Page 71 of Star Witch
He looked at me as if I were dense. ‘Trevor Bellows, of course. He goes after all the woman. Barry told me he was always the same but no one did anything about it because Belinda wanted to keep him around.’ He shrugged helplessly. ‘He’s been onEnchantmentsince the beginning. He’s got power and money and status and any time anything happened, it just got hushed up.’
My mouth was dry. ‘I need you to be explicit, Mazza. What was he doing? What did he do to Amy?’ She’d never given any indication that anything was wrong. But then, if she were scared of him she probably wouldn’t have. I cursed myself. She’d been my room-mate, even if only for a couple of nights. How could I not have noticed that something was up?
‘He wanted her to sleep with him. He said that if she didn’t he’d get her fired.’
I sensed Winter’s rage. His fists clenched and his body went rigid. I was right there with him but I had to stay in control. I had to find out what Mazza had done and if he was the person we were looking for.
‘So what did you do?’ I asked. I spoke softly because if I tried anything above a whisper I had the feeling it would sound like a strangled scream of fury.
‘I wanted to protect her. If I could stop him, I thought maybe I could find something that would keep her safe. This is my second series withEnchantment. Last time one of the contestants sprinkled some herbs around their beds to keep them safe at night. I thought I could do the same.’
I frowned. ‘I don’t remember that.’
‘Nothing happened. He sprinkled the herbs and then slept like a baby. It didn’t make the cut.’
I sighed. ‘So you thought it was an effective protection spell?’
‘Yes. I copied exactly what he did except in larger quantities.’
‘Let me guess,’ Winter said through gritted teeth. ‘Mandrake, cinquefoil and prickly ash bark.’
Mazza blinked. ‘How did you know?’
‘We found it all around the first set.’
‘Oh.’ Mazza deflated even further. ‘It didn’t work anyway.’
‘Funny that,’ Winter muttered.
‘I’m not a witch. I don’t have any magic at all.’ He ran a hand through his hair. ‘But I thought that if I did what he had done, then it might be okay.’ He threw Winter an accusing look. ‘At least I tried!’
I offered a soothing nod. ‘You did.’ I gave him a moment’s pause to gather himself together then my voice hardened. ‘But this still doesn’t explain the scent of blood.’
‘Bellows wouldn’t stop what he was doing. I had to take action. I thought if I could scare him I could make him stop. I was going to saw through his staff so that it snapped when he put his weight on it but I knew that wouldn’t be enough. I didn’t have a clue what to do. Until I found the sheep.’
‘Where was it?’
Mazza obviously didn’t want to answer. He scuffed the ground with his toe and demurred. ‘It doesn’t really matter.’
I leaned forward until I was almost nose to nose with him. ‘We’ll decide what matters. Where did you find the sheep?’
‘By the cemetery,’ he mumbled. He pulled away from me.
I didn’t move. He could only mean the one at the bottom of Dead Man’s Hill. ‘Before or after Benjamin Alberts was killed?’
‘After,’ he whispered. ‘Armstrong wanted me to go and scout out the area. He wanted to do a challenge amongst the graves. You know, to make it spooky or something. He didn’t want anyone to know because he thought they might be annoyed that he was still thinking about using that place after what happened. I found the sheep there. I don’t know what had happened to it. It was lying on its side and there was a wound in its stomach. Maybe a wild animal had got to it. I was going to get a vet but my phone kept cutting out. Bad reception or something. I knew that by the time I got to town and found someone it would probably be too late. With all that blood all over the place I just…’ His voice dropped and he hung his head. ‘I collected as much of the blood as I could and then I hit the sheep over the head and put it out of its misery.’
I felt a bit ill – and it wasn’t just because I was still recovering from being hit by a zombie-targeted spell.
‘You used the blood to paint Bellows’ trailer.’
He nodded. ‘When he went to make-up, I snuck in through the back window. After what happened to Benjamin, I didn’t want anyone to think someone else had died so I put some sheep wool onto the fence so they’d know it wasn’t human blood. I was going to leave more wool inside but there wasn’t time. I was only going to draw the pentagram but I panicked when the door opened. I thought that Bellows had returned. When I looked at him, I knew I was staring at the face of pure evil. His eyes turned bright green, like some kind of crazed monster. He had horns growing out of his head.’
Mazza’s voice dropped to a horrified whisper. ‘Horns.’ He shook himself. ‘As soon as he saw me, he attacked. The blood went everywhere. I hit him over the head and ran. The next thing I knew, Marcus was coming out of the trailer and screaming.’ Mazza looked confused. ‘I don’t know where he came from or what happened to Bellows. He looked normal the next time I saw him.’ His eyes were wide. ‘But he’s the devil.’
Mazza obviously meant that last part literally. Okaaaay. Winter opened his mouth to ask another question but I already had everything I needed and I forestalled him. ‘You do realise what you did was wrong?’
Mazza looked away. ‘Yes,’ he mumbled unconvincingly.
