Speak of the Devil mk-4 Page 17

  Okay, I had to admit my interest was piqued now.

  “Simms whipped Jessica into a frenzy about Maguire, the two-timing jerk, and they came up with a plan to get revenge. They waited until after she’d argued with Maguire, then she called Simms over and he gave her a couple of showy bruises. And that was all it took to get Maguire’s demon exorcized.”

  I shuddered. The general public thinks demons die when they’re exorcized, which meant Jessica and her boyfriend had committed what they thought was cold-blooded murder.

  “And here’s the really weird part,” Barbie said. “Simms disappeared on the day you exorcized Maguire’s demon. He didn’t pack up a bag or anything, and his car’s still in his apartment’s parking lot. But no one has seen or heard from him since.”

  I had a sneaking suspicion that Simms would eventually be found, and that he wouldn’t be breathing. Psycho Demon—as I’d now dubbed the demon who had it in for me—seemed to have no qualms about using “disposable” hosts. I frowned, wishing all the information I had would line up and add up to a clear and tangible threat.

  It sure seemed like Psycho Demon had possessed Tim Simms. His method of fabricating evidence was too familiar to be coincidence. Then he’d moved to Jack Hillerman after the exorcism, and he’d come after me with every gun in his arsenal. He’d then burned through both Hillerman and the hapless David Keller and was now in yet another host, still aiming to up my misery quotient.

  But why? And why would he choose such a bizarre, elaborate scheme for his revenge? Why did he have to induce Jessica to frame Maguire? He couldn’t have known Maguire would be brain-dead at the end, could he?

  Too many questions, too few answers.

  I settled for asking a question I thought Barbie would be capable of answering. “How the hell did you get Jessica to basically confess to murder?” Barbie had said she was good at her job, but that was downright miraculous.

  “I pretended to be Simms’s little sister, desperate to locate him. As Simms had discovered, Jessica’s biggest asset is definitely not her brain. She was pretty easy to, um, mislead.”

  “I’ll bet,” I muttered under my breath.

  “Does any of this mean anything to you?”

  “No,” I lied, but no amount of practice was going to turn me into a good liar. I should have followed that monosyllabic answer with a little speculation about what the real story was, but my mind went completely blank.

  Neither Barbie nor I spoke for what felt like about five minutes but was probably only thirty seconds or so.

  “You know,” Barbie said when she finally deigned to break the awkward silence, “at this point, I’m in this up to my neck. It really wouldn’t hurt you to level with me.”

  I made a sound between a snort and a laugh. “I’m not as easy to mislead as Jessica Miles.”

  “Think about it a minute, Morgan. I knew before the police did that you had an excellent motive to kill Jack Hillerman. I could have gone to the police with that, but I didn’t.”

  “Yeah, because Adam put the fear of God into you, so to speak.”

  “I wasn’t going to talk to them anyway, but that’s beside the point. My career is history if my recent activities come to light. I’m in this with you till the end, and I’ll be able to do better work if you tell me what you and Adam think is going on.”

  “So you have no problem helping out someone who may have murdered your former employer?”

  It was her turn to snort. “I’m confident you didn’t kill him.”

  I raised my eyebrows, though of course she couldn’t see that. “What makes you so sure?”

  “Gut instinct, for one. But it’s also that I can’t see you being stupid enough to openly waltz into his office during regular business hours and shoot him. The fact that the shooter used a gun with a silencer is pretty clear evidence that it was premeditated murder, but if it was premeditated, it hardly made sense for you to do it in such a way as to make yourself the prime suspect.”

  Very true. I wondered how the prosecutor would explain my reasoning. But I was getting ahead of myself. Perhaps I’d never be formally charged with Hillerman’s death. Yeah, and perhaps even now, pigs were flying over the frozen plains of Hell.

  Barbie’s reasoning made perfect sense, and she was probably telling the truth about her current commitment to the cause. However, there was no way in hell I was going to level with her. I’d have to reveal too much of my hard-earned, forbidden knowledge to even begin to explain.

