“Forget it? Tony, I’m going to include it in the next publication of the precinct’s newsletter if you don’t spill the details.”
“You will not.”
“Tony, this––”
“Carlos, you cannot spread a word of this to anyone, especially Spinelli. If he finds out Ursula touched me down there, he will––”
“Wait. Ursula touched you down there?”
“Shit.”
“She touched your pecker?”
“Carlos, if you––”
“Tony. You have to tell me now. Listen, I will not tell a soul. I promise. Come on. We have been together over thirty years. We tell each other everything. You can trust me.”
I don’t know why I told him. I should have known better. The truth is, I think guys inherently need to tell other guys when something like that happens to him, especially his best friend. I turned to him and shook a stern finger, warning him of the consequences he faced if he told anyone else.
“I won’t,” he said. “I promise. Not a soul. Now hurry up and tell me. We’ll be at the station in a couple of minutes.”
“All right, but I mean it.”
“All right. I got it. Not a soul. Now tell me why she touched you.”
“It was perfectly innocent, really. See, we started out by oiling each other up and––”
“Wait. You oiled each other up?”
“Yes. Didn’t I say that already?”
“Why did you oil each other up?”
“I don’t know. It was part of the whole cleansing ritual. She oiled Lilith. I oiled her and then she oiled me.”
“Sounds kinky.”
“Leave it alone.”
“I’m just saying.”
“I know it. Anyway, she starts oiling me up, you know, starting with my face, neck, shoulders and so on. Next thing I know, she gets to my….um-hmm.”
“Your penis.”
“Yes, and the rest of it.”
“That’s so bizarre. So, what happened?”
“What happened? What do you think happened?”
“You had some movement?”
“Some? Please.”
“No, Tony. You didn’t.”
“I didn’t, but it did.”
“You got a, um….”
“Lilith called it a spear.”
“That’s wild.”
“No, what’s wild is that Ursula had never seen a…spear before. She thought it was magic. And the more she worked it, the harder…you know.”
“Get out. You’re making this up.”
“I wish.”
“So what happened then?”
“I called Lilith over to help and she put a stop to it. You should have seen her. It was kind of funny, the look on her face.”
“I bet. I can’t wait to ask her––”
“You can wait and you will. Remember, you promised. Not a soul.”
“Oh, right.”
“I mean it. Carlos.”
“Okay. I know. It’s just between us.”
“Good.”
“So, how did the rest of the night go?”
“The rest of the night, believe it or not, was more fantastic than that.”
I started to tell him about the circle of fire, the black mirror and the coven of witches in the field of emptiness. Then Spinelli called. He was wondering where we were. Carlos handled it in his usual not so subtle way.
“Almost there,” he told him. What else Spinelli asked him I can only guess. But from Carlos’ end of the conversation, I imagined Spinelli was questioning him about what if anything I told him concerning the ceremony.
“Nothing,” said Carlos. Convincingly I thought. “No, Tony won’t tell me a thing.” Carlos looked at me and winked. I nodded my approval, though I knew with a little face-to-face prodding from Spinelli, Carlos would not be so strong.
He ended the call about the time we were swinging into parking lot of the Justice Center. As we got out of the car, I shook my finger at him again and warned him. “Remember, not a word.”
He dismissed me with a wave. “Tony, please. I am a professional. I know how to play my cards close to my vest.”
“You better.”
We met Spinelli up on the third floor break room. He was getting coffee from the vending machine. Even with his back to us, however, I knew he could see our approach in the reflection in the glass. He played it cool though.
“There you are,” he said.
“Here we are,” said Carlos. His smile was considerably larger than usual. I elbowed him in the side and he wiped his face clean.
Spinelli turned and raised his coffee cup in a sort of salute. “So, um…how did it go last night?”
“Fine,” I said. “No big deal.”
“Oh? Did you all do that ceremony thing you were talking about?”
“We did.”
“And?”
“And it went okay.”
I could see Carlos just itching to say something.
“Okay, that’s good,” Spinelli said. “That’s good.”
“Yeah, that’s good. So tell me, anything new on our case?”
“Ahm, yes. I found out.” He took a sip of his coffee. “Can I ask you first? Last night. Did you see Ursula?”
“Ursula? Yes. I saw her.”
“No, I mean did you see her…. You know.”
“Dominic, we don’t need to go there. It was no big deal really.”
“I’m sorry, Tony. I can’t let this go.”
“Look, it’s no––”
“Did you see her naked?”
“Dominic.”
“Tony, just tell me. I can take it. I want to know. That’s all.”
I stepped closer to him, feeling like I wanted to put my hand on his shoulder, but I did not. Instead, I looked him in the eye and said, “Yes, Dominic. I told you that was going to happen, and it did. Now that it’s done, we can move past it and get on with things.”
“You said you wouldn’t look at her.”
“What?”
“Yesterday. You said you wouldn’t look at Ursula, You said you would walk into furniture and bust a toe if you had to, but that you would not so much as look at her.”
“I said I would try not looking at her. And I did. I tried.”
“No. You promised.”
