Mortal Imperative: An Alastair Stone Urban Fantasy Novel (Alastair Stone Chronicles Book 24)

by R. L. King

  “So the fact that he either took it with him, finished it before he left, or destroyed it means he wasn’t planning to come back any time soon.”

  “Probably. It’s not a big risk to leave it there—it’s not like the cops are suspicious of any of us, and they hardly go poking around in our freezers—”

  “But if he thought for some reason he might be gone for an extended period of time—or else that he would literally go missing—he’d want to ensure he’d left nothing worrisome behind in his home if the authorities popped by to check.”

  “Damn.” Grider glared at the items on the counter, then started putting them back in the freezer. “We should go to Belmont’s place.”

  Stone didn’t miss the increased stress in his tone. He didn’t doubt that, in Grider’s mind, this had just gone from a potential problem to a real one.

  6

  Chris Belmont’s digs were considerably humbler than Orville Lu’s. His small apartment building was on the other side of town, on a street lined with similar buildings and fewer trees. Even so, the area was a lot less populated than Stone was used to seeing in the Bay Area.

  Grider parked up the street again, and he and Stone walked to the place under the disregarding spell. “What are you thinkin’?” he asked as they approached the three-story building. It was painted brown with white trim, and appeared to have two units on each floor. The small parking lot out front had eight spaces, only three of which were occupied in the middle of a weekday. No doubt most of the residents were at work.

  “I’m not sure yet.” Stone had been quiet on the drive over, turning over the facts they had so far in his mind. “It could be nothing—Dr. Lu could simply have run out and chosen not to restock since he knew he would be away. Especially since he’s one of the few who has easier access than the rest of you.” He felt uneasy discussing such things in such a euphemistic way—yes, he’s the one who could get away with nipping off with someone’s amputated leg or a few bits of spleen without anyone catching on—but there was no helping it. They had to explore every angle. Normally, Stone wasn’t at all squeamish, but cannibalism was apparently where his subconscious chose to draw its line.

  “Yeah, but if that was true, why wouldn’t he tell anybody he was going away? Especially not me, since we had that meeting planned? Would it have been so hard for him to just send me a text or something, saying he wouldn’t be around?”

  “True. Not to mention his disappearance puts a bit of a kink in your supply chain.”

  “Yeah.” Grider sounded uncomfortable. “I’ve been thinkin’ about that too. Without Orville, things could get a little tight pretty soon.”

  Stone indicated the parking lot. “Is Belmont’s car here?”

  “Nope. He’s got an old pickup truck. Definitely not here.”

  They walked through the parking lot and reached the building. It was an old-fashioned one with no elevator, and Belmont’s place was on the third floor. Stone looked around with magical sight to make sure nobody was checking them out from nearby windows, then mounted the wooden staircase. Grider followed, making remarkably little noise for a man his age.

  Nothing looked unusual at the front door. The blinds were drawn, so they couldn’t peer inside. Grider stood blocking Stone from the other apartment’s view while the mage popped the lock, and they hurried inside.

  The place was surprisingly neat for the home of a younger bachelor. Stone remembered Belmont would be in his middle thirties by now, but ten years ago he’d been on the scruffy side, with rumpled clothes and unkempt hair.

  It didn’t take the two of them long to make a cursory examination of the apartment, which had a single bedroom, living room/dining room combo, kitchen, and one bath. A sliding glass door at the rear of the living room opened onto a small wooden balcony with a view of a park.

  “No laptop here either,” Grider said, coming out of the bedroom. “He’s definitely got one, but he drags it around with him in his bag since he needs it for his reporter stuff.”

  “Toiletries still here,” Stone reported from the bath. “It’s just like Lu—it seems he knew he’d be going away, but he didn’t leave any messages behind.”

  “And nothing in the mailbox.” They’d looked in Lu’s mailbox on their way out of his place, and found nothing inside. “You think maybe he put his mail on hold?”

