Arcane Detective, page 6
Then running like the wind. Running so hard it hurt to breathe. Running with the knowledge that the very worst had happened.
It took her many pages to describe it all. She was going to need a new box of crayons after this. Oleander said that she could have all the crayons she wanted. It wasn’t like at the home where she was restricted to a smeary box of stubs and broken chalks that everyone used. Here she could put her fears down on paper, and no one asked her stupid questions. No one looked at her with puzzled and pitying eyes. Instead, Oleander kept her safe and Miller had built her a fort. She added two more pictures to be sure. If this was her job, she wanted to do it right.
Lulu finished her milkshake. It was strawberry pink. She rolled up the papers, tied it with a red ribbon for urgent and put them on the tray. She was pretty sure that Weatherbee would understand. Listening at the door, she counted to 256, her second favorite number. Then she stepped into the hall, quick as she could, put the tray back on the table. The door slammed as she put her back against it. Deep breath out. She’d done what she could. Now it was up to Miller to find the bad one.
Chapter Nine
MILLER FOUND THE KIDS online and tracked down their addresses. He drove by Amanda’s house first because it was closest. There was nothing suspicious in sight. No cars in the front, but there was a large garage at the end of a stamped-cement driveway. Another large house in a carefully planned neighborhood. He parked across the street. His old sedan obviously didn’t belong around here, and he could almost feel the curtains twitching down the block. It was going to be a tricky thing to get information because he didn’t have any reason to be asking questions. But then he was aware of a watchful eye from next door.
“They’re not home.”
Miller smiled and waved at the nosy neighbor. “Hi. Any idea when they’ll be back?”
The neighbor looked at him suspiciously. Miller waved his PI license. He’d added a shiny logo opposite it in the leather case. It wasn’t his fault if people thought it might be a badge. “I’m working on a missing persons case,” he said. “Just have a few routine questions.”
“Oh. They’re out of town. Won’t be back for awhile. I think they went up to their lake house.”
“Thanks. I’ll have to catch them later then.” He lingered taking his time to return the leather case to his pocket. He tried to look worried, and it wasn’t that hard.
“Who’s missing? Maybe I can help.”
Sometimes nosy neighbors were more helpful than the original target. Miller pulled out his photo of Mattie. “Have you ever seen her around here?”
The neighbor squinted at the picture. He took off a pair of gardening gloves to take the photo. “Nice looking kid. No. I’d remember her. Those kids never have the nice ones over. Drinking, smoking, making out in the driveway.” He shook his head as he handed the photo back. “They’re nasty. Threw rocks at my cat when they were little. Of course that boy isn’t around any more. Stupid thing fell off a bridge.”
“Right. I’d heard about that. Freak accident they said,” Miller quietly primed the pump.
“I don’t know about that. Stupidity not accident. They should never have been up there in the first place. But they never listen to anyone. Why should they? Got Daddy’s money and Mommy running around cleaning up their messes.” He snorted. “I wouldn’t be surprised if those girls gave him the shove. He was mean and a little too handy if you get my drift.”
Miller nodded. “Kids that age got the hormones going.”
“Oh it was more than that. I think he got whatever he wanted, and some of those girls weren’t happy about it.”
“What girls?”
“Well, Amanda and that pal of hers from Malden Street. There was another girl. Little mousy thing. I knew she wasn’t going to last. Barbara? No, it was shorter. Lisa? Something like that. She stopped coming around just before that freak accident.”
Miller fished out a new class photo. It was the one from last year and had a few new faces on it. “See her on here?”
The neighbor took the picture eagerly. “Oh yes there they are. Amanda, her buddy and that new one. This is her,” he said tapping a face.
Miller circled it. “Thanks, you’ve been very helpful.”
“I hope you find that girl of yours. We need to keep the good ones safe.”
