I, Angel

by JC Andrijeski

  Why the hell wasn’t he looking at Phoenix?

  She was the one person here who could probably tell him what he needed to know.

  His jaw hardened, even as he kept his eyes stubbornly on Asia.

  “Well?” he said, lifting one hand out of the water to motion towards her, indicating it was her turn to speak. “Have you changed your mind again? Or are you going to tell me what this is about?”

  “You know what it’s about,” Asia said.

  At Dags’ frown, she added,

  “No.” The humor and coyness leeched out of her eyes as she glanced at Phoenix. “No. I still want to hire you. We both do. Even more so now.”

  “So you no longer think it was Tig who was threatening your friend?”

  Fuck. He couldn’t even bring himself to say her name.

  “I don’t know.” Asia bit her lip, her expression worried as she glanced at Phoenix. “We’ve been talking about that. We really don’t know. I still think there’s something weird there, with how that guy grabbed me last night. It still doesn’t strike me as a coincidence. But we got another letter, like I said. So clearly, whatever it is, it’s still going on.”

  “Unless he mailed it before he showed up at my house,” Dags pointed out.

  “No.” Phoenix spoke that time, her voice clear, calm. “No. There was no post mark. And I got two emails. One was tonight, after that female detective called us.” Pausing, she added, “Did he really just drop dead in your apartment?”

  Her voice shifted at that last, containing a near-vulnerability.

  It was enough genuine emotion that Dags felt his guard drop slightly.

  “Yes,” he said, still not looking at her, but at Asia. “So you think… what? Tig had a partner? That he was working with someone else?”

  “Maybe.” Asia still looked and sounded worried. She glanced at her friend. “It’s too much of a coincidence, right? That whole thing about ‘The Phoenix will burn’⏤?”

  “He said that?” Phoenix’s voice sharpened, making Dags flinch. “You didn’t tell me that. Jason Tig said that to you? Last night?”

  “He said it to him,” Asia said, pointing at Dags.

  Again, Dags felt Phoenix’s eyes on him.

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” she said, sounding tense.

  Asia grimaced, but looked apologetic. “I didn’t want to freak you out. I was hoping the cops would catch the guy and that would be the end of it. I wasn’t expecting him to drop dead in the apartment of the guy who saved my life.”

  Phoenix went silent, and again, Dags had to fight not to look at her.

  He focused on Asia.

  “The words could be a coincidence,” he said.

  “No,” Phoenix said, shaking her head.

  “A few of the notes said that,” Asia explained, talking to Dags. “Those exact words, about the Phoenix burning. And there was this thing, on the driveway⏤”

  “Two things,” Karver broke in. “Remember? It happened twice.”

  Asia glanced at Karver, who was frowning now, arms resting on the flagstones behind the jacuzzi bench.

  That time, when Karver looked at Dags, his aura exuded a lot less hostility.

  “Someone left this huge bird sculpture thing one night,” he explained. “That’s what started it.”

  “When was that?” Dags said.

  Karver thought, his mouth pursed. “Maybe a month ago? Damned thing must have been fifteen feet tall. It was spooky though, ‘cause they figured out how to turn all the cameras off. The police couldn’t figure it out.”

  “Were you home?” Dags said.

  Karver nodded. “All of us. We were all here. We even had friends over. They smuggled in this giant thing, made of wood… really elaborate. They put it right in the middle of the driveway, with no one seeing them. And they set it on fire.”

  “What time was this?” Dags said.

  Karver looked at Phoenix, then at Asia, then shrugged. “Late. Maybe three in the morning? Could have burned the damned house down if the wind had been any stronger, or coming from a different direction.”

  “How did security not see this?” Dags said, frowning. “Even without cameras, wouldn’t they have noticed? Do they walk the outside of the house?”

  Asia nodded that time. “That’s how they found it… eventually. One of them was doing rounds. The camera stuff was weirder. Both security guys swore the cameras were all working. We have no reason to think they were lying.”

  Dags frowned. “Unless they were in on it. Or someone paid them.”

