“It doesn’t much matter now. He probably just handed over Amelie because he was bored,” Annie said.
“Yeah, well, Sturtagaard always has some reason for doing what he does.” Graham chuckled.
“Do you think the Wizard Council will vote to proceed with the tribunal?” Graham asked.
“I think they will. There’s too much evidence. I think that’s the only agenda item with the Wizard Council tonight.” Annie, still anxious, played with a loose thread on her sweater. She sighed. “And the rest of the memory modification spells. Do they line up with the murders?” Annie asked.
Graham handed her the timeline, which showed three lines across the paper. One was green, one was red. The top line consisted of the dates all of the vampire victims died. The line below gave the date the memory modification spells were conducted.
“Marielle was consistent. The day after the murders, she performed the spell,” Annie noted. “What are these purple dates?” she asked, pointing at the third line.
“Those are the ones presumably performed by other members of the French Wizard Guard. Bucky is reviewing the security tapes for those just to verify the dates. They have everything on tape—which, by the way, no one seemed to monitor,” Graham said.
“Good thing for us,” Annie said and slipped the timeline back to him. “If there’s nothing else, I’ll see you tonight.”
“I’ll keep you posted if anything changes,” Graham said as he stood to leave.
Chapter 37
With Wizard Hall uninhabitable, the Wizard Council meeting was moved to a large auditorium on the fourth floor of the education building, which was generally used for college lectures.
Annie cast her spell into the makeshift security box, entered through the security doors, and found her place on the stage at the head of the room.
Here the lights were turned on full brightness, not set up for the protocols of Wizard Council.
Or Ryan wants everyone to take responsibility for their vote like no other vote before this, Annie thought to herself as she stood at the podium under the hot lights. She blinked rapidly to keep her eyes moist as she watched the seats fill as she held on to the podium with wet hands.
Milo sweat more profusely than she did. He wiped his brow with shaky hands and stared out into the crowd that watched them intently.
An additional podium was added to the floor, and Cham took his turn at the front of the crowd. For only his second-ever Wizard Council meeting, his outer appearance was one of cool, calm confidence. Still, Annie knew him well enough to know he was nervous. He kept rubbing the wool of his council cloak; his thumb was red from chafing.
In front of them, a long table was covered in a black, floor-length tablecloth. File folders lay across the table, containing evidence, pictures, emails. Beside the piles of growing evidence lay a thick tome, containing the entire case against Marielle Beauchamp and Armand Lefebvre. Copies of all documents, photos, pictures from the security cameras, and all the rest of the evidence compiled in the case was contained in the leather-bound book. The official scrolls, the grievances against the Marielle Beauchamp and Armand Lefebvre, and the final complaint against the French Wizard Guard and Council for the attack against the United States Wizard Hall lay under the harsh light.
Kathy Connelly, Samantha Chamsky, and James MacIntosh sat at the table guarding the documents.
Will they declare war on France? Or listen to reason?
When a Wizard Council member took their seat, they sent a spell to a crystal at their temporary spot. Their magical trace registered into a book beside Ryan, alerting him that everyone was seated and ready to begin. When he was certain, Ryan banged the gavel against the table.
“Please review the agenda for tonight. There you will find the case against two wizard guards in the French Wizard Council. First complaint,” Milo began. Though he was shaky, sweaty, and held tightly to the podium to steady himself, he spoke with conviction, asserting the American Wizard Guard’s case against Marielle Beauchamp and Armand Lefebvre.
When he had finished with the first complaint, he explained the second: the case against the French Wizard Council, who had knowingly used the memory modification on their own people on more than one occasion.
Though it had been explained once before, the idea of going before the international tribunal caused a din to erupt in the hall.
“People, please,” Milo shouted.
The room buzzed with this revelation. They all knew the Wizard Guard, VAU, and Telecommunications had the proof or they wouldn’t be here. The idea that a governing body could control their subjects so easily was a concern to all of them.
