A Change of Worlds

Book 5 of the Killian Kendall Mysteries

By Josh Aterovis
Copyright 2026

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Chapter 28

On my way back to the office, I remembered my appointment with Professor Howard. I glanced at my watch and saw I had just enough time to stop and pick up the blade. Although I was cutting it close, I managed to make it to her house only a few minutes late.

She graciously welcomed me in without mentioning my tardiness, offering me a drink as I followed her into the living room. After I declined, we settled into the same seats we'd taken the last time.

For a moment, I experienced a strange sense of déjà vu, which passed just as quickly when I began to pick up differences.

Although Professor Howard was once again dressed in black, today it was a turtleneck sweater and slacks. She looked more haggard as well, with dark circles under her eyes, and her posture wasn't as stiff. She picked up her glasses from the antique side table next to her, slipped them on, and looked me over.

"Tell me again what it was you needed my help with? I believe you said it had something to do with an antique store that was selling artifacts."

The tone of her voice made it clear that, on her list of 'Despicable Things of Which Humans Are Capable,' selling artifacts was only slightly better than torturing innocent bunnies.

"Right. My investigation led me to an establishment that sells a variety of artifacts, many of which the owner claims are of local origin. It's possible he could be selling items stolen from the excavation that Professor Healy was leading."

"Do you think this man, the owner, could have something to do with Quinn's murder?"

"I don't know. It's possible. Or he might simply be the fence for the actual thief or thieves."

"What do you want me to do?"

"I'd appreciate your taking a look at some footage I shot secretly at the store and telling me if anything you see might have come from the excavation."

She frowned. "That would be impossible."

I felt my face drop. "Impossible?"

"I wasn't involved with the excavation. I've never seen any of the artifacts that were found, and only spoken briefly about them with Quinn. The best I can do is tell you whether they are from the right era, and even that will be difficult without having access to the pieces."

"I do have one blade we purchased."

"May I see it?"

I handed her the blade, and she quickly unwrapped the packaged tool and looked it over carefully.

"Well, I can tell you the chances are this did not come from the Snyder excavation."

"Why do you say that?"

"The site Quinn was working on is early Woodland period. This is early Archaic, a few thousand years too old. Of course, it's possible that the settlement was built on top of an older village site, but I think Quinn would have mentioned if they were finding artifacts from different eras." She handed it back to me. "It's a fine piece, though. I don't even want to think about what you must have paid for it."

I shrugged. "It was an investment to gain the trust of the owner, more than an actual attempt to obtain evidence. I was just hoping we might get lucky."

"Then I hope it works. Do you need to use my computer to watch your video? If so, it's in my office."

"No, I have the file on my laptop."

I pulled my computer from its travel case and brought up the video.

Dr. Howard watched the screen closely while the file ran through to the end, then had me play it again, asking me to pause it a few times to study certain pieces.

Finally, she shook her head. "Several of the pieces are most likely from the right time period, but that means nothing. They could have come from anywhere. There's no way of knowing if they came from Quinn's excavation."

Disappointment welled up within me. On some level, I'd hoped this would be the big break in the case. Obviously, it wasn't to be. I forced a smile. It wasn't Professor Howard's fault.

"Well, thank you for helping. It was worth a shot."

She sighed. "I wish I could have done more for you."

Me too, I thought to myself.

Novak had his door closed when I returned to the office. Assuming he was occupied, I went back to setting up my new desk. I was glad for the mindless busywork, since I was very distracted with my own thoughts. My progress on the case — or rather the lack thereof — deeply disappointed me. I'd been counting heavily on Professor Howard, hoping she'd provide me with the key to the case, but that hadn't happened. I was practically back to square one.

What did I really know now that I hadn't known when I started? Some idle gossip was all. The only person I could reasonably scratch off my list of suspects was Bridget. So far, no one had complained about my lack of results, but it was bothering me. I had expected to be farther along at this point.

