I closed the closet, looking in the mirror to make sure everything was tucked away nicely. I doubted that I’d need all of it, but I’d rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it.
I grabbed my duffle bag and headed for the front door.
It was time to steal candy from a baby.
5
It had been snowing all night, and fat flakes still fell with disregard to anyone who had places to be. That meant everything was wet, frozen, and covered in snow. I walked to the Stang in the parking lot. My mustang is a cherry red sex machine. That’s what I tell myself anyway. In reality, the thing is too old to be awesome and too new to be badass. The ’04 monstrosity had been picked up second hand for a decent price, and the old girl had gotten me around just fine for a few years now. Once she got a wash and a wax, I still got car cat called but dudes who didn’t know better.
Despite that, I was quickly discovering that it was not meant for life in the mountains. When I’d lived in San Francisco, snow and ice had never been something I needed to worry about. Since it had started snowing around town, I’d discovered that my sex machine was really just a cherry red toboggan when I drove on ice or snow, regardless of how much or how little ice and snow there was.
I got in it anyway. I wasn’t about to walk three miles in the snow. I tossed my duffle to the passenger seat and fired up the engine. I hit the defrost and got out to scrape the windshield while I was waiting for everything to warm up. Street parking in the snow sucks dick.
Once the Stang was ready to go, I idled my way out of the parking lot and down the street. I got a lot of honks and angry jeers from other people on the road as I moseyed down the street. I gave them all the finger and hoped that someone was dumb enough to try and run me off the road. It had been too long since I’d punched someone, or stabbed someone, or beat them with a baton, or shot them. Hell, it had been a long time since I’d gotten to do anything fun. I blame Carl.
It took me the full thirty minutes to get to Charlie’s house. His neighborhood was old, brick, and rich. I drove by a few mansions with iron gates and oak trees.
Charlie’s house sported a black iron gate and a brick wall around the property. It was covered in a few inches of snow, but I was sure that if it hadn’t been, the tops of the wall would have been covered in vines. The driveway made a large U shape, leading up to the front door before turning and heading back to a second break in the wall that served as an exit.
All in all, the place was pretty damn fancy, and I was feeling better about Charlie being able to fork over the cash. Plus, if his parents could afford a mansion, he could afford to fork out a grand to me. Maybe in a few years, he would see it as a valuable life lesson on the importance of money.
I parked right out front and got out. Snow floated down in heavy flakes all around me. I shrugged into my jacket and headed to the house. I left my duffle. Charlie had said his sister was gone so there probably wouldn’t be any need for the usual mumbo-jumbo I pull on people when I go to their houses. It was there in case there was though. I also doubted I would need the KSG, but you know, I still had it loaded up and ready to go in the car.
The brick walkway was icy, but two inches of fresh snow gave me enough traction to walk confidently. The front entrance had a set of five stairs that led up to a fairly large landing and a giant oak door with a grated window set in it instead of a peephole. It looked expensive, but I’d take a peephole any day of the week. You can look out a peephole without someone knowing you’re there if you kill the lights and stay quiet. There was no way to open the little section of the door and look out without being noticed. Anyone with a gun or screwdriver could kill you before you blinked.
Of course, it didn’t really matter since I noticed two cameras fifteen feet up on the walls pointed down at the doorway. Those would make sure no one nefarious was waiting on the other side. I rang the bell and waited, checking my watch.
I could hear the thudding of feet as someone approached the door. I don’t know what it is about kids, but they tend to walk around like they are stomping the ground beneath them. It’s pretty easy to spot someone who’d never lived in an apartment.
The steps paused at the door for a moment. I knew someone was on the other side, but no one said anything. The door didn’t open. He was probably checking the cameras. There must have been a security panel on the wall next to the door. Smart kid. Well, comparatively. He still called me. I looked up at the cameras and waved. I heard the deadbolt snap, and the door swung open.
The pale face that appeared was wearing thin-framed glasses that magnified brown eyes. Shaggy brown hair hung past the tops of his ears in a classic bowl cut. He was wearing a thick cardinal sweater that was patterned with blue argyle on the front of it.
“Deckland?” He asked.
I nodded. “Charlie?”
He nodded, opening the door the rest of the way. Vaulted ceilings and white marble flooring waited for me on the other side of the door. Charlie’s socked feet thumped as he walked from the entryway into an open living room. A fireplace took up a significant portion of one of the walls. The room was decorated in hardwood furniture that cost more than my car.
A table held five decanters. Amber liquid filled three of them. My mouth started to water at the thought of what delicious mysteries could be hidden inside of the crystal bottles. You didn’t keep the cheap stuff out on display like that.
I forced myself to look away and swallowed the spit filling my mouth.
Charlie plopped down on a couch. I followed him in and took a seat in a chair. Before I could talk, the sound of snorting filled into the room. A tiny black and white dog came flying around the corner, losing traction on the slick marble floor. Its back end slipped, much like my Mustang in the snow. It took a moment to correct itself before flying forward, tongue lulling and snorting like a pig.
