“Still not following it all. You think that the police missed a clue? This ribbon?”
“Yes. It was down in one of the tracks of the display case and must just have been overlooked—”
“Or someone planted it there after the police search.”
“But they didn’t. I found the pixie and she had the emerald.”
“And now we have someone to blame. Very convenient. You have produced the jewel, and have cleared yourself of all wrongdoing. You’re the hero now. Right?”
Reg felt that same sick, sinking feeling that she had as a child when she was accused of having stolen something that she had found. But the rage that surged up in Reg was something new. As a child, there had been anger, frustration, and rebellion at the injustice of false accusations, but not the overwhelming fury that Reg had felt lately.
Reg literally saw red. Everything in the world around her suddenly hazed over in red and she thought she was going to black out. She thought she was going to have an aneurysm. The pressure in her head and the volcanic rage with nowhere to go overwhelmed her and for a few seconds, she was outside her body, looking down at everything that was going on around her. She saw the police and the onlookers and Karol, looking small and vulnerable sitting on the curb. She saw herself, flushing red, the eyes rolling back in her head,
“Reg—” Jessup reached toward her.
The windows in the police car shattered and burglar alarms started blaring up and down the street. Jessup pulled back, changing her mind about touching Reg. Maybe she’d heard news of what had happened at the hearing and didn’t want to risk immolation.
“Reg, cool it,” she breathed. “Calm down. You’re going to find yourself locked up in a psych facility if you’re not careful.”
Reg was back in her body, all of her muscles going rigid. She let out a howl of pure rage, and then she cut it off. She did not want to end up in hospital or some other locked down facility. So she forced the anger down and tried to control it.
They had the necklace and they had Karol, and that was all that mattered.
They could sort everything out. They would find that what Reg had said was true, Sarah would recover, and everything would go back to normal again.
⋆ Chapter Twenty-Three ⋆
I
t seemed like it took forever for Jessup to get things sorted out with the other officers and Karol Blackmoor, but eventually, she and Reg were in Jessup’s car, headed back toward Sarah’s house with the emerald. Jessup had refused to let Reg take her own car home.
“You can come with me, or you can go to jail, it’s your choice. We’ve got to get this thing sorted out. I don’t think you’re in any shape to be driving.”
“I’m fine. Just tired out.”
She was more than tired out. She was exhausted and her whole body hurt. Holding on to a pixie wasn’t an easy job. But she knew it wasn’t just her physical condition that Jessup was worried about. Reg needed to get a handle on her emotions before she ended up causing some real damage. A couple of broken glasses was one thing. A damaged police car was quite another. Maybe they couldn’t reasonably say that she had broken the windows and charge her for their replacement, but Jessup wasn’t likely to be asking her to consult on any cases if she couldn’t keep her psychic abilities under control.
“It’s been a tough week for everyone,” Jessup said. “You’ve had a lot to worry about. How did things go at Hunter’s hearing?”
Reg looked over at her, wondering whether she had already heard anything. “Not so well,” she admitted. “You know… they really are chauvinists, stuck hundreds of years in the past.”
“You’re telling me,” Jessup sighed.
Reg imagined she probably dealt with a lot of those attitudes as a police detective. People who thought that women didn’t belong in the workforce, let alone the police department or its higher ranks.
“Their opinion seems to be that I brought it all on myself, because I should have known what Corvin was going to do.”
“Sorry to hear that. I think they’re probably just afraid.”
“Afraid of what?”
“Hunter is a powerful warlock. They don’t want to have to discipline him. If they can put the responsibility on you rather than him, maybe they don’t have to do anything more than censure him.”
“He glamoured me even after he promised he wouldn’t! If the fairies hadn’t been there and decided to defend me…”
“You’re better off pushing the breach of covenant than assault. Like you say… they’re pretty dark ages as far as their treatment of women goes.”
“Too late to do anything else now. All of the testimony has been presented. It’s just a matter of what they decide to do about it.”
Jessup nodded. “I’m sorry it happened to you. I don’t know what it is about you and Hunter… he’s kind of obsessed with you. Normally, it’s just about opportunities… feeding wherever and whenever he can. But with you, it seems like he’s not willing to be reasonable or wait for some other opportunity to come along.”
“Maybe it’s because he’s already held my powers. He won’t give up until he has them back again.”
Jessup pursed her lips. “Yeah, could be that. Or maybe he just has a crush on you.”
“Oh, please,” Reg’s stomach twisted at the thought of Corvin Hunter actually liking her. As much as she hated him for what he had done to her, that didn’t change the fact that he was handsome and had the means of making himself very alluring when he turned on the charm. Her heart started to beat faster whenever she thought about him, despite what had happened in the past. “Did you know that his father was abusive?” she asked Jessup. “He used to hurt Corvin and to drain his powers?”
“Really. No, he’s never shared that. No reason to, I guess. The old man’s not around anymore.”
“Did you know him?”
“Hunter’s father?” Jessup gave a laugh. “I’m not old enough to have known him.”
