Unholy Magic

  Laria shook her head. Her clouded brown eyes filled with tears. “Ain’t seen nothin.”

  “You said earlier you saw—”

  Laria shook her head again. Her hair moved with it like a clump of dirty steel wool.

  Chess glanced at Terrible, not bothering to hide her irritation. She had sympathy, sure, but it was late and freezing cold and she just wanted to go home, and Laria’s reticence wasn’t helping anyone.

  He gripped Laria’s arm. “You tell she, girl. Only way for us to catch him, dig?”

  “I ain’t—”

  “Ain’t nothin. You the one left she alone so’s you could go stab up, aye? Least you owe she some knowledge.”

  Laria gasped; Terrible’s fist was so tight around her arm that his thumb pressed the second knuckle of his middle finger. “Terrible, you hurtin—”

  “Be hurtin worse, you don’t talk up.”

  Chess held out her hand. “We can do this tomorrow, can’t we?”

  “Come the morrow she won’t get any recall,” he said. “Gotta get what we can now.”

  Laria’s cheeks were wet. “He had a hat on. All’s I remember, he had a hat on.”

  “He big? Small? You see through him?” Terrible’s grip relaxed, his voice softened. “Come on, Laria. You recall it, aye? You just gotta think on it.”

  “He weren’t big. Ain’t much bigger’n me. He were bendin over her when I come close enough to see—he stood up and he was …” Laria swallowed once, then again. “I seed through him.”

  “He was transparent?”

  “Could see through him,” Laria whispered. “’Ceptin he looked up at me, under the brim o’ his hat, aye … funny hat, with a point in the center and them flaps on the side, on the ears? All of him clear, his clothes and all, ’ceptin …” She raised a hand to her face, patted trembling fingers beneath one eye.

  “His eyes?” The chill creeping up Chess’s spine had nothing to do with the temperature of the air.

  “Not his eyes,” Laria said, and it came out like the low moan of a wounded animal. “Hers.”

  “What?”

  Laria started to cry. “Him were wearin she eyes.”

  Chapter Four

  You must always be vigilant in guarding against the desires of the flesh. Even those acts not deemed illegal can stain the soul in some situations.

  —The Book of Truth, Rules, Article 278

  The knock on the door came just when she’d started to think it wouldn’t. Typical Lex. She opened it, determined not to let her tiredness loosen her lips.

  Of course there were other things to do with those. Despite the way she’d hung up on him earlier, he seemed to be in a good mood—at least his kiss indicated he was. She was almost dizzy by the time he pulled away and set a plastic baggie in her hand. More pills.

  “Plan on giving me the clapperclaw, Tulip?” His dark eyes gleamed with amusement—or desire. She didn’t bother to analyze.

  “It’s no more than you deserve, being so flippant. I thought I was going to get killed in that damn alley.”

  “But you ain’t killed.” He opened her fridge and grabbed a couple of beers. “Look, you still here. So whyn’t you tell me what was on the happening?”

  She stiffened. “Why do you want to know?”

  “Ain’t I allowed some curiosity? You get stuck in the middle of some road brawl, I can’t ask why you was there in the start? Why you always so mean to me?”

  “I’m not mean.”

  “Aye, you sure is mean.” He kissed her forehead and handed her an opened beer. She watched him slump gracefully onto the couch and lean back, his Buzzcocks T-shirt riding up to expose a thin line of flat stomach. “Especially after I called them men off. But no matter. Come on in here and sit down.”

  She drank off half her beer in one nervous swig. She did not want to sit down. If she put herself within easy reach of him, they’d never get around to discussing anything, even if she wasn’t still jacked from the sex magic around that poor dead girl. “Tell me what you meant first.”

  “Meant by what?”

  “You know what. You said it was about time Bump got some payback. What did that mean?”

  “You ain’t really wanna talk about dead folks and that Bump, do you? I ain’t seen you in a week.”

  “Just tell me what you meant, and then we can talk about anything you want.”

