by Crook, Amy
“Let’s do yours, just for variety,” said Alex cheerfully.
Julian shrugged and hit the message playback, putting it on speaker so Alex could hear, too. Lapointe’s tinny voice informed Julian that he’d be needed at the agency with Alex after all, if he could please come along.
Alex chuckled. “That’s what I get for chickening out on mine,” he said.
Julian kissed him. “At least we’ll be together in whatever we’re in?” he said, then fiddled with Alex’s phone until the first message was playing.
Agent Fischer didn’t sound any better on speaker as he said, “Mr. Benedict, I’ll need you to come in to discuss your business with the nursery on August ninth. You needn’t bring your boyfriend, I’m satisfied with his witness statement at this time.”
“He didn’t even say please,” said Julian, sticking his tongue out at the phone. “Jerk.”
Alex laughed. “He is a jerk, let’s see if Lapointe’s message has more information.”
Her voice was tired and apologetic. “I’m sorry about Fischer, though we really do need you to come back in. They’ve finally identified the victim as Angel Billings, a young apprentice with the Grower’s Guild who’s been missing since last week. I think my boss is going to let you get back to work, but I’m not positive. He wouldn’t let me call the Temple, though, so your alibi is still considered unverified. Anyway, call me before you come in, I need better coffee than this.”
Julian sighed. “I’m almost sorry I called her, it sounds like this is all being a huge pain for her.”
“You did the right thing, and she’d agree,” said Alex, kissing Julian’s hair. “One more message.”
The third message was from MacLean, asking them to bring dessert on Saturday and confirming the time, which made them both laugh with relief. “At least we’ve got something to look forward to,” said Julian cheerfully. “I like Thomas.”
“So do I, he’s very easy on the eyes,” teased Alex. “But also just too nice to hate.” He paused, then said in unison with Julian, “Like a puppy.”
“Jerk,” said Julian, smacking his chest gently. “But not as big of a jerk as Agent Jerkface.”
“You sound like a five-year-old,” said Alex fondly. He never seemed to mind when Julian’s sheltered upbringing showed itself, which endeared him greatly to Julian and their friends. He snugged Julian close, then called Murielle back, confirming they’d both be on their way soon and happy to meet her at the coffee shop for pre-Fischer plotting.
It wasn’t until they were in the cab that Alex expressed the thought that had been tugging unpleasantly at Julian’s mind since he’d heard Lapointe’s message. “I’m worried that the victim was connected to you and Margaret by the Guild,” said Alex quietly, cuddling Julian close.
“Me, too,” Julian confided. “I don’t want them to keep suspecting you.”
“At least Mary Margaret’s alibi isn’t under question,” said Julian, annoyed. “It’s stupid that they don’t trust me about you.”
“It’s stupid that they don’t trust us both, it’s not as if they don’t know me,” said Alex, “but they’re just doing their due diligence. Well, Murielle is, Fischer’s just a jerkface.”
Julian giggled. “A jerkface with the face of a jerk,” he agreed, deliberately juvenile this time.
Alex rewarded him with a smile. “Just so,” he said, nuzzling. “Have you thought about what sweets to take to Thomas’?”
They talked about that for the rest of the ride, and went straight to their favourite booth in the coffee shop when they arrived. Murielle was already there with three cups of coffee and the usual treats for everyone. “I couldn’t stay another minute,” she said as they got settled in with her and started with fixing their drinks. “Fischer and Armistead seem to have formed a two-person Anti-Alex League.”
“A match made in heaven,” said Julian, screwing up his face into an approximation of Fischer’s disapproving scowl. “They both make this face a lot, can you imagine the sex?”
The surprised laughter was wonderful to hear, and Murielle’s whole demeanour changed as the tension drained away. Alex said something else equally horrible once the laughter died down, and then Murielle, the commentary bouncing around the three of them until they were breathless and giddy.
“I’ll never be able to look at either of them with a straight face again,” said Lapointe, but she didn’t seem to mind.
