I shook the dirt off my clothes and shoes. The doctor had already left the bridge. The corpse was laying with the pieces of the Christ Thorn that we cut.

All we did was remove the vine from the gardener's neck. The rest of the crime scene we left untouched. My time with the crime laboratory in São Paulo was not in vain. I knew how investigate a crime scene without tampering the evidence.

It was clear that the more violent of the two magicians was an "Animagis". That is the kind of warlocks that are able to control vegetation and other living things; at their own will. For me, the tree that appeared in the middle of the pines and impaled the homunculus, was the missing oak tree bonsai. Some kind of spell made it grow and move by itself.

That explained why the tree died right away. The small amount of energy and water stored inside a miniature tree  wouldn't be enough to maintain life, on a much larger scale.

Knowing that also brought me to a worrying conclusion:

A bonsai growth didn't need any kind of summon circle. So, that could mean one thing: something else, could be lurking inside the school grounds.

Another big question: how did the greenhouse fit in the chain of events?

I suposed that the gardener was killed by being in the wrong place at the wrong time. So, the greenhouse could be hiding something inside those glass walls.

I started to examine it in more detail:

It was a very peculiar shape, also, the biggest greenhouse that I ever  saw.

It could fit even a middle-aged Millennial Sequoia. Yet, there was not a single one big tree inside. Only small ones to provide a natural habitat for exotic orchids and vines.

Nothing out of the ordinary.

I met Vol in a big table full of azaleas. Since I could not perceive anything inside the greenhouse with my devices, I was in need of her demon skills.

 I approached her by the side and said in a low voice:

"Those are your favorite flowers, aren't them sweetie?"

When she saw me her face enlightened, her eyebrows jumped. She opened her mouth in a wide smile, very ecstatic:

"Oh yes! Definitely, they're the most beautiful ones. Have you ever seen a flower the same color of my eyes, before? Can we take some of those to our penthouse, cheesecake?"

"They are azaleas. They happen to be my favorite flower too, but they won't grow inside an apartment. They need a lot of space and light to grow.", as I said that I noticed that she withered a bit, so I added:

"I think that we can have some in the garden outside. I am sure it can be arranged"

She clapped her hands very happy and jumped to my arms, holding me in a tight embrace.

"Oh thank you, cupcake, thank you, thank you", I held her weight with care to not let my balance go off.

"Honey, can you walk around and see if you sense something out of the ordinary? No floating, ok we need to keep your disguise. A lovely and normal human girl, do you understand?"

She nodded and walked away pretending to be admiring other flowerbeds and plants. Humming a soft tone in her gracious walk by the inner streets of the greenhouse.

So adorable that no one could say that she was a demon.

The doctor, was at the door, talking with one of the security guards.

The other one went to his car to contact their HQ.

"Oh Roger", he noticed when I got close of them, "This is Ramiro. He and Marcio are the ones that welcomed us here.

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Ramiro.", I said offering my hand for a cordial shake.

He accepted it and answered:

"The doctor was saying that you are a CSI working with the locals and that the girl is from the psychiatry association. A very attractive woman, that one. Is she here to help the students to deal with those strong events? I would ask her to attend miss Susan too. She was very shaken and disturbed, I am afraid to say.", the comments about Vol made me feel a bit uncomfortable, and to my surprise, as I was listening to them my stomach started to growl.

 I felt a bit ashamed. 

I Looked to the position of the Sun and realized that it was late. My watch was showing 1:03 PM.

We had not eaten anything since my super fast breakfast before the trip to the woods with the doctor. An egg sandwich almost raw and a cup of coffee, that I could swear it was from the day before.

The two gentlemen beside me pretended that they didn't listen to my belly complaints.

But a very unexpected thing happened, while I was looking to the glass panels of the ceiling. I noticed something that had escaped my eyes before.

That ceiling was way more complex than I thought when we arrived. A set of equilateral triangles. Three different layers of glass panels adorned the space between the roof and inside the greenhouse. They did not close, there was some empty space between those layers. From outside they were almost invisible. To be able to see, one needed to focus the eye on their steel frames.

