by Amy Boyles
Interest filled Garrick’s eyes. “You don’t say.” He tapped his fingers on the desk. “Tell me about that.”
“Gale East, a former student at the Southern School of Magic, created a potion that finds magical creatures.”
“What else?”
“She was expelled from the school,” Axel offered. “Plus she checked out Keating’s Book of Spells.”
Garrick clicked his tongue. “I’m going to assume Keating has lots of information on poppets.”
I smiled. “Right. So it’s possible Gale East created a poppet of Shelly Seay, possibly seeking revenge, then killed her and stole the potion.”
Garrick rubbed the stubble on his chin. “Why steal the potion? I mean, we all know it’s missing. But why would anyone take it?”
“Turn their worst enemy into a toad?” Axel offered. “I don’t know. But I suggest you search her place.”
“What am I looking for? A poppet?”
“For one,” Axel said. “But she would’ve destroyed Shelly’s by now. Just to be safe. I’d look for Shelly’s potion.”
Garrick scratched his head of thick brown hair. “And how will I know when I’ve found her potion? This East woman’s place could be filled with vials.”
“Betty,” I said quickly. “She might be able to help. Maybe if you let her smell them or something, she’ll be able to signal that it’s the right potion.”
The two men stared at me as if I’d grown five heads. They glanced at the toad, which sat like a lump of dirt in the box.
I had to sell this somehow. “I mean, it’s not a perfect plan, but it’s something.”
Garrick’s gaze shifted to Axel. “I’ve heard of crazier things.”
“Me too, but this just might work.” Axel stared at Betty. “It’s about the best thing you’ve got.”
“But it still doesn’t explain why anyone would want the potion,” Garrick mused. “Shelly Seay wasn’t liked. I get that. Folks don’t like sorcery of any sort. Shelly had to summon threats to teach witch defense. If anyone thought Shelly was using her abilities to conjure the dead, they might want to get rid of her; that much I can understand. But is it enough to kill someone over? She was fired a while back from the school. It wasn’t like it was a recent thing.”
“We don’t know motives,” Axel said. “We were only asked about the poppet.”
Garrick sighed. “I know. And you’ve brought me enough information to at least search Gale East’s house. I’ll do that.” He rose and plucked his fedora from a peg on the wall. “Pepper, can you come with me if I need you?”
I nodded. “I’ll be at the shop. Just let me know when and where.”
Garrick headed toward the door. “Keep your phone on. I’ll be calling you.”
I could hardly wait.
FIFTEEN
“Why would someone steal the potion?”
Axel was driving me to Familiar Place. Betty sat in my lap, and Hugo sat in the back seat sticking his head out the window.
I pushed the heat up to high. “I don’t know why anyone would want to turn people into toads unless there was someone they didn’t like.”
Axel’s jaw clenched. “But how would they even know about the potion?”
“Shelly came to us. Maybe there were other people she approached about the potion. Or maybe the information leaked.”
He tapped the steering wheel. “That’s what I would bet on. Someone leaked it. Anyone behind us?”
I craned my head to look out the back window. “No one.”
“Hold on.”
He cut the wheel hard to the left, and we did a U-turn. I scrambled to grab the sissy bar. “Where are we going?”
“Back to the school. There’s someone we need to talk to.”
“Who?”
His eyes narrowed to slitty wedges of death. “Saltz Swift.”
“Why?”
“You’ll see.”
Saltz Swift’s secretary wasted no time escorting us into the potion master’s office.
“You knew what Shelly Seay was working on.” Axel didn’t phrase it as a question. Somehow he’d figured it out.
The potion master leaned back in his leather chair and studied us with a gaze that should’ve fried us into cracklings—or pork skins, for those of y’all not familiar with the first term.
Saltz pressed his fingertips together. “Yes, I knew what Shelly was working on.”
“How long did your affair last?” Axel glared at him. “Up until she died?”
“You’re very perceptive, Reign.” Saltz wagged a finger at Axel. “You should teach intuitive magic.”
