The Magic Compass

by Martha Carr

  Maggie’s phone buzzed and she looked down to see her mother’s name and the numbers 911 in a text. She felt her chest tighten. Even her mother never sent that kind of text without a good reason. “I’ll be right back.”

  “What is it?” Taylor looked concerned, his hand now resting firmly on his gun.

  “Not sure yet.”

  Maggie stepped outside of the office while Taylor put some distance between himself and the manager. He wasn’t getting clocked twice in one week.

  “Mom? Are you alright? Tell me what’s happened. Slow down, I can’t understand you.” Maggie heard a buzzing in her ears, and she wasn’t sure if it was the peabrain activating or if it was from what she was hearing. “Say it slowly, Mom.”

  Her mother pushed the air out of her lungs and did her best to breathe some back in. “These men showed up at our drumming. Came in from the alley and just came running right at me!” Her voice was strained. Maggie could tell she hadn’t had a drink all day and felt for her. No morning glass of bourbon to get the day going. She was trying to stay clear to tell her what happened.

  “The skinny one tried to pull out a gun, but Lucy beaned him with a drum. Got him good! She broke the drum on his head. That was an antique from up near Montana, I think!”

  Maggie had to make herself stay in detective mode. She put her free hand on her hip, arching her back. If you want to help her, do what you know how to do. Treat this like a case, first and hold her hand later. Maggie clenched her teeth for a moment, holding herself back from trying to comfort her mother. It could only slow her mother down, distract her. Not yet. Still, it was taking everything she had not to soften her voice. Her mother was already having a hard enough time getting to the point.

  “What is this neighborhood coming to? Break ins, yard invasions…” Toni Parker gulped in air, hiccupping from the effort.

  “Is everyone alright, Mom?”

  “No, no, didn’t I say that already? Where was I? Dammit!”

  “Who is hurt?” Maggie held her breath. Please don’t let it be Diana.

  “I don’t know if anyone is hurt.” Her mother’s voice grew louder.

  “You’re not making sense, Mom.” Maggie kept her voice low and calm. The seconds were ticking away. She waved her arm in the air at Taylor, signaling it was time to go. This crime would have to wait.

  Toni spilled out the worst of it. “They took Kathleen, that nice old lady. She fought them off pretty well, but she got in the way. When they couldn’t reach me, they grabbed her like some kind of second prize. I tried to stop them, but the others wouldn’t let me. Penny scratched one of them and got a black eye for her troubles…” Her voice trailed off. “What do I do?”

  “Wait inside for me and lock all the doors. I’m on my way. Where is Diana?” Maggie took off at a run for the door, shoving it open and sprinting for the car. They were coming for her family now. She wasn’t enough anymore.

  “She’s on her way. I texted her too. Did I do enough?”

  “Yes, you’re still alive, Mom and we’ll find Kathleen. I’m on my way.”

  Taylor saw the look on his partner’s face and didn’t ask anything else till they were on the road, sirens blaring. Maggie gunned the motor the entire way, leaning toward the steering wheel and weaving in and out of traffic. She made it across town in record time, taking the shoulder when necessary. The trees rustled as she passed, sending a message along the route. Someone had tried to harm a beloved of the Elemental.

  A hard rain started up suddenly, blanketing the road and making it harder to see.

  Maggie parked the El Camino in the first open spot along Pressler Street, the rear end still sticking out slightly. She killed the engine and got out and ran, grateful for all the miles she had already logged running around the neighborhood for exercise. Taylor moved surprisingly fast, keeping up at a good clip right behind her.

  They got to the front of the yard and Maggie ran past the old live oak, stepping on the knotty roots above ground. A current of electricity ran through her, hitting her in the gut and practically knocking the wind out of her. She doubled over, stumbling over the roots and clenching her fists as she sucked in air. The trees were in shock, sending out a constant distress signal.

