The Topaz Icicles
By Jimmy Thomas
"7:45 PM. Bring cookies."
Harry Potter-Wells (who we will refer to as harry) saw the message on his desk after going through paperwork. He grinned, and decided to go to the pastry store after work. This would be a fun night after all, he thought. Harry strolled out of the room, deciding whether to get apricot crème or raspberry white chocolate tarts for the meeting.
"Where are you going so early, Potter? Going to see your girlfriend? Hahahahahaaaa!"
Oh nuts, Harry mumbled, then said: "Yeah, just going to Lorelei's for a get-together. In fact, I'm going to Jessie's Pastries for some tarts for the thing. Care to come?" he questioned.
"I'd rather watch out if I were you; I heard Fred and George placed Canary Creams in the raspberry tarts!" Draco Malfoy (referred as Draco) sneered.
Shut up, you moron, Harry mentally yelled at Draco, but instead mentioned that Lorelei prefers the Canary Creams in the tarts.
Across the river…
"This is KUSA 99.1 live in Lestrade Pavilion! I'm Audrey Gilbreth, and this is the premiere of, LANDSTAR MALPRACTICE! Here now there is the star of the movie, the one and only, Mary Carriba! Excuse me for a second…"
Audrey (Auder) placed down the mic and went to her seat. On the seat was a yellow card…
"7:45 PM. Bring cider."
Oh, great; first an all-day report, now this. What else can go weird?
Audrey picked up her reporter bag and started to stroll towards the Orchard…
At the university…
"And that, my students, is how you identify a female bullfrog."
BBBRRRIIIINNNGGGGG!
The college people rushed out to their dorms, excited at the end of the day.
Sighing, Lucy (Luc) Prentice gathered up her papers and her lucky pencil into her hands, when a slip of paper slid out of a pile of envelopes.
"7:45. bring things at will."
What a planner she is, Lucy thought, as she clambered into her sedan. I know that Harry was bringing cookies today, so what should I bring? Oh, maybe…nah…what about…Yes! That's it!
She started the car and rode towards the grocery store…
Lorelei (Lore) Caldwell was playing one of her favorite video games on the couch when she heard slow footsteps on the stairway.
"Don't strain yourself with all those boxes, Harry! There's only 5 of us today."
There was a rustling, then a blue flash and "Alohomora!" outside the door, then Harry stumbled in, all tired and sweaty. He dropped the small boxes with a thunk and flopped on one of the many chairs in the sitting room.
"I was always amazed by you on knowing people by sound, but how could you know it was me?" He questioned, flabbergasted. "You've only known me for a week!"
"Ears and brains, Harry, ears and brains. How could someone can not hear the sparkly sound made when you were casting a spell? Feather-Light, I presume? You were walking slowly to make sure you didn't lose control. Then you ceased the spell to try to make me think that you carried it up all the way."
"expletive deleted, how could I forget that you mirror the legendary Sherlock Holmes in skill?
"These tarts are very heavy for some reason," he said, switching subjects, as he gingerly picked up one of the miniature pies. It felt like an anchor in his hand.
"Maybe we should weigh them," Lore suggested. She picked up the boxes and went to the kitchen towards her new scale.
She placed one of the red and white pies on the scale. Suddenly, the numbers on the display began to go crazy, as if it was malfunctioning.
"HARRY! What in the god-darned world did you do to these! The scale is going bonkers!" Lore screamed.
He hurried to the scale, where he snatched the tart from the steel plate. The numbers retuned to zero. "Let me try something," he muttered, and whipped out his wand. "Finite Incantatem." He held the tart high. "It's fixed. I better fix the others," Harry mentioned as he left the kitchen. Confused, Lorelei placed the tart on the scale again. A normal display appeared on the panel. What in Persephone's name was wrong with them? She wondered, examining the tart carefully.
After a series of lightening sounds, Harry strode in, looking irritated. "What the expletive deleted is wrong with this expletive deleted thing! FINITE INCANTATEM! Finite…finite…"
He reeled, barely breathing, then collapsed hard onto the floor. Lore hurried to get energy bars and smelling salts, then placed him on the couch. Oh, wait, he collapses like this when he's near a "dementor"-thingy. What are those, a voice added in Lore's head, as she returned to the pantry to get a couple bars of peppermint chocolate. It's getting towards 7:45; I'd better let Harry rest while I get ready. Let's see, should it be a video game party? Or a relaxing talk with drinks and snacks? I'll stick to video games. She clicked on the PS2 on her TV cabinet, retrieved the platter and placed it on the coffee table, and arranged the furniture. Hmm…Tony Hawk or Dance Revolution? Or kingdom Hearts? Kingdom Hearts. I really can't dance that good. Wait…does KH use the dance pads? Maybe I'll try. Lore was kinda tired by now, so she flopped onto the couch with Harry and took a bite of a bar…
"WOOFWOOOF! WOOOFWOOOOOOFWOOFWOOFWOOF!"
Oops, Lore reprimanded herself as she opened the patio door to let Mati, her dog, into the study. Mati was very happy, wagging her tail and pacing.
