3 Dark Energy (2 page)

Chapter 2

When Josephine arrived at the police station, she made her way over to her desk. The two detectives she worked with, Jake and Alex, were currently on a case so she started catching up on some paperwork. Jake was a young man in his twenties and happened to be Josephine’s grandson. He had a lot of the same striking features as his grandmother with the coal black hair, smoldering brown eyes, full lips, slender frame, and handsome face. He had a pleasant, easy-going personality and was good friends with Mark.

When Jake and Alex strode into the room, Josephine greeted them warmly. Alex was one of those rare humans with no magical ability whatsoever. He could use enchantments but not create them. Ever since the Disaster that had occurred over fifty years ago, virtually everyone in the world had transformed into wizards of one degree or another. Perhaps that explained why Alex annoyed her so much; however, she was making a tremendous effort to be civil with him. He had short-cropped brown hair, green eyes, an average frame and was in his mid-forties.

“I’m glad you’re finally here. We could have used your help on these cases,” Alex said.

“Thanks, Alex. It’s nice to be appreciated.” Josephine leveled a casual smile at him before returning her attention back to her computer.

“All this hard work gives me the munchies. I’ll be right back.” Alex headed for the break room.

Josephine shot her grandson a questioning look. “Was it really that bad today?”

“I hate to admit it but we’ve gotten used to your help. When you get assigned special projects, it’s a big deal,” Jake advised. “But that’s not your problem. You’re an OC enforcer now so you’ve got more responsibilities besides ordinary detective work.”

Alex returned with a chocolate cake donut covered in chocolate frosting. Josephine envied his metabolism. If she munched on snacks all the time like he did, she’d put on a lot of weight. Their next assignment was a missing persons case. Meg Brooks, a nine-year-old had never returned from school. Her teacher had reported she attended class all day and no one had seen anything suspicious. Her parents, Aaron and Connie, were sick with fear and grief. Alex, Josephine, and Jake took a police car down to the Brooks residence. Connie was a short, medium set woman in her late twenties with brown hair and green eyes. She invited the detectives and Josephine to the living room to discuss her daughter. A large, olive-green sofa occupied the medium-sized room with three armchairs the same color and a glass coffee table ensconced between the seating. A moderate sized entertainment center stood against the wall with a television and a CD player along with family pictures. Connie’s eyes were red as she’d obviously been crying.

“Aaron and I were going to call and tell you Meg’s been found,” Connie said anxiously. “We received a ransom letter that said she would be killed if we went to the police but we didn’t see it until after we’d already filed a report at the station.”

“Can I see the letter?” Alex asked.

“Yes, I have it right here.” Connie picked up the envelope lying on the table and handed it to him.

Alex pulled out the folded note which was typed and held it out so Jake could read it as well. Alex frowned as he took in the note then handed it over to Josephine. She opened her mind to the psychic impressions on the paper and discovered it was wiped clean with an ignotus enchantment. She read through the short letter to see that the abductor demanded ten thousand dollars to be paid in cash behind a marked tree at the cemetery. It was rare to find a ransom like this with a middle-aged family. There was nothing remarkable about Aaron’s career as a retail manager and Connie was a homemaker.

“There isn’t a trace of the kidnapper’s energy on here,” Josephine advised.

“We’ll question possible witnesses to the abduction at the school and in this neighborhood. We’ll do everything we can to find your daughter,” Alex said.

Tears dribbled down Connie’s face. “I don’t understand why we have to wait three days before we make the payment.”

“Usually, they want the money right away. If we can’t find Meg before it’s time to leave the cash at the park, I would advise that you follow those instructions,” Alex said.

“Of course.”

Josephine tensed as a brief, potent tendril of grief from Connie brushed against her. An instant later, she furrowed her brows with concentration as she scanned the house again. She hadn’t noticed the first time but there was a distinct lack of psychometric energy reflecting the suffering from Meg’s parents.

“This is very strange,” Josephine remarked.

Connie, Jake, and Alex turned to face her with expectation.

“Are you sensing something from the kidnappers?” Connie’s expression was hopeful.

Ever since Josephine had made it on the news, whenever she worked a case, the civilians usually knew about her psychometry and the fact that she was a six.

“Are you sure Meg didn’t make it to the bus?” Josephine rose to her feet as she continued to evaluate the tendrils of energy wafting around her.

“I’m positive. Her friends always sat with her and she wasn’t there. They never saw her go with anyone either.”

“It’s like she vanished,” Jake said.

“This house is full of the typical psychometric activity I normally come across so there was no ignotus enchantment performed. I don’t sense any intruders but that could be because they had active privacy fields.” Josephine’s contemplative gaze swept over the room. “This is most peculiar. It’s almost like there’s a trail of your grief that’s leaving the room instead of gathering in here.”

“My grief?” Connie gazed at her with confusion.

Josephine stalked out of the room and down the hall until she came to the bedroom. The others followed her and she hesitated at the threshold.

“May I search your room?” Josephine threw Connie a questioning look.

“Of course! I want to know if the kidnappers came in here.”

Josephine stepped into the room which was moderately furnished with a king-sized bed, a couple of large dressers, and a couple of nightstands. She had to wait for several long moments to see where the darker strands of energy were heading because they drifted extremely slowly. She crossed over to one of the nightstands which was tucked away in the corner and opened the bottom drawer which contained a bunch of batteries, candles, and flashlights. Josephine reached out with her mind and gasped with surprise as a concentration of dark energy throbbed at the bottom of the drawer. Josephine reached inside and dug through the contents until she found a large black obsidian sphere the size of a fist. Josephine’s hand ached as she clutched it.

