Scythe

by M K Mancos

  6

  If Josiah hadn’t stopped rubbing his poor stinging eyes in time, he would have missed the couple as they exited the Water Point Station Condos. It was about damn time they left. If they’d stayed much longer, he’d have ended up spending the night in his car. Not a happy proposition.

  His butt had already been asleep for a couple of hours. He’d been on his way to see an ex-girlfriend about a box of his stuff she still had when he’d seen Blondie and King Kong walking down the street in their death gear. The need to follow them had overridden his want to reunite with his dog-eared copy of Dune and assorted comic book memorabilia.

  They passed so close to the car he could see her face clearly for the first time.

  Josiah’s heart flipped in his chest. God, she was even more gorgeous than he’d imagined. She was the kind of woman men fought wars and renounced religions over. Very light-colored eyes scanned the neighborhood as they walked.

  His gaze dropped to her neck.

  A cleric’s collar?

  Was it a prop to go with her outrageous costume or the real deal?

  Probably just a prop. Though her face screamed angel, he doubted the woman had a religious bone in her body. How could she possibly be a holy woman and then watch a man die alone in an alley before fleeing the scene?

  Josiah pulled on the door handle and got out of the car. “Excuse me.”

  He waited for Blondie to turn around. She kept walking, keeping up a steady stream of whispered chatter to King Kong.

  “Excuse me, Miss.”

  This time she turned around, her head cocked to the side like a dog who doesn’t understand a command. “Yes?”

  “I need to ask you a few questions.” Josiah slid his jacket over enough for her to see the badge on his hip. He watched her eyes widen slightly before she took a step away, backing up right into King Kong.

  If she wanted to leave the scene, her gorilla of a boyfriend wasn’t about to let her flee. He pushed her forward again. She turned and glared at him over her shoulder before giving Josiah a wan smile. “What can we do for you, officer?”

  “Detective Josiah Adler, WPSPD.” He closed some of the space that separated them. Desire sent a low kick to his gut when he got within a few feet of her. Damn, she smelled good.“I want to ask you about what happened in an alley off Cooper Landing the other night.”

  “Cooper Landing?” She twisted hands encased in black driving gloves in a nervous manner, the action giving away more of her secrets than her hesitancy.

  “You know, a dead body, a bladed weapon, fleeing the scene…” he let his voice trail off as the color leeched from her face. Then the most amazing thing happened, her gorgeous eyes flashed in anger, sending a jolt of awareness straight through Josiah’s chest and sending his heart into a staccato beat.

  He loved a woman who knew how to fight back. And he had no doubt this woman was about to fight back—hard.

  “I have no idea what you mean by a bladed weapon, but I do know about a body. Poor man, dying alone like that. Unloved. Unlamented.” She took a step closer to him. Her voice rose and shook. A suspicious sheen shimmered in her eyes. “I bent down to help when some jerk cop came along, waving his gun and scaring me half to death. I thought he meant to shoot me. I ran.”

  He decided not to point out the fact he was the jerk cop, but let her finish.

  “I didn’t kill that man, and as far as I know, Good Samaritan laws are there to help protect people who stop to offer aid. Just because I ran away doesn’t mean I did anything wrong.”

  No, she had him there. But that didn’t mean she told him the truth now. Instead of questioning her on that he pointed at her collar. “You’re a little hot-headed for a reverend, aren’t you?”

  Her hand shot up to her throat and tapped the priest’s collar. “We were at a costume party.”

  “A priest and the Grim Reaper? Quite the combo.” He thought they’d be amused by his comment or at least explain why they wore the same costumes the night they fled the alley. But they only stared at him with the most serious expressions he’d ever seen on two people who had supposedly done nothing wrong.

  After a beat of silence, she held her wrists out to him. “If you’re going to arrest us, get it over with. Otherwise, I have things to do.”