“Dominic, look. I’m sorry. But you will be happy to know it was very dark. There were maybe two candles burning all the way across the room. The entire ceremony lasted only a minute. And Ursula stood behind me the whole time. I barely caught a glimpse of her. In fact, I’m not even sure it was her. I think it was Lilith. Like I said. It was very dark. Now, can we talk about the case?”
He seemed to buy it. And that Carlos kept a straight face certainly helped matters. Spinelli took another sip of coffee, swallowed, nodded and shifted things into gear.
“Okay. You’re right. The case. Well, here’s the thing. I checked out a few leads and I found out that QE647 might actually work. There is anecdotal evidence, along with a ton of buzz in Biocrynetix chat sites, suggesting Biocrynetix Laboratories tested it already on non-living organic compounds and achieved astonishing results.”
“That is interesting.”
“Yeah, so you have to ask yourself. Is it worth killing for? I think it is.”
“Yes, but we don’t want to jump to conclusions.”
“No? You might after you hear this next tidbit.”
“What’s that?”
“This morning they ran the cadaver dogs through Howard Snows house.”
“Don’t tell me. No Howard Snow.”
“That’s right, and I ran a registration check on vehicles registered to Snow. I came up with two: the one we towed in after the blast, which was his wife’s, and his, a big gray Hummer.”
“That’s good work. Why don’t we put out––”
“A bulletin? Already did.”
“All right. Great. What else do you have?”
“Just this.” He handed me a
slip of paper with a name and address written on it. “This guy. He’s a friend of Snow’s. An old college roommate. He lives here in town. Might be worth checking out.”
I took the slip of paper. “Okay. Nice work, Dominic. I think we will go pay him a visit now. Carlos, you ready?”
“Sure. Let’s roll.”
On the elevator ride down to the lobby, I thanked Carlos for keeping his mouth shut about Ursula. He shrugged it off as no big deal, but I knew it must have been killing him not to say something.
“No, seriously,” I said. “You saw how freaked out he was about me just seeing Ursula naked. Can you imagine if he knew….” I let it go at that.
“I wouldn’t worry about it, Tony. I think a lot of it is that he’s just nervous about the wedding. He is in love with Ursula and the fact that she is, what’s the word? Unspoiled? I think he wants their first time together to be a completely new experience.”
“It will be. Besides, it is not as if he didn’t see her naked first. He was there when Lilith reconstituted her from a pile of bones.”
“Give him time. He’ll chill.”
“Yes, well I hope he chills before he gets a chance to ask Ursula about last night. I mean, you know the girl cannot lie. She’ll probably tell him everything.”
Carlos smiled at that. I know he was thinking how much he would love to be there when that happened. Me? I hoped I would be out of the country.
The skies were blackening as we pulled up to the curb across the street from the residence on Monroe Street. We saw no sign of Snow’s Hummer, but through an upstairs window, we could see someone was home. Carlos shut the motor off and we settled in for the wait.
Normally, when we go on a stakeout Carlos takes along a supply of snacks to help pass the time. Though we did not expect our hunt for Howard Snow to turn into a stakeout, Carlos came prepared just the same. He reached over my lap and popped open the glove box. Out spilled a cache of Snickers, Twinkies and Three Musketeers bars.
I pointed at the Three Musketeers. “Those are new.”
“Yeah, I started getting into them after the McMurray stake out.”
“Really? I hadn’t noticed.”
“Right, see that’s the difference between you and me. You don’t pay attention to the little things.”
“Oh? And you do?”
“Yes.”
“In what ways?”
“Well, let’s take you for instance.”
“Me?”
“Yeah.” He pointed at my feet. “You’re wearing two different colored socks today, one black, one navy.”
“What?” I looked down, pulled my pant cuffs up and noticed he was right. “I was running late this morning. Must have grabbed the wrong mate.”
“Of course you were. That explains why you forgot to shave, too.”
I reached up and stroked my chin whiskers. Once again, he was right. “Hardly a keen observation.”
“Okay. How about your watch?”
“What about my watch?”
He pointed at it. “It stopped last night at 9:05.”
I looked. “No it didn’t. It’s right on time.”
He shook his head and gestured at the clock on his dash. “Tony. It’s 8:54.”
I tapped my watch crystal. “I’m running fast.”
“Are you?”
A closer look and I could see he was right. The second hand had stopped moving. “Oh.”
“Yes, oh.”
“All right, smartass. What else you got?”
“Oh, nothing, only that I know you and Lilith did it last night.”
“What?”
“Or should I say Lilith did it. You just laid back and enjoyed the ride.”
I looked at him in absolute wonder. “No. No way. I don’t believe it. You could not possibly know that.”
“It’s true, though, isn’t it?”
“It is, but how…how did you know?”
“I told you. It’s the little things I notice.”
“The little things.”
“Yup.”
“Hmm, well that’s all well and fine, but the little things don’t mean shit if you don’t notice the big things, too.”
“Like what?”
I pointed out the rain-spotted window at the gray Hummer in front of the house. “Like Howard Snow showing up right under your nose.”
