“She could be anywhere. It’s a needle in a haystack trying to find an old woman with a basket of poisoned apples -especially on market day,” said Talbot, following Valencia out of the bakery without knowing where to start looking.

“That’s it! It’s market day! I bet she’s at the market!” said Valencia, running faster on the dusty cobbled streets, weaving in and out of the steady streams of people on the lookout for a bargain, or their week’s provisions.

“Why would she head for the market? There’s hundreds of witnesses about!” said Talbot, struggling to keep up mentally and physically.

“And hundreds of apples, too. It would be so easy for her to place one of hers on a stall for an unsuspecting person to pick.”

Talbot’s face visibly reflected the implications of Mrs Hubbard’s potential poison plan.

Valencia skidded round the corner at Pickpocket’s Lane, almost colliding with a woman laden up with shopping. Her apples and oranges tumbled to the ground and rolled down the street.

“Oi! Watchit! Now look what you’ve done! I just bought ‘em! In the gutter they are!” she said, bending down and reaching for them.

Valencia helped her to pick them up but kept one of the apples, pushing it into her hat which was fastened onto her leather belt.

Talbot saw where she put the apple when he caught up to them.

“Found one already?”

“Yes, it was lucky for her I bumped into her.”

“What can we do? We can’t check every apple here, it’s apple season!”

“I know, but at least now we know we were right. You go and find a controller and explain everything and I’ll warn people about the apples. We may be too late to save anyone else but we’ve got to try.”

“Okay. Be careful,” he said, giving her an encouraging smile before melting into the crowd.

Valencia climbed up the statue of Lord Cashewnipp which was the tallest statue in the market square.

Dressed in her witch clothing and scaling the statue, Valencia soon attracted a growing group of onlookers keen to see what would happen next.

Pushing her acute fear of heights to one side, she went higher and higher up the pewter statue.

*(Lord Cashewnipp was known as a giant amongst men. Probably because he was a giant. Some say the towering statue is life-sized and some say it comes up short. No one says it’s an exaggeration. They only need to view his glass coffee where his skeletal remains lie at Pioneers’ Peak to know if anything, the statue could benefit from an additional couple of feet…

Lord Cashewnipp was a one-off. A resident of Spellica all his life, he devoted his time to rescuing cats from trees. (It’s a known fact cats love to climb up, but they can’t climb down. They have a cut-off point where they can’t just jump for it. Go past that and they need someone like Lord Cashewnipp to rescue them. By law, all residents of Spellica must own a cat. It’s a booming business now, rescuing cats from trees - and Lord Cashewnipp was the original pioneer, the blueprint for all cat rescues to come).*

“What’s she up to?” asked an old woman, craning her neck.

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“Some sorta protest, I imagine,” the man stood next to her, effortlessly sliding the woman’s money pouch out of her pocket without her realising.

Valencia had reached her cut-off point. She looked down and her head swam. Telling herself to stay focused, she took a deep breath and gripped the cold statue harder.

Mrs Hubbard was in the far corner of the market talking to… none other than the assistant from Telfjord’s bakery.

Valencia almost lost her grip she was so stunned. Why would… but if the two of them… If she’s the accomplice…

A multitude of thoughts crisscrossed her mind - flipping inside out, twisting, turning, obscuring each other till she felt suddenly claustrophobic and unable to think at all.

She had to get down and find out what this all meant.

“Valencia! Down here! I’ve got the controllers!” shouted the familiar voice of Talbot, sounding far away.

“She’s over in the far-right corner of the market! The Baker’s assistant’s with her - she’s the accomplice,” gasped Valencia, wondering why climbing down was a lot harder than climbing up.

Talbot helped her down the last few inches.

“Good thinking to climb up there to see where she was, Val, but why would the assistant be her accomplice?”

“I don’t know, but I just saw them talking together.”

“She might be giving her an apple. It could be just a coincidence.”

“It could, but I feel it in my bones I’m right. The body language… it was… she was scared.”

“I’m gonna be scared of Mrs Hubbard, now I know her family background - and that she tried to kill me all because…oh…”

“What? What is it?”

“…When I mentioned to her we’d been to Telfjord’s and spoken to the assistant there… she seemed to change. The atmosphere around her went cold, darker, somehow. Then she gave me the apple. She wanted me to take one for you, too. She was very disappointed when I told her you don’t eat apples. Now we know why,” he said, grimly.

“You obviously touched a nerve. We were getting too close for comfort.”

The controllers’ high-pitched whistles pierced through the usual market traders’ well practiced shouts and customers asking “How much?” and “Oi! Over here, mate!”

“They’ve got them! Let’s get over there!” said Valencia, relieved.

However, when they reached the corner, she’d seen them both at, only the bakery assistant was there, looking stunned and on the brink of tears as she was surrounded by breathless red cheeked controllers.

“This her?” asked one of the controllers.

“She’s one of them. Where’s Mrs Hubbard?”

“This one was standing alone even though she insists she wasn’t.”

“Let me guess… she took a bite of one of your invisibility cakes? A genuine one?” asked Valencia.

“She did! Right in front of me! She’s dropped me right in it, she has! It was all Mrs Hubbard, not me. She blackmailed me into helping her,” said the assistant, wringing her skirts.

“So, you gave her the dye… in exchange for what?” asked Valencia.

“She threatened a scandal at our bakery! She said she’d poison the cakes and we’d be ruined. Mr Yelmang is a very wealthy widower, on the verge of retiring. He’s had lots of huge offers recently for the bakery. They’re paying for the name, the reputation, the established clientele, the location… a scandal now would ruin his plans - and mine.”

“You see yourself in his retirement plans, don’t you?”

She squirmed, blushing.

“He’s always been fond of me. Lately I’ve been… making myself indispensable to him so he can’t imagine life without me. I don’t know for sure if… but I do know he went to the jeweller’s yesterday and… it looks like a ring… I caught a glimpse of the box before he hurriedly shoved it into his pocket when I walked into the room. He was very flustered to see me so… I expect a proposal any day now.”

“So, you couldn’t risk not helping Mrs Hubbard, even if it meant people would die. It was okay for you to have your dreams - but not for them?”

“She never said she was going to poison anyone with the dye - how could she? It was safe. When I went for the dye she asked for - reluctantly, I might add, she must’ve helped herself to the cake cases at the same time. I didn’t realise they’d gone till later.”

“And you couldn’t report the theft because she'd tell them you’d given her the dye - and by then, you realised what you’d got yourself caught up in - murder.”

“I couldn’t see a way out, especially when she came back for more dye and invisibility cakes. I was only playing for time. I only wanted her off my back till he accepted the highest offer. Then, the bakery’s reputation wouldn’t be our problem anymore and we could live the life I’ve dreamed of for so long.”

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