Deal with the Devil

Part 2: Chapter 34

"Mullens, got a job for you." Elena looked up from the stack of old paperwork she'd been sorting and took the file from the portly wizard. "You'll need to leave the office for this. And you'll definitely want to wear a robe."

She frowned. "Going somewhere a bit traditional?"

"Going somewhere showing any skin is not advisable," Edgar responded. "Knockturn Alley. You need to go to Borgin and Burke and ask to see their customer files. Anything related to the people or items in these files is something we need copies of."

Elena skimmed the pages within. There were pictures of some of the items, date ranges, descriptions, names and aliases. She nodded. "I'll see what I can do."

"Atta gal, Elle. I'd have given this to Prewitt, big strapping lad he is, but he's a bit confrontational, and the gents who own the shop can be touchy. This is a top priority. This information could help exonerate Regulus Black."

She nodded. "I'll get right on it, sir."

"I knew I could count on you, doll," he said, beaming down at her.

Elena stiffened at the pet name but returned his smile best she could. The man didn't mean anything by it; he was just overly affectionate. Still, she hated hearing that word. She took a deep breath and went back to the documents.

The Black case was high profile and they'd had to fight to get it. That meant they also had to fight to keep it. Regulus Black had been spending the evening with Evander Gamp, one of his older second cousins, when the other man was found dead by a house elf. Aurors determined Gamp had died under suspicious circumstances and detained Black. Black proclaimed his innocence, said that Gamp had been showing him an assortment of dark items the evening before, but the DMLE had decided there was no way the curse causing the death could have come from a magical item; none of the objects present seemed to fit the cause of death. When they found a lovely cursed broach known to belong to Gamp (having come from an ancestor the two cousins shared) among Black's things, motive was set. Black insisted it was a gift, nothing more.

Thus, the search to find any information about dark items that could mummify a corpse overnight.

She stood from her desk, stretching to awaken the body that had been behind the desk for three hours already. It was an unusually warm April and she did not appreciate having to throw her robe back on. She typically only wore it from the apparition point to the office, as she rarely left. She smoothed her hands over the charcoal pencil skirt and neatened the ruffles at the collar of her blouse before throwing the black fabric over it all. She fastened it up to hide the muggle friendly attire and, after a moment of hesitation, charmed a hood over it and strode out the door toward the apparition point.

She apparated to Diagon Alley, which was far safer than the adjacent alley where she was headed. Elena pulled up her hood as she neared the darker region and stretched for every millimeter of height her leather kitten heels would allow. She hated the things, but they were surprisingly comfortable and practical for the office.

The shop that was her destination was at 13B, easy enough to find. Even had she not know what sign to look for, the assortment of dark and strange objects on display would have clued her in. Elena was fairly certain that was a Hand of Glory in the window, a rather controversial item outside of Knockturn's shadows.

She steeled herself and opened the door, the bell above dinging that someone had entered.

The shop was surprisingly clean considering how dusty and obviously long untouched the window display was. One wall was lined with masks that seemed to stare down at her with their empty eyeholes. There were disturbing rusted implements hanging from the ceiling and the hair on the back of her neck stood as she lowered her hood, opened the robe, and turned in a circle around herself.