“How did they do that?” asked a wizard Annie didn’t recognize.
“See the evidence list,” Annie advised. “It’s the pins, the same pin that was sent here with the magic that blew apart the lab. One is issued to every employee at the French Wizard Hall, and they use a metal rod in their ceiling to send the memory modification spell up through the Eiffel Tower. The spell is spread through that.”
Each member of the Wizard Council scrawled in large tomes in front of them, making notes on the emergency meeting, writing down their thoughts. In a second notebook, linked to a large tome sitting beside Ryan, they could ask questions, or make statement for the Grand Marksman First in Command to read. Ryan’s assistant, Marjorie Hammels, sorted the statements quickly and gave the list to Annie, Cham, and Milo to answer.
A hand went up, Marjorie pointed, and Harry Oxford stood. “We’re sure that it’s not the entire Wizard Guard or Council involved with explosion?” he asked.
Annie took a deep breath. “Yes. We’re basing that conclusion on the computer trace and the many hours of security tape we reviewed. The only proof we have is against Marielle Beauchamp and her activities are linked to Armand Lefebvre, the criminal justice vice president.”
Another voice broke through the din. “How long has the French Wizard Guard been using those pins?”
“We only collected evidence as far back as October as it related to the case involving the use of Princess Amelie to commit murders. We do know the pins were issued about a year ago, but we don’t know how many times they were used prior to October. For that we would have to do a more in depth study of the pin I switched out from the security officer,” Annie responded. “But we do have proof that they have used the pins four times since October.”
Another witch said, “Whatever we decide could bring a worldwide wizard war. The community could ill afford that to happen.”
Crystals continued to flicker on with requests to speak. Sabrina Cuttlebrink floated across the room, tapping wizards on the shoulder as permission, banging her gavel on the table, and maintaining order. The room eventually quieted.
“We want consensus in this tricky case. Acts were committed using French Wizard Guard property in an attack against us. This Wizard Council needs to be amenable to the plan before we act,” Ryan reminded them.
“Then what is the plan?” a wizard asked out of turn.
Voices whispered amongst themselves until Mrs. Cuttlebrink restored order. As time slipped from them, Ryan grew impatient. In response, he shot a jinx to the ceiling; white sparks cascaded down on the auditorium. Soft hushing sounds and motions to settle rippled through the room.
“People, please. We don’t want to declare war on the French Wizard Guard or the French Wizard Council even though we have prepared complaints against each unit. If you give us a moment to explain the plan, it will all become clear.” Ryan sighed and waited again for the chatter to stop. Both gavels banged against wood tables. Milo grew impatient and strode to the center of the stage. With what little energy he had left after this case, he waved his palms above his head, flashing the lights.
“People. We only need a few more moments of your time. And then you can vote.” He wiped his brow, glanced around the very large auditorium and began again. “What we want to do is bring in Fabien Arnault, the manager of the French Wizard Guar
d, to our unit here. We’ll lay out the case, all the videos, the case files, the employee files, the remnants of the exploded crystal bomb, the destroyed gym. We hope to force him to agree to one final memory modification spell, or we’ll move forward with the International Tribunal. The fact that his wizard guard murdered an innocent individual and then conspired with a vampire to continue the spree, all in the effort to obtain family wealth—that should be enough to get Fabien to agree.”
Hands flew up.
“So they go free working their jobs, with no punishment?” a wizard named Myra asked.
“No. Absolutely not. The memory will consist of two wizard guards turned serial killers. Marielle and Armand will be caught, their powers bound and turned over to the nonmagical authorities. They’ll both rot in jail for several lifetimes. You have the condensed version of the memory in your books,” Annie said. She glanced at Cham. He flipped through his own book, reviewing what the rest of the wizard council was studying. When he didn’t look up, she turned her attention to the council members as they spoke amongst their neighbors in hushed whispers and cautious debate about the implications of what Annie and the Wizard Guard were planning to do. She turned and glanced at Ryan. He, too, was worried; his lips were drawn when he looked at her. He quickly looked away as he took additional time to review the case file.
