“Magic reveals things that you can’t see with the naked eye. From the moment we walked in the door, I have seen traces everywhere.” Tallow’s lip curled in disgust. “That room we passed through. There was blood, hair, feces. Evidence of violence and pain and suffering. I also saw wear marks in the carpet that made me think there were cages stored in there.”
Ross walked over to them. “We have a crew on the way. What are you two talking about?”
“Human trafficking,” Douglas said, looking at Tallow.
Tallow nodded. “That would be my guess. Animals too. I don’t know why that moonrat was loose and not in a cage, but I’m thinking it’s only one of many creatures that have been brought through this place.” He bit his lip. “You guys probably don’t want to hear this, but I’m starting to believe that I’m not the only wizard in Atlanta right now.”
Ross laughed. “Right! Why not!”
“What makes you think that, Tallow?” Douglas wondered.
Tallow sighed. “For one, that alarm I disabled at the door to the docking bay. That was a magical trap. If I had opened the door, a fireball would have appeared in the doorway, most likely incinerating us all. Also it would have let the person who set it know immediately that someone had broken in.”
He noted the skeptical looks on their faces. “I know you couldn’t see it, but I have seen traps like that before. Then there’s the moonrat. That creature is from another world. Someone brought it here and I don’t think it’s the only thing they brought over.”
“Let me guess,” said Ross, dumbfounded. “This is where you tell us that this kind of thing happens all the time. There’s wizards and monsters and fairies and probably elves and trolls all around us every day. We’re just too stupid to notice.” He snorted. “That’s what always happens in the movies.”
Tallow smiled at him. “No. The kind of stuff I’ve been telling you about doesn’t belong in this world. But for some reason in Atlanta right now someone’s bringing it through. And I think Asher may have stumbled onto it.”
Tallow watched their reaction, saw Ross’ skepticism and Douglas’ worry and made a decision. “I want to show you something.” He reached out with his index fingers and pressed between their eyes. The two men recoiled, their vision blurring.
“What did you just do?” said Ross.
“Not many people have the ability to do magic. Especially here in our world. For some reason the ability is blocked here. However, many people have the ability to see it. They just don’t know how. I have temporarily opened that ability in you. It’s called mage sight.” He gestured at the dock around them. “Look around. Tell me what you see.”
It was as if the floor of the dock had been the site of a luminescent paintball fight and Tallow had turned on blacklights. Douglas could see a smattering of blue, red, gold and black smears of energy everywhere. He didn’t even know that black could glow. It was a bizarre experience.
“What the hell am I seeing?” asked Ross.
“You are seeing traces of elemental magic. Red for fire, gold for air, blue for water, and black for earth,” Tallow explained. “The fact that traces of magic exist on the floor here tells me that magic items have been brought in and stored here.”
He walked over to one stack of crates and pointed at it with his cane. The crates themselves were lit with an inner black glow. “There is something of earth magic stored in these. And look at this.”
Tallow moved to the front of the dock and the door that led to the back lot. The door knob was covered with an interlacing web of red and gold lines. “Another trap. And it’s warded to let the wizard that left it know when it goes off.” He pointed his cane at it and a lance of gold magic left the tip of the cane and struck the knob, causing the web of lines to shred and fade.
“Wait,” said Ross. “Aren’t you destroying evidence?”
“Traces of magic that forensics has no ability to find,” said Tallow. “This is evidence to us only.”
“You said that you think Asher stumbled onto this,” said Douglas. The thought had been burned into his mind as well. They knew Asher had been coming here the night he went missing. “Do you see anything here that helps prove that?”
“Circumstantial only, so far,” he said apologetically. “How long do we have before your team arrives?”
“Maybe ten minutes,” said Ross. The big man was shaking his head. “When does this mage sight go away?”
“A few minutes,” Tallow promised. “But let’s take advantage of this time to see if we can discover anything else out for ourselves.” He unlocked the door to the back lot and opened it. Bright sunlight streamed in. “If Asher tried to get inside this place that night he would have come in this way, right?”
