The Shadow Box: Paranormal Suspense and Dark Fantasy Thriller Novels

by Travis Luedke

  There was something I was missing. There was something deeper than I was looking. Too many questions and no answers. Carmen adjusted in the bed but did not wake. There were too many questions, and I was too tired. I finished cleaning my guns; once they were reassembled and reloaded, I placed one in its case and the other on the nightstand. I picked up her discarded book and glasses moving them to a safer location and crawled into bed. The warmth of her body was soothing and I quickly fell asleep.

  Five hours later I woke up. I was alone. Carmen at some point had left. I showered and readied myself for the day. I called Carmen’s phone to find out where she and Terry were and what was going on that day.

  “Carmen,” she answered, either she didn’t look at the caller ID or she was mad at me. I was hoping for the first option.

  “Hey.”

  “Oh hey.” Her voice softened. “Sleep well?”

  “Like a fuckin’ rock.”

  She laughed. “Yeah, I noticed. You just grunted at me when I left.”

  “Sorry.” She was still laughing. “What are you doing?”

  “Nails, hair, loading magazines, you know all the things a girls got to do to get ready for the day.” It was my turn to laugh. “I only left your room about an hour ago.”

  “What’s the plan for the day?”

  “Terry is already in town. Doing what, I don’t know.” That didn’t sound like total truth, but I let it go. “But we’re meeting him for lunch in an hour. So hurry up. Get ready and get over here.” Click, the phone went silent. When she wants something she wants something. I like that.

  I did what she asked… ordered? … And got to her room as soon as I had collected all my things, including my laptop. “Carmen?” I said, knocking on the door.

  “It’s open,” I heard her cry out.

  When I walked into the room, I saw she wasn’t joking. Her feet were propped up on a chair wet with red polish and her guns were lain out on the table in front of her. Her hair was up in large curlers. I stood there for a moment, dumbfounded, grinning like an idiot. “Hey you,” I finally made myself say, setting the computer bag on the dresser.

  “Hey.” She smiled up at me.

  “I thought you were joking.”

  “Why?”

  “I don’t know.” I knew she took care of her appearance. I just didn’t ever process it in my head that she multi-tasked prepping fire arms while she did it.

  “It’s not easy trying to look good and… well and…” she said, testing her toenail polish.

  “And what?” I asked, sitting next to her.

  She pulled on socks and boots. “And… and hum… well let’s face it, Vinny, The Guild is a man’s world. I want to be seen as an equal, no better no worse, but I don’t want it to cost me.” She paused. “I don’t want it to cost me what it is to me to be a woman.” I could see what she was talking about. “In this world I’m both looked down on and ridiculed, or I’m seen as some fucking princess. The least I can do is to try to feel good about myself.” She picked up two pistols. One she placed in her shoulder holster, the other at the small of her back. “Terry is like my big brother. And until you came along, he was my only friend here.” She continued speaking as she pulled the curlers out of her hair. “There are next to no females here. And the guys are older or young cocky bastards.” She let out a huge fit of laughter. “I’ve had to break more than one of the guards’ noses when they get ballsy and step too far out of line.” I joined her in laughter. “You and Terry are the only ones that see me as both a hunter and a woman.” She brushed her hand against my cheek. “You will never have any idea what that means to me. Her laughter faded to just a wisp of a smile. “Even my father looks down on me. He thinks this work is too dangerous for women. When he got me the job here, I think he figured on sticking me behind a desk or something like that.”

  “I see that his plan didn’t work out so well.”

  “Not at all. After seeing me on the range once, Terry pulled me out of the library and started training me.” I’d seen Carmen on the range a few times, she was a hell of a shot with any gun she picked up. I’d never out shoot her with an automatic. “He helped me become a hunter and we’ve been partners ever since.”

  “What is Terry’s story? How did he get involved in all this?”

  “He doesn’t really talk about the past. I know he was in the military for a while. Married once a long time ago. When you and I were just crawling. But that’s all I really know about his past.”

  “How old is he?”

