Luz's crimes

During 6 – Identity Theft

As Amity, Vee, and Gus landed in the back yard and began to walk inside before Gus stopped them.

“I just realized something.”

The other two looked up at him. “Please don’t tell me that you left something back in the city.”

“No. I just realized that we are inventing new people to place in the system.”

The other two just looked at each other. “Yeah?”

“Who said we could only make ourselves?”

Amity just face palmed. “Gus, please make sense.”

“I already have a fake persona at the casino in Adrian Vernworth. If we are making 5 fake people, why can’t we also make 6.”

The other two’s eyes began to lite up at the realization. “Ohhh, that is actually brilliant! That way if Jacob ever gets taken out of the picture we have someone else to fall back on.”

Vee then raised her hand. “Why stop at 6? There are people that look uncannily like each other already, so why not make up someone that just happens to look like Jacob? Fiddle with it to have him do plastic surgery to make him look exactly like him, and then we have an excuse to keep using him even after he gets locked up.”

Gus began to beam at that before turning to Amity. “Want to get Luz and write up some more back stories?”

Amity was giggling at this point. “Get the others as well, we might be able of coming up with a few other fake people to set up and use as well.”

After 8 – Money Laundering

Gus and Luz were in the back of the Gravesfield local bank, with Luz typing on the computer and Gus covering them with a illusion.

“How much longer Luz?”

“Almost… there… and… Done” She then showed it to Gus. “Adrian Vernworth and John Hopper now have had accounts here for years.” Her phone then received two texts of thumbs ups. “Vee and Amity also just finished up at the government building, while Hunter and Willow also wrapped up at the businesses to make their records match. The two have had paying jobs that will explain the money going into your accounts to help launder it.”

Gus just smiled. “Now all we need to do is figure out how to use the money in these accounts to help out Camilla’s bills without raising any eyebrows. I doubt people will just shrug off two random people paying off someone’s bills without asking why? Especially Camilla.”

“For now, let’s worry about making the illegal money clean. We can figure out how to get it into mami’s account later.”

After 13 – Back Alley Vet and Nurse

Adrian Vernworth sat across from a man in an office.

“Are you sure you want to sell your share of the vet clinic Mr. Holt?”

“I am sure Mr. Vernworth. I trusted Dr. Sexton for years and he stabbed me in the back with the embezzling. As much as I trust Camilla to be better than he was, I don’t want to be burned again. Are you sure you are willing to get involved?”

Adrian nodded. “Yes, I am. Where do I sign?”

The two men then signed a few documents together before Adrian handed over a check. They then shook hands before Adrian left.

After leaving the building, he ducked into a alley before turning back into Willow in a vine exo-suit, with Gus appearing next to her. They then fished out their phone and called Luz.

“Good news, we are now the owners of Camila’s clinic. Now we can not only fiddle with the books to hide the clients better, we can also use the laundered money to give all the employees a raise.”

“Great job guys. See you both back soon.”

After 15 – Illegal House Plants

Willow was looking sheepish when she was sitting in front of the Hexsquad in the shack.

“So it turns out that I might have exaggerated a little before about the Saffron. It turns out you get the spice only from the stigma, not the whole flower. Even then, the really high-quality stuff is only the red tips instead of the entire strand. And then you need to dry them, which further reduces the weight.”

Luz began to frown at that. “So when you said you made a pound a day for three days?”

“It was 3 pounds of flowers, which is 36 grams of dried saffron. At $10 per gram that is just $360. Add in having to cut down to just 1 pound a week to maintain the health of the flowers in the long run, that’s just 12 grams a week.”

The entire group started to look disappointed at that. “Sorry about your idea not working out Willow. At least we can use it in cooking at home.”

At that Willow perked up again. “I’m not done yet actually.” She then pulled out a jar of a brown liquid. “I have also been able of making about 21 vanilla beans a week, so I can make about 38.5 oz of vanilla extract a week as well.” She then nodded at Luz. “Thanks again for letting me borrow your potion class notes, it really helped to cut down on the time.”

“You’re welcome!”

