Part 34 (1/2)
”That and a buck seventeen will buy you a bad cup of coffee.” Swinging his feet to the floor, Jack sat up. ”So, the story thus far: Your reporter buddy Groves showed up with that page of his. Your romance writer buddy Fitzroy went home and got the rest of the book. Your very hot stuntwoman buddy Leah knows how to read the book, and she's working on the translation. Basically, we're all waiting to find out what the h.e.l.l is going on. Oh, and your freak buddy, Amy, kind of grows on you. Is she seeing anyone?”
”Not right now.” He dropped onto the end of the chaise. ”And forget it.”
Jack made a noise Tony couldn't identify-although he was pretty sure it wasn't agreement-and said, ”So, who's Arra?”
”Arra?” He needed to find out how much Jack knew, then he could craft the lie. ”How do you know about Arra?”
”You mentioned her last night.”
c.r.a.p.
”We were talking about the rope, the unnatural rope, and you said it was weird that Arra'd know it would work since she'd never faced demons here in this world. Then Leah said that if you'd never met her, you wouldn't be fighting demons today.”
”You remember all that?”
”It's part of my job to remember the details.”
That wasn't the part of his job Tony had trouble with. It was more the parts that involved the government and arresting people and sure he'd been willing to falsify reports and get involved on his own time, but how long before the weird built up past the point he could justify not mentioning it. Justify not bringing out the big guns to try and stop it. And would that even be a problem? People had died. Tony stared at the toes of his Doc Martens. They were in the midst of a Demonic Convergence; odds were good that more people would die.
”You want me to take a guess?” Jack leaned forward, forearms balanced on his thighs. ”I'm guessing she was the wizard who fingered you as a wizard and that she was from another world, like the demons are. I figure this happened back last spring when I got fed a bulls.h.i.+t line about what happened to Charlie Harris and Rahal Singh.”
He didn't need to be reminded of their names.
”I figure she either died then, too, or went home since she wasn't around this summer while you were talking to the dead and she isn't around now.”
Tony opened his mouth and closed it again when Jack kept talking.
”At first I thought you may have made some kind of mistake when this Arra was starting you out as a wizard and that's how those two men died-and that's what you've been hiding from me.”
He could feel Jack's gaze on the side of his face. He didn't turn. ”It's not.”
”I know. Leah said something else last night.”
”Um... take me? Take me, I'm yours?” A weak attempt to lighten the mood but pretty much a gimme.
”She said that heroes rise when we need them.”
That forced the turn. ”You think I'm a hero?”
Jack shrugged. ”I did a background check on you,” he said matter-of-factly. ”I know what battles you've already won.”
”Holy after-school special, Batman,” Tony muttered, cheeks flushed. He hadn't won any battles; he'd done what he'd had to in order to survive.
”So what happened last spring?” Still matter-of-fact.
Why not. ”Arra and I fought off a guy called the Shadowlord invading from her world. After we won, she went home.” Cole's Notes version.
”The Shadowlord was responsible for the deaths?”
”Yeah.”
”What happened to him?”
”He got eaten by the light.”
”Is that some kind of wizard metaphor?”
”Not really.”
”Here?” His gesture took in the immediate area.
”Yeah.”
”Good.” Jack nodded. ”Good,” he said again, sounding more satisfied the second time, as though he'd taken that moment to consider things and now was able to let it go.They sat silently for a moment, Jack staring down into his loosely clasped hands. Voices across the soundstage sounded like they were coming from another world. Tony glanced up into the lighting grid and then back down at his shoes. ”An old friend of mine says there's too often a difference between law and justice.”
”Would that old friend be Detective-Sergeant Mike Celluci?”
”Christ, no!”
Fortunately, any discussion that might bring up Vicki Nelson was cut off by the bell and calls of ”Rolling!” from the permanent sets.
It sounded like they were shooting by Mason's coffin-far enough away for quiet conversation but just as well Jack didn't know that. Tony did not want to talk about Vicki Nelson with Jack.
Talking about Vicki would only lead to more lying and basking in the warm glow of even a truncated confession, Tony didn't feel like lying. With any luck, the feeling wouldn't last, but for the moment he decided to go with it.
”Cut! Reset! We'll go again from the top.”
They heard the door open almost immediately after the light went out.
”Must be nice,” Constable Danvers muttered, stopping at the foot of the chaise, arms folded over her damp, brown corduroy jacket. ”Sitting around, head up your b.u.t.t, not actually accomplis.h.i.+ng anything.”
”We had a demon last night,” Jack protested.
”Yeah? I had a six-year-old who disa.s.sembled the DVD player, an eight-year-old who wants a tattoo, and dog vomit all over the living room rug. Trade you.”
When she motioned for Tony to move over, he stood. ”I'll get a chair.” No way he was sitting between two cops. That brought back bad memories.
”... good news is, no bodies,” she was saying as he returned. ”No body parts either. We had Sammy Kline making his biweekly call about lights in the sky and, this time, he might actually be onto something since there was a slightly more credible report about a flash of light across the Arm from the airport.” She turned the page of her occurrence book and squinted at her notes. ”Pilot saw it when he was circling for his final approach and thought it might be an explosion. Richmond detachment sent a car over, and it turned out to be some kind of gas leak and blow in a Goth coffee shop. Goth coffee shop,” she repeated with a snort. ”That almost qualifies as weird s.h.i.+t on its own.”
”A demon knocked the door down.” Tony told her. He hid a grin as her head jerked up. ”That flash by the airport was the weak spot opening.”
Her eyes narrowed and suddenly he didn't feel much like grinning. ”Weak spot?” she demanded.
”Between here and the h.e.l.ls.”
”You were there?”
He shrugged. ”I was trying to cut it off at the pa.s.s.”
”Great,” she smiled insincerely, the expression barely reaching her mouth let alone her eyes. ”You're a cowboy now. So there was a demon at a Goth coffee shop? They must've been thrilled.”