by Martha Carr
"Maybe next time we run into Simon."
"I don't see him startling all that easy, what's left of him inside that organic shell. Really a shame."
The three of them went outside and Bernie made a point of sending out more bubbles that seeped through the door, turning the alarm back on and locking the door. He pulled Maggie next to him, facing toward the north as Dexter squeezed in between them, sitting on the pavement. Bernie raised the sextant, pointing it at the stars as the compass made a loud whirring noise. Maggie lengthened the telescope and pointed it in the same general direction as the arm that had stopped spinning, checking several times.
Bernie looked up at the stars, checking with the sextant, back at the compass and peeking through the telescope. He did it over and over again, getting more frustrated. "I don't get it. They don't seem to be working." He shook his head. "According to this, it's pointing at your neighborhood." He checked again, tsking. "Not possible for two Elementals to be living that close together. It violates rule number ninety-nine!"
"Don't put Elementals near each other?"
"See how obvious that is?" he asked, exasperated. "That much of the records we still have. It raises the energy levels too much and disturbs all kinds of things. Sorry kid, I was so sure this would work." He handed her the sextant and she slid the telescope back to it's smaller size.
"We'll figure it out, yet. Just not tonight," said Maggie, walking to the car, Dexter running ahead of her.
"You did good tonight. Let's just focus on that. You're gonna have to show me how you did that mammoth bubble trick. That's a good one. I'd love to try it on Jack, or even better... Leo."
Chapter Twenty-Two
Maggie sat at her desk, typing away, filling in all the boxes for a report and slurping on the oversized mug of coffee. Her phone buzzed and she flipped it over and saw the text from Jake. You okay? Didn't hear back from you.
Sorry about that, she typed. Very busy week. Looking forward to tomorrow. Mom says hello.
She watched the three small dots vibrate, waiting for his answer. Maybe I can stop by late tonight after I get off work. Meet you on the front lawn?
She felt a streak of warmth pass right through her and smiled at the phone. Maybe so. Bring coffee. She made a mental note to put on the good underwear later, just in case.
"Still not willing to wait till that stuff cools down from radioactive," said Moss, passing by her desk. "Here, I got you a few peanut butter cookies before Fozzie sees them. These are his favorite and no gluten, so he'll feel like he can have more." He winked at Maggie.
Taylor came slowly into the office, grunting and batting at O'Malley as he tried to give him a gentle hug. "Have you forgotten where we work?"
"Hail, the conquering hero!" shouted Moss. "Thought you'd be out a few more days."
"Wife kicked me out and told me to get back to work. She wants to go on a cruise. No one better have switched out my good chair while I was gone. That thing took me years to get central to cough up for me." He took off his jacket and lowered himself into his chair with a grunt. "Ahhhh, lumbar support. Nothing like it."
Fozzie came out of the break room chomping on a cookie and yelled out, his mouth still full when he spotted Taylor. He chewed and talked as he made a beeline, but Maggie stopped him holding up her hand. "Take it easy the first day. I don't think he's up for back slaps just yet."
Fozzie kept chewing and nodded sheepishly, stopping in his tracks. "Of course, right. Hey, glad to have you back! Watching the game wasn't the same without your constant texts."
"Put me down for a ten on the Blackhawks. This is gonna be their year again."
"Only a ten, you are feeling a little shaky. Okay, I got it."
Maggie put one of her cookies in front of Taylor. "Glad you're back. The new guy was nice, but it wasn't the same."
The Sergeant came out of his office, shouting from the doorway. "Parker! Taylor! You two are up. Check your iPads, it has all the details. Hit the road." He disappeared back into his office as quickly as he came out.
"What's with him?" asked Taylor.
Maggie looked at her computer and scanned the details as she grabbed her coat. "It's another weird robbery. They all look connected, but no one has even been identified as a suspect. The Sergeant is getting tired of it."
Moss stood by their desks, his arms crossed on his chest. "Did you hear? The booty from that medical supply robbery where you got shot turned up and you'll never believe where."
