by Sandra Elsa
I shook my head. "When I found the missing notice, he'd only been gone a little over a week and a half so even if she latched onto him the moment he stepped off the res, it was only once more at the most. I suspect my client was also a siphon and was more jealous of the energy she stole, than of the possibility she was cheating. He'd have known the moment it happened. I don't think he wasted any time contacting me, so I'm fairly certain we're only looking at three times. What's she say?"
"She's not talking. Hung herself in her cell last night."
I couldn't help the snort of laughter. "Bet the Seveners were real happy about that. All that energy released back out into the world instead of siphoned off and fed to a pet." The thoughts in the back of my mind weren't so frivoulous. Had the person who stole the report killed her and reclaimed the energy? She shouldn't have been able to hang herself in a containment unit.
Thompson said, "Best guess, she didn't hoard it."
"Then what did she use it for?" I asked.
"Considering her condition after death, I'd say it was her age and beauty treatment, that broad must have been a hundred and fifty years old."
"Find anything in the den?"
"Another victim. Slightly more alive than the first."
That seemed to confirm that they were a pair of jokers. Why else keep two victims on hand and a third in the wings. "Her husband didn't change after he died." I tried to make Thompson consider the possibility that the siphon had been murdered and drained.
"For all we know he wasn't her husband."
"You accusing me of sloppy work?" I let anger seep into my tone. They could malign my character all they wanted, but my work was above doubt. "I checked him out before I took the case. There was a copy of the marriage certificate and his birth certificate, and all pertinent data pertaining to him in that envelope I turned over."
"There was also a birth certificate for an Ivy Torsled, married name Ivy Ludovissy, and we know that one is false. Or belonged to an earlier victim."
"Fine," I harrumphed, grumbling because he might be right. "Might want to look back between sixty-five and seventy years for an actual birth certificate then if you’re trying to identify her.”
Thompson was silent for about two seconds too long. “Why suggest that time frame if you have no idea who she is, Francesca?”
“Trooper Hortimus is the one who identified Effron from that deathhouse. If Ivy really looked that old when the magic faded, she may have been one of his associates. Common sense suggests it as someplace to start anyway.”
“Thank you,” suspicion colored his voice, but then if he wasn’t suspicious of me or outright detesting me I would think a body snatcher swapped him out.
I let my tone convey happy and perky as I said, “Well, that’s the limit of my good-will assistance. Not getting paid. Gave you everything I had. Don't care to get tangled up with Seveners and I keep thorough notes, so there's really not anything else I can tell you."
"Miss Leone?" The voice that spoke my name, and the persuasion in the words, conjured nightmares. I'd heard it on TV often enough.
Chapter 7
Just fucking great. Along with a definite family resemblance, my mind leaped to the obvious reason for the dictator to be at HQ. The truant son of the president of the world was hiding in my apartment. Who even knew he had a son.
I bit my lower lip. Wally looked up, eyes wide. I considered politeness--for all of two seconds. He'd already heard my thoughts on his kind. Too late to take it back if I wanted to. "You're an ass, Detective Thompson."
Wally choked.
The bass voice laughed. "They told me you were opinionated, Miss Leone."
In for a penny. "Did they also tell you I stand firm behind who and what I like and don't like?"
"They did, Miss Leone."
"Well then, I have nothing to say to you, Sir." Threw him a bone, maybe he wouldn't make my life a living hell. "As I told Detective Thompson, I have nothing to add to the information I gave him."
"Did the Sir choke you, Miss Leone?" The humor was still easy to hear.
"You can say my name in that persuasive tone 'til hell freezes over, I have protection against your sort."
"Do you now, Miss Leone? I'd be interested in seeing these protections."
"I bet you would."
"I'd like to hire you, Miss Leone."
No! No. No. No. Now to find a tactful way to say that. "I have two meetings with clients this morning. I'm afraid I can't take on anything else at this point in time." Tact wasn't my strong suit but it sounded good to me.
"I could make it worth your time, Miss Leone."
"I'm sure you could. Please don't take this wrong, but I don't work for mages." Could I say it any clearer? I'm sure he thought he was only one persuasion spell away from obtaining my services.
"My son is missing and you're the only person still alive, that I've found, who has seen him in over a month."
"I'm sorry, but he looked like he was at least thirty years old and didn't appear to be under duress."
"You don't think a siphon's lust trick affects a mage?"
"I try not to know what affects, and doesn't affect, a mage." I knew damn good and well it affected him.
"And yet you knew her to be a siphon. That took somebody who has studied magic in its various forms."
When tact doesn‘t work there‘s always the bludgeon of honesty. "Know thine enemy."
Wally pulled over to the side of the road and laid a hand on his chest, breathing hard, as though the recycler just quit working. He thumped his head on the steering wheel.
I thumped Wally's back. "OK?"
"Please stop, Frankie."
"Too late for that now, isn't it?"
The phone was still on speaker. "Am I your enemy then, Miss Leone?"
"You've got to be aware that more than a few folks who voted for you don't have the least bit of liking for mages."
"I'm not sure I’d call it dislike, so much as fear." At least he did know the populace. He ignored my point about his unfairly run campaign.
