Nymphadora Tonks and the Liquor of Jacmel

31. Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

Thursday 24^th September 1994

The business of taking the man they'd arrested through the formalities proved to be a surprisingly slow process in the early hours of the morning. By the time the suspect had been Enervated, booked, tested for jinxes and Dark items, then safely locked in one of the holding cells, it was well past three in the morning. Tonks and Cornworthy reluctantly offered to get into work at the usual time ready for the interview, but Cassius, smiling, simply shook his head and waved them away.

"I think both of you deserve a decent night's sleep after that. Take the morning off and get here for midday. That'll give me time to talk to Donnacha and look up what we know about this chap. Seldom hurts to let them stew for a bit."

"Don't you deserve a decent night's sleep too?" asked Tonks in a pointed manner.

"Oh, you know what they say, the old need less sleep," he said airily. "I've been staying up late and getting up early for a while now. But I can certainly understand if you youngsters can't last the pace ..."

They exchanged glances. Cornworthy too seemed to be making efforts not to laugh, although Tonks felt less like doing so when she remembered why Cassius had been staying up late. "Very well, Cassius," he said, with a wink at Tonks. "See you this afternoon then."

Tonks wondered if she might find it difficult to actually get to sleep after all the excitement. However, she realised, when she awoke at eleven o'clock, that she must have fallen asleep almost as soon as her head touched the pillow. Grudgingly, she acknowledged that she did in fact feel refreshed. Clearly staying up on late-night vigils wasn't her strong point, and she hoped it wouldn't be something she needed to do very often.

She was taken aback to find a bustle of activity when she arrived at work. Everyone else was there already, including Rhiannon Davies, perched precariously on the edge of O'Gregan's cubicle desk.

"Morning ... er, afternoon, Tonks," she said cheerfully. "I wondered where Donnie had gone running off to last night, and now I know. Congratulations!"

"Wotcher, Rhi," said Tonks. "Thanks. What's the plan, and why all the rush?"

"The rush, my girl," said a somewhat rumpled-looking O'Gregan, glancing up at her, "is because the Wizengamot have shown their usual perfect sense of timing. They've only gone and signed the Veritaserum warrant for our Miss Perks down in the cells today, just when we have another suspect to bother with! And they seemed rather put out when we suggested that it could wait a day or two, so they did, despite the fact that they've been sitting on their backsides for a couple of weeks without making a decision."

"Not a problem, Donnacha," said Cassius, sticking his head around the corner of the cubicle. She thought he looked disgustingly fresh again for a man who'd had so little sleep, just as he had on the morning they'd gone to Brighton in search of Ballantyne. "Good afternoon, Tonks. We'll simply have to split our efforts, won't we? You and Arnold can interview Charlotte Perks - the Ashford affair was your case first, after all." Both men looked at Cassius with surprise and a certain respect. "Tonks and I will see what we can get out of our robber. I hope we won't be needing Veritaserum to persuade him to talk."

"Did we get confirmation that it was Liquor of Jacmel he was using?" asked Tonks hopefully.

"We did indeed," said O'Gregan with a grin. "The Barton fellow had the taxi drive him all the way back to the Leaky Cauldron, then he asked old Tom if he could use the Floo without buying a drink first. So I picked him up before he went home and brought him in to let the curse-breakers have a look. They said it was like seeing Farley all over again, they did. I snatched a few hours sleep in the office until he snapped out of it, and was he horrified to find out what he'd been doing for the past twenty-four hours. And our analyst boys" - here he waved a roll of parchment at her - "were absolutely, positively, one hundred percent sure this time that he'd been subject to Liquor of Jacmel. I do so like it when we get clear proof, so I do."

"Brilliant!" said Tonks. "What did you do with him? Can he identify anyone?"

"No such luck," said the Irishman regretfully. "He's got no real recollection of what happened since about midday yesterday when he drunk the stuff, just like it says in the notes. But given how the fellow you caught was behaving, I don't think it matters."

"He's who I thought he was, then?" asked Tonks. In the dark she hadn't been entirely sure. "Was that his real name he gave us when we booked him in, by the way?"

"Yes - Barry Lewis," Cassius informed her. "Fortunately, he even had identification on him, so he was quite easy to trace - minor criminal record, nothing too serious before now. Well, at least nothing that he'd been arrested for, at least. And you were right, you did recognise him."

"Who is he then?" asked Rhiannon curiously.

