‘What do you mean?’ I took an ever so nonchalant sip of my tea.

  ‘Why are you questioning me today? Why haven’t I asked you this already? This isn’t really about my report against Anton Gale, is it? I mean, you don’t know about the email I sent to Finn, so how could it be that?’ She leaned closer, lowering her voice. ‘You think she was murdered too, don’t you? You think what I do – that Carmel engineered all of this, maybe even killed Athena, all so she could carry out some sort of attack on you.’

  Before I could reply, my phone buzzed with a message, and I held the screen out of Emily’s view as I read:

  Wanda, it’s bad news. Ronnie’s found something dangerous in the chocolates. We’ll be there in a few seconds to bring Emily in for formal questioning. Keep her busy till then.

  I pocketed my phone. ‘You know that I can’t confirm or deny anything, Emily. One more thing though. Did you give a box of your handmade chocolate to Athena?’

  Emily frowned. ‘Well, yeah. Actually, the day I brought her the chocolates, I told her all of this – my suspicions that there was even more going on with Carmel than just a smooch with Anton. I told her what I’d found out about Carmel’s side racket, and the hatred that they all seemed to feel towards you. Athena thought it was weird, too. She said she had some ideas about it, but she couldn’t discuss them with me. She said … she said there was something going on, all right, and she was looking into it. I got the impression she suspected Carmel of the same stuff I did.’

  ‘Oh?’ Minerva had mentioned the chocolates, but not the conversation which accompanied them. ‘Where were you, when you had this talk?’

  ‘In our last counselling session.’

  ‘Alone?’

  ‘Of course alone. Wait, what are you saying? Why do you care about how, why or where I gave her a present? You’re saying I’m a suspect in this as well, aren’t you? That’s why you were so interested in the chocolate I gave to new Max, too. How dumb would I have to be, Wanda? Barely out of the Maze, and going around poisoning new Max and Athena and all and sundry, just so I could leave a great big chocolate box of evidence behind me?’

  She had a point, but I didn’t have time to answer her question, because Finn and a small team were barging into the café. Finn extended a finger, binding Emily and beginning to read her her rights.

  Emily looked at me, fear in her eyes. ‘I know you have no reason to trust me, Wanda, but please, I’m begging you!’ she cried. ‘Believe me, now. I would never hurt Athena, or this new Max, either. Never in a million years.’

  13. Mimic

  I stood in the corridor outside one of the Wayfarer interrogation rooms, with Finn, Gretel and Ronnie, while Emily sat on the other side of the one-way glass, waiting to be questioned.

  While I was at Caulfield’s, Ronnie had discovered that both boxes of chocolate had potions added to the mix – but the potions weren’t the same.

  ‘So, Athena was given this stuff that you’re calling Mimic, right?’ I looked at Ronnie. ‘You say you think it’s designed to replicate any disease or flaw in the body?’

  Ronnie gave me a nod of confirmation. ‘We’ll have to wait for Shane to finish the autopsy, but yeah.’ The autopsy had been ordered the moment Ronnie discovered the substance in the chocolate. ‘I’ve never seen anything like it before. I’d been working on a new batch of the cure for the dayturner virus before I went home last night, so when I couldn’t figure out what this unknown substance was, I tried it on some of the virus samples I had to hand. It replicated the dayturner virus, and made it grow faster. I tried it with other virus samples, and it did exactly the same. Shane and his new assistant have had a look at it too, and with all of our tests combined, we’ve come to believe that it seeks out any weak point in the body it can spot, and it can mimic that weakness and multiply it. There are slight differences between the real virus or illness that the mimicked form creates, enough to tell them apart.’

  ‘So it could have done the same with Toadstool Tumours?’ Gretel guessed. ‘Making Athena die sooner than she would have?’

  ‘It’s highly likely,’ said Ronnie. ‘We’ll know soon enough. Right now, it’s enough to know that it’s in the chocolate. How did Emily get hold of it, I wonder? I’ve never seen anything like it before. I mean … she’s a chocolate maker, not a potion maker. This would have to have been made by an expert.’

