A Grim Situation Read online

  Jim closed his notepad and tucked it away. “Well, that’s always how it starts. I’ll drive.”

  “Like hell,” Avery laughed.

  “Please? You know I love to drive.” Jim pleaded half-heartedly. It was a game they always played.

  “You nearly killed us.”

  “That was a long time ago,” Jim reasoned.

  “Nope.”

  “You’re no fun, and you know it,” Jim elbowed her lightly as he ambled towards the door.

  “More fun than you could handle, Jim,” Avery quipped as she scanned the room one last time. “You’re not my type, though.” Something was nagging at her. It was that third person she felt in the room. Whoever he had been, he left a strong impression, so strong that it was rubbing up against her senses even now. It was dark, but not evil. She’d run up against some crazy stuff, but this…this was different. Not only that, she couldn’t shake the faint sense of recognition she felt, as though she’d encountered it before. That intrigued her the most. She suddenly found herself hoping she could run him down, come face to face with him. Her heart fluttered at the thought, surprising her. What is that? she thought.

  “Aw, Avery, don’t be like that,” Jim monotoned from where he now held the door open. “You know you’re my one and only true love.” He propped the door with his foot and pulled out his phone to check his messages while he waited for her.

  Avery finally disengaged herself from the energy of the room. Something interesting was starting up. She could feel it. Shaking her head to clear it, she briskly headed out the door. “True love, huh? Get me some tacos and you might have a shot.” She swept past him and headed outside.

  Jim let the door shut behind him as he followed her, still staring at his phone. “I’ll have to ask my wife. She says hello, by the way. And I’ll only get tacos if I can drive.”

  Avery sighed dramatically. “Fine. You can drive, but get me tacos. I like the brisket ones with jalapenos and cheese.”

  Chapter 4

  Ariana carefully twisted the top off the medicine bottle and shook the tiny brownish pills out onto a mat on her desk. The flat leather was inscribed with a pentacle, a five-pointed star enclosed in a circle and surrounded by elegant symbols. Using a pencil, she moved the pills into the center of the star, then looked them over. To the naked eye, they appeared to be ordinary ibuprofen pills, but Ariana had felt the sharp tingle of dark magick the moment she opened the bottle. When all of the pills were visible, she set the bottle aside and examined them closely.

  “Wow, these were definitely created by someone with skills,” she began. With a subtle gesture and a quiet murmuring of words, she infused the circle on the mat with her power, creating a small force field to enclose the tablets. When it was complete, she looked over her shoulder at me and shrugged. “Hey, you can’t be too careful with stuff like this. If it turned your guy into a raving demon-loony, I don’t know that I want to get too touchy-feely with these things.”

  I moved away from the wall where I had been leaning with my arms crossed. “No, you’re right to be safe. Whatever else they can do, I know for a fact that they can render a body open to possession by a lesser demon, and those are pretty nasty. At best, they leave your body feeling like a hotel room after a fraternity party. I could get it out of you, but since there isn’t a stream running nearby, it would be a lot more work.”

  “Gee, thanks,” Ariana muttered dryly. “Your concern for my safety is almost overwhelming.” She turned her attention back to the seemingly innocent pills. “OK, I’m pretty sure I can enchant a vessel to keep these in safely until you want to destroy them.” She shook her head in frustration. “Beyond that, I can’t really tell you very much. Their maker was pretty slick. I can’t get a trace on them at all.” She paused for a moment, then brightened, “That said, I can easily recognize the feel of this magick if I come across it again. We may not know where to start, but at least if we bump into it, I’ll know.”

  I frowned and started my heavy thinking. My first inclination was to ask the Sprites to look around, but the last time I did that, they ended up getting hurt. I was reluctant to put them in that situation again. I could recognize the particular feel of the dark power that surrounded the tablets just as Ariana could, but I needed to know where to start.

  Before I could say anything, Ariana spoke up again. “What happened to the guy that had the pills? After you left, I mean?”

