The Jetpack Boogie: A Dieselpunk Adventure (The Crossover Case Files Book 4)

by Richard Levesque

  “In my place,” I said, not the first time I’d felt a strange blend of guilt and happiness when considering the fate of that other Jed.

  Guillermo shrugged again. “People die.”

  “So, you’re saying Jetpack Jed may have switched with another Jed? A fourth Jed?” Carmelita asked.

  “The worlds,” Guillermo said, “are infinito. And so are the Jeds.”

  “Guillermos, too?” Carmelita asked.

  “I expect,” I said. “But there’s only one Carmelita.”

  “You think?”

  “The universe couldn’t handle any more.”

  We all chuckled at that.

  Guillermo turned to the workbench and opened a little wooden drawer. He took out a dull metallic ring and held it out toward me. It looked like a simple wedding band, no stone, but it wasn’t gold.

  “Try that on,” he said.

  “What is it?” I asked as I took it from him and gave it a closer look. The surface looked scratched up, like the ring had spent the last few years bouncing around at the bottom of a soldier’s duffle bag. But when I looked at the interior of the circle, I saw what looked like wires running around the inner circumference.

  “It’s just something I threw together this morning,” Guillermo said. “In case you ended up with the German’s problem.”

  “Fine,” I said, and then repeated my question. “But what is it?”

  He smiled at my insistence. “It’s just going to gather data. Wear it for a few days. If you have another little problem, you tell me and then I can check the ring and see what it tells us.”

  “About?”

  He shrugged. “About whatever it can tell us, lobo.”

  I sighed and tried the ring on. It didn’t fit the ring finger on my right hand, but it did on the left, making me look like I was married—only in a dull, metallic kind of way rather the shiny, gold sort of marriage one is supposed to have.

  Then I asked Guillermo if I could use his phone.

  Back in the house, I called Peggy, who answered on the first ring, as usual.

  “I wanted to let you know that Carmelita and I won’t be back in today,” I said. “We weren’t as productive as I wanted this morning, so I’m going to see what I can get done with the rest of the day. Have you gotten any further with those other addresses?”

  “I have. You can have the rest of the list in the morning.”

  “All right. Thanks, Peggy.”

  Before I could hang up, she stopped me. “Jed? You did get a call when you were out.”

  “Imelda?” I asked, picturing the lawyer growing anxious that I hadn’t produced an immediate miracle for her.

  “No. It was Cosmo Beadle.”

  “Cosmo?” I asked. The old actor and cult leader was about the last person I’d been expecting to hear from. “What did he want?”

  “He wouldn’t say, but he sounded agitated. He wants you to call him right away. Left me his Catalina number. He said it was his direct line.”

  “All right,” I said. “Just leave it on my desk. I’ll get to him first thing in the morning.”

  “It sounded kind of serious.”

  I looked at my watch and decided there wasn’t time for another crisis right now. “Give me the number. I’ll call him in a bit.”

  She did as I’d asked, and I wrote the number on my notepad. Then I hung up and turned to Guillermo and Carmelita, who’d followed me into the kitchen and listened in on the call.

  “Are you two going to be my permanent shadows now?” I asked.

  “You only need one shadow, Jed,” Carmelita said.

  * * * * * *

  Sherise had chosen a restaurant called Alphonso’s, a little Italian place with red and white checked tablecloths and a skinny fellow circulating with a violin, ready to lay on a serenade for enhanced romance. It was the perfect place for a happy twosome on the verge of a new venture.

  And that was probably why she looked nonplussed when I walked in and sat down, the first words out of her mouth being, “I saw you drive up. Wasn’t that Carmelita in the car with you?”

  I sighed. “It was. I couldn’t shake her today. It’s complicated.”

  “Is she going to join us?” she asked, and I could see that she hoped the answer would not be in the affirmative.

  “No. I told her to wait in the car.”

  Sherise’s relief was obvious, but it was also balanced by compassion. “Won’t she get bored?”

  “Carmelita doesn’t get bored anymore. Now that she knows what her brain is capable of.”

