The Collected Christopher Connery (3 page)

Nia adjusted the bright pin on her lapel. “We start by
exploring until we find a trail.”

“Oh,” said Gail. “Sounds –”
Stupid –
“Great. Let’s
go.”

They had driven in circles for what felt like a small
eternity before Nia suddenly sat forward sharply and said, “Did you feel that,
Arthur?”

Gail, close to napping in the back seat, forced her eyes
open. “Feel what?”

Nia ignored her, presumably because her name wasn’t
Arthur. “Can you pull over?”

Arthur obeyed, leaving them stopped on a quiet side
street lined with tall expensive houses. Still half asleep, Gail watched in
bewilderment as Nia and Arthur climbed out of the car. Taking a moment to judge
whether or not the rain was still coming down and finding the air momentarily
dry, she forced her stiff body through her door and stood with her hands on her
hips.

“You must have sensed it,” Nia said excitedly to Arthur
as her eyes scanned the empty street.

Arthur glanced at Gail before remembering that he was no
longer bound to silence. “I thought I tasted something strange,” he admitted.

“What?” said Gail.

“It’s magic,” Arthur answered patiently. “I can taste
magic. Nia hears it. All magicians do it differently.”

“Oh, I’m sure she understands
that,
Arthur. Don’t
you, Detective Lin?” Nia looked at Gail with an expectant smile that quickly
fell away. “Ah, you don’t.”

Gail shook her head. “Nope, sorry. But now I do, I guess.
Anyway, why are we looking for magic? I thought we were meant to find Connery.”

Nia laughed. “Detective, Connery was a magician, his body
is
magic. Now, let’s go!”

Letting Nia lead the way, Gail kept in step beside Arthur
as they started down the street. After they had been walking for maybe five
minutes, Arthur said, “Thank you, by the way.”

“Sorry?”

“For convincing Nia to let me talk. Normally, I don’t
mind it really, but it can start to grate after a while.”

“I can imagine. Anyway, I figured if she was going to do
as much talking as she does, it’s only fair that you get to join in.”

Arthur chuckled, but added loyally, “She’s a genius, you
know.”

“Oh, sure,” said Gail, having no reason to disagree. “She
just seems like a genius who talks a lot.”

“Here!” Nia sang out, stopping suddenly in front of an
unremarkable brownstone set alongside several other unremarkable brownstones.
“This is the place, I’m certain of it.”

Gail studied the identical line of houses doubtfully.
“Here? Connery’s here?”

“Well… Some of him.” Nia tugged on a strand of her hair.
“Possibly.”

“Possibly?”

“It’s impossible to tell definitively from this distance,
but Connery was definitely involved in something here.”

“Connery has been involved in a lot of things.” Gail
squinted up at the plain black door. “And if I were going to dismember my boss,
I don’t think I’d dump him in somebody’s house.”

“Well, where would – never mind. Even if Connery
himself
isn’t here, there is a chance his people may have gotten ahold of some of
his predrawn spells. If they decided to experiment, with them they could cause
a great deal of trouble.”

“Predrawn spells?”

“Yes, of course,” said Nia in that
surely you know
that
at least
voice. “Even the best magicians don’t draw fast enough
to make a brand new circle for every bit of magic they do, especially common
spells they perform all the time. Technically, anyone can cast a predrawn spell
as long as it’s been imbued with magic beforehand, though they’re rather less
powerful and can be dangerous to the caster if –” She broke off as Arthur made
a pointed
hmph!
sound.

“Ah.” She looked down, toying uncomfortably with her
Illuminator badge. “That’s technically classified information.”

“Oh.” Gail figured that policy was actually pretty smart.
The market for vernix was bad enough, the last thing she needed was people
selling actual spells on the street. At least with vernix there were syringes
and needles to look for. How the hell would anyone regulate pieces of paper?

Of course, if Connery’s men had already figured out how
to work them then she guessed that rat had long since abandoned the sack.
 

“Anyway, this may just be some magic he did himself,” Nia
said quickly, “but if his associates had access to his spells then we can’t
rule out the possibility that they attempted some magic of their own after
killing him. We shouldn’t leave any stone unturned, so to speak.”

“Why would his people have killed him in the first
place?” asked Arthur, crossing his arms as a cold wet wind gusted down the
street.

“From what we could gather, it seems that Connery wanted
to stand his ground rather than flee and his lackeys didn’t like that,” said
Gail with a shrug. “It actually happens a lot during police strikes. People get
a bit crazy when they think they’re trapped. Connery must have let his guard
down for a minute. I wouldn’t have expected it of him, but I guess everyone
makes mistakes.”

