Unofficial Detective

by Kathryn Wells

  Less than two weeks ago, he hadn't used his magic at all, and had known nothing about using spells or making potions. But now, thanks to Lizzie, he could. He knew how to levitate objects, paint without a brush, make inanimate objects come to life and create illusions.

  In the last days at the house near Watchem Woods, he had perfected his illusion spell and had been able to cast it over the entire stack of pots that Lizzie had laid out for him. He had pushed himself to learn everything that Lizzie had tried to teach him, and he had enjoyed it. But now he was going home. Back to the station, back to discovering Kalljard's killer.

  'What are you thinking, boy?' Lizzie asked beside him. She was clothed in her smart dress again, but Thordric had a feeling that she felt more comfortable in the country clothes she had worn for the past week.

  'I was thinking about the case. About Kalljard and the Wizard Council…and about whether they had anything to do with your husband's death.' It was true, ever since they had found the diary it was all he could think of. To think that the Council might be responsible for the death of someone who questioned their ways: it was disgusting. If they truly had done it, then was all the Council responsible, or just Kalljard? It had been well known that Kalljard had commanded the utmost respect and reverence from everyone, so anyone challenging him would have presented a serious cause for concern.

  Lizzie sighed. 'You mustn't worry about that, boy. Concentrate on finding out who was responsible for Kalljard's death. My husband was a patient man, I'm sure he would want me to be patient too. We can look into his death after all this is over.'

  'If you're sure, Lizzie. But I'm nervous about dealing with the Council. They'll find out that I'm a half-wizard if I need to use my magic. They won't like it.'

  'No, they won't. But you have to make them accept it. You're just as good as they are, and you need to assert your authority over them if you are to solve this. I believe in you boy, but you're the one that has to make it happen,' she said. 'And ignore any snide remarks my brother makes to you. He doesn't understand magic; the thought that a half-wizard might be considered higher up than he is frightens him.'

  'I…I never thought the Inspector would be scared of something like that,' he replied.

  She smiled. 'Our parents were very poor, and he always wanted a better life for himself than they had had. He's a status driven man, there's no changing him.'

  They arrived back in town after dark. The horses' hooves clattered on the cobblestones, and Thordric winced at each step they took, afraid that they might wake everyone up. Lizzie asked the driver to pull up outside Thordric's house, and he got out, standing on the doorstep. She handed him his suitcase and, to his great surprise, embraced him fiercely.

  'Good luck, boy.'

  'Thanks, Lizzie. And thanks for everything else, too. Really,' he said.

  She raised a hand goodbye, and climbed elegantly back into the carriage, tapping the roof for the driver to move on. Thordric waved until it had disappeared along the road, and then hurried inside, acutely aware of the chilly air and the icicles that hung from the doorway.

  The house was silent inside. His mother was either out or had already gone to bed. It didn't matter which, for all he wanted to do was climb into bed and not be disturbed until morning.

  He woke suddenly. It was still dark, and at first he thought he had only been asleep a few minutes, but then he heard the dawn chorus of the birds and sat up to look at his clock. It was six o'clock, and he had to be at the station by seven. Blinking away his tiredness, he got up and put on his uniform, splashing unpleasantly cold water onto his face.

  There was a knock on his door. It was his mother, dressed for work as usual in her high heeled shoes. So much had happened that he felt as though he hadn't seen her for months.

  'Thordric! I can't tell you how much I've missed you,' she said, embracing him even more tightly than Lizzie had done. 'Did you learn a lot? Enough to solve the case?'

  She embraced him again, not giving him time to answer. 'Inspector Jimmson hasn't been able to make any headway at all. He's interviewed some of the wizards, but all he could get out of them was how much they respected High Wizard Kalljard.'

  'Don't worry, mother, I'll be able to find out who did it,' he said, hardly able to breathe from the tightness of her grip. 'Please, let me go; I'll be late!'

  She released her grip. 'Yes, of course. I was just about to leave myself. We can go together.'

