Those Who Fight Monsters: Tales of Occult Detectives

by Gustainis, Justin

  Hoped that was the cause.

  Next morning, when Tony pulled into the studio parking lot, he found himself parking next to Constable Jack Elson’s red pickup. Jack had started coming around when a bit player had died under suspicious circumstances, had hung in there when the circumstances had changed from suspicious to really fucking strange, and continued to come around because he was dating the production company’s recently promoted office manager. Leaning on the tailgate, he was obviously waiting for Tony.

  “Go easy in there,” he said, as Tony joined him. “Amy’s…”

  “In a mood?”

  “That’ll do.” Jack rubbed his hand over his head, ruffling his hair up into pale blond spikes. “I had to cancel on her again. I’m working a missing person case and unless he magically appears in the next twenty minutes there’s no way I’ll be free for lunch.” Blue eyes narrowed. “He’s not likely to magically appear in the next twenty minutes is he?”

  Tony rolled his eyes. The RCMP constable had been a part of what Amy liked to call “CB Productions and the Attack of the Big Red Demon Thing” where all cards had been laid on the table — and then incinerated — and was remarkably open-minded for a cop, while still managing to maintain his profession’s suspicious nature. “Not as far as I know. Why?”

  “He was seen four days ago in Gastown. You were in Gastown four days ago. Know a twenty-seven year old named Casey Yuen?”

  “Name doesn’t sound familiar.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “You know they … well, we found a body in an alley down the street from our shoot?”

  “The John Doe? I heard you found him. And I checked him out, but he’s about seventy years too old.”

  “They found another elderly John Doe in the mechanical room at Lee’s condo last night.”

  “I heard. You weren’t there when it happened.”

  “You checked?”

  Jack shrugged. “Things happen around you. But I also heard it was natural causes both times. And that the first guy’s heart had a good reason to give out.”

  Valerie. Who he’d seen outside their building the morning of the day the old man had died. It hadn’t even occurred to him to tie her to the second death until Jack’s innuendo.

  “The death occurred in the early evening,” Jack pointed out after Tony filled him in, “and I think I’d have heard if it was a second death by hand job. That’d make it a pattern and we watch for those.”

  “Neither man had ID.”

  “That’s not as uncommon as you might think.” Jack studied him shrewdly. “I’ll check to see if the second body gave any indication of recent sexual activity but I suspect there’s another reason your working girl is hanging around. Lee was playing white knight at the scene and she showed up at the shoot later.”

  “How—” Tony cut himself off. “Amy.”

  Jack shrugged. “All I’m saying is that if the girl was outside your building, odds are good she was there for Lee not because she’s been helping absent minded old men die happy.”

  “I’m not jealous.”

  “Did I say you were?” But he was thinking it. Tony didn’t need to be a wizard to see that on his face. “Look, Tony, old men die. It happens. Sometimes they get confused and wander off without identification. Before he went into the nursing home, we got my granddad an ID bracelet, just in case. But, right now, I’m more concerned about that missing twenty-seven year old.”

  “I could—”

  “No.” Jack held up a hand. “I don’t want you out there playing at Sam Spade with a wand. I just wanted to know if you knew him.” If you were involved said the subtext. “If I run into any weird shit, trust me, I’ll call you.”

  Tony didn’t have an office. He had a corner of a table in one end of the soundstage near the carpentry shop where craft services occasionally set out the substantials rather than have cast and crew tromp through the truck. Barricaded in behind a thermos of coffee and a bagel, he alternated between working on a list of what he needed to do before they started the day’s shooting and thinking about the woman in the blue dress.

  Sure, Lee seemed taken by her, but Tony wasn’t jealous.

  He was suspicious. Not the same thing.

  The old guy in the alley had five hundred and twenty-seven dollars in his wallet and was dressed to score. Tony remembered his initial impression of trying too hard and anyone trying that hard — not a lot of eighty year olds would shoehorn themselves into a pair of tight, low slung jeans — hadn’t been wandering around randomly.