“But why cut him up? And why take him with them?”

“As a trophy maybe. Something to brag about, though I
doubt anyone will be keen to hire them after this.” Gail looked at Nia. “Do you
have a different theory?”

“Yes, actually!” Nia replied cheerfully. “The Academy is
worried they might have taken the body in order to use it in some spell.
There’s a lot of unsavory magic that can be done with the body of a powerful
magician. Fortunately, we shall be requisitioning him before they get a chance
to try.”

“Lucky us.”

Nia gave Gail a put-upon look, clearly wanting her to know
that her defeatist attitude helped no one.

Sighing, Gail looked up at the house again. “So some
magic that in some way relates to Connery is here?”

Nia nodded. “I can hear it. It’s like –” She tilted her
head to one side and squinted “– harp music.”

“Harp music?” Gail strained her ears, but could only hear
the distant growl of traffic.

“It tastes like…” Arthur made a face. “Like cake. Cream
cake, with way too much cream.”

Magic that sounds like harps and tastes like cake. Who
would’ve thought?
Gail walked toward the house. “So we’re going in?”

“Of course. As an Academy magician at large, it is my
duty to investigate any strange magical activity that I encounter.” Brushing
past Gail, Nia walked to the top of the steps and reached for the doorknob.

“Sheesh, knock first,” Gail snapped. “We can’t just go
swanning into people’s houses without permission.”

Nia pulled her hand back, chagrined. “Right. Yes, of
course, I wasn’t thinking. I was distracted by the magic.”

Gail wondered if she could request a thinking Illuminator
next time.

As if he could hear what she was thinking, Arthur shot
her a warning glare.

Nia lifted her hand and knocked cautiously on the door.
The tiny sound she produced wouldn’t have disturbed even the wariest of guard
dogs.

“Try the doorbell,” Gail suggested, trying to keep the
despair out of her voice.

Nodding briskly, Nia scanned the side of the door until
she found the small button. She pressed it. A loud buzz rang beyond the door.

They waited.

“Maybe they’ve gone out,” Nia suggested after a moment,
leaning over the railing to peer through the window on the side of the door. “I
can’t see anyone. We should go in.”

“Maybe.” Gail didn’t like the idea of busting into somebody’s
house with no warning (or warrant), but Illuminators didn’t operate within the
same laws as everyone else and if Nia thought there was cause for concern… “Do
you think it’s dangerous?”

“It could be. I think we have to find out for certain,”
Nia said with growing confidence. “It would be irresponsible not to.”

“It’s your call,” Gail was forced to admit. “But I’m
coming along.”

“Of course, Detective Lin,” Nia said with a smile. “This
your case, too after all.”

Part of Gail wanted to retort that she had probably been
working the Connery case since before Nia had received her Illuminator badge.
If anyone was the
too
in this scenario it was Nia and her brother, but
she quickly realized how childish that would sound. “Do you want me to pick the
lock or should we find an open window?”

Instead of answering, Nia pulled a bit of chalk from her
pocket and quickly drew a circle and a few symbols around the doorknob. There
was a soft click and on the next try, the knob turned easily under Nia’s hand.
With a satisfied smile, she moved to open the door.

“Wait.”

Gail turned and saw Arthur still standing on the
sidewalk. His hands were clasped tightly behind him and he was glaring up at
the house with a tight expression.

“What is it, Arthur?” Nia asked with poorly concealed
impatience. “We should hurry. We have no idea what might be going on in here.”

“Exactly. I don’t like it, Ni. Something’s not right.”

“Well,
obviously.
That’s why we have to go in.”

Arthur shook his head. “But it’s too sweet, isn’t it? On
the surface it’s fine, but underneath –”

Nia’s voice gentled. “I know, Arthur. I can hear it.
Under the harps, there’s a sound like – metal scraping metal.”

In spite of herself, Gail tried again to hear what Nia
was hearing, but only the chilly wind whispered past her ears.

“You’re correct, Arthur. This magic is very likely
malicious, but that’s exactly why I have to deal with before these poor people
come home.”

“These poor people may have cast the spell.”

Nia shook her head. “It’s Connery’s magic.”

“They might have been working for him.”

“Then we’re one step closer to finding what we’re looking
for.” Nia smiled. “Come along, Arthur. It won’t take long.”