  Phoenix spoke up that time. “No. I don’t think so. The cops looked into that. If there was a connection there, they didn’t find it. And these guys have worked for me for years. Why would they risk their reputation for something so stupid?”

  Dags didn’t look at her, but nodded, still frowning.

  That was more than just a few creepy fan letters.

  A fifteen-foot bird sculpture?

  That was definitely a few levels past creepy letters.

  “They did it again,” Karver added. “About a week later. The sculpture was smaller that time, maybe only five feet tall, and made of heavier wood. That was after Nix already got a few letters and a box filled with Easter eggs.”

  “Did you call the police that time, too?” Dags said.

  There was a silence.

  In it, Karver and Asia looked at Phoenix.

  “Should I take that as a no?” Dags said.

  Karver exhaled, now sounding annoyed. And defensive.

  “Yeah, I know,” he said. “We should have called them. I wanted to. So did Asia. So did Veronica and Cal, our security guy. ‘Nix wouldn’t hear of it. She didn’t want to give the guy the satisfaction. She thought it would just encourage the guy if we overreacted. Especially if he was trying to get a fear reaction out of her⏤”

  “He?” Dags cut in. “Do you know that for sure? That it’s a he?”

  Karver looked taken aback.

  “I mean… we just assumed,” he said, shrugging with one hand. “Most of Nix’s crazy fans are men. She gets guys trying to break into her sets all the time. One was waiting for her in her shower once⏤”

  Dags’ jaw clenched.

  He wanted to ask Phoenix questions now.

  He had specific questions he wanted to ask her, but for some reason, he was still reluctant to engage with her directly.

  Not just reluctant. It felt almost like he couldn’t.

  Or shouldn’t. Not now.

  Or maybe not yet. Or not here.

  Not with the others here, his mind muttered.

  He knew it was more than just Karver. It wasn’t about not wanting to make the boyfriend mad, or whoever and whatever Karver was to her. It wasn’t about obtaining Karver’s cooperation by avoiding triggering whatever psychotic jealousy or control issues he seemed to have going with her. It wasn’t about Karver at all.

  Dags didn’t trust himself with her.

  The intensity of that feeling was disturbing, especially since he couldn’t explain it to himself in any way.

  “Were the notes or gifts romantic in nature?” Dags said instead, aiming his question at Karver. “You said there were Easter eggs. What else? Anything intimate? Sexual? Was it that kind of harassment? Or is the motive less clear?”

  Asia and Karver exchanged looks.

  “We don’t know,” Asia admitted, turning her wide brown eyes back at Dags. “Sometimes it seemed like that⏤”

  “But there was this weird, woo-woo thing to a lot of it,” Karver added.

  “Definite occult vibe,” Asia confirmed. “It was like the guy read too much Aleister Crowley or something.”

  Exchanging looks with Karver again, Asia grunted.

  “I think he even left her tarot cards once, didn’t he?”

  “Right,” Karver confirmed. “Some deck with Chagall paintings on it.”

  “You have all the letters?” Dags said. “Everything he left or sent?”

  Asia nodded.
“All of it. We kept everything we thought might be from the same guy, including some that were iffy. They’re in a box, upstairs. I was hoping you’d look at all of it after this. I already sent a folder of the electronic stuff to your email.”

  Dags frowned, opening his mouth to ask, but she smiled, rolling her eyes.

  “Don’t get paranoid, big guy,” she said, snorting. “You’re in the book, Dags Jourdain. I found your web page and called your assistant. Ruby, right? She gave me your email.”

  Dags’ brow cleared.

  He nodded, about to speak again, but that time, Karver cut him off.

  “We thought it was a fan, of course,” he said, frowning in Phoenix’s direction. “All along, we assumed it must be some deranged fan, someone who’d read a lot of nonsense into one of her movie roles, or something she’d said in one interview of another. It was a little unnerving, the thing with the fire and the cameras, but nothing he wrote seemed particularly violent or threatening. So when Phoenix wouldn’t go to the police, we just added extra security and had them do an assessment of the grounds every night.”

