Antique Absconding Arsonist

by Gretchen S. B.

  After about ten minutes, the line of people leaving the building stops and I notice several people heading toward the parking lot, giving up entirely. It makes me wonder whether the fire is bad enough to cancel the auction. My mind whirls on how big a fire would have to be to warrant that when Violetta shoves the back door open and walks out into the large alley. She dodges several people trying to engage her in conversation or get information from her and heads straight to me.

  She motions her head deeper in the alley and pivots in that direction. I follow, knowing she's looking for privacy, an almost impossibility in the thick of the crowd. Any werecreatures in that crowd will hear us anywhere we stand in the alley, so the sense of privacy is really an allusion.

  "You okay?" I murmur to her as we both stop walking.

  She gives me a soft smile and nods. "That smaller fire was a diversion. There is a much larger one on the other side of the stage near where the artifacts are being kept." She keeps her voice low.

  "How big is it?" I ask cautiously, wondering if I should worry that the book and compact could go up in the flames, despite being in the safe when the fire started.

  "Someone used an accelerant and some kind of magic is involved because it didn't jump from the curtains blocking the back area from the stage to the curtains where the artifacts are kept."

  Reading between the lines, I glance away from Violetta toward the people milling about, several of which are not hiding how eagerly they're watching Violetta and me. “Are you telling me someone used the fire as a diversion to steal something?"

  "We can’t confirm that yet. Billy called the supernatural hotline as soon as the first fire popped up. So the supernatural fire brigade is on their way. Those two elves could get the fire contained, but no one's been able to put it out. So it's not safe to let people back in the building just in case. Since it's not the safest of situations, no one's gotten the chance to check if something important is missing." She leans in about two inches from my ear. "Jenny tells me she can smell magic around the objects, it's not the same magic they use for the shield. She has a sneaking suspicion either somebody tried to break the shield down or they succeeded. She's putting money on something being stolen." When she finishes speaking, she leans back and looks at me meaningfully.

  "Are they going to have you check it?"

  Violetta shrugs. The two of us stare at each other before turning to the crowd at large. Several heads swivel away when we turn in their direction. But a few people with no sense of decorum blatantly stare at us.

  "Great," I exclaim on an exhale.

  "Yeah."

  "I don't even remember the last time there was a theft at one of these auctions."

  "Five years ago, but security caught the guy as he was leaving the parking lot and he disappeared soon after," she responds absently.

  A handful of people did leave as we evacuated. Could one of them be the culprit? How would Violetta and the others know with so much time passing?

  Chapter 4

  "What the hell?" Violetta exclaims.

  We rejoin the crowd and stand in silence. I follow her gaze to a tall man in a large trench coat near the exit of the building. He is weaving his way, somewhat drunkenly, through the crowd toward the parking lot.

  "Did he just come out of the building?" I ask.

  "Yeah, and we cleared it of everyone nonessential before I stepped outside," Violetta answers as she jogs after the man.

  "This is none of your business. Violetta can handle herself," I mumble as I stride after her.

  Old habits die hard, and I don't see any other security members out here and I don't like the idea of Violetta pursuing someone by herself. Best-case scenario, I serve as a witness should something happen. Worst-case scenario, I get myself injured.

  I bump into a few people and mutter 'excuse me' as I weave after Violetta. People clear the way for her, but Violetta is famous. She comes from a well-known and powerful witch family. I, on the other hand, don't warrant the same respect, so the gaps she uses close back behind her. I'm lying if I don't admit I take a little bit of glee from ramming into a shoulder or two.

  Once I clear the crowd, now spilling out into the parking lot, another, larger crowd near the front of the building comes into view. Two large ogres break off, both wearing security T-shirts and begin following Violetta.

  "She has help, she'll be fine," I say sarcastically but I keep moving.

  The man in the trench is taking a zigzag pattern through the cars toward the back row of the lot. His goal seems to be the back left corner. I veer left and pick up my pace, monitoring their progress. I'm sure it looks like a weird jogging limp. I cut over several rows and gamble on him, pivoting my way as I duck behind a truck, holding onto the tailgate, and ducking down. I stick out my good leg as I hear the trench coat guy huffing and puffing. I stick my leg out farther. The impact is jarring as my leg strikes his. He yelps as he crashes to the ground. Items skitter on the pavement with the impact.

  I grit my teeth instead of letting out the yelp in my throat. This will definitely bruise my good leg. I pull my leg back in, so Violetta doesn't suffer the same fate. Standing, she slows and smirks down at the man on the ground.

  "Nice," she says to me with a nod.

  "You're welcome."

  "You realize if he went down any other gap, you'd just be standing here with your leg out like an idiot, right?" she asks with a smirk as the other two security guards heft the man off the ground.

  I shrug as she picks up the items scattered around us. "And that would affect my reputation how? Don't be mad because I could out-think him and you could only follow him."

  She gives me a droll stare before turning to the security guards. "Bring him to Billy? He'll want to wheedle out this guy's plan and if he's got any other booby-traps set up around the building."

