Final Magic (Harbinger P.I. Book 11) Read online

  “I told them I wasn’t answering any of their goddamn questions.”

  “Good. I guess you couldn’t tell them anything about Egypt anyway, since you don’t remember anything that happened before you got your body back.”

  “I remember some of it,” he said, his face darkening and his tone becoming more somber. “It’s like waking up after a nightmare. You know something really bad happened, and you catch glimpses of it in your head sometimes, but it’s just out of reach.”

  “Not being able to remember is probably a good thing, since you were trapped inside an ice prison.”

  “They didn’t ask me anything about Egypt”

  “So what did they want to know?”

  “They wanted to know if any of the townsfolk are getting sick, or if anyone is missing.”

  “Missing?”

  “That’s what they said.”

  “Is anyone missing?”

  He shrugged his big shoulders. “I don’t think so.” He regained his composure and became gruff again. “That’s police business anyway. It’s no concern of yours. When are those guys leaving town?”

  “How should I know?”

  “You’re all in the same Society, aren’t you?”

  “They told me they’re sticking around for a few days.”

  “What? Tell them to do their snooping somewhere else. There’s nothing for them in Dearmont.”

  “They won’t listen to me.”

  He shot me an angry look.

  “I don’t like them being here any more than you do,” I told him.

  “Listen to me, Harbinger,” he said, lowering his voice and coming closer to me. “I want to forget all of the weird stuff that’s happened in this town since you got here. Having members of your damn Society staying in town, asking questions, isn’t helping. We need to put all of that crap behind us and move on. I’m glad there’s no more magic in the world, because it was nothing more than a pain in the ass. Now let’s forget it ever existed and get on with our lives. Get those people out off my town.”

  Before I could reply, he turned around and stormed out of the shop.

  “He isn’t happy,” Carlton observed.

  “You think? I don’t know what he expects me to do, though. I can’t get rid of Feldman and Hope.”

  “Why were they asking him about missing people? Does that make any sense? They were asking you about Egypt.”

  “I don’t know,” I said.

  “Sounds like there’s something going on that we don’t know about.”

  “Yeah.” I had no idea why the Society would be interested in missing people. Even if something was going on, why focus their investigation here? Dearmont might have had more than its fair share of magical occurrences in the past, but that was all they were now; things of the past. With magic gone, Dearmont was just a sleepy town in Maine that should be of no interest whatsoever to the Society of Shadows.

  Carlton’s phone rang. He took it out of his pocket and inspected the screen. “It’s a forwarded call from the office number.”

  While he answered it, I served a young woman who had brought a stack of Witchcraft manuals to the counter. She smiled at me as I rang up her purchases. “You’re the PI guy, aren’t you?”

  “That’s right. I’m the PI guy.”

  “So you know if this stuff really works?” She tapped a long nail on the cover of one of the books.

  “ I wouldn’t put a lot of stock in it.”

  “Really?” She seemed surprised. “But you must have seen some things, right? Some paranormal things? I mean, that’s your job.”

  “That was my job. I’m working in a bookshop now.”

  “Yeah, but I mean before. You saw stuff, right?”

  I rang up the last of the books and put them into a brown paper sack that had Blackwell Books printed on the side. “I’ve seen a few things.”

  “I bet you have. Do you have any experience of curses?”

  “Curses?”

  “Yeah, that’s why I got these books. My ex-boyfriend Daniel has been dating Carly Mitchell. Can you believe it? Carly Mitchell?”

  “I don’t know who Carly Mitchell is.”

  “She’s a skank.” She paid with her card but didn’t make a move to take her books. She obviously hadn’t finished telling me about her love life yet.

  “I’m gonna cast a curse on her ass,” she said. “Daniel’s too. See how they like that!”

  “Okay,” I said.

  “I know you’re going to tell me not to fool with black magic, that I might summon a demon, or something, but I’m determined to go through with this.”

  “I wasn’t going to say any of those things.”

  She took the sack of books into her arms and smiled again. “I know you were. But don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine. It’s Daniel and Carly you need to worry about.”

  She turned and left.

  In another world—one where magic worked—I might have warned her against casting a black magic spell, but there was no need for that now. The likelihood of her summoning a demon was zero. And the chance that her curse would actually work? Also zero.

  She didn’t know that, of course. She had no idea that magic had been nullified, just as—like most people in the world—she had no idea that it had ever actually existed.

  I turned to where Carlton had been standing, to ask him who had called the PI office phone, but he was gone. He’d left while I was serving the would-be evil witch.

  My phone rang. It was Carlton.

  “Hey,” I said as I answered. “Where’d you go?”

  “I’m at the office.” His tone was serious. Concerned, even. “Alec, I think you need to get over here.”

  “Okay,” I said. “Is something wrong?’

  “I don’t know. Maybe.”

  “I’ll be right there.”

  The shop was empty at the moment, so I closed up and walked along Main Street to my office. The heat had become stifling, and the sun beat down on the sidewalk. I put my shades on as I made my way to the door that bore the words Harbinger PI.