  “Anything’s possible.” Stone returned to the kitchen and used magic to open the freezer. Unlike the neat stacks in Lu’s, Belmont’s contained only two half-empty cartons of ice cream, an open box of frozen chicken wings, and a pile of microwave burritos. It was easy to see without moving anything that there weren’t any wrapped packages of meat. “So he’s got rid of his stash too, one way or another.”

  Grider sighed. “Lemme grab something for the ritual and we should probably get outta here before somebody down below hears us walkin’ around.”

  He disappeared into the bedroom and returned a moment later with a hoodie. “Found it in his laundry basket. A little reeky, but I dunno—maybe that’ll help.” He offered it to Stone; when the mage made no move to take it, he shrugged and opened the door.

  Stone was about to follow him when a voice sounded from outside.

  “Hey, are you a friend of Chris’s?”

  Stone stopped inside, pulling up an illusion to change his appearance to a young man in a T-shirt and jeans. He kept up the disregarding spell so even his illusionary disguise would remain unmemorable.

  Grider tensed. “Uh…yeah. He asked me and my buddy to check on his place. You know him?”

  “Yeah, kinda. You know when he’s gonna be back?”

  “He didn’t say.” Grider looked over his shoulder, but didn’t react when he saw Stone’s disguise.

  “That sucks. I can’t look after his dog too much longer. He made it sound like it’d just be a couple days.”

  “His dog?”

  Stone stepped out of the apartment. A young man in his twenties stood on the walkway in front of the second apartment’s door. “Chris has a dog?” he asked, using his American accent.

  The man frowned. “Didn’t you know?”

  “He never said anything about a dog,” Grider said. “But then, we usually meet up somewhere else.” He narrowed his eyes. “So, he asked you to look after the dog for him?”

  “Yeah. A few days ago. Said he had to leave for a couple days and he couldn’t take him with him.” As if to punctuate the man’s words, sudden barking sounded from inside his apartment, and a moment later a Jack Russell terrier appeared at his feet. The man nudged it back inside and closed the door, stepping fully out onto the walkway.

  Grider let his breath out. “Okay, this is unexpected.”

  “No shit,” the man said. “I’m serious, guys—I can’t look after him much longer. My girlfriend and I are headin’ out for a trip tomorrow. Chris doesn’t answer his texts or his email. I tried to call him, but it keeps going to voicemail. I’m glad you came by, ’cause I had no idea what I was gonna do. If you’re Chris’s friends, can you take him?”

  “Uh…”

  Stone stepped forward. “Did he say anything about where he was going?”

  “Nah, and I didn’t ask. None o’ my business. He sometimes waters my plants for me when I go away, and I like Pepper, so I figured it wouldn’t be any trouble.”

  “Was he acting odd or unusual when he asked you to watch the dog?”

  The man shrugged. “I dunno. He’s kind of an odd guy most of the time, so it’s hard to tell. I guess maybe he might have seemed a little stressed, but nothin’ that really stood out.” He frowned. “You don’t think there’s anything wrong, do you?”

  Grider waved it off. “Nah. I doubt it. Like you said, Chris can be a little strange, and I know he’s flaky sometimes. I’m sure he’ll be back soon.”

  “Yeah. I hope so.” He glanced at the door. “But seriously, somebody’s gotta take Pepper. I can’t leave him here by himself—even if I leave food and water for him, he’ll trash the plac
e and crap all over everything. It’s not fair to him or me. He’s a good dog, but you can only ask so much, y’know?”

  Stone and Grider exchanged glances.

  Grider sighed. “Okay, fine. I’ll take him. He can stay at my place. Just make sure you tell Chris where he is, so he doesn’t freak out if he comes home and finds him gone.”

  The guy’s shoulders slumped in relief. “Oh, man, I really appreciate that. What did you say your name was, by the way? I’m Kyle Shaw.”

  “Frank Grider. Chris and I go way back.”

  “Michael Townes,” Stone said. He was getting quite a lot of mileage out of that alias. If he ever did end up getting a fake ID, it might be a good name to use for it.

  “Well, thanks again,” Shaw said. “You guys are awesome. Hang on just a sec and I’ll get Pepper and his stuff.” He disappeared back inside the apartment.