  “Have you had any success finding out who created the photographs?” I asked. I wasn’t going to tell Barbie the whole story, but I decided not to rub her face in the fact, either.

  She paused, and I felt sure she was going to press me to give her the juicy details. But she didn’t, and I let go of a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding.

  “Not yet. But I’m going to work on the assumption that Hillerman and Simms used the same source, and that gives me a few more bread crumbs to follow.”

  “Great. Let me know if you find anything.” I meant that to be a dismissal, but Barbie either didn’t get it, or she chose to ignore it.

  “So I hear Hillerman’s intern met with an untimely end sometime last night.”

  Internally, I cringed. Considering Psycho Demon was gunning for me, there were sure a lot of other people getting hurt in his wake.

  “Yeah, I heard that, too.”

  “And is it a coincidence that I haven’t been able to reach you at your home number?”

  “Is there a point you’re trying to make, or are you just jabbing pins in me for shits and grins?”

  “My point is you can use all the help you can get.”

  “Oh, we’re back on that, are we?”

  “I don’t give up easily. I’ll figure out whatever it is you’re hiding, and then I’ll help you whether you want me to or not.”

  The sound that left my throat now was almost a growl. “What the fuck do you care? I’m not even a paying client, and if I were a paying client, I’d fire you for sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong.”

  Barbie was silent so long I thought she might have hung up. But she’d been telling nothing but the truth when she said she didn’t give up easily.

  “The things I did for Jack Hillerman…” She sighed. “It wasn’t the first time I’d compromised my professional ethics on a case, but always before, it was for a good cause. I did more than just compromise my ethics this time, and I did it for money. I can’t even hide behind a good cause. That’s not the kind of person I want to be. So if I can help you, it’ll help me feel a little less like a scum-sucking bottom feeder.”

  “You were just trying to protect your sister,” I said, then was surprised at myself for coming to Barbie’s defense. By all rights, I should hate this woman.

  “That’s what I told myself,” Barbie agreed. “But now I think I was looking for an easy way out. For years, I’ve busted my ass to keep Blair at The Healing Circle, and I couldn’t resist the lure of easy money. I should have just kept busting my ass like always.”

  Maybe if I hadn’t sacrificed Tommy Brewster to save my brother, I wouldn’t have been able to identify with Barbie at all. I’m certain I wouldn’t have been able to forgive her. I’m not the most forgiving of people under the best of circumstances. But honestly, I’m not sure I wouldn’t have done the same thing had our roles been reversed, so I was having a hard time throwing stones.

  “Believe me, Barbie, I know exactly what it’s like to make bad decisions when people you love are involved.”

  “Very intriguing, but I’ll resist my urge to pry. One thing, though: please don’t call me Barbie. My name’s Barbara.”

  I couldn’t help laughing. “If you don’t want me calling you Barbie, then you need to either change your name, or gain twenty pounds and dye your hair.”

  “Fine. But remember, two can play that game, Morgie.”

  We both laughed at that. It felt kind of surreal, trading quips with the woman who’
d wreaked such havoc on my life. But it also felt kind of … good. Once upon a time, before Lugh came into my life, I’d had a friend I could banter with. I’d never been big on the whole “girl talk” thing, but Val and I had on occasion indulged, discussing our romantic woes over pints of chocolate chip ice cream. I missed those days. I missed Val, at least the woman I’d thought Val was.

  I think Barbie caught the vibe of my thoughts even over the phone line, because she followed up with, “If you ever decide you need to spill those secrets of yours, just give me a call. I think you might find me a useful asset, especially now that you can’t lean on Adam as much.”

  It was my turn to sigh. “Don’t get your hopes up,” I warned. “But thanks. I appreciate the offer.”

  There was nothing more to say after that, so we hung up.

  CHAPTER 20

  I was supposed to meet with my lawyer that afternoon, but I was afraid the police might know that and would be waiting for me there, so I called and canceled. I wondered if the lawsuit was still in the works now that Hillerman was dead. It hardly seemed to matter, not when I had possible murder charges hanging over my head.

