Broomstick - Part Thirteen

And hear ye, hear ye, the thirteenth part of Broomstick! Enjoy, all ye who enter here! I'll update the "Inspector Wolfe Tales" page of the blog by Saturday, I promise.

-----

The squad carriage pulled up to the curb and we all tumbled out. It was me, Thumb, and two others: officers Snow White and Josiah “ugly duckling” Bernard.

Snow White and the ugly duckling were almost completely opposite. Officer White was a tall, slender, charming woman with dark locks and pale skin; Officer Bernard was a squatty musclebound bald man with a lazy eye and several scars on his face.

We all rushed forward to the door without a word, and immediately saw that something was wrong. The door was open and the house was dark. The ugly duckling quietly stepped across the threshold with wand extended, and the other two Peacelocks followed. I was last inside.

“Hello!” called Thumb. “Anybody here?”

“Something’s not right,” Snow White muttered.

“Fan out and search the building,” Thumb ordered. “Wolfe, go with the ug—er, Officer Bernard.”

I followed the Peacelock in question. We burst through several doors and finally ended up in the kitchen.

The worst of my fears were confirmed. A body lay sprawled on the floor, the body of Anthony Shipton.

“Man down!” shouted Officer Bernard. He rushed forward, knelt down, and took the man’s pulse. “He’s dead. Tom, he’s dead!”

I surveyed the scene and noticed several things. A mug of coffee was shattered on the floor, its liquid contents pooled over the tiles. I crouched down and dabbed at the coffee with my finger, raising it to my nose and taking a good sniff.

My nose wrinkled, and my face almost shriveled up in disgust. This guy used way too much creamer.

But then I realized what the pungent smell actually was. “One teaspoon gremlin ash, quarter pound wolfsbane, three tablespoons flour, one cup spider blood, two drops mandrake sap.”

My mind raced back to the scene of the crime yesterday morning. Aleck Shipton’s dead body. In his pocket, a folded piece of paper with a recipe on it.

Aleck Shipton had been in almost as deep as I was right now, and then he was killed before he could piece it together. He must have discovered the recipe when he was snooping around for clues. The recipe for the poison concoction that would kill his father.

My inn where I lodged was more or less halfway between the King’s Men Club and this house that I stood in right now.

They had planned to poison both of them, but Aleck had gotten wind of the operation. He was travelling from the club to warn his father when the spellbolt hit him. A powerful hex custom-crafted to look like a heart attack. He had spasmed and fallen to the ground, white as a sheet, and he had died.

But who would be powerful enough to have wrought such a powerful spell, much less used it without it backfiring? Some very magically adept person, in employ of the Three.

I had no leads, was the truth. All I knew was how the events had fallen in place, nothing more. I needed a new clue, a new lead. I needed some way to draw out whoever was behind all this.

I stared down at the sprawled body on the ground as Thumb came rushing into the room, followed momentarily by Snow. She gasped and looked away.

Thumb skirted around the puddle of deadly coffee on the floor, kneeling beside the victim. He went through various checks of vital signs. I decided to give him some information about it. “Thumb,” I said, “the coffee...it’s got the same ingredients as the list in the back of Aleck’s pocket; I could smell it.”

“What?” Thumb asked. “Oh.” He took a sniff and wrinkled his nose. “Way too much creamer—wait, you’re right. I can pick up the gremlin ash.”

“He’s been poisoned,” I said. “And it’s linked with Aleck.” I was trying to push as much as possible, give him leads. If I could convince Thumb to turn up the pressure on the investigation, then maybe it would play to my advantage in forcing the criminals out of hiding.

“You’re right,” Thumb answered. “And it must also be linked with Alice’s disappearance. Someone’s got a beef with the family or something; this can’t all be coincidence. And you know what? It may be connected with this whole Nether Key business, too!” He was hot on the trail now. Inwardly I started dancing for joy. If Thumb could get some leads, then I would be a step closer toward wrapping up this whole affair. It was going on far too quickly, and who knew how much time Alice had left? She couldn’t be stuck in the Nether Realm indefinitely. I had to free her. With or without the Nether Key she was still in harm’s way, and I was the only one who could help her.

“Get a forensics team,” Thumb ordered Snow, who nodded and left the room eagerly. She didn’t seem keen about staying with a dead body. “You’ve done well, Wolfe,” Thumb commended me. “But the Peacelocks are taking this one over.”

I groaned inside. This was the last thing I wanted. Thumb was back to being an idiotic prickly pear cactus of a detective. “Well, maybe I could help more,” I said.

“No, don’t get me wrong,” Thumb assured me. “I’ll have forensics search the house, and if anything turns up, I’ll inform you. Just this once, you’re on board as temporary consultant. If this goes well, I’ll send you a check. But for now, you don’t have much you can do. Go back home.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Okay,” I said, a bit confused. Thumb was actually being...well, being practical, for once. I nodded. “I’ll let myself out,” I remarked, turning and leaving the room. I felt a touch of pride at the prospect of being a consultant, even if it was a temporary post for just this single investigation. My dreams were close; I was closer than ever to being a certified detective. A temporary consultant’s status would show well on my resumé. Perhaps I would even get some sort of discount or scholarship to the Peacelock University so that I could become a certified investigator. The world would know my fame, at last!

But for now, this investigation was closest at hand. I needed to concentrate my efforts, and I needed a little something done for me.