Texas Charm, chapter 8 (Patreon)

Captain Williams’s door was shut, so Art knocked. “Come in,” Williams called. 

Art pushed the door open, and Williams was sitting at his small conference table with a man in a suit. The new man was short, about Art’s height, and on the young side. Williams stood. “Detective Lammas, this is Special Agent Gunderson of the FBI’s CCRSB.”

Gunderson stood and offered his hand. Art took it, smiling politely as Gunderson introduced himself further. “I work fraud, and your captain thought you might be able to provide a little insight into my case.”

Art had a bad idea about where this was going. “Oh?”

“I’m investigating the local shamanic council.” Agent Gunderson settled back down into his chair. A band of aggravation tightened around Art’s chest. He could practically hear his mother’s voice talking about karma and how he deserved this.  For a Catholic woman, his mother did have a deep and abiding belief in karma. Art hesitated so long the captain answered.

“Detective Lammas doesn’t have much to do with the council. In fact, he’s pretty well known for refusing to help them with anything, although he is our general go-to when a crime involves Talent.”

Art sat at the third seat at the table. “That’s not as common as most people assume.”

“I’m glad. On the west coast, we’re seeing more and more Talent-related cases, so I hope your trend continues here.” Gunderson gave Art a boyish smile. This one played on his charm and helpless façade to get what he needed. Gunderson continued, “However, I was hoping you could give me some insight into the community as a whole.”

“Like the captain said, I’m not that involved. They do their thing, and I do mine.”

“And were you aware that their thing included unseating the entire shamanic council last night?” Gunderson’s voice had a slightly harder edge now.

“Yep.”

Art got the sense that Gunderson was surprised by the admission. “Were you involved in that?”

Art wished he could say he hadn’t been, but he generally didn’t lie to federal agents, and he definitely didn’t do it when any halfway competent investigator could uncover that lie within minutes.  So he went with the truth. “I told the community that they were cowards for not standing up to those five.”

“Did anything inspire you to get involved?”

Now Art was getting truly suspicious about where this was headed. “Are you investigating me?”

“No.  I don’t mean to imply that,” Gunderson hurried to reassure him. “I am simply trying to understand what is happening. The DC office forwarded information on wide scale fraud, and now you’re leading an insurrection, an Egyptian government official is in town, and everyone seems fairly stirred up. You know how it goes. Sometimes an investigation gets so complex that you don’t understand how all the pieces fit together, and this woman from Egypt was a complication we hadn’t expected.”

“Salma al-Ghamdi.” Art provided the name, but Gunderson didn’t react to it, so he probably already knew it. What the hell was going on? They had no reason to suspect her of being involved in any fraud investigation, and she was closely aligned to Boucher and Oberton, who were both in the FBI. Art could smell political bullshit, and from the way Captain Williams kept studying them, he did as well. “She’s an official from their shamanic community, not the Egyptian government.”

“Is there a difference?” Gunderson went for charming and naïve. 

“The Egyptians think so,” Art said dryly. It wasn’t his job to explain magical politics, so he didn’t.

Gunderson ducked his head like a bashful school boy. “Detective, I am woefully uninformed about the local community, and I really don’t want to have to call Special Agent Boucher to explain any of this.”

“Is that the Agent who used our facilities during that large kidnapping case?” the captain asked.

“Yes, sir,” Art said.

“Competent man,” Captain Williams said approvingly. Boucher had impressed him.

“Competent. Yes, he is that. But he’s very busy and I don’t want to bother him,” Gunderson said too quickly. “Detective, why was there an uprising now?”

Art shrugged. “It wasn’t an uprising. The community simply got together and told the old council to leave.”

“And had something changed recently? From what I can tell from the investigation I’ve done so far, this council had been operating independent of any oversight for a while now.”

“Yeah, but al-Ghamdi promised that if the community acted, she would ensure that the new council was recognized as the official authority. A month ago, people assumed that if they tried to fire the whole council that the government would uphold the council.”

