The Voodoo Killings

by Kristi Charish

  Unless that had never been the point. Maybe the fact that Jayden had been connected to Cameron was the point. The murder wasn’t one of the Jinn experiments. It was meant to draw attention to me and Cameron.

  I felt the cold before Nate burst into the room. “K, hurry up! Cops out front and coming into the building.”

  Shit. “Cameron, what’s the best way out of here? Cameron?”

  He was staring at the carvings on Jayden’s chest. I grabbed his arm.

  “There is nothing we could have done and there’s nothing you can do for him now, especially if the cops find out you’re a zombie. We’ve got to get out of here.”

  “The bathroom window,” he said. “Jayden kept a rope in there for emergencies. It’s only a two-storey drop and the alley’s out of sight.”

  “Go. Now,” I added when he didn’t move.

  I ran to the bedroom. What had Neon been doing in here?

  On the dresser for the world to see was a bag of sage and a mirror. There was even a piece of chalk and a bindings book. The mirror hadn’t been set, and the chalk was wrong for using with sage. Even so…

  I flipped the book open. Rudimentary bindings. On the back was a stamp from the Pike Market practitioners shop.

  “What?” Nate said, peering over my shoulder.

  I held up the book. “Nate, she planted this. We’re being set up.”

  We both heard the heavy steps coming up the stairwell. Nate swore. “K, get after Cameron.”

  “Nate, you aren’t a poltergeist, you can barely hold a game controller—”

  “For once in your goddamn life, will you trust me? Get down that rope and out of the alley fast. Go as far as First at least before doubling back to your place.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  “Lead them on one hell of a goose chase.” He picked up the only object on the dresser that had any weight to it, a black eight ball, and hefted it in his hand. “Always wanted to throw one of these,” he said.

  I winced. I didn’t want to think how much Otherside he’d burn through doing that.

  “If I burn fuel for nothing, I’m going to haunt you until you go nuts. Get out of here!” he said, and headed towards the front door with the eight ball. “Hey, asshole! Get a load of this!” I heard a crack as the eight ball hit the wall. Yelling and barked orders carried from outside the door as Nate whooped down the hallway.

  I ran to the bathroom and lowered myself down the rope.

  —

  Cameron wasn’t complaining, but he was starting to move with the jerking motions of a zombie going through rigor mortis—basically, starvation. I’d made two calls and left two messages, one for Lee Ling and one for Max, both relating the same thing; “I know who’s behind the killings and we have a problem.”

  I thought about calling Aaron and almost dialed twice. But the last time I’d seen him, he’d been having drinks with the killer. My mind told me there was no way Aaron was involved, that he couldn’t know, but my gut wouldn’t let me make the call. What was I supposed to tell him? By the way, you know that girl I accosted in front of you at Club 9? Your new informant? Yeah, she just lured me to a Jinn murder scene and fled while I was crouched over the body: she tried to frame me. Even if he believed me, Aaron’s hands would still be tied.

  When we reached the alley behind my building, I let out a sigh of relief. No cop cars, no Aaron…

  “We’ve got brains upstairs and I’ll see if I can patch up that wound. If I sew it shut until Max can fix it in the morning, you should feel better, at least.”

  I heard something behind us and stopped. I searched the lamplit stretch, then pushed my Otherside sight—thank you, Gideon—to see if I could pick up a ghost. Nothing.

  But there came the scrape again. I motioned for Cameron to stand behind me.

  “Nate?” I whispered.

  “No, not Nate, it’s me.” Aaron stepped under the street light.

  “Jesus, Aaron, don’t sneak up on me like that. How long have you been standing there waiting for me?”

  He shrugged. “Awhile. Just wanted to make sure you got home all right. Where’s Nate?”

  I kept a straight face. “On the Otherside or stalking his ex would be my guess. Want me to call him so you can ask?”

  Aaron shook his head.

  Neon must have called him…and told him what? That she just happened to be walking by a murder scene and saw me run out of a building? Or that she had been standing innocently in a dead man’s apartment when I barged in?

