Once Upon Stilettos

“I’ll explain later.” I dialed Trix’s desk and said, “Tell the boss that he needs to get down here now.” She promised to pass the word, and I hung up.



“Ah, so it was Owen’s lab you were heading to,” Ari said.



“What?” Only then did I remember the reason I’d supposedly come down in the first place. “Oh, that. No, I accomplished my mission and thought I’d stop by to say hi to Owen.”



“He’s in a meeting.”



“Really?” Then I remembered what she’d said about swiping a book from him. “You mentioned that you got that book from his office. Did you notice anything when you were in there?”



“I took this months ago. Sorry I can’t help. What happened?”



“Our spy has been busy again.”



“Hmm. Funny no one noticed. Owen hasn’t even been gone that long. I saw him go past not ten minutes before you got here.”



Owen and Merlin then went by. I caught up with them in the hallway. “Someone’s been in your lab,” I said to Owen, “and I’m not talking about your secret Santa. Well, your secret Santa seems to have been there, too, because it looks like something’s been left, but someone else has been there.”



By the time I finished rattling all that off, we were in the lab. “Can you tell if anything’s missing or changed?” Merlin asked.



Owen ran a hand through his hair, making pieces of it stand on end. “I have no idea. I guess I’ll have to start warding the lab, too, but that’ll make it difficult to get much work done.” Then he looked at me. “What are you doing down here, Katie?”



“You’re not the only person in this department who has a secret Santa, you know. And I thought I’d drop by to say hi while I was in the neighborhood.”



He went back to sorting through the books and papers that were on the floor. “You didn’t see anything, did you?”



“Sorry. It was like this when I got here, and I called right away.”



Another man then joined us. He was perhaps old enough to be Owen’s father and was nearly a head shorter than Owen. “Did I hear there’s been another break-in?” he asked.



Owen practically snapped to attention. “Yes, sir, I’m afraid so.” I’d never seen him that deferential to anyone in a business setting, except sometimes to Merlin.



“What about all those security measures you’ve taken?” the newcomer demanded.



“They don’t do any good if the culprit is within your department,” Merlin said in his usual mild manner.



That didn’t calm the newcomer. “Are you implying that my department is the problem?”



“Your department is clearly the target, and it would appear that someone in the department is the culprit, so yes, I’m saying we have a problem in your department,” Merlin replied.



“I don’t keep anything essential out here, so they can’t have stolen anything worthwhile,” Owen said. “It’s more like vandalism.”



“Well, report to me when you have more information,” the other man said before turning to leave.



“Katie, you’ll keep me updated?” Merlin asked.



I nodded. “I will when I figure something out.”



He left, and I knelt by Owen to help him gather books and papers. “I should probably explain about Mr. Lansing,” he said.



“Who?”



“The one who was just here. You probably saw him as a frog.”



I bit my tongue before I blurted that I hadn’t seen a frog.



“He’s the departmental director for R and D. There was apparently an industrial accident a number of years ago. He doesn’t come out much since maintaining that illusion is a drain on him, but he doesn’t feel like he gets much respect as a frog.”



“I can see where that would be a problem,” I said, nodding. For once, I was grateful for my hopefully temporary lack of magical immunity. I’d have been totally freaked out if a frog had hopped into the room and started asking questions. “But don’t you have ways of breaking the frog spell?”



“Trust me, he’s kissed half the city. And we’ve tried everything. It was a pretty diabolical spell. I’m not even sure how it happened, but they’ve been working on breaking it for decades. We generally don’t talk about it that much. I usually try to stay out of his way.” He gathered a few more papers, then asked, “Was there something you needed to see me about?”



My cover stories were starting to need cover stories. Then I thought of something. “Did you ever find out where that camera was sending its signal?” I asked.