But Arthur didn’t come along. He stayed where he was, jaw
working. He took one step forward, but then immediately retreated as if he had
met with an invisible wall. “We shouldn’t go in there. I don’t know if I
can
go in there.”

Gail wondered if their investigation would be stymied
before it even got started, but then Nia burst out, “I have an idea! Arthur,
you wait out here. If the owners of the house return, you can inform them that
we’re inside. Better that they have some warning.”

Gail looked sideways at her. “I thought you said he
wasn’t supposed to talk to –”

“Under the circumstances, I think it would be wise to
revoke any restrictions on speech. Arthur certainly won’t go babbling any
Academy secrets.”

“Like you did about the predrawn spells?”

Instead of taking offense, Nia just smiled sheepishly.
“Yes, exactly.”

“I don’t want you to go in there alone,” Arthur said,
clearly steeling himself for another attempt at the steps. “I’ll –”

“I won’t be alone,” said Nia. “Detective Lin will be with
me and the more I consider it, the more I think one of us has to stay outside.
If something goes wrong, you can go for help.”

Gail knew rambling bullshit when she heard it, but she
had to admit that Nia was a good rambler. By the time, she had finished, she
had come around to a point that even Gail had to agree with. She didn’t know
what was going on inside this harp-playing, cake-tasting house, but she was
damn sure she didn’t want to find out unless she knew there was someone who
would look for her and Nia if they never came out again.  

It looked like Arthur was coming to the same conclusion,
albeit more reluctantly. He glanced back at the car with a mixture of
nervousness and stubbornness then said, “If anything goes wrong, I’ll come in
after you.”

“No, you won’t,” Gail said before Nia could answer. “If anything
goes wrong, you drive back to the precinct or the Academy, whichever you think
will be faster, and get help. Otherwise this whole plan is pointless. Clear?”

Arthur’s jaw clenched again, but he said. “Fine.”

“Good.” Turning back to the door, Gail nudged Nia’s
hovering hand off of the doorknob and grasped it herself. “C’mon, Illuminator
Graves, let’s see what there is to see.”

As usual, Gail relaxed a little once she had a roof over
her head, but she kept her guard up, taking just a few steps into the house
before holding up her hand to bring Nia to a stop. She scanned the entryway for
anything out of the ordinary. It looked like an average house for its
neighborhood. Solid wood furniture, a few boring paintings, and good magic
lighting. Nothing seemed particularly out of place.

Except… Now, that she was inside, Gail found herself with
the same feeling of wrongness that the magicians had felt outside.
It’s
probably just Arthur’s jumpiness getting to me.
But even so, she stood
still for another few seconds, taking the place in.

It’s musty,
she realized.
That’s what’s odd
about it. It feels like no one’s been in here for weeks, maybe longer.
She
ran a finger across a nearby table and her fingertip came away gray with dust.

Nia didn’t seem to notice the strange combination of
neatness and dirt, caught up in listening – or whatever she did – for the
magic.

“There’s something here,” she mumbled as she walked
slowly down the hall. “It may not be what we’re looking for, but…”

Gail followed her slowly, hand sliding under her coat
toward her gun. The place was silent as a grave and smelled like it had been
sprayed down with about a gallon of perfume. Why the hell would a place that
looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in weeks smell like a seedy dance club?

Nia was still moving forward at an alarming pace,
displaying a distressing lack of the timid cringing that Gail usually
associated with Illuminators.

“Hey,” she whispered. “Wait up a sec –”

“Oh dear, can I – can I help you?”

Gail took a step back, hand dropping from her holstered
pistol as she looked at the woman standing at the top of the stairs.

She was around forty, pretty, with a round pleasant face
and lots of reddish-brown hair wound in curlers on the top of her head.

“Oh, hello!” said Nia without missing a beat. “We didn’t
think anyone was home. No one answered when we knocked.”

Well, that was one way to excuse breaking and entering.
Their victim was apparently too confused for fear or anger, because she only
took a few steps toward them and repeated, “Oh dear, can I help you?”

Gail decided she should take over before Nia started
asking her if she had any magic lying around – wait, could magic lie around?
Oh, forget it, she’d ask Nia later. “Sorry for intruding, ma’am. We just
noticed something odd outside and thought we should come in to see if you
needed any help. I’m Gail Lin, a private detective employed by the Academy, and
this is –”

Nia curtsied deeply before gesturing to the pin on her
lapel. “Illuminator Nia Graves at your service, ma’am.”

