by Lori Woods
Antioch arrived moments later, looking a bit flustered as he told his butler he could be dismissed before sitting down. His hair was wet and slicked back. “So, Detective Dereck, Ms. Lola, what was so important that you needed to come barging in so suddenly?”
“We have some questions about your wife,” Dereck said.
“My wife?” Antioch questioned.
Dereck reached into his coat and pulled out the necklace, placing it down on the table by the teapots. Antioch cringed. “Where did you get that?” he demanded, reaching towards it, but Lola snatched it up again. Antioch glared at them. “That was hers!” Antioch exclaimed. “Give it here!”
“Not until you explain how this managed to find it’s way to the bottom of the ocean inside a merfolk resort,” Dereck said.
Antioch’s face quickly soured. “I daresay she took it with her the last time she visited her filthy friends.”
“Visited?” Lola asked.
“My wife was gifted in transformative potions,” he explained. “She would give herself gills to allow for underwater travel. They were temporary, of course. Only lasted an hour or two. She enjoyed Atlantis and liked to travel there from time to time.”
“What would she do while she was in Atlantis?” Dereck asked.
“Shopping,” Antioch said matter-of-factly. “Now, please, return her necklace to me.”
“You have a foul taste in your mouth about merfolk,” Dereck said. “But your wife adored them enough to spend her free time swimming about with gills? By chance, Antioch, is your hate for merfolk due to your former wife’s love for them?”
Antioch, who had been leaning toward Lola with his hand outstretched as though waiting for her to hand over the necklace, sunk back into his chair. "Yes, you could say that," Antioch said. "She was having an affair if you must know."
“With Cove,” Lola said, and Antioch glared at her.
“With Cove,” he said.
Now they seemed to be at a crossroad. Did Grun kill Cove for causing the flood? Or, did Antioch seek revenge upon the man for the affair? They both seemed rather sensible motivators for the deed that had been done. “Your wife,” Lola said. “How did she die?”
Antioch looked rather saddened by this question. His shoulders slumped for a moment. “Simply put – she lost track of time while visiting her lover,” he said. “She drowned – was having a bit too much fun, I suppose, and her gills vanished while she was deep beneath the ocean. Cove couldn’t get her to the surface in time.” Antioch tugged at the sleeves of his coat for a moment. “Cried to me about it, he did. Not sure how sincere he was. Pretty sure she was just a bit of fun to him.” Antioch inhaled deeply, his eyes seemed to water a bit. “That was a long time ago. Can’t say that I’ve ever had much of a heart for merfolk since then.”
“I respect your honesty,” Dereck said. “Now, I need to ask you about that empty podium in your study.”
“Pardon?” Antioch questioned.
“Yes, the empty podium,” Dereck said. “It was a nice podium – nice enough for me to stupidly think it was a piece of artwork, remember? You had a good bit to say about that. I want to know what was on top of that nice podium. Obviously, it had been reserved for something."
Antioch smirked, and suddenly there was a flash of blinding light. He had pulled their wand on them. Lola and Dereck went flailing back as Antioch summoned his broom. Lola and Dereck did the same, and soon a chase was underway through the skies around the manner. “The Troll Pass Staff was on that podium, wasn’t it?” Dereck demanded. “You’re a collector!”
Antioch waved his wand back over his shoulder, nearly hitting Dereck with a stunning charm. “My father was part of the brigade of wizards who stole those powerful bits of magic from those stupid creatures!”
Lola whipped around Dereck, and she stuck her foot out, beaming Antioch in the head and sending him falling from his broom. Dereck whipped downward and managed to snatch the man up by his belt to keep him from landing amongst the shrubbery. “Honestly!” the owl-man exclaimed as he had been working on the shrubbery.
They landed, and Dereck waved his wand at Antioch, casting a spell that caused his arms to latch down at his side, and he was unable to move much further. “Who flooded Grun's home?” Dereck asked.
Antioch glared at him, and Lola marched up to him, pulling out a vile of potion and forcing it into his mouth. He swallowed, and the words came out of him rather quickly. “I did, but I convinced the stupid beast that it was Cove who did it. I wanted him to act vile towards Cove so that everyone would think Grun was the one who killed Cove. My wife had told me long ago of Cove’s dream of opening up passages from the sea. I knew he carried those stupid maps on his person – I knew they would be found eventually by another merfolk. I knew that Grun would overreact. It would have been perfect. Cove would be dead, and a worthless creature – a troll – would have taken the blame…”
Antioch clenched his mouth shut. “Powerful truth potion there, Lola,” Dereck said with a smile.
Lola smiled. “I grabbed it from the shop in case Grun came back looking for it. Those are so difficult to make – was afraid he’d steal it. Glad I had it on me.”
“Now I got to get this guy to the station,” Antioch said as the owl-man approached them.
“I suppose I’m out of a job now, then,” the owl-man said.
“Out of a job!” Antioch yelped. “You’re still my butler you piece of filth! I need you to contact my lawyers and – ”
The owl-man stuffed a handful of ruffled feathers into Antioch’s mouth, shutting the man up. “That’s so much better,” the butler said and tipped his hat to them.
Lola laughed, and soon Dereck was off – headed to the station to finalize Antioch’s arrest. Lola, on the other hand, mounted her broom and zoomed off back towards her shop. She saw a number of witches and wizards lining up outside the shop, and as she entered, she smiled to see Pim-Pim fluttering about helping customers with ease. The older fairy seemed glad to have people around for once. Lola rolled up her sleeves and got right to work – there were mystical creatures in need of service, after all.
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Afterword
Thank you so much for reading Potions and Commotions! I hope you enjoyed it! Look out for Book 2, Witch Way Out, which will be released next week!
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