by T. A. Foster
She was in her bedroom, sitting in front of the vanity, running a brush through her hair. She picked up a black beret-like hat, folded her hair into it, and affixed it to the top of her head. It made her outfit. She was wearing a white shift dress with black sleeves and a wide black leather belt, accented with a square buckle. It made her size four waist look like a double zero. She really was a beautiful woman. I hated that I wasn’t here to save her, to stop her from getting in the car that would deliver her to her death.
Instead, I was here to track her and the diamonds for Helen. It made my stomach lurch. My guilt-ridden conscience began attacking my resolve. What if I did save her? What if I warned her somehow about the car? No, no, no, it wasn’t my place. I had to complete this mission.
I watched her pin the backs on her square earrings. I noticed they matched her belt buckle, and she slipped on black gloves. She remained in front of the mirror for a few seconds, admiring her outfit and alluring face. After a few side-to-side turns of her cheek, she removed the mirror and turned the dial of the safe, hidden behind her vanity. Inside was the same black leather bag. She pulled it out, opened the latch, and looked inside the bag. The diamond pieces layered the bottom of the pouch.
“Not long now,” she whispered.
I followed her through the suite, passing the row of her portraits. There was a new one in the line-up. Her arm dangled over the side of a balcony. She had on a chiffon teal dress. Her eyes were gazing off to the horizon, vacant of her regular seductive come-hither look. I paused in front of the photo, thinking there were more layers to the twenty-five-year-old mistress, but time was running out. I hurried behind her and out the door.
Simone greeted the Diamond Towers doorman with a big grin. “Larry, would you hail a cab for me?”
The older man held the door for Simone and let her pass through, and then he stepped to the curb. “Here you go, Miss Davis.” He held the door for her, and Simone slipped into the backseat of the taxi.
I took to the sky, following the car as it meandered the Vegas streets. The car pulled up in front of a rundown one-story ranch. Rocks sprinkled the front yard, and a cactus stood guard at the mailbox. The pink stucco house sat a few feet from the road and was as close to the houses bordering either side. Simone clambered out of the side of the cab with her leather bag stocked full of her half of the VonRue diamonds. What could she be doing in a place like this? She motioned for the driver to wait a few minutes, and then skipped up the few steps to the front door and walked in the house.
I descended from my position in the sky and crept up the shaky steps. I looked through the front window. The room was empty. I opened the front door and slipped in.
Orange chairs and a plastic-covered couch filled the room. There was a spider plant hanging from the ceiling, reaching its tentacles to the window light. A braided brown rug covered a portion of the hardwood floors. A few bi-fold frames lined the top of the television. A much younger Simone smiled with her arm around two middle-aged people. I guessed those were her parents.
“What are you doing in there, Simone? Can’t you even tell your old man hello?” Slurred words bellowed from the other side of the living room.
“Just a minute, Pop.” Simone’s voice echoed through a closed door on the other side of the living room. I saw a man with a bad comb-over and a half-buttoned plaid shirt stagger in front of the door.
“If your mom was still living, you wouldn’t act like this—barging in and not saying hello. She raised you better!” The man continued to argue at the closed door.
Five minutes later, Simone appeared empty-handed and closed the door behind her.
“I’m sorry, Pop. Just some girl things I needed to put away in my old room.” She hugged the ragged man and he grunted. “No one goes in there, right?”
“What do you mean? No one comes to see me. You’re off doing God knows what in the city. Who’s going to go in there? I don’t want to mess with all that fancy shmancy stuff. It was your mother’s idea to keep that room for you. I told her we should downsize to a one bedroom, but no, she wanted you to have a room.”
He waved his arms and hit an oil painting of the desert. The painting hit the floor. Simone picked it up and reapplied it to the rusty hook on the wall.
“Come on, Pop. Let me make you some breakfast before I go.” She led her father around the corner and into the kitchen. She propped him up at the Formica table and started pulling eggs and milk from the refrigerator. I knew I had a few minutes to investigate Simone’s room while the pair worked on breakfast.