  When he called lunch, Tony reminded everyone to be back in an hour, then told Adam he might be late. That there was something he had to investigate downtown. If Adam believed the investigation was necessary to protect the world from a magical attack, well, Tony wasn’t responsible for Adam’s misconceptions.

  Jack Elson could go fuck himself. Tony wasn’t playing at anything. Two men were dead, Valerie had a connection to them both, and she was hanging around Lee.

  And he didn’t have a fucking wand.

  The drive into Vancouver from Burnaby wasn’t fun, traffic seemed to be insane at any time of the day lately, but Tony wanted the car with him, just in case. In case of what, he had no idea. Stuck behind an accident on McGill Street, he pulled out his phone and realized that of the three people he could call for advice, two of them would be dead to the world — literally — until sunset. His third option, Detective Sergeant Mike Celluci, would likely tell him the same thing Jack had. Stay out of it.

  Lee was in it.

  So was he.

  As the car in front of him started to move, he pocketed his phone and hit the gas.

  Gastown was an historic district as well as an area the city was fighting to reclaim and, in the middle of the day in late fall, the only people out and about were a few office workers hurrying back from lunch, a couple of bored working girls hoping to pick up some noon trade, and a man wearing a burgundy fake fur coat passed out in a doorway. The alley didn’t look any better by daylight.

  Tony walked slowly past the graffiti and the dumpster and the other debris he hadn’t noticed that night. He walked until he stood on the spot where the old man’s body had lain, checked to make sure no one was watching, and held out his left hand. The scar he’d picked up as a souvenir of the night in Caulfield House was red against the paler skin of his palm. The call wasn’t specific; he had no idea of where the old man’s identification was or even what it was exactly, he just knew it had to exist.

  That would have to be enough.

  Come to me.

  It took Tony a few minutes to realize what he was seeing — that the fine, grey powder covering his palm was ash. He traced the silver line back to a crack where the lid of the dumpster didn’t quite fit. Watched it sifting out and into his hand. There was quite a little stack of it by the time it finished. Mixed in with the ash were tiny flecks of crumbling plastic and what might have been flecks of rust.

  The old man had ID with him. Someone had burned it, then dusted it over the garbage in the dumpster. Even if they’d looked, the police would never have found it.

  Tony flicked his hand and watched the ash scatter on the breeze.

  Most modern identification was made of plastic.

  It would take more than a cheap lighter to destroy it so thoroughly.

  Lee wasn’t exactly surprised to see Valerie standing at the end of the driveway when he headed out to work. He pulled over and unlocked the passenger side door. She stared at him for a long moment through the glass — although, given the tinting, he doubted she could see much — and then, finally, got into the car.

  Enclosed, she smelled faintly cinnamon. He loved the smell of cinnamon. Her lips were full and moist, the lower one slightly dimpled in the middle. Her eyes made promises as she said, “I know places we can go where we won’t be interrupted.”

  “That’s not why I stopped.”

  “That’s why everyone stops.” A deep breath strained the fabric of the dress. “I can give you w
hat you need.”

  “I have what I need.” As a line, it verged on major cheese, but it was true. “What do you need?”

  “What do I…?” She blinked and the promises were unmade. “No one’s ever asked me that before.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  She looked startled by the sympathy. He had a feeling no one had ever apologized to her before, either. Slender fingers tugged at the hem of her dress. “I … I could use a ride downtown.”

  “Okay.” Lee pulled into traffic. “That’s a start.”

  Amber snapped her gum and pushed stringy hair back off her face. “So you’re not a cop?”

  “No.”

  “Or some kind of private dick?”

  Tony spread his hands. “I don’t even play one on TV.”

  “Then why are you askin’?” She sagged back against the building and yawned. “You don’t look like some kind of religious nutter. What’d this girl do for you that was so fucking great you need to find her?”

