by A.M. Burns
12
“We like to do our part to keep Dallas clean of unwanted magical menaces!” Dusty mimicked as we pulled away from the curb. “You make us sound like ghost hunters or something. You are so silly. That's part of what I love about you.” He leaned over and licked my ear.
“Would you not do that while I'm trying to drive?” I laughed back as I tried not to swerve into the path of a soccer mom on a cell phone while playfully shoving him back into this seat.
Dusty settled into his seat “Oh yeah, before I forget, I wasn't going to say anything there, but the Ventus ater definitely smelled a bit like the scents at the park and on Barry and Alexia. Not exactly, but a bit, so I think we’re dealing with multiple elemental spirits maybe of different kinds.”
“On the bright side, at least it’s elementals and not higher ODs. Elementals we can deal with. I’m so not in the mood to deal with higher ODs. We'd be hauling Tiffany around just to negotiate with them.” When dealing with higher forms of ODs, you almost needed a law degree just to get any useful information out of them. Why people bothered summoning them was beyond me. Most of those that were legally able to be summoned were the craftiest of the bunch, since they went to the trouble to get the permits and licenses. Tiffany was the only one of us that had a license to actually summon ODs. Dusty and I could dismiss them as in the case of the Ventus ater, and we could enforce the treaty, but I don’t have the patience for summoning and Dusty doesn’t have the raw power for it.
“That’s something we need to be looking at in our potential killers,” I said smacking the steering wheel. “We need to look for who has the raw power to summon something from one of the further planes. The person who called that Ventus ater into the body of that gator is no lightweight. They had to have a fair amount of power to pull that off and/or a circle of people to augment that power. This isn’t being done by your average Wiccan guy.”
“So did anyone at the get together last night have the kind of power we’re looking for?” Dusty was checking my PDA for the updated schedule and any changes Tiffany would have made.
“Not on the surface. They could’ve cloaked it somehow, but a really strong shield should’ve shown up too. But there are other ways to cloak power than shields.” I turned onto the on ramp and slowed the car to a stop. Traffic on the highway was stopped and backed up. “We shouldn't be anywhere near the stadium, I wonder what’s the problem?”
At that point with her almost omnipotent ability Tiffany called. “Hey when you leave the Supunskis don't get on 635, take Beltline around to the Reyes place.”
“Your warning comes about one minute too late.” I laughed.
“Sorry, I just caught the police band about the tipped over cattle truck. Looks like more cows decided to run wild in the river bottom. If you get off at Luna, you can cut up to Beltline.” Many Dallasites wondered why there seemed to be a rash of cattle trucks tipping over. The running joke was that the cows decided they’d risk life and limb so that a few of them could run free and that we’d soon end up with free-roaming cow gangs controlling the Trinity River basin. I guess no one bothered to tell them that the local werewolves liked to hunt down there.
“That's what I figured. Dusty’s looking at the schedule. Anything I should know about that’s developing?” The cars ahead crept forward about half a car length.
“I'll let Dusty go over the changes in the schedule with you. Paul stopped by a little while ago. Nothing new on the jaguar front and he’ll meet you back here after your appointment with Alexia. I spoke with Toby and he’s supposed to send me more information on the wolf disappearances. I went over the folder and a couple of the locations of the missing or mauled wolves are missing. Toby’s going to get me that. I thought to compare the map of the unauthorized planal crossings that Carmine sent, with the data from the wers to see what we come up with. If they are not dead on I suspect they’ll be close.”
We inched closer to the exit ramp where the police were redirecting people off of the highway. I pitied the people who were trying to get to North Dallas from the airport. “You're not going to get an argument from me. Check with Carmine and see if there’ve been any new crossings since she sent us the information. Let her know I sent an unauthorized Ventus ater back to its home plane. Feel free to send her the shots of the markings from the gator, see if she can figure out anything from them.”
“Gee do I have to be nice to Carmine?” Tiffany sounded almost like some little junior high school kid. She really didn’t like Carmine and one of these days I’d find out exactly why.
“No you don't have to be nice. Cordial yes. See if when we resolve this thing, I can bill the hours to her. Might as well try and get as much money as possible.” Billing Carmine would make Tiffany feel better about talking to the woman. Dusty grinned at me and nodded. I knew he was thinking about the new bathroom he wanted to put in the next time we had spare cash. Billing the council would help with that.
“I can do cordial,” Tiffany said. “I just got an IM from Hans. He’s on the cleanup crew that went to the Supunski’s place. He said that the gator’s already begun to decompose.” I could hear the wheels in her brain spinning much faster than my tires on the highway parking lot where I was stuck. “If the gator’s already decomposing, the Ventus ater had been in it long enough that the flesh had begun to die. The elemental’s energy was the only thing holding it together. This time of year, given the standard three days it takes for an elemental to kill the soul of the host, I’d say it had been in the body at least two weeks. I wonder if any of the wers were attacked near water and might have been bitten by the gator?”
“Any wer that couldn’t handle that alligator isn’t worth being a wer,” Dusty said, his sensitive ears picking up the conversation.