Miller waved as he went back to his car. Another possible lead. He needed to get a name on the girl that the neighbor said had disappeared. He didn’t want to go back to Regina, she’d get her hopes up when she saw him. He wouldn’t go back to her until he had some more definitive news. The teacher might know, but he didn’t want to push his luck there, either. He drove to a busy restaurant and sat in the parking lot to use their Wi-Fi. It didn’t take too long to find the girl online. Her name was Leah, and she was a chatty little thing.
She had posted regularly, moaning about her move to the city and how hard the change had been. Then the posts got brighter about friends and parties until they stopped completely. That was about a month before Joshua’s death. The last photo posted was a selfie of a group of them laughing on the bridge. Leah was right next to Joshua who had a possessive arm around her. She didn’t look as happy as the others. Amanda, Susan and Charlotte looked a little drunk. He downloaded the photo and emailed it to himself. From that group two were dead and one missing. Too many coincidences in the face of all the Darkness he had felt.
Miller added that bit of information to the mental hopper. By all accounts, Joshua was a nasty piece of work who probably got what was coming. Violence breeds violence, it was a very old law. The boy assaulted at least one girl and died because of it. Miller couldn’t say who was the power behind the push that killed him, but one of those girls was dead and another missing. None of this seemed connected to Mattie, but he kept tripping over the same clues, so he needed to pay attention to them. Next, he had to talk to Leah and hear her side of the story. Maybe he could find the thread that would tidily link this all together.
Her house was further away, just on the edge of the school district. One more block and Leah would have been going to a very different school in a much rougher neighborhood. The houses here were closer together. The lawns weren’t manicured and often strewn with toys, bikes and car parts. People lived complicated lives in this neighborhood, and it buzzed with a healthy range of humanity. His car was now one of the higher-end ones. He activated a simple keep-away as he parked in front of her house.
Her mother answered the door with a frown. “Now what?”
Miller flashed his license and gave her the rundown in a half-bored voice. Disinterest was very disarming. “I’m working on a missing person’s case. Could I ask your daughter a few questions?”
The woman glared at him. “Who’s missing?”
“Mattie Johnson.”
Her expression changed, softened. “Regina must be beside herself. Yes, all right, come in.” She pointed him into a tidy sitting room that looked like it didn’t get much use. This was a neighborhood of hardworking folks trying to pay their bills on time. Much like the place Miller grew up in. He sat in the armchair facing a worn couch.
Leah came into the room head down, hair in her face and a permanent flinch contracting her shoulders. Miller had no doubt about the assault now. She didn’t want to see a stranger, especially a male one. Her mother sat with her on the sofa opposite him. He sent out soothing vibes. “I’m working for Mattie’s mother,” he said softly.
Leah nodded, but wouldn’t look at him.
“I’m trying to figure out where she might be. So, I’m looking in all the places she went to with her friends. Like the Jackdaw.”
She nodded again.
“Can you think of other places where she liked to go?”
Leah raised one thin shoulder in a half-shrug.
“I’m sorry you got hurt,” he said.
She raised her eyes, and he saw too much pain in there. It wasn’t just about the physical damage, pride, esteem, self confidence all took a hit from an attack like that.
“It wasn’t your fault,” he said with a gentle push of Light.
Her gaze went past him to the window, but he knew she was seeing something else. A trauma like that could break a person for life. No one could know what went on in someone’s head after such a deep wounding. Miller knew what it felt to be violated by the Darkness. It wasn’t the same as a physical rape, but he could understand the bone deep ache of it. And how easy it was to fall into the depression and second-guessing. More cracks for the Darkness to flow back in.
“You know,” Leah murmured.
He’d learned a lot from Oleander, but healing wasn’t something he had much of a knack for. It bordered on intrusive, and he was leery of any of those skills. That might be part of the reason he couldn’t work them as well. But when he saw the colossal damage in a young kid like Leah, he wished he could make it all go away with a snap of his fingers. Unfortunately, real magic wasn’t that simple.
“I’d like to help,” he said keeping voice soft.
