by Gary Jonas
She touched the typewriter and turned. Esther jumped toward her. “Boo!”
“Shit!” Naomi said, leaping back.
Esther laughed.
“Play nice,” I said.
“I don’t like her,” Esther said.
“Play nice anyway.”
Naomi touched the typewriter again, and Esther gave her a wave. “You sure like to adjust your makeup a lot,” Esther said.
“What?”
“Yesterday in Jonathan’s office,” Esther said. “You kept checking your looks in that compact mirror in your purse before he got there.”
“Naomi,” I said, “meet Esther.”
“I’d offer to shake hands,” Esther said, “but it’s a bit troublesome.” She waved her hand through Naomi.
“Weird,” Naomi said. “You’d think I’d feel a chill or something.”
“I can do that,” Esther said, “but I don’t like to show off.”
Naomi took her hand from the typewriter then touched it again.
“Playing peekaboo?” Esther asked.
“Can anyone who touches the typewriter see and hear her?”
“Normal people usually can’t,” I said. “There are a few exceptions—people who are dying, for example—but not many. What did Cantrell say?”
“He and Al are going to DGI. They don’t want to face a Sekutar without some backup.”
“Maybe they’re smarter than they look,” Kelly said.
“Let’s hope so,” I said. “Just the same, I think we should head over there.”
“Can I go?” Esther asked.
“Not this time. I want you to stay here with Naomi.”
“She’s no fun at all.”
Naomi still had her hand on the typewriter. “I can hear you, you know.”
“Good.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Twenty minutes later, Kelly and I pulled into the parking lot at DGI. While Kelly would deny it, I suspected she was a bit nervous about being there. She’d suffered through some pretty awful things in that building, and had it been me, I don’t think I’d be willing to even drive by the place ever again.
“Kelly, if you don’t want to go in, I’ll understand. I—”
“What are you babbling about now?”
“It’s just that . . .”
She looked at me as if I were talking about Elvis farting UFO aliens out of his ass. “What?” she said.
“Never mind.”
“Good. Let’s go.”
She hopped out of the car and strode toward the door as if it were the entrance to an old friend’s house.
Phil met us in the lobby. He blocked Kelly’s path with his hands held out to prevent her from going farther. “I’m sorry, Ms. Chan. You know you’re not permitted in the building anymore.”
I stepped in front of her before she could rip Phil’s head off. “She’s with me,” I said.
He shook his head. “You’re not supposed to be here either.”
“Shall I kill him, or do you want me to just maim him?” Kelly asked.
I didn’t look back at her. “I’m hoping we won’t have to do either.” I remained focused on Phil. “We’re here to see Al.”
“He isn’t here.”
“Sure he is. He and Cantrell are up in his office.”
“Frank Cantrell? He hasn’t been here in years.”
“We’re going up there.”
Phil frowned. “I’m not going to try to stop you, Mr. Shade.”
“Smart move.”
“Doesn’t matter. The floor is empty, and the wards are set. Ms. Chan here won’t even be able to get on the elevator. And while you can get on the elevator, Mr. Shade, there’s no way you can get past the wards, so you’re wasting your time here.”
The elevator had a spell cast on it to prevent any magical beings from entering, but normal people were exempt. As a magically engineered warrior, Kelly would be blocked the same way Naomi’s spell had prevented her from entering her truck. The spell could be removed but only by a wizard. It was just another way DGI cut down on unwanted visitors.
I turned to Kelly. “I’ll go up and verify Phil’s story, but I doubt he’d lie to us.”
“If he lied, do I get to kill him?”
“Sure,” I said.
“I have no reason to lie,” Phil said, casting a nervous glance at Kelly. “Nobody’s up there. Honest. Mr. Davidson came in this morning and gave everyone the day off.”
“Don’t worry, m’man. She’ll kill you quick.”
Kelly looked indignant. “Like hell. Phil worked here when they tortured and killed all the Sekutar, and he didn’t lift a finger to stop it.”
“Sekutar don’t feel pain,” Phil said.
“Not under normal circumstances,” Kelly said. “But magical pain is different, isn’t it?”
“But I didn’t know.” Phil grabbed my arm. He looked like he’d just seen Death incarnate grinning at him and pointing to the watch on its skeletal arm. “Please don’t leave me here with her.”
“She won’t kill you until I get back.”
“That’s right,” Kelly said. “I’ve been itching to torture someone for weeks. We can have some good times while Jonathan’s upstairs.”
