Mid-Century Monster, page 9
part #3 of Solstice Properties Mystery Series
Her mother ghosted through the windshield and engine compartment.
“Who are you talking to?” Chad asked a couple of feet away. “Oh, wait, don’t tell me. Your mother’s here.”
“Yep, that she is.” Cin closed her car door and followed him up the steps to the porch. There was still an uneasy feeling around the place.
“Does she have any insights I’m not aware of?” Chad slipped his key into the lock.
“Just that we should’ve gotten her opinion on the place before buying.” Cin watched as her mother slipped through the wall as Chad opened the door.
“And would she have warned us that someone was going to shoot one of our crew?” Chad stepped to the side and let Cin walk in first.
“Probably not.”
“Shoot?” Her mother stopped halfway across the living room and turned back to Cin. “You didn’t tell me about that.”
“Maybe if you hadn’t scared me in the car, I would’ve gotten around to it.” Cin retorted a little stronger than she’d intended.
“Well I guess I need to be around a little more, if I’m going to keep track of what’s going on with my family. Maybe I can keep you all safe.”
Chad stopped almost right inside the ghost and glanced around. “Okay. We’re missing things.”
Cin frowned. “Tools. Where are the tools? RJ had several of his larger tools here yesterday. Did he stop and get them on his way to Wolf Creek?”
“Let me check.” Chad had his phone out.
Walking out of the living room, Cin headed for the kitchen. There weren’t any tools there either. Someone had come into the house and taken them. If it wasn’t RJ, they were going to have to replace things before they could continue. With the news that someone had shot Juan, she wondered if they were dealing with a bigger problem than just something nesting in the root cellar.
14
Cin backed up a couple of steps as RJ scowled at the empty spaces where his tools had been.
“I’m getting tired of this house.” RJ’s voice was dangerously low. He looked like he wanted to scream and throw things but was managing to hold himself in check.
“We’ll take care of replacing everything.” Cin squared her shoulders against the anger pouring off him and patted his shoulder. “Let’s hope the insurance isn’t too slow about doing that.” She hated dealing with their insurance company. Although their rates were decent, their customer service was often lacking and could be rather slow.
RJ shook his head. “I’m not worried about that. I can cover replacements.” His frown deepened. “AJ’s doing great right now. His new werewolf series hit the top of the Amazon charts in the first week. But I just don’t understand what it is that keeps messing with us here.”
Shifting as he walked in from the backyard, Chad grinned. “You know, I need to talk to him about that new series. I think I might recognize one of the characters there.”
“Yeah, I figured you would.” RJ relaxed just a little. “AJ’s good at loosely basing characters on people he knows.”
Chad’s grinned broadened. “Thought so. Anyway, I spotted a couple of human scents I didn’t recognize in the backyard. I’d say our culprits are the regular kind here.”
When a car door slammed out front, Cin turned and looked out the window. The streetlights had come on, casting just enough brightness to see the light-bar on top of the police car. The familiar shape of Chad’s old partner Harvey Longtooth stalked toward the door.
“Looks like Harvey got here just in time.” Cin hurried over to the door and swung it open before Harvey could knock.
“Actually he was a little slow,” Chad muttered a couple of steps behind Cin.
“You guys are having a rough time with this place, aren’t you?” Harvey stopped just shy of the threshold and tilted his head. “What with that body the other day and now stolen property?”
“Maybe this neighborhood isn’t as nice as we thought it was.” Cin stepped to the side and motioned Harvey in.
“And you bought the funkiest looking house in the area.” Harvey glanced around as he walked in. “You guys are hard at work it looks like. Chad’s doing more now than he used to do on the force.”
Chad fake frowned at him. “Who did more work when I was on the force? I might need to shake up your memory a bit, partner.”
“Oh, I bet we could go pull reports and see who filled most of them out.” Harvey continued to look around. “You know, this place doesn’t look as odd inside as it does outside.”
