Chapter 24 — Serial Killers and Crime Scenes

The moment between us passed and I got to work cleaning. Lana jumped in to help though I told her she didn’t need to. We hauled the broken wood downstairs for Fren to sort out later, and everything else that wasn’t immediately salvageable we loaded into boxes. For the worst ones I’d haul them to the dumpster, for those I might be able to save without too much effort and mana I placed in a different bin after explaining what I planned to Lana. I used a little affinity spell to pull all the rocks together into one place which were loose on the floor from all around the store. The delicate part was influencing the rocks enough to get them to move, but not enough to pull others from shelves or from the containers they sat in undisturbed. It was like a controlled version of what I’d managed the night before.

“You’re going to have to tell me all you can do,” Lana said looking over the pile of small stones. “That way in our next fight, I know what you’re capable of.”

“Hopefully there aren’t any more fights,” I said, grabbing a handful of small crystal fragments and throwing them in the trash pile. “Especially if they put you in danger.”

Lana paused, eyeing me. For a moment I thought she looked disappointed but then she turned back to picking out the rocks that were rather undamaged. “I doubt that’s how it will go.” She said, strangely her tone carried a note of relief.

I didn’t bother arguing. She was probably right; despite my best efforts, I’d fight again. I knew it, and it undoubtedly wouldn’t take long. However, my normal fights didn’t go down like they had last night. Most were decidedly one-sided because I took time to prepare and took out the evil creatures… judiciously.

“Most of what I do takes setup,” I said. “I can shift stone or earth like you saw last night relatively easily. I can make a shield that is basically impenetrable for a few moments. I’m pretty good at finding connected items tied to earth.”

She looked at me questioningly.

“Like if you took this rock,” I gestured to a rock that had a crack clean through it but had managed to hold together due to friction or some small part staying connected. I gripped it and broke it in half in truth. It was blue appetite, a shimmering stone that I personally loved. This piece had been a rare one, it had been nearly solid blue with only the occasional swirl of brown which looked like sand separating seas. It had been smoothed into a palm stone, which was now severed in two near-equal halves. “I could use one side of this to find the other basically anywhere, given time.”

“Can I have half? Then you can always find me?” Lana said, grinning. We were both sitting on the ground, surrounded by piles of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ rocks.

“I would love nothing more,” I said, handing her the blue stone half. She smiled, bringing the stone close to her face in order to inspect it.

“It really is beautiful.”

“I always feel like I’m looking at a beautiful ocean from high above when I see those. That stone is supposed to help with the ‘minds connection to the spiritual’,” I said, trying to sound magical but probably ending up sounding more like a boring scholar.

“That’s definitely something I need, given the last few hours I’ve had.”

I laughed, “Probably more than anyone I’ve met coming into my shop.”

The back door unlatched with a familiar metal jingle and Kate came back in through the door beaming. She told us that we had dozens of comments from people who were sad we had had an attempted robbery and asking when they could come in to buy something. “When do you think we can open?” Kate asked, almost breathless as she saw what we had already been able to clean up.

“People are nuts,” I muttered.

“What do you mean?” Kate asked.

“A robbery at some place doesn’t make me want to go there,” I said, looking at Kate and Lana in turn. “If somethings dangerous, the smart thing would be to stay away.” I knew my words could carry more than a single meaning to Lana.

“Sometimes a bad event lets you see something in a new light, to consider what you might have missed before,” Lana replied coyly.

“Yeah,” Kate agreed, not catching the double meaning. “People want to help someone who was wronged, and if it gets them in the store, you know they are going to love it. It’s crazy how few people come inside without buying something.” She said the last to Lana. “I’ve done research on it for my class, and this store is way above the average in sales per patron.”

I nodded, knowing the likely answer. It was due in part to the magic I used in the shop. Some of that energy would be embedded into these stones as they were vessels that could hold minuscule amounts of power. That in turn would make them more appealing to those who were sensitive to that sort of thing. We did have a lot of regulars.

I gestured to the crystal Lana held. “Hold onto that, once everything gets back to normal, I can make it into a necklace if you’d like. I have some silver downstairs, and it wouldn’t take too much work to shape and attach it. Or I could get you a non-broken piece?”

