The Man Who Crossed Worlds (Miles Franco #1)

by Chris Strange

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Breakthroughs had one hell of a rejuvenating ability. I clutched the bottle of Chroma in my hands so tight it hurt and tried to work out which of the swirling thoughts I wanted to deal with first. My sleep deprivation was gone in an instant, replaced by a sense of determination that burned through my veins. I wanted to leap, I wanted to hug Vivian, but most of all I wanted to see the cops slap handcuffs on Spencer and haul him off to jail.

  A dim part of my brain remembered that I’d once considered the chemist a friend, or at least a business acquaintance, but I shoved that thought aside. He was a liar, that’s what he was. He’d hurt Tania. He could’ve killed her, goddamn it! And he was going to do it again and again. No, I had no qualms about seeing him banged up.

  “What are we waiting for?” I asked. “Let’s go.”

  Vivian started to nod, but then her face dropped, and she touched her bottom lip with her teeth. “I’ll call Detective Todd. But…”

  “But? But what?”

  “You’re not coming.”

  It felt like she’d just offered me a million bucks then set it on fire. “What the hell, Vivian? I’m in this case as much as you. You think I won’t risk a little more danger?”

  I was getting close to shouting, but I didn’t give a damn about the stares I was attracting from the other patients. The triage nurse glared at me, and it took all my self-control not to scream obscenities at her.

  Vivian raised her hands in what she probably thought was a soothing gesture, and spoke in a quiet voice as if hoping that I’d follow suit. “It’s not the danger, Miles. You know Davies—”

  “So do you,” I said, waving my arms around. “The hell does that have to do with anything?”

  “Damn it, Miles, you’re not a cop, all right? I don’t know what Davies has got rigged up there. If Tania knows who he is, so do the gangsters. What if they show up? You haven’t got a gun.”

  “I’ve got my nightstick.” I pointed to my jacket, still wrapped around Tania. She was staring up at us with eyes wide and her mouth slightly open. She pulled her knees up to her chest as I looked at her, and I realized in my current state I must look like I’d gone twelve rounds with a brick. The shock and fear on her face cut deep, dulling my anger at Vivian.

  Vivian shook her head. “Someone needs to stay with Tania.”

  Tania opened her mouth, a pout already forming on her lips, but Vivian gave her a look that sent her jaws smacking back together. Why could I never get anyone to shut up like that?

  I scowled, but the bloody woman was right. Again. What if the gangsters came back for Tania? The thought of them taking her again tied my guts into a knot.

  Vivian looked me up and down, gracious in my defeat. “Thank you, Miles. Walter and I couldn’t have done this without you. I’ll make sure you’re compensated.” She took a step forward and hesitated for a moment. Then she awkwardly put her arms around my shoulders.

  It took me a second to remember how to breathe. I couldn’t work out where to put my hands, so I settled for a one-armed hug with my other hand dangling pointlessly by my side. A wisp of hair brushed my chin.

  “Vivian?” I asked. Tania was making faces at me over Vivian’s shoulder.

  “Your job is over,” Vivian said. She pulled away from me and patted me on the shoulder. “Get some rest. I’ll contact you when we’re done.”

  I opened my mouth with no idea what I was going to say, but she didn’t give me a chance to find out. Without another word, she spun on her heel and stalked out of the Emergency Department. Despite everything, I gave a brief thought to chasing her. But I just stood there like an idiot and gave myself a moment to brood. Hell, I’d deserved it. What the hell had all that been about?

  When I was done, I sat back down in the hard plastic chair of the waiting room and let my head flop backward. It didn’t matter, not really. The important thing was that it was over. Being there at the end wouldn’t help none.

  I felt something warm on my arm, and I opened my eyes to find Tania holding my arm while she inspected the cut Andrews had given me on my shoulder. She still had a little grin playing on her face that I wished I could wipe right off.

  “Does it hurt?” she asked.

  “A little.” Even now I was trying to be a big man, so I wasn’t going to tell her that it stung like the devil’s piss.

