Crimes of Magic: The Witch's Artifact

  Chapter 17

  We didn’t have to worry about beating the police; they were there when we arrived. We went in, and Rachel identified herself as a private investigator hired by Caite, and she handed a business card to one of the two policemen. I was introduced as her assistant.

  “What did Miss Crenshaw hire you to do?” asked the officer whose nametag identified him as Officer “Jones.”

  “I was originally hired by Beth Kimmel to try to find the artifact that was stolen from her,” Rachel said. “After Beth was killed, Caite asked me to stay on the job until you found Beth’s killer.”

  “Did you find the stolen object or the killer?” Officer Jones asked.

  “No,” Rachel replied, “Not yet.”

  “Why did Miss Crenshaw call you here today?”

  “She said that she had found a body in her store and that she had called the police. She needed moral support.”

  “Do you know who the deceased is?” asked the second cop, a woman whose nametag read “Sanchez.”

  Rachel and I carefully walked over to the body and looked at his face. Both of us shook our heads. “I don’t recognize him,” Rachel said.

  “Do you know of any reason he would come to this store?” asked Jones.

  “No, not unless he’s the thief, and he wanted to steal something else,” Rachel said.

  “How do you think he died?” asked Sanchez.

  “I don’t know,” Rachel said. “What do you think?”

  “It looks like he’s been shot,” Sanchez observed. “We haven’t found the murder weapon.”

  “Have you two been working Beth Kimmel’s murder?” Rachel asked.

  “We responded to Miss Crenshaw’s call when she found Miss Kimmel’s body,” Officer Jones said. “Detective Avery is the lead investigator.”

  “Were there any prints on the knife that killed her?” Rachel asked.

  “Yes. There were only two sets of prints—Miss Kimmel’s and an unknown person’s.”

  “Do you think this could be him?” Rachel asked.

  “We’ll have to let forensics tell us that,” Officer Sanchez said.

  “Is it all right if we take Caite to my house? She’s been staying with me. She hasn’t felt safe since Beth was killed.”

  The two officers looked at each other. “I guess that’s OK,” Jones said. “I have your card in case the detective wants to talk to you. Better give me your home address.”

  Rachel gave the officer the address of the Grey Goose, and he wrote it in his notebook.

  “Thanks, officers,” Rachel said as we headed for the door. “We’ll be glad to come down to the station or talk on the phone, whatever we can do to help.”

  “That was intense,” Caite said as we rode in Rachel’s car back to the Goose. “I could use a cup of tea.”

  “I have a nice selection at my place,” I said. “We can go there to debrief.”

  “That was an awesome exit you two made from the store,” Caite said. “I’ve seen you disappear from the store, I’ve seen you appear in Charlene’s office, and I’ve seen you use the magic-detecting pendulum. What else can you do, Professor?”

  “Well, once I went back in time and changed the future,” I said.

  “Awesome,” said Caite.

  “He’s making things up now, Caite,” Rachel said. “That’s just something we heard about from a wizard in Russia, and he could have been lying.”

  “Oh, he wasn’t lying,” I said. “There’s more to me than meets the eye.”

  “You’re awesome, Professor,” Caite said.

  “He’s exaggerating,” Rachel chimed in. Was she smiling?

  Back at the Goose, we sat in my kitchen drinking tea and munching vanilla wafers.

  “When you called me earlier,” Caite said to Rachel, “You told me a little, but what’s been going on? You said you were in Russia, what happened?”

  “To make a long story short, Caite,” Rachel said, “When we went to your store to try to catch the artifact’s thief, this magician Gregor teleported into your meeting room, kidnapped me, and took me back to his bat cave in Russia. He tied me up and left me in a closet, and then he teleported back to your store. We think he was looking for the photos of the artifact on your computer.

  “Anyway, when he popped into the meeting room the second time, somehow the Professor got the drop on him.”

  “I was waiting for him,” I said. “I lassoed him and zapped him with Rachel’s stun gun. I tied him up and tricked him into teaching me how to translocate, and we both ended up in his lair somewhere in Russia.

  “I found Rachel tied up in the closet, but Gregor and his minion Vlad captured us and put us in a cell in the dungeon.”

  “Actually,” Rachel said, “It was a cage in the basement. Fortunately, Gregor hadn’t searched us, so the Professor had all the magical things he needed to teleport us out of the cage back to your store.

  “Yesterday, Gregor teleported into the Professor’s apartment and kidnapped him. When I discovered he was missing, I found a video he had recorded that gave step-by-step instructions on how to teleport.”

  “They call it the Spell of Translocation,” I chimed in.

