Chapter Three

Cucuta, Colombia. April 20th

"Something isn't right here Rivers, can you tell Wiggleswade that there is more to this story than meets the eye?" Daphne was currently huddled in front of the smallest fireplace she had ever seen, located in the corner of the laundry room of the hotel, if you could actually call it that. "I'm not sure what's going on but I need to find a little more information before I can come home."

"Yes, that's fine. I'm sure Dempster won't miss you too much, probably not at all." Oliver replied, his voice bored before his head disappeared from the fire.

"Bye to you too," Daphne muttered, standing up from the dusty floor and wiping her knees of dirt. "I need a better job."

Daphne headed back upstairs to her room, where she locked the door behind her and took her usual spot before her research board. It was messy and unorganised but she understood it perfectly. From her time in Cucuta, she was beginning to realise that from every muggle she asked and those who were brave enough to talk to her, that the disappearances of Monbast and Morgan were not quite as straight forward as Wiggleswade had made them out to be.

Something was happening on the streets of Cucuta but for the life of her, Daphne could not fathom what. She was still certain that everything was stemming from the garage on the corner and the muggles who congregated there but she just didn't know what - she was from a pureblood family and muggles had never been an important factor in her upbringing and life. What crimes did muggles commit? Daphne was completely clueless and no one in the village she was holed up in was letting her in on the gossip, most fearing for their lives if they spoke to her.

Monbast and Morgan had not simply disappeared – they were somehow connected to the muggles and that garage but Daphne couldn't seem to find a link – muggles and wizards never particularly mixed, not for business anyway – it was practically unheard of. Dempster wanted a simple disappearance story, maybe with the twist that they were on the run but Daphne knew there was more to it and figured in the end, Dempster would appreciate the extra work, despite her missing work.

Asking Texas came to mind, not for the first time but Daphne was determined she could do this without him – she valued her pride and the guy had been an idiot, an arrogant one at that and she really didn't want to put herself through having to see him again. He would be her third option, if option 1 and 2 didn't work out. She wanted to figure it out herself, even if it was just to prove she was capable of finishing a story. Resting her head in her hand, Daphne stared at the wall in front of her, eyes narrowing in concentration – the answer was somewhere on the wall – she just had to find it.

A knock on her hotel door woke Daphne up, who groggily and unsteadily headed to the door, opening it to find no one there. Popping her head out to check the corridor for anyone around, she glared at the wall in front of her as she began to close her door, going back to bed the only thing on her mind until she looked down to find a piece of paper on the floor, slid under the door judging by the position of it and the crumpled edge. Bending down to pick it, Daphne found herself more than awake as she walked back to the bed, sitting down and opening the paper up, slightly disappointed when all it revealed was a name, scrawled messily but it was just clear enough to decipher the name, which simply said 'Nita'.

"Who the hell is Nita?" Muttered Daphne, letting the paper fall to the bed as she got up, searching in her suitcase for something to wear. "And where in Merlin is Nita?" Shaking her head, Daphne shrugged into a pair of ripped jeans and picked the nearest top off the floor before leaving her hotel room, picking her keys up from the night stand and the piece of paper on the way out. Finally checking the time on her watch, which read 6am, a whole 3 hours before Daphne usually opened her eyes, her feet took her in the direction of the coffee shop, needing the caffeine boost to keep her from falling asleep on her feet later on in the afternoon, when she could guarantee the slump would happen.

"Ola, café Americano." Having learnt that her politeness got her nowhere with the never-smiling barista, Daphne merely spoke her order, which now rolled off the tongue and watched as the barista nodded and set to work on her coffee. Glancing around her, the café almost empty except for her and an older man sat in the corner with his morning paper, Daphne turned back to desk and placed her money on the counter, ready. The coffee was soon slid over the counter and the barista nearly managed a smile at the sight of the money placed there, tip included.

Daphne smiled in thanks and was about to leave when she noticed the nametag on her shirt. "Is your name Nita?" Daphne asked in English, knowing the barista spoke English and let Daphne ask in Spanish to make her feel better.

