"You go girl," Selene said. "I wouldn't have thought you had it in you. Of course that's the point of all this isn't it."
She didn't have to be any blunter than that for me to know what she meant. But even if she was dead she was still Selene. "To decide who gets to put it in you."
"Selene!"
Her laughter sounded in my head and I felt like laughing myself. But there was something I wanted to know that took the laughter away.
"Selene?" Could I really bring myself to broach this subject?
"Yes."
"The other morning in my apartment, what was all that about?"
"What was all what about?"
I swallowed, she wasn't making this easy. "You know?"
I imagined her shrugging. "I have no idea what you mean."
"So, did I imagine it then? You weren't coming on to me."
Selene remained quiet, no denial no wisecrack quip. That alone told me plenty.
"I wasn't imagining it was I?"
When Selene 'spoke' her voice was soft and earnest. "What good does it do to bring that up now? You were in quite the hurry to put distance between us then."
I worked moisture back into a dry mouth. "I ran because I didn't, still don't, know how I ought to feel about something like that."
"How you ought to feel shouldn't have to come into it. It's how you do feel that is important."
I remained silent for a moment, then; "That's a whole other problem. I felt . . . I don't know, I just don't know."
"Well, whatever you feel it's a bit late now. If you hadn't noticed I'm pretty much out of the running now. If I was ever in it."
"I think you probably were." I spoke so softly that I could barely hear my own words. Selene would have heard them.
I don't know if that last was any comfort to her or made her feel worse because we had arrived at the Delco, Diablo and Caine building. I couldn't continue talking to myself if I expected the white-shirted security guys on the doors to let me through.
There were two of them on the entrance and another on the exit. Through the glass of the doors I could see another guard in the lobby.
"Do you have an appointment?" One of the guards on the door asked. He had a palm-sized PC in his hand ready to check whatever I told him.
"No, but my name is Faith Jones, I'm here to see Christopher Thyme."
"Please wait here a moment," the first security guy said. The other had brought his hand up to the side of his head and was talking to someone somewhere inside.
"We could take these goons out and go and get Thyme ourselves."
I took a single step away from the guards and turned my head to the side so that my long white-blonde hair hid my face from them. "Shut up," I spoke in a voice that I hoped was too quiet for them to hear. "I may not know him very well but I know him well enough to know that he couldn't be behind these killings. We just need him to tell us who else has been in the market for zombies recently. If I fight my way in there we'll just get ourselves arrested and he won't tell me anything." I didn't mention that I wasn't quite as confident as Selene apparently was in my abilities to get past a quartet of security guards.
"Ah, trapping more flies with honey," Selene said. "So what exactly are you going to offer him in return for this information?"
"Quit it."
"Ms Jones, Mr Thyme will see you. If you would step inside someone will be along to escort you to his office momentarily."
"Thank you."
The guards stepped aside and opened the doors for me.
I don't really know much about law firms, mortal or otherwise, but judging by the lobby of their building the firm of Delco, Diablo and Caine was one of the more prestigious ones. Their seating was so plush that I didn't dare use it. I felt bad just stepping on the marble flooring. I felt seriously underdressed in my denim jacket jeans and T-Shirt. At least I had taken the time to comb my hair instead of covering it in a baseball cap this time. The reception desk was about twice as big as my bed and the young man sitting behind it was all done up in a suit and tie. Even the receptionist seemed to ooze class.
There was a ping from one of a set of three elevators on the wall adjacent to the reception desk and opposite the entrance. The polished bronzed doors slid open smoothly and Christopher Thyme stepped out.
"Faith, to what do I owe the pleasure?"
He was smiling. I wasn't supposed to be but I couldn't seem to keep the smile from taking over my own face. I'm sure I used to have better control around people I found attractive than this. Then again, it was not so long ago that I didn't get that attracted to people at all.
Thyme might have seen that I was trying to maintain a serious manner. He guided me into the mirror walled elevator and hit a button.
"Is Stern still trying to pin your friend's death on you? If he's harassing you, we can-"
"It's nothing like that. Let's just wait until we get to your office."
"Well, okay."
We rode in silence. I caught Thyme looking at my many reflections in the mirrors of the elevator. I guess that was all right because I was checking him out as well.
"I suppose I do have to give you credit where it's due. You sure can pick them. How ever are you going to decide between him and Agent Frost?"
It was difficult to find somewhere to look that I wasn't going to catch sight of either Thyme or one of his multiple reflections. I ended up having to turn my gaze so that I was looking at one of the larger reflections of myself. I really did look underdressed at the side of Thyme in his shirt and trousers.
"Don't put yourself down, you look fantastic as always. And I can enjoy this view at least as much as I enjoyed looking at him."
I worked my jaw to keep from answering Selene's teasing. I could see the muscles working under my cheeks in my reflection and forced myself to stop it.
Thyme ushered me into his office. "So, what do you need me for?"
