James had seen Celia angry before. They were cousins, they’d grown up together. Hell, he’d seen the anger directed at him plenty when they were kids. She could be scary. But that was nothing compared to the fury he saw on the other side of Gran’s kitchen table when he was done telling her what had happened last night.

“A sorcerer,” she repeated. “A fucking sorcerer went after my daughters.”

“That’s my most likely theory,” James replied, bouncing Jenny on his leg.

“PENNY!”

Unfortunately, she sounded so angry that Penny flew into the room, looking terrified. At the sight of her, Celia almost started crying. “No, I’m so sorry, honey, I’m not mad at you. Honey, what is the name of the girl that’s been harassing you?”

“Ava Devens,” Penny said.

Celia took a shaky breath. “Has she been in the house?”

“Ew, no.”

Jenny was drooling on James’s hand as he kept his leg bouncing and watched Penny. “Have you met her mother?” Celia asked.

“No,” Penny insisted. “Mom, I don’t like her.”

“Do you have homework buddies that drop off homework?” Celia asked.

“What are you talking about?”

“If you miss a homework assignment,” Celia pressed. “Like if you’re home sick and you can’t get your homework. Does a friend bring it over for you?”

Penny ducked her head. “No.”

“Honey, I’m just asking. You’re not in trouble.”

“She took my backpack,” Penny said, looking at James.

Celia looked over too, then back at Penny, confused. “Penny, what are you talking about?”

“Ava took my backpack and my homework was in it. I forgot we could go online and get it, so my teacher got mad at me. She said I should have remembered from last year.”

“Was it available online last year?”

“Yeah. I’m sorry.”

“No, Pen, no,” Celia was crying now. “Honey, has Ava’s mom ever tried to contact you?”

“No.”

“Or has Ava said anything about her mom to you?”

“She said her family is better than mine,” Penny said, wiping her eyes. “She said we’re trash. And her mom thinks so too. And that she thinks Ava would be a better Dorothy.”

James wasn’t sure he should be here for this conversation, but Jenny was still in his lap, chewing her fingers and looking up at him with her huge blue eyes. “I’m going to have you and Krissy stay home from school for a few days,” Celia said. “Just until we figure this out.”

“Penny,” James said, standing up and coming over with Jenny on his hip. “Do you have Ava’s number?”

“She doesn’t have a cell phone.”

“Do you have her home phone?”

Of course the mom who thought they still had homework buddies would only talk through a landline. Penny took out her cellphone and scrolled through the numbers, then held it out so James could see. He took out his own phone and copied the number for AVA HOME

He glanced at Celia, who nodded. “I’m going to hang onto this,” James said, memories of going off the side of the road at the top of his mind. “This is beyond what we’re able to do right now. I think Ava’s family may have made some bad choices. But Pen, none of this is your fault, okay?”

She nodded, tears gleaming in her eyes. James looked at Celia. “I’m going to talk to the Foundation,” he said a moment later, after Penny had left the room. “Our liaison knows we’re all working off the books, so at worst I’ll get a slap on the wrist. But I’m not fucking around with this. I’ve got their number, but I’m not going to poke them. Last time I did that, the previous customers had her cut my brakes.”

“What the fuck?” Celia demanded. “James, how do I keep my daughters safe?”

“Keep them here,” James said. “This is the safest place they can be. I have to go back to work now, but I’ll call on the way and see what the Foundation wants to do.”

***

He expected at least a minor telling off from McGovern. So when James told him what was going on as he drove back to Headquarters, he was shocked to finish the story to a thoughtful, “Hmm.”

“What do you think?” James asked as he stopped at a red light.

“I think this is a mess,” McGovern said with a brittle laugh. “And I should yell at you, but if I do that, then I’m going to have to yell at every captain in Massachusetts. And now Rhode Island.”

“If I called it in, then it would have ended up in one of those boxes,” James argued. “Sir, I’m working on a hundred-year-old case from that box right now. And these are living children who are being terrorized. Even if it wasn’t my family-”

“I know,” McGovern interrupted. “And I understand the frustration with assignments right now and why you didn’t tell us earlier. It’ll get smoothed out, eventually. But you’re right to bring this to us now. Polly Grace… I expected her to go after the Delinsky family again when she resurfaced on our radar. Not a preteen girl.”

“She got paid to do it,” James said, mentally filing away that “resurfaced” comment to be furious about later. “Just like last time. And the kid who hired her for the Delinsky case? The one she killed? I’d be shocked if she was twenty. She doesn’t give a shit if it’s kids she’s hurting. And these people gave her money to scare Penny.”

“She’s my daughter’s age,” McGovern said, almost to himself.

James had no idea McGovern had any kids. Or a family, or anything outside of the Foundation. “Here’s what we’re going to do,” McGovern said, sounding shockingly competent. “I’m going to come by your headquarters this evening to take the card and see the photos you took of the scene. That will be enough for me to start the process of anonymously contacting the family. That keeps you out of it, this woman seems to have a history with you.”

He laughed, and James felt himself land back on familiar, irritated ground. “Yeah, she cut my brakes, almost killed Amelia, and totaled the van,” James said. “That’s our history.”

“So let’s avoid having that happen again.” 

---

CONTINUE TO CHAPTER 26