Jack the Flash and the
Rainbow Egg (Part 2)
Yuu Godai
7
“Now, then,” I said, hands on my hips. “Tell us everything.”
“About what?”
We were in my Brooklyn office. We’d snatched Jeffrey away from the gangsters and brought him here roughly twelve hours ago. Presumably, the crooks had recovered from the shock of meeting the theater’s famous ghost skeleton by now—well, maybe it would take a bit more time for them to process everything. I’m sure Roderick had thoroughly enjoyed his moment in the limelight. Anyway, by now they must’ve been spread out across New York, searching for the man in the punk band T-shirt. But they didn’t know that a jeans-clad woman—well, faerie—had snatched him.
Of course, there was no way a human could enter this office or even notice it. That was one reason I’d brought Jeffrey here. Nobody, not even an alchemist or another faerie could enter if I didn’t let them in. The alchemist landlord who owned the place was a greedy son of a bitch, but, in return for brutally high rent, he did provide flawless security.
Larry was out buying himself a new jacket with what meager cash I’d managed to scrape together. With the loud-mouthed, sulky brat out of the picture, all I had to deal with was the sullen, sulky brat.
Jeffrey had been stunned silent while I’d hauled him around, but now, seated on a couch in my office, he quickly got his bearings.
He’d spent a while yowling about how he wanted to go back to Laura or freaking out about what his boss would do. After a series of empty threats, I made him go stiff and left him lying on the floor, unable to talk until he cooled off. Now he was sullenly sitting on the couch, knees bouncing nervously, glancing regularly at the leather pouch lying on the table between us.
“You oughta tell me who you are first,” he said, trying his best to snarl but failing to hide the tremor in his voice. He tried grabbing the pouch off the table, but I was faster. “Hey!” he yelped.
The pouch floated high above his head. He tried to jump and grab it, but it wafted this way and that like a balloon in the wind.
“What the heck? Some sort of magic trick? Who the hell are you? What did you do to them? That skeleton—”
“Yeah, yeah, that’s enough.” The pouch flew to my hand. Even through the dampener I could feel the magic energy coming off the bag, beating like the heart of a bird. “Remember, I’m the one asking the questions. If it weren’t for me, they’d have turned you into Swiss cheese. Only Swiss cheese don’t bleed, and you sure would have.”
That shut him up. He went red in the face and then pale. He looked from the pouch in my hand to me, and then sank into the sofa like his strings had snapped.
“I’m Jack. That’s all I’m prepared to offer by way of introduction. The original owner of this…jewel…hired me. It’s my job to recover it.”
No reason to tell this human it was a dragon egg. Jeffrey was already plenty confused.
“That led me to Laura Winfrey, and you happened to be there, Jeffrey Chandler.”
“How do you know my name?!”
I glanced at the table. A laptop appeared where the pouch had been. The screen opened, the computer turned itself on, and a number of files opened on the screen—the data the Baron had sent me.
When the laptop appeared, Jeffrey jumped like a bomb had gone off under his nose. But as the computer displayed one piece of data after another, he leaned closer until he was almost touching the screen.
“You’re kidding,” he said. “How do you have that photo? There was nobody there!”
“The walls have ears, and the shoji have eyes,” I said, a Japanese expression I’d picked up from some anime. Jeffrey just blinked at me. “In other words, no matter how hard you try to hide them, secrets always get out. Just think of me as an investigator with really good eyes and ears.”
I made a mental note to apologize to the Baron for claiming credit for his work. Didn’t want him pulling another prank on me like the other day, when everything I’d typed had started line dancing across the screen.
“My information network caught you and your girlfriend, Jeffrey Chandler. Why is Richard Diefenbaker so obsessed with Laura? Keeping her prisoner, making her sing for him, and procuring jewels like this for her?”
I tossed the pouch lightly. Jeffrey twitched like it was about to sprout wings and fly away.
“Just to be clear, no one obtains this through any legitimate channels. This is a piece that would normally never reach the world at large. So how do you have something like that? A big shot like Richard Diefenbaker oughta be able to get something equally impressive from a legitimate source without ever dealing with someone like you.”
Of course, that would be true for an ordinary jewel. No real jewel could ever compare to a dragon egg.
But to a human without magical knowledge, this egg would appear to be nothing more than an especially large, extremely high-quality opal. Most women would rather have diamonds, rubies, or emeralds. Of course, given just how much magic was concentrated in this thing, even an ordinary human would be drawn to it, unable to take their eyes off it. But buying an item of dubious origin on the black market didn’t fit someone like Richard Diefenbaker at all.