Taylor got back up, but Moss still hadn't said anything more. Taylor rolled his eyes and grabbed his jacket. "I'm not guessing, just tell me."
"Okay, because you got winged... At a retirement home over on the east side. Can you believe it? Showed up like an anonymous gift. No note, no fingerprints. The manager at the place called it in after watching the news." He shrugged and went back to his desk. "Figure that one out."
"I'm feeling pretty good about our odds, Moss. Come on, partner," said Maggie. We gotta roll. Someone was dumb enough to rob an HEB super store with all those sweet, sweet cameras."
"And you can get more coffee." Taylor followed her down the hall.
"And there's that."
"Just follow me back here," said the store manager, leading the way to his office. "Did you get the list we gave to the officers?" The beefy, middle-aged man turned back for a moment, neatly adjusting the comb-over on top of his head with two fingers. He turned back and marched on to his office, putting a finger in the collar of his shirt and yanking on it. "If I didn't know better I'd think it was a bunch of boy scouts." He ticked the items off on his fingers, even while he was walking, Maggie and Taylor right behind him. "Pup tents, socks, vienna sausages, wipes, dog food, blankets. And get this... marshmallows, Hershey's chocolate bars and graham crackers!"
"S'mores," muttered Taylor, sweat on his brow. Maggie looked at him concerned but he glared at her and she shook her head, deciding to let it go, for now.
"Exactly," said the manager, glancing over his shoulder.
"Sounds more like the homeless," said Maggie. "You just basically listed off a lot of the items the city recommends to give them, minus the s'mores stuff."
"Ma'am, I've never seen too many homeless who can organize well enough to do what these thieves did." He went into his office and pointed at the screen on his desk. "We have it all queued up for you."
"What do you mean?" asked Maggie. "What was so sophisticated about stealing small tents?"
"It's not what they stole but what they didn't leave behind. No fingerprints anywhere, no mess, made no noise, and look at the tape. Never, ever in my fifteen years has this happened."
Maggie leaned in closer to try and get a better look. She saw right away what he was getting at. The picture surrounding the thieves was blurry, making it difficult to make them out, just like the other heists. She heard Taylor swear under his breath.
"Just once, I'd like to get a break on these jerks," he muttered.
Maggie kept staring at the screen, waiting for the inevitable. She caught sight of it on the back of a hand, barely visible unless someone was looking for it. "Four stars," she muttered, tapping the screen. "Where..." but her voice trailed off as a distant memory locked away with so many of her childhood memories poked its way back. She suddenly stood up, a cold chill running down her back. It cannot be possible. She stood stock still for a moment. "Rewind the tape please and play the part at a minute and twenty seconds."
She waited, holding her breath and making her brain slow down, don't jump ahead. She stared at the screen and the blurry image, trying to imagine what someone would look like twenty years later.
"What is it, Maggie?" Taylor looked concerned, looking back and forth between the screen and Maggie's determined stare.
"Nothing. I thought I might have recognized someone, but it's not them." It's not Stephanie, but I know those four stars. She remembered where she had seen them before, on the inside wrist of her missing childhood best friend. What the hell is going on here?
What have you done, Simon Wesley?
Chapter Twenty-Three
"What's that up ahead?" Taylor pointed out the windshield of the dark blue El Camino at the long traffic jam on Mopac. Maggie slowed down, her brows knitting together as she tried to make sense of what she was seeing. It wasn't the long line of cars sitting still in front of her. That wasn't all that unusual on any Austin highway, even at this time of day. One stalled car could explain all of it.
It was that so many people were getting out of their cars and were looking around at each other, confused like they were trying to explain something. "Uh oh, this bares a resemblance to something I've seen before."
Taylor looked at Maggie, narrowing his gaze. "Tell me I'm wrong about what I'm thinking, please."
Maggie watched a woman bend over to retch near the back wheel of her minivan and a series of bubbles erupt out of her mouth instead, popping as they hit the ground and mice emerged, scurrying for the side of the road. The woman paled and slid down the side of her car, passing out on the pavement.
