Page 62 of Slouch Witch
The compliment pleased her. ‘I do.’
I kept my voice soft and went in for the kill. ‘Have you noticed anything unusual lately about anyone here? Anything at all? You could really help us out. Winter will put in a good word for you. He’s terribly important but he doesn’t let it go to his head. In fact, he’s made coffee for me and I’m a nobody.’
Bethany thought about it. ‘The HR Head. What’s his name? Adeptus Price? He was round here looking for Adeptus Diall. He seemed quite desperate to talk to him.’
‘Did he say why?’
‘No. He was pretty frantic though.’
I exchanged glances with Winter. ‘Anything else?’
Bethany shrugged. ‘Some people are missing. We’ve not seen them for days. No one’s saying anything because they think that they’re on some kind of secret mission for Diall. But I know they weren’t expecting to be away for so long because I’ve had to field calls about their missed appointments.’
‘Who? Who’s not here?’
‘Matthew Bellham and Alice Fairclough. They work together as partners. They left three days ago without telling anyone where they were going or what they were up to and we don’t know where they are now.’ Oh, yeah, them. I grimaced slightly but Bethany wasn’t done. ‘And another witch has been gone for ages. A First Level witch called Oscar Marsh.’
A triumphant trumpet sounded in my head. ‘Tell me about him.’
‘He’s a drunk,’ she said dismissively. ‘Adeptus Diall seemed to like him but he’s useless. And he’s a bastard.’
‘What makes you say he’s a bastard?’
‘He was born out of wedlock, of course.’
I blinked. ‘Er…’
Bethany ignored my startled reaction. ‘He doesn’t hold with the old ways. He brings a laptop into work.’ Her eyes grew saucer-wide. ‘A laptop,’ she repeated, obviously shocked at such a heinous infraction of the rules.
‘Unbelievable.’
She nodded fervently in agreement.
‘When was the last time you saw him?’
‘He left an hour or two after Bellham and Fairclough. He’s not been back since.’
‘Bethany,’ Winter said, ‘could you get us his personnel file?’
She seemed surprised. ‘Oh, I don’t have it. All those sorts of things are kept over at HR.’
I frowned at Winter. ‘Is that typical?’
‘I suppose so.’
I couldn’t help wondering whether Tarquin was involved with this too. He was in HR and I certainly wouldn’t put it past him. ‘Thank you so much, Bethany. You’ve been extraordinarily helpful. You may go.’
‘Sure.’ She stood up and pushed her chair back before bobbing her head and leaving. Once she’d gone, I got to my feet as well. ‘Now that,’ I said with a dramatic flourish, ‘is how to conduct twenty interviews in five minutes. Let’s get out of here.’
Winter didn’t move. ‘There are still nineteen people to go.’
‘Yeah, but we’ve got what we needed. Bethany has her finger on the pulse.’ I grinned. ‘Never underestimate the tea lady.’
‘It’s important to talk to everyone.’
‘It’ll take hours, days probably. We don’t have that kind of time and we already have a new lead. Stop being such a stickler for the rules, Rafe. We can come back if we need to.’
‘This is not the way things are normally done.’
