Scythe

by M K Mancos

  “Couldn’t you put us in stealth mode?”

  “No.”

  “Why not?” Keely fingered the closure on the sickle’s pouch. She didn’t want to pull out the blade until she knew if he’d agree to take her into stealth mode or not. And if he didn’t agree, she’d be more than glad to argue the point with him.

  “I have my reasons.” He pointed a negligent hand at the young man stretched out on the ground. “Get to it.”

  Sirens screamed in the distance, growing closer with every heartbeat.

  Damn. No time to press her point and annoy the reason out of him.

  She pulled the sickle from her pouch and bent down over the body. A murmur of “what’s she doing?” ran through the crowd.

  Keely closed off the whispered voices and sliced across the tether. Astonished gasps rose from the spectators as the golden sickle flashed along the smoky cord and it snapped under the assault of the sharp blade.

  Thick Spanish words peppered the air, and busy hands moved over chests in Catholic benediction.

  Even as Keely stood to leave, Samson pulled on her arm and moved them back through the crowd.

  “Stop them!” someone shouted.

  Flashing lights turned the street into a demented discothèque as the reflections bounced off store windows. Police and paramedics finally arrived to help someone who had already succumbed to violence.

  Night and stealth enveloped them as they fled the scene.

  “Sure, now you use it,” Keely’s disembodied voice echoed in her ears.

  “Quiet.”

  Keely turned her head in time to see the young man known as Midnight smirk and turn away into another alley.

  Cold filled her chest and threatened to freeze her lungs, stopping her breath.

  The fact the sick bastard found humor in a young man’s death filled her with such anger she thought her head would explode. No one deserved to be gunned down in the street like an animal. No one.

  The rest of her night passed in a whirl. Her mind still focused on the carnage at the intersection. She’d wondered more than once why Samson had taken them through the crowd in full view. He refused to answer her questions, even after they’d been long away from the area.

  With any luck, her appearance at the crime scene would sound to the investigating officers as the stuff of urban legend. If there was a divine miracle, Detective Suspicion would never believe the story. Yeah, and if she walked three more blocks west, she’d be in the Emerald City with her friends the Tin Man and Scarecrow.

  The kid was a known gang member. The shot dead center and true. He hadn’t stood a chance. Bystanders claimed they witnessed the entire incident. A rival gang member had approached Rubens, raised the gun and fired. No words were exchanged. No provocation. The crime was both senseless and cold-blooded.

  The crime had also taken place in a neighborhood that had long ago tired of being at a crossroads of gangland wars. In what Josiah considered a divine change of pace, the witnesses were more than willing to talk.

  He and Shelia split up and started to question the crowd that had yet to disperse. In front of him stood a man between forty and forty-five years of age, vibrating with righteous indignation. Jet hair had given way to spots of gray. His pockmarked face told of a hard life. Before Josiah could ask any of his numerous questions, the man held a phone out to him. “Look.”

  Josiah watched as the man hit a button and figures on the small screen began to move. The witness had captured the entire shooting on his phone. “You’ve just become my new best friend, buddy.”

  “My name is Victor Cepaidas. You find Humberto’s killer. Humberto was a good boy, trying to get his life together. He just got a scholarship to Ramapo College.”

  “Christ,” Josiah muttered. The death of a youth was always tragic, but when it was a young man trying to turn things around and serious enough about it to apply for and win a scholarship, that was the very definition of not fair.

  “I don’t know what the woman had to do with it, but she did something I ain’t never seen before.” He pointed around to the other people milling around. “Ask them. They all saw it, too.”

  Josiah swallowed with difficulty and asked, “What woman?”

  Once more, the man hit a button. This video was closer up and clearly showed Keely Montgomery leaning over the body of Humberto Rubens, golden sickle clutched in her black-gloved hand. As the blade flashed in the streetlights, a white, wispy trail rose from the body, glistening like spider silk. A quick flick of her wrist and the line split then floated up until it left the frame.

