“How can we help?” Mark asked. “Our gloves are specially tailored to resist most components to prevent any skin contact.”
“First off, I need you to take her book and the tea she was drinking to a physically and magically clean room so I can examine them safely. If someone could bring me her drinking glass from lunch as well as anything else she’s been in contact with for the past few hours, that would be great. Also, I would love to know where you got those gloves but that's more of a professional curiosity so not a priority.”
“And what of us?” Tiffany asked as the boys quickly set off to follow my orders. “I know how to work with reagents and reverse engineering things. I'm not an expert, but I can help.”
“Go get what you need and bring it to the clean room. Genevieve, you can either join us or go and help with Marguerite. I have something I want to check out first, then I will be in the clean room,” I explained.
“What is your plan?” Genevieve asked.
“Marguerite was saying something that has me curious, so I want to chase the lead while I'm thinking about it, but ultimately I want to figure out what was used and how. Once I know that, I can use Maguire’s finder potion to figure out the who.” I pulled a vial out of my pack and displayed it for emphasis. Something flashed in Genevieve’s eyes, too fast to read but not fast enough to miss.
I put the vial back in the pocket and started perusing the shelves. She stayed with me for a few minutes before making her exit, feigning boredom as I pulled books off shelves to flip through before returning them to their place. I watched her leave, then grabbed one more book. I opened it to the title page, then turned back to look at the name written just inside of the cover to where the owner had written their name.
“I thought so,” I muttered, looking at the hyphenated last name. Satisfied, I tucked the book under my arm and made a beeline for the clean room. Marguerite had pointed it out during her tour, only a few doors down from the clinic.
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Tiffany was in the process of arranging her things on one table, while the items to be tested rested on another. She looked up as I entered, and I nodded at her to continue, pulling out my own tools.
“No Genevieve?” I asked.
“I guess not.”
“Very well, then. Let’s get to work.”
She followed my lead as we slowly worked through each item Marguerite had come into contact with, testing them with a mix of magic and alchemy. I watched her reactions as carefully as I did the experiments, trying to get a better read on what part, if any, she played in this drama.
“How did you get involved in all of this?” I prodded. “If you don’t mind my asking.”
“Pardon?”
“The Mayfairs. I know you’ve been learning from Marguerite and that you’ve only recently joined. I know you haven't been here long enough to be eligible for the assessment, so you’d have no reason to be sabotaging people. I’m also kinda nosy, and I want to know your story.”
“Unless I'm working on the behalf of someone else.”
“The only person I can picture you working for would be Marguerite. I saw your face. You wouldn’t have done that to her. Plus, I heard from the staff that she's the only one here you really like. Well, her and Elmer and it looked to me like he was well on his way to acing the assessment. So, what’s your story? Where do you fit in here?”
She hesitated, but in the end she told me what I needed to know. While she talked, she worked, reverse engineering the samples she collected with a practiced ease. I just sat back and watched, occasionally handing her a tool or reagent.
Between the two of us, we were able to figure out the how and the what in an hour and a half. Then we tag teamed the antidote, creating an initial dose and a treatment plan of sorts to hand off to Elmer to improvise and implement. The whole time I could feel Tiffany watching me, waiting to see what I would do.
To be fair, I wasn’t sure yet either, but the pieces were falling into place.
Genevieve never showed up.
