LeOmi's Solitude (27 page)

LeOmi’s speed dial tones sounded, “Sergeant
Polaris, call me back as soon as you can. My sister has been
kidnapped.”

Hannah’s silhouette appeared at the back
door. “Well, you might as well come in since we hear you both
hanging around in the back yard.”

“Hannah, Ruby has been kidnapped.”

“No child, I am sure that she is fine. You
always try to make so much out of everything.”

LeOmi grabbed Hannah’s arm and pulled her
around to face her.

“No Hannah, I am serious…”

LeOmi looked into Hannah’s eyes. “Hannah, you
already knew. Didn’t you?”

Hannah wrenched her arm away.

“Who have you brought here? Your Grand-Mère
sees that, and you’re in deep trouble.”

LeOmi marched inside into her Grand-Mère’s
parlor. As she walked, she was peeling off the Indian saree until
she was down to her own clothes. Bekka was right behind her, but
she stood outside of the parlor, not going in.

“I need help Grand-Mère. You and your
spies.”

Grand-Mère was reading and in disgust, she
closed her book and dropped it on the floor with a huge thud.
Folding her elegant hands in her lap.

“As always, your manners are above standard.
Above the standard of ridiculous. What are you talking about?”

LeOmi kneeled by her Grand-Mère’s chair. She
put her hands on the arm rest but didn’t dare touch Grand-Mère.

She thinks I am a lunatic.

“Please, listen. Ruby, she is in danger.”

“Even if this were true, what do you wish me
to do about it?”

“Find her for me. I know that you can. I’ll
do the rest. I have friends that can help.”

“Friends. You ridiculous child, what are you
talking about?”

“It’s my fault Grand-Mère. She is in danger
because of me. She was helping me and now…I have to find her. They
kill people, so your spies need to be very cautious, but I know
that they can be.”

LeOmi could see the softening of Grand-Mère
eyes. She almost put her hand on LeOmi’s hand and then the cell
phone rang.

Grand-Mère stood abruptly. The old eyes back
to their normal glare.

The cell phone rang again, and again.

Like the dream, LeOmi witnessed the same
curve as that of her mother’s back walking away and up the
staircase with Hannah close behind.

“LeOmi?” Bekka touched her arm.

Sadly she answered the phone, “Oh, Sergeant.
You got my message.”

LeOmi looked up to see Hannah as she hurried
back down.

“Your Grand-Mère says, The Celtic Wheel.”

“Sergeant, yes meet us there.” She closed the
phone. “Thank you Hannah, and thank her for me.”

* * *

Bekka had been to The Celtic Wheel before so
they remanifested to the side of the building with their swords
ready.

There were cars parked all along the street
as if there was some kind of convention and most of them were
limousines that had drivers standing by with the engines revving.
The sirens were coming and the whole building seemed to have burst
its seams. The door had been flung open and two dozen men with
covered faces piled out and climbed into cars that were zooming
down the street, racing away before the police could get there.

No one approached LeOmi or Bekka, and when
the police cars came they put their swords back into Aaron’s
Grasp.

Ruby was lying on the floor not far from
where her mom had laid. She was bleeding, but she was still
alive.

The Journal was gone and there was no sign of
Compton.

* * *

The ambulance was full enough with Ruby,
Bekka, LeOmi and the medic but when Sergeant Polaris stepped into
the rear, the ambulance suddenly seemed no bigger than a tiny
closet.

He said, “I’ll meet ya at the hospital. When
you finish at the hospital, come down to the station.” He winked at
her.

She winked back.

“We need to talk.” He quickly withdrew from
the ambulance and closed the door.

The ambulance quickly proceeded down the
street with its red lights flashing all around the outside of the
cab.

Bekka said, “What happened?”

“Like I told Sergeant Polaris, those three
men grabbed me in Calcutta. They knocked me out and the next thing
I knew I was back here.”

Bekka asked, “How did you get back so
quickly?”

“I don’t know.” Ruby rubbed her head where a
blood stain had appeared on the bandage the medic had wound around
her head.

The medic had given Ruby an IV and he tried
to get her to lay back and rest. As soon as she put her head down
she went to sleep.