“He died young?”
“No. But he was gone long before I was around. I’m not that old.”
Reg frowned. “Well, how old is Corvin? I didn’t think you were that far apart in age.”
“Decades.” Jessup glanced aside at Reg. “That’s one of the things about a community like this. You can’t judge people’s age by the way they look. People like Sarah and Corvin who don’t look anywhere close to their actual chronological ages. Fairies and pixies and any other long-lived races. People here have memories that go back much farther than yours and mine. They have grudges and feuds that might go back hundreds of years.”
That made Reg think. She had assumed that Corvin was a young man, still in his thirties. ‘Decades older’ than Jessup put him into his sixties or even older.
Jessup answered a call on her cellphone, listening to the wireless earpiece and scowling. She did not sound at all pleased with what she was hearing. Reg hoped that it wasn’t some kind of report on her, saying that because of her past, Jessup had to bring her into the police station no matter what Jessup thought had happened on the street. As far as Reg knew, there weren’t any active warrants out under the name Reg Rawlins, but if they had connected up one of her other identities, things could get sticky. Jessup gave a few terse acknowledgments, then hung up the call. She looked at Reg.
“The pixie.”
“What happened?”
“She escaped. They’re looking for her, but you know they’re not going to find her if she’s disappeared into the shadow realm.”
“I warned them!”
“They’re not used to dealing with pixies. Eventually, they’ll learn weird stuff can happen around here and they’ll be better about following instructions. But in the meantime… they don’t believe that releasing a detainee from handcuffs is going to allow her to vanish into thin air.”
“But you’ve got the emerald, right?”
Reg knew this to be true, but she had to hear it. She had to know that they were going to get the emerald bac
k to Sarah.
“I didn’t turn it in,” Jessup said. “That may be against policy, but I’m not going to put policy above my friend’s life.”
“Now you know that she’s the one who stole it, not me.”
“How?”
“Because she ran away. Why would she run away if she wasn’t guilty?”
“Because she’s a pixie. No other reason needed.”
“But isn’t she required under the treaty between humans and pixies to be governed by our laws? Doesn’t she have to stay in custody and let justice take its course?”
“That’s not the way these things usually turn out.”
“So she gets away with stealing a precious heirloom and almost killing someone in the process.”
“She wouldn’t be charged with anything in relation to Sarah’s death. Our justice system doesn’t accept magic as a means of murder or wrongful death.”
“Maybe it should!”
“Really? You want the Spanish Inquisition all over again? Magical crimes have to be dealt with within the community of the perpetrator, not the human justice system. Covens, councils, kingdoms… they all have to deal with their own. Magical laws can’t be part of the same system as civil and criminal.”
“Then she should be charged under those laws.”
“Under pixie law, humans don’t have ownership over precious gemstones. Putting Sarah in the wrong for having it in the first place. Taking it away from her—especially if she swapped something of value for it—can’t be a crime under pixie law.”
“This is crazy.”
Jessup sighed. “That it is!”
They pulled up in front of Sarah’s house. Reg saw Jessup look carefully up and down the street. She didn’t get out of the car immediately, just sat there looking.
“What is it?”
“Unlike certain people, I don’t like to run pell-mell into the unknown. I’m just looking at all of the angles. What about your abilities? Can you feel any other presences? Any traps?”
Reg looked around. “Like what? It’s just Sarah’s house, and it’s protected by wards. No one can get in who intends to do her harm.”
“They might still intend to do us harm. And if they left other things here, they might be able to come back for them.”
“Oh. I guess.” Reg was exhausted, but she turned her thoughts outward, feeling for any unexpected presences. There were people in the other houses, but no one else in Sarah’s. And magical traps? Reg didn’t know for sure how to tell. But Jessup was right, they didn’t want to end up caught in some trap again.
“I don’t sense anything. But let’s move slowly. I’ll try to scan each room before we enter it…”
“It is just Sarah’s house,” Jessup said with a little laugh. “I’m sure I’m being overcautious.”
“Better too cautious than not cautious enough.”
They got out of the car. Reg looked at the storm drains, wondering whether there were pixies close by. Did they plan to swarm out of the sewers and steal the emerald back? But she couldn’t sense anyone there.
“Okay. Let’s go.”
Jessup headed toward the front door, but Reg shook her head. “Can we go in through the back? I’m just more comfortable that way.”
“Yes, if you think that’s important.”
“I don’t… I just feel more comfortable with it.”
“Back it is.”
They walked around to the back yard. Reg looked around slowly. Nothing seemed out of place.
She heard a yowl from the house, and when she looked toward the sound, she saw a black cat scamper away, across the garden and up over the fence.
“Starlight?” Jessup asked.
“He’s inside. It’s that other cat. The one that’s been hanging around.”
“You think that’s what Hunter saw?”
“Yeah. Except he says he saw it going into the house, and I don’t think he did. I think he just saw the cat in the yard and it inspired his story.”
