“I guess you like it, huh, Rev?” one of the uniformed officers asked him.
“This was a good one, Jones,” he said, nudging the gadget to the edge of his desk so he could work. The combination of sharing a name with the patron saint of policemen and being the son of a minister and therefore a little more straitlaced than most cops had also given him the nickname of “Rev,” or “the Right Reverend St. Michael.” From what he’d seen happen to other officers, it could have been much, much worse, so he didn’t complain.
“Doesn’t that thing violate the fire code?” Mari asked, throwing her coat on the back of her chair. “And can someone get me some coffee? My hands are too numb to hold the pot.”
Jones perched on the corner of Michael’s desk. “I guess we don’t have to worry about you being out investigating naked women.”
“You saw him bring in a coat,” Mari said. “If he’d seen a naked woman, do you think he’d still have it?”
“Naked women?” Michael couldn’t resist asking.
Jones gave him a playful punch on the shoulder. “Hey, look at that! He is human! Yeah, apparently the guys in Queens and Staten Island were talking about finding naked chicks on the rocks near the water.”
“You mean like where the seals are?” Mari asked.
Michael didn’t quite catch himself before he uttered an “oh!” of realization. Naked women where one would normally see seals might mean selkies—fairy creatures that could look like humans or like seals. Or it could just be naked women, with nothing at all to do with the fae. This was New York. He’d seen weirder things, not even counting his fae experiences.
To cover up his exclamation, he hurried to add, “In this weather, being naked outside could be dangerous. Maybe there was a bad batch of drugs?”
Jones shrugged. “I dunno. I just know they gave the guys the slip.”
“Ha!” Mari laughed. “I don’t think it was the girls who were doing drugs. Or else these guys’ last dates were so ugly that seals look like beautiful naked women in comparison.”
Officer Ritter came over with a cup of coffee for Mari. “So, what were you two up to if not naked women?”
“Some chick tried to drag a guy into the bushes,” Mari said. “He was out walking his dog, and a woman attacked him, but the dog scared her off.”
“Sounds exciting,” Jones said with a grin.
“It must have been when it happened,” Mari retorted. “We only got there in time to get his statement.”
“Gee, why don’t women want to drag me into the bushes?” Ritter said with an exaggerated sigh.
“You should see what he looks like,” Michael said. “I don’t think you’d want to trade places with him.”
“It’s gonna take at least ten stitches,” Mari added.
The fairy encyclopedia that was building in Michael’s head had suggested a nixie—a kind of fae creature that could look like a beautiful woman or a horrible monster that would lure men to their deaths. Or maybe in this case a crazy chick was just a crazy chick. Either way, the last couple of cases had practically doubled the Central Park violent crime rate for the year.
Realizing they would get no more gossip from Michael and Mari, Jones and Ritter wandered off. Michael turned his attention to his work. His e-mail was full of bulletins about missing people, including two more missing kids. He noted the locations, but he didn’t see a pattern. The adults seemed more like the usual kinds of cases of people whose families started looking for them as the holidays approached.
Mari stood and stretched before grabbing her coat. “Okay, I’m out of here. You coming, Rev?”
“Just need to wrap up some paperwork.”
She reached over to tousle his hair. “You’re such a good boy. But you make the rest of us look bad.” She slipped on her coat and stretched again. “I really hate working nights. I can’t wait to get off this shift. Catch you later, Rev. Don’t stay up all day.”
Michael finished his paperwork, took a moment to straighten his desk, and washed his and Mari’s coffee mugs before getting his coat and heading out. The park was quiet at this time of the morning, especially in this weather. The hardcore joggers were out, as were the dog walkers, but the bitter winds kept most others indoors. That made it more of a surprise when a deep but still female voice called out, “Well, hello, Detective.”
He hadn’t seen Mrs. Smith approach, though he’d have thought that a woman in a brightly colored—and badly clashing—coat and hat pushing an overloaded shopping cart would have been hard to miss. From what he knew of Mrs. Smith, that had nothing to do with the way people treated the homeless as invisible. She wouldn’t be found if she didn’t want to be found. “Good morning, Mrs. Smith,” he said.
“We need to talk. Frankly, I’m a little hurt that you ignored me yesterday morning.”
“What could you have told me that I could have put in a report?”
“Who says I wanted to talk to you in your capacity as a police officer?”
“I was on duty. Anything that happened would have been in my capacity as a police officer.”
“Are you on duty now?”
“I’m on my way home.”
“Good, then we can talk.” He kept walking, but she wheeled her cart around so she could walk alongside him. “What do you think happened yesterday?”
“We’re still waiting on the ME report to see if it might have been foul play.”
“That wasn’t what I asked. What do you think happened?”
“I won’t know what I think until I have all the evidence.”
She gave a loud snort that wasn’t quite a laugh. “Oh, so you’re playing it that way now, are you? I’d thought you were too clever to resort to denial after everything you’ve seen.”
