Charms and Death and Explosions (oh my!) by Honor Raconteur

Author:Honor Raconteur
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Raconteur House
Published: 2019-02-06T00:00:00+00:00

Captain Gregson was not happy.

Since I shared that sentiment, I gave him a commiserating nod and sigh. Jamie sat in the chair adjoining mine, perfectly peeved, and I had no doubt she would raid my chocolate stash in the lab at the first given opportunity. For that matter, I had every intention of joining her.

Listing to one side in his chair, Gregson leaned his head against a propped-up hand, weary and aged a decade older than his actual years. “Twenty-seven bags. You’re telling me that you hauled twenty-seven bags of a deadly mushroom out of our crime scene.”

“Yes, Captain, unfortunately.” Giving a tepid smile, I winced before offering, “There’s two silver linings to this particular cloud.”

“Please do elaborate, Davenforth,” he encouraged in a growl. “I could use them.”

Ticking points off on my fingers, I intrepidly forged ahead. “First, it was entirely contained. Fools they might have been, but not without some survival instincts. Because they’d closed off all access to the second floor, no one tumbled into their little farm; otherwise we’d be looking at dozens of victims instead of just the two.”

“Yes, by all means, let’s avoid a bigger disaster than we have now,” Gregson groaned. “What’s the second?”

“Because this has basically become a government case,” Jamie pitched in smoothly, “we were able to immediately pull in experts to clear the area out. The bill for the cleanup and the aftercare of treating the building to prevent the spores from infecting anyone else who inhabits the area after this is also on Sherard’s tab instead of ours.”

Gregson lifted his head, expression lightening. “Truly? Music to my ears. You’re correct, Davenforth, they’re nice silver linings in the cloud. I’ll take them. What about their previous location? You said they had a business on the east side of the city before moving.”

“Clean,” I assured him, not blind to his open relief. “Kingsman Evans checked it yesterday. They apparently hit upon this hare-brained scheme after moving. I’m inclined to be grateful for that, even as I curse them for thinking of it at all.”

“I’m just cursing them,” Jamie grumbled. “Idjuts. Those two were not the sharpest eggs in the drawer. As it stands, Cap, we’ve got something of a lead but a very large suspect pool. One of the demolition companies in town has some missing inventory they can’t account for. I was supposed to follow up with them yesterday, but, well….”

“Things happened,” Gregson waved her on with perfect understanding. “Pick up the trial tomorrow. How big of a suspect pool?”

“These two did a lot of damage,” she continued sourly. “Half the city’s out for their blood, or at least it feels that way. The guys report that whenever they bring up bad charms, and who our victims are, they get rants and sob stories. Poor Marshall got surrounded by a virtual mob yesterday from half the people working the docks after asking the question, all intent on getting their piece said.”

“We’ll have to narrow it down by expertise and opportunity,” I stated, inclining my head to indicate my exasperated partner.

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