Something Magic This Way Comes (21 page)

“Who are you, and why the big confrontation?”

Frank asked.

“My name is Gerold for what it’s worth to you. And I am doing this because I wanted to see the look on this face when he is charged with murder.” With a speed belying his size, Gerold reached out and snatched Ralph from behind Frank as he spoke.

Frank was shoved to the floor. When he stood, he saw Ralph twisting in Gerold’s grip, feet dangling above the floor. Frank jumped forward and grabbed Gerold’s hand. He tried to pry the fingers loose from Ralph’s shirt and jacket, but he was tossed aside with little effort. Frank looked at Ralph and saw fear in his eyes. Ralph’s eye started to twitch and his mouth and nose twisted. Frank let go and backed away.

Ralph sneezed.

“My medallion,” Gerold shouted. He let go of Ralph and grabbed his chest, patting around as if in search for something under his shirt. Clothes ripped, and Gerold raged in agony, his face contorted and he twisted his body in upon itself.

Frank backed away until he hit the wall. He watched with a mixture of horror and fascination as Gerold’s body grew, lengthened, new legs appeared, and shredded clothes fell away.

Gerold stood up on his four legs, shook his head and grabbed Ralph from where he lay on the floor.

From the waist up he was the same, except his muscles were larger and had ripped his shirt and jacket so he was bare-chested. From the waist down he was no longer a man, but had the body of a horse. Gerold was a centaur.

“Do you know how much that hurts?” Gerold shouted at Ralph, shaking him in his fist.

“S-s-sorry,” Ralph stammered. “Allergies.”

“I’m going to kill you,” Gerold said and raised his other hand into a huge fist. He cocked his arm back to deliver a blow Frank was sure would crush Ralph’s face and send him flying across the room.

Ralph sneezed.

Frank watched as both Gerold and Ralph disappeared.

He sank to the floor, his knees weak. Frank had seen many things in his career, everything from brutality and death to self mutilation. But what he had just witnessed tilted his world too far to let him stand.

Frank pulled his knees to his chest and took several deep breaths.

Up to that point Frank had been dismissing the comings and goings of objects and animals as sleight of hand. But there was no way to dismiss Gerold’s transformation into a centaur and then Ralph and Gerold disappearing. No cloud of smoke to cover their exit. One second struggling with each other, the next, gone. Rockford never had a case like this. He was always fighting bad guys and rescuing damsels in distress.

Rita, Frank thought. He had to focus on finding Rita. Another deep breath and Frank pulled himself to his feet.

Frank walked around where the two men had been standing. He picked up the shreds of clothes from the floor and patted the pockets of the pants. No wallet.

In one pocket he found a set of keys.

Frank identified a car key, a door key of some sort, and a remote. At first Frank thought it was the remote to Gerold’s car. When he looked at it closer he found that rather than lock and unlock, the words Home and Denver were each next to a button.

The head and upper torso of a man appeared in the small opening in the door, a police department patch on the shoulder, a pistol in the man’s hand. “Hold it right there, put your hands up and don’t move.”

Frank was startled by the officer. He stepped back and his hands clenched. He pressed a button on the remote as he looked up into the eyes of the police officer. The room disappeared.

* * *

Frank had three seconds to realize he was no longer in the morgue before a wave of dizziness hit him. He stumbled, dropping the shredded pants and remote.

Frank sat down against a tree. The hospital smell had been replaced with scents of trees, grass, and flower blossoms, brought to him on the light breeze that teased his hair. He could feel the roughness of the tree bark against his back, the cool grass against his hands, and the sun on his face. Frank had gone insane.

Frank looked down and saw the remote on the ground, broken in several pieces. He must have stepped on it when he lost his footing. He picked up the pieces and put them in his pocket.

Frank stood, and another wave of dizziness threatened to force him to sit again. He leaned against the tree until it passed.

“I must have been hit on the head or given some powerful drugs to come up with this place,” Frank thought. He saw some buildings in the distance. He decided that if his body was locked in the mental ward, at least he could take a walk in his mind. He started down the hill.

* * *

Frank leaned against a building at the end of an alley and watched a house across the street. A week in the city of Fips had squashed his sense of wonder at everything that had happened to him. It had taken that long to turn up where he thought Gerold lived.

