by Rik Hunik
"I gather you didn't expect me back so soon, or maybe not at all. And we had such a good time together last night." I smiled my friendliest smile.
Adeela's glare intensified and her color came back. "You should have stayed out of this. What do you want now?"
"I brought someone to meet you." I stepped aside to reveal Carina. "Your loving wife misses you so much, and you never write anymore."
Despite my lame humor Adeela's glare faded, her shoulders slumped and she opened the door wide enough to let us enter. Carina looked from Adeela to me and back again, still trying to absorb what she had just learned. While Adeela closed the door I led Carina to a chair and sat her down.
To Adeela I said, "I followed your trail to Gray's Roadhouse, and then I found you here, but you sure changed a lot in between. I'd kind of like to know what happened and I think your wife deserves an explanation."
But Adeela shook her head. "I can't tell you anything. It would violate my agreement with the Temple."
I twisted my lips into a nasty smile. "That agreement was designed to protect the secrecy of the temple, but I already know enough to cause a stir, so if I try hard I'm sure I can raise a mighty big stink, and I don't think the temple wants the publicity that would bring. Right now the police believe they have your body but I don't have to let them keep thinking that."
I took a breath to give her time to absorb that. "On the other hand, Carina only hired me to find her husband, and since I have done so my involvement can end now, but I still want to tie up some loose ends for my personal satisfaction. And you owe your wife some kind of explanation."
"Alright, you win." Adeela threw up her hands and went to sit on the edge of the bed, casting a single glance at Carina, who still sat as if stunned. I turned the other chair to face Adeela and sat down. She kept her eyes lowered as she talked and there was an underlying tiredness to her voice that I hadn't noticed before.
"I was getting old and I wanted to be young again so badly I made discreet inquiries in many uncouth places. I found out about several possible methods of rejuvenation, all very expensive, all with serious drawbacks, and most of them required long-term commitments and the performance of unsavory acts I couldn't live with. The Temple Of Hermia was just as expensive and they do have a serious drawback, something a lot of people couldn't accept." She gestured at her body, obviously that of a woman. "An unavoidable side effect of their rejuvenation spell is a gender change, but that was easier than some of the other things I would have had to do. And there were always strings attached, even to this deal, but I figured I could accept their terms easier than any of the others. They helped me arrange my finances and set up my disappearance."
"Like providing your double and drugging your regular driver that day."
"Exactly." She looked up at me for a second. "They even found Peet a good job in another city. Now they've given me a new identity and they're teaching me how to be a woman. They've been doing this for a very long time and they're proficient at every step of the process. You'd be surprised to learn how many prominent, young women were once rich, old men, which would explain how they know some of the things they do. Anyway, in return for all that, I paid their exorbitant fee and swore to serve here in the Temple for one year and support it thereafter."
I nodded, satisfied. She hadn't given away many secrets I didn't already know and I had no reason to spread them around. "I have just one more question. Where did that body come from?"
She shrugged. "He was just an old farmer who died suddenly while working in his field. The Temple has connections. They wait for a suitable body to turn up, then they alter it to resemble their client and plant his papers and some jewelry on it. When he is officially declared dead she can assume her new life. Unfortunately there was a bit of delay in obtaining a body for my death certificate." She looked at Carina. "I never wanted to hurt you and I'm sorry if I did. I had everything arranged so you could keep the house and carry on your current lifestyle without worries. I didn't hurt anybody and I didn't break any laws and now I just want to get on with my new life."
I got up. I'd be surprised if the Temple Of Hermia wasn't at least bending some laws a great deal, but I didn't mention my suspicions or threaten to turn them in. "That's good enough for me. The police can keep their case closed and I'll close mine. Thank you for talking." I turned to Carina and gave her a quick little bow. "It was nice to do business with you. I'll prepare my report and finalize your bill. I'm sure you two have a lot to talk about and I have to get this ring back to Almina." I shot Adeela a quick glare and she responded with a tiny smile. I said, "Good-bye," and got out of there.
