Jon Merz - Vicarious

If Curran told them they were sitting outside the home of a demon, he didn’t think it would go down all that well. Not to mention how fast it would spread back to headquarters.

He shook his head. No. This was going to have to be played differently.

By a new set of rules.

Lauren stood close by, shifting from foot to foot. Nervous. Sad. She hadn’t known Kwon like Curran did, but he knew she felt bad for his loss.

He lifted the sheet back over Kwon’s face and let the crime scene folks get back to work. He wandered over to Lauren.

“I’m so sorry, Steve.”

“Yeah.”

“Darius did it.”

Curran looked away. “Dammit, he was a good man. More than that. He was my friend.”

“His death doesn’t undo any of that, Steve.”

“Yeah, but it sure as hell didn’t matter on bit to the man upstairs either. Why did Kwon have to die? Why did he have to be the one who got killed by this freak? He was a good man. He didn’t deserve this. I got him into it. I should be lying on that grass instead of him. But I’m not.” He punched his hand. “I’m not.”

Lauren placed a hand on his shoulder. “You can’t go beating yourself up about this, Steve. We need to focus on what’s happened here. How we can stop Darius now.”

He turned around. “All we’ve been doing is focusing on this damned asshole. All I’ve done is chase that miserable scumbag from one end of this country to the other. I tried to give him up — put him behind me — and what happens? He comes here. He kills my best friend.”

“He brought us together,” said Lauren quietly.

Curran lit a cigarette and sucked hard on the butt. “You saying some good comes out of every evil?”

“Something like that.”

Curran frowned. “I understand the sentiment, but I just can’t accept it right now. Kwon oughta be alive, dammit. And he’s not.”

“Steve.”

Curran turned and saw one of the Chestnut Hill cops waving him over toward the grove of trees a little bit away from the crime scene.

Curran walked over. “Yeah?”

“You got something you want to tell me about all this?”

Curran looked at him. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

The cop nodded. “Yeah, I figured you’d say something like that.”

“I didn’t say anything.”

The cop tugged on Curran’s arm and they walked back into the grove of trees. Then he turned to Curran. “Look, I don’t know exactly what the hell went on here last night. And I don’t know that I’m going to really press you on why the Boston ME was sitting in a car by himself late last night on what looks suspiciously like some sort of unauthorized surveillance mission.” He eyed Curran.

“Go on.”

The cop nodded. “What I do know is that a man got killed — “ He shook his head. “ — ain’t no way for a man to die. Not like that.”

“Thanks. I appreciate it.”

“Hang on.”

Curran stopped. The cop held out his hand and Curran shook it. As he did so, he felt something pressed into his palm. He didn’t look down.

“I found that on the grass a little bit ago. I don’t know what the hell you’re looking for. Your friend seems to have found something, though. More to the point, he apparently caused a little damage before he got killed.”

Curran resisted the urge to look at his palm.

“Save it for the car ride out of here. You and the lady are gone. I don’t want to see you around here anymore. You got a beef with that guy Darius, I suggest you wait until we’ve cleaned up the crime scene and gotten the hell out of here. I don’t want any of my guys coming to the sort of end your friend did. We cool?”

Curran nodded. “Thanks Jim.”

“Forget it.” He clapped Curran on the shoulder. “I hope you get the chance to put that asshole down. Hard.”

So do I, thought Curran. So do I.

He walked back to Lauren. She looked at him. “Everything okay?”

“We’re done here.” Curran headed to the car and slid in behind the wheel. Lauren climbed in next to him.

“Steve-“

He held up his hand and looked at it. There, in the center of his palm, sat a long triangular piece of…bone? Curran frowned. It was yellow near the tip. By the fracture line, bits of rot clung to the darkened enamel.

A tooth.

Darius’ tooth.

But it was too big to be human.

Lauren leaned over. “Did Kwon do that?”

“Seems that way.”

She picked up the tooth and sniffed it. “God, it reeks.”

“It must have come from Darius.”

Lauren handed the tooth back to him. “It’s too big for a human mouth.”

“Maybe Darius wasn’t Darius when he attacked Kwon. Maybe he changed into the demon.”

“Kwon fought a demon?”

Curran almost smiled. “That was one brave sonofabitch.” He sighed again. “I’ll miss him tremendously.”

Lauren glanced at the dashboard clock. “I’m sorry to bring this back up but I’ve got to get over to Brighton if I have any hope of trying to stall the Archdiocese from making some sort of preemptive statement about all this.”

Curran snapped back to reality. “Yeah. Okay.” He turned the key in the ignition and cast a look out the windshield. At Darius’ house, he could have sworn he saw a curtain fall back into place.

Like he’d been watching them.

Probably real happy right now, thought Curran. Well, that’s fine. Enjoy it. Because the next time I come back, I’ll be bringing a whole world of agony on your ass.”

He slid the car into gear and turned around, heading back toward route 9.

Lauren cleared her throat. “Steve. Do you think he…you know…suffered?”

“I can’t imagine a psychopath like Darius making it an easy death on him. Especially after Kwon took out one of his teeth.”

Lauren bowed her head and began praying quietly next to Curran. He wanted to do the same, but grief wasn’t something he could afford right now. Later on, there’d be time for mourning his friend properly.

Right now, it was time to get some payback.

His cell phone rang and he picked it up. This better be good news, he thought.

“Curran.”

He listened. Scarcely able to believe what he was hearing. After thirty seconds he said simply, “Okay.”

Then he hung up.

Next to him, Lauren’s prayers had ended. She stared at him. “Steve? You okay?”

“That was dispatch. They’ve got another body.”

“Where?”

“Chinatown. Some sort of after-hours club run by the Tongs.” He shook his head. “First he kills Kwon and then he goes out and kills another victim.”

“Maybe that’s why he killed Kwon.”

“Because he couldn’t get past him and do his work unseen?”

Lauren shrugged. “Maybe.”

Curran frowned. “I find it tough to believe that Darius, as a demon or human, couldn’t snake his way past a few cops.” He shook his head. “No. Darius killed Kwon intentionally. He didn’t have to. He just did it to spite me. Us. And he certainly succeeded.”

“What happens now?”

“You go to Brighton. I go to Chinatown. Apparently this latest victim was some sort of Hmong warlord in Boston to negotiate new alliances with the local Chinese Mafia.”

“How do you know that?”

“State Department’s been all over it. This guy doubled as some sort of ambassador as well. Darius got past the Tongs and the Diplomatic Security guys assigned to protect this guy.”

“Is there anything he can’t do?” Lauren leaned against the door.

“Yeah,” said Curran. “He can’t kill my best friend and not expect me to come after him with every bit of firepower I have.”

“Guns won’t solve this, Steve.”

“You’re probably right. But I’ll do whatever I have to, to kill that bastard and make sure he never haunts anyone on this plane again.”