That was a very odd construction. The way that those triangles were positioned had nothing to do with what I knew about, climate, light or humidity.

They didn't make any sense at all.

Why create some artistic ceiling, and a very expensive one, if no one would be able to see it?

Unless they had another purpose and that purpose was a secret one.

I closed my eyes and started to play with those glass plates in my mind. I was imagining them in different points of view. But I could see nothing.

The doctor and the guard must have thought that I felt tired:

"You and Voluptia need to get some rest.", he said, but I put my finger in front of my lips hushing him.

I needed to focus.

If the glasses and the frames were not the reason, what else could be?

I opened my eyes and looked to the floor. I walked along the shadows of the frames. They were very faint but they resembled tiny straight lines...

I opened my smartphone, got the pen out of the compartment and started to draw the lines that I was seeing.

It was not a difficult task since the entire pattern was very symmetrical.

Bot what I got was a bunch of lines that crossed each other; not a real shape.

I went further in my thinking. Of course, those lines would not be in the same position if the light was coming from another direction. More precisely, if the light came from above the greenhouse without an angle.

I moved the lines, checking the angle of the frames and voilá!

That was it: the lines would form a perfect pentagram.

A pentagram that would remain hidden during most of the year.

But, if the Sun or the Full Moon appeared in the sky in the right position, a perfect symbol would be projected in the floor.

That calculation was too precise to be a mere coincidence. I was sure that was the greenhouse's true purpose. That building project had to be much more than a simple greenhouse.

I asked the doctor if he knew something about the building:

"Doctor, when was this greenhouse built? Do you happen to know if it was done by the Catholic church; or if it already existed when the school started to operate in these grounds?"

"Well I am not sure, but when I started to work as the master physician it was already here. Besides the plants that we are seeing there is some hydroponics. And we always grew vegetables for the hospital and the school inside these walls. It is on the other side of the lake. Father Thomas, the teacher that showed you your quarters, may know something. His hobby is the story of those buildings. And he happens to know everything about the resort that existed here before the church transformed the place."

"Doctor, I'll need to add the schematics and every document that you can find about the buildings in the school, to the other files that I asked you before. Have then delivered to the place that you said it was being fixed to be my office. I will see if I can talk to father Thomas and see if he can help me find more about it. Now we are getting close of something in this case."

He looked confused but agreed to my request. Then he added:

"Oh yes. About that, sister Paula found an excellent place for you and your equipment. You can use one of the empty labs in the main building. I think you will find it very effective"

"Great. So our job here is done. As my stomach keeps reminding me, I could use some food right away. However, I imagine that Vol is not that hungry, after all those puddings"

We both laughed about that joke and the guard didn't understand what we were laughing at. He gave a half smile, out of cordiality.

I used my mental link to call Vol.:

"Honey, did you feel anything different?"

"Nope darling, nothing at all. Only some very faint amount of mana but It is so weak that would not allow anyone to cast anything. But I did see some pretty butterflies in one of the flowerbeds. They were huge ones. And their wings so colorful, I had never seen any of those"

"Ok honey I am sure they must be very beautiful. But come here right now, we will leave the place and go back to the main building. And I have some errands that only you will be able to do, do you get what I am asking?", I knew that would make she very happy. She loved when I asked her for help in a case.

"Of course cupcake, tell me what you need me to do?"

I gave her detailed instructions and her giggles echoed in my mind, she was very excited about the mission.

As soon as she arrived, she grabbed my hand and the doctor led the four of us out of the greenhouse.

He and the guard were still talking about something and Voluptia was holding my hand and walking beside me like we were a happy couple.

I could swear that the doctor gave a soft laugh when he looked at my pathetic face. Voluptia was making me feel uneasy again with her display of affection.

As soon as we got close to the cars, we heard the sound of an approaching siren.

It was too soon to be the police. A journey from the city to the top of the mountain would take at least a couple of hours. I imagined that some reinforcements to the security team were sent to secure the crime scene, before the arrival of the police.

A white and black Van with the same decoration of the security car arrived near the greenhouse.

The Van made a sharp and precise U-turn and parked right behind the other security car.

