The Black Merchant

by Shannon Reber

  The cops around us shot a resentful look at Simms but they did clear out. For some reason, they looked afraid. I had no idea what that was about. Simms seemed like a very nice guy.

  That thought froze in my head when I saw the office. The random piles of files had been strewn around everywhere, some of them torn while others were smeared by what looked like blood. The pig’s head lay uncovered on the desk, with blood and nastiness all around. It was one of the most revolting things I had ever seen, practically as horrifying as the body Ian and I had found on my birthday.

  A shiver moved its way over me at that memory. I didn’t want to remember it. That memory wouldn’t leave my mind, though.

  The pig’s head was a warning. It was obvious. It was a ‘back off or else’ threat. Those people were obviously morons. That kind of intimidation was nothing more than a call to arms in my world.

  I squared my shoulders and looked around the office. It was hard to tell what was different until the picture in my head shone through. There was an order to the chaos Erkens usually kept things in that was hard to pinpoint. And like a movie began to play out in my mind, it became clear to me that the person who’d broken in had first tripped over one of the piles.

  Those files had avalanched in a way which made that clear as day to me. That person had probably held the pig’s head in a bag of some sort. That bag had likely fallen out of the person’s hand to judge by the splotch of red on the floor next to that fallen pile.

  “They were human,” Erkens said quietly, his eyes fixed on the floor.

  I looked as well and again, understanding came to me. The clutter was meant to conceal several things. Runes of protection had been drawn on the floor and there were clear footprints in the layer of what I’d always thought was dust.

  Roy stayed in the hall as Simms and I stepped in, my eyes fixed on one of the piles. “That pile was moved,” I said with a gesture toward it. I could tell. I was so used to stepping over and around them. It was obvious that pile had been both moved and rifled through.

  Erkens glanced at it and groaned. “I want you all out of here, now,” he said and turned to leave without waiting to see if we complied.

  “Erkens, what—”

  “Go, Madison. Now,” he ordered and pulled out his cell phone. He had dialed a number and begun speaking before the thought had even registered in my mind.

  I watched him closely, unsure what to make of his reaction. The thing was, I trusted Erkens. If he said to leave, that was what I would do. He could explain it all to me later. And oh, he would most definitely explain.

  My own phone rang as we got outside. I pulled it out quickly, my eyes still fixed on Erkens’ retreating back. “Hello?” I asked, ignoring the cops who cringed away as though they were afraid of my little group.

  “Madison Meyer?” a woman’s voice asked.

  “Yes. May I help you?”

  “Um . . . yes. This is Paula Novak. I wondered if maybe you could meet with us?”

  I groaned inwardly. “Sure, Mrs. Novak. I’m afraid there’s been a little problem at my office. Why don’t we meet somewhere else.”

  SEVENTEEN

  I raised my brows in surprise as Simms followed me into the diner. Erkens had agreed to stay with the cops, to answer questions, and deal with those details. I hadn’t expected to have picked up a sidekick.

  He slid into the same side of the booth I sat down at, his eyes fixed on the laptop I had set down on the table in front of me. “The research I did on you made me think you were some spoiled little smart kid who believed the rules were beneath you. I’m starting to think I might have been wrong.”

  I kept my eyes fixed on the screen. “I’m not spoiled but I do have issues with rules. Sometimes, you have to be willing to break them in order to do what needs to be done.”

  “That’s something the bureaucrats I work for would not like you for saying.”

  I smirked. “Why do you think I didn’t apply for a job with the FBI?” I asked, amused even by the thought of it.

  He let out a small laugh. “Remind me never to introduce you to my superiors,” he said, his eyes fixed on the window next to us.

  I didn’t look away from my laptop’s screen. “You’re lying,” I said, amused by how poorly he did that. “You’re part of a unit of the FBI who doesn’t follow the usual rules.” I motioned to the screen where his picture shone out, listing him as a member of ‘The Arcane Unit’, a group from what I could tell, that worked on paranormal crimes. “Looks to me like you have your own set of rules.”

  He stared at the screen in an incredulous way. “You really are the prodigy they say you are,” he said in an awed tone. “My unit is so secret that only the director and the Attorney General know the exact nature of our job. I didn’t even think I was listed in the FBI database.”

  I shrugged. “You weren’t. I ran you through my facial recognition software. The fact you’re an employee of the federal government made it easy,” I said, relieved when the coffee cup in front of me was filled. “Thank you,” I said to the woman who’d given me that gift.

  She smiled at me. “No problem. Did your friend find you?” she asked, looking around as though to look for someone else.

  “Which friend?” I asked, not too sure if Mrs. Novak had beat me to the diner or not.

  The waitress waved her hand a little. “The guy you were in here with earlier, the blond guy who’s such a flirt. He came back after you and your friends left, said you’d left your phone in his car.”

  I motioned to my phone that lay on the table in front of me. “Maybe you’re mistaking me for somebody else. My phone is right here and the blond guy—” I broke off, my throat going dry as the desert. “How long ago did the guy show up?”

  “A couple of hours ago. In a real big hurry. Definitely not as flirty as he was earlier,” she said and moved off to fill someone else’s coffee mug.

