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on them.
    “You were right, then,” I said.  “The Vanderlays are caught up in something super-normal.  I should’ve listened to you before.”
    Jonas coughed and winced from the pain.  “Yeah, you should’ve.  Would’ve saved me a good anointing.”
    “I know.  No fear, I’ll finish the search for you and find the Vanderlay child.”
    “The hell you are!” He shouted.  He tried to roll out of bed, but fell back and winced. “I’m gonna catch those bastards and beat’em into pudding.”
    “This is beyond you.  If there’s magic involved, there’s not much you can do to stop them.”
    He grumbled.  “Then you handle the wizard stuff.  I’ll handle the real.”
    I made a noncommittal sound and changed the subject to tea.  I’m not going to let him get killed.  I don’t even like him going outside without a warm coat.
    That night I recast my spells, and by the next day I entered his room and found him shadow fighting before a wall.
    “Feeling much better today, Pop.  You ready to see the Vanderlays?”
    “Your eyes are still blackened.”
    “I’ll say I’m in mourning.  Let me bathe and strap on the feed bag and I’ll be ready.”
    He was so enthusiastic, I couldn’t say no.  “I’ll be downstairs.  Steak and eggs?”
    “You spoil me.  The only time I eat anything decent is here.”
    “You should move back home.  We have plenty of room.  Geebee and Seabreaze would burst with joy.”
    He laughed.  I frowned.
    Seabreaze and Geebee squealed when they saw Jonas come down the stairs.  Geebee hugged him around the waist. Seabreaze dove like a hawk and wrapped her arms around his neck.
    Jonas hugged them back. “Now, now, ladies.  Not too hard.”
    Seabreaze planted a tiny wet kiss on his cheek.  “Breakfast is almost ready.  I’m so glad you’re well again.”  She blushed and fluttered rather erratically back to the kitchen.
    Along with Hendricks, who spent the past day memorizing runes and practicing in the garden, we sat down to an overwhelming breakfast of T-bones, fried eggs, and Indian pudding.  I ate some and pushed the rest around my plate.  Jonas devoured his and asked for seconds.  Seabreaze was more than happy to oblige him.
    Jonas belched and pushed away from the table.  “Thank you so much, Seabreaze.  You’re a positively magical cook.” She giggled.  He turned to me. “Are you ready?”
    “I suppose so.”
    “I…I’ll stay here and study,” Hendricks said.  He cut a piece of fried egg and speared it with his fork.  It slipped off of the tines and fell back to the plate.
    In the entrance hall, I put on my coat.  I waved a finger and my slouch hat and Watchmage’s cane flew across the room to me.
    “This won’t do,” I said as I looked myself over.
    “What won’t?” said Jonas.
    I gestured to myself.  “The Vanderlays know me.  I can’t appear at their house and ask about the baby. Better that they meet someone else.”  I traced a series of runes in the air, charged it with Aether and Chaos, and let the weave surround me. I shrunk down a half foot and thickened my belly.  My beard disappeared, and my hair turned black from its normal brown and gray.
    Jonas looked at me and laughed.  “What should I call you?”
    I thought on it for a moment.  “Detective Dupin.  Auguste Dupin.” I said with a grin.  It was a reference to a story by a departed friend of mine.  I doubted that the Vanderlays would know it.
    Jonas nodded.  “Detective Dupin it is…hmm, I think my lost teeth are coming in.”
    Arrock, my stable boy and coachman, drove us to the railroad station at Forty-Second and Fourth.  There they switched from horsepower to steam.  Steam engines were banned from the city center for the legitimate fear of explosion.
    “We there, sir,” Arrock said with a voice like a glacier.  “You want I stay?”
    “No, thank you.  Take the horses home and water them.”
    “Yess’r.”
    I would’ve taken the carriage all the