by C C Sommerly
Case Number 5: The Missing Grimoire. Harold Bolden had hired us to find his family’s missing grimoire. He didn’t know what it contained, so there could be a useless grimoire that someone used as their personal diary. Or it might have a bunch of powerful spells that shouldn’t be used and shouldn’t have been written down. There had been quite a few false leads and I needed to find a new clue or come up with something to track down the grimoire. Mr. Bolden was getting testy about not having it recovered.
I set the files aside and went up to shower and rest. Tomorrow, I’d start on Julia Huntington’s case. Since she paid an expedite fee, her case went to the top of the list. I hated bumping cases. And the missing grimoire was already such a bitterly cold trail that I resented having to put it on the back burner for some society twit.
5
I jotted down Julia Huntington’s address from the case file onto some paper and headed to Uptown. The address provided wasn’t a part of Uptown I was familiar with. I made it a matter of pride to know my town, so it rankled me that I couldn’t pinpoint Miss Huntington’s location. My location tracker, called out directions.
I wove through the clean streets that shone brightly. Designer dressed women and men filled the sidewalks of the storefronts. Several threw me scowls when they saw Betty passing. They judged me now, but eventually, many of them make their way to our Agency for help. My non-existent social status was easy to overlook when I was useful.
I passed the outer edges of Uptown and the tracker continued directing me onward. After countless miles, I turned down a forested dirt road. What was a society snob doing out in the woods? Smoke or was it fog filtered in from the trees, forcing me to slow Betty down to a crawl. Flames appeared before me and I slammed on the brakes. Betty beeped her horn in displeasure at the rough handling.
I rubbed her dashboard in soothing motions “sorry girl.”
I parked the car. Betty could take care of herself. The presence of the magic, creating the flames, made my own magical box rattle. This was a strong spell and instinctually my own magic wanted to respond. I needed to find a mage or fae who could help me better block my magic. It shouldn’t be this hard to keep it down. I stood before the flames. They spread across the dirt road but ended at the tree line. I walked towards the trees. Sure enough, I could get around it if I edged along the forest. Most people weren’t be foolish enough to keep going once they saw the flames, so I doubt Miss Huntington was aware of the gap in her defenses. It was a deterrent for most people. Too bad for her I wasn’t most people.
On the other side of the flames, I saw not a house, but a small cabin, it must be one of their family’s retreats. There’s no way a family like the Huntington’s had a cabin as their full-time residence. It was a spacious cabin complete with smoke rising lazily from the chimney. Growls disturbed the idyllic scene. Three large, hairless, and excessively muscled Devil Dogs came from around the house into view.
Devil Dogs were in no way related to Hell Hounds. In fact, they didn’t even come from Hell. They were a distilled version of the werewolf virus, Lycanthropy, that has diluted over a millennium to the bizarre dog-like creatures before me. They were excellent guard dogs and wouldn’t let anyone that wasn’t keyed to the dog, into the residence. They were trained or “keyed” by scent and any unrecognized scents were automatically considered threats.
I hated hurting dogs, but I really didn’t want to be their chew toy. Screw this.
“Julia Huntington!” I yelled. “Call off your dogs. I don’t want to hurt them. I just came to talk to you.”
The growls were increasingly hostile as the dogs raced towards me. Dang it. I pulled my dagger from my boot sheath and dug one of the rare and highly expensive stun spells out of my cargo pockets. I’d do my best to incapacitate them. Killing your client’s pets made for bad client relations.
“Julia. The dogs!”
The dogs lunged for me, a mass of seething resentment, angered that I had the audacity to trespass into their domain. I smashed the stun spell on the ground and flinched, throwing myself to the side and out of the way of the powdery smoke from the spell.
Sterling was going to kill me for using it. One of these spells cost more than what I make in several months. They were for extreme emergencies and this was a stupid waste of the spell. I could have found other ways to get information about the missing necklace. It was times like this when I questioned my decision to live without magic.
The dogs dropped to the ground, stunned mid-lunge. They looked like some taxidermist’s idea of a joke. There jaws frozen open for the kill and eyes wide and angry. Drool hung in long, glistening strings down each side of their mouth. Not wasting anymore time, I ran for the cabin.
I pounded on the door, but only silence greeted me. I swore and pounded again. I tried the door, but it was locked. I walked around the place, checking windows and the back door. Everything was locked up tight.
While I was in the back, I hear a woman scream “Muffin! Fluffy! Daisy!” Circling around to the front of the cabin, I saw a panicked Julia Huntington dropping down next to the stunned dogs. She cradled their stiff bodies in her arms. She was frantically trying to drag them all into her lap and failing miserably.
“What on earth are you doing lolling about with some dead animals?” asked a dark and swarthy man.
“What are you doing here Jasper? Can’t you see that I’m busy?”
The man continued forward, paying no mind to the woman’s words.
“Where is the necklace Julia?” he asked.
Could it be the same necklace she hired us for and why was this man looking for it? By his dingy appearance, he didn’t run in the same social circle and didn’t look like one of Wolf Agency’s “wolves”.
