Of Murders and Mages

by Nikki Haverstock

  She chuckled. “It also burns up a lot of calories. Nothing is without a cost.”

  I thanked the server who refilled my wine glass. I had a pleasant buzz but was nowhere near drunk despite starting on my third glass. In fact, I felt great all over—strong, energized, and emotionally buoyant. I was tired but less weary. It felt more like the fatigue after a great workout.

  The serving staff left as a beautiful older lady pushed in a cart. She had a white streak in her black hair and a lineless face that made me question my initial impression of her age.

  “I’ve brought in the dessert tray. It has samples of everything but the chocolate cakes. You know those are special order. What are we celebrating?” She looked around the room with a sweet expression on her face, her eyes pausing on Patagonia perched in a chair and eating chicken off a plate.

  Auntie Ann reached out and patted the woman’s arm. “Everything is just wonderful, Isadora. I don’t think anyone has your gift with food.”

  Olivia got up and inspected the dessert cart. “Please tell Beth that these all look wonderful. And don’t worry about the cat hair on the chair. I’ve already put in an order to housekeeping. We won’t be needing anything more today. Thank you.”

  Isadora bowed her head. “Enjoy your meal.” She exited.

  Vanessa started to talk, but Olivia held up a hand for her to stop then went over to the door and firmly shut it. “Nothing we say is to leave this room.”

  Vin got up and grabbed a zeppole. The powdered sugar sifted over it glistened and shone like newly fallen snowflakes. “Are we ready to get to work?”

  Olivia rolled her eyes at him then took an empty seat at the table and started pulling out notebooks. “The ides of this month is in two days, so that gives us just about forty-eight hours to prevent the next suicide. Though I am gathering information from various departments, no one else except us is to know about the deaths or anything regarding our investigation. Ella, can you get out your channel key? The stone egg.”

  I swallowed the fettuccini Alfredo I was eating and reached into my pocket to display the egg in the palm of me hand.

  “Great. Can you repeat after me? I promise to speak to only the people in this room about the investigation.”

  “I promise to speak to only the people in this room about the investigation.” I felt a brief tightening in my chest that released a second later. “Oh, weird.” I raised an eyebrow at Olivia.

  “Just a magical binding. You won’t be able to do anything that you believe breaks your promise. Now let’s dig into—”

  “Hold up. What is the channel key exactly? If you want me to help, it’s only fair that you explain some things.”

  “We really need to get started, and I already explained that it stores up extra magic.”

  I thought about the egg opening the secret compartment in the chest last night. “Why is it called a key? Does it open locks?”

  Olivia raised her eyebrows in surprise and looked at Auntie Ann.

  She beamed at me. Behind her, a plate of cheesecake rose in the air and wobbled toward Vanessa. “Excellent question, dear. Yes, it does, though that is one of its more esoteric uses. It was often used in the past to secure information so that only another magic user could access the information in the safe, but nowadays, email is just as effective most times. We can discuss it more after the investigation.”

  “We can?”

  “Of course. We aren’t just going to dump you. You need training.”

  Vanessa sneezed, and the levitating plate of cheesecake burst into flames and dropped into the center of the table.

  Vin snorted and flicked a hand. A large water pitcher next to the tiny inferno tipped over and, with a loud sizzle, extinguished the growing wildfire. Patagonia hissed as water spilled on her face. She glared at Vin, grabbed the remaining chicken from the plate, and curled up in the seat to finish her meal.

  Auntie Ann grabbed another plate of cheesecake for Vanessa as she narrowed her eyes at her children. “Cut it out, both of you. You’re making a huge mess. We’re trying to discuss Ella’s training.”

  Olivia tapped a pen on her notebook. “We haven’t agreed to that yet. We have to see how this works out.”

  Auntie Ann pursed her lips. “When we witnessed her bonding, we agreed to mentor her. You as well, Vincent.”

  He held up both hands. “No way. I told Olivia that I wanted nothing to do with her.” He cut his eyes over to me.

