A-Cup Angst Ch. 14

Jamie made a face at Aldo's leering grin. "I was close by and I stopped here to tell you in person that I'm not going to be here today. At all."

"But, you are here," Aldo said, gesturing at Jamie's considerable bulk. "And it's time to get to work."

Jamie refused to take Aldo's bait and said, "There was a burglary at the Rossi house last night. I chased the burglar away and I'm going to fix the broken window and comfort the women. I won't be coming back here all day long."

"No, no," Aldo said, in all seriousness, "you go to them. Take as much time as you need. We'll see each other on Monday. Thank you for stopping by and telling me in person." Jamie nodded and turned to leave. "Are they ok?"

"Yes."

"Are you ok?"

"Yes."

"Well, call me if there's anything I can do!"

"Will do," Jamie said. "Thank you."

Jamie left and got back in his car. He drove to the side street that led to the trattoria and stopped when he saw a window repairman measuring sheets of glass and then walking into the house through the private, back entrance. Ben's face set into an unhappy cast and he drove back to his mother's house. He had underestimated just how much he had insulted Laura with his theory about Emilio's mother being involved in the attacks.

He had some breakfast before breaking out the high capacity drives with the algorhythms his A.I. had developed during its run. He sifted through them and selected the proper ones to use to hack into the many databases that the italian government kept on their citizens. He began compiling a file on Emilio's mother. She was an accountant with an office in town and was also a respected member of the city council and all-around pillar of the community. Her squeaky clean public image just smelled rotten to him. He had an algorhythm sort through her entire financial history and soon found that she had several credit cards under an assumed name that she used for online purchases. He hacked into the databases of the online vendors and saw the things she had been purchasing. They were very suspicious. Jamie's knowledge of magic had big gaps in it and making magical potions was one of the bigger ones, but even he could connect the dots between the seemingly random items. Emilio's mother was brewing potions.

Jamie shook his head and corrected himself. Emilio's mother was discreetly obtaining ingredients for potions that someone else was brewing for her.

He printed out the details and went back to Trattoria Rossi. Laura couldn't turn a blind eye to hard evidence. The morning crowds had cleared up and she was in the kitchen with Andrea, preparing for the lunch crowd when he came in. Before he could say anything, Laura said, "I don't have time now, Jamie. I had to get the window fixed before the house was encased in ice and we are running late with lunch prep."

"You need to take a look at this," Jamie said, brandishing the folder of evidence he had printed out.

"No time!"

"I'll leave it right here," he said, putting the folder down.

"This is a clean kitchen, Jamie," Laura said, rushing about. "Take that out or it'll be in the trash in seconds!"

Jamie's lips tightened and he bit back an angry retort. She was being so unreasonable. He turned around on his heel and decided to go get a smoking gun to show her. He left the trattoria and drove to the office of Mrs. Rizzoli. He waited in the ice cream parlor across the street from the building until he recognized her face from the photos as she was leaving for lunch. Her mind felt almost identical to that of the beast from last night, yet there was something different about it. He gleaned nothing from her thoughts, except the exact method by which she was going to nag at a fellow member of the city council until he broke down and voted her way on some parking issue.

Jamie got up and went into the building, quickly climbing to her door. He extended his senses and checked that there was no one in there before using the Force to unlock the door and quietly slip in. He shut and locked the door behind himself and started to search the office, making sure to leave everything where he found it. He spent nearly half an hour going through the entire office. His frustration at finding nothing incriminating was rising. Finally, he checked the kitchenette and found a small altar in the cupboard next to the one where she kept the coffee. He took out his phone and took photos of the altar. It was dedicated to Dren and Jamie could tell it was made up of writings that spoke of the darkest of magics.

He checked the time on his phone and saw that he had spent far too much of it in there, already. He left the office and used the Force to lock it behind himself. As he left the building, he passed Mrs. Rizzoli, returning from lunch. He drove to the trattoria and parked in the side street. Alessandra was too busy serving the customers to see him coming in. He walked right into the kitchen and grabbed Laura by the crook of her arm. He pulled her out of the kitchen, leaving a baffled Andrea there alone.

"Jamie, let go," Laura protested. "I have work to do!"

He pulled her to the stairs and showed her the photo of the altar. "This is what Emilio's mamma has in her office," he hissed.

"Jamie, I," Laura said, not looking at the photo.