  “Terry is in his mid-forties.” Damn, I’d put him in his mid-thirties tops. Guess some people are just lucky.

  “Speaking of Terry, we should get going.” She stood up and removed the rest of her curlers. Her hair fell in dark waves around her shoulders.

  “You know you are beautiful, Carmen. Don’t let anyone make you feel different.”

  “Thank you.” She kissed me. It wasn’t the same as the other times we had. There was more passion to it. It wasn’t only affection anymore. The kiss lasted longer than I’d expected. She pulled away smiling. There was nothing said. One of my hands was still holding the side of her neck. Convenient. I was able to pull her back in for another kiss. Her moist lips slowly parted and our tongues found one another. From her throat came a small sound of pleasure. She tossed one leg over my lap. I was pinned under her spread legs. Her hands began exploring my chest and stomach. Being mindful of the gun on her back, my arms wrapped her waist. My hands rested just on the upper curve of her ass. The speed and strength of the kissing grew, and with it my hands followed hers in the exploration of the other’s body. More and more gasps and moans came from both of us. For the first time in a long time, I wished I wasn’t wearing my guns. The two guns on my lower back were digging into me as she began grinding. And the shoulder holsters were just damn annoying.

  She suddenly stopped and pulled back. “Fucking hell. You know we don’t have time for this.” She huffed. “Dammit, Vinny.” She kissed me again, with the same intensity that we had just been doing. I wasn’t complaining. Her lips left mine, but not to stop. She began to make her way up and down the sides of my neck. She was licking and sucking in all the right places, bringing sounds from me once again. I had to adjust a growing pressure that was becoming uncomfortable in my jeans. Once my hand was free, her grinding that had briefly paused for my adjustment started again with increased speed and pressure. The kissing stopped against my neck and she raised her head. Her full, almost pouty lips were curled into an evil grin. I knew what that look meant. She gently kissed my lips and hopped off my lap. “We’re going to be late.”

  I tossed my head back against the chair and grunted. Her hand hung in the air between us offering me help up. I stood without taking it. “Sweetie, haven’t you helped enough things up already?”

  The evil grin came back as her eyes followed the line of my body to where she knew I was talking about. “Aww, did I do that.” She laughed.

  “Tease,” I said, jokingly.

  “Tease implies I’m not going to fulfill.” She winked. That got a smile out of me. “But I guess you’ve just got to deal with waiting.” She turned and checked her makeup in a mirror on the wall. “Are you coming?”

  “Not yet.” She glared over her shoulder at me. “Oh, you were talking about going to see Terry.”

  “Yeah, smart-ass.”

  “I’m sorry, but blue balls can cause brain malfunctions.” She began to walk out of the room with me in tow.

  “Shut up.” She began to laugh.

  “And I’ve heard it can cause cancer.” I grabbed my computer in a hurry to catch her.

  “Have a cigarette and shut up.” She was laughing almost too hard to say anything. The walk to the car was filled with her telling me to ‘shut up’ and me making sarcastic comments. I was enough of a gentleman to open the car door for her. “You’re a cute pain in the ass. You know that?”

  “Now I do.” I shut her door and made my way around to the pass
enger side. Watching her as I walked around. She was smiling an ‘I know a secret’ smile at me when I climbed in. “What?” I asked when she did not offer an explanation.

  Her eyes again traveled my body. “Nothing,” she said, starting the engine.

  “You’re driving me nuts, right?”

  Another explosive fit of laughter burst from her. “Oh yeah. I know it.”

  It took me a second then I got the joke. Hey, blue balls affect the brain, remember? I was allowed to be a little slow.

  We took the direct route to the city, already running late. Not my fault by the way. Well, not completely my fault. If it were up to me, we’d still be in her room. But, no matter how much I wanted to be in her room, we still had business to handle. Terry was waiting on us. I didn’t see him being too happy with us not showing because we were busy having sex. I don’t know why I just didn’t see that conversation going well.

  Even though Amun had told Carmen about the events the previous night, I felt inclined to tell her in my own words. I didn’t hold anything back as I told my tale. My voice must have shown something more than just facts.

