He nodded in agreement.
“I need a solution, Than,” I said. “To save Delaney’s soul. To make sure Bathin doesn’t make a terrible choice we’ll all pay the price for.”
“Perhaps the solution will reveal itself to you in time.”
“You either have a lot of faith in me or time. I’m not sure which.”
“I have known Time for all existence. I have never had faith in it.”
I couldn’t help myself. I smiled.
~~~
Call number two:
“When did you last see the penguin?” I asked Mrs. Yates. We were in her sunroom, which had become a large display space and museum for all things penguin.
Her concrete penguin statue was the unofficial star of the town. Framed newspaper and magazine articles filled the walls in neat rows, separated by photos of some of the more inventive penguin-nappings.
There was the little penguin stuffed in the barrel of a cannon. There was the little penguin dressed as an angel dangling above the main intersection in town. There was the little penguin strapped to the cross on the church steeple.
A few non-kidnapped pictures were sprinkled among the others. The little penguin out in Mrs. Yates’s yard, in the snow, autumn foliage, spring flowers, and deep greens of summer.
Really, she’d gone all in on the famous penguin part of this gig, which had started as a high school prank and had turned into a national obsession.
Tour buses came by to see the penguin in her yard as part of winery tours, for heaven’s sake.
“This morning. I was having coffee right here in the sunroom. It has the perfect view of the front yard.” She pointed at the wall of windows. Than and I turned in tandem to stare at her yard. The marble podium she had commissioned for the penguin was noticeably empty of said penguin.
“I got up to get my toast, and when I returned, it was gone.” She didn’t sound upset. Not really. If anything, she seemed a little excited about this theft. It would, after all, be another picture on the wall if the kidnappers were creative enough.
“Did you see any suspicious cars?” I asked.
“Do you know who took it?” Than asked.
Mrs. Yates’s gaze snapped up to his face, and she looked him up and down as if she had just noticed he was in the room. “What was your name again?”
“Than.”
“Didn’t you used to run the kite shop?”
“Yes.”
“Why are you here?”
“He’s a reserve officer. We’re training up a few new people over the autumn and winter months so we can better handle the influx of tourists next summer.”
“Oh, of course. Like Mr. Bailey.”
“Exactly, and it doesn’t cost the taxpayers a thing.”
“Well, isn’t that wonderful! What a wonderful thing. How community minded of you, Mr. Than.”
“Cars?” I prompted.
“No, nothing unusual. You know that house on the corner always has someone coming and going. I don’t want to judge, but I think multiple families live there. I never see the same people for long.”
It was a good guess on her part, and something that we allowed as a cover story for the family of shapeshifters who lived there. While they each had their preferred human shape, sometimes they took multiple shapes, especially the children who were still learning what it took to control their gift.
