Chapter 5
The Thaumaturgic Texan Ties One On
“Well,” Frank gave the Unclad Urchin his coat while the professor went upstairs to fetch her something more wear, “I guess it’s all over.”
Only then, there came a loud rumbling sound from the wall.
“Unless, of course, you managed to damage that water pipe when you were banging on it.”
She had.
The weakened pipe give way, ruptured and burst. Tons of pressurized water spewed forth. Caught in an alleyway formed by two concrete walls, there seemed little hope for Frank and Akkadia to escape the onrush. Still it was not in the nature of either to give up.
Before the water got too deep, the determined detective, carrying the Voodoo Vixen atop his shoulders, managed to reach the foot of stairs.
At this point, though, the surge, compressed between the basement walls, catapulted high into the air and crashed upon them. It tossed Akkadia to the safety of the upper walkway, but carried Frank, along with the clay golem, off in a swirling whirlpool.
The water eventually found its way to the sloping driveway exit of the loading dock where it flowed into the grounds outside, leaving behind an empty, although wet and muddy basement. Now relieved of its initial high pressure, the water from the broken pipe settled into a steady, but unthreatening, stream.
The Willowly Waif of Waterlogged Wizardry staggered to her feet, surveying the damage below. “Detective Bureau?” she called out. “Are you all right?”
A muffled voice answered.
Descending the steps, she followed the voice to a pile of mud banked in a corner. There she found Detective Bureau, alive, but buried to his neck in the sticky muck. Only his head poked out from the mound.
“Help!” he shouted. “I’m stuck!”
Akkadia raced to his side and tried pulling him by the neck.
“Aggghhhh! It’s no use,” Frank told her. “You’ll have to go outside and get help.”
“Okay.” She turned to go, then stopped. “But I can’t go out like this. I lost your coat in the flood so I’m naked again!”
This is a fine time to develop a sense of modesty, thought Frank.
“Oo-oo! I know. I’ll take your necktie.” It wasn’t much, but it was the only article of his clothing she could get to. “Maybe if I stick to the shadows no one will notice.”
So saying, she took Frank’s tie, which happened to be of a wide cut, covered her crotch, and left.
As luck would have it, she ran into Captain Ed Ake. The invisibility spell had worn off and she could see him perfectly. He could see her perfectly as well.
“What the—?”
“Hurry!” she told him. “You must help. Frank’s trapped inside.”
Ed stared down at Frank’s necktie and the place where she held it.
“You mean...” He gulped. “He’s trapped...?”
“Not there, you idiot!” Akkadia pointed toward the museum. “There!”
To which Ed, despite himself, went, “WOWZA!”
#
“That was good work, Frank,” Captain Ake congratulated his star detective. They were back at the station now—which had moved to a foto booth in a Kroger’s parking lot—filling out reports on the day’s activities. “This’ll be a feather in your cap...if the upper brass lets us tell it. That scroll business is rather top secret.”
“Trust me, Ed,” replied Frank; “the last think I want to see is more feathers.”
“I’m sorry it took so long to dig you out from under mud. Akkadia kept hanging around the sidelines wanting to make sure you were all right and it proved awful distracting to the rescue crew.”
“Which explains what happened to your coat.”
“I loaned it to her to cover up. When she saw you were okay she took off with it.”
“I hear she’s a bit of a klepto that way.”
“Still,” Ed went on, “it’s not like I could let her get arrested for indecent exposure. Not after all she’d done to help us.”
Frank leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. “I wonder if we’ll see any more of her.”
“I would think you’d see enough already,” Ed chuckled. “Still, we never got around to X, Y, or Z, so who knows?”
“I’d say we got pretty close to X there at the end.”
Ed was quiet a minute. “One thing puzzles me though.”
“What’s that?”
“Well, if as you said, Maleduck relied solely on the power of illusion, does that mean Wade Mallard was never hacked to pieces in the first place?”
Frank sat straight in his chair. “I’m afraid that’s something we’ll never know,” he said finally. “Besides, there’s always more work to do. What’s next on the list?”
“Let’s see.” Ed rifled through some papers. “Here’s a complaint from the university athletic department. It says someone drilled a hole in the wall to the girl’s showers!”
“Really?” Detective Bureau rose from his chair and headed for the door. “I guess I better look into it.”
15139
James Hold
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