Potion Sickness

by Samantha Silver

  “Of course. The vampire community is quite small, and with deaths being so rare among our kind, word gets around. Besides, I have a cousin who lives in Mt. Rheanier. He said Luca was a wonderful vampire. It’s such a tragedy when we lose one of our own.”

  “I’m sorry,” I said.

  “Thank you. We all appreciate your concern. You said you wanted to speak with Eldromir?”

  “That’s right. Luca’s parents have hired me to find the killer, and I was told that Luca was asking around for an accountant and was given Eldromir’s name. It’s probably nothing, but I figured while I’m in New Fang I might as well look into it. Did he ever make an appointment?”

  The man tapped away at the computer and his hand flew to his mouth.

  “That’s right, he was here! I remember him now, actually. A very good-looking vamp, if I may say so myself. Full of youthful vitality and spirit. He arrived a few minutes early for his appointment and we had a bit of a chat. Oh, I hadn’t made the connection that it was him up until now. The poor lad.”

  “When did he see Eldromir?” I asked, pulling my pen out from my pocket and opening my notebook.

  “A week ago Thursday,” the man replied. “Eldromir has a pretty full schedule today, but let me see if I can’t just squeeze you in somewhere. Why don’t you take a seat, and I’ll bring you in to see him as soon as I get the chance.”

  “Sure, thanks,” I said with a smile. I made my way to the row of chairs against the far wall. There was a table covered with magazines, but this being a vampire town the lights were turned down so low that I knew I’d struggle to read any of them.

  I wasn’t too sure Fangs or Better Caves and Caverns magazines were really up my alley, anyway. Instead, I played around on my phone for a little while, trying to ignore my brain’s attempt to tell me it was time to go to sleep. After about half an hour, the vampire called me over.

  “Eldromir’s next client called and said they’re going to be about ten minutes late, so if you’re quick I can take you in to see him now.”

  “That would be great,” I said with a smile. I was led into a very large office. The lights were on, which initially surprised me, but of course with the accountant being an elf, he needed to be able to see.

  The receptionist smiled and motioned for me to enter, which I did. Eldromir sat at a large mahogany desk, the picture of old-style sophistication and grace. There wasn’t a single sheet of paper out of place, and even the pens were lined up by size, like the cutlery at a fancy dinner party might be.

  Eldromir himself was not unlike the vampires, looks-wise. He was pale, with black hair and eyes, and wore a long, black robe. He motioned for me to sit down.

  “I hear you have a few questions for me about a client.”

  “That’s right, Luca Sadoveanu. He was from Mt. Rheanier, and he had an appointment with you a few weeks ago.”

  “Ah yes,” Eldromir replied, placing his elbows on the desk and his hands in front of his mouth. “I do remember the young vampire.”

  “Well, he was murdered in Mt. Rheanier the other day, and his parents have hired me to find the person who killed him.”

  “Oh, now that is a shame,” Eldromir said slowly.

  “I was hoping you might be able to tell me what it is Luca wanted to discuss with you.”

  “Unfortunately, I’m afraid I cannot help you.”

  “He’s dead, what could telling me possibly hurt?”

  “You misunderstand,” Eldromir replied. “It isn’t that I am bound by ethics to keep his secrets, it is simply that he never told me anything that might be of value. I found it quite strange, in fact, his behavior.”

  “Oh?”

  “He came into the office at the time of his appointment, but he seemed quite nervous. I did my best to put him at ease, and I asked him what it was he needed help with. He kept glancing at his phone, and I asked if he had documents on it. He nodded, but then just as quickly shook his head. He told me he had changed his mind and that he didn’t need any help after all, then practically ran out of here.”

  “Well that’s a bit strange.”

  “It is, isn’t it? It was quite the curious meeting. I waited to see if he would return, but he did not. I am saddened to hear of his death. Do you know who may have killed him?”

  “I have a few suspects, but nothing confirmed, yet. I was hoping that you might have been able to give me a clue, as it seems rather strange that he would have come here.”