  “Aaron, I’m tired and I need to get Cameron settled in.”

  “I told Morgan about your Jinn theory,” he said. I bristled, but he carried on. “She disagrees. She thinks it’s a practitioner using a ritual to make it easier to use Otherside. To avoid the sweats and nausea.”

  I didn’t know what to say for a moment. Of all the dreamt-up garbage. She probably hadn’t known I knew about the Jinn until Aaron told her. All she’d figured I’d known about was Cameron, and how the hell his state played into the Jinn killings was beyond me at this point. Now she’d upped the ante, and it was Aaron’s fault. If I hadn’t managed to get out of the building, I would have been found at the scene in possession of a zombie. Even if Aaron had been on my side, he’d have had to question me….

  She was good.

  “Aaron, I studied for two years with Maximillian Odu, one of the most respected voodoo priests in North America. I’ve also probably helped solve more murder cases than any other practitioner in the Northwest, including Canada. Morgan works at a hobby shop. I’m not convinced she can set a mirror properly. You’ve already got my notes and my analysis. In my professional opinion, Morgan is taking you for an idiot. Is there anything else?”

  “She offered information,” Aaron said.

  “Yeah, and I’d start asking why.” I turned away from him and unlocked the back door. Aaron stopped me and I felt Cameron tense beside me. I waved Cameron through. I could still handle this.

  “You’re not telling me something,” Aaron said.

  “And you’re being a self-righteous asshole.” How long had it taken me to go from love interest to suspect? A matter of hours? Less?

  “Kincaid, I trust you. I’ve always trusted you, but you need to help me make sense of what the hell is going on. Please.”

  That was like a slap in the face, as if he literally had said, Whatever happens after this is on you, not me.

  But there was a pleading in his eyes and that please. I closed my eyes. Did I really want to keep this to myself? How was that turning out for me? Another person was dead by the Jinn killer, that’s how. I was out of my depth. When I opened my eyes, I’d just about made up my mind to tell Aaron everything.

  And I might have if I hadn’t noticed the flash of Otherside in Aaron’s sedan. I narrowed my eyes as Neon stepped out.

  How had she caught up with him so quickly? How could he be so blind?

  “Kincaid?” Aaron hadn’t yet realized what I’d seen.

  Well, Neon might be an Otherside-wielding criminal mastermind, but timing she didn’t have.

  I pushed Aaron away. “I don’t know anything more than I told you. Believe whatever the hell you want to.” I stepped inside.

  Cameron was holding the elevator door for me. We rode up in silence, and once inside my apartment I tossed him a pack of brains from the cooler. “Heat it up or blend it, Cameron. But eat it damn quick.”

  I flipped on the kitchen light but left the living room light off, crouching down by the sill so no one would see me. I heard the frying pan crackle as one of the packets went in.

  Aaron and Neon were still below me. It looked as if they were arguing, but I didn’t want to risk cracking open the window so I could hear.

  I watched them for maybe five more minutes before Aaron finally got back into his car. It was about then I felt the drop in air temperature beside me.

  “What the fuck is Murder and Mayhem doing chatting with Aaron?” Nate said.

  �
�Good question.” I kept my eyes on Neon as she watched Aaron drive off. She glanced up to my darkened apartment windows before setting off down the alley.

  I stood up too fast and accidentally iced myself passing through Nate. I grabbed my jacket.

  “Oh, hell no, K.”

  “Just stay here.”

  He floated in front of me, blocking my path. “If you go out that door, I’m coming too. K, she’ll eat you alive. You saw the shit she did to that kid?”

  But Nate was fading. Whatever he’d pulled to distract the police had done him in. “Nate, she’s turned me into a suspect. Aaron was here to question me. I’ve got to stop her before she does any more damage.”

  “Aaron’s not that stupid—”

  “Aaron might be a lot of things we never suspected.”

  Nate watched me while I pulled on my boots the way he did when he was about to ignore whatever it was I’d asked him to do.

