The Unskillful Thaumaturge

VI

"Yeah, why?"

"Everyone downstairs is checking their emails to see if you cancelled class."

Dakota hesitated a second after opening the door. "Why?"

"Because it's, um, 3:40." Jennifer looked flustered.

Dakota looked at her blankly.

"Class was supposed to start at 3:30."

Dakota turned slowly to look at the clock on his wall. He then accurately expressed his frustration by giving Jennifer a stunning speech.

"Crap!" He threw together his supplies and bounded down the stairs, Jennifer following behind him, slightly smug.

☙❧

"Did you get the lab results on that key yet?" Galena asked, leaning back against the wall.

"Yep. No traces of any substances whatsoever. There are prints on it. Some of them belong to someone named Lillian Bankhurst. Some we haven't identified yet. There's a powerful, untraceable barrier. We're working on it."

"Lillian gave us the key. Her prints should have been there. No leads?" Galena sighed.

"Nothing, other than what you and Director Howell are working on." The forensic specialist dipped her head.

"We're going to need you to do some more tests tomorrow. A subject is coming in and we're going to do blood and DNA. Can you do that?"

"Sure."

"How long will it take?"

"I don't know, maybe about a month for the DNA test. The blood test we can get done by Saturday."

"A month?" Galena asked disbelievingly.

"Yeah. Sorry, it's kind of complicated. Maybe three weeks at best. Is that a good time frame?"

Galena sighed. "Yeah, it'll work. But promise me that you'll keep doing the test even if Rolf or I leave."

"Got it," the forensic specialist replied. "I had better go tell my assistant so we can get prepped for the tests." She began walking away.

"Wait!" Galena called.

The forensic specialist turned, not her whole body, but only her head. "What?"

"What's your name?"

"Janelle," she replied. "Thanks for letting me know about those tests, Assistant Director Tarmont. I'll get right on it."

Galena chased her down the hall. "Janelle?"

"Yeah?"

"'Assistant Director Tarmont' is a mouthful. Just say Galena. It's fine."

"Okay, cool." Janelle disappeared into the lab, presumably to start prepping for the tests the next day.

☙❧

Rolf was sitting in his office typing when the assistant from the lab came in. "Director?" he asked timidly.

"Yeah?" Rolf's fingers paused above the keyboard.

"Those fingerprints?"

"Yeah?" Rolf repeated.

"We found a match, but it's really weird."

"Who?"

"A guy who was arrested forty years ago for vagrancy. They found him dead in his cell the next morning with no apparent cause."

"What?"

"The fingerprints are fresh. There were matches from all ten of the dead guy's fingers on that key."

"Is it possible that there's some thaumaturgy going on?"

"We were just looking at that. This guy died before the Thaumatogenesis, so he's definitely dead, the body wasn't transfigured or anything. Also? He had a little cut on his right thumb when the fingerprints were taken and that part of the fingerprint was blotted out on the record. But the right thumb we found on the key had that gap filled in. Doing some research, he couldn't produce a single person to bail him when arrested, not even a friend. No one knew who he was. No one has looked him up outside of the police who arrested him. His body is undisturbed. Those fingerprints were fresh, Director. Someone alive with those prints held that key sometime in the last two days."

Rolf thought for a minute. "Is it possible this guy had kids?"

He scratched his head. "Probably not. He was maybe seventeen when he was arrested, but refused to give his age or name. He wasn't in the records, wasn't going to school, and was instead loitering around in a city park."

"Where?"

"Eugene."

Rolf blinked, surprised. Eugene, the closest notable city to Dorena, was easily less than an hour away by car.

"I want to look into this kid more." He pressed a button on his office phone and began talking into it. "Diane! Get Derek and get in here! The forensic assistant has some new info on that key." He took the phone away from his ear. "What's your name?" he asked.

"Evan," the assistant replied, none too pleased.

"Evan," Rolf echoed into the phone. "Yeah, yeah, ask Derek to get his filing stuff. You know what, skip my office. Tell everyone to get to the conference room. Derek and you and everyone else."

"Gotcha," Diane confirmed on the other line, hanging up.

"Come on, Evan," Rolf ordered, standing up, walking into the hall, and beckoning for him to follow. "We're going to a meeting."