  I thought about that for a moment. “Sirens were approaching. I am sure your police have him by now.”

  “Hmmm. If anybody could get to him in jail to ask more questions, I’m pretty sure you could.” Ariana knew well my ability to move undetected beneath the cloak of my magick. Unless someone knew exactly where to look when I held myself dim, they wouldn’t see me.

  “True, but I already questioned him. He didn’t know anything. Whoever gave him the pills also clouded his memory. He couldn’t recall who gave them to him or where, just that it was yesterday.”

  Ariana swiveled in her chair until she faced me directly. Her eyes were almost as blue as her aura, although probably no one knew that but me. “Well, where was he yesterday? Work? School?”

  I thought about that before answering. “From what he said, he probably spent time at both. He mentioned the long hours. My guess is that it was someone he knew. It’s doubtful he would’ve taken pills from some stranger.”

  Ariana stood and walked to the opposite corner of her conjuring room, to her other desk. The computer that sat there was much more impressive than the one that had been there when we had first met. The new machine, a black desktop with a stylized golden wolf’s head logo on one side and red and green LEDs that pulsed like a heartbeat, was powerful enough to run something called the Death Star, according to Ariana. She flicked a switch, and the machine powered up with a deep, rumbling hum that I felt in my feet. The two enormous monitors flashed to life as she sat in the big chair, and Ariana tapped her password into the keyboard.

  “What are you doing?” I asked. I’ve been around for centuries, but as much as I hate to admit it, computers are still something of a mystery to me. I can understand what Ariana shows me if she takes a minute to explain it, but the way she flits from screen to screen and travels the web eludes me.

  “I’m looking up your boy, Andy, on Facebook. There’s a good chance we can find both his work and his school there.”

  I had no idea what she was talking about, and I peered over her shoulder to watch. She quickly found a blue and gray screen and typed Andy’s name into a little rectangle near the top. A list of Andy Dembrows came up with little pictures to the left of each listing. One of them showed the man I knew smiling next to the woman he had thrown off the balcony.

  “There,” I pointed at the image, “that’s our guy.”

  Ariana clicked on the image and the screen changed to bring up a larger version of the small picture, and another picture of him standing next to a flashy car across the top. She moved the screen down a little bit, scanning the information that was there.

  “Lucky for us, his profile is public, so we can see pretty much everything there.” She pointed one finger at a section of the screen. “This says he works at Foster Brothers Manufacturing. That’s on the west side of Katy, closer to where we are now. Hold on a sec,” she said as she began to scroll down the screen. “There it is.” She clicked somewhere on the screen and a large picture of Andy and another man appeared, the entrance to a building right behind them. “He was going to school at Houston Community College. That’s not that far from your place, and his apartment.” She turned around, folded her arms, and smirked at me. “And you’re welcome.”

  I had to admit that she was good at ferreting out information. That had been a lot easier than canvassing the neighborhood for the next few nights. “Good work,” I said simply. I saw her raise an eyebrow and tilt her head a little, but I saw no need to stroke her ego any more than that. “His work is closer, but we could probably ask around at the school
more easily without arousing suspicion. Let’s try that first.”

  “Cool,” she said, shaking her head. “Let me get some things together, and I’ll drive you.”

  “Perfect, thank you.” Then I remembered what she had looked like the last time we had gone out together. She had worn black fatigues, a tactical vest, a backpack with an incredible array of equipment somehow stuffed inside, and two rather impressive handguns strapped to her thighs. As effective as she had been, I wasn’t sure that would be necessary. Yet. “Hey, we’re not going to assault the tower here. I know that your laws allow you to carry those guns of yours openly, but we are trying to keep a, how do you say, low-profile here.”

  Ariana turned to look over her shoulder and smiled extra-sweetly at me. “Don’t worry, Kane, I wasn’t about to go full Terminator. I just like to take a few things with me in case we run into trouble. Is that OK with you?”

  I smiled. I was never good at sitting through movies, but for a change, I actually knew what she was talking about, and I approved. “All right, then. I’ll meet you out front.”