“If he was lying to me, he’s going to have some explaining to do.”
“You know he was lying to you. Because you know I wasn’t the one who stole the emerald.”
Jessup looked at her. “I hope you didn’t. That’s not the same thing.”
Reg went to the back door and knocked without a word. It was a few minutes before Marian got to the door. She looked grave.
“It’s too late,” she whispered. “Just let her go peacefully.”
“It’s not too late. We’ve got the emerald!”
Marian’s eyes widened. “You found it?” She stepped back from the door to allow them in. “I still don’t think… it may not be of any use to her at this point.”
“We have to try.”
They went into the kitchen. Reg looked around. Marian caught the look and frowned.
“Why don’t you make her some tea?” Reg suggested. “She’s going to need something.”
Marian looked like she was going to argue, then shrugged her shoulders. She stayed in the kitchen and let Reg and Jessup continue on their own. Reg was glad to be rid of her. She wanted to see Sarah alone, not with another psychic there, feeding them emotions and trying to manipulate them. Reg was emotional enough without outside influences.
They paused in each doorway. Reg thought Jessup was probably right. It was Sarah’s house. There were wards all along the way. Unless there was something else that belonged to the pixies there.
What about the ribbon? Was it still in the house? Could they claim that it was lost or taken when she had left it in exchange for the necklace? Reclaim it now that the necklace had been taken back? Reg stopped in the hallway and Jessup bumped into her.
“What is it? What did you feel?”
“Nothing… it’s just…” Reg turned around and retraced her steps to the kitchen. “Marian… where is the ribbon? Is it in the bedroom? Or do you have it?”
Marian frowned. She pushed her hands into her pockets and felt around. “Yes… there. But why do you need it?”
“Throw it outside.”
“What?”
Reg wanted to snatch it from her and do it herself, but she didn’t want to chance getting a shock.
“Just do it. Get it out of the house right now.”
Marian moved slowly. Reg watched with anxiety, thinking that the pixies were going to suddenly swarm the kitchen any minute, taking both the ribbon and the necklace. But then Marian was outside, and she walked back behind the fence where the garbage bins were. She returned to the house, no sign of pixies with her. But they could be invisible. They could be watching out there, unseen. Reg couldn’t sense them, but she didn’t know if she’d be able to. She had sensed Karol, but she didn’t know if she would sense other pixies, or be able to sense them while they were invisible. The three women looked at each other, and then Reg nodded.
“Okay. Let’s go see Sarah,” she told Jessup. They walked back to Sarah’s bedroom, a little more confident this time.
The drapes were drawn and Sarah’s room was only dimly lit by a lamp. Reg felt like an intruder creeping into the quiet, dark room. Sarah lay in the bed, her body seeming so insubstantial under the sheets that Reg could barely believe it was her. Not that she had been a fat woman, but she hadn’t been the frail woman who now lay under the sheets, unmoving.
“Sarah?” Reg’s voice broke as she moved toward her. Was it too late? She’d been warned that even if she found the emerald, Sarah might be too far gone for it to do any good. After her age had caught up with her, it couldn’t prevent her death.
Reg put her hand on Sarah’s. So thin, dotted with age spots that hadn’t been there before. Skin that was wrinkled and almost translucent.
“Sarah, wake up. We have something to show you.”
She studied Sarah, looking for the rise and fall of her chest. If Sarah were already gone, just as they returned with her emerald…
Sarah snorted and opened her eyes. She gazed up at her ceiling and did not appear to see Reg standin
g next to her or Jessup farther away.
“Sarah…?”
Reg reached toward Jessup for the necklace. Jessup took it from her pocket and removed it from the plastic evidence bag. Reg sensed that Sarah would have to touch it directly. Being close to it wouldn’t be enough at that late stage. Reg wasn’t sure what to do next. She held it close to Sarah’s eyes. “It’s your necklace, Sarah. Your emerald. We found it and brought it back to you.”
Sarah stared, seemingly blind and deaf. Reg picked up Sarah’s hand and pressed her fingers to the emerald. The emerald glowed and pulsed. Sarah’s fingers twitched. Her gaze focused on the emerald, and some expression came to her slack face.
“Is it…?” she whispered.
“It’s your emerald.”
“Oh…” Sarah’s fingers caressed it. “I never thought I would see it again.”
“It will make you better,” Reg said. “You’ll be able to go back to normal again.”
Reg moved the emerald down, away from Sarah’s gaze, drawing it down toward her heart. That was where Sarah needed it the most to begin with. To make her heart strong.
Reg looked over at Jessup, worried that they weren’t seeing any miraculous changes. “How long will it take? Is anything happening?”
“I don’t know.”
“We need another witch. A couple of psychics and a cop aren’t the right people for this job. Do you think you could get someone?”
“I’ll see who I can reach.”
Jessup stepped out of the room to make her phone calls, leaving Reg with Sarah. Reg sat on the edge of the bed, leaning over Sarah, holding the emerald over her heart.
A Catastrophic Theft Page 17
