CHAPTER 2
“Would you just tell me where we’re going?” asked Niall.
I would have been happy to; I just didn’t know. It was all up to my little guide charm. I remember the first time Grandma taught me how to do it. I ended up tracking the neighbor’s dog, Brownie, for two hours.
“Basically, it’s a matter of like finding like,” I said. “There’s some fancy name for this in the textbooks. This little thread of duct tape wants to be back with the big gray roll that it was originally a part of, so I’m going to help it do just that.
“If I’ve charged this charm correctly, and I have every reason to believe I did, then it will take us to wherever the rest of the duct tape roll that this thread came off of is. Not necessarily to the killer, but maybe where he keeps his supplies.”
“So, even if he, and I’m assuming that it is a man, isn’t there, we might be able to get an idea of just who this maniac is,” said Niall.
It looked like Niall was still as sharp as he had been when we were growing up.
We cruised up and down the streets of Nowata for almost a half an hour before I got a reaction from my charm. In fact, I was beginning to think that I had messed something up, which is entirely possible. Magic is half art, half science and a lot of luck thrown in for good measure.
Then I felt the string start to pull to the left. I didn’t notice it at first; then, as we drove past the old city hall and headed into one of the newer built-up residential areas, I felt something. It was a tiny pull, then a tug on the string the same way my cat likes to get hold of one end of a toy mouse and slowly start to knock it around the room.
“I think we’ve found it,” I said, as the car cruised toward a house lit up with Christmas yard inflatables, the steady whir of their motors cutting through the night.
The pull was not hard, just steady, and now pointing in the direction of a single house. When I had been growing up, there hadn’t been much out this way except for a few farmers and a couple of milking operations. Now there were a dozen houses and signs of at least that many more in the planning stages. At least, they were before the economy went in the dumpster. I suspect some of them were “delayed,” which is contractor talk for “We haven’t got enough money to finish this and no schmuck on the line who is willing to pay for it, either.”
There were lights on in several of the houses, including the one that my little charm seemed so determined was where we would find the rest of the tape roll that it had come from. Thing was, as I had said, this was not a guarantee that the killer was here. I had come up with several scenarios that could play out, everything from ‘the tape had been taken home by a worker who had no idea that a killing had happened,’ to the perp being there and confessing when confronted by the law. Not that I expected the latter to happen; it was too Law and Order-ish. In the four years since I took my degree at University, I’ve seen exactly one confession come about like that, and later on the defense attorney had gotten it thrown out on the grounds of mental instability.
The house was a ranch style, heavily decorated for the season. Besides the inflatable items on the lawn, there were lights around the porch and a two-tiered wreath on the front door.
I dropped the charm into my jacket pocket; I could feel it tugging even then. Niall took a deep breath, smiled at me and knocked on the door.
“Ready?” he asked.
“Let’s rock and roll,” I said.
A woman in a turtleneck and jeans answered the door. I guessed her to be in her mid to late thirties, with strawberry blonde hair cut in what I thought was a really unflattering style. But I’m no fashionista, so that’s not saying much.
“Yes, can I help you?” she said, her voice going slightly tense when she saw Niall’s uniform. I’ve seen that reaction before. People love knowing the cops are around, somewhere out there in the distance, but when they find themselves face to face with one they go all stiff, wondering what they’ve done.
“Good evening, ma’am. I’m Officer Niall Lake of the Nowata Police Department. Are you the homeowner?”
“I’m Gail Willis; my husband, Randy, and I own this place.”
“I’m sorry to disturb you, but we’re requesting your assistance in an investigation?”
“What do you mean?” she said slowly, her eyes darting back and forth between the two of us.
I pulled my credentials out and held them up in the light for her to see. “I’m Journeyman Sorceress Megan Thomas. I work for the Tulsa County District Attorney’s Office. I’m on temporary assignment with the Nowata Police Department.”
“A sorceress?” The woman practically spit out those two words, then turned her head toward Niall, refusing to even look at me. “What is this about?”
Owww! I could taste the venom in her words. Magic had been a part of America for more than four hundred years. It had been a lot longer than that, if you counted Native American shamans, but there were still people who were convinced that anyone who had the Gift was an agent of the devil and even talking to one was risking their souls. There had been Klan witch burnings as recently as the mid-1980s, and don’t even get me started on the TV preachers!
“Inspector Thomas is assisting us in the investigation of a murder. I’m hoping that you will cooperate with the investigation.” Niall said.
“I don’t know what this is about,” she said. “I’ll be glad to help, but you get that woman off of my property. I’ll not have her kind anywhere near my family. And I certainly don’t want her practicing any of her hocus pocus around me.”
