Chapter 15
My next stop was the grocery store. First of all, to buy some essentials. This was the first day they had reopened after Luca’s death, and assuming that they hadn’t killed him, I really felt for his parents, having to go back to work so quickly.
I loaded up a cart with food I needed for the next week, making sure to buy extra carrots as treats for Vinnie – as well as a bag of pears, which was his true favorite food – and headed for the checkout counter.
Luca’s mother came out and spotted me, and made her way straight toward me.
“Althea,” she said. “How are things coming along?”
“Good,” I said. “I have a few promising leads that I’m following, but I was hoping to be able to speak with you. How are you holding up?”
“It has been difficult,” Ilona replied, looking to the ground. “I don’t know how to continue, to be honest. How do you keep going when your son is gone?”
My heart broke for her. If she had killed Luca, she was an excellent actress. Composing herself, she looked at my cart. “You have not paid yet?”
I shook my head no.
“Then you do not worry about it. Leave the cart, I will have one of the young workers deliver this to your home. Come with me.”
“Thank you so much,” I said, taking a quick look back at the cart as I just left it and followed Mrs. Sadoveanu into the back office of the grocery store. It was a big space, but all the same almost every inch was covered in stock, apart from a small room at the back where all of the administration was obviously done.
There were a couple of computers, and an elf sitting at one of the chairs, typing away on one of them. Cabinets and shelves lined the walls, but the place was still fairly organized.
“Nirmordir, do you mind giving us the room for a minute?” Mrs. Sadoveanu asked, and the elf nodded and left, obviously pleased to have gotten an extra break.
Mrs. Sadoveanu closed the door behind her. “So, what did you want to ask about?”
“Can you explain to me how this place works in terms of the administration, and what role Luca played, exactly?”
The vampire’s eyebrows rose slightly, like she hadn’t been expecting that to be the question, but she acquiesced all the same. “Of course. Anton and I are owners of the shop. Beneath us is Nirmordir, who you just saw. He acts as the general manager, who is in charge of the day-to-day operations of the store. There is a second elf, Jumordir, who comes in once every few days to handle all of the accounting.”
“So you have an in-house accountant.”
“That is right; we simply have so much that needs to be done that it was more economical to hire someone ourselves rather than to go to one of the firms in town.”
“Are those all of the paranormals who work on the administrative side of the business?”
“Yes,” Mrs. Sadoveanu replied. “Although Luca was learning that side of the business himself, slowly but surely. He was always welcome back here.”
“How exactly was he learning it? Was Jumordir giving him accounting lessons, or Nirmordir showing him how to place orders?”
“Not just yet, it was more theoretical than that. Luca was very much an individualist when it came to learning. He preferred to read through books to learn what he had to, and then look at things on his own until he figured them out. Since there was so long to do until he was to take over, we felt that was the best way for him to do things. So, we bought him a number of books on business, which I know he read on his own quite a bit. He would also come to the room here at the back when there was no one here and he had finished his work stocking the shelves, and he would look through everything. I saw him here, a few weeks ago, going through a number of files. He told me he was just trying to reconcile what he saw on the sheets of paper with what he had been learning in his books.”
I knew I was going to have to tread lightly with the way I brought up the next topic, which was not easy considering I was generally about as subtle as an elephant.
“Did Luca make any indication to you that there might have been something going on with the books?” I said, watching Mrs. Sadoveanu carefully for her reaction. She only looked mildly confused, though.
“Something wrong with the books? What do you mean?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe something was going on with the numbers?”
This time, her eyes widened. “Do you mean to tell me that someone was fudging the books at the grocery store?”
“No, no,” I said hurriedly. “I’m not sure that’s what was going on. I was just curious as to whether or not you’d seen any signs of it.”
“No, nothing of the sort,” she replied.
“And Luca never came to you with anything like that?”
“Not once.”
Hmm. That certainly went against my theory, assuming Mrs. Sadoveanu was telling the truth. And given how surprised and shocked her reaction had been, I was inclined to believe her.
She looked around carefully. “Would it… would it help if I gave you access to those files?”
“Yes, it would, actually,” I said.
“Obviously, everything would have to be confidential.”
“Obviously. I can sign anything you want me to,” I replied. “But it would be very helpful to have access to the files.”
“Come back at five,” Mrs. Sadoveanu said. “That’s when the day ends for the elves, and so there will be no one else here to distract you; you’ll be able to take all the time you need. I don’t think there’s anything going on with the books here, but if that was what Luca was looking at, and it might help you find his killer, I want you to see them.”
“Perfect, thanks,” I said. That was actually way easier than I had expected it to be. Take that, Jack. I wasn’t going to have to break into the grocery store after all.
I made my way back to the shed for a couple hours of rest before I had to be back at the grocery store, but as I walked down the bakery aisle, I spotted Gloria looking at the different types of flour.
