Out of the corner of her eye, Sara saw Kate go toward the ladies’ room, so she waited a minute, then said to Lydia, “Ladies’ room. Coming with?” She headed in that direction.
Rob told them, “I’ll be right here!” as they walked away.
“Did you get anything from him?” asked Kate as they entered.
“Well, he can’t keep his eyes off my necklace, and Lydia got something about a box full of jewelry. Nothing specific, though. I thought you wanted to stay away from him?” Sara sighed.
“He stopped me as I walked in. Oddly, he asked me to meet him on Monday at his place. I’ve never been there, so I had to ask his address. I wasn’t sure what to say, but if he has it, it’s probably there. I’m supposed to go there at eight for drinks.” Kate had a puzzled look on her face. Sara decided not to mention the sweater she’d supposedly left there. Anger at the lies wouldn’t help right now.
“Well, you wait here until I have him turned, so he doesn’t see us together. Maybe we can figure this thing out.” Sara opened the door.
Rob was talking to yet another woman. Sara watched as he put a hand to the back of her neck as if to draw her closer and then dropped the hand to his pocket. It was fast, and if she hadn’t been watching and known what was going on, she wouldn’t have understood. She whispered to Lydia, “Aha, that’s how he does it!” Lydia had seen it too, saying, “But why?”
As the other woman walked away from Rob, Sara told Lydia, “Make like you are going to the bar. I’m going to talk to this guy. Get close enough behind him to see if you pick up anything.” She smiled as she headed toward him.
“Another stalker girl?” she asked him. He grinned. “Who?” Glancing at the woman who had just left, he continued, “No, just a friend. I know most of the people who come here. I’d like to know you better, though. This place is so noisy. I was wondering if you’d be interested in drinks at my place some night? Maybe Monday?”
He gently placed his hand on her neck for a second and Sara knew her necklace was gone immediately, not that she would have if she hadn’t seen him do it to the other woman. She gave him a little smile and replied, “What time? And what’s the address?”
“Eight-thirty work for you?” He handed her a card with the address. Right after that, she felt compelled to walk away.
Chapter Four
Back at her apartment, the girls started talking. Sara started. “Okay, I have questions. Kate, after he gave you the address, what did you do?” Kate thought about it. “Um, I just walked away. Yeah, that’s odd.”
Sara wondered, “Why did we do that? It was like the conversation was done and I had no need to stay. Oh, and I’m his eight-thirty date on Monday. Did you get anything more, Lydia?”
Lydia frowned. “Again, nothing specific. Just vague discomfort, like something was wrong. He was thrilled to get your necklace, but it didn’t feel like greed at stealing something expensive. It felt more like he was getting the final piece to something. I think there is much more to this than a stolen necklace.”
Sara looked serious. “You’re right. I have a friend with the Silver Griffins, and I think it’s time I called her. This is more than we can handle on our own. Sorry, Kate, but I think the best thing that ever happened was your friend telling you we could read minds. You aren’t the only one this has happened to, as we saw tonight. How many others are involved, I wonder? And what is he doing with all the necklaces?”
She picked up her phone and dialed. “Hi, Mary. I have a story to tell you, and you can let me know what you think.”
“Okay,” Sara told the other girls as she hung up, ”they already know about him, because the idiot did this to one of their daughters. They’ve been looking into it, but like us, they thought it was only her. Mary will call back as soon as she’s discussed it with some other people. Right now, all we can do is wait. Like Lydia and me, this girl only has a small amount of magic. From what you said, you are stronger, right?” She looked at Kate.
Kate shook her head. “No, I said I was a warrior because I know a lot of martial arts. I learned them growing up because I don’t have much magic. I look weak, but even a powerful witch can’t do much if you kick them in the chin and knock them out. They never expect it. Funny though—I thought I walked away from him because of his family ties, but all of us walked away, and you barely spent any time with him.”
The phone rang, and Sara answered. “Wow, that was fast.” She was right, it was Mary, who handed the phone to someone else who said gruffly, “Tell me everything you know about this from the beginning!” Sara repeated everything she’d told Mary, then answered several questions with “Yes,” “Uh huh,” and “I think so.” “I agree.” she finished. “See you then.”
She hung up and turned to the other girls. “They can’t let this go. They can’t do anything yet, because it’s only petty theft as it stands, and they had no way to prove he did it. However, the Monday night dates are what have them worried. Why all of us there the same night? Why did we agree to it in the first place? Normally I never would go after just meeting him. Also, he lied and said you had been there, Kate.” Kate started to protest, and Sara said, “We knew it was a lie, but he thought he was making himself look good. Anyway, they are coming over to talk about this and bringing the daughter over, so we will recognize each other if we see her. She’s his seven-thirty. They will have someone watching his place from now until Monday, because who knows how many other ‘dates’ he has planned? But why Monday? They are looking for a reason, but I don’t think the day has anything to do with it. I think he was done when he got my necklace. It was the last one he needed.”
Chapter Five
Not long after that, the doorbell rang and Sara let Mary and two other women in. The youngest looked at the girls and said, “All of you? He took something from all of you? How many others has he done this to? And why you? You are all old; you have to be like thirty or something.”
