Chapter 3
Nick was the closest town near Raylwood. According to the materials Harry had, almost half of residents there were wizards. There were many shops served for wizards only in the town (of course they were open grounds or ruins in Muggles' eyes), Harry and Dennis walked into the only hairdresser's there, the Lakes's Salon, where Romilda worked during her lifetime. Nearly four o'clock in the afternoon, there were only a few witches who seemed to plan to hang out dive bars at night, styling their hair in advance, reading the magazines. Grotesque bottles of colorful potions lay on the shelves, some read 'Mr. White's Hair-By-Hair Demarcating Pomade' on the labels, some read 'William's Shining Color-Changing Tint'...
'Welcome, gentlemen!' a middle-aged shaven-headed wizard with full beard stepped forward. He had a strong smell of hairdressing products and wore an obsequious smile. He stared at Harry's forehead undisguisedly for a few seconds, 'Ah...I reckon you do come here not aiming for hairdressing—'
'I'm Potter. This is my partner Creevey. We are Aurors inquiring into Romilda's murder. We are here to listen to some testimonies.' Harry didn't wear any expressions on his face, showing their credentials.
'Oh! That terrifying murder! Having spread over streets and alleys here! I'm the manager of this salon, the younger brother of our boss at the sane time, Coeur Lakes. Please call me Coeur, please, please come in...'
Under the curious eyesight from guests and hairdressers, the man with beard called himself to be Coeur led them to the office inside the salon. Most of the space were occupied by a desk covered with a litter of things. The two walls were bookshelves with some old-fashioned wizards' cosmetology magazines stacked and some lacquer-dropped head models, as well as a wall decorated with posters of hairdressing, the beautiful witches giggled and flirted, shaking their colorful hair. Coeur called them to sit down and said, 'What can I do for you?'
Harry took out his automatic notebook, unfolded it on the desk and asked, 'Coeur, I may as well come straight to the point. You are the colleague of Romilda. Have you ever heard she had any enemies?'
'Well...Romilda was an ebullient and sanguine girl, maybe over sanguine sometimes...As you asked...maybe there are someone dislike her, but enemies? No, she didn't get any enemies. Yes, Mr. Auror, she didn't from what I have known.'
'Have someone around her disappeared recently? Do you have any stuff abstain from work today?'
'Disappeared? Ah...I know. In this way, we really have a hairdresser called Kevin resigned two days before. Kevin Moreton, he had a good relationship with Romilda before. But you mustn't not distrust him, Kevin is a good guy. Alas, now Kevin has resigned, and Romilda...we're in for difficult sledding, you know...'
'Do you know the reason why Kevin resigned?'
'I'm not very sure. He seems to have problems on money.'
'Do you know his address?'
'This—' Coeur huddled, showing an expression of awkwardness. 'We do not ask their address when we hire them...you see, we are just a small countryside store.'
Harry raised his eyebrow, 'Alright. You said you are the younger brother of your boss, so, where is him?'
Hearing this question, Coeur changed his sitting position, hands crossed on his knees, coughed.
'Philip has set off travelling. He likes travelling all over the world, you know. Last year he spent several months in Amazon Rainforest, this year he said he wanted to go to Israel—'
'He's in Israel?' Dennis interrupted.
'Maybe...I'm not sure yet. He set off last week, his first stop in Athens indeed, but where is he now...maybe Tel Aviv-Jaffa, I reckon.'
Harry and Dennis exchanged an eyesight of doubt.
In the coming few hours, the two Aurors had listened the testimonies from three hairdressers in the store. As they pushed the salon's door and walked outside, the sky was purple with a few threads of deep orange. A brown-grey owl from the Ministry was waiting on the doorsteps with a roll of parchment:
We have listened all our testimonies.
My notes are on your desk.
Emily
Harry and Dennis went back to the Auror Office, took up Emily's notes and entered the small meeting room full of evidence.
'Eh—Emily has left?' Dennis looked around the empty office, then closed the door.
'Today's Saturday, and it's already seven now.' Harry made a wry face, throwing the notes on the table. 'They were long-faced when I gave Paul and her the task. Let's finish it quickly. Robarz said we only need to sort out some general direction before we left.'
Dennis pulled out a chair, sat down and opened Emily's notes to read. Paul and her listened to the testimonies from Romilda's parents and the old lady who discovered her and the neighbors, and listened to the other villagers' description. Dennis was reading, writing and drawing at the same time. Harry watched behind.
'Wait a minute—'
Dennis stopped turning the pages as Harry interrupted.
'Look, there. Romilda has a boyfriend.' Harry pointed at a page pf the old lady's testimony.
'Boyfriend? Has come to Romilda's home for several times recently I suppose. Having an affair at most.'
'Have or haven't. Not important. Focus on this description, you see, "a high and thin young man with light golden hair, dressed ostentatiously and frivolously, with a scar on his jaw" Look at this photo.'
Harry picked out the photo that a hairdresser gave them from his own notes. In the photo, five young people in their early twenties wearing Muggles' Punk clothes were doing provocative gestures towards the camera drunkenly. This was the photo taken when the five hairdressers had party last Halloween.