“I really like this one,” she said. “It’s got character.” With a laugh, she showed Kate who was now curious about the rock I’d given her before explaining, “It reminds me of those friend bracelets from elementary school that gives each person half of a whole.”

I chuckled. Then remembered that I’d seen those little metal or toy bracelets on others, but I’d never shared one with anyone. My childhood hadn’t been typical, but I guess better late than never. We both tucked our half of the stone away.

“As to your question Kate, I think we’ll have the store as ready as we can in an hour, maybe two.”

She nodded and raced outside to put up the post and use the traction already present online to broadcast the news.

My guess wasn’t too far off. It took nearly an hour to pick up all the broken rock even though I’d gathered it all to one point. We inspected each to see if it was salvageable. I’d used a lot of force with my spell so it was rare to find a piece that wasn’t damaged, but we saved all we could. For the others, I had to haul up another plastic tote from downstairs to fill it with the broken pieces that were too small or too broken to salvage. Kate and I decided that it would be a good ‘sale’ box, or a collection of rocks we could give to kids who came in for free. I loved the idea, everyone needed a good rock, especially kids who you never knew what they were dealing with at home or school. One last box was piled high with mostly intact stones which had fractured surfaces or marred edges. Those I could clean up and use mana to repair and they would go back downstairs until I could get to them.

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Kate and Lana hit it off, though they were in different phases of life, with vastly different backgrounds. They talked about their pasts, where Lana was living, which she and I hadn’t even gotten into the specifics of. She lived close enough I’d probably walked by her house before… or well her grandmothers house at the time. Lana had walked over last night rather than drive because it was so close and she wanted to get to know the area better.

“I think that’s it,” I said, looking over the tidied up shop. Kate had handwritten a note in detailed lettering to hang on the door saying we were open and to excuse the mess given some of the store was damaged in the burglary. “We can open for business. Thank you so much Kate. Seriously, it’s going to be wonderful having you on as a partner and hopefully it more than compensates you.”

“It’s great. You always act like having me literally ‘do my job’ is a burden.”

“Well, there are certain things I can’t do, and you cover a lot of that. Running this,” I gestured at the shop. “Was a lot more difficulty before you came around.”

“I know, EMF radiation and all that, you don’t like electronics,” She mimed in a robot voice.

“Still, those are important details, and I can’t thank you enough.”

“I’ve never felt used by you. Let’s just drop it. I’ll more than happily run that side of things as my side of our partnership. Together, we’ll make this work. My parents were ecstatic when I told them.”

“Good, I’m excited myself.” I said. Kate had wonderful parents and was the oldest of six siblings. I’m sure they were more than happy with the example she was setting for the younger ones.”

“No problem. Now get out of here and enjoy your weekend. Then I can bring my phone in and see how crazy it’s going to be today.”

I pondered how observant Kate was in knowing her phone would work better when I was gone. Or perhaps it was just she didn’t want to ‘bother’ me by having it with her? Either way, she was very perceptive, and my secret was going to come out sooner or later. Someday I would have to tell her the truth. I had been very hesitant to share my secret, not wanting to lose her or anyone else. But Lana’s reaction changed my mind. Perhaps letting Kate know would go just fine. I hadn’t told anyone close to me in the past except my girlfriend and that had torpedoed the relationship. It felt nice knowing Lana knew and hadn’t gone running for the hills, at least not yet.

“And lunch is still on me. Get something fun.”

“Will do captain,” Kate said, settling down into the office chair behind the countertop. “I’ll order something in while you’re out doing Cal things.”

I gave her a questioning look to which she only grinned. Lana raised an eyebrow at me as if to suggest I share more.

I ignored the implied suggestion and began walking towards my room through the now more open main floor as we’d removed the broken shelving. “I’m going to change real quick, then head out to run some errands.” I told Kate. “I’ve got to go to the mountains again and perhaps stop by the Sugar Loaf Inn, maybe I can give them some details to help the investigation along.”

“Serial killers often go back to the crime scene,” Kate said, eyes buried into another book as she spun lazily in the big leather chair behind the countertop. “I’d avoid that if you don’t want to be considered a suspect. You read as much as I do and should know that detail.”

Lana snorted at Kate’s completely mundane tone giving me tips on how to avoid being a suspect.

