Witch's Bell Book One (3 page)

That was her story. The enigma of
Ebony Bell wasn't too mysterious after all. Just a witch in a big
city trying to get by.

“
Ebony is a consultant for us,”
Ben scratched behind his ear, “we call her in when ... stuff gets
weird.”

Nate swallowed slowly.
“Of course you
do.”

“
You remember when you were
transferred to us?” Ben smiled reassuringly. “You remember when the
Detective Chief Inspector sat you down and said this job's going to
be unlike anything you've ever done?”

“
I thought he was just
exaggerating,” Nate tried to neaten up his tie until it sat flat
once more.

“
Yeah well, he meant it. Now, I
really should have handled this better. Instead of briefing you at
the office about the uh ... peculiarities of working for the Vale
Police Department, I thought I'd bring you straight in to meet Eb,
and get it all over and done with.”

“
You weren't to know Harry would
react like this,” Ebony kept picking up books and stacking them
into piles.

“
Yeah well, whatever. Point is
rookie, Eb here is a witch.”

Detective Nate nodded slowly,
offering something halfway between a smile and a grimace.
“We've covered
this.”

“
Yep, she's a witch, and she
works for us. Vale here is sitting on top of a ... now let me get
this right ... a portal between worlds that somehow makes the
energy here more charged .... Kind of like a storm, I guess,” Ben
muddled through his words, hands flying about him as he tried to
make sense of his confused thoughts.

“
Yes, how about I explain,”
Ebony cut in. “Vale is sitting on top of a Portal, that much is
true. In fact, there are many such Portals all around the world;
you just wouldn't know it. Vale's Portal, however, is unusually
strong,” she said quickly, knowing that such detail would be
entirely under-appreciated by the new guy detective. He had no clue
about magic, so the prospect that Vale was sitting on one of the
biggest inter-dimensional rifts this side of the Milky Way, wasn't
one he'd appreciate.

She took a deep breath, and
decided to continue trying to explain the incredibly complex to the
obviously stupid:
“while the Vale Portal itself is usually closed, things
sometimes leak through. This usually isn't the problem, though.
What is the problem is that being in such proximity to an
inter-dimensional tunnel means that the city of Vale is highly
charged with magical fields. Without going too far into the theory
of Field Work, what happens is that being so charged it becomes
much easier for people to unintentionally produce magic.” Ebony
looked up to see Nate's face, a picture of pained confusion. “You
aren't getting this, are you?”

“
A magical bookstore just tried
to kill me because I called it messy,” Nate said truthfully. “I
have to say, I'm having difficulty paying attention.”

“
Hmm okay, good point. Let me
put it this way: when someone straps themselves to a metal pole on
a bright summer's day, what is their chance of being struck by
lightning?”

Nate took a sigh, chest moving
deeply. It was as if he was finally surrendering to the sheer
ridiculousness of the situation.
“Low to none.”

“
Right, how about if they strap
themselves to a metal pole during a violent thunder storm? Their
chances increase measurably, right?” She waited for the detective
to nod. “Well this is Vale. Vale is a violent electrical storm of
magic. Now, anyone who recites an incantation they find off the
Internet, or buys a book on devil craft, or accidentally picks up a
cursed rocking chair in an antique store – they are like that idiot
strapping himself to a metal pole. In the ordinary, everyday world,
magic is incredibly hard. Here, magic is easy to attract, but still
hits you like a thunderbolt.”

“
The way I look at it,” Ben
shifted a pile of magazines off the couch and sat down, “is like
this. Magic is like drugs. People use it to forget themselves, get
high, get transcendental, whatever. But the stuff is powerful and
addictive. It's cheap too, yet comes at a hell of a price. As Eb
said, any goon with an Internet connection can look up the dark
arts, just like any idiot can go downtown and get wasted on drugs.
The kids don't know what they're dealing with, but like the high.
And we clean up after them.”

“
Junkies,” Nate raised an
eyebrow, “Vale is a city of magical junkies ... right?”

“
No, no, you've got the wrong
picture. There really isn't too much magical crime around,” Ebony
made her way over to the counter and started shuffling around
behind it. “Honestly, there isn't. Vale is usually quite ordinary.
However—”

“
On special occasions, we have
to call in to see Eb. We bring her a biscuit, she steals our
coffee, and goes and finds our bad guy.”

Ebony finally found the book
she was looking for.
“Ah ha, here you go, Detective Nate, here's some
light reading for you.”

Nate took the book and looked
at the cover.
“A Brief History of Magical Crime in Vale? Ahh ... who
wrote this ... and who published it—”

“
Oh no one wrote it, it wrote
itself.” Ebony pulled out another book and threw it at Nate.
“Here's another one you might like.”

“
Witches, a Comprehensive Study
of their use in Law Enforcement in Vale,” Nate read
aloud.

“
There are other books I could
find you,” Ebony began to pick her way towards the back of the
store. She had to admit she was feeling a little bit ashamed, but
only just a trifle. She'd had such fun playing with this new
detective that she'd let Harry get out of hand. The spirit of this
old store was cantankerous to be sure, but usually never as
dangerous as he'd been today. To put it simply, she really could
have handled things better, and now she was eager to smooth things
over.

Well, not smooth things over
completely. There was something very delicious in the way Detective
Nate reacted to being teased. The man had this certain vibe about
him that made Ebony want to walk up to him, mess up his hair, and
pinch him on the cheek.

“
Hey,” Ben walked up to Ebony
and caught her arm, “you can look for books later. Right now, we
need you on a case.”

“
Oh,” Ebony said quickly, “oh
dear. It's that murder from last night, isn't it?”

“
Yeah.”

