Ross turned his attention to Douglas. “You brought him here?”
“You were sick,” Douglas explained. “The medicine wasn’t working. He was the only one who knew what to do.”
“I know you didn’t want me using my magic on you,” Tallow said, still standing right next to the man. “But I really had no choice.”
“Okay. I understand,” Ross said unconvincingly. He nodded slowly. “I can forgive you for that. I suppose I should even be thanking you.”
Tallow smiled. “Well, that would be appreciate-!”
Ross grabbed the front of Tallow’s shirt with his left hand and yanked him forward. His right fist shot forward in a stiff jab, catching Tallow square in the nose. A surprised yelp left the wizard’s mouth as his head was rocked back. Before he could recover, Ross reached back out and grasped him by the nose.
“Uncle Bob!” cried Agatha in dismay.
“What I can’t forgive is my niece being put in harm’s way!” Ross growled, pulling the wizard closer. “You listen to me, Tallow Jones! I don’t care if you are Aggie’s great uncle. I don’t even care if you really is a wiz of a wiz if ever a wiz there was!”
“Nice reference,” Tallow squeaked, his eyelids fluttering.
Ross pulled him even closer. “I’m her Uncle Bob and that means that if you ever bring that girl into danger again, you will answer to me!”
“Very well,” Tallow grunted and placed his hand on the detective’s chest.
He sent out a spell, paralyzing Bob in place. Grimacing, Tallow pried the man’s hand away from his nose and pulled his shirt out of his grasp. Blood streamed from his nose. “That was rude. I can’t heal myself.”
“Uncle Tallow!” Agatha protested.
“Tallow, what did you do to him?” Douglas asked.
“He’s fine, just momentarily paralyzed,” Tallow said, pulling out his handkerchief and holding it under his nose. He focused his attention back on Ross. “Message understood, Detective. I respect your fervor to protect Aggie. I applaud it. Please understand that we are on the same side here. I would not have brought her with me if I had any inkling that it was possible I was bringing her to a murder scene.
“Next time you have a disagreement with me, use words. I don’t take kindly to being physically assaulted and this is the second time you have manhandled me today.” His gaze turned dark and there was heavy promise in his voice. “I won’t allow it a third time.”
“That’s enough. Let him go, Uncle Tallow,” Douglas urged. “You’ve made your point.”
“Have I?” Tallow asked. He squeezed his nose with the handkerchief and winced as he wiped the blood away. Absently, he waved his hand and Ross was freed from his spell. “What do you say, Detective? Am I understood?”
Ross glanced briefly his right hand. Tallow’s blood was splashed across his palm. He made a fist around it. “Looks like both of us had a point to make,” he said begrudgingly. He looked Tallow in the eye. “I agree that we seem to be on the same side and I’ll promise not to ‘manhandle’ you again as long as you stop putting my friends in danger.”
Tallow gave him a terse nod. “Putting people I care for in danger is something I always avoid. However, I cannot guarantee that the people behind Asher’s disappearance will cooperate. They have proven themselves willing to commit murder to avoid being exposed.”
Ross’ eyes narrowed, but he didn’t really have a good response to that logic.
“Um, Reginald says there’s people coming,” Agatha said. “Two ladies.”
Ross looked at her. “Reginald?”
“My earth elemental,” Agatha explained.
“An earth elemental?” Ross said. “Like in Dungeons & Dragons?”
“Not exactly,” Tallow replied. “It’s more of a . . .” His eyebrows rose. “Wait. You play Dungeons & Dragons?”
There was a brief knock at the door to the room. A second later the door opened and in came a nurse.
“Your husband is just in here,” the nurse was saying. She glanced at the visitors and immediately eyed Tallow’s red nose. Blood was still slowly oozing from one nostril. “Are you okay, sir?”
“Fine,” Tallow said, reaching back up to put pressure on his nose with the handkerchief.
Then Bob’s wife walked in behind the nurse.
