by Sharon Joss
CHAPTER 21
I parked in the visitor lot, and hiked through the field to the entrance of the Sterling Renaissance Festival, metaphorically putting on my armor for the confrontation with Lance. I promised myself I wasn’t leaving until he agreed to come with me to talk to the FBI and then go back to rehab.
The Festival site itself is permanent, with a gift store, outbuildings and wooden amphitheatres designed and built in the style of a 16th century Elizabethan village. I’d quit coming when I’d gotten my job with the city, so I hadn’t set foot on the grounds in years.
The theme for this weekend was obviously Pirate Invasion. Lots of blokes with black eye patches ran around brandishing cutlasses and shouting ‘Argh’. I headed for the jousting field, as this would be the most likely place to find my brother. I followed the dirt path past the dunking pond, the village of vendors, the washer women, and the nut man, to the spectator grounds in front of the jousting ring. People were already starting to leave, heading out early to beat the traffic, but a decent sized crowd remained seated in the shade. The smell of dust and sweat and manure greeted me as I watched a pair of knights on horseback collide at a full gallop. The crowd groaned when the loser hit the dirt and applauded as his pages helped him to his feet.
I spotted Lance right away, surrounded by a bevy of damsels and pirate wenches. He wore his Jack of Spades costume; a form-fitting black leather outfit with thigh-high boots, a jeweled dagger, a Zorro-type mask for a disguise and a wicked dueling blade at his side. I picked up a couple of marble-sized rocks, and hefted them in my hand as I waited for a shot.
Growing up as the daughter of the town prostitute, I got bullied a lot by older boys who persistently wondered if I had the same proclivities. Lance taught me to how to protect myself, and as long as I had a rock, I always had a weapon. Before long, the boys stopped bothering me. I was still a dead shot. My first throw hit the dirt on the outside edge of his boot, kicking up a wisp of dust. Lance winced, stepped back, and caught sight of me in the crowd.
He nodded, noted my black eye, but he didn’t leave his post. I waited in the shade, watching the jousting and ogling the men in tights. I had to wait another hour before the jousting finished and visitors and performers alike began to drift away. I made my way from the berm to the foot of the stage and waited for him to finish chatting up some of the other actors. He seemed to be deliberately dragging out the conversations; anything to put off facing me.
Come on, Lance, enough already. The pressure inside me began to build. Finally, after everyone else drifted away, he turned to me.
“Hey sis,” he sounded tired, as he draped a sweaty arm across my shoulders. I stiffened, but allowed him to guide me through the trees out to the actors’ camp. “Where’s Mina?”
“I didn’t bring her.” Even his Zorro-mask couldn’t hide my brother’s paleness.
“Where is she?”
“She’s fine. Safe.”
“You look like hell.”
“Getting beat up will do that for you.” This conversation wasn’t going the way I wanted, and I couldn’t seem to broach the subject.
“No, I mean something’s different.” He studied my face with interest.
I ignored him. “What’s going on Lance? No more bullshit.”
He swung around and started back up the hill toward the faire. “Why don’t we get something to eat first? The food court will be closing up soon, and I’m starved.”
I bit my tongue and followed behind as he bought us each a couple of big beef ribs and strawberry shortcakes. We sat on a stone bench and Lance ate while I tried to curb my impatience. I couldn’t eat. I had no appetite for what was coming. I waited until he finished eating before I lit into him.
“The FBI came to my house this morning, looking for you. You’re a person of interest in the Night Shark case.” He swore and started to protest, but I interrupted him. “You have to go talk to them.”
“Where is Mina?”
“Don’t change the subject. You’re gambling again. Those goons from House of Cards didn’t beat the crap out of me for no reason. Your friend Hector told me he’s coming after Mina next. I can’t believe you’d endanger your own daughter for something so stupid.” Now that I’d started, I couldn’t seem to stop myself. “And why the hell does Andrea Gregson think you two are engaged? Are you serious? When were you planning to tell me about that?”
He wouldn’t meet my eyes. “This doesn’t concern you.”
“Like hell it doesn’t.”
“Tell me where Mina is.”
“Not until you tell me.”
“This isn’t like you, Mattie,” he said. The muscles in his lower jaw clenched rhythmically. I imagined the wheels turning as he tried to decide how much to say. I hadn’t seen that crafty expression on his face since the last time he’d been in the grip of his addiction.
“It breaks my heart to see you like this, Lance. I thought you were all over this. You’re ruining your life, and Mina’s too.”
“I can take care of myself.”
“Fine. Just tell me what’s going on. Because you’re digging yourself into a deep hole, and the whole thing is about to cave in on you. You have to talk to the police, Lance, you have to clear this up. And I don’t care what Andrea Gregson says, you have to go back to rehab. This has got to stop.”
We fumed at each other in silence for a few minutes. I’d never spoken to him like this before. Violet had always been the bad guy, giving Lance the ultimatums and the third degree. I’d always sided with Lance, and refused to acknowledge how he’d allowed his gambling to become more important than his family. Violet never trusted me to give Lance an ultimatum. Maybe she was right, back then. But not anymore.
“It’s not what you think. Something came up, and I’m helping out a friend, is all.”