  “That’s when I told you to wait in my apartment while I went to rescue the Professor. I translocated back to Russia, but Gregor and his henchman captured us again and took us to a Master Wizard named Seth. I think Seth is Gregor’s boss.

  “Anyway, Seth had Beth’s artifact...”

  “The Wand of Aerten,” I added.

  “...The Wand of Aerten, and then Seth told us the myth or legend about how this Wand could ‘bend destiny’ or basically change the past, present and future. That’s where the Professor got that story about changing the future. Then Seth ordered Gregor and Vlad to kill me and the Professor.”

  “Oh, my goddess!” Caite exclaimed.

  “Yeah, so they marched us down the stairs to the basement, but I pretended to stumble, and I managed to get Vlad’s gun. I thought that he was the only one who was armed. Anyway, Vlad was going to kill the Professor with his sword, so I shot Vlad dead.

  “The Professor had pushed Gregor down the stairs, and we thought he was unconscious, but he pulled a small pistol out of a pocket or something and he was going to shoot me. I shot first and killed Gregor. Then the Professor translocated me, him and Gregor back to your store. We weren’t able to get back Beth’s artifact, and it’s just too dangerous to try again.”

  “It sure is too dangerous,” Caite said. “You’ve risked your life too many times helping Beth and now me. You are the bravest woman I have ever met.”

  “I don’t know how brave I am. I think I had luck on my side—and the Professor.”

  “I’ve got your back,” I said.

  “So Gregor and Seth were real magicians?” Caite asked.

  “Seth called himself a wizard,” I said, “And Gregor was a thaumaturge.”

  “I’ve read about thaumaturgy,” Caite said, “but I never met anyone who practiced it.”

  “It’s sympathetic magic,” I said. “The Spell of Translocation falls into that category, I think.”

  “Did they teach you any other magic?” Caite asked.

  “No,” I said. “That’s about it.”

  “Will that wizard send other assassins to kill or kidnap us?” Caite asked.

  “That’s a good question,” Rachel observed. “What do you think, Professor?”

  “I really don’t think so,” I said. “I don’t think they know where we are. Seth could tell by our accents that we are American, but unless he has an ear like Rachel’s, I don’t think he would detect a ‘Portland accent.’ The only two men who were ever here are now dead. Even when I gave Gregor a fictitious address for Rachel’s house, I didn’t give a city, just a street, and Gregor never asked for more detail. I did tell Seth my name, but ‘Robert Walker’ is a pretty common name. I don’t think that would help him find us.”

 
“Come to think of it,” Rachel said, “I didn’t tell Seth my last name; I only said I was Rachel.”

  “But, according to your story, Gregor came here four times, three times to the store and once to this house, Caite said.”

  “Let’s see,” I said, “Actually it was five times, but each time he was following a homing beacon.

  “The first time, your coven had begun to ‘wake up’ the artifact by using it in a ceremony inside the magic circle in your meeting room. Seth had a ‘sympathetic resonator’ that was attuned to the artifact, and that enabled Gregor to find it and steal it.

  “The second time, Beth accidentally created a kind of sympathetic resonance using the photo of the symbols on the artifact. Beth showed me how six of the symbols could be connected by a unicursal hexagram. It turns out that tracing the hexagram over the symbols, in the correct order, is part of the spell that activates the Wand. If she did that inside the magic circle, that could be what set off Seth’s sympathetic resonator. Gregor used the resonator again to translocate into the meeting room, and that’s when he killed Beth.

  “The third time, Gregor used a piece of wood he had cut off of your altar cabinet to translocate here. That’s when he kidnapped Rachel.

  “The fourth time was when he immediately came back after kidnapping Rachel. That’s when I lassoed him, and I tricked him into showing me how to translocate back to Gregor’s lair.

  “The fifth and last time, Gregor translocated into my apartment by following the half of my handkerchief that I brought here after leaving the other half in his basement. Now, both halves are in Gregor’s house, so there’s nothing to follow. So I think that we’re safe, especially you, Caite. Seth doesn’t even know you exist.”

  “You two are my heroes,” Caite said. “How can I ever repay you?”

  “You don’t owe us anything, Caite,” Rachel said. “I wasn’t able to retrieve Beth’s artifact, and I felt it was my duty to find her killer. Besides, the police would have tried to pin her murder on you if the real killer hadn’t showed up.”

  “I’ll always be in your debt,” Caite said. “If I can ever be any help, please call on me.”

  “We certainly will,” Rachel said. “Now let’s get your stuff packed up and get you back home. We’ll stop by the store and pick up your car after checking out what the police have done there.”

  The two ladies left for Rachel’s apartment, and I decided to take a nap.