by Mel Corbett
"Come on Mike, let's just go back and let the man work," Naomi said
Naomi and Mike paced impatiently in the backyard. Finally, what seemed like hours later, but her watch said was only twenty minutes, Jeff emerged with Officer Jim leaning on him. Bags had appeared under the leprechaun's eyes.
"It worked," Mike said, hugging Officer Jim excitedly. Jim did not look happy to be hugged. "Thank you!"
"Yeah, next time, don't call me," Jim said.
"How can we repay you?" Naomi asked.
"Just don't let them start hunting us again." Officer Jim yawned. He moved so slowly to cover it, it was as if he were moving in slow motion. "I'm going home now to sleep for a week. I don't have any more tricks up my sleeve." Jim staggered towards the front of the house. "Oh yeah, make sure he eats," he called over his shoulder before slamming the front door.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
"SMELL," JEFF SAID AS HIS stomach rumbled.
"Smell what?" Naomi grumbled. She hadn't wanted to come to the grocery store, but Jeff had vetoed everything in her cupboards.
"Mildewy roses, cinnamon?"
"Dude – cheap flowers, right there and the spice aisle's like two feet away." Naomi pointed to the spices just past the flowers.
"No. Really smell," Jeff insisted. "This smell gives me just a little tickle in my nose – like you described."
Naomi inhaled deeply. At first, she didn't smell anything, then the familiar tickle almost made her sneeze. The cheap flowers almost overwhelmed the subtle smell. She nodded. "You're right."
"Could you find them?" Mike asked.
"Just walk around with my nose in the air trying to sniff the kidnappers out?" Naomi hissed, suddenly feeling very visible in the store entrance.
"It's a good idea," Jeff said. "You used those eye drops, right? Go back to the parking lot and look for the Sacto Florist's van and we'll scope out the store."
"The drops didn't work on the cop," Naomi said.
"Maybe that's just what he looks like," Mike said. "They worked on the book though. Get out there."
"But – what should I do?" Naomi asked.
"You really need instructions?" When Naomi nodded, Jeff sighed and rolled his eyes. "Go back out like you're going to the car because you forgot something, then look around stupidly like you forgot where we parked, look slowly."
Naomi sighed and reached into her purse. "Looks like I forgot my wallet," she said loud enough for anyone who might have been listening to hear. She turned back out towards the parking lot and inhaled. Now that she was smelling for it, the smell was more noticeable. Not stronger per se, just more noticeable.
She listened vaguely as Jeff and Mike walked into the store. She stared across the parking lot, keys in her hand, feeling down. She didn't see the flower van anywhere. She focused carefully on all the big vehicles. Maybe the dumb drops had worn off. She trusted her nose instead and took a deep breath, tasting the air for anything out of the ordinary.
Mildewy roses and cinnamon were her preferred scent of the day, of course, she couldn't smell that outside. Instead, she just kept skimming over the parking lot, feeling useless. There wasn't even a glimmer of anything that looks weird about any of the cars in the lot.
Then, she saw them walking out of the grocery store.
Ginger, her husband, and the two kids in tow.
Naomi walked quickly towards them. Maybe Ginger had sensed the magic or what if Ginger were the one behind kidnapping? She didn't know about fey, but if Ginger had spent her whole life lying, maybe she could deceive Naomi's sense of smell because she was so used to lying. Or fey bodies could work differently.
"Hey Ginger, never seen you at this store before before," Naomi said. Ginger lived way down in Elk Grove, why would she be up here?
"Well, this little rascal here has a soccer game at Cordova High School. So, I just thought that we'd stop in and grab some extra snacks before we made it over there." Ginger smelled faintly of cinnamon and roses, not a hint of that overly powerful rose perfume. Could Ginger really be the kidnapper? Soccer mom and criminal mastermind? It was possible. Not likely, but possible. Why would she kidnap Mac though? Unless, because Naomi had mentioned Mac to her and Ginger had seen Mac is some kind of potential threat to secret. A huge fight had happened in his apartment.
"You play soccer, huh?" Naomi said absently.
"That's what the uniforms for." Ginger's daughter rolled her eyes. "Ginger, can we go now? I don't want to be late."