Alex smirked. “Good, it’ll make them wonder.”
“They deserve it,” said Julian. “Jerkfaces.”
Murielle didn’t snort her coffee, but it was close.
“All right, if we’re done acting like children,” she said, trying to look stern, “we should talk about the case.”
Alex sighed hugely, but he was just playing. “Yes, Mom,” he said all singsong.
“So, Mary Margaret’s still not in trouble, right?” asked Julian.
Murielle nodded. “She’s still not, nor are you, we’ve already established that neither of you knew Angel Billings.”
“I haven’t met any of the other apprentices,” said Julian. “It doesn’t really work like that, though Mary Margaret said there’s a big midwinter banquet we could go to if we wanted. It’s on the solstice, though, so we’ll probably be at Emmy’s or Victor’s.”
“Probably not Victor’s,” said Alex. “So boring.”
“Well, that’s not for a few months, anyway,” said Murielle. “And I turned in my luck charm to Ms. Eberly as evidence in your alibi, Alex. They really are looking into the other 3 buyers, too, along with pretty much the whole client list.”
“Ugh,” said Julian.
“So, is Angel a girl or a boy?” asked Alex curiously. “Er, was.”
“Angel was a young man,” said Murielle. “Seventeen, so really a boy. Damn, that’s young.”
“Even younger than me,” said Julian, who sometimes felt like the little kid at the grown-ups’ table around Alex and his friends.
“I sometimes forget Alex is robbing the cradle,” teased Murielle. “He acts so immature, it seems like he’s the one barely out of his teens.”
“Hey, I’m twenty-two!” protested Julian, but there wasn’t any heat in it. “Anyway, have they done a headcount on the rest of the apprentices to make sure no one else is missing?”
“The Guild’s working on it, but apparently it’s the time of year when a lot of you are off in the woods somewhere harvesting things,” said Lapointe.
Julian nodded. “Yeah, I’m supposed to do harvesting trips on both the St. Albans lands and the Benedict lands sometime, Alex even said he’d go with me.”
“Camping?” said Murielle.
Alex chuckled wryly at the disbelief in her tone. “No, no, we’ll stay at the main houses and do our gathering at a few times over the course of a few days each. I promised to carry the baskets and get things off high branches.”
“He’ll be well-rewarded for being a helpful, supportive boyfriend,” teased Julian.
“I just bet,” said Murielle, dryly.
“I will also get my pick of ingredients,” teased Alex. “Julian’s going to start more things growing in the flat, and I get to help choose what.”
“But that’s not for a few more weeks, we wanted to wait until after the equinox,” said Julian. “Mary Margaret trades with other Master Growers who went earlier, too, so that I don’t get distracted from the nursery with harvesting all the time.”
“Okay, so, did you ever figure out if the timing was portentous or whatever?” asked Murielle.
Alex shrugged. “Nothing I could see, it’s not astrologically significant, or a special holiday for any of the religions I looked up, and it’s not really the start or end of a growing season. I was thinking of looking into the history of the building, but I got distracted by being a murder suspect.”
“Well, we’ll see if we can’t get you out from under Fischer’s nose today,” said Murielle. “I want my real consultant, not the moron Fischer found.”
“Ooh, competition,” said Julian. “I’d heard that there were more people trying to take up Alex’s profession.”
“Cheaper ones, I bet,” teased Alex, unconcerned. He’d been working with the Agency since before he finished university, when he’d fallen into a murder case almost literally and ended up giving advice on the magic involved. His experience was irreplaceable, and Lapointe at least knew and appreciated that.
“Not as much as you’d think, someone leaked one of your old invoices,” said Lapointe. “They’re all trying for the good hourly rate, but not many of them have any real expertise to speak of.”
“Not that I had much to start with,” said Alex, “but we made do.”
“Was she on your first case?” asked Julian, sitting up. “Alex hasn’t told me about how he met you.”
“That’s because he’s embarrassed,” said Murielle smugly. “He nearly got himself arrested being an idiot.”
