He grabbed the front of my T-shirt in his big hand, and brought me close to his face. He smelled of cloves, and some other spice I didn’t recognize. His mouth was a thin line, and his chin quivered with rage.
Debbie made a small sound—as though she was afraid even though I was the one in his grasp. She took a step back, and stopped when she hit the wall.
Abe seemed to realize that he was frightening her. His face relaxed at the same time as his grip on my shirt. “I apologize, Skye. I haven’t heard that name in a very long time.”
I could see Brandon’s face over Abe’s shoulder. He looked as scared as Debbie sounded. He shook his head, and turned away. He knew better than to step up and defend anyone against Abe.
Back to his usual calm demeanor, Abe smiled at Debbie. “I’ll have someone run you home. There’s no reason for you to linger.”
She swallowed hard, screwing up her courage. “What about Skye?” Her voice came out a little squeaky, but understandable.
I had to give her points for even daring to voice the thought. I knew it was because she didn’t know better, as Brandon did. Still, I could see by the look on her pretty face that she was terrified. She was braver than I’d given her credit for.
As quickly as that, there was a knock at the back door to the mortuary. Rocky peeked inside. “You want me to take Debbie home?”
“That’s right.” Abe took Debbie’s hand in his and gently kissed it. “As soon as I finish my discussion with Skye, she’ll be going home too. Don’t worry. Neither one of you did anything wrong today.”
Debbie took a deep breath and smiled. “Thank you.” She turned to me. “I’ll talk to you later, Skye.”
She left meekly enough to satisfy even the zombie master. I noticed she didn’t look back. She’d probably used up her store of courage for the day.
When she was gone, I expected Abe to get all crazy again, but it seemed that had passed.
“Come with us.” He waited for me to follow. He and Brandon went back into the cold room where the bodies were stored.
I didn’t say anything. I waited for him to explain. This was so far beyond any crazy thing I’d seen on the street as a cop that it was like being a Pluto.
“This man shouldn’t be dead,” Abe finally began.
Duh.
“Was there any blood at all at the scene?” He turned his darkly shaded eyes to me.
“No. Not a drop.” I wondered why he hadn’t brought Martin in too. He was at the scene first. He might know more than I did.
I was glad he hadn’t—I wanted to know what was up.
“Who else was at the scene?”
“The two paramedics who pronounced him, and Martin Cummings. You know him, right?” So much for keeping myself on a short leash with Abe.
“Yes. I know him well.” Abe ignored my impudence, and looked back at the body of Mr. Welk. “Brandon, what is your opinion?”
Brandon shrugged. “His heart was ripped out of his chest. I don’t see any tool marks. It’s sloppy. I’d say someone used their bare hands, maybe some claws, to do it.”
“I concur.”
“I’m not sure about the blood,” Brandon continued. “If it was a vampire, I guess that would make sense. But they don’t usually clean up after themselves, and there are no fang marks.”
Vampire? I moved in closer. Were there vampires too?
“What does that suggest to you?” Abe asked again.
Brandon flicked a glance at me. “I’m not really sure. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Abe nodded. “I have, unfortunately. Skye, walk with me. Brandon, see to Mr. Welk.”
“There was actually one other thing that I thought was a little strange,” I mentioned. “He was lying on top of a gold wedding band. We put it on him, but I’m not sure it was his. It may have belonged to his killer.”
“Show me,” Abe said.
I put on a pair of gloves, and lifted Mr. Welk’s hand. The light caught on the wedding band.
“Take it off.” Abe cocked his head as he observed the ring.
I tried to do as he asked, but the ring wouldn’t budge. “Sorry. I don’t think it will come off that easy.”
“I can get it.” Brandon picked up a scalpel, and sliced the finger from Mr. Welk’s hand, before he cut off the ring and handed it to Abe.
I couldn’t believe he did it without a second thought. No hesitation at all.
“What? He’s dead already,” he defended.