I decided to read over my notes from the beginning, hoping to notice something I'd missed before.

An hour later, the only thing I had to show for my efforts was a headache and a pair of frown lines that I could feel creasing my forehead so deeply I feared they might become permanent.

"Knock knock," Novak said, echoing his words with a quick rap on the doorframe. "You busy?"

I shook my head.

He took in the still unpacked boxes and my expression. "I was going to tell you I was leaving the office for a little while, but that can wait. What's going on?"

"Nothing."

He raised one eyebrow.

"Really. It's nothing important. You have things to do. Go ahead. I'll be fine."

Instead of leaving, he walked in and sat down in one of the chairs facing the desk. "I'm not going anywhere until you tell me what's up. You've been back for quite a while now. You've obviously not been setting up shop, and you look like someone just ran over your dog. What's wrong?"

I groaned. "I'm totally frustrated with the case."

"Your professor didn't help?"

"It was a complete waste of time."

"She couldn't tell anything from the video?"

"Not really, but it wouldn't have mattered even if she could. There's no way of knowing where the pieces Joyner is selling came from. She could maybe tell if they're from the right time period, but that doesn't mean much of anything."

"So where do you stand now?"

I waved my hands about irritably. "The same damn place I was when I started. I've gotten nowhere on this case, and I've been working on it for two weeks."

"Here's where I'm supposed to say something wise like, 'Patience, Grasshopper,' but unfortunately, I know how you feel. It's very frustrating when it seems like you're spinning your wheels on a case. Still, you can't say you've gotten nowhere. You know much more than you did when you started."

"Like what?" I demanded.

He shifted in his chair. "You know more about the individuals connected with the case. You don't know when that knowledge could become useful."

"It hasn't been useful so far."

He shrugged. "So what? That's like saying I found my keys in the last place I looked. Of course it was the last place. Once I discovered them, why would I keep on looking? You don't know when a piece of information will become useful, but when it does, everything will suddenly make sense. The next place you look, the next piece of information you gather, could put everything into perspective. Don’t get too discouraged, kiddo."

I sighed. "I know you're right. I'm just tired and stressed and I think I'm getting sick."

He studied me for a minute. "Is something else bothering you besides the case?"

I rubbed my face. "Yeah. Personal stuff."

"I don't want to pry, Killian, but you know you can talk to me about things outside the office too, right?"

For some reason, the concern and sincerity in his voice made me want to leap across the desk into his arms and just cry. Instead, I squeezed my eyes closed, clenched my jaw and nodded.

After a few seconds, I'd pulled myself together enough to open my eyes again. Novak was watching me closely.

I took a deep breath and managed a weak smile. "Thanks, Novak. That means a lot. It's just...my love life is in shambles right now, and there's not much anyone can do, so I'd really rather not talk about it."

He nodded. "I understand. If you change your mind, you know where I am."

"I appreciate it."

He looked around the office, then cracked a smile. "It's really strange to be on this side of the desk for one of our talks." He stood up and leaned over to ruffle my hair. "Next time, my office."

The rest of the afternoon crept by at an agonizingly slow pace. I wanted to take a nap, but I was afraid if I fell asleep I wouldn't wake up again for the rest of the night. I had to meet Jacy, go to the antique store with him, then stake out the dig site until morning. I wasn't sure I'd make it through.

A little after five, Jacy let himself into the reception area. "Hello?" he called.

"In here," I said loudly.

He grinned as he walked into my office. I'd managed to get everything unpacked, so it was a little more impressive than it would have been earlier.

"Sweet. Your own office. You're moving up in the world."

"I don't know about that," I protested, but his words gave me a little thrill. It did feel nice to have my own office, as if I'd accomplished something worthwhile.

He looked around. "It's a little...minimalist..."

"I only moved in this morning. I haven't had time to decorate yet."

He flashed me a smile. "I'm sure it'll look fantastic when you're finished."

I smiled back. "We should get going."

