by Gary Jonas
“Esther, what happens if I miss a few of the pieces?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “I still feel like I drank ten gallons of hooch.”
“I thought I’d lost you.”
“As you’ve been so happy to point out, I’m already dead, so getting the ultimate bum’s rush from a building isn’t going to be the end of me.”
“When Ravenwood destroyed the typewriter, you broke into a million pieces too.”
She shuddered. “Don’t remind me. Just thinking about it gives me the heebie-jeebies.”
I collected as many pieces as I could find and piled them all in one place. There was no way I could carry all of the pieces to the car. I needed a box.
Phil stood off to the side of the building entrance, guiding the last few engineers inside. I approached him. When he saw me, his face drooped.
“Don’t worry, Phil. I just need a box or a bag.”
“Give me a minute.”
While I waited, I tried to call Naomi. I hadn’t seen her since I pushed her out of the office upstairs. She didn’t answer her phone, so I wondered if she even had it with her. Anselma may have taken it from her. I wasn’t sure if she was still in the building or if she’d tried to get farther away for safety. She knew my number, so I figured she’d call sooner or later.
Phil hooked me up with a plastic tote from a janitor’s closet. When I returned to the pile of typewriter parts, two men were loading Anselma’s corpse into a black body bag. A third man cast a spell to eradicate the blood that had seeped into the concrete.
I loaded the bits and pieces of the typewriter into the tote and started toward my car with Esther in tow. “If I missed any pieces, you might feel a tug toward them as we go.”
“I’ll keep you posted,” Esther said.
We hadn’t walked ten feet before she felt a pull.
“Oh!” she said and suddenly popped out of sight and reappeared fifteen feet away. I had taken a few extra steps by then, so she was actually twenty feet from the bulk of the typewriter. She disappeared from the one piece and reappeared right next to me.
“Oh!” she said again. She blinked several times and smiled. “That was the cat’s pajamas. Not quite as good as being in a struggle buggy with a bell bottom but close.”
“Can you say that again in English?” I asked.
“Set the tote down,” she said. “I want to try something.”
“Okay.” I set the tote on the ground.
“Throw a piece of the Underwood over there,” she said pointing toward the parking lot.
“You sure?”
She nodded.
I took a spring from the tote and tossed it about thirty feet.
“Watch,” Esther said.
She disappeared then reappeared a moment later by the spring thirty feet away. “Isn’t that the berries?” she said.
She popped from there back to the piece I’d left behind then popped back to where I stood.
“Can you move more than fifteen feet from any given piece?”
“Let’s find out.”
She walked toward the building. Fifteen feet away, she hit the end of her leash. She cussed then walked back.
“So you have to be within fifteen feet of a piece of the typewriter, but you can basically teleport yourself to wherever any given piece happens to be?”
“Isn’t that the cat’s meow?”
“It’s pretty cool.” And I knew it could prove useful too. “Shall we find the pieces I missed?”
“Absolutely,” she said and popped out of sight. I spun around to see her waving at me a short distance away. She pointed to the piece she’d found. “Come and get it!”
Back at the office, I used bolt cutters and a drill to make a necklace for Kelly using the K from the typewriter and another for Naomi using the N. I also slipped a piece onto my keychain.
“You just want me to always be able to find your keys for you,” Esther said.
“Gotta take advantage of those fringe benefits.”
I made plans to distribute pieces of the typewriter to various locations so Esther could easily get there by focusing on that particular part. I placed a big piece of the typewriter in the file cabinet of my office, then carried the tote down to my car. As I closed the car door, my cell phone rang. I pulled it from my pocket but didn’t recognize the number.
I flipped the phone open. “Shade Investigations.”
“Jonathan?” Naomi said. “Thank God you’re alive.”
“God didn’t have anything to do with it,” I said.
“I was so worried.”
“Where are you? I’ll come pick you up.”
I pulled up to the Starbucks, and Naomi rushed over to the Firebird. She ducked into the car.
Esther waved her hands through Naomi’s head a few times. “She’s jake,” Esther said.
I handed Naomi the necklace I’d made for her. “Put this on.”
“What is this?” she asked but slipped it over her head.
“It doesn’t go well with glad rags, but it looks okay with the outfit you’re wearing,” Esther said.
Naomi looked behind her at Esther. “This is a piece of your typewriter.”
“Give the dame a dollar,” Esther said.
I filled Naomi in on what had happened after she ran to safety.
“Poor Al.”