“When you gut one of these old Mid-Century places a lot of the sharp edges that show outside disappear inside.” RJ explained. “I think that’s how they were designed, but I wasn’t alive then, so it’s hard to say. I don’t study them, I just fix them.”
“And you’re RJ Samson, right?” Harvey pulled out his notebook. “I’ve heard about you through the grape vine. Supposed to be some kind of super handyman.”
RJ laughed and shook his head. “I wouldn’t say that.”
“But I would,” Cin threw in. “RJ’s great. We probably wouldn’t be doing nearly as much as we are if it weren’t for him. His were the tools that were taken.”
“Okay, well, if you don’t mind, Mr. Samson, let’s get a list of what’s missing and I can file the report. But first, you are sure you left the tools here. No chance you just forgot to load them in that blue Dodge out front?” Harvey made a couple of scribbles on his pad.
“Nope.” RJ shook his head. “This was the big stuff, table saw, drill press, not stuff I normally carry around in the truck. I bring them onto a site and then leave them until we’re done. Chad and I don’t need the workout of loading and unloading them every day.”
“I don’t doubt that.” Harvey glanced at Chad. “Although my old partner over there looks like he’s been working out more than he used to.”
“Maybe you should start doing harder work than driving around chasing speeders.” Chad playfully poked Harvey’s rounding paunch. “It’s amazing how good a shape you get into when you’re on your feet and moving around all the time.”
Harvey patted Chad’s hand away. “Could be. Okay, let’s get descriptions of the tools. Any chance any of them had serial number or other identifying marks?”
RJ nodded. “Not that most people would notice, but they all have RJS engraved somewhere on them. I got into the habit of doing that when I was a contractor on other people’s sites and I had to keep track of my own tools.” He reached in his pocket and pulled out a small tape measure and showed it to Harvey.
“Hold on a second.” Harvey pulled out his phone and took a picture of the tape measure. “It’s great when people make my job easier.”
Cin crossed her arms and leaned against the closed door. She’d noticed RJ’s marks on most of his tools. She’d been a little surprised that none of his hex-blessed screwdrivers had them, but then he didn’t often let those out of his hands. She felt a little special that he’d passed his thrice-blessed screwdriver off to her.
RJ paused and glanced at Cin. “Did either of you think to check the trail cameras to see if they caught anything?”
Chad glanced at her. “Nope. Totally forgot about them.”
“Give me a couple of minutes and I’ll go check the game cameras we put out yesterday.” RJ headed out the back door after Harvey nodded his consent.
Harvey closed his notebook and slipped it back into his uniform shirt pocket. “You guys found yourself a winner when you hired him.”
“You don’t have to tell us.” Cin pushed off the door and went toward the window to look out. It looked like nearly every house on the block had porchlights or yard lights on. There was so much light that it felt odd. Their own neighborhood, which wasn’t too far away, didn’t normally have so many lights in it. Were the residents so afraid of something in the dark they kept their lights on, or was it just that they were all trying to do as their neighbors did?
A chirp came from Harvey’s radio.
“Give me a second.” He turned his back to them and took the call.
“Chad, do you think there’re a lot of lights in this neighborhood? When Harvey drove up, there was just the street light, but it wasn’t full dark then.” Cin waved at the scene beyond the window. “Now it looks like they’re afraid of something. The only way it could be brighter was if they already had their holiday lights up and on.”
“It is a little bright out there.” Chad put his arm across her shoulder, making her take a side step to press up against him.
“Hey folks. I’ve got another call. Domestic dispute. I think I’ve got enough info, and will start checking all the regular places in the next couple of days and see what I can find.” Harvey headed for the door.
“Thanks, Harvey. If we think of anything else, or RJ found anything on the cameras, we’ll let you know.” Chad let go of Cin and walked over to shake Harvey’s hand. “If it would help, we can hit the pawn shops and such.”
“I’ll let you know.” Harvey opened the door and rushed down the walk toward his car.