  He dropped his gaze to her outstretched hands. “I’m not going to arrest you. But if you ever happen to come across a dead body in the future, call for help. Don’t just flee, especially when a cop tells you to halt. It’s a real good way to end up dead.”

  She gave Josiah an odd look and a snorty little chuckle before she and King Kong turned and started back down the street.

  It only then occurred to Josiah that he’d been so entrapped by her expressive face and eyes that he’d forgotten to ask her name. Had she hypnotized him?

  “Hey, what’s your name?”

  She turned a lopsided grin his way. “Persephone,” she called back to him.

  Now, that he could believe.

  He climbed back into his car and fastened the seatbelt.

  Since he was out, he supposed he could go and try to find where Midnight was holed up. However, poor Pugsley had been inside all day and had probably made a mess of the carpet by now. The last thing Josiah wanted at this late hour was to go home and clean up dog poop off his floor and try to get the smell out of the air.

  It was damn embarrassing bringing a hot woman home to his house, opening the door and finding the reek of dog poop hanging on the air like Glade gone bad. Not that there was a hot woman coming home with him tonight.

  The vision of Persephone came back into his mind. Talk about global warming. She was hot enough to knock out the ozone layer all on her own.

  He shook his head and started the car. She’d given him a false name, he could tell by the little laugh in her voice when she’d said it.

  He’d find her again. And when he did, he had every intention of charming all her secrets out of her.

  “Thanks for pushing me toward the cop and contributing nothing to getting us out of trouble,” Keely said much later that night as they left the last residence and started back for her apartment.

  “There will come the day when you’ll be a full-fledged Scythe and I will no longer accompany you on your rounds. You need to acquire the skills to perform your tasks without my intervention.”

  “Well, you know, Water Point Station isn’t that big a place. Chances are I’m going to run into him again.” Though at the moment his badge seemed an awful deterrent, Detective Josiah Adler was enough to give a modern woman the vapors. It wasn’t that he was what Keely would consider classically handsome, but he had rugged good looks and a bit of an attitude. Normally, that alone made her run as fast as possible in the opposite direction. But his attitude came from confidence and strength, which was a very sexy combination.

  Was it just her or had it grown unseasonably warm all of a sudden?

  “Keely?” Samson waved his hand in front of her eyes a few times, pulling her mind back to the present and away from the lure of trouble with a badge.

  “Sorry. Did you say something important?”

  They started into her building and up the stairs. “I only remarked that you did well tonight, but the lies you told the police officer will come back to you.”

  Keely spun on the stairs and almost stumbled back down to the bottom. “What? You working part-time as a prophet now?”

  “No. You said yourself that in a town this size you’re bound to run into him again. Telling him a partial truth has more impact than a complete lie.”

  “What does it matter? He’s not likely to check if we were at a costume party tonight anyhow.” The more she thought about it, the better she felt about her actions. “He had the chance to arrest me and he didn’t take it. He and I both know he had nothing on me. He’s not about to go asking around town if there was a costume party somewhere and if a woman named Persephone had been invited.”

  She unlocked her door and plunged immedia
tely into a bone-chilling coldness. “What is wrong with this heater? It did this the other night.”

  It might only be forty-seven degrees outside, but inside it was below freezing.

  Samson dropped a profanity and hurried into her bedroom.

  “Hey, big guy, the thermostat is out here.” She followed him into the bedroom.

  He stood by the dresser with something in his hand that looked like a card of some kind. “Do you often arrive home to find it cold?”

  “No. Sometimes it happens while I’m here. I’ll wake up and the entire apartment feels like the Arctic.”

  He slid the card into his deep pocket and turned to her, shepherding her out of the room. “How long has this been a problem?”

  Keely shrugged trying to remember the first time it happened. “I don’t know. I think the night I met Ephraim. But it’s not a big deal. It’s an old building and the heating system is getting ready to go out, is all. I’ll tell Nico about it tomorrow at work and he’ll get someone out here to look at it.”

  Samson didn’t look mollified by her assessment of the situation.

