Die on Your Feet

by S. G. Wong

  Suddenly, Ria looked around. “What about you Aubrey? Any ideas? Know of any secret societies that would need a hidden Conjurer in their back pocket?”

  “Ah...no. Outside my bailiwick.”

  Lola thought he sounded strange, but she relayed Aubrey’s response without adding her own doubts. Ria threw up her hands. “Great theory, chum, but we have absolutely no proof.”

  Lola gave her a grave look. “I don’t need proof. I’ve got charm.”

  Ria snorted and checked the large wall clock above their heads. “Time for me to earn my keep.” She pulled Lola up with her and thanked Dinwoodie Kwong with a dazzler of a smile. Back upstairs in the so-called bullpen, Lola used Ria’s telephone. No answer at her mother’s house. She rang off and tried another exchange. After some trouble, she got Bednarski on the line.

  “Look, are you boys done with my mother yet?”

  “As a matter of fact, no. I just came out to get her a cup of coffee.” The cop’s tone was blandly polite.

  “Is Locke with her?”

  “Superintendent Locke has been in to see Miss McCall.”

  “How much longer will you keep her?”

  “Well, Miss Starke, your mother’s here of her own free will. She can go any time. She knows that.”

  “How much longer, Bednarski?”

  “Can’t really say. These things are unpredictable.”

  “Yeah, well, thanks.” She dropped the receiver onto its cradle.

  “Off again?” Ria was sifting through a pile of message slips. She scratched a few notes on a pad.

  Lola nodded. “Gotta see a man about a thing.”

  “Be good,” said her friend, looking up at her.

  “Not a chance,” replied Lola.

  “Then make sure you let me know how bad you’ve been.” Ria pinned her with a mock glare. “You still owe me a headline.”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Mayor had three assistants: Miss Chang, Miss Delgado and Miss Li. Any one of them could be lighting up the silver screen, with their lush black hair and seductive almond-shaped eyes. No one would be faulted for thinking they’d stepped onto a film set. Dark wood paneling, chair rails, plush Persian carpeting underfoot, heavy furniture and a trio of exotic beauties. The script was clear: this was the anteroom of a powerful man.

  The women smiled at Lola in that professionally impersonal way of the very best administrators. Miss Delgado came around her desk. Her eyes flickered quickly over Lola’s outfit. To tell by her expression, she thought nothing of what she saw, nothing at all. Three other people in the room stood as Lola entered. They were robed in mustard yellow and they ignored Lola completely. She edited the script: the man had become a Ghost and he was more powerful than the mere man had ever been. The Conjurers watched Aubrey with sharp-eyed suspicion.

  “Problem?” asked Lola. She kept her tone casual.

  Miss Delgado glanced at Miss Chang. The other woman shrugged. Delgado replied, “No, Miss Starke. Mayor is expecting you.” Then she led Lola through a doorway. Lola had already taken five steps into it before she realized it was an empty room.

  Lola stopped and looked around her. It was smaller than the anteroom. A single door in the opposite wall. No decorations on the walls. No windows.

  Miss Li was suddenly standing in the room as well. She briskly closed the door behind her. She smiled politely at Lola. “Your purse please, Miss Starke. This shan’t take long.”

  Lola waited a beat, then complied, a tight smile on her lips. Li opened it up and took out Lola’s gun. “I’m sorry but this is for the protection of our Conjurers. I’m sure you understand.” Li smiled impersonally. “We’ll have this waiting for you when your meeting is done.”

  Lola nodded once, sharply. Li returned the purse. Lola reached into her jacket pocket and extracted her switchblade. “You’ll probably want this too.”

  “Thank you.” Miss Li nodded at Miss Delgado, then exited back into the outer office.

  Miss Delgado was at the other door. She gave another neutral smile. “I’m sure you understand the irregularity of being allowed your Ghost during your meeting with Mayor.” Lola startled as a yellow robe brushed past her right elbow. The Conjurer gave no indication of having noticed Lola and continued until she was beside Miss Delgado. The Spell Caster’s face looked slack but her eyes were focused enough as she watched Aubrey.

