[Assist, Home]
Dogberry had all the prisoners shackled to the bench, the box Nora’s prisoner was carrying contained twenty Earth made hand guns. Dogberry had roused a judge and got a warrant for the warehouse, mansion and barn.
Dogberry was starting to make arrangements for coaches when I pointed out that we could use the private portals. I portaled Nora and fifteen guardspeople to the warehouse where I portaled them into the mansion. The butler came out of the basement in a robe and slippers.
“Sorry I said to him, I told the guard that you preferred we use the service entrance, but they just wouldn’t listen.”
Ten of the guards, myself and Nora remained in the house; another five of the guards went to search the barn. Mr and Mrs Nemanja came down the gaudy staircase in matching silk robes.
“What’s the meaning of this, you can’t just barge into my house, I’m going to get my attorney.” said Mr Nemanja.
“You are not going anywhere sir, we have a search warrant, we are searching your house, barn and warehouse as we speak.”
“How did you get in here?”
“We portaled in.”
“That’s illegal, you can’t use my property without permission. This case will be thrown out of court then I’ll sue the guard, the town and the magician that installed the portals, I’ll ruin you all for using my private property.” said Nemanja
“The moment that the portal system is used in any way for anything illegal, said portal system becomes the property of the government of Wyldwood, owners of the portal assume responsibility for any illegal actions committed with the portals. You both agreed to these stipulations just this afternoon. I’ve already provided the guards with copies of the documents you both signed, the terms and conditions were clearly stated. You did read the terms and conditions before signing, didn't you?”
One of the guards who’d been searching the barn came into the hallway. He informed Nora that the barn was full of weapons. Nora had the guards arrest the Nemanjas, asking me to portal them and one the guard to the guardhouse. Before I left I showed Nora how to use the private portal to portal back to the warehouse.
“Is there anything else I can do before or after I portal these three to the guard house?”
“No, and thank you Rose, I don’t know what they were planning on doing with all these weapons but it couldn’t have been good. Hopefully we’ll find records of where these weapons came into Emain Ablach and where they were going to be shipped to.”
“I might be able to help with that if they won’t talk and you can’t find any records, just let me know.”
When I portaled the Nemanjas and the guard to the guardhouse, other guards were busy carrying box after box of hand guns and rifles. Stacking them behind the counter in a growing pile.
It was very concerning to see all these deadly weapons in Wyldwood. I told Dogberry when they were ready to be destroyed I had the perfect place. After that I went back to the warehouse to find my friends, then we all portaled back to the tower except for Paula who’d used her new portal wallet I'd given her, to portal home to the bakery.
I thanked Draco and Groucho for their help, then Lu and I took a bath so I could give her a proper thank you for always helping me when I needed it.
I was very tired when I arrived at the bookstore the following morning. Dogberry was at the counter talking to Sparky.
“As you can see Guardsman, she just strolls in here any time of the day she feels like. Take her, wherever you need her to go.”
“Thank you Grandmaster Sir.”
“Rose I can’t believe you are in trouble again, what am I ever to do with you?”
“Very funny Sparky. Dogberry, how can I help?”
“We’re still looking at the records but we can’t make heads nor tails out of them, they are all gibberish. We were hoping you might know what to do with them. Could you come to the guardhouse with me.”
“Certainly Dogberry, let's go.”
We portaled to the Guardhouse, Dogberry was right, I thought that the documents might have been in a foreign language. But there were letters, numbers and symbols all mixed together. I looked for any matching sections of the test but nothing, I wondered if Doug might know of a language like this.
“Dogberry, I’m sorry but I’ve never seen a language like this before, but I have a friend that I think or at least hope that he can. I’ll be back in five minutes”
“Thank you Rose, ma’am.”
I portaled back to my library.
“Doug, it’s not like any language I’ve ever seen before, in the text there are letters, numbers, all sorts of symbols.”
“It sounds like it's encrypted. Do you have some I can see?”
“Sure I’ll take you to the guardhouse, they have loads of the stuff. Don’t make any cracks to Dogsberry about Shakespeare, do you hear me.”
“Wait, Wyldwood has a guard named Dogsberry, you can’t make this stuff up. I love it here. I can’t wait to meet this guy.”
“Unless you’d like to spend the next month in the tower forest, by yourself you will be nice to Dogberry.”
“Fine Rose but you know you are not as much fun as when I first met you.”
“I think you mean, I have mended my ways since I sexually harassed you in the bathroom. If you want to speak to Daisy anytime soon.”
Then we portaled back to the guardhouse. Doug ingested a large number of documents.
“Doug, we are going to need the originals back, they are evidence.”
“Got it Rose, it’s a variant of a simple cipher, the Caesar cipher to be exact but symbols were thrown in as well to make it slightly harder to crack.”
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“So you can read it all ok?”
“Yes Rose, I can output the original and an English language copy of it page by page if you’d like.”
