Chapter 7
"You have to understand, Frank. While there is no body, that in itself raises suspicions, particularly in this day and age. I believe you when you say Mathew Baxter is alive and well," my new criminal legal attorney was saying.
"Well, what's this 'extradition' that's in the works, that I am hearing about? If a person is innocent until proven guilty in this country, how come I have shelled out over ten thousand dollars already, to defend myself over something I haven't done?" I asked in a pissed off voice.
For over a week now the police had been on me, calling me regularly to come downtown. I had contacted my contract attorney, who suggested this guy for matters of criminal law. He was taking care of this, and the costs were already mounting. We spent several hours at the police station earlier this day, and already I was feeling harried.
"Wyoming has a prosecutor who is sharp. Face it, it is very suspicious that your friend disappears, as soon as you leave. Everything points at you being the last person to be seen with him. From a police stand point, that makes you suspect number one," he responded.
I nodded and thought. Well, I could put an end to this very quickly by getting Mathew back, but was he worth the trouble? He had plans of turning this world into a nightmare, while opening the magic fields back up.
One of the first things this lawyer did when he took my case, was ask me if I would take a lie detector test. I asked what for, as they weren't admissible in court as evidence of my guilt or innocence. He had replied that the police were going to push strongly for it, and that he himself wanted know how I would do. I had stared at him.
So he had made an appointment with a retired FBI tester who tested me. I passed it, as well as his trick 'test' questions. So after that when the police asked me if I would take a test my lawyer had agreed. While they had tried their best, I had passed their test, too. My attorney had stipulated we wanted our own 'qualified' person to read the results along with the police technician.
So here we were, three days later and I was still suspect number one, even though I had passed the damned test! Ah well, this too shall pass. As soon as I got home, I planned on contacting Garretti and having him send Mathew through the painting I had done while at the castle. This meant another trip to Wyoming, for me. I sighed at the thought of the drive I would have to make. If I flew, I had a feeling the police would be at the airport waiting on me when I arrived, so driving was the only way.
I was told by Garretti that I would have to meet Mathew at his place. That was the only representation I had made while I was in their world, and that's where the doorway come through. So I told him to have Mathew ready, and that I would contact him to let him know when I had arrived at Mathew's place. I had already placed the appropriate drawing in my traveling case.
I rented a Jeep, packed a bag and my supplies, and made the long trip to Mathew's house.
God, I hated long drives. A day and a half later saw me pulling into Mathews drive. I bumped and bounced my way up to his house.
The police had been there and gone, leaving the police tape across the doorway. I jerked the tape out of my way and gained entry fairly easily.
No, I didn't have a key. But magic made short work of the lock, easily enough. It only took a small nudge of the stuff get the door unlocked. Great stuff, magic. It responded to my will just as Garretti said it would.
A few minutes later I was set. I contacted Garretti, and told him to go ahead and send Mathew through.
"There is a problem. He will be here shortly, but you will have to wait. He was most displeased to find you had canceled the gateway you all had come through. I told him that we had found a picture in your room that you had painted, and asked him if he could identify it as a doorway.
"While he seemed most excited at the prospect, he also seemed a bit cautious. After you had left, he disappeared for a few days. It is only recently that he turned up, and he is staying elsewhere. He wanted us to bring the painting to him, but I explained it was impossible, and he has agreed to come back. We are waiting for him," Garretti explained.
It was a long wait. I went to the kitchen and made myself a sandwich and some tea. I might as well be comfortable, while I was waiting. Twenty minutes later Mathew stepped from the middle of nowhere, into the room.
"Welcome home, Mathew. I'll put the coffee on," I said, as he looked my way a bit startled.
"You bastard, you left me there with no way home!" he yelled at me.
"Easy, Tiger. You hid my only way home, insisting we stay. You forgot... I make the doorways," I replied acidly.
He had taken a few steps in my direction, but after hearing me, he stopped. He had started pointing his staff at me, and it was glowing like a 100-watt light bulb. The light finally died out and I sighed with relief. I was afraid he was going to attack me there for a second.
He sighed and limped over to the couch and leaned it against the arm of it.
"Never mind. I'll get the coffee myself. Just let me go change into something comfortable. Be right back," he said and headed for his room.
I had almost decided to make the coffee anyway when the front door burst open, and two men came through with guns drawn.
"Freeze! Police!" one said while the other moved off to the side.
I didn't move. The cop who had yelled freeze, told me to lay on the floor, with my hands clasped behind my neck. I did as I was told. They went through my pockets, and came up with my wallet, which they went through.
"Well, well, well. Frank Farrow. We have been wanting a word with you," the officer who looked through my wallet said.
Since I was safely handcuffed on the floor, the other man was moving through the house checking it. Mathew was justifiably upset when he was surprised in his bathroom, having decided on a shower before coffee. I didn't blame him for wanting a shower. The plumbing and bathing options were extremely limited in that other world.
