Come Hell or High Water: The Complete Trilogy

by Stephen Morris

  “Thank you, thank you.” Theo blushed at Elizabeth’s congratulatory greeting. “I’m so glad you were able to be here to help make it such a success!”

  “The pleasure is entirely mine,” she assured him, picking up her cup again.

  Theo turned to Alessandro. “Excuse me, but could I speak to you a moment? It’s… it’s about the session you are scheduled to chair after lunch.”

  Alessandro looked puzzled but then smiled broadly. “Oh, yes! After lunch! I’m filling in for someone, right?”

  Theo took Alessandro’s elbow to guide him away from the pastry and young lady he had been so happily arguing with. “Excuse me,” Theo repeated, but this time to Elizabeth. “Backroom business. You understand, I’m sure!”

  Elizabeth popped what was left of her pastry into her mouth and waved them off. “No problem, no problem at all!” she insisted, smiling and chewing. “I’m sure we can finish that discussion later, Alessandro!” She winked and strolled to another clump of Monsters conference participants who were discussing other fine points raised during the first morning session.

  “What’s the matter?” Alessandro asked Theo once they had stepped away from the thickest part of the coffee-break crowd. “What’s up?”

  “It’s Peter,” Theo whispered, still looking over Alessandro’s shoulder and hoping one last time that Peter would walk into his line of sight. “No one’s seen him this morning and he was scheduled to give his paper first thing today.”

  “Did anyone check his room? Maybe he overslept. Or got sick,” Alessandro suggested.

  “Well, no,” Theo had to admit. “But I suspect that will only confirm our suspicions.”

  “Why? Did something go wrong?” Alessandro whispered back.

  Theo glanced around again and leaned in even closer to Alessandro’s ear. “He got into Magdalena’s apartment somehow and took her chalice. Last night. Now he’s missing. Sophia may have seen him in the park beside the river this morning. She thinks he was turned into a toad. But the chalice is in the safe at the front desk of the hotel.”

  Alessandro stumbled back a step. “What?” he choked out. “A toad?

  “We should go check his room,” Theo told him. “But unless he’s miraculously there, we need to sort this all out and decide what the next move is on our part. What defensive measures we might be taking. Especially with real shapeshifting possibilities now.”

  Alessandro looked horrified. “Another lunch meeting, then? I can tell the others while you check his hotel room.”

  “Yes. But somewhere not so public as the restaurant up the street,” Theo began.

  “On the other hand, maybe somewhere even more public would be the safest,” Alessandro suggested.

  Theo thought about that. “You may be right,” he concurred. “But it should not be so close that we run into other people from the conference. Like George. Let’s say somewhere outdoors on the Old Town Square, either the restaurant in front of Our Lady Of Tyn or across from the clock.”

  “I think the clock will be an easier landmark,” Alessandro said. “I’ll tell them to meet there right after the next session is over. Maybe we can walk over there together, if that won’t arouse too much suspicion.”

  “That might be taking a risk.” Theo considered. “George might notice a group of eight of us walking off together. So far, we can hope he and Magdalena only think that Peter was after them. Or Peter and maybe one other person.”

  “That makes sense,” Alessandro agreed. “I’ll let folks know to head over to the Old Town Square and the clock but not to go in groups of more than two or three. That will look natural enough, if George is watching for that sort of thing.”

  “Good. Thanks. I’ll head back to the hotel now,” Theo said. “Then I’ll meet the rest of you.”

  Alessandro nodded and stepped away to begin notifying the others when Theo caught his arm.

  “Wait—do we have any idea of how to contact Magdalena’s friend? Victoria?” he asked the Australian.

  Alessandro grimaced and shook his head. “No one thought to ask for her phone number. Or her address. Or her office address.”

  “If she and Magdalena had already quarreled about George and the magic, Magdalena may already suspect she is part of the opposition. She may be in more danger than the rest of us.” Theo sighed.

  Theo arrived at the door of Peter’s hotel room. It was ajar. There was a whisper of sound, indicating someone was inside. He nudged the door slightly.