  “That it does,” Eldromir agreed. “Unfortunately, I have no idea what might have plagued the young man.”

  “Alright, thanks for your time,” I said, making my way back out to the reception area, thanking the vampire, and heading back out into the night.

  I stifled a yawn and headed back to Mt. Rheanier, thinking over everything I had learned. Why on earth had Luca needed to see an accountant? And why would he go to New Fang? Was he purposely avoiding seeing an accountant in Mt. Rheanier? And if so, why?

  Of course, the immediate answer was that he was doing something, or needed some information that he didn’t want anyone in Mt. Rheanier knowing about. But what could it have been? Was it something to do with the grocery store? After all, he was learning how to run the business side of things.

  Maybe it was as simple as he had questions that he was too embarrassed to ask his parents about, and decided to go all the way to New Fang to get the answers to. Maybe it was just a question of a young vampire who didn’t want to show to his parents and to his community that he didn’t know how to do something.

  But maybe it was more than that.

  I made a mental note to stop by the grocery store and see if everything seemed on the up-and-up there at some point over the next few days.

  As I stifled yet another yawn I decided that was enough work for one night; while I had always been able to pull off all-nighters without too much trouble when I was a teenager, my body was now busily telling me it no longer wanted to have anything to do with that crap. It was time for me to get to bed.

  As I returned to Mt. Rheanier, however, I spotted the shifter Anastasia had mentioned, sitting on a chair near the portal, reading a book.

  “Simba?” I asked, and he looked up. He was a lion shifter, which was obvious at a glance, with long blond hair and dark brown eyes. He was very good looking, I had to say.

  “That’s me,” he said with a friendly smile.

  “I was wondering if you’d be able to help me,” I said. “The other day, the morning when Luca was killed, do you remember at what time Anastasia came back to town?”

  “Sure,” Simba replied. “She’d been working late, my shift was just about to end, so it would have been around ten to nine.”

  “You’re certain it was that day?”

  “A hundred percent. I found out about Luca a few minutes after, when my shift ended. The shifter replacing me has a brother who works as an Enforcer, and he told me the news. I guarantee you she came back from work at nine that morning through here.”

  “Ok, thanks,” I said, heading back home. I still liked Anastasia as a suspect. She was hot-headed, and I could absolutely see her killing Luca in anger. But if she wasn’t even in town then, she couldn’t have done it and I had to eliminate her as a suspect.

  It was almost three in the morning by the time I got back to the shed, and I immediately flopped down onto the bed and went to sleep.

  Keeping vampire hours was hard.

  Chapter 14

  It was almost noon by the time I woke up, and it wasn’t willingly.

  “Wake up,” Vinnie said, nudging me with his face. “I’m dying of hunger. I’m starving to death. You need to feed me.”

  “Go away,” I groaned, grabbing the pillow and covering my head with it.

  “I need food. Don’t you realize I’m your familiar, and you need to take care of me? You have responsibilities now. You can’t just lie in bed all day. I’ve been up and hungry for hours. Plus, I have to pee, and if you don’t let me out I’m go
ing to have no choice but to do it on your shoes.”

  “The only thing I’m going to be responsible for is kicking your backside all the way to Mars if you pee on my shoes,” I grumbled, but the threat did get me out of bed.

  I let Vinnie outside, where he happily began munching away on some grass, while I put some bread in the toaster and got out the butter and jam. An hour later we had both eaten, I had showered, looked vaguely witch-like again, and got ready to go out. I wanted to head down to the grocery store and see what I could find out.

  Then again, Eldromir had mentioned Luca’s phone. What if the details of what he wanted to show Eldromir were on that?

  I put the trip to the grocery store in my back pocket – although I very much did need to restock my fridge at some point later that day – and headed over to the Enforcer’s station instead.

  When I got in there, I spotted Jack on one side of the room, and Andy on the other. I made a beeline for Andy.

