by Nathan Howe
My head jerked back, “Are you serious?”
“Yeah. I didn't see him after the attack. But Logan across town said he did. So it's possible.”
Jack leaned on the table engrossed in the tale barely peeling his eyes away from Steve. “Damn.”
“Right.” Steve sipped his coffee. “I didn't want to believe him. And at the time I didn't.”
“Really?”
“Come on Jack. I'm not going to go off one guy. But it did make me doubt the fact that he was killed during the Spector attack.”
“I'm sure.”
Ricky set down two plates on the table bursting with eggs and bacon, along with the largest pile of hash browns in Cynosure. “Thanks, Ricky,” Steve said. He held up his coffee cup. “Refill?”
“Sure thing Steve.”
Jack didn't even glance at his plate. “What did you do? Go to this Logan?”
Steve nodded. “Of course.” He took a large bite of eggs, dripped yolk over the plate. Steve reached for the salt and pepper and drenched the eggs for his next bite.
Logan lived in midtown, thankfully. I meant I didn't have to drive all the way across Cynosure. If I hadn't grown up in Djinn Park Midtown might be my home. It had the laidback feel of Djinn Park without the Withering and the dilapidated buildings, with the university as the heart. It was the affluent Djinn Park. He lived in an apartment building that catered to students at the University. It housed the new hero Broken or the former home of One Rush. Soon this building might be a tourist stop. If people learned of former homes to notorious Ardents, they flocked to it. My skin crawled at the thought.
I entered the building and proceeded to the apartment of Logan. He lived on the first floor. I knocked on the door. He answered it immediately. “Steve?”
I nodded. “Billy told you I was coming?”
“Sure did. Come in.” He opened the door fully and gestured for me to enter the cramped place. On the right, a small sofa and entertainment center took up most of the room. The left had a small dining room and kitchen. The place was clean. Everything in its place. “Can you take your shoes off?”
Next, to the door, a spot was cleared for this, it held several shoes already. I complied, nervous that my socks might have holes. He led me to the sofa. The TV was larger than expected and the system was set up to be loud as possible. I'm sure his neighbors hated him. “You saw Danny.”
He nodded. “I did. People keep telling me it's not possible but I did.” His tone was skeptical.
I took out my notepad that I rarely used it, but I wanted to make sure I got this right. “Tell me exactly.”
“The day after the attack several of my colleagues. I'm a graduate student and teacher. We wanted to help clean. The area around the coalition building was damaged. Not like Djinn Park or downtown but bad.”
I nodded. It was bad, but you couldn't tell now. The coalition must have worked day and night to make their buildings and the area around them clean and rebuilt. Again they left Djinn Park to heal itself. It infuriated me they did that. As if they rejected that part of the city. “Like a lot of the city.”
“I heard. Don't get out of midtown much these days. So we were cleaning up rubble. And Danny showed up to help. But he was acting weird.”
I made a note. “How so?”
“All fidgety. Saying he was being followed. He kept peering over his shoulder. Had bags under his eyes like he hadn't slept for days. Talking about a lady stalking him.”
“He was sure a female was following him.”
“Oh yeah. Said she'd be there one second and gone the next. Would show up day and night. Out of nowhere.”
Interesting. To Steve, Logan described an Ardent had stalked Danny. “Did you see this person?”
“No. I thought he was going through a nervous breakdown. With the whole city under attack. I figured it broke him. Didn't pay attention that much.”
“And when you learned he disappeared. What did you think then?”
Logan shrugged. “I figured I was right. That he snapped and ran. To get away from this. Thought he'd show back up in a month.”
“Had he ever done anything like that before?”
Logan paused, shook his head. “No.”
“Then why now?”
“I don't know. I wasn't paying attention. The world nearly ended the day before. Everyone had shit going on around them. We were trying to help clean and rebuild.”
I nodded. “Okay. I understand.” Even though I didn't. “Are you sure about this?”