  The two security guards mumble agreement and between them practically carry the guy who's now screaming about how he didn't do anything, false imprisonment, and how he's being framed. I'm not entirely sure why he thinks anyone would believe any of those things, but to each their own I suppose.

  Violetta stands again holding a tea tray, what looks like a bag of jacks, and a small notebook.

  "Do any of those have anything in common?"

  Violetta shrugs, walking towards the building where the two crowds have joined to form one mob, watching the only interesting thing that's happening outside the building. As the thief realizes this, his screaming becomes more frantic and louder.

  "The set of jacks are weather magic. You bounce the ball and grab the jack for whichever weather phenomenon you're looking for. The tea tray belongs to a poison tea set. My guess is he still has the teapot in that trench coat somewhere. The two pieces have to be together in order to work. I think this notebook belongs to him."

  "Please tell me there isn't a grocery list of items he was looking for in it."

  Violetta frowns and slips the tea tray under her arm so she can flip through the pages. "Yes, that is exactly what this is."

  How on Earth would he know what Billy has in this auction? The only people who know are his staff and the extra security. Unless it's a list of things he took, but that seems like a waste of time.

  As we reach the edge of the parking lot, I start to break off and Violetta looks at me questioningly.

  "You have a job to do, I'll see you later." I motion back toward the alley where there are probably a lot fewer people than five minutes ago.

  "No, you're coming in with me," she says, frowning.

  "Into the building, where there's an active fire," I say with disgust.

  A fire vehicle and two supernatural police cruisers pull into the parking lot.

  Violetta watches them, then turns back to me with a triumphant smile on her face. "See, the cavalry's here, you're perfectly safe, come on."

  Sighing, I shake my head and move in behind her as she wades through the crowd. People mutter left and right as we pass. I swear I catch at least one or t
wo snippets talking about my and Violetta's broken engagement and I try not to wince or snarl.

  When we reach the front double doors a dwarf and someone I think might be a sorcerer are standing in front of them in official looking shirts. They nod at Violetta before glancing at me and opening the doors for her. I refrain from making a joke about bouncers with a certain level of pride as we walk through and the door closes behind us.

  Chapter 5

  We step into the entryway. Podiums are scattered throughout the space with magical holograms of items Billy sold at past auctions. I don't even finish my cursory glance before the fire that sent everyone scattering from the building catches my attention. Curtains separating the right wall from the seating area have flames licking at them. Four employees are frantically waving their arms to keep the fire from spreading. The whole wall of curtains must be on fire.

  Violetta yanks my arm as the doors swing open and we stumble out of the way of three large ogres in all black clothes with the logo of the paranormal firefighters on their chest. They are dragging in all sorts of magically enhanced equipment. Including a hose that doesn't need to hook to a hydrant.

  Violetta tugs my arm again. "This way." She jerks her head to one of the two breaks in the curtains toward the seating area. Thankfully, the one farther from the fire because as much as I want to trust magical beings to control a fire, I've seen enough out-of-control magic to not hold out a lot of hope that their containment will last. The firefighters might get it under control, but I reserve the right to run screaming outside if the need should arise.

  Through the curtain are two dozen rows of seats lined up facing a raised platform stage. Almost half the chairs are scattered or knocked over, probably in the melee of everybody fleeing. Halfway up the rows sits the man in the long coat, fidgeting to get up. The security guards have their hands on his shoulders, which might be the only reason he's staying put. They tied his hands back; if he can wield magic, it's definitely a good move. Billy is standing in front of him, glaring down at the man. Jenny's on her phone, talking adamantly.

  "Why on Earth do I need to be here?" I mutter to Violetta before we get too close and everyone can hear me.

  "You were with me when I saw the guy and you tripped him so we could catch up with him," she mutters back.

  "What you're telling me is if I’d let him run, I could be outside in the safety of the fresh air?"

  Violetta twitches her lips as we reach the lump of people.

  The smell of smoke and fire isn't as bad as it should be. I'm grateful to whoever put a dampening spell down, so we're all able to continue breathing. I have no idea if we are still breathing in all the carcinogens from those black curtains. I make a mental note to make an appointment with my doctor to have him run a spell to clean up my lungs just in case. While some magical creatures have advanced healing, like Blake my werewolf best friend, I am a regular old human which means carcinogens are bad.

  "Tell them what this guy took," Billy commands Jenny as we walked up.

  "We searched his person fully..."

  Must be the supernatural helpline then, Jenny is calling for supernatural police to come arrest this guy. I appreciate that as old as Billy is, he's refraining from taking care of theft the old-fashioned way, by removing the guy's hands or murdering him and stringing him up as a warning. I don't think the humans who live around us would appreciate the nuances that go into murdering your enemies or people who wrong you. I can't say all the older creatures I've met over the years would respond to the scenario as rationally as Billy is.

  "They'll have a detective here within the next ten minutes. One's in the area already on a different case. He'll swing by since this seems pretty open and shut. There should also already be uniformed officers on the premises," Jenny reports, moving her mouth away from her phone.

  Billy nods in approval. "Good." He turns back to trench coat guy. "Now, tell me how exactly you broke in to steal those items you had unconvincingly hidden in your jacket?" Billy's tone slithers as he leans down to be eye to eye with the man.

