by Greg Herren
“Around five thirty yesterday afternoon.” She made me go over the entire thing again. It was a little annoying, but I assumed she wanted to make sure there were no discrepancies, or if maybe I’d remembered something I hadn’t thought about the first time around.
She turned to Colin. “And you, Agent Golden? When did you see him last?”
My eyes darted back and forth between the two of them.
“I never met the man,” Colin replied. He shook his head. “All I know for sure is he isn’t Levi Gretsch. Marty Gretsch’s grandson is only twelve years old.”
She nodded. “We’ve confirmed that with the Ohio state police. He’s living with some relatives in Chicago—apparently, his father was killed in a car accident a few weeks after his grandfather was murdered.” She shook her head. “The poor kid’s been through a lot.”
“Was it really an accident?” I blurted out. I blushed when she gave me one of her patented you-are-such-a-dumbass looks. “I mean, Marty Gretsch was murdered and then two weeks later his son dies in a car accident. It’s weird, is all.”
“They did a thorough investigation into the accident. He was hit by a drunk driver.” She looked at me, and her eyebrows went up. “Scotty, what did you do to your neck?”
I blew out a breath. “Um. I was mugged last night when I was on my way to my parents’.” I quickly ran through the whole incident, leaving out the mugger’s mention of “the eye.”
A muscle twitched in Venus’s jaw.
“You didn’t think,” Blaine said quietly, his face turning red, “that might be important to our investigation?”
“Get off my back,” I replied. “So I was mugged and didn’t report it. Arrest me. And don’t you think that’s a bit of a stretch? People get mugged all the time. I didn’t think it was important.”
“Someone stabbed you in the throat and you didn’t think it was important?” Blaine literally looked like smoke was about to come out of his ears. “Is there anything else you haven’t told us that you don’t think is important?”
“I’m so sorry, Detective Tujague,” I snapped. “Let me see, in the last day a family friend was brutally murdered, my landladies were tied up, a body wound up somehow on my balcony, and this one”—I gestured at Colin—“turned up out of the blue. So, yeah, being stabbed kind of seemed a little unimportant.” I held out my hands. “Cuff me and take me in, Mr. Detective.”
Blaine had the decency to look a little sheepish. “Sorry,” he mumbled.
“Cut the drama, Scotty,” Venus said mildly. “Can you describe your attacker?”
I recounted what happened, beginning with Mom’s phone call. I described the attacker as best as I could remember—which wasn’t much, since I’d never gotten a look at his face—and wound up with arriving at Mom’s. The whole time I was talking, Colin didn’t say a word. He just sat there, his face expressionless.
“And your arm? What happened to your arm?”
“I shot myself.” He didn’t look at me. “I needed to get inside Cecile Bradley’s apartment. So I shot myself. It’s no more than a flesh wound, I aimed so that it wouldn’t be really painful but would be really bloody. I wasn’t sure if she would let me in if I just called her, but I knew her well enough to know if I was injured, she would.”
I felt my blood starting to boil. I knew he couldn’t be trusted. My hands were starting to shake. “I knew it,” I said, my voice trembling. “I knew you couldn’t be trusted!” I was furious. I don’t think I’ve ever been that angry in my life. “You shot yourself! Oh my God!”
“Scotty, please.” Venus held up her hand. “I said cut the drama—I’m not interested.”
I started pacing around the kitchen. “Was anything you told me true?” I seethed. “Or Angela? You really enjoy making a fool out of me!”
I knew I was losing it. I tried to get a hold of myself, but nothing was working. I tried to take deep breaths, closing my eyes and trying to find a prayer for strength and calm, but no words came to me. Nothing he said could be believed. He was a liar, pure and simple.
“Scotty—” He reached out and grabbed my hand.
The words started pouring out of me. “Uranium, right? This whole thing about world security and terrorism and the stupid damned Eye of Kali was all just a bunch of bullshit, wasn’t it?”
Colin’s face went white.
