"Good morning." I was determined not to trip over my own tongue, making assumptions as to the nature of the call, so I stopped there.
"I overheard an interesting conversation this morning that I thought your team would be interested in."
Of course, it was work related. My entire life was work. "Sounds intriguing. What do you have for us?"
"I happened to walk by the offices of our friends at the DEA. They cleared out, leaving for Langston."
"I have no idea where that's at. Why were they going there?"
"It's on the outskirts of the city. They mentioned a drug bust," Ethan said, "and you and your partners have taken a special interest in some necklaces."
"We have," I agreed, wondering how weird that sounded from his point of view.
"They mentioned that there was a bunch of jewelry there as well. That's probably not too rare with drug money, but it sounded like these were bagged up like the drugs."
My interest ratcheted up. "Have they already left? Did you hear anything else?"
Ethan let out a chuckle. "I thought you'd be interested, so I called you right away. They were leaving the office when I walked by. That's all I have."
"This is great, thank you, Ethan."
Ethan's voice dropped to a less professional level. "I'm sorry I had to leave like that last night."
"It's okay. I understand. Are we on for tomorrow?"
I could hear Ethan's smile through the phone. "The day looks clear. I'll pick you up around nine thirty tomorrow morning?"
"I'll have my hiking boots laced up."
When Ethan and I were off the phone, I called Hank. We needed an all-access pass to a DEA crime scene and, as our handler, Hank always made sure we were well prepared and had what we needed.
Hank clicked away on his keyboard after I told him what I knew. "Access to the site could take a while, but if it's in the city, it'll take you over an hour to get there anyway."
"Luckily, the local team doesn't have too long of a head-start on us." I shot off a text to Logan and Rider, telling them to gear up for a road trip. "Is there anything in the system yet?"
"So far, only a prelim report. We know where they're at and drugs are involved."
"How long ago was the bust made?"
"About an hour ago. Kyrian should be able to pull some strings to get you all in as soon as you arrive."
"Do you think she can get them to keep people away?" It was a long shot, but worth a try. "A clear site would be easier for tracking, but I've already ticked the DEA off once."
"With this late of a start, I doubt we can make that happen."
Another thought struck me. "Any way to get MyTH out there? They're close by, and at least we can learn what's happening on scene."
"They don't have badges." Hank paused in his relentless attack on the keyboard. "Actually, one person does. Let me talk to Kyrian and see if we can move in that direction."
Two texts came through, letting me know that Rider and Logan were on their way. "How did someone from MyTH end up with a badge?"
"They're only about ten years old, some sort of an offshoot of an older organization. The man who set it up came from AIR. Agent Gordon took early retirement to set up shop in the city."
"And AIR let him go off on his own?" I asked.
"I checked out the file once, and chunks of the report were redacted. Something happened in St. Louis around that time. MyTH was set up to oversee it, and AIR gave their blessing."
"Hopefully they can get Gordon over to the site. If he can, have Sable and Dr. Taylor meet us there as well."
"Will do."
"Thanks, Hank. Before I go, have you heard any updates about the minotaurs?"
"Everyone's accounted for so far. You'll hear from me soon."
It should have been a relief, but, as I hung up the phone, it made me wonder what we were dealing with. If all the minotaurs were accounted for, could we even be dealing with souls?
Hank got back to me once Logan, Rider, and I were on the road. MyTH was on their way to the site.
"Hopefully this will lead to another piece of the puzzle. We do not have much to go on yet," Rider said.
Glancing at Rider, I saw nothing that would make me want to move out of his way. Still, Gran wouldn’t have given me the warning for no reason.
"True, and no suspects," I said.
Rider and Logan remained silent. I could have asked them if they still thought Vincent was behind this, but I chickened out, certain that I didn't want to hear their answer.
"So, what are we walking into?" Logan asked after a few beats of silence.
Grateful for the change of subject, I opened the file.
