by Amir Lane
“You’ll trust them?” Cari asked.
Lindy snorted and shook her head.
“No. But actually finding the guy is way out of my area.”
“He threatened you.”
“Still not my job.”
Maybe she should have been more concerned. The guy had already killed at least one person that she knew of. He knew where she worked. She should have been terrified. Except she had a pretty damn good instinct for danger. And yeah, this guy was obviously dangerous, but not to her and definitely not to Dieter. It would take more than an asshole with a gun to get through his four Shadows.
Cari reached over the table and took Lindy’s hand in hers.
“Finish your coffee so I can read the grounds. Do you work today?”
“I’m not supposed to, but they’re going to call me in.”
Lindy did not want to go into work today. She was exhausted. It was barely after nine, but already she could feel the migraine creeping up the back of her skull. A part of her wondered if it was a byproduct of her visions, but she didn’t know any other Seers who had migraines or vision problems. Except Lindy wasn’t like most Seers. Maybe there was some kind of trade-off between being able to see everything and being able to see, well, anything.
She nursed her coffee, letting out the occasional sigh of annoyance about work as they chatted.
“Do you consider finding new work?” Cari asked.
She supposed it was her own fault for complaining so damn much about it. But everyone complained about their jobs. It was what people did.
“I think everyone considers changing their line of work on shitty days,” she mused, holding the mug to her lips. “But I’ve saved lives. That makes some of the bullshit worth it. That being said, if I had a nickel for every time some idiot called 9-1-1 by mistake and hung up, I’d have enough saved up to retire early.”
“Very early.”
Lindy rolled her eyes despite the grin tugging at her lips. Yeah, she was too young to retire. But hey, wasn’t that what everybody dreamed of? She finished off the last bit of her coffee, only just managing not to choke on the grounds layered onto the bottom. When she looked into the empty mug, she could still see some of it caked onto the bottom. Cari held her hand out for it. There was a long silence in which she stared into the grounds that didn’t mean anything to Lindy. If she’d had any interest in learning to read grounds, maybe she could get something out of them, but she had more than enough to occupy her powers with, thank you very much.
“There is going to be a man in your life.”
She couldn’t stop herself from laughing at that. Did Cari have any idea how cliché that sounded?
“Someone should tell my coffee that I’m asexual. And aromantic.”
It had taken her longer to figure that out than to figure out that she was a Seer, but it was also a lot more satisfying. Having the words to describe herself had given her a sense of completeness.
“I don’t think it’s supposed to be a romance thing.”
“God, I hope not. So who is this guy?”
Cari shrugged. Tasseomancy did tend to be vaguer than other types of divination. Lindy couldn’t hold it against her. She watched Cari frown with a sinking feeling.
“What?” she asked cautiously, unsure if she wanted an answer.
While divination had its uses, sometimes, it was better not to know. This was feeling like one of those times.
“Lindy… I don’t know how to tell you this…” Cari inhaled sharply. “I see… darkness. I think— I think you’re going blind.”
The sheer agony in Cari’s soft voice was the only thing that kept Lindy from laughing this time. Was that it? And here she was, worrying that she was going to get her face blown off or something.
“I know. I’m managing it but… I know.”
She could see the words rising in Cari’s throat, sympathetically spilling into her mouth. But before even one could fall from her lips, Lindy’s phone rang. She grabbed it from her pocket and cut the opening of All I Ask of You off before it could even really start.
“Hey. You need me to come in?”
No need to check the call display. Even if Lindy hadn’t customized every one of her ringtones to tracks from The Phantom of the Opera, she knew it was work.
“Sort of,” Kevin said. “I need you to meet me at the police precinct on Acosta Avenue.”
Okay, that was new.
Lindy wrinkled her nose. Beyond the confusion, police precincts were a place she’d always made it a point to avoid. In fact, ditching parties before the cops showed up and pulled out the cuffs had pretty much been the primary use for her powers back in high school.