  “Won’t it seem awfully strange to have her sitting out there in the parking lot the whole time while we’re in here?”

  “Strange to whom? The parking attendants? We didn’t use them. It’s all right. Really. I told her to stay put, and she will.”

  I could see the little bit of tension that Sherise had let slip into her brow fade away once it was clear that lunch would be just the two of us.

  The waiter came a moment later for our drink order. Knowing I wouldn’t be driving, I asked for a Sterling with a twist.

  When he was gone, Sherise asked, “Is she…all right again?”

  “Carmelita? Yes. She’s fine.”

  “But you weren’t able to leave her on her own today?”

  “Like I said, it’s complicated.”

  She smiled and teasingly said, “Good. Entertain me.”

  “You’re not going to like it.”

  The smile stayed, but one eyebrow went up. “Now you have to tell me,” she said.

  “I had a little…incident earlier. Carmelita’s worried I shouldn’t drive on my own for a while.”

  “What kind of incident?”

  “I sort of faded out again. Like I do. You know? With the music? Only this one was a little different.”

  “Different how?”

  The drinks came and we ordered our food. Then I took a long sip of my Sterling before spelling it all out—starting with the crossover the night before and ending with Guillermo’s theories on the nature of my having essentially been crossed into this morning.

  When I’d left Darkness the day before, I had guessed that there was a fifty-fifty chance she’d be all right with not having known about the crossover beforehand. I saw now that if the issue of my continued health and safety hadn’t been in question, I’d have been in the basement as far as she was concerned. As it was—just as I’d seen earlier with the question of Carmelita waiting outside or coming in to join us—Sherise’s compassion nudged aside her convictions. She was a little irritated with me, but she was more worried than anything else.

  “Please tell me you’re done with all of this,” she said when I was finished.

  By this time, plates of ravioli and fettuccini had arrived. Neither one of us had eaten much, though.

  “I can’t be,” I said. “Elsa’s over there somewhere. I sent her there. And I sent her with enough resources for her to make real trouble. Maybe even find her way back here and do even more damage.”

  “Why can’t you wait and solve that problem if it really comes to something?” she asked, her tone all seriousness. I knew I had touched a nerve.

  I reached a hand across the checkered tablecloth to take hold of hers. Squeezing her fingers lightly and then rubbing the top of her hand with my thumb, I said, “Sherise, I can’t. I just can’t. She has to be stopped, and I’m the only one that can do it. If not stopped, then I at least have to know she can’t do any harm. Nothing less would be right.”

  For a moment, there was nothing, but then she squeezed my fingers back.

  “I understand,” she said. “I just don’t want anything to happen to you. And now with this new…what did you call it? A complication?” She shook her head. “I just don’t like it.”

  “I know. I don’t like it either. They’re the cards I’m holding right now, though. I have to play them. I promise you I won’t do anything stupid.”

  She smiled. “You and I both know that’s a promise yo
u can’t keep.”

  I looked down at the tablecloth and said, “I suppose.”

  “Well…like I said, I don’t like it, but I guess I can live with it. When are you going to do it again?”

  “Cross over?”

  “Yes.”

  “This afternoon. I want to go over when it’s still daylight this time and—”

  As I’d spoken, her expression had shifted again. I couldn’t quite read it, but it looked like disappointment.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked.

  “It’s nothing.”

  “It’s not nothing.”

  She stayed quiet for a moment and then said, “I had a surprise for you. Something I set up for this evening.”

  “I’m sorry,” I said, and I meant it, too. “Is it something you can…reschedule?”

  “I don’t think so. I have to strike while the iron’s hot.”

  “And what are you striking?”

  She sighed. “It’s an interview. On the radio. You and me talking about our record, and then they’re going to play it.”

  I smiled. “That’s…that’s great, Sherise. How’d you swing that?”

  My smile didn’t have the desired effect of being contagious. “You know how it is,” she said, her expression distant. “A lot of people come into the club. People who know people.”

