Chapter 3

It was nearly dark by the time that we returned to Mrs. Black’s house. It had taken longer than we had expected to help the other two Magic users. Mrs. Black was very slow answering the door when we rang the bell, and it only opened an inch or so before she asked, “Who is there?” in a frightened voice.

“It’s Jill and my Cousin,” Jill replied, and the door opened all of the way. Mrs. Black had a large butcher knife in her hand and a very relieved look on her face.

“I’m sorry, but it took longer than we expected. Another woman was there with Calisa, and it required more work than we anticipated,” Jill apologized.

“Is Calisa all right?” Mrs. Black asked.

“Yes, the vehicle blew up and burned before reaching her house. It did burn much of her lawn though,” Jill told her.

“What about these men? What should be done with them? Should I call the police?” Mrs. Black asked.

“I believe they may be part of the police,” I told her to a shocked expression from her.

“Part of the police? With what they did?” she asked in disbelief.

“A part of one of the national police organizations,” I told her.

“Oh, the government!” she said in distaste.

“We’ll move them over to my house while we question them,” Jill told her.

“They won’t talk if they work for the government,” Mrs. Black told us.

“Oh, I think that we can persuade them to talk,” Jill told her with a smile.

“Are you going to torture them?” Mrs. Black asked with interest in her voice.

“Certainly not, but we have ways of convincing people to talk to us and tell us what we want to know,” Jill assured her. While Jill continued to talk with Mrs. Black, I transferred both men, still under the freeze spell to her dining room.

“We’ll be going now,” Jill told Mrs. Black after I had finished.

“What about those men? When are you going to remove them?” she demanded.

“My Cousin already has, removed them that is,” Jill assured her to a look of doubt, before she checked the closet and then the room upstairs, but found no one.

“How did you do that?” she demanded on returning to her living room.

“We have our ways. Don’t worry about it,” Jill told her, and I felt her using her Magic. Mrs. Black looked very relaxed for a half minute or so before returning to herself.

“Thank you for coming by dear. I’m doing just fine, don’t worry about me,” she told Jill following that, and we took our leave. The butcher knife had returned to its place in the kitchen also.

“Should we start questioning those two now?” I asked Jill when we were back in her house.

“I don’t know about you, but I’m hungry again,” she told me before moving to the kitchen and the refrigerator there to remove materials for sandwiches and side dishes. We enjoyed the large sandwiches that she likes to make along with Cole Slaw and Potato Salad, topping it off with a bottle of ale which we split between us.

“Now, I believe that I am ready to start questioning those men,” she told me, as she pushed away from the table.

The two men were in the dining room where we had counted the money. I had moved the table there to the side to give us more room to work. The one was standing up and was fully dressed., while the other one was lying on the table only partly dressed along with his things which had been on the dresser near him.

“First we determine who they work for, and then we find out what they know,” I told her as I frisked the first man by patting him down. I found his service weapon, an automatic, his handcuffs, and his ID easily. A further search located his backup weapon, and a couple of small disks with symbols on them. It was these that drew Jill’s attention when I placed them on the table.

“He was carrying those?” she asked in a puzzled voice on seeing the disks.

“Yes, what are they? I don’t recognize them,” I told her.

“They look like protective spells ... Witch’s spells. They would be activated by a certain type of spell being cast against them to protect the one carrying them, but why would he be carrying them?” she asked in a confused voice.

“Not sure, but the other guy had some in his coat pocket also,” I told her placing more of the disks on the table.

The sleeper had removed his coat, tie, and shoes along with his weapons, handcuffs, and other things so he could sleep in comfort. They were already on the table along with his ID.

“Let’s see who these guys work for,” I said as I picked up both men’s IDs. Opening them revealed badges and ID cards from the FBI with the men’s pictures on them. They each also had cards with their names and a telephone number on them along with the words ‘Paranormal Branch’ underneath them.

“The Secret Police!” Jill said with such vehemence that I had to turn to look at her.

“They are from the branch that the FBI keeps denying the existence of, but we all know that they are the ones who search for us,” she explained in a more rational voice.

“So there are more people looking for Magic users than just those from the Pentagon,” I said.

“Yes, but these people are after more than Magic users. They go after witches, vampires werewolves, telepaths, and anyone with more than human talents, if there are all of those different beings” she told me, and I suddenly laughed.

“What’s so funny?” she demanded crossly.

“They think you’re a Witch,” I told her pointing to the objects on the table.

“NO!” she gasped in shock. “Do you really think so?” she added after a few seconds.

“Yes, you, Calisa, Melany, and possibly several other women that you know. How many are there in a Witch Coven?” I asked.

“Anywhere from five to nine usually,” she told me.

“And you have other female friends?” I asked.

“Certainly, why wouldn’t I?” she asked.

“More than enough to form a Coven then,” I said.

“But that’s preposterous,” she objected.

“Look at the evidence,” I said pointing to the things on the table.

“How could they be so wrong?” she asked after a time.

“They do work for the government,” I pointed out with a grin. “Also someone could have fingered you and the others. Someone who is jealous of you or some of the others,” I added.

“So what are we going to do with them?”

“We will push them for all of the information that we can get from them,” I told her.

“Which one do we start with?”

“The one standing,” I told her as we moved over in front of him, and I changed the freeze spell on him to just a partial one on his lower body.

“What are you... ?” he started to say on recovering, but quickly came to a halt as he looked around at the dining room.

“What have you done?” he asked in a quieter voice.

“We’ve moved you to a more convenient place to talk,” I told him. He reached into his coat pocket and was shocked to find it empty.

“You shouldn’t have been able to put a spell on me,” he said weakly.

“We didn’t use a spell on you, since we’re not Witches,” I told him.

“What are you?” he demanded in a more aggressive voice.

“That is unimportant. We want to know what the two of you are doing here, and you are going to tell us, either voluntarily, or we will force the answers out of you,” I told him.

“I’m not afraid of you, and you can’t make me tell you anything,” he told us in a confident voice.

“We’ll see about that,” I said and changed his freeze spell back to a full body one before starting the improved pain spell on him. Jill had taught me a spell that caused those it was cast on to be very sick in their stomach and intestines. I had added it to the pain spell.

“Let him suffer for a while. It will make him more cooperative when I use the truth spell,” I told Jill as we moved to the second man on the table. Jill removed everything from the table but the man, before I changed his freeze spell to a partial one and woke him up.

“What?” he started to say as he snapped awake. His eyes grew large in shock then on seeing me above him.

“YOU!” he said in surprise. “The Atlanta murderer.”

“That’s right, so you know what I am capable of. How did you recognize me?” I finished.

“Your picture was on the news. I watched the TV at night when there was little to do,” he answered. “What are you doing here?” he asked next.

“I’ll ask the questions. What were the two of you doing in Mrs. Black’s house?”

“We were assigned to keep an eye on her neighbor who is suspected of being a Witch,” he answered before noticing Jill standing further down the table, and a startled look appeared on his face.

“I am not a Witch!” Jill told him very distinctly.

“No, we are something much more dangerous,” I told him. “And you and your partner are going to tell us all about your organization, and what it is doing before we eventually release you,” I added with a grin.

“No, never,” he said just before I returned the freeze spell to a full body one and cast the improved pain spell on him also.

“Do you have anything that needs doing for the next hour or so,” I asked Jill.

“Why?”

“I’m going to allow then to suffer for a time before questioning them again,” I told her.

“There is a lot of packing that I need to do. You can help,” she told me. We adjourned to start packing, leaving the two agents to suffer in silence.