by Sean Stone
“You know not to talk to strangers and especially not to take things from them,” Ashley scolded.
“It’s not her fault,” Barbichu said. “The gnome no doubt uses a charm to make himself irresistible to the rug rats.”
“That makes me feel so much better,” Ashley said and grimaced.
“Give me the ring, girl.” Barbichu held his dark clawed hand out.
“Mr Panomie said not to take it off.” She held her hand against her chest.
Barbichu’s eyes sparkled and he smiled menacingly. “Don’t make me ask again.”
“Back off, Gollum,” I snarled and Barbichu glared at me.
“You want my help don’t you? Get the little house-ape to give me the ring,” he insisted.
“Go on, Leah,” I said. Reluctantly she removed the ring and handed it to Barbichu. He rolled it around in his hand for a moment.
“As I suspected. It acts a a tracker. Also…” He brought the ring right up to his face. “Yep! It breaks any magical defences around it.”
“Wait, so any defences on this house are broken by that thing?” Ashley asked.
“Oh yes, my sweet. Null and void.” He flipped the ring up in the air and caught out again.
“Well then throw it out,” she ordered.
“No!” Both Barbichu and I shouted.
“Are we thinking in tandem, Eddie-Eddie?” he asked mirthfully. “Go on, you say it first.” He knew as well as I did that Ashley would hate me for what I was about to say.
“Our best chance is to use Leah as bait,” I practically mumbled the sentence.
“Do you really think I would do that?” she demanded. “Seriously, Eddie?”
“Ashley we won’t let anything happen to Leah,” I promised.
“Didn’t you say that about the last kid?”
“Low blow. And I didn’t use her as bait. The parents wouldn’t let me help them. This time will be different. We’re prepared. We have an imp on our side. He can teleport. Can gnomes teleport?” I asked him.
He shook his head. “They rely on portals to travel between realms.”
“See! We have the advantage. Richards will help us too. He can have this house covered in cops. There will be no way Panomie will get out of here with Leah. Think of all the children we can save. We just need to lure him here.”
“He’s going to come either way,” Barbichu chipped in. “You might as well try to trap him.”
“Alright,” she said quietly. “But only if Richards covers this house with cops. Inside and out.”
“He will,” I said and pulled out my phone to call him. It turned out he couldn’t.
“I can’t bring a small army here without explaining why to my boss,” Richards said after I told him the plan. He’d come straight over when I told him Panomie had targeted another child. He did not want a repeat of last time.
“So tell your boss you’re catching the kidnapper,” I said. It seemed simple enough, his boss could hardly begrudge him doing his job.
“He’ll want to see my evidence. He’ll need proof that I am going to catch the kidnapper before he signs off on an operation of this magnitude. And let’s say you catch this gnome. I can hardly take him back to the station and charge him. And there is no way the super is going to let me use a five-year-old as bait,” Richards said. “And frankly, I don’t want to.”
“This is the only way we can catch him,” I explained, imploring him to change his mind.
“I’m not saying don’t do it. I’m just saying I can’t get you all the officers you want. I can get four tops.”
“No,” said Ashley, shaking her head. “I’m not putting Leah in danger without this place being covered in cops.”
“Ash, it’s not like they can do much to Panomie anyway.” I said it in a hushed voice to try and spare Richards’ feelings but he heard anyway.
“Thanks, Eddie,” he said with a sour smile.
“It’s not about them helping. I just want eyes everywhere so he can’t slip away.”
“Barbichu said he uses portals to get about that means even if he did get away we could follow him if we see where the portal is.”
“It doesn’t work like that,” Barbichu said. Everyone looked at him except Richards who had avoided the imp since arriving. He was still new to the supernatural and wasn’t quite ready for something as unusual looking as an imp just yet. “You need to be from the lower realms to open the portals.”
“It’s a good thing you are then,” I said. I turned back to Richards. “Is there any way you can get the guys we need for this?” I asked.
