Antique Absconding Arsonist

by Gretchen S. B.

  Jenny slows down the video to real time.

  "Did you see any enchantments on him that would make him invisible? If it had been glamour, I would've seen him lurking in the curtain like that and the security cameras, unless Billy has them enchanted, would not pick him up when he finally moved," I ask Blake, turning my gaze away from the computer and looking at him.

  "No, we didn't. But they'll search him again when they get to the precinct so it's less obvious or under his clothes. It could also be a potion he drank that makes him invisible as long as he doesn't move. That sort of thing would've only been in effect as long as he stayed near the curtain."

  I look back to watch trench coat guy beeline for the area that holds all the items up for auction. He's doing the sneaky run you expect to see from a thief in a children's cartoon. I cough to suppress my giggle while Jenny snorts.

  "Idiot," Blake mutters under his breath.

  He pushes back the curtain and steps through the magical barrier. The pendant around his neck interacts with the barrier with a flash, not a blinding one like taking a photo but it definitely would've been noticeable should anyone be in that part of the warehouse. He moves about the space, though it's hard to see what specific items he's picking up from this far away. He cases each table, pulling out a piece of paper clearly looking for specific items and begins jamming them in his jacket. Once he's done, he looks both ways before walking through the boundary again, causing the same flash as last time, and heading out the back door. Repeating the weird cartoon sneaky walk.

  "He didn't touch the safe, or even seem to pause on it," Jenny comments as she clicks through the search bar again, looking for another video.

  Neither Blake nor I answer as another video window opens in front of the first and shows us external footage of when we chased down the thief. We watch this video at an even faster speed and sure enough, once security drags the thief back toward the group, the man in the Stetson steps into frame, as the video doesn't cover directly in front of the front doors, waits a beat before pulling out his phone, putting it to his ear, and striding out into the parking lot. He strides to the truck I hid behind to trip the thief.

  "What are the odds?" I ask no one in particular as we watch him get into the truck and drive off.

  "My guess would be slim," Blake says with a snort before he focuses on Jenny. "I would like copies of both videos, running up till the time you go looking to see what items are missing, please. I'd like any footage you have in or out of the building from ten minutes before the first fire until about fifteen minutes after. I'm hoping I can get that truck's license plate as I assume Jas doesn't have it memorized from the one time he looked at it."

  Jenny swivels her neck and looks at Blake warily. She clearly wants to deny the detective's request. Probably a holdover from how secretive Billy is, but after several seconds she gives one nod and then turns back to her computer. As she does so, she closes the window holding the video of what was happening outside.

  "What the," she exclaims as we now have an unobstructed view of the area where all the items up for auction were being held.

  The young blonde from check-in at the back door this morning stands in front of the open safe, one hand on the door and the other holding several other items.

  "Can you tell from this if any of the items she's holding are items that are missing? When was this?" Blake's questions are right on top of each other before Jenny can answer.

  "At least one of them is, I can make out the long cream shape I'm fairly certain is the Night Render. It's shaped like a crescent moon with several stars around it. That's one item that's missing. And from the timestamp this looks like within two or three minutes of when our original thief left."

  "Is she still here? Did Billy excuse any of the employees? Because I would like to have a few words with her." Blake leans back as he speaks and makes a few steps past me toward the door, clearly not waiting for Jenny's response.

  "You and me both," Jenny comments as she pushes up from her rolling chair. "I'm also willing to bet Billy has a few things to ask as well."

  The two of them practically race to get out of the office.

  With my stiff leg and powerful survival instincts, I wait a beat before slowly walking after them. I'm fairly confident that the office door won’t lock me in and even if it does, I can pound on it until someone lets me out. That seems more reasonable than racing a police detective and Billy's right-hand woman and risk getting trampled or having to be the one to deliver the bad news.

  As I walk out of the office, Billy is screaming.