"The bloke who works in that 'JW Wells' shop in Knockturn Alley," Tonks informed her.

Rhiannon raised her eyebrows. "The one who told you about that bookshop originally?"

"Yeah, and the one who was talking to Scarf Boy that day when Cassius followed him."

"Yes indeed," said Cassius, nodding. "I imagine he might have quite a lot more he could tell us, don't you?"

*****

The wizard named Barry Lewis was looking decidedly the worse for wear when they arrived in the interview room. It seemed obvious to Tonks that he hadn't slept well the previous night. He glanced up at them as they entered; there was fear showing in his eyes that he couldn't entirely control.

"Good afternoon, Barry," said Cassius pleasantly. "I'm sure you know why you're here, but for the record, I'll list the charges against you. Possession of a Class A Non-Tradeable Substance, namely Liquor of Jacmel. Actual use of said substance on an innocent party. Three offences of major robbery. We'll throw in resisting arrest and visible use of spells in a Muggle-inhabited area as well. Not that we really need them, but we like to keep things neat and tidy, you see." Lewis didn't reply. "Now then, Barry, what are you going to tell us?"

Lewis looked at him sullenly and mumbled "Nothing."

Cassius and Tonks looked at each other with a smile. "Oh dear, haven't we been here before?" he said.

"I don't care. I'm not saying nothing." Lewis seemed to be avoiding their eyes as much as was possible within the confines of the interview room.

"Barry, you might want to reconsider that. You're looking at a life sentence in Azkaban if you don't," said Tonks, irritated.

"What!" Tonks blinked; surely he had to have known that?

Cassius contemplated him. "Barry, do you mean you didn't know that using Liquor of Jacmel is considered the notional equivalent of an Unforgiveable Curse?"

Apparently, Lewis hadn't. "N -no?" he stuttered.

"We can show you the Wizengamot ruling if you like," said Tonks cheerfully. She rummaged through her notes, found the appropriate piece of parchment, and handed it to him. "Here, have a butcher's ..."

Lewis took it with obvious trepidation, quickly read it through and blanched. He looked up at Tonks and Cassius with a helpless, hunted expression.

"A life sentence in Azkaban might not be very long, though, to be fair," said Tonks with a poker face. It alarmed her slightly just how easily she was slipping back into the part of Bad Auror to Cassius' Good Auror. I wanted you to do this next time, Cassius ... Oh well, too late now. "People go out of their minds very quickly in there, you know, don't last that long, just go mad and fade away as the Dementors suck out all the good memories they have ..."

"No!" Lewis tried to get up; Tonks stood up, grabbed him by the shoulders and forced him back into the chair, as befitted the role she seemed to be adopting. She exchanged a glance with Cassius; he looked mildly amused, but seemed perfectly willing to play along.

"Of course, we might be able to do a deal, Barry," he said quietly.

"Wh - what?"

"A deal, Barry. We'd rather like to know where you got the Liquor of Jacmel from. If you told us, and put us on the right path to finding the supplier, I'm sure we'd be willing to recommend to the court that we only charge you on the robbery counts. I'm sure you didn't make the potion all by yourself, did you now?"

Lewis' eyes flicked around the bare surroundings again. He looked haunted. "Yeah, I did. I - I'm good at potions, always have been."

Tonks shook her head. "Well, it's a real shame you threw away your academic career for a life of crime then, Barry," she said with as much cold sarcasm as she could manage.

"Eh?" Lewis looked at her blankly.

"Well, no-one outside of Haiti ever managed to make Liquor of Jacmel before. Still, if you've worked out how it's done, you might be able to trade that bit of knowledge for a reduction in sentence too. What's the procedure? I always wondered."

"Er ..." Lewis had the hunted look again.

"Or maybe you could just cut the crap and tell us who you got it from," she said brutally.

"He'd kill me!" blurted Lewis. It seemed to dawn on him that saying this wasn't really helping his case, and an expression of horror spread slowly across his face.

Cassius shrugged. "To be perfectly honest, old chap, so will having every feeling of happiness and hope sucked out of you by Dementors. At least this way you have a chance to get out of there eventually." His expression was not unsympathetic; Tonks knew very well that he didn't particularly approve of the creatures guarding Azkaban, but he certainly wasn't above using the threat of them against a suspect. More gently, he added, "Suppose you start by telling us why you did this a third time after a gap of a few months. You must have netted about ten thousand Galleons from the first two robberies. Wasn't that enough for you? Why risk this again?"

