Cadabra. They are my maternal grandmother’s. I am a Tre...’

       Senara smiled triumphantly. She had already thrown him onto the defensive. He grinned in acknowledgement.

       ‘Well, yes, nevertheless, I would like to know.’

       ‘None,’ she pronounced, crisply.

       He looked at her in surprise.

       ‘I have no connections with them whatsoever.’ Senara elucidated, ‘There used to be the occasional cold-war truce party between the Cardiubarns and the Flamgoynes. But you must remember that I had left Cardiubarn Hall in my youth.’

       ‘When we eloped,’ added Perran Cadabra, with a twinkle.Senara’s face softened as she glanced at her husband, and they shared a reminiscent moment. She continued:

       ‘I returned, only at my mother’s request, for Amanda’s birth and, thereafter, to deliver and collect her for their inspection at intervals. Until, at the age of three, they finally gave her over to our care, and we departed for Sunken Madley. By the time of the incident, I had had no association with any of the Flamgoynes for over 20 years.’

       Trelawney moved on. ‘Whom did you instruct to send out the letters? Your man of business?’

       ‘I had absolute confidence that the person I used would have been unwaveringly loyal. Thanks to adequate intimidation and a great deal of money. Unlike your … Flamgoynes, we did not enslave our servants and staff with enchantments. Promises of reward for loyalty, and recompense, of another kind, for the opposite, were always more than enough.’

       ‘Did your solicitor visit you or did you attend his offices?’ enquired the inspector.

       ‘The former.’

       ‘Could anyone have seen him enter or leave or overhear your conversation?’

       ‘I was circumspect, naturally, but it is possible,’ conceded Mrs Cadabra.

       ‘May I have his name? And where exactly were his offices?’

       ‘Does it matter? It’s not like you could conduct an interview or alibi anyone at this late date.’ He gathered, rightly, that Mrs Cadabra was not going to identify her agent, and went on to his next question.

       ‘It is possible that a Flamgoyne or one of their … staff could have overheard, or listened into, your conversation that day?’

       ‘Well … the room could have been bugged, I suppose.’

       Trelawney tapped a finger on the arm of his chair, as he thought.

       ‘There is one person who may have information about Flamgoyne presence in the town that day.’

       ‘You mean?’

       ‘Pasco … Flamgoyne.’

       ‘The family retainer?’ Mrs Cadabra looked surprised. ‘Good heavens. Is he still alive?’

       ‘He’s the estate manager, actually. Yes.’

       ‘Would he talk to you?’ she asked sceptically.‘

       'Perhaps. There is one person he would talk to. The person who is now head of the Flamgoyne family since th—’

       'Dear Amanda wiped them out single-handedly,’ Mrs Cadabra interrupted gleefully.

       ‘I did no such thing, Granny!’ her granddaughter protested. The inspector firmly brought the conversation back on track.

       ‘Mrs Cadabra, you are right in one respect. As far as we know, all Flamgoyne descendants are deceased, incapacitated or absconded. The person who has inherited from Lady Gronetta is …’

       ‘Don’t tell me,’ chortled Senara, ‘Oh, that’s rich …’

       ‘Quite,’ Trelawney agreed, ill at ease.

       Greatly diverted, Senara clasped her hands. ‘It is, isn’t it? Your father!’

Fire on wild Bodmin Moor, murder by impossible means, missing children, star-crossed lovers and a most mysterious family. Covert witch Amanda travels into Cornwall to learn a startling tale and take on a formidable task.

Who and what is Lucy? What really went on at Growan House School? Who is the killer? Detective Inspector Trelawney must dig into his clan’s nefarious past to discover vital clues.

Armed with only a wand and her eternally grumpy cat, Tempest, can Amanda survive her most perilous journey yet into the past, and solve the strange case of Lucy Penlowr?

'Just wow! Brilliantly written!' 'So many twists and turns it was hard to put down.' ‘It had me hooked.’

       ‘The pretty mist,’ the old woman’s voice echoed in Amanda’s mind. It was hard to see through the fog that was now brown, now purple, now mustard yellow … sickly sweet. She stretched out her little three-year-old hand. Suddenly it was dark. She was outside on the Moor. Amanda knew it by the scents. But not entirely dark. Smoke was boiling up into the night. A building was aflame and then … a blinding flash.