I slid the car into park as Wally hyper-ventilated, his face a deep brick red. Thought he might pass out.
"You on the other hand," the president continued, "don't seem to know when a little fear might be healthy, Miss Leone. Why is that?"
"Because I know most of your tricks. And I have a lot of friends. People with all the right toys." By which I meant suppression units and amulets, but I wasn't quite stupid enough to point blank say it. Maybe not smart telling him I dealt with illegal artifacts, but better than the truth. And now that my mouth was running, I seemed to be having trouble stopping it. How often did you get invited to voice your true opinion, and he wanted my help so what was he gonna do, arrest me? "Thirteen years ago I was the valedictorian graduate of the criminology course at FTHU . Not even you have the authority to arrest me for having the audacity to tell you I don't like you or any of those living in your district." I had visions of his security team gawking at him in much the same state Wally was in.
"Francesca--" Detective Thompson started but he was quickly hushed.
After several moments of silence, the president said, "That siphon lured my son out of his home, and now he's missing. Won't you at least give me the time of day to present some facts to you? Come in so that I might speak with you face to face. Perhaps we can overcome our differences."
Yeah sure, where he could have me strip searched for illegal devices. Refusing was tantamount to ringing my career's death knell. A small kernel of stubbornness clung. "I refuse to talk to you while you're sitting at watch HQ surrounded by all my favorite people. As I said, I have two meetings scheduled this morning. The first will be relatively quick. The second…I'm not sure what to expect. Meet me at the source in district two at four this afternoon."
"Thank you, Miss Leone."
"And come alone."
"But of course, Miss Leone."
I pushed the off-button on the phone. Wally looked at me as if I’d
sprouted horns. "You do know who that was?"
"Of course. Am I supposed to twist myself in knots because the dictator gets on the line? Jesus, I didn't even know he had a son."
"It's president, Frankie. And they've gone to considerable lengths to keep the son out of the spotlight. Their political views vary drastically."
"Still…there's no birth record? You're not telling me some investigative reporter hasn't dug this information up."
"They're mages. What they don't want known, doesn't get known. Harrison was born out of wedlock. President Drover's name isn't on his birth certificate."
Wally's phone rang again. He took several deep breaths, calming himself before flipping it open, "Something else I can do for you, Detective Thompson?"
"Chief wants you in early. He wants you and Trooper Rollick to go with President Drover to meet your girlfriend. The president insists on taking no one as she requested, but the Chief doesn't want to be responsible for him being completely unprotected."
"He's a fucking mage." I said loud enough Thompson would hear even without speaker phone. "He doesn't need anybody's protection."
Wally shushed me with a desperate look on his face. "I'll be in by two so you can brief me, Detective."
"If you're smart, you'll muzzle her, Sergeant."
"I wouldn't survive the attempt, Detective. Christ, she laid me out yesterday for insisting she come along for her own safety."
"That wasn't in your report."
"That was personal and in no way pertinent to the case, and just to clarify the record, I slept on the couch last night. She's not my girlfriend. I just wanted to make sure she stayed safe. Somebody did put a bomb in her car yesterday." I tried not to laugh as he backpedaled, distancing himself from the idea he could in anyway be held responsible for my actions or words.
"And did you help her find the listening devices we planted in her home?"
"That was all her. She's a private investigator and she doesn't have any great love for the watch. First thing she did when we got there was check for bugs and beetles."
"I better not ever find out you had anything to do with that, Sergeant."
"See you at two, Detective." He clicked the phone off.
"You're going to be the death of me, Francesca," Wally said.
"Got you a gig with the Prez. Isn't that the dream all you watch boys masturbate to?"
"That might be taking it a bit far, but yeah, of course I wouldn't mind being selected as a guard for the president. Except they seem to be suffering the delusion that I have something to say about how badly you antagonize the man. Try not to think of him as the president, or a mage, but as a father who’s coming to you for help."
"Father of a man who's old enough to be on his own and would probably be just fine if the entire watch weren't running around trying to drag him back to someplace he doesn't want to be. My answer would be the same if he wasn’t a mage."
"Being with a siphon is not all right. Seveners are different, Frankie. They're brought up thinking they're God's gift to the world and untouchable. Thirty-three years old, Harrison might as well be ten for all he knows about the real world and how it operates. He is likely to end up dead out here. You think you're the only one who hates mages?"
I looked at my phone. "Shit, it's already eight o'clock." I took a slip of paper out of my trousers pocket and punched in the number. A friendly female voice answered, "Hello?"
"Hi, is this Janice?"
"Yes."
Wally pulled back on the road. District Two was still five miles away
"This is Francesca Leone. I'm afraid we had a bit going on yesterday and I'm running late. I should be there in about fifteen minutes. Go on up to my office and have a seat…if you can find one that's not broken."
"I'm in your office. The furniture movers just dropped off four new chairs, a desk, a fauxwood filing cabinet and a safe."
I held my tongue. Cursing didn't impress a client. We were waved through the gate and I told her, "I’ll be there shortly," and hung up the phone.
"What's wrong, Frankie?" Wally looked at me as I closed the phone.