“The only way would be to go over my super’s head and I don’t have any strings to pull that high. I’m sorry.” He shrugged apologetically.
“I might,” I said as a new idea occurred to me. “Give me a few minutes.”
I went into the dining room and pulled out my phone. Ten minutes later and after being passed through several different people at Winters Research I finally got through to Clara Winters.
“You are a hard person to reach,” I said.
“I know. I like it that way. What do you want?” she said.
“Need a favour. Can you get the police in Maidstone to authorise a massive operation?” I said optimistically.
“Eddie, I have no authority over the police. I have no official standing with any government organisations,” she said rather unhelpfully. “And what do you even need help with?”
“But you do have unofficial standings?” I said. I knew how to read between the lines.
“What do you need help with?”
“The Panomie case.”
“You expect me to pull strings for that? Eddie, I told you that was your case to solve.”
“I know, to prove I’m worthy of helping you in your future cases. Let’s stop pretending, Clara. You need me for something in the future and if you want me to cooperate then you’ll help me right now. I’m not asking you to get directly involved, I just need you to throw some weight around,” I said hotly. I got silence.
“Like I said, I have no weight to throw around.” She spoke slowly and quietly. She wasn’t angry, just thinking. I got the impression she was testing me still.
“I know that a couple of years back the government tried to wipe out all the supernaturals in Cedarstone and I know that somehow you stopped them. That wouldn’t have been possible without having some bargaining chip or something. So cut the crap and help me.” I waited nervously for her response, knowing full well that this could end very badly for me.
“You’re a clever guy, Eddie. I suppose that makes me clever for selecting you. Tell me what you need and I’ll see what I can do.”
I told Clara exactly what I required and then let her go and work her magic. I nipped to the toilet and by the time I returned to the living room Richards was just getting off the phone.
“That was my superintendent. He said he didn’t know what I was up to but he’d been called from the commissioner and told to give me whatever I needed and not ask any questions. Eddie, who did you call?” His face was a little pale clearly he was in shock at the connections I had. Frankly, I was in shock myself. I hadn’t really expected Clara to come through for me.
“It doesn’t matter who I called.” I doubted that Clara wanted her name thrown around. “Just get enough people here to get eyes on everywhere. Panomie will likely come tomorrow night but we can use tonight to prepare.”
23
By the time the sun was down the street was filled with police officers and so was the garden. There was a cop in every room in the house and the houses on the street had been evacuated. Clara had actually phoned me and insisted that they clear out the human population to avoid drawing any attention. She’d been less than satisfied with my promises to keep a low profile. She’d also told me to erase all the officers’ memories after the gnome was caught. Richards was more than happy to go along with that. He said he was even tempted to have his own mind erased but I told him it would only wipe the
last few hours.
“How do we contain him then?” I asked Barbichu.
“Contain him?” Barbichu smirked. “You can’t. I can kill him which is better than containing him anyway.”
“That’s not going to happen,” Richards said, addressing the imp for the first time. “I need answers from this kidnapping little shit. You can kill him after.”
Barbichu looked at me for support.
“Hey, I’m with him. I want answers too.”
“Humans.” He shook his head making his golden hair flick about.
“I’m actually a sorcerer,” I told him. I know that technically I’m still human but us sorcerers like to differentiate ourselves from the non-magic folk and muggle is already trademarked.
“If it looks like a hairless ape…” he muttered. He held his hand out and small bottle of clear fluid appeared in his palm. “This is a potion of my own design. Throw it on the gnome and it will immobilise him in an instant.”
“It looks a lot like water,” I said as I took the potion and examined it. If there’s one thing I’m pretty adept at it’s potions.
“It’s an imp potion. It will look different to the weak rubbish your kind produce,” he said nastily. “You’ll have about half an hour to ask your questions before it wears off.”
“We’re probably going to need longer than half an hour,” I said.
