"Can you spell him to get the image from his head?" asks one of the two security guards.
"Right now, I can't take anyone off containing that fire until it's out, so we have to at least wait until that's taken care of and somebody's freed up to help." Billy doesn’t take his gaze off the thief.
Knowing I'll regret it, I clear my throat. "There was a man with a Stetson in the vendors area earlier. He talked to me for quite some time. He has a Texan accent as well. The Stetson was all black. He had a thick handlebar mustache and is a wider-set individual ..." I trail off as all eyes turn to me.
I'm not sure whether they just noticed I am standing here or if this is one of those situations where people don't understand why the human would speak. Either way, I can't take it back now.
"That sounds like him," the thief exclaims quickly. "That sounds exactly like him. If you can get him in here, I can identify 'em for sure," he pleads.
Billy stares at me for several beats and I'm not sure he blinks in the entire time his eyes bore into me.
"Can you find him if he's still here?" His voice sounds, if I'm not mistaken, slightly amused.
"Maybe."
"What the hell! No one mentioned there was an ongoing fire." I’d recognize that voice anywhere. Blake is now on scene.
I turn in the voice's direction and a few seconds later he's stepping through the same space in the curtains Violetta and I had. He takes in the room scowling, but when he registers my presence, he lifts an eyebrow.
"Detective, thank you for getting here so quickly, we've had a bit of a development." Billy's voice is syrupy, as if he's trying to appear in no way, shape, or form a threat. Though his crouching position, glowing ring, and gleaming teeth negate that quite a bit.
Blake slows and stands next to me. "Oh, and what is that exactly?" He's wary and unamused by the situation he finds himself in.
Blake tells me from time-to-time dispatch doesn't give the detectives many details to the scenes they call them to and I will put money on this being one time Blake came in blind.
Billy gives the short version of events, skipping over the whole threatening the thief bit and ending when he gets to me seeing the man in the Stetson. When Billy gets around to including me in this story, I swear Blake mumbles "of course" under his breath.
"We would appreciate, Detective, if you could escort Mr. Bond out to the crowd in front of the building and see if you can identify this man with a Stetson. If he is, in fact, this thief's accomplice it might give more insight as to why all of this is happening." Billy's tone is smooth as he stands up straight again, though his hand stays curled in place.
Frustration is emanating from Blake; he doesn't like someone telling him how to do his job. It is both his personality and part of being a werewolf.
"As long as no harm comes to this man while we’re outside, I can agree to that." Even though his words are clipped, Blake speaks slowly.
I am not a big fan of the situation I find myself in. I wouldn't feel right not telling them about the man in the Stetson. But I'm also not a fan of now being embroiled in the investigation.
"Of course, detective," Billy responds with an exaggerated bow. "No harm will come to anyone now that there is a detective on the premises."
It's a cute little tap dance, and one Blake clearly does not appreciate. Billy is old, and with the older ones you have to be careful with how they word things. While there is some truth that some supernatural species can't lie, it isn't as black-and-white of a rule as people assume from the folklore. In this instance, I bet if Blake so much as takes one step off what Billy considers to be the premises it will be enough leeway for him to injure the thief.
Blake eyes Billy before turning to me. "All right, let's go see if we can find this man in a Stetson." He doesn't wait for my response, turning away, he walks back toward the entryway.
I fall in step behind him and both of us try to give the still-burning curtains a wide berth. Though it looks like the magical firefighters have taken it down a few notches, it isn't out yet. Once in the entryway, I step in beside Blake. He immediately veers off away from the door. Frowning, I follow him. We continue walking in silence until we're in the farthest corner we can get to along that front wall. Blake jams his hands in his pockets, and I swear I hear his keys jingle as he props his right shoulder up on the wall.
"You want to walk me through what the heck is happening?" he asks in a rather bland tone. There's no semblance of a detective going over his case and more of him asking his friend for a heads up.
I mirror his position leaning against the wall and fold my arms across my chest. "I'm not sure how helpful I'll be. As I'm not exactly in the know on everything. You’ll want to tag Violetta who's here as extra security."
Blake's eyebrows lift but when it becomes clear he will not interrupt, I tell him about my day, starting from when I entered the building and ending with tripping the thief from behind the truck.
By the time I finish Blake looks amused. "How did you know he was heading in that direction?"
I shrug. "Lucky guess."
Blake makes a noncommittal noise before pushing off the wall and removing his hands from his pockets. "If the man in the Stetson that you spoke to is the same guy as the one Billy's thief is talking about, I have a sneaking suspicion he will not be out there. It would be incredibly stupid if he was and a lucky break for me. But I'll be very surprised if he hasn't already fled when he saw security take down his accomplice."
I grimace at Blake's words. That means Violetta going through my memory again to get a picture of the man in the Stetson. Not the most pleasant of prospects. "Man, I hope he's here."
Blake snorts at me. "I see your brain made it to the next logical step should he not be. I'll let you pick whether it's Violetta or someone else that goes poking around in that twisted head of yours." The amusement on Blake's face as he motions for me to head out the front double doors have me rolling my eyes.