Paper fluttered as the Wizard Council took time to read the notes, examine the evidence.
It took only ten minutes of debate, whether with themselves or with their neighbors, before a lone hand rose in the air.
“I motion to vote yes on this plan,” Jason Aragon, an elderly member of the council, announced. Annie took a deep breath and held it.
“I second,” another voice came.
“All in favor of approving the Wizard Guard plan?” Ryan asked.
A unanimous “Aye” resounded and reverberated against wood walls. With the passed motion, the plan was in play.
*
Fabien Arnault nervously strode along the large window of the conference room on the fifth floor of the educational wing in Wizard Hall, where he towered over the city. He wrung his hands together in this unfamiliar building, in this unfamiliar country.
He felt he had no choice but to accept their cautiously worded summons. He was at first curious, then anxious, and now scared. They insisted he tell no one where he was going or whom he was meeting with.
Why does the American Wizard Guard want to see me? We haven’t had business in a year!
But as he grew accustomed to the room, he began to examine the pictures taped to the wall. He stared in horror at the crime scene photos of vampire attack victims he didn’t recognize. He frowned and glanced at the grainy security camera images. Even in their low quality, he could see Marielle clearly mailing something to Ryan Connelly; the American Grand Marksman’s name was scrawled on the envelope in large clear letters.
There were so many pictures—of death, of crime scenes, of a necklace.
Isn’t that Marielle’s necklace?
A computer screen in the corner, beeped and flickered on. Security camera tapes ran on a loop.
Is that our Wizard Hall? What is Marielle doing?
The room spun in front of his eyes, and he grabbed the back of the chair until it settled before him. The door opened and Annie Pearce, Spencer Ray, and Cham Chamsky stepped in with a man Fabien didn’t know. The man appeared ill and shaky as he took a seat at the front of the room.
“Hi, Fabien. Thanks for coming,” Annie said and sat down across from him.
“What is all this?” he demanded. His eyes darted across the room.
“Do you remember my visit to France?” Annie asked. When they modified his memory, they added a friendly memory that took place not long ago. Though it was fake, it was all Fabien would remember.
“Yes. It was a year ago. I was surprised to hear from you.”
Annie walked to the computer screen that still looped the video from their recent trip. She fast-forwarded the tape until it showed Annie at Marielle’s desk.
“What is this?” Fabien asked.
“We were in France two days ago. These are your security tapes. What you don’t remember is the tension between our units because we worked a case in your jurisdiction.”
Fabien thought for a moment of the implication of her story. His eyes grew wide. “That’s illegal!”
“Why we did it isn’t important. What is important is the fact that Roland suggested we do a memory modification on your Wizard Council and Marielle strongly convinced us we should do so as a way to forget the unpleasantness.”
He grimaced. “That’s illegal,” he said again.
“No it’s actually not. Maybe unethical, but it’s not illegal. You’ve been doing for months.” Annie slid him a picture of the pin.
“What’s that? That is our pin. We all wear those.”
“Yes. Marielle informed us we could perform a memory modification using the Eiffel Tower and these pins. And it occurred to us that if she was so willing to offer up your entire Wizard Hall for a modification spell, it was most likely something that you had done before.” Annie waited for this to sink in. His eyes grew wide in understanding; he nodded slowly. “This pin—we tested it, and we know for a fact that several memory modification spells have been performed over your wizards. Four since October. Am I correct?” Annie asked.
Fabien covered his mouth with his hands and closed his eyes. “Yes. We’ve been modifying memories. Testing theories for a year.” He sat quietly, his lips tightly pursed and his jaw tensed. When he opened his eyes, he stared at the case file. Annie pushed the lengthy complaint toward him. With a shaky hand, he opened the cover and read the first page.