“No tears for Anselma?”
“She wasn’t one of my favorite people. At least Frank’s still alive.”
“His body may turn up. It wasn’t at DGI, but Ravenwood might kill him and possess someone else.”
“Or he might just transfer to someone else,” Naomi said.
“Maybe.”
I drove over to Kelly’s dojo. As I pulled into the parking lot, Naomi frowned.
“What if Ravenwood took Kelly while you were gone?” Naomi asked.
“Shit,” I said. “I hadn’t really considered that possibility.”
“Consider it now,” Naomi said.
“I doubt Ravenwood has been here, but it’s probably best to have an edge before we go inside.”
“You aren’t going to bump Kelly off,” Esther said.
“No, but I’d better be ready to buy us some time just in case Ravenwood’s got her.” I opened my glove box and pulled out my Beretta. “If I have to use this, Kelly is going to be pissed.”
“And how,” Esther said.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Esther entered the dojo first. I followed fifteen feet behind her, gun held at my waist in ready position.
The lights were off. The dojo was empty. So was the office.
I motioned for Esther to go up to Kelly’s apartment. As she moved forward, I followed. My eyes darted side to side to take in everything. If Ravenwood had taken Kelly, I needed to be ready for a sneak attack. Of course, he would expect me to be ready. I chanced a couple of glances at the ceiling, just in case.
Upstairs, Esther phased through the door then poked her head back through. “The coast is clear. The shower is running.”
That didn’t necessarily mean the coast was clear. I used my key and entered the apartment. I could hear the water running, but I swept through the apartment anyway to make sure everything was cool.
The water shut off.
“Jonathan?” Kelly called.
I didn’t answer.
“I heard you come in. Be an awesome friend and pour me an iced tea.”
Esther phased through the bathroom door then pulled back out. “She’s toweling off,” Esther said. “There’s a sword above the toilet.”
I knew there were daggers in the shower too. “Is it her?” I whispered.
“Yes. Just her.”
I went into the kitchen and poured a glass of iced tea. After I set it on the table, I went to the window and motioned for Naomi to come up.
Kelly opened the door and stepped out wearing a fluffy, red bath towel. She glanced at the gun in my hand as she picked up the iced tea. “Planning to shoot someone?”
>
“Not if I can help it,” I said and clicked the safety on. I tucked the gun into my waistband then dug in my pocket for the necklace and tossed it to her. “Put this on.”
Kelly caught the necklace by the chain with one hand and looked at it. “This looks like a letter from Esther’s typewriter. What’s going on?”
“Try it on and you’ll see.”
She took a drink of tea, set the glass down, and slipped the necklace over her head. When the key touched her skin, Esther waved to her.
“Esther!” Kelly said.
“You will not believe what happened to me today,” Esther said and launched into a long and colorful explanation.
Esther followed Kelly into the bedroom so Kelly could get dressed. I placed a few pieces of Esther’s typewriter in one of Kelly’s kitchen drawers. I wanted her to be able to pop over here anytime she wanted.
“Esther, I still need you out here.”
She popped into the living room next to me. “What?”
“When I let Naomi in, I want you to double check that it’s still her.”
She nodded.
I opened the door, and Esther waved a hand through her. Esther gave me a nod and popped away to talk to Kelly.
“What was that about?” Naomi asked.
“Precautions,” I said. “We’re cool.”
Naomi practically collapsed onto the sofa. “I messed up, didn’t I?”
“How so?”
“My emotions took over. I was so upset about Ravenwood killing my parents that I couldn’t see the bigger picture, and now two more people are dead.”
“You can’t blame yourself for Ravenwood’s actions,” I said, realizing that Esther had nailed that one. “He’s the one who killed Al and Anselma.”
“I hope Frank’s okay.”
“Time will tell. You hungry?” I raided Kelly’s refrigerator. She had lunch meats and bread and condiments, so I pulled them out to make a sandwich.
“How can you possibly be hungry after today’s events?”
“My stomach is my master,” I said. “I have to obey.”
Naomi approached me and slipped her arms around my waist from behind as I made my sandwich. “I think Ravenwood killed Frank.”
“Maybe. I don’t think he kills unless he feels he has a good reason.”
She leaned into me and rested her head on my back. “You make it sound like he has some sort of honorable code.”
“As far as he’s concerned, he does. Unfortunately we’re on the wrong side of where he draws that line.”
Kelly walked in with Esther. Her hair was still wet. Naomi moved away from me.
