“Oh, sure now that I know, I see it.”
“Forget it. Listen, do you have any good news for us at all?”
“`Fraid not. Warwick police can’t find Lesley Marx Swan. Our guys can’t locate Rachel Marx, Eric Feldon or Oscar Shaul. On top of that, the jewelry store has an out-of-business sign hanging on the front door.”
“Okay, thanks for the news. You really made our day.”
“Sorry.”
“Yeah, me too.”
I tucked the phone away and then hung my head, feeling about as spent as a human being could feel. Carlos came up and put his hand on my shoulder.
“None of this is our fault, Tony. They played a perfect game.”
“Yeah, and we were the pawns.”
“He slapped me on the back and nudged me toward the car. “Come on. What do you say I buy you a lousy cup of coffee and a cinnamon donut at the Perc?”
“You know what,” I said. I looked up at him and nodded. “That sounds really good. Thanks.”
Chapter 27
Carlos and I sat in our favorite booth at The Percolator, drinking coffee and picking at donuts for nearly two hours. We started out discussing how our latest case would probably end up in the cold case files as one of our most notorious unsolved cases ever, right up there with the Surgeon Stalker case. From there, we went on to talking about other cases, mostly solved, and all with their fair share of memorable moments.
It seemed as though we had nearly exhausted our repertoire when Carlos began looking at me funny. I asked him what was wrong. That’s when he got serious.
“What’s going on, Tony?”
I gave him the classic, what do you mean, look, telling him simply, “Nothing.”
“No.” He shook his head, not believing me for a second. “Something’s up. We haven’t shared stories like this since the day you retired and moved to Florida. Remember that?”
“Sure, I remember, only then we weren’t drinking coffee. We were drinking shots of tequila at Lenny’s, and if I recall correctly, you got so drunk you asked Silvia to marry you.”
He laughed and blushed, displaying a rare moment of embarrassment. “Yeah, but what you don’t know is that a couple of weeks later, she and I hooked up.”
“No! I don’t believe it. You?”
“Yes.”
“And Silvia?”
“I’m telling ya.”
“Carlos, how could you keep something like that from me? I thought we were friends?”
“We are. That’s why I couldn’t tell you.”
“I don’t understand.”
He shook his head and stirred his coffee absentmindedly. “It didn’t last long, a couple of weeks. It was a trial thing, which is why we didn’t tell anyone. We didn’t want tongues wagging.”
“I bet your tongue was wagging.”
“See! This is what I mean. She’s a nice girl, Tony. Don’t dirty it up.”
“I won’t. I’m kidding.” I dropped back in my seat and splayed my hands in surrender. “I’m having fun with you, is all. Believe me. I have nothing but the utmost respect for Silvia.”
“I know you do.”
“So, tell me what happened.”
“There’s nothing to tell. We tried it. It didn’t work out. We’re still friends, and that’s all you need to know. Now quit turning things around. We were talking about you. Tell me what’s going on.”
“I told you. Nothing.”
“Then why are you acting as though this is our last coffee together?”
It might have been my imagination, but at that moment, I swear every sound in that diner ceased. People stopped talking, glasses stopped clanging and silverware stopped chattering on plates. I saw mouths moving but no words came out. Hardy laughs were as silent as smiles, and when the short order cook slapped the bell on the counter with his spatula, the bell didn’t ring.
Carlos wanted to know why I was acting as though it were our last coffee together. I guessed that after all those years he really did know me.
“Tony?”
That voice, I heard. I looked up and saw Lilith standing over me. I blinked, and all the sounds came back to life. The cacophony of a busy diner returned.
“Lilith?”
“Scoot,” she said, gesturing a push toward the window. I slid over and let her drop in next to me. Dominic and Ursula squeezed in beside Carlos. “So, the case is a bust, eh?”
“Excuse me?”
“Dominic told us what happened.”
“Did he?” I looked across the table at Dominic and gave him the eye. “Reports aren’t even written yet.”
He scoffed, something he rarely does in front of me. “Come on, what’s Lilith and Ursula going to do, tell the press?”