“Come outside,” Leah said. She walked out of the room, but paused at the doorway. “Just him, Mom.”
Miller stood but waited for the mother to give permission. This was a blown-glass fragile situation, and he would not take a wrong step if he could avoid it.
The mother shrugged. “If that’s what you want, honey.”
There was an old swing set in the yard. The grass had been beaten to dust underneath it. The chains were shiny where young hands had held on to them. Leah took a seat on a swing. Miller stood to one side where he could see the mother watching from the kitchen window. “Have you seen a doctor?” he asked.
“I’m not pregnant, if that’s what you mean,” she said in a bitter voice.
“It’s a good idea to get checked out,” he said vaguely. He didn’t want to burden her with the awful possibilities that came from unwanted, unprotected sex.
“I didn’t kill him, but I wanted to,” Leah murmured.
“Heard it was an accident.”
“Maybe,” she said, anchoring one sneakered foot to twist up the chains of the swing.
“What can you tell me about Mattie?” Miller could sense that there wasn’t any magic in this house. Probably not on the whole block although it really could use a little. He sketched a general safety ward as he paced around the swing set. It might look like he was following Leah as she twisted up the chains, but he said the words silently and touched the old bars of the swing set. She’d feel safer out here. Sometimes having a place like that could mean the difference between healing or crashing.
“She was my friend. She tried to warn me about him. I didn’t listen because I thought he really liked me.”
Miller nodded. An old story that played out over and over as kids got old enough to feel greed, lust and deception. “But he had other ideas.”
“I was stupid. I should have known he’d get whatever he wanted. Whatever Charlotte wanted. I don’t know why she...” Leah shook her head. “She was so weird. And even though I told her off, Mattie was nice to me when I told her what happened. But she wanted me to go to the police. I couldn’t do that.”
“Okay,” he coaxed.
“I didn’t think she was going to really do anything.” She twisted the chains tighter. “Then he died.” She pushed off and spun as the chains unwound.
“Mattie didn’t kill Joshua,” Miller said. He was sure enough that she wasn’t involved. Leah didn’t need to carry that guilt.
“How do you know?” she asked.
“I can tell.”
“So Charlotte did it?” Leah didn’t sound surprised.
Miller thought about what to say that wouldn’t make more trouble. “I think it was more of an accident than premeditated. I think he tried to hurt someone who was more of a match for him, and in the tussle he fell.”
His words seemed to ease her emotions a little. The wound of the assault had been made worse from the burden of fear and guilt from the deaths.
“Mattie got scared,” Leah said softly. “She said she was thinking bad things about him.”
“Thinking isn’t enough,” Miller said. He wanted these innocent kids to stop being so frightened.
“Good.” Leah said with a nod. “I didn’t want her to feel bad, but she was really worried. And then Charlotte’s house...”
“Why would Mattie be angry at Charlotte?”
“Because she set it up,” Leah snarled. “She got in my head. Telling me stuff that I knew wasn’t true.” Angry tears welled up. She got up off the swing, hugging herself. “I was stupid. I knew Charlotte didn’t like me. And I knew Joshua was out of my league. But she kept at me and at me. And so I did what she said.”
Miller knew then that Charlotte must have been using her talent to manipulate Leah. In the arcane community that was unacceptable. She would have been stopped and reprimanded if he’d know about it. But it was hard to police all the small blooms of magic in a city this size.
“She took advantage of you,” Miller said. He knew it would feed her anger, and that was a tiny bit better than the depression she was suffering from right now.
Leah kicked at some toy trucks on the ground, possibly evidence of a younger brother. “It isn’t fair!”
“It never is,” Miller answered patiently. “None of this is your fault. Mattie didn’t hurt anyone. I just need to find her so I can tell her that none of this is her fault either.”
“I don’t know where she is.”
“Any ideas of where I might look?”
“You said the Jackdaw. We used to go there but after...stuff...we started going to the Royal Grounds instead.”