“
I don't like murders,” Ebony
said softly.

“
No one does, kid.” Ben nodded
at Nate. “Now, you've kind of had a big morning. And I'm sorry for
how things have played out. You can go back to the office, and I'll
get one of the boys to give you a proper debrief.”

Nate slowly shifted from foot
to foot, staring warily out at the store, then down at the two
books in his hands.
“It has been an unusual morning,” he said
carefully.

“
Ha, yeah.” Ben clapped a hand
on his shoulder and shook it lightly. “I told you it was important
to learn the ropes in this town.”

“
I did think it was strange when
I was forced to sign a specially drafted secrets-act,” Nate noted,
voice becoming more detached.

“
About that,” Ben grinned, his
chin dimpled like a sand dune in the wind. “That secrets-act is
going to be, ah ... more binding than you think.”

Nate's brow knotted.
“Sorry?”

“
It's a magical document,” Ebony
interjected. “One of the things you'll learn in those books I've
given you is about the sacred pact between the witches and the
police department. Part of that pact is that you'll never pass on
the secret of the witches. And in order to ensure that, you sign a
special kind of document.”

Nate's brow tightened.
“What kind of
document? What do you mean?”

“
Well, while breaching an
ordinary secrets-act might land you in jail ... trying to tell
anyone about the witches will ....”

“
It's not pleasant, son,” Ben
patted Nate's shoulder again. “Your throat will seize up, you'll
lose your voice for a day, you won't be able to write or
communicate in any way ... oh, and you'll grow a really hideous
wart on the end of your nose.”

Nate grimaced.
“Right.”

“
Now, we've got to get to that
crime scene, Eb, while it's still, ah, fresh.”

Ebony gave a shudder. If anyone
had been paying particularly close attention to her, they would
have seen her stature reduce slightly, her expression become
weaker, her stance less confident. While on familiar ground, Ebony
could be as cheeky and sassy as her red lipstick and wild hair
would permit, but when things became unfamiliar, uncertain, unsafe
even then Ebony's confidence would ebb. And as the confidence
ebbed, the knowing glimmer would fade from her eyes to be replaced
with
...
well, something more human.

“
Rookie, I'll drop you off at
the office on the way.”

Detective Nathan Wall took a
final look around the room, at the books in his hands, up at Ben's
open face, and finally over to Ebony.
“I signed up for this job,” he said,
voice stiff but determined. “And this is my first day. I'll go with
you.”

Ben smiled
appreciatively.
“I knew you were made of strong stuff! Alright, let's stop
burning daylight; the citizens of Vale are counting on
us.”

As the three of them walked out of the
store, Ebony quietly surveyed the strange Detective Nate.
Firecracker, live wire, pain in the butt, or knight in shining
armor?

This one was going to be
interesting.

Chapter 2

Ebony stared up at the imposing
apartment block, her hands resting uneasily by her sides. Even
though it should have been a bright summer's day, heavy clouds were
gathering on the horizon. The building stood stark against the sky
like a thick black line on a perfectly white wall.

“
I hope Yates hasn't downed all
the coffee yet,” Ben stepped up on the curb beside Ebony and
proceeded to clear his throat loudly. “Even though it's a bright
and sunny day, be darned if I've gotten myself a chill.” He plucked
up the collar of his jacket, punched his hands into his pockets,
and walked up the steps to the cop waiting by the door.

“
Hmm,” Ebony mumbled to herself,
still trying to take in the scene. A good witch never rushed in,
her mother had always told her. A good witch waited and watched.
Watching was really mostly what witching was about.

There was certainly a sense of
something dark in the air
– a residual taste of something menacing that made
the hair on the back of Ebony's neck stand up like pins forced into
her skin.

There were no birds perching on
the windowsills, gutters, or ledges of the building. In fact, there
wasn't a chirp to be heard. There wouldn't be any rats either, or
mice, or pests of any kind. Ebony fancied there wouldn't even be an
insect left in that place
– not a cockroach under the oven, not a mosquito
perched on a light, not even a fly buzzing at the
window.

All the animals would have high-tailed
it out of there. Animals always had the proper sense of things;
humans never did.

Ebony was sickened to see more
than a couple of gawkers peering on past the yellow police-tape.
They looked up at the building, over at the police cars, and talked
amongst themselves with excited whispers. One of them even called
over to one of the cops:
“hey, what's going on here? There been a
murder?”

The cop barely looked up from
his cup of coffee.
“Use your imagination and stay behind the line.”

Ebony finally pulled her eyes
away from the people, wondering whether the human race would ever
really grow up. What kind of a creature would be so crass in the
face of such violence? What kind of a fool would stand in a place
so dark, trying to catch a glimpse of something even darker? That's
what these people were after
– a glimpse of the hardened plastic of a body bag,
or a blood soaked knife, or even a broken-faced man being led away
in handcuffs.

Images of dread. Pictures that
could be seared into their memories, that they could go home to
tell their friends and family about. Unusual stories they could
whip out at the dinner table.
“How was your day, honey? You got cut off changing
lanes? Well I saw a murder scene – body bags and all.”

Wouldn't that make for an exciting
story?

Ebony shook her head. Sometimes she
doubted whether ordinary humans had any sense at all.

“
You going to stand here shaking
your head all day, or are we actually going to go inside?”
Detective Nate said, his deep drawl reverberating and startling her
out of her reverie

Ebony managed not to jump, but
barely. How long had he been standing there? Had she been that lost
in the moment that she hadn't noticed someone walk up and plonk
themselves right next to her?
“I'm watching,” Ebony said, making her voice sound
as even and authoritative as possible, “a large part of what I do
is watch.”