  “Maggie, wait!” Taylor’s gruff voice was a command. “Use your head. Doesn’t help if we get sidelined.” She looked back and saw Taylor ready, his gun drawn. Maggie took a deep breath, still gasping to fill her lungs and pulled out her gun. He nodded to her, his face grim and she turned and more slowly took the stairs, listening for anything out of place.

  She went as quickly as she could through the front rooms.

  “Clear.”

  There was a loud rustling from the kitchen and the sound of someone running. Maggie glanced back and saw Taylor’s determined look, his gun raised as he hugged the wall. Maggie looked back in time to see her mother barreling toward her daughter’s raised gun.

  “Maggie! You’re here!” Toni paid no attention to the gun, giving Maggie only moments to recover and pull the gun back, bracing for her mother’s arm swinging around her neck, pulling her in close. She could smell the sour wine on her mother’s breath.

  “Mom, are you okay? Have you heard anything?”

  Toni backed up, pressing her hands to her cheeks. “Taylor! You’re here too.”

  “Mom, any calls?”

  “No, no, nothing. I don’t know what to do. Kathleen was trying to protect me!”

  The radio on Taylor’s hip buzzed and he nodded to Maggie as he headed for the front door. They had been partners long enough that a nod or a look would often do.

  Diana came barreling through the kitchen door and into the hallway where they were all gathered. “The garage is secure, for once. The lock on the back gate is busted. They must have really kicked their way in.”

  “And it was so unnecessary! I always keep it unlocked.”

  Diana gave Maggie a look from behind their mother. “I can take Mom to my house.”

  “No, what if Kathleen comes back here?”

  “Mom, what if someone else comes back here. Go with Diana and let us do our job.” Maggie hugged her mother again as Diana wrapped her arms around both of them. Maggie’s gun was still in her right hand, hanging by her side. “I’ll call as soon as I know something.”

  Taylor stepped back inside and lifted his chin, a dark look across his face. “Parker, we should get going and see if there’s any news. Mrs. Parker, we’ll turn up something.”

  Maggie let go, holstering her gun and grabbing Diana’s arm, giving it a squeeze.

  “I’ll take good care of her. No one will get past me,” said Diana. The same determined look Maggie had known all her life. The same one she had on her face. “I still have Dad’s old gun collection, oiled and ready to go. Call out before you come in the house when you get back.”

  Chapter Twenty

  “Alright, tell me what you heard.” Maggie was sliding into the driver’s seat of the El Camino and closing the door in one swift move. The rain was still coming down and the sky was completely grey.

  Taylor sat down hard with an oof, his hand holding on to the roof of the car. He pulled his leg in, reaching out for the door. “Hotshot call, priority zero. Something odd over in Garfield. There’s a blaze going at the old abandoned rural hospital with reports of an older woman standing patiently out front. She matches your mother’s friend’s description. Hang on, that’s not the strange part.”

  Maggie pulled away from the curb, already headed for Route 130. “This ought to be good,” she said, through clenched teeth.

  “The rain is coming down even harder over in Garfield and it’s doing nothing to the fire. If anything, the blaze is burning brighter. Engine Company 1103 is out there throwing foam on it but so far, the chatter is nothing is working.”

  Maggie hit the lights and sirens, gripping the wheel. “Taylor, there are a few things I need to tell you.”

  Taylor shifted in his seat, the seat belt straining around
his middle. “I don’t know that now is the best time for true confessions.”

  “It has to be now and you’re going to have to trust me.”

  Taylor’s face turned red and he pressed his lips together for a moment. “When have I ever given you reason to believe I don’t trust you.” His head was bobbing from side to side like it did when he was really good and angry. “I know how to handle the weird and wonderful.”

  “This is gonna go a few feet beyond that. Remember how we got our clocks cleaned at that car museum?”

  Taylor rubbed the back of his head. “Hard to forget. That future inmate was into some heavy tech.”

  “That wasn’t technology, that was magic.”

  The red returned to Taylor’s face. “If this is all some kind of elaborate practical joke, I’m asking for a new partner today.”

