“This list is still insane. The tree and vine we can accomplish, though it’ll take an elf to get a large enough tree to grow in time.” Dorthea flipped a page in her planner. “But I’ve never heard of moon linen, or virgin silver.”
I’d been right. Yesterday’s supposed accord hadn’t even lasted a full day. Enor and Erwin still seemed determined to dredge up forgotten traditions out of antiquity.
Dorthea’s eyes locked on to my apartment door as she leaned closer and whispered, “It can only be intentional at this point. I’ve spoken with them several times, to no avail.”
“Agreed.” I’d had my differences with Dorthea, but to her credit, she’d stepped up her efforts after our last conversation. The flowers were back to rhododendron and sunflowers. She’d found outdoor venues and had vetted the previous list of demands. Traditions. Whatever.
She sat back and folder her hand in her lap. “I simply don’t know what to do. I’ve never worked with anyone so unwilling to be flexible. I’m at a loss for how to incorporate their traditions.”
“I went over it again with Elron.” Thank the earth his desires were far simpler than his parents.
“We agreed an outdoor ceremony would be best. It’s the most important elven tradition. We talked through the reasons different fabrics have been worn by elves and decided the dress should be linen. It would be best if we could use natural dyes, but I do want to get the colors of the dress correct.” My eyes glazed over as I recited the rest. The overall effect was light touches of both traditions and simple solutions.
Dorthea took notes, mostly circling previous decisions that Enor and Erwin had deemed inappropriate. “And what do I tell them?”
“Just appease them and take the list. Don’t tell them anything.” With any luck at all, they would think we were taking their desires into consideration. Meanwhile, we could get this event planned.
“I can do that.” She smiled a bit too broadly.
I didn’t question it.
“Did you have a chance to pick the venue from the new list?”
My phone rang. I tried not to grab it too quickly. It wasn’t her fault I hated this. I apologized to Dorthea and answered the call.
“It’s Rodriguez. Can you come over to River Depot? I have twenty drunk people. I have witnesses saying these folks were fine one minute and wobbling the next.”
“I need to finish up a meeting. Give me about twenty minutes.” It shouldn’t take that long, but I didn’t want Dorthea to feel slighted by my escape.
“Thanks.” Rodriguez hung up.
Dorthea was in an accommodating mood, likely because I no longer seemed difficult after Enor and Erwin. She agreed to give me a new list, including any venues that had been removed previously. That was enough for today, and she left while I was putting on shoes.
Five minutes after the call, I was out the door and on my way to River Depot. It was an oddly named spot, which matched its history. Long ago, it was a train depot. Train travel had died down, and the station went through a few different identities until five years ago, when it was turned into a shopping and dining center.
Easy enough to see how a magical emergency could go down, but I’d yet to find any evidence magic was causing the drunken behavior. That was assuming this incident was related to the previous ones.
I didn’t know what I’d find more concerning, a magical or mundane explanation. Since unexplained groups of drunk people were a new phenomenon, it could be either. If Rodriguez hadn’t been so sure this was strange enough to be magical, I would’ve assumed no one wanted to admit how they had ended up drunk—moonshine, a spell, or some new thing.
Traffic slowed as I approached River Depot. When I got to the entrance, even I was impressed by the number of emergency vehicles. The three ambulances, two fire trucks, and six police cars took up most of the road. I drove past them and found a spot in the back of the parking lot.
On the way to the building, I summoned my watch and looked for magic. A few spells showed up, but they were readily identifiable. Anti-pest, anti-theft, and fire suppression spells were common in commercial buildings. The decoration spells were less common, but it was October.
Four people in black pants and white shirts sat on the curb under the watchful eye of an officer. A firefighter walked out of the building escorting a man who swayed with every step.
I held up my ID to the cop. “Where?”
“Back terrace.”
“Thanks.”
The outside of the depot had been freshened up, with flower boxes under the windows and new windows. The double glass doors weren’t historical, but they gave a lovely view of the interior. With the shops and restaurants around the perimeter, the center was a big, open space. A cauldron bubbled and frothed from its position in the middle of the room.
