The Swedish Days Swindle

by J. B. Michaels

  “Hmmm. Well, looks like you came back and now we have two mysteries to solve!” Mac’s excitement permeated the summer evening.

  The game was afoot.

  Chapter Six

  “I do know that there are some very uptight groups of magic users who would take umbrage with the fact I was buying up large quantities of essence of hummingbird. I mean, we were safe and didn’t get caught. We always traveled under cover of night and away from any surveillance. But…you may be right. It could be someone poking their nose into our business.” Millie fished her phone from her purse.

  “What are uptight groups of magic users? I mean I think I understand, but could use some clarification.” Mac laughed.

  “You know, people who practically don’t use magic at all, except to clean their homes and grow plants. People who have basically shunned their use of magic and want to assimilate as much as they can with regular people.”

  “Aren’t you like that, though?” Mac’s lower lip jutted.

  “Not exactly, I mean to a degree yes, but I do use my magic to help you solve murders. I thoroughly enjoy and accept my role as a magic user. I guess I’m more liberal with my use of magic and those people are more conservative—barely using their magic at all.”

  “Sorta like the fashion police, but the magic police? Am I getting closer to understanding? Any warmer?”

  “Ugh. Mom?” Millie put her phone up to her ear.

  “Yes, yes can I help you my dear?” Becca’s comforting voice sounded in Millie’s ear.

  “Mom, when I was gone in upstate New York, did anyone inquire about my whereabouts or just ask about me in general? Especially anyone at the Morris Shop?”

  “I did hear some people wondering about who could afford to buy so much essence of hummingbird, but it was just some rumblings from a couple old lady customers. Why?”

  “How would they even know the essence was being used?” Millie continued her walk to Third Street. Mac followed.

  “I know you were using it at springtime and that is when most people use it for their gardening. That was why I didn’t really think anything of it to be honest.” There was a pause, then Beck again asked, “Why do you ask?”

  “Nothing. I just got a strange phone call this morning. I thought that it might have been someone from one of the strict magic user groups, you know, the ones that try to regulate and control every magical action ever. It’s like they were confirming if I was home or something. Honestly, Mac and I could just be paranoid, but we were super careful when we used the magic. Ah, never mind. It’s probably nothing.”

  “If you want, I can make a few phone calls. I can even call Marie at the Morris Shop and see who might be inquiring as to your current whereabouts. I’ll let you know if I find anything. Okay?”

  “Thanks Mom, I really appreciate it. I should go, Mac and I are enjoying Swedish Days.”

  “Don’t lie. You aren’t enjoying your time with that idiot,” Beck said.

  “Haha! Yes, I actually am. Sorta.” Millie laughed. “Okay, talk to you later. Bye.”

  “Buh-bye. I’ll let you know.” Beck ended the call.

  Millie turned to look at Mac, who she thought was right behind her. The sun had set, the yellow ambient glow of the street-lamps showing the sidewalk and the decline from the slight hill that rolled down to the river. No Mac.

  “Mac!” Millie looked to the side street and to a Mexican restaurant, famous for making a mean margarita. No Mac. He couldn’t have gone very far with his handicapped state.

  Millie reached for her cellphone to call him. Her phone buzzed before she could unlock the screen.

  Mac’s picture popped up on the screen. She answered, “Where are you Mac?”

  “He is safe. He will continue to be safe if you follow my very specific directions.”

  Millie’s mouth went dry. A pit the size of a caldera formed in her stomach: her anxiety. The sweat that formed on her forehead from the hot summer night now beaded and poured down her face. Her mascara ran down her cheeks, following her tears. She recognized the voice.

  It was the same voice who’d called her work phone earlier that day.

  Chapter Seven

  “You are to go back to your place of work.” The raspy deep voice sounded more menacing with each word spoken.

  “I can’t go back there. It’s closed. Even I don’t know the code to get inside.” Millie spun around, still looking for Mac and his new abductor. She tried to steel herself and not vocalize the growing hysteria rising from her stomach. She shook from nerves but she assumed that he, whoever he was, couldn’t see her.

