Forging Day (Crucible of Change Book 1) (32 page)

“What if you wired me, like they do on cop shows? Or put some kind of tracker on me? He’d know you can track my phone, but maybe you could hide something smaller in my clothes?”

“We can’t just leave them with that maniac until tomorrow!” I’d never seen Mikah so close to losing it. He was always the stable one in our group. No matter what happened, he always kept his calm.

“Mikah, we’ll find him.”

“How? They could be anywhere in the freaking state at this point.”

“No. They have to be reasonably close, given the timing of things. I’m not a cop, but I’m guessing somewhere in the Denver metro area, which still doesn’t narrow it down as much as we need it to. Can’t you guys use the phone number from his call and try to track that cell phone? They do it on TV all the time.”

Lieutenant Clark gave me that look. “It doesn’t work quite like TV, Olivia. You know that. I’ll see what we can find out about the phone. We’re not going to let you go off alone with anyone, either. Even if you did agree to his terms and make this exchange, what makes you think he’d keep his word and release anyone once he had you?”

While the Lieutenant placed his call, I called Leo from the landline to update him on the new developments.

“I’m coming home,” he said, “but first I’m going to pay our silversmith friend a visit and see if he can’t hurry things along for us. Don’t worry. I’ll be careful. I don’t think they even know I’m out of the house right now.”

I hung up with Leo. The lieutenant was still on the phone. “Sharon? Didn’t you say you had an image of us talking to Vivian?”

“Yes, I did.”

“Can you remember anything else? Where did it look like we were talking to her? Was it inside or outside? Was it night or day?”

“Stop!” She put her hand up. “Let me try and focus.”

She sat and closed her eyes. After what felt like a long time, she said, “It wasn’t day, but it wasn’t full night, either. She was still wearing a suit. It seems like it was inside, but the two of you were the strongest impression. Like both of you were the only color characters in a black and white movie.”

Kat was rummaging through a drawer. “Here. I’ve got it.” She handed me Vivian’s contact card from the neighborhood watch meeting. It had a number and said to call her any time.

The number rang directly to voice mail. “Vivian, this is Olivia Mitchell. I need to speak to you immediately on a personal matter of some urgency. Please call me the minute you get this, day or night.” I left the number for the land line, repeating it twice, and hung up.

The phone rang not even fifteen minutes later. Caller ID was blocked. I grabbed it. “Hello?”

“To whom am I speaking?”

“This is Olivia Mitchell. Is this Vivian?”

“Yes, it is. May I ask what your matter of personal urgency is, Ms. Mitchell?”

“Don’t hang up. It has to do with Colby.”

“As I indicated to the press, I was as surprised as anyone else at the horrible things he’d been involved with.”

“My friend says that’s not entirely true, but I don’t care about the past. I need to know if you know where he is. He’s taken my sister and my friend. This is a matter of life and death. If you really weren’t involved with his ‘activities’, then you have no reason not to help us.”

“I’m not prepared to discuss this over the phone, Ms. Mitchell, and in any case, while I sympathize with your plight, I suggest you discuss this with the police.”

“You don’t think this is your problem, do you? Why don’t you think about this—once he’s done with us, what’s to stop him from coming after you? You’re next on the list, and you know it.”

“I see. You may have a point after all. I’ll call you back.” She hung up without waiting for an answer.

When the phone rang again, it was another unfamiliar number. “Hello?”

“It’s Vivian. I switched to my private phone, just to be on the safe side. What exactly is the situation?”

“Like I said, Colby has my sister and my friend. He’s threatening to kill them, or worse, if I don’t exchange myself for them. He wants a bunch of cash, too. He obviously has someone watching the house. The police were already here. He wouldn’t talk to us until his man confirmed they’d left.”

“Why did I not listen to my mother?” Vivian said half under her breath. “Never fuck the help.” I heard the drumming of fingernails through the phone. “What is it you think that I can do for you, Ms. Mitchell—oh, hell with it−Olivia?”