“I prefer the job I currently have—private investigator.”
“Well, we can’t get them all, can we?” He inhaled sharply. “But to answer your question, yes, Shelly and I remained quite close.”
“How close?” I couldn’t help it. I had to ask.
“We remained…intimate up until her death.”
“So when did she stop teaching at the school?” I flipped my hair over one shoulder and started braiding it. “From what I understood, the two of you were having an affair, she got moved to teaching witch defense, ticked some parents off and was fired.”
“More or less. The administration really had no other choice.” Saltz steepled his hands. “But she was only officially released from the school’s payroll about six months ago. Up until then she remained able to teach.”
I frowned, confused. “But it seemed to me that most people thought she was a sorceress.” I rubbed my temples. I wasn’t being clear. “What I’m saying is that Shelly was let go for being a sorceress a while back even though she was only technically fired from the school recently.”
“Exactly,” Saltz said. “When she had to bring certain unsavory creatures to light in order to teach the children how to defend themselves…well then it became clear to the parents exactly what she was, or at least what they thought she was.”
“And what was she?”
Saltz stiffened. “Shelly Seay was a good woman who had the right motives. She wasn’t moved by money or prestige. She only wanted to push forward the craft.”
Axel smoothed a crease in his jeans. “Did you know about the potion?”
“Yes.”
My jaw dropped. “But that’s not how you reacted at the contest. You made it appear as if Shelly was about to work black magic.”
“It was part of the plan.” Saltz rubbed his tired face. “All of it. Shelly wanted me to react as if what she was going to do was wrong, to make it more dramatic. Shelly loved the dramatic.” He smiled whimsically. “But then of course she died and the potion was taken.”
“Then tell us why someone would do that.” Axel crossed his arms. “Why would a person steal a potion that can turn another person into a toad?”
“Revenge, maybe?” A slow smile curled on his face. “Wouldn’t it be a wonderful revenge to change someone you didn’t like into a toad?”
I shivered. “My grandmother is currently a toad, and I don’t think it’s wonderful at all. In fact I think it’s horrible.”
“You don’t have a sense of adventure, Miss Dunn. But that’s why I believe someone would steal it. Revenge. What revenge? I don’t know. And why? I have no clue.”
“Fair enough.” Axel nodded. “Tell us about Gale East.”
Saltz sighed. “Gale was the sort of student who liked to experiment with things. She wanted to learn dark magic, and Shelly, for what it was worth, helped her as much as she could. But even Shelly had her limits. When Gale was found trying to create a poppet of a fellow classmate, as you can understand, we couldn’t have that at the school. She was expelled.”
“Did she harm anyone?” I said.
“No.” Saltz smoothed his hair. “I don’t think Gale East is the type who wants to harm people.”
“She nearly killed my dragon.”
Saltz’s brows shot to peaks. “Well perhaps I stand corrected.” He rose and straightened his jacket. “Now if you’
ll excuse me, there are things I must do.” He walked toward the door. “Miss Dunn, we do look forward to your series on familiars.”
Surprise flashed in Axel’s eyes. “So it’s all set, then?”
I smirked. “Hardly,” I muttered. “Mr. Swift—”
“Please, call me Saltz.” He smiled like a weasel.
“Hmm. Saltz. Did Shelly leave anything here?”
He motioned down the hall. “Yes. Most of her office is intact. I did it as a favor to her. She was going to finally clean it out after the holidays.”
A spark ignited in my chest. This could be it—the break we were waiting for. Unless he knew more. I squeezed the box holding Betty.
“Did Shelly share any of her potion recipe with you?”
Saltz straightened. “Sadly no, she did not. If she had, we wouldn’t be in this predicament now, would we? But we are. No. The only rites I know to transmute are blood rites.” He fished a set of keys from his pocket. “But if she did write her recipe anywhere, her office would be the most likely place.”
