McGovern pulled up to Headquarters as James and Bradley were getting out of the car a few minutes later. “Captain,” McGovern greeted James formally.

“Sir.”

McGovern greeted Bradley too, but James could tell he was nervous, looking around the quiet street like something was going to jump out from behind the neighbor’s crispy hydrangeas. “Come on in,” James said. “I have the, um, artifact in my office.”

Had McGovern been to their headquarters since James had worked here? Let alone since he’d been captain? James didn’t know how long he’d worked for the Foundation, but nearly all of their interaction had been on the phone or computer. Or midnight at the twenty-four-hour Dunkin Donuts by the highway. McGovern followed them into the house, awkwardly kicking off his own dress shoes by the door as James and Bradley did the same.

Bradley went off to do whatever he was planning to do as James led McGovern to his office. He moved all the folder boxes off of the kitchen chairs, noticing McGovern’s face as he saw the amount of files in each. “Sit down,” he said, gesturing toward the now-empty chairs.

“You’ve set this space up nicely,” McGovern said as he sat down in the creaky chair.

James considered sitting behind his desk, but he wasn’t about to get into petty power moves right now. So instead, he pulled the debit card across the chipped desktop and sat down in the other chair.

“Thanks,” he said. “A lot of it came from family members remodeling their houses.”

“I remember those days,” McGovern said.

James really did have no idea about this man outside of his irritating presence at the Foundation. “So she was going after children,” McGovern said as he looked at the debit card.

“We suspect she was hired to target an eleven-year-old girl.”

McGovern swore softly. “You should have come to us,” he said.

Before James could protest, he nodded. “I’m aware of your reasoning,” he said. “And I know there was no good way to handle it and you made the best decision you could in these circumstances. So what we’re going to do now is make this an official case, backdated to the first incident. I can extradite it, with the first phone call to the potential culprit going out tomorrow morning. In the meantime, we can spare one security agent. Agent Forester will be dispatched to the house around four AM. Do you have anyone there now?”

“Gabriella McManus is on the site,” James said, the formal tone feeling strange one-on-one in this office. “I’ll be replacing her in a couple hours while Bradley watches Headquarters overnight. It’s fifteen minutes away, so I’ll be working on administrative work and on call while I’m there.”

“Good. And Agent McManus is trained in this?”

“As much as any of us,” James said. “But I trust her abilities there and have been in touch, we actually just got back. She’s also part of the impacted family. She’s my cousin.”

“I assumed as much,” McGovern said mildly.

He took the card and looked it over. “This is the suspect’s?”

“She had access to create the sigil that allowed Polly Grace inside,” James said. “And she has the motive. I’ll forward a report tonight.”

“Once I receive it, we’ll put it into the system,” McGovern said. “Have you done this before?”

James shook his head. “It’s essentially out of your hands now,” McGovern said, and the immense relief that came with this was a surprise. “We have an anonymizer service, they are going to call the family to inform them that their debit card was found at the scene and please contact our number to retrieve it. From there, it’ll go to counseling, which can help them fix the situation they’ve caused.”

That was surprisingly restorative. “Alright,” James said. “What do you need from me?”

“Remain at the house where the family is currently staying,” McGovern said as he took some pictures of the card on his phone. “I’ll take this with me, but it is essential that the house remain protected at all times. Nobody goes into the targeted house unless your team says so, but the safe house has either Forester or a member of your team there at all times until this is resolved.”

James wanted to ask how long that would be, but things were so productive right now that he didn’t want to jinx it. So instead, he got a small plastic bag for McGovern, who carefully wrapped the credit card and put it into his own bag. “You and Bradley stay at Headquarters or at that house until this is resolved. Once the family is notified, you’ll be at further risk, even when the report is anonymous. So is anyone who has been on the property since this all began.”

Fantastic. Bradley was definitely not going to fight with him about this even after James had tried to keep him away from the house for exactly this reason. But at least Gabriella was in the clear. McGovern stood up. “I’ll be in touch,” he said. “Thank you, Captain.”

James walked him out and when he got back in the building, he went to find Bradley in the back bedroom. “Will you be alright here if I leave in about ten minutes?” he asked.

“Fine.”

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.”

“So listen,” James said. “You stay here tonight and we’ll play it by ear for both of us with Polly Grace. Gabs didn’t go on the property, just you and me. And McGovern’s concerned that she’ll go after us too once the family’s contacted. I’ll be sending in the report tonight. If they try to do an ESP screening with you, I’ll try to get you out of it.”

“I’m not doing one.”

Jesus, it was like talking to Krissy on a particularly petulant day. “Fine,” he said, knowing he couldn’t make that promise and knowing Bradley knew it too. “I’ll have the radio on all night. Keep it on on your end too. I’m fifteen minutes away, so call me if anything comes up.”

“I will.”

“And try to get some rest.”

“I’m fine.”

James wasn’t sure why he bothered sometimes. 