“Colby isn’t in his apartment. Do you know of any place else he might have gone? We’re looking for someplace with a basement, maybe an older house, like sixties or seventies. It has to be in reasonable range of the metro area. Does he have family or friends with a place that might match that?”

“He doesn’t have any family in town that I’m aware of. He certainly didn’t own a house. He was living off of one of my credit cards until I had it canceled. That’s probably why he demanded cash from you. I’m not hiding him or helping him. The bastard nearly ruined my campaign.”

“Didn’t he have any of his own money?”

“Of course not. He couldn’t hold a job longer than a month without getting into a fight with someone or getting ‘the talk’ from Human Resources for improperly interacting with his female coworkers.”

“Why were you dating him?” I really wanted to know.

“Let’s lay out some things before we continue. I know about Lyons. If you pass on this information, I will tell certain parties where to find you. Now that we’ve gotten that unpleasantness out of the way, where was I? Oh, yes. Sometimes I had cases where the witnesses required a little hand-holding. Surprisingly, people are reluctant to testify against criminals with friends who might burn down their homes or dismember their families. I had Colby and his boys help them do their civic duty. I’m on the side of the angels on this. I made the city safer by putting these animals in jail. Over the course of things, I discovered some of Colby’s other talents—he was generously endowed and adventurous in bed. Such a shame he had to go over the line and actually kill those girls. What a waste.”

I heard her long fingernails clicking against the phone. “Hmmm, there might be something. I have a number of rental properties. I used to send him to collect rent when the tenants got behind. I suppose it’s possible he made copies of the keys and is squatting in one of those places. I have a few that are vacant at the moment. Do you have a piece of paper? I’ll give you the addresses. Keep in mind, if I give you this information, I expect to hear my name mentioned only in the most positive of lights. I have been completely cooperative with the efforts to apprehend the sociopath Colby Green. I can be a good friend, Ms. Mitchell. I can be an even worse enemy. If that’s all you have for now, I’m keeping my masseuse waiting.” She reeled off the information, and hung up without waiting for an answer.

I relayed the information to the others. “The question is, how do we check out these addresses without Colby knowing we’re doing it?”

“I think Razaini and I can be helpin’ with that,” said Korembi. “You get a map and show us where these places are. We do the scouting with our spirit animals. We can’t do anything while we’re there, but we can find out where they be hidin’.”

“I can help too,” said Tessa. “Not tonight, but tomorrow, when they want to drag you off. I get to the meeting spot ahead of you, wherever it ends up being. I
persuade
the person doing the grab to make his call and tell Colby he has you. I keep him reporting in as long as it takes, while the rest of you frag Colby and friends and save the day.”

“That’s perfect, Tessa. They won’t know what hit them.”

Lieutenant Clark spoke up. “How do you plan on scouting these locations without leaving the house or anyone noticing? I’m not saying you can’t, because frankly, nothing would surprise me at this point, but I would like to know the how.”

“We commune with the spirits of nature, mon, and send our spirits running free,” said Korembi.

“Kor, the last time we did this, we were in the forest. Is it going to work in the city?” Razaini asked.

“That be a good question,” said Korembi. “Let me see. We be needin’ incense holders and space if we doin’ it in the house. What you got?”

“Any particular kind of incense, or do you have your own?” I wanted to know.

“We have our own,” he said.

Kat and I scavenged around the house and we were able to come up with eight different fancy holders for incense sticks. They were all carved to look like different fantasy creatures. The dragons were my favorites.

They were using the projector to mark the locations when we got back. Between Lieutenant Clark and Sharon, they divided up the locations and mapped out the best paths for them to follow before coming home.

“Korembi, will these be enough?”

“I be thinkin’ yes. Now we need a big enough space. Let’s pull the shades in the sunroom and try there.”

They each took an incense stick holder and sat it next to them. They lit the incense and sat there, eyes closed. We were all quiet, watching.

The lieutenant whispered to me, “Is something supposed to be happening?”

“I think so,” I whispered back.