“Uh, sure. Why, what’s up?”
“I’ll explain when you get here. Can you be here in half an hour?”
Talk about a last-minute shift. But this… this wasn’t a regular shift. She glanced up at the clock on the back wall.
“Yeah.”
“Great.”
The line clicked shut, and Lindy was left staring in confusion.
“He wants me to meet him at a precinct.”
“Maybe they caught your caller,” Cari suggested.
Wait, did she say caller or killer?
“Your guess is as good as mine.”
Cari pulled Lindy into another tight hug and refused to let go until Lindy promised to call her when she got home. Funny how diviners could be the biggest worriers. Lindy promised and ordered another coffee to go.
Acosta Avenue was only twenty minutes out. By the time she arrived, her coffee had cooled to a drinkable temperature. She fidgeted with the various sterling silver rings on her fingers before she got out of her car and made her way into the precinct. The sound of her boots hitting the tile echoed off the walls as she walked across the lobby to where a receptionist sat behind a cluttered desk.
“I’m looking for Kevin Wu,” she said uncertainly.
The receptionist barely looked up at her at first, then did a double-take and frowned.
Black hair obstructed most of his face, but there was something familiar in what she did see, though she couldn’t place it. Lorelle wasn’t a huge city. Maybe she’d seen him at the farmer’s market or something.
His frown deepened, and he pushed his hair back. The light caught a silver ring wound around his index finger. A snake.
“Omen?” he said.
It was the voice that did it.
“Venom? Holy shit, what happened to you?”
His name plate said Bastien Sidiqi, but she’d known him in the later half of high school as Venom Fist.
Okay, the names had sounded much cooler when they were 16.
The only sign of the Venom she’d known was the disproportionately long bangs that she remembered his parents hating and the snake ring. Without the layers of black eyeliner and the rows of piercings, not to mention the definition in his face that definitely hadn’t been there before, she hadn’t even recognized him. It was a surreal reminder that high school had been three, almost four or five, years ago.
Venom — Bastien? — Venom — laughed at her question.
“I got a front-facing job,” he said.
“Well, shit. You look good.”
“Thanks. You do too. Uhm, you’re here to see…” He raised his eyebrows expectantly.
“Kevin Wu. He works at the dispatch office, but I guess we have a meeting here or something?”
She should have asked for more details. Venom tapped at his keyboard.
“Fourth floor, past the first set of doors, second hall on the left, third door on the right. Staff Sergeant Cockburn’s office,” he said. “Want me to write that down?”
She hesitated.
“Yes, please. Uh, in big letters.”
She followed the instructions, but she still had to walk up and down the hall a couple of times before she found the office. The plaque on the door identified it as belonging to Staff Sergeant Siobhan Cockburn. She rapped her knuckles against the close
d door, and it was opened seconds later by a man she didn’t know.
“You must be Dietelinde,” he said. “Come in.”
He moved aside stiffly, giving Lindy space to step into the office. She took the empty seat next to Kevin in front of the desk that Siobhan Cockburn was sitting behind. The man took the seat on the other side of her. Now that she had a face to put to the name, Lindy was hit by why the name was so familiar. The Sergeant had one of those faces that Lindy called TV pretty. She was pretty, but not in a normal way. She had a face full of freckles and a scar across the bridge of her nose that were impossible not to recognize. Siobhan Cockburn, Ice Breaker, was a member of Mohr’s Circle, and an occasional visitor in Lindy’s visions.
“Ms Lindemann, glad you could make it,” she said. “I know it’s your day off, so I’m going to make this quick. We have strong reason to suspect we have a serial killer in this city. He’s committed two separate murders that we know of in only a couple of weeks. We have no leads, except for the fact that after each murder, he calls ––” Ice Breaker pointed a long finger at Lindy. “— our friendly neighbourhood dispatcher.”