“And al-Ghamdi has the power to get the government to write subsidy checks to a new council?” Gunderson’s shock was either genuine or good acting. Art was starting to see the direction this was going. Someone was afraid of al-Ghamdi’s power, and given that her power was largely confined to the shamanic councils, that would not be a mundane’s concern. 

“Al-Ghamdi has the ear of Special Agent Boucher in DC. That’s the most powerful of the councils, and the most politically connected,” Art said. He pulled on his Talent, watching Gunderson, and he could feel the disquiet caused by his words. The emotions slowly formed a mist around each of the people in the room.

Gunderson gave another shy smile. “I hate to pry, but have you met with Ms. al-Ghamdi about the upheaval within the council?”

“Several times.”

Again, Gunderson projected surprise. Art might not have noticed without using his Talent, though. Gunderson had a damn good poker face. His earlier bumbling façade had definitely been an act. “You have?”

“It wasn’t my choice. My partner did two years in law school, so when al-Ghamdi pulled out the charter and started looking at legal solutions to the council problem, Zach gave her his take on how the courts might interpret different actions.”

Gunderson nodded although Art wasn’t sure if that was approval or his attempt at creating rapport. The problem with questioning a police officer was that Art knew the tricks. Gunderson leaned forward and asked, “If you don’t mind me asking, did you suspect any misuse of funds on the council’s part?”

“I don’t know what they had coming in, so I had no way to judge. I know the local area is underfunded, but I don’t know if that’s because the council has lost federal funds out of stupidity or laziness or if they’re diverting money.”

“But you knew the area wasn’t appropriately funded?”

Art leaned forward. “Just like I knew the local FBI office mishandled Talent cases. Otherwise they wouldn’t have called me in whenever they suspected someone had used magic.” That barb struck. Art didn’t need his Talent to see Gunderson flinch.

“Hopefully the local office won’t misuse your time in the future.”

Captain Williams leaned in, clearly ready to get in the middle. “Our department has always been willing to work with other agencies.”

Gunderson nodded. “And as someone new to the area, I really appreciate the assistance you’ve offered. My cases don’t usually involve Talent, so having an entire shamanic community to deal with has been overwhelming.” He focused on Art again. “Did you train with any of the outgoing or incoming council members?”

The issue of training hit entirely too close to Art’s insecurities, and he blurted out angrily, “Absolutely not.”

Gunderson held out his hand palm up in a placating gesture. “That’s fine. We just haven’t found any training records on two of the members, so we’re still trying to track the various relationships. I’m sure you’ve already guessed that there is money missing.”

Art forced himself to lean back in the chair. “That is the rumor.”

“How widespread is that rumor in the shamanic community?”

“Ubiquitous.”

Gunderson grimaced, his expression exaggerated enough to make it clear he was intentionally playing up the distress, although his aura suggested he was being honest. “Oh. Well, I suppose it is harder to keep secrets around shamans. Do you know if any of the council members would be more likely to be skilled at eavesdropping?”

“No idea,” Art said with a shrug.

“Do any of their guides have particularly good hearing?” 

This little shit knew more about shamans than most mundanes.  Shamans could develop skills more easily when they aligned with a guide’s natural form, but shamans rarely shared that bit of intel. “Asking about a shaman’s guide is an invasion of privacy.”

Captain Williams stood. “Detective Lammas is in the middle of a difficult case—a murder with a rather complex set of extenuating circumstances. We are willing to help you in any way possible, but he needs to review some evidence with another team. If you have more questions, can we address them at another time?”

Gunderson got up and offered the captain his hand. “Of course. I appreciate you giving me so much help.” When he finished shaking hands with Williams, he turned to offer Art the same courtesy. Art plastered on a fake smile and bit his tongue. He’d gone twenty five years without having to deal with shamanic shit, and now a flood of it was rising up threatening to drown him.

“I’ll have one of the detectives show you out,” Williams said as he escorted Gunderson to the door. A few seconds after that, the agent was on his way out, and Captain Williams had returned. Art itched to call Boucher and warn him that someone was gunning for al-Ghamdi, but Agent Gunderson had been in this office, and Art wasn’t sure the phone was secure.