With an unexpected burst of anger, he snapped, “What do you want me to say, that I’m pretty sure a kelpie did it? I saw the white horse running across the lake, and I saw enough of the victim’s life to get the impression she might have believed just enough to see it, but didn’t know enough to realize it was dangerous. But even if I admit that, what good does it do? And didn’t you tell me this was your jurisdiction, for this kind of work, anyway?”
“That was when we first met, before I had a better sense of who and what you were. Based on what I saw then, you looked like a full-fledged operator moving in on my territory without so much as a hello. Now I realize that while you’ve got the chops, you’re more of an apprentice, so you should be working with me until you’re ready to fly solo.”
“An apprentice?”
“Frankly, since you struck me as a smart boy, I was expecting you to come to me, asking to learn. But since Mohammad didn’t go to the mountain …”
“I already have a job. I’m a cop. Having the inside scoop on fae activity helps me know what’s really going on, but I don’t have time to train to do anything else.”
“And besides, you thought it was all going to go away, didn’t you? Or you hoped it would. Shut it out, leave it all behind, and go back to the way things were. But sorry, son, you’ve been changed, and it’s not going to go away. You’ve got to deal with things the way they are. And what’s happening is that weird things are invading our world. The kelpie was just one of them. There’s also a nixie running loose.”
“And selkies on the shore,” he admitted reluctantly. “I’m still not sure about the missing kids.”
“Kids are missing and you’re sticking your fingers in your ears and singing the ‘Star-Spangled Banner’?”
“I’m looking into it.” His anger and irritation faded into a kind of weariness that reminded him of the days when he was recovering from a gunshot wound. “So, are more weird things happening now, or am I just learning to see what’s been there all along?”
Her pause was longer than he would have expected from someone who’d approached him with a clear agenda. Finally, she said, “Keep your eyes open. There’s change in the air. This is normally a quiet time of year for any interactions with the fae.
It may just be that things settled down in the Realm so we notice the things outside. It could be something rising here. There are lots of fae-related beings that don’t live in the Realm, and a changing of the guard in there won’t affect them. That’s where people like us may have to work with your enchantresses.”
“So selkies in Jamaica Bay, the kelpie incident, a possible nixie in the park, and a lot of missing persons could be signs of something dangerous.”
“Could be. Might be nothing.”
“You’re being unhelpfully vague.”
“Magic isn’t an exact science. That’s what makes it magic.”
“What should I do?”
“Put up your Christmas decorations—the real stuff, no plastic. Where do you think that tradition came from? Dark things sometimes happen at dark times. When the days are short, it’s party time for the things that don’t like daylight.”
“I’m not going to have to start slaying vampires, am I?”
“You’ve seen too many movies.”
“Is there something you and I should be doing about it?”
“As I said, get some green stuff out. That’ll help you. Keep studying. I’ll keep my eyes open.”
They’d nearly reached a park exit. “Do you need a warm place to stay?” he asked.
“What makes you think I don’t have one?”
The fact that she seemed to be carrying around all her worldly goods in a shopping cart was a good sign, but he realized it was an assumption he’d made. For all he knew, she had a Fifth Avenue penthouse and this was just a cover so her society friends wouldn’t notice her work in the park. “Okay then, if you’re set. But I have a sofa if you need it.”
“I don’t think it would be proper. It would ruin my reputation to spend the night alone with a younger man. Good-bye, Detective. Have a nice day.”
He still heard her laugh as she wheeled her cart back into the park. Shaking his head, he shoved his hands into his coat pockets and made his way toward a diner where he could get a hot breakfast. An apprentice wise person? That was something to think about. But even if he didn’t take that step, Mrs. Smith was right that when lives were at stake, he couldn’t afford to remain in denial and hide from the truth.
Eight
The Antique Shop
1:00 p.m.
“My, this is a surprise,” Athena said when Emily and Beau entered the shop. Her tone of voice said that it wasn’t a surprise at all. Emily had to admit to being relieved that Amelia didn’t seem to be around. It was so much easier to talk to Athena. Amelia could be intimidating. “I’m afraid Amelia had another errand this morning,” Athena added.
“That’s okay. I’m sure you can help me.”
Once he was freed from his leash, Beau headed straight to his bed and went to sleep, and Emily envied him. She managed to hold off spilling her concerns to Athena until the older woman had finished making tea. Finally, after the formal ceremony of tea pouring and pastry offering had been completed, Athena said, “Now, what’s troubling you?”
“I know what’s happening to the dancers,” Emily said, going on to describe what she’d seen the night before. “I couldn’t tell if Eamon really didn’t know what to do about it or just didn’t want to tell me. He acted kind of like it was their right to take us.”
“That is one of the disputes we’ve had with their people over the centuries,” Athena said.
“Well, I can’t imagine Nana going for it. He said he’d talk to her, but maybe we should send Sophie.”
“I’m not sure this is something the queen can control. It’s the natural way of their people.”
“So we should just let them do this, when people don’t even know what they’re wishing for?”
Athena stirred her tea thoughtfully, her lips pursed. “They don’t usually let people come to harm. It may only be dangerous to people who spend their days dancing or if they start living in their dreams and let reality pale.”
“But dancers are more likely to dream of dancing. Is there anything I can do to protect people I know?”
