NO SOUVENIRS
by
Piper Merlyn
Chapter 5
The Chapters
Frank and Joe followed the three sisters out of the Victorian house and down the steps, with Callie and Vanessa right behind them. As they started along the sidewalk toward the corner, Frank glanced back at Vanessa. “What do you know about Macey, Vanessa?”
Vanessa thought for a moment and sighed. “I know she claims she’s a hippie born out of time. She likes New Age stuff – music, those funny looking lamps...” She shrugged. “Most of the letters were about how much she liked working odd jobs, how she found her apartment.”
“What about her family?”
“You heard her last night. Her father’s out of the picture and basically, so is her mother and stepfather. The only one she ever mentioned to me was her brother.” Vanessa shook her head. “I do know one of her earlier letters talked about how her stepfather didn’t want to adopt her, said she was too old for him to adopt her and give her his name.”
Joe turned around and walked backwards. “So...Wilder is her father’s last name too.” He glanced at Frank. “Think if we do some checking, we could find out who he is?”
Frank shrugged as they turned the corner and headed for the coral-colored Victorian house. “We could try. I could call Dad tonight and ask him to run a check on the name Wilder. If we knew where her father lived...”
“Macey said Steve lives in D.C. I got the impression the family might have been originally from there, the way she referred to going to the Smithsonian and stuff when she was little.”
“Do you think you’ll be able to find him with so little to go on?” asked Callie as they stopped at the concrete steps. She looked up to see the sisters waiting on the porch.
Piper motioned for them to come on and led the way into the house. The four of them followed her and her sisters into a wood-paneled foyer, gleaming from sunlight coming through the stained glass windows. “Wow,” said Callie softly, “It’s beautiful.”
Piper gave her a smile. “Thank you.” She led the way to a large room full of windows and plants. A wrought-iron table sat on one side of the room, complete with several chairs. A white wicker settee, two chairs and a glass-topped table was not far away.
Joe noted a map of San Francisco was spread out on the table and beside it was a dagger and a crystal on a chain. Phoebe passed by him and sat down at the table.
“I’ll be right back with refreshments,” said Piper. She disappeared through a doorway and all of them could hear the sound of glasses clinking and something pouring.
There was an awkward silence and then Piper returned, carrying a tray of glasses and a plate of cookies. She set the tray on the wrought-iron table and smoothed her hands down her skirt. She picked up a glass and handed it to Frank. “Here.”
“You didn’t have to go to all this trouble,” said Frank.
“For Piper, it’s not trouble.” Phoebe didn’t even bother to turn around. She’d attached the crystal to the dagger and was sending the crystal in a slow circle over the map. “Piper lives for guests.”
“What are you doing?” asked Callie.
“She’s scrying,” said Paige. When everyone looked at her, Paige shrugged. “It’s an ancient means of finding someone. Once it was used with a bowl of water but now it can be done this way too.”
Vanessa cleared her throat. “What...what happened in Macey’s apartment. How...?” She cleared her throat again, either nervous or embarrassed. “How—“
Piper set her glass of iced tea on the tray and nodded to Vanessa. “Drop your glass.”
Vanessa looked down at the tall tumbler. It was a soft green and had striped pattern with a raised image of an iris on it. “It’ll shatter.”
Piper shook her head. “Just drop it.”
Vanessa let go of the glass and it fell. But before it could crash to the floor, it stopped. Vanessa looked up to see Piper make the odd throwing gesture again. “How is that possible?”
“Piper can freeze things,” said Phoebe, still not looking up from her task.
“And I can move things,” said Paige. She set her own glass on a plant stand and held out one hand, palm up. “Glass.”
Vanessa’s glass shimmered and disappeared, only to reappear in Paige’s hand. Paige handed it back to Vanessa. Joe shook his head. “That wasn’t moving things, that was – what was that?”
“It’s called orbing,” said Paige, in a hushed voice.
“Look,” said Piper. “This is more our problem than yours. We’ll get Macey back and—“ She broke off as the front door opened. She frowned and strode out of the solarium. Her voice drifted back to them. “Where the hell have you been?”
There was a low murmur but none of the teenagers could make out the words. Then Piper’s voice came again. “The least you could have done was let me know. I was worried sick.”
“Piper, it’s this situation. Already, three w—“ The man broke off as he and Piper walked into the solarium. He looked at the four teenagers and glanced at Piper. “You didn’t say we had guests.”
“You didn’t ask.”
“Got it,” shouted Phoebe triumphantly. She stood up and kicked her chair out of the way. “Found her.”
The man looked around the room, and then his blue eyes settled on Piper. “What’s going on and why are they here?”
Piper mumbled something under her breath and sighed. She tossed her hair over her shoulder and proceeded to tell the man what had happened in Macey’s apartment.
Phoebe tossed the crystal and knife on the table. “Come on, talk later, we have to go.”
The man shook his head. “I’ll go.”
“Leo,” said Piper in a warning tone.
“We’ll discuss that later, in private.” He looked at Phoebe. “Where is she?”
“I’m going too,” said Piper, in a tone that dared him to argue with her.
He heaved a sigh. “Fine. We’ll go.” He looked at Phoebe and Paige. “You two stay here.” He started to step out of the room but Piper shook her head. He gave her a hard look, sighed again and the two of them vanished in a shimmer of blue lights.