"It's fine. We have plenty of time." Ginger smiled apologetically.
"No Ginger. We need to go now or will be late."
"I guess I'd better let you go," Naomi said trying to sound warm.
"Anyway, it was good seeing you."
Naomi nodded in response. She frowned as she walked back into the store. She found Jeff and Mike in the checkout line.
"What's wrong?" Mike asked.
"Couldn't find it?"
"No, no I found it," Naomi said as she pulled out her wallet. "It's just – you'll never guess who I ran into in the parking lot." She pulled out her card and slipped it into her pocket.
"Well who?" Jeff started loading the groceries onto the belt. Eggs, meat, bacon, not a lot of veggies with these two. "You think the pizza rolls are all right?"
"Pizza rolls you like, but McDonald's is gross?" Naomi asked.
"Who did you see? We saw someone, too, but he's probably still shopping. He would've had to move pretty quickly to get out of the store already."
"Ginger. She said her daughter had a soccer game, but why wouldn't she have gotten snacks down in Elk Grove? You saw someone else?"
"Saw is probably the wrong word," Jeff said leaning closer to Naomi. He lowered his voice so Naomi could barely hear. "I smelled him."
"You what!?"
"Shh. I smelled Mac – it was him. He smelled like cookies, Earl Grey, and the woods," Jeff said, his voice well below the range of human hearing.
"He's here?"
"Oh yeah," Jeff said softly, drawing it out. "We are going to have a talk with him before he leaves."
"How are we going to swing that?"
"First, you make sure I'm not wrong with your magic eyedrops." Jeff shrugged. "You do have a toaster oven, right?" He asked as he leaned away.
"Yeah, why?"
"Perfect!"
Naomi frowned. "What for?"
"Bagel bites. They're better in the oven than the microwave." Jeff pointed at the cashier. She's almost ready. Go swipe your card."
"How come I have to pay?" Naomi asked.
"Really?" Jeff asked.
Naomi's eyes widened at the price. "Over hundred bucks? You're not going to be here that long!"
"Men," the cashier said. "What can you do?"
Jeff tapped the side of his nose as they walked out of the store. He should be getting them right now. Mike, goal of the car."
"Jeff – what if you're wrong?" Naomi asked. Jeff shook his head. "Fine, the nose knows. We'll wait here. If you're wrong though –"
"I'm not wrong," Jeff said.
"You're nuts," Naomi said. "They got him. There's no way he could be in the store right now."
"Smell. Stop running your mouth and tell me you don't smell Mac. Woods and cinnamon cookies, it's kind of a hard smell smell to miss. Jeff walked up to a woman with a baby, while Naomi was still focusing on the scent. She learned to block it a lot outliving in the city. Sometimes it was a little hard to let it all back in. "Excuse me, ma'am, do you have the time?" Jeff asked.
Naomi gasped. She did smell him. This woman smelled remarkably like Mac.
"A quarter after three," the woman said. The more Naomi looked at her, the less the baby looks like a baby and more like a sack of potatoes. The woman looked more and more like a man and her dowdy brown dress looked like red sweats. Naomi blinked that the double image and shook her head. Either that spell had worked, or she was going crazy. After everything that had happened, she was is open to the second as the first.
"Can I help you?" the woman said.
"You look like a girl I went to school with," Naomi said. "Her name is Mac…" The confident look on the woman's face vanished with the last of the doubt from Naomi's mind.
"I think you'd better come with us," Jeff said. The wolves grabbed either arm firmly and push the car towards the van.
"I don't think so," Mac said. He tucked against them. He was strong, but the wolves were much stronger.
"Why did you fake your kidnapping?" Jeff asked.
"I don't need a pack of wolves knowing where I live."
"Tell me the truth. You are coming with us. I have a sinking suspicion that you are the reason I can't wake up my mother."
"I didn't do it," Mac said.
"We can smell it when you lie," Naomi said. "Get in the van now."
"Help!" he shouted.
"Shut up," Naomi said she shoved back into the van prayed no one noticed to shouting.
"Go! Go!" Jeff shouted at Mike.