“Jonathan, I have a request,” Kelly said as she sat in her favorite chair. She propped her legs up on the table and smiled. “Can we hold off on destroying this Ravenwood guy until he knocks off the rest of the wizards at DGI?”
“Sorry, I think we’re going to need some help from those wizards to stop Ravenwood. The only problem is that other than Naomi, everyone I knew there is dead.”
Naomi shook her head. “You met Stan and Paul at my party back in the day.”
“I don’t remember them. Will they be any help?”
“They’re both low-level wizards,” she said.
“Which means they’re worthless,” Kelly said.
“They’re not worthless. They’re nice guys.”
“Gee, maybe they can distract Ravenwood for us by being nice to him.”
My cell phone rang. I pulled it out and answered. “Shade Investigations.”
“Jonathan, this is Lina. I got your number from Phil at DGI.”
“What’s up, Lina?”
“Frank Cantrell asked me to call you.”
“When was this?”
“Just now. He’s here at my place.”
“Lina, I want you to listen carefully and don’t react to what I’m about to say. Can you do that?”
“Sure,” she said. Her voice sounded steady.
“That might not be Frank. Last time I saw him, Blake Ravenwood had taken over his body.”
“He told me all about it. Frank wants to talk to you.”
“Put him on,” I said.
“He wants to talk to you in person.”
“Tell him I’m on my way.”
I closed the phone and looked at my friends. “I think Ravenwood’s ready to kill me.”
Kelly shrugged. “You do have that effect on people.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Naomi and I left ten minutes after Kelly and Esther. Kelly wanted to check things out. Esther wanted to help too, so she said she’d go into Lina’s house while Kelly moved around it. If Ravenwood had either Lina or Frank at the moment, she’d warn me.
Naomi didn’t say much on the ride over. When I parked, she put a hand on my arm, and her eyes were filled with concern. She opened her mouth to speak, but I placed a finger on her lips.
“Ravenwood isn’t the first to try to kill me.”
She nodded. She knew it was true, but it’s always different when you’re actually there when the shit is going down.
“I don’t see Kelly,” she said.
“You won’t.”
“I don’t see Esther either, and with this necklace I should be able to, right?”
“She’s probably inside.”
“Did you notice Kelly’s truck?”
“You’re trying to stall me.”
“I’m trying to come up with a way to stop you from going in there.”
“If Frank is really Frank, he may have important information. If it’s Ravenwood, as we suspect, delaying me isn’t going to change anything.”
“Let me come in with you.”
“No,” I said. “As soon as I close the door—”
“I know,” she said. “I’ll put the protection spell around the car. It won’t be enough to stop Ravenwood if he comes for me.”
“Might slow him down enough for Kelly to get here.”
“So she can die too?”
As Naomi’s phone was still at DGI, I left mine with her. If anything happened out here, she’d call me at Lina’s number. I also left the keys in the ignition with the engine running so if things got hairy, she could get away.
I hopped out of the car and started toward the house.
Esther popped in front of me and nearly gave me a heart attack. “Frank is actually Frank,” she said. “So is Lina.”
“Lina is Frank?” I said with a grin.
“You know what I mean,” she said and disappeared.
It was going to take some time to get used to her new trick.
As I stepped onto the porch, Lina opened the door.
“Come in,” she said. She looked around nervously.
As soon as I stepped into the house, she closed the door and set ten different wards.
“Magic store running a buy-one-get-nine-free special on protection wards?”
“Can’t be too careful,” she said. “Frank’s in here.” She led me to the back bedroom.
Frank lay in bed, looking as if he’d been run over by an eighteen-wheeler—twice.
“Howdy,” he said. “I’d get up but that ain’t gonna be happenin’ for a few days.”
I stood beside the bed and turned to Lina, who had already plopped herself into a chair she’d brought in from the dining room. “You can’t heal him?”
“Sure I can,” she said. “But he’s in bad shape. Gonna take a few days. I stopped the bleeding, but now I need some rest. I’ll work on him again when I regain my strength.”
“What happened?” I asked.
Cantrell cleared his throat and winced. “Ravenwood slowed the fall but still shattered my legs and arms when we landed. Engineer came over and Ravenwood transferred into him and dragged me away. Sum-bitch chucked me into the back of my own damn pickup and left me to die.”
“Any idea where he went?”
“Yep. While he was rootin’ around in my mind, I rooted around in his a bit too. I’m guessin’ you got
Naomi outside along with your Sekutar?”