Jamie grabbed the hair at the back of her head to keep it steady as he brought the screen of his cellphone all the way to her nose. "Look at it!"

Her eyes focused on the picture and she stopped struggling to be free. She shook her head and said, "This is worthless, Jamie, she doesn't have magic. She can paint whatever she wants-"

Jamie cut her off by saying, "But it proves that she wants to do Dren harm!"

Laura's face showed her inner turmoil. She thought for a moment and then said, "This has nothing to do with the beast. She doesn't-"

Jamie opened his binder of printouts and held up some shipping manifests. "No, but this does," he said, cutting her off. "These are ingredients for potions, aren't they?" Laura's eyes skipped over the lists and the fight went out of her eyes. "What are the ingredients for?"

Laura took the time to flip through the pages carefully and then said, "One thing on each of these lists is a restricted substance, monitored by the supernatural authorities. This is clever. If there were two or more on the same list, they'd raise red flags. See, this list is for ingredients for a sexual lubricant, not as strong as the one I make, but... But, if you were to put a few of these together with this extract from this other list, you'd get an abortifacient. And these are for a face lifting cream. And..." Laura reluctantly nodded. "Scattered through these lists are things that could be used to make a transformation potion, but the quantities she has had delivered are massive. Why would she need so much potion?"

"I'm thinking she wouldn't," Jamie said, the gears working in his head. "I'm guessing these are not just materials needed for the potion, they're probably also payment."

"Payment?"

"To the witch that's doing the actual brewing," he said.

Alessandra popped her head in the storeroom they were conversing in and said, "Mamma, I need-"

"Take care of it, whatever it is," Laura said, cutting her off. Alessandra gave them both a questioning look and then nodded and shut the door, leaving them alone again. "Do you know who it is?"

"I haven't the faintest idea," he said. "You should be asking yourself that question. You're the one that knows the local magic scene. Does any name pop up in your head?"

Laura shook her head no. She took the folder from Jamie and said, "Send that photo to my phone. I'll make some more calls to the police."

"Listen, I didn't exactly obtain all this evidence in a legal fashion," he said.

"I know," she said, "don't worry about it. It'll all be fine. I'll make some calls."

Jamie sent her the photo, obscuring the metadata that would trace it back to his phone. "Can I do anything to help," he asked. He sensed Laura was livid at Emilio's mother and her anger was fueling her up for another bout of phone tag with the police.

"No, no," she said. "You've done enough already. I got this from here." With that, she left the storeroom to go upstairs.

Andrea watched her go through the kitchen with a panicked look in his eyes. "Boss, we are running out of sauce," he said. She didn't respond and climbed up the stairs that marked the line between workplace and home. Andrea knew better than to try and follow her.

Alessandra ran into the kitchen and grabbed two bowls of soup Andrea had ladled full. "Where's Mamma," she asked of Jamie. He pointed upstairs. "Damn it! We're swamped and we don't have enough sauce!"

"I put a new batch on," Andrea said to her, "but one of you two secret keepers needs to season it, or I'll just make it the way my mother used to."

Alessandra fixed Jamie a stern look that reminded him of her mother. "Either get her down to cook, or put on an apron and serve so I can finish it," she said to Jamie and left carrying the bowls of soup. Jamie extended his senses upstairs and felt Laura combating the phone. He sighed and took off his jacket. Andrea wordlessly handed him an apron and Jamie put it on. When Alessandra came back in, she glided over to the sauce and fretted over it while Andrea pointed out to him which dishes go where. Jamie picked up a bunch of plates and bowls, using the Force to keep them all steady upon his forearms and not spill. Andrea and Alessandra looked at him with a mixture of awe and worry. He grinned. He had been balancing plates and bowls as part of his Jedi training for months. He quickly served every dish as it was finished, without spilling a drop of soup or displacing a single strand of spaghetti. Andrea and Alessandra looked at each other, shrugged and tackled the many take out orders.

His career as a waiter lasted only fifteen minutes before his phone rang. "Jamie, I need you to go to school and pick up Suzie," his mother said.

"What, now? I'm busy!"

"So am I, Jamie," she said. "An important delivery has been held up by an accident and I have to wait here for it to arrive. I can't go get her."

"Well, I'm busy, too. Can't your boyfriend give you a break?"

"Jamie," his mother admonished. "I'm the only one at the store and I'm telling you to go pick up your sister and take her home."

"Can't she stay at one of her friends?"