“I was young,” protested Alex. “Younger than you, even, twenty and still in university.”
“Almost 21 as I recall,” said Murielle. “We had a body in the college of magic where Alex was studying, and he was walking down the hall with his nose in a book, ignoring everyone.”
“Like he does,” teased Julian.
“When he walked right past our barriers and nearly tripped over the body,” finished Lapointe smugly.
“I was studying for midterms!” Alex protested weakly.
Julian laughed. “Did you step in the evidence?”
“He did, so we collected him and questioned him and then he overheard one of the other agents talking about the runes around the body and I bet you can guess what happened,” said Murielle, not even trying to hide her grin.
“He butted in and lectured them for being too stupid to tell one kind of rune for another and told them anyone with half a brain could see what they were for?” said Julian, playing along delightedly.
“And got myself immediately upgraded from evidence to suspect,” confirmed Alex. “But fortunately my alibi for the time of death was airtight, since I’d been in a class full of students witnessing an important astronomical event in the observatory, and had been drafted to be the pointer because her laser ran out of batteries and I had the longest arms.”
Murielle laughed. “I’d forgotten that part, but yes, he was quickly accounted for, and I was smart enough to keep consulting him about the case, since he was already aware of the facts. I even cleared it with my boss.”
“Which is how Agent Lapointe caught the bad guy, and I found my future career,” said Alex, in the tone of a storyteller talking to an audience of children.
“I never did get those shoes back,” said Alex.
“You love your shoes, anyway,” teased Julian. Alex really only had the one pair, which were polished to a perfect black shine; Murielle had made a holiday gift of taking them back to their maker for a bit of loving upkeep on spells and leather both.
“Those shoes saved my life,” said Murielle with a grin, “so I love them, too.”
They signalled the waitress for the check and to-go coffees for everyone plus a few extras, and took care of the mundane business of paying. “I plan to protest anything that keeps us here past lunchtime,” said Julian, standing.
“Here, here,” said Alex. “My valiant protector.”
“It’s only fair,” said Julian, tucking his hand in Alex’s arm and girding himself for the inevitable annoyances to come.
“I’m not carrying all of these,” protested Lapointe, and they laughingly parted to carry the coffees between them. Alex cheated and used a little spell-push to open the doors of the cafe, and fortunately someone was kind and held the door to the Agency for them, since it was warded against such interferences.
“Agent Lapointe, Agent Fischer was looking for you,” said the door guard, getting the elevator button for them politely.
“I’ll just bet he was,” she said. “Here, we got extra,” she added, handing the coffee off to the guard.
“From the cafe? Thanks!” He was genuinely grateful, and stayed to hold the elevator door for them all to file in.
“You’re welcome,” she said as the doors slid shut. “Well, that’s one person in the building not out to get us.”
“Us?” said Alex.
“Oh, yes. My boss has been made keenly aware that you are my fault.” She chuckled. “I have made him equally aware of the number of cases you’ve helped us solve, including those two you did pro bono.”
“Three,” said Alex quietly. “I never charge for the kids.”
“That’s so sad,” said Julian, leaning into him. “People are awful sometimes.”
“Not all of them,” said Lapointe. “You’re not, none of us here are.”
“Well, Armistead,” said Alex.
“And Fischer,” said Julian, putting just enough innuendo in his tone to get them all chuckling, so their good mood was restored by the time the elevator door opened. The agency looked the same as always, so it must have been Julian’s imagination that made it seem less welcoming than usual. Either that, or someone had turned the air conditioning too cold.
“Agent Lapointe, how nice of you to show up,” said Fischer.
“I was here before you this morning,” she replied. “Just for that, no coffee for you. Thomas!”
“Yes?” said MacLean, poking his head up from his cubicle. He was too junior for a proper office yet.
“I brought you coffee,” she said.
“And she made me carry it,” said Alex, offering Thomas the cup. “You’ll have to add milk to it yourself, though.”