"I wanted - I needed the money," said Lewis sourly. "I wanted to be able to get away, didn't I? Can read the signs as well as anyone else."

"What signs?" asked Tonks, intrigued.

Lewis shuddered. "What signs? Bloody Death Eaters on the loose again! I'm old enough to remember everyone wetting themselves at the thought last time around." Tonks realised with a start that Lewis was indeed only about seven or eight years older than her; he'd have just left school when You-Know-Who fell. "Anyway, how was I supposed to know anybody had rumbled me? Goblins weren't going to say, were they? Nothing in the paper about it."

Cassius actually rolled his eyes; Tonks too was surprised at how idiotic that sounded. "You think we'd let you know what we knew?" she said. This brought no comment from Lewis, whose face had fallen comically.

Cassius eventually broke the silence. "Look, young man, I'm afraid that with the evidence we have against you, a guilty verdict is a formality. So there really are only two ways that this can go. One, you voluntarily tell us what you know. Two, we get a Veritaserum warrant and get it out of you anyway. I can't encourage you to imagine for one second that the Wizengamot would quibble about granting one, not considering the seriousness of your offences, and especially not - as you yourself have realised - in the current climate. The only differences are that with option one, you can earn yourself some brownie points for the sentencing, and we get the information that little bit sooner, which may be of value to us,"

"Unless of course you're a Master of Mental Magic and can fight the Truth Potion, which I rather doubt," said Tonks brightly.

Lewis looked daggers at her. His eyes flicked to Cassius. "Would you keep me safe till I come to trial?"

"Safe?" said Tonks, incredulous. "What do you mean, safe?"

"I 'eard what happened to that Ballantyne bloke. I'm not so stupid I can't put two and two together. Your lot arrested him on something to do with the Bu ... this stuff. I've met Ballantyne, seen 'im about. He'd probably have spilled his guts in the end. He'd have reason to, wouldn't he? But he got done in for it, didn't he?"

"If he had 'spilled his guts', as you put it," said Cassius mildly, "he'd most probably not have been 'done in'. He'd still be alive today if he hadn't given whoever killed him a chance to get to him."

"He was stupid, he tried to hold out," added Tonks roughly. She was curious to know what Lewis had been going to say before he cut himself off. "What are you going to do, Barry?"

Lewis was positively shaking now. Tonks had a very strong impression that he'd never quite realised the seriousness of what he was getting himself into. "All ... all right," he said. "Look, you've got to promise that you'll go easy on me, OK?"

"That depends on what we get from you, old chap, I'm afraid," said Cassius. "Let's start with a basic question. Where did you hear about Liquor of Jacmel?"

Lewis' shoulders slumped in defeat. "Oh all right. I overheard Wellsey chatting about it with him, OK?"

"With who?"

"Don't know his real name. Calls 'imself the 'Butler'. Seems to think of it as a bit of a private joke, far as I can tell. Supplies stuff for people, like, odd stuff he gets from abroad, he's got contacts out there." Lewis waved a hand in a vague manner, suggesting that anywhere outside the British Isles was more or less the same thing to him. "From what I heard from Wellsey, he's been doing it a while now, sort of took over the business from a bloke who used to be in the trade years ago. Anyway, he was saying he'd got some of the stuff in for an order and 'ad a bit in hand, and wanted to know if old Wellsey would sell any." Lewis laughed, without sounding as if he found it especially funny. "Old sod said it was too much of a risk to flog in the shop. Bet he knew what the sentence was."

"How can you not know this man's name?" asked Tonks in a disbelieving voice.

Lewis snorted. "Don't be daft love. Keeps his face 'idden when he's on business, don't he? Basic precaution. Better to have people suspicious of 'ow you look than have them know who you are. An' a lot of people don't use their real name down Knockturn Alley if they can 'elp it, or at the Toad, or up at the old 'Ogs'ead, or anywhere else you can get dodgy stuff, you know? Would you?"

Fair point, but ... "I've never heard of anyone called the Butler. You, Cassius?"

Cassius shook his head. "No, never. Sorry, Barry, you're not convincing us."

"Well, you wouldn't have, would you?" said Lewis, beginning to sweat a little. "He's a bit of a specialist, like, innee? Knows better than to get in the way of the big boys, but I've 'eard he'll supply them with stuff when they're after it, does a nice little trade from all I hear. You 'ave to know him, or be told about him. Probably they all think he's a respectable young bloke when he's out and about without that stupid scarf on."

