Twist of Fae by Tom Keller Read Free Book Online Page A

to try
and figure out what the hell had happened to me yesterday and was still waiting
to hear back from Jay. He'd said he'd had a crazy day as well and would call me
when things got settled. If there was anyone I could talk to about this, it was
him.
    "What the hell's going on?" Retta asked when she
came in a minute later.
    "Damned if I know," I replied as I stripped off my
gloves. "Al said he's got some kind of tower caper. Why someone else can't
handle it is beyond me."
    "A tower caper? Figures," she said, putting on a
pair of gloves. "Ok, where are you at with this stuff?"
    I let her know what needed to be done on the remaining cases,
and headed out of the lab toward Al's office. The door was already open, so I
walked in.
    "Ok, Al," I said as I sat down in front of his
desk. "What's so important, and why me?"
    "You remember that electrocution caper?" he asked.
"The one at Stateline where the vic was some 'out of state' high
roller?"
    "Yeah, how could I forget?" I replied. That one
had been weird enough, even without the spooks that showed up at the autopsy.
It'd also been the only time that Jay and I had worked on the same case since
he went to work for the Feds.
    "Well, apparently there's some special meeting about it
going on over at one of the Homeland Security offices today, and they want you
there."
    "Me?" I asked, surprised. "That's a homicide
case and my reports have been done for a month. Wouldn’t the detective that's
handling it be the one to attend any meetings? Besides, my brother worked on
that case and he'd know everything that we do."
    "Last time I checked, I answered to him, not the other
way around," he replied. "The Sheriff said you needed to be there, so
there's not much I can do about it. They're even sending a car over. So get
cleaned up, and you can tell me all about it when you get back."
    "I suppose there's no way out of it then," I
replied, wondering why this case was so important all of a sudden, and why Jay
hadn’t mentioned it yesterday. What the hell did they need me for?

Chapter
6
     
    R OBERT
     
    As I pulled out into the street I had a vision of Charlie
and Alf discussing something or another at the table, and was reminded once
again how much my life had changed. Most people would never leave a stranger at
the house, let alone some Imp out of a fairy tale, but this kind of thing was
actually not an infrequent occurrence at my place. Even with leaving my Aunt
Cacilia in charge of my lands while I was here, ever since I had taken the
throne there had been a small, yet steady, stream of Fae who wanted to visit
the human world. Since I had a Hamadryad living in the oak tree in the backyard
guarding the entrance to my home, it only made sense to for them to cross here.
There was also the added benefit of knowing just who was coming or going.
    Fortunately for them, I had made an arrangement with the Milagres.
In addition to owning a significant portion of the Neptune's Landing, one of
the largest hotel-casinos in town, Meredith was the leader of the Nereid and
had already had a system in place for Fae visitors. Hell, they even had some
kind of arrangement with the State for identification. I didn't ask how they did
it, or even who they dealt with, I just paid the bill when it came in. Well, at
least my accounting team did. It seems I inherited quite a fortune when I took
the reins, even if it is placed in trust for the Fae of my realm.
    I had just grabbed a mocha at the drive thru when my cell
rang. Seeing it was my son, I pulled into an empty stall and answered.
    "What's up?" I asked.
    "Hey, Dad. On a trek and I'm headed your way," he
said, his voice somewhat strained. It also sounded muffled, as if he was on an
airplane.
    "That's great. Can you talk or are you in a rush?"
I asked, my stomach tightening. Jay had used the word trek. That was a code
word we'd set up when he and my daughter were young in case of trouble. Of
course, Jay was an adult now, but if he'd used our code word something