"I already asked her. She can't. Not today. Now, stop arguing and go pick her up!" His mother hung up the phone and Jamie softly cursed in English as he rolled his eyes. He took off his apron and left, ignoring Andrea's serving instructions. He picked up Suzie from school. They didn't speak a word to each other during the drive as her face was buried in the screen of the steampunk smartphone he had made for her. It was made up of two parts that folded open to reveal both a touchscreen and a keyboard. The outer skin resembled the leather bindings of a book and the keys themselves looked like tiny valves with letter markings. When he had first given it to her, she had kissed him and hugged him and thanked him over and over again. Now, she acted like she had no idea it was his creation.

Their trip was delayed by a truck that had flipped over on the road leading from town to their house. The State Police was sending people on a lengthy detour as they were waiting for a crane to come and pull the truck upright again. He took the detour and safely delivered the brat to their home. She got out without a look or a thank you and went inside. Jamie shook his head at her poor manners and drove back to the trattoria.

By the time he got there, the lunch crowd had cleared and there were just a few old men playing cards in the corner. They were sipping wine and snacking on Laura's cookies. Jamie went through to the kitchen to find Alessandra sitting on a counter. Andrea was kneeling in front of her and massaging her foot. She pulled her foot out of his grasp and jumped off the counter when she saw Jamie. Andrea stood up and looked suddenly afraid. Jamie was a few inches taller than him and they had about the same, muscular build, but the older man was afraid of Jamie. He put up his hands and said, "Hey, stay cool! Nothing happened!"

It didn't take Jedi senses for Jamie to know that Andrea found Alessandra attractive. Every straight man, and quite a few gay ones, did. He probed the man's mind and sensed that he was rubbing her foot, feeling glad to be of use to a woman after his girlfriend had left him the other day. Andrea was coming to terms with the fact that it was over between him and his girlfriend and that he should start looking for a new one. Jamie decided to point out to the man that he should be looking elsewhere. He gleaned from Alessandra's mind that she didn't find Andrea attractive at all and had not been in any way aroused by the rub. He also sensed her sudden fear that he was misreading the situation. "Jamie," she exclaimed. "Hi! We were just, uh-"

Andrea pointed at her foot and said, "I was just rubbing, uh-"

"My foot," she said, loudly. "Cause I was tired from all the running around."

Andrea held both his hands up in front of him, palms towards Jamie. "I do it for Laura too, sometimes." Andrea's eyes went wide as he realized how what he had just said must have sounded.

Jamie up to the man and their noses almost touched. Andrea lowered his hands and stepped back, suddenly afraid to even meet the younger man's steely gaze.

"Jamie," Alessandra stammered, wrapping her arms around his torso, "why don't we go upstairs? Just the two of us."

Jamie stared at Andrea for a few more seconds, until he sensed the man come to a firm decision to not try and seduce either of the Rossi women. Then he smiled and hugged Alessandra with one arm, while slapping Andrea lightly on the cheek with his other hand. "Relax you two," he said and pinched Andrea's cheek. "It was just a foot massage." They both sighed in relief and Jamie bent down to plant a quick kiss on Alessandra's lips. The two of them went up the stairs, leaving Andrea to curse his luck.

As soon as they left Andrea behind, Jamie sensed Laura's worry. Alessandra kissed him, desperately trying to get him to reconnect with her, but he was more focused on Laura. He broke their kiss and led the way upstairs. Laura was pacing the living room, holding her phone up to her ear and muttering, "Pick up," over and over again.

"What's wrong," Jamie asked.

Laura smiled in relief at seeing him and said, "Emilio was here and he overheard your theory about his mother."

"What?! When? How?"

"While I had been on the phone with the Carabinieri supernatural arm, after you left. He saw the photo and he got so angry. He just rushed out. I don't know where he is and he's not picking up the phone. I've been calling him for the past half an hour."

"Try to calm down," Jamie said. "His mother isn't going to hurt him. You know that."

"Yes, but she might do all sorts of things to Dren, now that her cover is blown. And she might get away before the Carabinieri come for her. Oh, I wish he'd just answer his damn phone and tell me where he was."