       With a gasp, Amanda woke up. Calm but concerned tones came from her right, asking,

       ‘Are you all right, Miss Cadabra?’

       ‘Er ....’ The sound of the familiar Ford Mondeo’s engine purred comfortingly. She looked with relief at the motorway, its green embankments flying by, and then turned her head. There was the pleasant face of Detective Inspector Thomas Trelawney of the Devon and Cornwall Police, at the wheel beside her. Amanda pushed her long mouse brown hair off her face and exhaled. ‘Yes, yes, thank you. I’m fine.’

       ‘Bad dream?’

       ‘Yes ... except ....’

       ‘Do you want to tell me? It might help.’

       ‘Thank you. I wonder ... I’m afraid I do have a tendency to fall asleep on long car journeys,’ Amanda admitted apologetically.

       ‘So I gather,’ said Trelawney with a smile, and a quick glance at her from hazel eyes, which then looked straight back at the road ahead. ‘That’s why I always make sure we’re equipped with a cushion.’

       ‘And most kind of you it is.’

       ‘My pleasure. Well? What was the “except ...”?’ he prompted.

       ‘I was back in that dungeon-crypt place at Cardiubarn Hall with my homicidal forebears. That day of the spell.’

       ‘When you were three? The spell designed to cause your asthma?’

       ‘That’s the one,’ confirmed Amanda. ‘And then suddenly I was on the Moor at night.’

       ‘Bodmin?’

       ‘Yes, and it was pitch dark, but then it wasn’t because there was smoke. And then I saw a building on fire and a bright, bright light.’

       Trelawney raised his eyebrows. ‘That sounds startling. No wonder you woke up.’

       ‘Yes, and I’m wondering if it’s been set off by where we’re going. Maybe I’m picking up something?’

       ‘Could be. Although, we don’t yet know anything about this story about Lucy that Mike’s going to tell us.’

       ‘True.’ Amanda looked over her shoulder at Tempest.

       The furry heap of storm greys was enthroned on a tiger-print velvet blanket, citrine stare aglitter. Nearing the Tamar River, the ancient border between Kernow, the land of Cornwall, and the rest of Britain, Amanda’s feline familiar was on proximity alert.

       The yellow of his eyes was echoed by the golden flecks in Amanda’s own blue gaze: flecks that expanded into islands, then continents, of brown around her pupils, when in the presence of magic. It was a tell she went to some lengths to conceal with glasses when necessary. It was easy enough in her furniture restoration workshop, where she wore close work lenses anyway. But that cosy retreat was getting further and further away, as they crossed the miles from her beloved village of Sunken Madley, sitting snugly amidst the trees near the Hertfordshire border.

       ‘How close are we to the crossing?’ Amanda asked.

       ‘Only a few miles.’

       Long ago, Granny and Grandpa had made her promise never to cross the River without them. Although they were in vulgar parlance ‘dead’, they made sure to visit from the plane of existence they now inhabited, whenever Amanda had need of their counsel or company.

Consequently, Senara Cadabra, née Cardiubarn, could now be observed seated bolt upright on the back seat, tucking a hairpin more tightly into her white victory roll. She and Perran Cadabra, a tall, grey-haired, mild-mannered man, were flanking Tempest. Granny and Tempest were pointedly ignoring one another, as they did whenever possible. He had still never forgiven Senara, in particular, for dragging him into reincarnation on that long malodorous night when Amanda was fifteen. Perran had had just as much to do with it, but Tempest considered Senara to be the instigator, and that was that.

       Amanda smiled at them, then opened the window a little. Her heightened senses detected the aroma of Dartmoor to the right, the north, the sight and sound of gulls in the distance, and the tang of the sea from The Channel to the south. Trelawney slowed down with the change in speed limit, well in advance of the crossing, opening his own window and letting the fresh air ruffle his suitably short, light brown hair.

       Before them, it reared up, the towering verticals of the Tamar Bridge suspended across the expanse between Plymouth to the east and Saltash to the west. There was the sign:

       Kernow a’gas dynergh – Welcome to Cornwall.

       They were across. There was a ripple in the ether. Amanda Cadabra had returned to the home shores of her birth. Whoever was left of the Cardiubarn and Flamgoyne witch-clans felt it, knew it, and stirred uneasily.

