by Logan Byrne
“Good evening folks, and how are we tonight?” It was the man, the one with the soul patch. He stopped us right before we took the portal out.
“Good evening, we’ve had such a wonderful time here tonight. I promise you I’m going to get better at blackjack and come back!” Xelia said, laughing with a huge smile.
“How about you two?” he asked, looking disinterested in Xelia and her jokes.
“We just saw the kitsune racing, it was awesome,” Charlie said, nodding.
“I can’t wait to come back,” I said, smiling.
He stared at me before snapping out of it and smiling again. “I’m so glad to hear you three had a great time, and we welcome you back again soon,” he said before stepping out of the way.
He stared at me as I walked past, as if he were sizing me up. Did he know who I was? Did he know I was a mage, a cop, or worse yet, that I had the mark? Maybe he knew I’d gone into that man’s memories. I was going to have to make sure to stay away from him when we came back here, and I definitely planned on coming back. I wanted to take that scumbag in myself.
•••
“How did it go? Your sting operation,” Britta asked, sitting up in bed and putting down her book as I walked into our room.
“It’s bad, Britta. These people are the worst of the worst,” I said, defeated.
“You’re going to arrest them and bring them in, I’m sure of it. You just have to stay positive and look at the bigger picture,” she said.
“I’m starting to wish I had your case, or any other case, so that I didn’t have to deal with this. I hate it,” I said, taking off my necklace and shoes.
“I’m here if you ever need to vent. Might be better than talking to Charlie or Xelia,” she said.
“I know, and I appreciate it. I’m going to change and get ready for bed,” I said, grabbing some pajamas and my toiletry kit.
I washed my makeup off, seeing the muddied black water drain in the sink, before gripping the sides of the sink and looking at myself in the mirror. “You can do this,” I whispered, trying to motivate myself.
I just hoped that future cases weren’t as trying as this one. I guess it really was hard to be a cop.
17
I’d gotten my first real rest during the weekend. It was Saturday, and my hard work throughout the week was being handsomely rewarded. We’d gone to the casino on Thursday, only two days ago, but Xelia said she didn’t want to go back so soon, and we would wait until Monday before going again. I guess she didn’t want to become too well known there. She didn’t want us to become recognizable.
The only problem was that I wasn’t sure I could stop myself from meddling with the case. My dreams and thoughts had been plagued with the image of that kitsune hobbling around the track. The worst parts of my mind came forward as I thought of it being kicked around and mistreated. I wanted to rescue it, to rescue them all, but I knew Xelia would never go for it. I needed to do something myself, to get my own intel and maybe do something that would help us out in the long run.
“Where are you going?” Britta asked as I got dressed in black later that night.
“Out,” I said.
“Back on the case?” she asked.
“I guess you could say that,” I said, pulling out a facemask.
“Lexa, what are you doing? They don’t know, do they?” she asked, sitting up in bed.
“And they won’t find out, at least not from you. Promise me, Britta,” I said.
“You’re going to get in such trouble! We’re still recruits in the eyes of the precinct,” she said.
“I’m not doing anything harmful or that will jeopardize our case, I promise,” I said.
“I won’t tell, but you’ll be the one to live with the consequences if something happens,” she said.
I sheathed my wand, leaving our room and walking out the front doors of the precinct. I made sure to take a route Xelia and Charlie wouldn’t be on and started my long walk towards the bakery. The old man should’ve still been there; it was almost closing time, according to the hours on the front window. I wanted to talk to him, not hurt him, and find out anything I could about the man, or men, who were using him and threatening him. I couldn’t do it as a cop, though, at least not as myself. Going into the casino compromised that. That was why I had the facemask.
When I arrived I stood in the darkness across the street, seeing the man just finishing packing up his things. His shirt was covered in flour, and this time he had a small bag in his hands. When he locked the door and started on his way I left the shadows and crossed the street, my hood up and mask on, only my eyes sticking out.
“Why did you do it?” I asked. He stopped, freezing a little.
“Please don’t hurt me, I’m just an old man,” he said, turning around with his hands up.
“I’m not going to hurt you, I have no desire to cause you harm. I need to know your intentions, though,” I said.
“With what?” he asked, looking seemingly confused.
“That man, the one with the dark hair and soul patch under his lip. Why did you let him use your bakery for illegal activity?” I asked.
The old man looked shocked, his eyes wide, like he couldn’t believe I knew that. How would I, a random person on the street, after all? He cleared his throat. “I didn’t have a choice. I knew my wife and I would be harmed if I rejected his offer,” he said.
“But why your shop, particularly? There are tons of buildings around here, around the city, so why yours? It’s nothing special, to be honest,” I said.
“It wasn’t random, if that’s what you’re wondering. I owed him a favor, the man he works for, and it was time to pay for that favor,” he said.
“What was the favor?” I asked.
“A few years ago, I was losing money because of a bad distributor who was extorting me. These men straightened it out, and now that distributor is gone and I’m able to bake again,” he said.
“So they murdered him for you?” I asked.