"Who do you mean by the big boys?" asked Cassius cautiously.

"You know. Proper dark wizards, not just the ... well, ordinary decent crooks most of us on the Alley cater to. The real villains."

Yeah right, thought Tonks. I don't suppose you'd have argued about selling dangerous goods to ... oh, just for the sake of argument, my uncle. But then again, I wouldn't be surprised if you were scared of him ...

"What do you know of that?" said Cassius sharply. "If you want to get any kind of reduction in sentence, you're going to have to tell us everything, Mr Lewis."

"Not much. I hear rumours, like?" he said, panicking a little. "People who'd got a reputation down the Alley, people they said 'ad been really bad once upon a time - You-Know-Who's lot, probably, the ones they never pinned it on. They seemed to be sniffing around, making plans again ..."

"Like the riot at the World Cup?"

"Yeah, wouldn't be surprised. Don't know. Wasn't going to ask for bleedin' details, was I? When I was a kid, you didn't cross them if you knew what was good for you." Cassius nodded sadly as if he'd heard this sort of tale many times before; Tonks realised after a moment's reflection that he probably had. "On the prowl again, weren't they? There was some meeting they 'ad down the Alley, I heard. More than enough for me. I can tell which way the wind is blowing. I wanted out if I could. Especially after the World Cup. I was there, I saw them. Scared the willies outa me. Had to get as much as I could as quickly as I could when I saw the chance, didn't I?"

"And the thought of nicking a lot of money wouldn't have crossed your mind otherwise, then?" said Tonks sarcastically. She decided to try a little jab. "And you knew all this well before the World Cup, which is when the first two robberies took place? You seem to be very well up on their plans, Barry."

Lewis scowled, but - even to Tonks eye - looked scared rather than shifty. "Well all right. I wanted to make a little money, don't we all? But I wouldn't have risked it again so soon otherwise ..."

Cassius exchanged a mildly sceptical look with Tonks. "Tell me how you got hold of the Liquor of Jacmel you used, please."

"Bought it from the Butler, didn't I?"

"You bought it ... That must have been rather expensive for you?"

"Yeah, it was, but I 'ad a bit put by for a rainy day. And once I tried the first job and it worked and there wasn't a big row in the papers or anything, I could buy up some more, couldn't I?"

"I see. What did he say when he realised you knew about it? For someone who claims to have been worried what he might do to you if you told anyone, wasn't it rather a risk even to approach him and place an order?"

Lewis swallowed. "Well, he wasn't too keen, like, but I suppose he worked out that if I already knew about him 'aving the stuff, it was safer to have me as a customer, yeah? Better inside the tent hexing out than outside hexing in, you know?"

Tonks had been nodding away, then something he'd said caught her attention. "Wait a minute, you said you bought more?"

"Good point," said Cassius, acknowledging the question with a brief inclination of his head. "How much more?"

"A dozen doses. Probably a good chunk of what he 'ad left in stock at the time, I wouldn't be surprised, most of it's left?" he said hopefully.

This time the looks that Tonks and Cassius exchanged were delighted. "A dozen?" she said. "So you weren't planning many more robberies, then?" Lewis' face fell.

"Turn that over to us, Mr Lewis," said Cassius, seizing the advantage, "and that will definitely be a decent slice off your sentence. Where is it? In your house?"

"Nah, in the shop. Safer. In a little secret drawer I fixed up in the back that old Wellesey don't know about," said Lewis, almost eagerly. "I'll tell you the password and everything if you want to go and get it."

"You can write it all down in a minute and we'll send someone round as soon as possible," said Cassius. "Just to warn you though, old chap - if we have any trouble, so will you. The shop will be closed now, I take it? When is Mr Wells expected back?"

Lewis snorted. "Another couple of weeks, at least. Spends 'alf the year gadding about, don't he? Don't suppose anyone will care that much whether we open the shop, bloody historic or not. Like I say, it's not my shop to worry about."

"Good. Now, if you can repay the money that will also help your case. No doubt you spent some, how much do you have left?"

"Most of it," said Lewis. His voice held an odd mixture of relief, regret, and eagerness to please. "Didn't want to draw too much attention to myself yet, you see? Owed a bit though, had to pay that off, and I bought some decent tickets for the World Cup ... but well, yeah, there's still about eight thousand left?" Cassius nodded.