  “I’m sure I do,” murmured Lola.

  “Shall we?” said Delgado. She allowed the Conjurer to open the door, but she gestured for Lola to go within. “Please enter.”

  The Conjurer moved a split second before Lola did. The woman, shorter than Lola, nevertheless raised a hand at Lola’s approach. Lola stopped within touching distance. The hand did not move to close the gap. Instead, the Conjurer waited, her head suddenly cocked to the right. The woman nodded and Lola heard Aubrey smoothly offer thanks. The hand disappeared within the robes and the way was clear. Lola stepped inside.

  The room was classically decorated in what the Europeans called “chinoiserie”: large black lacquered desk, two floor-to-ceiling calligraphy banners on opposite walls, an enormous carpet patterned with phoenix-and-dragon. Two entire walls were windows; lightweight bamboo blinds were pulled down against the sun, filtering light to a pale yellow. Buildings and trees were still visible as outlines through the slats. Mayor sat at the desk, his back turned to the windows. Behind his chair stood two more Conjurers in yellow robes. Mayor wore his customary dove grey suit and dark striped tie.

  “Thank you, Miss Delgado. Lola, Aubrey, come in.” He scrawled something on a document and put it aside. Lola found it an odd sight: Ghosts weren’t meant to manipulate objects. Hells, Ghosts weren’t meant to be visible. The door behind her closed softly. She checked. Delgado was gone, but the Conjurer remained.

  Mayor continued, “Any progress on your client’s murder?” He stood up and walked toward a sofa upholstered in pale gold. The character for “longevity” was hidden among tiny sprays of violet flowers embroidered into the fabric. Mayor sat down and gestured for Lola to do likewise. She did, warily noting the movements of the Conjurers. The woman moved away from the door and stepped closer to Lola. Her two colleagues remained motionless. Six pairs of eyes followed Aubrey.

  “You’re an expensive Ghost to maintain,” said Aubrey.

  “Apparently, the taxpayers agree I’m worth it,” replied Mayor with a smile.

  “Let’s hope you get volume discounts,” Aubrey said.

  One of the Conjurers, tall and pale, narrowed his eyes, but said nothing. Mayor sat at his ease, his smile neutral and polite.

  Lola decided to start easy. “Tell me about my mother’s involvement in your ceremony.”

  Mayor blinked once. “It’s straightforward enough. I require her physical presence while intricate spells are woven to Ward me.”

  “She doesn’t do anything?”

  “She stands in a specific place, relative to myself.”

  “Are you vulnerable during this casting?”

  Mayor paused. “Your mother is in no danger whatsoever during the ceremony,” he said finally. “Any Spells that would be used to disrupt the Warding would not affect her.”

  “Could someone harm her to disrupt your ceremony?”

  He shook his head. “A Warding circle is specially created and maintained by two Conjurers who do not participate in my warding.” He smiled wolfishly. “We are hardly amateurs at this.”

  “No,” countered Aubrey, his voice deeper than usual, “but your main concern is for yourself, not for Grace.”

  “True,” agreed Mayor, “but her safety is integral to my interests.”

  Lola said, “You must Ward more than once a year.”

  “Monthly, in fact, but they are of lesser intensity.”

  “Who knows of y
our annual ceremony?”

  “My assistants, Conjurers, security, Grace—and now the two of you.” He smiled enigmatically.

  “No other City departments or officials? Police? Councillors?”

  “I’m not in the practice of confiding in my enemies,” Mayor replied, “nor in my potential enemies.”

  Lola pushed on. “The Gaming Commission.”

  “Yes. I spoke with the Commissioner this morning. His office found a record of Mr. Arbogast’s employment, but more than that, he couldn’t say. He certainly did not know the man personally, nor even by sight.”

  “Did you speak with Assistant Deputy Commissioner Copenhagen?”

  “We have a meeting after this one.”

  Lola waited for him to elaborate but instead, Mayor remained silent, considering her.