“Don’t squabble, children.” Abe turned the ring around in his fingers. “Thank you, Brandon. We’ll talk later.”
Abe and I walked out together. I watched him pocket the ring. I wondered if the ring had made him understand the situation better. It looked like every other plain, gold wedding band to me. I had one in my drawer back home that Jacob had put on my finger.
“I’m afraid we find ourselves in an unusual situation, Skye. You’ll have to be more careful. Report to me immediately if anything seems odd or unusual.”
“With all respect, Abe, calling someone’s heart being removed from their body odd or unusual, is an understatement—even for a zombie. Can you give me more information on what I should be looking for?”
“You have what you need.” He stared up at the sky. “Go home. Pick up your daughter. I’ll call when I have another assignment.”
I wondered for a brief moment if I should tell him about Lucas and my unexpected brush with the bus that morning. On the scale of getting your heart snatched from your chest, it didn’t seem worth it. I couldn’t see any connection between the incidents, so I kept my mouth shut.
“Sure. I’ll do that.” I turned to go back to the van, feeling dismissed. Why wouldn’t Abe tell me more? Were Debbie and I in danger?
“And Skye—” Abe turned back to face me. “Keep that gun you carry close by. You may need it. Convince Debbie to find a weapon of her own.”
That was it. His words answered the question of whether or not Debbie and I could suffer the same fate as Mr. Welk. I watched him walk toward Deadly Ink. Two hulking, zombie bodyguards fell in line behind him.
I got in the van, consumed with questions. Abe certainly didn’t plan to answer them. Debbie and I were going to have to be on our guard, but we didn’t know what we were up against.
It was that kind of day, I decided on the way home. Nothing made much sense. I wasn’t sure what was going on. All I could do was wait for bits and pieces to add themselves to the information I had. I considered talking to Martin about it, but that would have to wait until later. It was time to get Kate from school.
“You came!” Kate was happy to see me in the long car line stretching out from her school. She jumped in the front seat.
“I told you I would if I got off early. How was your day?”
All of the details of second grade life came tumbling out. I saw Debbie picking up Raina too. There was no time to stop and chat. Parents with deadlines were pushing through the car line trying to get to ballet and piano lessons.
“They said it might snow tonight.” Kate grinned. “That would mean no school tomorrow. How sweet would that be?”
“I thought you liked school?” I smiled. Her close resemblance to Jacob sometimes astounded me. Seeing her meant he would always be close to me.
“It’s okay. But I like when it snows, and I get to hang around the house all day. I’m always finding something new.”
“Something new like what?” I pulled the van back out on the street. The sky was deeply overcast, and the temperature was dropping. Whoever had called for snow might be right.
She shrugged. “I found some an old necklace in one of the closets upstairs last week. Grandma said it has garnets in it, and that it had belonged to some guest who left it behind before the inn closed. Why didn’t you keep the inn open, Mommy? I know Grandma would’ve liked it. You could’ve made money, and you wouldn’t have to go out and work.”
“Maybe. But sometimes you have to do what you can.” I smiled a
t her. “I’m good at my job. You know I’m not much on baking muffins and cookies, like Grandma was. I think making all that food is part of running the inn.”
“Mommy? Will Grandma always live with us as a ghost?”
“I don’t know for sure. Why?”
“I was just thinking about Daddy. Why doesn’t his ghost doesn’t live with us too?”
I couldn’t even form words to try to explain why that had happened. Even if I’d known what the difference was, I wouldn’t know how to tell her. Jacob had certainly loved her as much as Addie loved her. Life wasn’t always fair or equal.
“What do you say we stop at the ice cream place and get a lot of hot fudge on a sundae to keep us warm?”
Kate stared at me like I was crazy and then giggled. “If we really wanted to stay warm, we’d just get the hot fudge.”
“I’m good with that. Let’s stop.”