“You won’t be able to verify what I said because the wards are on.”
“Maybe they forgot to set them.” The wards wouldn’t stop me, of course, but Phil didn’t know that.
“Nonsense.”
“Can’t hurt to check.”
“Let me come with you.”
“No,” Kelly said and grabbed him by the scruff of the neck like a kitten. She held him off the floor as if he were a dirty diaper. “You’re going to stay here with me, and I’m going to whisper in your ear like a lover all the sweet things I have planned for you.”
I grinned and got on the elevator.
Kelly began talking to Phil in a pleasant tone. “I think I’ll begin by plucking your fingernails out one by one. It just takes a little tug and—”
The doors closed and I didn’t get to hear any more.
It took only a few minutes to verify Phil’s story. The wards didn’t even slow me down. I walked the DGI hallways and checked every office. The lights were all on, but there were no people. The offices held empty chairs standing before desks with computer monitors still glowing. It was as if everyone just up and left and didn’t bother to power anything down. Phil had been telling the truth. The place was completely vacant.
I stood in the hallway and considered this. Naomi had told us Frank and Al were here at DGI. Had she lied to us? Or had they lied to her? Or had they been here when she called but then sent everyone home out of fear that Ravenwood would be coming here? I didn’t know and that bothered me. I tried to force my doubts to the back of my mind by taking deep breaths in through my nose and letting them out slowly through my mouth. This calmed me down.
I returned to the lobby.
Kelly had Phil pinned to his chair. He looked ready to vomit, and she still spoke in a kind voice, “. . . rip off your kneecaps and, oh, Jonathan is back.”
“Okay, Phil, since Al isn’t in his office, where is he?”
“I don’t know,” he whimpered.
“What say you give us his phone number?”
He pointed a shaky finger at his workstation computer. “It’s in there.”
“You’re not going to tell me I can’t have it?”
“They only pay me twelve bucks an hour,” he said. “I’ll print you the list of names and addresses and phone numbers of everyone who works here or has ever worked here. Just please get her away from me.”
“I can do that.”
Kelly stepped away from him, and he moved on rubbery legs to the computer. He pulled up a file, printed it, and handed the sheet to me.
“Here you go, Mr. Shade. This is the list of current employees. Do you want a history? I can pull it up, but I can’t guarantee accurate addresses and phone numbers since people may have moved.”
“This will do for now, Phil. Thanks.”
“You’re not really welcome, but if it keeps her away from me . . .”
Kelly smiled at him then walked over and patted him on the cheek. “You know you enjoyed it.”
He still appeared ready to blow chunks.
As we left the building, I asked, “Is he going to be all right?”
“He pissed his pants.”
“Happy now?”
She shrugged. “Getting there.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
“So that conniving, little bitch lied to us,” Kelly said as we approached the car.
The afternoon sun hung over the Rockies as I unlocked the passenger door of the Firebird. “We don’t know that for sure.” I ran through the possibilities for her. She didn’t buy any of them.
“I don’t trust her.”
“Play a new song, Kelly.”
“You know how I love the classics,” she said and ducked into the car.
By the time I’d walked around to the driver’s side, Kelly had already leaned over to unlock the door for me. I always figured that anyone who would reach over and unlock the door was a keeper. Of course, Kelly wasn’t someone I’d want to date. Granted, she’s smoking hot, but she’s also more like a big sister to me, so it would feel weird. Besides, I do have a simple rule when it comes to relationships: never date a girl who can kick your ass.
“Let’s review,” I said as I started the engine.
“Boring.”
“I just want to make sure we’re not missing anything here. If we can talk it through, I might let you kill someone later.”
Kelly almost smiled. “Tease.”
I pulled into traffic. “Okay. One wizard kills another, claims not to remember it, then kills himself. Naomi hires me to prove the old boy’s innocent, which should eliminate your theory about her knowingly lying to us.”
“How so?”
I-25 was a parking lot, but it was still the easiest way back to the dojo. It gave us plenty of time to talk.
“Why hire me at all?”
“Maybe she wants to get laid and has to pay for it.”
“You know better than that,” I said. “I never charge for sex.”
“You never get the chance.”
“Ouch.”
“Look, Jonathan, it’s obvious that she has ulterior motives here. Why hire you? I don’t think she cares if you prove her daddy innocent. I think it’s got everything to do with that crystal.”
“Or crystals, plural. But why not just hire me for that? I’d have taken that job for her with no problem.”