Jacy's face quickly became serious. "Right. Should we take your car or my bike?"

I started to say my car for the sake of convenience, then realized I really didn't feel like driving. Besides, maybe a ride on the back of Jacy's motorcycle would wake me up.

"Your bike."

He grinned again. "Let's go."

The ride was just as exhilarating as I remembered, and I did indeed feel more alert when we reached the store.

As I climbed off the bike, I gave Jacy some last minute instructions. "No matter what, don't buy anything this time. It's pretty much useless. There's no way of knowing where the pieces come from. This whole thing has been a waste of time."

Jacy frowned. "So why are we here?"

"Just in case Joyner is connected to the thefts. We don't want him to get suspicious."

He nodded. "Okay. So don't buy anything, but still act interested."

"Right."

We walked inside and Joyner almost immediately emerged from the back. He nodded towards us, shooting me a look I couldn't read.

"Follow me."

He turned and walked off, leaving us to catch up with him.

He led us to the back room and went behind the counter, where he unlocked one of the display cases and pulled out a tray covered with a piece of black velvet.

"This came in after you left last night. I thought you might want to see it before I show it to my other collectors."

An alarm went off in my head. Why would he be showing his newest acquisition to Jacy, a kid he barely knew and who had only bought one thing from him? Why wasn't he offering it to his regular, presumably well-heeled, customers instead? Did he think he could fool Jacy into buying something by making him feel special? Or was this some sort of setup? I felt my whole body tense as I became much more alert.

Joyner whisked off the velvet to reveal a very plain, common-looking ax. His eyes darted back and forth between the two of us as Jacy's face clearly showed his disappointment. I kept my expression as impassive as possible.

"This is it?" Jacy asked.

"It's a three-quarter groove, early Archaic. A nice piece for your collection." Joyner didn't really sound as if he was trying — and he was watching me.

"I'm sorry to have kept you open. I'm really not interested," Jacy told him.

"Oh, it's no trouble. Hang on just one second."

He quickly slipped through the door to the storeroom, which I now noticed had been slightly ajar. When he closed it firmly after himself, I felt a sinking sensation in the pit of my stomach.

Jacy turned to me with questions in his eyes. "Do you think he has something else he wants to show me?"

"No. I think this was all just a ruse to draw us to the store," I whispered to him. "We need to get out of here."

Jacy's eyes grew wide. "What? Do you think we're in danger?"

"I don't know." I was already moving toward the door. "I just have a bad feeling. Come on."

He'd only taken a few steps before the door swung open, and Joyner reappeared, a grim look on his face. "Leaving so soon, boys?" he said in a low, threatening tone.

"I...we...need to go." Jacy was still desperately trying to play his role. "We'll let you close up."

I met Joyner's gaze and suppressed a shiver. He was glaring at me with smoldering animosity. What had happened behind that door? Was someone in there?

Joyner confirmed my suspicion with his next words. "I don't know exactly what you're up to, Mr. Kendall, but you might want to tread carefully."

My eyes darted to the storage room door, which was once again ever so slightly ajar. Was the killer watching me even as we spoke?

Joyner followed my gaze. "I think you'd better leave now. And don't come back."

I nodded, not taking my eyes off the sliver of darkness in the doorway. I was tempted to throw myself at the door and yank it open, but Joyner was between me and there, and he was not a small man.

Instead, I once more started moving toward the exit.

Suddenly I stopped. "Jacy, go on. I'll be out in a minute."

He hesitated. "Are you sure?"

"Yes. I'll be right there."

I had something more to say, but I wanted Jacy out of harm's way in case anything went wrong. I waited until Jacy had reluctantly left before I continued.

I looked directly at Joyner. "I'll let you in on a little secret. I didn't know for sure if you were involved in all this before now, so thanks for confirming that for me."

His eyes narrowed. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Oh, I think we both know that's not true. If you know my name, you probably know why I'm here." I jerked my head purposefully toward the storage room. "And I will find out who is in there. Count on it."