  She didn’t want to ask him if Slobag’s men were responsible for the dead girl. Didn’t want to ask, because fear coiled in her stomach when she thought about what his answer might be. Payback could mean a lot of things, yes, and she honestly couldn’t believe he would have anything to do with men who would cut the eyeballs out of a human head, living or not. But still …

  Finally he shrugged. “Lot goes on here, you know that. Sometimes people turn up dead, and no way of knowing who did the killing.”

  “That’s not an answer.”

  “You ain’t asked a question.”

  “Do you know anything about the dead girl? Do you—do you know who killed her?”

  He didn’t act offended, or as though he didn’t understand the question. That, more than the way his gaze grabbed hers and held, made her believe him. “Nay, Tulip. Ain’t had nothing to do with it. Nothing at all. Don’t know who does—order ain’t come down from us, dig?”

  The breath she hadn’t realized she was saving left her in a quiet rush, only to catch again when he said, “Coursen, Bump ain’t say the same thing.”

  “What?”

  “You hearing right. Can’t say as that girl ain’t payback from somebody decided to take matters into they own hands.”

  Without thinking Chess reached into the baggie he’d given her, still dangling from her clenched fist, and extracted a couple of pills, swallowing them with more beer. Hey, she didn’t have to get up early in the morning. Good thing, too, as it was after three.

  “’Specially with she so close to us, hanging the border like that. Why she up there? You ask Terrible that one?”

  “No.”

  “Maybe you oughta.”

  Talking to Lex about Terrible made her twitchy, as it always did. It felt like they were talking around something rather than through it. She crossed the open space between the wall and the kitchen and leaned on the countertop, hiding her lower body. “I wish you would stop hinting around and say whatever it is you’re trying to say.”

  “I’m saying, you gots a dead hooker. Only it ain’t the first dead hooker I seen about.”

  “What? Wait. You mean somebody’s been killing hookers on your side? Slobag’s girls?”

  He nodded. “See? I keep thinking you smart, you keep proving me right.”

  “And you think Bump’s behind them.”

  “Who else?”

  She blinked. “No offense, Lex, but they’re hookers. I can think of a lot of who elses.” Like the Cryin Man, she thought, but did not say. Life had taught her ghosts were real, but the Church had taught her to be skeptical when faced with rumors of one, even if the magical evidence of human involvement wasn’t making fine sweat break out on her skin.

  “Aye? Like who. They ain’t with a trick, dig, when it happen. Just picked right off’n the street. You think—hey.” Chess watched the nimble movements of his hands as he lit a cigarette and exhaled thick bluish smoke, more fragrant than the cheaper smokes everyone else she knew bought. “You figure it for a spook, aye? Bump bringing you in to catch a ghost.”

  “I didn’t say that.”

  “Ain’t gotta say it. You ain’t got such a stiff face as you suppose, least not with me. I got some practice with you, aye? So Bump bringing you in to see if you gotta kicker doing the killing. Lemme say, Tulip, you sure do get yourself in demand.”

  She raised an eyebrow. He grinned. “Oh, you in demand with me, and you know it. How Bump trick you into checking this one out?”

  She blinked. There hadn’t actually been a trick, had there? Only the vague, implied threat that if she didn’t do it, Bump migh
t make trouble for her. Maybe invent another debt—she still bought from him, despite getting most of her drugs free from Lex, simply because to stop buying from him would raise suspicion. And she wouldn’t dare visit Slobag’s pipe rooms. Not everyone in Downside stayed with Bump or Slobag. Some switched back and forth. The last thing she needed was to be recognized, even if most of the Chinese gangs—like Slobag’s gang—didn’t hate Church employees on principle.

  Not that she didn’t understand. When so much of your culture was based on ancestor worship, to be suddenly told you had to pay to commune with their spirits in a Church-approved fashion had to be a bite. Understanding didn’t make life easier, though.

  “No trick,” she said finally, realizing he was watching her decide what to say.

  “Just doing it outta the kindness of your heart, aye?”

  She nodded. The trap was there, she knew it and she knew what it would be. What she didn’t know was how to get out of it.

