by Rik Hunik
She shook her head. We spotted a cop on his beat and told him what had happened. I assured him I would see the young woman home and he hurried off to round up the pair before they made themselves scarce.
She lived about four blocks away, in a well-kept little two-story row house squeezed in with similar, not-quite-so-neat houses not far from Old Wall Street. She insisted I come in for the drink she owed me. Like most men, I find it hard to say no to a pretty woman, especially when my other choice was to go to my office and do paperwork. Her father turned out to be a merchant who was extremely fond of his daughter. When she told her family how I had saved her they insisted that I stay, and her father plied me with wine of superb vintage.
He told me things about his store that I promptly forgot and I told him about my business and gave him my card, and then we swapped army stories for a while. After a few hours he started talking politics but I managed to convince him that it was getting late and I had to go.
Before I got out of there he tried to give me a reward for saving his daughter, but I argued that I hadn't done it for the money and the wine I drank was reward enough, but he insisted. I don't argue very hard with people who are trying to give me money so I walked out of there with half a day's pay for just a few minutes of work in an alley. More easy money, I thought as I made my way home.
It had been especially easy, I reasoned, because I had found the woman before she went missing. My drunken brain thought it had something there but I couldn't come up with a practical way to take advantage of it. None of my clients came to me until after they had lost something, which invariably made my job more difficult. My mind was still chewing on that problem when I fell asleep.
Chapter 21
The next morning I was finishing up my report to Carina when my office door opened and a small, dark-haired woman in a worn dress came in and told me her daughter had been missing for four days now and the police still had no clue.
I took down her particulars, followed her home and got a comb from her daughter. When I handled it I got a clear picture of the girl, poorly dressed but very pretty, but I got no inkling of where she might be, so I sat down, made myself comfortable and put myself into a trance, but still got nothing, not even a hint as to which direction she might be in. Was my talent failing me? Was there a common link between these two women other than the fact that I couldn't locate them with my talent?
But talent or not, I still had to find her and that meant legwork for me. I found out where she had last been seen and went around asking questions, but I was just covering the same ground the police had. Nobody had seen her since she left to go home.
I was nowhere, the same as I was with Laura's disappearance. I had already spent more time on this case than she had paid me for, but that didn't bother me because I had nothing better to do and I wasn't hurting for money. What did bother me was my total lack of progress, so even though I was no longer being paid for my time I was nowhere close to giving up. But I did call it quits for the day.
I went to Caracalla's and worked out some of my frustrations on a punching bag in the gym, then soaked in the hot pool while I tried to think of a new angle. I had two women to look for, no leads at all, I'd already spent as much time as they'd paid me for, and I didn't feel like I'd earned any of it. On the other hand I had told the mothers I would do what I could, and that I had done.
Unable to come up with any new angles I decided to catch Zena for lunch.
Before I agreed to keep any secrets for the Temple Of Hermia I'd promised Zena I would tell her what had happened to Aldwin, so as long as I left out the name of the temple I had no qualms in that regard. When Carina hired me I had promised her confidentiality, so I couldn't tell Zena everything, but she had helped me on the case and could probably guess everything except the details and the conclusion. I trusted her and I thought she deserved to know, I just wasn't sure how much to tell her.
I went to the market and filled a basket with a roasted chicken, a fresh loaf of bread, a chunk of cheese, some grapes, and a bottle of wine, then caught a cab to Cal's factory. Whether Zena joined me or not, I was eating good.
When Zena saw me her face lit up and she agreed to eat outside with me. "Just give me a few minutes to finish up."
I nodded and went out to get ready, picking a spot in the shade under a tree in a vacant lot across the street where I could spread a blanket on the overgrown grass. When Zena came out I waved to her. While she crossed the street to join me I laid out the food.
She sat down with her back to the factory, brushed windblown hair back from her face and said, "This is lovely. It's so much better eating out here in the fresh air and sunshine than in that stuffy building." She sucked air in through her nose. "And this food smells so good compared to what they offer in the cafeteria."
I smiled. It always makes me feel good to make a beautiful woman happy. "You deserve a break and I have nothing better to do today, so I thought I'd fill you in on what happened to Aldwin." I tore a drumstick off the chicken and bit into it.
"Oh, you found him did you?" She helped herself to some breast meat.
"Well, not exactly."
"He was dead?"
I smiled and shook my head. "No, he's not dead, but the cops think he is and you'll never see him again."
She frowned, trying to comprehend. "What are you talking about."
I let out a little laugh. "It took me a while to figure it out, and even then I wasn't sure, especially when Carina told me his body had been found."
Her brow furrowed deeper. "I thought you said he wasn't dead."
"It wasn't his body. He had some help and they pulled a switcheroo. But they didn't kill anybody, so it was quite a while before a convenient body showed up for them to use."
"Who did that for him?"
"I can't tell you that."
She chewed for a while. "Why did he do it?"
"He wanted to be young again."
More chewing by both of us.
"How did you find him?"
"A stroke of luck. Part of his deal was that he had to sever all ties to his past life, but he wanted to return a ring to his former mistress. She brought the ring to me and I used it to find her."
"Her?"