  “It’s not what she did for me—”

  “Ah.” Amber cut him off. “I get it. Jealous boyfriend.” She laughed at Tony’s expression. “Honey, you haven’t looked at my tits once, and even the nutters check the merchandise. And…” Her voice picked up a bitter edge. “…you turn, just a little, when a car goes by. Enough that a driver could check us both. You’ve got a history. Afraid he’s going to find out about it?”

  “He knows.”

  “Uh huh.”

  Tony had no idea how this had suddenly become about him. “Look, I just need to find Valerie. Reddish brown hair, short blue dress.”

  “Black heels? Black sweater, kind of cropped? She just got out of one of them expensive penis-mobiles on the other side of the street,” Amber added when he nodded. “At least someone’s making the rent today.”

  Tony turned just in time to see Lee’s car disappear around the corner and Valerie walk into a sandwich shop. He shoved the fifty he’d been holding into Amber’s hand and ran across Cordova, flipping off the driver of a Mini Cooper who’d hit the horn.

  The sandwich shop was empty except for the pock-marked, middle-aged man behind the counter.

  “The woman who just came in here, where did she go?”

  The man smiled, looking dazed. “I didn’t see a woman.”

  “She just came in here.”

  His smile broadened. “I didn’t see a woman.”

  The guy was so stoned he wouldn’t have seen a parade go through. The only other door was behind the counter. When Tony moved toward it, he found himself blocked.

  “Where the fuck do you think you’re going?” Counter guy didn’t look stoned now, he looked pissed.

  “Look, I need to find that woman.”

  And the smile returned. “I didn’t see a woman.”

  It wasn’t magic, at least not magic Tony recognized, but it wasn’t right.

  “I gave her a ride, Tony, what’s wrong with that?”

  “Nothing’s wrong with it.” Tony paced the length of Lee’s dressing room and back again, wishing he had another ten or twenty meters to cover. “It’s just … she wants something from you.”

  Lee rolled his eyes. “No shit. But I’m not going to give it her. I feel sorry for her. She’s in a bad situation.” He caught Tony’s wrist as he passed and dragged him to a stop. “You should know about that.”

  Except this still wasn’t about him. “I think she had something to do with those two deaths.”

  “Then why did she scream that night in the alley? Why did she scream and attract attention to herself if she had something to do with the guy’s death?”

  “She screamed because I was already on my way into the alley. She knew she was going to be discovered and screaming would shift suspicion away.”

  “You have any evidence to support this theory?”

  “I found the old man’s ID…”

  “Tell Jack.”

  “It’s been destroyed. I’m guessing that between the time he died and the time she screamed — and he was still warm so that wasn’t long — something reduced his ID to a fine ash.” Tony twisted out of Lee’s grip. “Your average hooker couldn’t do that.”

  “You could.” From the look on his face, Lee knew exactly how that had sounded. “Look, you have no proof Valerie’s involved in anything but bad timing. You’re not a detective…”

  “And you only play one on TV.”

  “Is this about me? Because I’m paying attention to her? For fuck’s sake Tony.”

  “I saw how she looked at you.”

  “I’m an actor. Lots of people look at me.”

  Tony meant to say, “I think you’re in danger.” but when he opened his mouth, what came out was, “I saw how you looked at her.”

  Before Lee could respond, Pam rapped on the dressing room door and called, “They’re ready for you on set, Lee.”

  Lee took a deep breath and shrugged into the overlay of James Taylor Grant. “We’re done talking about this,” he growled, opened the door, pushed past Pam, and slammed the door so hard two framed photos fell off the wall.

  “I think you’re in danger,” Tony said, staring at the broken glass.

  “Lee…”

  “I’ve got that promo thing tonight.” Lee shrugged out of Grant’s leather jacket. “With the American affiliates. There’s going to be a lot of liquor, so I’ll probably get a room at the hotel.”

  Not the sort of hotel a basic streetwalker could score an entry to. “Okay.” Tony held out the next day’s sides. “You’ve got a 10 AM call tomorrow.”

  Lee looked down at the paper, up at Tony, closed his eyes for a moment and sighed. “She’s very beautiful and I’m not dead but I would never…”

  “I know.” And ninety percent of the time, he did.