  “So you gonna help me too, aye?” He stood up and came toward her, his footsteps silent on the floor. She watched him advance, again seeing the trap and this time not caring. Quite the opposite, in fact. She was ready to fling herself into its steel-sharp teeth by the time he stood behind her.

  His hand slid over her hips and forward, palm flat on her stomach, fingertips working their way under the waistband of her jeans.

  “Maybe ghosts on my side of town, what do you guess?” Smoke from his cigarette touched her skin when he pushed her hair back from her shoulder. His teeth scraped her earlobe and nibbled a line down so he could suck gently on her neck the way he knew she liked. “Think you come over there, help me out?”

  “I think I help you out enough already,” she managed. He popped the button on her jeans, slid the zipper down to give himself room to get his hand into her panties. She gasped.

  “Think we help each other here, ain’t you? Got anything I can help you with, Tulip?”

  “Maybe.” She reached back, finding him hard and ready beneath his jeans and opening them.

  He made a low, satisfied sound in the back of his throat, one she’d come to associate with him and the time they spent in his bed. The cigarette flew into the sink and landed with a tiny sizzle. His palms slid up her ribcage under her shirt, under her bra, then back down to shove her jeans and panties off her hips.

  “What you say? Gonna help me? Come round my neighborhood, check the sights?” His hand on the back of her neck forced her gently down, bending her over the counter, while one knee pressed the inside of her thigh and urged her legs apart as far as they could go with her jeans pooled around her ankles. His erection butted up against her, hovering, waiting. “Sure could use you, Tulip.”

  “Yes,” she managed.

  “What’s that? Ain’t sure I caught it.”

  She drew as deep a breath as her tight throat would let her. “Yes.”

  One hard thrust told her how much he appreciated her answer.

  Eight hours later she crossed the empty square in front of the Church with her sunglasses on and a few lines of speed making her heart beat fast enough to get her moving. Lex had hung around until almost five, and she’d woken up to the sound of the phone ringing just after ten. Elder Griffin calling. A new case had arrived unexpectedly, could she come down and start it up?

  She pushed the sunglasses up on top of her head once she was inside the dim, blue-lit interior of the hall. It was warmer here, enough that she could take off the coat she was wearing for appearances. All that speed was like carrying a radiator inside her chest anyway.

  The hall buzzed with people around her. Other Debunkers, Elders coming from their weekly meeting, Goodys carrying files. Thursday was the busiest day for the Liaisers, those who communicated directly with the dead. The benches along one pale wall were thick with people waiting their turn to be escorted down to the Liaising Rooms, to wait while their assigned Liaiser rode the long train deep into the ground to visit with the pale, emotionless shades of their loved ones or distant ancestors.

  Chess suppressed a shudder. That train, and the City itself, were the reasons why she’d chosen Debunking rather than Liaising; she’d shown talent for the latter but couldn’t stomach it. Some days the only thing that kept her alive was fear of the City, and she still hadn’t quite gotten over the night she’d been trapped in the dark on the train platform.

  Elder Griffin wasn’t in his office yet. Chess settled herself on the dark, shiny wooden chair next to his door and tried to still her jiggling feet. Maybe that third line had been too much.

  “Good morrow, Cesaria. Thank you for coming in. Are you well? No ill effects, I trust?”

  She bounced up from her seat and bobbed a quick curtsy. “Very well, sir. Good morrow.”

  He turned the ornate iron key in the lock of his office door and ushered her in, closing the door behind them. “Sit down, my dear.”

  She did, waiting in the cushioned armchair across from his massive stone desk. She’d always loved this room, loved how peaceful it felt. But then, she’d always liked Elder Griffin as well, and knew the feeling was mutual, so perhaps it wasn’t just the décor that made the room feel like a sanctuary.

  He sat down at his desk, the tall window framing him. Pale sheers turned the harsh winter sunlight into a hazy glow that illuminated his hair like a halo and touched every inch of the room. Ivory walls, soft gray stone, leather, dark wood. An antique globe in one corner had always fascinated her; she could have spent hours studying all those lines and shapes where the old country boundaries used to be.

