Brandywine Investigations

by Angel Martinez

  A bizarre thought crept into Dio's brain. He skidded back around the corner and got down on the floor so he could slide onto the empty shelf. His knees and elbows suffered a bit as he wriggled and stuffed himself into the space meant for books, but he fit, just in time to send Leander a thumbs-up as the shelf descended below the floor.

  "Lord Dionysus! You can't do that!" Leander sputtered.

  He got a last glimpse of those shiny, black hoofs as Leander stamped, then the second floor of the library came into view. Dio maintained his cramped position just to see if he could, waiting as the cycling shelf made its slow way back to the bottom floor. He wriggled as a feeling of unhealthy triumph, dusky red and scented with rotting gardenia assaulted him from the enclosed space. The shelf kept sinking into what seemed a cavernous understory, maybe a storage area, before it hit bottom and began to ascend again.

  Afraid of getting off on the wrong floor and losing his way, Dio forced himself to pay careful attention on the way back up. Though he really shouldn't have worried. Leander still paced in front of the bookcase as Dio reached the third floor and rolled off the shelf again.

  "My Lord!" Leander's voice was tight and louder than Dio had ever heard. "You mustn't ever do that again. You might have been terribly injured or might have even lost fingers. Why would you do such a foolish thing?"

  Dio wriggled his fingers in Leander's direction. "All there. All in one piece. I wanted to see if I could. 'Cause if I could, someone else could. I think I need to get Uncle Hades."

  He turned to take off for the nearest staircase, since he was pretty sure Uncle Hades's reading room was on the next floor down, but a large hand on his shoulder pinned him in place.

  "Stay here, my lord. Make certain everything remains untouched. Quicker if I fetch Lord Hades."

  Not certain if his feelings should be hurt, Dio contented himself with watching Leander run off, and he did run, powerful legs pumping, hooves clattering on the marble floors. There was something ridiculously sexy about a male running in a kilt, the way the material swung and flashed enticing bits of this and that. Not that I have any business thinking that way about a hermit with social anxiety issues. He didn't have long to wait. Soon Leander's voice and Uncle Hades's deep rumble floated through the stacks toward him.

  "This one?" Uncle Hades stopped in front of the bookshelf, though he didn't wait for an answer before stooping to examine the empty shelf. "Nephew, you rode this down?"

  "Yes, sir." Dio fidgeted, suddenly unhappy about his impromptu experiment. "Did I screw things up?"

  Uncle Hades straightened, his silver brows lowered in a frown that could've been angry or thoughtful. "Hmm? No. You did well. There is residual here. I believe the murderer came this way. Did you feel it?"

  "I felt something icky in there. I can't swear it's the same, but it didn't make the trip more fun."

  "I need you to think for me." Uncle Hades took Dio by the shoulders. "Did you notice any place where this feeling might have disembarked?"

  "Not… no. It was all around me. I'd have to jump out on each floor to see if it went anywhere. If it's still there."

  With a nod, Uncle Hades released him and strode around to examine the displaced books. "Here too. Leander, are any of these missing? And do we know what's been taken from the Alexandrian Collection yet?"

  "I've…" Leander swallowed hard. Was that a guilty expression? "I've not done the reference work yet to determine that, my lord."

  Uncle Hades stared at him until Leander fidgeted and dropped his gaze, a bizarre sight, since he was nearly a foot taller than Uncle Hades. "Do that, then. Dio, I want Hermes, if you'd fetch him, please. Meet us in my reading room. Leander, when you have the information, I'd like you and your assistants to join us as well."

  "The assistants, my lord?"

  "Yes. I should have thought to question them before. An hour's time if you can manage. I need to check each floor to see if there is a clear point of egress."

  Dio dared to give his uncle a quick hug before he rushed back into the Alexandrian corridors, where he knew Hermes had his reading room. If he knew his brother, there'd be some kind of alert on his door. All he would have to do would be to knock.

  Dots On Ti's Map

  Chapter Six

  Waiting in Uncle Hades's reading room alone was a little unnerving. Not intimidating, exactly, though Dio was certain some people would find it so, in a principal's office kind of way. But it was too quiet, every scent, sound, and color muted. The feeling of having cotton stuffed in all his senses made him keep turning in circles, certain something was sneaking up on him.

