Secrets and Specters

by Raven Snow

  “I’d do the same for anyone,” Lady added, though she wasn’t sure it dissuaded Al any.

  Chapter Seven

  Lady wasn’t entirely sure where to go after leaving Al’s place. She walked while she thought, Lion trailing at her heels. When she rounded the corner, she called Ms. Poole and told her what she knew. Al was trying to think of anything else that might help, but until then Lady had two options open to her. “I can either go and talk to Shannon or check out the A/C repair place.”

  “You don’t have to do all that right this second,” Ms. Poole said, something that rather surprised Lady. “I don’t expect you to walk all over town today. You can come home for a little while. I’ll give you a ride when you’re ready to head out again.”

  Lady felt a smile creep onto her face. It was easy to forget that Ms. Poole was a human. Sometimes it really felt like the old woman cared about her. “It’s fine. I’m kinda invested in all this now. Besides, the A/C place is on the way home.”

  On the other end of the line, Ms. Poole sighed. “Fine. Do what you feel is best, but you still need to do the floors at some point.”

  Oh. So that’s what heading back home had been about. So much for Ms. Poole actually being a human with normal human feelings. “I’ll be back later.” She hung up, dropped her phone in her purse, and jammed her hands in her pockets. The A/C repair place it was… except…

  Lady sighed and slowed to a stop. Maybe she should have taken Al up on her offer. Going to the A/C place alone felt a little intimidating. What if the people there did remember Lawrence? What if they had liked him? They wouldn’t want her barging in there and asking questions about something so awful. Heck, even if they hadn’t been friends, it would still be weird to waltz in off the street and start in with the third degree. It wasn’t like she could tell them she was asking on account of Conners being hounded by a shadow monster. They would have no reason to care even if she did.

  New plan. Lady took a turn where she should have gone straight. It wasn’t long before she arrived at the Lainswich public library. She strolled up to the front doors and let herself in, careful not to let those same doors close on Lion.

  There was no one in the library that Lady could immediately see or hear. Was there ever anyone in the library? Lady wasn’t sure how much funding Crispin needed if no one actually visited the place.

  Crispin was at the front desk doing something or another on the computer. He must have seen Lady in his peripheral as she approached. “May I hel—” He cut himself off when he realized who it was. “Lady!” He smiled. “I didn’t expect to see you back here so soon.”

  “I visit the library pretty often,” she said in her own defense, though she didn’t visit nearly as often as she probably should. There was all sorts of information at the library. The shelves were full of old books all about the occult and the paranormal and Dark Lake itself. There was a lot she could learn here, probably more than she was learning from Ms. Poole herself.

  “Were you looking for a book?”

  “No… well, maybe. See, I’m…” She trailed off, hesitating. Was she really going to go all over town sharing Conners’ business with everyone? “I’m helping someone out. He has a… problem getting to sleep.”

  Crispin looked at Lady and waited for her to continue. “Okay,” he said slowly when she didn’t. “Well, I think I have a self-help book on getting better sleep. I read it myself a few years ago. Can’t say it particularly helped, but— Ah, I do have some books on meditation. I know for a fact that progressive relaxation is especially helpful when you can’t—”

  “No.” Lady cut him off. “This is something more… Weird?”

  “Weird as in… what exactly?”

  “Weird as in a creepy shadow monster is keeping him awake at night.”

  Crispin raised his eyebrows. “Okay,” he said again, just as slowly. “That is weird.” He stood and continued before Lady could respond. “But not unheard of. There’s actually a long history of shadow men being seen through the ages. Not uncommon, I suppose. A shadowy figure seems like a common enough thing to see out of the corner of your eye and freak out about. They’re most common in bedrooms, I think. People often associate them with sleep paralysis. Heck, I used to have night terrors myself when I was a boy. I would wake up and could swear I saw someone standing there some nights.” He was moving around the desk like he was going to find some sort of book he already had in mind.

  “I don’t think it’s just his imagination playing tricks on him, if that’s what you’re getting at.”