Miller knew the place. And it was warded. “Thanks. Anyplace else?”
“Um. No. I hope she’s okay.”
“You’ve been a big help,” Miller said with another gentle push of Light into her.
Leah perked up a little. Her eyes looked less haunted. “Thanks. It feels good to talk to someone who understands.” She sat down on the swing again.
As Miller went back to the house, the mother opened to door for him. “She spoke to you.”
“She’s been through a lot,” he said vaguely.
“I wish I knew what happened.”
Miller teetered on the edge of telling her but wasn’t sure of their relationship. Mothers and daughters had a special connection. Sometimes it had a magic of its own; sometimes it was toxic. This wasn’t his snarl to unravel. He just needed to find Mattie. All the same, he didn’t want to make a bad situation worse, so he gave her the best advice he could. “When she’s ready to talk, you need to be ready to listen.”
Chapter Ten
MILLER GAVE OLEANDER a half-hearted report in the morning. She could tell that his mind was elsewhere. If her fears were to be trusted, this wasn’t a situation that could be addressed without calculation and careful preparation. She didn’t want to lose Miller because of something personal weighing on his mind. “What’s distracting you?”
“Something isn’t sitting right,” he said.
“How so?”
“I finally connected the death of that kid with why Mattie is hiding, but that doesn’t seem like enough. Maybe she got scared that she somehow thought the kid off the bridge, but that was months ago.”
“Is she that strong?” Oleander asked.
“Not from what I can tell.”
She was willing to accept Miller’s assessment. He was very good at that sort of thing. He had pegged her abilities the first time they met despite her multiple facade spells. Or perhaps it was because of them. Now that he was better trained, he was very attuned to the magic flows of the world.
“What would make her think she could do murder at a distance?” Oleander asked. Even for one of her vast knowledge it would be a stretch to achieve without the perfect setup. A child with newly forming powers would be hard pressed to push someone off a curb much less a bridge.
“Youthful ignorance?” Miller suggested with a sad smile. “She’s just a kid, and the magic is all new to her. The fire at Charlotte’s might have tipped her over the edge. Sent her into hiding because she thought she’d done it again, but...I’ve got my doubts.”
“What do you know about the fire?” She’d felt it just as Timothy and Lulu had. She wasn’t as sensitive as they were, but there had been nothing mundane about it at all. She’d been awake and felt the moment the fireball flared up. And then there had been the explosion of Darkness that burst into nothingness as the flames had consumed some sort of magical construct. It happened in a heartbeat, and she’d barely caught her breath when it was done. She hadn’t been ready for it. Too lax in her preparations lately since the Darkness had been at low tide.
“The whole family was killed first,” Miller said. “Something fast, shot, maybe. The fire was different. Too much anger there. Maybe spontaneous combustion from unleashing too much power all at once.”
“Someone unused to that much power,” she suggested.
“You felt an artifact get destroyed, could someone have been trying to steal it?” Miller asked.
“Then they failed miserably,” she said. “I don’t think theft was the intent.”
“No. You’re right,” Miller agreed. “Why kill four people when just one had it?”
“Do you know who killed them?” If he had felt all that, he might already know some of the answers. He had dealt with investigations into serious crimes before his talent had been trained. She thought his new skills should make him a much better detective.
Miller shook his head slowly. “I’ve never met the one who caused the fire or the murderer. Might be the same person. I didn’t have access to any of the bodies to confirm that, but the death resonance was pretty strong. They all went very fast.” He refilled his coffee cup from the carafe on the table. “It’s all related somehow. I’m going to talk to the parents of the dead kid today.”
A random shiver skated down her spine. “Be careful. Maybe you should take Yuli.”
She could see the processes churning in his eyes. The pros and cons of having a brute of a man as backup. Yuli wasn’t totally human, but he could pass pretty well. He was also very dedicated to Miller for something neither would discuss. She didn’t care what had brought him here. He was another strong spear in her arsenal.