  Raphael made an appearance shortly after I hung up with Barbie. He brought takeout Chinese food for lunch and gave me first choice, pretending to be a gentleman. I took the chicken lo mein, leaving him with the fishy-smelling shrimp fried rice. We didn’t bother with plates or silverware, instead opening the takeout cartons and digging in with our cheap disposable chopsticks.

  I told Raphael what Barbie had told me, but he couldn’t figure out what it meant, either. I was more convinced than ever that I had to unmask Psycho Demon, though God only knows what I was going to do when I found out his identity. The chances that it would help me figure out who was hosting him right this moment were pretty slim, but maybe it would help me get a step ahead of him.

  I didn’t like the idea that was forming in my head, but once it took root, it was pretty much impossible to ignore it. There was one obvious place to go when looking for information about illegal demons who inhabit our fair city; one person who would know more about the demon underworld than anyone else.

  I’d spoken with Shae, the owner of The Seven Deadlies, more times than I would have believed possible, considering how much I loathed her. The Seven Deadlies was a demon sex club, and its basement, aptly named Hell, was a haven for demons who were into hard-core S&M. I shuddered and tried to block out my memories of my one and only visit there.

  Shae was a mercenary, and as far as I could tell, she was willing to do just about anything as long as she was paid enough—though the payments were not necessarily monetary in nature. She was also an illegal demon herself, allowed to remain on the Mortal Plain only because she served as Adam’s snitch.

  I had bargained with Shae for information once before, and lived to tell about it. In exchange, I’d had to give her some information I’d have preferred to keep to myself, but all in all I felt like the interview had gone well. Perhaps trying a second time would be tempting fate, but I wasn’t just going to sit around on my ass and wait for either the police or Psycho Demon to find me. The question then became, would I be able to shake my demon bodyguards?

  I spent too much time pondering the question as I slurped up greasy lo mein noodles. If my brain had been firing on all cylinders, I would have Tasered Raphael and made my escape while I still had only one demon to get through, but as it was, Saul returned to the house before I’d come up with the idea.

  Raphael and I were both eating standing up, leaning against the kitchen counter. Raphael put down his carton of fried rice and laughed when Saul came in the front door.

  “What’s so funny?” I asked, frowning.

  “Your face,” Raphael said, and laughed again. Even Saul’s lips were twitching.

  “What?” I wondered if Raphael would mind me sticking my chopsticks through his eye.

  Raphael took a deep breath and contained his mirth, though his eyes still sparkled with it. “Your face is such an open book. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

  I was beginning to suspect what had so amused Raphael and Saul, but damned if I was going to admit anything, so I just scowled and shoved a heap of lo mein into my mouth.

  “It wouldn’t have worked anyway,” Raphael said. “The only reason Saul wasn’t in the house when you woke up was that he was taking a break from my company. If you’d set foot outside the house without me, he’d have herded you back in.”

  I turned my scowl toward Saul, though I’d stuffed too much greasy lo mein into my mouth to tell him what I thought of him. He shrugged.

  “You Tasered me yesterday,” he reminded me. “If you think you’re going to get away with the same trick twice, you’re delusional.”

  I swallowed my mouthful of noodles and resisted the urge to throw the carton at Saul. Not trusting my impulse control, I decided I was best off putting the carton down.

  “So you guys are going to keep me prisoner here?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest, and, I’m sure, looking pretty damn belligerent.

  “It would be safest for you to stay inside and out of sight,” Raphael said. “No one is going to figure out you’re taking refuge here, of all places.”

  That was true. As far as the outside world was concerned, I was right now hanging out at the house of Tommy Brewster, a legal, registered demon host whom I hardly knew. The police wouldn’t find me here, and neither would Psycho Demon. Of course, I wouldn’t be able to do jack shit to clear my name or identify my enemy while living under house arrest, either.

  A little help, Lugh? I thought at him, though I already knew he wasn’t going to be on my side in this battle.

  I’m always on your side, his voice chided gently in my mind. But you’ve got nowhere to go right now. I agree that talking to Shae may yield some results, but the club won’t open until nine tonight.

