Chapter 6
I awoke at my usual time the next morning, but I didn’t leave the house right away, because the store’s website said that it wasn’t open until ten o’clock. I spent a few hours with my stock-trading program watching the market. The stock market opens kind of late, nine thirty on Wall Street, but that’s six thirty in Portland. That suits me perfectly, because I can get a little investment work done and still have the bulk of the day for other activities.
I’m not a day trader, but investing is how I make my living these days. I didn’t think I was likely to get another windfall, as I did when SimBiotic Arts went public, so I had to make sure my nest egg stayed healthy. I enjoyed not having to go to work at an office every day, and I found “playing the market” to be interesting. It was now one of my hobbies, if not an actual profession. I had been trading for several years, and so far my investing strategies were working.
Since I wanted to be at Moonstone, the witches’ crystal and herb shop, when it opened, I wouldn’t be able to have second breakfast. I compromised by having first breakfast at eight o’clock and made it my only breakfast. I had two open-face fried egg and cheese sandwiches on toast along with coffee.
At ten minutes before ten o’clock, I fired up my four-year-old BMW 328i and drove to the Moonstone Crystal & Herb Shop. I didn’t see Caite, but Beth was behind the counter sorting through crystals.
“Welcome back, Professor,” she said as I entered her shop, “Where’s your partner?”
I liked being addressed as Rachel’s partner, and although it was an inaccurate assumption, I didn’t correct it.
“Rachel is otherwise engaged, but I thought you might like to know what I’ve learned about your missing artifact, little though it is.”
“Of course. I’d like to know anything you can tell me.”
I put three printouts on the counter. “Here are three versions of a composite image I made from your photos. They show the symbols on the artifact in their relationship to each other flattened into a two-dimensional picture. This first image shows the long symbol, a sigil I think, in the center of the symbols. These other two show the symbols with the sigil on the left and right sides respectively. Do you know anything about these symbols?”
“No. I’ve looked at them many times, and they aren’t like anything I’ve seen before. Looking at them in your picture does give a different perspective, though. There’s something kind of familiar in the picture that has the long symbol on the left.
“These six symbols to right of the long symbol...”
“The sigil,” I interjected.
“...The six symbols to the right of the sigil, are positioned at the points of a hexagram,” Beth said as she touched the six symbols. A common hexagram is the Star of David, like you see on the flag of Israel. It’s also known as the Seal of Solomon. That hexagram is made using two triangles, one on top of the other, with the second triangle upside down.
“There’s another kind of hexagram, however, called a unicursal hexagram, that can be drawn without taking the pen off the paper, connecting the points in a certain order, like this.”
Beth took a notepad from under the counter and proceeded to draw six straight lines in a smooth series of movements without lifting her pencil from the notepad. The result was a six-pointed star with one point at the top, one point at the bottom, and two points on either side. The top and bottom points were further from the center of the diagram than were the four side points. It was reminiscent of a pentagram, but a pentagram, of course, only has five points.
“The unicursal hexagram can be used in spells of invoking or banishing,” Beth said. “See how the hexagram could be placed over the symbols in the picture? Other than that, I don’t see any pattern to the symbols.”
“Well that’s very interesting,” I remarked. “I couldn’t find out anything about most of the symbols, but the sigil is very similar to the Sigil of Aerten.”
“I’ve never heard of Aerten or the sigil,” Beth said.
“Aerten was an ancient Celtic goddess of fate, especially in war. I’m afraid that this isn’t a lot of information,” I said. “But let me ask, why did you bring the artifact to your store?”
“As I may have mentioned, I’m a Wiccan priestess and the leader of our little coven. I have a meeting room in the back there, and we use the room for indoor meetings and ceremonies. I was sure that the artifact was magical, and I wanted to let my sisters see it. It seemed to have a power about it, and three nights ago, we tried incorporating it into one of our ceremonies.”
“How did you do that?” I asked.
“As we went through the ritual, we passed the artifact around the circle and then placed it on the floor in the center of the circle as we finished. I think it added a nice touch, and we could all feel an increased energy in the room. I’m devastated that it was stolen. Will you be able to find it?”
“Uh, I’m very sorry, but we can’t undertake this case,” I said. “Rachel is very busy and I don’t think we have the skills necessary to track this object. Could one of the members of your coven have taken it?”