"Hank sent us a little more," I said. "The bust is joint work with local police and DEA. Suspects have been removed and are in interrogation. The last time they updated the file they were photographing and cataloging items on site."
"Anything about the jewelry?" Logan asked.
"Not a thing," I said. "Maybe they aren't connecting the two yet."
"Keep a close eye when we get there," Logan said. "Make sure nothing has slipped into their evidence bags before we have a chance to take a look."
"What are you going to do when we get there?" Rider asked me.
"Same as usual. It's a crime scene," I said.
"I do not think it is a good idea for you to be in the room until we know if the jewelry is active or not," Rider said.
"He makes a good point," Logan said. "We don't know what, if anything, we have here. It would be bad if you took in a bunch of energy from the Lost at a crime scene."
"I've been thinking about that." The implication that I couldn't handle my job made me twist in my seat. "Nothing seems to happen if I am near the items, only when I touch one of them, and it shouldn't be hard to avoid that. No one's going to be tossing around evidence."
Logan began humming to himself.
"Look," I said, "I can do my job."
"We know that," Rider said, "but we want to keep you safe."
Logan shook his head then continued to hum.
I took a couple of meditative breaths before responding. It really didn't help. "Are you going to be able to tell if something is in the jewelry without me? Have either of you been able to detect anything in the items?" Rider didn't answer. "Look, I'm not saying it's the best idea, but if the unexpected happens, I can at least hold things off ‘til we are away from the scene. I managed to do that at the police station, and that was before we knew what to expect."
Logan's humming filled the silence for the rest of the trip. The ethereal tones rolled over me, taking my aggravation as it went. The GPS took us right up to the entrance of an apartment building. There were police officers mingled in with several agents with DEA stamped across the back of their jackets.
"Has the file been updated?" Logan asked.
Outside the truck, Rider took in the entire scene and appeared tense.
It took a few seconds for the tablet to refresh. "Nothing new." Watching Rider's anxiety threatened to bring back my aggravation. "Look, take some tranquilizers with us, just to be on the safe side."
"I do not want to tranquilize you." He looked offended, but it didn't last long. Rider tensed, all anxiety seeming to flee, and he looked around the site.
Following suit, I took a tentative step into the Path. The dark recesses hidden beyond my mind shifted as I jumped the gap over them, and into the Path. Rippling waves of emotion streamed widely, but it was punctuated by holes that held no glimmering traces and dulled the areas around them.
Goosebumps broke out on my arms. "We're in the right place."
"Good to know," Logan said. "I grabbed some tranqs. Let's scoot on in there."
"Scoot?" I looked at my partner in surprise.
Logan grinned. "Cowboy lingo."
Of course it was.
Rider rolled his head on his shoulders, grabbed a tranquilizer without looking at it and put it into his pocket. Logan took the lead and I followed behind,
but everything was out of balance and had me moving slower than normal. When I damned up the Path, reading only a tiny trickle, most of the effects died away. There were blank spots to avoid which caused my trail to wind. Rider followed my zig-zagging path. I'm not sure if he could sense what he was avoiding, or if he was trying to cover the fact that I looked ridiculous.
There were a few agents outside. One guarding an official truck with two other men taking notes, and another few moving to and from the apartment. Two officers guarded the yellow crime scene taped around the yard, keeping a close eye on the neighbors that were smoking and watching the show with interest. Rider's nose wrinkled up. Hopefully, the cigarette smoke wouldn't hide the scents we needed to track.
Each agent took notice of our approach, making sure we knew they were watching. Logan flashed a badge as we approached the officer standing watch over the door. The guard inspected our badge, taking more time than I thought the occasion warranted. Finally, after looking at each of our IDs, he let us through.
Even with the people outside the apartment, it was overcrowded when we entered the room. Two men tried to bar our progress further, but our badges wiped away the protests.
"Make a big bust and all the feds come out of the woodworks," someone muttered. "Where were these guys last week?"
