A New Hope (Tales From a Second-Hand Wand Shop Book 4)

by Robert P. Wills

  “Well, there’s a few students I don’t think are on the list.” I stand, then hop of the little footrest. “So there’s progress being made. Definite movement in the direction of progress.”

  “At this rate, the school’ll be shut down by the time you figure it out.”

  That’s what he thinks. “Well, the case is turning a corner, Drim. Turning a corner. It’s turning off of Unresolved Street onto the Cul-de-sac of Solved.”

  “There go the property values.” He gives his head a shake.

  “Well, I’m going back to find Rat and the thief.” A thought occurs to me. “Unless...”

  “Rat is not the thief.”

  Nuts.

  “Well, I’m heading back, so if you have something I can carry and eat, I’ll take it.” Can’t solve a mystery on an empty stomach. “Got a snack handy?”

  “My little Grimmy is hungry?” Drimblerod leaned over, hands on his knees. “Mayhap I can find a Grimmy-snack or two.”

  Adults; I’m beginning to hate them. “It’s awfully early in the morning, Drim.” For me to knock you on your butt.

  Drimblerod waggles his ears at me. I decide that it’s most annoying having someone waggle their ears at you. “Well, I’ll see what I have. What if I can’t find anything handy?”

  “Then I’ll sit down and have a good and proper breakfast. Besides brunch, second breakfast, lunch, tea, dinner, and supper, it’s the most important meal of the day.”

  “You forgot snacks.”

  No I didn’t. “I never forget a snack,” I assure my partner. I’m a professional- no snack left behind.

  Drimblerod turns to leave the room. “Well get dressed and I’ll put some eggs and bacon in a roll so you can eat on your way.”

  That’s my partner! “Be out in a flash.” Another thought occurs to me. “You know, if I ...”

  “You’re wearing clothes to school today.

  Nuts.

  “I’ll have your sandwich ready by the time you come out.” With that Drimblerod leaves me to my ruminations.

  So I ruminate as I get dressed:

  1. It could be a teacher so they would have access to the whole place so no one sees them coming or going.

  Or

  2. It could be someone disguised as a teacher so they have access to the whole place so no one sees them coming or going.

  Or

  3. It just happens to be a student because they have access to the whole place and no one sees them coming or going.

  Or

  7. It could be someone disguised as a student so they have access to the whole place so no one sees them coming or going.

  Wait

  B. What kind of disguise could someone use to give them that level of access?

  Uh oh.

  I’m back on the list of suspects!

  Nuts.

  I stop ruminating so I can tie my shoes- it’s hard enough to do normally!

  Drimblerod is waiting for me with a wrapped up parchment when I get out to the table. “Reading won’t fill my belly.” I tell him.

  “Your sandwich is in it, Grim,” he offers it to me. “You can eat on your way.” He looks worried.

  “I’ll find Rat and The Black, don’t you worry; I’m...”

  “A professional. Yeah, that’s what I’ve heard.”

  “Well, you heard right.” I turn and hop down the stairs making sure my sandwich doesn’t make a run for it. When I get to the bottom of the stairs I turn and give Drimblerod a salute with the wrapped up sandwich. “Don’t you worry, partner.”

  He still looks worried.

  Annoying.

  Door opens and I’m out on the street. Folks are moving here and there. Maybe one of them is disguising themselves to get those wands. I stick my eyes on them as I walk along eating. A few of them look back. Most just move to the other side of the street. Those go on my list.

  I finally get to the school and I spy Amaryllis sitting on Castor’s pedestal. Or maybe it’s Pollux’s. She looks as worried as Drimblerod did. “What’re you doing out here Amaryllis?”

  She looks up at me. I can tell she’s been crying. That will not do. She’s my Moll. No one makes my employees cry but me! “What’s wrong?”

  “My... my... my...” She stutters.

  “So I’m guessing it has to do with you,” I toss out there. I’m a professional.

  “Wa... wa... wa”

  “Stop crying Amaryllis and tell me what’s wrong.” I put my hands on my hips. Rolton chips; now I’m doing it. “What’s got you all wet around the eyes?” I move over and sit down beside her. I put my arm around her. I’m a comforting professional. “There, there,” I say. It’s the most comforting thing I can think of saying.