  Maggie held the wheel with her left hand and held out her right, doing her best to clear her mind and set an intention, all at the same time. Nothing happened. “Dammit!”

  “What in Sam Houston are you doing?”

  “Hang on!” Maggie swerved around a Volvo trying to get out of their way. “I don’t know what we’re walking into at the fire and it’s not right to leave you in the dark. Think of nothing and something. She thought of Bernie’s fireflies and opened her hand as small bubbles appeared with small glowing lights inside of them. The smell of magnolias filled the car.

  Taylor pressed himself back against his car door even as he was leaning closer to get a better look. His eyes were wide, and his eyebrows knitted together. “You have got to be kidding me,” he said in a hoarse whisper.

  “Not at all!” A mouse popped up from the back seat, jumping onto the arm rest between the seats and standing on its hind legs, talking. Bernie had hidden away in the car, keeping watch over Maggie, just as he was instructed. “Magic is real,” said Bernie, still residing in the form of a mouse, his whiskers twitching.

  “Sumofabitch!” Taylor roared, spit flying from his mouth. He reached out with his large mitt of a hand and tried to swat Bernie toward the back window like he was up at bat and Bernie was a fur-covered ball. But Bernie was too fast for him, easily jumping out of the way.

  Maggie swerved the car, jerking against the seat belt and trying to watch the road through the pouring rain and look at Taylor and Bernie.

  “Did you see that too? Has your mother been smoking that crap so long it just hangs in her house waiting for someone to come through?” The veins were standing out on Taylor’s neck and his hand was on his gun.

  “I’m going to let that last comment go because it’s possible it’s true,” said Maggie. “And because you look like you’re stroking out. Take your hand off your gun. Listen to me, Taylor. Breathe in through your nose, come on, out through your mouth.” Maggie glanced over at him and back at the road, zipping by as she tore down the road at eighty miles an hour. There was no time to pull over and let him adjust.

  “Bernie, for the love of… Change into something else! This is not how you let people know that magic exists.” She realized she was shouting, trying to be heard over the rain and Taylor’s string of swearing. It was some of the best he had ever done in all his life.

  Large, translucent bubbles filled the car along with the scent of strawberries as the gnome appeared, full size sitting in the back seat of the car. “I don’t believe we’ve met. My name is Bernie.”

  “Rule number two!” Maggie took the exit toward the center of Garfield and could already see the smoke rising above the horizon, despite the rain. That has to be magical.

  “You were already breaking that one. I’m helping you out with some real proof. A nice party trick wasn’t going to get the job done just before he literally has to jump into the fire. There’s no time. A mouse turning into a gnome is perfect.”

  “Can someone fill me in on what the hell is happening? I’m going crazy, that’s the only explanation.”

  Bernie shook his hand between the seats. “This is what happens with you Peabrains. You ignore the obvious for a dozen other excuses. Electricity gets invented, can’t see that. No problem. Talk on a phone to someone on the other side of the world with no wires. Sure. One small mouse turns into a small man…” Bernie held up his hand. “Saying it before anyone else does. I know I’m small. I do basic bubble metamorphosis and the word crazy gets bandied about.”

  Maggie made her voice level. “You’re not crazy. It turns out the world is even more complicated and weird than you knew.”

  “If you want to call it a world because technically…”

  “Not now, Bernie! One fun fact to absorb at a time. Listen, Taylor, we’re headed to a fire that may not really be a fire. At least not in the conventional sense. It may be driven by magic, which means we’re in over our heads. There are some pretty wicked people after, well, me and that’s why they stormed my mother’s backyard.”

  They came screeching up to the edges of the fire behind all the fire engines and rescue squads. “Stay close on this one and be careful.”

  “I’m shooting whatever twitches funny.”

  “Great plan,” said Bernie. “Leave the front door open for me, will ya? I can travel faster in another form and without anyone asking too many questions. Firemen love dogs.” He was already blowing bubbles and ducking down below the windows as he changed into a black Labrador.