"You're such a pal," I mutter.
Blake chuckles behind me.
Chapter 6
As expected, the man in the Stetson is not outside when Blake and I look for him. Which means Violetta poking through my brain to get an image to show the thief, who confirms it is the same man.
Not one to trust a possibly coerced statement, Blake has Violetta do the same song and dance with the thief's memory. Either the thief is very dramatic, or she is rougher rooting around his head than she is with me. The images she produces match almost perfectly with mine.
Afterward, two uniformed officers take a record of every object he has on his person before tossing him in the back of their police vehicle. Meanwhile the other set of officers start an inventory of all the items still in the storage area with Jenny.
At this point I try to leave, but Violetta snags my arm and pulls me with her to the post she's taken in front of the storage area, watching the two police officers and Jenny with an amused expression.
"I don't really need to be here for this, Vi," I whisper.
"Strictly speaking, no," she responds without looking away from the two officers. "But if I need someone to run information or some kind of message, it will help if I didn't have to yell or hunt someone down."
"You want me here to be your messenger boy," I snort.
She drops her hand from my arm. "Whatever term floats your boat."
I fold my arms and watch the scene in front of us.
"Next is the emerald earrings of Earwayne," Jenny says as she makes a check mark on the paper she has clipped to her clipboard.
"Those look like what now?" asks the shorter of the two officers.
"A set of large green earrings. Square shaped with gold around the outside. In a large jewelry box like you would get from a jewelry store," Jenny says, her tone unamused.
Clearly neither officer wants this assignment; both are dragging their heels enough to irritate Jenny, who genuinely has other things she needs to do.
"It's to your left on the other si
de of the thing that looks like a cutting board," I cut in after a few seconds of the officers scowling around the space looking for their interpretation of Jenny's words.
Both officers turn to me and I point in the box's direction. It's next to the taller officer, and he grunts as he leans over and opens the box to show the contents to Jenny.
"Check," she calls as she marks her inventory. She then looks over at me pleading. "Mortimer's oyster collection."
"Who the hell collects oysters?" the taller officer complains as he sets down the jewelry box.
"I can't keep watching this," I say only loud enough for Violetta to hear me. I take several steps forward and walk toward the table neither officer is standing next to and pick up a large felt bag, uncinching it and showing it to Jenny. "It's not the oysters themselves. It's the pearls inside the oysters. He enchanted the oysters, so they were always making the finest quality large pearls. It's quite the moneymaker if you know what you're doing."
Jenny gives me a smile of thanks and makes another check. Violetta is choking back a laugh behind me.
"Next is the unknown vortex compact brought in by James Bond of Fix 'n' Find," Jenny says as she steps to the safe and starts punching in the code.
"There's a name," says the shorter officer.
I bristle but before I can say anything, Violetta's voice sounds from behind me.
"I'm not sure you have room to talk, Officer Otter. A bit on the nose, don't you think?" There's a bite to her tone I don't expect. But I don't turn to see if her expression matches.
The shorter officer straightens and scowls at her before turning back to Jenny, who is now swinging the safe open.
Panic rolls through me at the same moment Jenny gasps. The compact is gone, as is my Geyser Volume Eight, the sword of Dwarphania, and several other items I remember being there earlier.
"What, what is it?" comes Violetta's stern voice as she steps next to me.
"It's missing, along with the Volume Eight, and the sword of Dwarphania, and a few other things," I answer, tension in my voice.
The taller officer lets out a low whistle. "The sword of Dwarphania, that's not good. They would definitely notice if he had that on his person, right?"
"Jas, will you—"
Before Violetta can finish, I’m already heading to where we left Blake. "Check with Blake to see if the sword, the compact, the book are on our thief."
I can't imagine somebody running with the sword in their coat. That seems unsafe. And part of me wants to believe no one is stupid enough to go running with a sword without properly attaching it to a belt or something. But I have seen enough not thought-out theft attempts to rule out the idea.
Blake is standing on the stage with two other officers and Billy. Blake sees me first, and he frowns deeply when he takes in my expression. The others seem to notice that something gained his attention because they all turn and watch as I slowly make my way up the four steps to the stage. My leg is still stiff from an injury I got a few weeks ago so stairs are still not my friend.
"What is it, Jas?" Blake asks warily.
"You didn't, by chance, find any of the items I brought with me today on the thief, did you? Or an ornate medieval sword?"
Billy curses heavily and thoroughly.
Blake looks between us, his frown increasing. "He didn't have a sword on him, or that stupid compact, or your book. Could they have been misplaced?"
I'm shaking my head even before he finishes and Billy pushes past us to race down the stairs.
"Most likely not. When I came in today, Jenny put those items in the safe and locked it. I don't know how many employees can get into that safe, but you'd need to either be superb at cracking safes on top of everything else or have the code to get into it."
Blake scowls at me before turning his attention to the uniformed officers. "Follow Billy, he has security footage around here somewhere. He doesn't like to admit it, but he has it. Convince him he needs to give it to you. We need to see if anybody is leaving the building with the sword."
