We headed up to the second floor of the main town hall where a wizard with darker hair looked up when Ali entered with Oliver passing in front.
“What have you done now?” the wizard asked dubiously.
“Oh, you know, just doing your job for you, Jack,” Ali replied with a grin. “Meet Oliver Farwood. You might recognize him from such films as the CCTV footage from the theft at the vampire Athan Antescu’s home the other day.”
The wizard raised his eyebrows. “You’ve been busy, then.”
“Hey, when paranormals don’t trust you to get the results for them, they come to me.”
“You know that’s not what happened. He just wanted an extra set of eyes on the case. In any case, that’s pretty obviously him,” Jack said. “Good work, Ali. You should consider coming onto the force as an Enforcer. It turns out you’re actually pretty good at this.”
“You just think I might forgive you if we have to work together. Not a chance.”
The wizard shrugged. “Fine. Who are your friends?”
“They’re from Fairy Falls. Full disclosure, Oliver here is also a suspect in a murder that took place there yesterday afternoon. It turns out this wizard – whose opinions on witches are firmly entrenched in the nineteenth century – didn’t take it super well when the witch he was seeing broke up with him.”
“So you’re Enforcers?” Jack asked us, and Scarlett nodded.
“We work with the Enforcers in Fairy Falls,” she lied, and Jack narrowed his eyes.
“Boy have I heard that before from the witch standing next to you. So is it safe to assume you have no authority whatsoever and you’ve fallen under Ali’s bad influence?”
“Excuse me, I am a fantastic influence,” Ali interrupted before either me or Scarlett had the opportunity to reply.
Jack snorted in obvious disbelief. “You taught an eight-year-old witch how to hex her classmates so their tongues would turn to snakes last week. Do you know how many calls I had to field from angry parents about it?”
“Well, maybe their kids shouldn’t have been bullying the witch. They deserved it.”
“That’s why I told them all we’d investigate, but so far we haven’t found the culprit. Now, thanks for dropping Oliver off. I’ll take it from here.”
“Oh, he also can’t hear you right now,” Scarlett said. “We wanted to have a private conversation, so he’s had a deafness spell cast on him.”
“Good to know. Thanks,” Jack said, standing up and pointing his wand at Oliver Farwood. “See you, Ali.”
“I hope not,” Ali replied with a wave, and Scarlett and I followed after her as she turned and walked out of the station.
“Well, it sure sounds like there’s a story there between you and Jack,” Scarlett said.
“We used to be best friends until he betrayed me,” Ali replied, her mouth firm. “He’s been trying to make it up to me ever since.”
“What did he do, sleep with your boyfriend or something?” I joked.
“Exactly,” Ali replied, and my eyes widened.
“Yikes. Ok, I can understand you being mad at him,” I replied.
“I thought I was going to marry Sean. Finding Jack and Sean knocking boots inside our house was not the best way to find out the love of my life batted for the other team.”
“No kidding,” Scarlett said with a grimace. “That doesn’t sound fun.”
“It most certainly was not. And I might be a little rough with Jack. He is a very good and decent wizard, and I know he didn’t mean to hurt me. But it still hurt all the same.”
“I get that,” I replied. “When someone hurts you, you need to forgive them on your own schedule, not theirs.”
“Exactly,” Ali said. “I figured someone from the coven of love should get it.”
“The most important thing is to love yourself first,” Scarlett said. “The golden rule of our coven.”
“And what a good rule that is. Now, should we go see if Oliver’s story checks out and if Simon Harwell is a better suspect than Oliver over there? Although frankly, I have to say, I hope he did it. And on the way you can tell me how two random witches decided to start investigating a murder.”
“Well, I do appreciate how you’re not judging us for it,” Scarlett said.
“Of course I’m not. How do you think I got started in private investigation?” Ali asked with a wink.
T en minutes later, we were back in Fairy Falls.
“I want to check on Oliver’s story that he went to the hospital,” Scarlett said. “But checking out Simon Harwell is important, too.”