Seeing the holes in the Path was making me edgy, and I wanted to turn to tell the man exactly where we were last week and where he could shove his comment, but Logan intercepted and brought us further into the room.
"Telling that fool anything isn't going to help you or him," he said in a low voice.
The argument was on the tip of my tongue, but he was right, so I let Logan steer me further into the room and straight into Doctor Taylor. Literally. I bumped into him from behind and I was apologizing before I even recognized him.
"Good to see you here," he said quietly. Taylor hadn't taken his eyes off a door in the hallway and I could hear a heated discussion coming from the other room.
"Who's in there?" I asked.
"Gordon's in there with some DEA agent that tried to kick us out," Taylor said. "And what you're looking for is in that room."
Chapter 14
That was enough for Logan. He tipped an imaginary hat at Taylor and walked into the room. Rider was caught in indecision. He followed Logan, but then stopped and watched the door, much like Taylor.
When Taylor looked at me, I shrugged. "Logan will sort them out." Under my breath I added, "One way or another." I meant it for Rider's ears, but both he and Taylor relaxed.
"Is Sable here?" I asked.
"No, only Gordon and myself," Taylor said.
"Rider, do you want to see if you can pick up anything while we wait?" I asked.
Immediately, his eyes darted around everywhere and moved in circles around the room. It was a difficult task with this many bodies. A few people grumbled, but I caught their eye and gave them my best glare. I didn't make any friends, but I was an unknown quantity, as was Rider, so no one spoke out too loudly. The room had the stuffy, sticky feeling of too many people in one area. There was no objection from me when someone reached around me and turned on the AC.
"What's happened so far?" I asked, trying to keep my voice low.
"The place has been dusted and inventoried. Some of the drugs were being moved off scene when we arrived. Gordon put his foot down and holed up with the lead DEA agent to tell him off. I'm not sure what it accomplished."
"It bought us some time at least. They didn't move any of the jewelry?" I asked.
"No, but they moved quite a bit of meth out."
"Rider?" I didn't have to raise my voice. His ears picked up everything. "Can you try to tell if any of our evidence walked off?"
I saw Rider nod and walk into the room where Logan had disappeared. I guess he was getting a good scent off the items in question. When someone yelled, I followed my partner inside but found Rider blissfully ignorant of the man’s attention. Even with the voids cutting through the sliver of Path I was watching, I could tell the jewelry was what we were looking for. With so many pieces together, even from here I could feel the energy radiating from them.
"It's here," I said quietly.
Rider perked up and went to the jewelry while a man continued to yell at him. Logan and a balding gray haired man that I assumed to be Gordon, watched the angry man.
"Don't touch it," I whispered to Rider, knowing my voice would break through the other noise to reach him.
Rider rolled his eyes, a move he'd recently picked up from me, and hovered around the plastic folding table that held our evidence. He paced back and forth, and then breezed past us, out of the room and on the trail.
This only upset the man further. "What the hell does he think he's doing? You all can't—"
My patience had reached its tipping point. "Excuse me, we can and we will. You are?"
He brought himself up to his full height, ensuring that he stood taller than I did. "I'm Special Agent Wilson of the DEA, and this is my crime scene."
I heard someone scoff from in the other room. Apparently, some of the local officers weren't too thrilled about the joint task force.
"I think we've heard enough for now." Logan didn't lose his smile, but his eyes looked hard as they settled on Wilson. "Let's get the place cleared out."
Gordon was keeping silent. Trying to ignore the feeling that the blank spots in the Path were trying to fold in on me, I held out my hand and introduced myself. "I'm Agent Heidrich."
Gordon peered at me, hesitating only momentarily before shaking my hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Agent Gordon." He shook my hand, but our introduction was interrupted.
Gordon might not have minded meeting me, but I wasn’t so lucky with the other agitated man in the room.
