Plasma Frequency Magazine: Issue 12 Read Online Free Page B

compatible in the workplace, the two women were quite different in one regard. While Mari was computer literate and technologically savvy, Agatha was not. Using her laptop computer, Mari surfed the internet to find suppliers of arcane amulets and artifacts with which to restock the shelves in the curio section of the store. In addition, she routinely logged onto social networks in search of potential customers. After a series of not-so-subtle hints about a pressing need for efficiency and the value of at least every now and then getting a few hours of uninterrupted sleep, she even persuaded her boss to take a reluctant baby step into the information age: with Mari's expert coaching, Agatha managed to record a message on the shop's answering machine. It stated: "For non-emergency situations, take two sips of witch's brew and call me in the morning."
    Mari was good with people face-to-face, too. Despite a significant amount of foot traffic through the shop, she instinctively distinguished between casual tourists and those visitors who were the real McCoy in need of special attention. Soon Agatha's business was booming.
    The first indication of trouble came one afternoon when Mari returned from a routine trip to the grocery store. "I think I was followed," she said.
    "By your stalker?" Agatha asked.
    "No, by somebody I've never seen before."
    "Could it be your stalker in disguise?"
    "I'm sure it isn't," Mari said emphatically. "Maybe I should have tried to lead him away from here, but I didn't know where else to go. I think he may still be hanging around outside."
    "If he is, I'll deal with him," Agatha said. She took a pinch of powder out of an unlabeled canister.
    Once she herself was outside, Agatha had no difficulty whatsoever in spotting a man who was trying just a little too hard to be inconspicuous. She walked right up to him and blew some finely-ground powder into his face. The man gave a little shake of his head, and then stood quite still.
    "Who are you and what are you doing here?" Agatha demanded to know.
    "I'm Sam Parker, a private investigator. I was hired to locate Marigold Jones."
    "And do what to her?"
    "Nothing much. I'm to follow her everywhere she goes and report in by cell phone any time she stops someplace."
    "Who do you report to?"
    "A cash customer. I don't know who he is. I only met him once."
    "What does he look like?"
    "He was dressed entirely in black. Other than that, he reminded me a lot of my uncle Ambrose," the private eye said. "Especially his smile."
    Agatha would have compelled the investigator to call in a false report to say that he was mistaken about the identity of the woman he'd followed, except the man would be unable to tell a lie until the effects of the powder wore off. She let him go.
    After a couple of quiet days, Agatha assumed the matter had been put to rest.
    She was sorely mistaken.
    Early one morning, her assistant looked perturbed as she came haltingly down the stairway into the shop.
    "Did you sleep well, Mari? I thought I heard you thrashing around in your bed last night."
    "That's possible. I was having a really bad dream when your cat woke me up. By the way, you haven't told me your feline companion's name."
    "I don't know what it is," Agatha responded. "She won't tell me. I just call her Cat. You were saying?"
    "When I awoke, there was an afterimage of a man hovering over me."
    "Naked?"
    "No, fully clothed."
    "Not an incubus then. What did you do?"
    "What could I do? I kneed him in the groin. Then when I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes, I realized it was all in my imagination—there was nothing there."
    "Have you been favoring your right leg this morning?" Agatha asked.
    "A little bit perhaps." Mari pulled up her dress. There was a dark bruise on her right knee. "I don't remember getting that. I must have bumped into the furniture yesterday and then forgot all about it."
    Agatha shook her head. "I don't think so. What did the apparition look like?"
    "Except for the red