“We had an arrangement. The grimoire is useless without it,” said the man.
I walked calmly towards her. I’d already killed any chance of making a good impression after incapacitating her “babies”. Now that I looked about them, I could just make out the slightest rising and falling of their chest. It must be a defective stun spell to start wearing off so soon.
Finally sensing my movement, Julia locked onto me. “And who are you to trespass and hurt my little babies?”
“You mean, the babies that tried to take my face off and gnaw on my bones?” I said.
“No need to be dramatic. You aren’t a welcome visitor and they were just protecting their Mommy.”
The dogs were showing more signs of life. There was a wet puddle from their melting drool across Julia’s lap. What were the chances she’d be reasonable and not turn them loose on me?
“Julia?”
“Not now Jasper.” She directed a hard look at me, “and you didn’t answer my question. Who are you?”
“Marty from Croft and Sterling Agency, the CSA. I’m here about your case.”
“No wonder I didn’t recognize you, you’re not filthy and covered in blood and other unmentionables.”
Jasper laughed long and hard and Julia rolled her eyes.
“You hired this girl to find the necklace you were supposed to have. Did you think I wouldn’t find out,” he said.
Julia watched the man, who was busy stalking towards her, face fixed in a blank expression. The dogs were beginning to squirm and I had minutes, maybe seconds until a shit storm was brewed courtesy of those little “babies”.
With the man distracted, I pulled my dagger from its sheath.
“You don’t want to do this Jasper,” said Julia.
“Who said I don’t? I was promised it and you not having it puts me in a tough spot. I don’t like being in tough spots.”
He was now within a few feet of Julia. He reached into his vest and I threw my dagger at his arm. It sunk deeply into the meaty part of his bicep.
“You bitch,” he screamed, clutching his bleeding arm. It wouldn’t kill him, but it would make it harder for him to injure Julia or fight me. I hadn’t sensed magic on him, so I assumed he was human. But, in this day and age, even
non-magic users could use spells, charms, amulets, and other magic-infused objects. So, you could never be sure that you were dealing with a magicless person.
The dogs were kicking their feet, still not fully recovered, but getting there. Jasper let go of his bleeding arm and pulled out a charm. Here we go.
A roar sounded from behind him, and through the wall of fire flew a dark object through the flames. Betty hit Jasper, sending him flying. I blinked in shock and then jumped into the now opened driver’s side door. I hope he survived that.
“I’ll need to chat with you at your earliest convenience,” I shouted to Julia.
I just managed to shut the door when the three Devil Dogs hit it, bouncing off with pained cries. Betty took off with a roar. And I drove through the flames. My heart was racing. I wanted to shout and shake my fist in celebration at making it out alive. I rubbed my hand across Betty’s dashboard and cooed soothing words to her. I hoped my intent and appreciation was clear to her.
I parked my savior, Betty, at the Agency curb and jumped out. I burst through the door and saw Sterling talking to Callie.
He took one look at me.
“Office, now,” he barked and headed straight to his office. I followed hot on his heels.
I didn’t even get to sit down before he peppered me with questions.
“What happened now? You coming in looking half dead is getting old and puts us and the Agency at risk. Tell me how any of your cases could possibly result in this,” he said as he gestured to my singed and grubby appearance.
“I’m well, thank you. I’m appreciate your joy at seeing me still in the land of the living.”
He rolled his eyes, but waited for me to continue.
“I went to see Julia Huntington.”
“You went to Uptown and ended up in this condition? You understand the delicacy required to work this case, do you not?”
“She doesn’t live in Uptown, or at least, that wasn’t the address provided in the case files.”
“So, where have you been?”
I quickly summarized the events leading up to and including the cabin and my getaway.
Sterling’s expression was thunderous by the time I finished.
“I wouldn’t have given you such a dangerous case had I known. I’m taking you off this case. As a human, you are too vulnerable for this case.”
I bristled, but he wasn’t wrong. I was “technically” a human and weaker and more breakable than a supernatural. But, I had never had a problem defending myself.
“And who’s gonna take it? Don’t think I didn’t notice your towering stack of case files perched on your desk. We are drowning having to work without Zander. “
He rubbed his hand wearily down his face, looking more fatigued than I had ever seen him.
“Damnit. I don’t like this one bit, Rayne.”
“Would it kill you to call me Marty?”
He smiled slow and smooth, his eyes twinkling. “Why yes, yes it would.”
I flipped him off and he smiled bigger. Dick.
“Maybe I can get one of the part-timers to handle it – someone less fragile,” he paused seeing my reaction. “Or, at least someone to have your back until I can close out some cases.”
Part-timers were an annoying essential at times. As a smaller PI firm, we couldn’t afford additional staff on a full-time basis. However, there were times we had no choice except to bring on security guards or other skilled professionals on a case-by-case basis. They supported the Agency as body guards, conducted client interviews, assisted with surveillance, and other activities that were safer with a partner. And, if Sterling had his way, they’d be helping me with Julia’s missing necklace case.
Sterling’s mouth was fixed in a grim line and shadows loomed under his eyes. If anything, he looked worse than I probably did. For a shifter to look this bad, he had to be spending most nights working.