  "I'm not telling you crap." Trench coat man enunciates every word, practically spitting as he finishes.

  Billy's eyes become slits and his face becomes an icy calm. I've never seen that expression on Billy's face before, but Billy's temper is legendary. Whoever this guy in the trench coat is, he clearly either isn’t aware of Billy's reputation or is relying far too heavily on modern niceties to save him.

  Slowly, Billy raises his left hand, curling it into a claw. The deep blue gem on his pinky ring sparkles in the light. I've seen its likeness before. It helps make its wearer's will become reality. Billy has possessed the ring so long the ring considers him its master. I heard a story of a cheeky sprite stealing it in the seventies, but she couldn't get it to work because the magic is too entangled with Billy. It won't work for anybody else without some powerful stripping magic.

  The gem glistens from within, lighting up as if a dimmer switch connects to it.

  "Tell me how you did it," Billy slowly over enunciates every single word as he tightens his fingers, not really moving his palm, only the top two digits curl toward each other.

  "This won't end well." I don't realize I spoke out loud until Violetta elbows me in the side.

  Luckily, Billy ignores me and continues to keep all his attention on the thief. His teeth are gritted, his lips curl back in a menacing expression. His eyes are impossibly wide. If I'm honest with myself, if I were in the trench coat guy's position I would probably crap in my pants to have that face only inches away from me. Trench coat guy though only seems wary. This only confirms that he has absolutely no idea who he's messing with.

  I take a deliberate step back and wrap my hand around Violetta's arm to jerk her with me. She frowns at me but takes the step back, anyway. I wonder if Violetta knows anything about the ring because I can't imagine Violetta being comfortable being within a yard of whatever is going to happen next. Even Billy's right-hand woman takes two large steps back.

  The thief notices her movement as well. His eyes show concern at her moving away. It appears he finally realizes he's in a situation he doesn't want to be in. Normally I say better late than never but realizations won’t do him much good at this point.

  "You will tell me." Billy's words are barely a hiss as his long, wide nose is now less than an inch away from the thief's face.

  The man chokes and his throat convulses as he struggles to breathe. Billy's hand is still up over his shoulder in that unnatural position, ring glowing brightly.

  "Tell me what I want to know, or you will choke to death before the police even enter the building," Billy snarls as he tightens his fingers closer together and the light emanating from the ring is bright enough to work as a flashlight.

  Billy relaxes his fingers and the thief gasps for air. Billy leans back, keeping his hand in position.

  The thief gasps several times and his arms struggle from behind the chair. "I don't know, man, I was paid. A large man in a Stetson reached out to me a few days ago said he had items he wanted stolen from the show."

  Unease creeps through me, surely the man with the Stetson who'd been blathering on about his kids isn't the one responsible for the theft. It feels weird to have been sitting across from him and not know there was some kind of plot. Surely there must be some other cowboy-hat-wearing culprit involved.

  "I told him, I told him nobody robs Billy's shows. It's common knowledge." He pauses and gulps loudly as his eyes veer away from Billy and back again. Whatever he saw in the older man's face had him twitching with fear. "Anyway, he offered me an awful lot of money and gave me the laundry list of items to get. He also handed me an amulet, said it would get through any kind of security. All I do is keep it on my person and it gets me through any magical barriers. And it worked perfectly, well like it was supposed to..." He trails off as Billy leans in, cutting the space between them in half.

  "Do you still have the amulet on your person?"

  The th
ief nods and moves his head toward his left front pocket. With his free hand, Billy reaches into the pocket, pulling out what looks like a run-of-the-mill plastic toy top. One of those cheap toys you get in a children's arcade where you trade tickets for prizes.

  I’m dying to touch it, I have a ring my mother made for me that senses magical objects, since I can't do it naturally the way she and my grandmother can. All I have to do is hover my hand close enough to an object or touch it and the vibration of the magic bounces against my skin. But I am not about to get any closer to snarling Billy just to sate my curiosity about a children's toy.

  Billy, for his part stares down at the small toy before moving his arm to hand it off to Jenny. "Test that, would you? See if our thief is telling the truth and if so, what kind of magic we're looking at." He doesn't look away from the thief.

  Jenny takes the top and looks over Billy to Violetta, clearly seeking the other woman's help. Violetta is a powerful witch. I have used her skills to identify magic before so I understand why someone else would want to do the same, even if I don't particularly want to be left alone with Billy and the security guards. Hopefully, if I don't make any sudden movements, I won't become a target for that anger.

  Violetta glances at me, before nodding to Jenny and walking toward the stage. Jenny follows and the two of them disappear behind one of the side curtains, probably heading to the office in the back of the building.

  "Could you identify the man with the Stetson? He tell you how to set the fire?" Billy's tone is calmer now and I'm not sure whether that's a good thing or worrisome.

  The thief watches Billy a moment before he slowly shakes his head. "I didn't set the fire. I only took advantage of it when it happened. I had nothing to do with that at all. I could probably identify him if I saw him again." There's eagerness to his voice as if he can see a way to get out of the situation with no more harm coming to him.