"New furniture was just delivered to my office. I suppose the man with money thinks he can buy my services."
"Or maybe he's hoping you won’t press charges against his son for destroying your stuff in the first place."
"Don't try to be reasonable, Wally. You know how I respond to reason."
He laughed, "Knee to the groin?"
"Something like that."
Traffic was a bit heavy headed downtown. Always suspicious I wondered how many people were going to be at my meeting with the president. There was plenty of time to change the meet. I probably should call Harrison and tell him I’d meet him at District Seventeen.
Wally watched me watching the traffic and said, "Not much you can do about it."
"Wanna bet? He wants to meet me; it will be on my terms. I'll give you a call around three-thirty, let you know where to bring him."
"I can't stop you Frankie, but I can't guarantee he'll come."
"Have I at any point in time acted like I wanted to meet with the president? He's not going to get any satisfaction out of the meeting so it's a waste of time for both of us."
Wally pulled in the parking lot and let me off at the door. "OK. I'll tell him you plan to change the meet, see what he says." He sighed and slumped against the door as my seatbelt released.
I went inside and turned around to watch through a window as he pulled up next to my car. He got out and crawled underneath it, then raised the hood. Wally was good people. I'd still have to check for tracking devices before I met with Harrison.
I passed a man in a thousand-dollar black suit and crew cut hovering near the coffee pot. I frowned at him, he wasn’t a regular. “Did you need directions?” I asked him.
He smiled, “No, thank you. Just waiting for my ride.”
I snorted softy, wondering if I was supposed to believe that. “Have a good-day then.” I closed my eyes as I turned back to the coffee pot, His aura was cyan.
With coffee in hand I ignored him and took the elevator to the ninth floor. Someone had replaced the door as well as the furniture. A mousy young lady stood from a velvet covered chair and extended her hand. "Miss Leone?"
"Yes. Just a moment." I closed my eyes and searched for beetles. One on every piece of new furniture. I nixed all but one, then collected them up and swept for electronic bugs. They were almost as plentiful as the magical ones. I crushed the electronic ones then picked up the final beetle and said, "Stay out of my life," before I squashed the life out of it as well. With a smile, I turned and extended my hand. "Call me Frankie. You're Janice?"
"Yes, Ma'am."
I winced. In all fairness I had thought of her as young so I suppose she probably looked at me and saw her elder. "What can I do for you?"
"I've heard you're a whiz at finding missing people?"
"Among other things." Never was one for false modesty.
"I'm looking for my boyfriend."
I waved her to the chair by my desk and took my seat, drawing out the customary contracts. "What makes you think he's missing?"
"He proposed to me two weeks ago. I told him I needed a day to think about it and I haven't seen him since."
"You didn't jump all over the proposal and scare him off?"
She twisted her hands together. "No Ma'am. Never even gave him an answer. In fact I was thinking about saying no. I'm only nineteen and don't really want to be married yet, but I can't find him to tell him that."
Smart girl. "You check hospitals? File a report with the watch?"
"I checked the hospital in our district, the watch told me he got cold feet, then laughed me out of the building. Wouldn't believe I didn't want to marry him."
I consulted my notes. "And you're from District Thirteen?"
"Yes Ma'am."
Great. The university district. "Check any hospitals outside your district?"
"I wouldn't know w
here to begin. That's why I'm here."
"You know I get a hundred-fifty a day?" One tenth my going rate, but this didn't sound like a hard one and she was a university student.
"Actually I thought it'd be a lot more."
"If anybody asks, you paid fifteen-hundred. I have a couple other cases right now and I won't be able to devote my full time to this, so I'm going to cut you a break."
Tears glistened in her eyes. "Thank you, Miss Leone."
"Now, I’ll need any information you can give me about him. Last place you saw him. Does he like to party? Who he hangs out with. And I’ll need a copy of your ident, so I can be sure who I'm dealing with."
She dug in her purse and came up with the ident, and a photo of the missing man, then started rattling off details about him. I took notes while watching my scanner for a return on her ident. "Clothes he was wearing when last seen?"
"We went out to eat the night he proposed, tan slacks, brown dress shoes, brown dinner jacket with narrow beige pinstripes."
Shit. "Stop. Janice. This is important and I need an honest answer. I don't care if he's registered or unregistered and I have no great love for the watch, so I won't report him if he's unregistered, but I need to know if he had magic."
She looked down at hands folded in her lap and twirled her thumbs around each other. After a moment she looked back up at me. "Not much. He could do little things like, make yellow roses red."
"I'm afraid I already know where he is--"
Tears burst from behind the dam. "Don't tell me he's dead--"
"He wasn't yesterday, but he was pretty bad off. Let me take you to see him."
She stood up, hands wringing. "What happened to him?"
"If it's him, he fell victim to an unregistered siphon."
"Oh my God, how can he still be alive?"
"The siphon got caught yesterday and she had another source she was feeding off of in these past couple of weeks. Not likely he'll ever get his magic back, but he may survive. If I were you, I’d hold off on telling him you don't want to marry him. That may be the last straw in his will to live. It isn't pretty at all, and I hope I'm wrong, but the clothing fits. Did you drive here?"
