Hank Mossberg, Private Ogre: Murder in the Boughs

by Jamie Sedgwick

  With that, Zaxyl disappeared in a flash of light. A heavy wind came up out of nowhere, blowing down the hall with such force that it almost knocked me over. Paintings fell off the wall and crashed to the floor. The rug rolled up at the edges and began sliding underneath my feet.

  The physical sensation of the wind hitting me was a bit frightening, but it was nothing compared to the stirring I suddenly felt in my solar plexus. It was like someone had reached into me and grabbed a fistful of guts. Jolts of pain shot up and down my body. Then I felt myself being dragged forward, as if some invisible creature was tugging at my intestines. The sensation was so brutally painful that I lost my breath. I didn’t dare struggle against it. I took an awkward step forward and the light grew, consuming me.

  The next thing I knew, I was lying on the floor, coughing and gasping for breath. It was dark, and it took a moment for my eyes to adjust. My hands went to my gut. I was half-expecting to find myself eviscerated. I was surprised that I was still in one piece. Then I noticed that I wasn’t in the Jackal’s house anymore. I wasn’t even in the undercity. I was in Magnus’ tower. And I wasn’t alone.

  I heard gasping noises and glanced around to see Butch and Talia going through the same unspeakable pain I’d just experienced. It was difficult to watch, and I fought the urge to vomit as my body remembered that feeling. Butch didn’t fight the urge. He rolled over and puked all over Magnus’ floor.

  “Stop that you imbecile!” Magnus cried out.

  I turned to see Magnus standing halfway across the room, watching us intently. His eyes were dark, dangerous, like a wolf. I pushed myself up and then helped Butch and Talia get to their feet. We all stood there for a minute getting our bearings, coming to grips with the sudden dislocation and the spinning sensation in our heads.

  “You forced my hand,” Magnus said.

  I looked at him. I wanted to be angry but I was shaking and as weak as a child with a fever. I didn’t have the strength. I stared at him, my eyes hollow, my mind still reeling. There was nothing to say, no thought I could form into words that would mean anything comprehensible.

  “Come,” he said impatiently. “Come with me.”

  We followed him obediently, like slaves, noiseless except for the footfall of our shoes on his hard stone floors. Magnus led us across the chamber and to the scrying table where he’d shown me Anthony’s murder a few days earlier. “Sit,” he commanded. “Watch.”

  He waved his arm over the liquid and the ripples spread out across the mirror-like surface. I saw the jail, and I saw Butch sitting at my desk. I saw myself walk in, carrying Brutus over my shoulder. “You remember this?” Magnus said. Butch and I nodded dumbly.

  “Excellent. Now watch and understand.”

  He moved the image forward a few hours. Butch was now asleep, his head lolling over the back of the chair. In the background I saw Brutus and Vinnie in their cells. They were arguing. Brutus was making accusations, saying that Vinnie had betrayed the family. Vinnie was trying to defend himself. He was clearly terrified of Brutus. Then something happened that my mind could hardly fathom.

  Magnus zoomed the image closer so that the two mobsters filled the image. Brutus was angry, almost shouting. His face was red. Then I saw a shadowy movement behind him. He must have noticed it too, because he started to turn. The roots of the tree came alive behind him. They snaked out, threading around his throat like a lasso. Brutus struggled to pull them off, but he wasn’t strong enough. He struggled, kicking and fighting for all he was worth, but to no avail.

  Vinnie backed away, terrified. “Help!” he called out. “Deputy, help!”

  I saw Butch rise from the chair but a root whipped out of the ceiling, snatched up the stapler off my desk, and smashed it across the back of his head. Butch dropped to the floor, unconscious. Behind him, Brutus went limp and slumped to the floor. Vinnie was crying, begging for mercy. Strangely, the tree gave it to him. The bars of his cell parted, allowing him to walk free. He cautiously stepped out of the cell, clearly suspecting some sort of trick. Julius appeared in the hallway behind him.