"Who's this? That's not the old woman –"
"Humans," Jeff said. "Use your damn nose."
"It's him," Naomi said. "Go!" Mike drove off, leaving the crying sack of potatoes in the parking lot.
"Tell us what's going on," Naomi said.
"My baby! I don't know what you're talking about! My baby!"
"Can it, Mac. I made your eyedrops for clarity of vision. I see you and not some woman."
"Fine," he said. Suddenly the feeling of double vision disappeared. "How'd you know it was me?" he said, looking pointedly at Jeff.
"You forgot to hide your smell," Jeff said shrugging. "Now what the hell did you do to me, asshole?"
"And my mom."
"Your mom?" Mac asked confused.
"My mom's asleep. Someone, I'm thinking you, put a spell on her and my cousins. You tell me what's wrong with her."
"I didn't – I don't…" Mac stuttered.
"Tell the truth." Naomi slapped him. "My little brother is not dying on the capitol steps tomorrow."
"He won't. That was just to get you out there," Mac said, a red handprint rising on his face.
"What?" Naomi asked surprised.
"We want to get as many people out there as we can."
"We who?" Jeff asked.
Bam!
The car swung to the right.
"What the hell!"
They hit the curb and the car stopped hard. Jeff and I am he flew backward. Mac surged up and yanked the door open.
"Thanks for the ride!" He took off running down the street.
"Get him!" Mike shouted, but Mac had already glamoured himself.
"Looks like a damn jogger," Jeff said. "I can't see him anymore."
"Where'd he go?" Mike asked.
"I think he turned the corner," Jeff said. "What happened?"
"I don't know! It just jumped right."
"Smell the rubber. He gave us a blowout. But we didn't spin out of control."
"He says they won't kill Bryan – was he lying?" Mike asked.
"No," Naomi said, then she reconsidered. "I don't think so, but they lie really well."
"He was lying when he said he didn't know what happened to us," Jeff said.
"So? What's going on? They want us there?"
"Not going to happen. I'm not volunteering to get killed," Jeff said.
"They won't, though at least – he sounded and smelled sincere when he talked about not killing Bryan," Naomi said. She was sure his heartbeat hadn't quickened at all.
"What do we do then?" Mike said.
"We have to get the groceries home before the pizza rolls defrost," Jeff said.
"And then? We're not – well, they're not killing him."
"I still don't want Bryan tortured into shifting in public," Mike said.
"Mindy wakes up in four more hours. I can call her and maybe she'll have some kind of idea of where to go from here."
"So it's settled." Jeff patted his stomach. "We eat dinner."
"And take a nap," Naomi agreed.
"But Bryan is still kidnapped – somewhere," Mikey said.
"Well, we aren't going anywhere until we get the spare onto the car." Naomi sighed. "Boy is mom going to be pissed when she wakes up."
"So… You know how to change a tire?" Mike asked.
"Well yeah. That's the first thing Mom and Dad made me learn before I got my learner's permit," Naomi said. Mike flushed, clearly he didn't know how to change a tire. "Want to learn?"
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
"I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU TWO are just eating. We have to find Bry!" Mike stormed out of the dining room.
"Still got to eat," Jeff said. The bathroom sink turned on and Naomi could hear Mike splashing water on his face. "Drama," Jeff mouthed just as the doorbell rang. "You expecting anyone?"
Naomi shook her head and approached the door cautiously. She recognized the scent, but couldn't place it. Whoever it was, there were flowers. Someone from the flower shop? Why ring the doorbell? Naomi looked through the peep hole. Aaron stood in front of the door, flowers in hand.
"Aaron?" Naomi pulled open the door. "What are you doing here?"
"I just thought I'd stop by and see how you are doing." He smiled and tried to step into the house. His face fell. "Family emergency, huh? Missing brother? Who's that?"
"Jeff's my cousin."
"Like hell I am." Suddenly, Jeff was standing too close behind her. "Who's this?"
"My mom brought him down," Naomi said answering Aaron. "She's friends with his mom. They're trying to set us up."
"Then why'd you lie?"
"We called each other cousins growing up," Naomi said. "I don't think of him romantically. I'm just worried about Bryan."
