The Harbinger PI Box Set

by Adam J. Wright

  “Mr. Harbinger, it’s good to see you.”

  I turned to see Victoria Blackwell coming over to us from behind the counter. She wore a black lace and velvet dress, the same as yesterday. The only thing missing from her ensemble was the black lace parasol.

  “Hey,” I said as she reached us. “This is my friend….”

  “Mallory Bronson,” Victoria said, shaking Mallory’s hand. “I read all about you in the paper. That night at Blackthorn House was simply terrible. Would either of you like tea?”

  “Umm, sure,” I said. “Listen, I’ve come here to ask for your help with something.”

  She raised one eyebrow. “Oh? I thought that your Society forbade you to seek help from witches.”

  “It’s frowned upon,” I said. “It isn’t forbidden.”

  She paused for a moment, as if thinking. Then she said, “All right. Come through to the back room and we can discuss terms.” She led us through the maze of bookshelves toward the back of the building.

  Mallory looked at me and silently mouthed, “Terms?”

  I shrugged. I hadn’t expected the witches to cast a locator spell for free, but the word “terms” seemed to suggest more than a monetary payment.

  “Devon, would you like to join us in the back room for a moment?” Victoria asked her sister as we passed her among the shelves. Devon Blackwell’s features were similar to Victoria’s except she had a softer, younger face. I guessed that she might be in her mid-twenties while Victoria was four or five years older. Both sisters shared the same dark eyes, long raven hair, and sultry good looks.

  We were taken through a door marked PRIVATE and into a room that was filled with stacks of boxes and packages. A small metal desk with a computer sat in the corner. “This is where we run the mail order part of our business,” Victoria explained as we entered the room. “Please take a seat.” There was an old leather sofa pushed against one wall with a long wooden coffee table in front of it. Mallory and I sat on the sofa while Victoria perched on the metal desk. Devon went to a kitchenette area and boiled water in an electric kettle while she spooned tea into a large ceramic tea pot.

  “So, what is the nature of your problem?” Victoria asked.

  “I think there’s a werewolf in town,” I said. “I don’t want to have to wait for the full moon to find out who it is. By then, it might have killed somebody. I was hoping you could cast a locator spell that would tell me where the werewolf is.”

  Victoria pursed her lips. “To what end?”

  “Whoever this person is, they might not even know they’re a werewolf. I can offer them a safe, secure environment on the nights of the full moon. They won’t have to worry that they’re going to lose control and kill someone because of their curse.”

  “So you want to protect them.”

  “I want to protect them and I want to protect everyone else from them.”

  Devon came over with the tea, placing the pot and cups on the coffee table, along with sugar and milk. She began pouring the drinks.

  Mallory asked her, “Aren’t you worried that while you’re both back here, your store is unattended?”

  Devon smiled at Mallory as if she were looking at a small child. “No, that isn’t a concern.”

  I grinned. There must be so many magical wards on this building that shoplifting wasn’t an issue. Nobody was going to walk out of here with a book they hadn’t paid for.

  “We can perform a locator spell to find the werewolf,” Victoria said. “The curse is a magical one, so we can hone in on it. The only question remaining concerns payment.”

  “I can pay you,” I said. Even as I said the words, I was wondering how fast Felicity could send an expense claim to the Society of Shadow’s headquarters and how quickly they would wire the money into my account.

  “We don’t have any need of your money,” Devon said. “The bookshop and mail order service amply fulfils our needs in that respect.”

  “Okay,” I said, “so what would you want from me?”

  Victoria took a sip of tea. “We are providing you with a service, so we ask the same in return. An exchange of services. We provide you with magic, and in return, you provide us with your investigative skills.”

  I frowned. “Do you have something you need investigating?”

  “Not at the moment, no.”

  “So you do this favor for me and then I owe you one,” I said.

  Victoria smiled. There was nothing predatory about it but I wondered what I would be required to do for these witches in the future. “Yes,” she said. “We live in the same town, so we might as well work together, don’t you think? This arrangement could be mutually beneficial for all of us.”

  I sighed. Did I really have a choice? If I didn’t find out where that werewolf was and make sure it was locked up in six nights’ time, when the moon was full, someone in this town might be murdered, ripped apart by claws and fangs.

  “All right, let’s do it. You cast the spell and I’ll return the favor in the future.” I took a sip of the tea and had to stop myself from spitting it right back out again. It was some sort of bitter concoction that tasted of cinnamon, lemons, and maybe fennel. I forced myself to swallow it. Nobody else seemed to have a problem with the taste. I vowed to stick to coffee from now on.

  “We’ll cast the spell tonight,” Victoria said. “After we close. I’ll come by your office tomorrow and let you know the results.”

  “The office will be closed tomorrow. I have to travel out of town later today and I’m not sure when I’ll get back. Mallory will come to the bookshop and you can give the results to her. Oh, and when you cast the spell, if you locate a werewolf at Cowper’s Lane, you can ignore it. We already know about that guy.”

  “Very well,” Victoria said, standing. “We have a deal. Shall we shake on it?”

