Angel: Private Eye Book One (13 page)

I told Sarah just as much as I could to make
my story believable. I decided it was a seriously bad idea to admit
to her what I’d done to that vampire. It wasn’t just shame and
guilt talking. Benson had already showed up at my house. Sarah
didn’t need to be dragged further into this world.

She was strangely okay with me moving into
the otherworld section of town, probably because it would give her
a legitimate reason to visit more. Heck, I’d need her as a guide.
She knew so much more about this world than I did.

Sarah helped me pack up my things and even
offered to drive them over later tonight, meaning I managed to get
back to Mr Marvelous’ shop in time for our 2 o’clock
appointment.

I was dutiful enough to dress in my trench
coat, even going so far as to shine my pin with my sleeve.

Though it shouldn’t work – the trench coat
honestly made me feel like a private investigator. There was
something strong about it, hardy, gritty. You could get a heck of a
lot done in a trench coat, from slumming through the dirtiest
sections of town to crawling through the sewers. Not that I hoped
that would happen on my watch. But as Mr Marvelous stood behind his
desk with a certain kind of smile peeling back his lips, I realized
I had little idea what this job would entail.

“You did good last night, rooky. Way better
than I thought you would. You found that wall spell, and you did a
heck of a good job putting Cortez in his shoes. Which is
something,” Mr Marvelous pointed at me with a strong stiff finger,
“I expect you to do at every opportunity you get. Don’t let the
police think they’re better than us. Especially the ones in
Benson’s pocket.”

I unavoidably stiffened at the mention of
Benson’s name.

Marvelous obviously saw it. “I made a
promise to help you figure out why Benson is so interested in you.
And then whatever it is,” Marvelous drew up a hand and crumpled his
pudgy fingers, “We’ll use it against him.”

My brow knotted in concentration.
“Permission to speak freely, sir,” I asked.

Marvelous chuckled. “You’re not in the army,
kid. But having said that, I kind of like your deference.
Permission to speak.” He nodded as he tucked his thumbs behind his
suspenders.

“Um, I’ve never heard anyone speak about
Benson with such disdain.”

Mr Marvelous smiled. “Most of this town is
terrified of him. And with good reason.”

My gaze flashed up at that. “What do you
mean?”

“I mean, he’s the top-of-the-pack, the
vampire king. Heck, he has unprecedented power over most of the
other clans, too.”

“So aren’t you a little worried about
talking to him like that?” I chose my words carefully.

Mr Marvelous chuckled so outrageously I
thought he’d pop a lung. “I’ve been around the block enough times,
kid. I’ve seen the darkest sections of this city and the lightest,
too. I won’t say I’m not scared of anything, but I do know when to
cower and when to fight. Yes, Benson is a kingpin. But he’s mostly
bark. He’s got his fingers in too many human pies. I ain’t saying
he’s not a vampire underneath those fancy Italian wool suits. All
I’m saying is he has more than enough reasons to act like a
gentleman these days.”

I didn’t like that answer. I didn’t like
anything that made Benson seem more like a human and less like the
monster I’m sure he was.

“But that doesn’t matter. We’re likely to
run into Benson again, but I’m sure you’ll find a way to deal with
him.” Mr Marvelous flashed me a toothy grin. “Our first priority
has to be figuring out what kind of a woman Susan Smith was. What
connections she had, whether she was a vampire groupie or whether
she belonged to any of the other clans.”

“Was she magical?” I asked. Maybe it was an
innocent question. Maybe I should have done my homework and read
the file on Mr Marvelous’ desk – if I’d been able to find it. While
his storage room had been a complete shambles, it was absolutely
nothing whatsoever compared to the main office. I’d heard of
hoarders before, but the number of archive boxes in here was
staggering. They lined every wall and were stacked up as if he were
trying his hand at office Jenga.

The ceiling fan above Mr Marvelous’ desk
seemed to be on permanently. It left a low hum issuing through the
room, and scattered the dust that seemed to cover everything, and
the cob webs, too. God, there were so many cobwebs. I swore Indiana
Jones would mistake this place for an ancient crypt.

Mr Marvelous clearly had a pair of those
cleaning gloves, and it wouldn’t take too long to dust and tidy
this office up. But it was clear that was never going to
happen.