  "Evie! Someone find me Evie now!" Billy's voice carries a heck of a lot farther than I expect from how small the man is. It is startling.

  But apparently not for his staff as they scurry to acquiesce to his demanding request. I stay near the office door because frankly, I don't want to be in the way of these employees or risk getting yelled at myself.

  After a few moments of raised voices from various employees around the warehouse, there's a feminine shriek and a couple thuds that are clearly a door opening and closing.

  "She's making a run for it," a loud, growly, southern voice announces from somewhere across the space.

  Blake takes off in a run in the general direction the voice comes from. As a werewolf he's a heck of a lot faster than most of Billy's employees. There's more noise as doors open and close, or the same door repeatedly does, as however many people chase down the girl. Unlike last time, I don't feel the need to participate. Instead, I go to stand near Billy, Jenny, and the two officers still left in the back area.

  Billy's cursing foul in an older dwarfen in language. I pick out a few curse words, thanks to Sven, the dwarf who fixes things in the back of my shop. I take a step away from Billy, making sure Jenny is between the two of us. Sure, it's cowardly of me to want some space between me and the cursing goblin, but honestly out of everyone else in the room I'm the most vulnerable should he decide to take his anger out on someone. We stand there with Billy continuing his string of curses only stopping when he takes a breath to continue doing it for what feels like several minutes before the door opens again and Violetta's voice breezes through the space.

  "Derek and I got her."

  I hear more people filing in, more than were originally in the space, I’m betting gawkers still hanging around outside are coming in to watch the continuation of whatever show they watched outside while waiting for the auction to restart.

  Much to my surprise, and it would appear Jenny's by the clucking noise she makes, Evie, comes around the corner first. But not in the traditional sense, she's floating in midair on her back, clearly being maneuvered around by magic. Her arms and legs are pressed together. The wild look on her face says she'd be in a full-fledged panic if she could move anything. I have seen Violetta use this kind of spell before. The last time she used it she didn't maneuver the giant boggart she had control of. It could be a size issue, maybe the pixie is easier to maneuver in the large space than the boggart had been in a tight one.

  A step behind the floating girl comes Violetta and then a man I assume is Derek. A step behind them is Blake then some security guards, a few other employees and sure enough a grouping of spectators, their curiosity and interest clear on their faces.

  "Get them out of here," Billy snarls at his security guards as he points toward the gawkers.

  Several security guards turn around, pushing their arms out and herding the people back outside.

  "Pass on the word, this auction is canceled. It will be rescheduled at a yet to be decided date," Billy calls and that booming voice again as the last of the gawkers get pushed out of our eye line.

  "Bring her down to me," Billy commands Violetta.

  Violetta's lip curls at the command but she makes several gestures and the blonde moves, tipping so her feet are now toward the ground, but she still hovers a few inches from the concrete floor. Though the girl is petite, she's still taller than Billy but this arrangement seems to suit hi
m fine as he snarls up at the woman in his employ.

  "You think you can steal from me and get away with it?" He turns to the first security guard to return from herding the would-be audience. "Open her locker. If you don't know which one it is, open all the damn lockers. I want to make sure she's not hiding anything else."

  That must've been the right request because the girl's eyes widen again.

  "Ah, is that where you hid the objects you stole? It's smart not to have them on your person but stupid to leave them somewhere we could find them," Billy snarls so close to her face that spittle splatters onto her neck and she flinches though all she can move is her face.

  "We'll see, shall we? See what you’ve got hidden in the locker we assigned to you. You haven't had this job three months and already you're stealing from me, you ungrateful little pixie." Billy's snarl is something out of a nightmare.

  If I were to walk down a dark alley and see that particular expression, I'd hightail it out of there and not return to the neighborhood for a while. I refrain from flinching because if I'm the one reacting with fear when that look isn't even being pointed at me it will be a clear sign of weakness to everyone else. No one other than Jenny seems even a little nervous. I take my cue from them, probably not the best idea since I'm the weakest individual in the bunch. But for all they know I have some random object on my person that protects me from any kind of attack. Now that I think of it, it would be a fantastic idea to start carrying something like that, around given recent events.

