The Fix Is In (Torus Intercession 4)

“Hello?” I said to whoever was on the other end of the line.

“Hello, this is Deputy Gage. Who’s this?”

“This is Shaw James, and I’m out here at the––”

“Chen property, yes,” he rushed out. “What’s happened?”

“Mrs. Chen’s shed out back just exploded.”

“Another one?”

I was surprised and repeated, “Another one?”

“Yes. We’ve had a rash of explosions. People call in to report issues, lights on in a place without electricity, strange noises, even hammering, but when I go to check them out, there’s never anything there.”

“And then the people call Mr. Grace.”

“That’s right. How did you know?”

It only followed, was all. “Is there always an explosion before Mr. Grace is supposed to check it out?”

Silence.

“Deputy?”

“Sometimes, yes, not every time.”

“And sometimes, I’m guessing, after?” I prodded.

“Well, yes actually.”

No wonder Sian and Delly thought he was in danger, and no wonder the locals, like Delly’s father, thought he was full of shit. It was all quite convenient.

I took a breath. “Tell me, Deputy, of all the places you got complaints about, when you visited them, did they reek of cat piss?”

He gasped. “They did.”

Christ.

“Is there a sheriff in this town, or just you?”

“Just me,” he replied. “Rune currently contracts with the Clatsop County Sheriff's Office, Astoria Police Department, Seaside Police Department, Gearhart Police Department, Cannon Beach Police Department, and the Oregon State Police.” He explained this to me like he was reading it off a sign in his office.

“So there’s only you on-site.”

“Well, yes, but Mr. James, we’ve never had anything like these explosions happen before. This is a brand-new occurrence.”

“Occurrences,” I corrected him. “You’ve had more than one.”

“Well,” he granted, “yes.”

I coughed softly. “Thank you, Deputy. Don’t worry about coming out. I’m about to call the state police, all right?”

“No-no-no, Sheriff Blackburn in Clatsop County prefers if we––”

“Don’t worry about it,” I assured him. “Blame it on me,” I offered and hung up. Five minutes later, I was talking with a dispatcher who was, thankfully, efficient.

“Sergeant Dix will be out to you shortly, Mr. James. Just sit tight.”

I had nowhere else to be. Benji Grace was sitting safely in my car and chatting with Delly, joined by another woman who had to be Sian.

Taking a deep breath of the wet sea-and-rain air, I realized I’d only been in town a little more than an hour and already cracked the case. I wondered if I’d even have to stay overnight.

3

Sergeant Eric Dix of the Oregon State Police was a man I could see myself liking. Not only was he as big as me, so I didn’t have to worry about intimidating him with my size, but he met my gaze and didn’t look away the entire time I was speaking. I told him about my hunch, and gave him the list of places Benji and his team had “cleared” in the last month that I had Delly send to me.

“Cleared?” he questioned me.

“You don’t wanna know. Believe me, you don’t.”

He nodded as he took the rest of my statement, which wasn’t much. Benji and I reached the stairs, and boom. That was the beginning and end of what I could tell the man.

“Where are you from?” he wanted to know.

“Chicago,” I said with a whimper.

His smile was instant. “Rather be freezing your ass off than wet, am I right?”

“What’s with the rain?” I grumbled, gesturing at the soup his people were working in. He and I both had golf umbrellas, so except for our feet, we were damp but not soaked.

“You learn to love it,” he goaded me with a smirk.

“No,” I assured him, “not on your life.”

A few minutes later, I enjoyed watching his men part for him like Moses through the Red Sea, and how he didn’t have to raise his voice but everyone scrambled anyway. When he went to see Mrs. Chen, he held her hand in his and listened attentively as she explained that Deputy Gage didn’t believe her and that was why she called in the paranormal investigators. He glanced over at me, and I mouthed the word Ghostbusters for him, which I received a scowl for.

Once he was back next to me, I got the squint from the brown-black eyes as he waited.

“What?”

“Ghostbusters?” he snapped, crossing his tree-trunk-sized arms.

“Paranormal investigators,” I clarified with a wink, enunciating the words for him.

“Are you kidding?”

“Nope. I couldn’t make this shit up,” I replied. “You wanna come meet them?”

“No, thank you,” he made clear, both hands out in front of him, turning to go check on Mrs. Chen again. It was kind of him, and I was betting that Sheriff Blackburn was going to get an earful about the ineptitude of Deputy Gage.

Dix had a whole team with him, forensics, troopers, and people from a division called Drug Lab Cleanup. Dix agreed with what I thought was going on in Rune and had his people looking for all the signs that the buildings had been used to cook meth.