  The hotel maid was dusting the dresser top. The pushcart of cleaning supplies stood nearby and the vacuum was sitting in the middle of the floor, waiting to be plugged in. The bed appeared to have been freshly made.

  That meant Peter was not sick in his room and had evidently met with foul play as he was walking to the conference. Sophia’s story was becoming more plausible. “Should I contact the police about a missing person?” he wondered. The authorities would probably not take a missing person report seriously yet, as Peter had only been missing for a very few hours. But if he had met with foul play, would the authorities be able to point him in the right direction if he had been found somewhere, injured? Or worse? Theo didn’t want to think about that possibility.

  He knocked on the door and stepped into the room. The maid looked up, startled.

  “Excuse me,” he began. “I was wondering, could you tell me—how messy was the room this morning?” He hoped there had not been a fight here.

  The maid smiled and shook her head. “No speak English,” she said pleasantly. “Five more minutes.” She held up the fingers on one hand and smiled, then returned to her dusting.

  Theo nodded, looking around. The room did not look like it had been either torn apart or radically reorganized by the maid. There was an open suitcase, clothes folded inside. Papers scattered on the desk but in no apparent order. He peered into the wardrobe. Shirts hung neatly, trousers folded on a shelf. Had anyone gone through Peter’s things looking for the chalice? It was hard to tell. There were not many places to hide something like that other than in the suitcase or under a stack of clothes or in the wardrobe. If anyone had been looking for the chalice, they would not have needed to move much around to realize that it was not here.

  He paused before looking into the bathroom, afraid of what he might find but hoping that all would be in order. “After all, the maid doesn’t seem to be upset. Not as if she had found the bathroom drenched with blood or a body in the bathtub.” He took a deep breath and looked in.

  Nothing out of order. A typical hotel bathroom. Theo let go his breath in relief.

  “Thank you,” he said to the maid, smiling and nodding. “I was just looking for my friend.”

  She nodded and smiled back, holding up her fingers again. “Five minutes.”

  Theo stepped back into the hallway. “All right,” he told himself, making a mental calculation. “I can tell the others that I’ve checked on Peter’s room and he is not here. He seems to have spent the night here. That narrows down the time of his disappearance. But does it help us locate him? Or figure out what happened to him?” It did not.

  “What about the chalice?” he continued. “Is it safe at the front desk? Might not George or Magdalena have asked for it, thinking that if it was not in the room that Peter might have given it to the clerk for safekeeping?” Although it had been best to not get the chalice earlier and take it to the conference sessions, Theo reconsidered. “Maybe I should retrieve it now, before anyone else comes asking for it.”

  He made his way down to the front desk. A pert young woman was on duty, her dark blue business suit looking crisp and the scarf loosely tied around her neck adding a bright spot of color. She smiled and asked cheerily, “Good morning, Professor Theo! What can I do for you this morning? Is everything all right with your room today?”

  “Yes, yes,” Theo answered. He leaned on the desk between them. “I was wondering—might one of the conference people have left something here at the desk or in the safe? A goblet of
some kind?” He realized he needed to explain himself, as a puzzled look flashed across the woman’s face. “It was something he bought as a souvenir and now—a typical absentminded professor!—can’t remember where he left it!” He shrugged and chuckled, as if to add, “What can you do?”

  The desk attendant laughed. “Yes, Professor Theo, I understand. Professors everywhere—even here in the Czech Republic—have the same reputation. Let me check for you.” She rummaged around the desk behind the shelf that Theo was leaning on and then checked the mailboxes on the wall behind her. “What room is your friend staying in?” she asked, her back to him as she kept scanning the boxes for a note or envelope. Theo told her Peter’s room number.

  She darted to the correct mailbox but it was empty. She turned to Theo and asked him to wait a moment, please, and stepped through a half-closed door into the office. He heard more voices, in Czech. A moment later, she stepped back out holding a small silver goblet.