       Only a few miles south of the A38, which they now travelled, was a smaller road, a road with a treacherous bend. Amanda had been adopted by her loving grandparents after the assassination of the rest of her extremely unpleasant family, the Cardiubarns. They had met their end in a minibus that had crashed on the Cornish rocks beneath the sharp curve in the road. It was that unsolved multiple murder that had brought the inspector into the lives of the Cadabras. The case was only very recently resolved.

       Now he and Amanda were on their way to see Former Chief Inspector Hogarth, Trelawney’s mentor and friend and her honorary uncle. Because it was time. Time to hear it:

       Lucy’s story.

Beware The Hanging Tree. A body discovered in the worst possible place. A day to solve the crime. Detective Inspector Trelawney is compromised, and now his career hangs on the line. Someone is plotting against him … but who?

Only covert witch Amanda Cadabra can uncover the truth, but she must strike a deadly bargain, and travel back in time to dig up the past. But this time will the risk be too great or will The Hanging Tree claim her as its next victim?

Armed with a wand, a pointy hat, and her eternally grumpy cat, Tempest, surely she cannot fail … or will she?

‘Wonderful story-telling!’ ‘I can hear the tempo and flow in my head as if the characters were speaking aloud.’ ‘Fabulous story. Twisty enough to have me second-guessing.’ ‘I was swept along.’

       It was difficult to make out what it was. The fog was being compounded by smoke from a nearby garden bonfire. Amanda ventured closer. Oh … just a sack of old leaves, wasn’t it? Probably from last autumn. Strange though. It wasn’t like Irene to be untidy.

       Another few steps, No … She stood stock-still, the mist clinging to her skin. Amanda looked up at the branch above her … then down at the form beneath. The rope attached to it lay there like a pale dead snake. … Surely not … not this. … not here …

*****

       The day began promisingly. Amanda awoke naturally after a full night’s sleep to the song of the blackbird; there’d been some hazy dream or other. One of the downsides of being a back-sleeper was that she often surfaced to find a cat on her stomach. And not just any cat. Tempest, her familiar, was thick-furred in a collection of storm greys, citrine-eyed and constitutionally disgruntled.

       Tempest, sensing his human was stirring, moved up to her chest and pushed his head out from under the quilt. Amanda smiled blearily, rubbing one blue eye, and stroked his head.

       ‘Good morning, Tempest.’

He stared at her meaningfully.

       ‘Yes, I know,’ she acknowledged tolerantly, ‘Breakfast. I must get up anyway. I have magic practice.’

       Forty minutes later found Amanda, clad in green boiler suit and trainers, mouse-brown hair in a messy plait, kneeling on the floor of her furniture restoration workshop. But not yet engaged in restoration. She was instead screwing spare antique bow handles next to the four edges of an old flat-surfaced door. Observing Amanda, with a mixture of ennui and amusement, was Tempest.

       ‘There,’ she pronounced optimistically, ‘that should do it. First, a test run.’Aerevel ynentel,’ she pronounced, and the door rose gently into the air until she halted its progress with ‘sessiblin’ and landed it with ‘sedaasig.’ This was Amanda’s particular gift, inherited through Perran, her grandfather, from the Cadabras. Since his elopement with Senara, née Cardiubarn, of the nefarious neighbouring witch-clan, he had been, ostensibly, estranged from his family. Yet, he had never regretted the union with his beloved Senara.

       Of course, as far as the village was concerned, the couple were now, in what the ‘transitioned’ regarded as vulgar parlance: dead. They were, in fact, enjoying a somewhat different plane of existence, from which they made frequent visits either spontaneously or at Amanda’s request.

       However, currently she and Tempest were the sole occupants of the workshop. It was here, where Perran had taught all, or at least, most of what he knew to Amanda, to whom he had bequeathed it together with the Vauxhall Astra. The vehicle was in British racing green, and along each side bore the legend in gold script: Cadabra Furniture Restoration and Repairs.His granddaughter was presently regarding the door on the floor with satisfaction coupled with a degree of hesitation.

       ‘Good,’ she pronounced. ‘And now ….’Amanda took a deep breath and stepped onto the door, sat down, and took hold of each of the two handles on the long sides. She focused and issued the command,

       ‘Aerevel ynentel.’ Amanda opened her eyes wide at the strange sensation of rising off the floor, inch by inch. Distracted, she lost her concentration, the surface tilted wildly, and she cried out instinctively,

       ‘Grandpa! Help me!’