"How did you select the victims then?" asked Tonks. She wondered if that might give them a clue to the supplier, but Lewis' answer disappointed her.

"Worked it out, didn't I?" he said with a hint of pride. "There's always a good few 'respectable people' who wander down the Alley looking for stuff that maybe ain't quite as respectable as they are. Nondescript birds looking for ingredients for love potions, like" - Tonks grinned to herself at this - "blokes too sometimes, people wanting cursed stuff, kids trying to impress their mates with a bit of Dark Arts, you name it. Well, I watched 'em, and got talking to people in other shops who sold stuff to 'em too, and followed some of 'em back and found out who they were, yeah? There were a few who were well off but who didn't take enough care of themselves - dead easy to hang around the Leaky Cauldron or wherever and slip some of the stuff in their glass when they'd gone out to the bogs, wasn't it? That's what I did with that Barton bloke."

"Right," said Tonks, regretfully. She glanced at Cassius, who seemed to feel the same way. Lewis was undoubtedly a liar on general principles, but trapped as he was, he sounded surprisingly convincing.

"Let's go over some of the details again, Barry," said Cassius. "But first of all, you'd better tell us how to find that secret drawer so we can send someone to investigate ..."

*****

"Well, that went quite nicely."

Tonks looked up from perusing the output from the Auto-Dictation Quill they'd used to take down everything Lewis said, and grinned at her partner. "Yeah, you could say that. Is Rhi back from the shop yet?"

Cassius grinned back at her. "Yes, just a few minutes ago. She said things went without a hitch - she and a fellow from the Patrol got in and found the hiding place using Lewis' information, no trouble at all."

"Any luck?"

"Yes indeed. They sealed up the shop and dropped off ten bottles of a pale yellowish liquid for Magical Analysis to have a look at. Apparently they were delighted to have so much available for investigation."

"Wonder what Mr Wells will think about his shop being closed when he gets back?" asked Tonks with a chuckle. "Is it really historic?"

"Actually, I think it probably is, come to think of it," said Cassius reminiscently. "That shop's been in Knockturn Alley for as long as I can recall - and you needn't remind me that that's a long time, young lady," he said, wagging a finger at Tonks. "The original JW Wells would have been something like his great-grandfather - I believe the story was that he earned a certain notoriety by getting drunk in a Muggle pub one evening, and talking about his business to a man who wrote songs. He made a musical show out of the idea, which could have been a nasty Statute breach, but fortunately he got enough of the details wrong to show that he hadn't really taken Wells seriously. That's the tale, anyway. Of course, these people often make things up to sound more impressive."

"Right." Tonks glanced at the long roll of parchment again. "How much of what Barry Lewis said did you think was made up, Cassius? I didn't believe a word about him only going into the robbery business because the Death Eaters were coming out to play again."

"Well, neither did I," agreed Cassius. "Although ... I have to say, I did find him convincing when he talked about the latest robbery. He looked genuinely scared, which isn't really surprising. But I very much doubt that was his original motive. I suspect it was an idea he'd had in the back of his mind for some time, but never saw how to bring off before. He would have had to work quickly to find his victims otherwise."

"Did you think that stuff about the 'Butler' was fishy?" asked Tonks. "If this Butler character was so reluctant to sell to Lewis, why would he be trying to flog the stuff to Beatrice Easton?"

"Blackmail, I should think," said Cassius with a shrug. "She may have had the elementary sense not to let him know her name - but when you talked to him, he seemed to know a lot about her, even so. It wouldn't have been difficult for him to follow her after they met and find out that she'd gone back to work at the Ministry - and once he had her buying truly illegal potions, he'd have her hooked. I think she had a very lucky escape."

Tonks grimaced, remembering her encounters with the man. "Too right. Is there any record of someone using 'The Butler' as an alias?"

"Actually, yes, sort of. I checked on the WEB Access, and there were a couple of vague mentions of a supplier using that name. So Lewis may well be telling the truth, even if it's not all he knows - not least because he didn't give us much in the way of details that would excuse him, not even made-up ones. We'll find out soon enough, anyway."

"Veritaserum again?"

"Yes. I don't anticipate a problem this time - we've got all the evidence we'll ever need. And Mr Lewis doesn't have any friends in high places. For the moment, though, I'm going to assume that what he told us is worth checking out - he certainly seemed frightened enough to tell us as much as he could. Good work on that, by the way. We'll make a Bad Auror of you yet!"