The house was small. The slightest misstep, and Simone and Pop would hear me. I tiptoed to the closed door and turned the handle. With the door closed behind me, I surveyed Simone’s childhood room. She had tacked up posters of South Pacific, Gigi, and The King and I over pine paneling. A few Elvis albums were stacked on the white dresser. The single bed was adorned with a purple quilt and round lavender pillows. The few accessories reflected the Hollywood dreams of a teenage girl. She had hitched her star to the wrong wagon. Neither Holden nor Helen was ever going to help her ditch the rags of where she came from.
Ok, Ivy, time to find that bag of diamonds. I tilted my ear in the direction of the kitchen. The partially sober father and his vixen-like daughter were arguing about something, and I could hear the sizzle of bacon in the frying pan.
“Reveal,” I whispered my spell into the shoebox of a room.
The orange particles came to life and swirled around me. They formed a thick comet shape and moved eight feet to the window across from the door. They slammed into the base of the window and sprinkled to the floor. I bent down and ran my hands along the paneling under the window. I pressed my fingers in the vertical grooves until I felt the laminate give way. I dug my fingers between two panels and pried the boards toward me.
Jackpot! The leather bag was tucked in the framing of the house between the paneling and the exterior wall of the stucco. The hiding place was empty except for the bag and a shoebox. I opened the lid. It was full of letters. I returned the lid then opened the leather bag. The VonRue diamonds were there. I had found Simone’s hiding spot. I put everything back how I found it, and with my palms tapped the panels back in place.
“What is this? You want me to eat this? You can’t cook like your mother.” Simone heaped scrambled eggs onto her father’s plate. The man shoveled a few forkfuls into his mouth.
“Really, Pop. I’m trying to help you.”
I felt sorry for Simone. A beautiful young woman anchored to a bitter father with a drinking problem. I understood a little more about why she had gotten mixed up with Helen. Who wouldn’t want to escape from this hellish life? I wanted to hug my father right then. I missed him, Mama, and Ian. I waited for Simone to turn her back to me and then let myself out of the front door.
Las Vegas, Present Day
Half of my body was washed in the coldness of the seam, but my face was on the other side, in the new Starlight. Jack’s back faced me. I wrapped my invisible arms around him and tickled his sides and stomach. He jumped.
“Hey! Ivy?” He steamed and I couldn’t stop laughing.
“Radiance.” I washed the invisibility spell from my body. “Jack, I’m sorry,” I stumbled through muffled giggles. “I couldn’t help it. You looked like a statue, like one of those guards at Buckingham Palace.”
“Glad I could give you a laugh today.” He replaced the scowl with a smile. “How did it go?”
“Perfect. I found them.” I was proud of my detective work.
“Where? Where did she hide them?”
“In her room. Not the one at Diamond Towers. Her father’s house. It’s actually a sad story. I just hope the house is still there, and no one did any remodeling in the past forty-five years.”
“Why didn’t you just grab them and bring them back with you?”
I cocked an eyebrow at him and gave him my best scolding stare.
“Right, you don’t change the past. Sorry.”
&n
bsp; “Exactly. I don’t touch the past. However, we need to do a drive-by and see if the house is still here. Up for some more Las Vegas sightseeing?”
“With you? Absolutely.” He grabbed my hand and we headed to the taxi lineup.
The cab deposited us in front of the old Davis homestead. Most of the houses were deserted now, including this one. Signs announced a new development was underway in the neighborhood, Canyon Creek. A majority of the neighbors had scattered, and the few remaining ones were probably inside packing, readying for their move.
“You weren’t kidding. This place is depressing.” Jack eyed the house.
I filled him in on Simone’s miserable upbringing on our ride. We surveyed the faded pink stucco and walked up the front steps. A few cats milled about, lounging in the sun. Abandoned and feline-infested, the pitiful dwelling beckoned us inside. Jack scanned the street while I muscled us in the front door with my Open Spell.