“Oh, no,” Beth said, “I know each one of them quite well, and besides, none of them have a key to the store. Because of the neighborhood, I have very good locks on the doors, and the only window that opens is in the bathroom. I make sure that the window is locked every night. I just don’t have a clue who could have taken it. That’s why I was really hoping that the two of you could find it.”
“I’m very sorry,” I said. Let me leave these printouts with you. If you come across any more relevant information, please give Rachel a call.”
“OK, Professor. Thanks for letting me know what you found out about the artifact. I hope something new comes up.”
With that, I said good-bye and left Moonstone. Since I had eaten only one breakfast, I was feeling peckish. I could go home and fix something or eat alone in a restaurant, or better yet, I could call Rachel and see if she was up for lunch. I speed-dialed her number, and when she answered, I announced, “Hi, Rachel, it’s Robert.”
“Hi Professor, what’s up?”
“I just left the Moonstone Crystal & Herb Shop, and I was wondering if I could buy you lunch.”
“It’s only eleven o’clock,” Rachel protested.
“It’ll be noon by the time we eat,” I said.
“OK, I get it; you’re hungry. I’m at my office. Maybe you could pick up some take-out, and we’ll eat here.”
“Sounds great,” I said. “What would you like?”
“If you’re still in Southeast, can you get me a meatball sub from Shut Up And Eat?”
“Absolutely, I’ll be there soon,” I said and I hung up.
I turned around and headed down SE 39th Avenue toward the sandwich shop. I got a meatball sub for Rachel and a chicken cutlet sandwich for me. Back in my car, I wrapped the bag of sandwiches in my emergency towel to keep them warm while I drove to Rachel’s office.
Rachel Chase Investigations is located on the second floor of an old brick building in Portland’s Pearl District. The exterior of the building is weathered brick, but the interior has been updated with lots of exposed beams along with the brick. Rachel’s office consists of only two rooms: a small outer waiting room, and her office. When she isn’t talking with clients, the door to her inner office is always open so she can tell if someone comes in.
The outer waiting room has two armchairs, a loveseat and a coffee table. On a side wall is a counter with a sink, a small refrigerator underneath and three cabinets above. A coffee maker, electric teapot and a microwave sit on the counter.
Rachel’s inner office is about fifteen feet square. The wall opposite the door has a large window with an arched top. Rachel has an L-shaped desk positioned so that she has her back to the window and faces the door. The L is to her right and holds her laptop. To her left, against the side wall, is a single wooden file cabinet. In this modern age
, most of her documentation is stored digitally. A printer/scanner combo is on a table near her computer.
Rachel got up from her desk and asked, “Coffee?”
“Please,” I replied.
“You’re in luck, I actually have some unexpired half and half in the fridge.”
I followed her back out into the waiting room, and she poured our two cups.
“Halle Berry, right?” Rachel asked.
“Yes, Halle Berry,” I acknowledged. Rachel knows that I like my coffee to have the same complexion as Halle Berry. One morning, when I was very groggy, I had forgotten to put fresh coffee grounds in my coffee maker’s filter, and I ended up making coffee with used grounds in the old filter. I absent-mindedly added cream to the very weak brew, and my beverage came out “Nicole Kidman.” I much prefer Halle Berry when it comes to coffee.
“I see you bought organic half-and-half,” I observed.
“I bought it because it’s more heavily processed. It’s ultra pasteurized, so it takes longer to go bad.”
I’m not sure the organic dairy would appreciate that their product was purchased because it was “more heavily processed,” but sales are sales.
I sat in one of the two office side chairs, pulled up to the desk, opened the sandwich bag, and handed Rachel the meatball sandwich while I unwrapped the chicken sandwich.
“What did you learn from Beth?” Rachel asked.
“She had a bit of insight about the symbols on the artifact,” I said. “She noticed that six of them are arranged in the shape of a unicursal hexagram.”
“What’s that?” she asked.
“I’ll show you,” I said as I reached for her yellow legal pad and grabbed a pen from the penholder on her desk. I failed at my first two attempts to draw it. You have to know the order of connecting the points to make it work. It’s not as easy to draw as a pentagram. Finally, I had a sufficiently discernable rendition of the image, and I slid it over to her.
“What’s it for?”
“Well, I’ll have to do a little more research, but Beth said it can be used in spells for invoking or banishing.”
“That still isn’t much to go on. Did you find out why she brought the artifact to her shop?”
“Yes, it turns out she’s the priestess for a coven of witches. The group meets in a room in the back of her store. She brought in the artifact to show it off to them.”