  I stood up. “I’m just going to follow her. I’ll hang back. You want to do me a real favour? See if you can find her apartment.”

  He looked as though he was about to argue again.

  “I need to know how good she is. Seriously, I’m giving you the okay to break and enter.” That got his attention.

  “Anything goes?”

  “Anything goes,” I said. “Just make sure you’re the hell out by the time she gets back.” I ran out the door.

  —

  Try avoiding puddles in the middle of the night with heeled boots. Maybe I did need to rethink the whole flats things. Amazingly, I managed not to make any noise as I tailed Neon down the alley. Once I figured out she was taking my route—mine—to the city entrance, I would have liked nothing more than to jump her. But then I’d never know whom she was working with. And that she was working with someone from the city was a given; Lee knew all the practitioners with access, and Neon wasn’t one of them.

  I crept along until she reached the storm doors that led into the city. No one was there and she didn’t try to open them herself.

  I swore under my breath. Neon was going to have to wait, and every minute I waited with her made it more likely I would get caught.

  I ducked into a side alley and dialed Lee. Come on, Lee, pick up, pick up…

  “Yes, Kincaid?” Lee said.

  Thank god. “Lee, I know who’s behind it—or some of it. Practitioner, pink hair, pretty.”

  “There is no practitioner by that description who comes to the city, Kincaid. Where are you?”

  “By the city entrance in Pioneer Square. She must be waiting for someone. I followed her from my place to the storm doors here, and she’s standing there right now, which is why I’d really like to hang up my phone and get out of here.”

  Lee went silent. Then she said, “You need to get out of there now—”

  I would have said I heartily agreed, except for the boot heel that came down on the back of my knee. I buckled and the phone went skidding across the alley.

  “You know, Kincaid, you really need to stop thinking about yourself and Max as the only game in town,” Neon said. Then she launched a kick that sent me sprawling into a puddle. I scrambled up and put some distance between us.

  She smiled. “Right now Aaron thinks you’re a liar and an Otherside junkie. You do know that’s what you are, right? Maybe the medium who taught you never bothered to mention that risk, seeing how mediums don’t have that problem. All the sweats? Nausea?”

  I stepped to the side. I remembered the knife she’d used on Cameron’s dealer.

  “Oh, and Aaron knows you were in the building where the drug dealer lived. He doesn’t believe you’re behind the murders yet, but I’m working on him.”

  I caught the glint of metal in her hand.

  Well, at least Aaron was just being an idiot….

  “Great, so, Aaron will arrest me and you’ll go free. Scapegoat successfully deployed and you can go on your merry, murderous way.”

  A slow smile spread across Neon’s face. “That’s what my boss wants me to do.”

  Her boss. She was working for someone.

  “Except I got an offer I can’t refuse.”

  Offer? For what?

  “He hasn’t been very interested in the Jinn for at least a hundred years. Said the whole thing bored him. Then you piqued his interest. He said he’ll show me all his notes if I deliver you into the city.”

  Oh shit…Kincaid, one of these days you will learn not to stick your nose where it doesn’t belong.

  If I reached her before she got me with the knife, I could take her. She had an inch or two on me, but I had about ten pounds.

  Her eyes shifted to a spot behind me and I realized it wasn’t Neon I had to worry about.

  “Aaron,” I said carefully, and began to turn.

  The rope caught me around the neck. I kicked back but didn’t connect.

  “You didn’t think we were done yet, did you?” Anna Bell whispered in my ear.

  I’d have laughed at myself for walking straight into a trap, but I blacked out.

  CHAPTER 22

  MURDER AND MAYHEM

  I could hear water…or was that just my ears? I think there was a radio as well, playing…classical music?

  Hard to tell with all the arguing.

  “You said I could have them both to play with!” Anna Bell shrieked.

  “You can have her. Once I’m done.”

  The second voice was dry and strained. I’d guess ghoul by the vocal-cord decay. Probably male, but you could never be sure just by the voice….The radio was playing. Definitely classical.

