Aconite and Accusations

by Silver Nord

  “Don’t patronise me! You’re a mere blink of an eye compared to my lengthy existence,” Jesse had replied, puffing his chest out when he’d said it. He’d been dressed in a fancy dressing gown that had reminded me a little too much of the evil man who’d owned Jesse’s ‘private detective’ premises prior to him. I hoped he hadn’t raided Hellion Grey’s closet, which had been nearly as evil-looking as the evil deeds the man had committed.

  Bickering aside, Jesse had actually come through for me after I’d asked him to put his sneaky mind to work and find out what he could about Amber Leroux. I’d been certain that she was hiding some skeletons in her closet (possibly actual ones) and I hadn’t been disappointed. I had, however, been surprised when Jesse had fired up his PC and used the internet to delve into her history.

  “Modern technology has its uses! You should use it more when you play at mystery solving. Take it from a professional,” Jesse had said, looking unbelievably smug.

  I’d considered arguing but when he’d revealed his findings, I’d decided to let him win that round.

  Amber Leroux had quite the chequered past. She’d been a part of the Witchwood Scorpions Gym for ten years, having joined the ‘gym’ when she was nineteen. Prior to rising up through the criminal ranks - and presumably making a nice tax-free criminal income these days - she’d worked in pest control. The internet had even revealed she’d had quite the reputation for it. A website listing pest control experts still had her listed as ‘The Pest Poisoner’ - undoubtedly in reference to her preferred method of dispatch.

  “Ha!” I’d said when I’d seen it pop up on screen. “See? I knew she killed her husband. She has a track record of using poison!”

  Jesse had rubbed his chin, looking infuriatingly thoughtful. “A lot of people in this town know their poisons. Are you sure she’s definitely guilty?”

  “More than that, she might even be out to get the animals in town. I saw another missing cat poster this morning. All signs point to an ex-pest control officer, who hasn’t lost her taste for murder.”

  “She sounds like a terrible person,” Jesse had said.

  “Absolutely,” I’d emphatically agreed, not pausing to consider whether or not he was serious or laughing at me until I’d been running through the streets looking for DCI Admiral.

  My cheerful run had taken me past my own shop front on this sunny morning. I was astonished to see three figures dressed in black, sticking something on the exterior wall of the shop.

  I ground to a halt and crept closer to see what these masked people were up to. I managed to hide behind the ornamental pillars of the spooky sweet shop next door and get close enough to see the item they were sticking on the wall down the alley.

  They certainly weren’t here to add some decorative DIY touches. I was no expert on incendiary devices, but I knew what a bomb looked like in films… and this was a carbon copy of a cartoon bundle of TNT.

  So… it’s not enough to threaten to open a competitor shop, she wants to blow my family home and business up, too! I thought, infuriated by this wanton destruction. To make matters worse, there were multiple people inside the shop at the moment, including Minerva. And these criminals didn’t care.

  Enough was enough. I’d tried to play by the rules and the law of the land, but just like everyone else around here, I realised that Wormwood had changed… and the rules just didn’t apply anymore.

  “Don’t even think about it,” I said, stepping out into the open and watching as the three balaclava-clad goons turned around, reaching for their guns. With half a thought, a searing blast of magic left me, bending them completely out of shape. I smiled as they looked in dismay at their extra firepower. “Now it’s a fair fight.”

  “We’re just getting the justice we deserve. No one else seems to be willing to give it to us round here,” the woman said, pulling her balaclava off now that she’d been caught. I was seriously unsurprised to see Amber Leroux standing there. “If you walk away now, you might be around to pick up the pieces of your trashy little life.” She hovered her hand over the bomb on the wall.

  I didn’t think she’d even got around to triggering it, and there was no way she would risk her own life.

  “There’s an innocent kitten inside that shop, as well as a whole lot of innocent people, but I suppose you don’t care about any of them, do you?” I said, feeling my anger rising. I’d worried about Minerva facing off against Amber, but I hadn’t even considered the way I felt.