  He shrugged, glancing at Phoenix, his lips pinched.

  “But then more letters came. Then emails. Texts. Letters in her dressing rooms. Letters at her manager’s office. Gifts… boxes just left on the doorstep for us to find in the morning. And there was never anything useable on surveillance. None of the security guys ever saw or heard a damned thing, and we had people patrolling all night. None of the letters were postmarked, either, so whoever it was left them in the mailbox, or figured out some other way to get them into the house.”

  Dags grimaced.

  “You have reason to think he’s been into your house?” he said.

  Again, Karver and Asia exchanged looks.

  “Yes,” Karver said, looking back at Dags.

  “What reason? Specifically?”

  Phoenix answered that time, making Dags jump.

  “Missing underwear,” she said, blunt. “Panties, specifically. And a vibrator. And a journal I’d been writing in. Plus a handful of notes left inside the house. Again, no postmark. One was found in the kitchen, by Veronica. One on the bar in the living room, by me. One on the couch, again by Veronica.”

  Dags’ jaw hardened.

  He felt Phoenix’s eyes on his tattooed arms.

  “Sounds pretty sexual to me,” he remarked.

  There was a silence.

  In it, Karver frowned first at Dags, then at Phoenix.

  Dags let out a forced exhale, his voice turning back into a growl.

  “If he’s getting into your house, you really need to call the police,” he said. “I’m not saying get rid of the private security. I’m not even telling you not to hire me. I’m saying, in addition to whatever else you do to make yourselves feel safe, you really need to tell the police about this. They need to have an idea how dangerous he is, for one. If this is something this guy’s done before⏤”

  “No.”

  Dags turned, unable to help himself that time.

  His eyes once more locked with those shocking green eyes with their gold flecks.

  “Why?” he said, his voice a growl.

  She studied his gaze, her eyes holding a faint frustration mixed with puzzlement, like she was looking for something in him and couldn’t find it.

  “I don’t want the police involved,” she said, as if explaining something very simple and evident. “They can’t help me.”

  “Why?” he repeated, his voice just as hard. “I’m not crazy about the cops either, but they have resources I don’t, and that your security team doesn’t⏤”

  “No,” Phoenix said. “Absolutely not.”

  “Why?” Dags growled.

  He might have said more, but Asia intervened, snapping Dags’ attention off Phoenix, and forcing him to realize he’d practically been yelling at her.

  “Duh,” Asia said, rolling her eyes when Dags shifted his gaze to her. “It’d be all over the news in half a day, Angel-guy. The police always talk. They’ve got their little arrangements with the press and whoever else. The paparazzi will get all up in it. The tabloids will go crazy. She’ll get copycats and reporters showing up, and whatever else. And it’ll only be a few days before they dig up the thing with Jason Tig, and tie that to both of us. Him being dead will only make the headlines more insane. I’m surprised that hasn’t come out already, to be honest.”

  Grunting, thinking about that, Asia added,

  “I clearly need to give my lawyer a raise. And my publicist.”

  “So?” Dags said, aiming his frustration at her. “Are you really going to risk your lives, Phoenix’s life, just to avoid a little publicity? Aren’t all three of you in the publicity business? How can it possibly hurt you, to be in the headlines?”

  Karver laughed.

  Asia snorted, too.

  Only Phoenix didn’t make a sound.

  “Phoenix gets plenty of press on her own,” Karver said, a little haughtily. “We aren’t the type who need that kind of publicity, frankly. It only makes our lives hell.”

  Dags didn’t have an answer for that.

  He was about to try again, when Asia cut him off, propping her feet up on Dags’ lap, and deepening his frown.

  “Don’t you know?” she drawled, resting her head back on her clasped hands. “Phoenix hates all that shit. She’s, like, known for hating that stuff. Which is why the media can never get enough of her. She’s the most anti-fame, famous person I know.”

  Asia snorted, as if the idea amused her with its quaintness.

  Dags fought not to roll his eyes.

  A lot of celebrities said that.

  In his experience, none of them meant it.

  “Okay,” he said, not wanting to argue.