“One hundred percent.”
I stood. “Thanks for your time. You have been a help.”
We shook hands. “No problem. I feel bad. I should have called the police or something.”
“Yeah. That might have helped or not.” I handed him a card. “If you remember anything else.”
I left the building. He did give me something. Not sure how much I trust him. Didn't seem to sure and didn't care that much. It was the investigator in me but if I had someone come up to me that way I would have helped or paid more attention.
Driving back to my office was going to take a while so, I pulled out my phone and gave Mara a call. The phone went to voicemail. I clicked off and tried again. Still no answer. That didn't bode well. With the fervor, she had for me to take this case I figured she'd be on me night and day. Answer every call I made. I hadn't brought any of the other information she gave me for the case. Rush hour approached. I drove as fast as possible to avoid it since the information Mara gave me was back at the office.
Once back and my car parked down the block, I examined the paperwork she left. Her brother did appear to vanish into thin air. And if I trust Mara he was alive two days ago. I progressed to the next name on the list. The last known sighting of this person was a week before the attack. It was entirely possible he was a victim of that.
I made several calls. At the bottom of the list was the ex-boyfriend. “Hello?” a gravelly voice answered.
“Hi. My name is Steve, and I'm a private investigator.”
“Why is a PI calling me?”
I cleared my throat. “I'm investigating several missing persons. One of them is Eric.”
“Eric is missing?”
“He is. Last seen about two weeks ago.” Silence on the other end. “You all right?”
“Uh. I saw him then. He was attacking strange.”
“You got to be shitting me,” Jack said. “Let me guess.”
“Go for it.”
Jack leaned forward. “Paranoid. A chick following him. Appearing randomly.”
I nodded. “And not the only one. Over the last three months. All the same.”
“Ardents sake. How did the police miss this?” The Hero Coalition and the police needed to work better together.
“No idea. They are shit.”
Jack laughed. “They are.”
“Hey hey, don't knock the police in my place,” Ricky shouted from behind the counter. “Some of my best overnight customers.”
“You're the only place open then.”
Ricky shrugged. “And?”
“Sorry Ricky,” Jack said. “Continue man. Getting juicy.”
Later that night I tried to track down Mara. I was in full agreement with her someone, or something was taking these people. Too many of them running scared from a mysterious woman. My blood boiled upset with myself that I failed last time. I hadn’t been this mad in a long time. Mara needed to know that she was correct. That she found something. She had the right names. The last time I tried I had found nothing like this.
I drove to Mara's place. She lived in the district to the west of Djinn Park north of downtown. Her neighborhood was friendly filled with rambling houses that lacked any real character but didn't scream danger like Djinn Park.
Even though the driveway was empty, I parked on the street. As I neared the front door, it hung slightly ajar. I pulled a sig from my side and entered. It was tough to tell if the place was ransacked or just messy. Much like her
notes things lay flung across the front room. I entered the room it was a large one with an open floor plan. I ventured past a couch with stains. It was a wonder that she figured this out. The only spot with any semblance of organization was a table. It held papers like the ones she gave me.
I continued through the house nothing. Completely empty, lonely inside. Her phone went straight to voicemail. Tried to get help from the police but got the runaround. It didn't matter that I was a PI working a missing person case. In fact, I'd bet because it was me they gave me more of a hard time.
Frustrated and lacking any leads on Mara or the missing people I drove back to my office for sleep and thoughts. It puzzled me. Mara must have been onto something, and the person behind it figured it out. Chills traveled down my spine. If she was right and now dead, it was my fault.
The next morning I figured a trip to Ambrosine was in order. While I used magic naturally for my tattoo's, I wasn't that versed in it. I should be to track Mara with it, and Ambrosine would have the stuff and be able to tell me how. First, I made a pit stop, picking Jack up. Before the craziness of the recent weeks, I made a promise that I intended to keep.