  Chapter 5

  Jim backed the car into a parking space so they faced the side doors of the college. Avery knew he liked parking beneath the sheltering limbs of trees whenever he could so the car wouldn’t be scorching hot when they got back to it.

  “I’ve been around here for years, and I don’t think I’ve ever noticed that thing behind us,” he said, craning his neck to peer over his shoulder at the silvery geodesic dome that sat forty yards behind them.

  “It’s part of the college,” Avery said without taking her eyes from the side entrance to the building. Students were ambling in and out, chatting with each other or glued to their phones. “Horticultural studies. You know, plants and such.”

  “Ah,” Jim said wisely. “That explains the carved wooden Horticulture sign next to it, as well as the abundance of shrubs and cacti surrounding the thing.”

  “You don’t miss a trick, do you?” Avery’s voice was still distant, but Jim paid little attention. She was looking around, taking in everything and committing the details to memory. She tended to drift when she did that.

  “Hey, that’s why you love me,” Jim teased.

  “You’re killin’ me, Jim,” Avery sighed, garnering a chuckle from her partner. One corner of her mouth quirked up in a hint of a smile, but she kept her eyes on the college. More specifically, she watched the students. Something was nagging at her, but she was having trouble putting her finger on the source of her disquiet.

  Most of them were young adults, likely not long out of high school, while a few were older, more mature. They were coming and going, all with backpacks or bookbags or notebooks in hand. Nothing should have aroused suspicion, but Avery had a feeling. Jim unbuckled his seat belt and reached for the door latch, but she quickly stilled him with a hand on his arm.

  “Wait,” she said. Her words were soft and somewhat faraway, but their tone froze Jim in place.

  “You got something?”

  “I don’t know,” came her soft reply. “Just…just wait.”

  Jim made sure his seatbelt was out of the way and the door was unlocked in case he had to move in a hurry. He also undid the snap on his shoulder holster, as Avery’s hunches often preceded a situation. He scanned the entrance just as she did, knowing that whatever she was seeing, he was probably missing it. He stayed quiet and watched.

  “There,” she said suddenly, nodding at the doors. A moment later, a man exited the building and squinted in the sudden brightness before turning his eyes back to the phone in his hand. He seemed to be in his 50’s, average height, and wiry. His hair was pale and thinning, and his silver-rimmed glasses glinted in the sunlight. He had a prominent nose, and a strong chin beneath it, though his ears seemed too small. He carried a slim briefcase of brown leather that nearly matched his pants, and he stopped walking just long enough to slip his phone into one of its outside pockets. As he started moving again, he reached up to loosen the knot of his dark blue tie, pulling it away from the collar of a white dress shirt that looked a bit too big for him.

  Before Jim could say a word, Avery had already exited the car. Sighing in exasperation, he followed suit, knowing that his long legs would help close the gap between them, but only if he hurried. For a woman as short and sturdy as she was, Avery could hustle when she wanted to, and she already had a head start.

  “Sir?” she called out as she crossed the parking lot towards the thin man. “Could you help us, please?” Her voice was sweet and innocent, completely harmless. Jim had seen it work for her many times before, but it only took an instant for him to know that this was not one of those times.

  Before the last word left her lips, the man’s head snapped towards Avery, his eyes narrowed and his body hunched for either flight or combat.

  “You! I know who you are!” he hissed, glaring at Avery, who blinked in obvious surprise. “And you’re not going to stop me, no way!” When she opened her mouth to protest, the man surprised her by turning away and sprinting for the far corner of the building, looking like a startled scarecrow but moving faster than Avery would have thought possible.

  “Jim!” she yelled, but her partner was already sprinting after the man, his longer legs pumping as he tried to catch up.

  “I’ve got him!” he huffed as he blew past her. Avery knew that Jim hit the treadmill just often enough that a chase wouldn’t kill him, but he’d be feeling it for days. At a glance, she could see that he was too far behind the perp, and he’d not reach him in time. She had a few ideas of her own, though, and she burst into action as well.

