Bonnie Glock: Magical Private Investigator

Chapter Three

The Trace-Magic

"Glock, are you all right?" Moriano's penetrating voice cut through her thoughts.

She met his concerned gaze and said, "Yeah."

"You sure? Usually by now you would've told me half a dozen things about the victim that nobody else noticed. Plus, your eyes, they did that thing again."

"What thing?" she asked, straightening. She knew exactly what he meant but couldn't tell him that it was a spell that a witch doctor cast to control her epilepsy.

"It's like they almost change color from green to something darker."

"Must be the clouds or something," Bonnie said, pointing overhead.

"There aren't any," Moriano said, craning his neck skyward.

"Well, I can tell you at least one thing you likely don't know about your victim," Bonnie said, drawing his attention. "This man was at my apartment last night."

Bonnie explained to the detective of Gibson's brief appearance at her apartment and how she promptly booted him out. "He left a picture of his wife outside my door; it's at my place," she said. "He was wearing a freshly polished wedding band and asking me to investigate something about infidelity. He's probably a newlywed and suspected his wife of cheating. I get these people coming to my door all the time."

Detective Moriano was already stepping backward and Bonnie could tell he was forming a plan in his head. "Send me the pic of the wife. I'm going to look into the Gibsons."

Bonnie waved him a thumbs-up as he dashed away, then returned her keen eyes to examine the corpse. After taking a visual sweep of Leon Gibson's body, she put her hand to her cleverly hidden wand. She altered her pants to house a wand holster that extended down along the inside one pocket. Looking around to make sure none of the investigators or detectives was watching, she then removed the eleven-inch oak wand. Discreetly, she cast a sweeping spell over the corpse, whispering, "Finna magia".

Whenever she came across a 'strange' murder, she used the spell to check for any traces of magic on the victim. It didn't always work, especially if the witch or wizard was careful enough to cover their tracks. The simple spell was, however, the easiest way for her to determine if the crime was committed by magic. Luckily for her, most people in the wizarding world turned a blind eye to anything done in the normal's plane of existence, so murdering a normal rarely caused a witch or wizard to take the time to hide that magic had been the source of their death.

Sliding her oak wand back into its holster, she waited for the magic to pick up any trace residue of spells, charms, hexes, curses, jinxes, or potions. A glimmer flashed green, much like the reflection off a watch as it passes by one's eye. The green light only shone over the entrance hole in Gibson's chest for a fraction of a second, but it was more than enough to confirm Bonnie's suspicion.

So, it's murder by magic, she thought.

A honeyed voice sounded over her shoulder, "Did Dawson ask you here or are you just butting in on all of our cases now?"

Bonnie didn't need to look at her to know that voice belonged to Moriano's partner, Detective Katsura Nayoko. Rising from Gibson's side, she saw the Asian American detective approaching. Her long black hair was pulled back into a ponytail and she was sporting black unisex Ray Bands. Her boots matched Moriano's and she wore matching fitted pants. Her blue dress shirt was mostly covered by the black tactical jacket she wore two thirds sipped. Bonnie didn't want to stick around to hear her complain her about why she and Moriano didn't need her help, so she said, "As a matter of fact, he did. But unfortunately for you, I'm just leaving."

Detective Nayoko removed her sunglasses just so Bonnie could see her roll her dark eyes and shook her head in clear disdain. "You didn't touch anything, did you?" she spat, stopping and planting her legs in a wide and imposing stance just an arms-reach from Gibson's body.

"Only the murder weapon," Bonnie said sarcastically, turning and walking back toward Lincoln Way. She heard Moriano's partner mumbling disapproval as she distanced herself from the crime scene. Appearing to hail a taxi from thin air, she closed the door and disappeared.