To Be A Wolf

Chapter Four - Useless Assistant

The next few hours I spend documenting and filing the evidence I collected, while also trying to figure out why the items had been stolen. I flick through pictures, frowning. Why would someone steal a journal? It held no monetary value. It had to have something magical attached to it. All of it did. But what?

I rub my forehead, baffled. I missed something, but I have no clue what.

Footsteps approach my door a moment before it flies open. I start, jumping to my feet when I find Detective Farkas glaring down at me, all chest puffed out and brooding.

"What's all this?" he asked, motioning to the printed pictures.

"These are photos from Ms. Hood's residence—"

"Why did you take photos?"

I raise an eyebrow as I jab a finger at the picture showing the missing supplements. "To show evidence of what was taken."

He snorts. "Redding is a liar who sets things up to get attention. This is all her crying wolf to get someone out there."

I scowl at him. "I hate that story."

"Do you have anything worthwhile to show for yourself?"

My lip curls as I shuffle the papers. "Professor Beans—"

"Professor?" He rolls with laughter.

"He works at the university, so yeah, he's a professor." I huff but continue on. "Three bean plants were stolen from his greenhouse. One for healing, one for sedatives—"

He snatched the file from me. "He's growing narcotics again. I'll have to have a word with him."

"What?" I blink at him. "No. They're beans. Magic beans from the old world, but beans all the same—"

He waves the file in my face. "You don't get to touch narcotics either, got it?"

I throw my hands over my head. "It's not narcotics!"

"You're useless." He storms from my room, barking in the hallway, "Gold! This assistant is useless!"

"She's not an assistant!" Mayor Gold's voice echoes from farther away.

"She's still useless!" Rick yells back.

Mayor Gold doesn't respond. I take a deep breath, trying to stay calm. I can do this. I'm a trained professional. I flick through what I have once more, but since I can't see anything new that pops out, I open my computer to see what other incidents I can deal with.

I spend the rest of the afternoon making calls. Just like when I did the rounds, all the citizens seem surprised to hear from me, and express gratitude at the end of our conversations. Useless my ass. In a single afternoon, I had addressed almost the entire list of outstanding "minor" issues on record. Many of which had easy solutions which Rick could have dealt with in minutes.

As I hang up the phone, Mayor Gold stops by my door. He glances around the office, peels off the skin-colored glove, and touches an empty frame on the wall. Like veins growing, gold crawls over it until it completely turns. He returns the glove to his hand.

"Many of us have retained our magic here," he says, tapping the frame. "It doesn't work the same, but it's present. The old world lingers in all of us, some more than others, even though we try to move on."

I stare at him, confused by what he's trying to tell me.

He shakes his head with a slight smile. "You've done an excellent job here today. Rose has received many calls complimenting the new and helpful detective we have acquired. Don't listen to Rick's huffing and puffing. I anticipate you doing many great things here."