The Black Merchant

by Shannon Reber

  My stomach clenched. He was right. Ian was suffering and there I was, badmouthing him to Spencer. It had been a nasty thing to do.

  I needed to talk to him. He had been put through far more than most people knew about. I had seen the changes in him. It was wrong of me to have been so quick to judge him.

  “One more thing,” Spencer said in a voice that sounded like the friend he had turned into. “It’s none of my business. I’m going to tell you anyway. Stop letting Serena walk away from you. She needs to talk as much as you do. I’ve been around here often enough to have a pretty clear picture. Talk to her, Madison.”

  I groaned and rubbed my brows in a weary way. “You always so full of advice?” I asked, quoting his own words from the concert a couple of weeks before, back at him.

  He chuckled and tipped his head up slightly. “Yes, I am.” He stood straight and turned toward the door. “And Madison, call me if you need help. I will anytime you need me.”

  I sat there, a small smile on my lips. With Spencer on my side, it didn’t seem possible that anything could happen to me. It wasn’t only his power that made me trust him. It was the way he looked at the world.

  He didn’t look at it in a jaded way, even after everything he’d been through. He looked at it with hope and that made me admire him. He and Imogen were probably the best couple I had ever seen.

  I knew that Erkens had expected me to go inside and go to bed. I was far too wired for that, though. Instead, I got into my car and began driving.

  Pittsburgh was a busy place with so many universities and so much happening. At that moment, it wasn’t busy. The streets were as close to deserted as I had ever seen them.

  I took a moment to simply savor the feeling of solitude. It was how I used to feel the most comfortable. I would either hide in the woods or in my room, never allowing anyone to see who I really was. I didn’t want to be that person anymore. I wanted to live. I wanted to be happy. I wanted to feel like I had when Emma was around.

  I blew out a long breath and rubbed my brows. Emma was gone. Her body was in the ground. Her spirit was in some other place. She was not coming back.

  Imogen and Serena were right there. They were both good friends. Spencer had been absolutely right. I never should have allowed Serena to feel as though I didn’t want to talk to her.

  I pulled into the parking lot of the bookstore I had worked at not so long before and took out my phone. Before I could talk myself out of it, I keyed in a text.

  I’ve missed you. Anytime you want to talk, I’m right down the hall. I hoped it was enough.

  Because I was there and books were such a common thing in my life those days, I got out of the car and walked up to the building. The beautiful thing about the place was the fact it had a coffee shop as well. That would be how I spent the rest of my evening.

  It only took me a few minutes to find a book that might work.

  I bought the book and took it into the coffee shop, my mind too filled with winged demons to pay any attention to what was around me. If Hadley was right that since the demon had ‘picked me’ it meant I would disappear from existence. I had some work to get done. A lot of work, actually.

  I ordered a coffee and sat down at a table, opening the book without even looking around. There was so much I needed to accomplish. I didn’t know how much time I had left.

  “Hey, Madison.”

  I blinked a few times before glancing up. It took me a few seconds to register who was there. “Keats,” I said by way of greeting. I didn’t want to talk to him. I looked at the book in hopes he’d simply go away.

  My hopes were in vain. He pulled out the chair across from me and sat down like we were friends or something. He didn’t speak. All he did was open his laptop and begin typing.

  I let out an exasperated huff and drummed my fingers on the table. Keats was one of those guys who was pretty enough to be a model and arrogant enough to use that to his advantage. I had a feeling if he turned those eyes in a certain way on someone he interviewed, they’d tell him far more than they meant to.

  I was not swayed by his looks. “What do you want?” I asked and took a drink of my coffee. It was stronger than what I usually drank at the diner. Right then, that was a blessing. I needed the caffeine boost to keep me going.

  Keats huffed and folded his arms as he looked at me. “People have a right to know the truth about the paranormal world. They deserve to know what’s really out there so they can protect themselves.”

  I rolled my eyes, amused by such a tactic from him. He had posted several articles about what he called the ‘outbreak of paranormal activity’ on his blog and under several other blogs where he’d used pseudonyms. I’d deleted them before anyone had even seen them. It had been ridiculously easy and he’d started trying different tactics to convince me he should tell the world about the ‘paranormal outbreak’.

  I wanted to laugh at the image that came into my head, of Keats trying to interview Erkens. It was such a funny image, I came very close to texting Erkens to get him there. I wouldn’t do that, though. It would be a little meaner than Keats truly deserved.

  I took another drink of my coffee and motioned to his laptop. “So you’re telling me that if you read a blog that talked about the kinds of things I’ve seen, you would take it seriously?” I asked, shaking my head as he started to speak. “It’s not a ghost story you’d be telling. It’s a story of pain for a lot of people.”

  “Exactly,” he said eagerly, leaning forward as he jabbed his finger into the table. “It’s the stories about the families that have been torn apart because of this paranormal epidemic that I want to tell. If you’d stop deleting my posts, I might be able to tell the truth. Not everybody will believe it. The people who have seen things WILL. You have to allow me to tell these stories.”

  I snapped the book closed and stuck it into my bag. “Tell me, Keats. How did you know when I’d be here?” I asked, certain he must have been following me for a while.