A nasty smile spread across Joyner's face. "Keep poking at the beehive, boy, and you're going to get stung."

"Is that a threat?"

"Oh yes. Count on it."

"What just happened?" Jacy asked as soon as I met him in the parking lot. He handed me a helmet and snapped the buckle on his own.

"I'll explain when we get back to the office."

Now that the confrontation was over, I was starting to shake. I wanted to get as far away from there as possible.

He nodded, accepting my curt response, and swung himself onto the motorcycle.

The ride back was nowhere near as pleasant as the one going. My mind was on other things, like Joyner's final threat still echoing in my head. I didn't regret what I'd done. Whoever was in that storage room already knew who I was and what I was up to. Like Novak had said, people sometimes make mistakes when they feel cornered.

Of course, people also became very unpredictable when cornered, and sometimes they lashed out. I could only hope I hadn't put Jacy in danger by involving him.

As soon as we came to a stop, Jacy was off the bike and staring expectantly at me.

I sighed. "Come on up."

I let us into the darkened agency and turned on the overhead light in my office, then collapsed into the closest chair and groaned. "I hope I didn't just fuck up royally."

"You're really gonna hafta fill me in, because I have no idea what you're talking about," Jacy complained as he dropped into the other chair. "What happened?"

"It was a setup. Joyner must have seen my laptop, or at least he saw enough to make him suspicious. He didn't have anything to sell you. It was a ploy to get us in there so we could be identified."

"Identified? By who?" He paled as understanding suddenly flooded his face. "You think the killer was in the back room?"

I rubbed my eyes wearily, feeling ten times as tired as I had before we'd left. "Yeah. Or at the very least, the looter. They're not necessarily the same person, although I think it's much more likely they are."

Jacy was sitting ramrod straight in his chair, staring at me in horror. "He could have killed us!"

"That would have been too risky. After all, we have no proof of anything yet, and he knows it. If we did, we wouldn't keep returning." He relaxed slightly, only to tense up again with my next words. "That doesn't mean we're not in danger."

"I was afraid you were going to say that."

"I'm sorry, Jacy."

"For what?"

"For dragging you into this."

He shook his head. "Um, no. You didn't drag me into anything. I practically forced my way into your investigation. If I'm in danger, it's my own damned fault. You tried to warn me."

"Just be careful."

"Don't worry."

"Joyner did make one major mistake, though."

"He did? What was that?"

"We now know he's connected to the looting somehow."

"Because he threw us out?"

"Yeah. And he knew my name. If he had just played it cool and let us go, we never would have been the wiser. He showed his hand, which could turn out to be the break I've been waiting for."

Jacy brightened a little. "Yeah, now all we need to do is find out who was on the other side of that door."

"That's the hard part," I said with a grimace. "I have no idea. It could be almost anyone."

We both lapsed into silence, lost in our own thoughts. After a few minutes, Jacy spoke up. "What do you think Joyner's involvement is exactly? Is he just fencing the stolen artifacts, or is he actually behind the thefts themselves?"

I took a few seconds to answer while I shifted gears in my exhausted brain. "I don't know. He could be doing nothing more than fencing the artifacts, but even so, he's at least in on the fact that they're stolen. Otherwise, he wouldn't have become suspicious of our poking around and asked someone — presumably the looter — to identify us."

"Are you sure that's what was going on?"

I nodded. "Oh yeah. I felt something was wrong as soon as we walked in."

He gave me a strained grin. "Your Spidey senses were tingling?"

"Something like that. Besides, why else would he go in the back room and then throw us out like that? He knew who I was. That was his biggest mistake — using my name. And the door to the storage room was open. It's always been closed and locked before. Someone was back there — someone who knew who I was."