  Finally, he said, “I’ve done a little sleuthing myself. ADC Copenhagen is indeed a City official, as was your Mr. Arbogast, but he was not officially assigned to her for any work. If they knew one another, it was not in a formal capacity.”

  “Any reason the Commissioner would lie?” asked Lola.

  Mayor gave her question some thought. “Not about this.”

  Lola nodded. “No, I don’t suppose this would concern him.”

  “That’s not entirely true. An employee of the Gaming Commission was found murdered in my house. I still have some questions for Commissioner Deng.”

  “You ought to get acquainted with the Assistant Deputy while you’re at it. I’ll get you started.” Lola extracted the black ledger from her purse and tossed it onto the sofa next to Mayor.

  He read through the book carefully. The Conjurers at the desk stirred, catching Lola’s attention. She saw their eyes slowly follow Aubrey, back and forth, back and forth.

  Mayor looked up. “Aubrey, stop pacing, if you please. You’re making the Conjurers quite nervous.” He waited a few beats, then returned to the ledger. Lola lit a cigarette. In the silence, she heard the faintest hint of traffic below. No noise came from the rest of the building.

  “You had your office proofed against sound?” she asked.

  “A remnant of Mayor Leung’s special brand of ostentation,” replied Mayor absently. A few more minutes passed. He looked up again.

  “How did you get this?”

  “It’s not important.”

  “What do you make of the contents?” asked Mayor.

  “It’s meant to prove extortion.” Lola shrugged. “I became suspicious of my client’s motives, so I followed Arbogast one afternoon. I saw him visit five of those parlours. I confronted him. He gave up the story. He was the bag man. His lover, Josephson, was also involved.”

  “Are you always so suspicious of your own clients?”

  “If I have reason to be,” replied Lola. “The point is, Arbogast is the obvious suspect for this extortion ring, and I had proof that would put the coppers onto him quick and easy. But he was more afraid of his boss than of me.” She paused, allowing her words to sink in. Then, “Aubrey is certain Copenhagen is involved in my client’s death.”

  Mayor shifted his attention. “How?” he asked, narrowing his eyes.

  “The disturbance in the Ether,” said Aubrey. “As I told you, it was strong on you when you came into the ballroom. I sensed the same, although weaker, around Copenhagen this morning.”

  “Do you still sense it? Here?” asked Mayor.

  “No.” Aubrey’s reply came reluctantly.

  Mayor said, “So she was there, somehow.” He turned his attention to Lola. “How well do you know Copenhagen?”

  “We attended the same high school. We were never friends,” said Lola.

  “How did you become reacquainted?”

  “She had her thugs kidnap me and then she hired me.” Lola met Mayor’s gaze straight on. “My suspicious nature may just serve you well, when this is through.” Lola outlined her investigation into the other woman’s background.

  “It appears she may very well still be a Spell Caster of some sort,” continued Lola, “if not officially ordained by the Temple.” A stirring among the Conjurers in the room, but nothing was said by any of the three. “I was led to understand you taught yourself Spells, so it should be possible for others. There are two years of her life that no one seems to know about. They happen to be the years after she left the Temple and before she reappeared as a City official. That oughta be enough time, even for a halfway decent student to learn some useful things. I’m told Amber Jade is easily your match when it comes to a natural ability in Conjury.”

  “You think this old school chum of yours is out to kill me?” Mayor’s mouth quirked in an amused smile.

  “You seem interested in taking precautions, just on principle. Why ignore this possibility? Amber Jade was widely acknowledged as a powerful natural talent in Conjury years ago.” Lola paused, weighing her audience’s possible credulity. With a shrug, she continued. “Listen, I haven’t got a thimbleful of proof, but what if she did complete her training? What if she is a highly skilled Conjurer, Bound and Ordained by the Temple in secret? Or, for all I know,” added Lola, “by some other organization?”

  Mayor looked over at his two Conjurers, behind the desk. Neither man met his gaze. They continued to follow Aubrey’s every move with focussed, hostile eyes.

  Mayor said, “And your ideas on her motives?”