I sighed.
“Fine, but see if we can get Roc. He’s actually one of the few competent ones out of the bunch we’ve had.”
“Any other requests?”
“No, I’m cleaning up and think I need to go over the case files of Mr. Bolden’s stolen grimoire. It might be a long shot, but how often does a grimoire go missing?”
“Almost never.”
“I need to look over the grimoire files. We’re missing something because Jasper referenced it and the necklace.”
“Or, you could take a break and rest until tomorrow.”
I winked and just before I made it to the door, I called out.
“And, why would I want to do that? Haven’t you heard? There’s no rest for the wicked.”
6
At the rate I was going through clothes, I’d be naked by the end of the week. I did a quick change and collected my case files, which were currently cluttering the wooden desk in my room.
I dropped the stack of files onto the coffee table in the common room. Despite its name, it wasn’t really a room. It was a large open area on the second floor. There were comfy couches, soft lighting, and a revolving tray of snacks. Ironically, it was the one place we managed to keep stocked with food. It never made sense why we couldn’t keep the kitchen full of food, but here we had no issues keeping goodies available.
Sterling was the only one who had his own office, so this communal area was multi-purpose. We used it for socializing, researching, or just relaxing. For once, I was the only one here.
I settled into the couch, it sucked me into a plush hug. As I nestled further into the furniture, I read through the missing grimoire case file. Mr. Bolden hired us two weeks ago to find his missing family grimoire. As far as I knew, their family was made up of light mages. Each grimoire contained spells that ranged from standard to secret and even dangerous ones that the Mage Guild forbid or ones requiring dark magic.
I needed to find out more about whether Julia Huntington’s friend, Jasper, knew Mr. Bolden. The Bolden family lived in one of the older parts of Uptown. It was just barely Uptown, clinging to the social status with a tight grip. They were one of those families that fell on hard times, but still desperately clung to prestige and social status.
According to the case file, Mr. Bolden came home to a kicked-in front door. The house was in shambles. There were powerful spells and wards hiding the grimoire. Someone broke through the wards to take it. Blood was splattered around the exterior of the wards. Mr. Bolden insisted that we find it sooner rather than later.
I was the one who did the initial intake interview. When I asked him about the contents of the grimoire, he quickly assured me that the content of it was only light magic. His explanation rang with sincerity.
Despite coming from a family of light mages, Mr. Bolden wasn’t a supernatural. When I met with him, I hadn’t gotten any magical read off of him. Maybe he didn’t understand what was in the grimoire. There’s no telling what was in it. As a precaution, most of them were spelled to be illegible for non-magical readers. Essentially, I had no way of knowing whether what he said it contained was true. I’d have to go back to him and find out who at that household had read it.
I gathered up the case files and returned them to my room after jotting down Mr. Bolden’s address. The ride over was uneventful, but unnerving because they lived close to the sisterhood. My magic had been unstable since that event and it made me nervous. It had never been like this in all the years I had blocked it.
I pulled up to the outdated, two-story brick house. The brick was brighter in places, showing where they had been replaced over the years. A path wound from the sidewalk to the door and cut through a lush green lawn. Neatly manicured bushes, trees, and flowers hugged the house.
I banged on the door with the golden lion door knocker and waited. A hunched over servant answered the door. The man didn’t even come up to my shoulders. He looked me over with his milky eyes that I doubted could see much.
“How may I help you Miss?”
His voice held an accent I couldn’t place, but his voice
was smooth and surprisingly youthful.
“I’m here to see Mr. Bolden. Is he or Mrs. Bolden in?”
“Do you have an appointment?”
“No, but I’m here on a matter of some urgency. I work with the CSA.”
“I see. Please come inside. No point in loitering about.”
I followed behind him. He directed me to a sitting room and I waited for Mr. or Mrs. Bolden. There wasn’t much furniture in this room and the walls had faded spots on the wallpaper where pictures once hung. The same servant returned with a tea tray and some biscuits. He poured me a glass with shaky hands.
“Sugar?”
“Yes, two cubes, please.”
I balanced the tea cup on the plate that the servant had tucked some biscuits onto. I politely sipped the tea, which was surprisingly good. The biscuits were stale enough to double as a form of torture. No one would willingly eat one of these for risk of chipping a tooth.
He left me to my refreshments. I looked for somewhere to dump the biscuit before he came back.
I crumpled up the biscuit. I kicked the bigger pieces of it under the couch. Let them think I was a messy eater instead of ungrateful – must keep up client relations.
Mr. Bolden strolled into the room. He was a middle aged man, with thinning hair and a sizable paunch.
“Has there been a break in the case or whatever your type say?”
“Not necessarily, but I’d like some more information. I want to know who had access to your —”
He cleared his throat, interrupting me and put his hand over his lips in a silencing gesture.
“I was going to say, your possession?”
“I can help with that. Most certainly, but how does this assist in retrieving it?”
“Often times we find that with cases like this, that they are inside jobs.”
“Are you accusing my family or staff of being thieves?!”