  ‘Maybe she bought it,’ Finn suggested. ‘Or maybe my mother helped her. But on that subject, the poison in my mam’s box was just standard Ire, right?’

  Ronnie took a seat on one of the wooden benches, crossing her legs. ‘Yeah. And unfortunately, it can be purchased in many a back alley.’

  I sat down beside her. ‘But in what dose? Because Ire is usually given slowly, so it can build up over time, taking away your magic bit by bit and making you feel like you’ve got the flu. And when it finally kills you, it leaves barely a trace. I mean, you can give it in one huge dose if you want to get caught. But like Emily said to me – why would she want to leave a great big chocolate box of evidence behind her?’

  ‘It was a small dose,’ said Ronnie. ‘It wouldn’t have killed Carmel – if she’d submit to tests, I guess we could see if there’s a build-up in her system. Emily could have been feeding it to her over time, maybe? If that’s the case, she could be getting sicker by the day. It would explain the sudden collapses she’s had.’

  ‘Maybe,’ I conceded. ‘But again – why would Emily leave the evidence behind? She gave the chocolate to Mizz Plimpton right in front of me and Finn. She certainly didn’t seem to have something to hide.’

  Finn moved to the vending machine. As he pushed the button for coffee, he said, ‘I don’t know about that, Wanda. Emily wasn’t very thorough at hiding the evidence when it came to Max, was she? You caught her with a bottle of Eau de Wolfe at one stage, right? And maybe … maybe she wants to get caught. It happens. People get institutionalised, don’t they? They yearn to be back in their prison or hospital or whatever it might be.’

  ‘I dunno.’ I eyed the contents of the vending machine, but couldn’t see a thing that took my fancy. ‘It sounds like the only thing she liked about the Maze was Athena. Finn, were you with your mother at all times before she gave you the chocolate to test?’

  He downed some of his coffee, thinking. ‘No. No, I left the room when she fainted that second time, so that the healers could do their work. When I went back in, she said she was leaving. She stopped at the loo on the way out, and it was after that when she gave me the chocolate box. Are you saying … are you saying you think my mother poisoned her own chocolate, to cast suspicion on Emily?’

  I shrugged. ‘It’s possible, right? Emily’s version of the story fits with everything else that’s happened – all of those people she mentioned went on to work at the college to try to mess things up for me. Maybe your mother wanted Emily on board, but when she realised that not only wasn’t Emily playing along, but that us lot might be beginning to suspect her, she put a plan into action to blame Emily. She could have added the Ire to the chocolate while she was in the toilet, just before she gave it to you.’

  ‘Nah.’ Finn shook his head. ‘I mean, I’m with you on a lot of it – we know my mam pulled the alarm yesterday, and that she had a connection to everyone else who messed up your schedule. But wouldn’t you have to add the Ire as you’re making it? It’s not a liquid. It’s tiny metal filings, right? You couldn’t just inject it in the toilet, could you?’

  ‘Actually.’ Ronnie held up a hand. ‘You can prepare a liquid form if you have a fine enough preparation. But I don’t think that’s what happened here. It was very messily done – some of the chocolate was scraped away with a small instrument from underneath, maybe a nail file or something like that. The Ire was shoved in, and some of the scraped-off chocolate was pressed back on with a clumsy hand. Plus, it was added to two chocolates only. It shocked me that someone who makes such lovely creations as Emily does would make such a mess of mixing in a poison. The Mimic, on the other hand, was injected into Athena’s chocolates with a syringe, and the injection points were easy to see. Huh.’

  Ronnie glanced my way. ‘It was definitely done after the fact, instead of while it was being made. And if both lots of chocolate seem like they were tampered with afterwards, and not very neatly … then it looks like you might be right on the money, Wanda. This really doesn’t look like it was Emily’s doing.’

  Finn had already finished his coffee, and he crumpled up the cup. ‘Emily could have done it that way on purpose. It would be a clever move, wouldn’t it? If she did get caught, it would raise uncertainty.’