There weren’t many people at the ice cream shop. We found out why when we went inside. There was no heat in the building. The young man at the counter apologized, and offered us free topping. We got our hot fudge sundaes—with free sprinkles—and ate them in the van with the motor running so we’d be warm.
I was happy listening to her tell me about the history of the African tribes they were studying in her class. The entire school was working toward a night of world history and culture. Each grade was learning something different that they would present to parents. Kate’s class had learned a song in Swahili, and was planning to present something about Kenya.
These moments with her were so precious to me. I captured each one of them like a shining jewel in my memory. I wanted to be able to go over them while I kept vigil during every long night for the next eighteen years. I didn’t know what would happen after that, but I would have these wonderful memories to take with me.
My phone rang, and I glanced at the name on the screen. It was Martin Cummings. He wanted to meet with me right away. He said it was important, and that it involved Mr. Welk’s death. That was enough for me to take Kate home, and explain the situation to Addie.
Maybe my gut was right, and Martin had answers to those questions about why Mary Gable’s name had made Abe so angry. He might even know what my chances were of getting my heart ripped out of my chest before my twenty years was up.
But when I went inside the old inn, Addie met me at the door to the mudroom, a grim frown on her plain, ghostly face.
“What’s wrong?” I stopped in the doorway.
“Get started on your homework in the kitchen, Kate,” Addie told her. “I’ll be in as soon as I can.”
Kate went into the kitchen, muttering about always missing out on the good stuff. She put her book bag on the table, and closed the door behind her.
“We have a problem,” Addie said.
Chapter Ten
“What is it?” I could imagine all kinds of terrible things.
Someone from the school had paid us a visit. The house was being torn down. Addie wasn’t going to be a ghost for much longer.
“A visitor arrived.”
“Okay.” That didn’t seem so bad. “Who was it?”
“He says he’s your friend. He says his name is Lucas. We can’t have someone staying here with us! I can’t believe you didn’t know better than to invite him here!”
Lucas. It was my turn to frown.
How did he know where to find me? What did he want? I could imagine he wanted some repayment for saving my life. Very few people were selfless enough, in my experience, to let something like that pass by without taking advantage.
I could smell the rose hidden inside my jacket. It seemed stupid that I’d brought it with me. If he saw it—or magically (yeah, that sounds stupid) knew I’d taken it—he could use that against me.
“Where is he?”
“Upstairs. He said he’d settle into the turret room on the third floor.” She screwed up her disapproving face. “Where do you find these people anyway? Jacob is barely dead, and you’re out on the streets looking for a man.”
“I wasn’t looking for anyone. He saved my life today, what I have left of it. If I’m ripped apart by a bus, I’m really dead.” I saw a shocked stare replace the angry one. “Never mind. I’ll talk to him. I didn’t know he was coming here.”
“He can’t stay.”
“For once, we agree. I’ll handle it.”
I hoped I could handle it. If his magic, or whatever, got out of hand, I could always shoot him. He probably wouldn’t fall for the stun gun again.
Really, I was glad to see him again. I’d felt bad about leaving him that way. He’d kept the bus from hitting me. He deserved better. If he hadn’t been so worked up about all the witch stuff, I wouldn’t have stunned him. I could tell him that, and then send him on his way.
Unless he was after some kind of revenge for the stun gun thing.
I went outside to the van and grabbed the Beretta. I told Addie and Kate to stay in the kitchen no matter what they heard as I made my way slowly upstairs to the third floor.
The turret had been one of the favorite rooms to rent when visitors had come to stay here. It was never used anymore. I knew Addie fluttered around the inn, taking down cobwebs that had probably accumulated in the last year since she’d died. That was about all the attention it had received.
It had to be cold up there too. We’d turned off the heat to the third floor to conserve power a long time ago. I thought he probably wouldn’t want to stay up there long.
I hardened my resolve. He needed to leave right away. I didn’t need him around attracting attention to our unusual life. Addie was right about that.
