Tallow Jones: Wizard Detective (The Tallow Novels Book 1)

by Trevor H. Cooley

Ross’ jaw drooped open. He nodded slowly. “Okay. I’m on your side, Doug. You know that. I’ll back off.”

  “Thanks,” Douglas said and he let go of Ross’ jacket.

  “Sorry, Bob,” said Brenda. “I didn’t mean to pull the rug out from under you.”

  Ross shrugged and he turned his attention to Tallow. “Hey, I’m sorry. Whatever it is about your story that isn’t jiving in my brain, I’ll let it go. I admit that I don’t think you’re dangerous. At least not to us.”

  “Thank you,” said Tallow sincerely. “And I’ll admit that I haven’t told you all everything that there is to know about me. I have secrets. Secrets that I believe I am entitled to have. I can promise you that they will not interfere with this case.”

  Ross handed Tallow the manila folder that he had been holding on to. “This is your contract with the department. The chief asked me to make sure you signed it.”

  “Oh,” said Tallow. He took the folder from Ross and opened it, scanning over the wording on the forms. He pulled a pen out of his pocket. His lip curled. “Employment forms. I hate filling out forms.”

  “Good. So that’s settled,” said Douglas. “Is this all we came down here for?”

  “No,” said Brenda. “I’ve got something else you’re really gonna want to see.”

  She picked her mouse up off the desk and moved around to stand by Douglas. She pressed the mouse down on her thigh to move the cursor and dragged the old photos of Tallow off of the screen, exposing a desktop image that was a photo of a young and hairy Burt Reynolds reclining on a bearskin rug in the nude.

  “Wow,” said Douglas in complete surprise.

  “Uh, ignore that,” Brenda blurted and quickly opened another screen that had been minimized. This one showed a photo of the front of S&C Travel at night. A white van had partially pulled into the employee lot.

  “Brenda!” said Ross with a surprised laugh. “That was very inappropriate for the workplace!”

  “Come on. His business is covered,” Brenda said, her cheeks red. “Besides, I’ve seen far worse photos hung up in officer’s lockers.”

  Ross grunted. “True.”

  “But those aren’t supposed to be there either,” Douglas said, unable to suppress an amused grin. His eyes focused on the new image on the screen. “Anyway, what do you have for us?”

  She cleared her throat. “Uh, this is a frame from the surveillance video of the travel agency on the night Asher disappeared.”

  “Yeah, Doug and I went over those videos weeks ago. Watched ’em until our eyes bled,” said Ross with a sour expression. He really hated watching tape. “There was no sign of the kid.”

  Douglas nodded in agreement, but he knew she wouldn’t have brought the image up if it wasn’t important. “What have you found?”

  “Well, I didn’t see Asher either, but I wasn’t looking for him,” Brenda said. “I was thinking about the evidence you found proving that he had snuck into the lot from the back side. Now let’s say that he got caught while trying to get into the dock area.”

  “That’s what I think happened,” interrupted Tallow.

  “It seems likely,” she agreed. “Well, as far as we can tell, there were no employees or security left in the building by the time Asher left your house that night.”

  “That’s what the footage seems to show,” Douglas said. “There were no employee cars in the lot.”

  “Then it’s likely that he was surprised by one of the two vans that arrived at the travel agency that night,” Brenda replied.

  Tallow stopped trying to fill out the forms and set the folder on the desk. “I believe that he broke a magical ward while cutting the fence. So that makes sense. The wizard that set the wards probably tipped off the people in the van that they had an intruder to deal with.”

  “What times did those two vans come and go?” Douglas asked her, trying to remember from the long hours he had spent watching the video.

  “The first van arrived at 8:15, not long after it was dark and left at 8:35. The second van arrived at 11:07 and left at 11:40. But get this,” Brenda said. She highlighted the license plate on the van and zoomed in on the blurry pixelated letters and numbers, then opened a menu and selected a program. The pixelization smoothed out, leaving the license plate still blurry, but legible.

  “Wow. We were never able to make out the plates before,” Ross said.