  He cleared his throat and lounged negligently in his chair. “I want people to know the truth,” he stated lamely.

  I rose and slung the strap of my bag over my shoulder. “Consider this a warning, Keats. Stop following me. Stop trying to tell these stories. If you don’t, I will show you what a pissed off hacker is capable of.”

  SEVEN

  Erkens shot me a dirty look the following morning when I walked into the office. I was too tired to care. Sleep had not come to me the night before either swiftly or in a lasting way.

  My eyes were heavy with dark circles under them and the coffee in my hand had a shot of espresso in it. So yeah, I probably looked stoned. Again, I was too tired to care.

  “I bought a book for your collection,” I told him and set the book down on the desk. “No luck, though.”

  He picked the book up and flipped through it, his eyes narrowed even further as he read a few of the entries. “I’m wondering if we might be going about this the wrong way. At this point, we don’t know for sure that either girl is missing. I think we should focus on that and—”

  I pulled out my laptop and brought up the records I’d found early that morning. “Esther Colbert was easy. There hasn’t been a single charge to any account in her name in the last six days. I even got into her Hope-account and found that the last charge to that account was from six days ago. All it was for was two coffees at Hope House. The kids are given an account that they can earn points for treats. Hadley’s account had been wiped clean because she didn’t show up for one of her counseling sessions. From what I can tell, that wasn’t an uncommon occurrence for her.”

  Erkens scowled and folded his arms. “Madison, if you are caught breaking into those files, you and I will both be arrested.”

  “No one will find out. My algorithm hides everything I do.”

  “Unless someone even more intelligent than you starts looking into it.”

  I shot him a dirty look. “Thanks for the vote of confidence.”

  His
jowls quivered like he was on the verge of laughter. “Let’s do some good, old fashioned leg work and see if there’s anything you didn’t find on the computer.” He rose and motioned to the coffee. “You should be careful about relying too heavily on stimulants. I think you might be better off going to bed for a few hours.”

  I shuddered involuntarily. “I don’t want to sleep,” I said, recalling the images that had haunted the tiny bit I had gotten the night before.

  The winged man had dominated every second. Even when it was over an awful flapping noise had followed me into the waking world. It was like that creature was in my head, haunting me as Emma had.

  “Madison.”

  I blinked, startled to find that Erkens stood with the door of his office open, waiting for me to rise. Oh. Looked like I’d been more zoned out than I’d thought.

  By the time we got out to Erkens’ truck, it was clear he had a plan for a speech to give me. I was not in the mood. I’d had enough speeches in the last twenty-four hours to last me a lifetime.

  It surprised me as we got in to find that Erkens didn’t begin speechifying. He turned his music up and allowed Buddy Holly’s love of Peggy Sue to fill the cab. I wasn’t usually into any music other than alternative. Right then, though, it was fabulous. The change made it even better. We went from Buddy Holly to The Everly Brothers to Little Richard. I enjoyed it. What was going on with me?

  Erkens glanced at me as we pulled up in front of a square, sixties style house with several cars in the driveway. I hadn’t been paying attention to where he drove. As I looked at the address, it was clear we’d gone to Esther’s house first.

  I took a long drink of coffee and got out of the truck, strangely curious to see how much Esther’s mom was like my own.

  “Are we doing good cop and bad cop?” I asked in a quiet voice as we got to the front door, suddenly nervous for a reason that couldn’t be identified.

  Erkens didn’t respond because the door had been flung open by a little girl who was hardly more than three years old. I had a feeling the little one would be in trouble for opening the door without someone older being with her. Before either of us could say a word, the mom appeared and shooed the girl away, swatting her butt as she ran off. That was when she turned her eyes on us.

  She wasn’t a beautiful woman by any means, though there was something about her that struck me. It was like she had seen as much darkness as I had and that darkness had changed her into . . . whatever she was. At a guess, I’d say it had changed her into a control freak who went ballistic when things didn’t go as she had planned.

  “Mrs. Colbert?” Erkens asked in a polite tone that sounded nothing like the bulldog he usually resembled.

  “Yes,” she said, her eyes moving to look at me like she thought Erkens had come by to turn me in for TPing their house or something.

  He smiled at her in a way that made him look constipated in my opinion. “Ma’am, my name is TC Erkens. This is my associate, Madison Meyer. We are investigators, hired to find your daughter.”

  “My daughter?” she asked in a frigid tone.

  Erkens gave her a speculative look. “Yes, ma’am. According to the information we were given, Esther has been missing for several days.”

  Mrs. Colbert shot an appraising look between us and gave Erkens an icy smile. “How kind of you,” she said, the politeness of her words at odds with the death glare she sent at both of us.

  Erkens didn’t acknowledge her tone in the least. “I was wondering if you could tell us the last time you saw Esther so we can create a timeline that will help us to find her.”

  The woman’s nostrils didn’t flare, they expanded to a degree she looked like fire would shoot out of them at any moment. “It was very nice of you to come by. I appreciate your concern but there is nothing for you to investigate.” And on that note, she closed the door in our faces.

  Okay. That was the last thing I had expected. Holy blue screen.