The barista looked at her, eyes widening slightly before nodding, "Yes it is, it says so on my nametag." As she moved along the counter, Daphne followed on the other side, not letting her get away. "What do you want?" Her voice was harsh, lilted in strong Spanish but it didn't deter Daphne – Vanessa Greengrass was a million times more harsh than the barista in front of her and Daphne had learned the art of perseverance.

"To talk, someone left this for me this morning," Daphne held out the paper and the barista, Nita, muttered a string of curse words in Spanish before dragging Daphne behind the counter and into a small room in the back, calling for someone called Manuel to cover the front of the café. "So what do you know?"

Daphne watched as Nita sighed loudly, running a hand through her mass of curls, "If anyone finds out that I talked to you, I'm screwed." Nita sat down on a box marked 'Papas' and looked at Daphne, "No one can know."

Daphne nodded fervently, "Of course, I won't tell anyone, I just need to know what is going on here." Daphne, seeing nothing else to sit on, made herself comfortable on the floor, "What do you know? About the two men who disappeared. I showed you the photographs on my first day here."

"Those men, I don't remember their names, but they were here quite a lot. They first arrived a couple of months ago, shady guys who kept to themselves. They came in here a few times but the place you could find them most was at the garage." As Nita explained, Daphne felt her heart flutter – she knew the garage had something to do with Monbast and Morgan and now her theories were being proved right. "The guys in there were always talking to them, it was all hush hush but we all know what goes on in there – we're not stupid, we're just smart enough to ignore it."

"What goes on in there?" Daphne asked, her interest now at it's peak, although part of her was feeling stupid for not knowing what everyone seemed to know but she blamed it on being a pureblood witch – it meant she was pretty much clueless apart from the stuff she had heard in Muggle Studies.

Nita looked at Daphne as though she was an idiot but she answered her anyway, "Drugs – they deal in drugs. Cocaine mostly but heroin too. They employ people to smuggle it out to different countries, the USA being the biggest customer." Nita shook her head, "This is South America, it's pretty much what we're famous for."

Daphne frowned as she tried to work out why Monbast and Morgan were doing with the men at the garage and drugs. Were they buying them? Using them? It wasn't a stretch to think that the two men, who had lost almost everything after the Battle of Hogwarts would turn to drugs to help them get by. But something didn't seem right with that – they seemed put together, their families agreeing with that, saying they led a normal life. And it couldn't be coincidence that they were 2 of many disappearances in South America. So that left only one option.

"They were smuggling drugs," Daphne voiced aloud and Nita nodded in reply. They were using magic to smuggle drugs into America undetected by both muggle and wizarding authorities. "But for what reason?"

"What other reason than for money? That's why everyone does it," Nita spat the last part out and Daphne then believed that she knew someone who was in that garage or who was smuggling drugs for them, "Look, that's all I can give you – I've already said too much." Nita stood up and walked back out towards the café front. "Go out the back, so no one sees you."

Daphne nodded and smiled, standing up from the floor, dusting her jeans down. "Thank you, you don't know how much you've helped." Nita nodded but said no more as she left to go back to serving.

Daphne walked out of the back of the café, which was a quiet, dusty alley and headed left, back towards her hotel, careful not to see anyone on the way. Sipping on her coffee, she reached the hotel and motioned for the guard to let her in, who merely rolled his eyes as he walked over, glaring at Daphne as he let her in before retreating back to his favourite chair, a half eaten pastry resting on it.

"Por favor." Daphne smiled sarcastically before disappearing up the stairs to her hotel room, slipping in and heading straight for the wall, pinning the piece of paper on it and taking a step back to admire it. If she was in a muggle movie, all the strings would most definitely be leading back to the garage and she had the urge to find some but she resisted, instead locking her door and sitting on her bed, crossed legged.

So drugs were the connection – it explained a lot now that Daphne thought about it and it certainly explained the disappearances and the silence of the villagers. Daphne smiled as she laid down on the bed, closing her eyes.

A discovery like that deserved a nap.