  “If she’s a hired gun, then someone on that long list of enemies of yours has a reason.” She continued, “This isn’t a legal case. Motive is for convincing juries to make sense out of senselessness. Does it matter what her motive is? I think she’s out to get you, and I think it’s worth your while to know about it.”

  Mayor smiled, then, slightly. His eyes remained as lifeless as the rest of him. They were the same empty grey holes one saw in his newspaper photographs. This time, though, it was no trick of the light, no deficiency of the medium.

  “I’m suspicious of you, Lola.” Mayor folded his hands and laid them on his lap. “I also don’t believe in coincidence. You have fastidiously avoided me for years. Yet here you are, now, you and Aubrey, the second time in twelve hours. You appear during a most important ceremony for me, and you bring a dead man as a house gift. A dead man, who also happens to be involved in an extortion ring you believe is being run by the Assistant Deputy Commissioner of Gaming.”

  “I’m not interested in killing you,” repeated Lola.

  “Not knowingly, perhaps,” retorted Mayor. He leaned back against the cushions. “But I’m not afraid of you, nor of Aubrey. Death Moon is a dangerous time, yes, but today is a day of renewal and strength.” Mayor held up a hand to stall Lola’s objections. “I’m no fool. I see the threat. However, Spells are well within my purview, as you’ve admitted. What are you looking to gain, by coming here?”

  “I want justice for Bodewell Arbogast and Joseph Josephson,” she replied.

  Mayor smiled indulgently, “Ten rounds in the ring, as it were? Bare knuckles? No holds barred?” He shook his head gently. “I can’t condone vigilantism, Lola.”

  “You have a strange mind, Mayor. No one said anything about hangin’ ’em from the nearest branch.”

  “You were being coy.”

  “No, I was being honest. The cops don’t care about Joseph Josephson. They only care about Bodewell Arbogast because he happened to spoil a spot of floor in the Mayor’s mansion.”

  “So guilt is behind your apparent altruism. Guilt,” Mayor repeated, “is never a reliable substitution for logic, Lola. I’m sure your father would have agreed, yes?”

  “He probably would have, but he’s not here now. I am. So deal with me, Mayor.” Lola paused, took a breath. “I want to speak with her alone, after the cops are done with her. How you get her to the cops is your business. I’ve done my civic duty by you.”

  “I suppose
that’s fair,” said Mayor. After a pause, he continued: “You may not like it, Lola, but we have begun a relationship of sorts, you and I. I believe strongly in a foundation of trust for any lasting association. By coming here, by warning me, you’ve gained a small measure of that from me.”

  Lola stubbed out her cigarette. “Should I be flattered?”

  Mayor smiled. “I’ve never dictated to my citizens as to their feelings.”

  “Good policy.” Lola stood. “Let me know when it goes down.” She turned away.

  Mayor chuckled softly. “Does it bother you that I’m dead? You know, it’s not healthy, as a Host, to resent your Haunting. Makes life for both you and the Ghost miserable in the extreme. Or is it simply that you object to poor Aubrey, your long-suffering companion? Would you have been happier, say, with your father Haunting you?” His dead eyes flickered between Lola and Aubrey.

  Lola stopped, faced him again. “My father would never have Haunted me without asking first. And if he had, I would’ve said no.”

  Mayor looked surprised for a moment, then began to laugh softly.

  Lola continued calmly. “As for you. You bothered me more when you were living.”

  “Ahh, we’re back to your mother.”

  “My concerns were for my father,” retorted Lola.

  “I was not the cause of their divorce, Lola. That was in the works before I met Grace. Ah. You think if I’d not kept her in Europe, she’d have returned to him.” A small smile played at the corners of his mouth. “Again, I’m compelled to contradict you. Grace was determined to pursue her career. I placed no pressure on her to stay. Your Ghost can speak to that, can’t you, Aubrey?”

  Lola’s Ghost kept his mouth shut and his feet moving. Lola watched the Conjurers tensing up as their eyes tracked Aubrey’s pacing once more.