by Tee Morris
I looked up to my office window. Jerry was staring back at me. My eyes immediately returned to Capone.
“I swear,” he said. “Not. A. Thing.”
Public Enemy Number One wasn’t lying.
The car pulled away a few moments after, and I bolted for my office building. Steps. Not waiting for the elevator. With each landing, I felt the Pitcher’s Pendant. Not for a minute did I expect that this case was over and done with. The talisman I now had on my person was going to be a magnet—a very powerful one—for bad things. Until I gave it a special treatment like I’d given the Singing Sword, this case was still as wide open as a sea monster’s maw.
I reached my floor and still wasn’t breathing hard, even when I reached my open door. The smashed glass littering the floor stopped me cold. My eyes slowly came up and I saw what was supposed to be the waiting area, and it looked the way it would if Miranda had exploded into some kind of blood-rage. Papers were scattered everywhere. Potted plants were overturned. My skin was crawling as I thought about the poor son-of-a-bitch that had torn through here. Yeah, sure, I felt just a hint of pity for him. My pity was for what he was going to face once I found him.
“Billi!”
Miranda was in the doorway leading into my office. I could see behind her that it was in worse shape.
My desk had not been overturned, but it might as well have been. The drawers were out. The floor and the area rug I’m used to using as my pitcher’s mound were now covered in a layer of case notes, photos, and stuff that I had filed away. Meticulously. In a system that worked beautifully. For me. For Miranda. And it had taken us two days to get everything set up the way we wanted it!
Someone was going to…wait a second…
Sniff-sniff. No. Was that—?
“—my eyes playing trick on me,” Jer’s voice popped into my head, “or did I just see you get out of Al Capone’s limo?”
“I guess Al’s looking to earn some extra cash where he can.”
I groaned when I spotted my picture of me and the Babe, face down on the floor. Gingerly, I turned it over. The spider-web crack refused me a better look at the print. Hopefully, there was no damage.
“Mindy called me when she saw the door had been opened.”
My mouth opened, but Miranda was already answering the question. “I wanted to see if we could get a few bills settled, so I came back to the office for them, and when I saw the door open I headed over to the library. Borrowed their phone. Made the call.”
“Thank you, Miranda,” I carried my prized picture over to my desk as if it were a fallen soldier being taken to his final resting place with full colors and procession.
“I don’t think anything’s missing,” she continued, “apart from the petty cash. And now, well…”
Jer tipped his hat back, shaking his head. “I’m really sorry, Billi. This could have be—”
“This wasn’t a break-in for cash, Jer,” I muttered, staring at my battle axe, war hammer, and broadsword. “Of all the things in this office, you two have to admit that my survival gear is the most valuable stuff here. Or at least, looks like it.”
My friend walked up to the battle axe and leaned in close, close enough to make it hum.
“Billi?” Jerry asked.
“Nah, you’re fine, pal,” I said. “The hum is a warning though.”
“Hmmm…” He backed away after a moment and scoffed, “You’re not big on dusting, are you?”
“Only way to be sure if anyone’s messed with my things,” I huffed back.
“So they ignored the décor because—”
“Because they knew it’s charmed,” I finished.
“Charmed?”
“What he means, Jer…” interjected Miranda. I turned to see her glancing between Jer and me nervously. Shit, that’s right, he doesn’t know. “…is that he’s got those antiques of his wired. Special security measures. He calls them good luck charms, for making sure his weapons don’t suddenly disappear.”
“Right,” Jer said, his tone hardly convincing.
He wasn’t buying Miranda’s cover and I should have been paying closer attention to what I was saying, but my attention was on my bookcase instead. Sniff-sniff-sniff. Yeah. Whoever the user was, their spell settled here.
“They weren’t after our petty cash.” Sniff-sniff. From the sharpness in the scent, I’m guessing… “Miranda, Jer, look inside any place that you could hide something—an overturned waste can, floor of the coat closet, drawer in an end table. You’ll find every dollar of the office kitty there.”
Now alone in my office, I went to the bookcase. It swung open easily.
“Billi!” Miranda ran back into the office, her face practically glowing as she held up a modest wad of greenbacks. “It was under the waste can like you said! How did you know?”
“Good detective work, Mindy, come on,” Jerry answered. “I mean this is what he—”
“No, not good detective work,” I said, looking at the empty cubbyhole in front of me. I should have left it at home. It would have been safer there. “The party responsible for this kind of crime wouldn’t steal money. It’s against their nature.”
I felt Miranda’s hand on my shoulder. “Billi, I’m so sorry.”
My hand absently went to the Pitcher’s Pendant still in my pocket. They came in here looking for a talisman of Acryonis. They left with My World Book (which Miranda had brought back here while I spent the afternoon out at Cog Hill) and personal journal. I don’t know what scared me more—the fact that a portion of my personal life from Acryonis was now somewhere out there in Chicago, or the fact that this thief was in search of one of the Nine Talismans.
I still had the Pendant of Coe. Hardly comforting, but it was something.
“So, Billi, what do you want me to do?” Jer asked.
“Start picking stuff up. Just close your eyes as you do. This is private stuff.” I then turned to Miranda. “And you—stand up. We’ve got some work to do. Get this office back in order.”
“But what about your big book?” I could see Miranda becoming unhinged.
I smiled and placed a single kiss on her cheek. “One mystery at a time,” I assured her, trying to block that smell of electricity around me. “One mystery at a time.”
Table of Contents
Chapter One Diamonds Are a Dwarf’s Best Friend
Chapter Two The Things You Hear at Waist Level
Chapter Three Batter Up, Billi Boy
Chapter Four Take Me Home from the Ball Game
Chapter Five Early Risers in the Windy City
Chapter Six All that Glitters...
Chapter Seven Just the Stats, Ma’am
Chapter Eight Stiff Competition
Chapter Nine Murder... A National Pastime
Chapter Ten Dial ’B’ for Billi
Chapter Eleven Third Time’s a Charm
Chapter Twelve Detective, Heal Thyself
Chapter Thirteen Dream a Little Dream
Chapter Fourteen Par for the Course
Chapter Fifteen No, Really, We’re Just Friends…
Chapter Sixteen Top of the Ninth
Chapter Seventeen Playing Hardball
Chapter Eighteen Strike Three, You’re Dead!
Chapter Nineteen Down, But Not Out
Chapter Twenty For the Love of the Game
Chapter Twenty-One To Thine Own Self, Be True
Epilogue -- Stealing Home
