Grimstone: A Croft and Wesson Adventure Page 8

“Looks a little old,” I said.

  “Not her, man. Her.” He rotated my head until I could see the young woman at the booth in the far corner. Her blond hair shifted over the shoulders of a pink sweater as she sipped from a glass of water and peered around. My gaze fell to the bracelet on her left wrist.

  “Okay, good,” I said, letting out a relieved breath. “Ready, Romeo?”

  James grinned a little too broadly. “I was born for this kind of work. See you in five?”

  “Yeah, I’ll be at that second table from the booth. The small one. Just remember, I need time, so—”

  “Keep her here as long as I can,” James finished for me. “I know the drill, Prof. Watch and learn.”

  He climbed out of the Jeep and crossed the lot with a swagger. At my insistence, he’d lost the cowboy hat and swapped his vest for a leather jacket. I watched nervously as he entered the diner and made his way over to the young woman.

  Her name was Allison. She had been wondering who’d given her the bracelet, a gift someone had wrapped in brown paper and left on her porch, and when she heard the ad on the radio, well, she just had to call and find out. James’s idea had worked. He asked if they could meet to get to know one another, and Allison had suggested Pauline’s Diner: “They have awesome steak burgers.”

  Now she straightened as James approached. He said something that made her break into a pretty smile. She stood and hugged him. James grinned at me over her shoulder and shot a little finger pistol.

  “Focus, man,” I muttered, but it looked as if he was off to a good start.

  They sat across from one another, and for the next several minutes, I watched as she leaned forward, talking excitedly. For his part, James sat back, elbow perched on the back of the booth, throwing in a remark here and there. He’d assured me he’d be able to bullshit convincingly for however long it took me to assess the bracelet and remove it safely from her wrist.

  When the five minutes were up, I took James’s route through the diner. Allison was so transfixed on her conversation with him that she didn’t so much as glance over. I took a seat at the table I’d pointed out, sitting so I had a view of James’s face for communication purposes.

  The waitress came over. “Coffee, hon?”

  “Please,” I said. “And that will be all.” The last thing I needed was for her to hover. She returned a moment later and set the coffee down, along with a small bowl of sugar packets and cream cups.

  “A shame about those missing girls, huh?”

  “What?” I said, moving the coffee in front of me. “Oh, yeah.”

  “Been disappearing every month, regular like. Should be another one coming up.”

  When I looked up, I caught an excited gleam in her eyes. I nodded noncommittally, even though I was growing anxious. I needed to get started. I peeked over to see Allison leaning back with laughter, the bracelet shifting on her wrist. The waitress moved her wide hips over, blocking my view.

  “What do you think’s happening to them?” She then answered her own question. “Probably all sorts of awful things.” She gave a shudder, but one that suggested pleasure rather than horror. Great. Not only did I have a hoverer, but a nutjob. I blew on my coffee and took a sip.

  She lowered her voice to a whisper. “If you ask me, it’s one of those Indians.”

  Did she know something we didn’t? “The Utes? What makes you say that?”

  “They’re just creepy. No telling what they’re up to out there on the reservation.”

  “You can’t exactly get an arrest warrant on that, though, can you?”

  The lines of her face furrowed in confusion before releasing around a loud bray of laughter. “I get it,” she said. “That’s funny!” She continued to laugh, her top teeth flaring from beneath her lip.

  “It wasn’t that funny,” I muttered.

  Her laughter wound down to a series of snorts. She wiped her nose on her sleeve and parked her right knee on the chair beside me. “You know, I haven’t seen you around here before.”

  “I’m just in town for a few days, visiting a friend.”

  “Then what are you doing eating out alone?”

  I was saved from having to invent an answer by the ding of a bell. James’s and Allison’s steak burgers were up. The waitress looked over at the pickup window, sighed, and pushed herself from the table. “Back to the grind,” she muttered. “Let me know if you need anything else, hon.”