  If he wanted to talk to a hooker, Tony had to go back to where the hookers were. Back in Gastown, he wrapped himself in a notice-me-not and wandered along the sidewalks, searching for Valerie among the men and women who had nothing left to sell but themselves.

  A little voice in the back of his head had started trying to tell him that she was with Lee when he spotted her outside the Gastown Hotel on Water Street. Same blue dress. She was standing by a car. A classic Chevy Malibu. Mid-sixties probably, jet black. Tony couldn’t see much of the driver except for the full tribal sleeve tattoo on the arm half through the open window.

  He was a block away on the wrong side of the street so he started to run. Stopped when she half turned and looked right at him.

  Her eyes widened and he had no doubt she could see him clearly.

  As clearly as he could see her. Surrounded by traffic and people, she was entirely alone. Her need to be seen hit him so hard it nearly brought him to his knees.

  Then she shook her head, got into the car, and by the time he reached the curb in front of the hotel, Tony couldn’t tell which set of taillights he needed to follow.

  Nine-thirty the next morning, Tony was out in the studio parking lot waiting for Lee, pretending he wasn’t. He stepped back as Jack’s truck pulled in and then stepped forward again when the constable stopped a mere meter away. “Listen, Tony, can you do me a favor? Tell Amy…”

  “No.”

  “I’m just going to be late, that’s all. I’ve got another missing person and my time is fucked.”

  Tony closed his hand over the edge of the open window. “This missing person, does he own a classic Chevy Malibu?”

  He got his answer from the look on Jack’s face when he pushed up his sunglasses. “Tony?”

  “Check around. See if an old John Doe with a tribal sleeve turned up. Left arm.”

  Jack glanced down at the paperwork on the seat beside him. “My missing person has a tribal sleeve. Left arm.” When he looked up, his eyes had narrowed to the point where they were nearly cliché. “What do you know?”

  “I spooked her and she got careless.” He drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “And this isn’t a police case.”

 
Jack stared at him for a long moment and finally nodded. “You want me to call you when this old John Doe turns up?”

  “You can.”

  “But I don’t need to.”

  Tony shrugged.

  “So while I’m dealing with this case that isn’t a police case, what are you going to be doing?”

  “Research.”

  “Where do you research this kind of shit?”

  “I work on a vampire/detective show, Jack.” Backing away from the truck, Tony spread his hands. “I’m going to talk to the writers.”

  Lee half expected Tony to be waiting for him in the parking lot. They were used to spending nights apart — hell, they’d spent five weeks apart during hiatus while he was in South Africa shooting a movie — but this… He couldn’t fucking believe they were fighting over a woman. Wasn’t that what straight guys did?

  When Tony finally appeared forty minutes later, Lee stepped toward him only to be yanked back into place by the stunt coordinator.

  “Trying to keep you from breaking bones,” Daniel growled. “Pay attention.”

  They moved directly from set-up to rehearsing the fight scene to shooting the fight scene.

  By the time Lee was free and the crew had scattered for lunch, Tony was behind closed doors in CB’s office.

  “How long’s he going to be?”

  “Jesus, Lee, how should I know?” Amy reached under a fall of matt black hair to adjust her headset. “Stupid PA quit and it’s not like I don’t have the whole office to…” She rolled her eyes as the phone rang. “CB Productions, can I help you?”

  His scene later in the day was all weird, esoteric dialogue, the vampire/detective version of techno babble. He should go to his dressing room and run lines, but all Lee could think of was brown eyes and chestnut hair and a blue dress. “I’m done until three. Tell Tony I’ve gone into downtown.”

  Amy nodded, rolled her eyes at whatever was being said on the other end of the phone, and waved him toward the door.

  Valerie was waiting on the corner of West Cordova and Homer Streets. Well, not waiting for him but since he was the one who drove up beside her, Lee figured she might as well have been. “Hey!”

  Her smile made him feel immortal.