  They left the house five minutes later, making it to the station in good time. Since it was so cold, both of them had been wrapped up to their ears in woollen jackets. Thordric sighed, wishing they were as warm as his cloak had been. Lizzie had let him bring it back with him, but it would cause too much trouble if he started wearing it, and he could ill afford it at the moment.

  His mother left for the morgue as soon as they got there, leaving him to go to the Inspector's office alone. The constables stared at him as he entered, but he said nothing. He knocked on the Inspector's door and entered once he had permission.

  'My, my, it's you, Thornable,' the Inspector said, twiddling his moustache. 'My sister teach you well?'

  'Yes, Inspector,' Thordric replied.

  'Good, good…so, where do we go from here? Everything still stands as it did last week, oh, except for the burial that is.'

  'Burial? They did it already? But what if we still need the body?'

  'Calm down, boy. They buried a likeness, not the real body. Of course, the people believed it was, so that information is strictly confidential.'

  'The Wizard Council actually allowed that?' Thordric asked.

  'No, they didn't. Fortunately for us, Kalljard's body was in such a state that none of them suspected that the body we gave them back was a fake.' The Inspector chortled to himself, picking up a Jaffa cake from the plate beside him.

  Thordric found it hard to speak. They had switched the body, right under the Council's noses?

  'Inspector?' he said, after a moment. 'Will they still let us in to Kalljard's chambers?'

  'They will if I make them. It might not be any good though, Vey is High Wizard now. Elected him yesterday. He might have moved into the room already.'

  'I think we should go back there anyway, Inspector. I'm sure there's something I've overlooked.'

  'If you say so, Thodred. You're the one with the…er…gifts.' He smiled maliciously as he said it, and Thordric remembered what Lizzie had said. He suddenly felt an overwhelming pang of pity for the Inspector. It must have shown on his face, for the Inspector's moustache curled, and he ordered him to wait outside the station until it was time for them to go to the Wizard Council.

  For half an hour, in the bitter cold, Thordric waited. The snow was up to his ankles, and it had started to hail. The Inspector came out and looked at him with a cheery expression on his face, and it was all Thordric could do not to levitate him up onto the station's roof.

  They kept a brisk pace on the way to the Council, and although Thordric's fingers and toes went numb, the rest of him felt quite warm. When they arrived, the Inspector rapped on the giant doors smartly with his stick. A moment or so later, they swung open and Wizard Rarn stood there, his surprise all too clear on his face.

  'I-Inspector, how good to see you,' he lied. 'May I inquire as to your intentions?'

  'I need to look around the High Wizard's chambers again,' the Inspector replied briskly.

  'But surely Inspector, you know that they now belong to High Wizard Vey?' Rarn said, almost hissing.

  'Nevertheless, I still need to look.'

  Rarn straightened, his eyes cold. 'Very well; I'll take you to the High Wizard and he can decide whether or not to allow you to do so.'

  They followed him down the long corridor, Thordric noting absently that the fires hanging by the walls were now bright red. It gave the building a warmer feel, despite Rarn's coldness. He noticed that the doors alongside the corridor were open still, but no-one rushed out to look at them as they went past.

  Ins
tead of taking them straight up to the High Wizard's room, Rarn stopped outside Vey's old room. He knocked, and the door swung open. High Wizard Vey came out, looking terribly tired and not wizardly at all. His long hair fell about his face in clumps and his short beard was sticking out in all directions. 'Let them up, Rarn,' he said, without even letting Rarn speak.

  'But your reverence—'

  'Just do it, Rarn. They have an investigation to complete.' He turned to them. 'I'm sorry for my appearance, gentlemen, I've been awake all night completing the paper work declaring I accept the terms of my office. They read almost as tiresome as a dictionary.' Thordric grinned. There was something about Vey that was so much more likable than the other Council members.

  Rarn bowed stiffly and took them up the staircase leading to the High Wizard's chambers. He let them in and then disappeared back down them. Thordric snorted involuntarily. The room hadn't been changed at all, and the smell of magic coming from it was as strong as the last time he had been there. Only now he knew what it was. Somewhere in the room was an illusion.