"Whatcha got there, girl? Lemme see it," Lore opened Mati's mouth to find a sparkling jewel inside. It was like a long isometric triangle, shining amber yellow. There was a border around the gem of gold, inset with saprhonites and rubonites and emernites, and atop the flat side was a massive white diamonite cut. As the brooch was being gazed upon, Lore's eyes were both wide in shock and sparkling with delight.
She placed it into her jeans pocket after deciding to not show it, but to give it to Harry to lock it up at the police safe.
Suddenly, the door was pushed open. In walked Auder, carrying two jugs of apple cider. "Ho, Lore, what's up? I was on my way from the Orchard… what the semi-expletive deleted happened to Harry? He looks as if he's asleep," she added, after glancing at the unconscious Harry lying on the couch.
"He was applying some kind of lightening spell onto the cookies. Said that they felt like an anchor on his hands." Lore replied, stroking Harry's hair. "Should I awake him?"
"Nah, let him rest, he needs it. By the way, what or who made Harry faint?"
Instead of replying, Lore led the way to the suspect tart. Picking it up, she grabbed a pair of latex gloves and stuck her hand into the pie. After rummaging around, Lore pulled out an innocent-looking toffee out.
"Now, tell me: do toffees usually end up in raspberry tarts?"
"No, at least in the ones that I've eaten."
"Ah, now there lies another question: do people like toffees in their tarts?"
"No."
"Well then, we have our reason, and the type of toffee too."
"What does the type of toffee have anything to do with it? And how do you know what type it is?"
"Look, some prankster probably placed a special toffee into some of the tarts, right?"
"Yeah."
"Then that prankster must have wanted something prank-like to happen when people eat it. In this case, it was the Ton-Tongue toffee."
"The what?"
"The Ton-Tongue toffee is a prank candy designed to make your tongue purple and weigh a lot."
"And you know this how?"
"It's printed on the bottom."
"Oh" was the answer Lore received.
Lore and Auder started to set up the tray of refreshments while Harry slept peacefully. Soon, a party was ready to launch in the house.
Now Auder darted to the pile of rejuvenation remedies and grabbed a blue capsule from the box of pills. Instead of getting a glass of water from the sink, she held the capsule under Harry's nose and broke it. What happened next was hilarious.
Harry's eves shot open, and his pupils contracted. He sprang to his feet, hollered a battle cry, and then ran around the room like a tiger.
Lore and Auder tried to giggle silently, then resented to laughing so hard, each of them had to visit the bathroom afterwards twice.
The door creaked open, and Luc walked in, with paper bags in her hands, apparently oblivious to Harry until he slammed into her, and sent all of the groceries everywhere.
This apparently put Harry right, because when he was up again, he was slowing the descent of the falling items to where each of the surprises was able to be caught easily, without hurrying.
After all of the things were caught, Luc grabbed the bags, and spread the mystery items over the coffee table.
What luck she had at the store, as she brought all kinds of melons, fruits, nuts, and berries for a bowl. Harry was very exhausted still, so Lore tossed over the energy bars to him.
Harry was trying to talk to Luc, Auder, and Lore, but all that came out were mumbles. "What're you sayin'?" everyone asked him, but Harry kept eating.
In the midst of the party, an unknown visitor slipped in through the half-open front door. It crept towards the kitchen, with a note in its hand. Somehow, though, one of the people on the couch heard the rustling of paper and decided to search for the source. After no success, however, he returned to the couch. The visitor let out a sigh, and hurried to the countertop, on which it deposited its load, Its job done, the newcomer disappeared.
All the partygoers were tired and thirsty, so Lore strolled into the kitchen, aiming to get the jug of brown drink, when she spottedthe note. She picked it up, and unfolded it to find a ransom note:
I know you have it. Return the icicle OR ELSE.
Ariadne
Lore couldn't make heads or tails of this, since she didn't have any icicles in her possession; besides, it wasn't even December yet. And who was Ariadne? It seems like a code name of sorts, she thought, but I know some people who are named Ariadne in real life. This is hurting my brain!
After pouring more cocktails for the group, she showed them the ransom note. Each one was just as confused about it as she was. After some talk, Auder was starting to doze off, so the party was ended. Harry hung around at Lore's inquiry, to tell him about the brooch.
"Harry, this brooch seems very important, so could you ask someone at the station to lock it up?"
"Uh, maybe; the safes are kinda, well, leaking."
"What?"
"What I mean is that they're kinda prone to breaking in."
"Oh."
"See ya' later," and with that, Harry was gone from the room. Lore was confused; her head seemed crazy as a lark. Was it possible that the brooch was more vulnerable to burglary this way? She went up to her bed with a heavy mind, but she had a premonition that things would turn out good in the end.
"Hello? Hi, this is Lorelei Caldwell, a friend of Harry Potter's; could you please check the safe that the jeweled brooch is in? Yeah, I'll hold…is it there? Huh? It isn't? But, I thought…never mind. I'll talk later. Bye."
Lore hung up the phone disdained. How did the brooch leave the safe when the guards there were keeping a close watch on it? Sure, some of the guards could've been lazy, and neglected to watch the safe, and the safes were kinda easy to break into, but…how?
