Chase_The Sons of Crosby

by Kathi S. Barton

  Elliot decided to trust her with his secret, and she asked him if the little boy needed to be in a home. He told her that he had no idea, but that he was terrified of his father and that he was keeping him safe for now. She looked at his cart and his face heated up.

  “Yeah, so I’m making sure he has food too. I didn’t see a dog, but that doesn’t mean there wasn’t one with him. Do you suppose I should get some treats for him too?” She laughed and told him that half the stuff in his cart wasn’t going to cut it either. “It has been a long time since I was a little boy, you know.”

  “I would imagine that you didn’t have a lot of occasion to have a meal then, either.” They both laughed, and she helped him purchase things that she thought Cody would eat. “Give him my number as well, will you? I mean, I know that you’d help him if he called, but sometimes he might need a mom figure. I don’t know why. I mean, he has lost his mom, so maybe he might need a female to talk to.”

  “I’ll do that. I’ll tell him that you’re my step-mom, and that I trust you not to tell on him.” Libby thanked him, and he asked her if she was all right now.

  “I am. I was just.... It makes me feel better to know that Cody isn’t running around in the cold. But that man, I don’t know what it was about him, but I don’t want Cody to go back there. He isn’t right.” Elliot said he’d make sure that he was safe and left the store.

  After putting the groceries away, he handed Cody the cell phone that he’d picked up too. Telling him that if he had to run, that he should call him immediately and he’d come for him. It was a chance he was taking, harboring a little boy from his father, but it was something he was willing to do. Then he asked about the dog.

  “His name is Buster. I had to leave him outside because I can’t take him out to poop without my dad seeing me.” He told him that he’d be fine now, only not to go beyond the parking lot. “You can make us safe that way too?”

  “Yes, I can, but you have to remember, don’t go beyond the parking lot. Okay?” Cody assured him that he wouldn’t and the little pup, a mutt actually, was brought inside. “I’ll make sure that he’s all right tomorrow. I have a friend that is a vet. And my friend Libby, she said to call her if you need someone to talk to.”