  Keely hit him on the arm. “Stop it. You’re scaring me.”

  He shook his head and headed for the kitchen. “No need to be afraid, just cautious.”

  “Cautious of what?” The question was left unanswered as Samson slipped into the ether. At least the apartment had started to warm.

  She pulled off her overcoat and unhooked her utility belt and set it on the coffee table. It was probably a good thing Detective Suspicion hadn’t arrested her. He’d have found the bladed weapon in question.

  As she started into the kitchen to get something to drink, she stopped cold. Earlier she’d felt as if she and Samson were being followed. Had the cop been dogging their steps from client to client? From now on, they’d better operate in stealth mode or risk being observed by the WPSPD. That was bad enough, but the thought that turned her blood to ice was the one where the good detective was the same one from the alley.

  7

  “You’ve got to be kidding me.” Josiah stood in front of the door to Arbuckle’s and shook his head. It was the first time in over two weeks John’s wife had let him out of the house to shoot pool with Josiah and their favorite place was closed for renovations.

  “I got your back.” John pulled his phone from the holder on his belt and started tapping his way through the map app.

  The man was a complete technophile. Any electronic gadgets that came on the market soon found their way to John’s eager hands. Every new phone upgrade and John had it first. After a few minutes, he gave Josiah a toothy grin. “Nico’s Pub and Cue. 401 Tilman Street.”

  Not a great neighborhood by any stretch of the imagination, but at this time of day it probably didn’t matter. It was early afternoon and a weekday. Most likely the cue part of Nico’s Pub and Cue wouldn’t be too busy and they’d be able to get a table and some beer.

  Josiah turned and headed for his car. “Let’s roll.”

  In less than ten minutes, they were parked outside an unassuming building in a quasi business/residential section across from an Italian deli and Thai restaurant. The bar’s logo was fashioned in stained glass on the front window. With that and the low lighting inside, it was hard to tell from the sidewalk if the place did a good after-lunch business or not.

  They walked into the dimly lit bar to the clink of glasses and pool balls accompanied by the strains of Frank Sinatra’s rendition of Witchcraft.

  Josiah slid his keys into his pocket and started for the bar. The bartender was not at his post, but Josiah could hear banging coming from the kitchen area.

  A big man with a handlebar mustache and hands the size of hams stepped from behind the metal door. “Keely, you’ve got customers out here.”

  “Well, ask them what they want.” A throaty female voice that grabbed Josiah by the balls came from the kitchen. He knew that voice. Hadn’t he fallen asleep the night before hearing it in his head?

  “I’ll have a Sam Adams.” John pulled his wallet out, unaware that the entire tide of the day was about to drastically change. The big guy pulled a beer from a cooler and popped the top.

  The metal door swung open again and Josiah’s breath clogged somewhere between his lungs and throat. Gone was the black death outfit and in its place a funky kind of bluish shirt that changed colors as she moved. Tight, well-worn jeans showed off a figure he couldn’t tear his gaze from.

  She looked up and eyes a shade of light violet he’d never seen before speared him through. “What? Are you following me now?”

  John gave Josiah a raised brow and tried to stifle a smile by taking a swig from his beer.

  Josiah put up his hands. “I only came in to shoot some pool and drink some beer. I swear it to you…Keely.”

  Red filled her cheeks.

  “What can I get you then, Detective?” She put her hands on the bar and leaned over. Her shiny shirt molded perfectly to her breasts. All speech and thought processes collapsed.

  Had he completely lost his mind?

  Lust wasn’t a new concept for him. He loved women—everything about them. The way they smelled and tasted. The sounds they made in bed. Sleepy sex the morning after. But he did have his limits, and lusting after a woman who left a man for dead in an alley was definitely beyond him.

  He frowned. “I’ll have a beer, too.”

  “Could you narrow it down? We only sell about fifteen different brands.”

  He shot a glance to what John had and nodded. “I’ll have the same.”