  Brenda grinned. “Yeah, well I just got access to new software and guess what I discovered. The plates are the same on both visits. It’s the same van.”

  “It came and left and came back again,” Douglas said.

  “It would have been during its first visit that they surprised Asher,” Tallow said.

  Ross agreed. “Had to be. After what you told me Aggie said about the night Asher left, I had Brenda look into the cab companies.”

  “It’s not concrete proof,” Brenda cautioned. “But there was one cab that picked up a male passenger not far from your house and delivered him a block away from the travel agency at 7:50. The driver couldn’t remember much about the passenger, but said he was wearing a hoodie.”

  Douglas’ brow furrowed. Asher had taken a cab that night? Since Asher had never used a cab before, Douglas had always figured that he caught a ride with a friend or got on a bus. This explained the stolen pizza money. Asher had been planning to investigate the agency and come back home, like Agatha said. Douglas swallowed. This evidence didn’t change anything, but it was great to get new information about that night, even if all it did was reinforce what he already believed.

  “So whoever was in that van grabbed Asher, took him somewhere and came back,” Douglas said. “What can you tell us about the van?”

  “Ran the plates,” Brenda said proudly. “The van is registered to Peachtree Warehousing. They have a fleet of ten white Econoline vans. Same color and model.”

  “I see. Just like the three vans that pulled up to attack us,” said Tallow, giving her an appreciative nod. “Fantastic work, Brenda. Another link tying all of this together to ERL Investments.”

  “I think it’s time we ruffled some feathers,” Douglas decided. “It shouldn’t be too hard to wrestle up a warrant. Not with the evidence we have so far.”

  “We should get over to Peachtree Warehousing and inspect those vans,” said Ross. “I bet we’ll find plenty of trace evidence inside.”

  “I want to get my hands on the van that took Asher that night,” said Douglas with grim excitement. It could be the break in the case they needed. Just one hair would prove they abducted him.

  “We’ll also need to keep an eye out for the one that I hit with my magic,” said Tallow. “I put a nice dent in the body and took out a tire. It’s not likely that they would have been able to get it fixed already.”

  Ross chuckled, a wolfish grin on his face. “We’re going to have a busy day tomorrow.”

  “And we’re not done here yet,” Tallow reminded him. “We still have the evidence in forensics to look at.”

  “Ooh! Can I come with you guys?” Brenda asked, her hands clasped together. “I’m really invested in this now!”

  The three men looked at each other.

  “Why not?” said Ross.

  Douglas shrugged in response and the four of them left her office to head down to the basement. As soon as they got into the elevator, Douglas’ phone buzzed. He picked it up and saw that it was a text. He let out a sigh of relief. “That was from the chief. She says Officer Clayton just came out of surgery. He’s being moved to the ICU, but they have him stabilized.”

  The news distracted Tallow from the sudden lurch as the elevator started to descend. The wizard gripped Douglas’ shoulder, “That’s fantastic to hear.”

  “It’s thanks to you,” Douglas reminded him.

  “What happened?” Brenda said.

  Douglas briefly explained how Clayton had been attacked by the same monster that had killed Polly Roberts’ father. “He would be dead if Tallow hadn’t used his healing magic to
save him.”

  Brenda smiled at Tallow appreciatively. “Sounds like it’ll be useful having you around.”

  Tallow gave her an embarrassed shrug. “Thanks, but healing’s really not my specialty. Saving him was mostly luck.”

  The elevator car lurched again and the door opened. The sterile morgue-like hallways of the forensics department loomed before them. While the rest of the building’s floors were covered with heavy duty carpet, the forensics lab had floors of polished concrete.

  Forensics was the sexy side of policework nowadays, thanks to the various high tech TV shows out there. This made it harder to nail down a criminal than it used to be. Cases that would have been iron tight twenty years ago were thrown out now because of a lack of fancy forensic evidence. The powers that be knew this and the funding support showed it.

  Every room on the floor held a much higher quality level of equipment than anywhere else in the building. While officers like Ross were forced to keep the same squeaky chair for years, these guys had the latest models. Each specialized piece of equipment cost in the tens of thousands. The rest of the force griped about this budget discrepancy the way that cops do, but not too loudly. They were well aware of how important the department was.