Joe stared at the spot Piper and Leo had been standing. “What the—? Where’d they go?”
Paige cleared her throat. “Leo...Leo is an angel, a whitelighter.”
Joe looked over at Paige and started laughing. “What? No way. Where are his wings?” Joe shook his head as he laughed harder. “No way.”
“A...whitelighter?” Vanessa turned wide eyes on Paige. “You mean like in those stories about near-death experiences?”
Paige nodded. “Yes. Leo and Piper are married—“
“Paige, now’s not the time to spill secrets,” said Phoebe, sounding disgruntled. She spared the four teenagers a brief look and then stared down at her hands, her shoulders hunched over. “You know what happens when secrets come out.”
Joe cleared his throat. “That detective mentioned his partner and another sister. What happened?”
“Pru...” Phoebe seemed to curl in on herself and then shuddered. “Pru was the oldest, the bossiest...” She sighed and finally looked up at him. “We clashed, we made up and we’d clash again. Typical oldest/youngest thing and poor Piper...stuck in the middle, trying to be the peacemaker.”
Phoebe started pacing from the wicker table to the French doors that led to the backyard. “Pru’s death hit Piper hard. Very hard...” Phoebe spun on her heel and looked over at Paige. “If it hadn’t been for Paige, we would have never made it.” Phoebe took a deep breath. “Andy, Darryl’s partner, had been a friend of the family for years. Andy and Pru went to high school together, were an item for awhile and then they just went their separate ways. I don’t know if it was Fate who brought them back together for awhile or not. But Andy’s death hit Pru like a ton of bricks.”
Frank let the silence play out for a moment and then he spoke up. “You said you were witches.”
“Piper’s little stunt with the glass didn’t convince you?” Phoebe sounded somewhat cynical now.
Frank sighed. “Look, it’s hard to wrap our heads around this—“
“Why?” asked Callie, an odd expression on her face. “What about Halloween last year? Or last month. You took Leigh at her word, remember? Asked her to check on Ione.” Callie’s expression darkened. “Melanie. I meant Melanie.”
Phoebe looked at each of them in turn. Finally, she looked over at Joe. She’d seen the expression on his face when Callie mentioned the name Ione. “Give me your hand.”
Joe gave her a wary look. “Why?”
“Please?”
Joe held out his hand and Phoebe took it. She flinched and closed her eyes. Joe started to pull away but instead looked at Paige. “What’s wrong?”
Paige sighed softly. “Phoebe has...premonitions.”
Phoebe pulled her hand away and stepped back. She looked from Joe to Frank and shook her head. “Why? Why do you do it? Risk your lives so much?”
Joe shifted in his chair and shrugged. “I could ask you the same thing. You and your sisters could have been off in your timing and that...that whatever it was could have done something. Already you’ve lost one sister...”
“Stop it,” snapped Phoebe just as a shower of cool blue lights poured in from nowhere. The man, Leo, appeared, cradling Piper in his arms. Phoebe’s brown eyes went wide. “Piper!”
Leo laid Piper down on the wicker sofa and then held his hands palm down just above her left shoulder. A soft yellow glow filled the space between his hands and her shoulder and then everyone in the room heard her let out a soft sigh. “Leo?” asked Piper, sounding dazed.
“It’s okay, Piper. You’re okay.”
“What happened?” asked Phoebe.
“The warlock had a welcoming committee. He knew we were coming.”
Phoebe shuddered. “Damn it, what now? If I scry again and—"
Piper sat up and shook her head. She grabbed hold of the sofa and blinked. “Whoa, head rush. Don’t scry, Phoebe, I think he used one of the witches to pick up on it.”
“One of the witches,” asked Callie in a soft voice. “There are more?”
Piper cleared her throat. “Look, you four are in over your heads here.” She gestured to Phoebe and Paige. “We know what we have to do, we’ll take care of this.”
Joe studied her for a moment. “Looks like you might be in over your heads too,” he said quietly.
Piper gave a start and looked over at him. “We can handle it. We have to handle it.” Her voice took on a fatalistic tone. “It’s what we do.”
Joe frowned and got to his feet. “Well, it’s what we do, too. We find missing people, we help people in trouble.” He started for the door. “Come on, Frank, girls, let’s go.”
Piper narrowed her eyes and made a small gesture. The four teenagers went still, frozen for a brief moment in time. Piper looked over at Phoebe. She’d noticed her younger sister’s expression and decided not to wait until later. Waiting was sometimes the worst thing to do. “What?”
Phoebe swallowed hard. “They’re going to go somewhere, the Caribbean I think. He’s...” She took a deep breath and nodded in the blond boy’s direction. “Something horrible is going to happen...”
Paige frowned. “And?”
“It changes everything,” said Phoebe. “We can’t let that happen.”
Piper moved to stand up and then shook her head, carefully. She lifted her hands to unfreeze the teenagers. “We won’t, Phoebe. We’ll make sure of that.” She made the little gesture again and the four teens, unaware of what had happened, continued out the front door.
This time Piper stood up. “All right. We’ve got work to do. Let’s get busy.”
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Disclaimer
The Hardy Boys belong to Simon and Schuster and the Stratemeyer Foundation. The authors have just borrowed them for an adventure or two. The authors promise to put the boys back when they are done with them. The authors do claim copyright to the original characters in this story. Please do not borrow original characters without express permission of the authors.