Hey All, Well another week has gone by and we're up to the final installment of our little story. Today we get to see the culmination of events at a festive woodland tea party. If you want to read from the beginning head over to part 1 or head here for part 2. If you'd like to see the entire team from the beginning head on over to Cul-de-Sac to Hell for their first adventure.
Paranormal S.W.A.T.
Supernatural Weapons & Arcane Tactics
Falling
Down the Murder Hole
The velvet explosion of jazz music rolled over them as the they walked in to a large room filled with a Technicolor dinner party. A slender table stretched from in front of the door to other end of the wide oval room. The table was covered with food, drinks, and assorted mismatched center pieces. A set of brass candelabras stood a few feet from a bowl of black wax fruits. A huge bouquet of dead flowers stood with a single vibrant lily rising out of the top.
The chairs that sat around the table were mixes of different eras and styles with no two matching. A once elegant bar stool sat next to a folding lawn chair that was next to a proud Elizabethan armchair with what might have been a wobbly leg. Each was worn and well used, with frayed cushions and faded woods. The only chair of any note was a proud and well-maintained high backed Victorian with crushed velvet upholstery and exquisite hand sewn decorations that sat empty at the head of the table where Sarah and Griffin had entered. At the far end sat an overstuffed easy chair, stained and worn yet more comfortable than anything else in the room; it was also empty.
Around the table sat eclectic clusters of people; eighteen people in all. Every group was a mix of men and women some wearing what Sarah would call typical evening wear, nice suits and expensive dresses. Still some wore things of bizarre nature, style, and color. A large man in pink tartan kilt with a grand violet suede top hat stood arm in arm with a woman who wore a dress that seemed to be made from a rainbow-colored collection of leaves stitched together with thick leather cords.
The room was made to appear a wide forest clearing, the walls set with thick tree trunks to mark the border with an excellently done fresco beyond them to give the illusion of a deeper forest. The light in the room came from a series of multicolored Chinese lanterns strung in a haphazard pattern above the table. To one side sat a trio of men playing instruments with ease and skill; they were in a small area marked off by paving stones to form the border of a stage like area. One of the men noticed Sarah looking at them and nodded a greeting.
Griffin leaned towards her. “Don’t get to close, those are Satyrs and if you cross those paving stones they will lead you into the forest and dance you to death.”
Despite her distance Sarah took a small step away from the band. “So, you’re the guide here, who do you think were looking for?”
Griffin moved his head back and forth for a second then sighed. “I don’t know. Half the people here are human, the rest are various fairies and elves. We should sit and see what we can pick up.”
Sarah started to move to the Victorian before Griffin pulled her gently towards a wooden dinning room chair and a swiveling chair from a computer desk whose wheels were uselessly stuck in the dirt floor. As they sat a young woman seemed to materialize and offer them a tray of drinks. As Griffin turned and began to refuse her offer two glasses were placed before them.
Mr. Goodfellow stood next to her his elegant white tuxedo replaced with a violent orange long coat and an equally ostentatious blue top hat. He turned to the young woman. “Thank you my dear, but they have drinks already.” Looking back at Sarah and Griffin. “These are the drinks you left at the table, when you finish them if you want something else we can deal with it then.” He smiled easily and moved to the Victorian. As he sat down he nodded to Sarah and Griffin.
Sarah turned her attention to the room, everyone was staring at them and Mr. Goodfellow. She made mental notes of each of the people sitting at the table wondering if the fey were the ones in the weird outfits or if they were humans going native. She’d seen some pretty outlandish dresses standing in line for the club outside. As her eyes went from face to face she caught sight of a man sitting at the far end, Tony Abbot.
Tony had been a small time dealer in a larger organization who had been busted on minor drug charges a couple of times over the years. She came in contact with him about a year ago when his supplier was found with his head torn off in Millennium Park under the cloud; they never found the head. Tony was a suspect but was cleared pretty quick when they learned he was in the hospital having his stomach pumped from food poisoning. They never found his suppliers killer or his head and Sarah had never been able to shake the feeling Tony had known more than he was letting on. Looking at him now in a three thousand dollar suit sitting at a fairy table in another world she figured she’d been right.