"Not gonna be able to do that, Taylor. I think we're looking at a sudden Peabrain awakening. Hopefully it's been going on for at least thirty minutes."
Taylor picked up the mic to call it in, hesitating. "I don't know what to say. What code covers this?" He pressed the button and shook his head. "Dispatch, we have a pile up on Mopac near 45th Street and Highland Terrace. Send back up. Drivers are exiting their vehicles en masse and we're going to need help escorting them back into their cars."
The radio crackled and a hesitant voice said, "What was that?"
Taylor bit his lip and hung up the mic. "I'm not answering that question," he said, opening his door and getting out, slamming the door shut.
Maggie got out and stood in the street, drumming her fingers on the top of her holstered gun. "I get that you're on edge. Magic has not been your friend at all. But these people don't know what hit them and their minds are being blown." She looked down at her watch. "In just a little while, this is going to pass... I hope. Okay, I don't know for sure, but it's a probable at least. And we need to figure out how to keep them from doing any damage to themselves or others before that happens and the cavalry shows up." Maggie looked behind them at the stretch of highway that was quickly filling up with more cars.
"I don't know how many squad cars are going to be able to get anywhere close to here," said Taylor. He turned back to watch a man retch out bubbles that swirled around him playing jazz and changing colors with the music. He watched, fascinated, not moving at all.
"There's a guy who knows how to be high," said Maggie. She looked at Taylor. "Don't look at me like that. You've met my mother." She stomped the ground with her foot like she was knocking on a door. "Come on, we could use some help."
"What are you doing?" Taylor looked at her foot and up at her.
"It's not more cops that I'm waiting for, Taylor. This is going to take a little more than that to clean it up. We need some Huldus, but I have no idea how to alert them. I have to hope that some of their dials are setting off an alarm or sending out steam." She stomped again. "Not really sure how it works."
"You really think they can hear one little foot stomp and over all this?"
I'm the Elemental, so... "Maybe."
The ground underneath a woman started to shake and the pavement crumbled, exploding in a shower of small chunks of pavement as a mattress pushed through, scooping up the woman and spinning her around. It floated just above the ground, rocking her gently back and forth as she fell asleep. "I'm really getting what Bernie meant the last time. It's tough seeing inside so many Peabrains' heads."
"You saw this before? When?"
"Few days ago off South Congress, which was a lot freakier than this. More like a Salvador Dali happening."
"No surprise there. Surprised you didn't see more tweed."
"This looks more like secret fears and desires. Whoa!" Maggie jerked back instinctively as a Labrador wearing a red collar briefly changed into a stallion, rearing back on its hind legs as the collar became a saddle and reins. More bubbles changed the dogs owner into an outfit of cowboy boots and a ten gallon hat.
"Look at that hat wearing that cowboy," said Taylor with chagrin. "Some old dreams just never die, I guess. Hi ho Silver. I'm surprised we haven't seen any unicorns. Oh, there you go. Nicely done, ma'am."
"I've gotta say, if this were a psych test, we come out pretty hard on the happiness side. Eight out of ten by my count."
"We have to go in and help," said Taylor, walking toward the chaos.
Maggie grabbed him by the arm and stopped him. "Not until they get themselves in trouble. Otherwise, you get drawn into whatever they're about to come up with. Trust me, found that one out. I can't believe the gnomes aren't here yet." She went back to the car and got out her purse, opening it up and looking inside. Safely tucked in an inside pocket was the Godwin ring. She looked at it and looked up at the couple about to climb onto the back of a silver dragon. "People in the suburbs love them some urban fantasy. Yeah, it's time."
She slipped the ring out and put it on her finger, holding the large ring in place as she held her hand up toward the sunlight. The light bounced off the insignia causing Maggie's hand to shake and grow warm, the light refracting into a thousand pieces, shooting into the sky and arcing into rainbows.