The tiny French Bulldog couldn’t have weighed more than twenty pounds. It came up to me, jumping on the couch and trying to lick or snort my face off.
I raised my hands instinctively, ready to protect myself.
“Frank!” Charlie said. “Down.” He got up off the couch and snatched the small dog off my chest. The excitable little guy turned around and started licking Charlie’s face.
“Sorry about that. He just loves people.”
“I could tell,” I said. “Parents still aren’t home?” I asked, trying to not feel like a complete creep.
“No. They won’t be home till tonight. They work a lot. It’s just me and Frank.”
I looked around the room and nodded. I’m sure they did. Someone had to pay off this place. “Tell me about your sister,” I said.
Charlie looked away from me, staring hard at the floor. Frank abandoned licking his face and flopped off the couch, disappearing from the room with the sound of nails clicking on stone. Sitting on the couch, Charlie’s legs dangled over the side. He bounced his feet.
“Charlie,” I said, leaning forward. “I can’t help you if you don’t tell me what you know.”
He bit his lip for a second before looking up at me. His eyes were wet, and a single tear slid down his left cheek.
“I don’t think she’s ever coming back.”
I felt bad for the kid. I had a feeling his sister probably bailed on the family. Rich kids tend to do that. He had no way of knowing that, and I wasn’t about to tell him. I didn’t feel that bad. I was still going to take his money. I’d find her. If she didn’t want to come back, that’s on her. I got paid either way.
“Why don’t you think she’s coming back? You said you saw something take her?”
He nodded, eyes starting to water.
“If you saw something take her, why don’t your parents think anything is wrong?”
“Because they don’t believe me!” He said. “They just saw her walk out the door with Cat. They didn’t see the Shadow Man outside.”
I didn’t care for the sound of that. “Woah, slow down kid. One thing at a time. You said sh
e left with someone?”
He nodded.
“Cat came over last night. They were in her room laughing for a while before they finally came downstairs and left. I was watching TV in my room.”
“Who’s Cat?” I said, pulling a notebook out of a pocket. If I was going to take his money I might as well look like I was working for it.
“She’s one of Veronica’s friends. They’ve been hanging out a lot lately. They were supposed to be going out somewhere last night.”
“You know her last name?” I asked.
He shook his head. That would make it difficult. I wrote it down anyway.
“Ok, so she left with Cat. What did you see after that?”
“The Shadow Man.” He said.
“Like a guy out in the dark?”
“Not really.”
Charlie looked back at the groun. His feet were kicking again.
I leaned forward. “Hey, it’s ok. I can help you and your sister. I just need to know everything you saw so I can do that. The more I know now, the better off she is.”
He didn’t look up at me, but he nodded again. He kept his eyes on the floor, little teardrops starting to roll down his face.
“I looked out my window as they were leaving. My room overlooks the front of the house, and I have a pretty good view of everything. I like to sit up there and watch the road sometimes.
“When they were leaving there was a car out by the street. I thought it was weird. Cat usually parks in the driveway. Everyone does unless they’ve never been here before. They don’t want to walk that far if they don’t have to. This time her car was out by the street though, and he was out there. I could see him standing beside the car. He was tall and dark. He looked like a shadow.
“When they got to the car, they talked for a few seconds. Veronica said something real loud. I don’t know what, but my window was open, and I could hear she was saying something. She turned to walk back to the house. Cat said something, but Veronica didn’t stop. After that, the Shadow Man grabbed her arm and pushed her into the car.”
He stopped, sniffing back some snot and doing his best to keep his voice even.
“He moved so fast. It was like he didn’t even walk. He was just in front of her. She screamed and tried to run, but he grabbed her. He covered her mouth and put her in the car.
“I screamed inside the house and went to find my parents. They didn’t believe me though. They said Veronica was fine and she was just going out with her friends. When she didn’t come home I told them again, but she’s been gone before, and they didn’t seem to be worried at all. They don’t think she was taken. They think she left us again. She wouldn’t do that though. She promised me that she wouldn’t leave again.” He said. “She promised!”
He couldn’t hold back anymore. Tears fell in earnest. He cried, snot and spit and everything. Frank came back, waddling in on four legs like a little gremlin and hopped up into Charlie’s lap. The little dog licked his face twice and then laid down, curling up. Charlie scratched behind the little guy’s ears.
I sat thinking for a minute. If Veronica had a history of running away, that could explain why the parents weren’t worried. You disappear enough times, and people stop worrying about you not coming home for a night. They probably wouldn’t realize something was wrong for another week or two. After that, one of them would try and reach out. When they couldn’t get ahold of her, maybe they would call the cops. Though, if she’d run before, they might not expect her to reach out. Couple months go by; they finally call the cops. By then, it’s too late to do anything, even if she was taken.
I hadn’t expected to believe Charlie, but he really did think he saw something. Besides, the description of the Shadow Man gave me a very unpleasant feeling in the pit of my stomach. There were plenty of things in the darkness who were more than capable of a snatch and grab.
“Hey,” I said, sitting forward in the chair. I put a hand on his shoulder. “It’s going to be ok. I’ll help you find your sister.”