  I let out a long sigh. “She’s already been over there a couple of weeks, Sherise.”

  “And one more night will make such a difference? It’s not like this has been convenient for me either. I’ve arranged everything with Nicolai. He’s opening the club without me and getting Georgette to MC.”

  “It’s not just me, you know. It’s Guillermo and Osvaldo, too. They’ve been setting things up, getting everything ready…”

  She took her hand away from mine and said, “Sounds like I’m pretty low on the list.”

  “That’s not how I meant it.”

  “Can we not talk about this anymore?” she asked.

  “Fine,” I said.

  We finished the rest of the meal in silence.

  The moment Sherise was finished, she dabbed at the corners of her mouth with Alphonso’s nice cloth napkin and said, “I need to go.”

  “What if I’d needed to be on surveillance tonight?” I blurted out. “Would you be upset with me then?”

  Her eyes narrowed a little. Then she pushed her chair away from the table and started to get up.

  “I’m sorry,” I said, seeing I’d spoken at a moment when silence would have served us both better.

  “Me, too.”

  “Can I call you tomorrow?”

  “If you survive the night.”

  Then she was up and taking a few steps away from the table. I half turned to watch her go, and when I did, she stopped midstride. Bending down, she planted an angry kiss on my lips and said, “God dammit, Jed, you’d better be careful over there.”

  She walked away without another word, and I knew enough to stay quiet.

  We were going to be all right. Of that, I was sure. I also knew there would probably be a few raised voices before things were completely settled, but that wasn’t so bad. Angry kisses had their place in the universe, too.

  Chapter Ten

  Carmelita drove us back to Echo Park. Despite her efforts to engage me in conversation, I stayed silent most of the way. After a while, she seemed to get the hint and left me alone to replay my lunch with Sherise and fume about it a little.

  When we got to our house, she parked in the driveway. Guillermo’s old Patterson pick-up was at the curb, but he wasn’t in it.

  I got out of my car as soon as Carmelita killed the engine, and I headed straight for the garage.

  “You’re not going right away, are you?” she asked as she exited the car, too.

  “Why not?” I asked. “Let’s get this mess over with.”

  “I thought you were supposed to call Cosmo Beadle.”

  “Cosmo can wait,” I replied.

  The garage door was closed, and rather than open it and expose what was happening inside to the whole neighborhood, I opened the gate to my back yard and went through the garage’s rickety old side door, unpainted and splintery wood on squeaking hinges. Inside, the garage smelled of grease and dirt, also sawdust even though I hadn’t cut a board since I’d moved in. Guillermo and Osvaldo sat on overturned milk crates under the bare bulb that hung down from the rafters, the crossover machine between them.

  “Lobo,” Guillermo said, standing up and crossing the floor to greet me. “How are you? Any more problems?”

  “No,” I said. “I’m fine. Is it ready to go?”

  “Si, she’s set, but I want to make sure you’re good.”

  “He had a fight with his girlfriend,” Carmelita said from behind me as she closed the side door.

  I turned and gave her a nasty look that she ignored.

  “Is this true?” Guillermo asked.

  “It doesn’t matter,” I said. “I can cross over whether I’m glad or mad, can’t I? Mood has nothing to do with it. And now I know I won’t be having to outrun a night watchman once I’m on the other side, so it’s all to the good, isn’t it?”

  “I suppose, sure,” he said, forcing a smile. “If you’re distracted, though…”

  “That’s not going to be a problem. I can focus. It’ll be good for me.”

  Guillermo sighed and looked to Carmelita, maybe for a second opinion. She offered none. Then he looked to Osvaldo, who looked at the floor.

  “All right then,” he said. “We start her up.”

  Responding without needing to be told what to do, Osvaldo flipped switches on the machine, and it started humming.

  As I had done the night before in Guillermo’s living room, I emptied my pockets, setting my wallet, keys, and gun on one of the milk crates along with my notepad and pencil. “Take those things into the house when I’m gone?” I asked Carmelita.

  “Of course.”

