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  “Good Morning Sparky, how would you like a couple dozen donuts?”

  “I’d love a few dozen donuts. Rose. ”

  “Do you want something from the bakery Opal?”

  “I’d like a sweet bun please.”

  “Make that a dozen sweet buns for Opal, I’ll eat any she can’t finish.”

  “Ok Sparky, Bye Opal, see you soon.”

  What a difference a day makes. There wasn’t a free table at the bakery, and only a few empty chairs. Lu was again perched on a stool singing her most popular song about Lily’s bakery. Which probably made it twice as popular when sung here. Ruby and Salome were both hustling from table to table, taking orders, delivering orders. If business keeps up at this pace they may soon be wishing for a lull. Then I saw Eldara waving at me from a far table motioning to an empty seat.

  “Hi Eldara, it’s nice to see you, but this is a long way from the library.”

  “Paula asked me to come, she said Ruby was heart broken yesterday morning. So I couldn’t really say no. I wish I lived closer, this tea is delicious, I love flower teas, they are so delicate. Today's special is jasmine.”

  “That’s my favorite tea, I’m constantly ordering it and I’d have a huge stock of it at home if the sideboard didn’t produce an excellent brew.”

  “Rose, I’d like to introduce you to a friend of mine, Guardswoman Nora McGowan.”

  “It’s very nice to meet you, Guardswoman.”

  “Please call me Nora, I’m still a probationary Guard, today was my first day and I already heard all about you, your girlfriend the singing bard.” she nodded her head at Lu. “and Eldara’s girlfriend Paula, Bibliomancer. Your trio is famous in guard circles, you got them all their jobs back and more. Dogberry was promoted on your efforts and the council approved of new hires to bolster the force. So I owe you my thanks as well.”

  “Call me Rose, Nora, I’m the junior apprentice now. I let my eleven year old friend sign the apprenticeship papers first. So I’m the junior and she is the senior apprentice.”

  Nora and Eldara both laugh.

  “So Nora, how did you enjoy your first day? If you’re already done you must have had the night shift. Gate duty?”

  “No, I was on patrol on the city streets with Dogberry. That’s who I heard about the trio from.”

  “Dogberry didn’t get demoted did he? The last time I saw him he was working days after getting promoted.”

  “No, he requested to go back on night duty.”

  “Why would he want to do that?”

  “He told me his wife requested he switch back to nights.”

  “Wow, I’d hate it if Lu had to work nights.”

  “Well his wife told him he snores terribly and she wasn’t getting any sleep and that she used to have a vibrant social life. His being home ruined that.”

  “Oh, that doesn’t sound good.”

  “No it doesn’t but I’d never tell Dogberry that. But then Dogberry said the real reason I want to switch back is he wasn’t getting any sleep. He said it was too dark to sleep, after all those years sleeping during the day.”

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  “Now that sounds like Dogberry. Did you solve any crimes or stumble on any mysteries?”

  “Well, I’m not supposed to talk about cases with civilians, but from the way the guard sings your praises, you're at least an honorary guard. One of Dogberry's informants told him we have a bent guard in our force. He’s beaten suspects in chains and forced female suspects favors in lieu of arrest.”

  “That’s awful. Nora.”

  “It is just one bad apple, can ruin the force. One guard see’s him getting away with something, well if he can do it I can do it. Even if he doesn’t corrupt any other guard, he makes us all look bad just by association.”

  “Well at least you can stop him now, right.”

  “No, we have no evidence, no name, a vague description. All we really have are the accusations. Apparently he’s careful, he never commits these crimes in front of guards, just suspects. No one ever believes the suspect. Virtually everyone we arrest claims that they are innocent. Rose.”

  “That makes sense actually, you wouldn’t expect thieves and murderers to be pillars of honesty. So they’d say anything to avoid punishment.”

  “Yeah but that makes it doubly hard to arrest this guy. The only way to catch him is to stumble on him in the act.”

  “Nora there may be another way, but I’d need to speak to Lu and Paula to see if they would be willing to do it.”

  “Do what Rose?”

  Lu had snuck up on me during my conversation with Nora and startled me.

  “Lu, this is Nora, a Guardswoman. She was working with Dogberry and his informant told him that a guard was crooked.”

  “Yeah, I know, he told me the same thing, he’s part of the informant network. I’d be happy to help Rose. What did you have in mind?”

  “Lu, you have that magical scent ability. The next time Nora or Dogberry hears of a complaint against a guard, they get you, you get the arresting guards scent from the suspect. Then we walk around until we can identify the guard in question. That’s where Paula comes in.”

  “Where do I come in?”

  I jumped when I heard Paula’s voice right behind me. I introduced Paula to Nora and explained what we knew.

  Eldara got up kissed Lu.

  “This is very interesting but I have to get to the library or I’m going to be very late.”

  “Here babe, use a portal muffin, and I’ll fill you in on Rose’s crazy plan tonight. Thanks for coming this morning. I was worried it’d be another day like yesterday.”

  “Crazy plan, I’m frankly offended.” I wasn’t really, my plans do sometimes get a little convoluted.

  “Rose ask Doug to show you a heist movie or a book where a heist is the main focus. The characters always plan everything down to the last detail and the plan never works; it always gets messed up. While I’ve only been associated with three of your plans so far. You plan everything down to the last detail then you have a backup and a backup to the backup. Like with Beth, you invite her to kidnap you. But you have a plan to turn that around with Daisy as your backup and Doug as the backup backup. All three plans worked perfectly, that’s completely against the heist trope. But all that aside, where do I come in?”

  “You and I do the surveillance.”

  “Count me in.”

  “Great, now I have to get Sparky and Opal’s breakfast. I was due back at work an hour ago.”

  ***

  Back at Enigmatic Parchments

  “Opal has already fainted twice from hunger and if I don’t have at least three dozen donuts. I don’t know what I’ll do.”

  “Here you go, Sparky, three dozen donuts, and a dozen sweet buns.”

  Here’s a sweet bun for you Opal, would you like a nice cup of jasmine tea?”

  “Yes please”

  “Sparky, Tea?”

  “MMMhmmm”

  “Slow down Sparky.”

  “After you make our tea, start practicing with the magical field again. It should be a little easier today”

  It wasn’t.