Judy Ross was the kind of woman that drew attention when she entered a room. It wasn’t her looks, though she was quite pretty with skin just a shade darker than her husband’s, and it wasn’t her figure. She may have had a stunning body in her younger days, but that was thirty pounds ago. What made Judy stand out was her attitude. When Judy entered a space it was as if she owned it.
She was a staff reporter at the Hotlanta Times, an influential local newspaper and online magazine. She had come straight from work and was wearing a pinstriped pantsuit and carrying a laptop case.
Judy walked past the nurse and Tallow and rushed to her husband’s side, pleased to see him sitting up. She hugged him. “Bob! Honey, are you alright? From the way the nurse was talking I expected to find you passed out.”
Ross embraced her with his left arm. “I’m feeling much better. I think those antibiotics finally kicked in.” He looked up at Douglas and Tallow. “Thanks for coming by. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Uh, sure,” said Douglas. “I’ll check back in on you in the morning.”
“Bye, Uncle Bob,” said Agatha. She trotted closer and leaned in to kiss him on the cheek. “I’m glad you’re feeling better!”
“Bye sweet girl,” Ross replied.
“Thank you for watching him until I could get here,” Judy added with a smile.
They nodded and waved goodbye and left the room, Tallow following behind them.
Bob let out a sigh of relief. They were gone. Now he just needed to get rid of the nurse.
The nurse came to Bob’s side. “You do look much better, Mister Ross.” She placed a hand on his head. “Cool to the touch. Your fever seems to have broken. Let’s make certain though, shall we?”
Judy stepped back as the nurse stuck a digital thermometer under his tongue and took out a blood pressure cuff. Bob held out his left arm and let her try to strap it around his thick upper arm, knowing that she would be unsuccessful and either have to get an extension or strap it around his forearm instead.
These things never fit him. Nurses often teased him that he was just too muscular for their equipment, but he was well aware that it wasn’t just muscle. He was a thick man in general, but instead of carrying his weight in the belly like most men, his fat was evenly distributed throughout his body. It was a body type oddity that ran in his family. His momma used to say that, while other men carried their fat around their edges like a pork chop, Ross men were well marbled like a fine ribeye steak.
The thermometer beeped and the nurse removed it. “Can’t get more normal than 98.6,” she remarked, then predictably gave up on placing the blood pressure cuff on his upper arm and moved it down around his forearm. Luckily it was a digital model and was sensitive enough to handle it.
“You’re being awfully calm, dear,” Judy said, cocking her head at him.
“I’m curious to see what it says,” he replied to his wife’s surprise. In reality, he just wanted the nurse to leave as quickly as possible. He sat through the discomforting squeeze of the cuff and waited for her to spout out how high his blood pressure was.
Bob hated seeing doctors in general, but he specifically hated having his blood pressure taken. The doctors always told him his pressure was too high. Hypertension was something else that ran in his family and the medication he took only barely kept it in check. Next would come a chastisement about his food choices and an admonishment to change his diet. The doctors were always surprised by the pointed responses he lobbed back at them.
“Hmm. Normal,” the nurse said. If Ross had been drinking he would have done a spit take.
“What?” said Judy. “What does it say?”
The nurse glanced back down at the digital readout.
“118 over 76.”
“I’ll be,” Judy said, giving her husband an impressed look. “You ever had blood pressure that low, honey?”
“Not since high school, maybe,” Ross replied.
“Let me have a look at your wound,” the nurse said and Bob leaned forward so that she could open up the back of his hospital gown, exposing two long lines of gauze covering the wounds on his back. She pulled back some of the gauze and nodded. “Swelling and inflammation seem to be gone. The scratches are scabbing over nicely. Let me look at the other side.”
“A cat did this?” Judy asked, noting the size of the scratches and the distance between them.
“A cat?” Bob said.
“That is what the EMT said when they brought him in,” the nurse confirmed. “Cat scratches have a good chance of getting infected.”
“Right,” Bob said, sussing out how the department had decided to spin the situation. “It was a big thing. Some exotic pet, like a bobcat or something.”