“You know, you’re amazing right? Not every girl can break and enter like that.” He laughed as he followed me into the living room.
I smiled, thinking we had come a long way from a few nights ago in Jack’s study. The house was empty. The plastic furniture and desert landscapes on the wall were gone.
“Don’t tease me. I don’t break and enter. No one lives here.” I kept my voice hushed. Something about the whole scenario made me uneasy, and the fact was I did feel like I was breaking and entering. “This way.” I was supposed to acquire a case of stolen diamonds.
We walked around the living room wall and down the short hall to what used to be Simone’s room. I sighed with relief when I saw that the wood paneling still encircled the room. I crouched under the window and prodded the seams of the panels until they popped up. I couldn’t believe it. The bag was still there.
“Whoa. It’s here. After all these years, those diamonds have been sitting in the wall of this dingy hovel. I can’t believe it.” Jack picked up the bag and pulled on the handles.
They were there—the other half of the VonRue diamonds. While Jack sifted through the stones, I spied the box of letters. I picked it up and carried it under my arm.
“What’s in there?” he asked.
“Letters. Who knows? There may be more to Simone’s story. This place is going to be torn down in a few months anyway.”
We each handled a piece from Simone’s past and walked out to meet our cab a block down the street. One more feat ahead of us, and this nightmare would be over. Too bad it was the one I was the most nervous about.
“I JUST want to be sure, Jack. Let’s go over the plan one more time.”
It was almost dark and almost time to meet Helen for the diamond and Ivy trade. Until a few hours ago, I didn’t have a plan. Now that we had loosely knit one together, I wanted to make sure Jack and I were on the same page. Thanks to Simone, we had a new weapon in our arsenal.
Jack spent the last twenty minutes pacing in front of the great wall of windows, trying to talk me out of what I had in mind. He was persuasive, but not enough to deter me from I knew I had to do.
“This is too dangerous for you. I saw what Helen tried last night. Why do you think you can even get in the same room with her?” He stopped in mid-stride and faced me. “I can do it. I’ll take the diamonds. You don’t even need to go.”
He didn’t understand. “Ugh! Jack, if you take the diamonds and I don’t show up, she’s going to have those Neanderthals cart you off somewhere. On top of that, our families go right back on the chopping block. As long as Helen is hunting for magic, my family isn’t safe. No, my way is the only way.”
He reached for my shoulders. “I’m not going to be able to talk you out of this, am I?”
He had the sexiest, most forlorn look on his face. Part of me did want him to talk me out of it. However, this was it. There was only one plan.
“You know the answer.” I looked at the clock. “It’s time.”
He shook his head at the floor. “I’ve got your back, Ivy. I’m in. I don’t like it, but I’m in.”
“Ok, just grab that bag of diamonds and let’s go kick some Proxy ass.”
The crumbling mansion blended in with the darkness of the street. The front gates were open. Jack and I walked through them, past the parched fountain, and up the steps. Helen’s minions were waiting at the top of the stairs, hands folded on their belts.
“Please tell Helen we’re here to see her.” My voice was firm.
I didn’t want these goons to know how scared I was. Scared my plan wasn’t going to work, scared I had put Jack in danger by bringing him. I looked at him. He was strong—I knew that—but a strong man against evil magic wasn’t much of a match. His hand rested on my back. If he was scared, I couldn’t tell.
“Follow us.”
The men opened the doors and led us into the candle-lit room. Relieved they didn’t manhandle us into separate rooms, we willingly followed them into the recesses of the house.
Helen had changed into a wispy pale pink chiffon dress. The folds and layers engulfed her frail body. For a moment, I pitied her and what she had become.
“Do you have them?” Her voice was sharp.
She had lost last night’s playful, ethereal tone. Her stare was directed at me. Immediately, I felt an invasion of my mind’s barrier. The witchy tingle transformed into a stinging sensation that seared my thoughts and movements. I reached out to the wall to steady myself.
“Yes, they’re here.” Jack took the bag from my grasp before it landed on the floor and handed it to Helen.
