Chapter 39

We pulled into the empty car park at the warehouse and I took Connor to the side door where Mum and I had gone in. I stopped him from grasping the door handle. ‘There was a ward here before,' I said when he raised a quizzical eyebrow.

I tentatively stretched out my hand but there was no buzz in my back teeth so I was pretty confident it was gone. As I touched the handle, nothing stopped me or zapped me. Total win.

The door wasn't locked. Inside was dark, so we turned on our phone torches until we found the lights. I flicked them on and saw that the cavernous space was completely empty. There wasn't even any rubbish. ‘Do you think there's anywhere else on the property to search?' I asked.

Connor looked around then pointed. ‘Up there.'

I'd missed it: there was a set of metal steps in the darkest corner that went up to a row of internal windows behind us above the door. We hurried to the stairs; although they weren't in the best shape, they held our weight. At the top were three small rooms, probably offices for whatever business had been housed here. They were dark and their lights didn't come on when we flicked the switches; either they didn't have power or the bulbs were broken.

We searched each room for a space that could hide a body but there was nothing: it was a dead end. My floppy heart seized; coming here had been my last idea. I had nothing else.

We were going back down the stairs when my phone rang. I almost ignored it then I remembered I was waiting for a call. I swiped it open. ‘Hello?'

‘Officer, it's Laura from the market.'

I gripped the phone tighter. ‘Thanks for calling back.'

‘I don't know what kind of help I can give you. I can't – won't – reveal our current location.'

‘That's fine. Let me tell you what's going on. We've had a kidnapping. There's a good chance that the kidnapper might be the person that cursed Jeff or be involved with that person.'

‘I don't know who it is,' she interrupted me.

‘I realise that, but you might know something. Some vendors at the market told me that Jeff could have been cursed because he didn't pay protection money. Have you heard anything about a protection racket?'

‘That bitch,' Laura swore loudly.

‘Who?' I demanded.

‘Not you. This happened the last time we came to Portlock as well. This person has been hitting up the vendors for protection money. I've told them not to pay and to come to me. I told them that they were protected by the wards and the local sponsor, but I found out that last time most of them paid and didn"t tell me. The amount wasn't a lot, and most of them thought paying was easier than causing a fuss.'

‘Do you know who it is?' My heart started to beat hard: this could be our break.

‘Let me think. It was something to do with flowers – it started with a V.'

‘First or last name?'

‘Both.'

Shit, I only knew one person who had two Vs in their name: the earth gem witch. ‘Was it Vitus Vogler?' I asked.

‘Not V for victory, P for pants.' She pronounced the letters carefully.

‘Oh.' Dammit. ‘Was it a man or a woman?'

‘A woman was approaching everyone, a magic user of some kind.'

I'd been pretty certain that our curser was a magic user, though there was the possibility that they'd bought the curse, like Mum had bought Fluffy's curse. Having it confirmed it was a magic user … Liv would have my head with liver and Chianti.

‘I've got it!' Laura cried. ‘Posie Payne!'

I had no idea who that was, but we had a name. That was a start. ‘Thank you so much, Laura! You might have saved a life.'

‘Well, thanks for trying to find whoever cursed Jeff. We might be a travelling black market, but I try to take care of my people.'

‘I appreciate you. If you ever come back to Portlock, let me know and I'll buy you a coffee.'

She laughed. ‘You wouldn't recognise me anyway.'

I blinked. ‘Why not? Are you a master of disguise?'

‘I'm a Yee Naaldlooshii,' she admitted it in a tone that said she expected me to run away screaming. Luckily for her, I had no idea what one of those was.

‘Does that mean you won't meet me for coffee?' I pressed.

‘During which you'll try and wrangle the location of the market out of me?'

‘Not for the first five minutes,' I promised.

Laughing, she hung up. I turned to Connor. ‘Do you know someone named Posie Payne?' He shook his head. ‘Well, she might be our kidnapper-slash-curser.'

As we headed back to the car, I called Gunnar. ‘I need an address for a magic user named Posie Payne. Do you know her?'

‘The name sounds familiar,' he said. ‘Let me check the database.'

I heard him banging at the keyboard and my foot tapped in time with his typing. I was in a hurry. He came back to me. ‘Huh. I knew the name rang a bell. I've got a J. Payne who's been given a warning for threatening behaviour.'

‘That's good enough for me. Do we have a current address?'

‘I'll text it to you. Do you have cuffs with you?'

I had the black bag. ‘Absolutely.'

‘Go get 'em tiger.'

‘Thanks, Gunnar.' My phone vibrated with the incoming text before I hung up. ‘I have the address,' I said to Connor. ‘Let's go get her.'