  My heart pounded. Kevin Marchand. He worked at Hope House. He would have known both Hadley and Esther. He also would have known Julie. Could he be the incubus?

  I hadn’t liked him. I hadn’t trusted him. I had shrugged that feeling off, though. The truth was, I hadn’t trusted myself.

  My fingers flew over the keyboard, doing what I did best. I searched for information. His application at Hope House had a wealth of information. I took his social security number off his tax files and entered that into another search.

  The thing was, the social security number he had used was for an infant with the name of Kevin Marchand who had died on August 15, of 1946.

  The cold feeling in my spine intensified. He was a family friend of the Novak’s. He had talked Mrs. Novak out of calling the police about Hadley. Hadley had probably gone to him when Esther had gone missing, told him she was going to a private investigator. Who was he really?

  I took the photo I got from Hope House’s records and entered into my facial recognition software. I would figure out that little mystery. That monster would not get away with anything more.

  It took a surprisingly short amount of time to find a match for his picture. My stomach clenched and writhed. Kevin Marchand wasn’t his name at all.

  The mug shot of the man that I found was most definitely the same guy. That guy’s name was Duane Orm. Three years before, he had been charged with fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct. That was when Duane Orm had disappeared.

  That man had stolen the identity of a dead baby and changed his name to Kevin Marchand. No way. Fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct was a felony that had to do with a person in a position of authority having sexual contact with a minor. I mentally puked even at the thought.

  “What did you find?” Simms asked, clearly able to see that something was wrong.

  I opened my mouth to tell him everything. I closed it when the door of the diner opened. Infinity was there as well. She and her mom walked in together, both of them looking stressed out and tired.

  Infinity looked like she’d been sucking on a lemon as she l
ooked at me. Her flawless olive toned skin, dark hair, and dark eyes were somehow accented by the worry she obviously felt for her sister. It was funny as I looked at her to see that the contrast in coloring was the only real way she and Hadley were different. Hadley had a fuller figure but their features were nearly interchangeable. Both of them looked a lot like their mom.

  Right then, I didn’t care that Infinity had treated me badly when we were younger. That was not important. What was important was to protect them from the man they had called a friend.

  Infinity sneered as she slid into the booth across from me. “What? You’ve moved on from Ian?” she asked with a sour look at Simms.

  I ignored her, fixing my attention on Mrs. Novak as she sat in the seat next to her daughter. “Mrs. Novak, Kevin Marchand is not the friend you believe he is. I think he’s the one who took Hadley,” I informed her and turned my laptop so she would be able to read the information I had brought up.

  “Took Hadley?” Mrs. Novak asked in a quavering voice, ringing her hands as she began to read what I had brought up.

  Infinity’s face went pale. She took in a shaky breath as her eyes grew damp. She sniffed as she kept reading, a few of her tears beginning to spill over.

  I brought the same information up on my phone and handed it to Simms. “This guy is a family friend of the Novak’s. When I spoke to Mrs. Novak yesterday, he did all in his power to convince Mrs. Novak that Hadley had run away.”

  I waited while he read through the police file before showing him the information on Kevin Marchand from Hope House. It was such a horrible thing for that kind of predator to have gone into a place like Hope House to search for victims.

  Mrs. Novak and Infinity were both crying by the time they finished reading, their expressions utterly stricken. The idea of someone like that having conned them must be a horrible feeling. Their trust had been broken and it was clear they both felt it.

  Mrs. Novak shook her head. “It can’t be true. It can’t. Kevin . . . he’s our friend.”

  I started to speak until I was cut off by Infinity. “That’s how guys like him work, Mom. Think about it. Hadley is a lonely kid. She believes that she’s nothing. Kevin is a fraud. He scammed you to get you to invite him into our lives. He is a monster. That’s all there is to it.”

  Simms glanced at me. “I’ll call the director and try to get some guys in here to help us. Please don’t go anywhere without me. You’re not safe, Madison,” he said and stood, his phone in his hand as he walked toward the front door of the diner.

  I quashed all the questions I wanted to ask him and turned my attention to Hadley’s family. “Why did you call me, Mrs. Novak?” I asked, not too sure what was going on.

  She sniffed, wiping at her tears with the napkin on the table in front of her. “I . . . I was going to tell you to stay away from my family. Kevin came by this morning and told me that you had contacted my husband. He said that you were blackmailing my husband with information on the things Hadley has done.”

  Wow. He was good. He certainly did know how to play people against each other. Probably the simple fact that Infinity and I had been longtime antagonists had made that easy. Infinity would have believed any wrong he’d said I had committed.

  I met the woman’s eyes full on. “Mrs. Novak, your husband came by the office this morning with Kevin and hired me and Erkens to find Hadley. We got a lead that took us to Cleveland. It turned out to be a trap. I would have been killed if it wasn’t for a friend. I promise you, I am not your enemy. I need to find Hadley. It’s important to me.”

  “Why?” Infinity asked, her eyes a little red from all the tears she’d cried.

  “Because Hadley came to us to find her best friend. I know what it feels like to lose that part of yourself. Sometimes, a friend can help to hold you together when it feels like the whole world is against you.”