Even this early a few people sat in chairs getting tattoos from artists I'd never let touch my skin. “Hey, Jack.”
“What's up?”
I pulled out my healing potion. “I'm going to get this refilled and ask Ambrosine a few questions. Want to tag along?”
“Hell freaking yeah.”
Jack trailed behind me as I made his way to my car. I didn't want to walk all day. “You need a new car.” Jack sat next to me eyeing the interior, the seat ripped in places, with a musty scent. “Don't you make money with your job?”
“Humph. I like this car.”
“Sure you do.”
I rolled up in front of Ambrosine's place. This time I didn't make the mistake of talking to a bunch of other people I came straight to the best source of information in Cynosure. The trip wasn't long driving. Even driving around the park like I did to avoid running into any of the Withering. As I parked in front, Jack let out a sigh. “This is her place?”
“Yeah.”
“I've driven by this a thousand times.” He sounded disappointed.
“You're not an Ardent, a PI or a home gardener.”
Jack shrugged. “Maybe I should start a garden.”
I snorted and left the car unlocked out front. In the past ten years, I could count the number of times I locked my car on one hand. No one, not even those in or around Djinn Park would steal it wasn't worth a dime to them. Another reason I kept it and didn't get a new one. As I walked in, I was greeted with the familiar sparsely lit room and aroma of many different plants. Both welcoming and off-putting.
Ambrosine walked out of the back of the shop. “Oh Steve, so good to see you.”
“You to Ambrosine.”
“Happy to see you made it out of the mess with that Spector fellow.”
Luckily I wasn't directly involved in that. I helped a little. Luckily I was able to avoid fighting Spector. I stayed in Djinn Park and fought the horde of Netherworld creatures that appeared from nothing. It wasn't easy. The beast frightened even the most hardened of Ardents. I spent days replacing his tattoos again after that. Twice so close together. I hoped to avoid doing that ever again. My body ached just remembering it.
“The Hero Coalition dealt with him. I'm told some young kids that I met handled the brunt of it.”
Ambrosine waved her hand in front of herself. “Darling you started it.”
Jack walked into the shop. He stopped mid-stride taking in the ambiance of the place. “Damn this is differ…” he stopped when he spotted Ambrosine. “A pleasure to meet you.”
“Oh, who is this Steve?”
“This is Jack. He's a friend and my tattoo artist.”
“Well, hello Jack.” She walked over to him and held her hand out. Jack gently grabbed it and planted a soft kiss.
I cleared my throat. “I didn't come his to dilly-dally.”
“Yes. Yes.” Ambrosine turned around. “What do you need from me now?”
In my hand, I dangled my healing potion. “A refill.”
Ambrosine smiled. “That's not all you need. That's not even half empty.”
I shrugged. “Can never get anything past you.”
“What can I do?” She walked back behind the counter and leaned forward in her familiar provocative pose.
“I need to track a young lady. She hired me to find her missing brother, and she's gone missing now.”
“Intriguing. You have anything of her's.”
“Not on me. But I planned to go back to her place.” The thought of going back to the lonely home wasn’t pleasant. It was eerie, and I felt responsible.
Ambrosine nodded. “Good. Best to do the spell there.”
I figured that would be the case. “So what do I need?”
“One second. I get the ingredients.” She walked back into her storage room that I've never seen another person enter. She banged around for several minutes before coming back with a half dozen tiny jars. “I won't go into what all these are. But I've labeled them. One through six. Mix them in that order then add a biological item of the person you want to find.'
“Then what.”
“Do whatever it is that you do when you pull the tattoos off your body.”
“Uh. I have no idea what I do.”
She tilted her head and shrugged. “Figure it out, dear.”
I laughed. “Thanks for the help.”
I went to leave. “Let's go, Jack.”
“One second.” He walked over to Ambrosine. Talked a few minutes and waved me off.
“Speaking of that how did it go?” Steve asked.
Jack smiled slyly. “Have a date Friday.”