Oh, of all the overdramatic…
Unsurprisingly, the
woman’s eyes flashed wide and her hair nearly leapt out of the curlers. “An
Illuminator? Oh dear, oh dear…”

“Please don’t worry!” said Nia, waving her hands in a
very uncomforting manner. “We were simply passing and thought we should take a
quick peek inside, because –” She bit her lip, clearly considering her next
words carefully – or so Gail hoped. “Um, you don’t happen to have any
unregistered magicians staying here, do you?”

Hopes completely dashed.

The woman nearly fell down the stairs in her surprise.
Bounding forward, Gail managed to catch her before she broke her neck. She
allowed the woman to lean on her arm as she steadied herself on the bannister.
Now, farther into the house, Gail could detect another odor under the heavy
floral perfume – a smell like rotting meat.

What the hell is up those stairs?

“Don’t worry, ma’am,” she said as she held back a
grimace. “We just wanted to make sure you were all right. Why don’t you sit
down for a bit and let us make sure everything’s in order?”

“But Detective Lin –” Nia subsided when Gail shot her a
look. There would be time for questions when the woman wasn’t fluttering around
them like a bundle of exposed nerves in a floral nightgown.

“I’m sorry.” The woman smiled tremulously at Gail. “I was
just taken by surprise. You – you said you thought there was some trouble? Oh
dear.”

“I doubt it’s anything serious,” Nia said, perhaps
realizing that jumping straight into ‘are you harboring any criminal magicians?’
was a bit rash. “I just noticed some magical activity here and wanted to – um –
neutralize it before it caused you any difficulties.”

“Magical activity?” The woman shook her head. “Oh dear,
no, I don’t see how that could be.”

“Sometimes things get enchanted by mistake,” Nia
explained. “As I said, I don’t think it’s anything dangerous, but – well, it
would certainly be better to have it
un
enchanted, wouldn’t it?”

“Oh, yes! Well, I assume so.” The woman’s eyes were
brighter now and she was getting some color back in her cheeks. “But I’ve never
had an Illuminator visit before. Why don’t I make you some tea before you start
looking?”

“Oh, I don’t –” Before Nia could finish her refusal, Gail
caught her eye over the woman’s shoulder and nodded hard. While Nia was
drinking tea with the homeowner, Gail could poke around. “I – oh, yes, thank
you.”

The woman led the way down the stairs, looking much
sprightlier now that she had recovered from her shock. As Gail passed Nia, she
leaned over and whispered, “Just keep her talking for a bit, while I take a
look around.”

“You don’t even know what you’re looking for,” Nia
whispered back. “I should be the one –”

“Yeah, maybe, but she’s not interested in having tea with
me. She wants to tell her friends she drank tea with an Illuminator. Now, go
on. If I find anything even remotely weird –” well, weirder than what they’d
already found “– I’ll come get you.”

Nia scowled sullenly, but didn’t argue.

Gail followed them as far as the kitchen door. As the
woman placed a kettle on the stove, Gail glanced into the trash barrel
wondering if that was the source of the meat smell, but except for a napkin and
a bit of old bread, the barrel was empty. She poked her head out into the hall
again and sniffed. Nope, the stench was definitely coming from upstairs.

“Excuse me, ma’am,” she said as Nia sat down at the
table. “Could I use your bathroom?”

“Of course! It’s up the stairs and to the left,” the
woman answered with a smile that looked a bit painted on. Either she was still
frazzled at being woken from her nap or she was hiding something. Gail was
starting to tend toward the latter. First of all, who took a nap at one in the
afternoon complete with curlers and a nightgown? Maybe this lady worked nights,
but then why did she have all her lights on? Something was off.

“Thanks.” She waited until the woman started chattering
nervously at Nia – mostly about the weather, which was never a very interesting
topic in New Crossbridge – then stepped out into the hall. Keeping one ear
cocked back toward the kitchen, she mounted the stairs.

The rotting smell was definitely stronger on the second
floor. She looked to the left and right, trying to decide where to start.
She
told me to go left,
she thought,
so I might as well go right.
She
walked slowly down the hall, listening for a moment at each door. Finally, near
the end of the hall, she found one that had been left slightly ajar. She pushed
it open a little wider to peer through the crack and saw –

A little boy playing with a toy train. He didn’t seem to
notice her intrusion and just kept pushing his train across the floor, humming
tunelessly to himself. Rolling her eyes at herself, Gail tried to back quietly
out of the room, only for her heel to come down wrong on a creaky floorboard.

The boy turned.