“Sleep is the best thing for her, Miss. She
has lost a bit of blood. There’s a three inch gash in her hairline.
They’ll probably give her about twenty stitches.”

* * *

There was a guard posted outside of Ruby’s
door.

Bekka left LeOmi and Ruby long enough to get
their father, Jacob Jones and bring him to the hospital.

When he entered the room he said, “This
obviously didn’t go as planned.”

LeOmi said, “I know, and I am sorry, it is
all my fault.”

“What? You’re always so quick to put the
blame on yourself. Why is it your fault?”

Bekka chimed in, “It is not her fault. Ruby
is a well trained Magi, if it is anyone’s fault, it is her
own.”

“Is she under sedation?”

“Yes, they wanted her to rest since she had
lost so much blood and the x-rays show a slight concussion.”

“If that guard wasn’t there, we would take
her to the mountain and she would be well in a jiffy.”

Sergeant Polaris’ voice reverberated down the
hall. “I know that she is trying to rest, but I need to talk to
her.”

Sergeant Polaris and an older lady in a white
nurse’s uniform came into the room.

The nurse spoke in low tones, “See Sergeant,
I told you she was asleep and if you wake her I will have you
thrown out of here. You are rude and inconsiderate of others around
you. I am surprised that she didn’t wake up when you were still at
the other end of the hall.” The nurse checked Ruby’s IV and the
monitor. She pointed to Sergeant Polaris and put her index finger
to her lips and said, “Shhh!” Then she exited the room and pulled
the door closed behind her.

Sergeant Polaris said, “Old biddy.”

LeOmi, her dad and Bekka looked at the
Sergeant with scowls.

“I know. Shhh.” Sergeant Polaris put his
finger to his lips and mocked the nurse. Then he leaned on Ruby’s
hospital bed actually shaking it a bit, hoping she would wake.

Jacob Jones said, “Sergeant!”

“I know. I’m leaving.”

Then he said to LeOmi, “I’ll see you
later.”

* * *

Later that evening, LeOmi and Bekka walked
into the police station’s detective division.

“Well, it seems that you have been knocking
on some doors since you’ve been gone,” Sergeant Polaris said.

LeOmi collapsed into a chair, as if it was
expected of her. Bekka sat beside her.

“Your Grandma works quick. I just barely
stepped into that shop there on the corner, you know where. The
place is basically the turnstile for all the information that
filters into this city, and lo and behold, those two sleazers were
already in there rousing up that same info that you requested.”

LeOmi smiled over to Bekka. “She came
through.”

“Yeah...how about that?” He opened the drawer
of his desk and went to grab something but jabbed himself with
whatever it was.

“Sergeant, my sister did retrieve the
Sumerian Journal. But, as you know it was taken from her.”

“Yeah, that is what she said when I spoke to
her at The Celtic Wheel. It is just that some things just don’t add
up.”

“What things?”

“I can’t quite put my finger on it yet, but
if you get a chance to ask her, you let me know.”

Bekka said, “Why don’t you ask her
yourself?”

Polaris sat down in his chair, “She left
already.”

“She left the hospital? But we were just
there and we left my dad there with her.”

“Yeah, the old biddy informed me that she
couldn’t make her stay in the hospital if she wanted to go.”

LeOmi and Bekka stood to leave. “It seems
that she woke up not long after you two left. Maybe she didn’t want
to talk to you either.”

“I tried to get her to wake up, but everybody
did that shushing thing. Now I’ll probably never get to talk to
her.” He kicked a pile of papers on the floor. “She was there with
a whole room full of ’em, and she couldn’t even remember what any
of them looked like. Like I said, something don’t add up.”

“I’ll let you know Sergeant.”

“Good. Talk to her tonight. I’ll talk to you
tomorrow. Maybe she’ll tell you more than she told me.”

“Thanks.”

“Wow, pleasantries.” He looked wide-eyed at
her while wrapping a tissue around his finger.

“It looks like that private school is good
for you, kiddo.”

* * *

When they were outside of the Police Station,
LeOmi pulled out her cell phone. She was going to call her father
and she found a message left for her.

“Sister safe. Back at school. I’m home.”

