"I don’t have the foggiest, but makes me a bit nervous," Roam said with a nod. "Did he smell like the woods to you?”
“He is our local wand maker, Roam. I think he spends a lot of time in the woods, gathering all sorts of natural supplies for his wand business. You know twigs from trees, and stuff.” Honey nudged his arm playfully.
“Right, no wonder he’s so angry. I’d be angry if I smelled like the woods and played pick up sticks all day, too. We better add Dr. Wimpleton and Gregg Abbott to our growing list of suspects for good measure.”
Honey agreed, but couldn’t imagine either of the old warlocks causing harm to anyone. Could they? She thought. As they resumed their walking, Honey couldn't keep an uneasy shadow from darkening her mood. The weight of Gregg's words hung heavy in the air, like a cloud full of rain. She found herself wondering if Dr. Wimpleton was hiding a dark secret beneath his melancholic facade. Could she be so wrong about him?
The Herbologist
Asthesundippedbelow the horizon, painting the sky in hues of pink and orange, Honey and Roam found themselves back at FACTS & FIBS. They had spent the entire day gathering information from Lily’s neighbors and Grumble the troll, but still felt no closer to solving the mystery.
"Ugh, I can't believe we're nowhere closer to knowing what happened to Lily," Honey groaned as she slumped into a chair, her frustration palpable. "We've got so many more folks to interview and the only solid lead from Grumble is someone wants to burn the orchard down." She stared at the moving walls of her room. Not much was stirring in Cauldron Falls. “I was really hoping Grumble could narrow the field of people for us to talk to down just a little bit.”
Roam rubbed his chin thoughtfully, his eyes narrowing as he considered their next move. "Maybe we need to approach this from a different angle," he suggested. "Instead of focusing on who might have had a motive to kill Lily, let's examine the method—the poison itself. That might point us in the right direction."
"Good idea," Honey agreed, perking up at the prospect of a fresh lead. "We know it was a poison that killed her. If we can trace its origin, we might be able to find out who had access to it."
"Great plan," Roam agreed. “I think we need to visit Miles Montgomery. He’s on the list of folks who visited Lily, and might be our best bet at figuring out exactly what the poison was and where came from.”
“Let’s go.” Honey jumped to her feet and pulled Roam with her.
They slipped out of FACTS & FIBS into the cool night air. A figure watched them from the shadows, its eyes glinting with malice. Unbeknownst to them, the true mastermind behind Lily's murder was closer than they could have possibly imagined. And as they drew nearer to the truth, they were coming dangerously close to uncovering the deadly truth that could get them killed, too.
Miles Montgomery was still in his greenhouse when Honey and Roam wandered around to the back of his cottage and knocked on one of the glass panes before pushing the door open.
"Good Goddess, you two. You should not be sneaking around this late in the evening. Everyone is on edge. You never know what kind of magic they might use on you." Miles laughed nervously and continued to scoop dirt into a terracotta pot.
"You're probably right, Miles." Roam said. “Sneaking up on folks might not bet the best investigative method right now. We’ll take that under advisement.”
"Honestly, after all the death in the last within a few weeks, you'd think you'd know better than to be skulking around at night. Cauldron Falls is not as safe as it used to be," Miles scoffed. "Well, out with it. What do you want? I’m sure you’re here to interrogate me. Get on with it. I’m a suspect." Miles waved his hands in the air over his head, mocking the idea of being a suspect.
"Actually, Miles, we were hoping you could help us out with figuring out the specific type of poison that killed Lily." It was just in instinct, but everything about Miles told Honey he was not the killer, nor would he ever be a killer. Sure, he liked getting his hands dirty with dirt. And he also like the gossip kind of dirt. But more often than not, Miles was the warlock pulling everyone into a hug, making sure folks volunteered to clean up the quad. He taught the best Saturday morning Yoga on the Quad with your Familiar class, this side of anywhere. There was no way he had it in him to poison even so much as a plant.
"We were thinking if we can pinpoint the poison, it might lead us back to the killer." Roam added.
Miles paused for a moment, his eyes darting around the greenhouse thoughtfully before finally settling on Honey and Roam. "I might be able to help you with that," he said, his voice low and dramatic. "But you have to promise me that you won't tell anyone where you got the information from."
Honey and Roam exchanged a look. They both knew that Miles could be a bit theatrical, but they also knew that he was one of the most knowledgeable people when it came to poisons.
"We promise," said Honey.
Miles nodded before leading them over to a small, cluttered desk in the corner of the greenhouse. He rummaged through a few papers before pulling out a small, leather-bound notebook. "Don't get too excited. This is not a book of poisonous plants or anything. Surely you’ve sent off the evidence from the scene to Assjacket to have everything formally analyzed and confirmed?”
“Yes.” Honey and Roam said in unison.
“Thought so. If you want to know the type of poison that killed Lil, I can take a guess." Miles flopped open the small black book full of organized scribbles.
"What is that?" Roam pointed to the writing.
"These are my notes about every herb and plant in Cauldron Falls. I track them all. Where they grow. Who grows them. Who consumes them. And most importantly, how and why they thrive." Miles handed over his chicken scratch pad.
Random notes were written in every which direction, with the occasional drawing of some weed looking plant or leaf. Honey and Roam exchanged confused looks as they scanned the pages of Miles's notebook. The writings were incoherent and didn't seem to have anything to do with what they needed to know.
"Very nice drawings, but I don't understand, Miles. What do these notes have to do with Lily's death?" Honey asked, trying to make sense of the scrawled handwriting.
Miles hesitated for a moment before finally speaking up. "You two are so not Cauldron Falls natives. I mean, you are and you aren’t. You definitely weren’t raised by your wicked grandwitch like I was. That scared the beejesus out of you every night, regaling you with bedtime stories of the Waterfall Queen and the all the monsters who tried to overthrow her. I spent boyhood wondering what lives in it, that water, or under the falls, or all around it. And what would happen if that water fell into the wrong hands? Let's just say we’re all super lucky to live next to that waterfall. It pumps out miracle water. And from what I've seen, so do the plants around here. Honey Hadwin, I can’t believe Rhoda and Edgar did not tell you those stories.” Miles put his hands on his hips and cocked his head to the side, staring Honey down.
“Nope. But they're not originally from here either. They’re from a town called Rabbit Hash.” Honey stated.