  The second she left, I shifted my sight to the astral level. The diner dimmed momentarily before a network of energies bloomed into view. I trained my focus on Allison’s bracelet.

  Damn, it was as bad as I’d feared. An ink-black energy was flowing from the metal and climbing her arm like a nest of tiny eels. The energy plunged into her ear where it circled her mind, ready to control her. Removing the cursed bracelet could drive her insane or kill her outright.

  I’ll have to be extra careful.

  I reached into a coat pocket and retrieved a bag of salt. While the waitress was serving James and Allison their burgers, I sprinkled a protective circle around my chair, then set my cane beside my coffee. I avoided eye contact with the waitress as she returned past my table.

  Okay, I thought, time to see what you’re made of.

  Angling the tip of the cane toward the bracelet, I incanted, creating a subtle link to the energy. The same sensations I’d experienced when I’d been yanked into the god’s realm crept back into my awareness: the scent of death, the pull of greed.

  I went still, ready to break the connection at the first sign of the goddess Hel. But this time she didn’t seize my throat. The salt appeared to be doing its job. I took another breath and probed deeper.

  The enchantment was originating from the bracelet’s sigil. If I could deactivate it…

  “Disfare,” I whispered, sending out a quantum of the invocation as a test. But instead of dampening the sigil, the Word only seemed to animate it. The black energy coursing up Allison’s arm began to wriggle and jump. She stopped mid-sentence and grasped her forehead.

  James reached toward her. “Are you all right?”

  “A migraine or something…” she replied, massaging her temples.

  James looked over at me and turned up a hand in question. I shook my head to say I hadn’t found a solution yet. Allison lowered her hand as the energy flowing from the bracelet normalized.

  “That’s weird,” she said. “I’m not normally a migraine person.”

  “I hope I didn’t trigger it,” James said.

  Allison laughed, and they resumed talking and eating. I pulled a piece of paper with some notes on it from a coat pocket and consulted it. Not knowing what kind of enchanted bracelet we were dealing with, I’d researched a range of them back at James’s, compiling a list on how to release someone in their hold.

  Deactivating the sigil was obviously out. It was too powerful, its hold on Allison too deep. For the same reason, I drew a mental slash through placing the sigil under my control. I was decades from that kind of power.

  My eyes scanned further down, stopping on the final notation:

  “As a last resort, the item might be tricked into releasing the enchantment.”

  Tricked, I thought. I was pretty decent with projection spells. If I could confuse the bracelet long enough, James might be able to pull it from Allison’s wrist. She’d be free, and we’d have a powerful link to the perp.

  I trained my focus on my left arm. “Imitare,” I said.

  I repeated the Word several times, fashioning a three-dimensional likeness of my arm in my mental prism. When it appeared solid and convincing, I shifted my focus to the bracelet.

  “Liberare,” I said.

  James’s eyes widened as the projection of my forearm superimposed itself over his date’s. I gestured at him to keep her distracted. He nodded quickly and started into a story that involved a lot of hand motion around his face. We needed to keep her from looking down.

  On the astral plane, the enchantment s
topped squirming. Holy crap, I thought, this just might work. Sensing a fresh presence inside the bracelet, the enchantment began to withdraw from Allison’s mind to swarm my projection.

  I waved to get James’s attention, then pointed at the bracelet. I held up five fingers and began a countdown—something we’d worked out beforehand. When enough of the energy left her, James would pull the bracelet from her wrist.

  I was to three when someone exclaimed, “What in the name of Sam Hill?”

  The waitress had returned to refill James’s and Allison’s drinks and was staring down at Allison’s arm where my projection hovered. Allison followed the waitress’s gaze and let out a scream.

  “Now!” I shouted to James.

  The enchantment hadn’t entirely released her, but we were looking at the best chance we would probably get. James lunged across the table, seizing Allison’s wrist. When she realized what he was doing, she screamed again and began punching his hands. Grimacing, James worked his fingers around the bracelet’s edges and pulled. The energy clamped down.