***

Gabriella had to undo eight separate charms in order to let James into the home he’d spent vast amounts of his childhood in. It felt secure as he walked in the front hallway and toward the living room, where Celia waved him in from the old sofa. Her mother and ex-husband were both in the living room too. Adam acknowledged James with a tired nod, while Auntie Jules embraced him, then went to check on the children. Adam followed after, clearly trying to get away from the magic talk for a minute.

“The girls are asleep,” Celia said. “What’s going on?”

He sat on the couch with her and Gabriella and laid out everything. At the end, Celia looked a little less horrified than she had over the past twenty-four hours. 

“You’re going to stay here,” James said. “It could be done as early as tomorrow, depending on what happens. But you, Adam, your mom, and the girls all stay here until it’s over. You were all in the house recently, so you’re all potential targets for Polly Grace if the family lashes out. She’s unlikely to do anything to you on her own, she’s a businesswoman and not going to do work for free. But she’s also not above taking their money and doing something brutal.”

“We won’t even look out the window.”

“I’m not positive, but I don’t think she can see inside, even if she does try to get in,” James said. “Gran’s protections on the house are solid.”

“How do you know?” Celia asked.

Gabriella and James exchanged a look. “Um, possibly a message from Gran, but we can’t be sure.”

Celia looked at them both, then shook her head. “I’m not surprised by anything anymore,” she said. “Gran, if you’re here, thank you!”

James couldn’t sense ghosts without equipment or them screaming at him to come into their classroom. So he had no way to know it had been Gran passing on a message through his surliest teammate. He could hope. If it was, maybe he could just dismiss the rest of the content of Bradley’s dream as a standard nightmare. 

“Uncle Tommy said he’s about ten minutes out,” Celia said. “Mom tried to convince him not to come, but apparently he’s familiar with this woman.”

“He’s the one who told me about her originally. And it turned out she was exactly who we were looking for during a case last year.”

“So you’ve dealt with her before?” Celia said. “Why couldn’t the Foundation do anything then?”

“What would we hold her on?” James asked. “We’re not law enforcement, so we can’t really do much when it’s people.”

“I know,” Celia said quickly. “I’m sorry, you’re doing everything here, it’s not you. But I just don’t understand how this woman can be well known enough that both Uncle Tommy and the Foundation know about her, but nobody can actually do anything about her.”

“It’s a messy field,” James said. “And I know that’s, like, the least comforting thing in the world when it’s the girls who are in danger. But I mean it. Stay here and you’re safe. Between Gran and the Foundation, this place is locked down. Polly Grace doesn’t actually give a shit unless there’s a paycheck involved so she’s not going to veer off course.”

“What, Polly Grace? Yeah, kid, she deals in magical contracts and nothing else.”

Uncle Tommy’s voice behind him made James jump. He turned to see him and Gabriella in the doorway. “Hey, kiddo,” Uncle Tommy said, pulling James into a rib-cracking hug.

“You shouldn’t have come,” James said.

“I’ll ignore that,” Uncle Tommy said. “Here, Mary sent these over.”

He dropped a bag of weapons on the coffee table. “No guns, I promised,” he said. “But the rest of it is pretty good too. Gabriella, my girl, can you help me get these set up somewhere safe?”

***

A little later, Gabriella’s shift was over. Of course she offered to stay on, but James refused. She needed to be fresh tomorrow when she got in, since he and Bradley wouldn’t be able to go into the field. So now they were standing by the door, Gabriella clearly reluctantly to leave. “Are you going home?” James asked.

“Yeah.”

“Is Elliot there?”

“No. He helped me get some stuff from Boston that both of our branches needed. We’re still not… there’s a lot to talk about and I’m still really mad at him. We’ll talk soon, I just don’t know when. But I’m going to go back and grab my bag from Headquarters, then I’ll go home.”

“Careful. Bradley’s there and he’s in a fucking mood.”

“What else is new?”

“He’s mad at me for what I did in his dream last night. And also because he’s probably going to have to do the ESP screening thing.”

“I never did that,” Gabriella said. “What is it?”

“It’s a test they do if an agent shows signs of any kind of extrasensory ability,” James said. “I’ve done it before, it’s just trying to guess the shape on cards and a couple other things. So it isn’t bad, just annoying. And it’s almost always false positives. But since we had to include information from his dream, they’re going to call. I told him I’d try to get him out of it, but it’s not likely.”

“So there’s time and money to do that, but not for anything else?”

“You know this place well now.”

James shook his head as he looked around the hallway carefully, searching for any signs of danger. “I told him not to worry about it. It’s the charms on the house, Polly Grace, and the fact that we had a very weird, intense search at Celia’s house hours earlier. Those things together are a fucking recipe for these kinds of messages, even in people without psychic abilities.”

“Maybe I don’t need my bag tonight.”

James laughed and gave her a hug. “I’ll walk you out.”

She didn’t argue, but he did notice the way that she didn’t drive away until he was back behind the closed door. Alone in the living room of Gran’s warm, safe home, James opened his laptop and started writing his report.

