by Sean Stone
“You need to be more careful!” he screamed. He wiped his face with his sleeve. His skin was bright red and not from anger. The kids muttered their apologies and hurried away leaving their ball behind.
“Hot?” I asked, adding just the right amount of mocking to my tone.
“You better hope your alibi checks out, Lancaster,” he seethed before storming away.
I chuckled to myself. I know, I know. I said that he wasn’t my enemy and he was only doing his job and all that but you know what, sometimes it just feels good to do stuff like that. He was just doing his job but he was being a bit mean about it and there’s no need for that. Let that be a lesson to you; don’t piss off a warlock.
It turned out that the thing I thought was a symbol was just a weird carving. Nothing magical about it.
I’ve never worked on a missing persons case before but I know from TV that the first thing you do is look at the missing people. You find similarities so you can figure out the pattern. Learn the sort of person the kidnapper likes to go for. I think it’s called building a profile. If it’s good enough for the finest detectives on the telly then it’s good enough for me.
I called Derek and got all the information he had on the missing people. There was nothing to link them at all. Leslie Parker was an eighteen year old girl who studied catering at MidKent College. She was a slim blonde. Your typical sexy college girl really — Derek would’ve loved her. Donald Harmon was a sixty-five year old retired man. He was wrinkly and thin with no hair. George Niggard was a thirteen-year-old boy. He was a fat little chap with dark brown hair. He attended Sutton Valence school. That’s for posh kids if you were wondering. The final victim was called Kelly Pendleton and she was an unemployed woman who was undergoing chemotherapy for skin cancer. The only thing that these people had in common was that they all went missing from Mote Park and they all lived in Maidstone. I’m no detective but that’s not much to go on.
Luckily, I’ve got something your average detective lacks: magic. A little tracking spell would lead me straight to them and in turn to their abductor. I just needed their DNA. The easiest place to find someone’s DNA is in their bathroom. That meant getting their addresses which meant calling Matt. Matt is a computer wizard and can find any info with a few taps on his computer. I picked up my phone and dialled his number.
“Eddie, I’m at work,” he said when he answered on the third ring.
“Right. What’s your point?” I asked. I always called him when he was at work and it had never been a problem before.
“I’m at my new place now and I have to behave myself a bit more,” he said quietly. He was almost whispering into the phone. “I’m still on probation.”
“This will only take a minute. I just need four addresses,” I told him. I could’ve just waited until he’d finished work. I’m an impatient guy. Deal with it.
“Four?” he said loudly before quickly lowering his tone. “Four addresses? That’s taking the piss a bit, mate.”
“Well if you can’t do it just say.” I know which buttons to press when it comes to Matt.
“Eddie, I know what you’re doing,” he said. He was picking up on my tricks. “But I’m— Wooh! Oh yeah!” he exclaimed, interrupting himself and probably drawing the offices attention.
“Everything alright?” I asked. Sounded like he’d just won the jackpot and with his current lucky streak that was entirely possible.
“Eddie, I have just won the genuine Smith-Slayer sword,” he said excitedly.
“I honestly have no idea what that is,” I told him blankly. He was in to a lot of comic books and TV shows and collected the memorabilia from most of them. That was part of the reason he needed a bigger house. His Funko Pop collection needed its own room.
“It’s the silver plated sword used in High-school Werewolf,” he told me as if I was an idiot. Obviously everybody knows that.
“High-school Werewolf?” I’d never heard of the show. “Matt, the addresses,” I reminded him.
“Oh, yeah, right. Gimme the names.”
I rattled the names off to him and a minute or two later he rattled off the addresses as well as other known occupants. I thanked him and hung up.
All but one of the victims lived alone which meant stealing their DNA was an easy job. I made sure that neither Richards nor any other police officers were following me before I embarked on my little breaking and entering spree. No need to make things worse for myself, eh? They weren’t so I got on with it. I took everybody’s toothbrushes. They were the one things guaranteed to have DNA all over them. The only one which posed a problem was George’s. George was the only one who lived with people; considering he was only thirteen that was fairly obvious. That meant incorporating a slightly different tactic.
I tidied myself up a bit. Not that it took much, I mean I’m not a skank, I tend to walk around in a fairly presentable fashion anyway. My chinos and t-shirt were both ironed and my hair was combed. I stepped up to the front door and knocked loudly three times. Several minutes later a disheveled looking woman answered the door. I realised then that I should have asked Matt to send me profiles of all the residents of the Niggard household.
“Mrs Niggard?” I asked. I assumed she was George’s mother.
“No. It’s Miss Peach, actually. Me and my husband got a divorce,” she said. That was why a profile would have been helpful. Her voice was rough like she’d grown up on the estate. She was not on the estate now, though. Not that this area was much better. I guess that geroge’s dad paid for his tuition to Sutton Valance.
“I’m sorry to hear that,” I said. I was putting on my most professional voice.
“It was six years ago.” She folded her arms over her chest and glared at me. People like glaring at me.
“I’m sorry all the same,” I lied. How was I supposed to know it was six years ago? I’m not Killian—fucking—Myers. “I’m Inspector Richards from the police.” I don’t know why I decided to use his name. I was just asking for trouble really.