“Alex’s milk is only for Julian now,” said Geoff’s voice from behind them. “Is one of those for me?”
Julian laughed. “It is now,” he said, handing off the last cup. “How have you been?”
They meandered into the break room, chatting and completely ignoring the irritated Fischer, who followed them to glare from the doorway. Once Geoff and Thomas had their cups made up and everyone had caught up, Fischer interrupted, “Are you quite through with my witnesses?”
“It’s my case, too,” said Lapointe mildly. She was scariest when she was being mild, Julian decided. “And Alex is hardly a witness.”
“I was authorised to consult when I looked over the crime scene, you will recall,” said Alex, just as coldly. “Your interference only came later.”
Julian didn’t even bother to comment, instead turning to confirm with Thomas about Saturday, which led to Geoff being invited over and the three of them talking about video games as though nothing was wrong. He enjoyed how it seemed to make Fischer twitch.
“Regardless, I need to interview you today,” said Fischer. “I did say he wasn’t required.”
“And I called them back to ask him to come in anyway,” said Lapointe. “I want him to make notes on one of the maps about his impressions of the plants, we haven’t got anyone on staff or on call with Julian’s talent.”
Fischer snorted. “More magic, just what this case needs.”
Julian ignored him and gave Alex a kiss. “I’ll go do that now. Don’t be long, we’ve got lunch reservations,” said Julian sweetly.
“I’ll try not to, love,” said Alex, taking another, more lingering kiss before he let Fischer lead him into the little interrogation room.
“I didn’t know he was anti-magic,” said Geoff, once the door was firmly closed. “That explains why he’s been ducking his physical.”
Thomas went back to work, but Geoff joined them in Lapointe’s office. “Speaking of physicals, it’s about time for you and Alex both to get your check-ups.”
“My shoulder is fine, you don’t have to keep prodding it,” said Murielle. She pulled one out of a sheaf of rolled copies that proved to be maps of the nursery. “Would you also fill in anything important that’s missing, plant-wise?” she asked. “I think our map-maker got tired of dealing with your weird setup about ten minutes in.”
Julian laughed. “I
t’s confusing,” he agreed, settling down with the coloured pens provided. He started by adding in notes and making a few corrections, using the blue pen so they’d be obvious but not overwhelm things. Then he went back through and wrote in green which plants had been healthy, though he hadn’t walked the whole place the way he usually did so a lot of that was left blank. Next he took the red pen and wrote down his impressions of the crime scene and the little locked greenhouse, being as specific as he could.
When he looked up, Geoff had wandered off and Murielle was looking impressed. “You’re more than a pretty face after all,” she said. “This is really good, thank you.”
“I have a few more notes to make, stuff that came to me while I was working, do you have another colour pen?” he asked, trying to keep the thoughts from slipping away.
She seemed to recognise his concentration, handing him a glittery purple pen which he used to make some extra notes here and there. He’d picked up more than he thought with Alex boosting him, and he had impressions from a lot of the plants around the crime scene that hadn’t been damaged but felt almost offended by what had happened, as though they were angry for the clover, which had only been sad.
“It seems a bit silly,” Julian said, setting the pen down, “but not sillier than that pen.”
She laughed. “I didn’t think I’d get away with it,” she said. “It was part of a gag gift at the holidays, you know, sparkly purple pen and other such girly crap.”
“You like some of the girly crap,” said Julian. “Alex always gets you those flowery macarons, and the mint and rose truffles from Saveur.”
“You like the rose and mint truffles, too,” she retorted, but there was no heat in it.
Julian laughed. “I do, and if you’re good I’ll get Emmy to invite you up for tea at main house sometime, Alex told me you like fancy high tea with all the tiny sandwiches and little cakes and things.”
“Really?” Murielle said, perking up. “I do love it, but don’t let it get around,” she allowed.
“Really, I’ve been meaning to, anyway, I think you two would get along now that you don’t suspect her of murder,” he said. “You’re both more than you seem.”