“Yes that sounds very helpful Doug, thank you. Have you seen enough of the documents to determine where the weapons are coming from?”
“Yes so far they are all coming from the United States, more specifically these three cities so far Marion, Muncie, Indianapolis. They are all located in the state of Indiana.”
“Any records about where they are shipping them too?”
“Yes they are all being shipped to Veracity, three different shipping addresses and payments coming from three separate banks.”
“There are three rival gangs, last I heard in Veracity, Richter, Granny and Finey. It could be that those weapons were meant for a gang war. Anything else interesting Doug.”
“Lots of invoices from Madd Maggies for portal muffins.”
“Will you please take a picture of the couple in custody.” I held Doug up so he could see the Nemanjas.”
“Got it.”
“Thanks Doug.”
Doug gave me all the paperwork back, along with the unencrypted copies. I gave them to Dogberry.
“It Looks like all the firearms are coming from the United States on Earth and they were being shipped to three different groups in Veracity.”
“Veracity has the most corrupt guard in Emain Ablach.”
“Dogberry last I heard of Veracity, there were three rival gangs all at war with each other. I’d like to get drawings of the six men that were arrested in the warehouse, then I have a lead as to how they were getting the guns in.”
“Sure Rose they’re in the cell in the back, Nora take Rose to see the prisoners, maybe they’ll talk to her.”
“Doug, please take pictures of these men. I want to show them to Paula and Lily.”
Nora took me into the back where the cell was located. I held up the mirror that is Doug.
“Gentlemen, take a good look in this mirror, to see just where you sit. Most of you won’t be getting out of this jail for a very very long time. But there may be an opportunity for one of you who’d like to help the inquiries and possibly avoid prison entirely. We already know most of the weapons are coming in from Earth, they’re being shipped to Veracity for the gang war between Finey, Granny and Richter. Of course the Nemanjas lawyer is going to pin all the blame on you men. They’ll probably get off with a large fine and go back to living in their mansion while you men are shipped off to the mines to toil for the rest of your lives. But you won’t suffer too long, the mine’s conditions are so brutal that prisoners rarely live more than a year or two. Think about it gentlemen.”
I thanked Nora and portaled to the bakery. The kitchen was empty but I found a bored looking Paula standing behind the counter, waiting for a customer to come in.
“Hey Paula, not to busy today?”
“Nope, Ruby and Salome have all the customers today out there in the teahouse.”
“Could you please look at pictures Doug took of the suspects, I think they bought large quantities of portal muffins to buy firearms on Earth.”
“Sure Rose, hi Doug, do you have pictures of them all?”
“Sure do Paula, just point your baby blues at my mirror.”
“I’m telling Daisy you’re flirting with me.”
“Ah, Paula you’re getting as mean as Rose.”
“Doug, if you think Rose is mean, you’ve led a very sheltered and boring life which I know you have not. Please show me the pictures, please.”
Doug started with the six men that we’d help arrest last night. Paula shook her head after looking for a few seconds at each of the men.
“Yeah I sold six portal muffins to this woman, she claimed she loved the theater and wanted the muffins to travel to New York City to see plays with her husband.”
Doug showed her the last picture of Mr Nemanja.
“Him I sold him eight, he claimed that he was a baseball fan and was taking his whole office to LA to see the Dodgers play. I take it that’s not what they did with them.”
“Nope, they jumped to three different cities in Indiana to buy weapons that they were going to ship to Veracity for their ongoing gang war. Or at least that’s what I think.”
Lily walked in and Doug cycled through all the photos again. While she looked through the photos I filled her in on the weapons and the gang war.
“Lily this is none of my business but..”
“Let me stop you right there Rose, I will not allow my magical bakes to contribute to causing harm even if it is gangs warring other gangs. A life is a life from here on out, we are out of the portal muffin business except for friends and family and even then in limited quantities.”
Doug came to the Nemanjas photo’s
“Yes I sold a few of the portal muffins to each of them.”
“You and Paula may get called if it comes to a trial, but they have so many weapons stored and so much paperwork, pointing at them I can’t imagine a defense. I’ll go back and let Dogberry know, he’ll probably send a guard down.”
“No Rose, let Paula and I go along and we’ll tell Dogberry everything we know. The store can look after itself.”
“Lily, do Ruby and Salome ever sell portal muffins, should I show them Doug’s pictures?”
“Salome, yes when she works inside but I don’t ever remember Ruby selling one but it won’t hurt to ask and to let them know they are no longer for sale. With these wallets you gave us all, none of us need them unless we are moving something big from one location to another.”
It turns out that neither Ruby nor Salome had sold any portal muffins in months. So we portaled to the Guardhouse, so Lily and Paula could let Dogberry know about the portal muffins they had sold to the suspects.
Then Dogberry dispatched Nora to the warehouse to search for portal muffins that might have been overlooked in the original search and he sent three more of the guardsmen to search the house and barn looking specifically for portal muffins.