“Yeah, cut him some slack,” said Lilith. “We forced it out of him.”
“Doesn’t matter, it’s still an active case.”
Carlos said, “You just told me a minute ago it’s going to end up in the cold case vault.”
“The jewelry heist, maybe, but there’s still a possible homicide investigation pending.”
“You mean Daniel Cohen?” asked Dominic.
“Yes.”
He shook his head. “It’s done. I talked to Detective Sullivan. A neighbor’s security camera recorded Cohen returning home at three-thirty in the afternoon. No one else came to his door until you showed up at five-forty-six. Aside from the unlocked front door, as you noted, the rest of the house was buttoned up tight. Nobody got in. Daniel Cohen simply tripped, fell down the stairs and died. Case closed.”
“Wow,” I said. “That’s a shame. You know when he called me, he said he had to tell me something about the diamonds. I wonder if he wanted to confess.”
“It could have made all the difference,” Carlos noted. “We wouldn’t have let Swan go. We’d have been able to arrest the owners and that phony gem appraiser, Lloyd whatshisname, before they all left town.”
“His name is Stephen,” I said, “Stephen Swan, but you know, that’s all history now.”
Our server came to the booth and asked if the others were ready to order. Lilith’s answer came quickly and as a matter of fact.
“Thank you, but we’re leaving.” She pointed at the two coffee cups on the table. “Just the bill, please.”
“I got it,” said Carlos, who pulled a twenty out of his wallet and handed it to the woman. “Thanks, Gina. See you next time?”
She snapped a piece of gum behind her cheek and gave Carlos a wink. “Sure thing, hon.”
After that, we all left the diner and piled into Dominic’s cruiser. I didn’t have to ask where we were going. I knew. What surprised me was that the others all knew, too, even Carlos. I suspected it had something to do with the semi-private phone call he made shortly after we got to the diner.
Twenty-five minutes later, we were hiking through Jerome’s dark forest on our way to his campsite. All along our path, we could see pockmarks in the ground where Jerome had obviously been blasting small critters with his newfound powers. Each hole served as a punctuation mark supporting Lilith’s argument that we needed to send him back before somebody found out what was going on out there.
As we neared the camp, I could feel the breeze at our backs begin to pick up. The wind bands feeding the portal and keeping it open seemed particularly strong, a testament to Jerome’s growing understanding of the powers he possessed in the quintessential, another reason to cut his visit on this planet short.
I spotted Jerome’s campfire long before the others did, mainly because I was the only one not carrying a flashlight. I felt that if I was going back to the Eighth Sphere, then I needed to get used to walking around in the dark again. Lilith, perhaps sensing my motivation, kept trying to put a flashlight in my hand.
“Hold this,” she said, the first time she had to stop to tie her shoe. “Take that,” were her words the next. “Would you mind?” was her last attempt to give it to me when she complained that her backpack was too heavy.
�
�What’s in there anyway?” I asked her.
Not wanting to tell me was the key to stopping her attempts to have me take her flashlight.
We marched on. As we got closer, visions of what he’d been doing out there all by himself had me worrying about other things. The least of my fears was that we might catch him in the middle of fricasseeing a squirrel or barbequing a chipmunk. That would probably piss Lilith off and make Ursula cry. I didn’t even want to give in to images of my worst fears.
At first sight of Jerome’s spiny backbone, I gave him a shout, hoping to give him a heads up we were coming and hopefully prevent him from vaporizing us by mistake.
“Jerome!”
I saw him turn and look, first with a start for the number of people and lights advancing toward him, and then with relief when he realized who it was.
“Bossman!”
He started toward me in a full gallop, something I’d seen him do before. “No, Jerome, wait.” I crouched on one knee and braced for impact. “Jerome, slow down. Slow—”
He plowed into me with the force of a mini Mac truck, lifting me off the ground and driving me into the bank of a natural mud berm several feet away.
“Bossman come back!” he cried, doing that chit-chatter thing with his teeth. “Bossman come back for Jerome! We go now!”