"A good hard fu-"
"Zombies." It was surprisingly difficult for me not to echo Selene's statement.
"Zombies?" Thyme's brow wrinkled. "What do you want zombies for?"
"So you can get them?"
If Thyme had thought I had stopped by to continue our flirtatious dance he was quickly coming to understand his mistake. He looked entirely confused as to where I was going with this.
"Yes, I have brokered those sorts of deals for clients before. I'll ask again, what do you need zombies for?"
"It's not what I want them for, it's what somebody has already been using them for."
"I'm not sure I understand."
"Murder. Those killings that Stern thought I might have been trying to copycat were committed by a zombie or a number of them."
Thyme leaned back in his chair, his eyes focused somewhere beyond the desk between us. When he brought those eyes back up to regard me there was hurt behind the gaze. I realised with a start that it was almost an inverted replaying of what had happened between me and Frost.
"You think I had something to do with that?"
I couldn't meet his eyes.
Thyme wasn't going to make it easy to avoid knowing that I had hurt him. His tone carried the hurt right to my ears. "You really think I could have something to do with horrible things like that?"
"Look at him."
I lifted my chin and my eyes met his. "No."
I meant it, but; "But could you be involved indirectly? Yes."
Thyme was still hurt but he recognised the truth behind my words.
"I would never knowingly-"
"I know that," I said. "But what if one of your firm's clients decided to use them like that? Are you willing to vouch that none of them, none of them could be behind this?"
Thyme finally shook his head. "No," he conceded. "I can't say that none of them could be behind this."
A wash of relief, that Thyme believed I wasn't accusing him personally and that he accepted what I was saying, came over me.
I raised a hand in front of my mouth and as silently
as possible I asked Selene; "What now?"
"I need to know who those clients were to see if any of them are familiar."
"Then I need to see a list of all of your firm's clients who have used zombies."
Thyme left his seat and paced the carpet behind his desk. It was a very nice carpet but not really designed for pacing on. He stopped and looked at me.
"I can't do that. The senior partners would have my head. I'd be out of here so fast, and they would see to it I never practiced again."
"He's just covering his own ass."
"We need that list, they have to be our prime suspects." I didn't want to say this next, but I did; "I can just go to Frost and tell him what I know. He and Stern will come down here with a warrant for the list."
Thyme shook his head. ''It wouldn't do them any good. There is a privileged relationship between attorney and client. Besides there are other firms who broker such deals, the senior partners wouldn't stand for any bullyboy tactics."
"I'll tell you a few tricks to make him give you anything you want. You both might enjoy some of the less violent methods."
"So you won't help."
Thyme looked at me and I could see the war taking place behind his eyes. He wanted to help me but he was afraid of what his bosses would do when they found out. And then with an internal nuclear blast the war was over.
"I can't give you the names of our clients."
I sank down in the chair, I had really thought he would help.
"But I can take you directly to the source. Necromancy isn't exactly a common practice. There is only one licensed necromancer in this area. Even if who you are looking for isn't one of our clients he would have had to go through him to get his zombies."
"Now we are getting somewhere."
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
"Or not."
"It looks like Agents Stern and Frost might have figured out it was zombies without you after all."
Christopher Thyme had driven us to the necromancer, Hector Barbossa's place of residence and business, himself. Us being Thyme, myself and Selene tagging along inside her ring or my head whichever it was.
We had arrived to find the vicinity cordoned off by police and NIRU agents. Thyme managed to talk us into getting to speak with the senior people in charge and now Thyme was explaining to Agent Stern and Frost as well as Detective Braun, that I had been giving the case some thought in my spare time and had approached him with my suspicions.
Detective Braun looked cautiously happy to see me, he was probably wary of what Stern and I would have to say to each other. Frost looked torn between being happy to see me and annoyed that I arrived with Thyme. Stern was the easiest to read and the older NIRU agent looked on me with contempt.
"Miss Frost, how convenient of you to arrive here, and now, with the information to help us solve this case." He looked at Thyme. "And with your lawyer in tow as well."
"What are you insinuating, Agent Stern?" I spoke before Thyme could.
"Nothing."
"Really," Thyme said. "Because it could seem, to a neutral observer, that you were implying that Ms Frost might have something to do with whatever it is that happened here."
"It could?" Stern tried to appear innocent but it didn't wash with me. "Well I certainly didn't mean to imply any such thing."
"Of course not," I said. My tone saying how much I believed him.
"So what happened here?"
Braun stepped towards us. "It's just like the others. We have found what appears to be Hector Barbossa's remains."
"They figured out we were on to them and took out the weak link."
I nodded. "They had him killed so that he couldn't expose them." I verbalised what Selene had said for the rest of the group who didn't have the benefit of having her inside their skull.
"Who is they?"
"Whoever was behind the other murders." I had thought that was pretty self-explanatory.
Stern was shaking his head. "No-one was behind this Barbossa's death but himself. He raised a zombie that got out of hand. He couldn't control it and it killed him."