  “This is just great,” Grider said. “I hope Laura doesn’t rip me a new one for bringin’ a damn mutt home.”

  Stone chuckled. “She hardly seems the type.”

  “Nah, I’m not serious. She loves animals. She’ll probably want to keep him.”

  “This troubles me, though.”

  “Why’s that?”

  “You say you didn’t know Belmont had a dog?”

  “Nah, but like I said, that’s not a big surprise. We don’t actually see each other very often these days—got our own stuff to do, y’know? And I was serious about meetin’ up other places. I’ve only ever seen his place once, and that was a couple years ago.”

  The door opened again, and Kyle Shaw came out. He carried a large bag of kibble and a red water dish with “PEPPER” on the side. Pepper himself leaped around at the end of a leash, barking happily.

  “Here ya go,” Shaw said. “He’s easy to take care of—just feed him in the morning and evening, keep his water dish full, and take him out for walkies a couple times a day. He’ll let you know when he needs to go. And thanks again. I’ll keep tryin’ to get hold of Chris.”

  Pepper seemed all too happy to go with Grider. He pranced down the steps, dragging at the leash, and hopped readily into the car’s back seat. When they rolled off, he put his paws on the seats and watched the scenery with bright-eyed interest.

  “What did you mean about this troubling you?” Grider asked.

  Stone glanced at Pepper. “Assuming Lu’s and Belmont’s disappearances are related—which I suspect they are—this is the first instance where either of them told anyone they were planning to be gone.”

  “Good point. Kinda makes it sound like they really did go of their own accord, rather than somebody snatchin’ ’em.”

  “Yes, but Lu vanished without a trace. He didn’t take anything with him—not even his toothbrush—and neither did Belmont. Except that he made sure to leave his dog with a neighbor.”

  “I don’t see where you’re goin’ with—” Grider began, but then stopped, gripping the steering wheel tighter. “Wait a sec. I think I do. You’re thinkin’ the intent must’ve been for them to vanish, but he couldn’t bring himself to leave his pooch without somebody to look after him.”

  “Yes, exactly.” Stone leaned back in his seat. “I think we might have Mr. Belmont’s love for his dog to thank for our first break in this case.”

  7

  Just as Grider suspected, Laura was delighted when she met Pepper.

  “Oh, what a cute puppy,” she gushed, crouching to pet him as Grider dropped the dish and bag of kibble on the kitchen floor. “I had no idea Chris had this little cutie.”

  “Yeah, none of us did.” Grider watched as Pepper jumped around, tongue hanging out and nails clicking on the floor. He was trying to look grumpy, but it wasn’t hard to spot his amusement. “Hope you don’t mind us lookin’ after him for a while.”

  “Oh, not at all. It will be a pleasure.” She looked up, more serious now. “I take it you didn’t find any sign of Orville or Chris?”

  “Nothing,” Stone said. He told her about their trips to both men’s homes.

  She indicated the T-shirt and hoodie, which he held in different hands to avoid any possibility of astral cross-contamination. “So you’re going to do the ritual to try to find them?”

  “Rituals plural, yes. I’ll have to do a separate one for each of them.”

  “You wanna do them here?” Grider asked. “What do you need?”

  “Just a decent amount of space. I’ve brought my own ritual materials, but I might need a few more candles depending on how things go.”

  “We’ve got plenty,” Laura said. “And I can always go to the store and get more if you need them.”

  “How about the garage?” Grider nodded toward the kitchen door. “We can back Laura’s car out, and that should give you plenty of room.”

  “Brilliant. I’d like to get started right away if that’s all right. These things take time, especially since I might have to do two of them.”

  “Might?” Laura looked up from where Pepper was trying his best to lick the skin from her hands.

  “Depends on what I find with the first one. If we get a definitive location, it’s probably best to go there before doing the second ritual.”

  She nodded, and Stone got the impression the whole “magical ritual” thing was unnerving her as much as the ghouls’ civilized cannibalism was doing to him. “Don’t worry,” he said, trying to sound reassuring. “We’ll get this sorted out one way or another. Perhaps we’ll discover the two of them took off for a wild weekend of debauchery in Las Vegas or something.”