  She smiled at me as if she knew that I was lying, then her face was in her hands and she was wracked with sobs.

  “I’m sorry,” she gasped. “I’m so sorry.”

  After I’d adjusted to the sudden change in emotion, I got my brain into gear and put my arms around her. “Hey, it’s okay. You’re okay now.”

  “I’m so stupid. I was home alone when I heard those men banging down your door. I thought I could take them. I lied to you. I still had some Kemia left. I tried to make a Pin Hole, not to hurt them, I mean, just to scare them away. But it didn’t work properly. I couldn’t concentrate. And then one of them had a gun, and they put a bag over my head, and…”

  I squeezed her, my shirt growing wet with tears. My own tears were returning, but I blinked them away again. I was strong, damn it. I stroked her hair, lost for words.

  “There, there,” I offered lamely.

  It didn’t seem to help. She was shaking like a baby bird. Guilt made my stomach turn, shame at what she’d suffered because of me.

  When her sobs quieted and her tears didn’t flow quite so freely, I put a hand under her chin and lifted her face toward me. “I’m going to teach you. I promised you that, and I’m going to stick to it. Next time you’ll be better prepared. Okay?”

  She sniffed and nodded. “I’m so stupid,” she mumbled.

  I raised her chin again, forcing her to look me in the eyes. “None of this is your fault. None of it, hear me? It was me who got dumb, you were just the one that paid the price for it. I won’t let it happen again.”

  She didn’t look like she believed me, but she nodded anyway. That would have to do for now.

  We waited another hour before another nurse—a Vei one, this time—came for us. Well, he came for Tania, and I just followed. I think he assumed I was her father, and I didn’t do anything to disabuse him of that notion. I wasn’t going to abandon her until I knew she was okay.

  The nurse led us to a cubicle with curtains for walls, fluorescent bulbs for lighting, a narrow bed for Tania and a seat for me. Tania took a seat on the edge of the bed, while I remained standing. The nurse eyed my wounds dubiously and said, “I’ll get someone to look at those cuts.”

  I shook my head. “Her first.”

  He looked like he was going to argue, but then he took another look at my face and just sighed. “I’ll be back in a minute to take some bloods. The doctor will be in shortly.” He handed Tania a green hospital gown and a little white dish made of plastic. “We’ll need a urine sample. The bathroom’s down the hall.”

  Tania blushed and nodded, and he left, leaving the curtain open. There was a moment of awkward silence before she stood up. I made to follow her, and she gave me a look.

  “I can pee by myself.”

  I smiled sheepishly and sat down. “You know, you’re probably right. Go on, then.”

  She wandered away, and I slipped off my damp jacket and leaned my head back. My earlier fix of adrenaline and discovery seemed to be wearing off, and now it was all I could do to keep my eyes open. I decided that was an unreasonable expenditure of energy, so I closed them.

  “Mr. Franco?”

  I jerked awake and blinked around at the bright lights. I hadn’t even realized I’d fallen asleep. Jesus, I was tired.

  The stern-looking triage nurse stood over me, her face still wearing the look of disapproval that seemed to be her default setting.

  “Yeah?”

  She held out a black cordless phone. “There’s a call for you. Normally I wouldn’t, but it’s a detective, and—”

  I snatched the phone from her hand and pressed it to my ear. “Vivian?”

&n
bsp; Detective Todd’s voice came back at me instead. “Sorry, Miles. Just me. Nice job, by the way. Sounds like you had some adventures.”

  The triage nurse glared at me and gestured at me to return the phone when I was done. I nodded, impatient, and she left.

  “Adventures aren’t what I’d call them. Did you get him? Did you get Spencer?”

  “We sure did.” I could hear the grin in his voice, and I’m pretty sure I was grinning too. “Bastard’s getting shipped off downtown right now. We’re searching his place, and there’s crates and crates of chemicals down here. Immigration’s not going to send in their chemists until morning, though.”

  “Lazy bastards.”

  “Tell me about it. You want to come down and help us work out what all this crap is? You’ll have a better idea about this sort of stuff than us. I want to get this thing wrapped up ASAP.” He pronounced it ‘aye-sap’. “You’d be doing us a huge favor.”