“Way to go.”
“Thanks.”
“Just a warning. She flirts with anything that breathes. So you can't get jealous.”
“I'll be all right.”
Steve wasn't convinced. He hadn't met any of Jack's previous girlfriends, but he had the feeling he'd be an overprotective boyfriend. “If you say so.”
“For her, I'll be whatever she wants me to be.”
“You better not let her hear you say that. I can only imagine what that might lead to.”
Jack burst out laughing. Bent over. “I'm game.”
At Mara's place, I found several strands of her hair in brushes in the bathroom. I retrieved the jars and use a bowl from that kitchen I hope is clean, tough to tell. Going in order, I mix the jars, then add the hair. I gagged and wrinkled my nose. The air putrid. Whatever these jars held it smelt terrible. I focused on the bowl, pretending I was pulling a tattoo.
Nothing happened at first. “Fuck,” I cursed out loud. “Work damn it.”
I tried to mimic the feeling I had. Nothing. Next, I pulled the cigar off my arm. That did the trick. The concoction glowed a bright green. Fumes wafted up in the air, now the aroma of lilies filled the air. I couldn't see Mara, but I sensed her. East. I rushed to follow the sensation.
In my beat up car, I drove east, past my place. The tingling in my body grew. The realization I was getting closer to her. Through the park. It grew more. Nearly out of the city as it continued to grow. It compelled me to stop at a lone house on the far eastern edge of the city. Much of the area was underdeveloped. In the driveway, a car seat. I walked up to it. In the driver's seat, Mara sat, rocking back and forth. “God. Make her go away.” She formed across.
I tapped on the window. Mara jumped. Her eyes had bags, worse than before. Her hair a complete mess tangled and filled with dirt and grime. “Are you real?”
“Mara. It's Steve. You hired me to remember.”
“I...I...I do.”
“Good. Here let's get you out of her.”
“No!”
“It's safe Mara. I won't let anything happen. The Butcher is real.”
“I never understood that name,” a soft voice said from behind me. I spun
around a striking woman with long black hair, dark as night. Her clothes hugged her body, leaving little to the imagination. “There's never been a body. No proof of people being killed. Let alone that I'm cutting them up.”
“Where did you come from?”
She vanished into thin air. “Leave the car,” I said.
The Butcher now sat next to Mara and leaned over her who screamed bloody murder. “Steve's right. I can call you Steve can't I?”
“Doesn't matter what you call me.” I extracted both sigs off my torso.
“Tsk tsk. You can't shoot me. Think of poor Mara.”
Mara cried. Her body shook. Pure terror leaked from her eyes. The Butcher along with Mara vanished. I pivoted. They stood at the end of the driveway next to my car. “Is teleportation all you can do?”
The Butcher stood nonchalantly. “As for my Ardent abilities what you see is what you get. But I can do so much more. I am so much more. You know this. Look at poor Mara. I did this.”
If she was proud of this something was off with this lady. “You won't get away with this.”
“I have and I will. No one will believe you. They never do.” She bent over and slashed my tire. Then she and Mara were gone.
Just what I needed. I didn't have a spare tire. The worst party I could still sense Mara. She was back west in the city. Not sure exactly where or how long I'd have this power. I pulled out my phone and gave Heldonhaft a call. “Hey. It's Steve I need a lift, and I'm out of town.”
“Not a good time. I've been assigned a protection detail. Let me call another member. Give me your location.”
I told him, an hour later a Hero Coalition car pulled up. A second later the red hair leader of Cynosure stepped out. “Isn't this a little below your pay grade,” I said.
Inflamed smiled. “I had to see this. I'll have a tow come here if you want.”
“That would be great. But can you get me back to the city ASAP.”
“What's up?”
“You'll probably laugh at me.”
“This is going to be rich. Give it to me.”
“Fine.” I sat in the passenger seat. “Drive, and I'll tell.”