Douglas walked to him. “The back dock area was the only part of the lot our stakeout team wouldn’t have been able to see.”
The three of them left the dock and were instantly hit by the afternoon heat and humidity. Ross grimaced. “Talk about instant headache! I don’t like this vision stuff you did to me, Tallow.”
“Sorry. There can be a bit of an adjustment the first time you use mage sight.” Tallow squinted, raising his hand to his forehead to block out the sun as he looked across the lot.
From where they stood, Douglas could see most of the employee lot and the short gravel drive that lead to the docking bay. He followed Tallow as the man walked to the other side of the bay doors where the battered dumpster stood. It had been painted yellow when new, but that had been years ago. Much of the paint had been rubbed away or flaked off and large swaths of it were rusted. The front of it was stained with long lines of some liquid that had dribbled down from the lid and dried there.
“Ugh!” said Tallow. The wizard pulled a handkerchief from the inside pocket of his tweed jacket and covered his nose.
Flies bussed around the dumpster and the moment Douglas neared it, the stench of rotting flesh hit him. “Ross!”
“Yeah, that ain’t office supplies,” his partner said. The two of them had been around enough crime scenes to know when something dead was nearby.
Tallow pushed the bottom of his cane under the edge of the lid and lifted it up, releasing a swarm of more flies. Douglas’ heart thundered in his chest as the man peered inside. Please don’t let it be Asher. Please don’t let it be Asher.
“Recently emptied,” Tallow announced and held the lid open so that the two detectives could take a look.
The dumpster was indeed empty except for a soupy liquid at the bottom that churned with maggots. Douglas couldn’t quite sigh with relief just yet. “We need to get that liquid tested and see if we can find out what was in there. We should also track down where the contents of this dumpster go.”
Ross grimaced. “Please tell me we won’t have to be the ones to go through the landfill.”
“That’ll be up to the chief,” Douglas said, carrying the same hopes his partner did. Sifting through tons of garbage looking for bodies was not a job any cop looked forward to.
Tallow lowered the lid and looked across the lot “Is it odd to you that there are no security cameras back here?”
“I thought so,” said Douglas. “Cameras are fairly cheap nowadays. In an area of town this bad they should have them.”
“Maybe they just don’t want any recordings of what they’re up to,” Tallow suggested. He put his hands on his hips, turning his attention to the fence that ran along the back side of the lot. “If Asher tried to get in back here, I doubt he would have tried to climb over that razor wire.”
“Kids do it all the time,” Ross said, though his focus was still on the dumpster.
Tallow shrugged. “Maybe, but if I were him . . .” He neared the fence and looked around. “It would have been dark. And there are street lights here and here and here . . .”
“The least exposed spot would be the corner right next to the building,” Douglas observed.
Tallow was already approaching the area. He crouched by the fence. “There
are some wires cut down here at the bottom.”
Douglas leaned over him. “You can see the dirt disturbed right here. Someone went under.”
“There’s fibers caught on these wires,” Tallow observed. He looked closer. “I see faint traces of magic in the wires. You know, if a wizard had this place warded he would have no need for cameras. He would have known the moment these wires were cut.”
“Douglas!” said Ross. He was on his hands and knees, looking under the dumpster. He pulled a latex glove out of his pocket and slipped it on before reaching underneath. Ross pulled out something rectangular and metallic. “Check it out.”
Douglas hurried over and looked at the folded tool in his partner’s hand. Douglas’ voice quivered. “That’s Asher’s Leatherman,”
Just then two white vans pulled up alongside the fence.
Chapter 10: Dumpster Diving
The two white vans pulled up and parked on the street outside the rear fence. They were long unmarked Ford Econolines. Douglas noticed right away that the drivers were wearing bandanas that covered the lower halves of their faces.
“I’m gonna take a wild guess and say that’s not your forensics team,” said Tallow, beginning to back slowly away from the fence just as the back doors of the two white vans opened.
