Arcane Inc.: Books 1-4 (Arcane Inc. Box Set), page 19
“Mrs Niggard?” I asked. I assumed she was George’s mother.
“No. It’s Miss Peach, actually. Me and my husband got a divorce,” she said. That was why a profile would have been helpful. Her voice was rough like she’d grown up on the estate. She was not on the estate now, though. Not that this area was much better. I guess that geroge’s dad paid for his tuition to Sutton Valance.
“I’m sorry to hear that,” I said. I was putting on my most professional voice.
“It was six years ago.” She folded her arms over her chest and glared at me. People like glaring at me.
“I’m sorry all the same,” I lied. How was I supposed to know it was six years ago? I’m not Killian—fucking—Myers. “I’m Inspector Richards from the police.” I don’t know why I decided to use his name. I was just asking for trouble really.
“You’re from the police?” she asked doubtfully.
“Yes. I am.” I said and left it at that. If I indulged her suspicions then I was bound to trip up. “I’m working on your son’s case—”
“You’re on my son’s case? You didn’t even know my name.” Her posture grew more rigid. This was not going well for me.
“I’m new,” I said through my teeth.
“Have you made any progress?” she asked. She still wasn’t convinced.
“I need something with his DNA on it. I need to do a comparison.” I hoped that my lack of knowledge about anything forensic wasn’t too apparent in the way I was speaking.
“Comparison of what?” Her face twisted in horror and she clutched hold of the door frame. “Have you found a body?”
“No, no. Nothing like that. I just need some DNA to help… investigate.” I knew then as her expression darkened that I’d blown it. I should’ve said yes to finding a body but I didn’t want to put her through that shock just for a toothbrush. I’m not that cold.
“Can I see some ID please?” she said plainly. Cover blown.
I nodded. “Of course, you can, madam.” I reached into my pocket and as I pulled my empty hand out again I clicked my fingers and put her to sleep. I forgot to catch her and she crashed to the floor noisily. That was going to hurt when she woke up.
I stepped inside and dragged her through to the living room where I deposited her in one of the armchairs. The TV was playing the BBC news and I turned it off with a wave of my hand. I bloody hate that channel. I jogged up the stairs and through to the bathroom. There were only two toothbrushes. One was pink and the other had what looked like a Pokemon on it. Pokemon’s the in thing at the moment. I guessed it was George’s and slipped it into the sandwich bag I’d brought with me. When I got back downstairs I wished I’d brought a memory erasing potion with me. There was going to be a right palaver when she woke up. I’d checked for witnesses, though and she was the only one. I did feel a little bad at the confusion she was going to be in. She was going through a difficult time as it was and I’d only added to that now. On the bright side, if my plan paid off I might find her son. In either case, there was nothing I could do about it, so I just left and forgot about her.
The real bad news came when I got to my self-storage unit and performed the four tracking spells. I got absolutely no results from any of them. Not a single one. That meant one of two things. Either all of the victims were being magically cloaked so I couldn’t track them, or they were dead. I had a horrible feeling that it wasn’t the former.
5
Whether the victims were cloaked or dead, it didn’t really matter to me. I hadn’t been hired to find them, I’d been hired to get rid of whatever or whoever had taken them. So far my suspect list was blank. Matt had managed to hack the police files for me — after much protesting — and even the cops had no suspects. None of the victims had a common enemy. Like I said before, they had nothing linking them.
My plan was to use the symbols to track the kidnapper. The symbols were imbued with powerful magic. If I could get a hook on that magic then I might be able to trace it back to whoever had created the symbols. You see, every sorcerer has their own magical signature which means that a spell can always be traced back to them. Even if two sorcerers cast the exact same spell it would be ever so slightly different. The effect would be the same but there would be a difference in signature. Your bog standard sorcerer wouldn’t be able to detect a signature but I am not your bog standard sorcerer. I’m Eddie Lancaster and I’m pretty fantastic. Actually, take out the pretty, I’m just fantastic.
I headed over to Mote Park and got to work. Once again I made sure that nobody was following me. I wasn’t paranoid enough to think that Richards had put a bug on me—I know that that sort of thing wouldn’t be in his budget—only that he was following me occasionally. I find that a certain amount of paranoia is healthy in my line of work anywhere, without it you end up in situations like… Well like the one I was in with Rachel right now actually.
I headed to the first symbol which was on a tree near the main entrance. I’d noticed that each of the symbols had been positioned at the points of a compass. No doubt that meant something. I probably looked quite strange standing around examining a tree and trust me plenty of cars and pedestrians passed and gave me funny looks.