“She’s a halfie,” he finally said as he
brought a hand up and scratched at his stomach distractedly.

“And what’s that?”

He made a face. “You really know nothing
whatsoever about this world, do you? Where exactly have you been
keeping yourself for the past five years?”

I pressed my lips together and swallowed
almost primly. “I’ve been keeping myself on the other side of town
in a library at a university. It was a quiet, easy job, and God
knows it didn’t involve any murder,” my voice became fragile on
that word.

Marvelous shrugged. “That’s great, kid, but
now you work for me. And I don’t know if you’ve noticed,” he
pointed towards the window behind him, shrugging at what looked
like a small fight that had broken out between some vampires and
some seriously shaggy, rugged-looking werewolves. “You’re on the
wrong side of town now. For God’s sake, stop being so innocent. Get
a head in some books. Walk the streets. Learn about the
otherworld.”

I couldn’t stop myself from gritting my
teeth and wincing as if Marvelous had suggested I take a bath in
acid.

He snorted. There was a certain hard edge to
his look. “What, got a problem with us otherworlders?” he locked
his arms over his potbelly and shot me a steely, challenging
look.

“I just… I just wish everything would go
back to normal. There’s nothing wrong with that, is there?”

He let out a hard, rattling snort. “Guess
what, Lizzie? You can’t stick your head in the sand. You work for
me now, and I demand you start learning about every magical race.
Spells. Charms. Hexes. You name it. Because we’ll be covering it
all. And don’t make me regret employing you.”

I felt sick, but forced a nod.

“Right, back to work. Miss Smith was a
halfie. That means she was spliced.”

“Spliced?” my brow crumpled.

“Keep up.” He clicked his fingers as he
reached a hand into his desk and pulled out an enormous folder that
looked as deep as an archive box. He chucked it to me casually.

I made the mistake of catching it and almost
fell to my knees. “Bloody hell this is heavy.” I staggered, propped
it on the edge of the table, and panted. Which was a mistake, as I
inadvertently sucked in a lungful of dust.

It felt as if I just swallowed half of the
Sahara.

Clutching at my throat and patting my face,
I looked up to see Marvelous chuckling.

“Remind me again how you killed a
cold-blooded vampire?”

It was a harsh thing to say, and I made no
effort to hide my stony expression.

Marvelous dropped my gaze then pointed at
the massive folder. “In there is everything you need to learn. I
want you to read it by tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow?” my voice went up like a
kazoo.

“You have a problem with that? You gotta
earn your $11 an hour and board here.”

“Doesn’t board mean that you’ll feed me?” I
said hesitantly, realizing I’d actually had nothing but chocolate
biscuits all day.

“Sure does. You can have the excess from the
spells grown in the basement.”

“Spells grown in the basement?” I made a
face.

“Poisonous mushrooms, lizards, worms,
frogs—”

I brought a hand up and almost gagged.

Marvelous laughed. “Christ, you really do
know nothing about magic, don’t you? Do you honestly think spells
are made out of lizard entrails and a bit of hocus-pocus? They’re
made out of chemicals, dearie, just like drugs. Except us magicians
can make chemicals do some fantastic things.”

“Hold on, are you suggesting I subsist on
jumped up drugs?!”

“No, I’m suggesting you can have surplus
from some of the plants I use for distillation. A couple are
edible.”

I continued to make a face. “I think I’ll
fare for myself.”

“Suit yourself. Anyway, get to work. Read
that folder. But for now, I need you to go out and canvas the
streets around Susan Smith’s apartment. Use that magical sniffing
nose of yours to figure out if there are any more wall spells.”

I immediately shook my head. “That was an
accident last night. I just—”

“You just specifically walked into the room
and were drawn to the wall, breaking the spell with merely a touch.
Sure, that was an accident, and I’m a 10 foot pink mole. You've got
a magical nose.” He brought a hand up and tapped his rather
prominent proboscis. It almost twanged like a plucked guitar
string. “It’s time for you to learn how to use it. Don’t do
anything dangerous, stay to the main roads, and for God’s sake,
come back before it gets dark.”