Chapter 19
Instead of giving in to the planted suggestion and finding Almina right away I got stubborn and detoured to Caracalla's Bathhouse.
I was barely through the worn arches when Caracalla came up and stepped in front of me. "I don't want any trouble."
I stopped a couple of feet away. "Hey, when have I ever given you any trouble?" Over his shoulder I saw the usual crowd gathered around the news bulletins but they all seemed to be looking my way when I wasn't looking at them.
"All the time, when you were a teenager."
I winced. "That was a long time ago. What's the problem today?"
He jerked a thumb back to the bulletin boards. "There was a nasty murder of a pretty, young girl yesterday. The bulletin says you were charged with the crime."
"Hey, I didn't escape from custody, I called a lawyer."
Caracalla relaxed.
I said, "That was a wrongful arrest, I was cleared of all charges. I'm the guy who found the body, I'm helping the police. Didn't they print that?"
"No." He straightened himself after bending away from my tirade.
"Well they should have. I'm one of the good guys." I threw a hostile glare over his shoulder at the crowd. "Tell them all to relax."
"Don't worry, I'll spread the word around that your arrest was a mistake."
"Thanks," I grumbled and headed for the steamy depths of the bathhouse.
I spent some time in the sauna to sweat out the last of the drug, then scrubbed myself good with lots of soap and hot water and finished up with a dip in the cold pool.
On the way out there was less tension from the crowd around the bulletin board. I gave a friendly nod to them, and a bigger one to Caracalla.
Outside on the street I found myself walking away from the police station and stopped myself. Gauging by the position of the sun it was still a couple of hours before dark, which meant I would still have plenty of time to deliver the ring after I returned my mother's necklace. With a conscious effort I turned myself around and started walking toward the police station. The ring was a minor detail, but if I returned the necklace this evening I could still wrap up two cases today.
Marco was off shift now but the necklace was ready at the front as promised, where I had to show every bit of I.D. I possessed and fill out about a dozen forms before they handed it over to me. It felt like a lump of lead in my pocket.
When I got to my mother's house she wasn't home. I told her maid that I wanted to deliver the necklace in person so she told me my mother was out to dinner with Orfidius at Neptune's Palace, that seafood place she liked so much, down at the east end of Old Harbor. I had walked right past it on my way here.
I turned to leave but she pulled me back and said in conspiratorial tones, "I think he's going to ask her to marry him soon, perhaps tonight."
"Then I better hurry." I tore myself away from her and ran out to the street, where I got lucky and managed to flag a cab right away. It was a short ride but I had some time for pointless speculation, berating myself for not leaving the bathhouse a little bit sooner, or taking a different street so I could have met my mother before she got to the restaurant.
Inside the door of the restaurant a stuffy guy stopped me and inquired if I had a reservation. Stuffy doesn't impress or intimidate me so I said, "Sort of, but not exactly," to mess up his neat little world.
I let him stew for a few seconds, then, just as he was about to ask, I explained. "I'm with Vera and Orfidius. I believe they're already here."
His nose went up three degrees. "But you are late. Their meals are about to be served."
To show him how much I cared I shrugged one shoulder. "I'll get by," I assured him. He did not approve but he hid his feelings behind his professional mask and led me to them.
My mother was totally not expecting me and barely managed to greet me. Orfidius set down his fork and looked at me with eyes full of poison. I smiled a big smile for them and sat down. "Hello mother. I keep missing lunch with you so I thought I would join you for dinner tonight."
Her smile was tentative and I saw curiosity in her eyes, but there was something darker there too, something I wouldn't want to cross. If this didn't go right she would be mad at me for a long, long time.
Orfidius didn't try to be friendly, making his slight smile more of a challenge than a show of amusement. "You just came here to spoil my evening." He looked right at me and his eyes seemed to say, I'm going to fuck your momma no matter what you say or do.