"Er, I mean him." She gave me a funny look, but I tore into a piece of chicken without saying anything. Maybe she knew it wasn't just a slip of the tongue. I couldn't tell her anything more.
"And that was it?"
"I wish. I was drugged and nearly lost all my memories from half the day, but my lawyer friend Orfeo clued me in and I brewed myself an antidote."
"So Aldwin is alive and well, doing what he wants to do?"
I nodded.
"There were plenty of shady dealings, but no foul play and nothing illegal."
"Except for stealing a dead body, lying to the police, drugging me, and a few other minor infractions, but nobody is being charged for any of that. So how is life at the furniture factory?"
She leaned back, thankful for the subject change. "That Cal is such a jerk. I'm about to lose my patience with him."
"You better be careful, I don't think I can find that for you."
She smiled briefly at my feeble joke but she had to vent her feelings. "He says he has a ‘special interest' in me and he makes it sound like he's offering me endless opportunities I'd be a fool not to take, but I know that all he really wants is sex."
"So why not give it to him? You wouldn't be the first woman to advance her career that way, and he is kind of handsome, if you like the stern face, the thinning hair, and the pinched mouth look."
Her smile lasted longer this time but she shook her head. "For some women that's the only way to advance, but I'll find another way. I don't like him and I don't trust him. Once I give him what he wants there's no guarantee he'll even look at me again and he might fire me just so I'm not around, and my next boss might be even worse."
"If he's that bad, why don't you come and work for me? I may not be able to pay
you the same rate but there would be less work and more excitement."
She barely smiled but her eyes twinkled. "And my boss would be more handsome, if I liked big muscles and the blond, rugged, northerner look." The way her eyes traveled over me made it clear that she did like that type. "But what do you offer for job security?"
I shrugged and took a few seconds to think about my reply, trying to keep it casual. "The same I can offer myself. Prospects are good and I don't intend to starve, but there are no guarantees."
She looked down at her hands, which were clasping each other. "That's a big step and I'm not ready yet. I'll have to think about it."
"Go ahead and take your time. I can get by without a receptionist and secretary, but if I do develop an urgent need for one you'll be the first to know. You can make your decision then. Or if he crosses the line you can come on over and I'll give you a job right away."
"You're sure? You'd do that for me?"
"Certainly, but it's not just for you. I'm sure I'll get my money's worth out of you. If I'd had a receptionist yesterday I might be making money today, instead of picnicking with you. Not that I'm complaining."
She beamed at me. "Thank you, but I have to get back in now; I do still work for the jerk." She rose to her feet and so did I.
"Good luck with that." We stood for several seconds just looking at each other. Watching the breeze playing with her hair I felt a sudden urge to kiss her but it didn't seem like the right time or place. I said, "We have to get together again, when we have more time and no business to talk about."
"Yes, do call on me." She pecked me on the cheek, then turned and ran across the street. I watched until she waved at me from the doorway and disappeared inside. When I finished eating I lay on my back and watched the wind push fluffy white clouds across the sky. I would call on her again. Soon.
Chapter 22
When I got back to my office I found a note on the floor where it had been dropped through my mail slot. "I want to hire you, but you haven't been in your office all morning. Please contact me at your earliest convenience." It was signed, Magnus Camillus, a name I didn't know, but his office was on Helen Avenue, down in the Southwest Quadrant, only a block west from Rome Street, which meant he had plenty of money. I dropped everything on my desk, ran out and caught the cab that had just dropped me off.
The cab took me to a fancy building of white marble at the corner of Helen Avenue and Paradise Street. The architecture was classic Greek, with lots of fluted columns, and sure enough, Magnus turned out to be a lawyer, sitting behind his desk in a red velvet chair, like it was some kind of throne.
He gestured to a chair and before my butt hit the seat he started rattling on about an important document he'd misplaced. "It's impossible to replace and I need it day after tomorrow. I've been searching frantically for days, I've looked everywhere at least twice." He dug the pudgy fingers of both hands into his hair, then stopped self consciously, caught his breath and resumed speaking, at a slower rate. "I was about to go crazy when a business associate told me his wife had heard about a guy who could find anything no matter where it was." He turned his twitchy smile on me. "That guy turned out to be you. Can you find it?"
"It sounds straightforward enough, for a man of my talents, but in order to locate the missing document I'll need to feel the file it came from."
"Oh no, you can't do that, it's a very sensitive matter, nobody is allowed to see it."
"Relax, I don't need to see it. I said I need to feel it. You don't have to let it out of your sight and you don't even need to open it."
"Oh." Still hesitant, he went to a file cabinet in the back of his office, glanced over his shoulder at me to make sure I was still in the same place, unlocked the bottom drawer and pulled out a folder. He sighed as he sat down in his chair and carefully set the folder in the center of his desk, remaining perched on the front edge of the chair, his hands still on the desk.
"I'll need silence in order to work." Strictly speaking, I didn't really, but I didn't want him trying to start chattering at me. When I reached out my hand to touch the folder his hands twitched a few times and I half expected him to snatch it way at the last instant, but he didn't. If he had I would have laughed.