  “What’s going on?” Julius said.

  Their faces went white as Vinnie described the scene and pointed out Brutus’ body. Then they turned and ran. As soon as they were out of sight, the roots snaked around Butch’s legs and pulled him into the cell. The bars closed, locking him in. There was a shuffling over my desk and the briefcase appeared in the shadows. Gently, the Mother tree lowered it to my desk and set it there for me to find. Magnus waved his hand and the screen went blank.

  “I don’t believe it,” Butch said. “The tree did it? The Mother tree killed Brutus? And she took the Pixie Dust, too!”

  “Keep watching,” Magnus said quietly.

  Another image came to life before us. This time it was the Elders’ meeting in the conference room. We saw Diana and Shulzy setting out the tableware, and then the wineglasses and the wine. They opened the bottles, set out the place cards, and disappeared from the room. A few seconds later, Brutus and Anthony appeared in a shower of glittering light. They rushed around the table, to the area where they were supposed to be seated. “Here!” Brutus said. “The card says Steward Mossberg.”

  Anthony smiled. He walked up to my place setting and pulled a small glass vial from his pocket. It contained a light, clear liquid that he poured into my glass. He swirled it around for a few seconds and then wiped the excess away with a piece of cloth. “He won’t even know what hit him,” he said with a wide grin.

  “They’ll never figure this out,” Brutus laughed quietly. “By morning, the Steward will be nothing more than a bad memory.”

  “And our problems will be over,” said Anthony.

  They waved their wands and disappeared, and for a few seconds the room became dark and quiet. Then there came a stirring in the branches, and a long slender vine slipped down to the table. Carefully, the tree lifted my glass and set it next to Anthony’s plate. Then it took Anthony’s glass, and placed it next to mine. Then the vine vanished, and the scene went black.

  I settled back into my chair, speechless. I glanced at my companions and saw they were as dumbstruck as I was. Magnus watched over us with a satisfied smirk. “Do I need to explain anything else to you?” he said.

  I didn’t know what to say. The tree had killed Anthony. Obviously, she had done it to protect me. But why Brutus? That could only have been revenge. Or was it? Was it justice? After all, it is within the power of the tree to dispense justice. And having tried to murder me not once, but twice, Brutus was certainly guilty. If not for a little luck and a lot of determination, my remains would have been floating in the San Francisco bay.

  “You couldn’t show me this before,” I said. “You couldn’t see Anthony’s murder.”

  “No,” Magnus said. “The Mother tree blocked that from me. Her powers are… strange, to say the least.”

  I ran over it all in my mind, from beginning to end. I could still hardly believe what I had just seen. I couldn’t fathom the fact that the Mother tree was capable of such… violence. I was almost tempted to call it murder, but how could I? The Mother tree had saved my life and given Anthony a dose of his own lethal medicine at the same time. And Brutus… well, it was hard to argue that his death wasn’t deserved.

  Still, it was frightening in a way. I never would have guessed the Mother tree was capable of such things. I wasn’t sure I could go back to my apartment and feel safe and secure as I once had, knowing what I did now.

  “I guess I owe Vinnie’s family an apology,” I said.

  “Indeed,” said Magnus. “Shall I send you back?”

  “No!” we all three exclaimed at once.

  “I can find the way,” I said. “Thanks, but no thanks.”

  Chapter 15

  My head was in a fog when I left Magnus’ tower. The three of us shared a cab. We dropped Talia off in her precinct downtown, and then Butch and I went back to the tree. He went inside. I got in my Blazer and drove out to Ocean Beach. I
needed some time to sort everything out.

  I parked at one of the overlooks and took a stroll along the concrete walkway, watching the sunset over the Pacific. As shadows crept across the land and the lights of the city appeared behind me, I couldn’t help but feel I’d had the tables turned on me. All my life, I’ve had an effect on people. They look at me, trying to sort out what I am, trying to establish what that means to them. At some level, I change their lives, even if it’s imperceptible and quickly forgotten.