***

James stayed at the house until seven the next morning, when Agent Forester, a burly, bearded man he’d briefly worked with on the Delinsky case, arrived. Once James was sure the house was secure and everyone was fine, he left with the promise to come back the second they needed him.

When he got back to Headquarters, Madelyn was arriving and Bradley was wrapping up the night shift. He was sitting in the living room, filling out some form on the coffee table. “Hey,” James said, sitting down on the couch across from him. “Any exciting updates?”

“No.”

“Any good dreams you need to share?”

“I dreamed I was holding your head underwater.”

Fair enough. 

“Listen,” he said as Bradley glanced up at him. “I know this is going to piss you off, but you shouldn’t go home. Polly Grace knows you were at the house, so you’re a target, same as me. McGovern is notifying the family this morning, so going home would put you at risk if they decide to retaliate.”

He waited for the fight and wasn’t sure he’d have the energy for it. But Bradley just nodded. “Alright.”

“Alright?”

“Yeah, alright. I’ll stay here. I’m on again in ten hours, anyway.”

James had been braced for the fight. And apparently this was obvious, because Bradley shook his head. “I’m a target for Polly Grace, who could steal my eyeballs and make me eat them. I think I’m okay with staying here today.”

He shrugged like James was the unreasonable one, then turned back to his form while James went over to where Madelyn was unpacking her bag for the day. As he updated Madelyn on everything that was going on, Gabriella walked in.

“Hey, James?” she called as she came up the stairs to the living room.

“Hey, what’s up, Gabs?”

“I think I know what happened in the LeRoux case.”

He motioned for her to come sit on the couch, where Madelyn joined them as well. “It’s the field,” Gabriella said. “Where the auto shop is now. The missing persons files from that time period aren’t great, but me and Elliot found one from a man that supposedly lived in Winchester. There was no family by that name there at that time, but there was in Westminster. I looked into it last night when I got home. And I think something happened to him and his body was buried in that field.”

James looked at her, impressed. “Gabs, that’s quite the research.”

“LeRoux was most of the way there,” Gabriella said. “I just put the pieces together after she couldn’t.”

“Let’s make that one the priority as soon as Polly Grace is dealt with,” James said. “Which better be soon because I’m nervous about Foundation employee safety too.”

His phone beeped with an email, and he opened it, reading the message quickly. “Alright, the Foundation put out the phone call to the family,” he said. “Now we wait. Also,” He looked further down the message. “Brad, buddy. Unfortunately, you’re being called in for an ESP screen on November eleventh.”

“I’m not doing that shit.”

James sighed. “Look, I know you’re not psychic,” he said. “You know you’re not psychic. But they’re going to hound you about it until you finally do it. It’s a short process, they just have you try to name what’s on the cards. It’s not a big deal.”

“I’ve done it before,” Bradley snapped. “It’s a waste of time. And they’re really shitty at it because they use those stupid see-through cards, so everyone can see the answers, anyway.”

James looked at him, unsure he’d heard that right. But no, Gabriella and Madelyn were staring at Bradley now too.

“What do you mean?” James asked.

“Have you ever done it?”

“Yeah, after the Jarvis case. Have you?”

“They called me in like four times at my old branch. It’s garbage. You sit down and they hold up a card, telling you to say what’s on the other side. Right?”

“Yeah?”

“But it’s the Foundation and they use these cheap see-through cards because God forbid they buy good ones. And you can see every single answer. So I know all the answers already. I just bullshit it and give them wrong ones so I can leave.”

Madelyn frowned at him. “Bradley,” she said slowly. “Those cards aren’t see-through. Amelia told me they’re just like regular playing cards.”

“No,” Bradley said, shaking his head. “No, they’re…I don’t know, the light hits them and the other side is visible.”

“No, bud, that’s not… that’s not what’s happening,” James said, letting the implication hang heavily between them.

After a beat of uncomfortable silence, Bradley sighed. “Whatever,” he said. “I’m going to go sleep in the back bedroom so Polly Grace doesn’t fucking get me. And I’m not doing the stupid test.”

“Fine,” James said. “Good night. Gabs, if you could write an initial report, then set up a plan to confirm your theory. And Madelyn, Amelia and Graham will be here in about thirty minutes. Amelia’s in charge today, so she’ll have the plans in place. Agent Forester is at my aunt’s now. I’m going to take over for him in a few hours.”

“Are you going home?” Madelyn asked.

“No, Polly Grace could target me too since we were both in the house. I’m going to sleep in my office in case any calls come in.”

Everyone looked like they wanted to argue with him, but no one did. So James got up and headed into his office. Once he was alone, he laid down on the couch, eyes drifting to the bookshelf full of old demonology textbooks behind his desk. Polly Grace was human, at least according to Uncle Tommy. And while the Foundation had connections in various non-paranormal government organizations, it couldn’t really do much about humans. But on the other side of that, were the local police anywhere in New England really going to investigate a magical murderer? 

He fell asleep with Celia’s questions still gnawing at him.

---

CONTINUE TO CHAPTER 27