  When someone did, a claw tugging at his pants leg, he jumped and yelped.

  "Oh. It's you. One of you." Dio leaned against the nearest chair, patted a hand over his heart as one of the red pandas climbed up to perch on the arm. "Nearly gave me a coronary."

  The panda sat up on its haunches and twittered at him in an accusatory way.

  "No, I had nothing to do with that. All right. Yes, I was watching. You guys are so cute. Couldn't help it. And really? Have you ever tried to tell Set he wasn't allowed to do something?"

  The panda made a derisive chuffing noise.

  "See? Exactly. I don't have any better luck. So anyway, I'm sorry about all that."

  More pandas trotted in, and Dio had to count twice. "Seven of you! I thought there were six. Are there more?"

  The original panda made nodding motions at the rest of them as they climbed the same chair. Apparently, seven was the full complement.

  "Hey, you. Doing all right?" Hermes swept into the room and pulled him into a hard hug.

  "Yeah. Mostly. I'm… yeah." Dio sighed and leaned his head against his brother's shoulder. "Meggie said no, and Char said it was the right thing and he was proud of me. These are my panda friends. I think they are, anyway. We didn't have the best start."

  "They seem to like you okay." Hermes took him by the shoulders and pushed him back. "I'm sorry about Meggie. So damn sorry twice over. But she was always her own person."

  Dio sniffed, but he had it under control, more or less. "She did what she had to do. I get that. But I miss her."

  "We'll all miss her, you know. I don't think George is taking it very well."

  "George?" Dio turned that over a moment, but of course that made sense. Who was always with him when the dust settled over the past few years? George and Meggie. He heaved a shaky sigh. "Is he at Uncle Hades's place still?"

  "I drove him back to New York and dropped him at Maenad House."

  "Thanks for that. I have to go see the kids soon. Do George retrieval. See if Meggie really didn't have family. Is that possible? For humans not to have any family? Do they come from seed pods sometimes?"

  Hermes shook his head, obviously fighting a smile. "I think she meant she didn't have family she wanted contacted. Every human has relations somewhere. That doesn't make them family."

  The wall behind them began to glow, and the outline of a door formed in the empty space between wing chairs. When the door opened, Charon and Uncle Hades's lover, Ti, trooped in, schlepping what looked like easels.

  "Just think it might help if we get everything in one place, visually, for him," Ti was saying as they stepped through. "Oh, hey, guys!"

  "Yes, but that doesn't answer why you're getting involved now," Charon said as he set up his easel and propped a large pad of paper on it. "You don't like messing with the sleuthing, as you like to say."

  "Yeah, well, this case has him in knots. He's growling in his sleep. I kinda want my peaceful nights back." Ti set several markers on the easels' ledges.

  "Are those the kinds that smell like stuff?" Dio peered over his shoulder. "I love those. Can I sniff some?"

  "Um, I don't think your uncle's gonna approve if I let you get high on marker fumes."

  Dio blinked up at Ti, startled all over again by how tall he was. Earth-dark eyes gazed down at him, such kind eyes, beautiful and so human. Tiny lines had begun to form in the corners, si
nce Ti laughed a lot these days and smiled more. Lines that meant he was growing older every day. Human, doomed from birth, and Uncle Hades loved him so much.

  He flung his arms around Ti with a strangled cry. "You're going to leave him!"

  "What? No! Where the hell did that come from?"

  "You're mortal and you'll die and someday you're going to leave him and break his heart into a hundred million trillion pieces and it'll take centuries to put him back together again," Dio blurted out, his voice muffled against Ti's shirt.

  "Oh." Ti patted his shoulder awkwardly. "I think I get it. We haven't, um, had that talk yet. But I promise we will, okay? I'm not gonna die today."

  "You don't know that!" Dio wailed.

  "Hey. Shh. Been a rough couple days for you, huh? Maybe—" A clatter of hooves out in the corridor interrupted him, and Ti pulled in a sharp breath as Leander careened into the room, out of breath and sweater askew. "Whoa. Cool."