  She waggled her finger at her son. “You know that is not how it works.”

  Seeing the opportunity to get another question answered, I interrupted. “Bonding? Is that what happened when Patagonia bit me? What was the deal with all the lines on my arm?”

  Auntie Ann turned to me, and her voice fell into the rhythm I remember from my school days when a teacher would recite a long-known lesson. “Patagonia is a special magical cat, and when they have found the right mage, they bite you to create a bond, but it must be witnessed in order to finish. It is usually done in a formal setting after training, much like graduation.”

  Vin grumbled under his breath. “Yeah, when you’re like eighteen.”

  She continued as though he hadn’t spoken. “Patagonia will help you to perform magic beyond your current strength level, but don’t believe for a second that you own her. She can come and go as she pleases and will let you know if something displeases her.”

  Vanessa finished off her cake and swallowed hard. “She’s like your fuzzy magical sidekick.”

  I stood, grabbed a zeppole off the tray, and bit into it. My eyebrows shot up in shock. Though the little doughy dessert had been sitting out for a while, the chocolatey center was quite warm. In contrast, the white powder on the outside was sweet like sugar but ice cold. The competing temperatures sent a chill over my body followed by cozy warmth that reminded me of sitting by the fire on a snowy night.

  I bit into the outside and shivered then nibbled the gooey center to warm up. I stared at the dessert, contemplating how it was cooked so that the outside was cold and the inside was hot.

  Sensing my confusion, Vanessa said, “The zeppoles are magic. Duh.”

  “Oh,” I said lamely. After seeing a floating cheesecake, I should have made the leap in logic quicker. I stuffed the rest of the dessert in my mouth then got back to the conversation at hand. “What do you mean Patagonia comes and goes as she pleases?” I reached over and ran a hand over Patagonia’s head and scratched behind her ears.

  Patagonia meowed loudly and put a paw on her plate, pushing down on one side and letting go so it clanked on the table. I scooped up some chicken and slid it onto her plate.

  Auntie Ann poured cream into her coffee and stirred. “Just what I said. She doesn’t need to be next to you to assist you, but it helps. Plus, some familiars prefer to be with you. If you leave her at home, like you did today, and she wants to be with you, then she will.”

  “What? I thought Vin brought her.”

  He shook his head.

  She took a sip of her coffee before continuing. “Nope, she came because she wanted to be with you. Maybe she knew you needed her, or she is just eager to be around you after waiting for almost a decade.”

  I gasped. “She’s already ten years old?”

  “Don’t worry. She will likely live as long as you do.”

  Olivia walked around the table and passed out notebooks. “I think she’s had enough lesson time for now. We really need to focus, unless everyone is cool with people dying?”

  “No need to be dramatic, dear. We are all here to help. ” Auntie Ann took a sip from her coffee cup then winced. Looking around the table, she spotted the little bowl with sugar cubes. Two little white squares rose from the bowl and shot across the table to land in her cup.

  “Thank you, Auntie. Let me catch up everyone on what I know.” Olivia flipped open a folder. “My investigation started when I found the sheet of dates and numbers on Dad’s desk after he died. It was not a standard report from the accounting depa
rtment, and I know that he was working on something before he was killed. I thought maybe it was about embezzling or theft, so I was hesitant to talk to anyone in the accounting department. That’s why I brought Ella on board to do an audit of the casino. I had no idea of her relation to Ramono the Bull or her magic ability. Talk about a lucky break.”

  Auntie Ann interrupted. “No such thing as luck when magic is involved.”

  Behind her, a zeppole floated off the tray and danced toward Vanessa. Each jerk and bounce sent a gentle snowfall of powdered sugar drifting off the pastry. Vanessa extended a hand to pluck it from the air, when a sugar cube zoomed up underneath it and smacked it off its path. I blinked at the suddenness and looked around for the missing zeppole. With a splat, it hit me between the eyes, and everything around me disappeared in a cold poof of white.