At first he couldn’t get any information about Gerold.

All of his questions were answered with references to the centaur highwayman. But when Frank provided a description of what Gerold looked like before he turned into a centaur he eventually heard the name Dassin. It was Dassin’s house Frank was now watching.

A coach pulled up in front of the house. Frank watched the man get out and walk up to the door.

Frank had found Gerold. Frank started toward the house when he spotted a small man in outlandishly loud clothes coming down the street.

Frank stepped back into the alley and watched as Ralph walked up to Gerold’s door. He was let in after waiting a moment. Frank leaned against the wall and waited. It wasn’t long before Ralph emerged and headed back the way he had come. Frank decided to follow Ralph. Gerold wasn’t likely to move soon.

It wasn’t hard to follow Ralph, despite his small size and the crowds. His colorful clothes kept popping into view, and Frank followed at a discreet distance.

Frank followed Ralph into a tenement style apartment building in a poorer neighborhood than where Gerold lived. He crept to the door Ralph had entered and listened. At first he heard shuffling movement, then a voice. Rita.

Frank pulled his gun from its holster and shoved his shoulder against the door. The wood cracked as the door flew open. Frank ran across the room to Ralph, grabbed him by the front of his shirt and pushed the barrel of his gun against Ralph’s nose.

“Fun and games are over. I’ve got you and you better start fixing things or I’m going to blow your head off.”

Frank felt something on his arm, and it finally registered that Rita was trying to get him to let Ralph go.

Ralph looked very afraid.

“Let him go, Frank, he’s not the bad guy,” Rita said.

Frank looked at Rita. She looked healthy, with no sign of bruises or broken bones. He let go of Ralph and stepped back.

“What’s going on? Are you okay?” Frank asked.

Rita came up to him and patted his arm soothingly.

He allowed her to guide him to put his gun away. He found it strangely calming, and the adrenaline slipped away.

“I’m fine, Frank. I mean aside from being here. Ralph has been trying to help me get home,” Rita said.

Frank didn’t know what to say. All his fears that Rita had been hurt flowed out of him. He couldn’t think of anything to say, but he took Rita into his arms and hugged her tight. He held her for several minutes, taking in her warmth, her scent, and the comforting way she patted his back.

Ralph had managed to close the door and get it to latch. Rita led Frank to a chair, and the three sat around a knife-scarred wood table.

“The short version is I was walking into your office,” said Rita, “And then I was here. I didn’t know what had happened so I stuck close to this place. A few other things appeared out of nowhere, but after a few hours Ralph and a centaur appeared. They were fighting, and I stayed out of the way until the centaur threw Ralph against the wall.”

“That was Gerold,” said Ralph.

“I remember him,” said Frank. “I found you by tracking him down. But that doesn’t explain what is going on.”

“I still don’t remember anything from before that morning I met you,” Ralph said. “After he threw me against the wall, Gerold found his amulet on the floor and put it on. He twisted something on it, and he transformed into a two-legged human again.”

“Frank, he just laughed at us and said we weren’t important enough to deal with,” said Rita. “But he said he’d help me get home if I paid him enough.”

“Let me guess, a price so high you’ll never come up with the money,” said Frank.

“Exactly. We’ve been trying, but no matter how much we give him he demands more.”

When they asked how he came to be there, Frank related the push of a button in the morgue followed by his cross-country journey. “The one thing I’ve been able to piece together is Gerold is leading a double life. He is a centaur highwayman as well as a respected human businessman. I just can’t figure out what his angle is and why he moves between here and Denver.”

“Could it be for the same reason as in our world? Why does someone have businesses in two countries?” said Rita.

“Well, if you rule out the honest reasons, could it be drugs or money laundering,” said Frank.

Frank looked at Rita and saw her face light up at the same time as his when the spoken thought sunk in. “That’s it,” said Frank, slapping the table with the palm of his hand. “Gerold robs coaches and transports the gold and jewels to Denver, where he converts it to cash and lives the good life. I’ll bet he uses some of it to purchase cheap mass-produced crap, transports it back here where it passes as fine handmade products for which he charges a premium.”

