Chapter 4 #2
The room became disorienting, an explosion of sound and light that made me feel like I was at an arcade on the first day of summer when every child in the city was running around inside screaming.
Nick was in front of me, his hands reaching for mine, and I grabbed hold of his forearms, bracing myself on him.
He was the one stable thing I had. His lips moved, but I couldn’t hear what he was saying over the cacophony in my head. At my silence, his brows drew together.
“I’m okay,” I said. “Can you hear that?”
Nick shook his head and seemed to tilt, but, no, I was tilting.
I was stumbling like a drunk man on a boat.
With his palms braced on my forearms, Nick was a life preserver, the only thing I could count on in the chaos in my head.
When I’d woken everything in the unit, it had been with fae magic, which meant I was the only one who could sense it.
Nick could probably feel some of the things, but it looked like he was so concerned with me he wasn’t paying attention. Shaking off the feeling of drunkenness, I opened my senses further and searched for anything dangerous.
All the items on the table were decorative. Some cast automatic glamours on the wearer, giving them sparkling skin or cat eyes. Others had no magic at all, but their base elements were infused with the thick magic of the Far Realm.
I circled the unit, Nick’s hands never leaving me as he guided me around like I was an old man.
There was a bookshelf from IKEA that was packed with different curios, including one that projected the image of a world like a hologram.
These were children’s toys, and it didn’t surprise me the fae had left them behind.
With a sense of relief, I let my magic fade. Almost everything went dormant, except for a music box, which played a haunting tune. That I might take with me. It didn’t seem dangerous, but there was something about it I wasn’t sure I was comfortable leaving in police hands.
Picking up the box, barely the size of my hand, I tucked it into my bag. I met Nick’s suspicious look and shrugged.
“It’s not dangerous,” I said. Gesturing with one hand, I pointed out a few valuable items I was pretty sure their owners missed. “This is a little more than we thought.”
“You think he’s not just stealing from his clients?” Nick asked.
“I don’t think he would have as many five-star reviews if all of this came from his clients. I think he’s a professional thief with a moving gig side hustle,” I said.
“And stealing the body was what?” Nick said. “A crime of opportunity?”
“That would be my guess.”
“Why isn’t it here?” Nick asked.
That pulled me up short. If Damon had already sold it, then it was lost to the black market, but if he hadn’t, maybe he’d want to keep it close.
“Where would you put the most valuable thing you owned?” I asked.
“In a safe deposit box,” Nick said.
“No,” I said. “If you were a normal person and not someone who’s the poster child for adulthood.”
The shriek of tires interrupted us, the sound of sirens overwhelming. Holding up our hands, we waited to see who the employee had called.
Surprisingly, it was just the fire department. As they checked the unit and then the adjoining two for fire, Nick called his boss.
A few minutes later, the place was crawling with crime scene techs and police. They had shuffled Nick and me off to a corner at Tate’s dark look. When the lead crime scene tech came to speak with Tate, Nick and I crept close.
“We have records of some of this being stolen,” the tech said. “But a lot of it is a complete mystery. No idea where it came from, but my guess is theft. Sorry.”
Tate nodded and turned to me and Nick. “King, I know I told you that you were on vacation. In fact, I remember having a whole meeting about it. The words desk duty were used.”
Nick looked down, then glanced at me. “I am on vacation, sir.”
“I needed a storage unit,” I said. “We just stumbled on this. Complete fluke that the sprinkler system went off while we were taking a tour.”
“Sure,” Tate said. “And I spend my weekends knitting doilies to enter in the county fair.”
“Well,” I said, “everyone needs a hobby.”
“You know,” Tate said, “the woman giving you the tour thinks you two are suspicious. I think you two are suspicious. Just to be clear, neither of you is on this case. In fact, I’m thinking maybe I need to extend your vacation, King.
I’ll buy you tickets to Hawaii and force you onto the plane at gunpoint. You understand?”
“Okay,” I said. “We’ll just be on our way, then.”
Tate’s narrow-eyed look told me he was buying my compliance with about as much enthusiasm as he’d buy the Brooklyn Bridge from some con artist in New Jersey. Still, he knew me well enough to know that whatever he said wouldn’t stop me.
“Both of you are going to submit a statement to Detective Lewis. I want it typed, I want it signed, and I want it tomorrow.” He jerked his chin. “Now get off my crime scene. Go to the beach or something.”
We left Tate swearing about cops who didn’t know how to take their mandated vacations.
Once we were in the car, I glanced at Nick and gave him what I hoped was a convincing grin.
“Nick, I have an idea,” I said. “What do you know about glamours?”