  Now, the same thing had happened to me. The tree had surprised me. I’m not used to being surprised. I can accept the fact that most of what we perceive as reality is just our interpretation of sensory input, but I do take for granted the fact that things I’m familiar with are constants. Dwarves are short and stout and they drink a lot of beer. Elves like the woods. Fairies play tricks. And the Mother tree sleeps, just barely conscious of anything that goes on around her. Or so I thought, until now. I’d always known that the Mother tree had consciousness, but she always seemed distant, out of touch, as if she was just barely aware of what was going on around her. The only time she really got involved in mundane affairs were the times when I locked a criminal up for some petty crime, and she determined their sentence. That was the way the system had always worked. I guess I assumed that beyond that, the Mother didn’t care much about what happened in the real world. My mistake.

  Now I had to rethink everything. I had to remind myself that not only was she conscious of more than I’d imagined, she was also clever. The Mother had not only killed, she had also stolen and concealed evidence. In fact, she’d probably been responsible for the theft of my ethometer, too. I couldn’t help but notice it had disappeared right after my safe had been broken into, and then reappeared after just enough time had passed that it wouldn’t have done me any good. I had to wonder about her motivation for doing all of that.

  I knew why she’d killed Anthony of course, that was obvious. And in my opinion, close enough to justice. But why conceal the fact that she’d done it? Was the Mother worried that others might see it as a vengeance killing? Did she feel guilty? Or was she just afraid that things might change if everyone knew the truth about her? After all, we were all quite comfortable in the belief that she wasn’t really conscious of anything going on around her. How might people feel now? Would they mistrust her? Maybe even abandon her? I suspected that was at least part of the truth… the Mother tree didn’t want anything to change. She wanted us all to trust her and live in her branches and, for the most part ignore her.

  When it came down to it, I could only guess as to her motivations. The Mother tree works in mysterious ways, and it’s possible that she knew something else, some other detail I hadn’t even considered. All I could do was trust that she had done it for the right reasons. After all, I put my trust in her to dispense justice all the time. How was that different now? Well, there was the fact that the tree had broken into my safe when she stole the briefcase. Of course, she didn’t actually have to break into my safe because she knew the code. How else could she have opened it without leaving a trace? Now that was an uncomfortable thought.

  That was when it occurred to me that maybe I really didn’t want Mother to know everything. Maybe, just maybe, I needed an office outside… and maybe that was what she’d been worried about all along. I was going to have to think about that for a while.

  Eventually, I drove up to the hospital to check on Annie. Visiting hours were over, but the nurse told me she was awake. After some discussion, she agreed to let me sneak into Annie’s room for five minutes. Annie greeted me with a smile when I arrived. She reached out to hug me, and as she put her arms around my shoulders, I cautioned her not to touch my skin. She responded by giving me a quick peck on the cheek. To my surprise, she suffered no ill effects.

  “See, it’s okay if we’re quick,” she said with a wink.

  “Hey, I’m not that quick,” I said. “How do you feel?”

  “Better. The doctor says I can go home tomorrow. You know, we never did finish our date. Rain check?”

  I laughed gently. “Definitely. Only, maybe this time we should just rent a movie.”

  “Sounds good.” She looked me up and down. “Where are my flowers? Don’t you know you’re supposed to bring flowers to the hospital?”

  I glanced shamefully at my feet. “No stores open this time of day. I promise, I’ll make it up to you.”

  “You better.”

  The nurse kicked me out not long after that, and I drove straight home. I was exhausted, I was starving, and I was feeling somewhat fuzzy in the head. Magnus’ teleportation still had my brains all scrambled up.

  After my shower, I found an envelope in the mail slot in my front door. It was from Roxy. I opened it up and found a check for seven thousand dollars. There was a note, along with a snapshot of Roxy and Jenny together. The note wasn’t from Roxy, it was from Jenny

  Thank you Mr. Mossberg for everything you did. My mommy and I are very happy, and I hope some day you will take me to visit your fairy friends. Don’t tell mommy, but I know I will miss them very much.