  At that moment Tania returned from the bathroom, wearing the hospital gown. Her color was a bit better now, and her eyes were no longer sunken like a skeleton’s. But there was something in the way she walked, the way she didn’t stand as proud as she normally did. She frowned at the phone and gave me a questioning look.

  “Sorry,” I said into the phone. “I can’t. Not right now.”

  There was a click, like a lighter being flicked on. “I really need you on this, Miles. Half this shit’s in Vei, and I’ll be damned if I can decipher a word of it.” He exhaled audibly, and I swore I could smell the cigarette smoke coming through the telephone.

  “I don’t see how I’ll be much help. I’ll try to drop by in the morning, but right now I got Tania to look after—”

  Tania snatched the phone out of my hand. “I can look after myself.”

  “Like hell you can.”

  Boy, was that the wrong thing to say. She planted her hands on her hips while Todd squawked out of the phone, and gave me the kind of look women save up for those extra dumb things you do.

  “What does he want?” she said.

  “Christ, kid, keep it down.”

  “Does he want your help?”

  “Yeah,” I said, “but I’m not going.”

  She loomed well for such a little thing. “I’m not some dumb kid you have to babysit, Miles.”

  “But just before you said…”

  I stopped before I could shove my foot any further into my mouth. It seemed to me that the patients in the surrounding cubicles had put a damper on their own conversations. Hell, I could practically see them pressing their ears against the curtain.

  I decided to try again, using my calm voice this time. “Look—”

  She shoved the phone back in my face and lowered her voice. “Go do what you have to do. Or I’ll make such a fuss security comes calling. I’m sure I can think of something to get a grown man in trouble when he’s alone with an innocent young girl.”

  “You manipulative little—”

  She smiled and waved the phone in my face.

  I shook my head. “I’ll call your mom and stay until she gets here. Then—”

  “Oh, help!” she called out the curtain. “Help!”

  “Ah, Christ.” I snatched the phone out of her hands and she gave me a victorious grin. “You still there, Walt?”

  “Barely. The hell you got going on there?”

  “You don’t want to know.” I gave Tania another long look. She just smiled sweetly back. I sighed. “I’m on my way.”

  “Attaboy.” He sounded relieved. “See you soon.” He hung up.

  I jabbed at the off button on the phone and scowled at Tania. “You better keep yourself out of trouble, kid.”

  “I promise,” she said, grinning.

  I slung my jacket over my shoulder and stomped out of the cubicle. Women. Why was it always women?

  No one stopped me as I walked out of the Emergency Department, though I got a few dirty looks. I gave one of the nurses Denise’s number, then went to the front of the hospital. I stopped by an ATM, cleared out my account of its meager savings, and hailed a taxi out front. I gave the Asian driver Spencer’s address. When I told him the neighborhood he gave me one of those “The hell kind of crook are you?” looks, but I flashed him my cash, still warm from the ATM, and he started the car.

  The rain started as the taxi pulled up outside Spencer’s place, right on cue. The shit-hole street looked much the same as before. A tow truck must’ve taken away the car Spencer had wrecked, though I could still see shards of glass glinting under the street light. I couldn’t see Vivian’s car, but there was another car that could’ve been Todd’s down the road a little bit, neatly parked between a pair of vehicles so rusted I was surprised they didn’t turn to dust where they sat.

  I passed the cabbie his fare and stepped out into the rain. There were long stretches of darkness in between the street lights, but the street was deserted as far as I could see. I dashed across the road with my jacket above my head and went down the stairs to Spencer’s door. Huddling under the narrow overhanging, I shook the rainwater off my jacket and tried the door handle. It was unlocked.

  I poked my head inside. “Hello?”

  “Back here, Miles.” Todd’s voice floated from the back room.

  I closed the door behind me and felt my way through the dark laboratory. The place still stunk of ammonia. Probably it always would. I’m no expert on cleaning, but something tells me once a smell like that permeates every nook and cranny of a building, it’s there until you burn the place down and start over.