I’d been here before when it was so crowded it was hard to walk from one side to the other without colliding with someone. Today, people looked out from the shops, but few were in the common area. Judging from the cars outside, there were plenty of people in here, but they weren’t sure what was going on.
Shrugging, I headed out the doors to the terrace. Once upon a time, it had been the platform, but when the depot took on new life, its purpose had adjusted too. The terrace itself was an outdoor dining area. Flower boxes perched on the railing and stairs led down to a decorative garden. They’d gone all out and turned the garden into a spooky yard. Fake bats and glowing orange eyes hung from the trees. A zombie stood on the path, and a fake body leaned against the fountain.
Rodriguez stood over a group of seven sitting around two tables. A few first responders took blood pressure and other vitals. From the clothing, they were restaurant staff. About half the group had stains on their aprons, wrinkled shirts, and a dazed expression.
I joined Rodriguez. “Are all of them acting drunk?”
“Not exactly.” He ushered me a few steps away. “I overheard the call for a lot of drunk people and brought you in. As best I can figure, most of these people were here closing the restaurant last night. Then this morning, the first few employees arrived and found them drunk. Some were asleep on the floor, others draped on chairs and booths. The night cleaning wasn’t done, so it’s hard to tell what the employees did or didn’t do before passing out.”
“And I’m here because you want me to check for magic? Did you find magic?”
He hesitated. “No.”
“I looked last time. There wasn’t anything to find.” I already knew there was nothing to see. I adjusted my shields to make it easier to feel magic and extended tendrils of power that should attach to any magic I hadn’t seen. They found the spells I’d already noticed, but nothing that matched the problem.
“It isn’t logical, but I have a feeling, okay? There’s something behind this, and we have to find it.” He stared at me.
“I can try a few more pointed spells, but no promises.”
“Thanks.”
I nodded. “Which restaurant?”
“Double R. The officer knows to let you in.”
A soft meow drew my eyes over to the stairs. A black cat washed its paw. It didn’t have a collar, but it had the lean lines of a well-cared-for cat.
“I’ll check it out,” I said.
He went back to interviewing drunk people.
I hoped I found something, because if I didn’t, I could end up talking to the drunks. A dubious pleasure, that.
Back inside, Double R’s entrance was right next to the terrace. The officer glanced at my ID and held open the door.
They’d taken the railroad theme a bit far for my taste, with pieces of track running along each wall, antique lanterns above the tables, and deep brown strips of wood laid into the floor. Bits of food, including half of a burger, littered the ground. Cups dotted the tables, and three chairs were overturned.
Surprisingly, the bar was clear of cups or spilled drink. The trash was empty, and there were no signs of post-cleaning use.
Odd.
I gave the place a good look, searching for magic, not mayhem. The threshold had an anti-pest spell, a few plates had hot or cold spells, and an assortment of cooking spells shone through the wall to the kitchen. Nothing in the building was unexpected for a restaurant.
Probing inside a building with known spells wasn’t going to be useful, so I summoned my wand and started on a spell to find magic. Since I knew some of the effects, I crafted the spell to find anything that could affect humanoids, create alcohol, or touch the mind. I finished the spell and waited as it spread across the building.
Nothing.
I tried a different spell, one that would reveal any hidden magic. It swirled through the restaurant, touching every corner, exploring every cabinet and every room before fading away.
Nothing. Again.
Rodriguez could believe all he wanted, but I had to find evidence. As of yet, there wasn’t a single mote of magic to support his theory, which left me in an awkward spot. While I worked the most with Rodriguez, I answered to more senior officers. I had to be able to explain to them why I was coming out on these calls. Eventually, Rodriguez would have to justify my presence as well.
I lingered in Double R, with the disarray around me. This was weird, but there could be a very normal explanation. Water bottles of vodka, a gas leak, or drugs. It could take days or weeks to get the drug test results back. Until then, Rodriguez couldn’t get his answers, not unless we found something else.
With a muttered curse, I went back out to the terrace. The cat had moved to the railing, facing the garden, tail twitching. A few Double R employees were sitting at two tables, but all the medial personal were gone.
Rodriguez hurried over to me. “Anything?”