  Thinking she was witnessing a robbery in progress, the waitress rushed James with the plastic pitcher of iced tea and broke it over his head. Tea and ice cubes rained everywhere. The commotion got the truckers’ attention at the counter, who jumped up and began hustling over.

  All right, this was going to hell in a hurry.

  Sorry, buddy, but … “Vigore!” I shouted, aiming my cane at James.

  The invocation landed against his chest, knocking him back. But the sudden force also overwhelmed the bracelet’s hold on Allison, as I’d hoped. When James came to a rest, the bracelet was in his hands. Allison grunted and toppled over onto the seat. I prayed that enough of the energy had released her mind, but there was too much confusion to tell.

  “What’s going on?” one of the arriving truckers asked. He was a burly man with a thick black beard. His partner was just as big, but his beard was brown. Together, they looked like a pair of circus strongmen.

  “They were making hand signals to one another,” the waitress said excitedly. “And then he stole her bracelet. I think they’re the ones who’ve been snatching those girls. Look, she’s got blond hair like the others.”

  I stood and showed my hands. “No, no, we’re actually working on the case. You can check with—”

  Black Beard plowed a fist into my stomach. I doubled over with a breathless grunt. Another fist came down like a sledgehammer on my back. I grunted again and hit the floor. Work boots entered the fray, thudding against my sides. With Black Beard’s next kick, I landed against the table where I’d been sitting. My coffee mug fell and shattered beside my head.

  “Make him bleed!” the waitress screamed.

  Luckily, my cane fell next, landing amid the broken shards of mug. I seized it between blows, swung the opal end toward Black Beard’s face, and shouted a force invocation. In the heat of the moment, my calibration was off. I’d only meant to knock him down, but the force that caught him beneath the chin blasted him across the diner. The elderly couple didn’t look over as he skidded past them on his back.

  I pushed myself to my feet as James was hitting Brown Beard with a bolt from his wand. The silver energy spread around the big man like bailing wire, pinning his arms and legs together, shrinking his center of gravity. He swore loudly as he toppled over, flopping like a fish.

  The waitress pulled a steak knife from her apron as she backed away from us. “You are them, aren’t you?” she said, that strange excitement in her eyes again. “The kidnappers?”

  I looked over at Allison, who was still down on the seat, then over at James. “This is going to look really bad, but we need to take her.” He nodded and lifted her over his shoulder.

  The waitress licked her lips. “Take me too.”

  “Forget it,” James said, turning from her. “Freak.”

  The waitress stiffened in indignation, then narrowed her eyes at me. “I’ve got your descriptions. In a minute I’ll have your vehicle and license plate number. I’ll call the sheriff.”

  “Good,” I said. “Tell Marge we’ll be there in five.”

  I dropped a few bills on the table, counted them, and then took back the tip.

  11

  Allison sagged against me as James pulled up in front of the sheriff’s station. He jogged around to my side of the Jeep, and I helped her into his arms. We had called ahead, and now Marge appeared at the front door.

  “There’s a couch back here,” she said, leading the way.

  James and I followed her into a break room. A table and small fridge took up one end. Marge wheeled a TV/VCR stand out of the way, and James set Allison on a plaid couch, resting the young woman’s head carefully on the padded armrest. He covered her with a blanket.

  “Is she going to be all right?” Marge asked.

  “The shock of the bracelet coming off scored her mind a little,” I said, looking down at Allison’s pale face, “but fortunately it’s nothing some healing magic can’t cure. I infused her on the ride here. She’ll sleep for a few hours, but when she wakes up, she should be fine. A little hung over, but fine.”

  “And she’s safe?” Marge pressed.

  “As long as the bracelet is off her, it can’t compel her. She won’t be victim number nine. Someone should stay with her, though.”

  “Franks will be back shortly,” she said. “Where’s the bracelet now?”

  Careful to keep my fingers on its outer edges, I fished the bracelet from a bag of salt in my coat pocket and held it up. It was just as Carla had described: a thick band of old gold.

