Page 93 of The Spellreader and the Phoenix

“I think we should let the normal police answer that,” David suggested, gazing at the supine form with calculation in his eyes. “I’m not getting a magical buzz off him, and that means it’s their problem.”

Max gestured at everything. “But what about all of this?”

David eyed them all. Then he smiled. “Here’s what we’re going to do.”

There was apparently a reason that David was a consultant with the Council. In short order, Max was dressed in his Dread Pirate Roberts outfit, Rory was hidden under a “do not notice” charm, and they’d placed a frantic call to the police to report the robbery.

David revived the thief just as the police arrived, taking on the duty of keeping him subdued with his hands pulled taut behind his back.

They showed the officers where the door of the building had been forced in the back, Alex explained how they thought they recognized the man, and Max explained how they’d moved their D&D session due to a conflict, but the store was usually quiet on Monday nights.

To Max’s surprise, one of the police officers, a no-nonsense woman who looked to be in her forties and whose nametag read Rogers, gave off a magical buzz. As she took his statement, she mentioned that she’d known his parents, which made a lot of sense. He wondered if she’d come out deliberately.

When the man started raving about bears and fire and stabbing people who were now totally fine, the cops clearly didn’t believe a word he said.

“It was just a job, you know?” the guy told them frantically. “I was getting some books that this guy’s family gave away to the bookstore and he wanted back. It was just a simple job. I didn’t sign up for this weird shit!”

“You can come with us and tell us all about it,” one of the cops said.

“Sure, sure,” the guy agreed. “Just get me out of here.”

Max and the others all agreed that they’d be available to give statements, but the guy was doing such a great job of incriminating himself that they hopefully wouldn’t have to do much. Max could only imagine how Alex’s mother was going to react to a B&E while they were here.

(On the other hand, Alex had amply demonstrated that they could take care of themself.)

Their cover-up meant the man wouldn’t be accused of attempted murder, but there was no way that Max was faking an injury and risking being sent to the hospital or being processed in a normal person facility of any kind.

Hopefully, the man would serve time for the breaking and entering.

Plus, thanks to the man’s rambling, Max was pretty sure he now knew who had caused this.

“There was a guy who called a lot because he wanted the books back from his dad’s place. As I explained to him at length, the books were legitimately sold or given to me by another family member. He can’t just claim them as his own. He was a total ass about it.”

“What’s so important about the books?” Rogers wanted to know.

“I have no idea,” Max said with a shrug. “I’m not sure which books are actually his. I don’t process all my intakes instantly. They’re normal people books, and it’s just not my first priority, you know?”

“Can you let me know if you find anything?” Rogers asked. “Especially if there’s anything special, you know?”

Max duly agreed, and Rogers headed off with the rest of the police to process their thief.

David, Stella, Edward, and Alex looked like they wanted answers right this second. Max couldn’t blame them, but it would take time to work out which books they were even talking about, and there was no way they were doing that now.

Alex’s stomach grumbled, and Max frowned. “Someone go grab Alex some snacks. And I need someone to walk them home.”

“I don’t—” Alex protested.

Max shot them a look. “And when your mom hears about this and then finds out that I just sent you walking home all on your own after eleven o’clock at night?”

Alex subsided, because there was no way that was a good idea, and they knew it.

“I can do it,” Edward offered.

Max nodded. “Please and thank you.”

“Let’s grab your stuff, and we can grab snacks at the same time,” Edward suggested.

Max felt almost totally back to normal, but he still headed down the stairs to the basement carefully, watching as the others straightened everything up. The thief had never been down here, so the police had only taken a cursory look before they’d concentrated on upstairs.