  After going home, Elliot sat with his phone on his lap for the rest of the night, hoping that Cody would call him, and hoping he didn’t have to. It was a scary thing, being responsible for a kid, he thought.

  ~~~

  Emerald called Agent Lindsey at noon, knowing that it was high time that someone collected Mr. Bates. She told the man that he’d been noticed around town talking to himself, as well as making calls to local businesses to tell them that she was magical.

  “I don’t know why he has this obsession with me. Every time I see him on the streets, he comes after me, threatening me about talking to his boss. Today when I saw him, he handed me this number and said that I should call you. To tell you that he needs his job back.” Bates hadn’t, but she had gotten Lindsey’s number from him. “I just don’t know what to do, Agent Lindsey. It’s getting to the point where I’m afraid to go into town alone.”

  She wasn’t afraid at all. In fact, she made it a point to seek the man out whenever she could. And when there were others around, witnesses, she provoked Bates into a debate about how magical she was. It was fun really, but things were wearing thin and she needed him safe.

  “I will be on the next plane to talk to him. I was there until recently, but family troubles brought me home. I’m so sorry about this. I swear to you, Mrs. Crosby, I’ll make sure that no harm comes to you.” She thought of the harm that could come of Bates if he kept at this. “I’m very sorry about this. I had no idea that he’d gone this far in this. His employee, Agent Nash, he’s in your area too, isn’t he?”

  “Yes. I’ve become good friends with his wife. She’s expecting a baby soon. They’re getting along nicely, I think, but Jamie has to take it easy now. Poor man. To have had such trouble for someone so young.” He told her that he would visit him as well. “I think he’d like that. Mr. Bates; he’s been harassing Kristie too, if you can believe that. He’s becoming a problem, Agent Lindsey, and I’m worried that he’ll be harmed.”

  “Yes, you leave it to me and I’ll come and see to him.” He put her on hold, and Chase asked her when she’d gotten so sickly sweet all of a sudden. Before she could tell him to fuck off, Lindsey was back on the line. “I’ll be there in the morning. First thing. We’ll get this taken care of. I promise.”

  When she hung up the phone, she sat down at the table with Chase. He had told her what he’d thought of the man, Bates, and what he’d seen him doing today. There were several complaints about his language too, he’d told her. And he was scaring the kids at the library as well.

  “Sandy has been with him for several days now, and she said that he’s really having a hard time of it. I guess she wakes him every hour on the dot to get him up and moving. It’s playing with his mind.” Chase asked her why she’d do that. “It’s the faerie schedule. They rest for an hour and work two. It’s the only way they can get all the flowers ready for spring. She was picked because she is never one to be quiet.”

  “I heard Bates telling her a few times to shut up. But he never hurts her. I guess he did try once, but that didn’t go over too well.” Emerald said she’d bet not. “Also, she’s having fun, too, from what Kilian says. When she reports to her on his actions, Kilian said it’s all she can do sometimes not to have her go back and get on his nerves more.”

  “Well, we’ll have to see what tomorrow brings. I’m betting that once he’s in a room with him, Lindsey will have no choice but to have him committed. And that would be the safest place for him. I’ve been doing some walking through his mind. And while he’s not hurt anyone physically, he has been involved in quite a few incidences where mentally, there was a problem. And what he did to Jamie too.”

  Emerald looked over the chart that Jamie had given her before he left. It was the planting schedule that he’d been asked to make up. At the rate that he had the faeries and other creatures planting and harvesting, they’d be busy all spring and well into winter. He even had them planting wheat for the birds to eat for the colder months. She showed it to Chase.

  “He’s been reading up on plants for some time now, I guess.” He looked at the chart and then handed it back to her. “I wonder what else he could apply this sort of planning to. I mean, can you imagine the schedules he could make for just about anything once he sets his mind to it?”

  “That’s what I was thinking when I saw it. Plants are complicated, I think. Different seasons, with various lengths to produce. What if he applied this knowledge to the plant that Jewel has?” Chase asked her what she meant. “Well, there are a lot of people that cannot, for whatever reasons, work full time. Or even a full day. What if he got with their schedules and made it so that her plant was open every day and all day? She has enough orders, I heard, that she might need to open a second plant in another city, for more workers. If she were to be able to run this one all the time, she could keep the people in town working and everyone happy with their shifts.”

  “I love that idea.”

  They sat and talked about it for several hours. Emerald had a list of things that he could use his knowledge about charts on. Also, and this was exciting, there was the winery that they owned. “Grapes have a long growing life, and then a short time to pick them. If we could get the most out of the season, then the grapes could be used better instead of just picking what we can.”

  Emerald wasn’t really sure how that worked. It was one of the few jobs that she’d never done. It had been something that was fought over, a great deal as a matter of fact, but she had little to do with the actual production of wine.

  As they were setting up a time to go and talk to Jamie about his part in all this, Chase’s phone rang. She started to leave him to his business when he asked her to stay. Agent Lindsey was still coming tomorrow, but he wanted them t
here when he spoke to Bates. Emerald thought that a wonderful idea.

  Chapter 15

  Harold wasn’t sure what was going on with all the cameras and people in the room with them, but so long as he was given the opportunity to clear this mess up, he was all for anything that they wanted. He really needed his job back, and Harold figured this was the only way to do it.

  Harold had seen his boss on the sidewalk earlier that morning. They talked for a bit, and then he was asked to meet him here at his hotel. Well, here he was, and there was no sign of either Lindsey or anyone else that he had asked to be here. When the door opened, just as he was ready to get out of there, in walked not just Nash, but that fat wife of his.

  “What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be out watching for that woman? You are the laziest agent I have ever had the misfortune of having work for me. Get back to work. And don’t think I won’t remember his when I’m back to work myself.” The pesky faerie told him to hush and he looked at her. “I will not hush up. I have things to say, and I’ll not have you telling me that I should be quiet.”

  The camera men stopped moving, and they looked at him while he spoke to the bug. There was a smallish camera pointed at him, and he was reasonably sure that it wasn’t just a camera, but a video recorder as well. Harold asked him if he had permission to record him.

  “Yes, sir. I do. When you signed on with the Bureau, you signed off on such things. It’s only when you’re out in the public eye that you can’t have people doing this sort of thing.” Harold asked him why he was doing it now. “I was told to set it up, and that’s what I’m doing.”

  “You should smile at the camera. Not that one you give to me, but the nice one, the one that you save for when you’re in a good mood.” Harold glared at the faerie. “Well, do you want them to think you to be an ugly man?”

  “I’m not an ugly man. I’m a good man with a good head on my shoulders. It’s that fool over there that everyone should be worrying about.” He pointed at Nash. “And why is his wife here? What could a woman add to this conversation? Nothing, I tell you, not one thing. I think I should leave.”