Niall’s face went very still, very unemotional. I remembered times like this when we were growing up. I think the easiest description would be ‘global thermonuclear war’, and expect few, if any, survivors.
“Mrs. Willis,” he said, slowly. “Inspector Thomas is a duly authorized law enforcement official. Her methods are legal and have been upheld by the Supreme Court. So you now have two choices and two choices only. You can cooperate, or I will place you under arrest for interfering with a police investigation. I can get a search warrant out here in maybe twenty minutes, but that will mean waking up Judge Garton, and he will not be in a good mood, especially when he finds out you are interfering in a murder investigation.”
I’ve always known that words had power; that’s a given in my profession. But you don’t have to have the Gift to make them have power. Look at orators like Churchill, Kennedy and Reagan. The words ‘murder investigation’ had power, even to a prejudiced person like Gail Willis.
The house itself seemed letter perfect. Everything was in its proper place and there wasn’t even a single speck of dust to be seen anywhere. Why did I suddenly envision Gail, here, as being more than a bit obsessive compulsive when it came to her house? Not that I blame her. Every few months I get that way about my place, usually when there’s someone coming over. Except for Jordan, my best friend. Her, I don’t clean for.
Normally, I could keep the charm in my pocket, just hold it in my fist, and get all the results I needed. But in this case, I decided to make a show out of it for the benefit of the homeowner. Actually, I just liked seeing her face turn red and have her start mumbling Bible verses every time she looked at me. Yes, it’s petty, but there are just times when petty is what is called for!
I really expected the charm to lead me to the garage, where most people keep their household tools. Either that, or they’re crammed into a drawer in the kitchen. That’s where I keep my duct tape and other assorted tools that I really need to learn how to use some day.
No, this time it was pointing us toward the den. That seemed a little out of character, given the look of the place, since I would not have expected to find tools of any kind there. But that’s where things were pointing.
“What are you looking for?” demanded Gail, again talking to Niall and not to me.
“Duct tape,” Niall said without offering any explanation. I must say, I always did like his style, and it had definitely improved in the last few years.
“All the tools are in the garage!” she protested, even pointing toward that part of the house as if neither of us was smart enough to find it on our own.
The charm began to whirl around as I approached the very large entertainment center that dominated one wall. I could see a jungle of cables that trailed off the television, DVR, DVD and CD player. I could remember back when there was just one line leading from the TV to the cable outlet. Does that date me? Oh, well, the price of progress.
There in the shadows behind the entertainment center, in a space that I figured you had to be a contortionist to get into, I saw light reflecting off of something. Holding the charm in my left hand, I took Niall’s flashlight and pointed it down toward the floor. There was a roll of duct tape, a pair of pliers and several patch cords.
I looked at the front of the CD speakers. They were slightly out of line, leaving marks on the pristine wood of the cabinet. A section of the rather extensive DVD collection seemed to have been shoved back into place hurriedly as well. That said volumes. I motioned to Niall and he saw the same thing as I did.
“So where is your husband, Mrs. Willis?” I asked.
She ignored me again, staring holes through me. It was something that I had seen before and knew full well that I would see again. These sorts of people are everywhere. I had learned that the first time someone had seen me doing magic, even though I wasn’t more than ten years old at the time.
I pointed the light down toward all the wires and looked closer. One of them, a six foot silver one, looked odd to me. I reached down and pulled it toward me. The end of it was covered in something sticky, blood.
There were several candles spread around the room: cinnamon, bayberry and some other scent that I couldn’t identify. True, they fit in with the other decorations and with the season, but there might just be another reason for them.
I pocketed the charm; it had served its purpose. I could take it apart later when I had some time. I walked over to one of windows on the back wall. Even in the dark I could see the swing set and slide that dominated the backyard.
“Are your children at home?” I asked.
“No, they’re at my sister’s house in Bartlesville,” she said. The fact that she was actually speaking directly to me seemed to be a sign of progress. I had a feeling that it might be progress in the wrong direction.
That was a good sign; these sorts of scenes never play out well, especially if there are kids thrown into the mixture. I’d been involved in more of them than I wanted to remember, and none of them had ended very well.
The problems that I was thinking about were all legal. My charm was considered to be probable cause and work as a search warrant. Anything else was going to need more solid evidence; otherwise, the whole thing was going to get tossed out of the first court it ended up in. That would also mean a chewing out from my boss for not following procedure.
“And your husband? You said his name was Randy?” asked Niall.