“Is this yours?” She held out the black obsidian ball so that Connie could take a look.

“I’ve never seen that before. It’s ugly.”

“I’ve never see one of these before but I know what this is,” Josephine said.

“Is it a dark energy collector?” Jake guessed.

“That’s exactly right,” Josephine confirmed. She furrowed her brows with concentration as she realized the kidnapper had left behind psychic impressions. One common oversight people made who used privacy fields to keep secrets was the fact that touching something with your bare hands inevitably left trace energy behind. Even gloves weren’t enough of a barrier to completely safeguard against this leakage problem unless they were enchanted. Josephine’s lips curved in a grim smile. They’d made their first mistake and hopefully it was enough to crack the case. Information and memories trickled into Josephine’s mind.

“The Valituras kidnapped Meg,” Josephine advised. She continued to allow the psychic impressions to flow for several moments before she spoke again. “They’ve been doing this for years. They use invisibility spells on themselves and wait until the right moment to kidnap the child. They’ve been ordered to collect a lot more dark energy than usual these last two months.”

“So the Valituras is getting ready to do something big,” Alex hypothesized.

“Yes, they are but this team has no idea what’s going to happen. We need to go. I can take us to Meg.”

Josephine threw a pointed look at Connie. Alex and Jake nodded with understanding as they realized she didn’t want to discuss anything further in front of a civilian. They spoke a few reassuring words with Connie before leaving. Alex drove the police cruiser away from the house as Josephine continued discussing what she’d seen.

“They were going to pick up the dark energy collector on the day of the ransom while Meg left the house to make the payment. They’re careful to pick families that don’t have the means to hire investigators on their own and who can be intimidated into not calling the police. And of course, they want one of the parents to be a homemaker so that their dark energy collector gets full exposure to their grieving,” Josephine explained. “The one who has Meg is Edison Rivera. I can give you directions to his house.”

Josephine supplied them with the address so Jake could call it in on the radio. After that, she directed them to Edison’s house. Alex parked the car down the street and just past the corner so they weren’t visible in case Edison left unexpectedly.

“Okay. I’m going to walk by and try to scan the house to see if he’s home. If we’re lucky and he’s gone for some reason, we can get Meg out of there right away,” Josephine said. She reached for the door to open it. “Pop the trunk.”

“I never thought we’d need your props,” Alex remarked as he complied with her request.

Josephine went to the back and pulled out a stroller and set it up. She unclipped the long satchel from her belt which contained half a dozen power wands and set it inside the trunk. Next, she wrapped the life-sized baby doll in a pink blanket so it wasn’t showing and placed it in the stroller. Alex and Jake watched her with faint amusement.

“Don’t you look so cute with your precious bundle of joy?” Alex teased.

“This wasn’t my idea,” Josephine reminded him.

“I know. Standard protocols for blending into the background. Maybe I should accompany you. I could pretend to be your husband.”

“I go alone. You spew junk energy like a coal factory which interferes with my scans,” Josephine said.
              “Surely it’s not that bad,” Alex argued.

“You had sausage and eggs for breakfast this morning. You forgot to grind your coffee beans before you brewed your first pot of coffee. You stared out your window this morning watching your neighbor, Paula, exercise in the nude in the living room. Apparently, she doesn’t realize people can see her when she doesn’t have her curtains closed. You’re starting to have problems—”

“All right! Enough!” Alex’s face was flushed with embarrassment.

Jake gazed at him with curiosity. “I want to know what you’re having problems with.”

“That’s none of your business,” Alex said.

“It’s something embarrassing,” Josephine advised.

“I see.” Jake’s lips curved in a smile of amusement.

“Why don’t you get going? I’m worried about Meg.” Alex shoved the stroller forward a bit.

Josephine refrained from revealing anything further about Alex as she walked away from them. She activated the glamour enchantment embedded in one of her rings that she wore on her left hand. Her silky black hair turned blond and her face changed to that of a stranger’s. The only problem with disguising yourself with an illusion was the need to constantly maintain the spell. Any lapse in concentration for more than a few seconds would cause the glamour to melt away and reveal her true appearance. This would make performing deep scans more of a challenge.

“Be careful,” Jake called out.

“I will.”

Josephine set a brisk pace until she drew closer to Edison’s blue house. It was a middle-class neighborhood with decent-sized, well-manicured yards. Josephine opened her senses fully to the energy currents drifting around her which was a chaotic jumble from all of the neighbors. She sifted through the information as she searched for impressions that revolved around Meg or Edison. Unfortunately, Edison had left the house and returned more than once but she couldn’t tell if it was before or after he’d kidnapped Meg. Josephine couldn’t scan past the wards protecting the house to see if Meg was alone or with Edison at the moment. She continued to walk as slowly as possible without raising suspicions. Unfortunately, she didn’t obtain the necessary information which meant she’d have to try again. Josephine picked up the pace and decided that after a few moments, she would turn around. Her cell phone rang and she answered since it was the chief of police.

“Josephine O’Connor,” she said.

“What’s the status on the situation?” Ben’s typical, rumbling voice exploded from her phone.

“I did my first scan of the house and couldn’t pick up whether he’s home or not. I’m waiting a few moments so I can walk by again for another scan.”

“I’ve got backup on the way to surround the house and Lieutenant Atkins will take charge once she arrives.”

Jennifer Atkins was an enforcer with a lot more experience and she outranked Josephine who was a detective.

“Understood. Do I really need to push this stupid doll around? I could just pretend to be a pedestrian,” she said.

“We need to follow protocols. Mothers with their children tend to be invisible while strangers by themselves tend to stand out,” Ben explained.