“But if the gator's controller was nearby, he or she could’ve done something to incapacitate the wer to the point that the alligator could finish it off making it look like an animal attack. I'll look through the files and see if any of the damage looks like it may have been made by an alligator. I'll dig up some comparison shots online. The jaguar in Turtle Creek Park could’ve been close enough to water.” I could hear Tiffany's fingers dancing across her keyboard. “Look, I'll work this angle and keep you posted. You see about getting out of traffic. If you can, you’ll only end up fashionably late to the Reyes' house.”
She hung up.
As we crawled through the traffic, Dusty reviewed the schedule. It was a good thing we didn’t have anything scheduled between Reynaldo at two and Alexia at four. Starting about five thirty we had appointments through most of the evening with various members of the get-together group and at least one wer, finalizing with calling up Barry Crabtree's spirit around eleven.
Traffic finally broke a few blocks away from the highway, so we pulled up in front of the Reyes house at two fifteen. Dusty called to let Reynaldo know we were stuck in traffic. He met us on the porch with a half smoked cigarette in his hand.
“Sorry for the delay,” I said extending a hand as we approached on the walk.
“Hey dude, no problem. I was just chillin.’” His grip was cold and damp.
I paused, remembering that in the office, Dusty’d been in wolf form, so Reynaldo hadn’t officially met him. “This is my partner Dusty Davenport. He wanted to tag along today since his case load’s slow right now.” It was a good excuse for having Dusty along. He worked his own cases once in a while. Mostly he did it when my case load got too heavy and we needed him to work something on his own. He was developing into a good PI.
“Hey, the more the merrier.” Reynaldo rubbed his cigarette out on the side of the entryway, then dropped it into a coffee can that was three quarters filled with cigarette butts, before leading us into the house.
Clutter covered the living room. I couldn’t tell if it were recent or the norm for the place. The house was fairly nice. Both the Reyes had been in the tech field, meaning they had nice-paying jobs. Of course, to afford my fees, he had to have nicely-padded pockets. All of
the electronics in the house were the latest and best. The wall-mounted widescreen 3DHD TV currently playing tentacle porn of some sort, or at least that what I thought it was. Dusty glanced at it, shivered and looked away.
“Reynaldo, where did you find the body?” I asked, wanting to get this moving so we could get back to the office.
“She was back in her altar room.” He led us down a flight of stairs into a more orderly part of the house. “Pardon the mess, I’m not sure what is going on, but I clean and clean and nothing seems to stay clean for long.”
“Hey I know it’s tough adjusting, or maybe you have gremlins.” I chuckled, thinking about what Magee’s ghost said about haunting him. I could only imagine what she was up to.
The altar room was in the back of the house and he had to unlock the door.
“I don't want my daughter wandering in here,” he explained, as he put the key back in his pocket.
“I'm sorry, I didn’t realize you two had children.” I paused on the threshold of the room.
“She isn't Magee's,” he explained, flipping the light switch. “She’s from my first marriage. She's not over much, but it’s safer to keep the room locked until I decide if I'm going to keep the house or not. If I keep the house, I'll go in and totally renovate the room, turn it into storage or something.”
Overall, the room looked like your standard Wiccan altar room. A short bookcase with a few books on modern Wicca occupied the far wall. On the east wall, a small table held the usual accoutrements, a chalice, a statue of the triple goddess, an athame, a couple of candles, a wand, a bell, a smudge stick and an incense burner. On the wall behind the altar, a large print of the witches rede hung in a heavy wooden frame. The words perfect love and perfect trust were underlined in red. A half-melted candle lay on the carpet under the altar. It looked like it might have rolled there at some point. A small burn mark discolored the carpet in front of the altar. I wondered if Magee had been holding the candle when she died. If so then it was sheer luck that the house hadn’t burned down. I glanced around the rest of the room, then turned back to Reynaldo.
“So where was she?”
He gestured toward the altar. “There on the floor where the burn spot is. When they moved her, I noticed it for the first time,” he sighed. “Now I'm going to have to have this room re-carpeted. I have no idea how long it has been there. The police think she may have been holding that candle when the drugs overcame her. There was a bit of wax on her fingers.”
Dusty picked up the candle sniffed it and nodded.
“Do you mind if we take the candle? I'd like to run a couple of tests on it,” I asked while Dusty dropped it into a Ziploc® bag. I always made sure we both carried a couple around with us because you never know when you’re going to need one. They’re like duct tape.
“No please take anything you like,” he replied, his face dancing between regret and repulsion. “None of this means anything to me. It’s a part of Magee I would just as soon forget.”
“Have any of Magee's witch friends stopped by to see you since her death?” I flipped open the notebook. There didn't look to be too much more of interest in the room.
“Maddie comes by every couple of days to check on me. She and Magee were very close and I think she misses her almost as much as I do. Other than that, I have had a couple of calls from folks but no one’s stopped by. Bree’s really pissed at me for not having a Wiccan burial for her. She said that several of the other people weren’t pleased either. But I told them that if I wanted a Christian service for my wife so her soul would get into Heaven that’s my right and they didn't have to come if they didn't want to.” His voice rose a couple of octaves as he spoke.