“Explain it to me. Please? Why is the House of Cards looking for you? Andrea Gregson is not your friend. She thinks you’re buying her a two-carat diamond ring. She thinks she’s your business manager, for cripe’s sake. She thinks she owns you. She’s not the one with the black eye here, Lance.”
He wouldn’t look at me.
“Andrea’s got something on you. Tell me what it is. I can help.”
He shook his head. “No, no you can’t. Not now, maybe never.”
The raw expression on his face was a shot to my heart. It was no use. He wasn’t going to tell me. I tried a different tack.
“The FBI wants to talk to you. They think you have something to do with the Night Shark murders.”
He still wouldn’t look at me. A sick feeling curdled my gut as the silence stretched between us. I could see the internal struggle on his face, but for the life of me, I couldn’t read him.
“They’ve connected you to two of the victims.”
“I’m not even going to answer that.”
“You need to talk to them.”
“Not until after I finish playing tonight.” He gathered up the napkins and paper plates and dumped them into the trash. “A couple of days isn’t going to make any difference.”
“What is the matter with you?” Why wouldn’t he listen to reason? “The Sentinel named you as a person of interest in the case today. You made the front page, Lance. You want to know where Mina is? Violet got an emergency court order rescinding custody. She came and got Mina this afternoon. Mina is gone.”
Lance cursed and slumped against the bench. “Of course she is.” His eyes glinted with unshed tears. “I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised.”
I handed him the FBI agent’s card and my cell phone. “Call them now, while you’re still in one piece. I’ll drive you into town myself. You can get this cleared up, get yourself out of whatever mess you’re in, and get yourself into rehab. The sooner you straighten this out, the sooner you can get Mina back.” I crossed my fingers and silently prayed he would make the call.
Lance stared at the card, turning it over and over in his hand, but in the end, he handed me ba
ck my phone.
“Sorry, Matt, no can do. I feel bad that everything got so messed up, okay? I’m really sorry you got hurt. I got myself into a bind, and for better or worse, I’ve got to find my own way out. I just need twenty-four more hours to get this mess cleaned up.”
I wanted to scream. “You dated Zoey Nussbaum. The yellow jag you were driving the other day belonged to Joanne Reynolds. These guys don’t have any other leads. They’re coming after you.”
“They can’t hurt me. This is all going to fall away, you’ll see.” He’d decided; I could see it in his face. He refused to understand. I shook my head. Nothing I said now would make any difference. He’d made up his mind.
“I wish you could hear how ridiculous your argument is. You’re not making any sense. Someone is going to remember you’re out here, and call the police. If they come out here, they are going to arrest you and put you in jail. Mina will end up with Violet permanently and you and I will never see her again.”
At least he had enough sense to look miserable. He put his arm around me and pulled me close. We didn’t say anything, for a while, just huddled together in our misery, watching the departing crowd of festival-goers, laughing and sunburned, head for home.
“I know what I’m doing. Don’t worry about Andrea. I’ll get the money and pay off House of Cards and then I’m done. I’ll do the right thing, whatever you want. Okay?”
“What if you don’t win?”
“You worry too much.”
“You’ll talk to the FBI? Promise?”
“Yeah. I’ll go.”
“Pinky swear.” We linked pinkies and the deed was done. Not what I wanted, but close enough. Let it go.
I breathed a worried sigh of relief. Maybe things would work out after all. I could tell them Lance planned to turn himself in. One more day wouldn’t make such a big difference, would it? Lance bugged the hell out of me for being so stubborn, but I had no more say here. I had plenty of my own problems to worry about too.
A new thought came to me. “Hey what do you know about Rhys Warrick?”
A wary expression crossed his face. “He’s got a nice bike. Why?” I felt myself blushing and Lance rolled his eyes at me. “He’s definitely not your type.”
“He introduced me to our great-grandmother.”
“You’re kidding me, right?”
“I’m serious. Rhys showed me an old picture of her daughter, and mom looked just like her. It turns out that the daughter got pregnant and gave the baby up for adoption. Anyway, mom’s mother died a long time ago, but our great-grandmother is still alive. It’s that old fortune teller, Madame Coumlie. The Hand of Fate.”
His eyes widened in amazement. “Well, well. That explains a lot. Wait a second.” He stared at me intently. “You say Rhys introduced you to her?”
“Yeah, why?”
He grabbed my shoulder. “You have a djemon, don’t you.”
The blood drained from my face.
"I knew it.” He clutched me in a fierce embrace. “I should have guessed.”
I pushed him away. “You have a djemon?”
He nodded, his face grim. “It showed up a few years ago. I didn’t want anybody to know. I didn’t want to risk losing Mina or the shop’s contract with the City. By the time I asked Rhys about it, it was already a materialized demon. Madame Coumlie taught me how to keep it hidden, but not before Andrea found out.”
“How did she find out?”
“I went to school with Andrea, but I never really knew her. We got to know each other at Gamblers Anonymous. She didn’t attend the meetings regularly, but would call me from time to time, just to talk. She told me her problems, I told her mine. I should never have told her about my djemon.”