"And now what? It's just the two of you here? I'm sure I interrupted some precious alone time. I'll just leave."
"Dammit Aaron, just come inside already. Mike, we got company!" Mike appeared from the bathroom. His eyes were puffy and red. "This is Aaron, my friend from the gym. He came to check on me, isn't that sweet?" Naomi finally accepted the flowers, but she didn't know what to do with them. Mike took them and began rummaging in the kitchen. "I don't have a vase." Mike waved a hand vaguely in her direction and kept rummaging in her cabinets.
"Naomi sat down in her armchair. The shelf looked empty without Mr. Fishyman. The men sat on opposite ends of the couch while Mikey kept looking for something to put the flowers in. Naomi stared at the empty spot, where the fish tank should have been.
"Do you have any clue where your brother is?"
Naomi shook her head, trying to think of something to say.
"We think it might be a hate crime," Jeff said. "No one has any clue where he is. Not his boyfriend. Not their friends. No one. We're afraid someone kidnapped him for who he is."
"I – I don't know what to say. Have you call the cops?"
Naomi shook her head. Again, Jeff surprised her by answering. "They won't take a report for 24 hours. So tomorrow morning we can file, maybe." Jeff shrugged. "Not a lot of clues to work off of. I don't know what they'll find that we didn't."
"What are you some kind a special –"
"Exactly. I'm a special investigator. A private detective up in Redding, but here… Nothing. I don't have any contacts. There's no trail to follow. I'm trying, but we're kind of at a crossroads and I'm stuck."
A light went on in Aaron's face, as if he decided he could help. "I could – I mean this is stupid, hippie dippy stuff, but my cousin Emma, she's into Wicca." Jeff rolled his eyes, but Aaron focused right on Naomi's face and ignored him. "She's really good at finding things with this thing she does – scrying! Maybe she could try it for your brother."
"I don't think so," Jeff said at the exact same time Naomi said, "Why not?" He glared at Naomi. If looks could kill, she'd have been dead and buried.
"At this point nothing could hurt," Naomi said with a shrug.
"It's all a bunch of –" He could not be about to call it bull.
"It's a great idea. Especially after every
thing we've already been through. We don't have any other options, so why not?"
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
"MY COUSIN… SHE'S A BIT out there, but she's good people. You'll see," Aaron said as they approached the front door. His cousin Emma had a small pentagram in the window. It was one of those wooden signs over the door and read, "Never again the burning times." Otherwise her house didn't look any different from any of the others on the street. It smelled like some spices Naomi hadn't really smelled before, but nothing too far out of the ordinary.
He rang the doorbell. High heels clicked their way to the door. Fabric shifted as she leaned to the peephole and she sighed just loud enough for Naomi to hear before the door swung open revealing a smiling young blonde.
"Aaron, what can I do…" She trailed off in her voice fell as she caught sight of Naomi. Naomi could smell the dirt from the Davis roadside still on her shoes, and her scent was unmistakable. This was the witch who had kidnapped Bryan.
"You!" Naomi growled, her lips curled back from her teeth.
"What?" Jeff asked. The witch tried to slam the door in their faces, but Naomi shoved her foot into the frame and forced it back open.
"What are you doing?" Aaron asked. "I brought my friend over to see if you could help her find her cousin."
"No magic required," Naomi said, pushing her way in. "You know just where he is, don't you?"
"What? Your brother? Bryan?"
"How'd you know that?" Aaron asked.
"Exactly the right question, Aaron." Jeff ushered Aaron and Mikey into the house. Then he asked if Naomi knew the witch. The blonde tried to push them out of the house, but two werewolves were too much for her.
"She's the one. I smelled her in Davis and I can smell the dirt on her shoes." Naomi looked the witch up and down, suddenly recognizing her. She blurted, "You came to the gym with Aaron – almost a year ago, when I first started going."
"That's when I knew what you were." Emma glanced at Aaron and Mikey, then at the two wolves. "Are you sure you want to talk about this?" Naomi shrugged, but somehow Jeff and Mikey looked to her. The new alpha.
"I know everything. Bryan's my boyfriend." Aaron's eyes widened curiously.
