“Tony.”
I opened my eyes. Carlos and Spinelli were looking at me. “Are you all right?”
“Yeah. Sure.”
Spinelli said, “I thought you were falling asleep.”
“Asleep?” Carlos pointed at me with his fork. “I thought you were dead.”
The two laughed at that, and then I laughed. And when I saw that they did not expect a better explanation from me, I gathered my wits and stowed them away in safe place.
“Listen,” I said. I took a quick sip of coffee to wet my dry lips. “Carlos, you remember Monday morning you said you went to the hospital to investigate a missing Jane Doe?”
“Sure,” he said. “Craziest thing. Isn’t it? What sick bastard would steal a dead body?” He looked to Spinelli. “If someone kidnaps a corpse, is it still kidnapping?”
Spinelli shrugged. “Don’t suppose so. I think you have to take someone against their will for that.”
“What if he…you know.” He gestured by poking his finger through a closed fist.
Spinelli grimaced. “Don’t know. It’s just one stiff doing another then.”
They both laughed at that. I cleared my throat. “Excuse me. Can we get back to this?” The two straightened up promptly. “Carlos, what became of it?”
“The missing cadaver? Nothing. It’s still an open case. Haven’t really had time to look into it much after this Biocrynetix Laboratories thing. Why? What are you thinking?”
I leaned forward, propping my elbows up on the table. “Okay, hear me out.” Carlos and Spinelli leaned in likewise. “We know that Mrs. Snow passed away in the early hours of Monday morning. Correct?”
Spinelli answered, “Yes, and per her husband’s request, the hospital cremated her immediately.”
“That’s right. But what if it wasn’t her?”
“How do you mean?”
“I mean New Castle General would likely bed two terminally ill patients together on the same floor, in the same wing. Possibly in the same room.”
“You think Snow’s wife and the Jane Doe were roommates?”
“Maybe.”
“Wait,” said Spinelli. “Are you suggesting Howard Snow killed Jane Doe after his own wife died, switched her body for his wife’s and then slipped out of the building with her?”
“That would explain why he insisted they cremate her right away, before anyone realized it wasn’t her.”
“So, Jane Doe wasn’t really missing. She was cremated.”
“Exactly.”
“But why?” asked Carlos.
Spinelli offered, “So he could use the compound on his wife. If he believes QE647 really worked, then he might try it on his wife to bring her back to life. That would explain his motive for stealing it.”
Carlos said, “I bet Williams caught him stealing the compound, maybe told Delaney and that’s why Snow killed them.”
“What about his old roommate?” I asked. “Why would Snow kill him?”
“I don’t think he did,” Spinelli said. “You saw the wreckage from the car bomb. It took military-grade high explosives to rip that Hummer apart. Howard Snow would not have had access to something so advanced.”
“No.” I shook my head. “I don’t think the people looking for Snow would risk destroying the documents. That’s why they shot up Carlos’ car at close range. They could just as easily have fired a missile at it from a helicopter and made a cleaner get-a-way.”
“Seems they made a clean enough get-a-way to me,” Carlos complained.
I acknowledged that with a nod. “Still, they had boots on the ground because they fully expected to retrieve the documents and possibly the compound.”
Spinelli asked, “So, where does that leave us?”
“I think it leaves us with the assumption that we’re looking for two people. Howard and Mrs. Snow.”
“His dead wife?”
I smiled. “Dead…maybe.”
Carlos said, “Tony, you cannot honestly believe Snow used the compound to reanimate the wife.”
“Not saying he did. But if he does have her, then he almost certainly still has to be in town somewhere. Traveling with a corpse is not easy these days.”
Carlos laughed. “Was it ever?”
“We should check the motels,” Spinelli said.
“Good idea.”
“How?” Carlos asked.
“The old fashioned way.” I motioned as though I were knocking on a door. “We go house-to-house, or in this case, motel-to-motel. Start with the hole-in-the-wall joints first. Try along Route-1 and the dives on the lower end of Edgewater. You’re looking for a single man checking in Tuesday, sometime after the car bombing at Dwyer’s.”
“Don’t you mean two people checking in?” Spinelli and I looked at him until he got it. “Oh, right,” he said, embarrassed. “Yeah, one person checking in. That makes sense.”
“Okay.” I glanced at my watch. “It’s almost eight-thirty. I want you both to get on it right after breakfast.”
“What about you?” Spinelli asked.
“I have to go home.”
“Why?”
“I ahm…. I forgot to do something. If you come across anyone fitting Snows description, let me know.”
“Roger that.”
I took a bite of toast and finished my coffee before getting out of the booth. As I tossed my napkin on the table, I said to Carlos, “You can get this one. I got it last time.”
“Sure,” he said, and as I walked away I heard him say, “Wait a minute. I got it last time.”
I gave a wave over the top of my head. “Call me if you find anything.”
I arrived back at the house at a quarter to nine. Lilith was standing at the sink, washing dishes. At first glance, I thought it was Ursula because she was wearing a dress. Lilith almost never wears a dress. For her it is usually blue jeans, cotton shorts or leather. Sometimes leather shorts, but that’s just for special occasions.