“The I’ll give you more. And when you’re finished with your questions I’ll kill him.”
“I don’t want to know about that,” Richards said. He’d gone back to not looking at Barbichu again. “Shall we do a dry run?” We’d already come up with a plan. Leah would be in her bedroom upstairs. Me, Ashley and Richards would be in the cupboard. It was large enough for the three of us. As each cop saw Panomie they’d press a button on their radios which would send a small beep to Richards — he had an earpiece — so we could keep up with Panomie’s movements. Barbichu would not be in the house. Apparently Panomie would smell him straight away, so Barbichu would wait elsewhere and I was to call him the moment Panomie was immobilised.
“Alright let’s do this then,” I said.
Barbichu teleported away and then Richards told one of his officers to go to the end of the garden — where we expected Panomie to come from — and stand in for the gnome. Then me, Ashley and Richards went upstairs. Leah was sleeping ignorantly in her bed when we entered her room and climbed into the cupboard. If only she knew the danger she was in. We’d decided to spare her the truth about Mr Panomie until tomorrow. There was no need to scare her before we had to.
Richards pushed a finger into his ear like they do in the films. “Let’s begin,” he said rather unofficially. I’d expected some sort of code name for the operation and some formal commands. A minute or so later Richards nodded and said, “Garden shed,” to me and Ashley. We nodded back. He continued to name the checkpoints we’d stationed officers at as his stand-in passed each one. He was just approaching the back door when we heard a scream. It was no feeble scream but a scream of absolute agony. Ashley’s hand gripped my arm tight. I looked at Richards whose face remained neutral.
He put his finger in his ear again and said, “Checkpoint one, report.” There was no reply. He went to speak again and then we heard the second scream. It was a different man coming from a different location in the garden.
“What is happening?” Ashley said shrilly. I clamped my hand over her mouth quickly and looked her dead in the eyes.
“I don’t think this is a dry run.” Her eyes widened. “Panomie’s outside.” I looked over at Richards. “What do we do?” I whispered.
He took a whole two seconds to process what was going on before speaking. Once again he placed his finger in his ear. “All units, this is no longer a test run. I repeat this is no longer a test run. The suspect is in the vicinity. Two officers are down. Everybody maintain your positions. Do not attempt to apprehend the suspect no matter what. Your job is to—” Another scream rang out from the garden.
“Maybe I should go down there,” I suggested. I couldn’t let all the cops die. But Richards shook his head.
“No. You’ll jeopardise the operation.”
“I think we’re beyond that,” I said. Panomie was killing cops one by one, I was pretty sure he knew it was a trap.
“You need to be here to protect Leah,” Ashley reminded me. I nodded. I’d promised to keep the kid safe and I had to stand by that promise. The cops were on their own. We waited in the cupboard for what seemed like hours and every now and then other screams would sound only now they were coming from the other side of the house. He was attacking all the officers outside first. It was clear that Richards was itching to call the whole thing off and not lose any more of his men but he acted in the interest of the children. Catching Panomie came first. After a while I lost count of them. It was a wonder that Leah hadn’t woken up but when I peeked through the cupboard door she was still breathing deeply sound asleep. The engagement ring Panomie had given her was sitting on her bedside table and when it started to glow I knew that Panomie was breaking through the defences on the house and coming inside. A loud crash and a human grunt confirmed it as he dispatched the cop in the kitchen.
“All units avoid the suspect. He is in the house and extremely dangerous. Stay out of his sight,” Richards said. It was clear that he was both annoyed and terrified by the fact that his men were getting cut down so easily.
“Don’t try to fight him,” I told Richard. The last thing I needed was Richards trying to avenge his men.
“You make sure you stop it,” Richards said.