My eyebrows went way up and I assumed a look and tone of exaggerated innocence. "Not at all, I wouldn't dream of interfering with your plans. I only came here because I have some important business to take care of with my mother." I turned to her.
She wasn't happy about me showing up like this but she caught on. "You got the necklace back?"
"Yes I did. The police had to knock a few heads and I had to sign a lot of papers, but you told me you wanted to wear it tonight so here it is." I pulled it out of my pocket and laid it on the tablecloth in front of my mother, but I was watching Orfidius's face. He blanched a little but covered up well. If I hadn't been watching so closely I would have missed it.
She picked up the necklace and fastened it around her neck, as she had hundreds of times before. "How did you get it."
"I traced it from the fence to a ship. When you reported it stolen, a warrant was issued, the captain of the ship was arrested and all his illegal loot was recovered." Summed up that way it sounded pretty easy.
Orfidius kept his expression neutral.
My mother digested the story for a few seconds, then started to frown. "But how did it get to the fence?"
"Well the fence didn't tell me who brought it in and he wouldn't budge on that no matter how much I leaned on him." Orfidius relaxed a trifle, trying not to let it show. I looked right at him and I couldn't help smiling. "But I know who took it to him."
Orfidius tensed again and looked up, catching my eye and the implication. Coughing, he excused himself to go to the washroom.
"Well who was it?" my mother asked as Orfidius stood up.
"I'm not going to tell you. I'll just say that it was an inside job and let you figure out the rest for yourself. It shouldn't be too hard." I looked at Orfidius's retreating back and then at his plate. He hadn't had a chance to get started eating so I grabbed his plate and slid it in front of myself. Rice, steamed vegetables and a big filet of some kind of white fish. I grabbed a clean fork and sampled the fish. "Sole. This is delicious," I said and dug in with gusto.
My mother frowned at me. "Orfidius will be upset when he gets back." If I hadn't just handed her the necklace she might have been upset enough to cut loose on me herself.
I shrugged. "He can order again when he gets back." I had a feeling he wouldn't be. I forked a big chunk of tender fish into my mouth.
The creases in my mother's frown deepened. "What got into you?"
I shrugged, ignored her glare and kept eating. After half a minute she started eating too. After eating in silence for several minutes she started looking up frequently for Orfidius. I deliberately avoided eye contact with her while I cleaned the plate and helped myself to Orfidius's wine. I was sure now that he was not coming back and my mother was reaching the same conclusion. All that remained was for her to put it all together and when I saw her face flush I knew she had. That's when I looked up to meet her eyes.
She looked down again. "I'm sorry."
I reached across the table and patted her hand. "So am I." I stood up. "This is my treat. I'll stop by for lunch sometime soon." This time I actually meant it.
She smiled weakly. "Yes, do that." I had spoiled her evening but saved her from doing something she would have regretted for a long time. She filled her wineglass and sat staring into it without drinking, not noticing when I left. She's a tough old bird and she would get by just fine.
As soon as I got outside I felt an urge, stronger than ever, to bring the ring to Almina.
Chapter 20
While my antidote had failed to erase Adeela's post-hypnotic suggestion I had been too busy and too stubborn to give in before, but now it annoyed me more than ever and there was no sense fighting it any longer. I usually walk at a brisk pace but I walked even faster to Almina's place, a small apartment in a three-story building off Barber Street. As soon as I handed the ring over to her the anxiety that irritated me vanished, and tension loosened throughout my entire body, like I'd just had a good massage.
I couldn't tell Almina that Aldwin was now Adeela because that would violate trust, but I did assure her that Aldwin was fine and doing what he wanted to do. She pressed me, threatened me, cajoled me and finally tried to seduce me but I pushed her away and stood up. "I'm not going to budge. If you want to know more you'll have to talk to Carina."