I used my free hand to grab his shoulder. I couldn’t shake the buzzing feeling.
She opened the clasp to look inside. Her simultaneous gasp and cackle echoed in the barren room. Piece by piece, she drew out necklaces, rings, and stones. She shoved them back in the bag and snapped in the air at her minions, who were waiting in the corner for directions.
The shorter man delivered a black folder. “Your signatures are required here,” she snapped while pointing at the papers being held midair by the man.
“What is this?” Jack barked. He had one arm around my shoulder—at least it felt like his arm. The room faded in and out around me.
“My insurance, Mr. Coleman, that there won’t be a sequel or a story run in the press about this chain of events. Sign the document that this secret stays here in this room.”
“What happens if I break the agreement?”
“Isn’t there someone important to you in your life? A sister perhaps?” She lifted her eyes to look at Jack.
“She stays out of this! What do you need me to sign?” Jack took the pen from the second man and flipped through the flimsy contract.
I did my best to sputter out a sentence. “Helen, this contract can’t be legal. This is ridiculous.” I watched Jack sign the open line at the bottom of the page.
“Legal?” She laughed. “I’m not worried about legal. This is an agreement between us. I’ll keep my end of the deal. No harm will come to either of your families. You have my word. But, not a peep.” She lifted her index finger to cover her mouth and then wagged it in our direction. “No, no, not another written word, interview, anything. Do we have an agreement?”
Our heads nodded. I waited for Jack to hand me the pen. The mind-numbing invasion temporarily stopped. Helen smiled at me and motioned to me to sign the papers.
“Wonderful, wonderful.” Her voice warmed. “Thank you, Mr. Coleman. You may go.”
She waved at Jack to leave the room while her eyes were fixated on me. The swishing in my head started again, and I felt the stinging pulse pushing against the inside of my skin. I tried to step closer to Jack but I wasn’t sure what direction my legs carried me. I tried to focus on a speck on the floor, anything to keep me from toppling over.
“Wait, Helen. Before I go, I have something for you.” I heard his deep voice through the murkiness in my ears.
“For me?” She placed a withered hand over her chest, deflating some of the chiffon clouds.
&nbs
p; The pull subsided and my mind felt numb. She was focused on Jack. I took a deep breath and tried to steady myself on my shaky legs.
“Yes, we found this with Simone’s things. It’s rather personal though.” He reached inside his jacket and pulled out a stack of envelopes. They were bound together and tied with a red ribbon. He tossed the letters into Helen’s chair and waited for her response.
She slinked toward the chair and batted the bundle with the back of her hand. “Why, Mr. Coleman? What could I possibly find of interest in that little bitch’s things? She was trash. Nothing of hers could be valuable.”
“It’s information, that’s all. You should know what’s in there.” Again, Jack was casual and non-pressuring. He traced his steps back to me and wedged his body between mine and Helen’s forceful current. It was zeroed in on all things in me that were witchy.
I realized the night before that Jack was a block to the magical conduit she created. He wouldn’t be able to shield me completely, but enough that we could buy some much needed seconds. I was relieved he was staying calm. It wasn’t easy with Helen’s antics. There was no way to persuade a Proxy unless they wanted to be persuaded.
She pulled the end of the ribbon and unfurled the tie binding the letters together. Her eyes squinted and hardened as she scanned the page of the first letter. “What is this? I demand to know who wrote these lies? Answer me!” She frantically ripped open the other letters in the chair. “No! No, this isn’t true. Who wrote these?”
Jack answered. “We found them with Simone’s things. My guess is Langford wrote them. We thought you should know.”
Helen began shredding the letters, tearing at them with her nails and teeth and stomping on them under her pointy heels. “No, no, no! That little vixen ruined everything. This isn’t possible. She stole Holden; she hid the diamonds… She, she took Langford too?” Helen crumpled on the floor, surrounded by clouds of pink chiffon and scraps of Langford’s adoring letters to Simone. “Not, Langford. No, not him. He was all I had.”