Amy nodded. “You’re right, but the fairy at the desk will never just give us that information.”
“I’ll try and distract her,” I said, standing up and making my way to the reception desk before Amy could protest.
“Excuse me,” I started, giving the fairy a polite smile. “I’m wondering if you’d happen to have any bathrooms available. I’m so sorry, but I just came from Hexpresso Bean and, well, you know how it is.” I flashed her an embarrassed look, and the fairy smiled and gave me a curt nod.
“Of course we do,” she said. “Please, follow me.”
I winked at Amy as I followed the fairy through the doors that led into the main part of the offices. “I apologize for having to take you here myself,” the fairy said. “Unfortunately, the space back here is rather maze-like, and if you don’t know where you’re going, it’s quite easy to get lost.”
“Well, I appreciate you making the time for me,” I said. “I’ll try to be quick.”
Sure enough, I followed the fairy around a number of meandering paths, and I realized that even if I had found the bathroom by myself, I never would have found my way back to the waiting area without help. Eventually, we stopped in front of a plain wooden door, and the fairy smiled and motioned for me to enter. I went in, used the bathroom while lingering as much as I felt I possibly could, hoping that I had left enough time for Amy to find that morning’s appointment list and write down all the names.
By the time we got back to the lobby, Amy was back sitting exactly where she had been when I left, not giving off any indication as to whether or not she had been successful. I thanked the fairy once again, and she took her place back at the desk, while I sat down next to Amy once more.
“So?” I asked in a quiet voice, raising my eyebrows at her.
Amy replied by handing me her notebook. On it was a list of names, most of which I didn’t recognize.
“The four at the top were the people Lorondir saw before his death,” Amy whispered to me. I focused on those four names in particular.
Farawir
Jordan Black
Maria Grecu
I had to admit, none of those names meant anything to me. I couldn’t even tell what species of paranormal they were, except for the two elves at the top and the bottom of the list. Still, now that we had the names, we could definitely begin investigating.
“Manarwa is ready to see you now,” the fairy said suddenly a moment later. “If the two of you could please follow me, I’ll be happy to take you to her.”
I handed Amy back her notebook and the two of us stood up, following the fairy back through the door and into the offices behind.
Chapter 5
This time, rather than a convoluted path to get to the bathroom, we took a straightforward route down the first hallway and stopped at the third door on the right. The fairy knocked curtly twice, then opened the door for us, leading us into the office.
Manarwa’s office definitely followed the décor of the rest of the place, with an old-fashioned, classy look. The carpet was the same plush dark red as in the lobby, and the client chairs in front of her large mahogany desk were identical to the ones Amy and I had waited for her in.
Sitting behind the desk was a tall, graceful elf with completely straight dark hair that hung down to her hips, flowing behind her as she stood up to greet us. Her eyes were as dark and deep as the sea, and there was an ethereal beauty to her. I had absolutely no idea how old she might have been, but as I looked along the wall, I couldn’t help but notice a copy of the Magna Carta. I wondered if Manarwa had somehow been involved in its creation; it seemed like with elves, that sort of thing was a very real possibility.
“Welcome, I’m Manarwa, one of the senior elves at the firm. Elloita tells me that you have had an encounter with a shifter in its animal form during the day time,” she said, looking over at me. “But I have a feeling you’re not really here about that, are you?”
Great. I’d forgotten that elves had semi-psychic abilities, where they couldn’t directly read thoughts, but they were super intuitive in a way that made it incredibly difficult to hide anything from them.
“We’re not,” Amy admitted. “Have you heard about Lorondir?”
Manarwa’s gaze fell to her desk, and I knew the answer before she replied.
“Yes,” she said sadly. “I heard a few moments ago. It’s quite tragic. But I must ask why the two of you are here.”
“We’re not onlookers trying to get in on the tragedy or anything,” I said quickly. “Sara, the woman who was flying Lorondir when he died, is our roommate and friend.”
“Ah,” Manarwa replied. “So you’re here to help your friend.”
“We’re hoping so. While we know she’s innocent from any wrongdoing, we also know that in an investigation everyone needs to be looked at, and he did die on her,” I said, hoping that honesty would get us some more information from Manarwa without getting us kicked out of her office.
“Do you know how he died?” Manarwa asked. “We were not given any details, only that he passed away. Obviously, since that’s not a natural occurrence for elves, we have a lot of questions.”
“We suspect he was poisoned,” Amy replied. “According to Sara, there were no marks on his body.”
“That’s a blessing, at least,” Manarwa said. “On the rare occasions that an elf funeral does take place, we prefer to have open ceremonies privately among the elves before the public ash scattering ceremony. It would have been tragic if Lorondir had to be denied that due to the state of his body.”
“It doesn’t sound like that’s going to be a problem,” I said.
“And it’s such a tragedy that this has happened so close to Lorondir’s retirement.”
“His retirement?” I asked.
“Yes, Lorondir had been practicing law for nearly four thousand years. It was high time he retired, and even though he resisted at first, I know that for the last few weeks he was looking forward to a more leisurely existence.”
“What about his clients?” Amy asked.