Bekka said, “I don’t blame her, I would
rather be at The Seventh Mountain’s healers too.”

“Me too. I want to go back to Grand-Mère’s to
thank her if you don’t mind.”

“Do you think that she will let you thank
her?”

“I have to try.”

Bekka held out her sleeve and they were at
LeOmi’s grandmother’s house in an instant. The lights were out and
there was no answer at the door.

“It seems obvious that she doesn’t want to be
thanked.”

“Yeh.”

“Let’s get back to school. We need to check a
few places.”

LeOmi checked at the healers, Bekka checked
the chapel house in Virginia and Ruby’s room.

Ruby was gone.

* * *

The coneys were crawling all over them, as if
they knew that they had a rough day.

“I was thinking, maybe I could help you look
over your mother’s Journal. Maybe you missed something.”

LeOmi reached into Aaron’s Grasp. “Be my
guest.”

“And the translation.”

“Once again, LeOmi reached into her invisible
storage compartment and produced the replica.”

The coneys vaulted up the Olive Tree. “You
guys are growing up”

“Kayleen said that they should be old enough
by the end of the summer to be released on their own.”

“I know. I try not to think about that.”

“I know, but they need to establish a life of
their own.”

“Well, maybe this is the life they would
choose.”

“Maybe. Or maybe their life is amongst their
own kind. Hey, did you know that there are notes in the back of
this Journal?”

“Yeah, but they are just about the Ruby
Knife.”

“Ruby the knife or Ruby the sister?”

“Huh?”

“You read this and didn’t make the
connection.”

“It can’t be Ruby, can it? That’s
ridiculous.”

“Rule number 999,000.7. Put your emotions
aside, they can inhibit your senses. I know that it’s hard, but
sometimes you must suppress them in order to make rational and
productive decisions. Now listen...”

“My jewel, my Ruby….

A Garnet of Crimson,

Clearly to maroon and desert.”

“Due to the cryptic nature of this Journal, I
would have my doubts also, but how can a knife maroon and desert?
Then she wrote ‘Clearly’ as a reference to maroon and desert. To me
it seems that she felt, daughter was like mother.”

Bekka handed the Journal back to LeOmi so she
could read it again.

“Can you trust your sister?”

“Of course.”

“Are you sure?”

LeOmi stared up into the tree. “What do I
know about her?”

“I did wonder why Ruby didn’t put the Journal
into Aaron’s Grasp.”

“I just figured that she didn’t have
time.”

“A Magi can find the time.”

“You’re right, it doesn’t make sense, and it
doesn’t make any sense for the entry to be about the knife. But…
well, I don’t want it to be that.”

“I know. Well I guess tomorrow, we will go
and see the Sergeant.”

“I guess it is also time for the Sergeant to
see this Journal and tell him how we got the receipt and retrieved
the Sumerian Journal–well mostly how.”

“Well get some sleep. Tomorrow is another big
day.”

* * *

Once again, the coneys were left in their
cage. LeOmi had wired together four old trapping cages and cut
holes into the tops and bottoms so that the coneys could easily
travel from level to level. The base was still her dad’s old trunk
and the top was a big wooden box that one of the Emerald’s had
brought to complete the multiple layers of the Nightingale
Floors.

LeOmi had added lots of rocks and old
branches for them to climb on and they still had their heating lamp
if they were cold.

Kayleen would check on them from time to time
to make sure that they had enough food and water, and that they
didn’t get into any trouble.

Bekka was early. “The first stop should be
Grand-Mère’s house.”

This time they went into the house, but it
appeared to be empty. LeOmi left a note pinned to Hannah’s message
board in the kitchen. It was simple. It just said, Thank you
Grand-Mère.

“I wonder if Grand-Mère will even look at it
at all.”

“Well at least you tried.”

The next stop was to meet the Sergeant. He
had arranged to meet them near the river, Valentine Street.

He was standing under a tree, smoking a
cigar.

Bekka waited a short distance away as LeOmi
approached him.

“So your Grand-Mère is still not
talking?”

“Well, not Grand-Mère, but I have learned a
couple of interesting things.”

She showed him the Journal and told him about
the receipt.

“This Journal really doesn’t answer any
questions, it just piles more on.”