“I mean, Diefenbaker must own any number of hotels or penthouses, much nicer places. Why isn’t he keeping Laura in one of those? Wall Street kings don’t usually lock girls up in the basement and make them sing. He can buy crazy expensive presents for her, so why isn’t he treating her like a jewel? If her being on stage is such a big deal, then buy a local theater, staff and all, put a show together for her, and make Laura Winfrey an actual star—that’d be way easier. Why is she locked up in that decrepit, dirty room?”
I made another mental note to apologize to Roderick for that one. He’d helped me out, so it was low to go around insulting the theater he held dear.
“Instead, this guy hires a bunch of gangsters who drive any potential audience away. I dunno what Diefenbaker himself is after, but all that’ll do is scare the girl. What the hell is he thinking?”
“Hell if I know!”
Jeffrey had calmed down somewhat while I was talking. The tension drained out of his shoulders. He looked much smaller; maybe exhaustion had taken hold. His arms hung limp at his sides, and he sank listlessly into the couch.
“I’ve known Laura since we were kids back in Kansas. Went to the same grade school, sat next to each other. She was always good at singing.”
A dreamy look crossed his eyes, that rainbow glaze people get reflecting on the good times. My heart ached. I’d yet to have times like those.
“She always sang a solo at school concerts. Said she’d star in a musical one day, and I really thought she would. So when she went to New York after high school looking for work on Broadway, I was worried, but rooted for her. I thought she had what it took, you know? But…”
His laid-back Kansas accent slipped out from under the city-tough routine.
“I started hearing from her less. She never answered the phone. Then she stopped responding to emails. I couldn’t bear it anymore, so I told my mom I was gonna look for a job here and came to New York. But she’d quit her waitress job and was holed up in her room somewhere, and I couldn’t track her down.”
The Baron’s data had given me some of their back story.
Laura had started out waiting tables for room and board, and after she quit that she went from job to job, failing all her auditions. Occasionally she’d land a bit part, or an understudy, or get cast as a chorus member, but reality didn’t work like the movies. Cinderella stories where the God-like producer spots the talented country girl didn’t happen every day.
Meanwhile, Jeffrey had come after Laura—it could’ve been a movie title, Chasing Laura—and gotten lost in New York, both literally and spiritually. Local hoodlums kept him around as a handy errand boy, but he found no real work. After ditching the Kansas accent, he stole a few cars and picked a few pockets poorly, then got himself briefly sent to jail. The cops had a mountain of serious crimes and no time to deal with a small fry like him. Much as I hated to admit it, the Baron’s chewing gum metaphor fit with how both the cops and the hoodlums had treated him.
“So how’s a boy from Kansas get something like this?” I asked.
“I was at JFK, looking for a decent mark.”
Jeffrey shifted uncomfortably, avoiding my eyes and twiddling his thumbs.
He’d planned on snatching bags from a passenger at JFK airport and was hanging out in the lobby with a few similarly minded companions. No one gave him much credit for his actual thieving skills, so he was acting as a lookout and a mark spotter when he noticed a commotion in customs.
When people are distracted by something, they often forget about the baggage in hand. Thinking this might be his chance, he stepped closer. He saw a nondescript man sidle up to a distracted woman and slip something in her shopping bag.
Hiding valuables in innocent tourists’ luggage was a common means of smuggling items into a foreign country. Jeffrey decided it was worth the risk. He swiped the lady’s shopping bag, took it to the bathroom, and checked the contents.
“It was just a bunch of cheap crap, like chocolate, scarves, and a snow globe of the Statue of Liberty. But buried in that pile of junk was a necklace with a fabulous jewel tucked in a blue velvet box.”
Jeffrey closed his eyes, as if remembering the shock of that moment. I was starting to wonder if he might have a mild sensitivity to magic. The tinge of reverence that stole over his gaunt face didn’t seem like the right reaction for your average small-time crook.
“I’ve never seen any really valuable jewels, but I could tell this was the real deal. I stuck it under my shirt, box and all, tightened my belt to hold it steady, and ditched the rest.”
“You didn’t mention it to your friends? Quite the prize.”
“To those assholes?” Jeffrey scoffed. He seemed to surprise himself with the force of his reaction and shifted his gaze nervously. “Well, normally I would have. I guess. You’re right. But my mind went blank; I couldn’t think of anything besides the jewel. Before I knew it, I hopped on a bus and left the airport behind. I haven’t seen any of those guys since. I changed pads, laid low a while…”
He went quiet again for a minute and then appeared to make up his mind.