The two officers nod then head off in the direction I came from.
Once they're out of sight, Blake turns back to me. "You're sure there's no way any person could've gotten to those items? Especially given the mayhem of the fire."
"They were in a safe, like I said. Even in the mayhem, they still had to crack it unless they are an employee."
Before either of us can say anything else, Billy's loud curses rock through the room. Blake and I exchange wary looks before heading toward his voice. Understandably, the detective doesn't wait for me to get down the stairs and by the time I get there, there's a small crowd around the area containing all the items.
Blake comes to stand beside Billy, who wrenches the clipboard from Jenny's hands and scans it. "How many items are missing, Billy?" my werewolf friend asks as he looks at the clipboard over Billy shoulder.
Billy looks up and scowls at Blake, moving the clipboard so the taller man can't read it. “Other than the items your officers confiscated as evidence, there are eight items total missing. Five of which were in that locked vault that only my staff have access to. The other three were out and about in the space, but again they were surrounded by this force field that apparently our thief got through with that damn toy.”
"toy?" Jenny asks, her brow furrowed as she looks down at her boss.
The older man waves his hand dismissively at her. "He had a toy top in his pocket that made him invisible to the type of spell we had as security around all of our items. It takes some heavy-duty magic or a heck of a lot of money to have something like that. The police confiscated it and wouldn't give it to me." Billy scowls at Blake and the other officers before continuing. "The thief claims he got it from the man in the Stetson who conveniently disappeared." His voice drips with disdain and this time his disgust is all for me.
As if it’s somehow my fault the Texan got wind of what was happening and left. I am not about to get this whole thing blamed on me. Consequences be damned; I'm going to tell them so. My reputation's already taking a couple knocks with the weird behavior of some of my customers lately. I'm not sure the Fix 'n' Find could take a knock coming from Billy, the world's best supernatural auctioneer.
I open my mouth and don't get more than a sound out before I get elbowed in the side. My sound ends abruptly, and I turn to glare at Violetta standing next to me, an expression of serene amusement on her face. But the look doesn't match her eyes which are boring into me, giving me a warning to keep my mouth shut. I frown but comply, unsure if Violetta has some other plan and if so, I don't want to interfere with it.
"Billy, I think it's about time you show me your security footage," Blake says slowly giving Billy all of his attention.
Billy scowls at Blake. "We don't use any of that newfangled security equipment humans are so fond of."
"Cut the crap, Billy, I know you use security footage. You had some leak on the Internet a couple years ago when you were trying to hunt down a human who somehow snuck into the auction." Blake folds his arms across his chest, frown deepening as he uses more authority in his voice.
I hadn't known about the human sneaking into the auction. That is a severe security issue if a regular old human somehow makes it past Billy's security and into the actual auction area. He can lose all kinds of credibility if word gets out, assuming word isn't already out and I'm out of the loop.
Billy's scowl deepens and becomes a snarl as he watches Blake several moments. Whatever he sees convinces him Blake means business because he growls before turning to Jenny. "Show the detective the footage he wants."
Jenny's eyes widen a touch, but to her credit nothing else in her expression changes as she motions toward the office area on the other side of the wall.
"Jas, you're coming with me. I want to see if you can identify that Stetson from the video. It's going to be a heck of a lot faster if you watch the footage and yell when you see something than if I compare an image."
Knowing better
than to cause a scene, I keep my mouth shut and follow Blake and Jenny to the other side of the wall. I'm not a complete idiot and this really isn't the situation where I can be obstinate just for the sake of being contrary and insist on going home. Normally, I take theft seriously but with Blake on the case and Violetta being downright offended that someone was stealing items on her watch, if it's possible to get the items back, they will certainly manage it without me.
Jenny opens the door to the office area, using a metal key as well as an access code. It seems excessive to me but what do I know. As the door swings inward Jenny walks in and props herself against the wall so both Blake and I can walk past her.
I'd be lying if I didn’t admit to being a little disappointed when I scan the office space. There are three desks with computers on them and one desk behind what looks to be temporary, glass walls. Jenny leads us to the farthest of the three desks in the primary area and leans over dragging the mouse to wake up the computer. Blake and I take up spots over either of her shoulders, both of us trying not to crowd her in the small space. She clicks into a system from her desktop and types something in the search bar. A video pops up in a separate window, and on the screen is the area where the items are kept. This camera is clearly mounted above the door to the small office area, but the images are good enough that if somebody gives a profile or their full face to the camera recognition software could probably pick up a decent identification. It becomes clear we're watching it at a faster-than-live rate as people come jogging over around the time of the small fire off to the left and out of the camera's view. I can tell the moment it ends as people mill about again. Then, people get up from the tables, myself included, and leave out the back door.
A few minutes later Violetta, while scanning the area around her yanks open the back door and walks out herself. I frown as the man in the trench coat take several steps forward, emerging from one of the curtains that hang behind the stage separating it from the back area.
Antique Absconding Arsonist Page 4