Six men wearing ski masks and bullet-proof vests got out. Four of them carried guns. One of them carried a polished sword and the other gripped a dark wooden rod in one hand.
The two detectives pulled their guns.
“Halt! Police!” Ross shouted, dropping Asher’s Leatherman back on the ground as he raised his pistol.
“Get behind cover!” Tallow yelled as the masked men raised their weapons.
Douglas and Ross, already standing next to the yellow dumpster, were quick to move behind it. Tallow, who was still close to the fence, raised his left hand towards the strangers. The man with the wooden rod pointed it at Tallow.
The effects of whatever it was Tallow had done to Douglas’ eyes had started to wear off, but he saw a shimmering golden shield spring up in front of his uncle. There was a sharp popping sound from the man holding the wooden rod. A lance of multicolored energy darted from the tip of the wood and struck Tallow’s shield, exploding in a multitude of sparks.
Tallow began to back towards the dumpster. “I’m warning you! I am a wizard. I could-!”
The four men with guns opened fire. Tallow’s shield of air magic flared. The first few bullets ricocheted off of it. A couple more sank into the shield, stopping in midair. Then Tallow yelped as the shield cracked, pieces of it breaking away.
The wizard ran towards the dumpster, bullets shattering the shield behind him. He dove and rolled across the gravel, coming to a stop on the seat of his pants behind the two detectives. He was covered in dust and looked shaken.
“I’m warning you, I’m a wizard?” Ross said before he hooked his arm around the side of the dumpster and returned fire.
“I was hoping they would know what that means,” Tallow said, his eyes wide. “I’ve never used an air shield against bullets before. It always stops arrows!”
Douglas had his phone to his ear. “Shots fired! 314 Poplar avenue! Officers pinned down. Requesting immediate backup!”
He left the line open and leaned out from behind the other side of the dumpster. He focused on one of the gunmen, firing twice. Both bullets struck the man in the center of his vest and he staggered backwards, collapsing. The others continued to fire, but backed away, getting behind the rear doors of the vans to use as cover.
“Nice shooting,” said Tallow. “I’m glad they’re on the other side of the fence. If they swarmed us, we’d be in trouble.”
“What’s the sword guy doing?” Ross asked.
The masked man with the sword was the only one of the men who had not fallen back. He had approached the fence and was swinging the sword back. Ross fired at him, but his bullets seemed to have no effect when they struck the vest, Tallow chanced a look and noticed a dark blue circular rune painted on the center of the vest.
“He’s protected by magic,” Tallow realized.
The man slashed vertically with the sword and the blade sheared through the chain link fence like it was nothing. The fencing gaped where it had been sliced and the man swung again, this time in a horizontal backhand cut that crossed the top of the first one. A triangular swath of the fence folded over.
“Holy hell, they are going to rush us!” said Ross. Both detectives fired at the sword-wielding man and the soft lead bullets splattered into the vest once more without effect.
The three uninjured gunmen opened fire again and the detectives ducked back behind the dumpster. The fourth gunman was crawling towards the rear of the van, his weapon forgotten on the ground behind him. The swordsman slashed vertically once more, turning the triangular opening into a square one as the chain links in the middle collapsed.
“We’re going to have to shoot him in the legs,” said Douglas, ejecting his clip and replacing it with a new one.
“Leave it to me,” said Tallow.
Ross shook his head. “Stay down!”
Tallow had already walked out from behind the dumpster, facing the swordsman who was stepping through the opening he had just made in the fence. Tallow held out his left hand and raised another shield of air magic. He then pointed his cane at the swordsman just as the gunmen opened fire again.
A sharp crack pierced the air and Douglas felt the hair on his arms stand up as a bolt of electricity arced from the end of Tallow’s cane. The electricity lanced through the swordsman and struck the side of the second white van.
The swordsman collapsed halfway through the fence and jittered helplessly on the ground. Anyone touching the metal frame of the van suffered a painful jolt of their own.