  Taylor hesitated, his eyes still wide but he left the door ajar and stumbled forward, his hand pressed briefly against his chest. Maggie stopped and put her hand on his arm. “You okay?”

  “I’ll get there. And I grew up in the seventies. You’d think this would be easier.”

  Bernie squirmed out of the back seat, taking off at a run into the rain to circle the building and search for magical residue.

  Maggie found a Lieutenant standing near the blaze, a puzzled look on his face, staring at the flames.

  “I’m Detective Parker. It was my mother’s house where they first showed up. Where is the old woman?”

  “She’s being tended to over by the rescue squad. The damndest thing.”

  Maggie hesitated running over to check on Kathleen. She needed more information. “What do you know about who might have done this?”

  The fireman scratched his elbow, still looking at the fire. “Not much. I’ve been a fire eater for over twenty years and I’ve never seen anything like this. It’s like a blue flame fire but we can see the flames. So far, nothing we’ve done has quenched it and oxygen doesn’t seem to be feeding it. Strangest thing. It’s not getting worse and it’s not going away.”

  “Anyone inside the building?”

  “Not that we can find but I’m not letting my people search too far inside without knowing what the hell’s going on.” He looked at Maggie. “Your friend shouldn’t be alive. Blaze with this intensity should have taken her out. None of this is making any sense. But if her story is accurate, the kidnappers didn’t set the fire and yet, it still looks like arson.”

  Maggie saw Bernie, still in dog form, run past the trucks, circling the building. He was right, no one was paying him any attention. He seemed to be searching for something.

  “Thank you,” she said to the fireman, taking off at a run after Bernie. “Bernie, here boy, Bernie!”

  The dog stopped and barked at her. “Not funny,” said Bernie. “I’m not your boy.”

  Maggie ignored him, still hoping the kidnappers might be in the area, but already suspecting the answer. “Did you find anything?”

  “It’s Simon Wesley’s people, alright. That sickly lavender smell is everywhere. Rain won’t wash away evidence of magic. Can’t you smell it?” Bernie raised his furry nose in the rain, smelling the air. “But they’re long gone. They didn’t set this fire, though. This is someone far more powerful than that motley bunch. Not a Peabrain at all.”

  “Any idea what kind of magical could create a fire that can’t be put out?”

  “No, and that’s disturbing. Definitely not an elf or a fae, or even a wizard. Not even
with a spell. Doesn’t even have the residue of dark magic. That’s what I expected to find. I could have sworn I’d seen everything on this ship. I’ll have to go back to the library and consult the archives. Are you ready to get out of here? There’s nothing more we can learn. I’ll meet you back at the car.” He took off at a run in the direction of the El Camino.

  Maggie turned around, looking for the truck that held Kathleen and saw the light on and doors open in the one furthest from the fire. “Please let her be okay.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Maggie finally got to the rescue squad and found Kathleen sitting just inside one of the rescue trucks. She was soaked through from the rain and shivering in the cold despite the heat from the fire. It didn’t matter. Relief washed over Maggie, quickly replaced by an uneasy feeling over how easily she was rescued, unharmed. “Are you alright?” That was when Maggie saw the bandages. Not unharmed. I will find who did this. I will find who meant to do this to my mother. Her fingers curled into a fist by her side.

  Kathleen lifted her arm, waving gently. It was wrapped in white gauze. The emergency technician was carefully wrapping her other wrist. “I’m fine, I’m fine.” The words spilled out of her in an excited, rapid tumble. “Strangest thing. Group of men, four of them, had me tied up pretty good with rope. Young, maybe thirties and they didn’t look bold enough to pull off a kidnapping. They were marching around arguing, calling someone on the phone who was yelling at them even more.” She shook her head wearily. “Out of the blue, my ropes started to spark.” She held up the partially bandaged wrist, the gauze trailing down. “That’s how I got free.” There were angry red blisters in a neat line across her wrist. She followed Maggie’s gaze and the scowl on her face. “They already gave me something for the pain. It could have been worse.”