The friendly neighbourhood dispatcher offered an awkward smile. It would have been too convenient for them to have already caught the guy. She still wasn’t sure exactly why she was there, but she was starting to get the idea. The entire time that Ice Breaker spoke, Lindy could feel the other man giving her a hard look.
“Lindy, I’m hoping that you’ll be willing to work with Detective Hobard here on the investigation.”
Lindy couldn’t stop her eyebrows from rising. Did she say Hobard or Hobag?
“Sure. But what about my work with dispatch?” Lindy asked.
“We’ve worked that all out,” Kevin said. “You’ll be working on Detective Hobard’s schedule, and I’ll arrange to have your shifts covered by other operators.”
She didn’t have much say in this, did she? Tension was usually high between cops and dispatchers, and she could feel that tension rolling off of Hobard in waves. Or maybe he just didn’t like higher authority figures either.
“Okay. When do I start?”
“Tomorrow morning, if possible,” Hobard said.
His voice was dry, serious if not uninterested.
“Works for me.”
She spent a solid hour, at least, filling out paperwork and waivers. By the time she was done, she was shocked to find that her eyes weren’t actually bleeding and her hand still worked. She bade Hobard goodbye as she left. Dick only grunted in response, and Lindy couldn’t stop herself from rolling her eyes despite the sharp pain that it brought on.
This was going to be… an experience.
6
Lindy rushed through the house, trying to be ready before Hobard showed up. It was a Saturday, but weekends hadn’t meant anything to her in years. Apparently, they didn’t mean much to Hobard, either.
“Wednesdays and Thursdays are my days off,” he’d explained.
Which meant that until her caller was behind bars, they were her days off, too. It was too soon to have the feeling of a regular work schedule. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to let herself get used to it. She didn’t want it to be any harder going back to her erratic mess of a schedule than it had to be.
“Breakfast, breakfast, breakfast,” she mumbled, grabbing the bagel that she’d set on the counter at least half an hour ago and popping it into the toaster.
Wait, what had she just been doing? She glanced over at the clock on the stove. It was just after seven, and Hobard was going to be there any minute. It wasn’t helping her remember what she’d been doing before she had remembered the cold bagel. She paused in the middle of the kitchen like a deer in headlights. She checked her hair, her piercings, and her rings. Something was missing, she just couldn’t—
“Oh, crap! Shirt!”
Of course she’d forgotten a shirt. Idiot. She ran up the stairs two at a time and darted into her room.
Even from upstairs, she could hear the toaster finish. She ran back down, black t-shirt still in hand.
“That’s my breakfast,” she called.
Lenna stopped in her tracks and backed away from the toaster with raised hands. World-class predator her ass.
Lindy squeezed past her and pulled the cinnamon raisin halves from the toaster. Her finger got too close to the metal and she hissed, dropping the halves on a plate and stuck her thumb in her mouth.
“You okay?” Lenna asked, a dark eyebrow raised in concern.
“Mhm. I’m fine. Just burnt myself a little, no big.”
She moved behind Lenna to grab the orange juice from the fridge, then paused.
“Hey, crouch down a little.”
“Uhm— Okay?”
Lenna squatted a few inches, bringing her closer to Lindy’s height. She was used to being short, but Lenna made her feel tiny. Lindy tucked the white tag back into the collar of the colourful dress. The bright floral print looked good on her. She took the opportunity of Lenna’s face being so close to hers to kiss her cheek.
“Thanks.”
“No problem. You look gorgeous, by the way.”
Lenna smiled crookedly and pushed her hair back away from her face. Gorgeous might not have been the right word for someone who looked the way she did. There was no question that she was attractive, aesthetically. She was broad, muscular, with prominent cheekbones and what was quite possibly the squarest jaw on the planet. But there was still something about her that made her pretty. Lindy might have been ace, but she wasn’t blind. Yet.
“You working?” Lenna asked.
Her accent was always thicker before coffee.
“Yeah, my new cop partner is picking me up.”
