chapter 6

A middle-age woman, thin lipped, brown eyed and with lank, undistinguishable hair, came into Mrs Selwyn’s pesticides shop early in the afternoon. A long, brown dress was visible underneath a similarly coloured coat. Dark-green beret and gloves completed the neat but definitely poor look. Mrs Selwyn, who was afraid that the representatives of the Ministry would come to visit her, again, took an immediate liking to the woman. The witch paused uncertainly, looking lost, then made an unsure motion towards the door.

Mrs Selwyn, who had the reflexes to keep the customers interested, honed by years of practise, rapidly blocked the escape route. “Good afternoon, madam. Is there anything I can help you with?”

The woman nodded shyly. “I am looking for something to help me get rid of the attic pixies. They appeared a week ago, and they are such a menace. I have my grandmother’s things in the attic, paintings and tapestries of sentimental value. I’m afraid the little villains will damage these things.”

The shop owner tisked sympathetically and then nodded sagely. She approved of the woman’s sentiments. “I know exactly what you need, my dear. Come in, come in and let me show you.”

The woman obediently followed, with her arm trapped in the shop keeper’s grasp. She was offered a full set to defend her attic from the pixies, a spray, a powder and sparkling wires, which shocked upon contact. Mrs Selwyn guaranteed that the full set would exterminate the pixies within two days and offered a discount for the entire set. The woman however examined it all and took liking only to the spray. She eyed the rest uncertainly. “Thank you so much,” she said most sincerely. “I don’t know what I would have done without your kind advice. A shop closer to my home was all out of sprays, and I was somewhat anxious to come to Knockturn Alley. I mean, you are a most respectable and intelligent woman, but some rumours about this place are most unkind.”

“Oh, pay no attention to them!” Mrs Selwyn was clearly stung although her liking of the woman did not diminish due to the ‘respectable’ comment. “Most of us here are completely honest people. It is only a few who give us a bad name, such as that awful brothel down the street. I told my late husband, bless his soul, not to set our shop near such an immoral place, but he said that taxes here are much lower and the land is cheaper to purchase, which is all our Gringotts account could afford.” She sniffed, truly sorry for her predicament.

“This is awful,” the woman agreed, “that the reputation of such a good woman as you must suffer due to those wizards who shame our society.”

Mrs Selwyn seemed very touched. She glanced at the unsold powder and continued. “I do not have many customers as it is, and now this horrible murder will completely ruin me. No one comes here anymore besides the Aurors, and they do not come here to buy anything.”

The woman’s eyes widened. “Oh, goodness, so this is where that recent murder happened! How terrible for you. I hope your relatives are supporting you through this!”

“I’m all alone, except for my nephew.” Mrs Selwyn wiped a tear away. “But I haven’t seen him since that Monday, before everything happened.” Her eyes darted uneasily, and she hurried to correct herself. “I mean Friday, silly old woman, I’m so bad with week days. They all seem the same sometimes.” She stole a glance at the woman, who still stood quite astonished, and hurried to change the topic. “You know, it must be a pixie season. My nephew bought numerous boxes of exactly the same spray that you are holding. You are most lucky that I have some left. Of course, I’m glad that he buys from me. His occasional purchases help to keep my shop running. It brings a small income, and I would hate to see it gone. I need to support myself somehow.”

The woman must have been greatly affected by the predicament of Mrs Selwyn because she rubbed her eyes. “I’m sure your nephew loves you very much and will come to see you soon.”

Mrs Selwyn sighed. “I doubt it. He comes rarely. He runs a business and even owns a spot at the warehouses in London, something to do with cloths. I keep telling him that work is good, but he should try to find a fine, young lady, such as you, but it’s always work, work and more work with him. Why, I don’t even know where he lives these days.”

The woman shifted her feet restlessly. She assured Mrs Selwyn that her nephew must care about her and then claimed she was anxious to use the spray as soon as possible, before those pixies did something irreparable. To the regret of the shop owner, she only purchased the spray and was on her way. The woman tossed a small coin to a beggar that sat by a shop and pressed her nose into her scarf to hide her smile. It was a rather convincing disguise for McLee’s agent, but very cold and unenviable work. She rushed through Knockturn Alley to a more respectable street, pressing her coat close as if she was highly uncomfortable. Only when she walked through the fireplace at the Ministry did her features change into the usual white hair, round chin and blue eyes.

Lin had studied the shop owner at a distance before selecting her disguise and glamour. She had gathered that Mrs Selwyn was a widow, old fashioned and more poor than decently off, but she would get deathly offended if anyone had suggested it. Her envy, revealed in her outspoken dislike of aristocracy, had been evident. Thus, she had reacted well to someone who was not outwardly bright and appeared gullible enough to take advantage of. The shopkeeper had lied to the Aurors earlier. She had slipped up about the day of her nephew’s visit in conversation with Lin. He must have visited the shop the same day the body of Inwood was found. This did not incriminate the shopkeeper however. She usually considered her own judgement and instinct as to whether someone was capable of committing a crime, more valuable than facts. Mrs Selwyn considered her nephew a good person, because he supported her business, thus she could have been sure that he was innocent and readily provided cover for him. Lin suspected the nephew. Her earlier conversation with Mr Snape came to memory. Lin thought that he must have had some influence on Lin’s perception. When she had looked at the list of ingredients on the pixie spray bottle while she was in the shop, she had found lizard claws in the substance. Mrs Selwyn had been misled in her deduction; there was no wide spread plague of pixies in the city to explain the spray sales. Lin wondered what the nephew was going to do with all those boxes.

She had a hunch that meeting Mrs Selwyn’s nephew was a good idea. But first she had to get out of her disguise. She did not relish looking like an old maiden, and the long dress sleeves were terribly itchy.