He shook my shoulder. “Don’t make the same mistake I did, Mattie. You can’t trust anyone with this kind of secret.”
“What about Madame Coumlie?”
“Okay, yeah. Not everyone in this town registers their demons. All I’m saying, is if you decide not to register yours, you’re better off keeping it secret from everyone. You never know when someone will turn on you.”
“So why is Andrea doing this to you?”
“You’ve got to understand her situation. She was married to Stan, and having a rough time of it. Stan worked at the House of Cards. He was the night shift floor manager. Last year she decided she wanted out of the marriage. She said Stan was seeing other women, and she was sick of it. But she had run up a huge credit card debt and a serious tab at House of Cards, and Stan said he wouldn’t let her go until she paid off what she owed.”
“So how did Andrea’s problem end up being your problem? She’s got a good job.”
He gave me a sheepish look. “She only works at the school part time. She couldn’t come up with the kind of money we’re talking about. She begged me to help her out, but I told her I couldn’t. I cleaned out my savings to pay off her credit cards, but she wanted more.”
I shook my head. “I can’t believe you let her talk you into that.”
“She threatened to go to Violet unless I helped her out, and she swore she’d leave me alone after she got her divorce from Stan. I let her talk me into going down to House of Cards and taking over her chit. I figured they’d think twice about coming after me. She was already in trouble when I took it over. I had to start playing again in order to pay it off.”
I felt sick to my stomach. “Jeezalou Lance. This is blackmail.”
He nodded. “At the time, I figured it wasn’t that big a deal. There were some big players coming into town for a nine-ball tourney, and I figured I could earn the money in a few days. The tournament winnings wouldn’t cover all her debt, but with the after-hours action, I figured I could clean up and even have a little left over for myself. The big guns arrived yesterday. I won most of the money I needed last night. Tonight I’ll get the rest of it. And then I’ll just walk away.”
“Then why are they coming after you? Hector told me you were late.”
“Yeah, well, the tournament got postponed a month. Couldn’t be helped.”
“Why didn’t you go to the police?”
“And risk losing Mina? You must be joking. Doc and I would lose our contract with the department, and I’d be arrested for an unlicensed demon. Take your pick, I’m hosed.” Lance stood up to leave.
My brother is a demon master. “She’s never going to leave you alone. She looks at you and sees dollar signs.”
“You let me worry about that. I’ve got to do this my way. I’m going to pay off the House of Cards first. Then I’ll talk to the FBI.”
“Why bother? Now that Violet already has Mina, Andrea can’t hurt you.”
Lance caressed my bruised cheek. “What do you think the FBI would do to me if Andrea told them I’ve got an unregistered demon? No one can know about this.”
For a fleeting moment, I wondered if Lance might be the Night Shark. No way. I had more questions than ever now, but they’d have to wait. “How did everything get so complicated?”
We stared at each other for a full minute. Then he put his hand on my head and ruffled my hair. “Catch you later, Sis.” He gave me a half-salute and sauntered off toward the actor’s camp. I watched him go, wishing things had gone differently.
I plodded back to the parking lot, each step heavier than the last. It was out of my hands now. If his luck stayed with him a little while longer, he’d be in the clear, and after he talked to the FBI, he’d be able to get into rehab and persuade Violet to share custody. At least, I hoped so.
I called Karen. I wanted to tell her everything, but didn’t. I told her about Rhys and the djinn and my newly discovered kinship to the Hand of Fate. She screamed and said it was the coolest thing she’d ever heard of. She made me laugh. I told her about going into the caves below Sentinel Hill and finding the cavern full of djinn.
“Mrs. Coumlie thinks I’m her heir, and says I’m going to be developing some sort of mystical powers. She told me I need
to get all the djinn back into the cave just like she did, eighty years ago. This is all happening so fast. It’s a little too ‘out there’, don’t you think?”
“What powers?”
“I forgot to ask. She gave me her journal, but I haven’t had a chance to read it yet. Rhys and I are going over there tonight to tell her what we found.”
“What about the police? Have you told them?”
“Well, I think the FBI should be in charge here, but they don’t believe in the djinn, and Madame Coumlie seems to think Rhys and I are the only ones who can solve this thing. I have no idea what to do, and if you ask me, Madame Coumlie might not be completely rational.” The yellow bruises on my wrist were fading. “She scares me, a little.”
“Do you know she’s the library’s biggest donor? She funds all the children’s section book purchases every year.”
“You’ve got to be kidding.”
“You of all people should know better than to judge a book by its cover, Mattie. What about Rhys? What’s he like?””
A terrific kisser. “He’s on board, I think. And hey, guess who called me?”
“I knew it! He called this morning for your phone number. Are you going out tonight?”
“I can’t. I’m up to my neck with Lance and this crazy Hand of Fate stuff. I’m supposed to meet him tomorrow for breakfast.”
“What’s the matter? I thought you were dying to go out with him. You don’t sound very excited about it.”
“Just a lot on my mind. Too much weirdness, I guess.”
“Well perk up, girl. A fine-lookin’ man is interested in spending some quality time with you. Things are on the upswing.”
“You’re right.” And I meant it. “I’ll let you know how it goes.”
She laughed. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”