by F P Adriani
“Well, I guess I’ll know when he finally turns up.”
“Not necessarily. If he turns up dead, he could have been a double-crosser or just in somebody’s way. But he better not turn up dead. He was here. And all I need is the fucking cops sniffing around my business when I’m still struggling to get it off the ground—”
“And I should listen to your petty problems—why?” she shot back. “But I actually will listen momentarily because I really want to hire you—”
“What the hell do you need me for?”
“Because you’re good at finding things. You even found me, remember? Major feat there.”
For once, I would intentionally put down my own skills. “Um, not exactly. You found me. So why the hell don’t you figure out a way to take care of your problem yourself?”
Hu’s voice sounded like angry ice now, rather than her usual ice alone. “Don’t you give a damn about the dangers—”
“I’ve heard exactly shit about any dangers—no one will tell me shit. I’ve heard lots of ominous-sounding proclamations, but no specifics. But now I am in the fucking middle of this—”
“We need to meet,” she said in a firm voice.
For a moment, I was stunned into silence. My mouth moved but no sound came out.
When I had finally recovered, I replied, “Ha-ha—very funny,” genuinely laughing now, though quite hysterically.
It seemed this would be my life in future: I’d be getting these bizarre, taunting yet stalkerish yet pleading phone calls from Hu daily. Two days in a row now. It was absurd. My life was absurd. When I’d cast off my prior covert identity, I thought I’d left all absurdity behind me; little did I know, absurdity would soon be charging right up my butt.
“Listen to me,” came Hu’s urgent voice again. “The map pieces were never meant to be all in one place, or even two in one place. And I don’t want them for me. It’s safer if they’re separate. But now I think who shouldn’t have one actually does have one, and possibly two or even more. This is very bad. I cannot explain everything over the phone.”
“And I can’t deal with anymore of this right now. Why don’t you call me later? I’m sure you will anyway,” I said. Then I hung up.
*
Five minutes later I was sitting at my computer checking map-directions to the janitor Millie Rodriguez’s house and pushing Hu out of my mind, for the moment at least. Ten minutes after that, I was in my car driving down a highway to Oak Basin, which was a low and damp not-so-sandy area filled with—you guessed it—oaks. Millie’s house sat on the far edge of the Basin.
The yellowy Diamond sunlight was strong that day; through my side window, the hot rays beat down onto my head and into my eyes. In my rush at the office, I’d forgotten my sunglasses….
I sighed, wishing I could magically be transported into the future to when this day would finally be at an end and I’d be lying in my bed snoring the night away.
*
Millie’s house wasn’t much more than a brown shack surrounded by some had-seen-better-days yellowy grass and lopsided oak trees. I parked my car farther down the road from her property and got out.
I remembered her as being small and weak-looking, but I unsnapped the lock on my holster anyway.
*
I finally stood on her front stoop, off to the side of the wooden door; my knuckles rapped on it. The door opened.
Millie’s head looked out straight ahead from the doorway and she said, “Yes?” Then her head turned my way, and at first it seemed she didn’t recognize me, then it seemed she did; she began closing the door—fast. I put out my hand and blocked the door’s movement.
“What’s wrong, Millie?” I asked in an easy voice, my arm still force-holding the door open.
She sagged and sort of sighed, relaxing her pushing on the door. “You frightened me. What do you want?” Her eyes looked at me askance then darted away.
“You alone here?” I asked when I knew she probably was. Before I’d knocked, I’d taken the liberty of doing a once-over around her house to peek in the windows.
She nodded. And I said, “Let me in then, and we’ll talk.” She shook her head from side to side, frowning, but she did motion for me to come in.
Closing the door behind me, I stood with my back facing the door so I could scan the place. We were standing in her living room. I saw a purse lying on a nearby glass coffee table; she held a car key card in her hand. It looked like she had either just gotten home or had just been on her way out.
“Going somewhere?” I asked her in a casual voice.
“Yes, I was just leaving.”
“To do more break-ins?” I asked now, my voice no longer casual and my eyes staring hard at her wary face.
On the side of her left cheek, she had quite a long and thick reddish scar; it blanched a bit now. She twisted her hands together, dropping the key card on the floor. But she didn’t seem to notice. She just kept staring back at me. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I guess you’ve forgotten. Let me refresh your memory. My office. Last night. The break-in. We can either discuss it right here right now, or you can discuss it with the police.”
Now, her face sort of collapsed, looking worried more than wary. “Someone came up to me last night before work—what could I do! He told me to leave the alarm off later and let him in the door. If I didn’t do this, he said he’d hurt me!”
“And what the fuck did he find inside?”
Her head shook fast. “I seen nothing. He had nothing when he came out.”
“So tell me what he looked like.”
“I don’t know—it was dark. He was short, blond hair, mustache—I don’t know!”
I looked at her. I didn’t believe her, but she could have been telling the truth.
And, if so, it seemed obvious to me now that the guy had been looking for the notebook.
*
Not long after, I left her place and went to my office. I noticed that the security camera was back on again; I shook my head at it and flashed it two upright middle fingers before I unlocked the front door.