“It no be workin’,” said Korembi. “It be bad enough the city pushing nature back, but I think we maybe get past that. We have to be in direct contact with the earth. It can’t be in a house.”

“And we don’t want anything getting back to Colby. Let me think…”

I paced a bit, and tried to stay out of Mikah’s path. “How about this? Colby knows me and Kat are Pagan. We all go out front and Kat and I will cast a ritual circle. Korembi and Razaini will set out their incense sticks as part of our ritual. It’s always been said that children and animals can cross a closed circle without breaking it. I’m willing to gamble that the spirit animals will work the same way. We’ll do a ritual for safety, wisdom, guidance, et cetera, for as long as it takes. Korembi signals when it’s okay to stop, and then we wrap up our ritual and go back inside. They might find it weird, but it’s not going to seem dangerous. Colby never took it seriously.”

“I like it,” said Kat. “He already thought we were flakes, so this makes us seem flakier, and he’ll have no idea we’re spying back on him in the meantime.”

I called Leo to clue him in. “While we’re drawing all the attention in the front yard, it might be a good time for you to sneak back in through the back. Any luck with our friend?”

“I told him what happened. He’s going to stay up all night and try to finish by morning. I told him I’d stay and help do whatever he needs, so I don’t need to sneak back in.”

“Call as soon as you’re done, and be careful,” I told him.

“You call if you hear anything from Colby or his people. You be careful too, sis.”

“Love you, bro.”

“Love you, sis.”

* * * *

We changed clothes and came back downstairs with our ritual gear. I had on a flowing red satin tunic that belted at the waist with my new dagger tucked firmly into the belt. You never know. Kat wore her favorite tie-dye robe.

Tessa said, “I’ll keep watch and listen for the phone. I don’t think I want to jump into anyone’s sacred space just yet.”

We got out front, and Mikah was already there. He had never come to a Pagan ritual before. “If any of this can help me get Berto back, I’m not waiting in the house.”

“Korembi, would you help me prepare the outer circle?” I handed him his incense sticks. “Place these where they need to go. Razaini, you light them and then you both come to join us.”

It helped that we already had the compass points marked with little pedestals. Kat set up the little brass bowls to hold the representations of the elements. I waited until Korembi and Razaini finished placing their incense and joined us. Mikah found his own place, and Gracie took a spot next to him. Frank took a position near Korembi and May stayed close to Roz.

“Kat, I’m going to cast the circle. Would you help?”

She nodded. I handed her the lighter and the sage smudge stick. “Just follow me around the circle with this.”

I had everyone stand in a loose circle. “Please hold hands.” I took a deep breath, willing myself to be calm and focused. Lives might depend on how well this double ritual worked.

“Let’s begin.” I drew my dagger and went to the north. I pointed it at the ground and started to walk around our friends. A line appeared in the ground as I moved, and butterflies went wild in my stomach.

We stopped at the east pedestal first, the one with feathers in the little bowl to represent air. “Guardians of the spirits of the east, we welcome you to our ritual. Lend us your strength and bring us wisdom for the days ahead.” I bowed toward the pedestal, kissed the blade, and went back to walking. The feathers stirred slightly, but I didn’t feel a breeze.

As we continued to the south pedestal, my fingers tingled and I could tell the others had started to feel something too. I summoned my magic and called fire to ignite the cedar chips. “Guardians of the spirits of the south, we welcome you to our ritual. Lend us your fiery strength that we might triumph in the trials to come.” The flames danced merrily in the little bowl.

Next was west. That bowl was filled with cool water. “Guardians of the spirits of the west, we welcome you to our ritual. Lend us your strength to soothe our weary hearts.” Again, I bowed toward the pedestal and kissed the blade. The water rippled slightly in the bowl.

I braced myself as we returned to our starting point. Stones from the Rocky Mountains were in the little bowl. “Guardians of the spirits of the north, we welcome you to our ritual. Lend us your patience and fortitude, and help us find our way.” The stones glowed faintly blue. I don’t think anyone else could see them.