A small smile crossed my face.
This was ideal.
We approached the car from the side, and somewhere along the line, Maggie managed to hide the sword altogether.
Sure beat a poster tube.
The woman startled a bit as I knocked on the window.
She stared at me. Did I have blood on my face? Had she picked up on what happened with the ghouls?
The window rolled down.
“Hello?” she asked.
“Stuck?” I asked.
“I don’t need to go far,” she said. “Just that house over there. If I could get into the garage, I’d be in the clear. I don’t want to be on the street if the plow comes.”
“We can give you a bit of a push,” I said. “Do you have a shovel?”
A smile crossed the woman’s face. “In my trunk! Let me do it-”
“No,” I said. “You stay behind the wheel, get ready to hit the gas. We can handle it.”
We walked around to the back of the car while she rolled her window up.
“Volunteering me?” Maggie asked.
“Objections?”
“If I wanted to do work, I’d be doing something different with my life.”
“Five minutes of work,” I said.
She rolled her eyes.
I beckoned the Tallowman.
Between hat and scarf, his freakish nature was largely hidden. Only his face – a waxy orb where he should have had an eyeball, and tallow filling the scar around the eye socket, where something broad and crude had been used to destroy the contents.
He moved slowly. I could understand that, feeling how hard the wax in my chest was. I used the shovel to get the worst of the snow away from under the front bumper.
Three of us pushing, one inhumanly strong, and we managed to get the car moving.
She’d already opened the garage, and used her momentum to glide straight in.
She was beaming when she stepped out.
“Oh my god, thank you,” she said. “Whoo, I should not have gone out. Nothing in the stores.”
“Pretty brave,” I said.
“Are you in a rush, or do you want to come inside and have a bite, or warm up, at least?”
“I can’t speak for my companion here, but I’d love to take you up on that,” I said.
“Yeah,” Maggie said. “Please.”
“I’m Joanna, by the way.”
“Hi Joanna,” Maggie said. “I’m Maggie.”
“Blake,” I said.
A moment’s concerns were banished when Joanna smiled and led the way inside.
We were led into the garage. I lagged behind.
“Ev,” I murmured.
He squirmed his way out from my scarf, flying to my hand. I positioned myself so I wasn’t in anyone’s line of sight, standing by the garage door.
“You know the drill,” I said.
“What if-”
The others were already at the door. A moment’s delay and I’d look suspicious.
“Improvise,” I cut him off. I moved my hand, and Evan took flight.
When I’d drawn close enough, Joanna closed the garage.
In the dwindling light that passed beneath the garage door, I could see the ward carved into the doorframe. A stylish pattern, made clearer by the stain that had been applied to the wood.
Craning my head, I took it all in, examining the connections.
Nothing too strong in the house itself. It wasn’t a demesne.
“Alarm rune,” Maggie murmured in my ear.
Perfect.
I stepped across it, and I felt the connection pop into being.
He knew, now.
There were a variety of clocks on the wall in the bent hallway that extended between the garage door and the front door.
I saw a picture of the woman with Duncan Behaim.
“Are you married?” I asked.
“He’s my fiancé.”
The fiancé was on his way.
“Police officer,” I observed.
“A damn good one,” Joanna said.
“With an obsession over clocks,” I said.
“Yes. Everyone notices. Everyone has their eccentricities,” she said. “Can I offer you anything?”
“No thank you,” I said.
Maggie shook her head.
“Any idea why he has that particular eccentricity?” I asked.
“None at all. I think it’s cute,” she said. “Where were you two going?”
“We’re looking for someone,” I said. “Not a hundred percent sure where to look. He’s proving hard to track down. He’s the police chief in the town I recently moved to.”
“No,” she said.
“You know who I’m talking about? Is your fiancé Laird Behaim?”
“Laird is his uncle. A whole contingent of my Duncan’s family just showed up a few days ago. It got to be too much, so they changed over to a hotel room.”
I resisted asking where.
“Family can be hard,” I said.
“I’m glad to deal with family,” she said. “Makes me feel connected to him, if that makes any sense.”
“I can sort of understand that,” I said.
Joanna smiled. “Do you mind? I’m going to make some malted hot chocolate. Offer stands, if you want anything.”
“I don’t mind,” I said.
She rounded the corner to the kitchen, leaving me feeling very out of place in Duncan Behaim’s living room.
Maggie seemed to be adapting better.
“What are you doing?” Rose asked.
“Testing the hypothesis,” I said.
“Dangerous way to go about it,” Rose said, just under her breath.
“Have to take risks,” Maggie said. “Keeps things exciting, if nothing else.”
“That’s not exactly my perspective,” I said.
“Nor mine,” Rose said.
“I do think that everything has a price…” I said.
I saw a connection flash. Our hostess was talking to Duncan.
“…And a bit of risk can be the price of opportunity,” I said. “She-”
“She just contacted him,” Maggie finished for me.
I nodded.
“What now?” Rose asked.
“Think. Laird slipped away a bit ago, using his pocketwatch. Duncan isn’t using the same means to get here faster, when someone he cares about is at risk.”
The phone call finished.
“He’s forsworn, isn’t he?” Rose asked.
“That could be it,” I said. “Could be I’m right.”
Joanna stepped into the room. “This is embarrassing, but I just realized I forgot I promised to mail something to my work as soon as I got home. Are you okay right there while I go handle that? I’ll be right back.”
Running. Duncan had told her to scram.
“I’d feel a little strange, being in your house when you’re not around,” I said. “Should we go?”
“No, please, stay as long as you like.”
She’d been told to keep us here. Now she was caught between two instructions. Had he communicated the severity of the situation?
“It’s fine,” I said. “If it’s an inconvenience having us, we could head out and get in touch with Laird another time. We did our good deed for the day.”
“It’s no inconvenience, really. Duncan’s going to be back any minute-”
“Oh, I definitely don’t want to be sitting in your living room without you there,” I said. “He might be surprised and shoot me.”
True on both counts.