“I’d like that,” she said.“I need to make a list,” she added.“I don’t want to forget anything.”
“Carson?What did you find out about Give A Hand Up?”I asked.
“Give A Hand Up was originally established by an unknown benefactor, over one hundred years ago, under the name of Jobs Coalition.They stayed fairly silent, though—under the radar.They started out offering to find jobs for the unemployed.Given they started out during the Great Depression, they were incredibly busy, but I started running across newspaper articles linking them to missing people.Those who went missing were always among the poorest of the poor, those without families, the cast asides.They were only noticed missing because they stopped showing up for work.And the jobs were pretty much unskilled labor.”
“Were they investigated?”Dante asked.
“That’s the thing—there was never enough proof that they did anything wrong.But the one link that connected a whole slew of disappearances were that the missing all belonged to Jobs Coalition.”
“How many vanished?”Orik asked.
“At least seventy-five.The cops explained it away by the fact that most of the missing were vagabonds, or nomadic in lifestyle to begin with.They said that the missing had likely just moved on, as they were wont to do.”Carson shrugged.“Then, in 1938, Jobs Coalition ceased to exist, but the founders came up with another organization called Community Contributes.”
I frowned.“And I suppose that it reached out to the homeless and poor, as well?”
“Bingo,” Carson said.“They promised temporary housing and help in finding jobs.After a couple of years, there was another run of missing.Thirty-five before someone began prying into matters.This time, it was a private investigator named Trey Leon.Apparently, one of the missing hadn’t been homeless…just a runaway who was sixteen but could pass for mid-twenties.Leon had been searching for him on behalf of his family.He missed finding him by apparently a few hours.And according to the record—the young man was last seen out near the water.He was waiting for a friend, and then—there was a bright light and he vanished.The reports were from a couple passersby.”
“How many incarnations has the company had?”I asked.
“About eight.Give A Hand Up is the latest.And in each case, they target the poorest of the poor, and in each case, people vanish.The cops never once looked into them.”Carson stared at his notes.“Something’s going on.Waves of people vanishing?”
“And people from the poorest class, who would never be missed.What about other countries?Are they international?”
“I haven’t checked,” he said.“I’ll get right on that.”
“All right, let’s all think on that.Carson, not only check on international variants of the group, but see if you can find out who runs it?Who’s the head of the snake?”I stood.“Let’s head out to the alleyway, then to the magic shop.I’ll drop you two back here before I meet my uncle for lunch.Orik, welcome back.I hope Hilda didn’t mind.”
“She understands, and it’s fine Ana’s a tiger and takes care of everything.I wish I had half the energy of my mother-in-law.”He laughed.“Carson, why don’t you show me the footage we have so far?”
Sophia, Dante, and Penn followed me out to the reception area.Sophia waved as we gathered our things and set out for the bar.
As we crossed the parking lot to my car, the sun shimmered down.It was an eerily beautiful day, with magic in the air.Those rare days, when the sunlight turned dew drops to prisms, were few and far between in the Pacific Northwest, especially when we were still in early May.It was warm, but not warm enough to make me drowsy.The new growth on the trees and bushes reminded me of peridot—that brilliant shade that promised darker, fuller foliage in a month or two.Overhead, a few wisps of clouds drifted by, but they were thin, without the threat of rain.
Penn rode shotgun, and Dante sat in the backseat.As I eased out into traffic, I slid on my sunglasses again.“I feel sorry for Winston,” I said.“He’s got problems and he needs help, but I don’t think he’s getting any.So many people are falling through the cracks.”
“Do you think there’s anyone we know who could help him?”Penn asked.
“I don’t think he’d accept it, to be honest.We can try—maybe if I find something and Benny presents it to him, he might listen.”
“Tell us more about the energy in the alley,” Dante said.
“It’s hard to explain.You’ll have to feel it to know what I’m talking about.I’m hoping Penn might be able to identify it.”I found a parking spot near the bar and we headed into the alley way.Penn walked ahead of me.I deliberately didn’t tell her where I found the energy spot, because I wanted to see if she’d click with the same area I had.
But I needn’t have worried.A moment later, she froze, right where I had felt the blast of energy.She held out her hands and, sucking in a deep breath, closed her eyes.
“She found it,” I whispered to Dante, not wanting to break her concentration.“That’s right where I felt it.”
Dante waited a moment, then slowly approached.He stopped a few feet away from her, looking back at me and nodding.
Penn finally opened her eyes and shakily returned to us, with Dante by her side.“There’s a portal there.I swear—I can feel it.I know the energy.But I’m not sure how it activates or where it goes.Greg was taken somewhere, that’s for certain.”
I let out a deep breath.“Crap.You mean he’s just…”
“Gone.My instincts tell me that Benny’s friend Winston saw Greg, all right, and he saw him vanish.But the question is: why, and where did they take him?”Penn turned back to the area.“Okay, if Give A Hand Up has been around for all those years, under one name or another, and so many homeless go missing, we should figure out—to the best of our estimates—how many people disappeared.”
“Good idea,” I said.“What about the energy?Do you think it could be aliens?”
Dante shivered.“I don’t know, but for some reason, that idea scares the hell out of me.I think I’m more scared by the idea of aliens than I am of ghosts and ghouls.”He shook his head.“We don’t know what to expect out of them.”