  "All right there, Leander?" Hermes asked.

  After a few snorted breaths, Leander got out, "I was concerned that Lord Hades would be waiting."

  "Nah, he's still out poking around," Hermes said on a chuckle. "I expect he'll join us shortly."

  Ti disentangled himself, set a chair at the head of the table, and took a seat with a serious expression, fingers steepled in front of him. "I suppose you're all wondering why I've called you here today."

  "You didn't," Charon pointed out. "And I don't recall you being invited."

  "Yeah, well, I always wanted to say that. And I wanted to help. You know, like we're the Della Street and Paul Drake to his Perry Mason."

  Charon pursed his lips as if considering. "That analogy doesn't work well, since he's the one who investigates, generally."

  "John Watson and Mrs. Hudson to his Sherlock?"

  "So which is which?" Charon folded his arms over his chest, claws tapping on his sleeve. "Either way, I'm going to end up insulted, and I can't see Sherlock sleeping with Mrs. Hudson."

  "Ha. Guess not."

  Now Uncle Hades swept into the room, the thunderstorms in his eyes abruptly vanishing as he glanced around the room. "Tiberius?"

  "Came to help, babe." Ti came around the table and planted a kiss on Uncle Hades's cheek. "Don't wanna hear it."

  One silver eyebrow rose a fraction, and Dio could've sworn his too-serious uncle was distracted by the view of his lover's ass as he walked away before he cleared his throat. "Very well, then. Thank you all for coming. Sit. Please."

  He waited until everyone settled, Charon on his right, Hermes on his left. Dio took the chair beside Leander and ended up with two pandas in his lap. Ti took a spot by the easels, cracked his knuckles, and took up a marker.

  "Everyone in this room is here because they are above suspicion or have been cleared of suspicion," Uncle Hades began. "I have facts and statements and assumptions but don't feel as if I have any order to them yet. Any assistance you can lend is appreciated."

  Dio shifted in his chair, petting soft panda fur. "I don't think I could put stuff in order if you numbered it, Uncle."

  "Perhaps not, but you are a witness to some of the events of that day. Stay put. Leander, we'll start with you. What do you have for me?"

  The librarian stared down at his hands on the table. "My Lord—"

  "Hey." Dio nudged him with an elbow, whispering. "It's okay. No one's gonna bite, and they probably can't hear you."

  Leander shot a glance at him that might have been annoyance or anxiety before he tried again, barely raising his soft voice. "My Lord, there are two items missing from the Alexandrian Collection. One is the spear of Achilles. The spear was in two pieces, and the bottom part of the haft has been recovered near the case. The top half with the spearhead has not been located. The other item is one of a group of… Cretan scrolls."

  "What was the nature of the missing scroll?"

  "It… my lord…" Leander's voice squeaked, which might've been hilarious from someone so large if he hadn't been so obviously distressed. "It was the scroll of the Bull of the Sun."

  Okay, what in deepest Tartarus is that all about?

  "Ah. Deep breath." Uncle Hades gestured to his right. "Charon, some water for Leander, perhaps?"

  Charon flashed out and was back three seconds later with a glass of water that he set in front of Leander.

  "Do we know what the scroll contains?" Uncle Hades asked softly.

  "I don't… don't know, my lord." Leander shook his head in that careful, slow way of his, like he was afraid of hitting something with his horns. He probably was. "I've never read it. Its condition is precarious and…"

  "Perfectly understandable." Uncle Hades patted the air with one hand. "What of the books that were removed from the shelf?"

  "All accounted for, my lord."

  "So." Uncles Hades let out a long breath. "We know what the superficial motive was with the theft of these items. We know to a relative degree of certainty who was in the library at the time. But it brings us no closer."

  Ti started drawing on the easel pads, two large squares on each, which he labeled one, two, three, and four.

  "What are we doing, love?"

  "I'm making a map of the library. Four floors, right?"

  "There's a basement too," Hermes said. "But no one goes there. Kinda hard to get to."

  "I was there," Dio held up a hand.