  Jenny

  I smiled as I read it, and then I put it on the mantle over the wood stove. Then I took the check to the bank, cashed it, and took half of it with me to The Well. It wasn’t easy apologizing to Vinnie’s family. After all, they were a crime family and they had done a pretty good job of assaulting me. Attacking a Steward is no small offense, especially if you happen to be on the receiving end. Still, I knew I had wronged them because technically the tree had released Vinnie and Julius. They were legally free, and that meant I had no business barging into the Jackal’s house. Never mind the fact that the tree had made me look like a chump. I still had to admit that I’d been in the wrong, and I had to make it right.

  Vinnie’s aunt and uncle weren’t happy to see me. They gave me a tongue-lashing that made me feel like a little kid, and then worked themselves into such a frenzy that I thought they might pull out their wands and attack me again. Before it came to that, I pulled out the money and handed it to them. They quieted down as they saw the wad of bills in the envelope. After they counted it, they almost seemed to forgive me. I packed it out of there before they changed their minds.

  Back at the office, I ran into Butch. I was surprised to see him there, considering it was getting late and we didn’t have any prisoners. I’d expected him to be out drinking with his friends at Fitzpatrick’s by now. Strangely, he wasn’t drinking at all. He was sitting in my chair, leaning back and staring at the ceiling.

  “I still can’t get it,” he murmured as I came in.

  “What?”

  “Oh, everything. What she did, how she did it. Did you know she could do that?”

  I shook my head. “I’m thinking there’s a lot about her that we don’t know.”

  “Yeah.”

  I bent over and pulled open the bottom drawer of my desk. I pulled out the vintage cabernet I’d filched from Anthony’s wine cellar and set it down in front of him. “Care for a drink?” I said. “Courtesy of Anthony Kaiser.”

  Butch grinned. “I would, but I’ve gotta run. Got a big date, you know!”

  “You don’t say. With Talia?”

  His grin grew even wider. “Aye.”

  I whistled. “Congratulations. I gather you finally asked her out?”

  He rolled his eyes and laughed. “Nope. She asked me!” He rose from the chair and started for the hall.

  “Must’ve been the Kevlar vest,” I said. “Women can’t resist it.”

  The sound of his laughter echoed through the jailhouse as he disappeared down the hall. I settled into my chair and uncorked the wine. I hated to admit it, but part of me was a little jealous of Butch. I’d been in love before and I knew what he was feeling. I knew that sense of elation, that rush of hormones and chemicals that make a person feel like anything is possible. I was happy for him. I was also happy that everything had come out okay for all of us. Roxy had her daughter back
. Butch had a new girlfriend, and me… well, I was still alive.

  I raised the bottle to the ceiling and said, “Here’s to love, Butch. Hang on tight.” Then I tipped it back and took a long draw, swirling the flavors in my mouth. No point dirtying a glass when it’s just me drinking.

  The End

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  Acknowledgements:

  This book is dedicated to John Diekmann, a rare self-made man who sacrificed his time and his substantial income to teach a bunch of ungrateful teenagers not only about textbooks, but also about real life. You did manage to teach a few of us a thing or two, despite everything we did to avoid it.

  Murder in the Boughs Copyright 2011 by Jamie Sedgwick

  Artwork copyright 2011 by Timber Hill Press

  Published by Timber Hill Press

  All rights reserved

  All characters and situations in this work are fictional. Any resemblance to real people or situations is purely coincidental.

  ISBN-10: 1466491221

  ISBN-13: 978-1466491229

  Now your free sample:

  Hank Mossberg, Private Ogre:

  Death in the Hallows

  “They say money is the root of all evil. That may be true but if it is, love comes in a close second.” -Hank Mossberg

  Chapter 1