  Vin snickered while Vanessa gasped in shock. Patagonia stood on my chest and licked some of the sugar off me.

  Olivia rolled her eyes. “Anyways, once Ella noticed the pattern of the dates being on the ides and it corresponding with the sum of fifty thousand dollars, I had a place to start. Fifty thousand dollars is the standard payment the casino gives to people’s family when there is a death at the casino, regardless if the casino is at fault or not.”

  I reached for a napkin. “Does that happen a lot?”

  “No, not really, but people drink too much, some try drugs. Occasionally, there are heart attacks or strokes, and rarely there are suicides or accidents, but they do happen. Those are the rarest since we invest a lot of magic and energy into making the casino a happy place. People are more likely to spend money. Ella not only noticed the sum of fifty thousand, but remembered that a lady had committed suicide on one of the ides. That’s when I made the connection between the suspicious deaths and the date.”

  “Are the ides a significant date? Like a magical date?” I was writing down notes.

  “Not that I know of, but it probably has significance to the person casting the spell. Maybe they are a big fan of Julius Caesar or Shakespeare. A good spell uses information that is significant to the caster. Patterns are also very powerful.”

  “So you’re sure that a mage is behind the suicides?”

  “Yes. The fact that you found a magical imprint at the site of Ethel’s suicide was enough to convince me, but I was pretty sure of it before that because of the pattern. A series of murders can be done without magic, but causing someone to kill themselves? Definitely magic. Now, once I knew what the payments were for and the dates, I was able to go to the right department and get the names of the victims. And this is why I didn’t tell Isadora what we are doing, and neither will you. The first victim was her son.”

  Auntie Ann gasped. “No! I remember when Michael overdosed in the parking lot. He had so many problems with drugs that it never occurred to me that something nefarious had happened. Isadora was heartbroken.”

  Olivia nodded. “I’m not sure if she will feel better knowing he was murdered, but I don’t want to tell her anything until we know what is going on. She has really struggled with his death. His death was the first, then Joe, who was here for a poker competition, then Roberta, who was here for a convention. Tony was a blackjack dealer that worked here, then last month, Ethel, who was a tourist. They had all been ruled accidental until Ethel. For her, we had video that she deliberately stepped out the window. Now, Ella, please ask questions as they occur to you. Trust your instincts.”

  All eyes in the room swiveled to look at me. I licked my lips, picking up a trace of cold sugar. “Is there anything I should know about how the magic worked on them?”

  Olivia tipped her head to the side. “What do you mean?”

  “Whatever magic affected them, what kind of rules would it follow? Would they need to be in a place? Touch something? Eat something? Drink something? Perhaps a certain movement? Would the person need a lock of their hair? I don’t know enough to know where to start.” It felt so weird to casually suggest that someone had performed a spell on these people that resulted in their death. Maybe a floating zeppole to the forehead had gotten me more comfortable with the idea of magic.

  Olivia’s eyebrows shot up. “Any of those. It really depends on the spell, but it is fair to assume that there was some interaction between the spell caster and the victim. Either direct contact, or the spell caster touched something that the victim touched, or even the victim left something behind that the spell caster used.”

  I tapped my chin with a finger. “Do you think the interaction occurred at the casino? It would help a lot if we could narrow down our search area.”

  “Maybe? Spells can be done in a million different ways.” She looked around the room, but they only shrugged.

  Vanessa scraped her plate sadly then stared longingly at the dessert tray. A gelato started to wobble, when her mom’s eyes cut to her, and she shook her head in a firm no.

  I was getting excited about the investigation. In many ways, this was similar to the work I used to do and excelled at. The first step was figuring out where to start. “For now, let’s assume it happened here at the casino.”

  Olivia ran a hand down the list. “I know that Ethel was staying here. Joe was competing in a poker tournament here. Roberta was attending a convention in our main ballroom. Vanessa, make a note to see if they were also staying here at the casino. Tony the blackjack dealer was obviously here a lot. We can check if he got a room here or was working that day. Michael used to work here but had been let go a few weeks earlier. He’s the only one that I can’t say was here for sure. Vanessa, can you make a note.”