“You’d have taken any job for her. She’s got you by the heart, so you’ll always be her little bitch.”
“I’m not that bad.”
“You’re worse. And I’m afraid it’s going to get you killed. It’s one thing when you’re looking into a murder or even looking for crystals that allegedly hold the soul of an ancient sorcerer. It’s quite another when that ancient sorcerer is loose.”
“So maybe it’s about this Ravenwood clown. Maybe he’s trying to possess wizards to regain a physical presence in the world. Al, Cantrell, and the rest always complain about magic dying, and we know that Ravenwood was supposedly one of the most powerful sorcerers in history.”
“So we’ve been told.”
“Granted, it’s all hearsay. We don’t really know anything about Blake Ravenwood other than what we’ve heard. That means it’s research time.” I pulled out my cell and scrolled through the names until I came to Sharon. Then I pressed send.
The phone rang three times before Sharon answered. She worked as a research librarian at CU Boulder. “Library,” she said.
“Hey, Sharon, it’s Jonathan Shade. How’s life, the universe, and everything?”
“What do you need?”
“Right to the point. I can’t just call to say hi?”
“Like that would ever happen. I repeat, what do you need?”
I made a note to call her in a few days just to say hello. “Research assistance,” I said.
“You do tend to have better questions than most.”
Sharon kept a collection of enough stupid questions she’d received in the past year that she could publish a book. Of course, that would compromise her position at the library, so she shared them with only a few lucky souls who needed a good laugh.
“What’s your favorite question of the day?” I asked.
“Some brainiac called and asked me which country the Salvation Army defends.”
I laughed. “Who says education is on the decline?”
“I do. What’s your question?”
“It’s a bit more than a simple question. I need to know anything you can tell me about a man named Blake Ravenwood.”
“Any relation to Abner?”
“It’s not movie related. This guy lived in the 1600s.”
I heard her fingers tapping away on a keyboard. “I’ve got nothing from a quick search. What more can you tell me?”
“He’ll probably be in European history and might only turn up in texts dealing with sorcery, alchemy, and the like.”
“Hmm. I may need to access the Forbidden Texts,” she said, and her voice seemed to drip with delight. “That could take a few hours. I’ll have to call you back. Oh, and it’s going to cost you.”
“It always does.”
“I want to go to a Rockies game.”
“It’s a date.”
“No, it’s a payment. I’ll bring my own date, and you’re not invited.”
“Oh, like a stake through the heart.”
She laughed. “Sorry, darling. You know I like you, but I’ve had enough adventure for twenty lifetimes. I want to find a quiet man and settle down. I want a man who will always come home in one piece.”
“Hey, I always come out okay.”
“You didn’t come out okay three years ago, and you need to know that I won’t always be there to bring you back. So I want two Rockies tickets and two silver dollars. Got it?”
“Done.” I hung up and worked my way across a few lanes of traffic to my exit. “Sharon’s working on it,” I said.
“I like her, Jonathan. She’s pretty cool for a librarian.”
“Librarian by day, Wonder Woman by night.”
“Sounds like the headline to a personal ad.”
I pulled into the parking lot in front of the dojo and shut off the engine. Kelly started to get out, but I put a hand on her shoulder. She looked at me.
“I know Naomi ranks two notches above Hitler in your book, but please don’t accuse her of anything.”
“Oh, she’s at least four notches above Hitler. All I’m saying is that she hired you for a reason, and I suspect it’s something that could get you killed.”
“You’ve got my back, though.”
“I can’t always be there to protect you.”
Lot of that going around.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
We entered the dojo with two middle-aged women who were there for their women’s self-defense class. Inside, there were another eight women busy doing stretches on the tatami mats in front of the full-length mirrors. Naomi sat on a bench, watching them. Esther stood on the mats, working through stretches with the women. I couldn’t imagine how stretching would help a ghost, but I didn’t say anything about it to her.
Kelly glanced at the clock; it was five minutes to five.
“I need to grab a shower,” she said. “Can you lead the class until I come down?”
“What should I teach them?” I asked.
“It’s their second class. Go with the combs.”
I nodded. “You got it.”
Another woman entered the dojo. “Am I late?”
“Class starts in a few minutes,” Kelly said.
“Oh, good.”
Kelly clapped her hands, and the students all gave her their undivided attention. “Hey, everyone, I’ll be down in a few minutes. My friend Jonathan is going to start the class.”
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