  I could hear someone rustling out back. I finally found the doorknob to the back room and went through into the light.

  Detective Todd was holding a couple of jars of colored liquid up to the light, squinting at the label, while a lit cigarette hung from his lips. He glanced up as I came in and offered me one of them.

  “What do you reckon that says?” he asked.

  I took the jar and tried to decipher Spencer’s handwriting on the label. “Ethyl…fluro…” I gave up and shrugged. “Not a damn clue. Where’s Vivian?”

  He took the jar back and stuck it on the table with a pile of others. “Down at the station putting the screws on Davies. She’ll get answers out of him. Who’d’ve thought it, huh? The guy seemed like such a weasel. Wouldn’t have thought he had it in him to cause us this much trouble.”

  I nodded and ran a hand through my hair. God, I needed a shower. “Threw me for a loop, that’s for sure. Where do you want me to get started?”

  “There’s a bunch of boxes in that room back there.” He pointed. “Might as well start there. Just ID what you can.”

  I wandered through the door he pointed out. It looked like it had started off life as a bedroom with a built-in wardrobe, but now it was stacked with crates and boxes of unknown origin. My heart sank a little at the size of the task. I gave myself a mental kick in the ass. I wanted to keep helping, and that’s what I was doing. No point bitching about it.

  I picked the first box up, hefted it over to a desk in the corner, and opened it. It was stacked full of little glass vials with green liquid inside, all divided by strips of cardboard. I pulled one out and peered at the label.

  “So how’d you find your first case?” Todd’s voice floated in from the other room. “Everything you expected?”

  I gave up on the vial and pulled out the next one. “It’s a bit different than the TV shows, that’s for sure.”

  He laughed. “You’re damn right about that. It’s a hard slog, and there ain’t much glory in it.”

  I nodded even though he couldn’t see me. It seemed all the case had done was got people hurt. At least it was over now. “I thought you had a kid at home,” I said. “What are you doing out so late?”

  “He’s with his mother. I just gotta finish off this one last thing, then I can go back to him.”

  “Must be tough, being a cop and a dad.”

  He laughed, but it rang hollow. “You got no idea.”

  I su
ppressed a yawn and picked up another vial. It slipped from my hands.

  My heart leaped into my throat. I half expected the thing to explode when it hit the ground. I made a grab for it, fumbled, missed again.

  It hit the ground, but by some miracle it didn’t explode or spray corrosive acid over my feet. It didn’t even shatter. I picked it up and inspected it, but it wasn’t leaking. Just a tiny crack at the top.

  Christ. I was so tired I could barely keep moving. The first thing I’d do when I got home was sleep for a week. Maybe two.

  I went to turn back and return the vial to the box, but something caught my eye. One door of the room’s built-in wardrobe was slightly ajar, and an off-white piece of fabric peeked out.

  I don’t know why it caught my eye. It just seemed out of place, somehow. This didn’t seem like the sort of room Spencer would keep his clothes. I put the vial back on the table and opened the wardrobe.

  The sight hit me an instant before the smell. I stumbled backward, bent over double, bile spilling in my throat. I closed my eyes as tightly as I could, willing the image to go away, for it to be some horrible hallucination. But when I opened my eyes, it was still there.

  Spencer Davies stared up at me from inside the wardrobe, his neck bent to an impossible angle. His limbs were crammed in haphazardly, probably broken.

  His face, Jesus, his face was the worst part. It was coated in blood, his forehead stoved in. A bunch of teeth weren’t where they were supposed to be, and his mouth was fixed open in a scream. A fresh wave of nausea ran through me as I stared into his dead eyes, and black spots swam in my vision.

  “Todd!” I yelled. “Fuck, Todd, where are you?”

  I spun toward the door, and found the detective already standing there. He wasn’t looking at Spencer’s broken body. He was looking at me. Confusion pounded inside my head, and then I saw the pistol in his hand.

  “Sorry, Miles,” he said without emotion. He aimed the pistol at me. “You lucked out.”