“What are you doing home?” she said. “Run out of bad guys to bust?”
“No, I needed to take care of something.” I looked down the hall and around the corner into the dining room. “Where’s Ursula? She home?”
Lilith glanced over her shoulder at me. “Why do want her?”
I came up behind her and slipped my arms around her waist. “No reason. I just wanted to ask her something.” I nestled my nose in the nape of her neck and kissed her softly. She rocked her head back and moaned approvingly.
“Hmm, that’s nice,” she cooed. “Do it again.”
I brushed her hair back and nibbled on her earlobe. “I see you’re wearing a dress.”
She shut the water off, dried her hands on a dishtowel and turned around, still encompassed in my embrace. “Yes. You like?”
I kissed her lips. “I do.”
She put her arms around my neck, clasped her fingers together, rolled up on tiptoes and kissed me back. I noticed it seemed different somehow. She seemed different. Her kiss felt tenuous and unfamiliar like a stranger’s kiss. I assumed she wanted to role-play, especially when she asked, “You have time?”
I smiled. “For what?”
She shifted her weight onto one hip, pressing her pelvis against me. “You know,” she said, and she slid her tongue across my upper lip and bit it teasingly.
I buried my face in the thick of her hair, savoring its fragrance in a stuttered breath. I could feel myself getting hard. I knew she felt it, too, as she kept pressing herself against me, rocking, surging in rhythmic tides.
“I don’t know if we should,” I told her. “I only came home to talk to Ursula.”
She unclasped her hands and began unbuttoning my shirt. “What do you want with her?”
“Well, I suppose I should tell you.”
“Yes?”
“I don’t know this for sure but I think––auh….”
My mind went blank after she pulled my shirt open and pinched my nipple between her teeth. I gasped, and I can tell you it hurt when r
eflexes caused me to pull away sharply. She dragged her nails slowly down my chest and over my belly. She stopped at my belt and began to unbuckle it. Her hair spilled down her face, tickling my ribs and washing my mind of everything I wanted to say. I cupped my hands over hers and made her stop.
“Lilith, wait.”
She looked up at me, her expression unlike anything I had ever seen on her face before. I saw innocence, surprise and a hint of confusion. She gathered her lips in a pout and uttered softly, “Why?”
I held my finger up to indicate we needed only pause a minute. “I have to tell you this. I think Ursula has been casting spells on me.”
“Spells?”
“Yes, sex spells, I think. I shouldn’t tell you this, but I have had these dreams about her.”
“Oh?”
“Erotic dreams.”
I turned my head to avoid eye contact with her, but she pressed her finger to my chin and steered my gaze back. “Kiss me.”
I kissed her.
She unbuttoned my pants. I felt her hand slip down the front of my waistband. I surged forward in involuntary reflex. She pulled her hand back. I locked my arms around her, drew her in tightly and kissed her hard. “To hell with it,” I said. “Let’s do it.”
I ran my hands up the back of her legs and over her butt, taking the bottom of her dress up passed her hips. In the mirror across the room, I could see her. Her arms around me. Her long black hair flowing down her back. Her legs, sculpted firm. And her ass, her beautiful ass with her thong disappearing between her….
“Ursula?” I pushed her away. “What the hell?”
“Tony.” She tried giving me that look, the one Lilith gives me when my accusations are baseless and absurd.
I was not buying it.
“Don’t Tony me.” I jabbed my finger at her. “You’re Ursula.”
She abandoned her pitiful, surprised look, softened her stance and crossed her arms at her chest.
“Aye, `tis me,” she said, giving up the charade. “Pray tell, what hath thou on me to give it away?”
I gestured across the room. “I could see your ass in the mirror there.”
“My ass?”
I conjured up my best smug look. “Yes. You have no tattoo.”
She reached around her backside and rubbed her left cheek. “Aye, `tis a small detail. But for that I would have thee.”
“Have me? Ursula, pardon my French. But whathefuck? Why are you trying to seduce me?”
“I want only to be ready is all, for my Dominic.”
“What?”
She crossed the kitchen and took a seat at the table. “He is surely a man of the world. I fear he may want me not but for the pleasure a better girl can promise him.”
I walked to the table, buckling my belt and buttoning my shirt. “Ursula.” I pulled a chair up next to her and sat down. “This makes no sense. Have you been casting spells over me?”
“Aye,” she said, sounding disappointed.
“Spells to make me think of you?”
She nodded. “`Tis affection spells I cast.” She crinkled her nose and shrugged some. “To make thee want me is all.”
“Want you?”
“Aye.”
“To make me want to have sex with you?”
“Aye.”
“Huh. Well, it’s been working. I can tell you that. You were all I could think about these past four days. I dreamed about you. I thought I was falling for you.”
She shook her head. “No. `Twas the spell.”
“This morning at the Percolator, I could sense your presence. You were in my head. It felt like you were there.”
She smiled. “I felt you here.”
“But how? Lilith and I have never had that kind of connection before.”