He led us down a vacant hall. Saltz unlocked a thick oak door and pushed it open.
The office didn’t look like one of a fired teacher at all. It was chock-full of books and papers, glass orbs and knickknacks.
“Take your time in here. Anthony, the custodian, will be around shortly. He can lock up for you.” Saltz rolled his shoulders. “Now. Is there anything else I can do for you?”
I placed the box on the desk. “No. Not for me.”
Axel shook his head. “Me neither. Thank you.”
Saltz Swift left us alone.
Axel rested his hands on his hips. “Let’s get searching.”
I shoved up my sleeves. “I couldn’t agree more.”
It was incredibly naive of me to think that Shelly Seay would’ve left the potion recipe atop her desk with a smiley-face sticker pasted to it, but that’s what I hoped to find.
Maybe it would be easy peasy to find what we were looking for and we’d save the day in less than an hour.
Two hours later we were still digging through files and knickknacks.
“How does one person have so much stuff in such a small space?” I grumbled. “Didn’t she ever throw stuff out?”
Axel chuckled. “You have no appreciation for the old-fashioned art of mini-hoarding.”
I shot him a dark look. “You’re joking.”
“I am.”
I fisted a handful of papers and dropped them to the floor. “It’s just a bunch of stuff. Old exams, future teaching plans—there’s nothing personal in here at all.”
Axel shoved a file drawer full of papers back in the cabinet. “I agree.” He stood in the center of the room and gazed around. “Wait a minute.”
“What?”
He winked. “Maybe there is something here after all.” He reached above a bookcase and pulled down a triangular wooden box. The wood was polished to a high gloss. It looked silky, the sort of thing you’d want to touch and of course keep away from the prying hands of children.
“What’s that?”
“It’s a puzzle box.”
I frowned. “You mean the sort of thing you find in hippie stores and Renaissance fairs?”
He quirked a brow. “I see you’re not above some role play.”
I swatted him. “I’ve gorged myself on turkey leg once or twice in my life. Is it a simple puzzle box?”
Axel turned it over. “Simple enough. You have to move the pieces in the correct order or whatever’s inside will be destroyed.”
“Oh, simple.” I rolled my eyes. “Great. So we’ve got a puzzle box that may or may not hold the potion recipe, and my grandmother who is currently encased in the body of a toad.”
Axel wrapped a hand over my shoulder. “It shouldn’t be that hard to solve.” He stared at it and started to slide a stick of wood out and then changed his mind and shoved it back in.
I shot him a smug smile. “I thought it was going to be so easy.”
“Don’t make fun. I need to study it and think about it.” His eyes lighted on me. “Want to work on it tonight, over dinner?”
Time alone with Axel? That seemed the best idea ever. “Sounds perfect.”
He peered out the door. “Here. Hide this in your purse so no one knows we’ve smuggled it out.” I dropped it in my bag. “Go on toward the truck. I’ll be right behind. I’m just going to take one more look around.”
I started to snatch up Betty, but Axel took her from me. “I’ve got your grandmother.”
I headed out, keeping my chin tucked down low so that I didn’t look like I was stealing anything. It wasn’t like I was anyway. Shelly Seay was dead.
Dead. If no one had come for the puzzle box by now, I doubted they ever would.
I reached the front entrance to the school when I spied Anthony.
“Hey there,” he said.
“Hi.” I waved and lunged forward to grab the door. My purse slipped from my shoulder, and to stop it from falling open and the puzzle crashing to the floor, I braced my hand on the wooden door.
“Ouch!” I pulled my hand away and saw a thick sliver of wood had splintered from the door and lodged itself in my palm.
Anthony was beside me like white on rice. He took my hand gently and pulled the splinter from my skin.
“Thank you. Oh, there’s blood.”
He stoppered the flow with a handkerchief. “That old door needs some repair work.”
I shot it an evil glare. “I would say so. But it was my fault. I lost my balance.”
