Then he seemed to realize he was being watched. He turned his face up to me, meowed smugly, flicked the stub of his tail jauntily, and hopped to the floor.

“Bob?” I called. “Is the spell still working?”

“Aye, Cap’n!” Bob said. “Arrrrr!”

“What’s with that?” Thomas murmured from right beside me.

I twitched hard enough to take me up off the floor, and glared at him. “Would you stop doing that?”

He nodded, his expression serious, but I could see the corners of his mouth quivering with the effort not to smile. “Right. Forgot.”

I growled and called him something unkind, yet accurate. “He wouldn’t stop begging me to take him to see that pirate movie. So I took him with me the last time I went to the drive-in down in Aurora, and he got into it. It’s been dying down, but if he calls me ‘matey’ one more time I’ll snap.”

“That’s interesting,” Thomas said, “but that’s not what I was asking about.”

“Oh, right,” I said. I pointed at the catnip bag. “The leaf ’s in there.”

“Isn’t that just going to draw Summer’s goons here?”

I let out a nasty laugh. “No. They can’t see it through the wards around the lab.”

“Then why the big rubber band?”

“I linked Summer’s beacon spell to the matrix around Little Chicago. Every time the leaf gets within a foot of the model, my spell transfers the beacon’s signal to the corresponding location in the city.”

Thomas narrowed his eyes in thought, and then suddenly grinned in understanding as Mister pounced on the catnip again, this time landing near the Field Museum. “If they’re following that beacon, they’ll be running all over town.”

“In two and a half feet of snow,” I confirmed, grinning.

“You’re sadistic.”

“Thank you,” I said solemnly.

“Won’t they figure it out?”

“Sooner or later,” I admitted, “but it should buy us a little time to work with. ’Scuse me.”

I shambled to the door and put on my coat.

“Where to first?” Thomas asked.

“Nowhere just yet. Sit tight.” I grabbed my square-headed snow shovel from the popcorn tin by the door, where it usually resided with my staff, sword cane, and the epically static magic sword, Fidelacchius. Mouse followed me out. It was a job of work to get the door open, and more than a little snow spilled over the threshold. I started with shoveling the stairs and worked my way up, a grave digger in reverse.

Once that was done, I shoveled the little sidewalk, the front porch of the boardinghouse, and the exterior stairs running up to the Willoughbys’ apartment on the second floor. Then I dug a path to the nest of mailboxes by the curb. It took me less time than I thought it would. There was a lot of snow, but it hadn’t formed any layers of ice, and it was basically a question of tossing powder out of the way. Mouse kept watch, and I tried not to throw snow into his face.