  Falling back on my history of analyzing numbers, I had an idea. “Could we pull credit card receipts for the day of the deaths? Actually, a week or even a month would be better, but I would start by looking at the day of then expand the search if necessary. We can look at patterns of spending to see what they all might have done or places they might have been. Though that doesn’t account for any cash they spent. I know that might take a while considering all the stores, departments, entertainment options, and… Can you even get all the receipts? Are some of the places in the casino independently owned?” I pursed my lips.

  Olivia’s smile grew. “Actually, it will be easy, at least for the people that stayed at the casino. To combat potential theft, when they check in, we snap a picture and give them a card connected to their credit card. They can use it everywhere in the casino, from the slot machines to buying tickets for visiting entertainment in the theaters. They can even tip their servers. We are the safest casino on the Avenue.”

  “Wow, that’s impressive. Did you develop the software just for the casino?”

  Olivia smiled. “Yes, but we also invested in a few full-time mages to give some magical insurance to the system.”

  “Oh!” How quickly I had forgotten the benefits of being able to use magic. “Can mages automatically recognize other mages?”

  “Kinda, sometimes. If someone is actively using magic, then most of us would know. Some people are better at telling than others, and usually, the longer you are around someone and interact, the more likely you will be able to tell, but you might not realize it if you passed one on the street. For instance, when Vin first met you, he didn’t know, but when you got mad and insisted that Ramono the Bull was your father, then he started to suspect it was true because he could feel some of your magic.”

  Vin snorted. “Magic leaking all over the place. She’s like a broken sprinkler casting spectral energy all over.”

  I gave him a dirty look, and he smirked back. He was probably still mad that I had ditched him this morning.

  Olivia rolled her eyes at her cousin then turned back to me. “So you want us to pull the charges for each person? What are we looking for?”

  “Patterns. Places they all visited. The more details we can get, the better. Did they all use the same slot machine? Visit the same show? Eat the same dessert?” The ideas started to flow, and I started talking faster. I gestured with excitement an
d accidently knocked over my water glass. “Did they all die in the same way? I know Ethel jumped. What about the rest?”

  “In order, Michael overdosed in a parking lot. Joe was diabetic, didn’t take his insulin, then fell into a diabetic coma and died. Roberta stepped in front of the Avenue tram and was hit. Tony the blackjack dealer went into the horse stables and was kicked in the head by one of the horses. Lastly was Ethel, who jumped. They all look like accidental deaths, but Dad must have noticed something weird was happening. He pulled those numbers plus the video footage of Ethel the day he was killed.”

  “Then his death must be connected to these fake suicides?”

  A tear dripped off Olivia’s nose and landed on her empty plate to mingle with the powdered sugar. “Running a casino, especially one this big, means you have a target on your back. Plus, it isn’t our only financial investment. Not to mention the infighting within the magical community.”

  My ears perked up. Was I in danger? Was that why Dad hadn’t told me I was a witch? I opened my mouth to ask, but Patagonia jumped in my lap and rubbed against my face. She placed a paw on each shoulder and dug her claws into the fabric before rubbing her face all over mine. She kept going until I forcefully pushed her down then used the napkin to wipe off the mascara she had smeared. My makeup had taken quite a beating.

  Olivia composed herself. “Even yesterday when you made the connection between the dates and the accidental death payouts, I wasn’t convinced the connection was correct and they were all murders. All of the deaths could be accidental, including Ethel, despite what the news said. Maybe she was drunk and fell. But watching the video and hearing your interpretation of events… Well, it just makes too much sense to ignore. We are pulling the financial records. What else?”

  “Should I visit the locations and see if I can read them? I mean, like what I did for Ethel?” I wasn’t sure what terminology to use.

  “Yes, perfect. This morning, I made arrangements to pull the footage from each incident and to mark the location with under construction signs.”