"Well, I hope you don't, not really," said Tonks, unhappily. "But I do work at doing what I need to though, Cassius. I may joke around a bit, and I ...well, I may make mistakes, but I take the job seriously."

"Good."

"It's what I always really, really wanted to do, you know?"

"I do know," said Cassius, smiling. "Mind you, on that subject I do want a word or two with you about ..." He broke off and glanced up towards the main office doors, and the smile widened; Tonks, following his gaze, saw O'Gregan and Cornworthy coming through them. "Well, never mind for the moment. With a little bit of luck, we may have a double win on our hands. I wonder what Miss Charlotte Perks had to say?"

*****

Tonks, watching the faces of her two colleagues as they approached the cubicles, felt a slight twinge of unease. They were wearing curiously mixed expressions that seemed unable to decide between satisfaction and disappointment.

Cassius didn't seem to have noticed. "So, Donnacha, Arnold, what do you have for us?" he asked cheerfully. "Did you find out what her connection to Portia Blackstock was?"

O'Gregan looked slightly embarrassed. "Er, yes, Cassius old lad. It seems from what she told us after she took the Truth Potion - with a certain reluctance, you might say - that the two of them met each other at that charity of yours. They did get to know each other away from the office, and they've actually been spending a fair bit of time together, so they have. In fact Charlotte's been round at Portia's house a number of times when her parents have been out doing the social circuit, without them knowing ..."

"Excellent! Why all the secrecy?"

"Well, from what she said I don't think ... erm, that she's quite the kind of friend Portia's parents wanted for their darling daughter ... er, you know, not when they wanted her to be out and about meeting young fellows they might be able to marry her off to ... I mean, erm ..." O'Gregan shuffled his feet awkwardly and shot a desperate glance at his partner, clearly seeking his help. Tonks was struggling very hard not to laugh; when she caught Cornworthy's eye he seemed to be having the same problem.

Cassius rolled his eyes and took pity on the Irishman. "Donnacha, please. For goodness' sake - I may have been born in a different era, but after eighty years in this business, believe me there is very little that would shock or even surprise me any more. All right, so young Charlotte and Portia are friends, by which I assume you mean lovers." He grinned. So did Tonks; she'd had an inkling that something like this might be the case. "Wonderful! That finally provides us with a solid connection and a motive. So you found out how close their relationship actually is? Enough to plan murder with each other, clearly?"

"Erm ... fairly strong," said O'Gregan, looking daggers at Tonks, whose mouth was twitching at his discomfiture despite everything she could do to keep a straight face. "But that's what we wanted to talk to you about ..."

"Are you sure, Don?" A brief giggle escaped from Tonks. She managed to compose herself. "What did Charlotte have to say about the night Ashford got stabbed? She was supposed to be in that Muggle restaurant in France, yeah? Was what happened Portia flying solo? Or did she plan it with Charlotte, and the French business was just her making sure she kept her nose clean? Or did they arrange for the restaurant witnesses to lie through their teeth, and they were really out and about together in the Transfigured Toad?"

O'Gregan scowled and exchanged helpless looks with Cornworthy, who had suddenly stopped grinning. "Ah. Yes. Now then, young Nymphadora, you're not going to like this bit, you're not ..."

"We're not?" said Tonks, bemused

"No," put in Cornworthy with a grimace. "You see, according to our Miss Perks, not only was she in France dining, Portia was with her."

"What?" said Cassius sharply. "Are you sure? How is that possible? I thought neither of them could Apparate?"

O'Gregan shrugged. "They can't. We did check, Cassius old lad. But even so, France isn't hard to get to, now is it? Go by Floo to the Diagon Alley station, then there are regular scheduled international Portkeys to Paris every couple of hours, then they could take Muggle transport to the restaurant. Nice and anonymous all the way, and wouldn't take more than three-quarters of a hour, if that."

"But what about that house-elf who said she was at home ..." Tonks trailed off. "Oh. Right. They keep their masters' secrets. Like you said, you can't trust them to tell you the truth, can you? But why wouldn't it have told Portia's parents, in that case?"

Cornworthy smiled slightly. "Because her dad was the one giving him the orders - and unlike his wife, he didn't grow up with house elves around, and so he didn't quite word his orders right. Jinky - that's the elf - was told to let them know if Portia was meeting any young men they didn't know about and might not approve of, but they didn't ask about ... ah, female friends. So Portia ordered him not to mention Charlotte unless specifically asked, and her mum and dad never knew there was anything to ask about - so they didn't."