“There are herbs that fend off fairies. I think we have some in stock. Just a moment.” She got up and scurried to the back room, returning a moment later with a basket full of dried greenery and some Christmas ribbon. “Here we go. If you make it look like a Christmas decoration, you can call it a gift and that gives you an excuse to give it to them without having to explain it.”
Leave it to Athena to use arts and crafts as a weapon, Emily thought with a smile. “Brilliant plan. I love it.”
Together, they shaped bundles into wreaths and sprays, binding them with the ribbon and adding other touches of greenery or berries for color. As they worked, Emily said, “Eamon mentioned something about them being in a dream state while they were dancing, like they weren’t physically in the same place I was. But I saw them, right there. It doesn’t make a lot of sense, does it?”
“Very little about the fae makes sense.”
Emily hesitated for a moment, working up the nerve to ask another question. “Eamon also said he could take me that way. Do you think I should, just to find out what’s going on, where they’re going? Maybe since I know what’s happening, I’d be conscious of it, and I can trust him not to hurt me.” She had to admit that she was a little more curious about the other kind of dream she’d mentioned to Eamon, if that might be a way for them to have a relationship that spanned worlds, but she wouldn’t dare mention that idea to Athena.
“For research?” Athena asked, her eyes twinkling.
“Totally. I mean, I can get him to take me dancing at any time. I think before I see about putting a stop to it, I ought to find out what it’s all about. And I want to see how many people I know are involved. For all I know, all my friends are partying without me.”
The bell on the door jingled, and they both looked up in surprise. Customers were rare in this shop. But it was Sophie, looking uncharacteristically tired and bedraggled. “Ah, there you are,” said Athena, apparently not at all surprised. “Let me give you a key. I’ve already told the doorman to expect you. Feel free to make yourself at home.”
“I’m going to have to just dump my stuff and run,” Sophie said. “I’ve managed to finagle a little studio time to myself, and I don’t want to miss it.”
“I guess this means you got it,” Emily said, raising an eyebrow at her sister. “You do remember that there are these things called telephones that allow us to communicate with each other.”
For a second, Sophie looked chagrined, but she immediately regained her usual aplomb. “I’m sorry. I suppose I just got so busy with packing and making arrangements, and I figured we’d have plenty of time to talk once I was here.”
“Wait, did you actually take the long way around, like normal people?”
“Well, I couldn’t exactly move to New York for more than a month without Mama noticing me leaving. I had to tell her, and she insisted on driving me to the airport.” Sophie gave a mischievous grin. “But I did book a horrendously early flight. I can always pop back through the Realm and sneak in if there’s something I couldn’t take on the plane.”
Athena handed her an envelope. “The key’s in there, and the directions. Your room is through the kitchen. And think of it as your home while you’re there.”
“Thank you so much. Now I have to run. My cab’s waiting.”
“This could be really good for her,” Emily remarked once Sophie was gone. “I always hated that she gave up dancing, and it’s even worse that she did it for me.”
“It wasn’t as though you asked her to do so.”
“No, not exactly. But I didn’t complain since it made it easier for me to leave home and come to New York.”
“Well, it’s all right now, isn’t it? You’re a star on Broadway and Sophie is dancing again, sure to be a star, and she’s right where she can be a full member of our circle.” Emily didn’t think Sophie considered that a bonus, but she kept her mouth shut for the time being. Athena grinned.
“And she’ll be in much closer proximity to Michael.”
“Is that why you offered her a place to stay? Athena, you are a busybody.”
“It’s in the job description for enchantresses. Now, about this idea of you becoming a dreaming dancer. What would you hope to accomplish?”
“I just want to see it for myself. I want to know if it’s harmful. I want to know how to protect my friends.”
“You want to spend some time with that silver-eyed fairy.”
“Hey, it’s one thing for you to be a busybody with Sophie. I’ll never admit it to her, but I heartily approve. I have to draw the line at you playing matchmaker with me.”
Athena’s face suddenly went serious. “I wouldn’t play matchmaker there. I am merely making sure that you are clear and honest with yourself about your intentions. This is not a relationship you can or should let yourself just fall into. You know there’s no future to it. For you to be with him, you’d have to give up your life here. For him to be with you, he’d have to give up immortality. How long could you survive, caught between worlds? When you’re my age, he’ll still be the same as he is now, and you’ll have given up hope of having a life or a family in the human world.”
“Who says it has to last that long? What’s wrong with having some fun? None of my relationships so far have lasted more than a few months, so I wouldn’t expect this one to be any different.”
“You know what happened to you when you took one sip of fairy drink in the Realm. What do you think would happen if you partook of something far more intense? Humans who dally with the fae spend the rest of their lives pining.”
Emily couldn’t answer. She knew Athena was right. But she also feared that it was already too late for her. She wasn’t quite pining, but she had no interest in any other man.
Athena finished tying a fancy bow on a particularly large sheaf of herbs and handed it directly to Emily. “Take this one for yourself and forget about this scheme. It won’t end well, trust me.” Her voice had a catch in it, and her eyes grew bright with unshed tears.
A Kind of Magic Page 5