“Why don’t we stop by the hospital and ask Jess quickly?” I offered. “She told me if I ever needed anything I just had to ask. I don’t think this is exactly what she had in mind, but she’ll probably be willing to help us out.”
“Sure,” Scarlett said. “Let’s go.”
“So you’ve both lived in Fairy Falls your whole lives?” Ali asked, and Scarlett shook her head.
“No. I have, but Mina here only recently discovered she’s a witch. She’s lived her whole life in the human world up until about three days ago.”
“No kidding,” Ali said, looking at me. “That’s got to have been a pretty big shock.”
“It was,” I admitted. “Especially quitting my job, which I was really good at. I know deep down that I made the right decision to come here and learn to be a witch, but a part of me is still worried about the immediate future and wondering if I made the right call.”
“If you followed your gut, that’s the way to go,” Ali replied. “But don’t forget, it’s ok to push for what you want, too.”
“Totally,” Scarlett chimed in.
“Right. Well, I’ll do my best. And if your private investigation business ever needs someone who’s great at marketing or if you hear about someone who needs a great marketer, keep me in mind,” I said.
“Wow, here you are already pushing yourself forward. I’m impressed,” Ali said as we walked up the path toward the hospital. I was getting to be more familiar with this building than I’d ever expected, although luckily this time I wasn’t about to be admitted.
We walked through the main doors and found an Assistant Healer tapping away at her computer. Her long blonde hair reached her waist, and her thin, aquiline face looked simultaneously young and old at the same time. Wise grey eyes turned toward us, and I knew then I was looking at an elf.
“Hello, do you have a health issue that needs to be seen to?”
“No, I was wondering if you could please page Jess for us,” Scarlett said. “We need to speak with her; it’s an emergency.”
“Alright, have a seat,” the elf said. “Who should I say is here for her?”
“Scarlett Sornik and Mina Tiller,” Scarlett replied. The elf gave us a curt nod.
“I will call her now.”
The three of us wandered over toward the metal and lightly-cushioned waiting room chairs, and Ali turned to us.
“You said your name was Sornik?” she asked, and Scarlett nodded.
“Yeah, Eva is our grandmother.”
“Damn,” Ali said. “I had no idea I was in the presence of paranormal world riches.”
“What does she mean?” I asked Scarlett, and Ali laughed gently.
“Oh man, don’t tell me you didn’t tell her that Eva is in charge of one of the biggest business empires of the paranormal world.”
“We kind of wanted to let her settle in first before she learned that,” Scarlett replied, shooting me an apologetic look.
“But I’ve been to The Love Shack,” I said, slightly confused. “It’s just a small, local business, isn’t it?”
“Not exactly,” Scarlett replied. “There is the local shop, yes, but Grandma Eva also runs a network of other stores and a wholesale potion distribution business. The whole business does tens of millions of abras a year in sales.”
I let out a low whistle, earning myself a disapproving glare from the elf behind the counter. I wav
ed in apology then lowered my voice. “Wow. So Grandma Eva is actually loaded.”
“Yeah, she is. You’d never know it from the way she lives, though. Grandma Eva strongly believes that falling in love with money invites a lot more trouble than it’s worth.”
“I had no idea,” I said quietly, still shocked.
“I think your success is one of the reasons why she immediately liked you,” Scarlett said. “You’re driven, just like she is.”
“Well, sorry for accidentally revealing a big family secret,” Ali said with a sheepish shrug. “But if it helps, you’re not the first people I’ve done that to and probably won’t be the last. I have a habit of sticking my foot in my mouth.”
Scarlett laughed. “Don’t worry about it. It wasn’t actually a secret. It just hadn’t really come up before. It’s only been a few days.”
“So The Love Shack is actually a way bigger company than just the little shop here?”
“Yeah,” Scarlett replied. “They make individual amounts of potions at the back that then get taken to the factory in Spokurse, which is more industrial. The witches and wizards who work out of there multiply the amount of potion and prepare it for wholesaling.”
“Who buys the wholesale stuff?” I asked.