The music suddenly came to an abrupt halt as a man in dirt brown tuxedo entered the room from what Sarah was certain a part of the fresco, or maybe just a cleverly hidden opening. He was large and blunt with the air of danger and brutality around him. Sarah estimated he was nearly seven foot tall, his wide shoulders and the uneven gait at which he walked made it hard to say for sure. As he lumbered forward Sarah wished she’d called Adam as well.
Several people around the table looked back and forth at him and Mr. Goodfellow then silently excused themselves and left, some through the door and some into the trees; the band exited with out even taking their expensive looking bass.
When the room had mostly cleared it left just Tony and three of his boys plus two young women. All of the men wore suits similar to Tony’s only not quite as nice. One of the women, a lithe brunette with dark eyes, wore a long slinky red evening dress and gently sipped at her drink while keeping only close enough to Tony to let you know she was with him. The other, a model worthy blonde, wore a dress that might have been woven from floral vines and peppered with various colored flowers, leaned up against him to let people know she was with Tony.
Griffin’s shoulders slumped and he turned to Mr. Goodfellow. “Seriously? A tempest raging against the world? You tricked us.”
Mr. Goodfellow smiled. “But I didn‘t lie..” He stood removing his top hat and looking to the new man. “Calabash, it’s nice of you to join us this evening.”
Griffin leaned to Sarah. “I wish you’d called Adam too.”
The newcomer stopped at the table standing next to the large evening chair and smiled. “I was about to say the same to you Robin the Goodfellow. How delightful we are, so formal with our full names, how Puckish. You so rarely join our little parties anymore and after so many years of being the master of the kettle it seems like old times to have you back.” His voice was deep and rumbled like boulders smashing together. He dropped into the easy chair and pulled the stem from a hookah that sat on the table in front of him. He took a deep breath from the end and looked at Sarah. As he spoke the smoke came out in small wisps from the side of his mouth. “And who are your friends?” With a final punctuation he exhaled a cloud of green smoke that formed a into a large question mark that hovered over the table before dissipating and floating away.
“Of course Cal, my manners are atrocious.” Mr. Goodfellow turned his body without ever removing his eyes from Cal. “Allow me to introduce Detective Sarah Parker and her escort the esteemed Doctor Griffin Wells.” He waved his hand in her direction with a showman’s flourish. Then with a bow he sat in his chair once more. “Though, if I’m not mistaken, Detective Parker and Mr. Abbot are already acquainted.”
Tony leaned back in his chair. “We met. What brings you this way detective?”
Sarah looked at the assembled people around the table for a second. She knew she was in the middle of something that was far above her. This was a contest between two mystical beings and she didn’t even know the ground rules. She wished she’d been able to ask Griffin a bit more about what was going on, what she should do, and what could go wrong. She wasn’t sure if she should lie, tell the truth, or avoid the question. As she started to open her mouth she heard a tinny little ding from the door to the hall that had been left open and the sound of the music box floated to her and wove its way into her mind. “I’m here to arrest you for the murder of Danny Jones and the for the production and distribution of Fairy Dust.”
As she said it she blinked realizing that as the words left her lips Tony and his crew had drawn closer. Not because they had moved but because the table had shrunk to fit the new group size. The once massive table was now an intimate setting that they all comfortably fit around. When the sense of movement ended Tony was now seated directly across from her as if the room had arranged itself so that she and Tony were now the focus of everything.
Tony leaned back smiling at her. “You got guts dear. I like that, admire it even, but you can’t touch me. I’m connected.” Tony’s boys, sensing that something was about to happen had already stood and positioned themselves around their boss.
The woman in the flower dress smiled at Sarah and leaned up against Tony. “Why don’t you just let Ripper have them and then we can go back to our party?”
Sarah looked at the young woman. “Excuse me, the adults are talking.”
She focused a hard look at Sarah. “You don’t get to talk to me like that. Nobody talks to me like that.”
“I have more important things to do in my life than worry about a stuck up fairy who wants to experience the wild side of humanity. Go do your slumming somewhere else.”
Both women stood at the same time. The woman in the red dress stepped back from the table and crossed her arms. The girl in the flower dress grabbed her drink off the table and flung it into Sarah’s face.