And just as quickly as it came, the anger drained out of me. My legs became wobbly. Out of the corners of my eyes I could see things turning gray, and the gray crept across my sightline. I tried to grab hold of the counter but there wasn’t any strength in my hands. No, no, no! Not in front of the cops!
“And just why did you need to get into Cecile Bradley’s house?” I heard Venus ask. Her voice sounded like it was a million miles away, like someone had turned the volume on a television down to an almost inaudible level.
Everything was starting to spin.
“I believe Benjamin Garrett was murdered,” Colin replied, “because for the last forty years he has been in possession of a stolen artifact from a small country called Pleshiwar. I believe he knew that agents unfriendly to the current Pleshiwarian government were getting close to him, and he had to get rid of it. I believe he put it inside a stuffed rabbit, which he in turn passed along to Scotty, who then gave it to his mother.” His face was grim. “As long as that rabbit is inside her home, Bob and Cecile Bradley are in mortal danger.”
Everything was getting foggy and I tried to keep it at bay.
Mom…
Dad…
And everything went dark.
I was falling through a cloud.
I wasn’t afraid, because I felt surrounded by love and peace.
I drifted down through the cloud.
I came to rest on a soft bed of grass, and felt warm, loved and at peace.
“Scotty!” a voice called from my right.
I got to my feet and looked around for the voice. “I’m here! Is that you, Goddess?”
“It is I.”
There were so many things I wanted to ask Jer. So many questions, so many things I wanted to know the answers to. “Why did you leave me for so long?” was all I could find the words for, and I sounded like a spoiled child, ready to stamp his little foot in rage.
“I never left you, Scotty. I was always with you, but I couldn’t speak with you,” she replied from the mist. “Your heart was closed to me.” Her tone was gently chiding. “But I watched over you, as I always watch over you.”
“But—”
“You are human, Scotty. It is not for you to understand the ways of the universe, how everything works and how everything is connected together. You will understand all one day, but that day is far into the future as you understand time.” Her voice sounded hollow, different somehow than it used to. “But I am with you again, and you need never be afraid.”
“But I don’t know what to think, what to believe!”
“Your heart knows the answers, Scotty. The answers lie within your heart. You think your heart has been broken, but it is not possible for a heart to break. It can hurt, and it can harden, but it can never truly break.”
“But—”
“Everything is a test, Scotty. The question is, are you brave enough to trust in your own heart again?”
The mist began to dissipate, swirling around me. The feeling of peace and love began to fade away, and the light in the distance began to grow brighter, and I started floating toward it, moving faster and faster as the light grew brighter…
…and the last thing I heard as I moved into the light again were the words “trust in your heart, Scotty…”
I opened my eyes.
My head was resting in Colin’s lap. I looked up and saw Venus and Blaine staring down at me. Their eyes and mouths were wide open. Blaine was white as a ghost, and Venus looked like she was going to throw up.
“See?” I heard Colin say. “I told you he’d be fine. I’ve seen this happen before.”
“Jesus fucking Ch
rist,” Venus said, her voice shaking.
“What did you see, Scotty?” Colin asked softly. He was stroking my forehead. “What did She tell you?”
“She—” I looked up into his eyes, and in that instant, I knew.
He had lied. He had lied to me and broken my heart. My heart, and Frank’s, and my family’s. But no matter how good an actor he was, he couldn’t fake the love for me I saw in his eyes.
He hadn’t lied about that, and looking at him, I knew I’d always known that in my heart.
I felt the tears welling up in my eyes, but I wasn’t about to cry in front of Venus and Blaine. I struggled to sit up, and wiped at my eyes.
I took a deep breath. “She told me to trust in my heart, and it would show me the way.” I looked around at all of them. “Shouldn’t we be getting over to my parents’?”
Chapter Nine
EIGHT OF WANDS
Approach to a goal
Venus and Blaine were conferring by the balcony doors. I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but their whispers had an angry tone to them that was impossible to miss. I felt my assumption that Blaine thought stopping by my parents’ wasn’t necessary was probably correct. Venus might not like me, or my family, for that matter, but she was always willing to listen to me.