We fell silent again as I thought about how near the solution to the whole case had been...and yet so far. What if that was as close as I ever got to the killer? After all, they knew that I knew thanks to me running my mouth like some old-time noir detective. Maybe they'd get careless, but what if they just got more careful, or decided the risk was too much and just stopped everything altogether? Then I might never find out who was behind the looting and the killings.

"Argh!" I shouted, slamming my hand down on the desktop.

Jacy jumped at my unexpected exclamation. "What was that about?"

"I could have blown the whole case," I said bitterly.

"Huh? How did you blow the case?" Jacy looked at me warily, as if waiting for another outburst.

I filled him in on what I'd said after he left. "Joyner and the killer are warned now. They'll just lie low until it all blows over. I'll never find out who it was behind that damn door."

"You'll still figure it out."

I stood up and began to pace. "I don't know. It's not that easy. Whoever is doing this, whoever stole the artifacts and killed Healy and Bridget, he's left precious little evidence. I have almost no clues, nothing to go on. I was depending on him making a mistake. Instead, I made the mistake. I warned him off. Now he'll be twice as careful. He could get away with this — and all because I had to open my mouth."

"Killian, you're being a little hard on yourself."

"Am I?"

"Yes. They already knew we were on to them before you said anything. It's not like it could have changed anything that much."

"But they knew we were on to them because I got careless. I slipped up and Joyner saw the computer."

"You don't know that for sure. He could have just become suspicious and set this up as a safeguard."

"It doesn't matter. Either way, I messed up. I wasn't paying enough attention. I shouldn't have insisted on being there every time you went."

Jacy snorted. "Uh, of course you had to be with me."

I shook my head. "I didn't need to be there after our first visit."

"What about the video?"

"That told us nothing."

"We didn't know that. Besides, I don't know what I'm doing."

"You're a natural."

"Really? I'm a natural?" Jacy looked inordinately pleased.

"Yeah. You're really good."

He grinned. "Nah. We just make a good team."

I gave him a tired smile.

"So...are you still going to do the stakeout tonight?"

I shrugged. I was feeling so drained. It was the last thing I wanted to do, but once Jacy reminded me, I knew I had to go. What if something happened and I wasn't there?

I heaved a sigh. "Yeah, I suppose so."

He frowned. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine."

"Just...be careful."

"Don't worry. I think the biggest danger will be falling asleep in the bushes."

He frowned, not appreciating my attempt at humor. "Seriously, Killian. If you're not feeling well, maybe you shouldn't go."

"We might as well stick with it, just to keep an eye on things, if nothing else."

"Then let me take another night."

"No way. That would be four nights in a row for you. Stay in bed tonight, Jacy. You need some sleep."

He made a face. "So do you. But if you're going to insist on staying out there tonight, maybe you should take some sort of protection—"

"Like what? I'm not licensed to carry a gun yet. I probably wouldn't take one even if I could. Besides, the chances of anything happening tonight are next to none after my confrontation with Joyner. The looter has been warned off. There's no way they'd risk going out there tonight."

He nodded reluctantly, clearly not convinced.

"Look, even if they do show up tonight, I'm not going to confront them. I'm just going to observe, remember?"

It was his turn to sigh. "Okay. You're right. I just feel..."

"What? Are your Spidey senses tingling now?" I asked, half joking, but half serious. I knew Jacy was gifted, and if he was sensing some sort of danger, I wanted to know it.

He thought for a minute before answering. "No. Maybe? I don't know. I can't tell if it's really something or if I'm just being paranoid. I've never really been in danger before. I'm not used to it."

I laughed. "You never really get used to it. You just learn to deal with it. Now go home and get some sleep."

He smiled as we both stood up, then he surprised me by leaning in quickly and giving me a big hug.

"Promise me you'll be careful," he said again as he released me.

"I promise."

"And if you get too tired then just come to the house. You can crash on the couch or even bunk with me."

"Stop worrying. I'll be fine."

He looked deeply into my eyes, before turning and walking out. I couldn't help wondering what that was all about.

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