“You’re from the police?” she asked doubtfully.
“Yes. I am.” I said and left it at that. If I indulged her suspicions then I was bound to trip up. “I’m working on your son’s case—”
“You’re on my son’s case? You didn’t even know my name.” Her posture grew more rigid. This was not going well for me.
“I’m new,” I said through my teeth.
“Have you made any progress?” she asked. She still wasn’t convinced.
“I need something with his DNA on it. I need to do a comparison.” I hoped that my lack of knowledge about anything forensic wasn’t too apparent in the way I was speaking.
“Comparison of what?” Her face twisted in horror and she clutched hold of the door frame. “Have you found a body?”
“No, no. Nothing like that. I just need some DNA to help… investigate.” I knew then as her expression darkened that I’d blown it. I should’ve said yes to finding a body but I didn’t want to put her through that shock just for a toothbrush. I’m not that cold.
“Can I see some ID please?” she said plainly. Cover blown.
I nodded. “Of course, you can, madam.” I reached into my pocket and as I pulled my empty hand out again I clicked my fingers and put her to sleep. I forgot to catch her and she crashed to the floor noisily. That was going to hurt when she woke up.
I stepped inside and dragged her through to the living room where I deposited her in one of the armchairs. The TV was playing the BBC news and I turned it off with a wave of my hand. I bloody hate that channel. I jogged up the stairs and through to the bathroom. There were only two toothbrushes. One was pink and the other had what looked like a Pokemon on it. Pokemon’s the in thing at the moment. I guessed it was George’s and slipped it into the sandwich bag I’d brought with me. When I got back downstairs I wished I’d brought a memory erasing potion with me. There was going to be a right palaver when she woke up. I’d checked for witnes
ses, though and she was the only one. I did feel a little bad at the confusion she was going to be in. She was going through a difficult time as it was and I’d only added to that now. On the bright side, if my plan paid off I might find her son. In either case, there was nothing I could do about it, so I just left and forgot about her.
The real bad news came when I got to my self-storage unit and performed the four tracking spells. I got absolutely no results from any of them. Not a single one. That meant one of two things. Either all of the victims were being magically cloaked so I couldn’t track them, or they were dead. I had a horrible feeling that it wasn’t the former.
CHAPTER FIVE
Whether the victims were cloaked or dead, it didn’t really matter to me. I hadn’t been hired to find them, I’d been hired to get rid of whatever or whoever had taken them. So far my suspect list was blank. Matt had managed to hack the police files for me — after much protesting — and even the cops had no suspects. None of the victims had a common enemy. Like I said before, they had nothing linking them.
My plan was to use the symbols to track the kidnapper. The symbols were imbued with powerful magic. If I could get a hook on that magic then I might be able to trace it back to whoever had created the symbols. You see, every sorcerer has their own magical signature which means that a spell can always be traced back to them. Even if two sorcerers cast the exact same spell it would be ever so slightly different. The effect would be the same but there would be a difference in signature. Your bog standard sorcerer wouldn’t be able to detect a signature but I am not your bog standard sorcerer. I’m Eddie Lancaster and I’m pretty fantastic. Actually, take out the pretty, I’m just fantastic.
I headed over to Mote Park and got to work. Once again I made sure that nobody was following me. I wasn’t paranoid enough to think that Richards had put a bug on me—I know that that sort of thing wouldn’t be in his budget—only that he was following me occasionally. I find that a certain amount of paranoia is healthy in my line of work anywhere, without it you end up in situations like… Well like the one I was in with Rachel right now actually.
I headed to the first symbol which was on a tree near the main entrance. I’d noticed that each of the symbols had been positioned at the points of a compass. No doubt that meant something. I probably looked quite strange standing around examining a tree and trust me plenty of cars and pedestrians passed and gave me funny looks.
I passed my hand over the carved symbol and felt the magic held within it. It was strong. I wondered if it might have come from someone stronger than me. I pushed the thought away before I gave myself a complex. I placed my palm flat over the symbol and closed my eyes. Reading a signature requires complete concentration which is not easy in a public place. I pushed out the noises from my surroundings and cleared my mind. I hummed gently to myself to help me focus. I called to the magic. Reached out with a single tentacle of my own magic to touch the foreign power. I made contact. The reaction was like my magic was electricity and the other was water. At first there was a small crackling sensation. I pushed my magic further and the other tried to resist. The crackling grew. I tried taking hold of the foreign magic and that was when it fought back. My palm seared red hot as the symbol exploded and blasted me away. I flew through the air and rolled away on the grass. Luckily, it hadn’t been cut recently and was soft enough to break my fall. I planted my uninjured hand on the ground and steadied myself. I remained still until the world around me stopped spinning. As I raised my palm to my face I saw that the skin was red and blistering. That symbol had more magic in it than I’d thought. I tried to heal my wound but achieved nothing. That answered the question of who was more powerful. Whoever had planted those symbols was more powerful by far. It also told me that the kidnapper was definitely a sorcerer of some kind. But I knew almost all the sorcerers in Maidstone and none of them were capable of this. Which meant it must be an outsider. My first thought was Rachel. She was the obvious choice. She was an outsider who had recently come to town and she had all the power stolen from my unit which was more than enough for this. But she had no motive. No reason to kidnap these people. She was here for me, not to play around with the locals. No, this was somebody else and I needed to find out who.