This had a similar effect on the rest of the people associated with her. Luc was so distracted that her students were really happy at the lack of work. Auder couldn't concentrate on her reporting, and frequently had to re-report stuff over and over again. Harry just decided to take a vacation due to extreme stress.
At their next meeting, it wasn't as cheerful as last time.
"You know, now we have a mystery on our hands. How did the burglar steal the brooch without the guards noticing?" Lore questioned.
"Yeah, how? The guards at the safes are the best guards around! They have the best eyesight and hearing, especially in the night; and they never ever slack off! How the heck did that person do it?" Harry added.
"Hold on, we don't have one mystery; we have two, actually." Lore replied.
Everyone was like, What?
"I just found out in the news that the celebrity Mary Carriba was kidnapped while on break from a lingerie photo shoot, Here, I have the security camera tape at home."
Lore walked to the VCR and popped in the black cassette.
A woman was lounging on a director's chair, wrapped in a fur coat, hanging down to her feet. She stood up and proceeded to stride towards the table of food. As she was pouring herself a cup of lemonade, a black drape weighted at the corners fell from the ceiling and covered the helpless woman. The draped figure was writhing and twisting & screaming with terror. Somehow, the fur trench-coat had fallen off, revealing a black bikini.
"From what I see, there was two types of photos that could be taken. One, they were only aiming for a bottom shot, or they could be going for something to go into Esquire," Harry lazily commented, gazing at the half-naked woman.
"HARRY!" everybody yelled.
Luckily, the camera saw only the bikini. The rest was covered by the mysterious drape. A figure swung in and caught the woman by the waist. Then the camera went out.
"Well, now we need to ask the people shooting the photos if anyone was doing something strange. Shall we?"
They nodded in agreement. Soon, they were traveling to Studio 12, the local photo studio, to interview.
The cameraman said that he was on break also, but he was photographing another woman in full navy dress 5 minutes later. Apparently, that ruled out him.
As they interviewed, only one person seemed to stand out in the crowd: Sergeant Marcus Whipiple, the set manager, and veteran of Vietnam. He was very nervous, but he seemed fine. His alibi, however, was completely fake.
The notes taken yielded a couple clues: a scrap of a graded paper with the word Clancica, and an empty bullet holder.
"I know that Clancica was the name of a professor at HPU. He seemed rushed on the day of the crime. He was very panicky and hyper, always saying that he was in need of many doctor's appointments." Luc uttered.
"This bullet clip was definitely used in Vietnam, and nowhere else. I could recognize it anywhere." Harry mused.
As Auder rummaged through the potential evidence, a blue stone fell on the floor.
"What's this?" she asked, as she gingerly lifted the gem. It was a saphronite, in the same cut as the one of the brooch.
"Hey, look at this," she said, as she displayed the shiny jewel.
"I'm starting to get the feeling that this was not a coincidence. I remember seeing the brooch on the coat, but when the woman disappeared, so did the brooch!" Luc rasped.
"And there was a spider on the drape! Is that a symbol?"
"I think that was just a potential clue you got there," Lore stated. "It may point to the kidnapper, and maybe even the place where Mary Carriba is. All right; Harry, search for a spider as a gang symbol. If you find a gang that matches the symbol, find its name and HQ address. Luc, Interview the townspeople to see if there are many other kidnappings of the same kind. Auder, well, just do what you usually do." she added.
"Yes, ma'am!" The people left.
Lore set back to work on examining the evidence found at the scene. After a while, she decided to go back to the studio, but this time bring Mati.
Soon, she reached the desolate studio. Unlike the previous visit, the studio was cleared out for a runway for a designer. She had to fumble around in the dark for the lights. As soon as she hit them, she whistled for Mati to try and find the kidnapper.
Mati traced the scent quickly, and soon arrived in front of an abandoned cave. On one of the surrounding boulders there was a small spider painted, just like on the drape.
She flicked on her flashlight and explored the cave. Lore was startled by screams from a small passage. When she followed it, she only found Mary, bound and gagged.
"Mati, untie the ropes," she ordered, then tried to find the brooch or any trace of it. No success resulted.
After Mary was free, she thanked Lore a million times over, and offered all of her money and/or possessions. "Uh, thanks, but no thanks. I really don't deserve it."
When she got out, they found on the binding ropes the fingerprints of Whipiple, and the brooch was found at the base as well. Carriba valued the brooch because of its meaning to her as her only remnant of her father. The bullet clip was from Whipiple, as he said that the clip was lucky to him and he would never lose it. The bullet casing had slipped out of his pocket as he was kidnapping Carriba.
As thanks, Carriba's next movie, WEBSTER'S STAR, featured the detectives. But one question was still baffling them: why was it called an icicle? The shape of the topaz resembled an icicle, and the other gems were sparkles of ice.
Snow was in the air. Red, blue, green, and yellow snow
Criminal recordWhipiple, Srgt. Marcus A.
Crimes to date: kidnapping, theft.
Detectives on case: Potter, Harry; Prentice, Lucy; Gilbreth, Audrey Lillian; Caldwell, Lorelei.