  Asia laughed. “There you go with the eloquence again.”

  Dags ignored that.

  “So what do you want from me?” he said, looking between Karver and Asia. “You want me to look over everything he’s sent you? And do what? Give you my professional opinion? Tell you if he’s dangerous? Are you expecting me to find him for you?”

  He gave Phoenix the barest glance, then looked back at Asia.

  “You don’t want the police involved, so what do you expect of me? Citizen’s arrest? Or do you want me to call the cops, find some way to keep your names out of it? Because that’s probably not going to be possible, given that you’re the victims.”

  His lip curled.

  “Or are you expecting me to handle it extra-judicially? Threaten him? Beat him up? Or maybe just hand his name and address to your security team, so they can handle it?”

  “Just find whoever it is,” Phoenix said mildly. “Find out what they want.”

  Her voice pulled Dags’ eyes involuntarily back to her face.

  Unlike Asia, Phoenix spoke calmly, her words low, unamused.

  Her voice still carried that faint musical quality, one that drew his ears the way her presence pulled his eyes. He still hadn’t managed to make sense of her features well enough to know if he recognized her.

  Everything about her just… confused him.

  “We can talk about what comes next after you find him,” Phoenix added, when Dags didn’t speak. “I’d like you to find out what you can before we’re forced to involve the authorities. I’d like to know who it is. Their motives. If I’m in danger, as you say. I trust my security people, but hunting people down isn’t really their thing. According to your website, it is your thing. In fact, it appeared to be your specialty.”

  She paused, tilting her head and lifting an eyebrow.

  “Asia trusts you,” Phoenix added. “She feels safe with you. Truthfully, she told us quite the fascinating stories about you, Mr. Jourdain. Borderline superhero stories. Almost unbelievable stories… if you want the truth.”

  “Yeah,” Karver snorted. “Like about you flying out of an alley at two in the morning. Covered in blue lightning. Of course, that was after you fought off her attacker with your
bare hands, moving like some kind of ninja warrior.”

  Dags glanced at him.

  When he did, he caught the male actor staring at his chest, the look on his face openly annoyed, like the very thought of Dags being good at fighting pissed him off.

  Dags glanced at Phoenix, in spite of himself, trying to gauge how she reacted to Karver’s words. Unlike Karver, or Asia, Phoenix didn’t look amused. She was looking at his arms again, at the feather tattoos that ran from his wrists up to his shoulders.

  Then, feeling his stare, she met his gaze, studying his eyes with that same intensity.

  He couldn’t hold her gaze for long.

  He looked away, half-scowling.

  Turning the scowl into an exhale, he forced himself to lean back, to relax his spine into the rounded jacuzzi wall. He hadn’t fully realized he’d been sitting there stiffly the whole time, every muscle tense, as if preparing to leap out of the tub of bubbling hot water at the earliest opportunity.

  Now he tried to relax, and found it took effort.

  He should be able to enjoy this.

  It was a hot tub, for fuck’s sake.

  Tilting his head back to rest on the volcanic stone, he gazed up at those stars he’d noticed earlier. Steam curled up around him, obscuring his view, but there was still an astonishing number of different colored pinpricks glowing from the cloudless, moonless bowl of black.

  He fought to unclench his shoulders, his hands.

  Now he was overly aware of the feet in his lap, in addition to Phoenix sitting a few feet to his left. Even weirder, he could feel Phoenix’s awareness of Asia’s feet in his lap, too.

  He distinctly got the impression those feet annoyed her.

  As he thought it, Asia rubbed a foot over the inside of Dags’ leg.

  Dags jumped, yanking his arms down from the flagstones.

  He gave Asia a hard look, in spite of himself.

  For the first time, he noticed she was wearing a bright pink bikini that she was practically falling out of. Gold necklaces hung from her neck, glittering in the hot tub lights, and drawing his eyes down to her neckline, and her half-exposed breasts, which weren’t small.

  When his eyes shifted up, Asia raised an eyebrow at him, smiling coyly.

  Dags decided he’d had enough.