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

Chapter 15.2

"Do you have any proof?" Ivana was holding my gaze, unwilling to yield. "Other than that which you senselessly erased?"

The question washed over me like a bucket of ice water washing off the dregs of a nasty fever, sweeping away the malice that had suddenly consumed and blinded me. The overwhelming desire to cause Carmen harm had robbed me of reason.

"No," I realised, and the tense knot in my stomach loosened. "No proof, just conviction."

"Do you realise," Ivana said, slowly, "the weight of your accusations? Especially without any proof, we could knock on their door and they could deny the whole affair, and then we'd be back to stage one with nothing gained except an intensified enmity. That's the last thing this community needs during such dire times."

"What do you want from me?" I murmured. The room around us seemed to dissolve, so that I felt as though it was just myself and Ivana staring each other out in a vacuum.

"I want the truth."

"I've told you everything. I don't know what else to tell you-"

"Don't you go thinking that I'm not already aware of you, girl," Ivana growled. "It was you in the park that night, hiding amongst the shadows. You listened in on a very private conversation that weren't meant for your ears, didn't you? Tell me, who were you hiding with?"

I couldn't escape her gaze. Her irises were a dark, unshifting green, like layer upon layer of emeralds, crushed to dust. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"I think you do," said Ivana, and then she clapped her hands together. Just like that, the void that had swallowed the rest of the room recoiled. I felt my whole weight jolt back into me, as though I were being set back on my feet after weightlessly floating. "But, there you go, you've made your choice and now you'll reap the consequences. We'll go visit with the Vespins, and when they deny your accusations, know that there is absolutely nothing we can do about it without solid proof. You will have to face them with the assuredness that you set this train in motion."

Ivana lingered a moment, her eyes flitting over the wreckage that was assembled around our feet, and then stalked out of the room. I was left alone, and in the silence that followed I frantically tried to still my beating heart.

When I finally calmed down, I went to join the others downstairs. Ivana seemed to have returned to her usual pompous self, barking out orders to the two police officers while Vivian sobbed on the phone to my father, pleading with him to come home from work early. They took our statements and then they left, but not before Ivana could depart without a final jeer.

"I hope to see you again soon, Miss Sweetman," she said to me, raising a sinewy hand in farewell. "I have a feeling that this isn't the last time we'll meet, especially if you and Jet are quickly becoming friends. I'll tell him you said hello."

I opened my mouth and said something in return, but what came out was unintelligible. Ivana Burr raised an eyebrow and then left. I stared down into the bowl of my hands, hoping that somehow the answers to all the untended questions in my mind could be found there. I found nothing.

When I looked up, Vivian was staring directly at me. Her cheeks were streaked raw, and her hands were clasped around a blotchy handkerchief. "Your father will be home soon," she said to me, and then, "you can sleep in the spare room for a little while, until we get this whole thing sorted out. We will get this sorted out, you know."

My mind was blank; I only nodded. Vivian came to stand before me, placing her hands on each of my shoulders. "Do you really think it was Edith's daughter that did this?"