Cin gave Chad a hug from behind and laid her head on his shoulder as he closed the door. “I’m so thankful that you don’t have to go rushing off to things like that anymore. Domestic disputes can turn nasty fast.”
Chad turned in her grasp and gave her a soft kiss. “Sometimes I wonder what’s more dangerous. Being a werewolf comes with its own set of dangers.”
“Sure, but you’ve got a witchy wife to help keep you safe there.”
The backdoor clanked.
“Where’d Harvey go?” RJ asked with his phone in his hand.
“Had another, more-urgent call.” Chad let go of Cin. “Did the cameras catch anything?”
RJ shrugged. “Yes and no.” He turned the phone toward them. “We didn’t catch anyone coming through the backyard and then carrying tools off, but we’ve got something running through.”
The picture was a blurry form that could’ve been a large dog or huge coyote, but there was something off for that. The legs were too long, and the tail wasn’t fluffy enough.
“Any idea what that is?” Cin reached for the phone.
“Nope.” RJ shook his head as he let her take the phone. “I’ve never gotten a blurry shot from these cameras. They’re top end stuff, fast shutter speed, even in low light. There’s no way they should’ve gotten a shot this bad.”
“But if was moving at supernatural speeds, that would explain it, right?” Chad leaned over Cin’s shoulder and stared at the phone.
“Yeah. It would. But I don’t know how fast that would have to be.” RJ reached over the edge of the phone and swiped a couple of times, past another blurry shot that was just the strangely smooth tail and had a couple of shots of Chad. “I don’t know if you ran around the yard sniffing, or walked, but I got some good shots of you. Video even. The blurry thing didn’t even register long enough to trigger the video capture.”
Chad cocked his head and looked at the screen. “I am a good-looking wolf, aren’t I?”
Cin elbowed him in the ribs. “And not at all vain about it either.”
His kissed her hair. “You know, you got lucky.”
“Whatever.” She handed the phone back to RJ. “I take it you reset the cameras.”
RJ slipped the phone into his pants pocket. “Yeah. We’ll keep checking. Maybe whatever it is will slow down enough for us to make it out.”
“That would be nice.” Cin took a couple of steps away from Chad. “I don’t suppose you and AJ found anything in his books.”
“Nope. Nothing there, but he pointed out that a lot of the more detailed magical tomes aren’t let into human hands.”
“I would be upset if some of my books ended up out of the family.” Cin paused. “Magic. We might be able to use that to find your tools. I can’t believe we didn’t think of that before we called the cops.”
“What do you want to do?” RJ sounded almost as eager as the girls could get when she suggested doing magic.
“Go get one of your screwdrivers. Let me see if the magic in them can help me locate the rest of your stuff.” Cin patted her pockets. “I’ll also need a piece of string.”
“I’ve got that too.” RJ headed out the door, and hurried toward his truck.
Within two minutes, RJ was back with a screwdriver and a spool of mason’s twine. “Here you go.” He put both in Cin’s outstretched hands.
“Perfect.” Cin tied the string to the screwdriver. The gentle buzz of power from the tool had become familiar to her, since she had one of his blessed tools, but the one in her hand was stronger than the one in her purse. RJ had told her about going to the strong practitioners in Denver to get the blessings placed on the six screwdrivers he’d gotten to replace the one he’d given her. The different layers of energy on it reminded her there are so many forms of magic in the world.
“We won’t need a circle for this.” Cin closed her eyes and focused on the association between the screwdriver and the other tools that had been lost. Although the other tools hadn’t been magically blessed, they’d still been things RJ had used. She traced the connection back to RJ first, then out to the other tools.
The point of the screwdriver swung around and pointed toward the center of Cottonwood.
“Looks like the tools are that way.” Cin kept the screwdriver swinging from the twine in her hand. “Now we just follow the screwdriver to the other tools.”
Chad beamed at her. “You’re really handy to have around.”