  All I had now were my remaining silver dollars. “Did you bring the gun, Guillermo?” I asked.

  “Si, it’s here,” he said, pulling the little gray weapon from his waistband and handing it to me, butt first. I looked it over, noting the “Garcia Industries” plate riveted to the bottom of the handle, and slipped it into my inner coat pocket.

  My watch read 3:33, which struck me as good a time as any. “I expect I’ll be several hours,” I said. “Don’t worry about me.”

  “Not possible,” Guillermo responded.

  I could see that Carmelita looked concerned as well. She had moved across the garage to stand beside Osvaldo, the pair holding hands.

  “If it happens again,” Guillermo said. “You get crossed into…”

  “If it happens, it happens. It didn’t last long last time, and I was fine.”

  “Because Carmelita was there.”

  “I would have been fine anyway.” Throwing Carmelita a glance, I was relieved to see she hadn’t seemed to take offense at this. I tossed her a wink anyway, which she tried to replicate but could only return as an awkward blink. Holding up my left hand and pointing at the ring Guillermo had fashioned, I added, “And if it does happen again, just think of it as me gathering data. We’ll get this figured out after Elsa’s taken care of. And then we’ll all settle down to a nice, normal life.”

  “All right, lobo. Be safe.”

  “I will,” I said, and then I stepped through the ring of light again.

  The smell was the first thing I noticed. Gone were the smells of sawdust and grease. The garage did still smell dusty, though. In my world, the crossover machine was in the garage’s front corner, Guillermo figuring that was safest, as it was less likely that there would be some big obstacle there to get in my way in the other world. So, now I stood in the same corner and looked around at this other version of the garage. Like mine, this garage had a bare bulb hanging from the rafters, but I didn’t want to pull the chain and turn it on; still, there was enough light coming from the glowing portal for me t
o get a good look around.

  A car took up most of the space in the garage, but it was an antique, or I assumed that was the case. Where cars in this world all hovered and were sleek feats of engineering, the relic in the garage had tires—all flat. It was big, like the antiques I used to see before the war. It was interesting to consider that somewhere along the way, this world’s transportation technology had taken a big leap, much bigger than anything I had seen elsewhere. I wondered when and how it had happened, but not so much that I wanted to pull the hood up on the car and start poking around. I had more pressing concerns.

  Turning to the garage’s side door, I twisted the knob and gave it a pull. The hinges squeaked loudly, making me wince. I peeked out regardless. Relieved to see that the back yard was empty, I turned back to regard the ring of light for a moment and then stepped out.

  I cut through a corner of the back yard and out the gate to the driveway. Then, keeping my head down, I ran toward the street, hoping to avoid being spotted by anyone inside the house or by any of the neighbors. Once on the sidewalk, I turned in the direction of Sunset Boulevard and walked as quickly as I thought I could get away with—without looking like I was running from something. Chancing a backwards glance a few houses down, I saw no sign of any pursuer, so I slowed down.

  It didn’t quite take fifteen minutes to work my way out of the neighborhood and back to the busy street where I’d found the diner the night before. Then, I’d called for a cab with my change from the silver dollar I’d broken—after foolishly giving away the rest of my coins as the waitress’s tip. That meant I had no money for a payphone now, so calling another cab was impossible. I’d have to hail one instead—if such a thing was even done in this world.

  Luck ended up being on my side, as I spotted several taxis traveling along the busy road as I started walking in the direction of downtown. Turning back every few feet, I watched approaching vehicles until I spotted a cab heading in my direction. The first three blew past me without slowing down. Because of the dark windows on all the cars, I couldn’t tell if the cabs had fares inside, and I saw no outward sign that could help me out. I started worrying that hailing a cab actually was something alien to this world, but then I tried one more time, and the hovercab pulled to the curb. Relieved, I got inside and saw that the driver was not a pleasant-looking Japanese woman but an older fellow; he looked to be about as Anglo as me but much rougher around the edges with several days’ worth of stubble decorating his cheeks and a general air of weariness that I didn’t envy.