The Scargill Cove Case Files

years. She says Vortex probably tracked down the men and the guns.

    AZ says the crystal guns are just the kind of thing Vortex would try to get hold of. I ask her what Vortex is and brace myself.

    AZ says Vortex is a group of highly-placed conspirators dedicated to controlling the world. Like anyone would want that job.

    I think of Nightshade. Okay, there are such things as conspiracies. Problem is, Nightshade is real. Vortex isn’t.

    I thank AZ, tell her J&J owes her a favor, and try to end the call. She wants to tell me one more thing.

    AZ says that I’m opening a can of worms. Says to keep an eye out for Vortex agents. I ask how I’ll recognize one.

    AZ says I’ll know a Vortex agent by a tattoo of a tornado on the shoulder. I tell her I don’t plan to get that close.

    End the call, sit back, and pull up my talent. Watch the grid light up with connections. No such thing as Vortex except in AZ’s head.

    But the crystal guns are real. Scenario: Hooker and two others stole the psychic weapons years ago when their agency shut down.

    Hooker and the others knew the guns were very, very hot. Went into deep hiding. But why no rumors about the weapons in all this time?

    If Hooker and his partners had used the weapons themselves or sold them on the black market, there would have been rumors.

    Looked into the victim’s past. Got nothing on Hooker. Time to take another look at the client. Fitch.

    I go deep online, looking for anything I can find on Fitch. His past is squeaky clean, just like Hooker’s.

    I’ve got my red flag. Fitch is too clean. Why was he so anxious for me to investigate Hooker’s death?

    Grid’s getting hotter now. Fitch didn’t come to me because he was worried about some bad energy in his shop.

    Fitch hired me to find something that he couldn’t find himself: Hooker’s stash of crystal guns. It’s all coming together now.

    Hooker, Fitch, and a third man stole the crystal guns. But Hooker betrayed his two partners. Disappeared with the guns.

    Classic falling-out among thieves scenario. Took Fitch years to find Hooker here in Scargill Cove.

    Must have been a quarrel. Hooker died without revealing the location of the crystal guns. Fitch hit a wall so he hired a psychic PI.

    Fitch hopes that my investigation will lead to the crystal guns. Once he has them, figures he’ll get rid of me. No loose ends.

    Need more answers and there’s only one place to get them. I leave the office and walk down the street to Fitch’s bookshop.

    I’m running hot now. In the zone. The grid is blazing. Nothing like a lot of adrenaline and psi to heat the blood.

    Bookshop is open but Fitch isn’t behind the counter. I go downstairs to the vault room. Fitch is waiting. With a gun.

    You know, he says. I tell him I know some of it, but not all. It’s about the crystal guns, I say.

    He tells me they stole three of them, one for each man. But Hooker turned on them. Disappeared with all three guns.

    I ask about the third man. Fitch says after they stole the guns, another agent named Craigmore came looking for them.

    Craigmore got to Brock. Killed him. But never found Fitch or Hooker or the three guns. Eventually Craigmore stopped looking.

    I don’t tell Fitch that Craigmore stopped looking because he had bigger fish to fry. Instead I ask how Hooker died.

    Fitch says that after all these years he finally found Hooker here in Scargill Cove. Confronted him down here in the basement.

    Fitch says there was an argument. Hooker refused to give up the guns. Why? I ask. He never used them. Never sold them.

    Fitch says Hooker had a change of heart after they stole the guns. He decided they were too dangerous. So he hid them.

    Fitch says Hooker planned to take the secret to his grave. Which is exactly what he did. So how did Hooker end up in the vault?

    Fitch says during the argument, Hooker clutched his chest. Looked like he was having a heart attack. Stumbled into the vault.

    Fitch says Hooker pulled the vault door closed. It locked. Fitch couldn’t get it open.

    I understand now. Hooker was dying. Knew he had only one chance to leave me a message. Locked himself in the vault.

    The dying Hooker scratched his message in code on the inside of the bank vault door, hoping that eventually I’d find it.

    I look at Fitch. You asked me to investigate because you couldn’t find the crystal guns yourself, I say.

    Fitch says that I failed. Says it’s time to tie up loose ends. I’m going to have