“And that’s it? They just looked at it?”
“Maybe at first, but she said that three nights ago they used it in one of their rituals.”
“Ah Ha!” Rachel exclaimed. “That’s what changed. They used the artifact for magic.”
“Well they didn’t actually use it for magic,” I said. “They just passed it around the circle while they were performing their ritual.”
“Was this a magic ritual?” asked Rachel.
“Well I don’t know if it was magic. Wicca has lots of rituals for celebrating the seasons, handfasting, which is like a wedding, and other typically religious things.”
“What kind of things are involved in these rituals?”
“Oh, you know, candles, crystals, the writing of symbols, chants and incantations.”
“Are these ancient rituals?”
“Wicca is very old, so I’m sure the original rituals were ancient. I don’t know how faithful the modern rituals are to the originals, though.”
“But the ancient rituals, at least, could have really been magic, right?”
“Yes, I suppose so.”
“So the modern rituals could have bits and pieces, at least, of the old magic. Maybe something they did during the ritual activated the artifact in some way. Maybe it pulsed or flashed or beeped or somehow gave off a little bit of magic. Maybe if you had been there with the Coriolis, you could have detected it.”
“I think you’re onto something,” I said. “Maybe the artifact wasn’t fully activated. Maybe it ‘recognized’ something in the ritual and went into ‘waiting mode.’ Maybe it sent a ripple out into the matrix that could have been detected.”
“Yes,” Rachel said, “and maybe someone did detect it. Maybe someone is always watching for the use of magic. Maybe they have a device that’s always looking for magic, and when it detects someone using magic, it sets off an alarm or something.”
“Brilliant! I absolutely believe you. I’m sure that’s what happened. Someone detected the artifact sending out a magical ‘ping,’ and then they stole it. Mystery solved!”
“The mystery isn’t entirely solved,” Rachel corrected me. “We don’t know who stole it, how they stole it, or where it is now.”
“There is that,” I admitted.
“The devil, so to speak, is in the details,” Rachel said. “That’s why we can’t take the case. We have no idea of what it would take to answer those questions.”
“We have more ideas than we had yesterday.”
“Yes, but yesterday we had an idea about how to find more ideas—ask Beth why she brought the artifact to her shop. Do you have any ideas about where to go from here?” Rachel asked.
“Uh, no.” I admitted. “You’re the detective, I’m just the science guy. We can’t depend on me for clues.”
“Well I’m fresh out of ideas, myself,” Rachel said. “We’re spending too much time on something that isn’t even our case.”
“Do you have another case right now?”
“No, not today, but a couple of parents with a missing child could walk through that door at any minute. Maybe the police might need help catching a bank robber. The FBI could call asking me to track down one of their ten most-wanted. The President of the United States could need my help finding his dog. Anything is more likely than us finding that artifact.”
By this time, Beth had eaten half of her sandwich, and she wrapped up the other half and took it out to the refrigerator.
“What do you do with all those half sandwiches?” I asked.
“They usually go bad in the fridge,” Rachel answered.
The rest of the day was uneventful. After lunch I went back to the Goose and sat down with my laptop. I decided to record a little video narrative about the events of the last few days. I had vague plans to someday create educational videos that anyone interested could download. Young people these days have such short attention spans, and the written word seems to be fading in popularity. In order to gain familiarity with the video podcast technology, I had started recording a video journal.
My goal at the moment was to make sure that I created a record of what had happened over the past few days in case my memories faded over time. Rachel’s work was fascinating, and I thought that sometime in the future it might make the basis for a good story, or maybe even a book, perhaps even a movie. Of course, I might have to change the names and places a little if I ever published it, but it was important to document the real events. So I spent about half an hour creating a video of me narrating the story.
After recording the video, I drove over to the pool for a swim. Swimming is like a meditation for me. It helps to clear my head to make room for fresh ideas. This time, however, I couldn’t get Beth’s artifact out of my mind. Although it was thicker and heavier than I thought would be typical, it could be an actual magic wand. The length was right, but wands were traditionally made of wood and weren’t as heavy.
Although the swim didn’t give me any fresh ideas about finding the artifact, it did make my body feel good. I felt loose and relaxed and ready for a nap, which was next on my agenda when I got back home.
Late the next morning, I was thinking about what to do for lunch, when Rachel knocked at my door. I opened the door to see that her normally healthy complexion was ashen.
“Professor,” she said. “Beth Kimmel has been murdered, and the police think Caite did it.”