  "You squashed yourself on the only cycling bookshelf that goes to the basement and rode it down. Kinda hard to get to for a normal god."

  "Hey!"

  "But the only other way is a door that Leander has to open. It answers to his voice alone. There's nothing much down there. Water pipes. Magical refuse bin. Storage for building materials."

  "Oh."

  "Okay, so we disregard the basement," Ti said. "The murderer and thief, it sounds like, was on the third floor. Somebody tell me about where."

  Uncle Hades strode to the easel with the "three" square and pointed to a spot near the top center. "This is where the stolen items were housed. Only a few feet from there is where Meghan was murdered. The cycling shelf is here."

  "Great. And there's only two staircases, right? Where are those?"

  Ti marked and labeled the spots indicated and the staircases on each floor before he switched from red marker to blue. "Now we can try to place everyone at the time, right? If we know who was here?"

  "But I know nearly everyone's location," Uncle Hades growled.

  "Humor me. Sometimes a visual helps."

  Dio shifted over to allow a third panda on his chair. "I was with Auntie Hestia in her reading room."

  Ti waited for Uncle Hades to point out where that was on the first floor and made two dots labeled Hestia and D-man.

  Uncle Hades glowered at the impromptu map and asked, "Was anyone with you?"

  "There was… No. Not right then." He recalled waiting until Auntie Hestia's staff had left the room to tell her something. "She had people with her, but they were out in the library looking for stuff."

  "Leander, where were you?"

  "My Lord, you can't think—"

  "Of course not, my boy. But Tiberius has the right of it. Placing everyone might help us see something."

  Leander took a sip of water, his olive complexion tinged gray. "I was on the second floor, checking some of the Eddas."

  Again, Ti waited for Uncle Hades to point out the appropriate spot before he made his Leander mark. Several of the gods had been in the library that day—Odin with Leander near his own reading room, Ganesha in his room on the fourth floor, Eris on the first floor near Athena's reading room. Not that Athena would give her the time of day or night, but Leander had said she was snickering over manuscripts from the Trojan War. Figured.

  "Where was Set?" Charon asked, his eyes narrowed.

  "He was with me by the papyrus thingies," Dio said.

  "Yes. But not at the time of the murder. You were with Hestia by then." Uncle Hades turned to the library assistants. "Little ones, do any of you know Lo
rd Set's location at the time of the murder?"

  All seven pandas twittered and chuffed at once until the one who had scolded Dio when she came in quieted them with a loud chek. She twittered to Leander a moment, and he listened, head cocked.

  "Jane says that no one knows where Lord Set was after rearranging the papyri."

  Really? Jane? What are the rest of them named? Betty? Jill? Mary?

  Ti made an orange mark in the second-floor square for Set with a question mark after it.

  "Nephew, where was Gregorius?"

  It took Dio a second to parse that since Uncle Hades insisted on calling George by his old name. "Oh, come on! George adored Meggie. He would never have hurt her!"

  "Just for the sake of placement."

  "I sent him to Circulation to see if he could find someone to help us."

  Again, Jane spoke up and Leander translated. "Jane says that the faun was, indeed, making inquiries at the Circulation Desk. He and Jane were having difficulty communicating, and she says he was rather annoyed."

  "And Hestia's people, little ones? Can anyone place them? We know Leslie and Lester had exited the library, but the others."

  The pandas erupted in twitters once again, and Leander bent his head carefully to whisper to them. "Darcy says that he helped one of them find a book near Lady Athena's room."

  "Who was it?" Ti asked.

  "Your pardon, sir, they don't often know humans by name." Leander bent to listen again. "He says it was an older human female. White-haired, who smelled of lavender."

  "Grace," Dio said. "That was Grace. I saw her earlier with Auntie Hestia."

  Leander sat up straight again with a careful shake of his head. "They saw Lord Set earlier with Lord Dionysus. Elizabeth passed the Maenad… Meghan, on the third floor, but they saw no one else at that time."

  Uncle Hades clasped his hands behind his back, rocking on his heels. "That leaves Ava, Anthony, and Set unaccounted for, and who knows how many more we don't know of in this Tartarus-forsaken twisting place."