“Jerome, please. Let me up.”
He rolled off me and scampered about in circles as I got up slowly and brushed the mud and leaves from my hair and clothes. He skipped alongside me as I walked back to the others, all of whom were laughing and smiling at my clobbered appearance. I pointed at them all and said to Jerome, “See here? See everyone came to see you?”
It wasn’t planned, but it seemed natural that we all form a circle around Jerome. The attention excited him. He wrapped his tail around his body, grabbed it with both hands and began gnawing at the tip.
“Jerome?” I put my hand on his head and tapped it lightly. “It’s time. Your friends came here to say goodbye to you.”
His eyes widened. His hands and tail fell away from his mouth. “Friends not go home with Jerome?”
“No,” I said. “They can’t. This is their home.”
He rolled his wide eyes up at me. “Bossman go home.”
“Jerome.”
“Bossman promise. Crossed heart.”
I saw the others lift their heads and look at me, astonished. Dominic gasped. His brows rode high and hooked on his forehead in permanent parentheses. Ursula was already tearing. Carlos had that expression that told me he knew it, but couldn’t believe it. And Lilith, my darling Lilith; what words have I to describe the face of one who once believed in miracles? Her lips parted in a shudder and locked in frozen breath.
I felt my heart breaking just thinking of her heart breaking. She looked so helpless, yet still so beautiful. I realized then what a selfish fool I had been.
I turned to Jerome, knelt again on one knee and cupped his hands. They felt cold to the touch and trembled, or perhaps it was my hands shaking. I looked into his eyes. They were large and black, reflecting the firelight behind me.
Jerome unclasped his hand from mine and touched my cheek, scooping up one of my tears in a suction cup fingertip. He examined it curiously, touching it to his tongue and tasting the salty drop. He knew my pain. Felt my heartbreak. His eyes began welling and gave life to tears of his own that drew cheetah tracks down his face, a face I once thought ugly but now so endearing. His little heart was breaking, too.
“Jerome, listen to me. I’m sorry, but I can’t go with you. I have to stay here.”
He wrapped his arms around my neck. “Bossman, no! We team. You promise!”
I pried him off me gently and held him back, so that I might look into his eyes once more. “I know I did. I know it, I—”
He pushed my hands away. “Bossman trick Jerome?”
“No! I wouldn’t do that. I wouldn’t trick you. You’re my buddy. You and I go back a long way. We had a lot of times together. A lot of good times.”
He nodded. “Lot a times.”
“See, Jerome, the truth is that when I told you I’d go back with you, it’s because I thought I wanted to go back. I thought I needed to. I was confused. It’s been hard for me, you know, harder than I thought it would be to get used to it again. I know now this is my home. I can’t leave. Besides, I have Lilith here.” I hiked my thumb up over my shoulder and whispered, “She’s a girl, you know. How’s she gonna get by without me?”
He pointed to Lilith. “You a girl,” Then he teased her with a snarl.
I looked back at her. I could see she’d been crying. She’d never admit it, but the little shit had stolen her heart, also.
“Jerome?” I took his hands again and held them over my heart. “I’m asking you as a buddy, man-to-man, will you let me out of my promise, because I don’t want to break it.”
He thought about it awhile, and then did something he had never done in the five years of struggles we’d endured together. He pulled his hands free, cupped them to my shoulders, leaned in and kissed me on the cheek.
“You no have to break promise, Bossman. Jerome say we good.”
“You mean it?”
“Uh-huh. We buddy.”
“That’s right,” I said, putting my arms around his bony little shoulders and hugging him. “We are buddies. Best buddies always.”
I probably got carried away a bit, because after a little of that, I felt his hands slapping me on the back. “Kay-o-kay, Bossman. Enough! You break Jerome!”
“Sorry.”
I stood and pulled him close. Presenting him to the others, I said, “Ladies and gentlemen, I’d like you to say goodbye to the best damn driget the multi-universe has ever known.” I pointed Jerome toward Dominic and gave him a nudge.