  “You did what had to be done.” She placed a hand on my leg. “If you had not finished him, he would have come back for you ‘til one of you was dead. And personally,” she glanced at me, “I’d rather have you around. So don’t feel that you have to hide what you are.” She nailed what was in my voice. She could hear that I was trying to defend my actions.

  She was right. I killed, that’s what I did. Sometimes it was to survive, sometimes it wasn’t. “Thank you.” What more could I have said?

  “Just saying it like it is.”

  I liked that about her. Carmen was blunt. She said what she had to say. “Where are we meeting Terry?” I had to change the subject. It might be vain of me to say but I wasn’t used to feeling weak.

  “Some café, I’ve never been there.” For the remainder of the car ride, very little was said. We held hands and enjoyed just being together.

  Terry was already there when we arrived. We looked very underdressed next to him. He sat at an outdoor table in a light brown suit, very clean cut. I knew he was watching us from behind his darkly tinted sunglasses as we walk up to him. He grinned over his cup of coffee as he brought it to his lips

  “Aren’t you two just so adorable?”

  “Yes we are,” Carmen said, sitting down.

  “How are you, Vincent? I only got some small pieces of information about your adventure last night.”

  I again relayed the story I had told to Carmen. There was no defense in my voice. I didn’t feel I needed to justify my actions to Terry.

  When I was done, Terry took off his sunglasses and picked up the paper he had been reading before we showed up. “I take it you haven’t see the papers?” He said, tossing it to me.

  “No.” I started thumbing through the pages. “What was said about it?” I knew there would be something. I didn’t worry about it. I didn’t exist in England, hell I hardly did in American. How would they track me down?

  “You can stop flipping the pages. It’s on the front page.”

  I turned the paper back over and there was a picture of the overturned truck now surrounded by police and media. I read aloud the headline. “IRA terrorist found dead.” I continued reading. “Sean McCann, a key figure of the IRA was found early this morning by a local farmer….” I stopped reading. He’d asked me for my name and I’d denied him that comfort and now I knew his. It didn’t seem right. I couldn’t think about that, so I did what I always do, I turned it inward. “Is this The Guild’s idea of a cover up?” I asked, tossing the paper on the table.

  Terry chuckled. “No, that my friend is real. Imagine that, a terrorist moonlighting as an assassin. Sounds like a character from a bad book.” I handed the paper back to him. “Anyway, the cops aren’t putting up much fuss. Hell, I’d bet you could walk up to the police and say you did it, you’d probably get knighted.”

  “No, thank you. I can hardly put up with the bowing and shit we have to deal with from the vampires.”

  “I don’t mind,” Terry said. “I think it’s nice. I’ve been hunting them for so many years, now they call me sir and Mr. Goodspeed.” He took another sip of coffee.

  The conversation ceased as the waitress approached the table. “Right then, I see sum friends ‘ave join’d ya.” She roughly patted Terry on the shoulder. He didn’t seem to like it too much, but keep his mouth shut. “Wha’ll ya ‘ave?” Damn, if she wasn’t just as British as could be.

  “I’m sorry; we haven’t even looked at the menu,” Carmen said, picking one off the table.

  “Take ya time Luv, everthin’s good ere. Tea to start?”

  “Sure,” I said. I couldn’t take too much more of her cheer. Seemingly happy with the response, she trotted to another table being just as merry to them. “Okay, I’m going to decide on food.”

  “I think my shoulder’s bruised.”

  “I think she’s nice,” Carmen said.

  “Oh yeah,” Terry scuffed, “she’s a real doll.” Rolling his eyes.

  “Americans.”

  “You’re half American.” I didn’t know why I was being grouped in to this. All I said was I was going to decide on food.

  “Yes, so I’m only half as stupid as you two.”

  I had nothing.

  She laughed at us. “Oh, come on,” she said, when we didn’t join in. “I’m only teasing!”

  I couldn’t help myself. “Yeah, you’re good at that.” Her laughing didn’t stop, but she turned as red as the polish I’d seen her putting on her toenails. At that point I did begin to laugh.