       Instantly a tall, silver-haired man appeared and, smiling, steadied her with a gesture and landed the door.

       ‘Oh, thank you,’ said Amanda with relief, putting a hand to her chest. Then, as a shocking thought occurred to her, she added, ‘Grandpa, did you put a spell on me?’ Casting magic on humans was absolutely vetoed. It had got her, and even the village of Sunken Madley, into far too much trouble in the past.

       ‘No, bian,’ Perran Cadabra assured Amanda, addressing her by his pet name for her, Cornish for ‘baby’, ‘just the board and the air around you.’ Calmed by his soft accent, hailing from the far south-west of the British Isles, and unfailingly kindly manner, she sighed,

       ‘Ah.’ Now, her tell was clear to see. In the presence of magic, the tiny brown islands in the sea of her blue eyes expanded into continents. Her close-work glasses helped to hide it, but anyone who knew what to look for could observe the singular effect.

       ‘All right?’ asked Grandpa. ‘Ready to try again? Just an inch or two off the ground this time.’‘Yes … I don’t have all that long to practice, by the way.’

       ‘I know,’ replied Grandpa, nodding. ‘You’re meeting the inspector at a quarter past nine to give him the official Sunken Madley tour.’

       ‘That’s right. Ok, I’m ready. Back on the horse. Or, should I say … door?’

***

       The somewhat wayward village of Sunken Madley, to which Detective Inspector Thomas Trelawney of the Devon and Cornwall Police was now assigned, lay 13 miles to the north of the Houses of Parliament, and three miles south of the border of Hertfordshire. Its roots in the rural landscape, from which it had grown over a period of 800 years, were still in evidence to those who cared to look. It was embraced by ancient orchards and the sheltering Madley Wood. The village was a long way in every sense from the Cornish coastal town where Trelawney had been born and bred.

        The inspector was a study in unobtrusiveness, in classic, well-cut grey suit and quiet, self-patterned matching tie. His short, light-brown hair was neither styled in a dated manner nor at the edge of current fashion. His features were pleasant, he was well-spoken, accentless, his manner mild and courteous. The sort of man, Amanda had often thought, one did not notice, until one really noticed.

       Trelawney looked at his watch. He decided that he had sufficient time to make a diversion to The Corner Shop for a snack pack of almonds. There’d been a toaster crisis at his mother’s – which had been the school-holidays home of his youth after his parents’ divorce – and breakfast had turned into a rather vague affair.His arrival at the nerve centre of the village coincided with the approach of Dennis Hanley-Page, a septuagenarian whose exuberant progress through life was entirely uninterrupted by the passing of the years.

       Dennis was at that moment manifesting his eclectic musical taste. The final few bars of Rock the Casbah by The Clash echoed down the street, followed by the opening of Dolly Parton’s 9 to 5, as Dennis approached at 70 miles per hour. A red Triumph Spitfire, Dennis’s latest acquisition as proprietor of Vintage Vehicles, raced into view. The village had somehow managed to maintain a legacy speed limit from either the 1930’s or 70’s. Trelawney was simply grateful that he was not there to police the traffic, and entered The Corner Shop, while Dennis parked and secured his car.

       Ding! The door heralded the inspector’s entrance.

       ‘Pen hates therapists,’ Joan the postlady was saying to Mrs Sharma, proprietor, and Sylvia, the hi-vis-vest-clad octogenarian lollipop lady. She was but recently arrived at the establishment from her labours of safely ushering the school children across the road. This duty she performed with the aid of her round stop sign on a long pole, hence her job title.

      ‘Hello, Inspector,’ they chorused in warm welcome. Joan brought him up to speed.

       ‘We’re talking about the new renter of the Sharma’s shop at the end of the High Street here. And I was about to say as no one could hate our new therapist. He’s a sweetie.’

       ‘Oh I know,’ enjoined Sylvia. ‘That would be like hating … Mother Theresa.’‘Or Stephen Fry,’ returned Joan.Ding! went the shop door.‘Or Dolly Parton,’ chimed in Dennis, debonairly sweeping off his tweed cap. ‘Everyone likes Dolly Parton.’