My first touch told me that the document was not in his office. I calmed myself and went into a trance, but I still felt nothing, so I went deeper. Vaguely, from a distance, I sensed the general direction. If I tried harder I was just inviting a headache so I brought myself out.
Magnus was staring intently at me.
"Its not in your office."
His eyes darted wildly around his office, as if searching to contradict me. "Where else could it be?"
"It's that way," I said, waving in a southeasterly direction. "Does that mean anything to you?"
He looked disappointed, and a bit skeptical now, but he nodded. "I live in that direction, up in the hills, but I know for certain that I never brought it home."
I smiled. "That's where we need to go."
"But I can't leave. I have important appointments to keep this afternoon."
"No problem. I'll meet you at your home after supper."
"You'll find it then?"
"If nobody else finds it sooner."
He set a time and gave me his address.
A cab looking for a fare approached me but I waved it off. I had the rest of the afternoon to kill so I was in no hurry to get back to my office and walking gave me time to think. Light clouds covered most of the sky and a cool breeze blew from the west.
# # #
I had just reached Knife Avenue, a few blocks from my goal, when I was hailed from across the street and saw Lucina waving at me. I waved back, waited for a break in the traffic, then hurried across the street to join her. I'd prepared her final bill but hadn't delivered it yet because I didn't want to intrude on her grieving.
I was still ten feet away from her when she started gushing. "Oh thank you so much for finding my Belita. If not for you I would never have known what happened to her. Nobody would have known. It is so sad that she is dead but at least I know, and we can give her body a proper funeral. Thank you, thank you."
I wasn't used to such effusive praise and we were attracting attention on the sidewalk. "You're welcome," I said, cutting her off from spouting more of the same. "Did you just come to thank me, or do you want to go to my office and talk business?"
She shook her head. "I just came from your office but you weren't there, but we don't need to go back, this won't take long." She grabbed my sleeve with one hand while the other thrust a crumpled twenty-talent note into my hand. "I hope this pays my bill because I want to hire you again." She grabbed my other sleeve and pulled me close, her face a twisted mask of anger and grief. "My little girl, she had dreams you know, but now she'll never get a chance to live them and she'll never dream again. I want you to find the dirty rotten son of a bitch who did that to her, and I want you to make him pay."
"Whoa, slow down, this only covers what I've already done for you, and even if I do find him it would be up to the police and the legal system to make him pay. Why don't you just let the police find the killer?"
She let go of my shirt and her face hardened. "Because I have no faith in them. But you, you get results. I want you working on the case." The hardness dissolved. "I'll get more money, as much as you need. Please help me." She was near tears.
"Alright, I'll look into it, but you know, I get my laundry done at your place anyhow, so why don't we trade services?"
She looked at me for a second, then nodded vigorously. "Yes, yes, that is a good idea."
"Great. We can work out the details later. I'll do what I can but I can't promise any results."
"That's all I can ask. Thank you." She squeezed my hand in both of hers, then dropped it and hurried away.
Bemused, I watched her until she turned the corner onto Barber Street, wondering what I had gotten myself into. Did Belita's killer qualify as a missing person? Would my talent fu
nction in a case like this? It didn't matter, I had just been hired to look for him, and I hadn't promised her I'd get results.
I returned to my office to take care of the paperwork. There wasn't much, but if I didn't stay on top of it I tended to lose track, and the further behind I got the less inclined I became to catch up on the escalating spiral.
When I was done, I sat there thinking about my latest case and I realized that I might come face to face with a killer. Add in the incident in the alley last night and it became clear that I needed to arm myself better. When I'm in a life and death situation I prefer to inflict maximum pain and disable my opponents quickly so they can't hurt me or pursue me. Though there have been times when I wish I'd had a sword, I generally approve of the law that prohibits long blades within Agrippina city limits.
I dug out an eighteen-inch cudgel, with a lead weight in the business end and a leather thong on the other. I swung it around a few times to get the feel of it, then hung it by the door, thinking how much I could have used it last night. Then I dug deeper and pulled out a handy item an army buddy had introduced me to, something I called my little brass knocker. Basically just a brass cylinder, contoured to fit into my fist, with a small knob protruding from each end, it gave extra weight and impact to every punch, and the knobs could be used like hammers to bruise flesh and smash bone. Hard to see, it could be a nasty surprise in a fight.
Using a combination of chemistry and magic I prepared some paper packets which, when evoked, would provide either a blinding flash or a dense cloud of smoke. I put them and my brass knocker into different pockets, hung my cudgel from my belt, then went out to find some dinner. A couple of blocks down, on Harbor Avenue, was some of the best fish available in the Republic, but I headed up the hill to Rope Avenue and grabbed myself a meat pie from Delmar, my favorite street vender.
# # #
I walked the three-quarters of a mile to Magnus's house, where I found his paper so easily that I didn't even have to go into a trance, though he remained skeptical until I put it in his hand, without once looking right at it. The way I figured it, he had misplaced the document in his office and inadvertently taken it home, mixed in with a bundle of other papers, subsequently turning his office inside out and driving himself into a frenzy, never dreaming that he himself had removed the paper from the premises.