Lenna raised an eyebrow.
“Cop?”
“Yeah. Speaking of which, give me a second,” Lindy said.
Shirt still in hand, she walked to the door in long strides. The cool morning air made the hair on her arms and neck stand on end as she threw the door open. He was halfway up the porch steps, but he stopped dead in her tracks when he saw her. There was a paper coffee cup in one hand, and the most startled expression she’d ever seen. It was the first real expression he’d worn around her. If she wasn’t still trying to rush, she might have laughed as he gaped at her before regaining his composure.
“Uhm—?”
“Come in, I’ll be done in three minutes. I just need to finish getting dressed.”
“Clearly.”
He cleared his throat. His voice was higher than Lindy remembered.
She turned back into the house, leaving the door open for him. She pulled her shirt over her head, the epitome of professionalism, tugging it down over the black vines that crept up her ribs. Hobard’s footsteps sounded behind her.
“How long are you going to be?” he asked.
The discomfort in his tone was so strong, she could practically taste it. Okay, maybe she should have put her shirt on before running out to greet him, but he didn’t need to act so awkward about it. It would only make working together unnecessarily difficult. It didn’t occur to her that it may have actually been the 6’2”, 200-some pound Brazilian woman with thighs that could crush a watermelon making him uncomfortable until she saw Lenna scowling at him. When she looked back at Hobard, it was too clear that he had no idea how to act around her.
Lindy’s stomach clenched. She had no idea what Hobard was going to say next. Lenna wasn’t one to lose her temper, but she also had a zero bullshit tolerance policy. And people tended to give women who looked like her a lot of bullshit.
“Nice dress,” Hobard said hesitantly.
It was almost a question.
Lenna snorted.
“Thanks, dick.”
She turned away with a roll of her eyes. Lindy smiled apologetically. Lenna shrugged but returned the smile anyway. No hard feelings, it said. Lindy sighed in relief and grabbed her breakfast.
“Come on, let’s go. I’m ready.”
Lindy locked the door be
hind her, one half of her bagel in her free hand and the other between her teeth. She took the coffee cup that Hobard offered out to her.
“So you told your roommate about me.”
It sounded like more of a question than a statement.
“Nope.”
“So how’d she know my name?”
Lindy paused and nearly choked on her breakfast.
“Wait, your name is Dick?”
If Hobard’s expression was any indication, he wished he hadn’t said anything.
She had to cough a few times, both to dislodge the bagel piece from her throat and to cover up the laugh that threatened to spill over.
“What of it?” Hobard snapped.
“Nothing, nothing. So do you prefer Detective Hobard, or…”
She cleared her throat again to stop the laugh.
“Dick is fine.”
Dick led her to his car parked on the side of the road. He even held the door open for her. It was appreciated when her hands were full of bagel and coffee.
She settled into the passenger seat and started on the second half of her bagel while the coffee cooled. Dick didn’t speak, barely waiting for her seatbelt to click as he ran the engine and pulled off onto the street. With the radio off, the silence was thick enough to cut with a knife. He was clearly not the chatty type.
“So where are we going?” she asked after washing a mouthful of bagel down with the coffee.
It was too sweet for her taste. She preferred to take her coffee black, only adding sugar when caffeine wouldn’t cut it. But she’d never complained about a free coffee.
“Precinct.”
Holy shit, it was easier to have a conversation with Lenna’s Familiar. Who knew a jaguar could be better conversation than an actual human being?
“I want to check out the crime scenes,” she said.
“Why?”
For kicks.
“There’s something I want to check.”
If the victims were all witches, she would probably be able to tell. Witchcraft had a particular electricity to it. She wasn’t sure how well-preserved the scenes were, or if she’d be able to feel any lingering magic, but it was worth a shot. It would make things much easier if she could figure out whether or not the guy was targeting witches specifically. Hell, maybe she’d even be able to tell if he was a witch himself.