“Okay, so what was that about?” Williams asked.

“I have no idea.”

Williams headed for his desk and sat. “Don’t take this wrong, but do you have any personal relationships or friendships that might raise eyebrows?”

“None,” Art said firmly. “I truly don’t know any of the incoming or outgoing council members well. I haven’t shared as much as a lunch with any of them.”

“And this al-Ghamdi woman?”

That was the rub, and Captain Williams was smart enough to recognize the real political undercurrents. “I wish I didn’t know her, but Oberton and Boucher pointed her at us because Zach and I worked the kidnapping case with them. Before this month, I never even heard her name.”

“How powerful is she? Agent Gunderson mentioned she had access to funds. What sort of funds are we talking about?”

“I have no idea. A lot.” Art paused. “A whole fucking lot. How much is your guess as well as mine.” Art changed the topic before the captain could keep pushing. If Art had to guess, he would put the Egyptian resources in the billions. They had spent centuries saving up money for a holy war against evil ifrit, and now that money was starting to flow back out into the world. But others didn’t need to know that. So he changed the topic. “Thank you for saving me from more questioning.”

“I told Agent Gunderson the truth. IA wants to talk to you about the case before they question Lytle. They’re meeting you in conference room three.”

Art nodded. He headed for the door when Williams’s voice stopped him. “Al-Ghamdi works with the FBI Talent team out of DC, doesn’t she?”

“Yeah, some sort of official liaison to the Egyptian authority.”

“I might have to call their home office to discuss my concern about this investigation. Either their fraud department has left the reservation or their Talent team introduced my detectives to someone under official investigation. Either is enough to concern me as a captain.”

“Sir?” Art asked. He wasn’t sure why Williams would get involved at all.

“Let me run up the red flags. You focus on keeping yourself and that overeager partner of yours clear of this mess.”

Art wished he could. He fervently wished. However, Zach had an ifrit guide, and that meant that Salma would come running any time Zach had an itch she knew about. It made Art borderline homicidal, but he couldn’t change it. “Sir, Zach is enamored of the woman and her mission to update shamanic policies so that those with Talent can fit into society more effectively.”

Williams sighed. “One day he’ll get old and jaded like the rest of us.”

“Yes, sir,” Art agreed. Part of him felt like he should insist on contacting Boucher himself, but he felt so wrong-footed that he was glad Williams was handling it. Art felt like whatever he touched he was going to fuck up, and as much as he hated Boucher and Oberton and all the political machinations of the ifrit, he also knew they were the first line of defense against an evil that Art couldn’t fight without their help. He would really prefer to not fuck up any more than he had. 

Chapter 1: https://www.patreon.com/posts/texas-charm-6-19034447 

Chapter 2: https://www.patreon.com/posts/texas-charm-2-19050307 

Chapter 3: https://www.patreon.com/posts/texas-charm-3-19066252 

Chapter 4: https://www.patreon.com/posts/texas-charm-4-19087127 

Chapter 5: https://www.patreon.com/posts/texas-charm-5-19132901 

Chapter 6: https://www.patreon.com/posts/texas-charm-six-19159661 

Chapter 7: https://www.patreon.com/posts/texas-charm-7-19179823 

Chapter 8: https://www.patreon.com/posts/texas-charm-8-19190078 

Chapter 9: https://www.patreon.com/posts/texas-charm-9-19201497 

Chapter 10: https://www.patreon.com/posts/texas-charm-10-19220764 

Chapter 11, 12: https://www.patreon.com/posts/texas-charm-11-19228890 

Chapter 13, 14: https://www.patreon.com/posts/texas-charm-13-19244456 

Chapter 15: https://www.patreon.com/posts/texas-charm-15-19264338 

Chapter 16, 17: https://www.patreon.com/posts/texas-charm-16-19276375 

Chapter 18, 19: https://www.patreon.com/posts/texas-charm-18-19290091 

Chapter 20: https://www.patreon.com/posts/texas-charm-20-19301548