  Erkens didn’t look surprised in the least. He turned to go to his truck like he didn’t have a care in the world.

  I followed him, glancing at the house every few seconds. Even my mom who had berated me every day of my life would have cared if I’d gone missing. The fact Esther’s mom didn’t . . . it made me even more determined to find the girl.

  I was the bull. That woman had been the red rag. Andale.

  I slammed the door of Erkens’ truck and scowled at the dashboard. “Let’s go to the Novak’s house and see if they care about their daughter,” I bit out, my anger only rising at the way Mrs. Colbert had acted.

  Erkens didn’t speak. He pulled out, his eyes fixed on the road. It was like he wanted to say something, yet chose to keep it to himself.

  I glowered at the road in front of us, too annoyed to care what he chose not to say to me. Hadley and Esther were the most important things. Hadley had been missing for eighteen hours. Esther had been missing for six days. There had to be a way to find them.

  The neighborhood Erkens pulled into was new construction, cookie-cutter houses. Every house looked so much like its neighbor, it was hard to tell one from the other. To think of a girl like Hadley living in a place like that, it made me understand some of the lies she had been so well-known for.

  A lot of things made sense, even about Infinity. Hadley and Infinity were nothing alike. Infinity was the type to believe that if someone wasn’t like her, they were inferior to her. Hadley had probably been made to feel like she was nothing every day of her life, so had lied to make herself feel normal.

  It made sense. It was possible my understanding was because of my dislike of Infinity. I had to put that out of my mind, though. Finding Hadley was all that mattered.

  I thought over all Hadley had said to us. She hadn’t mentioned her parents. She had spoken about Esther as though she was both friend and family. I understood that as well. She had been a troubled kid stuck in a place full of troubled kids.

  That made me wonder. So far as I knew, Hadley was legally blind because of her albinism. With the severity of her allergies mixed in there, she had probably been looked at as incapable all of her life. She would have been thought of as a freak in a place where she should have been accepted.

  The fact Esther had befriended her made me understand how important that friendship would have been to her. She had probably felt alone for so long that the idea of her friend not being around had likely scared her half out of her mind.

  It surprised me as we walked up to the house, to find a rusty, white truck in the driveway. That didn’t seem like the kind of car people like them would allow . . . no. I had to stop judging the entire family on Infinity.

  Right when Erkens knocked on the door of the house, his cell phone rang. He grimaced, still not liking the thing at all. He did take it out and before I could react, he turned around and walked away to answer it.

  Okay. Looked like I was going it alone. It would be fine. I was entirely capable of asking the right questions.

  The door was opened by a blond man in his thirties. He was attractive enough for an old guy but a very different guy was on my mind right then. I wished Ian was there. I didn’t care about some guy at the Novak’s house.

  The ice that my spine had become felt like it might send my body into hypothermia. I felt cold. Alone. Afraid. I didn’t want to be there at all.

  The blond guy gave me a wide, toothy smile. “What’s a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?” he asked with a chuckle like he found his joke to be far funnier than it was.

  I ignored the question, too ill at ease to bother with basic pleasantries. “I’m looking for Hadley Novak,” I stated, relieved when the door was opened further by a woman who appeared to be in her early forties.

  By the shape of her eyes and mouth, it was obvious the woman was Infinity and Hadley’s mom. She looked to be as distraught as Esther’s mom should have looked in my opinion. Her eyes were red. Her hands shook. She cared about her daughter. I was sure.

  The woma
n sniffed as she looked me over. “I’m Paula Novak. May I ask who you are?” she asked politely, fiddling with a tissue in her hand as she spoke.

  Something inside me calmed down. Thank God. Mrs. Novak really did care. It was written over her face as clearly as though she wore a sign which proclaimed, ‘I am a mother who is afraid something has happened to her daughter.’

  I gave her a nod of greeting. “Mrs. Novak, my name is Madison Meyer. Hadley hired my boss yesterday to find her friend. I was told she didn’t go back to Hope House when she left our office. I was wondering if you might be able to fill me in on places she might have gone.”

  Tears filled her eyes and her face crumpled. “I don’t understand. All I wanted was to get her some help. I never meant for this to happen,” she wailed, her voice breaking as she spoke.

  The guy put his arm around her and made shushing noises, his eyes still fixed on me. “I saw you last night at Hope House hanging all over some guy,” he said in a stern tone that sounded accusing.

  I kept my eyes on Mrs. Novak, wishing I was a girl who carried tissues around or something. It seemed like a nice idea to offer the woman a clean tissue since I had been the one to upset her again.

  “Mrs. Novak, I know your daughter is still in Pittsburgh. She filled her transit card at a light rail station not long after she left my boss’ office. So far as I’ve been able to find, she got off the T downtown.”

  “How do you know that?” the guy asked, his tone even harsher.

  Again, I ignored him. I couldn’t tell him I’d hacked into Hadley’s account. I would have to hope Mrs. Novak wouldn’t ask me too many questions about it. “Hadley was worried about her friend. I was hoping you might be able to fill me in on her. It might help me figure out where she is.”

  She wiped at her eyes and sniffed, beckoning me into the house. “You don’t mean that Esther girl, do you?”