“Well, it’s been known that he was going to retire for the last six months or so. Ever since then, he has taken on far less work, to the point where I believe he only had one client left.”
“Wasn’t he one of the owners of the firm?” Amy continued.
Manarwa nodded. “Yes, he was. In fact, he was the largest single owner of this law firm, having started it right from the beginning two hundred years ago when Western Woods was first formed.”
My eyes widened at this revelation; it was strange to think of Lorondir being here for literally hundreds of years.
“So what happens to his shares in the business?” Amy asked.
“Oh, that’s all been taken care of,” Manarwa replied. “Lorondir sold his shares to one of the other partners, Handromir, who is now the largest owner of the law firm. I believe they finalized their agreement about a week ago. Lorondir was still working, but only to finish up the one case he had left. After it ended, his plan was to retire for good. I know he earned a substantial sum of money in his lifetime, not to mention the enormous payout he got for his shares from Handromir. Lorondir was supposed to have a nice retirement, a comfortable retirement. It wasn’t supposed to end like this.”
Manarwa was blinking back tears now, and I averted my eyes so that she wouldn’t notice that I’d seen. She was obviously trying to hide her emotions, and definitely making an effort to keep it together.
“Can you think of anybody who might have wanted to hurt Lorondir?” Amy asked softly, and I had a feeling she had noticed the same thing that I did.
Manarwa shook her head. “No, I can’t. Lorondir was well-liked, he was a pillar of the elfin community, and I truly can’t imagine that anyone would have wanted him dead. Of course, I can’t speak for his clients. Not only would that be a breach of confidentiality, but on top of that I knew very little about them. After all, as a practitioner of civil law rather than criminal, I had very little to do
with Lorondir professionally.”
“What about that case from about six months ago?” I asked. “It was very high profile.”
“You must be talking about the Jordan Black case,” Manarwa said. “Unfortunately, I’m unable to speak about that one beyond what was reported on publicly.”
“Lorondir lost that case, didn’t he?” Amy asked.
Manarwa nodded. “He was incredibly upset about it, too. I’m sure he thought he was going to win. Jordan Black was a shifter, who lived in a paranormal town called Shifterfield, in England. As I’m sure you can tell from the name of the town, it’s a place where the dominant paranormal species are shifters.”
“Jordan Black was convicted of murdering one of his clansmen, right?” Amy asked, earning herself another nod from Manarwa.
“Yes, that’s right. Jordan protested his innocence throughout, although he was eventually found guilty. He was very angry with Lorondir, and verbally attacked him in court after the verdict was read. He fired him as his lawyer immediately, and the lawyer who took over afterwards actually had the verdict overturned. Unfortunately, I don’t know the details of why or how that happened.”
I mulled over this information in my head. Jordan Black had been on the list of people who had an appointment to see Lorondir that morning. Maybe he was angry enough about the representation he had received to come over and poison Lorondir.
“Did he do it?” Amy asked, leaning forward. “I know that the law says he didn’t, but if a jury found him guilty, it means there must have been at least some evidence against him. Do you think Jordan Black killed his clansman? Off the record.” Evidently, Amy’s thinking was going the same way as mine was. After all, if Jordan really had killed that man originally, it wasn’t too much of a stretch to think he’d kill again.
“Strictly hypothetically, as the courts have ruled on this issue and the reality is I do not know one way or the other, I believe Jordan Black did kill that man.”
“Why did Lorondir defend him, then?” I asked. “Did he know he was a killer?”
“One of the pillars of our criminal justice system involves the right of the defendant to have a lawyer. Whether or not he was guilty of the crime, Jordan Black was still entitled to the best representation he could afford. And in his case, those were the services of Lorondir. Jordan Black came from a powerful clan, and he had access to a significant amount of money. He hired Lorondir because that was his right, and Lorondir defended him because he knew that regardless of Jordan’s innocence or guilt, he still deserved a lawyer to fight for him.”
“But you think it’s possibly likely that Jordan Black did commit murder in Shifterfield?” Amy asked.
Manarwa nodded. “Off the record, of course. But yes, I think it’s likely he did do it. Why do you ask about him? As far as I’m aware, he went back to his life in Shifterfield.”
“We heard he was in town at the moment,” Amy replied, not giving away the fact that we had snuck a look at the calendar for the day.
“That’s news to me,” Manarwa said, raising an eyebrow. “Anyway, I do hope the real killer is found. Your friend is a nice girl; she flew me from here to visit a client yesterday. I liked her, although I don’t think she realizes that her magic is significantly better than she thinks it is.”
“You’re absolutely right there,” Amy said with a nod. “Thank you for your time, and I’m sorry about Lorondir.”
“Thank you,” Manarwa said softly. “It always comes to us as a shock when we lose one of our own. Lorondir was a good elf.”
Amy and I got up from our seats and saw ourselves out. This had definitely been an interesting chat.
Chapter 6
“Do you think Aria knows that Jordan Black is in town?” I asked Amy as we left.
“Well, she’s not totally incompetent, so the first thing she is likely going to do if it turns out it was poison is visit the office and see who Lorondir met with that morning. So yes, if she doesn’t know already, I’d say she’s going to know fairly shortly.”