He shook his head of curls. “Nah. It’s old.” He studied me. His small eyes peered out from behind plump apple cheeks. “What’re you doing here?”
“Oh, just talking to Saltz Swift about…giving a few lectures. Listen, thanks for leading the potion talk.”
He shrugged. “I like magic.”
My gaze bounced around the school. “It must be neat working here.”
He nodded. “I don’t do much.”
I squeezed his shoulder and smiled. “It seems you do a lot. You know a lot, and you’ve already helped me. I appreciate it.”
He applied steady pressure to my wound. “So what potion did you create for the contest?”
“Oh, I—”
“Pepper!” Axel bounded down the hall. “You okay?” His gaze cut to Anthony.
I pulled my finger from the handkerchief. “Oh fine. I cut myself is all.” I showed it to Anthony. “Look. It’s not bleeding anymore. Thanks.” My gaze flickered to the stain on the white fabric. “Do you want me to wash that for you? I’m sorry about ruining it.”
He shook his head and tapped it. The stain vanished. “No need. See? Good as new.”
Axel’s arm curled around my bicep. “We need to go.”
I thanked Anthony again and followed Axel. “What is it?”
A fire glinted in his blue eyes. “Garrick called me. He’s at Gale East’s going through her stuff.”
I scoffed. The nerve of the sheriff. He was supposed to call us before they went in. “Nice of him to let us know.”
“He is letting us know.” Axel unlocked the Rover and opened the door for me.
I climbed in and latched my seat belt. “Let us know what?”
“They’ve found something.” Then he shut the door.
SIXTEEN
We arrived at Gale East’s house a little while later. I didn’t know what I expected, but I hadn’t prepared myself for seeing Gale perched on her front porch, glaring at the officers as they entered and exited her house.
I sank into the seat. “I can’t be here.”
Axel killed the engine. “Why not?”
“Because I’ve established an almost friendship with her. I can’t be seen walking into the house with the bad guys.”
Axel smirked. “Good point. Stay here.” He got out and entered the house. Gale shot a look toward the Rover. I basically melted into the seat so she wouldn’t see me.
Listen, even though I was pretty
certain she was guilty, I didn’t want her to think that’s what I really thought.
Betty stared at me with her yellow eyes. Hugo licked my head. “Okay, both of you. Listen, I can’t go in there. I have to wait here and see what happens.”
Turned out, I didn’t have to wait long before Axel opened the door and slipped in.
“Scaredy cat.” He fired up the engine.
“It’s called self-preservation.”
“It’s called being afraid.”
He pulled away from the street. “Well? What did Garrick have? What’d he find?”
“You’ll see.”
I sat up and adjusted the car seat. “What do you mean?”
“We’re meeting him at the station. You’ll see exactly what’s going on.”
“Oh my Lord.”
I stared down at a beautifully carved wooden box full of wax figures of people. Some had real hair that looked like they had been yanked from a hairbrush. One had a bright red mouth similar to red lipstick.
“We found these in Gale’s house.” Garrick flicked a hand toward the box. “Poppets aren’t my expertise, but I was wondering if y’all could figure out who they are and how old they are.”
I gestured toward the one with the lips. “Shelly Seay wore that color lipstick.”
“She did.” Axel rubbed his chin. “I’m sure a lot of women do, though.”
“Is there a way to test them? To know who they represent?”
“Unless they have DNA on them, no.”
Garrick shifted his weight. “We can test the hair if we need to, but it’ll take some time to get back from the lab.”
I crossed my arms. “Strange that magic is instantaneous, but DNA results still take time.”
“It’s not magic.” Garrick scowled something fierce. “That one looks really yellow, though.”
“The one with the lips?” I said.
He nodded. “If Gale made a poppet of Shelly Seay a while back, why would she only just now be using it?”
“That’s a good question.” Axel drummed his knuckles on the desk.
“Maybe she didn’t need it then,” I offered. “Look, we know Gale was Shelly’s mentee. Maybe Shelly instructed her in making the poppet.”
