Chapter Six
Screw that.
As soon as Fredricks was out of my morgue, I grabbed the file I’d stuck in the cooler and shoved it into my purse. I closed up shop as quickly as I could, which honestly didn’t take long since all of my stuff was gone, and I hightailed it out of the Seventeenth as fast as I could without making it look suspicious.
I hailed a cab and gave him the address to the first person that I could think of who I could trust who wasn’t Blaze Tuesday.
The ride across town was more expensive than I’d hoped, but I paid without complaint and I watched the cabbie drive away before I hoofed it up the block and a half to where I was really headed.
Brahma lived in a high-rise penthouse. How he could afford it on his salary I didn’t ask, but I assumed that his parents were rich and they’d bought it for him as a gift for graduating EMT school.
I rang the bell.
Brahma answered the buzzer through the intercom. “Yeah?”
“Brahma? It’s Kali, can I come in?”
“Absolutely, darling!”
The buzzer told me the door was open and I went inside.
Brahma’s apartment was just as I remembered it, clean modern lines with dark, art deco accents all over the place. It was a gorgeous apartment and I’d spent my fair share of time here.
“Did you just come from work?” Brahma asked me when I’d stepped safely inside the apartment.
“Um… yeah.”
“Would you like to shower?”
“Do I smell bad?” I asked, making a face.
Brahma shrugged. “Go take a shower, Kali. Whatever is bothering you will still be here when you get out.”
I couldn’t argue with him, we’d been through way too many scary situations together, and he’d helped me on bad days in the morgue, and after my brief stint in the emergency room and as an EMT, he knew exactly what I needed to clear my head. He’d never offer me booze before I had a chance to relax on my own, and knowing him, there would be food prepared when I got out of the shower, and probably coffee.
I was rinsing myself with lemon and tea tree oil to get the smell of death off of me when there was a knock at the bathroom door.
“Come in?” I asked.
It was Brahma, and he was carrying clothes. “I’ll just leave these here for you.”
“You’re my hero,” I replied, sticking my head out of the shower curtain and grinning.
“Just like old times, isn’t it?” he teased.
I shrugged. “I suppose so, except this time, I don’t think we’re going to end up making out.”
“Sounds like a challenge,” Brahma replied with a wink before disappearing back out of the bathroom.
Sometimes, I had to admit that being not-single was more trouble than it was worth, especially when you’re faced with someone as stunning as Brahma. Gay or not, we’d had a history together and I was just very thankful to have been in the shower just then. I adjusted the water until it was cold to get my mind out of the gutter as I rinsed off the rest of the odour-killing essential oils and froze myself into clarity. I got out, got dressed in the slacks and button up shirt he’d left for me, and padded back into the living room where Brahma had set out a cold plate of sandwiches and a pot of coffee.
We ate in silence. It wasn’t awkward, it was just us.
“Okay, why are you here?” Brahma asked. “I mean, I’m very happy to see you, Kali, but the look on your face when you arrived was not one of joyous reunion.”
“That dead guy you brought me today?” I asked immediately.
“What about him?” Brahma asked warily. “He wasn’t not dead was he?”
I shook my head and launched into the explanation of what I’d seen and what had happened when I told Fredricks. Brahma listened in rapt silence, nodding his head as I explained and pulled out the file from my bag.
“Can I leave it here?” I asked, desperately.
“You are insane, aren’t you?” Brahma asked in return, shaking his head.
“I can’t take it to Blaze!” I explained. “You know he’ll get into it.”
“Calm down, darling,” Brahma said, holding his hands up. “We can fix this.”
“How?” I asked, dropping the file onto my lap and burying my face in my hands. “They know I know. They’re not just going to let this walk away, you know.”
He nodded. “I have an empty safe deposit box. We will go to the bank and I’ll add you to the list of people who can use it, okay?”
I leapt up from my spot and threw myself at him, wrapping my arms around his neck and shoulders and kissing his cheek ten times. “Thank you!” I breathed into his ear.
Brahma laughed and patted my back before detangling himself from my relieved hug. I was on the verge of tears. He sat me down next to him and stared at me for a long time.
“What?” I demanded.
Brahma smiled and shook his head. “This is going to haunt me, isn’t it?”
I nodded. “Probably, you know how I like to get intro trouble.”
“Let’s hope this isn’t the case this time.”
I really hoped that Brahma’s optimism would prove to be correct.
Blaze Tuesday will return.
Acknowledgments
If you will indulge me for a moment and allow me to be so bold as to quote Shakespeare, “I am amazed and know not what to say.”
Releasing this book has been a labour of love, and for a long time I thought that this was a book that would remain dusty and bedridden, living life on my shelf in printed form in the box where I put all my completed or unusable stories and scripts, and be banished in digital format to the external hard drive and the flash drive where I back up all my files, in the folder titled, 'dead scripts'. I cannot express in single words how much it means to me that you are reading these words right now. (I also fully understand if you choose to look at this as a ramble and ultimately skip these paltry paragraphs in favour of moving on to the next book in your pile.)
There are so many people who I feel deserve more thanks than I can offer in a paragraph or three in the back of my book. My dear friends who pushed me to keep going, the outpouring of support from passing acquaintances who had found me on twitter and liked what I had to say, my family, my mother and my sister who pushed me not to give up and were there to tell me to calm down when I was entrenched in the mire of self-doubt and ready to just go back to working in a soul-crushing job in retail hawking wares that most people probably don't need...
And, of course, you. To you, who are reading these words. You deserve all the thanks I could possibly offer you. Thank you for taking a chance on me and I do hope that you'll be back for seconds.
Slainte.
About the Author
A writer of many things and many genres, Kai is currently working on a novel (you can pretty much always assume that she's writing something!) that involves murder, mayhem and probably a ghost or some other form of otherworldly creature. She is also working on some non-fiction but she's not entirely sure why.
Kai has been writing for far too long and she's convinced that both her "to be read" and "to be written" lists will never be completed before she dies. She has a diploma in palmistry and can read hands with an accuracy that scares even her sometimes. She is also accomplished at tea leaf reading and crystal divination, both of which she has also achieved a diploma for and scares herself with the accuracy of the things she has predicted.
A time-travelling, demon hunting, Asgardian geek, with an affinity for Pokemon and Shakespeare, you can be sure that there will be general insanity and dubious wisdom dispensed no matter where you chat with her. As always, she requests that you "be excellent to each other" while she's away.
Kai currently lives in Canada, but if she told you where, you'd have about fifteen seconds to assume the party position before the special ops team arrives.
You can find Kai on twitter @RaggedyAuthor
You can also find Kai on her website www.theraggedyauthor.com
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