“OBJECTIONS? I’VE GOT a lot of objections!” he howled. “This is a police department, not a soothsayers’ convention! We’re subject to enough criticism as it is. You needn’t have added the act that makes us look like a bunch of damned fools.”
“But, Chief, I—”
“So what do I hear tell?” He hauled the tray drawer of his desk open and pulled out one of the tabloids, opened to one of its hate-everything columnists. “Listen! ‘In recent years the legality of the famous witchcraft trials of the past has been subject to debate, with the result that these past convictions have now been declared “miscarriages of justice.” Posthumously, I must unhappily add. However, there has been little or no amendment to the laws against witchcraft, wizardry, charms, amulets and spells.
“‘But brace yourselves, cit