I instinctively ducked away into the next aisle, wondering what I should do. Of course, the reasonable answer was to ignore her, go home and live my own life. But I was genuinely curious as to what her plan to beat Grandma Rosie was, and here she was buying ingredients to make a pie.
So much for a little bit of rest.
I pulled out my wand and muttered a quick invisibility spell on myself. Confirming that Gloria wouldn’t be able to see me, I made my way back to the baking aisle and close to her. She was talking to herself, and I wanted to hear what she was saying.
“No, I need real vanilla beans. Just extract won’t do. And I forgot the orange. Can’t make an orange cranberry eggnog pie without the orange.” She made her way back to the produce section, grabbed one of the fruits in question, and then checked out.
I followed Gloria down the street as she headed home with her groceries, using her wand to have them float in front of her.
Gloria lived about a ten minute walk from the grocery store, in a small bungalow on a hill that had started to be developed a few years ago. It wasn’t fair that someone as nasty as Gloria got to live in a nice, modern home while my mom still lived with Grandma Rosie in that tiny, cramped cottage after working so hard for Leda and me her entire life.
I slipped in through the front door at the same time as the groceries, being super careful not to touch any of the bags lest Gloria discover my presence in her home. There wasn’t a doubt in my mind: if she figured out I was here, she was going to call the Enforcers and demand that I be locked up. I had to be as quiet as a mouse.
Again, not exactly my strong suit.
I followed Gloria into the kitchen as she unloaded all of her groceries, then she picked up her phone and dialed a number.
“Hello, could I speak with Livinia, please?” There was a pause for a moment, then Gloria spoke again. “I’ve gotten all of the ingredients, as required. Now all I need is the potion. Are you available to come by and help me with
it?”
I could hear a voice on the other end, but couldn’t make out the words. However, a moment later, Gloria spoke again.
“Good. Make sure you hide your identity when you come into town. I don’t want anyone knowing I’ve hired the Livinia. You have to make sure no one knows you’re here. Use the unguarded portal to get into town so you won’t be seen.”
My mouth dropped open. No wonder Gloria was so confident, she was using the Livinia to make a potion that she was presumably going to add to her pie. Livinia – she went by one name only – was possibly the most famous potion making witch in the world. She lived in Italy, and had skills with a cauldron that were second to none.
She rose to fame after being arrested in her twenties for successfully creating a love potion, which was supposed to be completely impossible. But when none of the men she had given the potion to – there were four in all – deigned to testify against her, the Enforcers had no choice but to set her free. According to Grandma Rosie it was the single biggest court case in the history of the paranormal world.
After that, she made a living by selling her skills. For a fee, individuals or companies could hire Livinia to create potions that no one else was able to make. She was hired officially by companies looking to make a splash, and earned a fortune that way, but it had always been rumored that she could be hired to make less legal potions underground, for a fee.
Despite Enforcers spending years trying to prove Livinia was breaking the law, she had never been caught again after the first love potion fiasco, and now Gloria was hiring her to make a potion. That meant trouble.
I was definitely going to hang around and see how this was going to play out.
Chapter 16
For the next hour or so I watched as Gloria worked on her pie. I had to admit, it didn’t look half bad. A part of me was tempted to dip my finger into the batter to see if tasted as good as it looked, but that would definitely give me away.
Still, she occasionally turned her back on the bowl…
No, it was more important that I find out exactly what Livinia was conjuring up to help Gloria win the pie baking contest.
I also considered subtly grabbing the container of garlic powder and adding a few tablespoons of that to the batter; it would almost certainly ruin the taste enough that even a potion by Livinia wouldn’t be enough to win, but I decided against doing that, too.
After all, that was completely and totally cheating. And yes, I knew that by hiring Livinia to make her a potion Gloria was cheating too, but that was her. I was a lot of things, but I was not a cheater. If Grandma Rosie was going to win this contest, she was going to do it by having the best pie she could bake after going to France to study the art of baking.
Eventually, there was a knock at the door, and Gloria rushed to answer it while I sat on a chair in the living room overlooking the kitchen. Thank goodness for open plan homes; it was way easier to spy on someone when you could do it from ten feet away.
A moment later Gloria returned, along with a witch wearing a long cloak, her face covered by a hood. She removed the cloak to reveal the most insane thing I had ever seen.
I knew many witches and wizards used potions to try and hide the natural signs of aging. That was normal. We all had egos, after all. But this was on a whole other level. Livinia had to be at least seventy, maybe eighty years old by now. She was getting on in years, even by witch standards. And yet, the witch standing in front of me didn’t look a day over forty-five.
There were a couple of giveaways as to the reality – the skin right around her eyes was a little bit saggier than it would be on someone in her forties, but still. If you didn’t know who you were looking at, you would absolutely believe it was someone in the prime of their life.
Livinia had luscious brown hair that flowed just past her shoulders, and warm brown eyes that looked around Gloria’s home. “So, you require a potion that will guarantee a first place win at the local pie baking competition?” she asked. Her voice was velvety smooth, with just a hint of an Italian accent. I couldn’t help but wonder if the voice was natural, or if that, too, had been helped along with potions.