  “Too bad for you, you didn’t seem to notice the cameras set up in the building.”

  The pixie’s eyes widen.

  Apparently very few people knew about the cameras. The idea that Billy is filming his employees without their knowing doesn’t sit well with me. I’m pretty sure there are laws against that, human laws at least.

  "We found some stuff, boss," a male employee with a Boston accent hollers from somewhere behind us.

  Two large security guards come jogging around the corner again, one of which is holding a burlap sack presumably full of stolen objects. He hands the bag to Billy, who opens it slowly, snarling gleefully into the bag. After a cursory scan he foists the bag off on Jenny and swings his attention back to the girl.

  "Where's the rest of it? The stuff from the safe?"

  There's an extra layer of panic to the girl's eyes and they shift back and forth as if she's trying to shake her head no but can't manage it under Violetta's spell.

  Billy swivels his head, but not his gaze, to Violetta. "We need her to talk."

  Violetta gives one brisk nod, flutters a couple fingers, and the girl's mouth opens.

  "I don't have anything else. I didn't grab anything from the safe. I was taking advantage of the distraction to grab a few things they told me we needed." Panicking again, she slams her mouth shut.

  Billy's eyes gleam. "Who's ‘we’, little pixie?"

  Violetta flicks a couple fingers again. The girl’s mouth forces open. Using a spell to make the girl talk is pretty iffy magic with cops around. There's a fifty-fifty shot the cops will tell her that's unfair use of magic and make her stop. But as I glance to the uniforms and Blake, no one seems inclined to do anything. That bothers me, but not quite enough to interfere myself. Which makes me feel like a dick.

  “The society. The society of magic. We're supposed to be on the lookout for specific items that the society needs. It's why I took this job.” The young pixie is visibly fighting against whatever magic Violetta's using on her.

  Violetta's fingers twitch again, and I move to stand next to her. I can't stand by and let this escalate, not and keep a clear conscience. I put my hand on her wrist and she jumps before swiveling her attention to me.

  I give my ex-fiancée a soft smile but keep my hand where it is. "What you're doing now is a gray area. You take this spell up a notch and force her to give more information, you’re firmly in coercion territory and you and I both know that won't end well for you. She's not going anywhere; they found the objects in her locker. There are a bunch of cops here, including Blake, who know who she is so even if she manages to get by everyone, she's not getting far. Don't implicate yourself in anything that could be illegal." I keep my tone soft but neutral.

  Violetta possesses strong magic. She belongs to one of the strongest witch families in the world and works for the witches' government. But she sometimes has impulse control issues. When we were together, I tended to be that tempering force letting her know that just because she can do something doesn't mean she should. Just like she made me more spontaneous and carefree.

  She watches me another second or two before turning her attention back to the girl and moving her wrists in a different pattern; the girl lowers to the ground and is released completely. I let out a relieved breath. I glance up to see Blake giving me a tight smile. Apparently, he too has concerns about exactly how far Violetta would go and when he would have to step in, and I solved both those problems for him. I return the tightlipped smile and put my attention back on the girl now sobbing on the ground.

  "I didn't take anything from the safe, I don't know what was in the safe. I don't have any magic of my own. I saw an opportunity, and I took it." Each of her sentences is punctuated by sobs.

  "Were you working with a man in a Stetson hat, by chance? Or a man in a trench coat?" Blake asks gently as he squats down next to the girl, so they are at eye level.

  Shaking her head, the girl wipes her face. "I'm the only one here that I know of. I didn't recognize the thief when you guys dragged him in here. I figured people stole from here regularly, considering all the valuables there are."

  Billy puffs up but thankfully he does nothing more aggressive than that.