“I would have noticed that.”
“Come on. Let’s go.”
We hopped out of the car and hurried across the street. Fortunately, Snow was wearing a rain jacket with the hood pulled over his head, acting as blinders. That allowed us to come around him undetected from both sides.
“Mister Snow,” I said, flashing my badge and ID. He looked frightened at first, but after seeing my badge, his expression changed to one of relief. “Mister Snow, can we talk to you?”
He shut the car door and that is when he noticed Carlos. He put his hands up in surrender. “Please,” he said. “I didn’t do anything.”
“That’s all right.” I returned my badge and ID to my pocket. “You can put your hands down. We only what to ask you some questions.”
He glanced over his shoulder, up one end of the street and down the other. “How did you find me?”
“We’re Big Brother,” said Carlos. “We find everyone.”
“Carlos, please. Mister Snow, what are you afraid of? Why do you keep looking over your shoulder?”
“What does he mean, you’re Big Brother?”
“He means nothing. We are not the Feds. We’re cops from the Second Precinct. We only want to ask you a few questions. Is that all right?”
He dropped his hands slowly. “Okay.”
“Do you have any weapons on you Mister Snow?”
“No.”
“Mind if we check?”
He shook his head. I gave Carlos a nod and he pat him down quickly.
“He’s clean.”
“Mister Snow, do you know why we are here?”
He scoffed. “I hope you’re here to find out the truth.”
“The truth?”
“About what happened to Gerardi, Brookfield, Williams and Delaney.”
“And McSweeney?” said Carlos.
Snow seemed surprised. “Her, too?”
“What is the truth?” I asked.
“The truth,” said Snow, “is that the government killed those people and they want to kill me, too.”
“Why is that?”
“You know why. QE647. They want to snuff out everyone involved in its research and development.”
“So it’s true? QE647 is not a sweetener?”
He laughed nervously. “Please. You have no idea, Detective. QE647 will change the course of humanity. I knew from the beginning the government would never let knowledge of its existence go public. It’s Area 51 all over again. I’m telling you. I just didn’t know they would kill for it.”
“Who has it now,” I asked. “Did you steal it?”
“What? Is that what they told you? Detective, don’t you see? It’s a sham, a cover-up. No one stole the compound. It’s a blame game to throw you off track. Did you see they blew up my house?”
“We did.”
“They want you to think I’m dead so that you will stop looking for me.”
“Why would they want us to do that?”
“So they can find me and kill me without anyone knowing what ever happened to me. Ha, don’t think for a moment they don’t wish I was in the house when it blew. Ah, but I’m too smart for them. After Williams and Delaney, I knew it was no coincidence. They must think I’m an idiot not to know they are after me now.”
“Mister Snow, I don’t understand. If Biocrynetix Laboratories wants to keep this all under wraps, why did Ferguson report the theft of the compound to the police?”
“Because Ferguson is afraid for his life, too. Hell, the only reason he’s still alive is that he has no idea what is in QE647. He knows what it is. He just couldn’t help anyone replicate it.”
> I looked at Carlos. He seemed to be buying the story, and frankly, so was I. Things were beginning to make a lot more sense to me now.
“Mister Snow. We had cadaver dogs out at your house this morning. The police know you were not in the house when it blew.”
“Damn it. Detective, please, you have to help me. I have nowhere else to turn. I lost my wife last night you know. She died.”
“We know that. We’re sorry for your loss.”
He shook his head. “Probably for the better. I would not be able to stay away from her. We would both make easy targets.”
“I think we can help you. We can hold off reports regarding your house for a while, maybe buy you time. Buy us some time, as well.”
“You would do that?”
“I’ll try, but you will have to promise me you won’t leave town, at least until we can piece a few more bits of this puzzle together. If you would like, I can have the neighborhood patrolled every so often.”
“No. Don’t do that. I would rather no one knows you found me. I cannot trust a soul. You can’t trust a soul, not even your own people.”
“You can trust us,” I said.
Carlos nodded.
Snow said, “Listen. I will stay here awhile longer only under the condition you not to tell anyone. Do we have a deal?”
“We have a deal,” I said, and we shook on it.
The rain began falling harder just as we were climbing back into Carlos’ car. He mumbled something about having just waxed it, but I paid no attention. “What do you think of Howard Snow?” I asked.
“Don’t like him,” he said flatly.
“Why not?”
“Who the hell does he think he is, asking if we have a deal? He is in no position to make deals with anyone. We should have hauled him in. Been done with it.”
“We could,” I said, “but then we would have to turn around and let him go again.”
“Why?”
“We have nothing on him. Besides, I don’t think he stole anything. The man is afraid for his life. And with good reason.”
“I suppose.” Carlos started the car, turned the wipers on and pulled out heading north on Monroe. “So, what do we do now?”
I took my phone out and hit speed dial for Spinelli. “We do some more digging. By the way, where are we going? The Justice Center is the other way.”
Carlos pointed out the window. “The 7-11. I forgot to pick up a lotto ticket this morning.”
Kiss the Witch Page 10
