Vicarious

by Jon F. Merz

  And they were all on their way to confront the servant of Satan.

  Curran grinned.

  Whoever said his life would be ordinary, didn’t know jack crap.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  By the time they got into Chestnut Hill, dark rain clouds had invaded the night sky. The sodium streetlights overhead cast lengthy shadows across the blackened streets. Curran drove slowly, brought the car down Darius' street and promptly stopped.

  “What the hell is this?”

  Two police cruisers sat outside of Darius’ house, one marked, the other an unmarked Ford. Two uniforms leaned against the hood of one of them.

  Curran frowned. “You two stay here.”

  He got out of the car and walked over the two officers. One of them looked at him funny. “Hey, Steve Curran?”

  Curran nodded. “I know you?”

  The uniform nodded. “You worked a homicide case that happened over by the Cleveland Circle Reservoir a few years back. Name’s Wilkins.”

  Curran shook his hand. “That’s right. Sorry, got a hellish time with names.”

  “No sweat.” He glanced at Curran’s car. “You got business here?”

  “Buddy of mine is thinking about moving to the neighborhood. We’ve been cruising, you know, scouting some locations in case something opens up.”

  Wilkins nodded. “Pretty nice area overall. House prices are killer, though. Your buddy got some kinda good job or what?”

  “Overtime like no one’s business,” said Curran. He nodded at the two cop cars. “What’s the story with the presence?”

  The other cop introduced himself and yawned. “Guy inside claims his place was broken into today.”

  “Yeah?”

  Wilkins nodded. “Yep. Guys from burglary are in there taking a statement from him right now.”

  “They sent over two cruisers?”

  The second cop frowned. “Guy bitched and moaned so they sent us over to calm him down. As it is, we’re going to be posted outside for the next day or so, just to ease the guy’s mind some.”

  “Not the kind of thing we do for most burglary cases,” said Curran.

  “Neither do we,” said Wilkins. “Apparently this dude gave heavy dough to the mayor’s last campaign. He called and yanked hard on some strings. Chief got the call and here we are.”

  “What was taken?”

  “Not a damned thing, near as we could see,” said the first cop.

  “So, in other words,” said Curran, “this guy is dicking you over.”

  “Looks that way.” The cop shrugged. “But overtime’s overtime. And I got a new boat I need to pay off, so what the hell.”

  The door to the house opened and Darius and a detective Curran vaguely recognized from Chestnut Hill’s burglary department walked onto the side porch. Darius saw Curran and smiled. Curran waved the detective over. The name came to him just as the detective reached him with his hand out already.

  “What the hell’s going on here, Sam?”

  “Boston got a reason to be involved in this?”

  Curran grinned. “I was just passing by and saw you. Come on, no secrets, buddy. Full disclosure, remember?”

  “Guy claims someone broke into his place this morning.”

  “Anything stolen inside?”

  “Nope. Big freaking waste of time.”

  Curran looked at him. “You ready to shoot him yet?”

  The detective smiled. “’Bout ten minutes ago. Guy’s a royal prick. And he’s wasting our goddamned time.”

  “Why don’t you let me talk to him.”

  “You know him?”

  Curran shrugged. “Questioned him about a button related to a couple of homicide cases I’m working. Who knows? He might feel more comfortable talking to me.”

  “I don’t know. This guy’s a real piece of work.”

  “Old time’s sake,” said Curran. “You mind?”

  “Nah. Go ahead and talk to him. You get anything out worthwhile, gimme a call, okay? I gotta get some grub. Been running on empty all damned day. Jewel heist at the Atrium Mall this morning and all.”

  “Thanks, Sam.”

  Curran walked over to the porch. Darius smiled as he came up.

  “Do you like my new security system?”

  Curran grinned. “Fairly effective.” Not the kind of thing he expected a demon to resort to, however.

  “Only fairly? That’s not a very complimentary assessment of your co-workers.”

  “They’re Chestnut Hill. Suburb cops.”

  “With nothing better to do, they might just go at this with real zeal.”

  “Doesn’t matter,” said Curran. “I might know some tricks for getting around them.”

  “Would those tricks fall into the same category as picking locks?”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” said Curran.

  “I’m quite certain you do,” said Darius. “Did you have a nice time in my house today?”

  “Like I just said, I have no idea what you mean.”

  Darius smirked. “Come now, Curran, you don’t think I’m wired do you? Do you really believe with everything that you have apparently discovered about me – whether through guile or criminal intent – that I would resort to such plebian and utterly human measures as electronic surveillance?”

  “Well, you’ve got cops watching your house. Besides, at this point, Darius, I don’t know what you’d resort to and what you wouldn’t.” Curran looked over his shoulder checking to see where the two uniforms were. They were each smoking and chatting quietly.

  Curran turned his attention back to Darius. “But it seems to me you’d do almost anything to make sure your little dream comes true.”

  “My dream?”

  “Quest, whatever you want to call it,” said Curran. “Makes no damned difference to me.”

  Darius looked beyond him and smiled. “I see you brought some friends with you tonight.”

  “Help,” said Curran.