  He walked around, trying to feel where it was coming from, and noticed the plant on the desk. It had been there before, but of course Thordric hadn't recognised it then. It was Winsome Sunbeam. Digging around in his pockets he pulled out the plant book Lizzie had given him and flicked through it, finding the page it was on. There. He looked at the properties and blinked. Produces hallucinations, extreme use can be fatal.

  He pointed it out to the Inspector, whose eyebrows and moustache both shot up at the same time. 'So this weed is dangerous, then?' he said.

  'I would say so, Inspector.'

  'Wait a moment. Maggie- that is, your mother- only found potion in his stomach, and that matched his secret stash. There was nothing to indicate he'd eaten this.'

  'Did she find out what ingredients were used in it?' Thordric asked.

  The Inspector's moustache bushed out. 'Of course she did! She wouldn't forget to do something as important as that, not my Maggie!'

  Thordric raised his eyebrows, and the Inspector clamped his mouth shut hastily. 'Did she tell you what the ingredients were?' Thordric pressed.

  'I-uh, well I think she said something about chalk, ivy root and blackthorn leaves. There was something that she couldn't identify, but I think she said it was some type of mineral.'

  'So apart from that, it was all stuff he could find in the town?' Thordric mused. 'Then why would he have kept this here, I wonder?' He twiddled some of the leaves around his fingers and sighed. He had to find out where that illusion was. 'Inspector, have a look around the room and see if you can find anything odd.'

  'What am I looking for?' the Inspector said, affronted at being asked to do something so menial.

  'I'm not sure,' Thordric said, rubbing his head and realising how much his hair at grown. Wryly, he noticed that he had some stubble growing on his chin, too.

  'Well, that's a help, boy,' the Inspector grumbled. He set off to do it anyway, occasionally stealing glances at what Thordric was up to.

  Thordric looked over the rest of the desk again, pulling everything out and feeling it to see if it was really what it looked like. He had just found a drawer full of what appeared to be fan letters when the Inspector called over to him.

  'Thornsby, come over here.'

  Thordric scrambled over to where the Inspector was standing by a large wardrobe. The smell of magic coming off it was so strong that it made him cough. 'This thing looks like it's made of wood,' the Inspector said. 'But when I touched it just now, it didn't feel like wood at all.'

  'Are you sure?' Thordric asked. The Inspector's moustache began to quiver; obviously the Inspector was sure. Thordric put his hand on the wardrobe. It felt like smooth glass, not something wood should feel like at all.

  The illusion on it wasn't very strong; in fact it had been done so carelessly that he wondered how it had stayed on so long. With a simple flick of his magic, the illusion lifted free. They found themselves staring into a long, wide mirror.

  The Inspector's mouth fell open, and his moustache had curled up to his nose again. 'Wh-what just happened, Thorndred?'

  'It was an illusion, Inspector,' Thordric said, breathing more easily. 'All I did was lift it.'

  'An illusion, you say? Why would someone want to hide a mirror?'

  Thordric frowned. The Inspector had a point. 'I'm not sure, Inspector.' He sniffed, and his brow creased even more. There was something else still hidden in the room. Now the mirror had been revealed, he could feel it was coming from the desk. Going back over to it, he looked for something- anything- he might have missed. There was nothing. But it had to be coming from something. He stared at the scattered papers still littered on it, and froze. He picked up one of the sheets, looking at it closely. It was one of the new spells that Kalljard hadn't signed: only there was something wrong with it. All the writing was slightly blurred, as though he was looking though a pair of spectacles that weren't his. This was it.

  He tried to feel where the illusion began, but it was so faint he couldn't get a good grip on it. He put it down, taking a few deep breaths like Lizzie had instructed him to do when he got too excited, and tried again. This time he got hold of it, but it had been done with extreme precision, unlike the mirror. He tugged at it, but it held fast.

  He tried again, but was interrupted by a knock at the door.