It was insanely weird seeing a woman that I knew to be in her eighties who looked and sounded half her age.
“Yes,” Gloria replied. “There’s another witch here in town who has won for the last seven years, and I know she’s cheating. There’s no way she’s just making a delicious pie on her own, so I need to stoop down to her level.”
“Right,” Livinia said. “Well, you have a few options if you are looking to win a contest. I can create a potion that will make the pie taste better than anything the judges have ever tasted in their lives. I can create a potion that will simply attract them to your pie and have them believe it to be the best, even if that’s not the case. I can also create a potion that will trick their brains into selecting your pie as the winner, even if they actually preferred another pie.”
“I think I’d rather the first one,” Gloria said. “A potion that makes everyone think the pie is the best thing they’ve ever tasted. That way, they’ll never stop raving about my pie. I’ll go down in history as one of the most legendary bakers in the history of Mt. Rheanier.”
“Well, if that’s what you want your legacy to be,” Livinia said quietly, and I laughed to myself.
“It is,” Gloria said firmly. “No one in this stupid town appreciated my skills as an educator, and I found myself constantly getting complaints from parents who refused to recognize that their children are actually idiots and that I know way more than them.”
It took every ounce of willpower I had not to shout out, “You’re supposed to know more than your students, that’s the teacher’s job!” but I managed to keep my mouth shut by literally shoving my fist in it and by imagining the look on Gloria’s face when she still lost the competition despite the potion.
“Yes, I can make that potion for you,” Livinia said. “Have you made the pie?”
“I have the batter and the dough made, but I haven’t cooked it yet. I didn’t know if you’d need to add the potion to the batter, so I haven’t made the pie yet.”
“Good,” Livinia said with a nod. “Yes, I think the potion will be best added to the batter. Now, let us get started.”
She went back into the main hall and returned with a large bag that she struggled to carry, and eventually cast a spell to make it float up onto the counter. Pulling out a large, brass cauldron, she began laying out ingredients on the table.
“I have almost everything we need for this spell, except for a few things. Do you have any fresh pine needles in the area?”
“Oh yes, I can go out and get some straight away,” Gloria said.
“Good. I also need you to return with a freshly cut white rose, and three unripe plums.”
Gloria nodded and made her way out of the house while Livinia kept setting up. I decided to stay here and see what the world’s most notorious potion maker was going to come up with.
Livinia pulled an ancient leather-bound notebook from her bag that looked older than she did. It was huge, and had all sorts of extra sheets of paper poking out here and there. This was obviously a well-used book, and I imagined it would have been incredibly valuable.
A witch like Livinia would have definitely hexed the book so that nobody else could read what was on it. There wasn’t a doubt about that in my mind.
Still, I was tempted to make my way over and try and sneak a peek. After all, when you had a chance to look at the world’s most notorious concoctologist’s personal notebook, you kind of had to take that chance, I thought.
But I didn’t want to do it while she was so close to the notebook. Livinia muttered to herself in Italian as she opened the book up on the counter and began flipping through the pages, obviously looking for the recipe she was about to go with. I was impressed that she already knew what ingredients she was going to need without looking at the recipe; that was the sign of a witch who knew her potions back
to front.
I wouldn’t have been surprised if she’d been able to make the potion without looking at the instructions. But, I also didn’t blame her for doing so. Magical potions were so insanely sensitive that straying from the instructions just a tiny bit could spell disaster for the result.
When we were back at the Academy one of the girls in my class had messed up a potion in our class. She was supposed to put in three teaspoons of sand, but had miscounted and put in four, instead. Instead of making a potion that was designed to melt ice, the potion started melting everything. When the witch poured it on an ice cube on the table to prove it worked it instead bored straight through the table, and through the floor. We wanted to see how far it would go, but the teacher decided that rather than risk having a volcano form in the center of the Academy she was going to shut it down, and quickly annihilated the potion before it bored all the way through to the center of the earth.
I don’t think that witch ever made another potion without triple and then quadruple checking everything she did.
Livinia began working on the potion before Gloria returned. I assumed she didn’t want Gloria to see what she was doing. She added a few different ingredients into the cauldron, and watching her was like watching a ballerina. She worked with an elegance and a confidence that I had never seen a witch do with potions before. She really was a master of the art.
And the master of the art was having trouble finding one of the ingredients she needed. She went to the fridge and began digging through it. This was my chance. I ran up to the book and had a look. To my surprise, I could actually read the recipe. Maybe Livinia believed she was safe here in Gloria’s house.
The words were all in Italian, but that wasn’t a problem. I pulled out my phone and swiped; I’d taken so many pictures with my phone while invisible that I was pretty good at it by now. I snapped a couple of pictures, confident that I’d hit the right button at least once.
Potion Sickness Page 9