  “I wish my office was down here,” Brenda lamented. Gazing through the windows at each fancy piece of equipment as they walked down the hallway.

  Ross snorted. “How would you complain about your office’s view then?”

  “I wouldn’t care! I’d have one of those new curved monitors and my chair would have lumbar support,” she declared.

  “Tell me about it,” Ross grumbled.

  Tallow’s cane clicked on the floor as they made their way to Captain Ogletree’s office. Most of the forensic techs were civilian employees. There were only a handful of sworn officers in the department. Captain Ogletree was the department head. He saw their approach and walked out of his office to meet them.

  Ogletree was five foot six and thin, but held himself with an authoritative presence. He was balding and his skin was so dark that it was nearly impossible to see the pencil thin mustache on his lip. Douglas found him to be an officious man. He was smart and ran a tight department, but he was a real pain to deal with.

  He did not look happy at their arrival. “What are you here about?”

  “The crime scenes from yesterday,” said Douglas. “We were hoping to look over the evidence your team found.”

  He scowled. “Yeah, the chief’s been up my butt about it all morning. We’re swamped down here. If you have a question, send an email and we’ll get to it when we can.”

  “C’mon, man,” said Ross with a disarming smile. “Give a brother a break. We’re just trying to-.”

  “I’m not your brother,” Ogletree interrupted with a glower. He snorted. “And don’t you think I didn’t see you sneak down here this morning asking Burkes for a favor. You FIU boys think just because you’re the chief’s pet team you get priority over everybody else. You can’t just hassle my techs and disrupt the flow of their work! We’re working so many cases right now that we’ve had to outsource to other labs.”

  “I understand, Captain,” Douglas said respectfully, hoping that Ross and the others would stay silent. “We have nothing but respect for your team and their time and we’re not here to interrupt or to demand our case take priority over anyone else’s. We just want to look at the crates and boxes that were brought here from the travel agency loading dock yesterday. We’ll report back to the chief what we found and it’ll save you dealing with a dozen more emails from her.”

  Ogletree glowered. “I don’t like having my buttons pushed, Detective.” He sighed and pointed down the corridor to his left. “I’ll give you ten minutes. Then I want you gone. The evidence you’re looking for is at the end of the hall. Sergeant Ruiz has been cataloguing it. Do not disrupt him or contaminate anything!”

  “Yes sir. Thank you, sir!” said Douglas and hurriedly motioned the others to follow him in the direction the captain had pointed.

  Ross leaned close to Brenda’s ear. “If you had your office down here he’d be your boss.”

  “Good point,” she mumbled.

  When they entered the room, they saw the crates right away. Sergeant Ruiz was looking over the contents of one of them, a large touchscreen tablet in one hand and making notes on it with a stylus. He glanced over at them as they entered and smiled.

  “From the looks on your faces I’d say the captain busted your balls on the way over here,” he observed.

  “Ain’t that the truth,” said Ross.

  “I’m hurting and I don’t even have balls,” Brenda agreed.

  Sergeant Ruiz chuckled. “He’s not so bad as he seems. We’re just slammed right now. What are you here for?”

  “Actually, we’re here to look at those crates and boxes,” said Tallow. “We’re working on the S&C Travel case.”

  “Oh!” Ruiz replied. “I was just finishing up. You’ll probably be disappointed, though. The trace evidence from that building will probably keep us busy for weeks, but the crates don’t have much of interest.”

  “Why is that?” Ross asked.

  Ruiz looked at his tablet and scrolled down it with his stylus. “It looks like they were just cleaning out the office mostly. Travel brochures. Cases of paper. Other office supplies.”

  “What about those ones?” Tallow said, pointing to a separate stack of wooden crates.

  Ruiz scratched his head. “Yeah, those are cases of apples.” He walked over to one of the crates and lifted the lid. “Just fancy apples. Maybe they were supposed to be gifts for clients.”

  They were indeed fancy. They were nestled in trays lined with purple velvet. They were all of the same size and shape, each one perfectly red and free of blemishes.

