A Key, An Egg, An Unfortunate Remark

by Harry Connolly

  Albert sighed. The whole thing seemed like a confused muddle and he hated muddles. “Good questions.”

  “And I tend to agree with Elaine that her activists are unlikely suspects. Janet strikes me as someone who would commit murder, but she wouldn’t waste her time on an ‘errand boy,’ as they called Aloysius. But what would their ‘dangerous friend’ do if he came into the city? Then we have to consider all the women he slept with: Zoe and Inez and Elaine and—“

  “Elaine doesn’t seem like the murdering type, does she?”

  “You didn’t know her when her husband ran off. She… actually, everyone has a hidden side. Anyone can be driven to the edge if they’re desperate enough. Except me, of course.” Albert wasn’t sure if his aunt was joking, and before he could figure it out, she began to talk again. “Your brother—excuse me, half-brother—led a complicated life. We’re going to have to keep digging.”

  “Are we going up there to look at the site and meet the ‘dangerous’ hippie in the cabin?” Albert flexed his damaged hand; he didn’t put much stock in Philip’s assessment of who was dangerous or not.

  “We are indeed, but not right away. If, as Merry said, the construction crew is gone, I think we can deal with other things first. I would really like to know who else Aloysius was selling charisma potions to, and what the keys on the key ring open, and—“

  “And who sent the men that burned down your house,” Albert said. “And who killed Aloysius.”

  “Albert, dear, look in your side-view mirror. We have some good news coming our way.”

  A tall man with the muscles of a body builder strolled down the sidewalk toward them, and Albert could tell he was coming straight for the car. It was Nelson, the vampire hunter Albert had knocked to the ground in the backyard of Spire’s house.

  Marley rolled down her window. Albert took this as a sign to sit tight. Still, even though Nelson’s hands were empty, he felt vulnerable; his hands trembled and his stomach felt tight.

  “Hello, dear,” Marley said out her window. “I have been waiting for you to approach. What can I do for you?”

  “Can we talk?” Nelson asked.

  “Of course! Over a cup of coffee? There’s a cafe down the street.”

  “To be honest, ma’am, I was hoping for someplace more private.”

  “Oh, this is the perfect place, trust me.” Marley gave him directions but promised to wait long enough for him to follow their car in his gleaming black pickup truck. Ten minutes later, they had parked and gotten into line. Marley ordered green tea, Albert ordered another black coffee, and Nelson paid for all of them.

  He insisted on a table away from the windows. They ended up sitting next to the entrance to the unisex bathroom.

  “I’m the one who wanted to talk, so I guess I should start,” Nelson said. He had a short, broad nose, a heavy jaw, and very dark skin. He was also much younger than Albert first thought, maybe seventeen or eighteen. Albert couldn’t help wondering who he would turn out to be sleeping with. “I’m just not sure where.”

  “Start with why you want to leave your little group. That’s why you came, isn’t it?”

  Nelson rubbed his mouth nervously. “Well, yes, it is. I don’t mean any disrespect to Nora. She’s a hero to me. Honestly, she is.”

  “But you’re becoming increasingly uncomfortable with the choices she’s making. And with Audrey.”

  Nelson sighed. “How did you know?”

  “I’ve seen it before, many times. No matter how much you dehumanize your enemy—“

  “Oh my enemy isn’t human,” Nelson cut in. “My enemies are dead things. Sins against God. Ma’am, I don’t have any problem with...” He lowered his voice, “killing vampires.”

  Albert cut in: “Then what is the problem?”

  “It’s the helpers. The renfields.”

  “Oh, please,” Marley said, “I suppose I qualify as a ‘renfield’ in your eyes?”

  Nelson nodded. “You both do. And... I don’t like what we do to them. To people like you.”

  Albert cut in: “You kill them.”

  Nelson nodded again. “Nora says they’re accomplices to murder. The law makes every accomplice to a crime just as guilty as the person who commits it, so why shouldn’t we follow the same rules? And they’re dangerous.”

  “They are,” Marley said. “They try very hard to protect their loved ones.”

  “But what if they’re coerced?” Nelson said. “What if they’re under the control of the thing and can’t help themselves? I can understand using force to get past them, tase them, maybe, to subdue them quickly, but what if they’d be glad to be freed after the vampire is put down?”

  Marley’s voice was sly when she said, “And what if you could leave them alive at the scene of the murder, with their prints all over the murder weapon, right?”

  “No!” Nelson was genuinely surprised by the suggestion. “I mean, that’s not how we do our thing.”

  Albert didn’t like the way this conversation was going. “I’m not under anyone’s control, especially not a vampire’s.”

  “How would you know?” Nelson countered. “You’re doing things that seem perfectly sensible to you, am I right? But you’re protecting monsters. Does that seem like the sort of thing a sensible person would do?”

  Marley was smiling. “Maybe a sensible person wouldn’t, but I would.”

  “See? Ma’am, I know you moved that vampire we were after, and I won’t pretend I wasn’t angry about it. I was and I still am. We’ve been after it for nearly two years, for some killings it did back home, and we were so close to finishing.”