  Terry’s gaze was swiftly darting between the two of us. “Did I miss something?”

  Neither of us could break our fits of laughter. I wasn’t sure if we would have told him if we could have. “What?!”

  “Nothing.” I shook my head. I was trying to relearn how to breathe. It wasn’t working so well.

  “Why don’t I believe you?”

  I shrugged my shoulders.

  A few moments later, the waitress came back with tea for Carmen and me. With the same level of excitement, she took our orders. I am not a fan of English food. So I picked the least British item on the menu, soup and salad. I don’t know how they did it but the Brits can even screw up a salad.

  After our own tolerable level of cheery conversation over lunch, we went back to talking business. I pulled out my laptop. As I waited for the computer to power up, I dug a cord from the bag. With it I plugged my phone into the computer.

  “Are you checking the network?” Carmen asked, after finishing off her sandwich.

  “Yeah, I’m going to log on under Sean’s ID. See what I can find under his last few emails. I’m hoping there will be some clue as to who hired him.” She moved closer so she could see the screen.

  “What’s your head worth?” Terry asked. “I might just take up the bounty.”

  “So much that I’m not going to tell you. Because that joke, might not be a joke once I do.”

  “Really!?” Carmen sounded a little too excited about that. She scored a dirty look from me. She must have realized how she sounded. She blushed, just a hair.

  “I’d tell you.” Terry was in the mood to taunt me ever since I wouldn’t tell him what Carmen and I had found so damn funny.

  “No you wouldn’t, jackass.”

  “I might.”

  “Two point five.”

  “Two point five? Two point five what?”

  “Million, you dumb hick.”

  Both of their jaws hit the table. “Your skinny ass is worth two million five hundred thousand dollars?” Terry’s eyes were bugging.

  “Yeah.” I went cold and leaned back in the chair, spreading my jacket so the hilts of my pistols showed. “You want to take a chance on that bounty?” His eyes that moments before were large with surprise had dimmed to small slits. He saw me as a challenge. Carmen was still wide eyed, but with a totally different lo
ok to her face. I’d scared the shit out of both of them enough. I rested forward in the chair and began to type out a long list of commands trying to keep my grin under control. “Terry and Carmen,” I said, looking up from the screen, “I don’t know which of us the better killer is. And it’s a game I don’t want to play.” Terry had already calmed down, but Carmen looked pissed. Maybe the joke was a bit in bad taste. Dammit, I’d fucked up. Now I had to calm her down. “I’m sorry.” She ignored me and just glared. I was sure I’d hear about it later.

  For now I needed to research who was trying to kill me. Despite being angry with me for my ill-favored joke, she still leaned in to see the screen. The screen went blank, only the cursor flashed in the top corner. I entered in the information Sean had tried to hide from me. It worked. Lucky for me he didn’t delete anything. All the incoming and outgoing messages were still there. I selected the latest incoming message. When it loaded on to the screen it was a jumble of nothingness, an orgy of mixed up letters, numbers and symbols. Carmen gave me a questioning look. With another set off commands, letters began rearranging and the message showed itself.

  THE BLACKJACK TOURNAMENT IS BEING PLAYED IN LONDON. I EXPECT THE GAME WILL TAKE AWHILE. MAKE SURE THE GAME DOES NOT LEAVE.

  I read it so that Terry could hear. “So I take it you are blackjack and the game.”

  “And they want me dead before I leave London.” I finished his thought. “That is the gist of it.” I read through more of the messages. Only more riddles, all of them easy to solve since I know what they were hinting at. But none of them gave a single clue who put out the contract.

  “Do you have his account number? There must have been some type of transaction.” It was Carmen’s idea.

  I placed my hand on her knee. She didn’t push it off. I guess I wasn’t in too much trouble. “Yeah, but the transfers are directed through at least five different banks, with this much money, it would be more. Plus, I doubt we could get more than just the name of the bank. We’d never find out the account holder’s name.” I tried to smile at her, it was a good idea, but the network was designed with just that in mind. “Fuck.” I was frustrated. I began running my free hand in my hair.