"Okay, that's cool," said Taylor, watching the continual fracturing of the light as it curved and bent into the distance.
The ground shuddered again and Maggie spread her feet, ready for an army of trolls to appear, but instead it was the Huldus arrived to help. "What took you so long?" Maggie kept her hand aloft till the last of the rays shot off into the distance, separating at last from the ring. She brought it down, blowing on it till the metal cooled down and she could put it back in her purse.
Bernie was nowhere to be seen among the Huldus but a few of the others recognized Maggie and waved as they set about corralling the Peabrains.
"Hey Maggie!" Jack smiled and waved as he pulled the middle aged couple off the dragon. Another Huldu gently petted the dragon as ice and snow poured out of its nostrils. "Are you okay?" he asked, making his way over to Maggie and Taylor. "It's okay, this isn't really your doing. I mean, you couldn't have known and the alternative, I mean, yikes!"
Maggie stared at him, not saying a word. Taylor did the same, waiting for Jack to fill the empty air. It was an old technique they had found worked well in interrogations.
"The organic ship has a mind of its own, if you know what I mean, that doesn't do well with imbalances." He let out a whistle. "Boy, is that a hard and fast rule. You still being here has upset the energy and is scratching that Peabrain itch all over! Not to mention all the issues with the weather. That's why we had to make Bernie stay behind and fix those tornadoes. I mean, after all he was the one who broke the rule and saved your life." He nervously smiled at Maggie, starting to realize his mistake as Maggie glared at him and Taylor's eyes started to widen.
"You didn't know, did you," said Jack. He tapped his fingers on his head. "Boy, messing up is usually Bernie's department. He's so good at figuring his way out of these things." He shrugged, backing up and looking over his shoulder at the bubbles still erupting out of the mouths of Peabrains. "I should get back. We need to get this handled before the authorities show up." He looked at Taylor. "Well any more of them, at least."
Maggie looked at Taylor who was clenching his fists and muttering under his breath too low for her to hear, but she had a pretty good idea what he was swearing about. "I'm not sure how I would have told you."
"When, just tell me when. When and how. Where was it?" He was breathing hard, his chest heaving up and down. "You broke one of our main rules." He spat out the words.
Maggie's eyebrows shot up. "Everyone has a lot of rules these days."
Taylor stormed off toward the car and Maggie ran after him. "Okay, you're right and I was really wrong. I won't try to justify it with telling you that finding out magic is real a
nd I'm the leader of one of the bands is a lot to take in on the same day a bullet is flying at your brain in a convenience store."
Taylor wheeled around. "The robbery at Joey's place?" His eyes searched her face. "You were supposed to die?"
Maggie nodded, her hands on her hips, her fingers tapping against her gun. "But the gnome, you know, the one who turned into a mouse in the car, he decided to pull me out of there just long enough to not have my brains splatter everywhere."
He stared at her, his mouth moving but no words coming out at first. Maggie wasn't sure if he was going to yell or hug her. "You know, I gotta say, Parker, I wasn't seeing the upside to magic till just now." His eyes were shining and he snorted, swallowing hard.
"I'm sorry, I wasn't sure how to tell you. Clean slate?"
"Well, third chance at least. I was always going to do that, but you have to swear you'll start telling me everything. A partner is only as good as..."
"...the information he shares." Maggie finished the sentence for him. She opened the door to the El Camino and got in the same time as Taylor.
"I'm glad you're still here, Parker," he said, his voice choking. "Thank the little mouse guy for me."
Maggie looked over at Taylor while she started the car, but he wouldn't look at her. "His name is Bernie, and I'll do that."
"Hey, what was that ring thing you were doing supposed to accomplish? Shot a lot of light into the sky."
"Nothing else, I guess," she said, looking out the window. The Huldus had managed to clean up most of the mess and were busy casting a spell to help all the Peabrains forget as Maggie put on the lights and siren and pulled over to the shoulder to get past the backup. "Question for another day. I'll throw it on the pile with all the others," she said, as she hit the gas and sped away.