I wasn’t in my office more than a minute when Mike showed up and told me that Great Guards did seem a perfect match for that bank. I then called Great Guards and confirmed that they had employees to fit the bank’s schedule; then I sent them an e-contract, which they signed and sent back to me over the e-net. Then I called the bank. Then the deal was done.
There would be more paperwork to do, and the new guards would need at-the-bank training for that bank’s specific practices. But I didn’t anticipate any problems there. And I’d soon make a nice little commission sum; so would Mike.
He was grinning at me as he went home for the week.
I wished I could grin too, but though the money was nice, it still wasn’t enough to keep this place afloat.
I picked up the office phone and called Tan’s office. He answered on the third ring.
“I need your help,” I said to him.
“In the bedroom or out?”
“Out this time,” I said, laughing.
Then my voice turned serious. “I’ve got to cover every angle…including where you are. Somebody there could know something important about Amy Castano.”
Now his voice hardened. “You sure you want to do this?”
“Yes, I’m sure—”
“The thing still is,” he continued as if I hadn’t spoken, “I need money to live. This job provides that. Plus, I got used to making good money at the mine. I didn’t want to take a step down. That’s why I took this job. …Will you fuck that up for me now?”
I flushed, though of course he couldn’t see that flushing. “You know I’ll do everything I can not to screw up your job. But I can’t make perfect promises. Tan, what should I do? I’m open to suggestions. You’ve got a better suggestion, give it to me!”
I heard a loud sigh over the line, and my hand tightened on the receiver.
But he only said, “My s
uggestion is that you should come here and poke your nose around.”
*
The next morning I did go there. But not to his office, not to him; instead, I went right to his boss Clive Ringer’s office.
Ringer’s secretary let me inside a decorated-all-in-blue space; she said I should sit in the chair opposite the big blue desk, so I did.
Tan had once told me, “If there’s something going on in The Citadel, Clive Ringer knows about it. You can’t hide anything from him.” Which was exactly why I’d wanted to come here.
Tan had also relayed to me that he suspected Ringer possessed a marshmallow in the very center of his body. So as I sat there waiting for Ringer, I mentally dusted off my marshmallow-massaging techniques, hoping they’d help me get information from him….
He finally stood over me and said, “Tan told me you’d be by today.”
I’d never seen Ringer before that moment, and now he extended his right hand for me to shake. He was very tall, and therefore very imposing. But he had a warm smile, a hint of marshmallow peeking through.
When he moved behind his desk and sat down, I looked at his face more carefully, noticed that his skin was a slightly darker brown than his hair, and he had one pale-brown eye and one dark-brown eye. And though his posture in his seat was restful, both his eyes looked at me with a steady suspicion.
Nevertheless, I dove right in. “I’m here about Amy Castano. I’m looking into what happened to her, on behalf of her family. It’s a very sad situation….” My voice trailed off dramatically, intentionally.
Now Ringer’s eyes relaxed, so did his shoulders. “Oh, Amy. Yes, that was sad.”
“Did you know her?”
His big shoulders shrugged. “Sure. Of course. She worked here three days a week most weeks. She consulted on the exhibits, taught classes. A few years ago she hooked up with The Neon Institute—she sometimes gave lectures here about the work going on there. Once in a while the county Planning Commission borrowed her to make resource mappings and surveys. She really was a hard worker. Always had her nose bent into a notebook.”
My pulse sped up. “How do you mean—what book?”
There was that shrug again, punctuated by a head-shake now. “Not just books—I mean whatever she was doing. She worked through lunch. Very dedicated. I, um, work through lunch too, but I also eat then. She was too absorbed to eat—that kind of dedication. …I guess that’s why she died.”
“Probably,” I said, half-lying, half-not. Maybe I was hoping her eating habits had caused her death.
“How come you’re asking all these questions?” The suspicious eye area was back on him again.
I affected a big Who-Knows? shrug. “Her daughter—she’s scared and confused. I’m trying to bring clarity to the situation, for her sake. Obviously, that Amy was so busy, they probably didn’t spend much time together. She just wants to know more about her mother’s life.”
He nodded.
“You mentioned The Neon Institute. I don’t know that place.”
Now it was his turn to shrug his shoulders again. “It’s an organization of scientists. They have offices here, but they’re based on Hera. They study mostly pure element chemistry, gases, crystals—practical applications for pure elements. Everything’s about purity with them, refining resources, getting the most out of them at the cheapest cost….” His voice faded away, and I could have sworn I saw something in his face, something unmarshmallow.
I wanted to press him about that, but at the last moment, I held back: a warning flashed inside me. So far, my questioning him had gone well—and hadn’t jeopardized Tan’s job.
I had a feeling that letting this drop for now would be for the best. I could always get more answers to my questions, first-hand.
I thanked him for his time and left him a few minutes later.