I passed my hand over the carved symbol and felt the magic held within it. It was strong. I wondered if it might have come from someone stronger than me. I pushed the thought away before I gave myself a complex. I placed my palm flat over the symbol and closed my eyes. Reading a signature requires complete concentration which is not easy in a public place. I pushed out the noises from my surroundings and cleared my mind. I hummed gently to myself to help me focus. I called to the magic. Reached out with a single tentacle of my own magic to touch the foreign power. I made contact. The reaction was like my magic was electricity and the other was water. At first there was a small crackling sensation. I pushed my magic further and the other tried to resist. The crackling grew. I tried taking hold of the foreign magic and that was when it fought back. My palm seared red hot as the symbol exploded and blasted me away. I flew through the air and rolled away on the grass. Luckily, it hadn’t been cut recently and was soft enough to break my fall. I planted my uninjured hand on the ground and steadied myself. I remained still until the world around me stopped spinning. As I raised my palm to my face I saw that the skin was red and blistering. That symbol had more magic in it than I’d thought. I tried to heal my wound but achieved nothing. That answered the question of who was more powerful. Whoever had planted those symbols was more powerful by far. It also told me that the kidnapper was definitely a sorcerer of some kind. But I knew almost all the sorcerers in Maidstone and none of them were capable of this. Which meant it must be an outsider. My first thought was Rachel. She was the obvious choice. She was an outsider who had recently come to town and she had all the power stolen from my unit which was more than enough for this. But she had no motive. No reason to kidnap these people. She was here for me, not to play around with the locals. No, this was somebody else and I needed to find out who.
I got up, ignoring the stares from bewildered passers-by and approached the symbol again. It was still in tact. Not scorched at all unlike my poor throbbing hand. I took out my phone and snapped a picture of it. Then I did a quick tour of the park taking pictures of the rest. They were all the same but that didn’t mean there weren’t subtle differences that I was missing. I needed a second pair of eyes on this case and I knew someone who just happened to have a good deal of wisdom that I could use.
Ashley answered the door when I got to hers. “Eddie,” she said in surprise, smiling broadly. Her hair was wet where she must have just had a shower. I liked the wet hair look on her. It added a sexual quality. I mean, she looked sexy almost all the time but the wet hair just really topped it off. If you’re a guy you probably understand and if you’re not a guy, well actually you probably understand too. I think wet hair is known to be sexy by both genders. But I digress.
“Hey, Ashley,” I said, returning her smile as I invited myself inside. I’m not a vampire so I can do that.
“How was the party?” she asked. She started to make her way upstairs to her part of the house.
“Actually, I kind of need to see your mum,” I told her, stopping at the base of the stairs. She turned around and raised her eyebrow.
“Really?” she asked.
“Yeah. It’s about a job,” I informed her.
“A job, eh? Spill.” She skipped back down the stairs and led me through to the living room whilst I caught her up on everything. She was far more interested in the jobs I took on now that she wasn’t a main part of them. I’d first met her when she hired me to deal with Killian Myers. She hadn’t expected me to deal with it in quite the way I did but I solved the problem so who cares?
“Eddie!” Margie said loudly as she stood up from her armchair and hugged me. I am not a hugger. I don’t mean I’m one of those people who doesn’t like hugging — it’s more than that. I don’t like to be touched for a start and when it comes to hugs I just don’t know what to do with them. I mean, I know I’m supposed to return the gesture but I can’t. The whole act makes me feel like little bugs are crawling around under my flesh. Don’t get me wrong, when I get intimate with a girl I know what to do and I can do it with relative ease—there’s still some awkwardness. But outside of that scenario I don’t know what to do. So I just stood still with my arms at my sides and waited for Margie to stop hugging me. She’d taken a liking to me from the moment she’d met me and once I saved her daughter from Killian her liking of me was amplified to the nth degree. I don’t know what that means but I think it fits the context. It was clear enough that she wanted me to get with Ashley, she wasn’t subtle about that.
“When are you going to take my Ashley out on a date?” she asked. See what I mean?
I laughed nervously. “I don’t know about that,” I said, rubbing the back of my neck awkwardly. We had lunch the other day. Does that count?
“Mum!” Ashley hissed. Her cheeks had reddened. That was quite funny. At least I wasn’t the only one feeling uncomfortable.
A revoltingly loud phlegmy cough came through the wall. I looked at Ashley quizzically.
“Dad’s still ill. He’s taken time off work now,” she explained. I hadn’t met her dad yet. During the whole Killian saga he’d been out of the country on some work thing and since coming back he’d always been at the office. I don’t even know what he does. I’ve asked Ashley but she doesn’t really know either. Something that happened in an office. My point is he’s always at work which is why I’ve never met him. It also means that whatever he had must be bad because his work comes before everything else.
“It’ll pass,” Margie said with a wave of her hand but I could see that she was worried.
“I could knock up a potion to help?” I offered but she waved my suggestion away.
“No, no. It’s not good to rely so much on magic, Eddie,” she said and I let the matter drop. No need to insist. She cleared her throat and then asked me what it was that I wanted. She was intuitive like that, always knew when I needed her wisdom. I told her the whole story and then got my phone out to show her the symbols. It took her all of five seconds to figure out what they were for. That’s why I came to her.
“The symbols are around the edge of the park, yes?” she asked. She handed my phone back and I slid it back into my pocket.
“That’s right. At the points of the compass.”
She nodded. “They are keeping something inside the park. Whatever is kidnapping those people will have a mark like these ones on it somewhere. While the marks are all imbued with power the thing will be unable to leave.”
“Why would anybody do that?” I asked.
“I don’t know.” She shrugged. “It’s your job to figure that out.”