Griffin jumped to his feet his hand coming out of his pocket the cold steel knuckles fitted over his fingers. The stolen steak knife held easy in his other hand, blade down to protect himself from attack. “The brunette’s an elf, blondes a human.” He kicked off shoving Sarah’s chair sideways.
Red Dress dropped her hands and with a snicker and a snack she easily flipped open two antique walrus-handled straight razors. She moved forward and with a inhuman grace and beauty she somersaulted up onto the table in a single smooth motion. Her razors cut into the air where Sarah had been seated just seconds before. Sarah stood grabbing the tablecloth and yanking it towards her with all she was worth. Red Dress shifted as her feet moved out from underneath her but quickly recovered, rolled over onto her side and then pushed off the table shoving herself up over the hookah as it hurtled past her and crashed onto the floor. As Red Dress twirled into the air she quickly spun herself around and landed facing Griffin with both razors weaving an intricate pattern before her.
Tony’s men began drawing guns and stepping in to protect their boss. Sarah drew the pistol from it’s concealed holster and let off a quick round in their direction. One of the men, a linebacker-looking fellow, cried out and grabbed his shoulder as her shot dug into his flesh. He staggered backwards knocking over his chair and falling to one knee to stop himself from hitting the ground completely.
One of Tony’s other men, wearing sunglasses to make himself look tougher, grabbed Tony and moved towards the door leading back to the club. He was careful to keeping himself in between Tony and Sarah the whole way. Blondie in a panic moved as fast as her inexplicably ridiculous heels would let her.
The third man, a shorter fellow with a flower-patterned tie, aimed a rather serious looking automatic and squeezed off a couple of rounds in Sarah’s direction.
Sarah dove for cover, dropping to the ground behind the table. From her position she grabbed the lip of the table and tried to flip it up to give herself some cover. Try as she would the table stuck fast, refusing to be toppled. She looked down and realized that the legs of the table grew up out of the ground. She heard Flowers stop shooting to reload and briefly considered standing up to take her shot then realized from her vantage point she had a perfect shot.
She put two rounds into his legs dropping him to the ground. She stood to make sure she had finished the job when she noticed Linebacker wobbling to his feet his pistol coming to bear on her. He fired a shot that went wide and destroyed the tea cup held in Mr. Goodfellows hand as he calmly sat at the end of the table. Both he and Cal seemed to be continuing with their drinks as if there was no worry in the world.
Sarah’s attention quickly came back into focus as a bullet whipped by her head. She quickly focused on Linebacker, adjusted her aim, and put two slugs through his chest.
As the man fell backward, his pistol firing two final rounds before silence, Cal moved a small plate of scones a split second before a bullet tore through the table in the exact spot they had been.
Ignoring the oddity of the men she turned to check on Griffin. He was battling against Red Dress moving backwards away from her. His knife sticking out of the ground some distance from where he stood. He was now using the remnants of an old fashioned four legged barstool like a lion tamer to keep her at bay. His coat sleeve had a few cuts in it and Sarah could see blood on his side near a gash in his jacket. Red Dress was moving oddly, she had smoke rising up off her in a couple of places, mostly on her left side, including her cheek.
With a quick jab Red Dress pinned Griffin’s stool with one hand and with the other she knocked it free and tossed it across the clearing. She positioned her leg and stepped forward then spun her body like a ballerinas, her straight razors becoming a flashing swirl of nickel plated flair. Sarah would have marveled at the beauty of the move if not for its intended target. On pure instinct she raised her pistol and fired her last round into Red Dress’ back staggering her and knocking her spin off balance. Griffin took advantage of her momentary lapse and stepped into the fairies movement and with a solid uppercut drove his cold iron knuckles into her jaw flipping the lithe beauty up into the air and slamming her face down onto the ground.
Sarah ran to Griffin. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, go get that bastard.”
Ramming a quickloader into her sidearm Sarah turned and ran to the door and entered the long hall. She started past the statue of Alice taking a moment to step over the decapitated monster head that was now in the middle of the floor. She sprinted into the hall and started up it when she quickly came to Tony and his entourage. Tony was limping badly, his ankle clearly busted, leaning on Blondie and Shades for support. His voice was high pitched and broken. “Stupid statue. This is gonna take forever to heal. Get me to the ER.”