“And other than the house not staying clean, have you noticed anything out of the ordinary in the past week or so?”
He thought for a moment and then shook his head.”Nope, but then I've been getting completely stoned, then drunk and passing out every night. If something’s going on I wouldn't know about it.”
“One last thing, do you happen to have the pills Magee took to commit suicide?”
“The police gave them back to me after they decided it was suicide,” he said. “The bag’s up stairs. Take it if you want. None of them will do a thing for me.” He led us back up to the living room and in one of the piles on the very expensive couch, he pulled the police evidence bag with the pills.
“Thanks, maybe we can find something out,” I said, handing the bag to Dusty. “We’ve started interviewing members of her get-together group. Hopefully they’ll let something slip.”
“Too bad you didn't get a chance to interview Barry, but I figure it’s about time some woman pounded that slime into the ground. I’m amazed it took this long. Poor little Alexia, she seemed like a nice enough girl, pretty too. Never understood what she saw in him. I figured it was pity. That’s the type of girl she is. I never minded having her around the house, or Maddie either for that matter. Both of them can light up a room. I hope Alexia’ll give me a call when she gets out. It’d be nice to hear from her, maybe have her over. I need to get her fixed up with a real man.” He thought for a moment. “You know I bet she may have done your job for you and just offed Barry before you could find out anything. Maybe that’s what made her snap. He's the type he’d have bragged about casting a spell on Magee to make her believe she was taking a pill with water and then she took too many with alcohol. Hell, I bet he brought the bottle with him and then left with it.”
“Wait a minute. They never found the bottle of alcohol?” That was news to me, I figured it was something that they had on hand and she just finished it off.
“No, the coroner said it was vodka. I don't drink vodka. I'm a tequila man. The police just figured she got rid of the bottle after she drank it, or that maybe a friend had brought it over and left with it after she took the pills.”
“Was there anything in the chalice?” I thought out loud.
“I'll go check,” Dusty offered. “I think you left the door open.” And he disappeared down the stairs. I figured this’d also give him the opportunity to sniff around a bit without Reynaldo watching. And even if he’d locked it, Dusty’d get past it in second leaving no evidence that he’d done anything to the door.
“I don't think the police checked the chalice,” Reynaldo said. “But she was always real adamant about not drinking anything out of it unless it was sanctified to the Goddess. I just can't see her drinking vodka out of it.”
“Sometimes people do strange things toward the end, and if someone changed out her regular drink for the vodka, that might be a lead we can use.” I heard Dusty coming back up the stairs.
He shook his head. “Nope it’s dry as a bone.”
“Well it was a thought.” I tried to sound down about it, but I could tell Dusty had found something he didn’t want to talk about in front of Reynaldo.
“Sorry you couldn't find more.” Reynaldo pulled out a pack of cigarettes as he opened the front door. “Let me know when you find anything else. If you look into Barry Crabtree a bit more, you’ll find the guy who killed my Magee.”
“We're going to try and get access to his apartment and see what we can dig up. I'm also going to interview Alexia and see what she knows.” I walked passed him lighting his cigarette.
“Well you dudes have a good day and keep me posted.” He took a long drag off his cigarette.
“Will do,” I said as I opened the door to get into the car.
I waited until we got down the block a bit before turning to Dusty. “So what did you find?”
He flashed a big smile. “It’s definitely tied in with the other shit that’s going on. The smell’s closer to whatever attacked Barry Crabtree than the Ventus ater. Might even be the same thing, but I doubt it. The scent’s old, but it touched several things on the altar, including the chalice and the candle. I’m pretty sure that the last thing that was in that chalice was water, but it smelled like it was cleaned after the last use.”
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��But transmuting any liquid into water isn’t a hard thing to do for an elemental, particularly a water elemental.” I finished for him. “Now we just need to find out who’s summoning them and why. And the big part of the why is why try and take over the territory of the wers and why take out the leaders of the largest Wiccan group in the area? The most obvious answer is someone’s after power, but what power does one get with wers and witches under their control and why haven't they made a move against the Council?”
“Could it be someone on the Council?” Dusty pondered as we left the neighborhood and pulled out onto the highway heading back toward the office.
“But why have us researching the unauthorized ODs, unless Carmine hasn’t told anyone that we’re working on the case?” For some reason, no one was slowing down for the cow on the side of the road. I guess it was Texas, and some people just expect to see a cow on the side of the road. It was probably one of the escapees from the cattle truck spill earlier. I paused as we passed it and stared. It was a strange brindle-colored longhorn. It seemed to stare back, then went back to grazing.
“We need to find that out,” Dusty said while I watched the cow.
“You know we have an hour,” I said as we picked up speed, getting closer to downtown. “Let’s stop and get a bite to eat. It's going to be a long evening and this might be our last chance.”
“I'll call ahead to the Burger Barn so we don't risk being late.” Dusty whipped out his phone and began to dial.