The young girl had on way too much makeup and was dressed in a low-cut purple minidress. She still looked about sixteen to Sara, but that didn’t mean anything. Hard to tell sometimes how old someone was.
Sara rolled her eyes and shook her head. “And you don’t look like you are old enough to have been in a bar!”
The girl looked away. Lydia spoke up, “Remind me to tell Jimmy to stop checking tatas and start checking IDs closer!” Everyone but the girl laughed.
Mary introduced them. “This is Cassidy, and you are right. She shouldn’t have been there. She was using Grace’s ID that she’d ‘borrowed’ without Grace’s consent, Because of that she almost didn’t tell anyone about what happened until her sister noticed the necklace was missing. Grace had given it to her and Cassidy wore it all the time. This is her sister Grace. They came to me because they didn’t want to bring their parents into it. I did tell the parents, but they are leaving it in my hands for now. Like you girls, Cassidy has only a little magic. We are wondering if that’s the key to all this. We’ve checked the guy out, and as far as we can tell, he’s never been involved in anything except stupid stuff. Pranks, mostly, because guess what? He doesn’t have much magic either.”
“None of this makes sense, does it?” Sara wondered. “Have the people watching his place seen anything yet?”
Mary shook her head. “No, but we have all day Sunday yet. We’ll let you know if we get anything before Cassidy’s ‘date.’”
“You are letting that kid go?” Sara’s eyebrows rose.
“I’m not a kid!” Cassidy started.
Mary frowned at her. “Not really. Grace looks enough like her that in makeup, we figure she can pass. We don’t think he actually pays much attention to the girls he picks in the first place, given what you said. It’s their magic level and the necklaces.”
At this point, Kate joined in. “I’ve got to get mine back. It’s very important to me.”
Mary looked at her for a minute. “You’re Kate Blake! Did he take your gram’s necklace?”
Kate
sighed. “Yes. At first, I thought he took it because it has a small artifact as the pendant, but it doesn’t look like that now.”
Mary giggled. “You haven’t ever used it, have you? That’s hilarious! I helped your gram with that. It’s really just kind of a memory stone. When you get it back, say ‘Gram, I have a problem.’ Can’t believe you never said that while wearing it. She said you started almost every phone call with those words! She figured one day you would say that without thinking because she often did that after her grandmother died.”
Kate just looked at her with wide eyes.
“Okay,” Mary said, turning to the door. “We will let you know if we hear anything before Monday, but right now there’s not much we can do. I’d like for us to all be together on Monday before this starts unless they see other girls going in before Cassidy’s slot. We have no clue how many he has coming. Also, that address he gave all of you? He doesn’t live there. As far as we can tell, he still lives at home with his parents.”
Chapter Six
Sunday was an anxious day. They didn’t hear anything from Mary. Hopefully, that meant he hadn’t invited a long string of girls for whatever he had planned.
Monday at seven in the evening, Mary called. “Okay, So far it’s been quiet there. We’ve had someone watching all day, and nobody has been in or out. Wait—a girl just headed for the house. We will watch for a few minutes and head in if she doesn’t come out. If he has one every fifteen minutes, it shouldn’t be long. And…she wasn’t in there for any time at all. She came right back out. I will call back. We’re going to catch up with her down the street and talk to her.”
Twenty minutes later the phone rang again. “This is what we have. The girl walked in, and he told her that her necklace was in a box on the table. She went over, opened the box, saw a jumble of necklaces, and grabbed hers. Then he told her to leave, so she did. She didn’t think anything weird happened, but from what we can tell, she has absolutely no magic left. It has to be the box. Since we know this part, we had Cassidy call him and say she’d be late. We can remove her and Grace from the situation. He got very upset but said if she had to be, fine. He might call one of you to come earlier. Probably Kate, since she is his eight o’clock. All of you come down here now. We are in the silver van on the north corner.”
Sara giggled. “Silver?”
Mary sighed. “We have lots of vehicles. This one just happens to be silver.”
Kate’s phone rang. She answered and put it on speaker. Rob’s voice pleasantly asked, “Hi, I was wondering if you could make it a little earlier? Something has come up. By the way, I found your necklace. It’s here! Must have gotten caught on my jacket that night.”
The girls rolled their eyes at that. “Oh, that’s great!” Kate answered. “I’ll be over soon if that’s okay.”
Rob was quick with his answer. “Great! Hurry on over!” His charm seemed quite a bit lacking suddenly. Kate hung up and asked the other girls, “Maybe he is in a hurry because he might have to go find another necklace?”
Mary was still on the other phone with Sara. “That will work out perfectly. Make sure you stop at the van first. We are going to go in right after Kate. We need proof. He won’t have to worry about another necklace after that.”
Chapter Seven
“Do not touch that box.” Mary started as they assembled behind the van. “I don’t care what you do; pretend you don’t see the opening, or just keep him talking. Walk over to it, look at it, but don’t touch it! We figure it’s the fact that the girl willingly opened it without being forced.”