  “The symbol is slightly different than what Carla drew,” I said, tapping the scratching on the top of the bracelet. “But it’s a moon sigil, used to activate an enchanted object on the full moon.” I could sense the eel-like energy squirming beneath my fingers, searching for someone to compel. “I know you’ll need the bracelet for evidence, but it still holds powerful magic. I’m going to ask that it stay with me and James until we can clean it.”

  I expected a fight from Marge; instead, she said, “Fine.”

  “Tell her what you told me in the Jeep,” James said.

  “Well, to get the bracelet off her, I projected my arm over hers, which confused the enchantment. It wasn’t actually my arm—it was more like a hologram—but some of my energy was in that hologram.”

  Marge circled a hand to tell me to get to the point.

  “Well, I could feel what the enchantment is designed to do. It directs the victim to a location.”

  “Where?” Marge asked.

  “Possibly wherever the perp is. James and I could find out—with your permission, of course.”

  “Good, I’ll go with you.”

  I groaned inwardly. That was always a problem when partnering with law enforcement. “Um, I don’t think that’s a good idea.” I noticed James stepping back as Marge’s flinty eyes narrowed menacingly. “Look, I’m just worried about the goddess showing up. James and I have the ability to handle something like that, especially now that we know what we’re dealing with. The Grimstone County Sheriff’s Department … not so much.”

  “Shove it,” she said. “If there’s even the smallest chance the bracelet leads to the perp, I’m going to be there.”

  “You want an arrest, I get it,” I said in frustration. “But what if we come face to face with a goddess of death, instead? Are you going to slap a pair of cuffs on her while reciting her Miranda rights?”

  Marge drew herself up. “You getting smart with me?”

  “No, it’s an honest question. Nothing in your arsenal is effective against a god.”

  James chuckled nervously. “You know, Marge … Everson sort of has a point.”

  She rounded on him. “Is that right, jackass?”

  “How about this?” I said quickly. “Let James and me follow the enchantment, see where it leads. That’s all. We’ll report back as soon as we know something. See what you want to do.”

  Marge looked fr
om James to me as though she’d bitten into something sour.

  “That’s partly why you consulted us,” I reminded her. “To handle situations like this.”

  “And you’ve already gone behind my back once.”

  “It won’t happen a second time,” I said, hoping I could keep that promise.

  “You get a location, you call me,” she said at last.

  “In the meantime…” I ventured.

  “What?” she snapped.

  “Well, Allison told James she found the bracelet on her doorstep packaged in brown paper. I don’t know if you have any of the victims’ trash in evidence, but similar packaging could give you a link to the perp. That will be useful if the enchantment doesn’t lead us anywhere.”

  She pulled in her lips as though the information was setting off a fresh chain of ideas. Pulling out her phone, she made a call.

  “Franks,” she said. “I need you back here right now. Now,” she repeated. “Forget the sobriety test. Call him a cab.”

  “We’ll get going, then,” I said before she could change her mind. “Thanks.”

  “Yeah, thanks, Marge,” James said as he followed me out.

  “Don’t fuck this up,” she called after us.

  The sandy asphalt road rolled out under the Jeep’s headlights as we left town and sped west across the desert. I held the bracelet in my lap, fingers on the pulse of its pull.

  James peered over warily. “So, how are you not being attacked right now?”

  “This is different than the hunting spell,” I explained. “When I tapped into the scrunchie, I created a link between me and the girl’s essence—which the goddess Hel had absorbed. That’s how she got to me. With the bracelet, I’m not feeling the same connection.”

  “What are we following, then?”

  “Some sort of homing beacon. The pull’s coming in regular pulses.”

  “And this is where Allison would’ve been led?”

  “I think so.”

  When the road curved, the moon shone into view, the barest sliver from being full. The goddess had lost her sacrifice, but that didn’t mean the perp wouldn’t find another one. We couldn’t afford for this to be a dead end.