Page 1146 of One More Kiss

“Alan’s gone missing. You might have been one of the last people to see him. Or the last person, possibly.”

“Missing?” She shook her head. “But I just saw him.”

“Yeah?” Lakshmi crossed her arms, and her familiar curled and uncurled, hissing and flapping its wings. “Then what happened?”

Ooh boy, Lakshmi meant well as far as I could tell, but she was not exactly helping the situation. I we didn’t find out what Deena knew, what had happened, all that good shit, it didn’t make a difference if we had the satisfaction of catching her out in a lie.

So I pushed forward. “I had a police visit today. They were looking at Alan in connection with some Wallsman’s tortoises that came into the country.” I lowered myself onto the couch next to her, trying to keep things personal, and trying to avoid calling Graham up until I knew I needed him for sure. “It doesn’t sound right, but if he went missing, then what if someone got to him? He’s exactly the kind of guy who would try to get involved for the welfare of the animals. And the kind of person who would smuggle those tortoises into the country like that…who knows what they’d do to a sweet old man like Al?”

“That’s horrible. I’ll tell everyone I can to keep an eye out for him.” She raised a hand up, combing her fingers through her hair. But I didn’t miss the tiny spark of iridescence that tingled off her fingertips. And just as it dissipated, her phone chimed “I’m sorry. I’ve been waiting for a call. I really need to take this.”

She took the phone and scurried out, and I doubled up the strength of the soundproofing before turning to Lakshmi. “She made her own phone ring. I saw the magic.”

Lakshmi snorted. “I’m not good at whatever ridiculous, slow-paced game you’re playing. I can feed her to the snake and scream at her and she’ll probably talk.”

“And if she doesn’t?”

“Then I at least fed her to the snake.” I was seventy-five percent sure she wasn’t serious about that part of the plan, but I was also ninety percent sure she was a little drunk off that Bruichladdich, so I figured the better course of action was to call in the big guns.

I didn’t know how long Deena planned to stay out of the room, so I had to move rapidly. I fished Officer Graham’s hair out of my breast pocket and sparked a line of magic into it, feeling the tight connection pass between him and myself. A brief thrill of energy at being that together, which I told myself happened with everyone, every time, even though I knew better. Then I focused back down. I had until the magic burned away the hair, and his hair was not all that long. I brought it to my mouth and whispered, “She’s twitchy. Come up. Apartment 405. No confirmation, but she’s…weird.”

Then the energy of the magic burned away the bulb of his follicle and I was left to wait and hope that things would go well. A muffled grinding and screeching from the other room—the one Deena had just gone into—suggested otherwise. If it was that loud with my soundproofing up, then how the hell loud was it in reality? And what good could come from a noise that aggressive?

I cancelled out all the magic in the room, heart thrumming in my ears, just as the door swung open to reveal Graham, fingers sparkling with some kind of magic I didn’t recognize, and probably didn’t want to be on the receiving end of.

I nodded to the door. “Loud noise. Don’t know what happened. She went in there.”

“Both of you stay put.” He marched past, jaw set harshly, and crashed the door open, then disappeared inside.

For several seconds, there was nothing. Then a slight rustling. Then the air took on a different quality, one I was familiar with, and which didn’t bode well. It thickened like tar for a moment, before relaxing into something akin to seaside humidity. Air so heavy you could swim through it.

Magic, and a lot of it, had just been poured into the space. I glanced at Lakshmi, and she was at least playing nonchalance a hell of a lot better than Deena had, but the way her familiar whipped and hissed, and the way her fists had bunched up around her skirt, she wasn’t fooling me.

It was another few seconds before a rough, familiar voice called out from the other room. “Your criminal mastermind’s been detained.”

That was all the cue either of us needed. We both moved over. I got there first, but Lakshmi could see just fine over my head. What was there to see? A fucking tableau if ever there was one.

Graham’s hands currently shined with a silvery light, which extended into harsh bands of energy that wrapped Deena up, binding her arms to her sides and her legs together. She had a myriad of tiny cuts on her skin and tears in her clothing, which I had to assume came from the window out of the bedroom, which was shattered.

As if still somehow connected with me, Graham said, “She tried to bolt out the window. Got caught up on the fire escape.”

I nodded, but I only halfway registered it, honestly. In the corner, surrounded by a five-foot circle of glowing magic, sat Alan Fishbein in an armchair. And in his lap was a brilliantly glistening mound of what looked like sapphires. Until a leathery head poked out of the rocks, and milky white eyes blinked in my direction.

Tears prickled behind my eyes, and I didn’t even really know from what. From this bullshit? From Deena’s betrayal? From finding Alan? Or from seeing a Wallsman’s jeweled tortoise in the flesh? Fuck, maybe it was the combination of all three. I didn’t know, but I had to look straight up and pinch the bridge of my nose to try and keep my shit together.

I stepped up to the magical barrier currently surrounding Al and examined it, poking and prodding. It was, like I suspected, pretty standard stuff. A semi-permeable forcefield that could only be accessed from the outside. Not strong enough to contain the likes of a dragon, but good for keeping a hold on small-to-medium-sized creatures who might otherwise get out and wreak havoc. At least long enough to get a proper enclosure for them.

Alan Fishbein was a medium-sized creature, it turned out.

I made quick work of dispelling the magic, then I squatted down where I could look Al in the eye. “Long morning so far?”

He looked tired, and was showing his age for maybe the first time ever. But he smiled all the same, showing off the crooked teeth he’d acquired from far too many wild critters slamming into his face over the years. “It’s nice to see a friendly face.” His voice was rough and squeaky, like he hadn’t had water in a while. He ran his fingers through the sparse white hair still remaining on his head, which didn’t neaten it up so much as stand it all up in an explosive halo around his skull. “But it has been a very long morning.” He slowly scanned the room, nodding to Lakshmi as his gaze drifted past her. Then his eyes landed on Officer Graham. “Sir, if you’re from Esoteric Game and Wildlife, I’d like to report a crime. And if you’re from the police, I’d like to report a slightly different crime.”

---