“`Tis the coven. It binds us ever-stronger now.”
“When did you decide to do this to me?”
“Hmm…methinks four nights past when I saw what pleasure my touch brought thee.”
“During the ceremony?”
“Aye.”
“When I got, ahm….”
“Aroused?”
“Yes. Aroused.” I regarded her suspiciously. “That didn’t surprise you. Did it? You knew what you were doing to me.”
She came back slightly insulted. “Aye. `Tis another time from which I hail, not another world. Men are but animals with instincts and desires. Be it now or then. Yee are naught but the same.”
“You wanted me to get aroused.”
“Aye.”
“In front of Lilith?”
“Only to seed the spell. To put thee in what frame of mind thee had.”
“I don’t understand?”
“To get thee thinking.”
“Of you.”
“Aye.”
“That helps the spell work?”
“Aye.”
“Did it?”
“Perhaps thou wilt tell me.”
“Touché. Then yes. It worked. So, you really wanted to make love to me.”
She pulled her hands free and clasped them to her heart. “Nay. Fair blessings. The love I make will be not with thee, but with he whom I love.”
“Dominic.”
“Of course.”
“But aren’t you…. I mean, you never––”
She gathered the folds of her dress around her cleavage and hiked it higher. “I am of vestal modesty,” she said. “If that is thy question.”
“It is, Ursula. Exactly. You know that being a virgin is something special, don’t you? Why would you rob Dominic of that gift?”
I watched her brows gather in a furrow. “Gift?”
“Yes. It is a gift when a young woman saves herself for the man she loves. It is something one can only share once, so why not share it with someone special? Do you understand?”
“Aye, but Lilith said––”
“Lilith? Oh here we go. I should have known. Don’t tell me this was her idea.”
“Not so, exactly. She said a man likes it when a woman knows how to please him. That is how she keeps you to herself.”
“Well, sure that’s true, but….”
“And she said of thee, thou art a good specimen on which to practice.”
“She said that?”
She smiled shyly. “So she tells me.”
“Ursula, I’m sure she didn’t mean that you should practice on me. She was simply using me an example.”
Her face grew noticeably whiter. She drew her fingers to her lips and gasped softly. “Oh, dear.” Her hands began to tremble. “What have I done? I have brought shame upon the coven and thee.”
“No, no.” I reached for her hands and cupped them gently. “You did no such thing.”
“But I kissed thee.”
“Yes. You kissed me, and I kissed you. But that was all.” I assured eye contact. “That was all. Right?”
Her panic retreated. “Of course. That and naught.”
I gave a sigh. “Good.”
“Dost thou remember more?”
“No. It is just that I was worried because I had a dream the other night that seemed so real. I thought you came to me in my room and you ahm….”
“Yes?”
I shook my head. “Forget it. Look. You have to know that Dominic loves you and wants you just the way you are. You don’t need to practice anything before marrying him. Just be yourself and I assure you, your wedding night will be magical.”
“Oh, what great relief, Master Tony.”
“Yeah?”
“Aye. `Tis a burden shed that I most dreaded, that of copulating with thee.”
“Come again.” I admit I felt offended by that. “Are you saying you were not looking forward to having sex with me?”
She shook her head. “No more than any chore.”
“Chore?” I laughed to deflate my defensive posture. “Why would you think it a chore?”
“`Tis something Lilith said, is all.”
“What did Lilith say?”
&nb
sp; She turned away bashfully. “I should say but not.”
“No. You should say. Tell me.”
Her eyes came back to me through a side glance. “Do not hate me.”
“I won’t hate you.”
“Lilith said you are the bomb in bed.”
“The bomb?”
“Aye. Her words, not mine. `Tis a bad thing, I know. I am sorry.”
I reached across the table and gave her a hug. “That’s all right,” I told her, smiling. “Lilith has said worse things about me.”
As I backed away, she said, “Thou art a good kisser, though. I shall tell her that.”
“What? No. No, you mustn’t tell her that. You will tell her no such thing. You understand? And you must never tell Dominic either. Tell no one what happened here this morning. If anyone asks, we did not kiss. I didn’t see your ass and you didn’t grind your pelvis into my crotch so hard I popped the stitching in my shorts.”
Her eyes grew frightfully wide. “That was thee?”
I settled into my chair a bit uneasily. “Yes. What did you think?”
Her eyes fell to my lap. “I thought it was thy gun.”
I let it go at that. Later, when I was about to leave, I returned into the kitchen. Ursula was back at the sink, finishing the dishes she started earlier. I said to her, “Ursula, can I ask you something?”
“Aye?”
“When I came home this morning and we talked, you sounded like Lilith. In fact, you had no old English accent at all. How did you do that?”
She looked over her shoulder at me, her lips drawn thin and turned up slightly at the corners. “`Twas a deal we had. Was it not?”
“A deal”
“Aye.”
“What deal was that?”
In perfect modern speak, she said, “The deal was, if you practiced your witchcraft more often, I would practice modern English.”
“Uh…. That’s amazing,” I said. “You nailed it.”
Kiss the Witch Page 17