  “You have to figure out a way in or you won’t see Officer O’Malley again. This is mere truth. Accept this and figure out a way in.” The voice remained calm, creepy, and yet somehow full of vitriol.

  “You made yourself quite clear. What do I do when I get in the bank? Rob it?” Millie rubbed her head. Great, a stress induced a headache. Right now, at least, it was not quite as strong as she had suffered in the past. She definitely wouldn’t be using Ditzy Dolores this night.

  “Exactly. You are to take ten thousand cash from the vault and fill one bank cash bag with it. Also, take five empty cash bags with you: only one filled with cash. No more. All large bills. No small. Do you understand?”

  “Yes, yes. I understand. Six bags, only one with ten thousand in cash.”

  “So happy you can add. You have thirty minutes. Drop the cash bag and empty bags off inside the trash can in front of the Kane County Courthouse, on the corner of Campbell and Third.”

  “In the middle of Swedish Days?”

  “No questions. Do it. Thirty minutes. If you call the police, Mac dies.” The call ended.

  Her phone’s clock read 8pm.

  Millie immediately started to sprint to the Salem Bank of Geneva on 2nd street. She wasn’t far away from the bank and could easily make it there within two minutes. Her long legs and quick twitch muscles made running easy for her. She wondered what Mac would do. Would he ignore the threat and call the cops anyway?

  Her fast pace did cause some fellow pedestrians to question her motives. Geneva was hopping tonight—Swedish Days in full swing.

  The bank would have people around it: on the sidewalks, most likely walking to Third Street to enjoy the concert in the tent in front of the courthouse, just a block away.

  Sure enough, a steady stream of people were walking to Third. There were even people using the drive-through ATM.

  Shit.

  Millie slowed her pace and approached the brown brick of the bank building. She settled into a power-walk, her arms still chugging as if on a run. She walked to the front door, still without a clue on what to do. She knew the extent of the security system: there wasn’t even a motion detector. Her parents had a better security system! Gerald cut corners and loved his old security system. Still, she didn’t have a key or a way to disarm the security system.

  Time to call Gerald. Millie pulled out her phone and quickly punched in his number.

  “Hello, Millie, thought you were headed to Swedish Days this evening?” Gerald’s affable voice sounded in her ear.

  “Hey Gerald. I am so sorry, but I forgot my wallet in my desk. Is there any way I can get it from you tonight? I’m in front of the bank now since I just got done with dinner. Is that at all possible? I am so sorry, I’ve had so much on my mind with the move back. I am just a bit overwhelmed.” Millie knew this was a ridiculous understatement. Still, no time for the truth.

  “No problem. Thankfully you just caught me. I live down the street and was about to head to the concert. I will swing by in ten minutes. That good?”

  Of course, he would be able to afford the posh homes around downtown Geneva. She knew that already. “Thanks, so much Gerald. I will wait here.”

  Mille ended the call and looked at the digital clock on her phone. She figured she would have only fifteen minutes to get the cash if Gerald actually stuck to his ten minute promise. Unbelievable how time could
be so funny. When you really need time. You don’t ever seem to have enough.

  Chapter Eight

  8:13pm. Millie paced the sidewalk in front of the entrance to Salem Bank.

  She pondered what the hell to do and how to do it. Luckily, she had her trusty wand with her. Still, could she really put a spell on Gerald, her boss, and not expect some sort of horrendous consequence? She already felt like her purchase of essence of hummingbird already attracted unwanted attention and now using magic the first day back home could be even more troublesome. Mac’s disappearance almost seemed illusory. How the hell didn’t she hear it? What if the person who abducted Mac was an evil wizard?

  It could really be the case.

  Millie. Focus.

  Gerald walked up, even broke into a casual jog, with his Tommy Bahama outfit. He looked like he was headed to a Jimmy Buffett concert: orange shirt and khaki shorts with a straw hat. Millie would have laughed in a normal situation on a normal night.