  “If you just hand over the weapon, we’ll be gone from this dreary little town forever, and you can have your sweet detective back.” She mockingly blew me a kiss.

  In truth, it was anything but a fair fight. They just didn’t know it yet.

  “I’m sure you’ve heard this town is on unstable ground at the moment. Did Aleister Root tell you the story of the time I threw someone into an alternate dimension?” I asked, knowing that this gang was just Aleister Root’s paid muscle. “I can do it again,” I promised Amber, feeling my fingers itch with the possibility. It would be so easy to open up a tear in the already straining fabric of reality. If I was fast, I was almost certain I’d be able to fling these two through it without anything coming back.

  It was that ice cold calculation which made me hesitate.

  Was I really considering deliberately throwing people into the hellish landscape where monsters roamed, even if they were my enemies? As soon as I thought it I knew that I was dangerously close to becoming all that I’d sworn to oppose. Wasn’t Gareth Starbright under the same impression that he was doing the right thing? I’d be getting rid of these two for the greater good of Wormwood, sure… but I’d also be doing it for myself.

  No one should be able to play at being God like that. In that moment, I saw my own potential to become just like the mayor staring me in the face.

  My hesitation was enough for my opponents to seize the advantage.

  “Set the bomb and get rid of her!” Amber hissed at her partners, before muttering a curse and throwing some dust in my direction.

  I smelled the dry scent of graveyard dirt before it even came close, and I pulled off the fastest weapon-summon ever. The magical leaf blower turned on automatically, blowing the spell back at the witch who’d cast it.

  She ducked and the dirt hit the man pressing buttons on the bomb. I watched as he seized up, his muscles contracting, before he fell to the ground… stiff as a board.

  She kicked him in the side and he groaned. “Honestly, Frank. You’re such a klutz! I can’t rely on you for anything.” Amber reached out to press another button on the strapped-together bomb. I realised I’d spent too long contemplating my own nature and not enough time kicking butt.

  “Walk away now, or you will regret it,” I promised her, desperation seizing me. I was holding an inappropriate weapon and my magic might do just about anything if I let it instinctively lash out. It could even set off the bomb. I was left with only one option… and it was the one that had struck so much fear into me. A patch of air shimmered next to Amber’s face.

  It was now or never. Did I make the same choice as the man I believed I was so different from?

  Just like before, I hesitated.

  I never even saw the other goon in black come up behind me. All I felt were hands grabbing my arms and spells wrapping around. This was it. I was going to end up like the frozen man on the floor of the alley - or worse. I’d let my guard down for the last time, and now Amber was going to win.

  And all I had to hold onto was that I may have marginally better morals than the mayor.

  “I’m sure your aunts and even your father himself will be far more malleable once they see we’re deadly serious about our business,” Amber said, pressing the button to start the bomb countdown and then making an unmistakable throat cutting motion with her other hand.

  I felt the spells heat up as the man in black poured his magic into whatever foul curses they were. I knew from the way they made my skin crawl and blister that it was ser
iously dark stuff… the exact kind of magic that the Witch Council these mercenaries worked for was supposed to stand against.

  It was one rule for them and another for the rest of the world.

  “Goodbye, Hazel,” Amber said, all smiles and dimples. With my last few moments, I focused my attention on the shimmering patch of air. If I was going down today… so was she.

  “Now, now… we can’t have this!” a new voice said. I felt the spells loosen and then dissolve in a way I’d never felt magic do before. It was almost as if they’d been eaten up by the town itself.

  Or rather… by the mayor.

  Gareth Starbright stood smiling at the end of the alley.

  With a flick of his wrist, the bomb folded in on itself and disappeared. Another flick and the frozen man on the floor gasped for breath and began to move again, his slow and painful death averted before it became too fatal.