  “You leave, and they will come and find you. No. This is much better. You can speak to them all you wish. I will help you get the words straight so that you don’t look the fool. You do not want them to think you foolish, do you?” Harold wasn’t so sure she was going to be helpful, but decided that the sooner he got this over with, the faster he could get back to his job. “Now, sit up straight in your chair and try not to look mean.”

  He wanted to tell her that he was no such thing, but Nash and his fat wife were joined by the woman. Emerald, he’d been told her name was, and she looked so much prettier every time he saw her. But it was the man that she was with that had him protecting his balls. For some reason, the man gave off the feeling that he was sizing him up for his next meal. Whatever that might mean.

  Judge Merkle showed up just as he was going to approach the woman. He thought of using her name, but it wasn’t real, so he figured that it would do him no good to show her that he had taken the time to find it out. Besides, he had a feeling that after today, she’d think she was gone from his life, and he could easily move on to more important things that would come his way. And there would be too.

  “We’re here to talk to one former agent, Harold Bates.” He injected that he was going to be an agent again. “We’ll have to see about that, now won’t we? There are charges against you, Mr. Bates, that I have brought up to you before. And now we’re going to add on your escaping from custody, as well as harassing the Crosby family.”

  “I don’t even know who that is. You can’t just add things onto me without having proof.” The woman, Emerald, stood up and said that he was harassing her. “Yes, well, that’s different. You’re going to have to tell these people what you told me. And show them the dragon and man changing into a wolf. Show them. And tell them how you’ve been around a long time. I have pictures of her from the early eighteen hundreds, and she doesn’t look a day older now than she did then.”

  “That, I can tell you, would be a relative of mine. As you know, Your Honor, people do not live forever.” The stupid judge only nodded, and Harold had a feeling he was being bamboozled. Again. “As for the rest of his accusations, I don’t know what he’s talking about.”

  He looked down at the little faerie as he continued. “You were there. Tell them what you saw. Go on. You might have to get closer to her for her to hear you, but go on, tell them.” The little thing just stared at him, then looked at the judge. “I know that she’s a woman and all, but you have to make her believe that what I’m saying is true.”

  “Mr. Bates, who are you talking to?” The judge asked him to behave himself. “I’ll not have you making a mockery of these proceedings.”

  “Mockery? Don’t you think you sitting up there is the biggest mockery there is? A woman pretending to be this judge? I’ll have you know that in my time, women were to stay at home, raise the family up and make sure they knew the difference between right and wrong. Have you looked out into the world? Seen what a mess it is? And all because a few of you rabbles thought you were better than a man. No, you are not, young lady. You need to quit this right now and get back to where you belong. Serving a man in his castle. Having babies that are smart, and know the difference between right and wrong.”

  “Be that as it may, sir, you’re the one on trial here, not me. I’ve come here with the understanding that you were going to be cooperative in getting this trouble you’ve started over with. I can see now that you aren’t going to be any more helpful than you were before.” He knew she was mad, it was written all over her face. But he didn’t care right now. Things were not going to go his way until someone spoke up for him. And the faerie wasn’t helping.

  “You have to talk to her. She thinks she can get by with this, and now I’m going to be out on the streets if you don’t.” She told him that he wasn’t helping himself by being mean again. “I’m not being mean, damn it. I’m trying to save my job.”

  “You don’t need to work, sir. You just need to make them see that you’re a nice man.” She flew up to his chest and tsked at him. “Your tie is all askew. Straighten it up and you’ll look better. I swear, I need to have two of me just to keep you looking good.”

  He fixed his tie and asked her if it was all right. Harold hadn’t had a lot of time to spruce himself up. Plus, the water in his hotel room, the hovel, wasn’t up to par, and he’d had to forego a shower and had done a spit bath. Nasty name for washing yourself up, but that’s what he’d done. And now he was being told his tie was off.

  Harold looked around the room when he asked her if his tie was all right. They were staring at him again, as if he were a bug under a microscope. When he asked what was wrong, none of them would look him in the eyes. It was as if they were embarrassed, for him.

  “I’ve a few things to say.” The faerie that had been his only companion for the last several days told him to be nice. “I am nice, damn it. Why must you keep telling me that? I’m just going to tell them what I’ve been telling you. That this woman needs to be taken in and studied.”

  “I’ve told you before, sir, that they’ll harm her. And perhaps even kill her. There are beings out there that care not for how special she is to us. They’ll only want to do their tests and make her into something less than she is.” Harold told her that he’d not let that happen. “You won’t have any way to stop it. They’ll see that their way is the only way, much like you do, and they’ll do as they please.”

  He told her that he’d make sure. It wasn’t a promise that he knew that he could keep, and he was reasonably sure that the little bug knew it. But looking at the faces of the people in the room with him, he realized that they might know it as well. The woman, Emerald, was grinning at him. And he thought of all the things she’d said and done to him.

  “She’s the bad guy here. Her and her magical ways. Did you know that she claims to be the queen of d
ragons? That the man there beside her, he’s the king? I’ve not met him as yet, but that’s what I’ve been told.” Lindsey asked him who had told him. “This faerie. She looks like a bug with shiny teeth, but she never stops talking. She tells me a great many things, but that’s beside the point. I need for you to believe me when I tell you that this woman isn’t what she’s pretending to be. And if Nash would have done his job instead of just taking up air space, then you’d all know it as well.”

  “Mr. Bates, there is no one there.” He looked at the faerie, then back at Lindsey. “I don’t know who you think you might be speaking to, but there is no faerie there, nor is there such a thing as dragons. Much less a king and queen of them. Are you feeling all right?”

  “Yes, of course I am. I’m perfectly fine. I tell you, she’s the one that is controlling them.” Harold stood up. “You’re not listening to me because she’s put some sort of spell over you all. Not the faerie, of course, but the rest of you people.”

  It occurred to him then that he was being made to look like a fool. Or worse yet, a crazy man. Harold tried to think why they’d think that, and all he could come up with was the woman again. She was making it so that his job was in jeopardy. Worse than that, his sanity was in question. He sat down then and let out a long breath. He needed to regroup and to think. And he knew that he wasn’t going to be able to do it here. Not with these people.

  “I should like to reschedule this. I’ve a headache and I need to rest. I don’t think that you’re listening to me. And I don’t like that that woman is here either. I’ll come back some other time, when I have more proof of what she is.” He stood again, and the men with guns that had been sliding in the room without his notice until now put their hands on their weapons. “You’re going to shoot me? For what? I’ve done not one thing wrong. I’m coming back, just not with her here.”