Tonks glanced at Cassius. He seemed to be as dumbfounded as she was. "What about the witnesses at that restaurant?" he said. "None of them mentioned Portia?"

"Nobody asked them about her, either," snorted O'Gregan. "Not that it would have helped - little Charlotte told them not to mention Portia being there if anyone did. We didn't think to ask either, did we?"

"But you're saying they both have an alibi!" Tonks said, exasperated. "You're quite sure that ... oh I don't know, the Veritaserum hadn't run out or something?"

"Don't be daft, Nymphadora," snapped O'Gregan. He took a deep breath and continued in a milder tone. "We did get the Healer who was there to administer the Veritaserum to check - and before you ask, we also got him to look her over for evidence of Memory Charms or thought removal or curses, because we sure couldn't find any evidence of them just from her answers. And she came up clean as far as we all could tell."

"So if she hasn't had her mind affected by spells ..." Cassius trailed off, obviously thinking hard. "She can't have taken the antidote to Veritaserum - or if she did, it would have worn off by now, so it comes to the same thing. She could be under Jacmel? ... no, same problem there, it would have worn off long ago. I can't believe Portia knows how to cast Imperius, so that leaves ... some form of resistance?"

"Oclo-whatsit, you mean?" asked Tonks, remembering what Kingsley had talked about. "Isn't that like resistance to Imperius - or Jacmel? Very rare?"

"I'm not sure," said Cassius, clearly surprised. "Do they teach you about that in Auror training now?"

"Oh, er, no, not properly," said Tonks, backtracking hastily. It wouldn't do to have colleagues asking funny questions about her outside investigative activities. "But it was mentioned a few times, and it sounded interesting. Isn't it supposed to be really hard?"

"I believe it's achievable with the right training," mused Cassius. "Easier than resisting Imperius, anyway. Adapting the technique to resist Veritaserum isn't as straightforward as all that, though; and from what I remember, the difficulty was always finding someone who had the skill and time to teach it properly. Very few of us in the Department ever bothered ... But I suppose Miss Perks must have done so somehow." He paused, looking extremely disappointed. "Wonderful. Just when I thought we had her, another loose end to chase down."

"Or she could be telling the truth," said Cornworthy quietly. "That the simplest explanation, Cassius."

"But that ..." Cassius looked at him unhappily. "It doesn't make sense, Arnold! Charlotte Perks has means and motive, and she had opportunity for the second attempt, and now we find she really does have a connection to someone who had a clear opportunity for the first attempt. And then you tell me they both have an alibi? Isn't it rather too ... pat?"

"Yes, it is," said Cornworthy, shrugging, "but we can't prove otherwise, can we?"

"What about the stuff you found in her kitchen?" asked Tonks without much hope.

"Sticks with her story that she didn't know it was there," said O'Gregan, with a shrug. "And however much we tried to goad her, she didn't get all annoyed and vehement the way she's been up to now, she just denied it placidly. You know, the way people do when they're under Veritaserum. And we tried asking lots of little questions in the general region of the subject - you know, when was the last time she opened that hidey-hole, what was she doing just before, that sort of thing - but she didn't say anything to contradict herself on the subject, so she didn't."

"She didn't tell us anything else she shouldn't have, either," said Cornworthy glumly. "Said she'd never been to the Transfigured Toad in her life and neither had Portia, and didn't know a thing about the owl sent from the World Cup with those chocolates. She even refused to throw the blame on her cousins, because she said they wouldn't do something like that and neither of them would have the nerve or the planning ability to bring it off anyway. In short, she claims to be as pure as a unicorn rider ... well all right, maybe not quite that pure ... obviously ... but you know what I mean."

"What are we going to do with her?" asked Tonks. "Will we have to let her go?" She had an uneasy feeling she knew what the answer was going to be.

"N ... yes," said Cassius. He looked like a man who would have been gritting his teeth if he hadn't felt it undignified. "In fact, not only will we have to let her go, we'll have to let her go with an apology. I suppose that falls to me. I want her watched when she leaves, though."

"Can we do that?" said Tonks. "Officially, I mean."

"Possibly not, but at the moment we can get away with it, I think," said Cassius, with a grim expression. "Donnacha, Arnold - add her to your watching list, but first you'd better go and process her. Let me know when she comes out of it from the Veritaserum, and I'll go and talk to her. Tonks - stay here, I still want a word with you."