  Millie attempted a fake laugh. “Looking good, bossman!”

  “Haha, thanks so much. I just like to get into the summer mood, you know? Besides there is a Jimmy cover band at the Swedish Days concert. I can’t wait.” Gerald walked up and pulled out his keys.

  “Thanks so much for doing this, I really appreciate it. I can’t believe I left my wallet in here. I couldn’t even get a drink and I was really flattered that I got carded too. Ha!” Millie said.

  Gerald fumbled the keys and dropped them on the sidewalk.

  Millie bit her bottom lip. Seriously?!

  “Oh sorry. I had a margarita already.” Gerald bent to pick up the keys.

  Millie beat him to it. “Here you go.”

  “Thanks.” Gerald put the key into the black framed, tinted glass door. One of two doors to get through.

  He opened the second door to the bank lobby with ease. “Let me just disarm the alarm system.”

  Millie noticed that you could actually enter through the front door and not trip the alarm. He didn’t do any disarming before they entered. Yikes.

  He put out his hand to impede Millie’s progress through the second door. He thumbed through his key ring and selected a small key. Inserting it into a side compartment in the bank lobby, he turned a key and entered a code onto the keypad.

  Millie looked away to maintain his trust in her.

  He turned on the fluorescent bulb, lighting up the brown and earth toned lobby of the bank.

  “It should just be in my desk. I’ll grab it quickly.”

  “Take your time. I’m going to hit the head real quick. That margarita went through me fast!”

  Millie rolled her eyes. Too much information, but a perfect situation. He would be in the bathroom and that would give her time to get what she needed.

  Chapter Nine

  The only bathroom in the bank had a door lock—a knob lock that Millie needed. She let Gerald walk a few paces to the bathroom before she followed. Gerald walked in and closed the door. Millie brought out her wand from her purse.

  “Petrificus totalis.” She aimed the wand at the doorknob.

  Gerald would be stuck in the bathroom until she could get what she needed.

  Luckily, she was confident she could conjure a way to open the vault and could easily procure what she needed.

  First, though, she needed to block the camera feeds. With her back to the black bulb in the center ceiling that housed the camera system, she spun her wand and from it spewed a purple amorphous fog the size of two basketballs. It barreled toward the surveillance system on the ground before it raised to the ceiling and blocked the view. Millie shook her head. Gerald placed the cameras in one spot. Four cameras covering the whole lobby bunched together—dumb. Again, corner-cutting.

  Millie, wand in one hand, ran to the vault around the corner from Gerald’s office. There was a small hallway with a locked door on the right wall. The rear entrance the armored car company used to transfer cash was at the end of the hallway. A lock prevented Millie’s entry to the vault, but only for a second. She didn’t have time for the clever use of stealthy spells: she blasted it open. “Repulse!”

  Millie pulled her phone out. She had only ten minutes to reach the trash can on the corner Third and Campbell.

  “Mac, I am coming. I promise.” Millie took a deep breath.

  What she considered doing next could prove quite problematic, down-right irresponsible. But desperate times. Desperate measures. The young, beautiful witch held her wand with two hands and aimed it at the corner of the small vault room. Seriously small, only five feet of room from the vault door to the opposite wall. It was enough room for who she needed.

  “Leprechaun, I humbly call unto thee.” Millie closed her eyes. Her wand vibrated and spun in her hand. The wand stopped then spun in the other direction. Millie realized that where was no rhyme or reason for the spinning. It was a trick of the summoned, already causing problems.

  “Out with you already!” Millie yelled at her wand.

  A brilliant spectrum of light spewed from the tip of her wand. The colors of the rainbow beamed forth and to the corner of the small room. The red faded, along with blue, the indigo, and so on, until the only color of the rainbow shooting like a laser from her wand was green.

  A puff of green sparkles gave way to the creature Millie needed to get into the vault.