  The Inspector walked over and answered it. High Wizard Vey stood there. 'I'm terribly sorry, Inspector,' he said. 'But it seems that I have to transfer all by belongings here today. I'll have all of late High Wizard Kalljard's belongings transferred to the store room where you can access them whenever you need, but I'm afraid I can no longer grant you access to this room. I do apologise, I understand how inconvenient this must be.'

  Thordric slipped the paper into his pocket.

  Chapter Fourteen: Lifting Illusions

  The Inspector and Thordric had no choice but to leave after Vey told them what was going on. As they left the room, Thordric saw the Inspector nip a few leaves off of the Winsome Sunbeam on the desk, and as soon as they were out of the building, he handed them to him.

  'Thornsy, take these to your mother and see what she can tell us about them.'

  Thordric did as he asked, and made his way down to the morgue. His mother was looking through a microscope when he entered and, as she looked up Thordric saw she was wearing a pair of extra strength goggles. They made her eyes look huge and he had to suppress his grin.

  'What is it, Thordric? Did you find something?' she asked, standing up and pulling off the goggles. Her usually neat and styled hair got caught up with the straps and she had to wrestle with it for a moment to get it free.

  Thordric held up the plant leaves and gave them to her. 'These are from a plant we found on Kalljard's desk. I didn't recognise it when we went there the first time, but I do now. It's called Winsome Sunbeam and it can…'

  'Produce very strong hallucinations? Yes, I've come across it before. Some of the people that I've performed post mortems on had taken it.'

  'How is it taken?' Thordric asked.

  'Usually people eat it raw, but it's very dangerous like that. It's very easy to eat too much and, as a result you end up so confused that suicide seems the only way out.'

  He pulled a face. Why would anyone want to hallucinate? He thought back to the time when he was younger and had caught the most awful fever. He had drifted in and out of consciousness non-stop and had hallucinated so badly that he had been unable to tell what was a dream and what wasn't. Even the thought gave him a headache. 'So,' he said. 'Is it possible that he could have taken it?'

  'There's nothing in his stomach contents to say so, as you already know. If it had been mixed in with the potion he had been taking, I would have recognised it.'

  'So you're saying no, then?' he pushed.

  'I'm saying it's unlikely. However, I have seen one or two cases where it has been injected into the body.' She picked up an apron as she spoke, and took
out her surgical gloves and put them on. 'I'll have a look at the body again and see if I can find any puncture marks that I didn't pick up the first time I examined it.'

  She disappeared into the freezer room, the doors swinging behind her. Feeling suddenly curious, he walked over to her desk to see what she had been working on when he walked in. Her notebook was open, with the pen still on the page she had been writing on. He looked at it and chuckled. He hadn't realise her writing was so bad- at least he knew where his illegible scrawl came from. Still trying to work out what it said, Thordric saw her come back in the room again, pushing the trolley with Kalljard's body on it.

  'Now, Thordric, if you could… What are you doing?' she demanded.

  'I…uh…nothing.'

  'Come over here and help me. Put on a pair of those gloves there,' she said, indicating the box full of surgical gloves beside him. He opened it and pulled out a pair. They were made from a thin, waxy material that clung to his skin and made his fingers sweat. It was all he could do not to rip the things straight off again.

  As he approached, his mother pulled back the white sheet covering the body. It looked exactly as it had done before, the skin still sunken and the hair sparse.

  'He looks just the same as he did a week ago!' he said.

  'Yes, that's because he's been frozen. Now, let's take a look here and see what we can find.'

  She pulled back the sheet even more and instructed him to look over one side of the body, while she looked over the other. He wasn't sure what made him cringe more, the feeling of the gloves or the feel of Kalljard's skin. Whichever it was, his stomach decided to dance about violently.

  It took them almost half an hour to check it thoroughly, but they couldn't find anything that might indicate he'd been injected. Thordric took off the gloves gratefully and sat down in a chair feeling rather weak.

  'I was sure it'd been used on him,' he complained.

  'Perhaps he was planning to use it in a new potion? As High Wizard, I'm sure he was involved in making some of the more useful potions that the Council came up with.'