By the look of things, this was not an ordinary back up. A very large man wearing a black bonnet and a real gun in his belt got out of the passenger seat. I thought with myself that it was about time someone more graduated arrived at the scene. 

For me, it was the time to get some answers. The puzzle started to make perfect sense but it still lacked a few details to be solved.

Yet, I had an idea of how to speed things up a bit and poke the bee's nest without getting stung.

As soon as he entered our perimeter the two guards that welcomed me when I arrived saluted the man and stood still.

The man quickly inspected them and said:

"As you were"

That made them return to their normal activities.

He walked straight to me and the doctor, this man had a fierce look. He had a deep gaze, thick eyebrows, and a very prominent nose. His lips were also thick and his squared chin gave him a very hard and brute aspect. By his looks and the way that he moved I deduced that he was a retired military man.

The man examined me from the top of my head to my toes, gave me a very unpleasant look.

"So you are the one snooping around the school in every crime scene, huh?", his tone of voice was as arrogant, as was the way he looked at me.

"Roger Soares, at your service, sir", I decided to ignore the tone of his voice. Offered my hand in a handshake, which he ignored and continued:

"The only reason for you being allowed here is because mother Ana ordered us to cooperate with whatever is that you are doing. I want you to know that I am not obliged to like a civilian like yourself, walking around as if you own the place. I am ordered to help you. But, I expect you to report to me everything that you see. Are we clear?"

"Cristal, sir. To whom I have to report too?", I mocked a military salute. And took a pen and a notebook out of the pocket of my jacket.

That guy was a moron. Why every single case have to involve one of those?

"You don't need to salute me, civilian, Colonel Sérgio Whult, and why the notebook? Can't you remember a single name?"

"Sérgio, is that with a S or a C?"

"Are you making fun of me, civilian?"

I ignored him and continued writing. I looked at the other car, were Voluptia were waiting for me. The doctor was also there. That bastard knew what I was up against and simply vanished from my side.

I noticed that Vol was still ashamed of her previous behavior but she didn't know how to properly apologize to the doctor. She didn't know that the doctor didn't remember that her other self commanded him to choke me. Grotheske explained to me that she lost complete control inside the summoning circle.

The officer was about to complain about me not paying attention to what he was saying.

I was saved by the sound of an anime song and a vibration in my pants.

That vibration in my leg was so annoying that I groped inside my pocket and answered right away, ignoring what the man was saying.

He didn't like that also, but I could care less about him.

It was a call from mother Ana's office:

"Hello, yes this is him", I answered the voice from sister Paula:

I made a shush to the officer and I saw that his face got very red.

"Mr. Roger, mother Ana would want you to join her in the teacher's mess hall for lunch. She imagined that you two didn't eat so far so she asked me to invite you."

"Ok sister, tell her that we are on our way"

"Thank you, Mr. Roger, she will be waiting for you at the director's table in the mess hall."

I ended the call and said to the officer:

"Reporting that I am going to lunch, sir!", I saluted him again, and moved to the limousine not looking back.

The doctor had a funny look when he saw me.

"Yes, I know, Sérgio is a bit old-fashioned, but you will see that he is a very effective leader. He thinks he is still in his military days."

"Oh, he thinks, huh, that is a big surprise..."

"Don't let he get into you. Let's go. I will have all the schematics of the school delivered to the main building."

"Ok. Mother Ana invited me and Vol to lunch. I suppose she wants some update on the case too. I will meet the girl that found the homunculus after lunch. It is time that we turn the table over those mages, and I have an idea how to do it."

"Hey we are not done", said the colonel coming close to the limousine.

My desire was to show him the finger. 

I entered the car and murmured a harmless spell.

We had a lot to do after lunch, and I certainly would not waste my time with that Buffon.

As the car passed close by I smiled to Sérgio. Saluted him again shouting:

"We need to go, I will be in my new office. Why the odd face? Was it something that I said?"

His face was so funny, that compensated the small amount of mana that I wasted on him. 

He was holding himself to not laugh in front of his subordinates: his foot would tickle for at lest 5 minutes.

That afternoon promised...