people who have arcane ability,” I told her. “I thought that the mayor might be my big bad summoner since he seems to have such a hard-on for me, but the cat loves him.” I glared at the cat.
“Kara,” Ryan said, frowning, “why did you just get up and move?”
I opened my mouth to answer, then closed it. “I’m not sure,” I replied, abruptly unsettled. There were seats available on the other side of the room. Jill and Zack had taken up the loveseat on that side, while Ryan, Tessa, and Eilahn occupied the available seats on the side that faced away from the lake. But there were two armchairs facing the other way that stood empty.
My throat felt oddly dry. “It feels more right to face this way,” I said.
“And you sat in the chair you don’t like at your house,” he pointed out.
“Moreover, you changed seats after you removed the cuff,” Eilahn added.
Tessa set her book down and tilted her head. “Perhaps this summoner wants you to find something for him,” she said.
I got to my feet. “I need a map!”
“I have one in the kitchen,” Tessa said, and scurried off.
Closing my eyes, I pivoted very slowly, trying to feel which direction felt the most right. “There,” I said, opening my eyes. “It’s super faint, but now that I’m looking for it, there’s definitely a…pull, so to speak.”
Jill stood and handed me her smartphone. “Compass app,” she said. “Point where you think you need to go. You can’t actually go look for whatever it is, but we can triangulate. Right?”
“Jill, you’re a fucking genius.” I took the phone from her and allowed her to note down the bearing. “My house, the PD, and here are all places where I either tried to rearrange the furniture or I changed my seating preference. And, in some welcome good news, they’re all warded.”
Zack frowned. “Can you get into the PD?”
“Sure,” I said with a breezy assurance I wasn’t sure I felt. “I’m on leave, not fired.”
Jill carefully marked the points on the map where the three bodies were found, and then took a pencil and drew a line from my aunt’s house with the bearing she’d just taken. “All right, saddle up, folks. Time to do some triangulatin’.”
Zack, Jill, and Fuzzykins stayed behind at my aunt’s house while Ryan, Eilahn, and I sped back to my house to take a bearing. It felt weird to close my eyes and let myself feel which way was “best” but when I opened my eyes I was once again facing my back door. Ryan took note of the bearing and texted it to Zack.
“Next, the PD,” he said as we all piled into his car again.
Even though I knew I was allowed back into my office, I still felt a silly fluttering of nerves as I stepped through the door marked Investigations Division. With Ryan by my side I walked down the hall to my office, breezing past my sergeant’s door without glancing in. I didn’t want to put him in an uncomfortable situation, plus, the sooner we got these bearings, the sooner we could figure out what all this was about. At least I sure as shit hoped so.
I slipped into my office and closed the door as soon as Ryan was all the way in, then moved behind my desk—mostly since that was the largest “clear” area in my tiny office, and that was only if you defined “clear space” as about two feet by two feet. I pulled off the cuff, closed my eyes and slowly turned, relaxing and allowing myself to feel which direction felt right.
I finally opened my eyes, took the phone from Ryan and told him the bearing. I put the cuff back on and waited for him to send the text to Zack. At least now I knew why I’d been struck by the urge to rearrange furniture in here.
“Okay, done,” Ryan said. “Jill’s factoring in some margin for error, so even with three readings we’ll still probably have a good sized area to search.”
Grimacing, I nodded. Even one or two degrees would probably make a big difference over such a large area. “All right. Well, let’s head back and see what we have.”
We left the office to make our escape, but my sergeant was standing in the hallway by his door, a cup of coffee in his hand.
“Hi, Sarge,” I said brightly. “Forgot a couple of things in my office. Just came by to collect them.”
He gave me a slight nod that told me he wasn’t fooled one bit. “Everything all right?”
“Sure,” I said. “It’s been a perfectly
He snorted. “Well, gee, my best detective is on leave, and somehow Pellini and Boudreaux haven’t been able to pick up the slack.”
“You know I’d help you if I could,” I said.
He took a sip of his coffee. “I figure whatever it is y’all are up to will help out. Then he gave me a sour look. “Please tell me that you’re close to figuring all this shit out?”
I shoved my hand through my hair. “I don’t know if we’re close, but I think we’re on the right track.”
“Well, hurry the fuck up,” he grumbled. Then a whisper of a smile crossed his face. “Oh, by the way, you might be interested to know that the mayor went to the emergency room a little while ago.”
I gave him a guarded look. “Um. Why?”
“Somehow, the mayor accidentally ingested a substance he thought might be poisonous.” His eyes lit with a fierce amusement. “And when I say ‘ingested’ I mean ‘inhaled through his nose.’”
I allowed my eyes to widen. “How awful. How on earth did he accidentally snort what he thought might be poison?”
He shrugged. “It’s a mystery. I’m sure that the fact that the alleged poison was a white powder is completely beside the point.”
“Gosh! That’s so odd!” I started to grin, then sobered. “Is he going to be all right?” That was actually a serious question. As much as disliked the man, I didn’t want to see him hurt. Would snorting powdered sugar be dangerous?
“He’s completely healthy,” Sarge assured me. “But I’m not sure his tenure as mayor will be doing as well. Twitchy fucker. I’m not surprised he’s a cokehead.”
“I’ll be sure to send him a get-well card,” I said. “Maybe even a Christmas fruitcake.”
“Remind me to stay on your good side,” he said with a wink, then he stepped back into his office and we continued on out.
Chapter 19
We raced back to my aunt’s house, ready to finally figure out what the deal was with the portals, but the triangulation hadn’t been as miraculous as we’d hoped, mostly due to the margin of error that Ryan had mentioned.
“The problem is that each location you triangulated from is fairly far apart,” Jill explained as she showed us the map. “And there’s no way to know if you were holding the compass
She’d drawn colored cones extending from each triangulation point, giving us an intersection of what looked like a diamond several blocks long, located on the northeast end of town in what looked like a mix of homes and businesses. “Crap,” I said. “There’s something in there that I’m supposed to open or activate or find or whatever.”
“I’m betting it’s more than just a portal,” my aunt said as she peered at the map.
“I concur,” Eilahn said. “This summoner made the effort to have you drugged, most likely because whatever is in this location requires someone with extensive aptitude or innate talent in utilizing potency.”
“Great,” I muttered. “So what could it be?”
“I would imagine it’s something that uses the portals,” Tessa said, lifting her shoulders in a light shrug. She straightened. “But no matter what it is, I think it’s best if you don’t go anywhere near it.”
“Again,” Eilahn said, “I concur.”
“Look, I’m cool with that,” I said, then fell silent. Something about the whole thing was bugging me, and I