Blaine, on the other hand, could be a bit of a douche bag. He’d tried to play me once during a case. Trying to get information, he’d claimed we’d hooked up once when we were both wasted—which, I’m sad to admit, was always a possibility with me. He was good looking, and nicely put together—and when I was single, I was a bit of a slut. There were any number of hot guys out there I’d hooked up with that I didn’t remember—the main drawback to having such a checkered past. His plan had almost worked, too. Fortunately, I’d caught on. Sure, he was just doing his job—but it was still a shitty thing to do, and I never could bring myself to trust him again.
“Did you really shoot yourself?” I whispered to Colin. “Wasn’t that a little bit on the extreme side?”
He didn’t take his eyes off Venus and Blaine. “Are you mad at me?” he whispered back.
“I should be, but I’m not.” I was a little surprised myself. I was still feeling the calming influence of the Goddess. When it wore off, I’d probably be furious.
“I didn’t shoot myself,” he whispered, reaching out and rubbing my arm. “I just am not ready to involve them that deeply yet. I’ll explain everything later.”
That figured. It was always I’ll explain later with him. Sometimes, later never came. It was frustrating, but I decided not to let it get to me. Instead, I sighed and gave him a long, hard look. His right eye closed in a wink. But before I could say anything, Venus and Blaine finished their discussion and walked back over to us. Her face was its usual unreadable stone—but he was pissed. His face was flushed, his lips pressed together into a taut thin line. A muscle in his jaw was twitching.
“All right,” Venus said, glancing at Blaine. “Scotty, I’ll drive you over to check on your parents. Agent Golden, would you mind staying here? Blaine has some more questions for you.”
Agent. Her tone was deferential—which was most definitely not like Venus. Who the hell was he working for, anyway?
“That’s fine,” Colin replied with a gracious smile for Blaine. “I’d be happy to answer your questions, Detective Tujague. Scotty, call me and let me know they’re okay?”
I bit my lower lip. They must be okay, otherwise he’d never agree to stay here. But how did he know? It was his idea in the first place for us to go over there…
He just wanted to get Venus and Blaine out of my apartment.
What was he up to? Did he know more about Levi’s murder than he was letting on?
My head was starting to hurt again.
I followed Venus down the back stairs and out to her SUV. As I buckled myself in, I asked,” Why do you keep calling Colin agent?” She started the engine, turned on her siren, and slammed it into drive. The tires squealed as the SUV roared out onto Decatur Street. “What was that all about? And why didn’t you arrest him?”
“That’s very simple, Scotty.” Venus didn’t look at me as she turned onto Barracks. The car almost went up on two wheels. “I didn’t arrest him because I can’t. There’s no warrant out for him.” She shook her head. We reached the corner at Royal and this time we did go up on two wheels. I grabbed the armrest and said a quick prayer. Her facial expression didn’t change as she barely missed a bicycle delivery guy. He went down in a heap, waving his fist after us. “A few days after Mardi Gras, Homeland Security took over his case from us. You know all they have to do is say ‘terrorism’ and that’s it—we can’t say a damned thing about it. They took our files, the evidence, everything. We were told not to worry about it, and were told the charges against him were being dropped.” She shrugged. “I thought we pretty much had him nailed for it, frankly, but you don’t question Homeland Security. They notified us they had a new suspect, they had him dead to rights, and all charges against Abram Golden, aka Colin Cioni, were being dropped. Period, no questions asked—in fact, they made it very clear that any questions asked would put us in deep shit.” She let out her breath in a deep sigh. “They don’t have to explain anything to us. So, that’s why. I wish I had more to tell you, but that’s all I know—and will probably ever know.” She gave me a sidelong glance, and added, “I think there was a lot more going on there than we’ll ever know, frankly.”
I took a deep breath as the implications sank in.
