Page 58 of Bright Dark Curses

He cleared his throat and spoke louder. “‘Need discreet spells to take down co-worker while filming in Olmeda next week.’”

Dru snorted.

“Next time you might want to give fewer details,” Shane said with a roll of his eye.

“I was nervous, okay?” Ethan said. “It’s the first time I’ve done something like that!”

“Did anyone else contact you?” I asked.

“Just that one witch.”

“One of our suspects might’ve seen the post and decided to use the opportunity to harm the production through him,” Key said excitedly.

“Looks likely,” I agreed. “You said you checked out their shop, and it had good reviews. What shop was it?”

Ethan brightened. “This one.” He swept across his phone several times, then showed me his screen. “I bookmarked it,” he added proudly.

“Maybe we can figure out who owns the shop?” On the outside, it only listed a name, and specialty—all kinds of magic potions for sale—and the already mentioned glowing reviews. “Did you open some kind of account with it?”

Ethan shook his head. “I sent them my details through the direct messages.”

“But you made sure this witch was from the shop, right?”

He blinked. “They said they were. They linked me to it.”

Shane face-palmed. Dru stifled a laugh.

I rubbed my forehead. “Did you at least use a fake name?”

“They needed my full name to ship the potion.”

“You just assumed this person was from the shop but didn’t actually double check? And you sent him your information and real name and everything?”

Ethan paled. “You think I got scammed?”

“I’d probably cancel your credit card,” Key suggested kindly.

“Oh!” Ethan looked like he was about to cry.

“You can do that later,” I said. “I think this person isn’t interested in selling your information, just putting the blame on you. What did you do with the vials? The residue from the potions might give us a clue of who made the spells.”

“I destroyed them right away,” Ethan said.

“Trashed them again?” Shane asked wryly.

Ethan huffed, offended. “I washed the vials with bleach and put them in the fire.”

“That’s some thorough cleansing,” Dru remarked in a tone that said and exactly what a guilty person would do.

“I hoped it’d stop the accidents from spreading.” Ethan dropped his head to the table and covered his neck with his hands. “God, I’m such an idiot.”

Shane’s expression all but spelled if the duck quacks…

I reached over and patted Ethan’s arm. “It’s okay. We all do silly things in moments of stress. What about the boxes used for delivery?”

“Trashed them,” Ethan mumbled from under the weight of the pile of hindsight and regrets keeping his face glued to the table.

“Labels? Return address?”

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