“No, well, I don’t know, all I know is the rates went back down and I was able to afford them again. Please, I’m not a bad man, I’m really not. Please believe me,” he said, his knees almost on the ground as he started to beg.
I could see the sincerity in his eyes, a man tarnished by misfortune and hard choices made only to save his livelihood. Still, he had a connection with these men, and I thought they chose his shop because they thought he wouldn’t squeal to the cops. So far, he hadn’t.
“I need to access your shop, to see it for myself,” I said.
“You won’t find anything there,” he said.
“They’re using your shop, so I think I will,” I said.
“What you’ll seek isn’t found in traditional spaces. I’ve said too much, I must go. They’re always listening,” he said, turning around and hobbling off. He didn’t say I couldn’t go in, just that I wouldn’t find it. I begged to differ.
I walked around to the back of the building, a dog barking in the background as a dim light bulb flickered above me. I unsheathed my wand, unlocking the door before closing it behind me and walking inside. There was a narrow staircase leading down to the basement. The back room was empty aside from stacks of flour and sugar.
The old wooden stairs creaked as I walked down, my wand at the ready in case anybody came to say hello. I wished I’d convinced Charlie to come with me. His shifting would really be helpful right now. The basement was dark, the lights coming on as I flicked the switch. There were wooden boxes all over, old furniture, barrels, and antiques that the old man must’ve been storing here. Nothing screamed magical portal, and quite frankly I wasn’t sure why I was here or what I was looking for. Maybe the room was here, or a way into it, and we could use it to move the casino. That was the problem with a room enchantment spell: you could easily fit that casino into a space the size of a matchbox, but anybody could find it, pick it up, and move it without the people inside even realizing. We could take all of them into custod
y, into the station, and force them all out into cells.
I spurted out spell after spell, anything I knew that would help me find what I was searching for, but I had no luck. I overturned boxes, lifted up anything suspicious, and even searched through an old barrel filled with sugar, but nothing was there. Then I stopped. How could I be so stupid? I had a better way to find it. I put away my wand, taking my gloves off my hands before holding them out and closing my eyes. I imagined them glowing, the mark imbuing me with its power, helping far more than any wand could.
After relaxing my mind, I opened my eyes. My hands were glowing blue. I started incanting the retrieval spell. The light from my hands pulsed outwards in all directions, and a brick in the wall started to glow faintly. I walked over and saw the mortar around it was a little crumbly. The brick wasn’t fully glued into the wall. I put on my gloves again before I pulled it out, seeing nothing inside. When I turned it, about to put it back in, a small box was now in plain sight.
The brick was hollowed out. The small box inside held the entire casino. I smiled, put the brick back, and pulled my gloves back on, the mark fading away. I slipped out of the bakery and into the precinct. It was too late now for Xelia or Charlie to be awake, but I knew I had to tell them what I’d found—as long as she didn’t kill me first.
•••
Xelia always worked, never taking a day off. Something about crime never sleeping. I ran to her office the next morning, knocking on the door and smiling as she looked up at me. “Somebody’s happy,” she said.
“Can I talk to you about something? It has to do with the case,” I said.
“Sure,” she said, looking concerned. I closed the door behind me.
“I found something. What they’re using, what they enchanted, for the casino,” I said, smiling.
“You think you know it, or you found it?” she asked.
“I found it,” I said.
“How would you do that? I don’t remember finding anything like that,” she said.
“Well, okay, don’t get mad, but I went to the bakery last night,” I said, scratching the back of my head and trying to play it cool. She let out a deep breath through her nose, visibly upset, while I tapped my foot on the floor.
“Lexa, you can’t do those sorts of things. You could’ve compromised the entire case,” she said.
“I didn’t, I was completely covered and my identity was obscured,” I said.
“How did you even find it?” she asked.
“That old man, the baker, I confronted him outside,” I said.
“Lexa,” she said, putting her hand to her head and shaking it.
“He told me why he’s helping them. Well, it’s not really by choice, but then he told me what I wanted wouldn’t be easy to find, or something like that. The point is, I found it, we can go get the box and start making arrests,” I said, smiling and happy.
“It’s not that easy, Lexa. There’s a process to everything, there are laws, there’s order. Taking that thing isn’t a part of it. We need a warrant. Even breaking into that place could jeopardize the case if anybody else finds out. You didn’t tell anybody, did you?” she asked.
“No, just you. I’m confused, though. I thought I found something great,” I said.
“You did, finding that is awesome, even if I don’t like your methods, but you still have a lot to learn about what it means to be a cop. You can’t just do or take anything you want. You went into the bakery illegally, and you searched around illegally. I’m just happy you didn’t take the box. Wait, you didn’t take it, right?” she asked, looking horrified.
“No, I left it there,” I said.
“Thank god,” she said, letting out a sigh of relief. “Where was it?”
“In the wall in the basement. There’s a brick on the back side that’s hollowed out. They stuffed it in there,” I said.
“How did you find something like that? It sounds obscure,” she said.