  “You don’t really think that, do you?”

  “Well…no, to be honest. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Grider, if you could show me the garage…”

  Grider watched for a while, perched on a stool next to his workbench, while Stone constructed the circle for the tracking ritual. Eventually, though, he stood. “I’ll be inside. Let me know if you need anything.”

  “Do you want to watch the ritual?” Stone didn’t look up from the symbol he was chalking, crouched near the circle’s center.

  “Can I? Or would you rather work by yourself?”

  “I don’t care either way, as long as you understand that once I’ve started, you can’t break the circle for any reason.”

  “Uh—” Grider shifted from foot to foot. “Y’know what—If you don’t need me for anything, I think I’m just gonna wait inside. I hope this is gonna help and I really appreciate you doin’ it, but this kinda stuff gives me the creeps.”

  “Quite all right.” Coming from a cannibal, that’s an interesting position, but it takes all kinds. “It shouldn’t be long. Any feeling for which one I should start with? I hope they’re together, but we can’t make assumptions.”

  “Start with Orville. I hope we can find ’em both, but…”

  “But he’s more vital to your community.”

  Grider didn’t answer, and he didn’t meet Stone’s gaze, but his feelings were obvious nonetheless.

  “Good luck,” he said instead. “There’s no chance you’re gonna—you know—blow up the garage or something if anything goes wrong, right?”

  Stone chuckled. “No chance. Worst that might happen if something goes pear-shaped is I get a whopper of a headache. Tracking rituals are quite safe overall.”

  “Yeah. Okay. Well…be careful.” He hesitated at the door, then quickly opened it and went back inside.

  Stone wouldn’t have said so, but he was glad to see him go. He didn’t mind spectators to his rituals, assuming they knew what they were doing. Verity, Jason, and Amber were fine, but if anything did go wrong, he couldn’t completely trust Grider not to overreact and do something to make things worse.

  As he put the finishing touches on the circle, he thought about his friends back home. He hadn’t made any more progress on figuring out Jason’s strange new power—it was possible there was no more progress to be made. His hypothesis about adrenaline or stress activating it could very well be the end of it, but so far Jason hadn’t
experienced anything that might test it. He’d been spending most of his time working mundane cases for his agency, with Amber providing informal help. The two of them were settling into their new home in the Santa Cruz mountains, and had already begun renovating the kitchen.

  Verity, meanwhile, hadn’t been around much either. She was still working with Scuro and improving her alchemy skills with Hezzie in San Francisco. Their dinner together had been the first in a while, and he wondered how soon it would be before she introduced her brother and Amber to her other half-siblings. He had no idea how that would play out, and planned to stay out of the whole thing unless specifically asked.

  He stood, pushing his hair off his forehead and examining the circle. Everything looked fine, so there was no reason to hold off on beginning the ritual. He selected the They Might Be Giants shirt from the workbench, stepped into the center, and dropped the shirt in the bowl he’d brought with him.

  “All right, Dr. Lu,” he murmured, “let’s see where you’ve nipped off to.”

  The ritual, as usual, didn’t take long. As soon as he lit the candles and began the spell, the familiar energy began forming around the T-shirt in the bowl. He focused his concentration, shaping the energy into a tendril that twisted around, then shot from the bowl and disappeared through the raftered ceiling.

  Stone followed it, heart thudding with anticipation. Tracking spells always felt a bit like chases, with the caster pitting his skills against the target. Usually the chase was an easy one: the tendril found its like energy in the target, either indicating a specific location if they were close, or a direction if they weren’t. Stone’s range was about a hundred miles—significantly larger than most mages’—and if he poured additional Calanarian power into the casting, he might get half again more.

  This time, though, the answer came back more interesting—and more frustrating. He settled back, releasing the energy with a whoosh of exhaled breath. The T-shirt remained in the bowl; since he hadn’t zeroed in on the target, it wasn’t expended in the working.