  Speechless, Josiah twirled his hand in the international sign for “do it again”.

  The man pushed play and the scene unfolded again. When the short video came to the end, Josiah shook his head. “Did it look like that…” he pointed to the wispy cord, “…from where you stood, or is that some kind of play of light on the lens?”

  The man shook his head. His dark eyes were wide enough to show white all the way around the iris. “No, we all saw it. We prayed to God she did not steal his soul.”

  Josiah found that explanation as hard to believe as the sight of the cord itself. “What did she do after this?”

  “The big man with her took her away. They disappeared into thin air.”

  Chances are they had merely lost sight of Keely and her boyfriend in the confusion of the crowd. However, he had to admit that video snippet was pretty astounding. “I’ll have to ask for your phone.” When the man looked unsure about turning the expensive gadget over, Josiah pulled out a business card. “Here’s my card, and I’ll give you a receipt so you can get it back. I only want to download the video onto the station computer so it can be analyzed. I’d have you send it to mine, but I want no chance of the video becoming corrupted, or questioned.”

  The man nodded and handed the phone over.

  After he dropped the phone off at the station, he’d have to pay another visit to Keely’s apartment.

  11

  “What do you mean it’s not there?” Josiah leaned in as the technician reran the video footage. The scene unfolded as it had the first dozen times he’d watched it, but this time Keely’s image was suspiciously missing from the shot.

  Shelia gave his shoulder a gentle pat. “Are you sure you didn’t imagine it?”

  “No. I mean, yes.” He shook his head. “It’s not possible. I tell you, I saw her leaning over the body. Everyone on scene saw her. You interviewed them, too. You know what they said.”

  She wouldn’t meet his gaze. “I know they were upset with the victim’s death.”

  “This is hardly a case of mass hysteria.” He kept his attention fixed to the screen. “Stop! Go back a few frames.”

  The digital recording skipped as the technician reversed through the last few seconds of video.

  “There. Stop it again.” He pointed to a man in the crowd, dressed in dark clothing. “Can you enhance?”

  With a few keystrokes, the man in the background came into sharper view, large enough for Shelia to draw in a breath. “I’ll be damned.”

  “The bastard’s smirking.”

  “Ever wish there were laws against inappropriate reactions?” Shelia crossed her arms over her chest and frowned at the screen. “Unfortunately, his being there doesn’t give us any more proof than we have now.”

  Josiah turned away from the screen. Seeing Midnight standing in the crowd, feeding off the pain and sorrow around him, infuriated Josiah. Anger burned behind his eyes. Made him see every degree of red. “I want him put away, even if it’s for not picking up after his dog craps on the sidewalk.”

  “Does he have a dog?” the technician asked.

  Josiah wanted to give the kid a face shove, but restrained himself. The department frowned on violence against other officers. Instead, he contented himself by giving the tech an icy glare.

  Shelia’s phone rang. She mumbled her name then frowned and stuck her finger in the opposite ear. “What’s that?” There was a
beat of silence, then, “I’ll tell him.”

  She ended the call. “That was Cogland. Witnesses said a guy in a long black coat was seen egging the shooter on when Rubens got capped.”

  Midnight.

  “Have Cogland check the area and see if he hung around longer than that video to appreciate his handy work.”

  Josiah grabbed his jacket off the back of the chair where he’d thrown it and started out the door.

  “Where are you going?” Shelia yelled after him.

  “To see a woman about a golden blade.”

  Keely pulled another tissue from the box and blew her nose. Damn, but she hated blubbering like a baby. Crying wasn’t something she indulged in very often, so when she let loose with the waterworks, they tended toward flood stage.

  The vivid image of that poor boy kept running through her mind, gunned down on the street when he had done nothing to deserve it. That’s not saying he had a spotless past, she had no way of knowing such a thing. But it was still a horrible way to die.

