He doesn’t believe a word.
“Did Curtis tell you about the case?”
“He did. I’ll be glad to help.”
The Chief nodded again. “Good. I’ll get the paperwork started.” He strode off.
“I’m coming,” Harold said. He turned to Curtis. “I’ll see you later.”
“I feel sorry for him,” Mona said, once they were out of ear shot. “It must have been hard for him to watch his officers turn traitor like that.”
“He needed to see it,” Curtis said dryly. “That’s what I was trying to tell him earlier. Maybe now he’ll believe me.”
“Come on,” Mona said, “we need to talk to Richard.”
——
They sat in same park Curtis and Mona had visited earlier, Richard on a bench across from them with his hands between his knees.
“That speech was outtasite man,” Curtis said. “I want you to know we didn’t just come to sight see. We wanna help.”
“Right on, ‘cause we’re building a movement across North American. Later this month, we’re gonna visit Governor Mekins. She needs to do a sweep of the Constabulary. WMU is all in and through it. That DA needs to go too.” Richard eyed Curtis. “I ain’t got much use for Constables, but if you got any contacts on the force, we could sure use the intell.”
“I’m not any Constable anymore,” Curtis replied. “I’m a PI now. But Ill see what I can do.” There was a coiled energy beneath Richard’s surface. It was setting off his detective’s radar. What’s he’s hiding?
“Cool.” Richard turned his intense light-brown eyes to Mona. “I saw you do things that should be impossible. I hope you don’t mind me asking, but are you human?”
Curtis and Mona cut their eyes at each other. “I’m human,” she said. “But I was born with abilities. You’ve seen a little of what I can do.”
Richard nodded approvingly. “Very impressive. What about you brother and that white Constable fighting with you? You human? ‘Cause you were both tossing cats like rag dolls.”
“I’m human. We both are,” Curtis said. “With some added juice.”
“Your chests were glowing.”
Curtis smiled thinly. “That’s the juice.
“It looked like you fell. Or did I imagine it?”
Mona twisted her hands. There was no way to ease into this. “Something got a hold of me while I was in the air and nearly killed me. That’s why I fell. I think Opal fought it off. She told us to contact you. She said we’d need you in the battle that’s to come.”
“Opal? Who’s that?” Richard’s face was guileless, questioning.
“You’ve never met her?”
He shook his head. “No.”
“She’s dark and well-built. She looks like she’s around my age. Until you look in her eyes.”
Recognition flickered on Richard’s face. “Does she wear clocks for rings?”
“So, you have met her?”
He shifted on the bench. For the first time he looked unsettled. “I didn’t exactly meet her. She came to me in a dream.”
The entire time Richard was talking, Mona was reading him. She sensed no evil intent, but there were other things, hidden things, things he shouldn’t have been able to conceal from her. There was an energy she sensed just below the surface. She decided not to push him. Instead, she told him about her encounter with Opal and the doorway, hoping he would open up.
“Damn. You sure you saw that? You weren’t high? Can you show me this door? Something like that, I gotta see to believe.”
Mona shook her head. “I don’t even know where it is, just that it’s somewhere here in Monterrey. But trust me, it’s real. As real as you or me.”
Richard smiled humorlessly. “All due respect, that’s the craziest shit I ever heard in my life. A door between worlds that I can’t see? But I’m supposed to believe it exists?”
“What about what you saw today?” Curtis countered. “Do you believe that? Opal said that the war to save both worlds would be fought in North America. And this is only the beginning.”
Richard shifted in his seat, looking uncomfortable. “I saw you raising hell,” he mumbled. “That’s all I saw.”
“Opal said the Earth was in pain,” Mona said, “and it cried out to her— that you were part of the fight to save our world. We’re not just fighting human enemies. Not anymore. We’re fighting the supernatural. And it looks like they’ve decided to throw their weight behind White Men United.”
“There’s a reason we’re being brought together, n’est-ce pas?” Curtis added, his brown eyes passionate. “What you’ve seen, its nothing compared to what’s coming. I been down this road with Mona before. This time it’s different—I can feel it. We’re in the eye of the storm.”
There was a charged silence as they waited for Richard to speak. He looked from one to the other. They’re probably crazy. But maybe crazy is what it takes to win. “Me and Simone, we got into this fight to stop the Constables from killing us. Then they killed her. She was all the family I had,” Richard darted his eyes from Curtis to Mona. “But I ain’t gonna stop— I’ll never stop. Until they kill me too.”