'...Kevin? He's Romilda's boyfriend? But none of the hairdressers mentioned that.'
'Kevin resigned three days before, then Romilda died in her own garden after two days of that. Do you think it has nothing to do with this?'
'Hmm...Does he look like someone know how to use the Killing Curse?' Dennis glimpsed at the offbeat and zany photo.
'If you put on your daily Muggles' clothes, do you look like someone who know how to use the Killing Curse? By the way, he might be the thief.'
'Ok, put him into the list. But I'd like to take more notice of the Lakes brothers. Don't you think that Coeur Lakes's attitude was suspicious? I don't think Philip Lakes had set off travelling. It's obvious that he told his brother to say so. It's necessary for us to figure out where is Philip Lakes.'
Ginny finally had Albus and James slept. She helped the two kids tuck their quilts in and glimpsed at the wall clock in shape of Golden Snitch, the golden hour hand had walked past number 'Nine', though Harry haven't come back.
Ginny sighed inwardly, left the room softly, crossed the corridor, went upstairs and entered her study. In the short years Sirius hid here, there used to be the loft where Backbick rested. There were thick straws on the ground at that time. Now there was her study, simple but tidy, with a pair of desk and chair, as well as two bookshelves. An old-fashioned typewriter was lying on the desk. Ginny walked across the room, crouched down and lifted the carpet, some floorboards with different colors than others revealed. She prosed up them with her fingernails and a hole that could only allow a single person to pass through showed. She jumped.
The shock of landing made her heels have pins and needles. She stood on her feet rapidly and had entered another small room decorated as a study, too, which was a magical space produced by some Space Charms.
A pair of nine-per-cent-new desk and chair were put near the wall in front of Ginny, which were covered with various kinds of books and materials. What was on the wall at the back of the desk was a large piece of wooden pasteboard, countless notes, photos and parchments were pinned on it, connected like a spider-web with each other by thin red lines. Behind Ginny, it was bookshelves covered a whole wall, but there didn't have many books on it, numerous black files lay here I order instead. On her left hand was iron ladder nailed on the wall, which was connected with the hole she came in and a seemingly normal circular wall clock on the opposite side, but what was strange was there was only a single hand on the clock, where twelve numbers should live now printed twelve words. Now the only hand was pointing at one o'clock 'WORKING'.
Ginny sat down in front of the desk, feeling for a big envelope in her robe's inside pocket. She carefully opened the envelope and took out a piece of parchment inside, reading under the light of the desk lamp. Her light-brown eyes narrowed slightly, moving following the words on the parchment inch by inch, frowning.
'LOCCA, your foxtail has finally revealed...hasn't?'
A clicking sound raised in the room abruptly. Ginny turned right, the only hand on the clock had moved to 'ON THE WAY'. She pinned the letter at the corner of the pasteboard in a great rush, then stood up, climbing out the room by the ladder.
As Harry came home, he discovered that the light of the ground floor had been turned off. He walked to the first floor, expectedly seeing the main bedroom's door unlatched, a beam of mellow warm light escaped from the gap between the door and the wall. He walked cloze and pushed the door, seeing Ginny read, sitting in the armchair near the window, a bearded needle was dancing on a water-blue fabric automatically.
'You're back.' hearing the sound of door opening and closing, Ginny put down her book and said, smiling.
'Yep. I'll have a bath.' Harry opened a drawer of the chest, taking out some clothes.
'Did Robarz give you extra vacations?'
'Tomorrow.'
'Real vacation? The kind of vacation that you can refuse to be called? Even by the badge?' Ginny asked ironically.
'Well...this...'
Ginny dived herself into her fiction again and said, 'Alright. Go to take a shower. I really dislike the smell of Italian vegetables soup from the Ministry's dining hall on you.'
Harry left resentfully. After he finished taking the shower, as he came back, he saw Ginny sit on a side of the bed, stilling reading. Harry went up to the bed from another side.
'What's today's case about? You ran out only eating an inadequate and hurried lunch.'
'Do you remember Romilda Vane? One year younger than you.'
Ginny snorted with laughter.
'She's dead.'
Ginny's smile froze, turning to Harry with disbelief, 'Dead?'
'Being murdered.'
'She...she had fought together with us in Hogwarts's war.'
'Yeah, I know.' said Harry heavily.
'How did she die?'
'The Killing Curse.'
Ginny cried out in surprise.
'Robarz didn't know that I know her. I told him just now, he said he would give me a day off tomorrow, before going back working.'
'Is the matter settling into shape?'
'Can't say too much detailed, you know. Though there are something queer indeed. Can't believe that would happen in a village in the outer suburbs of Coventry—what's wrong?'
Harry felt Ginny's arm shocked suddenly.
'No, nothing.' said Ginny. 'Today's a little bit cold.'
Harry's left arm wrapped up around her waist, lowered his head and kissed her lips. Ginny responded tenderly.
'Shall we continue what was interrupted this morning...?'
'I said I'm cold, but you want me take off my clothes? Have you got any nous...' Ginny said, but her hands acted honestly, undoing Harry's cloth's two buttons familiarly.
'It's alright if you don't want to.' murmured Harry in her ear, shrewdly smiled.