“Good, because I think it’s most likely that he did it.”
“He certainly had a reason to, it sounds like. I wish we knew more of the details that led to Jordan Black being convicted, and then having it overturned by another lawyer.”
“Is there a way to get that information?” I asked. “Like, is there some sort of paranormal Freedom of Information Act?”
Amy nodded. “There is a way, yes. I can put in a request, but as with any bureaucracy, it may take some time.”
“Well, in the meantime, I think we have ourselves our main suspect. Do you know who the other people on the list this morning were?”
Amy pulled her notebook out and began to scan it once more. “Farawir is Lorondir’s son, but I don’t know much about him other than that. Maria Grecu is a vampire; I’m pretty sure she would have seen Lorondir about her upcoming court case, since she was accused of biting another vampire in a bar a couple of months ago. Apparently, she had a little bit too much to drink.”
“Is that a crime, to bite another vampire?”
Amy nodded. “Absolutely. It’s a much more serious crime to bite a human, of course, but even biting another vampire is considered to be one of the most stringent assaults a vampire can commit against another vampire. They take it extremely seriously, and Maria is facing potential punishment of five years in prison for it.”
My mouth dropped open. “Wow! That’s a long time to spend in jail for biting somebody.”
“Yeah, it is. I know they’ve let her out on bail until her trial begins, so she’s around. She’s just not allowed to consume any alcohol, and they made her take a potion that one of the witches made which will alert Chief Enforcer King if she has any sort of alcohol intake.”
“So she’s not likely to have a beef with Lorondir. Not yet, anyway, since her trial hasn’t started yet.”
“Exactly.”
Before we got a chance to decide what to do next, I got a text from Sara.
I’m finally out. I’m heading home; can you grab something for dinner? Don’t really feel like cooking tonight.
I relayed the message on to Amy, who nodded and suggested we stop at Two Wizards and a Griddle.
“Lead on, I have no idea where that is, but it has the word griddle in it and that’s enough for me,” I said.
Amy led me to a small, single-story cottage that had been painted a kind of pastel red color. The dark wood accents on the outside really made it fit in with the rest of the town, and a small sign above with the picture of waffles was enough to let me know that we were in the right place. Waffles were always a good sign.
To my surprise, the inside of the diner was decorated exactly like a 50s style American one. It was like stepping back in time, complete with Frank Sinatra music coming from a real jukebox.
A fairy in a polka dot dress made her way over with a couple of menus.
“Table for two?” she asked, looking down at the mostly empty tables. Seeing as it was now just two in the afternoon, we were too late for the lunch rush and too early for the dinner rush, so there were only a couple of tables occupied by an elderly witch and wizard, and another where three teenage shifters were obviously playing hooky from school. Given the furtive glances they kept giving us, I had a feeling this was a first-time experience for them.
“We’re just going to order take-out, if that’s alright,” Amy said with a smile.
“Of course. You’re welcome to have a seat, look at the menus, and I’ll come by in a minute to take your orders.”
As soon as I began looking through the menu, even though I had recently finished what had to be a pretty calorie intensive coffee and a very rich cupcake, my mouth began to water. This was true, traditional diner food at its finest. All-day breakfast, twelve different burger options, and more.
I had a feeling this place was definitely going to become a regular habit for me.
Twenty minutes later, Amy and I left the diner, arms laden with bags full of
burgers and enough curly fries to last a week.
“This would have been a lot easier if we had brought our brooms; you really should try and convince Sara to give you another lesson.”
“It’s not Sara who needs convincing,” I replied. After all, my last experience on a broom had not ended that well.
“Well, you know what they say. When you fall off the broom, you just have to get right back up and try again.”
“Yeah, I know the saying. Still, it’s a lot easier to say than to do. Now that a few days have gone past, it feels harder, mentally.”
“Of course it will, but you really have no other choice. I don’t like the broom myself; I don’t like being high up in the air, and I generally just hover a few feet off the ground. However, it comes with being a witch, and you can’t truly be a part of the coven if you don’t know how to ride. Besides, it gives you a lot more freedom. Like being able to get from the diner to home in two minutes instead of ten.”
As the smell of the delicious burgers wafted up to me through the bag, I couldn’t help but think that was the best argument I had ever heard for learning to ride.
“You guys are lifesavers,” Sara exclaimed as soon as we walked through the door. Since Chestnut was running around my ankles at top speed, I figured Ellie had come home from work.
“Can you take these?” Amy asked. “I have to go give Kevin his medicine before we eat.” Kevin was Amy’s familiar, a grey owl who suited her perfectly. Unfortunately, he had come down with the same ailment that had afflicted all of the owls in town for the past week, which was basically some sort of infection that stopped them from flying. The healers had come up with a potion to help, but it was still going to be a couple of days before Kevin was back to his normal self, and he was hiding away in Amy’s room until he was back to normal.
“Of course,” Sara said, taking the large bag full of curly fries from Amy’s hands as she ran up the stairs to go take care of her familiar.
I followed after Sara into the kitchen along with the burgers I was carrying, where we found Ellie already getting plates and cutlery out.
Two Peas in a Potion Page 3