Part 14 (1/2)
”I called Lilith over to help and she put a stop to it. You should have seen her. It was kind of funny, the look on her face.”
”I bet. I can't wait to ask her”
”You can wait and you will. Remember, you promised. Not a soul.”
”Oh, right.”
”I mean it. Carlos.”
”Okay. I know. It's just between us.”
”Good.”
”So, how did the rest of the night go?”
”The rest of the night, believe it or not, was more fantastic than that.”
I started to tell him about the circle of fire, the black mirror and the coven of witches in the field of emptiness. Then Spinelli called. He was wondering where we were. Carlos handled it in his usual not so subtle way.
”Almost there,” he told him. What else Spinelli asked him I can only guess. But from Carlos' end of the conversation, I imagined Spinelli was questioning him about what if anything I told him concerning the ceremony.
”Nothing,” said Carlos. Convincingly I thought. ”No, Tony won't tell me a thing.” Carlos looked at me and winked. I nodded my approval, though I knew with a little face-to-face prodding from Spinelli, Carlos would not be so strong.
He ended the call about the time we were swinging into parking lot of the Justice Center. As we got out of the car, I shook my finger at him again and warned him. ”Remember, not a word.”
He dismissed me with a wave. ”Tony, please. I am a professional. I know how to play my cards close to my vest.”
”You better.”
We met Spinelli up on the third floor break room. He was getting coffee from the vending machine. Even with his back to us, however, I knew he could see our approach in the reflection in the gla.s.s. He played it cool though.
”There you are,” he said.
”Here we are,” said Carlos. His smile was considerably larger than usual. I elbowed him in the side and he wiped his face clean.
Spinelli turned and raised his coffee cup in a sort of salute. ”So, um...how did it go last night?”
”Fine,” I said. ”No big deal.”
”Oh? Did you all do that ceremony thing you were talking about?”
”We did.”
”And?”
”And it went okay.”
I could see Carlos just itching to say something.
”Okay, that's good,” Spinelli said. ”That's good.”
”Yeah, that's good. So tell me, anything new on our case?”
”Ahm, yes. I found out.” He took a sip of his coffee. ”Can I ask you first? Last night. Did you see Ursula?”
”Ursula? Yes. I saw her.”
”No, I mean did you see her.... You know.”
”Dominic, we don't need to go there. It was no big deal really.”
”I'm sorry, Tony. I can't let this go.”
”Look, it's no”
”Did you see her naked?”
”Dominic.”
”Tony, just tell me. I can take it. I want to know. That's all.”
I stepped closer to him, feeling like I wanted to put my hand on his shoulder, but I did not. Instead, I looked him in the eye and said, ”Yes, Dominic. I told you that was going to happen, and it did. Now that it's done, we can move past it and get on with things.”
”You said you wouldn't look at her.”
”What?”
”Yesterday. You said you wouldn't look at Ursula, You said you would walk into furniture and bust a toe if you had to, but that you would not so much as look at her.”
”I said I would try not looking at her. And I did. I tried.”
”No. You promised.”
”Dominic, look. I'm sorry. But you will be happy to know it was very dark. There were maybe two candles burning all the way across the room. The entire ceremony lasted only a minute. And Ursula stood behind me the whole time. I barely caught a glimpse of her. In fact, I'm not even sure it was her. I think it was Lilith. Like I said. It was very dark. Now, can we talk about the case?”
He seemed to buy it. And that Carlos kept a straight face certainly helped matters. Spinelli took another sip of coffee, swallowed, nodded and s.h.i.+fted things into gear.
”Okay. You're right. The case. Well, here's the thing. I checked out a few leads and I found out that QE647 might actually work. There is anecdotal evidence, along with a ton of buzz in Biocrynetix chat sites, suggesting Biocrynetix Laboratories tested it already on non-living organic compounds and achieved astonis.h.i.+ng results.”
”That is interesting.”
”Yeah, so you have to ask yourself. Is it worth killing for? I think it is.”
”Yes, but we don't want to jump to conclusions.”
”No? You might after you hear this next tidbit.”
”What's that?”
”This morning they ran the cadaver dogs through Howard Snows house.”