“Well, this is real life.” I said lamely, annoyed at how right she was, now that she had pointed out the obvious. “Either way I had a hike planned. I’ll make it short and should be back in a few hours.”

“Have fun, and don’t get arrested!”

Lana followed me, and as we approached the stairs, I dropped into a whisper for her ears alone. “—I’ve got to get back to the Boise National Forest. I have to find out what’s out there.”

“Fine, I’m coming too.”

“Don’t feel like you should. It’s probably going to be a boring day walking around… or not so boring and only horrifying.”

“I’m a forest ranger. I live for boring days walking around in nature, and you know I don’t run from a fight. I might be able to help you see things you otherwise might not,” she said with a smug grin. “My dad trained me in more than martial skills.”

“Well, if you had other plans for the day, I won’t be offended. But I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want you to come, but it may not be safe.”

“Oh, I’m going,” Lana said before hesitating as we made it midway up the stairs, before shaking her head and following me up to my room. I didn’t stop her.

“I’m going to brush my teeth even though they probably don’t need it with Fren running things last night. It just feels wrong.”

Lana nodded in agreement. “I feel the same, cleaner than ever been, but I literally slept on the dirt last night. It shouldn’t feel that way.”

She stayed in my room while I entered the bathroom. I brushed, put on some fresh deodorant, and looked at myself in the mirror. I was damn happy the scar had healed across my forehead. Having a head wound for weeks like that would have been more than annoying. It had also been big enough that if the EMT had had their way I would have been brought in somewhere for stitches which would have scared worse. Now, the cut was barely visible. I had several faint scars like it from past injures.

Only one was sizable which split the hair in my beard down one cheek with a thin silvery line. I worried it made me look scary to those who didn’t know me, but it couldn’t be helped more than Fren had already done for it in the past. As it was it wasn’t something people saw on first glance given its size.

I stepped out into the room and grabbed a new T-shirt. Black with some white patterns on the front. It went well with my jeans. Then I grabbed a silver quarter zip as well as a beanie. Since we were going to the mountains and the weather could change in a split moment, I grabbed a large jacket I’d pack in the jeep just in case. It was a workman brown color but had a water-resistant exterior that would be more than helpful if it rained.

Lana was looking through the bookshelves I had along one wall. It was an extensive collection, like I was a book hoarder. Given that I didn’t have TV, a phone, or other things to keep me preoccupied at night, I turned to books. I was probably one of the top ten readers at the local library too and I reminded myself I needed to take several back.

“You’ve got a little bit of everything. History, fantasy, sci-fi, even a few murder mysteries,” Lana said appraisingly.

“I like it all,” I said, proud she liked my selections.

“You’ve got a real dearth of romance novels.”

“Um… yeah,” I said. “I’ve got nothing against them, I just don’t own any.”

“You blush far too easily,” Lana said, teasing. “Rex hardly insinuated anything, and you went beet red and if I don’t miss my mark, killed a streetlight?”

“I’m a private person, that’s all.”

“Is that all?” Lana asked, her eyes like dark pools as they wandered over mine.

“Let’s go,” I said, avoiding the question to her laughs and light cat calls, but she followed.

Kate was getting the coffee going and grinning. Clearly having heard some of what was said as I was chased from my room. It looked like she’d gotten everything squared away for the day. I thanked her as I grabbed my backpack behind the counter filled with my normal wizarding accoutrements. Salt, iron flakes, and a pair of handmade iron knuckles, a few ingredients to a general summoning ritual, and a few others that would let me talk to Fren should the need arise from anywhere within about a day’s journey. It had my detailed maps, and also carried some snacks and my water bottle. I should have probably include a few potions inside, but I hated potion work. All the names for plants had changed and it was a chore to decode what a potion needed, much less find and procure the correct ingredients. My success rate with them had been abysmal. Clair had had a gift but hadn’t been able to pass that on to me despite immense effort. I was better with artificery, but she hadn’t had much skill and the only other wizard she knew who did refused to teach me.

“You’ll have to direct me to your house. We can swing by and get whatever you need if you intend on coming.” I said as we ditched out the back door the alley.

“I’m only going so he doesn’t seem too suspicious.” Lana confided in Kate and they both shared another laugh at my expense.

I shook my head and opened the back door, leading the way out. My jeep sat unmoved and unchanged from the day before.