Page 50 of Waifs And Strays
The last possible clue as to who had taken Nick was slipping away. I was so used to death being the result of murder that I was astonished that these had been nothing more than an accident.
‘This Smith fellow. You’re sure about him?’ I demanded. ‘You looked into him?’
The captain raised an eyebrow. ‘You think he created a magical suicide bomb? If that were the case, why didn’t he release it inside Henderson Market to cause more damage and make more of an impact?’
‘Maybe that’s what he intended but his plans went wrong,’ I said. But I knew that wasn’t right. I had watched Smith’s spirit; he hadn’t expected to die and he hadn’t yet accepted his death. It couldn’t have been suicide.
Montgomery opened his mouth but before he could speak there was a knock on the door. ‘One moment.’ He went to open it while Thane and I exchanged defeated looks.
‘Apologies for the interruption, sir,’ said a young fresh-faced officer. ‘But we’re getting reports of a problem at a warehouse in the Glebe. Some outfit called the Crushers.’
I stiffened.
‘What is it?’ Montgomery asked him.
‘Some spell seems to have gone awry and a lot of the employees appear to be experiencing mania and, uh, violence. The entire warehouse is ablaze.’
That damned contentment spell to encourage productivity; I should have done more to warn Tommy about it when I’d spoken to him about Nick.
Montgomery hissed an expletive and turned to us. ‘I’m afraid I have to cut short our meeting. You can find your own way out?’
Thane and I nodded, thanked the captain and left the building.
Our return journey was slow.Yes, I was physically tired, but it was the weariness in my heart that was causing most of the problem. From the tightness of Thane’s body next to mine, his own heart was experiencing red-hot fury. By the time we turned onto my street he was huffing and muttering, barely able to keep himself in check.
I stopped walking and turned to him. ‘This isn’t over, Thane. We’ll keep searching and find whoever took Nick.’
‘He’s been gone for days,’ he bit out. ‘What are the chances that he’s still alive?’
‘We don’t know why he was taken,’ I pointed out. ‘Whoever did it might not want him dead.’
‘Even if that’s true, we don’t have any more leads. We don’t have Nick’s scent.’ He ground his teeth. ‘We don’t haveanything.’
‘There are still things we can try.’ I chewed the inside of my cheek. ‘For a start, we can look for anyone who sells forget-me-not spells. We might track down the kidnappers that way.’
‘And iftheymade the spells?’ Thane asked. ‘It would make more sense that they did, given how many times they’ve used them.’
‘Then we search for anyone who sells the ingredients. We arenotdone, Thane. We’renotgiving up on Nick.’
He eyed me. ‘Are you trying to convince me or yourself?’
I wasn’t sure. I sighed and pushed back my hair. Maybe it was finally time to involve the MacTires, though I couldn’t see how invoking Alexander MacTire’s wrath was going to help Nick. There was no scent trail to follow and no suggestion that he’d been taken by another werewolf pack.
We were missing something, I was sure of it. ‘Let’s rest for a few hours then re-group,’ I said, ‘We’re both tired, and tired minds make mistakes. Let’s come at it fresh.’
Thane’s jaw clenched but he nodded. ‘Fine.’
We covered the last section of road in silence. There was a faint miaow about fifty metres away from my house, and He Who Crunches Bird Bones emerged from underneath a hedge. He didn’t usually roam at that hour; his presence suggested my cats were as worried and unsettled as I was.
I scooped him up in my arms and he nuzzled my shoulder, his warm body offering comfort. Unfortunately that brief respite only made me think of Nick again. If he were still alive, was there anyone nearby to comfort him? I hoped that he wasn’t completely alone.
‘We’ll find him,’ I whispered, as much to myself as to Thane. ‘We have to.’
I sleptlike the dead for six hours surrounded by furry, purring bodies. When I woke up the crescent moon was high in the sky and I knew instinctively that it was hours before dawn.
I debated rolling over and snatching a few more hours of blessed kip but my mind was already churning with worry about Nick, so I hauled myself out of bed and pulled on some clothes. All five cats were delighted at the prospect of breakfast several hours earlier than usual but I ignored their plaintive miaows and told them they’d have to wait. I shrugged off their disdainful glances; I was more than used to being judged and found wanting by my motley crew of felines.
I made a cup of coffee and headed into the garden. The sky was free from clouds, allowing the stars to shine unimpeded. I gazed upwards for several moments before casting my gaze closer to home. The lights were off in all of my neighbours’ houses; in fact the only artificial light was coming from the direction of the Glebe. I suspected the flickering orange glow was emanating from the Crushers’ warehouse. Whatever hadhappened there had clearly been disastrous if the building was still on fire.