  “There, isn’t that better? I’m sure you folks were just having a personal disagreement, but I’d prefer it if you could just talk it out in future. As the mayor of this town, I do not condone violence in my streets! My big festival is happening so soon, and I’m not going to have any party poopers ruining it. So, play nicely!” He wagged a finger at us like we were unruly children. “Consider this your first and last warning. I know everything that goes on in this town.”

  Unless I was much mistaken, his eyes rested on me for far longer than the thugs I was sharing breathing space with. It was almost as if he already knew what I was plotting.

  “Now, do I hear a ‘Yes, Mr Mayor’?” he finished, his smile broadening.

  “Yes, Mr Mayor,” we chorused.

  He nodded, satisfied that his work was done. “Run along. You tourists go back to being tourists and stop causing trouble - that includes robbing and vandalism. I won’t have it here,” he said, still using his patronising schoolteacher voice. “And non-tourists, keep your plotting to a minimum. I’m not going to rain on your parade, but don’t let it inconvenience me, or you’ll regret it.” He looked around at each of us in turn again. “Now… you folks have a nice day!” And with that final message, he put his hands behind his back and strolled back down the alleyway, whistling a cheerful tune that may or may not have been ‘I Am The Music Man’.

  I turned to look at the loathsome Amber Leroux and realised that the shimmering patch of air now looked a lot more solid. The mayor had foiled all of us.

  “I’ll be seeing you around,” she said before walking away with her bewildered cronies trailing after her.

  The implied threat seemed weak in the wake of what had just happened. I didn’t know if Amber really understood it, but I sure did. The mayor was now so entwined with Wormwood that he knew when disturbances cropped up. He was using the town itself to stop anything and anyone he didn’t like.

  “He could have at least kicked the gang out,” I muttered, annoyed that he hadn’t been harder on the group, who were definitely the bad guys in this situation. But I knew why the mayor hadn’t given them the boot… he wanted their firepower. For all of their nastiness, the gang possessed a fair amount of magical ability between them, and according to the stupidest devil deal ever made, that meant the mayor’s power grew in proportion to it. He may have taken their claws and teeth, but that didn’t mean they wouldn’t find a way to be a thorn in my side.

  And what of my own claws and teeth? I wondered, thinking about the way the mayor had seemed only too aware of my plotting against him. I supposed that much was obvious, but the real question was… did he already know what we were planning?

  I sighed and shook my head, walking back towards the street and leaving the bomb-free alleyway behind me. At this point, all we could do was cling to the last shreds of hope. I had to hope that the mayor was too busy looking at the bigger picture to see his citizens weaving their own net around the town.

  “Sean has to believe me now!” I muttered, stalking off to find the detective. The mayor had just made it very clear indeed that vigilante justice or any violence would not be tolerated. It was back to good old-fashioned law and order.

  I just hoped the town’s only lawman hadn’t forgotten what justice looked like.

  13

  The Curse of the Zombies

  I found Sean in the Bread Cauldron Bakery. Aunt Linda placed a jam doughnut down on his table when I came in and dropped me a wink so large that the entire bakery probably saw it.

  “Don’t eat that,” I said when I sat down opposite the detective.

  He looked down at the innocuous doughnut before raising his eyebrows in question.

  I blushed, not wanting to explain that Aunt Linda had made it with a surprise passion-fruit filling… infused with real magical passion. “It’s, uh, filled with jellied frogs. Aunt Linda’s only supposed to serve it to customers with a taste for that sort of thing,” I said, immediately regretting it when several heads turned to look at me, before turning back to the doughnuts on their plates.

  Linda’s going to kill me! I thought, certain that I’d just ruined sales of the doughnuts for the day. To my surprise, a queue formed by the counter with tourists calling for more frog doughnuts.

  I sighed and shook my head. Wormwood was weird, but this was off the charts, even for us.

  “Oh yes, genuine jellied frog,” Linda assured them. “Naturally bred to have a passionfruit flavour.”

  I tried to look innocently at Sean, wondering if his police work extended to taking a dim view of anyone who fraudulently sold baked goods. Probably.