“Yes, Randall Anthony Willis. We moved here a few months ago when his company transferred us in from Providence. I have to admit that I was not crazy about moving out here to the wilds of Oklahoma, but it’s turned out to be a very nice place to live. I’m glad that we’re able to raise our children here,” she said.
Her eyes were darting back and forth. I noticed she had backed up toward the far end of the grey couch. If there wasn’t something there, she saw it as a place of safety.
“Rhode Island,” said Niall. “I have some relatives who live in the area; some of my ancestors are buried in the Longview cemetery.”
Gail smiled. “Yes, I know the place.”
I stepped back toward her. “So where did you say Randy was? He must have left suddenly; his briefcase is sitting over near your dining room table.”
“He didn’t need it.”
I noticed that her large leather purse was sitting open on the floor near a small recliner; there was a matching but larger one nearby. His and hers furniture; it was straight out of Archie Bunker and All in the Family. Somehow, those two chairs seemed to fit this whole scene in front of me.
“I think he probably would have taken it, if he’d had a choice.” I said.
That seemed to be enough to do what I was hoping it would do.
“You satanic bitch!” she screamed, grabbing something from inside of her purse. I stepped back before I even saw what it was, a very big knife. In retrospect, it probably looked bigger than it actually was, but I defy anyone to have an angry person charge at you with a sharp pointy instrument in their hand and not have it look like it’s eleven feet long.
Niall screamed something and charged at her; unfortunately, the rather ornate coffee table was between them and he tripped and fell forward. I learned a long time ago, back in junior high school, that sometimes the best way to stop a dangerous situation was to charge right into the middle of it. Sounds crazy, but I’ve had self-defense teachers say to either do that or to run away as fast as you can. Since we were inside a house, I didn’t think I had the latter choice.
I don’t think that Gail expected that, which was exactly what I was hoping would be her reaction. I grabbed at her arm, well away from the knife, twisted hard and then did a move I hope my martial arts sensei would approve of. I used her weight against her and threw Gail hard down on the floor.
Then I applied a good swift kick to her crotch. Trust me, a woman can hurt down there just like a guy can. I grabbed her arm and started pounding it on the floor until the knife dropped out of her fingers. She was moaning, but those sounds were mixed in with curses, mainly aimed at me. I leaned close and whispered into her ear; the color drained out of her face and she went totally still.
✽✽✽
The snow had gotten heavier in the last few hours; it had already begun to accumulate in places.
Niall pulled up behind my car. I could see that there was still a light on upstairs in my mother’s bedroom. I suddenly felt like I was back in high school and coming home late from one of my few dates. Go figure.
“You certainly know how to show a girl a good time,” I told him.
“My pleasure, Shorty,” he said.
“Hey, I thought we agreed that there wouldn’t be any more comments about my height years ago.” I’m five four, and I hate stiletto heels, but I will wear them if the situation calls for it; thankfully, that situation has yet to occur.
“So who was being rude?” Niall said. “Listen, there’s one thing I do want to ask you before you go in.”
I arched an eyebrow a. “Look, I’m exhausted and I have one hell of a headache. If you’re going to proposition me, you have shitty timing. Besides, if you are, you should have done it before we got here to the house, not that it would have gotten you anywhere. If you wait until after Yule dinner, then I’m not promising what my answer might or might not be.”
Niall laughed; it was good to hear that sound after the last couple of hours. “I’ll take that under advisement. Especially since, while you’re in there going to bed, I have to go back to the station and fill out the rest of the paperwork.”
He would have to mention paperwork; I would have to fill out my share of it when I got back to the office. However, that wasn’t ‘til a couple of days from now.
“So what do you want to know?”
Niall grinned. “Back there at the house, after you put Gail Willis on the floor, you whispered something to her. She stopped struggling and didn’t even try to give me any trouble when I cuffed her. So what did you say?”
“Oh, that,” I said. “I just said the sort of thing that she expected to hear me say.”
“What?” he demanded. I could tell from the look on his face, even in the dark end car, that Niall wasn’t sure if he wanted to actually know.
“Well, since you asked so nicely.” I tried to put the most demure, innocent look possible on my face. “Given what she had said earlier, I told her that if she didn’t stop struggling I was going to suck her soul out through her nose and then turn her into a hamster that I would feed to my cat.”
It took Niall a good two minutes to stop laughing. “That’s too good.” He said finally, then paused and looked at me for a moment.
I got out of the car, but before I was more than a step or two away the window rolled down. “Ah, you can’t actually turn people into things like hamsters, can you?” he asked.
“She didn’t know that.” I shook my head and headed inside. “I’ll see you at dinner tomorrow.”