  Was there a good one?

  The downstairs buzzer sounded.

  She crossed the room to the intercom and pushed the talk button. “Yes?”

  “Keely? Detective Adler. Can I come up?”

  Instinct kicked in. She wanted to tell him no, send him away. However, tonight more than any other, she really didn’t want to be alone. Samson had hauled ass as soon as they arrived back at her place.

  She pressed the lock release to let him in. A few seconds later, he knocked on her door.

  Keely let out a long breath, bracing herself for a visit with the sexiest man alive. One who didn’t trust her.

  He knocked again and she had no choice but to answer.

  Anger radiated from him. His dark brows were pulled into a heated frown. When he looked at her, his expression changed and his eyes widened. “Are you all right?”

  “Fine.” She stepped back and extended her hand in a come-on-in gesture. “Can I get you anything?”

  “Yeah. Some answers.” He took off his coat with an angry shrug. “I’m not leaving here until I know exactly what the hell happened tonight.”

  “What happened where?” Somehow she didn’t think being evasive mattered. He already acted like he knew everything. But why should she help him out? No matter if the need to tell him the truth burned the roof of her mouth in an acid bath. He’d never believe her. No one would.

  “Humberto Rubens. Does the name ring any bells with you?” He crossed the room to the couch and sat down, patting the space beside him.

  Keely gave a little grunt of sound. “You’re making yourself right at home, Detective.”

  “I told you I wasn’t leaving until I get some answers. Might as well get comfortable. With the way you dance around a story, I’ll be here all night.”

  She pulled another tissue from the box and blotted her eyes. The tears didn’t seem to be slowing, but at least her sobs had quieted. “Look, I’m really tired. I just want to drink a cup of tea and go to bed.”

  “You know, you’re going to make me seriously consider the fact I’m losing my charm. You’re always too busy to talk to me. Now why is that?”

  Keely gave him an astonished look. “You have charm?”

  “I’m mad with it. Now, get your butt over here and sit.”

  A reluctant smile cracked the corner of her mouth. He would have to be blessed with a dry wit. She was a sucker for a man with a dry wit.

  She took a seat beside him. “You asked me about someone—what was the name?”

  “Humberto Rubens. And don’t pretend like you’ve never heard it before.”

  “Of course, I’ve heard it before. You told it to me a few minutes ago.”

  “Keely.” He drawled out her name so it sounded more like Key-Lee.

  “I don’t know what you want from me.” She stood again and walked into the kitchen.

  He followed at her heels. “I want you to tell me how you knew that kid would be gunned down in the street tonight. How can you stand to live with yourself? You could have helped him and instead you let him bleed to death.”

  The words scored a direct hit. Tears ran down her cheeks. She turned to him. “It must be such a burden being so damned perfect.”

  He rubbed a bent knuckle down her cheek, capturing her tears on his finger. “I’ve never claimed to be. If I were, I wouldn’t be standing here torn between arresting you or kissing you until you can’t breathe.”

  Just the thought stole her breath. But still she fought him. “Is that how you get answers from unwilling witnesses? Threaten them with seduction?”

  A slow smile curled the corner of his mouth. “It wasn’t a threat.”

  Keely stepped away. “You confuse me, Detective.” The lingering warmth of his touch made her crave more.

  Something about his dogged determination told her he wouldn’t let her get away that easily. As she moved to the stove to turn on the kettle, he crowded in behind her.

  “How’d you do it?” His breath was warm on her ear.

  A delicious shiver ran down her back. “Do what?”

  “The video.”

  Now she was entirely confused. She turned her face, their mouths only a breath apart. “Video?”

  “The one of you bent over Rubens with a golden sickle in your hand. One of the witnesses captured you on their phone.”

  Keely forced herself to keep breathing. “Oh.”

  “I’m not a religious man, Keely, but I saw something on that video that may make me rethink my position on God and the afterlife.”