Sarah dropped into a perfect shooters stance. “Freeze Tony!”
Shades let go of his boss and turned raising his pistol to a firing position, Sarah dropped him with one shot straight through his pretty glasses. Then shifted her focus back to Tony.
Tony grabbed Blondie and was now using her as a shield. He’d jerked her in front of him so fast it had dislodged one of her stilettos and left her standing on unsteady feet trying to get out of the way. Tony pulled a switchblade and raised it to Blondie’s throat; once a street punk always a street punk. “Back off or I skewer the bitch.”
Blondie started to protest and Tony shook her hard. He began limping backward sucking breath with each step on his broken ankle.
Sarah matched his movements never letting her aim off of him. “I can’t do that Tony. Let her go; there’s no way out of this for you.”
Tony kept inching up the hall trying to get to the safety of the real world still some fifty feet away. “I’m in charge here. Not you, me. You do what I say or I stick…”
Tony was suddenly cut off as his body leapt backward as if jerked off his feet. He slammed into the tile floor and the with a loud huff the air exited his lungs leaving him grasping on the ground. Sarah quickly moved forward and dropped to the ground next to Tony rolling him over on his stomach. She reached to her side and realized she’d left her purse at the table. Turning to Blondie she reached over grabbed one of the vines from the hem of her dress and yanked it free. Using it as a rope she tied Tony’s hands behind his back.
“Fine arrest me. You aint got nothing. I’ll be free in a couple of hours and then me and the boys’ll come looking for you.”
Blondie having collected herself stomped to Tony and kicked him in the side. “You bastard.” Sarah moved to stop her as she kicked him again. “I’m gonna give them everything. Accounts, dealers, suppliers, all of it.” She kicked him again.
Sarah pulled Blondie off of Tony and backed her away from him. Blondie stood there for a moment her rage boiling over and then as she calmed down slowly the adrenalin faded and she broke down in tears clinging to Sarah.
She looked up the hall to Mr. Goodfellow who stood there sipping at a cup of tea, smiling. “Your friend will be along in a minute.”
After a few minutes Griffin, adjusting his scarf, walked up the hall. Mr. Goodfellow, with a slight raise of his cup as if in salute, turned and walked back to the garden party from where the sound of jazz was beginning to again filter down the hall.
* * *
It took the bouncer a couple of minutes to move Tony and Blondie whose name was Linda to a private boardroom where the bodies of the three guards lay in the positions Sarah had dropped them in. Mr. Goodfellow gave Linda something to drink then very carefully explained the evenings events to her as if retelling the story only this time everything happened in the boardroom and the fey lands weren’t in the story at all.
When the CPD showed up Sarah explained that she had been on a date and Mr. Goodfellow recognizing her as a police officer asked her to intercede in something he thought might have been illegal. He had been right and she discovered Tony and his men discussing their Fairy Dust business.
The story had a few places where bits and pieces didn’t work but everyone seemed to go with the events as they were explained. Sarah wondered how much of it was the coffee the club supplied to the officers. She was worried but Griffin told her it was okay and she trusted him. After a few hours in the club she was allowed to leave and go home to change and get some sleep with orders to report to I.A. in the morning to help work out the details of the case as they related to Danny.
Outside she met Griffin standing off to one side out of the eye line of the local officers. She walked up and hugged him. “Are you okay? I thought I saw you bleeding in there.”
He hugged her back. “I’m fine someone splashed me with raspberry preserves when they flipped the table cloth.” He ran his finger through the mostly dried stain and held it up for her to smell, raspberry preserves.
“Do you think it will change anything.”
Griffin paused for a moment and wiped his finger off against his jacket. “Linda was drinking in the fey lands, I think she’s going to know quite a bit about Tony’s operation that he didn’t realize she knew. I already heard her talking about things that happened out of town, things with Tony’s old boss, and a particularly interesting tale about killing and framing a vice cop less than a week ago.”