“Do you know what it could be?” I asked. I had thought it was a sorcerer doing the kidnapping but it seemed more like a sorcerer had trapped something else inside the park. But why?
“My guess is some kind of beast,” she said. I didn’t tell her that that wasn’t in the least bit helpful.
Based on what she said I decided that a vigil was needed. I’d return to the park at night when nobody would be there and canvass the whole grounds to try and find it. Once I knew what it was I’d know how to kill it. And maybe I could use it to track down whoever had trapped it there.
6
“Eddie, wait up!” Ashley called as she hurried after me, getting tangled up in her jacket in her haste to catch up.
“What’s up?” I asked. My phone was already in my hand and I was about to call Derek to arrange my nighttime vigil.
“I want to come,” she replied. Finally she managed to sort her jacket out and put it on properly. Although in this heat she hardly needed it.
“Really? Why?” I asked. Naturally, I’d love to have her company but I wanted to know why she wanted to come along. I think I had the right to know.
“I could do with a bit of excitement and you look like you could do with the company,” she replied. I was hoping she’d say because she wanted to spend time with me but it didn’t look like that was going to be the case. Unless it was the case but she didn’t want to admit it.
“Excitement? I’m going to be looking for clues in a dark park. Not much chance of excitement,” I replied. I don’t know why I was trying to put her off when I really wanted her to join me. I could definitely do with the company.
“You’re searching for a kidnapper. It’s exciting, trust me. It is compared to watching telly with my mum whilst my dad coughs his lungs up, anyway,” she said. I don’t know if she was trying to make me feel sorry for her but it certainly worked. I couldn’t abandon her to that fate. “Plus, the less time I spend in the house the less chance I have of getting sick,” she added.
“Alright, come along then. But you better not be easily creeped out because this place is bound to be eerie at night,” I warned her. Big open parks always tend to be creepy at night when there are no other people about.
“I’m not,” she said raising her chin confidently.
“Fine. You’re driving.” I don’t know why I needed to tell her she was driving, I can’t drive so I certainly wasn’t going to be. Actually, I can drive, I proved that last month when I nicked Killian’s car, but I’m not legally allowed to so I try not to make a habit of it.
I called Derek from the car and told him I needed access to the park. He wasn’t very impressed when I told him I didn’t know how long it’d take or when I refused to tell him exactly what I was going to be up to. Still, he agreed to meet us at the park with the keys so he couldn’t have been that put out.
I realised my mistake as soon as we arrived. Ashley was a very attractive girl and Derek was a massive lecherous pervert. This would not end well. Now don’t get me wrong, all guys are perverts to an extent, but Derek… He was something else.
We met Derek at the gates and to my surprise he said nothing. He gave Ashley a very long look up and down but not a single dirty comment fell out of his mouth. Maybe he only did it out of earshot. Thank God for that because that would have been awkward. I explained that we’d be investigating the park for the night and then held my hand out for the keys.
“No,” he said. He crossed his arms over his chest and shook his head. “I’m afraid I cannot entrust you with the keys to the premises. Only I can hold the keys because I am the key holder. I would be remiss in my duties to hand them over,” he said. He actually puffed his chest out in pride at being trusted to look after a set of keys. He was a very odd man.
“Derek, I am not doing this investigation with you. No way,” I told him. There were few things I would rather do less than spend the night with Derek in a dark park. Especially not with Ashley there too.
“Oh, no. Of course. I have no intention of going into the park whilst you investigate,” he assured me and I did little to mask my relief. “No. What I’ll do is I’ll let you in and then I’ll have to lock the gates behind you. When you’re finished just come back to the gates and I’ll let you out again.”
I stared at him blankly before speaking. “To be clear, you want to lock us inside the park? The same park which almost certainly contains a supernatural kidnapper?”
“That’s right,” he said and nodded his head. His eyes wandered over to Ashley and he gave her another long once over. He didn’t even try to hide it.
“Well alright then,” I said adding some false enthusiasm to being locked up with whoever or whatever was trapped in there. Ashley looked at me nervously. “I warned you,” I told her before she could speak and she said nothing.
Derek showed us through the gates, which wasn’t so high that we wouldn’t be able to climb out again. He locked it behind us and after having one last lingering look at Ashley’s body he went and sat in his car. Honestly, he got more pervy looks at Ashley in the last ten minutes then I’d got the entire time I’d known her. I wasn’t sure whether to be impressed or revolted.
“Let’s get on with it then,” I said and we headed into the park.
We stopped a few feet away from the gate and I pulled my latest invention out of my jacket pocket.
“What the hell is that?” Ashley said with obvious derision. To be fair, it did look like a child’s art project. It was basically a light bulb on a stick. It was actually a crudely made magical wand which I’d magically attached a small 40 watt bulb to.
It’s easy enough to make a wand if you have the skills. Any wood can be used but some wood types are better than others; more potent. Now, it isn’t like Harry Potter where you use a wand for all your spells. If you’ve been paying attention you’ll already know that because so far I haven’t used a wand even once. In fact this is the first time I’ve mentioned them. Wands can be used for different things. Some sorcerers use them as a way of boosting their power, others use wands for specific spells. I designed this particular wand for one purpose only.