  “Where... where...” She stammers.

  “I wasn’t talking about anyplace in particular.” I give her a look. It’s not quite a stink eye since she’s crying. It’s more of a stench eye, I think. “I was being comforting.”

  For a while we just watch the people walk in front of the school. She’s still sniffling but the tears have stopped. I’d offer her a handkerchief but I just use my sleeve. I’m not sure I like her enough to offer her my sleeve. That’s pretty personal.

  I see that old miner walk by. It’s more of a skulk than a walk, really. He looks over at me. I give him the full blown stink eye. Almost to a reek, in fact.

  He tilts his hat back. “Broken little hearts?” He puts his hands on his hips. It’s really annoying when other people do it. “How nice.”

  “You know for someone who’s a miner, you sure spend a lot of time above ground and around this school,” I toss at him.

  He pulls his hat back down. “I didn’t ask for your opinion, squirt.”

  “That’s good because I didn’t give it!” Now I’m up to a full-blown reek-eye.

  He starts to say something, then shuffles off around the windmill and out of sight.

  “Where...” Starts Amaryllis again.

  “I told you I didn’t mean any place in particular,” I tell her.

  She shakes her head. “No, I mean where were you?”

  That’s not very specific, so I tell her: “That’s not very specific.”

  She sniffs in again. Deeply. I’m seriously considering loaning her my sleeve just so I can stop listening to her snort in that wayward snot. “I went to the top of the windmill because I thought you were going up there without me.”

  I give her my most innocent look. “What would give you that idea?”

  She snorts again and my stomach does a little flip. “Terrance said he saw you going up there.”

  “Terrance? I don’t know any Terrance.” Now I’m stalling. If there’s a stool pigeon around here, that’s going to cause problems. Especially since I don’t know anyone named Terrance.

  “You talked to him at lunch.” She explains. Finally she runs her sleeve across her nose. I look at her sleeve and decide I made the right choice by not offering her mine. “He was the nice boy with the wand.”

  “Emberstick,” I say.

  She gives me a nod. Then snorts again. Apparently the other nostril is busy making snot now. I take my arm off her shoulder and scoot away a little in case she plans on putting her other sleeve to use. “That’s Terrance.”

  Terrance Stool Pigeon Emberstick. I might just put him on the list of suspects. “So what did this Terrance say exactly?”

  “He said he saw you and that rat of yours going up the stairs in the windmill.”

  He’s an accurate stoolie, at least. “Well, Rat said he wanted to look around up there and since he’s an old business partner of mine, I figured I’d just take him up there quick-like.”

  “Business partner?”

  Nuts.

  “What kind of business are you involved in Grim?”

  “A little of this and a little of that,” I say. Then I try to change the subject. “So you went up the windmill?” Then a thought occurs to me. “Without me?”

  “Looking for you,” she says. �
��But you weren’t there.”

  Ah ha! “Was there anyone else up there? Perhaps a wand thief?”

  “Yes.”

  AH HA! “What did they look like?” Now the case was taking a turn toward that elusive cul-de-sac. I was on my way!

  “I don’t know. I was looking behind some boxes for you when all of a sudden someone bonked me on the head.” She sniffed again.

  “Well, I’m glad you’re all right,” I tell her, glad the subject’s been changed. “Then what happened?”

  She thinks for a moment. She wipes her nose with the same sleeve. At least this side of her is safe now. I scoot closer again. “I woke up and... and...” The tears start up again.

  I put my arm around her, careful to keep it on her shoulder and nowhere near her sleeve. “And?”

  “And my wand was gone!”

  Nuts.

  This was getting out of hand. The only one who can steal from my Moll is me! “Did you see anything else?” A thought occurs to me. “Like perhaps Rat?”

  “A rat?”

  “Yes, the rat that was with me,” I remind her. “He’s missing too.”

  Amaryllis shakes her head. “There wasn’t any rat up there, sorry.”

  Now I’m grasping at straws: “Do you remember anything else from up there? Did you hear anyone say anything? Did you smell anything? Anything at all?”