The bedroom door creaked open and I squatted down and lifted the potion off the floor. My hand was actually trembling slightly from the anticipation. I wasn’t scared, not of Panomie anyway, I had an imp in my corner. I was scared of fucking things up and failing to protect Leah. I saw the ugly little creature hobble into the room. With each step he took I felt Ashley’s grip on my arm tighten. Panomie reached the bed and picked the ring up from the bedside table. He slipped it into his pocket. Richards tapped my shoulder furiously. I turned and saw him pointing frantically at his ear. Something was happening but he couldn’t say because Panomie would hear him. The front door slammed shut downstairs.
“Ashley?!” her dad’s voice called out.
“Dad?” Ashley replied without thinking.
“Fuck,” I said. Panomie’s head snapped to the cupboard his black eyes narrowed. “Here we go,” I said to myself and then kicked the door open. Before I could throw the potion Panomie jumped. For a little guy he had powerful legs. He soared through the air and landed on my chest, taking me down. The potion fell out of my hand and rolled across the room.
“Somebody apprehend the dad for fuck’s sake!” Richards screamed into his communications piece. He no longer needed to be quiet.
Panomie was straddling my chest his mouth open wide, drill-like teeth hung down and rotated terrifyingly. I was pretty certain he was going to bite me. He looked like a biter.
“Barbi—” He grabbed my throat and choked the air from me before I could finish calling. I reached up to push him off and the little fucker slipped the binding ring from my finger and threw it behind him.
“No help for you,” he growled. He moved to bite me again and that’s when Ashley finally got moving. She kicked him in the stomach and the little fellow went flying off me.
“He’s not supposed to be home so soon,” Ashley said about her father.
“Nothing about tonight is going the way it should be. You get the potion I’ll get the ring,” I said. Leah sat up in her bed and screamed. It did not help the situation. Even Panomie looked annoyed by the sound. He pointed at the child and the sound stopped abruptly. Leah was still screaming but no sound was coming out. I flicked my hand at the wardrobe and it slid across the floor and trapped Panomie against the wall. “Richards!” I shouted. He darted out of the cupboard, grabbed Leah and fled the room. I looked around for the ring but couldn’t see where it had la
nded. Then the wardrobe came at me. Before it reached me it exploded sending shards of wood allover the room. One of the wooden fragments which looked like a perfect stake narrowly missed my head and got stuck in the wall instead.
“Sorry,” said Ashley, still pointing at where the wardrobe had been. Panomie pointed at her and she shot backwards and smacked into the wall before flying up onto the ceiling. I opened my hand and launched a stream of fire at him but he nimbly rolled out of the way. Ashley fell to the floor and stayed there. I saw the ring at the foot of the bed and lunged for it. Panomie saw it too. He jumped. As I fell towards the ring I flicked my wrist and the bed whipped up and knocked Panomie out of the air. I grabbed the ring at the same time as I hit the floor. I rolled over and saw Panomie back on his feet. Then I saw Ashley throw the potion. The bottle smashed over his head and the clear liquid drenched him from head to toe. He stood perfectly still, rather resembling a cat that’s been splashed with water. At first he looked scared then confused.
“First, you try iron against me. And now you hit me with…” he raised his wet finger to his lips and licked it. “Water?”
Water? That didn’t make sense. I slipped the ring onto my finger. “Barbichu!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. We all froze and waited. Barbichu did not come. Panomie began chuckling quietly to himself. Then the screaming downstairs started.
“Leah!” Ashley gasped and bolted.
24
Panomie made no move to stop Ashley from leaving. He made no move at all but simply stepped back and watched her leave. I looked at him and he inclined his head as if to ask whether or not I was going to follow. I was but there was no way I was going to leave him to escape. I threw a bolt of magic at him, enough to knock him out at least, but he conjured a shield just in time. Before I could attack again he threw himself through the window, smashing the glass as he went. I ran over to the window but when I looked out he’d already vanished into the darkness. I heard Ashley shout in frustration and ran downstairs to see what was going on downstairs. Ashley was in the hallway at the living room door, blasting a shield which seemed to be blocking her entrance.