He’d been working for the U.S. government, I thought as she made the turn onto Dumaine. What had he told me once? “The Blackledge Agency often takes on governments as clients for work where they need plausible deniability. They can just deny that we were working for them. There’s always a way to hide the money trail.”
He’d even said so during that case. I’d just assumed that was another lie.
Which logically led to the question, was he working for the U.S. government now?
“I got the call this morning.” Venus shrugged as she turned onto Dumaine Street. “We are to give Agent Golden whatever assistance he needs, and our full cooperation is appreciated.” She made a face. “I hate working in the dark—especially now that I have two homicides on my hands.”
“It’s kind of like last time,” I observed. I added to myself, but this time I’m getting to the bottom of the whole thing.
Venus pulled over onto the sidewalk in front of the gate to my parents’ back stairs. She got out of the car and waved me off as I came to the gate. “Stay here while I go up and knock,” she said, “and if everything’s okay—”
“No need to knock.” I fished my keys out of my pocket. “I’ve got keys.”
She gave me a look and held out her hands. “You heard me. Don’t argue with me, Scotty.”
“Look, we don’t know anything’s really wrong,” I insisted. “And I have keys. I have their permission to go in and out at will. You’re not breaking any procedural rules by going in with me as a guest. And if there’s nothing wrong up there, trust me, they’ll be in bed. They’ll never hear you knocking.” I grinned at her. “And besides, the gate’s locked. They disconnect the buzzer when they go to bed.” I pointed to a note next to their bell. It instructed that any deliveries before noon were to be taken to the store.
Venus gave me a withering look and gestured to me to unlock the gate. With a sigh of relief, I slid the key into the gate and turned it. I ran up the back stairs. She was right behind me when I unlocked the back door and pushed it open, then shouldered past me. Pulling her gun, she made a sweep of the kitchen and waved me in. I followed her in as she checked the living room. All the shutters were closed, all the lights off. I flicked on the chandelier lights, flooding the room with light. Everything was the way it should be. There was an empty wine bottle on the coffee table, along with two glasses with little spots of wine in them. A volume of the encyclopedia was open next to the wine bottle. I walked over and glanced down. It
was open to the Pleshiwar entry. “I think everything’s okay,” I whispered. I picked the book up. The entry was a short paragraph. There wasn’t even a corresponding map of the country to go with it.
“Check out the bedrooms,” Venus whispered back. “And if anything seems off—”
“Trust me, I’ll scream.”
The apartment was silent other than the ticking of clocks and the sounds of the street outside. I turned on the hallway light and checked out the bedrooms. Mom and Dad’s room was at the very end of the hall. When I reached their door, I turned back and nodded to her, giving her the okay sign with my right hand. I reached down and turned the knob gently, and pushed the door open a little, just so I could get a look.
Mom and Dad were cuddled up into a ball, sleeping with a wool blanket over them. In the gloom, I could see they were both breathing. I pulled the door shut and walked back down to where she was standing. I shrugged. “They’re asleep.”
Her lips tightened. There was an undercurrent of annoyance in her voice. “Everything seems to be as it should be around here. Any thoughts on why he sent us on this wild goose chase, Scotty?”
Oh, I have lots of those, I thought. I smiled at her and shrugged. “Well, to be fair, he said they were in danger, not that we’d find bodies.” I walked back down the hall and took a deep breath. Nothing made my parents angrier than being woken up before noon. Risking their wrath, I started pounding on the door. “Mom! Dad! Wake up!” I yelled.
I heard movement inside the room. The door swung open. Dad stood there, stark naked, hands on his hips and fire in his drowsy eyes. “Scotty, what the hell are you doing here?” His eyes focused on Venus at the end of the hall. She averted her eyes and stepped out of sight into the living room. He dropped his hands strategically. He looked back at me, puzzled. “Why is Venus here? What’s going on?”
“Mr. Bradley, would you mind getting dressed?” Venus called from the living room. “I need to talk to you and your wife. It’s very important. I apologize for having to wake you.”
