Page 122 of Forget Me Not

Cal turned to look thoughtfully into the distance. “Of course, if you don’t have a convenient natural disaster or a war or something allowing you to illegally seize anything…”

“…And declare it legal afterward,” Benny added quietly.

“Then you have to create one.” Cal ended the horrible thought there. He swallowed. “And that… that is exactly the sort of thing they couldn’t take a chance on Ray noticing. Because Ray and Penn solve their cases. That magic of yours, Ray. Someone caught on to it before you did.”

Ray curled his lip and then bit out each word. “I don’t use magic.”

Cal and Benny exchanged a glance. Benny’s earlier excitement was long gone.

He pointed to part of the wall. “The building here was burned and partly collapsed. This section of this block, by the plaza, is where the weird chemical smells were, and Ray’s alley. The new buildings going up—what was there before?”

Cal bit his lip. “It really is the whole village at risk. Shit.”

“They’ll keep just enough of the original mystique to make it a cool place to live for the sort of wealthy people who will buy those condos,” Benny declared cynically. “But where does everyone else go?”

The sound of a phone buzzing sent a jolt through the room. Cal almost jumped.

“Oh. Right,” he said distractedly, staring down at his phone. “The thing we have to go to.”

“We go.” Benny nodded, his mind, like Cal’s, also already drawn in to this new, giant, terrifying puzzle. “We watch your dad, maybe get something good at a food truck, listen to music, and then we can attack this again in the morning.”

Cal widened his eyes at Benny dramatically, as if he wanted nothing more than to launch himself into this right now.

“Some of us need to sleep. Real sleep,” Benny stressed. “And we should tell your dad.”

Cal lifted his chin, clearly ready to argue.

“The danger hasn’t gone away,” Ray butted in, trying to keep them both grounded. This was everything he’d worried about to Penn. “You two prying into this will only make it worse.” Two outspoken investigators working outside the PD, even in defiance of the PD. “They hurt me.” Ray was nearly everything they claimed to respect. Cal and Benny were very obviously not. “They won’t hesitate to hurt either of you.”

“Ray Ray, all we have to do is get some proof of something, enough to share with the others at Bluebell. That should reduce some of the danger.” That was an incredibly naïve statement and Ray was about to say exactly that when Cal added, “We’ll have talk to them at Bluebell anyway. About you and the department, in case the department tries to pull anything with you. You want lawyers ready, trust me. We will involve Rainbow in this aspect as well when we have more evidence on our side. And we will be very, very careful until then. Okay, Ray? Don’t start wolf-panicking about our safety whenyouare the one with the target on his back.”

Ray worked his jaw but couldn’t stay silent. “We’re going to need something dramatic to convince people, and that would still probably only make them believe that it was one or two bad actors. People like to believe things like that. The same way they like to believe fairies can’t take care of themselves, or poor people are lazy, or that certain groups are inherently violent and have to be treated roughly.”

“Which leads us to where we are now.” Benny’s expression went unexpectedly fierce. “Fuck that.”

“Which reminds me.” Cal held up a finger and turned to Benny. “Not your righteous fury, Benny, I mean, the idea of violence reminded me; we need to stop for those ear plugs. And also to pick up Penn, unless she’s driving herself. But parking is going to be impossible.”

“The bus takes too long,” Benny remarked, banking his anger but not banishing it. He focused on a different, maybe more immediately solvable problem. “We need more of them.”

“Pfft.” Cal scoffed. “But then poor people’s lives would be easier, Bens. And we can’t have that, can we?”

Ray exhaled and inhaled forcefully, trying to be calm. Cal and Benny probably weren’t calm either, but at least they had learned how to use their feelings to keep going. They were brilliant, and their switching from topic to topic was a good thing at any other time. Ray knew that. He clenched his hands anyway.

They would be safe. He would see to it, however he could.

When Cal went on a hunt for a different pair of shoes that could fit his thick winter socks, Ray reached for each paper taped to the wall, and one by one, tore them all down. He stacked them, then put them in a folder markedTaxes—Work Expensesuntil it was overflowing, then put that in his desk drawer, before piling more folders on top of it.

Benny watched Ray go to the windows to ensure the blinds were down and closed, that the windows themselves were locked.

Cal returned to the room and stopped to also watch Ray.

Ray went to the bedroom, then the bathroom, then back to the kitchen. When he was as certain as he could be, he said, “Benny, please?” and Benny went around doing whatever it was he did to check the magic he’d worked on the house.

Benny, at least, would be careful.

But there was a whine caught in Ray’s throat.

Cal came over to stand beside Ray and take his hand as if he knew that.

---