  “Dermot at your service, m’ dear. I take it you need me to get into this pot’-o-gold now.” The two-foot tall, bearded man—dressed in jeans and a t-shirt and not the typical Fighting Irish garb—scratched his Christmas ornament-sized belly.

  “Yes, I need you to open this and quickly. I haven’t much time.”

  “It’ll cost you to summon a wee one like meself now. I was just settling down to watch baseball, even though I find American baseball dreadfully slow. I just don’t get it. Why is it even a thing now?”

  “Why watch it—never mind, just open the vault and I will pay you whatever you need. Please, I have no time.”

  “Tis’ no trouble at all, deary. No trouble.”

  Mille didn’t have time to feel the dreadful regret that surrounded and threatened to overtake her gut.

  Chapter Ten

  Dermot the leprechaun made short work of the vault door. He didn’t have to do much but put his tiny hands on the stainless steel wheel. As he said a few words, sparks shot from his fingertips and he opened the vault door with ease.

  Millie essentially summoned him to the end of the proverbial rainbow. She didn’t possess the ability to open bank vaults with such efficiency and grace. She could have used Repulse again, but that would have left an awful mess and certainly caused greater damage to the bank—resulting in an investigation. She was confident she could find a way to return the money before Gerald or anyone knew it was gone.

  The inside of the vault looked no different than a rather large walk-in closet. A closet with stacks of cash and, of course, the bags that the sinister abductor requested.

  “Thank you so much! I promised to give what you need in a few minutes.” Millie walked into the vault, grabbed only stacks of 100 dollar bills, and put them into a singular cash bag. She fit as many in as she could.

  “Don’t ye be thinkin’ you’ll be in a bit ‘o trouble now?” Dermot tapped his tiny finger on his whiskered chin.

  “I don’t have time to worry about that. Someone I know is in greater danger if I don’t grab this.”

  “Millie!” Gerald’s muffled yell came from the bathroom across the lobby.

  “Who is that now?” Dermot cocked his head.

  “Millie! The door is jammed! Did you find your license yet?”

  “Never mind him. What do you need from me? What is your price?” Millie stuffed as many empty bags as she could into other bags, then stuffed it all into her purse.

  “Let me enjoy this night and you can send me back in the wee hours. That is all I ask. Oh, and you better bring me gold back.” Dermot raised an eyebrow and a wry smile adorned his face.

 
“Fine. Meet me outside of this building at midnight. I will return the money I have now. Is that a wee enough of a time for you?” Millie lied. She had no idea how to get the money back, too. She decided to say anything in her current state of despair. Anything to get Mac back.

  “See you then, deary!” Dermot laughed and then shot out of the vault in a flash.

  Millie made sure she had what she needed. Six blue cash bags: one stuffed with big bills. Five empty cash bags.

  She closed the vault and spun the wheel until she heard clicking followed by a metallic thump. She closed the hallway door and walked back into the lobby. “Gerald! So sorry! I couldn’t find it. I’ll get the door open for you! Hang on!”

  “Okay, thanks. Started to think you left me! Buffett band starts soon!” Gerald laughed , clearly relieved.

  Millie didn’t respond. She walked to the front door of the bank and aimed her wand back to the bathroom door’s lock, then whispered, “Release in one minute.” Not every spell, counter-spell, or cancel spell required the use of Latin or traditional language. A mixture of new and old vernacular weaved its way into the language of magic throughout the centuries. To cancel a spell, the simpler the command the better. Gerald would be freed in just sixty seconds.

  Now to free her beloved Mac.

  Chapter Eleven

  Millie picked up the pace, but she had plenty of time. Her current location put her two blocks from the garbage can on the corner of Campbell and Third Street. She preferred not to run and draw attention to herself with five minutes to spare.

  She could see the center tower of the Kane County Courthouse. Many people walked the sidewalks both in front and behind her. The comforting, relaxing tones of a gently beat steel drum set sounded from the concert tent set up in the street in front of the courthouse.