I got up, ignoring the stares from bewildered passers-by and approached the symbol again. It was still in tact. Not scorched at all unlike my poor throbbing hand. I took out my phone and snapped a picture of it. Then I did a quick tour of the park taking pictures of the rest. They were all the same but that didn’t mean there weren’t subtle differences that I was missing. I needed a second pair of eyes on this case and I knew someone who just happened to have a good deal of wisdom that I could use.
Ashley answered the door when I got to hers. “Eddie,” she said in surprise, smiling broadly. Her hair was wet where she must have just had a shower. I liked the wet hair look on her. It added a sexual quality. I mean, she looked sexy almost all the time but the wet hair just really topped it off. If you’re a guy you probably understand and if you’re not a guy, well actually you probably understand too. I think wet hair is known to be sexy by both genders. But I digress.
“Hey, Ashley,” I said, returning her smile as I invited myself inside. I’m not a vampire so I can do that.
“How was the party?” she asked. She started to make her way upstairs to her part of the house.
“Actually, I kind of need to see your mum,” I told her, stopping at the base of the stairs. She turned around and raised her eyebrow.
“Really?” she asked.
“Yeah. It’s about a job,” I informed her.
“A job, eh? Spill.” She skipped back down the stairs and led me through to the living room whilst I caught her up on everything. She was far more interested in the jobs I took on now that she wasn’t a main part of them. I’d first met her when she hired me to deal with Killian Myers. She hadn’t expected me to deal with it in quite the way I did but I solved the problem so who cares?
“Eddie!” Margie said loudly as she stood up from her armchair and hugged me. I am not a hugger. I don’t mean I’m one of those people who doesn’t like hugging — it’s more than that. I don’t like to be touched for a start and when it comes to hugs I just don’t know what to do with them. I mean, I know I’m supposed to return the gesture but I can’t. The whole act makes me feel like little bugs are crawling around under my flesh. Don’t get me wrong, when I get intimate with a girl I know what to do and I can do it with relative ease—there’s still some awkwardness. But outside of that scenario I don’t know what to do. So I just stood still with my arms at my sides and waited for Margie to stop hugging me. She’d taken a liking to me from the moment she’d met me and once I saved her daughter from Killian her liking of me was amplified to the nth degree. I don’t know what that means but I think it fits the context. It was clear enough that she wanted me to get with Ashley, she wasn’t subtle about that.
“When are you going to take my Ashley out on a date?” she asked. See what I mean?
I laughed nervously. “I don’t know about that,” I said, rubbing the back of my neck awkwardly. We had lunch the other day. Does that count?
“Mum!” Ashley hissed. Her cheeks had reddened. That was quite funny. At least I wasn’t the only one feeling uncomfortable.
A revoltingly loud phlegmy cough came through the wall. I looked at Ashley quizzically.
“Dad’s still ill. He’s taken time off work now,” she explained. I hadn’t met her dad yet. During the whole Killian saga he’d been out of the country on some work thing and since coming back he’d always been at the office. I don’t even know what he does. I’ve asked Ashley but she doesn’t really know either. Something that happened in an office. My point is he’s always at work which is why I’ve never met him. It also means that whatever he had must be bad because his work comes before everything else.
“It’ll pass,” Margie said with a wave of her hand but I could see that she was worri
ed.
“I could knock up a potion to help?” I offered but she waved my suggestion away.
“No, no. It’s not good to rely so much on magic, Eddie,” she said and I let the matter drop. No need to insist. She cleared her throat and then asked me what it was that I wanted. She was intuitive like that, always knew when I needed her wisdom. I told her the whole story and then got my phone out to show her the symbols. It took her all of five seconds to figure out what they were for. That’s why I came to her.
“The symbols are around the edge of the park, yes?” she asked. She handed my phone back and I slid it back into my pocket.
“That’s right. At the points of the compass.”
She nodded. “They are keeping something inside the park. Whatever is kidnapping those people will have a mark like these ones on it somewhere. While the marks are all imbued with power the thing will be unable to leave.”
“Why would anybody do that?” I asked.
“I don’t know.” She shrugged. “It’s your job to figure that out.”
“Do you know what it could be?” I asked. I had thought it was a sorcerer doing the kidnapping but it seemed more like a sorcerer had trapped something else inside the park. But why?
“My guess is some kind of beast,” she said. I didn’t tell her that that wasn’t in the least bit helpful.
Based on what she said I decided that a vigil was needed. I’d return to the park at night when nobody would be there and canvass the whole grounds to try and find it. Once I knew what it was I’d know how to kill it. And maybe I could use it to track down whoever had trapped it there.
CHAPTER SIX
“Eddie, wait up!” Ashley called as she hurried after me, getting tangled up in her jacket in her haste to catch up.