“All sorts of businesses. Lots of bakeries add the potions to their baked goods. Pharmaceutical companies buy them and rebrand them before putting them on store shelves. The Love Shack is one of the biggest potion suppliers in the whole world.”
“Wow,” I said, somewhat breathless. I’d had no idea.
Before I had a chance to come to terms with what I’d just learned, however, Jess came out from a set of swinging doors, wiping an errant strand of hair from her face.
“Hey,” she said with a smile as soon as she saw me. “What can I do for you?”
CHAPTER 16
“Hey, Jess,” I said. “You’ve heard about Renee’s death, I assume?”
“Yes,” Jess replied, shaking her head sadly. “How awful.”
“Well, we were speaking with Oliver Farwood, her ex-boyfriend,” I continued.
“Yes, I heard they broke up,” Jess said, trying to hide a smile.
“So let me guess, you were working here yesterday when he came in looking for help?”
“I sure was,” she replied. “It was… an interesting time.”
“We heard the spell Renee hexed him with was embarrassing,” Ali chimed in.
Jess looked around furtively then motioned for us to come in closer. “Look, I’m not supposed to talk about a patient, but Oliver Farwood was the worst paranormal I’ve had to deal with in ages, and the story is hilarious, so I’ll tell you. But you have to swear not to tell anyone else.”
“Don’t worry, your secret’s safe with us,” Scarlett promised.
Jess nodded, then grinned. “Ok. So Oliver came in yesterday saying he wanted to see a wizard Healer. He was going on about how his girlfriend had mutilated him and he needed to see a man about it. Unfortunately, the three we have on staff all had the day off yesterday, so there were only witches. He said that wasn’t good enough, so we offered to have a male of another species look at him instead. He finally agreed to have a male shifter Healer look at him, except a few minutes later, the Healer came out and said one of us was going to have to fix him as it was going to require a potion. The shifter could barely keep himself from laughing as he told us, so I asked what Renee had done.”
She bit back a smile as she continued. “I know I’m a Healer, and I’m not supposed to think it’s funny, but it was hilarious. Renee had cursed his naughty bits to spin around at top speed like an airplane propeller.”
I snorted involuntarily at the mental image, clasping my hand to my mouth afterwards to stop from laughing.
Ali’s shoulders shuddered with silent giggles, and Scarlett scrunched up her face.
“Oh, that’s gross,” she said, squeezing her eyes shut. “So gross.”
“Well the problem is, if left untreated, it can have some pretty terrible health implications from the way blood flows like a centrifuge in there,” Jess said, having gone back into Healer mode. “We had to take care of it straight away.”
“That’s a mental image I didn’t need,” Ali said with a light laugh. “So you fixed him?”
“Yes. We made a potion that… brought everything back under control. Oliver wasn’t happy that witches had to see him like that, though.”
“No, I bet,” I replied. “Let me guess, he made a few disparaging comments about how witches weren’t cut out to be Healers?”
“Oh, yes,” Jess replied with a roll of her eyes. “Obviously. I told him if he wasn’t happy with a witch making the potion, he could wait until one of the wizards was back in at midnight that night. He quickly changed his tune after that.”
“So at what time was that, exactly?” Scarlett asked. “It’s important.”
Jess pursed her lips as she looked up at the ceiling, obviously deep in thought. “Well, I took my break at noon, which meant I was back at twelve-thirty. Then I saw the witch who had accidentally made her familiar dog breathe fire and had to take care of the wounds on her leg. I had to look at the clock while making the potion to heal her since there’s a fifteen minute wait in the middle. That was at one-thirteen, meaning I applied the salve to her leg at around one-thirty, and it was just after I discharged her, maybe five minutes after that, when Oliver came in.”
“Ok, so one thirty-five,” I said, turning to Scarlett. “Does that work with our timeline?”
“Hold on, let me check,” my cousin replied, pulling out her phone.
“Did you get a text or something when we were leaving?” I asked, and Scarlett shook her head.
“No, but about two minutes before we left – so right around the time when Renee was killed – I opened Pokémon Go, and there was a Snorlax right in the middle of the bar. I caught him, and so it’ll be in my journal, time-stamped.”