  As I went inside and climbed the stairs, I realized it had been some time since I’d been here. The smell of dust hung in the air, and as I reached the top of the stairs, I could smell moldy coffee.

  Carlton was in his office, washing out the coffee machine, which was where that particular odor was emanating from. A large man with thinning white hair and a pockmarked face sat in the waiting area. He wore a dark gray coverall with the words Jack’s Garage emblazoned on the left breast.

  “Alec,” Carlton said when he saw me. He waved me into his office.

  I went in. “What’s up?”

  “You’re gonna want to speak to that guy,” he whispered. “His name’s Jack Carter, and he has a story that you’re going to want to hear.”

  “Why?”

  “Remember what Feldman and Hope were asking about?”

  “Egypt?”

  “No, people missing from town.”

  “If that guy knows something about a missing person, he needs to talk to the police.”

  Carlton shook his head. “Just hear what he has to say. I don’t think this is a case for the police.”

  I was sure there was nothing Jack Carter could say that would convince me a missing persons case shouldn’t be handled by the police, but now that I was in the building, I realized how much I missed sitting behind my old desk and talking to clients.

  I could listen to Carter’s story, and then direct him to the police station if I had to.

  “Okay, I’ll hear what he has to say,” I told Carlton.

  “I’ll bring coffee as soon as I clean the machine.”

  I went out into the corridor where Carter was sitting. “Mr Carter?”

  “Yeah,” he said, easing himself out of the chair. “Mr Harbinger, I presume?”

  “Call me Alec.” We shook. His hand was big and meaty and powerful.

  “And you can call me Jack,” he said as I led him into my off
ice.

  I gestured to the chair where clients sat and he lowered his bulk into it. I went behind the desk and sat in my chair. I’d forgotten how comfortable it was.

  “How can I help you, Jack?”

  “It’s my wife. She’s disappeared.”

  “Have you told the police?”

  “I don’t think they’d believe my story, Alec. I don’t think they’d believe me at all.”

  “Why is that?”

  “Because something weird has happened. I don’t know how describe it.”

  I could see he was getting agitated. “Okay, let’s start at the beginning. What’s your wife’s name?”

  “Annie.”

  “And when was the last time you saw Annie?”

  “Last night.”

  I opened the desk drawer and took out a pen and a sheet of paper. I began making notes. “And where was this?”

  “At home. She was in the guest bedroom because she’s been sick all week with the flu and she didn’t want me to catch it.”

  I remembered what the sheriff had said. Feldman and Hope had asked him if anyone in town had gotten sick or disappeared. At the moment, Annie Carter seemed to tick both those boxes.

  “I’ve been busy at the garage,” Jack continued. “I should have taken better care of her.” He leaned forward slightly and put his head in his hands. “I should have realized it was more than just the flu.”

  “More than the flu?” I prompted.

  He nodded and when he looked up at me, his eyes were watery. “When I got out of bed yesterday morning, I knocked on her door. She didn’t answer, so I opened the door to check on her. I was real quiet. Annie was asleep beneath the covers. I couldn’t see her. But I could hear her. She was whispering. Like she was dreaming or something.”

  “Could you hear what she was whispering?”

  “She kept repeating the same thing over and over. ‘The forest. The forest. The forest.’ I thought she was having one of those fever dreams.”

  “Did you wake her?”

  “No, I left the room. I didn’t want to disturb her. I thought that maybe if she slept, she’d get over the flu.”

  “But you don’t actually think she had the flu?”

  He shook his head. “I don’t think that now, no.”

  “Had she been seen by a doctor?”

  “Yes. Doc Copper came by the house and he gave her some antiviral drugs. Annie was taking them regularly.”

  “So the doctor diagnosed Annie’s condition as the flu.”

  “Yes, he did. And that’s what it looked like…until later.”

  “What happened later?”

  “When I got home, her door was still shut. I knocked on it and I asked her if she was awake. She said, ‘Don’t come in, Jack.’ I told her I didn’t care about her being contagious and I just wanted to see her. I said I’d stand at the doorway so we could talk.”

  He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “She growled at me, Alec. I mean she actually made a growling sound. Then I heard the key turn in the lock. She locked me out of the guest bedroom.”

  “Do you have any idea why she’d do that?”

  “Because she was turning into something. Something…else.”

  “What do you mean by that, Jack?”

  “After she locked the door, I tried to talk to her, but she kept telling me to leave her alone. So I did. I thought that maybe she’d come to her senses eventually and let me in.”

  “Did she?”

  He shook his head slowly. “I watched TV for a while, and then I fell asleep in my chair. I didn’t wake up until this morning. The guest bedroom was still locked. I tried calling Annie but she didn’t answer. So I went outside and around the house to the window. I thought that I might be able to see her and talk some sense into her. But when I got to the back of the house, the window was broken. There were pieces of glass all over the ground. I looked inside and the guest bedroom was a wreck. The bed had been clawed to pieces, and there were scratch marks on the walls and the floor.”

  From Jack’s description, it sounded like Annie had become a werewolf. But lycanthropy was caused by a magical curse, and longer existed. Even if it had, the moon hadn’t been full last night.