A complaint against Marielle, Armand, and the entire French Wizard Guard.
Armand?
He read the complaint. Stared at the email between Armand and Marielle. He turned the paper over and read the second complaint against the Wizard Council for the memory modifications. His face grew slack and pale. He shut the folder and pushed it away. “These are lies,” he argued.
“Shall I show you more footage? Or these crime scene photos? All of these deaths occurred under your watch. Did you know there were so many? Did you know Marielle performed memory modification spells on your council after she had a vampire kill these victims?”
He shook his head. Annie walked to Fabien. His eyes wide with fear, he glanced at the crystal in her hand and shook his head. But he was no match for Cham’s hands securing his head as Annie said, “Reverse,” and removed the memory modification spell from his mind.
Memories flashed back to Fabien. His eyes grew wider and his lips quivered as each memory revealed itself, crystal clear in their images and voices. His hands shook violently. When Annie was finished, she stepped away.
“May I have water please?” he whispered. Cham summoned a bottle and slid it toward him. The bottle shook in Fabien’s trembling hands. He took a long swig, then placed the bottle down.
Annie pushed the file back to Fabien. “Now review the information again,” she ordered.
“I don’t need to see any more. What do you want from me?” Fabien finally said.
“I want to first apologize for using a memory modification spell against you. We knew—I knew it was wrong. Unnecessary. I’ve regretted it ever since.”
Fabien glanced at her. “I will reserve judgement after I hear what you need me to hear. It appears that you are no better than we are,” he sneered, then changed his mind, softening his tense jaw.
“We’ve been through Marielle’s computer. She’s been covering up something for months.” Annie gave him the file.
Fabien opened the thick paper and stared at the pictures. Finding the summary, he read the first three lines and closed the file. A headache formed at his temple and he rubbed it as if that would be enough to ease the pain.
“Marielle is a member of the Van Alton family through her mother. We believe she murdered Gwyneth Van Alton Beauchamp for h
er inheritance. Sometime after that murder, Marielle discovered Princess Amelie was a vampire. We believe she used the princess to commit the murders of several members of the Van Alton family.” Annie stopped again, pulled out the timeline Graham had provided for her, and slid it across the table.
“We compared the death date of each family member to the memory modification date. We believe Marielle performed the modification spell to hide the vampire murders so that a connection to the family couldn’t be made. As a result, Marielle is due to inherit a lot of property and some money.”
Fabien’s face turned ashen. “This isn’t happening,” he whispered.
Annie pulled out her computer files and handed them to Fabien. He pushed the folder away and folded his trembling hands, not bothering to hide them.
“She sent a pin to our Grand Marksman. Anytime an unmarked envelope is sent, especially to someone in power, it’s immediately sent to the Wizard Guard for investigation. I tracked the magical trace, and my crystal went nuts until it exploded. It eviscerated our gym. We’re lucky I didn’t examine it in our Wizard Hall.” She shoved a picture of the lab in his face. “She attacked another Wizard Hall unit!”
Fabien pushed himself away from the table and strode against the long window wall. He quaked with anger.
“You noticed things. How much did you know?” Annie asked.
“Not this. I had no idea she did this? Armand was her accomplice?”
“Yes. We have several more emails between the two. This is serious. We were attacked. We can take this to the international tribunal.”
As more memories returned to Fabien, he pulled himself away from the window and pulled a folder to him. He opened the cover and sifted through the papers glancing the evidence. Finding several of interest, he read them efficiently and moved to the next, his keen mind keeping track of the new information. “Actually, I expected they were having an affair. Not this. Definitely not this. I…” He grabbed the timeline again. “I remember now, being surprised how many vampire deaths there had been in such a short period. We track those, look for them, deal with the bodies and paperwork. I was surprised how many there were that we missed.” His voice faded in that dreamy quality as he read the timeline and saw all of the memory modification spells that Marielle had completed.
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