hand of hate 01 - destiny blues (20 page)

“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 festivalgoers, 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 fortuneteller, 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.”
 

CHAPTER 22
 

I walked through the open back door of Mystic Properties; the tension in the room thick as butter. Rhys and Porter seemed to be in the middle of a disagreement, and stopped talking as soon as I entered the room.   
 

“What did I miss?”
 

“The FBI declined to pursue the demon-as-the-killer theory,” Rhys said. “They’re convinced the correct strategy is to focus their efforts on a human suspect.”
 

I glared at Porter. “So they’re going after my brother? You’re making a big mistake. And who leaked his name to the newspapers? Lance has nothing to do with any of this.”
 

“Look, I carry no weight with the taskforce. First of all, I’m here on special assignment.” Porter ticked off the points on his fingers as he spoke. “I’m an outsider. Second, no physical evidence exists which proves an animal made any of the marks found on any of the victims. The only demons in the flesh we can compare bite radii against are much too small. Third, no saliva or other DNA evidence was found that would allow us conclude the marks are bites and not some strange tool which hasn’t been identified yet.  And fourth, and I’m sorry to tell you this Mattie, the only people who can see these so-called djinn are a senile old woman and you. Neither one of you ever tested positive for psychic ability, and you both share a family history of mental illness. The taskforce thinks I’m a kook. Gimme a break guys, I shouldn’t believe you either.”
 

My face burned. “But you do.” I wondered if Oneiri had a big enough bite radius.  
 

Porter glanced at Rhys and then turned to face me. “Only because I trust Rhys. He’s got a nose for this stuff. He tells me you’re related to that crazy old woman.”
 

“I know I’m not crazy.” Maybe my Mom wasn’t either; she might have been messed up, but I now believed she’d been misdiagnosed. “Rhys and I went down into those caves. I saw thousands of them, and they weren’t locked up like they were supposed to be. At  least two were materialized, named djemons. And I saw signs that someone had been inside.”
 

“The FBI doesn’t make arrests based on imaginary creatures. We need hard evidence.”
 

   “These things aren’t alive,” Rhys explained. “They don’t have DNA. A demon master must be directing these djemons. It’s happened before. Check the newspapers. Madame Coumlie said it happened in 1930. Find the master, and you’ll have your Night  Shark.”