  “Ah, the woman.” Darius’ eyes narrowed and he licked his lips. “I’d wondered what had become of her. And here she is.”

  “You’d do well to leave her alone.”

  Darius’ eyes flamed. “False bravado, detective. You are well out of your league here and deep down in your pathetic existence, you know it.”

  “Maybe.” Curran shrugged. “So, let me ask you something then.”

  “Certainly.”

  “Let’s pretend you actually succeed in this mission of yours.”

  “There’s nothing pretend about it, Curran. It will come to pass. I’ve worked too hard to see it fail. No one will be able to stop me anyway.”

  “That remains to be seen,” said Curran.

  Darius looked like he wanted to say something, but apparently thought better of it. “If you say so. Continue with your question.”

  Curran nodded. “So you are able to bring back Satan. Then what?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, what exactly happens? I mean does he take over the world? Does he kill off all the innocents and leave only the truly wicked? What happens to you?”

  “I will finally be able to leave this forsaken plane and return home.”

  Curran tried to grin. “If things work out well, I’ll send you back to Hell myself.”

  Darius started laughing. He kept laughing and then turned and walked back into the house.

  Curran stood there and heard the deadbolt slide home with a heavy thunk.

  Then he turned and walked back down the steps. “Good night, guys,” he said to the uniformed cops.

  Back in the car, he sighed.

  “So, what the hell is going on?” asked Kwon.

  “Darius called the cops and told them someone broke into his pad earlier,” said Curran. “He’s got some uniforms standing guard over his place for the next day or so.”

  “That makes getting to the jar a little diffi
cult,” said Lauren.

  “Yeah,” said Curran. “It sure does.” He leaned back into the seat and started the car. “We won’t be able to do anything sitting here.”

  Kwon cleared his throat. “So, what’s our move?”

  Curran looked at Lauren. “How soon do you think it will be before he kills again?”

  “I have no way of knowing,” said Lauren.

  “We might have to wait,” said Curran. “As much as I don’t want to.”

  “For what,” said Kwon. “For those uniforms to get bored and go away?”

  “They won’t go away until they're told to,” said Curran. “I mean, it’s a crap detail but they’re making over thirty bucks an hour just sitting there twiddling their thumbs. It’s easy money.”

  Lauren sighed. “So we either wait for the police to leave the house unguarded again or we wait until he leaves the house?”

  “He’s going to have to leave it sooner or later,” said Curran. “If he’s got another soul to eat, he’ll have to leave.”

  “And what,” said Kwon, “we follow him?”

  “Catch him in the act,” said Curran. “Or we wait until he goes, break into his place and then destroy the vat then.”

  “Risky,” said Kwon. “The police dispatcher will probably pay more attention to any suspicious calls coming in from around here.”

  “True,” said Curran. “But only if they’re paying attention. Continuity isn’t great in 911 operations.”

  “Continuity?” asked Lauren.

  “Yeah, when one shift comes on duty and the other leaves, there’s always a handover of what’s been going on during the last shift. That way the new operators know the general scene of the city, what the hot spots are, that kind of thing. If it’s poor, and with Boston, it generally is, then there’s a chance a call reporting suspicious activity will go into the low priority file.”

  “A chance.”

  Curran shrugged. “Nothing’s perfect.”

  “Better move this car,” said Kwon. “Your buddies in blue are starting to wonder what we’re up to.”

  Curran nodded. “No sense giving them reason to be alert.” He slid the car out of its space and rolled down the street.

  “You realize,” said Kwon, “that’s it’s insane that Darius has protection right now.”

  “He apparently donated heavily to the mayor’s last election campaign. He’s got friends in high places.” Curran glanced at Lauren. “I never knew demons contributed to political parties.”

  Lauren shook her head. “Amazing isn’t it? He uses our own systems against us to make his job easier.”

  “Fantastic,” said Kwon. “It’s always so damned refreshing to see the system hard at work for the criminals.”

  Curran laughed. “It’s almost comical.”

  “Yeah,” said Kwon. “If only the fate of us all wasn’t at stake.” He sighed. “Man, this is nuts. Why don’t you just let me call a friend of mine who can cap this guy from distance with a sniper rifle? Whole thing’ll be solved real quick.”

  Curran turned around. “You know people like that?”

  “Man’s got to have friends in seedy places.”

  “Much as the idea appeals to me,” said Curran, “we can’t. Primarily because we’d all be implicated.”

  “How so?”

  “Darius isn’t some naïve fool, Kwon. He knows what kind of danger he’s in now. He knows I’m not the only one after him. And he’s smart enough to take precautions to let the world know what happened to him should a bullet zoom into him without reason.”

  Kwon slumped back against the seat. “This sucks.”

  “Besides,” said Curran. “The sniper trick might work on a human. This guy’s a demon. Who know what hurts him?”

  “Never know until we try.”

  Curran frowned. “Yeah, well we’ve got another problem right now.”

  “What’s that?”

  He glanced at Lauren. “He seemed very interested in seeing you. I don’t like having you around us right now. He might come for you or do something else.”

  “Then we can use that,” said Lauren.

  “I’m not treating you like bait,” said Curran. “And I’m not arguing about it, either.”