Dominic stepped forward and offered his hand. “Jerome,” he said, “I didn’t get to know you so well. It’s a shame though; Carlos tells me you’re quite a guy. I wish you luck.”
Carlos said, “That’s it? You’re quite a guy?”
“What? I don’t even know him.”
“Jerome, why don’t you give Dominic our special handshake. You know the one.”
Jerome looked at his hand, spit a slimy green wad into it and then shook with Dominic.
“Dude!” was all Dominic could get out of his mouth before I turned Jerome toward Ursula.
The tears had long been falling down her face, but they were really coming down now. She leaned over and kissed the top of his head, telling him, `Tis a sorrow not so sweet this last goodbye. I feel thy heart and mine doth beat now as one. Mayhaps that bond shalt tie us two always together. Fair thee well my little friend. I shalt forget thee not.”
Jerome cupped his hand to his lips and blew her a kiss. She caught it in mid-air, clutched it to her heart and dropped from the circle in a wail of tears.
I turned Jerome to Lilith next, not knowing what to expect. I thought she’d merely shake his hand and then shove him through the portal. Instead, she dropped to her knees, cupped his face in the palms of her hands and kissed him on the lips.
“Lilith,” I said, “what are you doing?”
“Shush, don’t interrupt.”
I swear, I think she blew us all away. She held him like that awhile longer, steadying his face, peering into his eyes, searching for something. I didn’t know what.
Finally I said, “Lilith? What are you doing?”
“Aw, hell, forget it.” She dumped her hands and returned to her feet. “I thought for sure he’d turn into a prince. Look at him. He’s still just an overgrown toad.”
Jerome pointed at her and smiled. “Good Witch!”
She smiled back, pulled him in close, pressed his face to her belly and rubbed the top of his head in a classic noogie. “Oh, but you’re my overgrown toad, aren’t ya fella?” She let him go and pushed him back into my arms. “Okay, we’re good. Send the fiddling green smurf off.”
Then there was Carlos. At the mere sight of Jerome standing b
efore him, the towering rock filled with Jello and practically melted to his knees. Jerome pumped his fist in the air and offered a high-five. “Adiós Amigo?”
I don’t know how I kept my composure then. Carlos took a deep breath and steadied himself. He nodded and began talking to Jerome in Spanish, which I assumed must have sounded like so much gibberish to him. Yet when Carlos finished, Jerome simply nodded and replied, “Sí.”
Carlos nodded back. “Alright then, we have a deal.” He bent down and kissed both his cheeks. “Adiós to you, mi amigo.”
With the goodbyes done, I said to Lilith, “Anything he should know?”
Her expression hardened. She took a deep breath and modeled her posture to something reflecting absolute determination.
“Yes,” she said, taking Jerome’s hand and leading him to the base of the spiraling white column of air that fed the portal. The noise from the wind was loudest there, and though she was talking to Jerome, she spoke loud enough for all of us to hear.
“I can’t tell you what to expect, Jerome. You’ve traveled more portals than I’ve cast spells. Therefore, going into one, riding it and getting out again should be nothing to you. The difference this time is that you need to close the portal once you’re out. Do you understand?”
Jerome nodded.
“Use the power of the quintessential. You have it. You can do it. I know you can. We saw the holes you made in the ground on our way in. It’s the same thing, only on a much bigger scale. So, listen closely. After it spits you out, I want you to look back at the opening. You should see all this wind and debris spewing out of it like a volcano. I want you to pretend that it’s a malodyte.”
“Malodyte bad.”
“Yes, I know. Malodytes are very bad. So, I want you to imagine that the portal is a malodyte. Imagine it’s trying to hurt Tony.”
“No! Jerome not let malodyte hurt Bossman.”
“That’s right, you can’t. That’s why you have to destroy it. Use the powers of the quintessential. You do that like this.”
Lilith demonstrated by holding her fist out, aiming it at a nearby tree and opening her hand quickly as if wired to springs.
BURY THE WITCH: Book 10 (Detective Marcella Witch's Series) Page 28