  I didn’t feel like sealing the deal I’d just made in any way, but if I wanted to know where that werewolf was, I had no choice. I shook Victoria’s hand and did the same with her sister. As soon as our hands clasped, Devon’s eyes widened, then rolled back into her head. I began to pull away from her grip, which had suddenly strengthened, but Victoria said, “No, keep the contact with her. She’s having a vision. It’s her gift.”

  I stood, watching, as Devon Blackwell, her eyes showing nothing but whites, began to tremble all over. “Is she okay?” I asked Victoria.

  She held up a hand, telling me to be quiet.

  Devon whispered something but the words were too low and raspy to make out.

  Victoria leaned toward her sister and said, “What is it, Devon? What do you see?”

  The words came rasping out of Devon’s mouth again: “Empire of the dead.”

  12

  When Devon Blackwell finally let go of my hand, her eyes became normal again. She leaned heavily against a stack of boxes, trying to regain her composure.

  “What the hell just happened?” I asked her.

  “She has visions sometimes,” Victoria said. “They come unbidden, especially if someone she touches has had a traumatic experience in their life or is under an enchantment.”

  I frowned. “I’d understand it if she’d touched Mallory and had a vision, but not me. I haven’t had any traumatic experiences.”

  “Do you know what ‘empire of the dead’ means?”

  “Yes, it means the catacombs in Paris. I was there recently. We were talking about it last night. Is that what she’s picking up on? Nothing traumatic happened to me there.”

  Devon looked up at me. “It isn’t trauma, it’s an enchantment. There’s a door in your mind that was put there to lock away a memory. I saw it, but I couldn’t open it to see what lay beyond. Whatever memory was locked away has been replaced by an enchantment, a memory you think is real but isn’t. It has something to do with the empire of the dead. That’s all I could glean before I was thrown out of the vision.”

  “Okay, this is getting really creepy,” I said. “I’m not under any enchantment. I’m protected f
rom things like that. Look.” I pulled up my shirt and T-shirt to show them the tattoos on my body.

  “Those symbols can’t protect you from everything,” Victoria said dismissively. “Wait here.” She left the room and came back a couple of minutes later with a talisman on a leather cord. The talisman seemed to be made of stone and had a rune engraved on its surface. Victoria held it near me and said, “Freyja, adept of the mysteries, open our eyes to the magic which has been hidden from our sight.”

  The rune-engraved stone began to spin, slowly at first and then gaining speed until it was spinning so fast it was a blur of motion. Victoria took it away from me and it stopped immediately. Putting the amulet into a pocket of her dress, Victoria said, “There’s a spell on you, and judging by how fast the rune was spinning, it’s a powerful enchantment.”

  “I’m fine, really,” I said. I didn’t feel enchanted, not that I’d have any idea what that felt like. Maybe this was a little parlor trick the witch sisters did to drum up business. First Devon did her vision act and then the spinning amulet came out. After telling some poor sucker that they’d been enchanted, the witches offered to remove said enchantment, for a price, of course.

  But that didn’t explain how Devon knew about the empire of the dead.

  Besides, I didn’t really think these two were charlatans, otherwise I wouldn’t be here asking for their help with the werewolf locator spell.

  “Would you like us to help you?” Victoria asked. “It would take some time to do the proper research, but….”

  “I’m fine,” I repeated. Locator spells were one thing but I didn’t want any witches poking around inside my head. I left the room with Mallory on my heels, a concerned look on her face.

  “Alec, are you sure you’re okay?” She looked worried about me and I didn’t like that at all. I didn’t want anyone to feel like that toward me. I was the guy who fixed other people’s problems without having any of his own. I was supposed to make everyone feel safe, not concerned.

  “I’m totally fine,” I said firmly as we left the shop. The fresh air on the street outside made me realize how pungent-smelling the Blackwell sisters’ tea had been. “Did you try that tea?” I asked Mallory, in an attempt to start a new conversation with a subject other than myself. “Was that stuff disgusting or what?”

  “It wasn’t too bad,” she said as we walked along the street toward my office. “The sisters are a bit oddball, though.”

  “Some witches are. It’s because they spend so much time reading old books. Like, really old books.”

  “The bookshop was kind of cool,” she said.

  “You think so? It was like chaos theory in practice.”

  “Well, that’s what makes it cool,” she said. “You could walk among those shelves and never know what you might discover next.”

  “Probably a demon serving disgusting tea,” I said. “That stuff was so bad, it had to be otherworldly.” We reached the door to my office, the one that said HARBINGER P.I. on the glass panel, and went through.

  When we got to the top of the stairs, Felicity poked her head out of her office and waved. She had her phone pressed to her ear and was saying, “Yes … fine … just a couple of cases,” into it.

  I took Mallory into my office. “Well, what do you think?”

  She looked around and nodded. “Looks good. The Society got you a nice place here.”

  “Yeah, but it’s probably bugged. They sent Felicity here to spy on me, but they probably bugged the office too. Maybe even the house.”

  She went to the window and looked out. “Oh, yeah, there’s a black van parked across the street with tinted windows. Do they normally have all those aerials and antennae on the roof?”

  “Very funny,” I said.