  “Hey there,” I said, flashing him a smile I hoped screamed ‘sexy and casual’ and not ‘deranged and crazy’. “How’s it going?”

  “Good, thanks. How about you?”

  “Yeah, I’m alright. I was hoping to have a look at Luca’s phone.”

  Andy laughed good-naturedly. “And here I was hoping you simply came over to say hi, no strings attached.”

  I willed the blush that crawled up my face involuntarily to disappear, but no such luck.

  “Well, there’s also that. I could have gone to Jack.”

  “You hate Jack.”

  “So it was a low bar to clear, but I still came to you.”

  Andy laughed again. “I’m not giving you the phone.”

  “The Sadoveanu family hired me, they’re requesting that you work with me.”

  “And as Enforcers, we work for the people of Mt. Rheanier, not just one individual family. They don’t get to order us around. Only the Chief Enforcer can do that. You can’t look at the phone. It’s evidence in a crime. If I let you do that, when there’s a trial – because we will find the killer – it could open up all sorts of legal cans of worms.”

  I sighed. “Fine. At least tell me this: did you look at the pictures on the phone?”

  Andy gave me a look like I was being ridiculous. “What? I’m being thorough,” I protested.

  “Believe it or not, this isn’t my first day at the Enforcer Academy,” he replied. “Yes, we did look at the pictures on his phone.”

  “Were there any that looked like they might have been financial documents? Maybe from the grocery store? Anything that looked like they might have been the sort of thing someone would want an accountant to look at?”

  Andy frowned. “No, I don’t think so. Nothing like that. It was mainly just selfies, and pictures of random dogs. Apparently, Luca was an animal lover.”

  “You don’t think so. Any chance you can have a look for me?” I fluttered my eyelashes at him exaggeratedly. “Please?”

  “Fine,” Andy said with a laugh. “But only because that’s the nicest I’ve ever seen you ask for anything before.”

  “Please, I am the picture of cordiality at all times.”

  Andy smiled at me and headed off while I sat down in his chair. I spun around on it a couple of times, then looked over at his desk. It was somewhat messy, covered in various pieces of paper. My eyes were immediately drawn to a report that had Luca’s name on the top. I looked around quickly; none of the Enforcers were paying any attention to me.

  I leaned over and had a careful look. It was a medical report. It confirmed the time of death to have been between six and seven in the morning. Cause of death was a wooden stake driven through the heart. A photo on the desk nearby showed the body. There was no blood, but the stake was bigger than I had thought. It had to be at least three inches in diameter. Surely it would have taken a lot of strength to drive that through the vampire’s body, especially without him waking up, as going by the photo Luca hadn’t noticed a thing. He was still lying in his coffin – the vampire’s bed of choice – with his hands placed across his stomach. If it weren’t for the stake, anyone would have thought he was just sleeping. What with him being a vampire and all there wasn’t any blood, either.

  I went back to the medical report. I skipped the stuff about the last meal – gross – and looked for anything else that might give me a clue to his killer, when someone cleared their throat behind me.

  I jumped about a foot in the air and turned to see Jake looking down at me, not looking particularly impressed.

  “You know, if you’re going to break into an Enforcer station to look at documents, you might want to try doing it when it’s not full of Enforcers.”

  “I didn’t break in, I walked through the front door,” I corrected. “Besides, it’s not like I’m snooping. These papers are just sitting there on the desk. And I have a naturally inquisitive nature, you know that.”

  “Yes, that’ll sway the judge. Try telling them you’re naturally curious as a reason to get away with committing a crime.”

  “Oh please, snooping through Enforcer files is barely a crime.”

  “Barely a crime that carries a minimum sentence of a year in prison.”

  “Seriously? None of your files are worth that much anyway.”

  “Is that why you’re just stealing a glance at them?”

  “It was an accident. I knocked the paper over while I was spinning around in the chair and just went to put it back. It’s not my fault if I accidentally looked at it on the way back.”

  “Now that’s a much better defense.”