       ‘We know you do,’ returned Sylvia with a grin, after they had greeted him.

       ‘Well,’ commented Joan, ‘my Jim says what with my hair and my curves, that I’m a tall, size 16 ringer for Dolly, bless ‘im.’

       ‘You’ve got a good man there, Joan,’ Sylvia remarked.

       ‘Oh, I have, I have. You know, when we was courting, and I mighta told you this story before …’

       Trelawney was aware of the time and his appointment with his landlady-to-be and his new partner Miss Cadabra. However, he was even more conscious of his new status in the village, with its upgrade from ‘Honorary Village’ to ‘Village’. He had been warned that Sunken Madley was not like his Cornish home town of Parhayle, and they would have their own pace.

       This was the last place he’d expected to end up and the last business he’d ever imagined he’d be embroiled in. Detective Inspector Thomas Trelawney had regarded magic as a lot of mumbo jumbo and himself as a modern man, living in a modern world, solving modern, and also admittedly age-old, crimes, with the aid of modern techniques.

       And then …

Should you tread softly?
Four strangers, one missing dog and a body. But Sunken Madley is just a quaint, peaceful English village. What does the 1000-year-old ruined priory have to do with it? The answer, as it so often does, lies in the past.

Detective Inspector Trelawney is fast exhausting the normal options. Only covert witch Amanda, with her grumpy feline familiar, has the means to step back 500 years, infiltrate the monastery and discover the truth.

Back they must go a fateful decision to shape history, a murder on hallowed ground and a deadly secret. Will Amanda and Tempest survive the perilous past and help solve the mystery in the present, before the killer strikes again?

'Kept me guessing until the end.' 'What a wonderful story!' 'Lots of good stories woven together.'

       It was a blissfully sunny August Sunday, and, as the villagers expected, Amanda Cadabra and her irascible feline companion were making their way towards their favourite picnic spot. Jonathan, the dazzlingly handsome but incurably shy assistant librarian, had raised a hand in greeting as they’d passed.

       Witch and familiar took the slope up towards their goal at a gentle pace; Amanda because exertion was no friend to her asthma; Tempest because he believed that ‘rush’ was a speed reserved for extreme emergencies, but otherwise for peasants. He sniffed delicately in the direction of the picnic basket.Amanda chuckled.‘

Can you really smell ham through the container? It has a tight lid. Not that lids or locks have ever held you back, Mr Fuffy-wuffy. Well, you won’t have to wait much longer for lunch.’

       Their goal was in sight. The one-thousand-year-old priory, long since an unremarkable ruin, lay on the northern edge of the peaceful English village of Sunken Madley. It was situated just before the last of the habitations gave way to the trees of old Madley Wood. Years ago, Amanda had illicitly, but very discreetly, used some magic to erect a platform on what remained of a portion of the upper floor. They would visit on fine Sundays, Amanda to think and Tempest to survey his kingdom and … eat.

       But today, today was going to be different. Amanda felt it before she saw it, saw it in the shadows.

       She stopped a few yards away, staring towards the ground.

       ‘Oh, Tempest. Oh no …. Not here … please, let it not be … here.’

***

       Several days earlier, Detective Inspector Thomas Trelawney of the Devon and Cornwall Police, and now also of the London Metropolitan Police, was standing in his new office. It was strongly redolent of fresh paint and new carpet.

       The office, together with his flat, occupied part of the ground floor of The Elms, one of the largest and oldest establishments of Sunken Madley. The village, still rural in spirit, was pleasantly situated just three miles south of the Hertfordshire border and 13 miles north of the Houses of Parliament. It was rather different from his Cornish coastal home town of Parhayle, but all in all, Trelawney was happy to be here.Having looked around the room, he turned his hazel eyes toward Bryan Branscombe, the village builder, and smiled.

       ‘You’ve done wonders, Mr Branscombe.’

       ‘Thank you, Inspector. Very nice of you to say so.’ Bryan pushed his hands more deeply into the pockets of his light grey overalls and gazed at the carpet to hide a blush.

       He was still getting used to accepting compliments. Bryan looked up again, at a slight angle, being somewhat shorter than Trelawney’s six feet. ‘Sorry about the delays,’ he said for the umpteenth time. ‘But the gas explosion at the Puttenhams left them without a kitchen, so I couldn’t leave them, and then I had to sort out the plumbing at Pipkin Acres. It’s a residential home, after all.’