  “There were tracks in the dirt outside the window,” he said. “They led into the woods and they weren’t human. I spent most of this morning in those woods, calling Annie’s name. I didn’t find her. And although I’m ashamed to say it, I took my gun with me. I kept thinking about that growl and those tracks.

  “Now you know why I came to you instead of the police. They won’t believe my story, but you might.”

  “I believe you, Jack.” I finished making my notes and put the pen down on the desk. “I’d like to see the house, and the tracks.”

  “Yes, of course. When do you want to see them?”

  “How about right now? Is your vehicle parked nearby?”

  He nodded. “My pickup is just outside.”

  I stood up and took the Land Rover keys out of my pocket. “I’ll follow you.”

  Jack got out of the chair and we both went out into the corridor.

  Carlton was still fussing around the coffee machine.

  “Leave that for now,” I told him. “We need to go to Jack’s house. We have a case.”

  Chapter 3

  “I told you Jack had an interesting story,” Carlton said as we got into the Land Rover. I started the engine and joined the light traffic on Main Street. Jack’s red pickup was idling outside my office. When he saw me in his mirror, he began to lead us across town.

  “It’s interesting,” I said to Carlton, “and mystifying. What Jack described sounded like a lycanthropic transformation.”

  “But there aren’t any werewolves anymore, right?”

  “Right. And there wasn’t a full moon last night, anyway.”

  “So we’re dealing with something new.”

  “I don’t want to jump to any conclusions until I take a look at the evidence.”

  A few minutes later, Jack was parking on the driveway of a small house at the edge of town. I pulled up to the curb and Carlton and I got out. The bright sun reflected off the Carter residence, which was a small, clapboard house with a tiny front lawn that consisted of yellow, dry grass and a couple of wilting flowers in the flowerbeds.

  “The tracks are around back,” Jack said, leading us around the side of the house. When we got to the rear of the property, he said, “Watch out for the glass here.”

  A large window had been smashed, just as Jack had told me at the office, and it was obvious from the way the glass was scattered on the ground outside, that the window had been smashed from within.

  I carefully poked my head through the window frame. What I saw inside was also just as Jack had said. The mattress on the bed had been ripped apart, and the wallpaper hung off the walls as if it had been torn down. The wooden floor was scarred with deep claw marks.

  The air in the room smelled faintly of foxgloves.

  “Jack, did Annie have flowers in the room?” There wasn’t a vase in there, and the sorry state of the flowers at the front of the house suggested Annie and Jack weren’t horticulturalists. Besides, foxgloves were poisonous, so it was unlikely that she had some in the room with her while she was sick.

  “No,” Jack said. “She didn’t have any flowers.”

  Carlton stuck his head through the window frame and sniffed. He wrinkled his nose. “Foxgloves.”

  “I don’t know why it smells of flowers in there,” Jack said. “Annie isn’t a fan of them.”

  The tracks on the ground were indistinct. They looked larger than a human footprint, but no details were visible in the dry dirt. I followed the impressions to the end of the yard, where the woods began.

  “You said you checked the woods,” I said to Jack. “How far in there did you go?”

  “Quite a way. There’s a walking trail that goes north a few miles. I followed that for a while, calling Annie’s name.”


  “Carlton and I are going to search the area,” I said.

  Carlton looked at me with wide eyes. “We are?”

  “We are. Jack, you stay here in case Annie comes home.”

  “Sure, I can do that. I need to get a board across that broken window frame, anyways.”

  “We need to get some things from the car,” I told Carlton. We left Jack and walked around to the street. The items I kept in the back of the Land Rover now were very different to the ones that had been in there a few months ago. Gone were the enchanted weapons, the bags of salt, the wooden stakes, and the faerie stones. In their place was a backpack that contained more mundane equipment.

  I unzipped it and checked the contents. There was a flashlight, a length of climbing rope, carabiners, candy bars, a Swiss army knife, a survival knife, and a compass.

  These days, my training didn’t involve hitting dummies in the basement with swords; it involved outdoor pursuits like trail running, climbing rock faces, and sometimes camping out in the wilderness. I had to get my adrenaline fix from somewhere, and although running along trails and scaling rocks didn’t compare to fighting monsters, it would do for now.

  I shouldered the pack and we went around to the back of the house.

  “See you later, Jack.”

  He was inspecting the broken window frame with a look of despair in his eyes. “Please find my Annie.”

  “We’ll try,” I said.

  Carlton and I strode into the woods and found the trail easily. It was cool in the shadows of the trees.

  “We going to head north like Jack did?” Carlton asked.

  “We might as well, since that’s the way the trail goes.”

  “You think she was following the trail? I don’t see any footprints here.”

  “She wasn’t on the trail. See the undergrowth over there? You can tell something passed through it by the broken twigs and stalks. Annie wasn’t on the trail but it looks like she was heading north.”

  He sighed. “She’s probably long gone by now. Do you really think we’re going to find her? Jack was calling her name and she never showed.”

  “Maybe she didn’t show because he was calling her name.”

  “What do you mean by that?”