  “I found something out,” Sean said at the same time I uttered something along the same lines.

  We stumbled back and forth for a moment before I let him go first.

  “I’ve managed to trace the last movements of our dead man, Jon Leroux. He was spotted in Witchwood the night before he was found by you in Wormwood River. On his last night, a barman and several witnesses allege that he was at a bar he liked to frequent, called Bulldogs. It’s not the most salubrious establishment,” Sean informed me. “I’ve been called there a fair few times to mop up after fights.”

  “Was Mrs Leroux also seen there?” I asked, raising my eyebrows to show just where my suspicions still rested.

  “She wasn’t there at the same time as him, but she turned up much later looking for her husband. Other members of the Scorpion Gym were present. I’ve interviewed them and they say that Jon was in his usual high spirits. He’d been drinking, but not too much. They were looking forward to taking a tour around Wormwood and getting involved with the festivities. Or at least… that’s the story they gave me. Have you had any more trouble?” he asked, diverting himself.

  “Yes… but it’s sorted now,” I added, sort of reluctantly.

  “Anyone dead?” Sean asked dryly.

  “Not quite.”

  “I’m not going to ask,” he decided. “Anyway, apparently the gang - sorry - gym members, finished their drinking and took the party to the tour bus stop for an all-nighter, ready to ride to Wormwood in the morning. They claim that Jon was still there drinking and having a good time when other tourists arrived to wait with them. At some point during the early hours, Jon Leroux vanished without a trace, only to wind up in the river the next day. By all accounts, no one saw him on the early morning bus into Wormwood.”

  “So, he wasn’t killed by someone in this town. Ha!” I added, feeling victorious.

  Sean looked less impressed. “Someone from this town could have found out he’d lied to her about being single and gone into Witchwood armed with poison and a sharp knife,” he countered.

  “The invisible barrier around the town was there at the time,” I hit back.

  “People can still cross it, can’t they? It just takes willpower.”

  I bit my lip, unable to argue with that. The barrier definitely did respect strong goals - probably because it wasn’t supposed to be particularly noticed by anyone. If you had a vague idea you might go on a day trip out of town it would correct you without you realising, but if there
was stuff you really wanted to do, it wouldn’t block you too hard. Or at least… it hadn’t back then. Unfortunately, murder probably fitted the ‘stuff you really wanted to do’ category.

  “Well… no one saw my aunt, did they?” I asked, hoping against hope that I was right. I wasn’t sure why I was suddenly so uncertain. I’d been witnessing Minerva’s feelings about Jon ever since. She still wasn’t convinced that it had been a cruel scam to gain her confidence and the information she was holding onto. But… I also happened to be certain that she’d have murdered Amber, rather than the man she’d thought she loved.

  Plus… my aunt had definitely been wrapped up in bed that night. Minerva was not the type to go out partying or murdering.

  “No, they didn’t… but we both know the witnesses are not what you’d call reliable. Mostly it’s the other tourists’ testimonies I’m going off, and it would appear that the Scorpions weren’t the only ones in the mood for a party. I’m not even able to establish once and for all who was on that bus… and who might have walked through the forest, dropping a body off on their way into Wormwood.” Sean looked sideways at me. “Don’t just say it was Amber. You know I need actual evidence.”

  I mimed zipping my lips, but come on… it had to be her!

  “I’ve received a more detailed toxicology report. I believe that the aconite was mixed with tequila to cover the unpleasant taste. It may also have been used to incapacitate the victim so that he was easier to kill. I’ve said before that it was a lethal dose, but before it could even kill Jon, it would have made him nauseous, dizzy, and may have been accompanied by hallucinations.”

  “He seemed like a pretty big guy,” I said, as neutrally as possible.

  Sean looked pained. “It may suggest that he was dispatched by someone who wouldn’t have been able to match him physically, if it had been a straight tussle.

  It was here that I interrupted him to tell him what I knew about Amber’s pest poisoning past. I also threw in the attempted bombing of my shop for good luck.