  “You promised me!” Anna screamed. The ghoul had her right pissed off.

  I tested my hands and found I could move them. She hadn’t bothered with restraints, didn’t need to if I was right about where they’d brought me. I stretched out my hand and felt damp wood beams under me.

  I lifted my head. Well, “lifted” might not be the right description for what I managed; tilted my head to the side in a way that didn’t make me pass out is more accurate.

  Ambient light from three lanterns strung on the beams of the dock shack filled the room. No windows, no natural light. Only the sound of running water and the radio. Neon and Anna had brought me to the last place in the underground city I wanted to be.

  If Anna Bell was arguing with someone down here…

  “I see you’re awake,” the grating voice said.

  I craned my neck to see my captor. There wasn’t enough light for me to make out his clothing, but his face I could see just fine. Male, guessing from the bone structure. By the yellow, leathery appearance of his skin I’d put his age at a little over one hundred, one twenty-five at most.

  “I thought all you century ghouls covered your faces?” I said, mostly to see if my own vocal cords were still working.

  He crouched down, close enough I could smell the dry rot coming off his skin. “I’m sure I don’t need any introduction. What I would like from you, though, is for you to tell me why that whore Lee Ling and everyone else in the city seems to be set on finding me, hmmm?”

  How to survive kidnapping by serial killers: figure out what they want and do your damnedest not to give it to them. While they’re pissed off, try to get the hell away. “My guess is you did something stupid to piss her off—Ow!”

  A rock had hit my shoulder. Hard. I glanced up. Anna Bell floated overhead. She gave me a sweet smile. “Answer his questions or the next one will be in your face.”

  Did I mention the other part of surviving serial killers is making sure that at no point in the process do you end up dead?

  I swallowed. “Someone is trying to make a Jinn. Lee figures it’s you, up to your old tricks.”

  The ghoul sat back on his haunches. “Is that what’s causing all the trouble?” He shook his head. “The girl who brought you here didn’t know that.” He glanced at Anna Bell. “See, Anna, this is why we don’t immediately kill every young woman who crosses our path.”

  Anna shot me a
dirty look before dissolving back into whatever corner of the Otherside she’d crawled out of.

  The ghoul turned his attention back to me. “It isn’t me.”

  “Bullshit,” I said.

  The ghoul laughed, and shook his head. “I realize that this might come as a surprise, but Lee Ling does not know everything. Jinn are a pursuit for the young and naive. Not worth the trouble. I satisfy myself with other pursuits now.” He flashed me an incomplete set of sharp yellow teeth.

  “If you’re the ghoul behind the 1888 killings, you were trying to raise a Jinn then. Why the hell would I believe you’re not behind it now?”

  He let out a raspy laugh. “I will admit I experimented with Jinn. But that was many, many years ago. Isn’t that right, Anna?”

  She laughed, too close to my ear for comfort.

  “More trouble than it’s worth,” he said, “and a wasteful endeavour. What you might call a pipe dream. Though I did find out something very interesting about myself all those years ago.”

  “And what was that?” My voice sounded thin, scared.

  The ghoul smiled. “I like killing people.”

  He moved aside, revealing the rest of the shack. There was a large wooden table a few feet away. I heard a moan and saw a thin white hand drop over the side, a red-stained leather strap with a short lead wrapped around it.

  Shit. Neon.

  “I much prefer it when the victims walk right in. It’s satisfying in a way you can’t possibly imagine—Zen, even.”

  Another moan escaped Neon. I hoped to hell she wasn’t awake.

  “You, on the other hand, don’t quite fit my criteria.”

  “Guess you’ll have to let me go,” I said.

  The ghoul smiled. “As is so often the lesson in life and death, my dear, sometimes we just have to make do.” He headed towards the back of the shack and through a side door. Moments later I heard metal strike metal.

  I didn’t know what he had in store for me when he got back, but I planned to be long gone. The ropes holding my hands were secure but gave me enough latitude that I could prop myself on my elbows to get a better look at Neon.