  Gretel gave Finn a wry smile. ‘First you think Emily’s leaving evidence everywhere because she wants to get caught, now you think she’s trying to make it look like it wasn’t her by making a mess of adding the poisons? Because … she doesn’t want to get caught? Which is it, Finn? It can’t be both.’

  Finn groaned. ‘You’re right. You’re right. Look, it’s … it’s just that what we’re talking about here is the possibility that my mother murdered someone. That she crafted an incredibly devious plot, working her way slowly and patiently into the Maze, drugging Anton to get him on side so she could keep her job there while she gathered her Wanda-haters around her, then working her way into the dean’s affections, all so she could continue to destroy Wanda’s life. And yes, I know what you’re going to say – she has form for this. But I just don’t want to believe it. I just …’

  While he struggled for words, I left the bench and threw my arms around him. ‘I’m sorry, Finn,’ I said into his chest.

  ‘What?’ He didn’t break away. ‘Why are you sorry? You’re the target of all of this.’

  ‘I’m sorry because if that’s true, Athena died because of me. And I’m sorry that your mam hates me so much, hates my entire coven so much, that she disowned you. I’m sorry that you have to spend holidays with us instead of her. I’m sorry for it all, Finn. It’s sad.’

  ‘You great big numpty.’ He clutched me tighter. ‘None of this is your fault. I just wish I had a better mother.’

  Gretel cleared her throat and said, ‘I’m really enjoying seeing the two of you getting your friendship on, but there’s more we need to talk about before we decide who interviews Emily, isn’t there? Like, what happened with not-our-Max? Was he poisoned, too? I know it seems unlikely seeing as Jasper and Wolfie are fine and they shared the chocolate with him. But weren’t we going to test it, just in case?’

  ‘Oh.’ I pulled away from Finn, wiping my eyes. ‘Of course. Well, Lassie’s already brought in what’s left of that box, hasn’t she? You said she had to dig it out of the bin, though. I guess there could be traces for us to look at …’

  ‘She dropped it off a few minutes ago,’ Finn confirmed. ‘But Wanda, not-your-Max wasn’t poisoned by Emily’s chocolate. I should have told you, but with everything else that’s happening, I clean forgot. Florence called me a while ago. It was food poisoning, from a vegan food truck of all things.’

  ‘What?’ I gawped at my boss. ‘Wait, didn’t he already have an incident with a burrito?’

  ‘Yeah, but that was a choking incident,’ Finn explained. ‘This time, it was a weird fluke. The vegetable oil on the salad in his kebab was highly toxic. It came from some human world farm where they’d used some crazy chemicals on the crop. It was recalled three seconds after not-your-Max ate it. And he’s the only one who got sick, too, out of all the people who ate at that food truck that day. He’s one unlucky guy.’

  ‘He sure is,’ I agreed, feeling uneasy. ‘So … who gets to question Emily? And do we call your mam in? Do we question Anton?’

  Finn thought about it for a moment. ‘Gretel and I will get a statement from Emily, first. Until we have actual evidence against my mother, we’ll have to play it carefully where she’s concerned. But yeah, I think we can question Anton maybe this afternoon.’

  ‘Good. You know, I’m still interested in finding out why your mam collapsed, too,’ I said.

  ‘Duh – it was because she didn’t want to answer any awkward questions,’ scoffed Finn.

  ‘Are you sure?’ I challenged. ‘Because you were genuinely worried yesterday when you rushed her into Night and Gale. If she has been messing around with potions she doesn’t understand, she could have done herself some damage, Finn. I don’t want to scare you, but what if this Mimic stuff exacerbated something she doesn’t even know she has?’

  ‘It’s not beyond the realms,’ Ronnie said, shooting Finn a guilty glance. ‘It’s incredibly potent. Myself and Shane and his assistant, we’ve all taken extra precautions when working with it, but given how haphazardly the poison was added to the chocolate, whoever did it wasn’t nearly as careful as they should have been.’