Ali grinned. “I didn’t realize anyone still played that game.”
“There’s a whole community of us,” Scarlett replied. “For some of us, it was more than just a fad in the summer of 2016. Here it is. Snorlax was caught yesterday at one-sixteen p.m.”
“That’s a little bit early for Oliver then, right?” I said. “He could have met Renee outside, she could have cursed him, and then he would have had time to kill her and get to the hospital by one-thirty or so, right?”
“Yes,” Scarlett said, nodding. “The timeline isn’t perfect – we don’t know exactly when Renee was killed, and it could have been a few minutes later than we think – but Oliver hasn’t been crossed off the suspect list.”
“Wait, you guys are trying to solve the murder?” Jess asked, her eyes widening. “But why? Wouldn’t it be safer to let Chief Enforcer Tyson do it?”
“The problem is, Chief Enforcer Tyson thinks I’m the one who did it right now,” Scarlett explained. “So yeah, we’re looking into it. The hope is to hand her the killer on a silver platter.”
“Well, you’ll be careful, won’t you?” Jess said, looking over at me. “After all, we don’t want another incident like what happened last time.”
“Of course,” Scarlett assured her. “We don’t want that to happen again either. Don’t worry, we’re being very careful.”
“And if it was Oliver who did it, well, he’s not going to cause any trouble for these witches anyway,” Ali added. “He’s currently under arrest in Mt. Rheanier awaiting to be sent to Spellcatraz before his trial for theft. And he’ll be found guilty.”
Jess raised her eyebrows. “Wow. So yeah, he’s not a good guy, hey? I’m glad he’s not living in town anymore.”
“So am I,” Scarlett agreed. “But yeah, if he’s the killer, we’ll prove it.”
“I hope you find whoever it is and that you stay safe.”
“Thanks,” I said. “We’ll let you get back to work. Thanks for the help.”
“Anytime. It was nice to get to share that story,” J
ess added with a cheeky giggle. “See you later.”
She gave us a quick wave and headed back through the swinging doors into the depths of the hospital.
“Well, we didn’t get to eliminate Oliver from our list of suspects, but at least we got a hilarious story out of it,” Ali said as the three of us left the hospital. “That’s got to be worth something.”
“No kidding,” Scarlett replied. “The mental image of that spell is… disturbing. I didn’t like Renee at all, but I have to give her props for coming up with that.”
“I wish I knew a similar spell from our coven,” Ali said with a grin. “I know a few paranormals who deserve to have it used on them when they get a little bit overly enthusiastic. I’ll have to ask Grandma Rosie if one exists. If anyone knows, it’s her.”
“Is Simon Harwell nearby?” I asked. “We need to talk to him as well, seeing as he seemed to be Renee’s main creditor.”
“Right,” Scarlett said, nodding. “His offices are just up the street. Let’s go see him now.”
She led us to a low brick building with “Fairy Falls Security” stamped on a modern metal sign in the lawn out the front. Walking through the front doors, a polite-looking fairy greeted us at reception.
“Hi, can I help you?” she asked with a smile.
“We’re here to see Simon,” Scarlett replied.
“Do you have an appointment?”
“No, but it’s important,” Scarlett said.
“I’m sorry,” the fairy said, the smile never faltering from her face. “Without an appointment, I’m afraid Mr. Harwell is unavailable to see you.”
Scarlett also never let her smile waver for even one second. “That’s alright, we’ll come back with Chief Enforcer Tyson,” she said. This time, the fairy’s brow furrowed.
“Chief Enforcer Tyson? I’m sure that’s not necessary.”
“Well no, it really shouldn’t be,” Scarlett replied. “But of course, this is a murder investigation, and we do need to speak with people who might be involved.”
This time, the fairy’s professional veneer slipped. The smile dropped from her face, and her eyes widened as she gasped lightly. “Murder? You can’t be saying that Simon might be involved in what happened to that witch, are you?”
Hex Over Heels: A Witch Cozy Mystery (Fairy Falls Mystery Book 2) Page 9