"Bullshit."
It was my turn to shake my head. "That isn't possible."
Stern wasn't ready to listen to me. "We have witnesses who saw a blood soaked zombie leaving the scene. From the looks of things inside, Barbossa was in the middle of a raising and the only corpse left down there is his. Do the sums."
"Zombies don't go rogue," I told him. "They don't have the mental capacity to act on their own initiative. They follow orders. If a zombie killed Barbossa it is because somebody told it to."
"And I should take your word for this?"
Frost finally spoke up. "She's right, there have been studies. It's why there are such strict procedures to follow before being allowed to practice necromancy, and such severe penalties for letting zombies get into unsuitable hands."
"Looks like Barbossa managed to find himself an even more severe penalty," I said.
Inside my head Selene chuckled.
"I'll keep that under advisement," Stern said obviously not wanting to expose his ignorance in the area further. "But unless you have some idea of who this shadowy person or persons behind the scenes may be . . ?"
I stayed silent waiting for Selene's suggestions. She didn't make any and I couldn't prompt her without somebody noticing. I really couldn't think of any way to explain her away, so it was better that no-one knew about her.
"I didn't think so." Stern turned away. "Agent Frost, please escort Miss Jones and Mr Thyme from the area. We still have an investigation tp pursue and we don't need a couple of civilians getting involved."
"What did you ever do to piss him off?"
I was wondering that myself.
Frost escorted Thyme and myself back through the police lines to Thyme's car.
"We have people searching the area for the zombie. If by some freak occurrence it has gone rogue it shouldn't be difficult to track. If it was sent here just to kill Barbossa it will long since have made it's way back to it's master."
"We're closing in," I told both men. "They left witnesses this time, they're getting sloppy."
"I don't think so," Selene said.
"I'm not so sure," Frost said at about the same time.
"What then?" I asked, knowing they would both hear and that Frost would have no reason to think I wasn't just talking to him.
"Maybe this was just the next step."
"We still don't know why the first killings took place."
"We don't know the motive behind the first murders."
"What if there was no motive?"
"What if there was no motive?"
It was very confusing, but somehow I managed to follow both strands of conversation. It probably helped that they were both saying basically the same thing.
"He's a smart one."
Thyme spoke up. "You're talking about terrorism."
"Him too."
"I don't get it." I didn't care which of the three answered me.
It was Frost who said; "There might not be a motive other than the terror of indiscriminate killings by something non-human."
"If you don't stop these killings quickly it could put the cause for non-human rights back by a decade or more," Thyme said.
Frost nodded.
"Who could want to do such a thing?" Both men looked at me and I could imagine Selene doing the same.
I held my hands up in an attitude of surrender. "All right that was a stupid question." I could name a dozen hate and religious groups who would want to turn public opinion against non-humans without having to think hard.
I tried again; "Who would dare to do something like this?"
None of us had an answer to that one.
I had Thyme drop me just around the corner from my building. He reluctantly let me out, then he drove off talking on his mobile phone. He probably bet that the police had more important places to be than stopping people for those sorts of minor infringements. If he had had non-hum
an plates on his car he would be well aware how eager cops could be to pick up on the smallest problem. I went into the shop on the corner to buy a few basic food items. The newspaper racks were filled with tabloids running the killings on the front pages. Whoever was behind the terror campaign was getting what they wanted. The press had ruled out human involvement almost immediately it seemed. Their focus was on which particular brand of non-human could be behind such heinous acts. Things were bad enough for us already, with the occassional rogue demon or creature slipping beneath the human radar and getting loose to kill and maim. That was why bounty-hunters like Selene had a business. Now with somebody out there setting things up to look like non-human killings . . .
I made my way back to my apartment in a sort of fog. The journey was so familiar that I didn't need to focus on the details of the journey. I was so caught up in my musings that I didn't hear them at first.
"I think he wants you to stop."
"I said, hold it right there, Miss Jones."
I stopped and turned around. Two uniformed police officers had just gotten out of a patrol car and were walking towards me.
"Great."
"Thick and thin?" Selene asked.
I think she already knew the answer but I gave it to her anyway; "Yep."
"Good."
There was an eagerness to her tone and I wanted to ask her about it, but the policemen had closed up with me by then.
"You must know the drill by now, turn around hands and legs apart," Thick said.
"Yeah, spread 'em," came his thinner partner's instruction.
"What have I done? It's hours before curfew."
"Just do as you are told, Miss," Thick said. "We have the right to stop and search whoever we like. If you refuse we'll just have to arrest you and do this down the station."
"If they find you armed without a licence you're going to spend some more time in a cell."
I started to do as the officers instructed. "Any suggestions are welcome," I said under my breath.
I felt thin coming up behind me.
"Push the pistol deeper down your pants."
"That won't stop him if he tries what he did last time."
"Then we won't let him. Don't fight your instincts on this and we'll be fine."
Heaven can Wait Page 24