  Albert couldn’t hide his surprise. “Two years? Dude, how old were you when you got sucked into all this?”

  Nelson suddenly looked very tired. “My best friend’s father was killed by a vampire when I was fourteen. He didn’t believe me when I told him—he thought I’d lost my mind—but I believed it. Nora tried to keep me out of the hunt, but I had a mind of my own.”

  “And she thought it would be safer to train you than let you run loose on your own.”

  “Yeah. She called me ‘Robin’ until I hit my growth spurt.”

  “Growth spurt!” Albert almost laughed. “Nelson, how old are you?”

  Nelson didn’t like that question, but he answered it anyway. “I just turned seventeen.”

  Albert turned to Marley as though Nelson’s age was a problem she could fix. “That’s too young, right? Hell, I’m too young for all this, and I served overseas. You shouldn’t be doing this, dude. You should be entering bodybuilding contests or something.”

  Nelson shrugged. “It’s hard, living on the road. I can’t get the right tone on my lower back.”

  Albert nodded. “Backs are tough.”

  “You said you were angry,” Marley interrupted. She watched Nelson’s expression carefully. “Were the others angry, too?”

  “I don’t think they get angry anymore.”

  Marley’s only response was to nod. It was the answer she’d expected. “Well, I’m glad you’re only planning to tase us rather than shoot us, but I’m sure you didn’t come here to tell me that.”

  “No, I didn’t. Like I said, I’m planning to leave Nora’s group for good, and to leave the city, too, but it wouldn’t be right if I didn’t warn you first. Nora has found the nest you’ve been keeping here in Seattle. She’s planning a raid that will kill them all, and both of you, too.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  The Trojan Phone

  “It’s certainly nice of you to warn us,” Marley said. “Of course you realize the... nest, as you call it, is really more of a rest home, and it has staff, too? And that the vampires living there agree to never hunt and feed on humans again? You realize that I’ve found a non-violent solution to the conflict?”

  “For as long as that lasts.”

  “I have to admit, I’m not a fan of permanent solutions to peoples’ problems. Not when that solution is killing them.”

&nb
sp; “I hear you. We may not agree on everything, but I don’t want you or the people working at the nest to get hurt. I’m here to avoid all that. And more.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I want to give you this.”

  Nelson reached into his back pocket and took out a battered iPhone, which he set on the table between them.

  Marley looked at him expectantly. “I have a phone, dear.”

  “This is Nora’s. She doesn’t know I have it—I palmed it in Iowa as we were leaving a restaurant by the highway. It’s locked with a password, though, and I can’t get at it. Maybe you two aren’t, you know, computer experts or whatever, but I figure you can afford to hire one.”

  Marley didn’t move to touch it. “And what would I do with Nora’s phone?”

  Nelson didn’t answer for a long while. “She’s killing people. People. It’s wrong and it has to stop. I can’t do it, not by myself. But you can. She’s got a database in there, and a calendar with all our travel, and... who knows what else? She put her whole life there.”

  “That’s a lot to trust me with.”

  “Trust?” Nelson leaned back in his chair and rubbed his face. “I don’t see it that way, I guess. This a burden I can’t carry any more, and I don’t want to get caught with it, and I can’t do anything with it anyway. Who else can I send it to, the cops? They wouldn’t believe me and wouldn’t do anything about it.”

  “But I will.”

  “Lord, I hope you will. I hope you will understand that, whatever you think of Nora, she’s trying to do what’s right.” Nelson took a deep breath. “I should get back.” He stood and so did Marley and Albert. Nelson gently took Marley’s hand in both of his. “Thank you for listening. Please do what’s right, and God bless.” He released her and offered his hand to Albert. “No hard feelings?”

  Albert shook his hand and Nelson hurried out the door. Marley waited for him to pass in front of the windows, then gathered her jacket. “Let’s move quickly.”

  Albert hurried to open the door for her, as someone behind the counter called out a thank-you-and-come-again to their retreating backs. They walked quickly to their car, and Albert felt strangely attuned to his aunt. Her body language was different, and he kept his mouth shut.

  Once they were in the car and moving again, Albert asked where they should go next. Marley directed him to a grocery store on West Dravus, then asked: “What did you think of him?”

  “Fourteen!” Albert exclaimed. “Jesus. I like him and sort of admire him, too. I wish I hadn’t knocked him down the other night. I don’t trust him, though. It’s possible he’s telling the truth, isn’t it?”

  “Yes, it is,” Marley answered. “I’m not sure what to believe, but I don’t think I can leave my guests and staff in harm’s way.”

  They drove all the way to supermarket in silence, then parked at the edge of the lot. When Albert let Marley out of the back seat, she turned away from the store and started down the sidewalk, moving toward the Magnolia hill. Albert walked beside her, watching for Nelson’s truck, in case he was following them. He had to raise his voice over the sound of passing traffic. “What do you think about decoding the password?”

  “It’s easier than most people think,” Marley answered, raising her voice, too. She handed him the iPhone. “Hold this. The real question is finding someone trustworthy with the skills and time to do it right away. I’d love to get it done today. But who can I find to come to our safe house? Who can I trust?”