Tonks nodded. The other two looked at her with a kind of sympathetic curiosity and left.

"What was it you wanted to know, Cassius?" she asked. She had a feeling she knew the answer to that question as well.

"I just want to know where we stand," he said quietly, confirming her suspicions. "I must admit, Tonks, I wasn't at all happy to find out that your supposed Knockturn Alley contact was actually your parents - or more precisely, I wasn't happy that you hadn't told me about it. Why was that?"

"I couldn't, Cassius," she said unhappily. "I really couldn't. It would have got Dad into big trouble if Gringotts had found out. You know what the goblins are like. I promised I wouldn't tell anybody except Claymore. I didn't like keeping it from you all, but ... well, I promised. I'm sorry," she finished in a rather small voice.

"I see." Cassius seemed thoughtful. "Well ... I don't suppose I can really argue with that. After all, I should know by now that sometimes you have to keep things to yourself in this job, shouldn't I? It's just that ... I never suspected what the true situation was until your mother called you yesterday." He shrugged. "I suppose, if I'm being honest with myself, that I underestimated you, Tonks. As you said, sometimes it's easy to see you laughing and joking and being cheerful, and overlook the fact that you do take things seriously. Perhaps I need to remind myself occasionally just how far you've come in a few months."

"Thanks, Cassius!" said Tonks, feeling oddly embarrassed, but also rather pleased.

"Don't mention it. You're really surprisingly good at keeping personal secrets from people for someone who's usually so open, young lady? Perhaps I should be watching and taking notes." His smile took the sting from the words.

Oops. It's a good job you don't know about Shacklebolt then. Tonks kept her face straight, although it took a certain amount of effort; but then she was getting used to it by now. The idea of telling Cassius what she'd learnt crossed her mind briefly, but she rejected it almost immediately; this was something he could really argue about. "Well, I only charge a Galleon an hour for lessons, mate," she said with a grin to cover herself.

"Ah well, too much for a poor old man like me," said Cassius, smiling back at her. "Look, Tonks, given the situation - and the results - I'm not going to complain about you keeping me in the dark. Just remember that it's not usually a good idea to have little private arrangements your colleagues don't know about. I assume your parents won't want to be mentioned in the case report?"

"Not if we can avoid it ... the goblins won't insist on knowing the details, will they?"

"I doubt it ... Knowing them, they won't ask too many questions about exactly how we caught Lewis, just so long as we've put a stop to his activities. I think your father's job is safe enough. Do give him my heartfelt thanks for his help, won't you?"

"Yeah, of course I will," said Tonks, pleased. "I was going to see Mum and Dad this evening, actually, I'll tell them."

"Excellent. Remember me to your mother too - I think I met her once or twice, back when she was even younger than you are!" He checked his watch and made a face. "In fact, you might as well toddle off and see her now, because we're not going to get any further this late in the afternoon, and I've got to go and humbly apologise to Charlotte Perks for the way we cruelly and unreasonably suspected her on the basis of rock-solid evidence."

"Where do we take it from here?" asked Tonks, making a face of her own.

Cassius shrugged. "We hope that Donnacha and Arnold can find something out? I don't like it, but she's passed the Veritaserum test, so there's nothing much we can do for the moment. In the meantime, we'll just have to chase down what other leads we have. Barry Lewis has given us plenty to check out, I want a little word with this Wells chap when he gets back from his holiday, and I suppose we still ought to take a look at Mr Arkwright and find out why he's buying cages from Mackenzie Ashford again. It's a loose end, and I don't like leaving loose ends dangling if I can help it. And anyway, if your friend from the World Cup can set us up to go and have a look incognito, it would be a shame not to take the chance, wouldn't it?"

"I'll ask him again," promised Tonks as she got up, conscious of having let that possibility slip a long way down her list of priorities.

"Good" He looked up at her. "Oh, and Tonks?"

"Yeah?"

He broke into a smile again, one that she returned with a grin. "Well done."

*****

The grin remained on her face all the time she made her way down into the Ministry foyer, and even as far as her Apparition to the safe arrival point in her parents' home, as she thought with pleasure about the congratulations she could pass on. Then she pursed her lips and sobered slightly.

Because she had other reasons for wanting to have a good long talk with her mother, reasons that were among the many things she hadn't told Cassius. The discussion she wanted to have - needed to have - with her had been put off for far too long.

Thirteen years too long.