  Kwon sat up. “Drive me home, I’ll grab my car, come back and set up watch on him. You stash the lady here and then come on back.”

  “You comfortable doing that?” asked Curran.

  “Not really,” said Kwon. “But someone’s got to keep watch on that guy. I’ll stay here. I got your cell phone number. I know how to dial.”

  “Okay,” said Curran. “Let’s do it.”

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  They dropped Kwon off at his house shortly after eight o’clock. Curran shook his hand. “You sure you’ll be okay?”

  Kwon shrugged. “No. But if things get hairy I’m sure I can convince him otherwise.”

  “Thought you said you were a lover not a fighter.”

  “I am.”

  “You also said you don’t do much talking with your hands.”

  Kwon nodded. “Yep. That’s true.”

  “But you think you’ll be able to handle him, huh?”

  Kwon leaned into the window and smiled. “I never said anything about not knowing how to use my feet. I studied Tae Kyon and Han Pul back in Korea.”

  “For how long?” Curran wasn’t sure any type of martial arts would be useful against a demon but he didn’t say so.

  “Long enough.” He patted Curran on the shoulder. “Get out of here, cowboy. Lauren, you watch out for this guy.”

  She smiled. “Take care, Kwon.”

  Curran drove off, watching Kwon wave after them in the rearview mirror. He glanced at Lauren. “You think it’s still safe at Father Jim’s?”

  “Hopefully.”

  “Should I be naïve and hope that the demon can’t enter a holy dwelling like a church or other blessed home?”

  “This isn’t the movie Highlander, Steve. And remember, it didn’t stop him from killing Sister Donovan in her own home.”

  Curran sighed. “That doesn’t make me feel good about leaving you alone.”

  “I won’t be alone. Father Jim will be with me. Remember? My boyfriend.” She smiled.

  Curran grinned. “Add some more salt to the wound why don’t you.”

  Lauren stayed quiet for a minute, watching the outside world flash by. “Was it necessary to talk to Darius back at his house?”

  “I think so,” said Curran.

  “Why?”

  “He knows we’re on to him. He’s trying to thwart our attempts to link him to the any crimes that we could bust him on. If he’s able to establish us as harassing him, he’ll have an easier time of completing his mission.”

  “That concerns me,” said Lauren.

  “What do you mean?”

  “The fact that he’s so willing to come out of the shadows and confront us on this whole thing. It leaves me feeling very unsettled.”

  “You think he’s up to something else?”

  “No,” said Lauren. “But I wish it was just that.” She sighed. “I think he might be getting close to completing the mission.”

  “Because he confronted us.”

  “Yes.” She tapped the dashboard. “I think he’s reached the sort of point where he’s not so concerned anymore with us being able to stop him.”

  “He’s more confident now,” said Curran.

  “Uh huh. Think of it this way: if he’s only got one more person to kill, what difference will we be able to make?”

  “Hopefully a very big one,” said Curran.

  “Yes. But from his perspective,” said Lauren, “he doesn’t have much of anything to lose. He knows he can kill one more person, get their soul into that vat and then begin the resurrection ceremony. Don’t you see? He’s not just confident. He’s starting to feel invincible.”

  “I think he’s probably bee
n feeling pretty invincible for a long time,” said Curran.

  “Maybe,” said Lauren. “But he’s bound to be feeling more like he’s won now than ever before.”

  Curran frowned. “You’re depressing me.”

  “I’m depressing myself, Steve. But I think it’s the truth.”

  They passed a small noodle restaurant and Curran turned them left. “I never would have expected a demon to behave like this.”

  “How do you mean?”

  “Guess I’ve got this old fairy tale notion of them being these nasty ugly beasts that can only breathe fire and kill you. But here this guy Darius is using the cops against us. He’s got himself some interesting attributes.”

  “Satan is a lot more talented than many people give him credit for. You can bet he’d never send a dimwitted servant with such an important mission to Earth.”

  “Yeah.” Curran wove back up toward Commonwealth Avenue and into Brighton. He glanced over at Lauren who was staring out of the window. “What are you thinking?”

  She looked at him and smiled. “Just how curious life can be. Two weeks ago, I never would have expected my life to be the way it is now.”

  Curran swallowed. “And how is that?”

  “You know, chasing a demon. Trying to keep Satan from coming back to make life on earth Hell.” She smiled. “Meeting you.”

  “Meeting me.”

  “Sure, you’re a good friend, Steve. If not for this evil that’s being attempted, we’d never have even met.”

  A friend. He sighed. Great. Just what he needed: another friend. “Yeah, that’s really wonderful.”

  She looked at him. “You all right?”

  “Yeah. Fine.” He passed Cleveland Circle and cut right up toward Boston College. “Anyway, if everything goes well, we’ll be done with this soon.”

  “You have a plan?”

  “We still have to get inside and destroy that vat. I figure we’ve got maybe two days to do that in.”

  “Less than that now.”

  He looked at her. “How do you figure?”

  “Remember Sister McDewey and her forty-eight hours? The clock’s been ticking.”

  Crap. He’d forgotten. “Still, the cops’ll be pulled off that detail soon. Darius will be vulnerable again.”