“No, you have,” Miller said. “Step out of the shadows and keep your hands in the air.” I took the last few side steps and turned to face into the cave. The voice from inside had belonged to Tony, the man with two spades.
“Oh great, you brought her,” he sighed.
“What’s going on? Why have you been blackmailing Jeff? Did you… did you hit him in the head with a spade?” I asked.
“Seems like the most appropriate weapon for me to use, doesn’t it?” he scoffed. He had a point I suppose.
“Did you kill Robert Barton? I don’t understand,” Miller interjected.
“No, of course not!” Tony laughed. “I was a kid when that happened.” Another good point. “I’m just left with the consequences, that’s all.”
“What do you mean?” I said. I was feeling a little lost and wasn’t sure how Tony could possibly be connected to everything.
“I just want it on record that I absolutely didn’t kill Robert,” he repeated. “I just…” he let out a long, pained sigh. “I’m pretty sure my dad killed him, not that I can exactly prove it at this point.”
“Your father? Why?” I asked.
“It seems like this Robert guy was rich, right? My parents didn’t have a lot of money, but one day we suddenly had enough money to go on a vacation. I know my dad had a gun and, well, do you see where I’m going here?” he said.
“You think your father killed Robert for his money?” Miller guessed.
“Yeah, Jeff would have had records of us all getting passports, I’d seen him writing our names down in his little book.”
“How did you get into blackmailing him exactly?” I pressed.
“Oh, that was just fortuitous,” he laughed. “I’d followed my dad once when he went on one of his weird, secret trips. I guess somewhere along the way, my dad found a new way to make money. Jeff is a soft touch; it can’t have been hard to trick him into handing over money to begin with. He was the one collecting little packages of money from Jeff, so when my dad died, I just picked up where he left off. It’s been a nice little boost to my landscaping salary, I’m telling you!”
Landscaping? “Where do you work?” I asked.
“Well, I’m the resident gardener at Pete’s estate, he has a lot of land to cover so I take care of it,” he said.
“Why didn’t Pete tell anyone that the treasure had been found? People were still looking for it,” I replied. Hang on…” I thought for a second. “Resident gardener? That means—”
“Yeah, I live behind that big house. If you’re wondering who gassed you last night… it was an automated security service, not me! I simply dragged you both back to the guest house once the smoke had cleared. See, I can be a gentleman! Don’t say Tony-two-spades is a monster, now! Oh, and Pete loves a good story, so he was never going to tell anyone to stop digging for treasure even though there was nothing to find. He loves the theatrics of the treasure hunt too much.”
“So, you were the one setting the fire over the bunker? Why?” Miller asked.
“I didn’t know if my dad’s prints would be all over it, honestly. I don’t know much about crime stuff, but I figured if the whole thing was on fire then that would make it harder, right?”
“That wasn’t a regular fire,” I said bluntly. “I saw it, there was magic involved.”
“Not from me! I was as freaked out as anyone when I saw what was happening. I’ve had my fair share of knocks to the old hat-stand,” he said, tapping the top of his head, “but I know a bad situation when I see it. I wasn’t standing about waiting to find out what those weird flames were gonna do.”
I thought back to seeing a light pass over the pit and wondered if this had been magic, that would explain why the flames changed color and why Tony had no idea what had happened.
The ring on my finger was glowing again. What was this thing trying to tell me this time?
“Tony, you are under arrest under suspicion of the assault of Jeff the mailman. Sorry, I can’t remember his last name at the moment,” Miller said. “You do not have to say anything, but anything you do—”
“What’s that sound?” Tony interrupted. His face had lit up like a kid on Christmas morning and he was staring over my shoulders to the ocean water in the distance. “It’s beautiful, like an angel is singing!”
Tony stepped forward and didn’t seem to notice that Miller was reaching toward him with a pair of handcuffs. I watched as he stepped closer to me, I was still standing with my back to the water and was perilously close to the edge of the cliff. I felt that the glowing ring might be indicating that I was unsafe.
“Stay there, don’t come any closer!” I yelled. It was too late. Miller reached out to grab Tony’s arm, but everything happened so fast, and he couldn’t hold him back. Tony began to run towards the cave entrance and barreled into me as he leapt out into the sky. I heard a shout, deep and gravelly, become a ferocious roar.
I was falling backwards through the air, my hands flailing for something to hold on to. My powers had acted on instinct in the past, and this time was no different. I opened my palms up to the sky and felt my descent begin to slow. Above me, an enormous wolf was leaping from the cave and hurtling in my direction. Miller.
I spun around to face the ground, but I was no longer falling at any great speed. I had control, my powers were lowering me softly towards the sand and it seemed that I had extended my spell to Tony, who was caught up in my magic and falling at the same speed that I was. Miller, however, was not.
I