“No.”
“Narzel blast it.” He shook his head. “There has to be something.”
“If there is, it’s damn good at hiding.”
He glanced back at the employees, all of whom were watching us. “I talked to the hospital yesterday. They did quick tests on the wolves and partiers. No alcohol or common drugs. The samples are going out for more analysis. Right now, we have no idea what addled the minds of a pack of werewolves.”
“I’ve looked. If you want me to keep looking, I need something specific to look for.”
Rodriguez rubbed a hand over his face. “Those werewolves didn’t magic themselves drunk.”
“Agreed, but I can’t find a magical cause.”
He shook his head.
A soft chirp drew my attention down. The cat rubbed against my ankle and then darted to the stairs. It paused and looked back at me.
“Could it be a creature?” Rodriguez asked.
I shrugged. “Nothing comes to mind. I’ll do some research.”
Meow.
“We’ve come across other creatures that had strange abilities. Remember the bugbear?”
A terrifying bear monster that fed off the fear of children was hard to forget. “Yup.”
Meow! The cat head-butted my leg.
“Hey, what was that for?”
The cat darted over to the stairs again. Meooow. It stared at me with bright orange eyes, uncannily like the eyes of the cat from the other night.
“Rodriguez, I’m following that cat.” With a twist of my wrist, my wand settled into my hand.
As soon as I got to the stairs, the cat took off, running until it reached the intersection of two paths. It stopped and looked back at me.
“And I’m following you.” He was a step behind me down the stairs.
The garden paths cut between trees and around flower beds, crossing repeatedly. This time of year, the garden was a mix of dormant and leafy colors. The few trees that still had leaves sported bright yellows, bold reds, and rusty oranges. The rest of the trees contributed to the spooky decorations with their bare branches. The fake bats and eyes rocked in the breeze. The fountain in the center rose out of the ground, with the base coming up a good eighteen inches. In the center, the two-tiered basins bubbled and frothed before spilling over. Sitting on two hay bales leading up to the fountain sat two carved pumpkins and a carved turnip.
The cat trotted down a path that led toward the center fountain. Every few steps, it looked back to see if I was keeping up.
I believed in following cats when they worked this hard to get my attention.
I also believed in caution, so I let my power flow around me, searching for magic. I didn’t expect to find much in a garden at a shopping center. The only magic spell I noticed was the anti-freeze enchantment on the irrigation lines.
The cat stayed on the same path, stopping beside the fountain. It ignored the zombie and paced around to the body leaning against the base of the structure. The cat looked at me and sat.
Up close, the zombie was hard plastic with ripped clothing hanging off its bones. A quick probe confirmed it didn’t have any magic.
But the cat hadn’t stopped here. I followed the cat’s path to the other side of the fountain.
Before I’d closed the distance, the gaping throat wound made it clear. This wasn’t a prop. This was a body.
“Not again.” Rodriguez swore.
From a distance, her over-sized tan coat had hidden the neck wound. Up close, it couldn’t hide the grayish pallor of her skin or the wounds on her wrists. Her shirt and pants were flecked with blood, but there weren’t any slashes or punctures in the clothes. Her tangled brown hair was matted with blood and her face was covered.
She was upright now, but at one point she’d been upside down and drained.
“I don’t sense any magic. Do you?” Rodriguez asked.
“None.” I pulled my power back in, not wanting it around the dead woman longer than necessary.
The cat brushed against my ankle and then lay down next to a pumpkin. In typical cat fashion, it appeared to go to sleep.
Rodriguez swore again. “I’ll call it in.”
While he did that, I searched for spells. Other than an ever-sharp set of garden shears, which weren’t a likely murder weapon, I didn’t find anything I hadn’t already noticed.
Two murders. Two sets of drunken people who hadn’t been drinking. In my experience, coincidence didn’t stretch so far. Neither did magic, in this case. There had to be a connection, a commonality, a cause that we hadn’t found.
Unfortunately, until we found that connection, I wasn’t sure what I could do. My specialty was magic. Not investigations, not crime scenes, not murder, but magic.
Which would be a lot more useful if there was magic.