“So he can live in style here without any trace of the stolen money,” said Rita.

“But how does he move between places?” asked Ralph.

“With this,” said Frank as he pulled the pieces of the remote from his pocket.

“Maybe we can find a wizard who knows how it works and can fix it,” said Ralph as he fingered the pieces on the table.

Frank nodded in agreement. “Good idea, but first lets see if we can take down Gerold. Otherwise, even if we get home he’s going to remain a problem.”

The three swapped ideas for several hours until they had a workable plan. Despite the hard floor he had to sleep on, Frank slept better than he had since he arrived. He smiled as he thought of Rita and slipped off to sleep.

The next morning Frank went to the Sherriff’s office.

He laid out his plan for catching the highwayman Gerold. The Sherriff wasn’t sure it would work, but the city merchants were clamoring for him to do something.

He finally agreed to try Frank’s plan but warned him of the consequences if he was up to no good.

Later that night Ralph returned from Gerold’s.

“Were you able to get him to believe the story?”

Rita asked.

“I think so,” said Ralph. “I acted like I had information to sell him. He said he couldn’t buy it unless he knew what it was worth. I allowed myself to be duped into telling Gerold about the gold shipment.”

“Do you think he bought it?” asked Frank.

“I think so. Especially after I told him about the Sherriff.”

“What?” said Frank and Rita at the same time.

“Sure, just in case he has informants. I told him the Sherriff was telling everyone it was only his men and no gold in the wagon, to fool Gerold and capture him. Now if he does have informants, and that’s what they tell him, he’ll think he’s ahead of the game.”

* * *

Frank felt every rut in the road for the last five miles. He was crammed into a windowless wagon with several others, breathing dank air and waiting for Gerold to make a move. Frank swayed forward as the wagon slowed to a stop. Gerold had fallen for their trap.

When the back doors were pulled open, Frank, Ralph and two of the Sherriff’s men pushed forward, knocking two of the bandits to the ground. Frank spotted Gerold standing between two other henchmen, his crossbow aimed at the driver.

Frank pointed his pistol at Gerold. “Drop it.”

Frank could see the odd looks from the others, but he also saw fear in Gerold’s eyes. Gerold knew what Frank held even if the others didn’t. The crossbow fell to the ground, and the other bandits dropped theirs as well.

The road was wide enough for two wagons to pass each other. On either side the tree-covered land sloped up. Frank could see why Gerold picked the location. He could watch from a good vantage point, hide until the last minute, and maneuver around all sides of the wagon.

Ralph sneezed. Frank’s gun disappeared. Ralph sneezed again. A dozen chickens appeared on the ground in front of Frank.

The others stared in amazement at the clucking chickens, but Frank moved. He had to stop Gerold before he could recover his crossbow. Leaping onto Gerold’s back, Frank tried to get Gerold into a choke hold.

Frank held on as Gerold whipped his body around, trying to buck him off. Frank’s punches didn’t seem to hurt Gerold. Frank had the same problem when he tried a choke hold. Gerold spun and Frank almost fell.

Frank grabbed for anything to keep from falling off Gerold. His hand found Gerold’s medallion chain. He pulled it and hoped the chain would choke Gerold.

The medallion wasn’t solid, and when Frank grabbed it, a piece spun in his hand. Suddenly he was lying on top of a human Gerold struggling for air.

“Quick, bind him before he can change back,” said Frank.

The other bandits had been captured, and now the Sherriff’s men tied strong cords around Gerold. The Sherriff rode out of the trees having seen the last of the fight.

“I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it. Such a devious person will surely be locked away for many years,” the Sherriff said.

* * *

A few hours later Frank, Rita, and Ralph were outside the door of a wizard the Sherriff had assured them could send them home. The stone house was in the middle of a large lot in one of the more upscale neighborhoods.

With Gerold and his gang locked in jail, Frank couldn’t wait to get back to Denver. He knocked on the door.

When the door opened, a tall middle-aged man in a long robe stood in the door. He looked different from how Frank expected a wizard to look. He didn’t have a pointy hat with lots of stars. He didn’t have a long gray beard. He wasn’t carrying a staff. But he did have a puzzled expression on his face.