  “Is this it, Professor Theo?” she asked, holding the chalice up for his inspection. “Evidently Professor Thomlinson brought the chalice down late last night and asked to put it in the safe. Ordinarily, we wouldn’t give any objects from the safe to anyone but the guest who gave them to us, but we know you. As Professor Thomlinson is here with your conferences, I think it is safe enough to return it to you. Especially if the professor is anxious about where he might have left it.”

  “Thank you, thank you very much.” Theo reached across the desk and took the chalice from her. “Yes, I will tell Professor Thomlinson that the chalice has been located, safe and sound! I’ll take it and keep it in my room for now—at least I’m not likely to forget that I have it if it’s sitting on my bureau!” They both laughed and Theo asked, pretending it had just occurred to him, “By the way, has anyone else come asking for this already? I wouldn’t be surprised if Peter forgot who he had asked for help and sent more than one person to track it down!”

  “I don’t believe so, but let me check.” The attendant stepped back into the office and spoke briefly to whoever was there. She came back out to Theo and reported, “Actually, someone did come asking if Professor Thomlinson had given anything to be kept in the safe. But we really were not at liberty to say, as the guest who was asking was not someone we had known before. Not like you, professor.”

  He nodded and turned to leave, but caught himself and asked one more question. “Thank you. Just out of curiosity, who was it that was asking? I’m wondering who else to let know that the chalice was found safe.”

  “It was Professor O’Cailleach, the pretty redheaded professor from Ireland.”

  Theo felt his stomach drop to the floor and hoped his expression did not betray his reaction. “Thank you. If you don’t mind, if Professor O’Cailleach—or anyone else, for that matter—comes asking, don’t tell them that I came to get it. This is the perfect opportunity to play a little practical joke on my friend Peter, and the fewer people who know that I have it, the better.”

  She smiled and winked at him in goodnatured, conspiratorial agreement. “No problem, Professor Theo! Your secret is safe with me!”

  Theo turned to hurry to his room and hide the chalice before anyone walked into the hotel lobby and saw him with it. Once upstairs, Theo wrapped the chalice in one of his shirts and tucked it into his suitcase. He then zipped it shut and set it upright, leaning it against the wall in one corner. Stepping back into the middle of the room, he glanced around. Nothing seemed out of order or unusual. “If anyone comes looking for the chalice, it should take them at least a few minutes to find it,” he decided. Hopefully, no one would come looking for it. So far, Theo reasoned that neither Elizabeth or George, or anyone else for that matter, had any reason to suspect that he was the one who had retrieved the stolen chalice.

  He glanced around one more time, then went to meet the others in the Old Town Square across from the Astronomical Clock.

  He had big news to report. Not only had he retrieved the chalice, but he had confirmed that Elizabeth was working with George and Magdalena. The only question was, could they be sure that Elizabeth was the only other one they needed to worry about?

  “Elizabeth?” Alessandro nearly dropped his pint of ale. They were all sitting at outdoor tables pushed together to make one group at the pub across from the clock. “Are you sure?”

  “The clerk at the front desk was quite sure,” Theo promised him. “Professor Elizabeth O’Cailleach, the pretty red-haired woman from Ireland,” he quoted.

  “But that means…” Alessandro looked away across the square and knit his brows together in a frown.

  “Yes,” Sean agreed. “That means that pretty Professor Elizabeth is working with George and Magdalena. That means that pretty Professor Elizabeth is… how did Victoria describe it? An Irish vampire? Well, I have news for you. The most famous Irish vampire is a woman known as the Dearg-due. And if our pretty Professor Elizabeth is the Dearg-due, then you are lucky to be alive.”

  Sophia agreed with Theo. “So true! So true! My eyesight may not be good at that distance, but I do know that one minute Peter was standing in the park with her and the next minute he was gone!”

  “But a toad?” Sean asked, disdain audibly dripping from his words.

  “Even if not a toad, she might have killed him and thrown his body in the river, yes?” Sophia’s husband hastened to say. “She is too dangerous, that woman!”

  Alessandro swallowed and kept looking across the square, avoiding the rest of the group.

  Sophia reached across the table to rest her hand on his. “Alessandro,” she said gently, “did you have any idea? Was there ever any indication?”