       ‘That’s quite all right. I’ve been busy with various things back in Cornwall myself, and I believe Miss Cadabra has had a few rush jobs on. But here we are now, and I can see it’s been well worth the wait.’

       ‘Thank you, Inspector. Here, would you like to check the facilities?’

       Thomas had already been shown the milestones in the refurbishments of his new flat and office as they’d been reached. However, this had something of the air of a grand opening, albeit with just the two of them.

       Bryan had cleverly made the small loo appear to be part of the stretch of cupboards that ran from the right-hand edge of that essential room to the end of the wall opposite where the desk would be. That centrepiece of furniture was to be set in front of the attractive bay window, with the door to the hallway of The Elms on the left and the entrance to Thomas’s new flat to the right. The woodwork was painted matt white; the walls were mushroom, and the carpet a warm beige. Pleasant, welcoming and serviceable.

       'The desk will be over this afternoon,’ Bryan told him, ‘as soon as Miss Cadabra has finished with it. I’ll bring it over.’

       ‘Thank you, Bryan. I don’t know how you managed to get it to her workshop.’ A generous present at the end of the last case and something of an heirloom, it was a gift from Miss Armstrong-Witworth of The Grange. A handsome Victorian partner desk, it was furniture crafted to last and, thought Thomas, must weigh a considerable amount.

       ‘Oh, that’s all right, Inspector. All part of the service. Moffat helped me get it onto the van to take to Miss Cadabra. You wouldn’t think a man his age could be that strong. Must be one of them bodybuilders in his spare time! Iskender –'

       ‘– who owns the kebab shop?' checked Trelawney, who was still getting to know the village.

       'That's right. Gave me a hand the other end, and then Marcus, your neighbour, will help me get it back here.’

       ‘But I can –’

       ‘No, no, Marcus says he wants to do it. What with you sorting out that business and clearing his name as a suspect and all.’

       ‘Most kind. You must let me give –’

       ‘No, Inspector, that’s quite all right. Mrs James takes care of all that. But I wouldn’t say no to a jar down the Sinner’s when we’re both free.’

       ‘You’re on.’

       ‘Did I hear my name spoken?’ asked Irene, knocking on the office door that gave onto the hall.

       ‘But not in vain, I assure you. Do come in, Mrs James,’ called Trelawney.

       ‘Thank you, Inspector.’ His new landlady trod lithely into the room and turned her head, adorned with short blonde hair, towards her builder, ‘All done then, Bryan?’

       ‘All done, Mrs James. Just the desk arriving soon, and I expect Miss Cadabra told you, Inspector, she’s waiting on the staining of your coffee table for the sitting room until you’ve seen the colour of the leather on the desk. So the two echo, as they say, in different parts of the flat.’

       ‘Of course, Amanda told the inspector,’ said Irene, smiling at Thomas and briefly laying a maternal hand on his grey-suit-jacketed arm. ‘It’s all absolutely splendid, Bryan. What about the flat?’

       ‘Perfect,’ said Trelawney.

       ‘Good, good. Well, Bryan, I think you deserve a bonus.’

       ‘Very kind of you, Mrs James.’ Then, nodding brightly at Trelawney, ‘You and Miss Cadabra can start work then.’

       ‘Not yet,’ stated Irene firmly. ‘The paintwork and carpet need airing for at least three days, I’d say. They’ll be no friend to her asthma else. Is the paint on the window frames dry, Bryan?’

       ‘Yes, completely.’‘Well then, with your permission, Inspector, if you’re going to be here for a while …?’

       Irene began to open all of the windows, top and bottom.

       ‘Ah, yes, good idea,’ Thomas approved. He went into his flat through the door at the right-hand end of the office and opened the entrance to the side passage that ran between the house and the annexe, which he knew all too well. He opened the kitchen windows and the French windows giving on to the extensive garden, with its distinctive avenue of elms that gave the house its name and had featured so significantly in the last case. The memory flickered through Thomas’s mind before being recalled to the present by the voice of approval from Irene:

       ‘That’ll get a good through draft.’

       ‘Three days?’ Trelawney checked. ‘For all of the chemical odours to dissipate?’

       ‘Yes. Then,’ advised Irene, ‘ask Amanda to come and try it.’