  Blake pushes himself up and motions to the two closest uniformed officers. "Take her in, I'll question her further later." Then to Jenny and Billy, "Get a list of the items still missing and I will put out alerts on those items, assuming some of them are one-of-a-kind it'll be easier to find them. We may luck out and the man with the Stetson will have them."

  Nodding, Jenny quickly writes on her pad of paper before ripping the page and handing it to Blake. The two officers pull up the girl, gentler than I expected, cuff her in one smooth motion then pull her toward an exit.

  As we watch them all go, snarl still on his face, Billy turns to Jenny. "I assume I can leave it to you to make sure all the objects get back to their owners since I don't want to hold onto them until we figure out how our security is compromised?" He's lifting an eyebrow as he finishes, which with the snarl looks strange. He doesn't wait for her to reply, instead pivoting on his heels and walking to the small office area.

  Since I don't see any reason to stick around, as I'm not police or security, I drop my hand from Violetta's wrist, after giving it a quick encouraging squeeze and take a step back to excuse myself.

  "Well, if that's all that is needed from me, I'll make a graceful exit while I still can." Before anyone else can engage me in any sort of hijinks related to this theft investigation I stride, stiffly, out the back door.

  While I'm not thrilled the items I brought to the auction are missing, part of me is relieved to be free of that Geyser’s eighth journal that seems to come back to me much like a boomerang. The compact could be dangerous, but no one managed to get it open yet so there is hope it won't be a problem. News of a tornado, a hurricane, or some other vortex opening in the area will be a good indicator of the location the objects end up at. I only hope they will not blame me for the damage.

  Chapter 7

  As I swing my compact car into one of the employee parking spaces, I grumble to myself. An accident on I-405 has me getting to Fix 'n' Find right before closing. I hate sitting in stop-and-go traffic. I hoped to get here early enough to take Bailey to one of the local off-leash dog parks, but it is dark enough now that's not the best idea. Having an all-black dog running around in a heavily wooded area at night adds up to disaster, or to Bailey escaping. I know this from experience. />
  As much as I want to go upstairs, make something to eat, and veg out on my couch for a few hours, I feel guilty. So I go around the front of the shop instead to check on Reggie and see how the day went. I step inside the shop to see four customers milling about the store. When my gaze scans over to Reggie I frown; the young man looks nervous and when he registers that it's me in the doorway, he's relieved. Warily, I walk to the counter. It isn't until I'm standing across from him that I hear Bailey's nails clack across the floor as she headbutts my left leg, causing me to grab the counter to keep my balance.

  Absently, I lean down to scratch behind her ears, as both a greeting to her and to do something with the anxiety prickling through me at Reggie's expression. Reggie is a laid-back warlock and except for last week when an unknown assailant poisoned Bailey, I have never seen Reggie fazed by anything.

  "What's going on, Reggie?" I ask quietly enough none of the customers will overhear.

  Reggie leans across the counter so he's only a couple inches from my ear. "I've been hoping you'd come in. We've had a steady stream of customers most of the afternoon. About two hours ago there was a large thud from the back of the shop. It startled me, as well as the half dozen customers in here at the time, Bailey barked a whole bunch and ran back there. I haven't had a chance to check out what it was. Sven is here, I called him up on the walkie-talkie. He seems fine but now that you're here, maybe you can check it out." He is clearly anxious.

  If something happened in the back of the shop to make a loud enough thud that even Bailey skitters toward it to figure it out, I'm not sure I really want to know what caused it.

  "What did Bailey do after she was back there?" I ask, putting off the inevitability of me going to investigate.

  Reggie shrugs, leaning back from the counter, clearing his face a little, watching the customers behind Bailey and me. "She was back there for about ten minutes and for the first minute or two she was barking. After that she stopped. When she didn't come back right away, I got on the walkie-talkie, thinking Sven took her but he said she was still out in the hall, so I called her back. It took several tries and then she slowly made her way back here, looking behind her the whole time."