  Crispin paused, looking uncertain. “I didn’t mean to imply— I don’t know who your friend is, but I wasn’t saying— Obviously, I know there are some weird things out there. I’m related to Ms. Poole and Otsuya is a friend, so…”

  “Sorry.” Lady shook her head. “I’m used to living… in the real world. You know, where ghosts don’t hang out with you and people think you’re nuts if you tell them you saw a kelpie in the lake.”

  That got a laugh from Crispin. “Wouldn’t know what that’s like, honestly. I’ve lived here my whole life.” He frowned then, like a thought had occurred to him. “Not that it doesn’t mean there might be a different explanation for what your friend is seeing. Believe it or not, things that happen in the rest of the world have also been known to happen in Dark Lake.”

  “No, I’m pretty sure this was another weird thing. It attacked me last night.”

  “All right then. I’ll go get a weird book.” Crispin headed off down a row of books and Lady followed him.

  “I actually didn’t come here for a book. Well, I mean I partly did, but that wasn’t the only reason.”

  “Oh?” Crispin was walking along slowly, looking up. He hadn’t looked the book up in his system. He must have a good idea of where it was already. “What is it then?”

  “I’m looking into something related and it means going and asking some people some questions.” Lady clasped her hand behind her back. “I don’t know the people and I know it’s a long shot, but I was kind of hoping… maybe you could come with me?”

  Crispin looked away from the shelves and directly at Lady. “Me?” The suggestion had taken him aback. “I, um… I’d love to, but I’m… I’m kind of at work right now.”

  Lady felt her face burn with embarrassment. “Oh, yeah. I know. Obviously. I was kind of hoping that Dom would be here or something, that maybe he could man the front desk for you for a little while.” It sounded stupid and selfish now that she was saying it out loud. “Sorry. It was a shot in the dark. It’s fine. I figured you were probably busy.”

  “Well, Dom is here.” Crispin cast a glance back at the front desk. That probably meant Dom was in back. “But I’m doing… financial things right now. I can’t put that on him.” His expression darkened. “I can’t trust him with it, frankly. He thinks I know better than I do about how this library should be run. I don’t—” Crispin caught himself. He cleared his throat and smiled again. “But you don’t want to hear about all that. Point is, you can ask him if he’ll go with you. He doesn’t have any more work to do, really. At this point he’s mostly just hanging out.”

  “Are you sure?” Lady was mostly looking for an excuse not to ask Dom. He was super uncooperative. He could be helpful, but mostly he was a wild card. Maybe he would help out at the A/C repair place or maybe he would get them both kicked to the curb. It was hard to say.

  “Why don’t you ask him yourself.” Crispin inclined his head toward the back of the library. “Go on. I’ll be back in a minute. I think the book I’m looking for is on the top shelf. I’ll need to pull the ladder down here.”

  Lady left Crispin to it and went to the checkout counter. Dom had come out of the back. He was leaning over the back of Crispin’s desk chair, frowning at the computer monitor. “Checking his work?” asked Lady, coming to a stop in front of him. Lion was already sitting on the desk, watching Dom and swishing his tail.

  Dom glanced up, not looking particularly
surprised to see her. Lion’s being there had no doubt tipped him off to her presence. “He’s being stubborn,” grumbled Dom, making a vague hand gesture toward the computer as he straightened up. “I’m going to strangle him.”

  “Maybe that’s why he wants you out of here.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I need someone to join me on an excursion. Crispin volunteered you.”

  Dom raised a dark eyebrow. He rocked back on his heels, shoving his hands into the pockets of his blue jeans. “Did he now? Do I get a say in any of this?”

  “Probably.”

  “What kind of excursion?”

  “A/C repair shop.”

  Dom snorted. “Sounds fun,” he said sarcastically. “What do you need me for? Make sure they don’t rip you off?”

  “No.” Lady rolled her eyes at him. “I’ve got other reasons for being there.”

  “Like?”

  “Like other reasons. I’ll tell you if you come.” She would have to tell him. He would need to know why they were going before Lady barged in and started demanding answers about a years old shooting death.