  As they walked, she began emptying her jacket pockets, collecting a tissue pack, swiss army knife, baggie of M&Ms, a pair of pens, and a tiny notepad, which she dumped into Albert’s other hand. He had to trap them against his chest to keep them from spilling onto the sidewalk and into the blackberry bramble beside him.

  The sidewalk passed over the Interbay train yard. “Time to go,” Marley said, as a freight train rumbled beneath them. “Take me home, Albert, but remember to drive slowly. You know how frightened I get when you drive so fast.”

  She slipped off her jacket, slid the phone into the inside pocket, then wrapped the jacket around it. Once she had it wadded up, she dropped it into an open freight car full of what looked like scrap metal. The black jacket slid down into the refuse and disappeared as the train rolled northward.

  “Well!” Marley said, relieved to be rid of the phone. “That was insulting.”

  A chill breeze blew from the bay to the south, moving along the train tracks like a river through a ravine. Albert shrugged off his jacket and draped it over his aunt’s shoulders. “You think they had the GPS turned on?”

  “Thank you, dear. If they were smart, they were listening in, too. Who did they think they were dealing with? Nelson was doing quite well until he gave me that phone.”

  Albert looked at her sideways as they walked back to the car. “You never once told him he couldn’t lie to you.”

  “I didn’t, did I? You know, I believe much of what he said. He truly is uncomfortable killing vampire companions. The term renfield is deeply foolish. The character may have been in Dracula’s power, but he also warned the humans several times. Why would you murder an agent in your enemy’s camp? Hmph. Nora’s people impress me less every time we meet. And here I thought the visit would be good news—that we were stirring things up enough that trouble was coming to find us! But no. The plain fact is that they’re a distraction and we are much too busy to deal with them.”

  “And they were trying to spook you into revealing the location of your guests.”

  “Exactly.”

  “Now they’re going to follow that train out of town.”

  “For a while, at least. Still.” Marley took out her phone and dialed a number that wasn’t on her speed dial. “Naima, dear, I’d like to see about planning a vacation. Someplace sunny.” She hung up. “I can’t be too careful. I expect Nora and Nelson will be upset when they realize they’ve been had, but that’s how this game is played. Let’s head back to the house for real. I want to know who Aloysius was visiting during his Wednesday morning ‘errands.’ ”

  At the house, they discovered that Miss Harriet had decided to work that day and had prepared turkey and cranberry sauce sandwiches for them. Marley ate while she reviewed Aloysius’s files, giving special attention to his rather large contact list. After an hour, she had a list of ten names similar to George Salkin: older, well-off local businessmen who were not mentioned elsewhere in the files. Aloysius had never billed them, served papers on them, or written up contracts for them.

  The first one she called was a man she knew slightly; he’d attended a few of her parties the year before, but upon discovering that she was unlikely to invest in pet food factories in China, he fell away from her social circle. His name was Harold Dixon. It only took a moment for the man’s assistant to put her call through, and when Harold greeted her by saying how glad he was that she had changed her mind about investing with him, the urge to order her broker to transfer funds was so strong she felt light-headed.

  She kept her resolve. When she asked about Aloysius, Harold became wary. Marley explained her relationship to him and inquired about today’s delivery.

  Harold told her everything was fine, asked her not to call again and hung up. Marley stood shakily and staggered into the corner of her office.

  Albert, who had been sitting across from her, rushed to her side. “Are you all right? You’re very pale.”

  “I thought I was ready,” Marley told him in a quiet voice. “I expect him to have a charisma charm running when I called, but it’s so much stronger than I thought it would be.”

  “Do you need anything? A glass of water?”

  “A little hot tea, I think. With sugar.”

  From the doorway, Weathers said: “Immediately, madam.” He stalked toward the kitchen.

  “Most charisma magic is weak stuff,” Marley said as Albert helped her back to her chair. “Just knowing about it is all the counter-spell you need, usually. The effects are s
upposed to be subtle or....”

  Albert finished her sentence: “Or when the effect wears off, the victim will realize what happened.”

  “Well, they don’t usually realize it, because very, very few people in the world believe in magic. Mostly, they feel resentment and they do their damnedest to get out of whatever silly arrangement they’ve gotten into. Even if there’s an ironclad contract... well, let’s just say it’s better to have a subtle effect that leaves you with a mostly willing business partner than someone who feels trapped.” Marley stopped to rub her eyes. “Using the phone cuts out all the visual parts of the charm.”

  “But it was powerful anyway.”

  “Indeed it was! Who ever delivered this week’s dose—and I assume Mr. Harold Dixon just took it—gave him a doozy.”

  She waited for Weathers to bring the tea, then sat quietly sipping at it. When she felt sufficiently revived, she called the next name on the list, another real estate agent. This one was willing to stay on the phone long enough to express his condolences on the death of Marley’s nephew, even if he sounded distracted while he said it. He also let her know in no uncertain terms that this week’s delivery had gone fine, as always.

  She called four more before giving up. The last call was blocked by a developer’s executive assistant, who informed Marley that she knew exactly why she was calling and had been instructed not to put the call through, then hung up on her.