  Tallow sucked in a breath, his eyes wide. “Have you had a chance to run any tests on these apples?”

  The sergeant blinked. “Why? Do you think they’re poisoned or something?”

  “No,” said Tallow. “Nothing like that. I was just curious.”

  “How many of these are there?” Douglas asked.

  “Ten cases. Thirty in a case,” said Ruiz.

  “I see. I see. This is coming together,” said Tallow, his brow furrowed as he thought. “I have to wonder, Sergeant. What are you going to do with them?”

  “The apples?” Ruiz said. “I’m cataloguing them and then they’ll be placed into evidence. Actually, they won’t last in storage.” He shrugged. “They’ll probably end up in the trash. It’s too bad. They look good. Why?”

  “Actually, I was hoping to do a few tests on them myself. I have a theory, you see,” said Tallow. “I think these are genetically engineered apples. That’s why they look so uniform and perfect.”

  “South American hybrids illegally smuggled into the country,” Ross clarified. “I know you guys are swamped so we hope you don’t mind if we take a couple to make sure for ourselves. It would save us a lot of time.”

  “Well, I can’t just do that, but . . .” Ruiz paused, then gave them a slow nod. “Look, I’ll tell you what I’ll do. I’m going to note five apples taken out of inventory for testing. They will be expected to be destroyed in the process.” He pulled out a velvet tray of five apples and set them on the counter. “I’m going to duck out for a minute to use the john. When I get back I expect there to be three still left in that tray for actual testing.”

  “Thanks, Sergeant,” said Ross.

  “You owe me one,” said Ruiz and with a shake of his head, left the room.

  Ross raised an eyebrow at Tallow. “Why the hell do you care so much about apples?”

  “These aren’t just ordinary apples,” Tallow said with a grin. He motioned them closer. “I’ll show you.”

  He reached out and like he had on the loading dock two days ago, pressed his forefingers on the centers of their foreheads. Douglas and Ross winced as their vision briefly doubled. Brenda let out a sharp gasp and Tallow shushed her.<
br />
  “I’m just giving you brief access to mage sight,” he explained. “You will be able to see elemental magic now.”

  He picked up one of the apples from the tray that Ruiz had left. To Douglas’ eyes, it glowed a deep black.

  “Black apples?” said Brenda. “Are they evil? Like the kind the witch gave to Snow White?”

  “No,” said Tallow. “Black represents earth magic. These apples were grown in an elf homeland.”

  “Elves are real too?” Brenda said excitedly.

  “But what does that mean?” Douglas said. “For the case?”

  “Elf magic is rare and pricey. Each of these apples is imbued with a small portion of elf life force. The elves don’t give away their fruit cheaply and most clans don’t share it at all. In some places it’s illegal to sell it,” Tallow explained. He looked back at the crates. “And Ruiz is wrong when he thinks they’re going to go bad. Unless they fall in the dirt, elf apples will last a year. We can’t let them just get thrown in the trash.”

  “You still haven’t answered my question,” Douglas reminded him.

  “Right,” Tallow said. He put one of the apples in the pocket of his jacket. And set the other down on the counter. He stuck out his finger and a blade of thin golden air magic extended from this fingertip. He quickly sliced the apple into quarters and handed one to each of them. “Try it. You’ll understand.”

  “Is this gonna be like a drug experience or something?” Ross asked dubiously.

  Brenda didn’t hesitate to take a bite. Her eyes widened and a groan of pleasure escaped her lips.

  “Not exactly,” Tallow said, watching her expression. “It’s not addictive or anything. It’s like the magic in the potion that I gave you in the hospital, but not as intense.”

  Douglas felt strange taking a bite of anything that had a glow of blackness to it, but he trusted his uncle enough to do so anyway. The apple was crisp and juicy and sweet. A shiver coursed through him as he swallowed. A feeling of alertness and well-being swept over him.

  “It’s like the way I always wanted an apple to taste,” Brenda said, her mouth full. She was on her third bite. She had bitten through the core and all. “But it’s never as good as I think it will be. Not until now.”