I spent the rest of the day at my office doing some research and paperwork. That night was my dinner date with Tan, Nell and Derek. And as I worked, I was really looking forward to that date, even though my mind was half on other things: namely, on everything I’d learned the past few days, on everything that had transpired, which was both a lot and nothing. Nothing because, for example, so far, Roberto guarding Julianne had wound up being no problem; there were no new incidents, no unusual events. The same for when he wasn’t guarding her, and the girl was alone in her home with her guardian.
Yet, since a few days before, a lot had indeed transpired: the Hu calls, the Millie bullshit, the office break-in….
Standing inside my hotel bedroom now, I sighed. I had been putting on a black dress in front of my long wall mirror, and now I wondered what I should and shouldn’t tell Tan and Nell. I hated that I felt I couldn’t share much about my business right now, both for their sakes and for the sake of my client.
When your work life interfered with your private life, or vice versa, which should you choose if one was at the expense of the other? It often seemed modern life demanded a choice between the two. And I hated that.
*
It turned out I didn’t need to tell Tan anything—Nell let it slip, about the break-in.
When we were all finally standing in the restaurant’s lobby, Nell asked me if I’d found out anything new about that night.
Tan’s face twisted furiously then. And Derek’s usually pretty placid face didn’t look too happy either.
“Dammit. When did this happen?” Tan demanded at me.
“Wednesday night,” I said.
“And neither of you were going to tell anyone?” Derek asked now, looking at Nell first, then at me, then back at Nell. He was openly frowning now.
“It’s really not your concern,” I said, and as I did, I noticed the restaurant’s host motioning for us to follow her into the dining room.
“But—” Derek began.
“Drop it,” said Nell, flashing him a look as we all started walking down the long lobby. Her head whipped over to me. “I’m sorry I screwed up, Pia. I should know better than to talk about business like that in front of these two.”
“What are ‘these two’?” asked Tan in a snide voice I didn’t care for.
“Men,” said Nell, abruptly stopping walking, and facing Tan and Derek. “This is what Pia and I do now. This is our business.”
“Well, you’ve got other business now,” said Derek; then he kind of stormed off into the restaurant.
My face felt hot now, and my mind felt terrible for Nell. I knew this night was supposed to be something special for all of us, and now that specialness had been blown.
Quickly I said, “I’m sorry about all this, Nell—”
“About what?” She laughed a little and slipped an arm beneath mine. “By the time we get to the table, Derek’ll have forgotten all about it. You’ll see.”
Nell turned out to be absolutely right. At the table, Derek was all blue-eyed smiles as he held out a chair first for Nell and then for me. Tan kind of skulked up to the table, his face looking as flushed as mine still felt. His head tentatively moved toward me, and when I smiled a little, he quick-kissed the tip of my nose.
Once we’d all sat down, we wound up having one of the best times we’d ever had together. We went from totally fucking awkward to totally fucking spectacular in the space of only a few moments. Sometimes, life was like that.
During the meal Nell’s face glowed just like the other day when she’d told me about her pregnancy. And it seemed her glowing now was also for another reason: she and Derek had decided to get married.
“Where, we don’t know yet,” Derek said when they had, with grinning faces, broken the news to Tan and I, and all four of us had just come out of a group hugging and backslapping session.
“I know where,” Tan replied then, sitting back down in his seat. “At my place—the patio.”
“Omigod,” I said, “that would be fantastic! The view there with the mountain—Nell?”
“You know, I’d really love that, but I can’t impose—”
“Sur
e you can,” said Tan.
“So when’s the day then?” I asked eagerly.
Nell shrugged and looked over at Derek as her palms left the tabletop and turned to the ceiling. “Three months from now? Well, really, I don’t know. We haven’t decided that.” A pause. Then she added, “I’ll be showing then, but I don’t give a shit.”
We all laughed.
“Damn,” I said, “sometimes I can’t believe how uptight life used to be.”
“Believe it!” said Nell, rolling her eyes ceiling-ward.
*
After dinner, we all went to Tan’s and had drinks on the patio—fruit-juice drinks in Nell’s honor.
The night was warm; the wind blew up off the valley, spreading the scent of flowers and palella nectar, and filling our nostrils with a sweet and spicy perfume. We stood there before Magenta Mountain, making tentative plans for how the wedding ceremony would be set up, where Nell and Derek would stand, how many people would attend….
“Oh my,” said Nell, rolling her eyes in the same way she had in the restaurant. “I think I’ll be embarrassed if it’s too big an affair.”
“Why?” I said. “You’ll only do this once!”
“I hope,” said Nell with those rolling brown eyes again.
“What do you mean you hope?” Derek demanded in a shocked voice, but his blue eyes held sharp humor. “Of course only once.”
“Yes. One time, for forever…” Nell said, her voice fading into softness as Derek pulled her close so they could kiss.
I had been leaning back against Tan’s warm body, and now his arm slipped around my waist and seemed to lock there.
*
After that kiss, that Nell and Derek wanted to be alone became obvious; they literally couldn’t stop looking at each other. They seemed to have forgotten Tan and I were with them, even while we both continued tossing around ideas for their wedding. It seemed there was such a thing as being so in love, even your wedding became a distraction from the two of you.