  And books everywhere, lining the walls, stacked under glass-topped tables with their spines out. The shelves bowed beneath their weight, and where there were not books there were bowls of herbs, rows of consecrated skulls and bones to be used for spells. On the wall behind her was a flat television tuned to the news service with the volume down and the captioning on; when she left, she knew, he would put the sound back up to keep him company while he worked. It was touches like those that made her comfortable with him, made so many others comfortable with him as well.

  Today, though, he didn’t look comfortable himself. Without the makeup that made his face a pure mask on Holy Days, she could see shadows under his eyes, and his brow furrowed as he used another key to unlock his desk and extract a file.

  “This came in two days ago,” he said, placing the file on the desk with exaggerated care, as if by placing it in the exact center he could emphasize its importance. “The Grand Elder and I have had several discussions about it. Yea, we have found ourselves concerned about it, and decided in this case to circumvent the normal process and give the case to you.”

  “I thank you, sir,” she said, leaning forward in the chair, “but I’m a little confused. Why me?”

  “Your … your handling of the Morton case, my dear. You proved to all of us then that you were capable of discretion, as well as being a fine investigator. This is a sensitive case. Are you familiar with Roger Pyle?”

  Had there been a drop of moisture in Chess’s mouth, she would have spat it out. As it was, she tried to swallow and managed only to produce a dry clicking sound. “The actor?”

  Elder Griffin nodded. “I believe he is, of some sort.”

  “He’s haunted?”

  “He is reporting a haunting, yes. Apparently he has just moved into a new house and has been having some problems.” He pushed the file forward so Chess could take it. “It’s all here.”

  Papers and photos slid out from between the pale covers of the file when she opened it. “He took pictures?”

  “He has a lot of documentation.”

  She didn’t respond. They both knew how easily documentation could be faked, especially documentation like this. Pictures of hazy gray shapes, of walls covered with shiny streaks that looked like ectoplasm but could have been anything. The deed and blueprints to the house, and a clipping from an old BT newspaper. Chess scanned it.

  She looked up. “The previous dwelling was a murder s
cene?”

  “That seems to be the case, yes.”

  What was it with murder this week? Hearing about murders, seeing dead bodies, now the possibility of tangling with the ghosts of murder victims—hardly her ideal way to spend a few days.

  Elder Griffin shifted in his seat. “It was the decision of the Elders that given your … experience with malevolent entities, your handling of Ereshdiran …”

  “I’m the go-to girl for murderous ghosts?”

  His eyebrows rose. She couldn’t tell whether he was amused or displeased. “We felt you were the logical one for the case, yes. If you find yourself uncomfortable, we can assign another Debunker, of course, but I don’t have to tell you what a case like this could do for you.”

  She waited for him to continue. She’d take the case, she already knew that. When the Elders made a decision it was best to abide by it.

  And she couldn’t help it. The thought of handling something like this, a career-making case, appealed. Agnew Doyle was still coasting along on the success of his Gray Towers Debunking, and probably would for years.

  Doyle. There was a name she thought of as little as possible. He stayed well out of her way these days. As well he might—after Terrible beat the hell out of him for hitting her, Lex had taken his shot, too.

  Time was the only concern. Helping both Bump and Lex would put enough on her plate as it was. She didn’t have a choice there, and she was beginning to feel certain she didn’t have a choice here, either.

  “The bonus offering on this case is a tidy one,” he said finally. “Forty thousand dollars.”

  Her car was on its last legs. Her couch sagged. Her jeans were developing holes in the knees. Even with the money she saved getting her pills free from Lex it was hard to make ends meet, hard to afford the pipes and the pills she bought from Bump to keep up appearances and the beer and cigarettes and CDs and … Forty grand bought a lot of time in dreamland.

  She nodded. “I’ll take it.”

  Chapter Five

  The dead do not offer forgiveness. They do not feel. They do not advance or grow. They remain frozen as they were, save for the replacement of love with hate.