  Alessandro blinked back what might have been tears and turned back to face the tableful of colleagues. “Indication?” he repeated.

  “That she was working with George,” Sophia elaborated. “That she was involved in all this. That she might be…” She turned to Sean, a few seats away. “What is the name of this creature?”

  “The Dearg-due,” Sean repeated, with a hint of a sneer. He looked at Alessandro, over the heads of Theo and Fr. Dmitri, who sat between them. “Yes, was there ever any indication she could be the Dearg-due?”

  “No, never.” Alessandro shook his head. “Only that she was particularly interested in the Dearg-due as a figure of Irish folklore.” Then he caught himself. “Well, there was one moment, one brief flash…” He recalled walking with Elizabeth on the bridge. Was it only the night before last?

  “What was it?” Sophia asked gently.

  “We… we were walking on the bridge and for less than an instant, really,” he explained, “I was sure that I saw something else standing there. Not her. A haggard, emaciated woman wrapped in a ragged red cloak, wisps of hair and talons. Her teeth were… were almost fangs.”

  “A red cloak?” asked Sean. “That makes sense. The words ‘Dearg-due’ are Gaelic for ‘red blood sucker’ or ‘the red one who drinks blood.’ See? Even in her beautiful form, her hair is deep red. She is always identified with the color red, as opposed to some of the other Celtic figures associated with green or other colors.”

  Alessandro shuddered at the memory. “I thought I was hallucinating.”

  “No, you saw her as she truly is,” Sean told him. “Beneath the mask of beautiful flesh that she wears like a costume to fool her victims.”

  “Why would she have shown her true self to him?” Sophia asked.

  It was Sean’s turn to shake his head now. “That I cannot answer.” He leaned over to Alessandro. “What were you doing at the moment you saw her? Were you touching anything? Or standing anywhere in particular?”

  Alessandro tried to remember. “We were on the bridge, in the moonlight. We were near the statue of… I think it was the statue of St. John, the priest who was thrown from the bridge. The statue with the brass plaques on the base. I’m not sure, though.” He rubbed his palms against his eyes, feeling exhausted. “I was touching… let me think. I had one hand in my pocket and… Oh!�
� He suddenly remembered, dropping his hands from his face and looking around at everyone. “I had a small medal of the Infant of Prague in my pocket, that I had gotten from the Lady of Victory Church that afternoon. I was holding that medal when I saw the hallucination. Vision. Whatever. But I was so shocked by what I saw that I let go of it.”

  “Hmmm.” Sean looked thoughtful. “That is interesting. She’s never been known to reveal her true appearance involuntarily or to have someone able to see through the beautiful mask.”

  “So we have at least one tool in our arsenal against her.” Sophia pointed out to the group. “Images of the Infant of Prague.”

  “Well, I was always suspicious of her, in any case. Infant of Prague or no Infant of Prague.” Sean leaned back in his seat and sipped his pint of beer. He looked up at the sky, a smug, self-satisfied half-grin on his face. “The world of Irish folklorists in Dublin is not large and I had never met her there. When I saw her name in the program, I wondered who she was and what she was doing here.” He looked around the table. “Well, I guess we know now.”

  “You might, but the rest of us don’t!” snapped Wilcox. “What exactly is this Dearg-due you keep going on about? How different can Irish vampires be from Transylvanian vampires, after all?”

  Sean looked over at Alessandro again. “You say that she was particularly interested in the Dearg-due as a folkloric figure. What exactly did she tell you about her?”

  Alessandro thought back to his first conversation at the pub the night that tarot cards had been read for everyone after Hron’s ghost tour of Prague, and then to the other conversation after the paper she had given—was it only yesterday afternoon?

  “She said that the Dearg-due was unique,” he began. “That there was only one of her, and that she was definitely a ‘her’ kind of vampire. That she—the Dearg-due, that is—had been an abused woman, killed by an abusive husband in an arranged marriage. She keeps rising, out of vengeance, to defend other abused women and attack their abusers.”

  Sean nodded. “I see. What else did she tell you? Anything about how to drive away the Dearg-due or how a man might protect himself from her?”