Her eyes darted to Winter. He was watching me intently. ‘I suppose.’

‘That must be a bit shit. You’re just as much of a witch as them, right?’

Her nose twitched like a rabbit’s. I was right. ‘Yeah,’ Bethany admitted cautiously. ‘It’s a pain but I don’t mind that much.’

I pointed towards the door. ‘That guy.’ I glanced at Winter’s sheet of paper. ‘Bill January. How does he take his coffee?’

‘He doesn’t,’ she answered. ‘He prefers tea. Weak and milky.’ Her expression told me exactly what she thought of his preference.

‘How much of your time do you spend by the kettle?’

She looked wary, as if I were trying to accuse her of something. ‘Quite a bit.’

I pressed ahead. ‘I bet that when you give them their drinks, they barely even notice you.’

‘Sometimes they say thank you,’ she muttered.

‘And sometimes they don’t.’ I smiled. ‘Sometimes they’re in mid-conversation and they barely pay you any attention at all.’

Her bottom lip jutted out. ‘Yeah.’

My smile grew. ‘As a result, you probably know more about what’s going on under this roof than anyone else. You hear things. Lots of things.’ She didn’t say anything. ‘Bethany?’

‘Was that a question?’

I liked her. ‘Am I right?’ I asked softly.

She shrugged. ‘I guess.’

‘Are there any illicit romances going on?’

Winter sucked in his breath but didn’t stop me. That was good. I knew what I was doing. Sort of.

Bethany’s eyes shifted. ‘Deborah from marketing is having an affair with Tony.’ She hesitated then dropped her voice. ‘He’s married. They think I’ve not noticed but they share looks all the time. Brush against each other when they think no one is paying attention. That kind of thing.’

She clearly disapproved. To encourage her, I pursed my lips and shook my head. ‘Awful.’ I crossed my legs. ‘You have an eye for detail.’

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.’