Gail stumbled backwards, catching herself against the
opposite wall. “Oh my god…”

The boy’s eyes were huge and brown in his half-rotted
face. There was a gaping hole in one cheek and when he smiled, the grin
stretched up to his ear. He got slowly to his feet, the train falling from his
hand.

Taking a deep breath through her suddenly tight chest,
Gail managed to get out, “What the hell –” before the boy dashed across the
room with terrifying speed, slamming through the half-open door and fastening his
hands on her coat. His ruined mouth stretched wide in a deafening shriek.

Mind still moving a fraction too slowly, she didn’t
immediately respond as the boy began to climb up her torso, grabbing at the
lapel of her coat as his feet scrabbled on her knees.

She brought up her elbows to push him away, but he hardly
seemed to feel the shove. Instead, he grabbed on to her arms, using them for
leverage as he scrambled up her chest. One small hand closed tight on her
collar while the other reached for her throat, nails scraping across the skin
under her chin –

Then someone shouted her name and time seemed to speed up
again. Wrenching one arm out from between her body and the dead boy, she
grabbed the collar of his shirt and yanked him off. The boy shrieked as his
fingers were torn loose from her shirt like he’d been denied a favorite toy.
For another instant, Gail stared into his wide brown eyes then she threw him
away from her.

He thumped onto the floor and lay there like a doll.

Pushing herself away from the wall, Gail looked at
Arthur, who was standing a few feet away, staring at the dead boy.

“Thanks,” she said, pushing a sweaty strand of hair off
of her forehead. “I was a bit – surprised.”

“I can see why,” Arthur replied in a small voice that
startled a shaky laugh out of Gail. When he stared at her, she shook her head
and turned back to the boy.

“I think I found the magic. We should –”

With an ugly creak, the boy’s head snapped up and, using
the wall for leverage, he got unsteadily to his feet. For a moment, he just
stood there, swaying slightly like it was only a freak twist of balance keeping
him upright.

Then he flew at Arthur with another glass-shattering
shriek.

He hit him hard in the knees and they both crashed to the
floor. Arthur threw up an arm to defend himself and the boy sank his teeth into
the heel of his hand. Arthur’s cry of pain was drowned out by another of the
boy’s piercing screams.

Gail grabbed the boy by the shoulders – under the cloth
of his pajama shirt, it felt like touching naked bone – and dragged him off.
The boy landed on his face on the carpet and immediately began crawling toward
them.

Drawing her pistol, Gail shot him point blank between the
eyes. The boy gave a violent shudder before falling motionless on to his face.
She waited a few seconds to see if he would move again, then she holstered her
gun and turned back to Arthur, who was still lying on the floor, gasping for
breath.

“What the hell just happened?”
And there better be an
explanation better than ‘I just shot a six-year-old’ in the face.’

“Magic,” Arthur answered as he got shakily to his feet.
“Bad magic.”

“Bad” seemed like a hell of an understatement. Gail knelt
beside the dead boy and put a hand on his soft hair. “Who the hell would do this
to a kid?”

“It’s not just the kid,” Arthur answered. “It’s the whole
damn house. I was waiting outside when a dead cat crawled by me, so I came
inside –”

Gail looked up. “Weren’t you supposed to go for help if
you noticed anything wrong?”

Arthur shifted guiltily, but met her eyes dead on when he
said, “I didn’t
know
anything was wrong. Anyway, I couldn’t just leave
Nia.”

“Well, that kind of defeats the whole purpose of the
leaving-someone-outside to get help plan,” Gail grumbled as she straightened
up. “But fine. What happened after you came inside?”

“I heard a scream from up here, but before I could get up
the stairs I was almost torn apart by a dead man in his underpants.” Arthur
shuddered as he relived the memory. Then he looked down at his bleeding hand.
“I should really disinfect this.”

Leaving the dead boy where he lay, Gail came over to look
at Arthur’s chewed hand. “That doesn’t look good, but Nia said you’re a
surgeon. Ever had to deal with dead people bites before?”

“Yes and no,” Arthur replied. “But even if it’s worse
than it looks, Nia can –” His eyes widened. “Where is Nia?”

“What do you mean ‘yes and –’ Wait, you didn’t see her?”

“No, I came straight up here after I heard the screaming.
Where is she?”

“She’s –”
It’s the whole house,
Arthur had said.
And that sickly sweet perfume, the kind of smell you would use to cover up the
stench of something rotting. “She’s downstairs. With her.”

“With who?”

The floor under their feet trembled violently as though a
great hand had reached up and given the house a shove.

“What the –”

Gail’s question was interrupted by a scream.