  Dom looked over his shoulder at the clock hanging on the wall. He sighed. “Sure, why not? Sounds like an adventure.” He was still being sarcastic. Lady didn’t mind sarcasm. He could be as sarcastic as he wanted as long as that was as rude as he got.

  “Found it.” Crispin’s voice came from nearby. Lady turned to see him coming out from between the shelves with a book in hand. He directed a smile at Dom when he saw him. “Are you going to help out Lady?”

  “I guess,” grumbled Dom. He dropped down into the desk chair. “If you’re going to run me off.”

  “I’m not running you off.” Crispin sounded exasperated, like they had often been short with each other recently. “You can do what you want. I just thought, maybe, you’d like to cut out early. I’m fine on my own today. I told you.”

  “You want to budget alone without me around to tell you what a dumb-”

  “Dom.”

  Dom held up his hands and spun around in his chair. He held his tongue, though it was obvious there was plenty he still wanted to say. He had probably said a lot of it already.

  “Anyway!” Crispin brought the book forward and placed it on the counter. “This is what I wanted to show you.” He flipped open the book and started thumbing through the pages. “Ah. Here we go. This might look familiar.” He stopped on a page, opening it wide to reveal a picture. He was right. It looked familiar. A dark demon was crouched, perched atop a sleeping human’s chest. She had seen the picture before, though the creature itself looked different from the one at the end of Conners’ bed. Seeing it perched on someone’s chest made her breathless though. Absently, she found her hand moving to rest over her own heart. She could still feel the way the thing had crushed the air out of her lungs. She could still feel the pressure of it.

  “It could be an incubus,” Crispin continued. “They’re often associated with bad dreams. Is your friend a woman?”

  “No, definitely not.”

  “Hmm. Maybe not an incubus then. They usually go after feminine energies. Perhaps something similar though.” He flipped a few more pages. There were other pictures of shadowy entities. He shrugged. “I won’t keep you.” He held out the book to Dom. “Here, put this on her account. You can take it home and look at it. Maybe you’ll find something helpful.”

  “Thanks,” said Lady, and she meant it.

  Dom scanned the book for Lady and handed it back to her. It was another big and heavy tome, like a lot of the books in the library. Lady shoved it in her purse and ignored the way it made her shoulder ache. “I’ll see you two later,” Crispin said, waving them both off as they headed out the door.

  Dom groaned as soon as they were outside. “I shouldn’t be leaving. I should stay and beat some sense into him. The way he’s thinking, he’ll spend the money on a slide down from the second floor next.”

  “I dunno. That sounds pretty fun. I’d definitely go to the library more often if it had a slide.”

  Another groan came from Dom, but Lady swore she saw the beginnings of a smile too. “So, are you going to fill me in on why we’re going on an adventure to an A/C repair shop? I mean, it doesn’t sound like the most exciting way to spend your lunchtime. I figure you have a good reason.”

  Lady sighed. She wasn’t looking forward to the explanation part. “Yeah.”

  “Yeah?” Dom cast a sidelong glance at her as they walked out of the library’s front gates. “So elaborate. I’m interested to hear how an A/C repair shop ties into shadow men.”

  “It’s…” Lady trailed off as something occurred to her. “You would probably already know, wouldn’t you?”

  “Know what?”

  Dom was Shannon’s nephew. Of course he would have heard all about the shooting that happened at her house. “A few years back. This guy tried to rob your aunt. He got shot and killed.”

  Dom stopped walking. He looked at Lady, eyebrows raised. “Well, I wasn’t expecting you to bring that up.”

  Lady stopped as well, as did Lion. He wound around her legs while he waited for the humans to start walking again. “The guy who got shot used to work at the A/C repair place we’re going to.”

  “Whoa, all right.” Dom let out a small, mirthless laugh. “Well, that should be interesting.”

  “Is it going to be a problem?” Lady shifted her weight from foot to foot, feeling awkward. “I guess this might be… hard for you?”

  That got a genuine laugh out of Dom. “Hard? Why?”

  Lady shrugged. “I dunno. It was your family, so…” She shrugged again.