He bared his teeth in a warrior’s smile. “I’m in. Let’s see where this journey leads.
_____
Chapter 18: Ambush
Mona unlocked the door to her room, and they stepped inside. She lit the oil lamps atop coffee tables on either side of her queen-sized bed. The bed was covered with a golden quilt that matched the carpet. French doors opened onto a balcony.
They stepped through the French doors onto the balcony. The cobblestones and wooden edifices below were bathed in the luminescence of gas streetlamps. He smiled slyly. “You remember the last time we stayed at an inn?”
“Is that a request?”
“Wi bebe.”
“Close your eyes.”
Curtis shut his eyes, and Mona softly blew over his eyelids. “Let them come.”
The soft light wavered. In the next moment, they both saw five faeries with mauve wings playing tag around the gaslight. Below them an eight-foot-tall specter, wearing a vest and top hat, carried a walking stick to match his long skinny legs. To Curtis, he looked like a human spider, only he had four limbs instead of eight.
He pulled her close, his arm about her waist, his eyes still on the scene below. “Di ou mèsi ti bebe.”
“I dig you with abilities,” she said softly. “I hope you never lose them.”
He let her go and turned, gazing into her eyes. “You think I’d leave you? I wouldn’t, not if they disappeared tomorrow.” Mona, who wasn’t so sure, kept silent. “I think I had to grow to accept things the way they are. I love you, Mona. Nothing’s gonna change that.”
“I love you, too.”
For a while they were quiet watching the Others caper in the darkness.
“Richard is hiding something,” Curtis said at length. “I can feel it. Call it a detective’s second sense.”
Mona clasped the railing, her dark face reflective. “Yeah, I was picking up some strange vibes from him. I think he had something to do with those Constable’s deaths. They started dying right after Simone was murdered.”
Curtis looked out across the city, his face brooding. “I was thinking the same thing. What I’m trying to figure out is how he did it.”
_______
Richard rose from his armchair and walked into his kitchen. He pulled cheese, bread, and fruit from his cold box and made an evening meal of sorts. His kitchen, like the rest of his small flat, was covered with paintings and calligraphy drawings in assorted sizes. After Simone’s murder, he’d fallen into a deep depression. His skill as an artist had helped him hold on to his sanity. But tonight, Richard felt more upbeat than he’d been in a while. His grief was beginning to fade from an open wound to a dull ache. He’d felt a lot of positive energy flowing from Curtis and Mona, too. He wasn’t alone anymore. The Ancestors comforted him. But Mona and Curtis were living breathing human beings
, just like him. Yet he hadn’t told them everything. He was afraid to.
What would they say if they knew I killed those people ...? I’m supposed to meet them later tonight. I can feel ‘em out and decide how much to tell ‘em.
Richard finished off his sandwich and strolled out of his kitchen. It was a warm night, and he heard the faint sound of music. He could sit on the stoop for a while and enjoy the warm weather. Mona and Curtis had told him to keep a low profile, but he wasn’t worried. Whatever it was hunting them didn’t know him. They didn’t know him at all.
Richard froze. He heard the thump of feet running down his hallway. As his door burst open Richard brought his hands together in a thunderous clap. A reverberation spread from his hands. Three Constables filled his doorway, their muskets trained on him.
At the moment they fired Richard split in half. He became two men diving in opposite directions. Translucent myriad-colored breasts appeared—humped back creatures with the bodies of dragons and the heads of wolves. The confused Constables were now trying to hit multiple moving targets, while Richard’s snarling transparent beasts snarled and jumped at them, baring razor-sharp fangs. The beasts couldn’t hurt them; the creatures were only an illusion. But they didn’t know that. And bullets went straight through them.
It gave one of the Richards (the real one) time to grab his own musket—
A man appeared, his face and body shifting from visible to invisible. A solid hand emerged from his fluid mass. White powder floated above his palm. He whispered a spell. Everyone froze. The power floated of its own accord past the officers into both Richards. The spell broke. His halves coalesced, and he collapsed: paralyzed. His spirit beasts vanished. As did the intruder.
A white Constable stepped forward, kicking Richard’s musket out of the way, and pointed his weapon down at the prone Richard. His face spread in nasty grin. “Nighty night, asshole.”
“Fuck you!” Richard snarled.
“HEY!” a man called from their right. The Constable paused in his deadly mission.