  “See? I could come up with one, I just needed a few seconds.”

  “You’re ridiculous.”

  “You’re just jealous I came to speak to Andy instead of you.”

  “Always. I wish we could be friends again, Ali.”

  “Yeah, well, that ship sailed when you were the cause of the biggest heartbreak of my life.”

  Jack looked like he wanted to reply, but was interrupted by Andy returning from the storage room, holding a phone inside a sealed plastic bag.

  “Here it is,” he said, and Jack took a step back; whatever words were on the tip of his tongue gone now.

  “If you want Andy to help you you’re going to have to tell us why,” Jack said while Andy unlocked the phone.

  “Hey, he didn’t place any conditions on helping me.”

  “I was going to wait until I had the phone in front of you before suggesting it. Dangling a carrot, if you will,” Andy replied.

  “Well, that’s not very nice now, is it?”

  “So what’s it going to be? Are you going to tell us, or not?”

  I sighed. Honestly, what did it matter? The important thing was the killer was found. The only reason I wanted to get there first was my own ego. Well, and the money. And as much as I often felt like my ego was the most important thing in the world, even I could understand that getting a killer off the streets was probably a bit more of a priority.

  “Fine. Luca went to see an accountant in New Fang. He showed up to the appointment, then seemingly got cold feet. He didn’t tell the elf why he came, and eventually just left.”

  Jack and Andy shared a look, and I recognized it and laughed. “You guys didn’t know about this, did you? You just got your butts handed to you by an amateur.”

  “You did not hand us our butts,” Jack said, crossing his arms. “We would have come across the information eventually, I’m sure of it.”

  “Haha, I’m a better Enforcer than you,” I said, sticking my tongue out at him, and he rolled his eyes.

  “Is there anything else you can tell us about this? Who’s the elf?”

  “Eldromir,” I replied. “But I’m telling you, he had no idea why Luca came to him. He did seem to think Luca was looking at his phone a lot, so I thought maybe there would be some files on the phone; maybe he took pictures of some documents.”

  “It’s an interesting idea,” Jack said. “When did they meet?”

&nb
sp; “About a week ago. Not long before the murder.”

  “Are you thinking maybe there was something funky going on with the accounting at the grocery store?” Andy asked, and I nodded.

  “The thought crossed my mind. I only just found out about this last night, though, so it’s not like I’ve investigated thoroughly.”

  “I swear if I get a phone call tonight telling me someone has broken into the grocery store I am not going to be happy,” Jack warned.

  “Do you really think I’m so irresponsible that I would get caught?”

  “Yes, that’s definitely the angle you should go with when you’re talking to Enforcers,” Andy laughed.

  “I’m just telling the truth, isn’t that what you’re all always after?”

  “Honestly, with you, the less we know is usually better,” Jack said. “I didn’t see anything that might have been relevant when I looked on the phone.”

  “Well, now that we know what we’re looking for I’ll have another look,” Andy said, and the two of us waited while he scrolled through all of the photos and data on the phone, but a few minutes later he shook his head.

  “No, it’s as I thought. There’s nothing there.”

  “So either he never had anything on the phone, or it was deleted,” I mused.

  “You know, if it turns out his parents did it, they’re probably not going to want to pay you your fee if you have them locked up,” Jack pointed out.

  “That would be just my luck,” I replied. “But they’ll still have to pay me. It’s not like they’ll need the money if they’re in jail.”

  “We can add to the charges if they don’t,” Andy laughed.

  “We don’t know it’s them yet, anyway,” I added. “I’m going to see where this investigation goes. I have a few other leads that I think might pan out.”

  “Fair enough,” Jack replied. “In the interest of full disclosure, we’ll let you know if we come up with anything on the phone that might be relevant to the accountant, since you’re the one who told us about it.”

  “Thanks,” I said. “I’ll let you know if I manage to come up with any more leads for you.”

  And with that, I turned and left before either one of the two Enforcers could come up with a retort. I liked having the last word.