Caleb Carr - The Angel Of Darkness

My pride got ruffled for just an instant; but it was clear from Marcus’s look that he didn’t mean to cause any injury, he just wanted to be sure that we weren’t, in fact, getting taken. I looked to the floor as I answered, “Neither of them things makes her a liar, Detective Sergeant. I’ll answer for Kat.”

“The cocaine fiend I understand,” Lucius said to his brother, looking puzzled. “The indications are fairly clear. But why do you assume she’s a prostitute, Marcus?”

“A girl that age? Living at the Dusters’? It’s not a mission house, Lucius, for God’s sake.”

“Hmm,” Lucius said grimly. “True. But she does know where the Hunter woman lives. And what could she possibly gain from telling us all this? I say we believe her-not least because it could make all our lives a lot easier.”

“How so?” Marcus asked.

But it was me that Lucius spoke to next: “Stevie, do you think this girl might do us a-favor?”

I shook my head. “A favor, probably not. We- I got her into a little hot water yesterday. Anyway, Kat’s life hasn’t made her one for favors. But if there was something in it for her-then yeah, I think we might ask her.” I looked at them both earnestly. “But only if it ain’t dangerous.”

“It shouldn’t be,” Lucius answered eagerly.

“What are you cooking up, Lucius?” Marcus asked.

But at that moment Kat came running up the stairs and back into the room. “Stevie, there’s people coming into the house!”

“Don’t worry,” I said, going to the stairway. “Probably just the housekeeper. I been wondering when she’d turn up.”

“No, it’s a couple of men,” Kat answered quickly, following me. “Stevie, it’s your doctor! I shouldn’t be here, he’ll take it outta your hide!”

Looking down the stairs, I saw that the new arrivals were, in fact, the Doctor and Cyrus. Putting a quick hand on Kat’s arm, I squeezed it gently. “Don’t worry,” I said, half amused by her fear. “I told you, it’ll be fine, he ain’t that way.”

“But we been eatin’ his food, and the medicine-”

“Calm down,” I said, as the Doctor started up the stairs at a jaunt. “Go inside. It’ll be fine, I’m telling you.”

Kat nodded reluctant agreement but didn’t move; and as the Doctor reached the top of the stairs she drew back behind my shoulder, her eyes going big as she took in his long, dark hair, his black eyes, and the clothes that matched those eyes, even in summer. I smiled; I’d flat-out forgotten how imposing-even scary-he could look when you first met him.

“Stevie!” the Doctor said, seeming satisfied. “We have returned, though rather more quickly than I’d hoped. Apparently this area of anthropology is just developing-it took half of Boas’s staff, in addition to several students from Columbia, to analyze the arrow, and their explanation was only partial. The weapon does, indeed, originate in the islands of the southwestern Pacific, though there remains some confusion over-” He stopped suddenly when he made out Kat’s little form hiding behind me. “Well.” The Doctor smiled genuinely, but slowed his approach. “I didn’t know you had company, Stevie. My apologies for bursting in so rudely.”

Cyrus came lumbering up the stairs, calling out to me, “Stevie? You feeling all right? There’s a half-empty bottle of paregoric on the kitchen-” Then he, too, caught sight of Kat. “Oh,” he said, scrutinizing her. He smiled just a bit and bowed his head. “Hello, Kat,” he said, courteously but not exactly warmly.

“Mr. Montrose,” Kat noised from behind me, without moving.

The detective sergeants came out of the parlor, and the Doctor looked past me and Kat to them. “Ah! The detective sergeants as well-good. This will save some time.” He turned the careful smile my way again. “Stevie? Am I not to be introduced?”

“Oh,” I said. “No. I mean, yes. I mean-”

Kat jumped out from behind me ever so briefly and extended a hand, looking like she thought the Doctor might bite it off. “Katharine Devlin, sir,” she said. The Doctor had just touched the hand when Kat snatched it back and got behind me again. “Stevie didn’t invite me, sir. I just come of my own.”

“Friends of Stevie’s are always welcome,” the Doctor answered simply. “Though I think we’ll all be much more comfortable in the parlor, don’t you?”

I could feel Kat’s small breasts rising and falling quickly as she pressed herself against my back. “I think I should go,” she said anxiously.

But I held her back. “Kat, it’s o- kay ,” I insisted again. “Come on, I want you to tell the Doctor what you told the rest of us. And the detective sergeant’s got something he wants to ask you.”

Very reluctantly, Kat moved with our group back into the parlor, though she never came out from behind me as we went. Her blue eyes stayed fixed on the Doctor: she’d convinced herself a long time ago that he wasn’t on the level, and his kind attitude was only making her more edgy and suspicious. The Doctor went to the mantel and got himself a smoke, offering one to Marcus, then lit up and sat in his chair.

“Please,” he said, indicating an old (or, I should say, antique) French settee what was near me and Kat. “Won’t you sit down?” He seemed almost as amused by her attitude as I was, but he very decently kept that amusement to himself.

She just nodded once, then sat and fairly broke my arm and neck as she yanked my shirt hard and forced me onto the settee beside her. Shoving up against my side, she let her panicky stare leave the Doctor only long enough to see what the detective sergeants were up to.

“Miss Devlin has brought us some very useful information,” Lucius said, handing the photograph to the Doctor. “It seems that she has some acquaintance with Elspeth Hunter.”

The Doctor’s politeness suddenly grew mixed with excitement, in a way what made his eyes glow hot-which only caused Kat to grow even more nervous when he looked back at her. “Really, Miss Devlin? You know the woman?”

“I don’t know what he’s talkin’ about,” she answered, giving Lucius a quick jerk of her head. “But if you mean Libby Hatch, then yeah, I know her.”

“Kat spends some of her time at the Dusters’ place,” I added, not wanting her to have to explain it. “She says they know Nurse Hunter as ‘Libby Hatch’ and that she’s one of Goo Goo Knox’s girls.”

“Goo Goo-?” the Doctor said, confused. “Ah, yes! Knox, the strongman of the Dusters. I must say, one can only speculate as to the amount of cocaine that the members of that gang must abuse in order to invent these absurd names.”

Kat gave out with a sudden sound that I thought might be alarm, but when I turned to her I found that she was smiling and that the noise had been something like a laugh. For the first time, she looked as though she might be buying that the Doctor was okay.

The Doctor laughed along with her, very encouragingly. “So, Miss Devlin,” he said (and I could see that Kat liked being referred to that way), “you say that the woman in this picture is on romantic terms with Knox?”

“She’s his special moll just at the moment,” Kat answered.

“Indeed?” the Doctor replied.

“And,” Lucius added pointedly, “Knox has her home under his personal protection.”

“Does he really?” The Doctor looked to Kat again. “For any particular reason that you can think of, Miss Devlin?”

Kat shrugged, and loosened her grip on my arm a bit. “He’s a wild one, is that Goo Goo-and from what I seen, so’s Libby. They spend a lot of time upstairs in his room. I hear it gets a little crazy sometimes. I also hear that she-well, she- dances for him.”