  Finn gave me a troubled frown. ‘Crap. I mean, I feel like killing her right now, but I don’t want her to die. How can I get her to get tested, though? Without revealing I think she’s a suspect, I mean. Because I’d like her to go on thinking Emily’s the only one we’re looking at for now.’

  Gretel gave him a small, sly smirk. ‘You could tell her a porky pie or two, couldn’t you? Don’t even mention the Mimic, so she won’t think you suspect her. Instead, you could tell her about the Ire only, and that you’ve tracked it to a very dangerous batch on the market. An unusually potent batch, one that can penetrate the skin if even the slightest amount gets near you. You won’t have to convince her to get tested if that’s the case. She’ll be running all the way to Night and Gale.’

  Finn looked in wonder at Gretel. ‘These moments of genius of yours make all of my broken lamps and ornaments worth it. Okay – you’re coming in with me to talk to Emily. Wanda, you go and check up with Paul in the meantime. Ronnie, see how Shane is getting along. Then we’ll all meet for lunch and decide where to go from there.’

  14. Eager Igor

  I found Paul in his office, eating some incredibly smelly cheese and crackers.

  ‘Stinking Warlock?’ I held my nose.

  ‘You know it.’ Paul grinned, wiping the crumbs from his T-shirt. ‘Hey, your mam was just in looking for you. I thought you were interviewing Emily though, so I told her you’d call her when you were done. Then she said that she was only here to invite us all to lunch at Wayfarers’ Rest.’ His grin widened. ‘Your dad is making enchiladas, and your mam is getting him to add extra cheese to mine.’

  ‘Sounds good.’ I took a seat across from him. ‘And seeing as we’ll most likely be interviewing Anton after that, can you tell me what you found on Athena’s laptop?’

  Paul had reached for another cracker while I was midsentence, and he finished it off before saying, ‘She worked very hard on her cure for her Toadstool Tumours, I can tell you that. She also enjoyed looking at all of her old wedding videos. But yeah, there was something interesting on there.’

  The laptop had gone into sleep mode, so Paul quickly revived it and turned it so that the screen was facing me. There was a letter on there, and I quickly read it:

  To the Night and Gale Medical Board,

  I regret to inform you that I am writing to issue a formal complaint against one of our own coven members, my husband, Anton Gale.

  One of our patients at the Maze recently approached me, describing an incident in which Anton placed an arm around her and made lewd suggestions, implying that her stay with us would be lengthened if she did not comply.

  The same patient then went on to tell me that when she returned to the area, she saw Anton kissing one of our volunteers.

  As all such claims must be treated with the gravity they deserve, I immediately reviewed the security film from the day in question, and it has confirmed everything that she told me. I attach said film as evidence.

  I must say, at this point, that this is completely out of character for Anton, and I would like the help of the board to temporarily remove him from duty until we investigate the cause.

  Sincerely,

  Athena Gale.

  I stared at Paul. ‘And did she send it?’

  Paul shook his head. ‘She wrote it the day before she died. She had a reminder set on her computer, and it looks like she was planning on sending it the next day. It also looks like she was searching for a reason for Anton’s behaviour, studying the effects of potions that could make him act that way and so on. She looked up midlife crisis symptoms, too.’

  ‘Really? She thought that was why he acted out?’

  Paul looked forlornly at his empty plate for a moment and then said, ‘Never underestimate the getting too close to forty effect on a guy, Wanda. I’ve seen people who seem like the perfect family man suddenly turn back into teenage idiots when the big four-oh is approaching, which it was for Anton when all of this occurred. Anyway, there’s also a letter to the board about Emily – they have to officially state whether they feel a patient is ready to leave, and Athena made a resounding case for Emily’s release. And then … well, then there’s the biggest news of all.’

  Paul paused for effect. ‘None of this was simply on her computer, Wanda. I had to work to find it all on her hard drive and restore it. It had all been deleted – the email she wrote to the board, the film she attached, all of it. Plus, the footage Athena spoke about had been deleted from the Maze’s servers too, not just from her laptop.’

  ‘Not by Athena, surely? You said she had a note reminding her to send it. Do you think something changed her mind?’