  Dom shrugged right back at her. “It wasn’t like I was there when it happened, and no one got hurt.” He inclined his head. “Well, okay, the burglar got hurt. He got killed. And the guy who killed him… Conners. Conners got shot. So, yeah, people got hurt, but I didn’t know them very well.”

  “Wow. Empathy. That’s your magical gift, right?”

  Dom rolled his eyes and shoved his hands back in his pockets. “I’m just saying I’m not torn up about it. I’m not saying it doesn’t suck. He was just robbing the place. He didn’t deserve to die.”

  “And Conners?”

  “What about Conners?”

  “Wow. Again, wow.”

  “What? You and Conners dating now?” Dom started walking again and Lady was forced to follow. “Conners getting shot sucked too.”

  “But you think he shouldn’t have shot the guy?”

  Dom raised his shoulders in another shrug. “I wouldn’t know. I wasn’t there. As a general rule, I’m never the biggest fan of cops. Obviously, Shannon didn’t think he did anything wrong. Good old Uncle Chet had a different opinion on the matter, but I barely know him. I’d take his opinion with a grain of salt.”

  “Is that the mayor?” Lady didn’t know the mayor’s first name. Was it Chet?

  Dom cast Lady an incredulous look that said it wasn’t. “No. That’s his brother, though.”

  “His brother?” Lady’s brain went through some mental gymnastics. “Okay, so… Chet is the mayor’s brother, your uncle by marriage. He was there too? Why didn’t anyone mention him?”

  “He wasn’t there when it happened,” Dom explained. “He was out with my grandmother. He knew the guy who did it though, I think.”

  “Seriously?”

  “I think I heard something like that, yeah. They didn’t know each other well. A friend of a friend, something like that.”

  “Small world, I guess.”

  “Big world. Just a small town.”

  “So, why did he have his doubts?”

  “I honestly didn’t ask him. He and I don’t really talk. He’s only technically family. We’re not close.”

  “No, but his opinion seems to have colored yours some.” Lady didn’t buy that he hadn’t heard anything about it.

  “I don’t know. He just seemed real upset about it. Everyone was upset, but he was…” Dom tra
iled off. The frown on his face deepened. “He was especially upset. And it doesn’t really make sense, you know? Why bring a gun if you’re robbing the place? Especially if he’d already cased the house. They didn’t keep guns. I mean, they do now.”

  “People can keep guns hidden pretty well,” Lady posited. “My last foster parents used to keep one hidden in every room of the house. I’d take a gun with me if I was robbing someone. You know, just in case.”

  “Well, maybe you just have a better criminal mind than me.” Dom turned his head and gave Lady a measured look. “Or not. Having a gun on him is what got the guy killed in the first place.”

  “Because he pulled it out and shot at a cop.”

  “So they say.”

  “So Conners says. I believe Conners.”

  Dom stopped at the end of the sidewalk. He looked up and down the street, waiting for a break in traffic so that they could cross. “So, it’s Conners being visited by shadow men, huh?”

  Lady went stiff. “I didn’t say that.”

  “You may as well have.” Dom smirked. “Maybe he has some reason to feel guilty all of a sudden.”

  “You can’t say anything.”

  “Why would I?”

  “Because you’re a jerk. Seriously, don’t say anything to Conners.” Lady scanned the street as well. There were no cars coming. She crossed with Dom, heading for the large faded sign of the local grocery store. “And he’s not being visited by shadow men. It’s just the one shadow man, I think. It attacked me too… It’s serious stuff. I don’t think it’s just guilt.”

  “It attacked you?” That thought seemed to sober Dom some.

  Lady told Dom more details as they walked the rest of the way. He already knew the gist of things. He might as well have the whole picture.

  “If Conners will let me, I can put one of my eyes on his bedroom wall,” Dom suggested after Lady had finished her tale. They had stopped outside the A/C repair shop. It was a hole in the wall. There were outdated fliers in the window. The sign above the door was hand-painted, but the letters were chipped. If Lady hadn’t known what to look for, she probably would have missed the place.