“That’s it? That’s all I have to do? Just
walk around the streets and see if I feel anything? I’m not sure if
you’ve noticed, but we’re deep in the otherworld side of town.
Surely there’s magic everywhere.”

Mr Marvelous tapped his fingers on his
elbows. “Yes, I have noticed. I’m just trusting the fact that
you’ll be able to separate the dark from the good. Sure, there’s
vampires and werewolves and banshees screeching about on their
motorbikes and zooming around in their flashy cars, but you ignore
them.” He brought a hand up again and tapped his nose with another
twang. “You follow this, and you follow this.” He brought a hand
down and slapped his belly. It practically rippled like a massive
brick thrown in a pond. “You work with your instincts. There will
be clues out there. Nobody can murder someone like that – drain
them of their blood and a fragment of their soul – without leaving
a trail.”

I suddenly stopped, froze almost as if
somebody had tipped my head back and poured ice cold water down my
throat. “Taken a fragment of her soul?”

He frowned, deep grooves etching down his
lips. “Didn’t I mention that last night? That’s why she was grey.
That’s why the police had such trouble finding the body. It wasn’t
just masked by a wall spell – they took part of her everafter.”

“A part of her everafter?”

He rolled his eyes. “Just read the folder.”
He leaned over and tapped it.

Another enormous cloud of dust billowed and
zeroed in on my lungs. I violently patted it away as I jerked
backwards.

Then almost immediately my mind locked on
what he’d said. A slice of her soul? A slice of her everafter?

I shook, and I had no idea why.

That seemed wrong. Not just on a moral
level, on a personal level. I felt this strange spark of anger
ignite somewhere in my gut and fly violently to my heart. It was
small, small enough that I shook it off as I shivered. “Ah, what
are you going to do while I’m out there canvassing the
streets?”

“I’m going to go and annoy Cortez, make sure
he gives us everything he gets on this case.” Marvelous brought up
two hands and slammed one fist into his palm, using it to crack his
knuckles. “Now get to work, missy. I expect you back in three
hours.”

I bit my lip. “It’s gonna take me ages to
walk there. And the public transport around these areas isn’t
exactly…” I trailed off. What I wanted to say was not something Mr
Marvelous would want to hear. Safe, nice, on time – these were not
words you could associate with the public transport of the
otherworld section of town.

“You can take the beast.” Marvelous twanged
back one of his suspenders, grabbed a set of keys from somewhere,
and chucked them at me.

I tried to catch them, but they fell from my
hands and clanged onto the floor.

He rolled his eyes. “You’d better get smart
real fast, Lizzie, because this world is unforgiving.” With that,
he stretched his shoulders, grabbed the jacket from off the back of
his chair, nodded firmly, and walked through the door. Not the door
that led back into the corridor, but the door that shouldn’t lead
anywhere. The one that looked as if it led to the sheer side of the
building outside.

Though I tried to shift to the left and peer
intently at the door, hoping to see where it led, I wasn’t quick
enough. Mr Marvelous left in a flash.

I trotted over to the window, pressing a
hand into it and angling my head down to see if he’d fallen down
the side of the building and landed on the street below.

Nope. Nothing. He just disappeared.

Though I wanted to deny it, I felt a crackle
of magic in the air. As I crushed my bottom lip between my teeth, I
walked over to the door and ran my palm down it. It was warm. What
was more, there was a certain amount of potential in the air, if
you could measure potential, that was.

It was like the door existed in a different
realm of probability, one where anything really could happen.

Shaking my head and still crushing my lip
between my teeth, I turned.

Reluctantly I picked up the folder, having
to shore up my shoulders and set my weight into my hips lest I fall
over and be crushed by the darn thing.

Walking in a strange, straddling, duck-like
waddle, I managed to lug the folder back to my room.

I’d done an okay job cleaning it, and when
Sarah brought my stuff tonight, I guess it would start to feel a
lot more like home.

I cleaned the folder as best as I could,
finally depositing it on my bed.

The mattress now sagged like a banana.

Leaning forward, I opened the folder and
grabbed the first chapter, pulling it out of the spring-bound
mechanism, folding up the pages, and tucking them into the
voluminous pocket inside my jacket.