“I just got lucky, I guess,” I said, playing dumb. My mark needed to stay a secret. I knew Mirian wouldn’t be too thrilled if I told her, even if she was a part of the resistance.
“If it really is there as you say, I’ll put in a search warrant request with a judge I’m friendly with. We’ll go back tonight, get the box, and go from there,” Xelia said.
“So I’m off the hook?” I asked, smiling, hoping for a yes.
“For now you are, but if you ever pull anything like this again without going through the proper channels, I will make sure you’re properly punished for your insubordination. Do I make myself clear?” she asked sternly.
“Yes,” I said.
I walked out of her office, making myself cheerful instead of upset for getting yelled at. Maybe I did do it the wrong way, but I got results, and that was all that mattered, at least to me. We were going to go back, get the box, and be done with it all. The case would be over, the kitsune saved, and men like the guy with the soul patch would go away for a long, long time. Nothing could go wrong.
•••
“Has he left yet?” Charlie asked, perched in his former spot atop the rear building later that night.
“He is now,” I said, watching the old man lock up his shop for the night. We didn’t want him to see us delivering the warrant because of what it could mean for our identities. We couldn’t have him describe us to the men he was working with, or worse yet, if they happened to swing by and see us here. We had the legal authority to go in even if it was empty, and we decided to go that route. We had to be stealthy.
“He’s down the street,” I said, running from behind our car to the alleyway where his back door was.
“Do the honors,” Xelia said to me.
I took out my wand, unlocking the door, and pointed down the stairs as we walked in. “Candelae,” I said, the tip of my wand glowing and giving us just enough light to work with. We walked down the stairs and I flipped on the lights. The room looked the same as it did the night before.
“Where is it?” Charlie asked.
“Over here,” I said, walking over to the rear wall. I found the crumbly mortar again, but it looked a little different, like more of it had fallen out. Maybe I was a little more careless than I thought last night. I took the brick out slowly, turning it around with a smile on my face.
“What are we looking at?” Xelia asked.
My eyebrows furled. I turned it around again. The inside of the hollow brick was empty. “No, it was here, I swear!” I said, looking around for any sign of the tiny box. It was gone. I even put my wand up to the hole, wondering if it had slipped out when I put the brick back in last night, but there was nothing there. It was like it vanished in thin air.
“You’re positive that this brick was the right one?” Charlie asked.
“I’m as positive as I can be. This was it,” I said.
“They must’ve come back for it,” Xelia said.
“How would they even know?” I asked.
“Maybe the old man tipped them off about somebody asking about it, or maybe they enchanted the brick to alert them when it was removed. We can’t know for sure, but I think it’s safe to say that it isn’t here any longer. We’re going to have to finish this case the old-fashioned way,” Xelia said.
“Let’s get out of here before somebody comes,” Charlie said. I put the brick back in place, turned off the lights, and we ran out to the car and drove off. There was nobody around to spot us. I had a sour feeling in my stomach, like I’d been duped, and I just hoped that they believed me when I said it was here last night. I shouldn’t have come here alone, or I should’ve just taken that stupid box with no regard for what happened.
18
“It’s so nice to have some time to hang out again,” Britta said. The five of us got back together, having finished our work for the night, and just hung out like old times. It felt like it had been so long. I didn’t even really know what was going on with Britta, and I lived with her. These cases, and this job, consumed everything abou
t our lives, but I was confident it would get better once we were out of this first month.
“It’s nice to not be around nerds anymore,” Faus said.
“But Faus, you’re a nerd,” Blake said, smiling.
“Okay, maybe, but not like these other people. I’m really starting to go crazy in there with them,” he said.
“What are you up to, job-wise?” I asked.
“I’m working on a system that will make booking more efficient. It involves an algorithm using special barcodes that will expedite the process to save on paperwork,” he said.
“Thank you!” Britta exclaimed. “I can’t tell you how much I despise paperwork.”
“It’s definitely the worst part of this job,” Blake said.
“How about you guys?” Faus asked, looking at Charlie and me. “What have you two been up to?”
“The most intense, crazy case ever,” Charlie said, rubbing his face with his hands.
“That bad?” Faus asked.
“It’s just been very time-consuming and it involves much more participation than I think we both expected. It’s very advanced, let’s say, for a first-time case,” I said.
“Well, what’s going on?” Faus asked.
“We’re undercover, kind of, in an illegal casino operating pretty close to here, actually. We’re trying to collect evidence against them to build a case,” I said.
“We had a good lead recently, but it turned out to be nothing,” Charlie said, obviously alluding to my wild goose chase.
“We’ll get them, I’m sure of it. We just need some help taking them down, I think. I know Xelia is experienced, but this is a big takedown, not like some corner drug dealer or something,” I said.
“Well, maybe I can help?” Faus asked.
“I appreciate it, but I thought you weren’t allowed in the field,” I said.
“Not that way. My mentor developed some tiny cameras, like really tiny cameras, that you could maybe put on yourself or something. You can get pictures or videos and use them in court,” Faus said.