  Infinity turned her eyes down. “I was so sure you were lying or just wrong about Adrian. I thought it was all you proving a point or something. My sister told me when we were younger that she thought something was wrong with Adrian. I refused to listen. I told her she was a brat and a liar. I see now that my faith in both Adrian and Kevin was seriously misplaced.”

  I leaned forward a little. “Do you know anything that can help me figure this out?” I asked, suddenly sure she did.

  She cleared her throat and gave a little shrug. “Um . . . I . . . think Kevin or Duane or whoever he is, I think he was messing around with Hadley. I mean, she told me they kissed but I think they went a lot further than that.”

  Mrs. Novak wept, her eyes fixed on my laptop. It was clear she’d had no clue and the idea that her youngest daughter had been used by that kind of predator must have been the worst kind of horror for her. She looked like she was ready to pass out from the shock of everything.

  My temper rose up. That guy was indeed the monster Infinity had called him. He preyed on girls who were vulnerable? No way. He would not get away that time. I would stop him. He would never touch another girl in his life.

  I focused my blazing eyes on Infinity. “What I mean is, do you have any idea of places he might have taken her?” I asked, my voice hard and clipped.

  She shrugged in an impatient way. “Kevin and I never paid much attention to each other.”

  “Anything, Infinity. Something Hadley said. Something he said. Anything that might lead me to him.”

  She turned her eyes down to look at the table in front of her, gnawing on her bottom lip as she contemplated. “He always had a different phone. I think they were burner phones, actually,” she said in a rush, her eyes meeting mine for the first time. “He drove this rusty white pickup truck but once or twice, I swear I saw him in this refrigerator truck. I mean, I know he had a few jobs—”

  “Did you see a logo on the side?” I broke in, my heart starting to pound.

  She contemplated for a few long moments before she smacked the table in front of her. “It said ICE!” she shrieked, her eyes wide as though in shock that she had remembered that small detail.

  “Good. Where was that, and when?” I implored, desperate to catch one small break.

  “Yesterday in the early evening around Penn Avenue,” she said, flicking a glance at her mother.

  Mrs. Novak narrowed her eyes at her daughter. “What were you doing down there when you told me you had a study session at—”

  I found it amusing to see Infinity being treated like a child. She was close to twenty and still had to lie to her mom to get to go places she wanted to? Wow. That made me want to laugh at them both. What I did instead was to search the security footage from the cameras in that area.

  It was a far harder search than the last. A lot of cars had passed that area and the number of trucks was almost as high. Every time a truck even similar to the one Infinity had described passed one of the cameras in the footage, my heart rate sped up.

  That was when it occurred to me. If Kevin used the refrigerator truck to transport girls, could he have them imprisoned around that area?

  I set my search parameters to notify me if either Kevin/Duane or an ice truck showed up and turned my attention to another search. I scanned through the maps of that part of the city, finding several buildings that might work. One of them, in particular, had everything that would be necessary to sneak prisoners both in and out. It was an abandoned brewery that had everything from a loading dock to storage facilities.

  There were no security cameras anywhere near that building, so it looked like I’d have to go old school. Pounding pavement would be my next step. Wouldn’t Erkens be proud?

  I sent him a quick message to let him know all that we’d found. He didn’t respond, so I assumed he and Bukowski were busy being rude to each other. I wanted to do more. What else could I do, though?

  My fingers moved over my phone’s screen before the thought had come clear in my mind. I sent Keats Driscoll every piece of information I had gathered and asked him to write some articles. I hoped he wouldn’t
be so angry with me about all the articles I’d deleted, that he wouldn’t help out.

  When that was done, I texted the mugshot of Duane Orm to Deegan and asked him to call the police if that man showed his heinous face at Hope House again. There didn’t seem to be anything more I could do.

  My eyes fell on the notification of the text I’d gotten from Ian. I didn’t open it. I didn’t have time. I wanted to talk to him face to face anyway. We had a lot to work our way through.

  I gathered up my things and rose, tossing cash on the table for all of our coffees. “I’ve got some work to do. The second I find something, I’ll let you know. I promise you that.”

  Mrs. Novak turned her red-rimmed eyes to meet mine and held out her hand between us. “Thank you, Madison,” she said, sincerity written all over her face.

  I inclined my head and turned to leave.

  “Madison,” Infinity called.

  I glanced at her.

  “He claims to be a black belt in that Kenpo-Karate thing. Be careful.”

  I inclined my head. “I’ll find your sister,” I promised and walked out the door before anything more could be said.

  EIGHTEEN

  It surprised me as I walked out of the diner, to find Simms and the dog standing right there. I had intended to let him know where I was going. It appeared he intended to go right along with me.

  I looked at Roy and smiled a little. “Does this mean I’m under arrest?” I asked, amused for some reason by how closely the dog watched me.

  Simms shrugged. “Why? What laws are you breaking?” he asked, motioning for me to get into the black SUV that was parked not far from us.

  I didn’t like the idea of being turned into his partner although it would be good to have another set of eyes to look around that brewery. And the dog’s nose would probably be a help as well. Looked like that was that.