Jake's Justice, Book Three of Wizards Read Online Free PDF Page A

toast.
    “You mean stuff from Salice?”
    “No you could find real buried treasure, like people do with metal detectors. There was a man in the paper who found a Saxon hoard. It gets declared treasure trove, the government buys it and you share the money with the land owner. You used to find those missing hikers. You must be able to find buried treasure.”
    Mam had a point. I could buy a metal detector and pretend I’d used it. Or borrow one. Malcolm bought a metal detector a couple of years ago. And he owed me for getting him sex with Silvia. He would never have got to first base if I hadn’t let them come to the wedding.
    I picked up the last piece of toast and waved goodbye. “I’ll give it a try.” It took less than a second to hop into the office at Mr. Griffith ’s woodyard.
    “Oh it’s you,” Malcolm said as he looked up from his desk. “I don’t think Mr. Griffith has any work for you. He’s not in.”
    I gave Malcolm my ingratiating smile. For some reason that seemed to frighten him.
    “Didn’t you once buy a metal detector?”
    “Right waste of money that was. All I ever found were old ringpulls and beer cans.”
    “But have you still got it?”
    Malcolm nodded.
    “It’s in the wardrobe in my bedroom.”
    “You still living in that flat on Bedford Street ?” He nodded. “Mind if I borrow it?”
    “Sure, but…”
    I smiled and hopped.
     
    Bedford Street is lined with those turn of the 20 th century houses the rich used to own back when they had live-in servants. When servants became too expensive or whatever, the houses were turned into flats and the street went downhill. I’d had to visit Malcolm once when he was sick and Mr. Griffith wanted me to check he was all right. I’d never got into the flat though. Malcolm had refused to open the front door of the house when I’d buzzed him.
    Pretending to use a key, I magicked the front door open and slid inside.
    There was a staircase next to a musty corridor. Malcolm’s flat was number five and a quick trip down the corridor showed only the first three flats were downstairs.   The carpet on the stairs looked at least a hundred years old. Or possibly that was only the last time it had been vacuumed. Flats four, five and six were on the next floor up. I stood in front of Malcolm’s door and unlocked it.
    Silvia gave a shriek as I walked in. She brought her legs together as she stood up from where she had been lying on the sofa. Her dressing gown dropped over her legs and I had already seen she was wearing nothing beneath it; at least from the waist down. Naughty girl.
    Once upon a time I’d have been embarrassed at catching her at it, but I was a man of the world now. Having recognized me and recovered her poise, she smiled.
    “Hi Jake. I was just thinking about you.” She let go of her dressing gown and it opened enough to reveal she was completely naked. “Would you like… something?”
    This sort of thing never used to happen to me. I wasn’t interested in her consciously, but one specific part of my body had taken up a different position. Holding what remained of my slice of toast strategically to cover my embarrassment I decided on using sophisticated humor to defuse the situation.
    “If I’d known you were coming, I would have waited.”
    Note to self: Never try sexual humor with a Welsh tart. Silvia took my comment as an invitation and slipped out of her dressing gown, dropping it on the floor. She really was a good looking girl. Her nipples looked stiff enough to knock a man’s eye out.
    “I’ve never had a wizard before.” She pouted engorged lips at me. “And I can see you’re as ready as I am.”
    ‘Margaret Thatcher, Margaret Thatcher.’ I chanted in my mind along with imagining the iron ladies image. It used to work when I was younger, but not so much this time. I needed a bigger distraction and an escape strategy.
    “Is the bedroom through there?” I pointed at a door. My peripheral vision caught Silvia’s