One gunman who was using the open rear door for cover fell. The other two, one of them being the man who Douglas had shot twice, picked up their fellow gunman and threw him inside, then climbed in themselves and shut the doors. The two men at the first van did the same.
The two vans pulled quickly away, leaving the downed swordsman behind. Tallow ran to the fence, pointing his cane again and sent out a thin blade of golden air magic that struck the side of the closest fleeing van. The blade scored deeply through the white paint, carving a diagonal line across the body of the vehicle before puncturing the right rear tire.
The van swerved, but regained control and continued up the street. Both vehicles turned left at the next intersection and sped northward. No sooner had they disappeared from view than Douglas’ backup arrived.
Five police cars, sirens blaring, rushed up to the front of the building on the far side of the locked employee lot from the detectives’ location. Only one car came up around the back. The officer jumped out, his hand on his pistol while he surveyed the scene.
Douglas was back on the phone. “Suspects have fled the scene in two white ford vans. They are heading east on Washington Ave. One of them has a flat rear tire . . .”
While Douglas was continuing to relay the situation, Ross ran to the fence and the fallen swordsman. He checked the man’s pulse and then flipped him over and began to cuff him.
Tallow moved to Ross’ side. “Still alive, I take it?”
“Wouldn’t be cuffing a dead man,” Ross said.
“Good,” said Tallow with a relieved nod. “It’s not easy to hold back in a situation like this.”
His instinct had been to launch a full lightning bolt. If he had done that, the vehicle would have been disabled, but they would have been dealing with dead bodies and in this world that would have been difficult to explain. Besides, they needed leads and dead suspects were terrible witnesses.
Ross pulled the mask off of the man. He was a thuggish-looking white man with a crew cut. Tallow looked him over carefully, his brow furrowed as he tried to discern just which world this man was from.
Ross motioned to the newly arrived officer. “Hey, Chuck, do me a favor and help me get this guy
in the back of your car. He probably needs medical attention, but he needs to stay locked away until the ambulance arrives.”
“What happened to the guy?” the officer wondered.
“Took some shots to the vest and passed out,” Ross said with a shrug, which wasn’t actually a lie. He had just left out a few crucial details. While the two officers dragged the man to the car, Tallow crouched next to the fallen man’s sword.
Douglas had finished his call to the dispatcher and was waving the newly arrived officers over when his phone buzzed in his hand. He had a voicemail. It was from his neighbors’ phone number. They were the ones watching Agatha today.
He listened to the message and stifled a curse. Grimacing, he turned around and saw Tallow by the dropped sword. The man was bending closely over the weapon, being careful not to touch it. Douglas jogged over to him.
Tallow saw his approach. “This is a fine weapon, Douglas.”
That much Douglas had been able to tell from a distance. “Tallow-.”
“The blade is etched with a very specific pattern of earth and fire runes. It’s a very rare mix of magic,” Tallow said pointing at the designs in the metal. “This sword was designed to cut through metal.”
Tallow sat back on his haunches and stroked his chin. “I only know of a handful of weapons with that power and they belonged to legendary warriors who had used them against armored opponents to devastating effect. How bizarre to see one here in this world used to cut something so ordinary as chain link fence.”
Douglas blinked at his uncle, not sure how to respond to the existence of magical swords. “Listen, the forensics team just pulled up. I’m going to ask you not to mention magic to anyone else.”
Tallow stood and looked towards the front side of the building. The gate to the employee lot had been opened and several marked police cars and vans were pulling inside.
“Of course,” Tallow said with an assuring smile. “If I made a habit of telling people about it I would be in a sanitarium.”
Douglas sighed, glad he realized that. “Good. Now something else has come up. I just had a voicemail from Mrs. Rutnick, my neighbor. She’s supposed to be watching Agatha today but her husband is having chest pains, so she is taking him to the hospital. They left Agatha with another neighbor, but I don’t really know the people and neither does she.”
Tallow Jones: Wizard Detective (The Tallow Novels Book 1) Page 11