Page 32 of Thunder Road

“Sure thing. Be careful, okay? I have to admit, this whole troll thing freaks me out.”

You and me, both,Simon thought. “I’ll do the best I can. Thanks for holding down the fort.”

He still couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched, although there was no one in sight. Once Pete was gone, Simon drove home, lost in thought about what to do about the missing people and how in the hell they were going to stop a troll.

Simon stayed alert for the short drive. The car was warded, so he knew no one had placed a hex bag or laid a spell on it. While he was inside the vehicle, Simon benefitted from the additional protections.

Is the troll watching me, or have I freaked myself out? How did he figure out that I might be a problem—and what does he think I can do to him? If there’s a way that I really can pose a threat, I’d like to know what it is so I can make the troll stop killing people.

He glimpsed a tall, raw-boned, broad-shouldered man standing on the sidewalk near an intersection on Ocean Boulevard. Seconds later, just as Simon’s car approached the crossing, someone yelled a warning, and the traffic signal poles swayed, toppling to the ground along with wires and a steel pole as bystanders screamed and horns honked.

Simon practically stood on the brake to get stopped without hitting anything, and he braced for impact in case the drivers behind him weren’t as quick. Tires squealed, but the cars managed to stop without a collision.

Two cars were pinned beneath the toppled poles, which made deep dents in the roof and trunk. He couldn’t see whether the drivers were injured. Pedestrians congregated on the sidewalk, and a few gawkers approached the damaged cars, checking in with the occupants.

Simon’s heart pounded, and for a moment he couldn’t breathe. On the other side of the wreckage, he spotted the tall man who fit the description of the troll that Vic told him about, pieced together from witnesses. The man stared directly at him, smirking. Simon reached for the door handle, but the trollstepped back into the shadows and vanished before Simon could get out of his car.

He settled back into his seat with a frustrated grunt, trapped in the snarled traffic until the police and ambulances arrived. Simon slowed his breathing and collected his wits as sirens blared.

With the protective charms, the troll can’t come at me, Vic, or Pete and Ross directly. The shop and house are warded, as well as the car and Vic’s motorcycle. So the troll has to threaten in a different way—by showing he can hurt bystanders because he knows that might slow us down.

Magical extortion—"nice beach town you’ve got here, sure would be a shame if anything happened to it.”

Simon knew they couldn’t afford to let the troll carry on unchallenged, despite the danger.This means we have to find a way to shut him down fast before he hurts other people or figures out a weakness in our protections. The game has changed—and it’s a race to the finish.

6

VIC

“I’d like Halloween much better without the Devil’s Night angle.” Ross settled into his chair after getting a fresh cup of coffee.

“We don’t get the brunt of it like the uniforms do,” Vic reminded him.

“Unless they get overwhelmed and we get dragooned.”

“Ooh, fancy word! Are you watching one of those historical series, or is that a word-a-day calendar thing?”

Ross flipped him the bird. “As you can see, I am equally fluent in sign language.”

As homicide detectives, Vic and Ross got pulled into crowd control when the rest of the precinct was overwhelmed. Since it usually only happened a few times a year during large events, Vic didn’t mind too much, especially since it came with overtime.

On the other hand, dealing with rowdy tourists involved everything Vic didn’t miss about being a beat cop.

“I think Cap sends us in to keep us grateful for detective jobs,” Ross said.

“You might be right, although we’re not exactly rays of sunshine.”

“We workhomicide, Vic. No one really expects that.”

“How come the rowdy tourists get a misspent youth? We didn’t,” Vic mused. Growing up in a family of cops meant either his parents or his older brothers kept close track of him. Getting out of line wasn’t an option.

“I grew up in a tiny town. Everyone knew my parents. If I ever dared to do anything, word would have gotten home before I did, and there’d have been a reckoning,” Ross replied.

Thanks to good crowd management, the Halloween revelers didn’t get too out of hand. Drunk and disorderly arrests were plentiful, along with some minor vandalism, loitering, and littering citations. Pickpockets and petty theft went along with people in big crowds being tipsy. A very visible police presence helped to discourage altercations, and bar bouncers shut down arguments before they became brawls.

All of which was well and good, but being the sober person at the party was never a fun role.

“Is Simon planning to do his thing again this year?” Ross asked with a wave of his hand to indicate that Vic would understand what he meant.

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