M Sellars - The End Of Desire

“And that means what?” Ben asked.

I dipped my head and gave him a half shrug. “Unfortunately, it means we aren’t going to find out what it is until it does whatever it’s supposed to do.”

“So what do we do now,” I asked.

Ben and I had signed out of the crime scene shortly after Detective Martin had showed us the mysterious bit of magick Annalise had worked in the kitchen. My headache still hadn’t really subsided at this point, but a good amount of the tension had finally ebbed. The most important thing for me at the moment, however, was that my skin was no longer prickling with the unbridled anger that had been so prevalent throughout the apartment.

“Whaddaya mean?” Ben returned. “It’s simple. We go back to your place, pick up Firehair and your luggage, then I take you two ta’ my place.”

“I know that,” I said. “I meant, what do we do about stopping Annalise?”

“Gotta find ‘er first, so unless you got some kinda Twilight Zone thing tellin’ us where ta’ look, it’s just gonna take police work and a bit of luck.”

“Define police work.”

“We ask around and hope somebody saw somethin’.”

“That’s it?”

“That’s where the luck comes in,” he grunted. “If we’re lucky, someone did and will be willin’ ta’ talk to us about it.”

“That doesn’t sound terribly promising.”

“Welcome to the real world, Row. The majority of the time, that’s how criminals get caught,” he said with a shake of his head. “That crap on TV is e’zactly that. Crap. Ain’t nobody gonna stick a piece of hair under a microscope and suddenly say, ‘Bingo! She’s standin’ at the corner of Fourth and Broadway, go get ‘er.’ When it comes to this kinda crime, real police work is three parts paperwork, one part luck. Truth is, right now Devereaux is really just a suspect. Until we catch up to ‘er and compare the DNA and all that shit… Well, you got the idea.”

“It’s her. Believe me.”

“I do. We just gotta make sure the evidence supports it.”

“Okay, so what if nobody saw anything?”

“Then we hope she uses a credit card or somethin’, and we get a hit.”

“And if that doesn’t happen.”

“Awfully goddamned negative today, aren’t ya’?”

“I’m just worried.”

“Yeah… I can tell…”

“So? If she doesn’t use a credit card or something?”

“Okay, I’ll play. If she keeps ‘er head down, doesn’t use one of the credit cards we’re trackin’, nobody saw anything, and nobody calls with a decent tip, then we’re kinda fucked until she makes some other move.”

“Like coming after me or Felicity?”

“Or killin’ some other poor bastard, yeah, that’s pretty much about it.”

“That doesn’t make me feel any better, Ben.”

“Hey, you were the one playin’ devil’s advocate, not me,” he replied as he turned the van onto Laclede and accelerated with the flow of traffic. “Who knows, maybe she’ll see the error of her ways and turn herself in.”

“Yeah, right.”

“It’s happened before.”

“I wouldn’t count on it this time.”

“Didn’t say I was countin’ on it,” he grunted. “Either way, look at the bright side. Ya’ played with your doll, and now the ghost bitch is leavin’ Felicity alone.”

“Yeah,” I answered with a tired sigh. “There is that.”

“Look, Row, it’s all gonna be good,” my friend offered. “We get you two outta sight so you’re safe, and Major Case’ll do the rest.”

“I guess you’re right.”

“Jeez, mark it on the calendar,” he half chuckled. “The injun gets ta’ be right for a change.”

We rode along in relative silence for a few moments while I digested everything he had just said. I wasn’t overly excited about hiding out. I had no reason to believe that doing so this time would end as badly as it had the last, but it still didn’t do anything for my anxiety level. I suppose the old idiom, “once bitten, twice shy,” was a good description of how I felt about the idea.

Finally, out of idle curiosity, I turned to Ben and asked, “By the way, I’m sure I can probably guess, but what did Mike have to say when you two went in the back?”

“Not much.”

“I know better. It had something to do with me being there, didn’t it?”

“Yeah, well he just wanted ta’ remind me that you weren’t s’posed ta’ be,” he grunted.

“What did you tell him?”

“That I already knew that.”

“Do you think he’ll say anything?”

“Martin?” He shook his head. “Prob’ly not. I wish he would, but it really doesn’t matter. Your name is on the log, so it’ll come ta’ somebody’s attention soon enough.”

“What do you mean, you wish he would?”

He simply shrugged in answer.

“Well, how much trouble are you going to be in over this?” I asked.

He shrugged again. “Dunno just yet.”

“Could you lose your job?”

“Not very likely. But if I’m lucky I’ll get at least a two week suspension.”

“At least?”

“It’d be even better if it was a thirty day.”

“Better? You aren’t making sense.”

“Yeah I am. You just don’t know it.”

“Dammit, Ben, you shouldn’t have taken me there.”

“I keep tellin’ ya’, White Man, don’t worry about it.”

“How can I not? All that came from this was me standing there saying, ‘I don’t know.’”

“Yeah, but whether ya’ realize it or not, now ya’ actually do know more than ya’ did before, even if ya’ don’t know exactly what she’s up to… If that makes any kind of sense. Either way, it’s a start.”

“Not enough for you to risk your career.”

“Yeah, well, those’re the breaks. Besides, I told ya’ I ain’t gonna lose my job.”

“But you might get suspended, and I’m going to feel guilty about that.”

“Don’t. A suspension for somethin’ like this really ain’t that big a deal.”

“You’re being awfully calm about this,” I remarked, unable to keep the confusion out of my voice.

“Uh-huh.”

“Am I missing something here?”

“Apparently.”

I waited for him to expand on his answer, but he simply continued driving in silence. After a moment I prompted, “Well? Would you like to enlighten me?”

“Look, it’s simple, Row,” he explained. “If I can get suspended, I’ll be freed up ta’ spend my time makin’ sure you and Firehair are safe instead of dependin’ on someone else ta’ do it while I’m off chasin’ dead end leads.”

“So you’re trying to tell me this is all just part of your grand plan?”

“Somethin’ like that.”

“You’ve lost your mind.”

“Yeah, probably,” he grunted. “That’s why I’m hopin’ for at least thirty days. I could really use the vacation.”

The alarm system began to pulse out its countdown as we came through the front door. I stepped quickly across the room and stabbed in the disarm code on the keypad. It didn’t escape my notice that the display was reading that it had been enabled in the “away” mode, which meant the motion detectors scattered throughout the house were live. This certainly wasn’t the way it should be set if someone were home, which was supposed to be the case.

“Felicity?” I called out then waited for an answer.

We had been gone for almost two hours, and the crime scene van had no longer been parked in front of the house when we arrived. I had glanced around after climbing out of Ben’s vehicle but hadn’t seen any local police in the vicinity either, which bothered me quite a bit, given that Ben had arranged for them to be there keeping watch.