  Keely bent a very shapely butt over a cooler and pulled out a Samuel Adams, popped the top then set it on the bar. “You want to run a tab?”

  He passed her some bills. “No. Keep the change.”

  He and John started for the pool room when he heard her say, “At this rate I’ll be able to quit and go to grad school full-time.”

  Grad school? The very thought of it intrigued him. She worked as a bartender in a place just one step above a dive in a semi-bad neighborhood, dressed like death in her free time and attended grad school. The woman was a walking mystery. One he wanted to very slowly solve.

  Only one pool table stood empty. And, if by divine design or the luck of the devil, the table had an unobstructed view of the bar and Keely.

  Keely.

  The name was as unusual as the woman. It fit her as well as her tight jeans did.

  “She’s hot.” John stood across the table from him, taking his cue stick from the leather case and screwing it together.

  “Who is?” Josiah tore his gaze away from the bar and walked over to where the house sticks were kept. Unlike John, Josiah had never invested in one of his own.

  John gave a deep, throaty laugh. “All right, you gonna play that game with me, I’ll go along with it. But I do have to say her ass would make one fine looking hat.”

  Leave it to John to verbalize what Josiah had been thinking since the moment she’d turned around to grab his beer out of the cooler.

  They shot a couple of games and John happily relieved Josiah of twenty dollars. They were into their third game with John one ball away from working on the eight when he looked up from lining up his shot.

  “If we keep playing, I’m gonna start feeling bad.”

  “Why’s that?” Josiah watched as the four went into the side pocket.

  “I hate taking money from a man who’s not got his game on. It just ain’t right.” He leaned into the shot. “Eight in the right corner pocket.”

  Josiah dug into his jeans and pulled out another ten. John was right, Josiah had no game to speak of and his attention kept wandering to Keely as she busily worked the bar.

  “Why don’t you go out there and talk to the woman? It’ll sure beat the hell out of losing money to me.” He paused a beat. “Not that I mind taking your money under normal circumstances.”

  Josiah looked at his watch. It was only two-forty-five. “You got time for one more game. Give me a chance to win it back.�
��

  “Double or nothing?” John tipped his phone up to look at the time and winced. “Sorry. I promised Madison if I won today I’d take her to Loco’s Ice Cream.” Madison was John’s six-year-old daughter, who the big guy absolutely doted on and spoiled rotten. But with good reason, the kid was an angel.

  “Yeah, be sure you tell her it was my treat.”

  They walked out of the pool room and shook hands before John left with a quick nod to the bar. When Josiah turned back to the bar, he caught Keely staring at him. She quickly looked away, wiping her hands on a white dishtowel.

  A reluctant smile curled the corner of his mouth. Her apparent interest was invitation enough for him to grab a stool and sit at the bar.

  “You want another beer?” The question sounded as if it were reluctantly ripped from her throat.

  “Might as well. I’m off today.”

  She bent back over to the cooler. Her swingy fall of curls fell into her face. “Nice to know you aren’t drinking on duty. I feel safer than ever.”

  “Does your boyfriend mind your smart mouth?”

  “My mouth has never been the subject of complaints from any boyfriends.” She looked him straight in the eyes and set his beer on the counter. “Five-fifty.”

  He frowned over the price. “Why is it two dollars more now?”

  “Because you’re a cheap ass and I want a good tip.”

  He tried not to laugh, but the way she fired the words at him without missing a beat made it almost impossible. Almost.

  He dug into his pocket and slid the money to her. “Is that how you manage to pay for grad school? Extortion?”

  The joke had the opposite effect on her. Those gray eyes narrowed. “You are following me.”

  If it got under her skin to think so, he’d let her believe it. He shrugged. “You know the WPSPD doesn’t have enough to do already without tailing women around town all the time. But then you did flee the scene of a crime.”

  She crossed her arms under her breasts and Josiah’s blood pressure kicked up a few more notches. “And pray tell what crime was that?”