The urgency with which Sybella examined Macnair made some of the bluster pass as Basil stood beside her prattling like an idiot. He didn’t know what Agrimony had been getting into before he arrived but he did his best to glance around now and search for anything that looked recently moved. There was a letter sitting on a small side table just near and the cursive writing caught Basil’s attention, though he couldn’t say he recognized it. Beside the thing there was a pile of what looked like dust recently smeared and a trinket he couldn’t identify. Not stupid enough to touch it knowing only the foggiest about the kinds of things Macnair sometimes traded in, Basil nudged Sybella in its direction.

“That looks rather suspect,” he muttered, not that many a thing in this curious place was much better. “I haven’t the foggiest clue what he was getting into when I arrived, but it does look recently smudged.” Basil took out his wand and poked the small pile of whatever it was with the tip and then gave it a vague sniff. His nose wrinkled immediately upon inspection. “Rancid stuff,” he coughed. “Whatever that is.”

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