  “Well, now that you mention it, I did notice a bunch of dirty footprints up there.”

  “The place was a mess Amaryllis,” I remind her. “How could you tell the dirt apart?”

  She looks out at the street, like she’s trying to remember. “Most of the dirt up there was grey dirt and dust. But there were these footprints with reddish dirt on them that didn’t seem to fit in with the rest of the mess. Does that help?”

  I give her a nod. “Maybe. Maybe it will.” I tell her. I have no idea what that means.

  “I’m sorry about your rat. Maybe he was scared off but he’ll come back on his own?”

  I give my head a shake. “He doesn’t do anything on his own except eat and sleep, nap, doze, and sometimes snooze.”

  “Aren’t those all the same thing?” Amaryllis says with a confused look on her face.

  “Apparently since they’re spelled differently, there’re different things.”

  “Oh”. That confused look looks like it’s going to stay put for a while.

  “Well, why don’t you get to class and I’ll see what I can do about finding your wand.”

  “And your rat,” she reminds me.

  Right, forgot about Rat. “Him too.”

  “Maybe if you went back into the windmill and called for him, he might come out. That poor little thing is probably scared half to death.”

  Hey; That’s an idea! Now I just need to borrow a wand. “That would never work.” I shake my head. “Dames,” I toss at her. “Why don’t you just run off to class and let the big boys work on solving the mystery?” I pat her shoulder as I stand up. “Leave this to the professionals.”

  “Professionals?” She says as she stands up.

  “Yeah, that’s me.”

  She lunges at me and gives me a big hug. Her arms go around my neck and squeeze. I think my head’s going to pop off. “Thank you so much Grim!” She says as she squeezes even tighter. Now there’s no air getting down my throat. Finally she lets go enough to smooch me.

  Ewww! “That’s not necessary, Amaryllis,” I say as I try to push her off before I get another kiss that could land me in the pen. I can just see the head shaking and tut-tutting Akita would give me for cavorting with a minor. Right after he locked the cell door.

  She gives me a nod and heads to the door.

  Now I’ve got two things to do: First, I’m going to go wash my neck where that Moll’s slimy sleeve rubbed against it. And then go see Garibaldis about a wand.

  I leave the bathroom and make my way to Garibaldis’ class. I’m hoping he’s not teaching so I can get to him right away. I’m on the verge of solving this case. Because I’m a professional.

  The door to his classroom is closed so I pull it open nice and quiet like and peek in. The stools are all empty and there’s no one up on the platform where he was teaching from the last time I was in here. I slip into the room, hoping Garibaldis is there. I’m trying to be sneaky so I only shout his name once. “Garibaldis!” I shout. I follow up with: “Where are yooooou?!”

  The thin door behind the platform opens and Garibaldis comes out. “Grimbledung. What’s wrong now?”

  What is wrong now? I’m not sure. I think it’s the same thing that’s been wrong all along. I run through current events in my head to see if anything new is wrong. Seems not. “The same thing as usual,” I say to him. “There’re wands going missing.”

  “So have you any suspects?”

  I give him a head shake. Then I remember. “Rat’s missing too!”

  “Maybe he’s out sleeping someplace?” He moves to the bench by his big teaching table and sits in it. “Or dozing or napping even?”

  I give him another head shake. “No, he turned up missing after I got hit on the head when...” Uh oh. I’m not sure I want to mention The Black just yet. That’s a pretty powerful wand to now have in the mix.

  “When?”

  “When I was up in the windmill, of course,” I say. Smooth! “And I need to borrow a wand to find him.”

  “You didn’t bring a wand to school with you?”

  “Not on your life, Garibaldis,” I tut-tutt. “What kind of irresponsible person would purposefully bring a wand into the school when there’s a notorious thief on the loose?” I move to a stool myself.

  “Well, that’s good to hear,” he says. “So what do you need a wand for? How will that help you find Rat?”

  “He’s been taken by the wand thief and he’s a rat right now,” I explain. “I’m going to change him into a Shambler so that he can get back to me quick like and tell me who the thief is.”

  “Are you sure he’s been taken.”