  The man slipped on the grass as he tried to make the corner but recovered quickly enough that he was back on his feet before Jim got close enough to grab him. He threw a look over his shoulder displaying wild eyes and an insane grin, nothing like the absent-minded professor he had seemed to be only moments before. “Stop! Police!” Jim yelled between wheezing breaths. A crazed cackle was the only response he got. Jim cursed as he struggled to keep up.

  Moving with surprising dexterity, the man leaped over the walkway that led to the east entrance and began weaving through the round concrete tables and benches, surprising the few students who had spread out to enjoy the spring breezes. He was gaining speed, his tie flying over his shoulder like a pennant in the wind, and Jim was hard-pressed to stay close. Jim knew if the runner made the corner, he might make an escape. All he needed was a few moments out of sight and then he could be gone for good. Ignoring the burn in his legs and blinking sweat from his eyes, Jim tried to push harder, knowing that he was out of luck.

  As the man reached the corner, a dark green Jeep came flying out of the unseen parking lot on the far side of the building and screeched to a stop in front of him. The fugitive slammed into the side of the vehicle and dropped the briefcase to the ground. He wobbled, but recovered quickly, then snatched up his case and bolted to his left. Ignoring a bloody nose, he sprinted away, leaving the Jeep idling in place.

  “Stay there! Police!” Jim yelled at the driver, trying to keep his eyes on his target. He rounded the corner and saw the man racing down the parking lot, picking up speed. Despair washed over his face as he gauged the distance and knew he’d never make it. It seemed the man knew it too, as he turned and threw the detective the finger as he ran.

  As he passed a van parked next to the north entrance, Avery slammed into him like a linebacker. Airborne, she drove her shoulder into his exposed ribs and knocked most of the wind out of him as she took him down. The rest came out in an explosive wheeze as Avery crushed his body into the pavement, and he gasped like a fish as he struggled to draw a breath. Blood oozed from the new holes in Avery’s slacks where she had scraped her knees, and her palms were also abraded, but she felt no pain as she rolled him over on his face and pinned him with a knee in the small of his back. She efficiently yanked his hands behind him as she reached for her handcuffs, a faint smile appearing on her face.

  She hadn’t b
een sure that cutting through the building would get her across in time, just as she hadn’t been certain their target would be close by once she emerged, but her gut had told her it was worth a shot. Once inside, she had to skirt the fountain and several students, but her instincts led her unerringly along the shortest path to the exit door. She had burst through it, skipped across the uneven steps, and honed in on the man’s harsh laughter. She’d launched herself through the air before even seeing him. He hadn’t had a chance.

  “You have the right to remain silent,” she began, silently adding, you asshole. The man struggled beneath her and managed to catch a pained breath, which he released with a moan of bewilderment and pain.

  Jim staggered over to them and bent over, hands on knees, heaving for breath. “That,” he began, pausing to suck in a few more lungfuls of air before continuing, “was beautiful.” He swallowed as he began to recover. “I need to buy you tacos more often.”

  “Damn straight, you do,” Avery muttered between lines of the Miranda warning. She finished informing the man on the ground of his rights. “Do you understand these rights as I have explained them to you?”

  The man groaned, then stopped and began muttering something under his breath.

  “What was that?” she snapped. He muttered again, a faint chuckle weaving its way into the quiet syllables that floated out of his thin mouth.

  Avery tried to focus on the sounds…and then she blinked her eyes and realized that the man was gone. She was still on her knees, her handcuffs lying on the pavement before her. Puzzled, she turned, only to find Jim standing where he had been before. He was silent, his eyes wide and unseeing, his mouth hanging slightly open. She lurched to her feet.

  “Jim!” she exclaimed, alarmed. “Hey, Jim! What happened? Hey!” She slapped him lightly on the face, and he jerked as if he’d been startled awake from a nap.

  “Wha…? What the hell?” He looked around, his eyes slowly coming into focus. “Where’s the guy? What happened?”