  So you’d actually let me go? I asked, somewhat incredulously.

  Not by yourself, of course. But you can take Saul and Raphael with you.

  I bristled at the idea. I can take care of myself! If I get caught by the police, the last thing any of us needs is for Saul or Raphael to interfere. And if I run into Psycho Demon, I can let you take control.

  I could almost see him in my mind, his face taking on that familiar, patient expression as he explained the facts of life to me. Remember, we’re trying not to kill the host. I’m not at all sure I’d be able to restrain him without killing him all by myself. That’s why we sent two demons after David Keller.

  “I gather from that distracted look on your face that you’re having a conversation with my brother,” Raphael said.

  I blinked, momentarily disoriented. I’d gotten so absorbed in my mental discussion that I’d almost forgotten about the outside world. Something about that creeped me out—it was like I’d checked out of reality for a minute or two. I shook my head to clear it.

  “Yeah,” I said. “We’ve got a plan for tonight.” I explained what I had in mind.

  Saul and Raphael both listened without interruption, but I could see suspicion in both their expressions.

  “What?” I finally asked, throwing my hands up in disgust, hating the way they were looking at me.

  “Are you sure Lugh is okay with this?” Raphael asked in a voice steeped with skepticism.

  I swear I could feel my blood pressure rising. I had to fight a mighty battle not to say something about how I didn’t need Lugh’s permission, because, in a way, I did. I took a couple of slow, calming breaths before I answered.

  “Yes, I’m sure. You’ve said it yourself many times: I’m a shitty liar. So decide for yourself: Am I lying?”

  Raphael accepted that argument with a reluctant shake of his head, but Saul still looked doubtful. He didn’t know me well enough to understand how badly I sucked at lying, and the fact that Raphael was now taking my word for it probably was more of a hindrance than a help, considering their relationship. I was trying to figure out how to convince S
aul, when suddenly I wasn’t in control of my body anymore.

  Lugh reached out and grabbed Raphael around the throat, then lifted him off the ground with one hand. Raphael’s eyes bugged, but he didn’t struggle.

  “Morgan has my seal of approval,” Lugh said, then lowered Raphael to the floor and flowed back into the background where he belonged.

  As soon as Lugh ceded control back to me, a headache slammed behind my eyes and my stomach gave a lurch. I considered dashing to the sink to hurl, but I thought maybe I could keep the nausea in check.

  “Are you all right?” Raphael asked as he rubbed his throat. There was no mark there, and I doubted Lugh had actually hurt him, though I supposed it had been a disconcerting experience.

  “Yeah,” I said, closing my eyes and trying to steady myself. “Apparently, I can’t even let Lugh in for a few seconds anymore without suffering the consequences.”

  Sorry about that, Lugh said. Saul wasn’t going to believe you unless I told him it was okay, and I had to prove it was really me talking.

  Raphael was giving me a curious look. “How much has he been in control lately?”

  “Not enough that I expected to get sick,” I muttered. We knew my body seemed to object to repeated control changes, but we hadn’t exactly determined how much was too much. Still, there’d been times when he’d been in control much longer and we’d exchanged more often without my suffering ill effects. “Maybe I react more strongly when he takes control without asking first.” Or maybe the idea that he now seemed able to do so at will was belatedly triggering my mental alarms and making me sick.

  My stomach heaved, and I just barely managed to keep my lo mein from making a return appearance.

  “I think I’d better go lie down,” I said, and neither Saul nor Raphael argued.

  I’d felt about a thousand times worse the last time I’d had such an adverse reaction to the control changes, but I found that wasn’t comforting at all right now as I lay on my bed with a pillow over my face, my head throbbing in time to my pulse. I thought about taking some aspirin, but Lugh didn’t think it would help, since he couldn’t figure out exactly what was causing the reaction. Besides, it wasn’t like Raphael would have aspirin sitting around the house. Demons don’t get headaches or colds or any of the other annoying physical ailments that plague mankind.