Wilson honed in on my motion like a shark and swore at me. "Who the hell do you think you are? Walking in-"
Trying to keep my cool wasn't working. "Agent Wilson-"
Wilson's face turned redder and stepped closer to me. "That's Special Agent Wilson. Don't you forget it!"
Trying to rein in my anger, I took a long look at Wilson. The man was too close, but there was no way I was backing up for this jerk. Even when people were put off by my shattered soul, I had never encountered anyone on the job that acted this unprofessional.
Logan moved up to the man, speaking in a calm voice. "Special Agent Wilson, why don't we go for a walk and discuss this situation."
While Logan tried to pacify the man, I watched reds and oranges pop onto the Path, and then wrap themselves tight around Special Agent Wilson.
Wilson's Path melded into a cloudy shade of red as blackness snaked in and I almost took a step away. The bright glare flaring up on his hand was what grabbed my attention.
His hands balled into fists. "Why don't you and your team go-"
"He took evidence." The words popped out of my mouth before thinking.
Any sense of restraint Wilson may have had broke. Open palmed, his hand slammed across my face. Shock ran through me almost as fast as the stinging pain in my cheek.
Logan broke his cool. Even had I not been in the Path, I would have sensed the explosion of aggression that jumped from the elf. In the Path, the usual golden color that surrounded Logan burst away, replaced by anger so violent that it etched into the room. His features looked sharper, which was a clear indication things were about to get bad.
Before I could fully take in the situation, Doctor Taylor was there. In a blur, he twisted Wilson's arm behind his back and tipped him forward enough to shove him into the floor. Rider was at the door. I'm not sure if he heard what was happening or felt Logan's anger. I caught his eye, he took a step into the room, but I held up a hand to have him wait; there was already too much confusion. Rider was going to object, but I waved him away. He leaned against the doorframe.
Logan stood unmoving while he bottled up his flare of fury. He looked strained while trying to regain his composure.
Trying to steady my own
anger didn't take the heat from my voice. "The ring on his finger needs to be taken off."
Without losing his grip, Taylor reached down, slid the ring off, and held it out for me to take.
Some part of me wanted it. I wanted to open the Path and let that tiny piece of the Lost jump into me.
My heart nearly skipped a beat and I shivered before taking a few steps back, bumping into the wall. Taylor took his eyes away from the agent for the first time and watched me as Logan took the ring.
Wilson sputtered, went slack, and his breath sounded as if he had run his out of shape body through a marathon.
I ignored the look from Taylor and addressed the man on the floor. "Special Agent Wilson, it's time for you to step aside and pull yourself together."
The man had hit me, I didn't retaliate, and now it was too late. This realization did nothing to temper my anger. "Or should I have the good doctor here escort you out?"
Taylor managed to pull Wilson to his feet, even though it looked like the agent outweighed him by more than twenty pounds. Without waiting for an answer, Wilson, looking confused, was led to the door. Rider left without saying anything. Taylor said a few whispered words to Wilson who nodded, more towards the ground than at Taylor. Taylor dropped Wilson's arm and followed him out of the room.
Wanting to make sure the man was far away from me, I stepped out and watched Wilson leave. Everyone bagging evidence very carefully kept their eyes away from the men leaving. Concentrating on the Path, I couldn't see a void, but the last smear of rage that had surrounded Wilson fell away.
"Moron," I said, not bothering to keep my voice down.
Back in the room, Logan was handing an evidence bag over to Gordon.
"So this is what we're after?" Gordon held the bag up to the light.
"That's it, or at least part of it." I gestured to the plastic table holding many pieces of jewelry.
Gordon turned the bag around in his hands. "Does the bag dampen the effects?"
I glanced towards the door. "We don't really know yet. Everyone that's responded has been wearing the ring for a while. Agent Wilson could have put on the piece hours ago." I glanced towards the door again and nailed down the source of my anxiety. "Maybe Rider should try to spot if anyone else has a souvenir?"
Broken Paths (AIR Book 2) Page 12