She hugged him again and just stood there, letting the early Chicago rain sprinkle the ground around them. She felt him against her and then leaned down and whispered into his ear, “Thank you for everything you did tonight.”
A small cough off to one side caused them to both jerk apart and turn to face the noise. Mr. Goodfellow stepped from the shadows where there wasn’t an opening for someone to hide. “I just wanted to congratulate you on all the good work that was done tonight.” He reached his hand out to shake with Sarah. “A job well done.”
Sarah reached to take his hand when Griffin grabbed her wrist. “We are not done yet. Nor are we even.” He stepped in front of Sarah. “We did quite a bit for you tonight: toppled a rival, saved your club, kept the police from coming back, and improved your position in the Courts. When compared to your offering of clearing her friend I’d say we are far from even.”
Mr. Goodfellow laughed. “I was hoping you wouldn’t notice. What do you want?”
Griffin took a deep breath. “The music box, let her go.”
“I can’t guarantee her final destination.”
“It won’t be there and that’s enough.”
“Very well, done.” He reached his hand out again.
Griffin stepped aside. “Go ahead.”
Sarah shook his hand and felt a small ripple in the air followed by a warm feeling in the pit of her stomach. She stood there for a moment not realizing that Mr. Goodfellow had gone and for no reason at all she started to cry.
Griffin put his hand on her shoulder and moved to look into her eyes. “How do you feel?”
She looked at her reflection in his mirrored sunglasses and met her won eyes. “Happy.”
As the sun cracked over the horizon and warmed their faces he hugged her. “Thank god.”
* * *
Griffin was waiting in Albert’s office sitting in one of the overstuffed office chairs that filled the area. He’d been in the pool when Christine had called him to let him know Albert would be up soon. He threw on his favorite evening robe and grabbed his pipe and a bottle of brandy from the pantry. He’d been waiting all day for Albert to arrive and as he watched the sun set he listened for the door. He was still sore from last night and was happy Doctor Jackson had been able to stop by and stitch him up a bit.
He heard the door open and listened to the footsteps as Albert crossed the room and sat at his desk. Griffin thought about offering Albert a drink but knew he didn’t drink brandy and decided it would be a wasted nicety.
Albert dropped a pile of folders into a drawer of his desk and looked at Griffin. “What‘s the damage?”
Griffin had dreaded this part, facing off against mad fairies was easy, facing off against Albert, not so much. Griffin took a deep breath and reminded himself not to refer to Goodfellow by name unless he wanted to draw attention to the conversation. He spent the next several minutes going over most of the events of the evening all the events including the arrests afterwards.
Albert sat staring at him listening intently and when he was done whistled quietly. “You sure it was Ripper you fought?”
“The straight razors are unmistakable, it was definitely Jaclyn. She’s down for now, I hit her pretty hard and Sarah put a round in her back, but when she’s up again…”
Albert rubbed his eyes. “It’s worse than that. She’ll hold a grudge forever. It could be years before she comes looking for payback. What’s you final assessment of Him?”
“He knows who we are or at least who Sarah is. She’s important, I’m not sure how, only that there were rune stones involved and apparently every fairy knows about her. The clubs a mess and filled with fey and humans interacting with one another; I don’t know how much the humans know but the fairies are playing pretty fast and loose with the rules.”
Albert leaned back. “They always do that. This isn’t the first time one of these clubs existed and it wont be the last. Was there any good news?”
“I can answer one of the questions from our background check on Sarah, I know what happened to her mother; they had her.”
“Had?”
“She was a music box. Part of the deal freed her.” Albert looked like he was about to say something. “Sarah doesn’t know. She might ask later but she was overwhelmed with joy right after we finished.”
“A good ending. We rarely get those.”
Griffin sat nervously for a second then leaned forward. “Also, and I’m not sure where this falls into good or bad, I can see through their illusions when my eyes are closed.”
“Really?” Albert turned his chair to look out the window. “It’s at least interesting. Do they know?”
“I think He does, or at least he suspected. That’s why he went to such lengths to get us, me there.”
They sat in silence for a while and then the phone rang, Griffin took advantage of the distraction to gather his things and leave.
End.
There's a bit of an epilogue for this piece if you'd like to see how Sarah's weekend went in the end.
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