Kate hurried down the street to the house. Rob let her in with a smile and said, “It’s in that box on the table. Sorry about that. I really didn’t know I had it.”
She looked at the box. It was a pretty little thing with an obvious lid. Saying she couldn’t figure out how to open it wasn’t going to work. She looked at Rob with a little smile. ”Well, I thought we were going to have drinks? I can get it before I leave.”
Rob got an aggravated look on his face. “No, I told you something came up. Just take the necklace now.”
She felt a real urge to walk to the box and get it and had to fight the feeling. If she hadn’t already known he could do that to someone, she probably would have just given in to the urge. Talking to him wasn’t going to work either. He looked anxious and a little angry. Suddenly a thought came to her and she said, “Gran, I have a problem.”
Rob looked at her like she was crazy, and then a voice started talking. “Girl, you know you can handle anything. What’s wrong today?” Kate smiled a little. She had wondered if she actually had to have it on her or just nearby.
Rob looked panicked. “Who is that? Where are they? Who did you bring with you? I didn’t see anyone else!”
The group of Silver Griffins came in the door as he spoke and Rob ran toward the back. They had people out at the back, but he didn’t go out that way. They checked all over the house, but he was gone. He must have used a portal. However, he had left the box. Mary picked it up wearing a pair of gloves and made sure it didn’t open. “We will get your jewelry back to you after we have someone look at this. It isn’t listed as a known artifact, so we aren’t sure exactly what it does or how it does it. We still have to find Rob and ask him where he got it. Wonder why he ran like that? He had no idea who was coming in.”
Kate laughed. “I think he was running from Gram, not you. I didn’t know what else to do because he was getting aggravated about me not touching the box, and the opening was obvious so saying I couldn’t figure it out wasn’t going to work, so I said—”
Mary raised her eyebrows, “You talked to your grandmother?”
“I couldn’t think of anything else to do. He was getting mad because I wouldn’t get my necklace! The look on his face after she answered me! He was looking all around the room, trying to figure out how someone else had gotten in here. It would have been hilarious if the whole thing hadn’t been so scary, but I may have cost us grabbing him. I’m sorry.”
Mary shook her head. “He must have had the portal ready in case this whole thing didn’t work out. No way he had the ability to just make a portal that fast by himself. As I said earlier, he doesn’t have much magic. What he does have, probably, is the persuasion ability he used and not much else. We will get him. We already have someone watching his parents’ house. The important thing is that we have this box and can figure out exactly what it does. Plus, we’ll keep it out of the hands of another jerk like him. Wonder where he got it and how they knew what it could do? Has someone else used this recently?”
Chapter Eight
Several days went by. Sara, Lydia, and Kate had become friends and called each other about once a day to see if any of them had heard anything or just to talk about their day. It was the weekend again, and they made plans to meet at the same bar they had met at originally.
Kate pulled into the parking lot and turned off her car. She smiled when she saw Sara’s car already there. The other two girls must already be inside. She was gathering her things when the passenger-side door opened. Rob jumped in and slammed the door.
“You have to give me back the box,” he snarled. ”I don’t care how you get it, but you will get it back. Your little friends won’t be in good shape if you don’t!”
Fear filled Kate. He mustn’t have noticed the Silver Griffins coming in; her gram must have scared him badly. He thought she had the box. Just because the girls’ car was here didn’t mean he hadn’t already done something to them. Then she remembered what Mary had said he didn’t have much magic either. Could he have enough to overpower both of the other girls?
She decided to try something. Staring at a car that wasn’t theirs, she said, “Their car is here. They are inside, and you haven’t done anything.”
Rob looked at the car she was looking at and laughed. “I got them getting out of the car. They did what I said. Most people do, you know.”
He had no clue which car Sara’s was. He
was lying. That made things so much easier. Kate made herself sound panicky. “Don’t hurt them! It’s in my trunk!” She had to get him out of the car so she had room to move.
“Give me the keys!” Rob sounded like he was elated as he grabbed the keys from her hand and jumped out. He ran around to the back of her car and was trying a key. The key that started the car wasn’t the same one that opened the trunk, so he fumbled a bit. Kate followed him and while he was intent on the trunk, let loose with a series of punches and kicks that had him on the ground.
Inside Lydia turned to Sara. “Something’s wrong. Kate is scared, and she isn’t far. It has to be Rob! The parking lot?”
They jumped up and headed for the door. They got outside in time to see Rob laying on the ground with his hands covering his head for protection, while Kate was on her phone calling Mary. “Got him! Send someone to pick him up before I beat the hell out of him! Yes, Rob. He thought I had his precious box. Yeah, I think Gram scared him so bad he ran and never noticed you guys, or he just thought it was another of his women.” Kate giggled at the thought. Rob groaned on the ground, and she heard him say, ”Your grandmother? What?”
Sara looked at Kate and raised her eyebrows. ”I see what you meant about them never expecting it from you! Is he going to live?” She snorted. He was obviously in pain, but other than around his sort-of-crooked nose, there wasn’t any blood.
Tales from the Oriceran Universe: Fans Write For The Fans: Volume 1 (Oriceran Fans Write For the Fans) Page 9