  All of a sudden I’m not too sure. “I’m absolutely positive.” I hold out my hand. “Can I borrow your wand for just a moment?”

  Garibaldis hops off his stool to hand me his wand.

  “This should take no time at all,” I assure him. “I’m a professional you know.”

  “Oh, I know,” he says.

  I raise his wand

  Rodentus Grigo!

  Transmutis Completes

  Shambler Verdes!

  I intone...

  Chapter 45

  Grim Noir – The Case of the Missing Wands

  (Day 5 still) - The Wire

  Earlier...

  Rat poked around behind the boxes as Grimbledung babbled on about something or another. Rat tended to only listen to the first parts of anything Grimbledung said; everything else just tended to be fluff. Confusing, non-pertinent fluff. Especially now that he was pint-sized.

  As Rat pushed behind a box, he heard a creaking from the other side - closer to where Grimbledung was. From what he had seen, there was no one else in the top of the windmill when they had arrived. Another creak let him know that was no longer the case.

  Rat scurried around the box, back into the open area of the room. Grimbledung was sitting on the couch looking out the large window. There was a young-looking Gnome sneaking up on him. In one hand he had an ominous looking blackjack. The other held a wand. Grimbledung had no idea he was there, if his babbling was any indication. The youth raised the backjack over his head.

  “Watch out Grim!” Rat screeched as the youth brought the blackjack down on the side of Grimbledung’s head. He immediately slouched over, unconscious.

  The youth wheeled on Rat. “Commere you meddling rat!”

  Rat looked left and right; there was only one way out of this uppermost room and the youth seemed to be between him and the top of the stairs. At his size however, he hoped he could just scurry past him.

  “I said come here!”

  Rat bolted for th
e stairs.

  The youth raised a piece of rusty twisted wire and slashed it at the scampering rat. “Come HERE!” The rat lifted off the ground, tiny feet still moving back and forth. It seemed to run in the air as it floated to the youth.

  “Put me down!” Said Rat.

  “A talking rat, huh? Wonder what you’d be worth,” said the youth as he put the blackjack in a back pocket. “Probably a few coins.”

  “I’m worthless! Worthless I tell you!” said Rat. Then he startled, “Well, not metaphorically speaking, that is. No one is truly worthless. You see we are all part...”

  “Shut up, rat. I don’t need a philosophy lesson from you.” The youth gestured toward a small box with his wire wand. “Get in there and keep your trap shut.”

  “If you think you can keep me from talking...” Said Rat as he floated towards the small box. “You’ve got another...”

  Silence, immobility, and quiet

  Is where it’s at.

  First and foremost-

  from this rat!

  Intoned the youth.

  Rat continued to complain but no sounds came out. He tried to thrash about but now his tiny legs seemed immobile as well. He floated over the lid of the box then dropped into it in a heap. He twitched his whiskers at the youth as he picked up the box. At least those’re still working! Darkness enveloped him as the lids of the box were folded over.

  With nothing else to do, Rat closed his eyes to take a well-deserved nap.

  Rat woke up as the box jostled onto a shelf. He had no idea where he was and still couldn’t move. One corner of the box seemed to be bent upwards and he could see flickering lamplight coming through it. Along with the light, a dank, wet smell entered as well. I’ve been buried alive! Rat panicked. Then: No, Rat. Who would bury you alive with a lamp? Calm down. Rat breathed in and out deeply, trying to calm himself. After several long moments, he twitched his whiskers. This is a fine mess you’re in; stuck in a box, Grimbledung’s knocked out and missing his wand, and you can’t move.

  Rat heard shuffling from outside the box. The lamplight flickered as someone stepped between him and the box. Things were being pulled around, and he heard squeaking wheels. Squeaking wheels underground? Rat strained to move his legs. They didn’t budge. Somehow, this youth had figured out how to affect Grimbledung’s enchantment on him. Or maybe he doesn’t know there’s an enchantment on me so he just cast at me anyway. I wonder how this spell was able to fix me in place over Grimbledung’s enchantment. Rat was under the impression, like Grimbledung, that other person’s spells could not affect him since his enchantment was cast by Grimbledung. This was a false assumption mistakenly perpetrated by Grimbledung.