He smiled through the tears. “Thank you so much. No one else believed me. No one else but you.”
That sent a pang of guilt stabbing at something inside of me, like heartburn for the soul. It didn’t last long. I pushed it away. I didn’t have a soul anymore. That meant I was exempt from having to worry about doing the right thing all the time.
“Of course,” I said. “Can I see Veronica's room?”
Charlie nodded. He sniffed in a decent amount of wet snot and hopped off the couch, carrying Frank in his arms. He started for the staircase. I followed him, stopping for one last look at the decanters. I shook my head and kept going.
I walked upstairs and down a long hallway. Several portraits were lining the walls. Some of them looked like pencil sketches of a young girl. Another was clearly Charlie. There were a handful of family photos from years past, taken on vacation or holidays. Everyone looked too happy to be genuine.
Charlie was standing outside of a room. He beckoned to me. I walked in and looked around. The room was covered in a lot of odd juxtapositions. Everywhere I looked, I saw remnants of a childhood innocence interspersed with someone who thought they knew more about the world than they really did.
A bookcase stood on one wall. I looked over the titles. Most of the books were fantasies, a lot involving werewolves and vampires that shimmered or whatever else people were passing off as decent fiction these days. There were a few books on different religions. I saw a Quran, book of Wiccan, and a cheap paperback copy of the Lesser Key of Solomon. I guessed Veronica had gone through a serious goth phase at some time in her life.
The bed was all light wood and pink sheets. A heart was carved into the headboard. I looked in the closet. It looked like a bomb had gone off. Everywhere I looked I saw shoes, dresses, shirts, pants, and only half of it hanging on the hangers. Shoes were coming out of everywhere, piles of them covered the floor. They lined the shelf at the top of the closet, and there was a hanging rack stuffed two pairs to a slot. Clothing hung in some places and was spilled into piles in others. A lot of it was black, and most of it looked a little small for an adult woman.
I wandered over to the chest of drawers and looked through it, shirts, pants, and unmentionables. Some of the latter were made of hardly any fabric but a few pieces of lace. Some were missing the pieces that actually covered anything. Veronica had dressed up for someone. There wasn’t any way of knowing who or how long everything had been in the drawer.
“Does your sister have a boyfriend?” I asked.
Charlie shook his head. “Not anymore. She was dating Devin for a long time, but they broke up a year ago. She’s been living here since they broke up.”
So she’d moved out with the boyfriend. I’m sure that hadn’t made the parents happy. I wondered if he’d been the reason for the disappearing act before.
“Your sister ever do drugs?” I asked.
Charlie didn’t look at me.
“Charlie? I gotta know these things.”
“She doesn’t think I know, but I hear them talking sometimes, her and Cat.”
“You know what drugs?” I asked.
He shook his head.
“Got it.” I turned around the room. I didn’t think there was much else I was going to get out of it. What I really needed were photographs. Everywhere I looked, nothing was recent. They were all from at least ten years ago. Nowadays, I’d be better off going online.
“What bathroom does your sister use?” I asked.
Charlie looked at me, shrugged, and walked out, putting Frank down on the ground as he hit the hallway. The little dog followed right on Charlie’s heels. It seemed like one of those things where the dog might be the kids only real friend. I followed him a few doors down the hall. The bathroom was all black and white tile with silver features. I opened up a medicine cabinet and rummaged around. There were plenty of pills but nothing you couldn’t buy over the counter. If she had moved back home with mommy and daddy, they’d probably made sure t
o lock up all the good stuff.
I opened up a drawer and found a brush. I held it up.
“Your sister’s?”
Charlie nodded.
“I’ll need it,” I said as I pocketed it. I couldn’t do anything with the hair on the brush, but if I struck out everywhere else, I could find a hedge witch to work up a tracking spell using the hair. I turned back to Charlie. I’d rather not spend the money on it, but hey, I told the kid I’d help him find his sister.
“Anything else I need to know?” I asked.
He shook his head.
“You have a picture of her I can have?” I asked. “Something recent. Within the last six months or so.”
Charlie nodded and ran down the hallway, disappearing into a room that I assumed was his bedroom. He came back out a moment later, clutching an old-school Polaroid. He looked at it with pride before handing it over to me. I took it. It was a photo of him and a blonde. She looked like she was in her mid-twenties. She didn’t look much like Charlie. Where he was downright frail, she was full bodied and shapely. Not much for blondes, but I’d be lying if I said she wasn’t pretty. Hell, she was gorgeous.
“Alright. Well, I’m on the case. I can find your sister. I’m not sure how long it’ll take me, but I won’t stop till I find out what happened.”
Charlie’s eyes were wet, and he smiled. “Thank you!”
He rushed me and threw his arms around my waist in a hug. I stood awkwardly for a second before patting him on the back.
“One last thing,” I said.
“Anything.”
“I need the money up front. I need to make sure I can cover any expenses that might come up.”
Charlie let go of me. He wiped a sleeve at his face, leave a snail trail of snot from his runny nose. Then the little bastard shook his head.
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