Almina looked up at me like I was crazy. "She's not likely to talk to me."
I shrugged. "That's true, but you have a better chance of getting the story out of her than from me." She glared at me but the ring was delivered, its influence was gone, I was finished with her, and I didn't want to let her spoil my good mood, so I just shrugged again and got out of there.
The sun, already below the horizon, still highlighted scattered clouds against the dark sky. I admired the intense, reddish-orange colors for a while, then pointed myself in the direction of my office, intent on finishing up the paperwork on Carina's case so I could collect the last of the money she owed me. Expenses had been high but I could justify each one if she chose to argue. Not that I thought she would.
I felt too good to be doing paperwork tonight so I stopped in the first bar I saw and ordered a beer. The place was grimy and dim but I wasn't here for the atmosphere. Although I took my time drinking my beer I decided against ordering another because I found it hard to relax in this place, and I didn't feel like getting drunk alone, so I resumed my journey home.
As I passed the mouth of a dark alley I heard a scuffle. Getting involved in a scuffle in a dark alley is generally something for a sensible person to avoid and I was about to swing wide and hurry past when a woman's voice cried out, "Son of a bitch," and then was muffled.
I slipped into the alley, pressing myself against the wall so I wouldn't make a silhouette. Twilight hadn't quite faded completely so there was still enough light for me to make out three black-clad individuals attempting to subdue a woman. She was a feisty thing but one guy had a hand over her mouth and one of her arms twisted behind her back, while a second guy held her other arm and a third attempted to get a piece of rope around her legs without getting kicked too many times.
There weren't any knives out so I kept mine sheathed. Instead, I picked up a wooden crate from the garbage littering the alley and smashed it down on the head of the man holding her mouth. The thin slats broke and the crate came apart in my hands, but his grip relaxed and he collapsed to the ground. The woman twisted her arm free and punched the second man while the third pulled a knife from somewhere and charged at me.
I still held splintered pieces of crate in my hands so I used the big piece in my right hand to deflect his knife outward while my left stabbed jagged splinters into his cheek. He tried a backslash but I was ready and jabbed the splintered ends of my my sticks into his forearm. He cursed and retreated, holding his other hand over his wound and looking to his companions for support, but the first guy was still down an
d the second was leaning over with his hands covering his crotch. The woman snatched up a chunk of something from the ground and hit him on the head.
The guy with the knife decided he didn't like the odds and turned to flee. The woman threw her chunk of debris at him, striking him on the shoulder but not slowing him down. She yelled, "Come back here you coward, so I can kick you in the balls too, if you even have any."
He didn't accept the challenge and I wasn't inclined to give chase through a dark, cluttered alley. Getting involved in the first place had been foolish enough. I checked both ways to make sure there were no more threats, then asked, "Are you alright?"
She straightened her clothes and brushed her hair into place with her fingers. "Yes, I think so, thanks to you. Not many people would interfere with a scuffle in an alley. I guess I owe you one. My name is Jayna."
She packed a lot of woman into a short frame and none of it was extra, which made me think of one way she could repay me, but I kept that thought to myself. "I'm Berk. Buy me a drink and we'll call it even."
She smiled at me. "You'll have to come home with me to get it."
My eyebrows rose. "This is rather sudden but you have a deal."
Her smile widened but she shook her head. "Don't expect too much. My father is waiting for me. I get home at the same time every night and if I'm not back soon he'll start to worry."
"I'll make sure you get home without any more interruptions." One of the guys on the ground moaned. I said, "Let's get out of this alley and see if we can find a cop to round up these guys." We made our way to the street and started walking. "So what happened back there? It didn't look like a robbery or a rape."
"You're right, they wanted to take me somewhere. One of them said something about me having lots of energy and being a suitable sacrifice, but I thought those crazy cults always wanted virgins."
"They can't be that picky. Real virgins are hard to find because there's no way to tell without a close examination. Did they say anything else?"