Alessandra put the kettle on the stove to make some tea while Jamie did his best to keep Laura calm. The tea had just been poured when Emilio finally answered his phone. "Emilio! Hello? Are you all right?" She paused for his answer. "Where are you?" Alessandra sat in Jamie's lap and he hugged her. "Tell me you didn't. Oh, Emilio." Laura put her hand up to her face. "And then what?" Jamie started to sense something vaguely creeping up to the edges of his awareness. "Did they come? Are they there now? What did they say? Who's in charge?" Jamie retreated into his calm center, ignoring Alessandra's kiss. He could sense the girl's worry that he was angry with her and probed beyond that, beyond Laura's concerns and focused on the vague source of his fear.

He sensed the mind of Emilio's mother. It was familiar to him, since he had felt it outside of her office, but it was changing rapidly. Even as he tried to get a fix on her location, her mind started slipping out of his grasp to be replaced by the mind that had woken him up in terror in the middle of the night. The beast's mind. The one thing both minds had in common was the desire to taste the blood of Laura Rossi.

"Laura," Jamie said, letting all of his fear and concern into his voice. "Mrs. Rizzoli has taken a potion and is coming right here, right now."

Laura looked into his eyes. He nodded gravely and saw her fear etched all over her face. "Em-Emilio, you-you didn't tell her about me, did you?" Her face fell and tears welled up at hearing his answer. She sniffed and said, "Please send all the Carabinieri to my house. She's here." She hung up and wiped the tears from her cheeks. "Are you sure," she asked of Jamie.

Jamie nodded his head and pointed in the direction he was sensing her approaching from. "She's stalking from corner to corner, taking care to not be seen in the back alleys. She'll be here in minutes." He lifted Alessandra from his lap and stood up. "We'll need to fight her. What combat spells do you know?"

"None," Laura said. She hugged her daughter close and Alessandra reciprocated.

Jamie's face fell as he rounded on her, nearly stunned at her answer. "What?"

"I don't know any spells for fighting," Laura said. "My father had always taught me that killing someone with magic is worse than getting killed because it turns the magician into a monster. He had always forbidden me from learning fighting magic and I never learned any on my own, either."

"Well, do you know any incapacitation spells?" Laura shook her head no. "Do any spells come to mind that might be of use to us now?" She shook her head no, yet again, and hugged her daughter tighter to coo words of comfort in her ear.

Jamie set his jaw and turned to face the direction the beast was coming from. The fighting fell to him. He reviewed his meager list of options. Killing the beast was an option for him as his Force abilities were the abilities of his transformed mind, created by magic, but not magic by themselves. He didn't particularly like that option. This was home now and he needed to put his best foot forward. He didn't have the luxury of killing and then flying off to do some more killing someplace else. If he killed now, he had to stand his ground and explain things to the Carabinieri. He decided to fight defensively and stall for time until the cops got there. If they would indeed get there at all.

Laura and Alessandra sank to the couch, scared out of their minds. Jamie stood over them on guard. After a few more minutes, he sensed the beast climb the roof. It crept over the roof until it got to crouch above the window it had already burst through earlier. It tensed up, dug its claw into the eaves and executed an athletic swing that ended with it crashing through the freshly repaired window, yet again. Jamie took position in the hallway, awaiting for it to emerge from the guest bedroom. He sensed the beast's rage as it tore up the bedding that still smelled of Emilio and Dren. A roar was heard from the room and it made the women squeal in fright.

Jamie sensed the beast had heard them and braced himself. It bounded across the room and smashed the door open. It stepped out into the hallway and faced Jamie. All sense of reason and restraint vanished from its mind as it was consumed by bloodlust. It rushed at him, eager for the kill. Jamie used the Force to slam the beast backwards until it was pinned against the far wall. It growled and roared angrily as it helplessly clawed at the unyielding wall. The women screamed in fright.

Jamie stepped closer to it and took a better look. The beast was taller than him. Its limbs were elongated and tipped with sharp talons that were leaving gouges in the wall, as it was trying to free itself from his invisible grasp. Jamie saw that the beast was actually incredibly wiry and skinny and was merely puffed out to size by its shaggy fur. It was a stick figure underneath all the fur. He laughed at the revelation. The potion transformed the elder Mrs. Rizzoli into a monster, but it did not add to her total mass, resulting in this nigh-caricature that couldn't have weighed more than a hundred and twenty pounds. The gouges it was making in the brick and mortar wall it was pinned against and the scared wails of the Rossi girls reminded him vividly that it was still a dangerous beast, regardless of its mass. Jamie sensed the beast's intention to rip shards of brick and mortar out of the wall and pelt the humans with them.