“Anyway, at about $4 a ounce, that’s $154 a week. But I actually found a much better way to use the vanilla and saffron than just selling it.” She then took out two menus. “The mob has multiple businesses in the area that they use to launder money, including a fancy restaurant and a bakery. They agreed to also launder our money in exchange for our weekly saffron and vanilla. We are going to make Adrian Vernworth and John Hopper part owners in both of them.”

The others just smiled at that. “Great to hear that, Willow. Every little bit helps us out.”

Hunter then raised his hand. “Are there other spices that restaurants would be willing to do the same for?”

Willow began to shake her head. “Saffron and Vanilla are two of the most expensive spices around that I can grow in the basement. Most of the others grow on trees. Even if that wasn’t the case, I don’t want to split my focus too much. I am already growing drugs, growing house plants, doing fights, and selling spices. As is, I am setting a whole day aside just to make the saffron. I don’t want to add too much to my plate.”

Hunter began to frown a little at that. “Do you need to take a break? I’m sure things will be fine if you don’t do anything for a week. We can just tell people that there are cops sniffing around and we are going dark for a bit.”

Gus, Amity, and Luz all began to deflate at hearing that. “I think Hunter might be right. A week off would be good. We currently have more money than we know how to launder at this point.”

“Ok then. No more counterfeiting, drug growing breaking and/or entering, steeling Jacob’s cards, rigging gambling, pretending to be Adrian or Jacob, contacting the mob, laundering money, illegal fights, stealing cars, back ally vet or doctor work, street racing, or growing illegal plants.”

He paused for a bit before deflating. “I used to be head of law enforcement, now I am law enforcements greatest nightmare.”

Willow then began to pat his shoulder. “Do you want to talk about it?”

He just shrugged a little. “Maybe later. For now, we need to send out that we are taking a week off to our contacts. After that, how about we have a spicy food eating contest again?”

Everyone else (except for Luz) cheered.

“You are going down this time Vee. Prepare to lose the spicy food crown.”

“In your dreams Gus. I have complete control over my taste buds. Nothing on this planet can burn me.”

Willow just gave them all an evil looking smile after hearing that. “Well good news then. I have a surprise for all of you.”

She then got up and went to the door to the basement, grabbing a potted plant covered by a blanket from some vines before closing the door again.

“What do you have their Willow?”

“A new challenger for the spiciest pepper on Earth.”

She then ripped off the blanket to revel the plant under it. The leaves of the bush had a blueish tint, with the branches themselves a reddish color. The peppers growing off of it were white with the tips a blood red color.

“Blood Fangs? Did you bring seeds from the Isles with you?”

She just shook her head at that. “Nope. I was just growing some normal chili peppers while reminiscing about how good the spicy peppers back home were. Next thing I knew, they had turned into Blood Fangs. I’m still trying to replicate it with other plants, but until then we can enjoy these bad boys.”

While Amity, Gus, Hunter, and Vee were all grinning like mad men, Luz was slowly backing away from the bush like it was radioactive (not that it wasn’t also that).

“Count me out. I triad one of those once back when I first got to the Isles. I lost the whole day due to vomiting, diarrhea, hallucinations, and even more I don’t want to remember. That pepper is so not for human consumption it would be labeled toxic by the FDA the second they see it.”

Vee then began to perk up a little at that. “Do you think we can sell these?”

Luz just gave her a look. “Do you really think anyone would buy these?”

“YES!”

Luz was stunned by all her friends answering at the same time. Vee was the one that continued.

“People have been eating Carolina Reapers with a Scoville score of 1.5 million regularly since it was bred into existence with that point in mind. Jalapeno’s have a score of 2-3 thousand for reference.” She then turns to the others. “What would you say the Scoville score on these would be?”

“I think our Scoville’s are different from your Scoville’s. Ours is a score of 1-100 as determined by Scoville the talking skull near the Throat. How are they determined here?”

“Hay, lets worry about that after our week vacation. How about we just do some sightseeing, recreational gardening, and go to some botanical gardens without a plan to rob them. We can figure out how to make money off the Blood Fangs later. OK?”

Everyone else agreed and began to have a pepper tasting contest. Luz decided to sit that out and just watch as her friend’s eyes began to water while they all pretended to not be in agony.