A light-skinned black man dressed in pilot’s garb was striding toward them. He grinned and spread his hands affably. “Don’ mean to trouble you, boss.” The man had a baritone voice with a heavy Southern accent. “I’m jest looking for 14th street.”
“You’re on 14th street asshole! Now get the hell outta here!”
The younger Constable on the far end trained his musket on the newcomer. The stranger fainted.
“What the—!”
“Burn him! Burn ‘em both!”
Suddenly, the Constable holding a musket on Richard jumped. He turned and shot one, and the other officer. Then he put the barrel under his own chin and pulled the trigger. It exploded and he collapsed in a bloody, boneless heap. A diaphanous wisp floated from his body to the prone pilot laying behind them. The pilot sat up and jumped to his feet. Richard got to his feet as well. He stared open-mouthed, unsure whether to burst into hysterical laughter or run for his life.
Junebug spoke in a rich baritone, “You need to come with me. You ain’t safe here.”
“Who are you?”
“I’m the man who jus’ killed three Constables for you. We need to move. Now. Or you can stand here jaw jabbin’ till three more find you.”
Richard hesitated. Fuck it. He saved my life. “Gimme five minutes.”
“You got two,” Junebug said. He whipped his head right and left scoping out the hallway.
Richard returned with a bag of clothes. He stepped out and pulled his door shut. “Aw shit! They busted my lock! All my art is in here!”
“Send somebody back for it,” Junebug said. “Let’s move.”
_____
Chapter 19: Reunion
Junebug flagged down a horse and buggy cab. “Take us to The Sojourner Restaurant and Pub.”
Richard’s eyes widened. I was supposed to meet them at the same inn.
Once inside, Junebug headed for the restaurant with Richard following. They sat down at a table.
“I’m supposed to be meeting some folks here later. It’s kinda weird, us winding up at the same place.”
“Mona and Curtis, right?” Junebug said casually.
Richard’s jaw dropped. “How’d you know that?”
A petite, tofu-colored waitress walked over to take their order. “Bring me a brandy, sweetness,” Junebug said. He looked over at Richard. “What you drinkin’?”
“I’ll have a beer.” Richard waited until the server was out of earshot. “Who are you, man?” he asked in a low charged voice. “What are you?”
“I’m Larry Walker. You can call me Junebug.”
“Alright Junebug, thanks for saving my life. But what you did today—how’d you do that?”
“Them Constables is huntin’ you jest like a lynch mob.” Junebug pulled a cigar out of his breast pocket and lit it. Anger crept into his voice. “I thought I’d seen the last of this shit.”
Richard quirked his mouth. “You didn’t answer my question.” The waitress brought their drinks over, and the men fell silent until she left.
“I’m a ghost,” Junebug said calmly. He blew out a cloud of smoke. “I’m part of this. The same folks helping you sent me.”
“A ghost?” Richard looked dubious. “Like a spirit?”
“That’s right.”
“I ain’t never seen no ghost do what you did.”
At this, Junebug’s full lips turned up in a dry smile. “I can see thangs—do thangs—ordinary ghosts can’t. I guess that’s why they want me.” He picked up his drink and took a long satisfying sip, while Richard looked on.
“Ghosts don’t drink liquor,” Richard said, “or smoke.”
“Boy, you’ll never figure me out in a million years, so stop tryin.’ I’m on your side—part of your team. That’s all you need to know … Tell me something. Why didn’t you kill them Constables earlier? You got power. I can feel it.”
“I was about to.” Richard said. “Then somebody showed up—just appeared out of thin air. He blew something in my face. It paralyzed me.”
“You get a good look at him?”
“Naw, his face was fuzzy … it kept blinking in and out.”
Junebug’s face was hard. “That means there’s another player on the board. A sorcerer if I had to guess. Good thang Mona’s on our team.”
“Hold up!” Richard exploded. The other patrons looked over at them. He leaned forward and lowered his voice. “Man, you ain’t no ghost. Just be honest. What are you? An Ancestor? A sorcerer?”
“I told you what I am. You don’t wanna believe me, that’s yo’ affair.”
They fell silent. Richard sipped his beer, sneaking glances at Junebug as he did. The ghost puffed his cigar, ignoring him. Mona was his dearest friend. He’d told her a great deal about his strange condition over the years, at least all he understood. She knew he could possess the living, read minds, teleport over great distances, bringing his human body with him as he did so.
But this man here, he’s another story. He wasn’t about to share his most intimate secrets with a stranger. Let Richard keep his questions. Let Richard fear him if he must.
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