But I did now. I felt far surer on my feet this year than before. And having Henri as both lover and friend was fast becoming my favorite thing ever.
“I’ll definitely catch you up more properly over dinner, okay?”
“You bet you will. I’ll send people over now.”
“Thanks, Gibs.” With the call done, I scrawled a message to Gerring next.
Got a case. Meet me at the Kingston Fairegrounds.
Gerring’s answer came a moment later.
Coming.
Good man. I looked down at the cat twirling around my ankles. Or, trying—the skirt kind of got in his way.
“Why are you being pesky?”
Clint blinked up at me with Sad Face. “No collar.”
“What, your new police badge collar?”
“Yes. Can’t work. No collar.”
I rolled my eyes to the heavens. “For the love of Mike. Cat. You are fine, you worked for over a year without that collar.”
Sad Face became Epic Sad Face. Clint clearly did not agree.
The badge collar was actually Penny’s idea because of how many times we had to explain the Felixes while out in the field. She had designed a little vest that strapped on, with an embroidered police badge on each side, and a small, dangling badge-shaped name tag on the front. All three Felixes thought they were the cat’s meow with those vests on. They looked for excuses to wear them.
Penny had, apparently, created a monster. Or three.
“Suck it up, buttercup,” I informed my Felix with all the sympathy I could muster. Which was to say, none.
He meowed at me pitifully.
“Use your words, young man.” I scooped him up like a disobedient toddler, throwing him onto one shoulder and marching back into the tent. “You are setting such a bad example right now. You really are like your namesake.”
He pouted audibly as I carried him back in.
Henri was clearly done interviewing, but he continued to chat with the man as I approached.
“—part of a set,” the vendor was saying.
“We’ll do our best to find it,” Henri promised. His head turned as he spied my approach. “Ah, there you are.”
I answered the question so obviously written over his face. “They’re coming. Might take a hot minute, though. One of us needs to meet people at the faireground’s entrance to lead them in here, otherwise it’ll take forever for them to find us.”
“I’ll do that,” Henri volunteered. “I want to have a word or three with the young cop who has failed to appreciate the true value of books.”
I could tell from the expression on his face, the words might be accompanied by a clue bat. Henri was NOT HAPPY right now.
“Are any of those words likely to be clean?”
“I wouldn’t give it high odds, no.” He leaned in to buss me on the cheek before turning and quickly heading out of the tent.
Poor little cop. He’d just pushed one of Henri’s buttons. He didn’t have many, heaven knew, but pushing the wrong one certainly set off quite the reaction. I was sorry I’d miss the show. Shaking my head, I turned back to the vendor.
“Mr. Ferrington, this might seem a bit odd, but I’ve actually called some junior kingsmen in on this case.”
His eyes nearly crossed. “I’m sorry?”
“The Queen wants her kingsmen well rounded, you see,” I explained patiently. “And none of them really know what to do with a crime scene. I’ve been tasked with training them. So, I’ll have three junior people working this case with me. They might ask you some silly questions, but bear with them; they’re learning.”
His expression cleared, and he actually looked intrigued by this. “But that means you’ll have multiple magicians looking this case over, correct? I can’t imagine a more perfect team to investigate with. I’m actually quite relieved to hear this.”
“Good!”
I was glad he was taking this well. Some people would have demanded a more professional team instead. I’ve always had an issue with that idea. How do you get professionals if you never give the young people a chance to learn? I didn’t have the heart to tell him only one of the three was magical, and decided to leave that be.
“I have some more questions for you, but I want to wait until they’ve arrived.”
“Yes, of course. If you don’t mind, while we wait, I’ll sell some books to other customers.”
“Sure, go for it.”
I stepped out of the way but stayed nearby. This was technically still a crime scene, even if there was likely no trace evidence to pick up, except possible fingerprints on the grimoire’s box. More than likely it had dozens of prints from various people and probably not much of anything we could use. Still, worth a shot. I had nothing on me to protect it, but I thought I might be able to filch a paper bag from somewhere. I edged the box closer towards me with my skirt, carefully not touching it, so patrons couldn’t knock into it. I didn’t dare pick it up until I had a better place to put it.
It took a good hour for people to arrive, Henri leading the charge. I looked them over, and aside from Gerring, everyone was in uniform.
Gerring, I think, had been in the middle of something, as he wasn’t in the best of clothes and had basically pulled on a coat to look more respectable. Mud on his boots—yeah, I bet you he was doing yard work when the call came in. Kudos to him for immediately dropping it all and coming straight here. He’d at least pulled his black hair back in a