  “Well, one of us has to be, and it isn’t going to be you. You’ve been in a bad mood since we left the bookshop. Are you worried about what they said? About you being enchanted? Because I am.”

  “Don’t worry about me,” I said.

  “It’s difficult not to after what those witches said. You saw how fast that rune thing was spinning. If that satori put some kind of mind mojo on you, who knows what actually happened in Paris? You don’t, because you’re remembering a memory that was placed in your head.”

  “It doesn’t matter now,” I said. “It’s done and dusted. Whatever actually happened, I got slapped down by the Society and here I am.”

  She looked at me with a serious look on her face. “You don’t want to know what really happened? That doesn’t sound like the Alec Harbinger I know. The Alec Harbinger I know loves a mystery and is great at solving them. Where’s that guy, huh?”

  “Back in Chicago.”

  She let out a groan of frustration. “You can be very annoying at times, you know that?”

  “It’s part of my charm.”

  “No,” she said, shaking her head. “It really isn’t.”

  Felicity came into the office. She was wearing hiking boots, jeans, and a black hoodie over a white T-shirt. Her hair was scraped back into a ponytail, the same as it had been last night at the barbecue. “That was your father on the phone, Alec.”

  “Oh? What did dear old Dad want?”

  “He asked me how things were on your first day and if you were settling into your new home.”

  “Did you tell him we’re going faerie hunting?”

  “I told him about the Robinson case and the Ellsworth case. I didn’t mention the ogres that tried to kill us. I thought I’d leave that up to you.”

  I nodded. “I’ll tell him about that when I know more information, like who sent them. There’s no point in telling him anything until I know who’s behind it all, pulling the strings.”

  “You’re probably right,” Felicity said. “How did it go with the witches?”

  “Great,” I said, shooting Mallory a look that told her not to say anything. “They’re going to cast the locator spell later today and give the results to Mallory tomorrow. Then it will be a simple matter of visiting up the cursed person, telling them that they’re a werewolf, if they don’t already know, and locking them away with Timothy when there’s a full moon.”

  “You want me to visit them while you’re away?” Mallory asked.

  “No, wait until we get back. We have plenty of time. You could look around for a place to lock them up, though. Preferably somewhere remote.”

  “Sure, will do.”

  “I guess we should head to the lake,” I told Felicity. “Do you have a bag you’re taking?”

  “There’s a suitcase in my office.”

  “Okay, I’ll grab it on the way out.” I handed Mallory my office key and house key, noticing a look of disapproval on Felicity’s face as I did so. “Lock up when you leave the office. I’d tell you to help yourself to anything in the house but there’s nothing there, so you’re going to have to stock the fridge yourself.” I grinned at her.

  “Ah, so this is all just a ploy to make me go grocery shopping for you,” she said.

  “Yeah, and feel free to unpack all those boxes in the house, too.”

  She gave me an amused look. “You guys have a great time at the lake while I do all the hard work.”

  “Okay,” I said, kissing her forehead lightly before leaving the office. “We will. See ya later.”

  I got Felicity’s case, a weekend-sized pale blue hard-shelled job, from her office and took it down the stairs. Felicity followed without a word until we reached the Land Rover and I was hefting her case into the back. “Are you sure it’s okay to give Mallory the keys to the office and your house?”

  “Yeah, of course it is. She’s a good friend. I trust her.”

  “All right,” she said, climbing into the passenger seat. “As long as you’re sure.”

  “I’m very sure. Mallory and I are close. There’s a bond between us.”

  “Yes, I can tell that by the way you are with each other,” she said flatly. After picking up the GPS from the floor, she programed it and attache
d it to the windshield.

  I wasn’t sure how she had meant to convey that last statement. Her voice had been devoid of any inflection but almost as if she were trying to hide some emotion behind the words. Was she resentful of my relationship with Mallory? Maybe she was just sad that she was so far from her boyfriend and seeing Mallory and me rubbed it in. Not that there was anything between Mallory and I other than a weird physical therapy that was probably damaging to both of us, but I could understand how our easy interactions with each other might be seen by an outsider.

  If I was a sensitive kind of guy, I’d probably just ignore Felicity’s remark, putting it down to the fact that she had some sort of problem in her personal life and probably didn’t want to talk about it. I’d keep quiet and let her tell me in her own time.

  But instead of doing that, as I backed out of the parking space, I asked, “How’s Jason?”

  She eyed me suspiciously. “What do you mean?”

  “Jason. Your boyfriend. You left the barbecue early because he was going to call you.”

  “He’s fine.”

  I joined the light traffic on Main Street. “What does he do? For a living, I mean.”

  “He’s an accountant for a bank in London.”

  That was a conversation stopper. Jason sounded dependable and boring. I couldn’t think of anything else to say, so I just said, “Cool,” and focused on driving.

  A while later, after we had left Dearmont and were driving north along the highway, Felicity said, “He’s not very happy about me being here.”

  “Hmm?” Her sudden openness after almost an hour of quiet took me by surprise. I’d been dwelling on the fact that there might be a false memory implanted in my mind, replacing a real memory that was locked behind a magical door, according to Devon Blackwell.