"I got another one in the master bath! He seems to be taking a shower," I heard the searching cop yell
"Well, trot him out here, and then finish clearing the house," his partner said in only a slightly raised voice, and he was now scanning the rest of the house.
"How many other people in here?" I was asked.
"Just me and the owner, the man you rousted out of the shower," I responded with a grin.
I do believe they were going to be in for a rough time of it. It didn't take them long to identify Mathew from his ID, and after that, things got bad for them. Mathew blasted them for breaking and entering, and for treating him like a criminal in his own home.
They responded that this was a crime scene and they had a right to be here, while I definitely didn't. They wanted to know where he had been all this time, and why had he broken the tape across the doorway.
"What tape? When I got here, Frank was already inside waiting for me. I didn't see any tape. For that matter, how can this be a crime scene if there was no crime? I suggest you contact your superiors and tell them they have made a huge mistake, and that I plan on suing. As for where I was, I am not in the habit of telling everyone when I go out. I grew up years ago," Mathew said, holding a towel that was providing him with a modicum of modesty.
"You could have warned me," Mathew told me again for what had to be the tenth time in five minutes.
We had left the state police building that had been closest to Mathew's house, a forty-minute drive, where I had been taken despite protestations. Luckily it was the closest state police barracks.
"I explained why I hadn't. I was going to tell you over coffee, but we were interrupted before we could get that far," I said tiredly.
"Well, next time, find some way of warning someone, will you? Even as hard as it is to kill me, I can still die from a heart attack... and at my age, it would probably be easier to instigate it," he said frowning.
I snorted.
"You are going to outlive me, easily," I said sarcastically.
We made it to his car, which he had driven down here while I was handled slightly differently. I couldn't believe he still drove, but he had a license and everything. The officers inside cleared up things quickly; I'll give them that. I was notified that they would be informing my own state that Wyoming was no longer interested in me, and that the missing individual had turned up, after having gone to visit a friend for a few days. That would get the local police off my back in my state, as well.
We drove leisurely back to Mathew's, stopping at a roadside diner for something to eat. Mathew craved something besides the food he had been eating during his visit to that other world. I'll give him this, he waited until after we had gotten something to eat before he started in on me, about creating that of magic he wanted me to create.
Still, he brought it up after the meal, and my stomach soured.
"Now then, have you been thinking about that pipeline I was asking you about? Surely you can see the benefits to having magic at your disposal," Mathew started off.
"Not really. I saw the city outside the castle when I was there. Did you visit it? I mean, did you go down and look it over? I spent a couple days going over every quarter of that city, and it was a hygienic horror!
"Animal feces everywhere, mostly from horses, that the upper city washed from their streets to a collection point. I didn't see human waste, but it wouldn't surprise me. I saw signs of sickness, and poor health... from a bad diet, possibly.
"The lower city dumped all its waste and garbage right into the harbor. It stank! The markets had flies and dirt everywhere, and this is what you want our world to turn into? No, absolutely not," I said firmly.
"Look, I realize there are things that aren't perfect, but tell me what is? This world has its problems too you know," and we were off discussing the merits of a magical based world over the one I had known all my life, a world based on science.
In all fairness I did like the power I felt when I had been connected to the magic field. I could reproduce that feeling a little by tapping into one of the two charged rings I now wore, or the larger medallion that was around my neck and hidden from view. It was my large repository of magic. Garretti said it held enough magical power to do two or three major works of magic, or a hell of a lot of little magical nudges.
When Mathew came through the doorway, I had immediately felt the power he had been accumulating and storing in his staff. That now represented a huge storage 'battery' so to speak of magic. My three little items paled in comparison, but I had the feeling he didn't know I had it with me for some reason. Just a feeling.
I could recharge my magic anytime I wanted to. All I had to do was make a connection with that world, and start the process. This was something Mathew was not able to do. Once he expended the magical power he had stored, that was it, for him. I had a feeling he would be very careful with it.
We could not seem to come to an agreement, no matter how long we argued, and I pointed this out to him. I could tell he was frustrated. I was getting very frustrated myself with fending him off. To make matters worse, he wanted to introduce me to several of his "Old Friends", from way back. These were the people who were still around, who had practiced magic back in the days of yore.
I politely declined, and said I would rather keep my anonymity thank you. He tried to convince me to come with him to a special meeting he could call. He had apparently been a very important magic user in his day, and I think it ate at him to be relegated to 'normal citizen'. That was just an idea though.
I finally took refuge from his continuing bombardment of asking me and trying to convince me to make a pipeline, or at least study on a way of doing it, by saying I had to get home and do some work. I bade him goodbye, and looked in my rear view mirror as I drove off.
He had a very sour expression on his face. I had an idea he was not finished with this conversation. Not by a long shot!
Edited by TeNderLoin