The Magpie Effect - The Magpie Chronicles Book 1 (#Wattys2015)

Chapter 15.1

My bedroom door stood open. A few straggled tatters of bed sheet had wandered into the hallway, carried by a non-existent breeze. Inside, spores of stuffing drifted aimlessly through the air, catching the late-September sunlight in a way that was otherworldly. Nothing was where it should have been; everywhere I cast my eyes I discovered new misfortunes to behold, further belongings destroyed.

Ivana made her way into the centre of the room, cautiously treading over the bales of debris that now constituted the floor. Officers Burke and Toland followed her, the older of the two jotting down notes in his little book as he entered.

I felt my breath catch in my throat as Ivana rotated slowly on the spot, allowing her eyes to absorb every morsel of information she could gather, and finally came to rest on the mirror. Of course, the first thing I'd done upon seeing the message was smear it with my sleeve. Now, only a smudge of red remained. It wasn't as though I'd have trouble remembering the words.

Rigatona is coming. They were imprinted onto my eyelids, so that I could see them even when my eyes were closed. What did they mean?

Ivana hesitated for a moment, and then returned her attention to us. Her eyes scanned over me in a way that made me feel vulnerable, naked.

"Can you explain to us exactly what happened, Miss Sweet?" the older of the officers asked me. He reached up and squatted a speck of pillow stuffing from his forehead

I recounted the tale to them, the memories still completely raw and unspoilt in my mind. For the first time, Ivana seemed genuinely interested in what I had to say. She hung on my every word and once I was done she proceeded to twirl in a slow circle to flit her gaze over each and every surface of the room, for the second time.

"Did you leave any windows open when you left for school this morning, Sapphire?" asked Ivana.

I nodded. It was easier to lie through gesture than through words. The windows had all been closed when I'd entered the room: that was one of the things that scared me the most. Whoever - or whatever - had done this seemed to have entered through the walls rather than through the windows.

I'd thrown them wide open myself before running downstairs, right after I'd slandered the message on the mirror. This was beyond Ivana and her police officers, beyond regular human capacity. I needed to make it look like it was my fault. Well, you left the windows open - that's practically inviting a burglar right in.

"What about yourself, Mrs Sweetman? Surely you must have heard something from downstairs," enquired the younger of the officers. "A ransack like this can't have gone by unnoticed."

Vivian gulped, her entire frame suddenly small and mousy. "I've been at the bakery all day! I-I just don't understand how this could have happened."

Ivana crossed her arms over her chest, drawing lines in the unblemished fabric of her trademark coat. Her eyes were still fixed on me, unmoving. "Ah, yes, your prized family bakery. Did you not notice anything out of place when you got home, Mrs Sweetman?"

"I-I don't think so," my mother answered. Her eyes were welling up again. I moved over to her side, slipped my hand into hers. She responded with an indiscreet squeeze that almost cracked my bones. "I've been in the kitchen ever since I got home. Unless if they were really quiet about it, there's no way I wouldn't have heard somebody sneaking about the house behind my back."

"Have there been any other disturbances around the house?" asked the younger officer, Officer Toland.

"Nothing. Everything else is normal."

"Have you searched the house to make sure the intruder is no longer inside? Looked through cupboards, under beds, that sort of thing?"

My mother paled over. For a moment, I thought she was going to faint.