“Think you can hold that while we drive, or will we need to walk?” RJ asked.
With the whole block lit up the way it was, Cin was fairly sure if they took out walking from the house toward downtown, the neighbors would notice. “I think I can hold the connection while we drive.”
“Then I’m on it.” Chad opened the door. He and RJ covered her and her magical compass as they went out to Chad’s truck.
A chill went through Cin. She was fairly sure someone or something was watching them go, but she wasn’t sure. If they could find RJ’s tools faster than Harvey and the police, she didn’t really care. A lot of new agers used divination. Their cover wouldn’t be totally blown, but she didn’t like the tinge of anger that hit her as she slipped into the passenger seat. Something definitely didn’t like them and she wasn’t sure why.
15
Cin propped her arm on the console in Chad’s truck. Her muscles were cramping slightly from the continued exertion of holding the gently swinging screwdriver up high enough not to hit her arm. She’d have passed off the impromptu pendulum if she could but neither Chad nor RJ had the ability to keep her finding spell going. If they’d had one of the girls in the truck, she probably could.
The screwdriver’s point swung to the right.
“Turn right at the next street.” Cin glanced at the building they were driving past. In it was one of the three local dine-in pizza places between a taco shack and the only florist in town.
Chad made the turn and the screwdriver swung again, continuing to point at the same building. As they made another right, past another group of shops, the screwdriver leaned hard right, touching the passenger-side window.
“I think we’re close.” Cin pointed at the pawnshop that sat on the end of the strip center.
“Yeah, looks that way.” Chad pulled into the parking lot.
When the screwdriver kept focused on the pawnshop, swinging around until it almost touched the windshield, Cin smiled. It would be awesome if they found the tools. She always liked it when magic worked the way she envisioned it doing. If the girls had been with them, they’d have been bouncing in their seats seeing the finding spell working properly.
“This almost feels too easy,” RJ muttered from the backseat.
“Things aren’t normally this easy,” Chad agreed as he parked the truck with the screwdriver pointing toward the front of the truck.
“We haven’t found the actual tools yet.” Cin took the screwdriver off the twine and handed both back over the seat to RJ. “We can’t very well carry a magical screwdriver into the store asking the owner to follow it around to find all the missing tools.”
Chad shrugged and turned off the truck. “We might be able to. I know this guy.”
RJ opened his door. “I would figure you’d know all the pawnshop guys from your police days.”
“I don’t know the folks at the new shop that opened on the east side of town, but yeah, I know the other three.” Chad slipped out of the truck.
“It still amazes me there’s four pawnshops in Cottonwood.” Cin followed the guys. “We’re not that big of a town.”
“But we’re not as rich as a lot of the ski towns.” Chad reached the door first and swung it open. “Poor people are more apt to use pawnshops to get from paycheck to paycheck. Not real smart, but there you go.”
The smell of sweaty horse and hydraulic oil hit Cin as they walked in. She glanced around. Shelves of tools and heavy equipment lined the wall to her right. Not far from that were stacks of saddles and other tack that competed with skis and poles for attention. To the left were rows of televisions and computers along with videos and appliances. A single row of glass display cases ran down the center of the store and across the back. Various kinds of jewelry filled the central case, but a huge variety of firearms occupied the back cases and rifles, bows and crossbows filled the back wall.
“Can I help you?” asked a young woman with a long black braid that draped over her narrow shoulder.
Chad took the lead and stalked over to her. “Is your father in? I’d like to talk to Mateo.”
She glanced around for a moment. “Looks like he’s in the back. Can I tell him who’s asking for him?”
“Sure.” Chad nodded, and grinned. “Tell him it’s Chad Kilkari.”
“Oh, of course, officer Kilkari. It’s been a couple of years since you came in. Give me a moment.” She turned and hurried off, slipping behind the back counter and through a dark curtain.
“Well, she remembers you.” Cin patted Chad’s shoulder.