“Crazy,” the nurse said, covering the scratches back up. “These are looking good. I’ll let the doctor know.”
“Thanks, nurse,” he said.
The moment that the woman had left the room, Judy gave him a questioning look. “A bobcat did that?”
“Okay, so it wasn’t a cat,” he said.
Bob never hid anything from his wife and she never hid anything from him. It was a pact they had made early on in their marriage and they had stuck to it. This made for some awkward situations sometimes, especially since she was a reporter and he often had information on cases that she couldn’t use in a report.
“Then what was it?” she asked.
“I’ll tell you in a minute,” he promised. “Can you hand me my jacket? It’s draped over that chair.”
She arched an eyebrow at him. “You are not leaving that bed right now, Bob. You know the doctor is probably going to want to keep you tonight for observation.”
“That’s not why I want it,” he told her, though the idea of making a break for it had crossed his mind.
Giving him a suspicious look, Judy retrieved his jacket from the chair and gave a wide-eyed glance to the long slashes in the back. “Looks like we’ll be making a trip to pick you out a new suit.”
He sighed as he took the suit jacket from her. He had really liked this suit. It had been really comfortable. “I guess so.”
He laid the jacket over his legs and reached into the inner pocket. He took out a DNA collection tool, a cotton swab whose head was surrounded by a small plastic container. He opened the top of the container and pushed the head of the swab out, then opened his right hand and soaked up a generous amount of the blood in the middle of his palm.
Judy saw the blood and immediately thought of the man that had left with Douglas. “Bob! Did you bust that man’s nose?”
“He deserved it,” Ross said. He clicked the container shut around the evidence. “And busting his nose allowed me to get this sample.”
“You crafty dog,” she said with a shake of her head. “Who is he?”
“Doug’s uncle,” he replied. “Supposedly. But something ain’t right about the man. Hell, nothing’s right about him.”
“You think he’s a bad guy?” Judy asked, suddenly worried for Douglas and Agatha.
“Not necessarily,” Bob admitted. “But ever since he showed up, everything has gone funky. It’s been like a crazy fantasy movie.”
Judy folded her arms and gave him a stern look. “You had better tell me what happened today.”
He hesitated. “You sure you want to know? This is nuts. Like reality-changing stuff. I don’t even understand it. And there’s almost none of it you could write about.”
“Honey,” Judy leaned forward, her smile eager. “Now I have to know.”
Chapter 15: The Chief
“Have a seat,” said Chief Susan Johnson. She leaned forward between the stacks of papers on her messy desk and clasped her hands in front of her as she watched Douglas and his partner sit in the chairs across from her. “Interesting day you two had yesterday.”
“It certainly was, Chief,” Douglas replied, steeling himself for confrontation.
It hadn’t been a good sign when the chief had called them in first thing that morning. She hadn’t even let them get to their desks first. From past experience Douglas figured this meant they were getting chewed out, but that wasn’t the vibe he was getting from her so far. The main look on Susan’s face as she looked at the two detectives was curiosity.
She started with Bob. “I’m not certain you should be here today, Detective Ross. At the very least, a day at home is warranted after your hospital stay.”
Douglas had also been surprised to see his partner at work that morning. It wasn’t the fact that Bob had convinced the hospital to discharge him early. Bob had a forceful personality and the doctors couldn’t very well keep him against his will. What Douglas found hard to believe was that Bob had gotten Judy to agree to let him come to work.
Evidently the chief had similar thoughts. “In fact, I put in a call to your wife the moment I saw you walk in the door.”
Ross folded his arms. “Tattling on me to the boss, Boss?”
“I suppose I was at that,” she said and a slight smile curled the corners of the chief’s lips. A smile on her face was a good thing in Douglas’ opinion. It made Susan look more like her old self. “Frankly, I wasn’t expecting her to back you up.”
“Judy and I always back each other up,” Bob assured her. “Besides, she could see that I’m feeling great. Whatever the docs gave me seems to have done the trick.”
