The Inner Circle (Return of the Ancients Book 3) Read Online Free Page B

wasn’t sure if it was a good idea. What could he do?
    “OK, then,” Al said after a moment. “Let’s get this investigation wrapped up.”
    Once again, he returned to the kitchen to rummage through his drawer, and finding the camera, he returned to snap pictures of Blondie’s footprints.
    After that, he put me to work collecting various hairs that he found on the floor. The hairs were all black, beige, and orange and clearly belonged to Tigger. But Al had me use a pair of tweezers to carefully store them in plastic sandwich baggies anyway. And by the time we’d finished our crime scene investigation, we must have had over a hundred little baggies.
    Somehow, that tedious task calmed me.
    That and listening to Al softly hum under his breath.
    And in that moment, I came to the conclusion that it was time for me to follow Al’s example. He didn’t wait to be told what to do. He forged ahead, looking for answers, and he didn’t really care what others thought of him. He shaped his own destiny.
    I looked at his bald head and realized that he was actually a very brave man.
    And it was high time that I took charge of my own destiny, my Blue Thread.
    I couldn’t wait around for others to solve my problems. Who knew where Jareth was, and Rafael … I didn’t really want to think about him. Not yet.
    It was time I dealt with this supernatural stuff head-on.
    After all, I was powerful.
    I was a human!
    The thought made me smile a little. I’d always assumed that magical creatures, if they did exist, would undoubtedly be superior. Humans just wouldn’t make that ‘special’ list.
    But maybe that was wrong.
    We had the power to dream, and to use those dreams to forge our own destiny. And I was learning first-hand that human thoughts were powerful things in the second dimension.
    Just maybe they were in this dimension, too.
    “What is it, kiddo?” Al asked. Apparently, he’d been watching me.
    I met his keen gaze. He could be very useful, and maybe Jack, too. Especially if I could nudge them more onto the supernatural path and away from government conspiracies. But I was going to have to be careful. I couldn’t endanger them.
    Trying to look nonchalant, I asked, “What do you think happened here?”
    “Weeeell,” he began, drawing the word out and looking around the garage. “Betty must’ve been real tired, to sleep through this. But it’s obvious what happened, kiddo.” His blue eyes sparkled. “And it’s highly out of the ordinary!”
    With Al, you never really knew what conclusion he’d come to, but I already liked the direction he was heading. ‘Out of the ordinary’ sounded promising.
    Hunching forward conspiratorially, he continued, “Marquis found out I had his top-secret equipment here, and he came back to get it.” He paused and scratched his bald head. “Though I can’t figure out why he took the door.”
    He was certainly right about Marquis. “Maybe it’s more supernatural,” I suggested. “Maybe like telekinesis.”
    I couldn’t really push more than that, because he chose that moment to stand up and stretch. But he said with a grin, “That’s what I like about you, Sydney. You think out-of-the-box. But it’s getting late, so let’s get the report written up and get this evidence locked down.”
    ‘Locked down’ meant filed away in a shoebox with slips of paper separating and grouping the samples by color: beige, black, and orange.
    Al was meticulous. He faithfully inspected each bagged hair with the flashlight to verify its color.
    We’d gone through only half of them when Tigger waddled into the kitchen and laid down in front of the refrigerator. Dropping his nose between his paws, he gave a sigh of deep contentment.
    With a chuckle, Al leaned down and scratched the bloodhound’s ears.
    A wave of peace washed over me, and it was then that I recognized what it was.
    I’d never had a father.
    Somehow, I’d come to see Al in that role.
    In just the short time I’d been there,