Page 44 of Investigation of a Quest

“Both detectives? What did I do this time?”

“Do you know anything about Mexico?” Bel asked.

“Mexico?” Eamon leaned back in his desk chair, clearly not expecting that question.

“Specifically, does anything live there?” Bel clarified. “Something in the jungle?” She launched into a quick recap of what they’d learned, starting with the discovery that twenty years ago, all three victims had been in Mexico and ending with their call to Professor Emerald Ciudad.

“So you’re wondering if those yellow bricks belong to some sort of shrine or temple ruins dedicated to something a human professor wouldn’t know about,” he said when she finished speaking.

“Have you ever heard of anything hiding out there?” Bel asked. “Did these men make something angry?”

“It’s possible,” Eamon said. “Witches in Bajka. Three dead men with the same unusual artifact. There’s a very good chance they stumbled on something they shouldn’t have. Or maybe they encountered a coven that’s brought their fight here. Unfortunately, I’ve never heard of anything living in Mexico’s jungles. Doesn’t mean there isn’t, though. Other beings of power don’t exactly broadcast themselves to me. That’s the fastest way to go extinct, so I don’t know every supernatural creature in the world.”

“What good is having a thousand-year-old boyfriend if he can’t answer these kinds of questions for me?” Bel winked, but the infamous Impaler just rolled his eyes.

“I can ask my contacts if any covens practice out of the Mexican jungles, or if they’ve heard rumors of anything hiding there,” he said.

“Contacts?” Olivia repeated. “Isn’t everyone in your world afraid of you? Or trying to kill you?”

“Yes, and yes,” Eamon said. “But some are smart enough to realize that working with me reduces the likelihood that they’ll end up with a snapped neck.”

“It’s unnerving when you say things like that,” Olivia said.

“I know,” he said without a hint of remorse.

“So, you’ll make some calls?” Bel asked, reining the conversation back in.

“Yeah, I’ll look into it. When was their trip? I can ask if something happened that year.”

“It was twenty years…” Bel froze. “A trip out of the country twenty years ago—Eamon, I love you.” She hung up before he could so much as blink and whirled on her startled partner. “Like a certain trip that turned Leo Craven into an agoraphobe.” She bolted to her feet and grabbed her car keys as she dragged Olivia out of the station with her. “I think Leo Craven went missing because he’s the next victim. I bet he visited Mexico and saw something he shouldn’t have, something that locked him inside his home for two decades. There were no signs of a struggle or forced entry at his apartment, so what if he saw his travel companions die and guessed he was next? What if he’s in hiding because he was the fourth man to steal a yellow brick?”

“Hi, Em, thanks for meeting us,” Bel said as they joined Leo Craven’s aunt outside his apartment.

“It sounded urgent on the phone,” the woman said. “Have you found him?”

“Not yet,” Bel said. “But we might have a lead. We just need to check something in his apartment.”

“Of course, anything to help.” Em unlocked the door for the detectives.

“I didn’t see it the first time we were here,” Olivia whispered. “He probably hid it, though, especially if it made him too afraid to leave the house.”

“Em, do we have your permission to search through your nephew’s things?” Bel asked.

“Are you looking for something specific?” the aunt asked. “Maybe I can help you.”

The detectives exchanged a conflicted look, but with a missing person’s life at stake, Bel decided they’d wasted enough time. “Have you ever seen anything like this?” She showed the woman a photo of the yellow brick.

“That’s your lead?” Em pinched her eyebrows.

“I know it makes no sense, but please. Have you seen this?” Bel asked.

“Yes, I have.” The woman crossed the floor to Leo’s desk while Bel and Olivia held their breath, and she pulled the bottom drawer open. “I found this once while cleaning, and I asked him about it. Such an odd, broken thing to keep, but Leo freaked out and shoved it back into the drawer. Told me never to touch it again.” Em stood up and extended her palm, revealing a jagged, rough piece of familiar yellow brick.

“You mentioned your nephew became agoraphobic after a trip.” Bel glanced at Olivia—the same broken stone. Leo Craven was the fourth victim. She just hoped he was hidden well. “Did he travel to Mexico twenty years ago?”

“I don’t know,” Em said. “He never talked about it.”

“But that trip inspired him to stay locked inside his apartment?”