Play with Fire

chapter Eleven





IT WAS SNOWING lightly as Morris headed their rental toward the motel.

“You were pretty hard on him, Quincey,” Libby said.

“Not as hard as I should have been. He’s just a f*cking bureaucrat, and they’re all the same, whether they wear a three-piece suit or an outfit like Bowen’s. All they care about is covering their asses.”

“But, as you said, it’s the assignment that matters, not the employer.”

“Keep reminding me of that, will you?”

“Getting a line on this Corpus Hermeticum isn’t going to be the easiest job we ever took.”

“If the jobs were easy, they wouldn’t need us to do them,” Morris said. “But you’re right – this could be pretty complicated. Tell me – did you get a whiff of black magic down there in the book room?”

“No, not a trace.”

“I was afraid of that,” he said.

“Afraid? The absence of black magic isn’t usually a bad thing, Quincey.”

“No, but if you’d found some, it might help narrow the list of suspects. There are a few practitioners we both know who might be very interested in that book, if Bowen’s right about what it contains.”

“And yet, the thief got past the ward above the door – and as I told Father Bowen, it was a pretty good one. Some civilian who just fell off the turnip truck isn’t going to be able to do that.”

“Yeah, but a non-magician can carry magic with him, to a limited extent. Remember those guys who tried to kill you last year?”

Libby had been the target of professional assassins while in her New York condo. Although the killers were not themselves magic practitioners, they had been given a magical device that, when activated by a word of power, allowed them to get past the complex system of wards that guarded Libby’s home.

“I’m not likely to forget,” Libby said, with a shiver.

“Maybe that’s who we’re looking for,” Morris said. “Somebody who isn’t a practitioner but can work a little magic in specific situations if a professional prepares it for him.”

“Which means you’ve just narrowed the field of suspects to all humans who don’t practice magic. That’s a pretty large group, I understand.”

Without taking his eyes off the road, Morris grinned at her. “Sarcasm does not become you, Ms. Chastain.”

“I was trying for irony. But, either way – we’d better have some way of narrowing the field a little more, or we’re going to be at this a long time.”

“I actually had some thoughts on that,” he said.

“Please do share.”

“Well, clearly, this job wasn’t done by just any civilian. In addition to the magical feat of getting past that ward, he – or she – was able to get in there, diddle with the video surveillance system somehow, get past these sets of locks, and get out again, without being seen by anybody. Sounds like professional work to me.”

“Professional, as in burglar,” she said.

“Yep.”

“Professional, in the sense of somebody who’s for hire.”

“That’s what I’m thinking.”

“Somebody who’s good at breaking and entering, and also skillful enough to overcome magical defenses,” Libby said. “That’s a pretty unusual skill set.”

“Offhand, the only one I know who’s good enough is me, and I’ve got an alibi.”

“I’ve never heard of anybody like that either,” she said. “But maybe I know somebody who has.”

“You’re thinking of the Sisterhood?”

“As one possibility, yes. And it occurs to me that you probably know a few people who might’ve done business with somebody like that. Assuming he or she exists.”

Morris could see the sign for the Best Western up ahead. “So maybe we ought to spend time making some phone calls tonight,” he said. “And if that doesn’t turn up anything, maybe I should go back to New York with you tomorrow, so we can have a word with a guy who doesn’t like to talk on the phone.”

“You mean Barry Love,” she said.

“That’s the fella. But first, I figure we ought to attend to more important matters.”

She looked at him. “Such as what?”

“Such as dinner,” he said. “That steak house across the street from the motel looked pretty good. Care to give it a try?”