I crept up on the room once I’d reached the third floor. A thick film of gray dust lay on everything. Some cobwebs festooned the old-fashioned lights in the ceiling. It reminded me of the hotel where I’d left him. Maybe Lucas was attracted to this kind of place.
Outside the closed door to the turret room, I paused. I couldn’t start feeling sorry for him or let him take advantage of me because he’d saved my life. I was only here to take care of Kate. She was all that mattered.
“Are you coming in?” he asked through the door. “I hear you breathing out there, Skye. Come in. I mean you no harm.”
I didn’t know if he was being ironic or what. I was the one who’d left him on the floor the last time we’d met. Why would he think I was afraid?
I didn’t know—but he was right. He made me nervous. Maybe it was my stupid conscience that kept telling me I’d wronged him. He couldn’t help that he was crazy, and obsessed with magic. On the other hand, I wasn’t exactly myself that day either.
Before I could continue the argument with myself, I pushed open the heavy door like I was there for a drug raid.
“Wow.” I regarded the room. “I love what you’ve done with the place.”
“Close the door, please. You’re letting the warmth out.”
The turret room was large. It was five-sided, with a huge stone fireplace in one corner. The last time I’d been in here, the dusty wood floor was bare, and the windows overlooking the street were dirty.
Now everything shone with polish, and even smelled like lemon oil. The old bed was plumped up and covered in clean sheets and a comforter. The floor was covered by the same red Persian rug that he’d had at the hotel. Obviously, he traveled with it.
A bright fire crackled in the hearth, warming the corners of the room. The three big windows were clean and edged with nice red velvet drapes that could be pulled closed for privacy. The large, claw foot bathtub had either been recently used or was ready for use. Candles burned everywhere, perfuming the air.
It was amazing—and it couldn’t matter to me.
“You can’t stay here.” I didn’t move from the doorway, closing the door a little, but not all the way.
“I shall not be here for long,” he promised, bustling around the room.
“You can’t stay here at all.”
“I need your aid and succor, Skye. And I th
ink I may be of assistance to you.”
Succor? What did that even mean? “Really? How so?”
He smiled. My heart pounded a little faster. I’d forgotten how good-looking he was. There was an otherworldly quality to him that made everything seem hazy, like soft lighting during a love scene in a movie. The perfume from the rose filled my senses.
“What?” I glared at him, shaking it off. “Are you doing that? Are you using some kind of magic on me?”
“And you say you aren’t a witch!”
“Don’t start that again!” I jerked the Beretta toward him. “This is the real deal, not a stupid stun gun.”
“Yes—about that weapon you attacked me with earlier—hardly the actions of a grateful woman whose life I saved!”
“I’m sorry about that. You were acting kind of crazy. You can’t be too careful.”
His eyes blazed green fire. “And you thought I meant you harm? That, my lady, is the height of insanity! Why would I do such a thing? No doubt you saved me from a fall further through the fabric of reality. We each did each other a good turn.”
He made a deep bow, his dark hair falling across his forehead.
I couldn’t help but smile. “All right. We’re even. I saved you. You saved me. Now you have to go. How did you know where I lived anyway?”
He sat down on the bed. “I seem to be able to glean information from the minds of those around me, no doubt through the use of magic. I am some sort of mage or sorcerer, as I am certain you would agree.”
“Sure.” What the hell?
His intense eyes pleaded with me. “Please, you must relate how you were able to keep me from falling. What magic did you use to save me?”
“I didn’t use any magic at all. I’m not a witch.” I almost told him about the magical tattoo on my foot just to get him to drop it. Could the tattoo have saved him from falling through the fabric of reality—whatever that was?
“My lady.” He was down on one knee, grabbing my hand and pressing his head to it. “You are my savior. Please do not cast me out until I can find my way back. You are the only soul I have connected with since I found myself in this godforsaken place this day. There must be a reason we were brought together. Events of this nature never simply happen, Skye. I risk being lost forever without you.”
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