Douglas knew it had little to do with any doctors, but he didn’t doubt that his partner was feeling better. In a stark contrast to the pale and sweating man Douglas had seen at the hospital the day before, Ross appeared to be in fine health. The man looked as if he had just returned from a relaxing vacation and spa treatment. Even the whites of his eyes were whiter.
“Alright, fine. I’m glad to have you here. Frankly, we need every investigator we’ve got after yesterday’s events,” Susan said and she dropped the smile, her expression returning to the pensive state it had been in when she had started this meeting. She moved her attention to Douglas. “Detective Jones, I think I owe you an apology for shutting down the investigation into Asher’s disappearance.”
Douglas leaned forward eagerly. “Then the tests came back on the Leatherman that Ross found?” He had been certain that it was his son’s since it had been one of the few items that Asher had taken with him that night, but they still needed confirmation. It was a standard tool. His initials hadn’t been on it or anything.
“Your son’s prints were all over it,” Susan verified, but held up a hand. “Now I want you to realize this doesn’t prove anything besides the fact that he was outside those loading docks at some point. You caught him going inside the front entrance once, but that doesn’t mean it was his first time there.”
Douglas frowned. “I saw his Leatherman on his desk the day before he went missing.”
“Come on, Chief,” said Ross, coming to his partner’s aid. “We found a place where the fence was cut at the bottom. Also, I asked forensics to compare the tool marks on the cuts.”
“I’m sure they will get to that,” she allowed.
“Chief Johnson,” Douglas said, wondering why she was hesitant to agree with them. “I know it’s still early in the investigation, but from the evidence we found I think we have uncovered some kind of human and exotic animal trafficking.”
“I’ve been thinking along similar lines,” the chief said with a slow nod. “Tests on the blood stains in the travel agency building were confirmed to have both animal and human donors.”
“Then what’s your hang-up?” Ross asked.
“You misunderstand me,” she said. “I’m not trying to poke holes in your case. I’m trying to give you hope.” Susan sighed at Douglas’ dubious look. “Look, this isn’t a pretty situation. From the amount of blood e
vidence and the rotten slurry at the bottom of that dumpster . . . let’s just say it would be better if Asher really had just run away.”
The two detectives gave her stunned looks.
“Wow, Chief,” said Ross. “Not a great pep talk.”
“No,” said Douglas, shaking his head. “Despite what you’re trying to say, this new evidence is a good thing. I never believed Asher had run away. It wasn’t like him. Before yesterday, all the evidence in my mind pointed to him being dead. He might be going through hell right now, but until forensics proves otherwise, I’m taking this as proof that he is still alive.”
“Okay,” she said. “Maybe I should have went with that angle.”
Bob snorted. “When you were on the beat, did they let you break the news to victim’s families?”
The chief wrinkled her nose. “I never have been good at that sort of thing. I’m better with hard facts than emotions.”
“I understand,” said Douglas. “Has forensics found anything else you want to tell us about?”
“Not as of this morning,” she said. “But we’re not done here. There’s some things about yesterday’s events that I want answers about. I’ve already read both your report, and the statement Detective Ross gave before he left for the hospital, but I have some gaps I want filled in.”
Douglas suppressed a wince. He had tried to be thorough enough in his report that Susan wouldn’t feel the need to get involved personally. Though the FIU was under the chief’s direct supervision, she rarely gave the detectives’ reports more than a casual glance. Not unless there was something she needed to talk about with the press. In those rare instances where she was interested enough to look into reports she could be a real bulldog. There were certain aspects about this case that he didn’t want her to look at too hard.
“Okay, Chief,” he said.
“Whatever we can tell you we will, Chief,” Bob added.
Susan raised an eyebrow. “Of course you will. That’s your job.” She picked up a folder from the top of one of the stacks beside her. While most of the department stuck to digital records, Susan preferred physical copies. She was old-school that way.
Tallow Jones: Wizard Detective (The Tallow Novels Book 1) Page 16