  Like a child, she closed her eyes, hoping the action made her disappear. She turned her face away. “What’s that?”

  “A silver mist rising up from Rubens’ body and you cutting it with your blade.” He turned her around. “Open your eyes and look at me.”

  Unable to resist his soft-spoken command, she let her eyes slowly open just in time to see his mouth coming down on hers.

  Oh, God. She wanted this.

  It was sick how much she did. For all he’d accused her of some terrible crimes, she wanted him.

  The press of his lips on hers was more erotic than all of her previous sexual experiences combined—and she was pretty great in bed.

  Her hands shook as she ran them up his chest then sunk them into his gorgeous thick, brown hair.

  That spicy scent she’d noticed before enveloped her, excited her, body and mind.

  And his taste—pure divinity.

  12

  Keely tasted every bit as sweet as Josiah had imagined. Sweeter maybe, if that were possible. Again and again, he plundered inside the hot recesses of her mouth. Christ she knew how to kiss. Every stroke of her tongue against his sent flames shooting down his body, to land in his groin.

  He backed her up into the cabinets in an effort to get closer. He’d never be close enough until he was deep inside her, moving in perfect synchrony.

  Never in all his years on the force had he stepped so far over the line. But he couldn’t help himself. Keely Montgomery had plagued him from the first moment he’d laid eyes on her.

  Hard nipples pressed against his chest through all the layers of their clothing. He wanted more than anything to see her, touch her, pull those diamond-like peaks into his mouth.

  He tore his mouth away from her lips and rested his forehead against hers. “What is it about you that makes me crazy? By rights, I should stay as far away from you as possible.”

  She arched her neck and sipped at his lips. “I know.”

  “You aren’t helping.” The words came out on a moan.

  “I’m being very helpful.” She pulled him closer.

  Control broke. Josiah pushed her back over the counter, devouring her.

  Poor woman seemed starved for a man. The gorilla must not keep up with this part of their relationship.

  Hold on!

  He pushed away from her, his breath coming in ragged puffs between his lips. “Your boyfriend?”

  “Boyfrien
d?” Her sexy violet eyes looked dazed, half-mast. Her sinlicious mouth incredible.

  “Yeah, boyfriend. About six-four. Built like a cross-town bus. Dresses like the Grim Reaper.”

  She frowned at him. “You mean Samson?”

  “If that’s his name.” For some reason, he couldn’t raise his eyes past her mouth. That hot, sweet mouth plastered to his, giving as good as she got.

  “He’s not my boyfriend. I’m not sure I’d even classify him as a friend.” There was a little smile curving up the corners of her lips. A dimple snuck out. He melted.

  “You sure spend an awful lot of time around the guy for him not to even be a friend.”

  The kettle began to whistle. Keely brushed by him, a provocative look in her eyes. “You jealous?”

  Yes. “Curious.”

  “I would think that’s a hazard of your job.” She turned off the burner then began assembling a teapot and loose tea in a silver ball.

  “Requirement.”

  He watched her work. Her hands were smooth and delicate, much too innocent looking to have been involved in anything sinister.

  What was he thinking? Had he lost his mind?

  For all she kissed like a woman possessed, she still had yet to answer any of his questions about the evening’s events.

  “Why were you there, Keely?” He let the question ease from him low and soft, without accusation.

  “I was sent.”

  “By whom?”

  She gave a snorty little laugh, the equivalent of a verbal shrug. “No one you claim to know well.”

  Josiah didn’t care for the involuntary shudder that went through him at those words. He cocked his head to the side, trying to look at her objectively. She was beyond beautiful, but the teasing look in her eyes shuttered an inner sadness.

  He took a deep breath, bracing himself for his next revelation. “The witness who recorded you handed his phone over to me so I could download the video at the station.”

  If he hadn’t been paying attention, he wouldn’t have noticed how her knuckles whitened as she held the tea kettle and poured water into the pot.