Devon Monk - Hell Bent

“Don’t,” he said.

“I’m going to put them on the counter here, so you don’t have to worry about it,” she said.

“Let her,” Terric said.

“Fine,” Davy said. “Slowly.”

She reached into her jacket, pulled her guns, slowly, one by one, and placed them on the counter.

“Step away from it.” Davy sounded like he’d done this more than once. Over the past three years of Hounding for the police, I assumed he had.

She stepped away and even kept her hands out to the side. “So, were they killed by magic?” she asked.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “Why the hell are you here?”

“You know why.” She took a couple steps closer. “Also, we forgot to set our lunch date.”

Terric lowered his hand, then, to me, “Shame.”

I sighed and let go of the spell. I shook my hand and a loud crack of electricity lashed out to the floor in a red arc, the pull on magic interrupted like a fuse shorting out.

Dessa’s eyes went a little wide and she paused before coming any closer. I noted Davy did not put away his gun.

“Her name is Dessa,” I said. “She never told me who she works for. If I had to guess?” I gave her the up-down, gauging her with sober eyes. “I’d say government.”

“Very good,” she said. “Dessa Leeds,” she said to Terric. “And I know you’re Terric Conley, and you’re Davy Silvers. What I don’t know is who the dead person is.”

“Why should you?” Terric asked.

“She shouldn’t,” I said.

“I’ll make it worth your while, Mr. Conley,” she said.

“Ha! Barking up the wrong tree, sister,” I said.

“How?” he asked.

“I have information,” she said, “about the movement against Soul Complements.”

Terric weighed her comment and, as I expected he would, decided the information and possible safety of others was worth the risk. “I won’t give you his name,” Terric said.

“That’s fine,” she said. “I just want to see his injuries.”

Terric nodded.

I sighed again. So not the way I would have let this go down. I missed being in charge.

Terric was on the far side of the drawer, I stood near the head of it, and Davy was on the other side, closest to Dessa.

She walked over, and paused nearest me.

I folded my arms over my chest and watched her while she studied Joshua’s wounds. Okay, I’m not a sentimental guy—not really. But I’ve always seen pain as a very personal kind of thing. Tell someone you’re hurting, and you’ve just told them how you are vulnerable.

So I did not like letting Dessa, no matter how nice she was, stare at my friend’s dead body. Stare at the wounds that had proved his final weakness.

I expected her to keep her feelings to herself, but the expression on her face was clear and honest: sorrow.

“These marks,” she said. “They’re from a blade—a knife—aren’t they?”

“Yes,” Terric said. I didn’t know if he was watching me or watching her, because I refused to take my eyes off her.

She shook her head, as if she didn’t want to deal with what was right in front of her. “And magic. They’re spells, aren’t they? The only one I recognize is Binding there.” She pointed to a Celtic-knot-looking design carved between the Death and Pain symbols.

“They’re spells,” Terric said.

“And they killed him?” She finally looked up. Not at me, at Terric.

Terric’s body language shifted. He was measuring her just the same as I had. And he’d come to the same conclusion. She knew something about this. Something that was causing her sadness.

“My brother was found like this,” she said. “Dead. With spells carved into his chest. Just like these.”

“You never said that,” I said.

“I was going to show you, remember?”

“Who’s your brother?” Davy asked.

“He was a Closer,” I said.

Davy nodded. We’d had so many threats against Closers over the years, the death rate was in a much higher percentage than other magic users.

“His name was Thomas Leeds,” she said. “He worked in Seattle.”

Terric frowned, searching his memory. “I think I met Tommy once, briefly. I’m sorry for your loss.”

Then he pulled the sheet up to Joshua’s chin and slid his body back into that endless cold.

“What can you tell us about your brother’s killer?” he asked.

“Not a lot,” she said. “He used to be a part of the Authority. That’s all I know, other than he may be in this area.”

Since they’d found Joshua’s body in a parking garage downtown, yeah, I’d say Eli was in the area.

“And about the government looking for Soul Complements?” he asked.

“I’ll tell you what I know if you help me find who did this.” She pointed toward the drawer.

“I am not in a position to guarantee you anything along those lines,” he said.

Funny, that’s pretty much exactly what I’d told her. I tilted a told-you-so look her way.

“Well, I’m going to be looking for the killer. Which means I’ll probably be getting in your way. I might even take my story to the police, or to the media. Blow the whole secret about magic being used to kill people right out of the water. I’m sure the citizens of Portland would be thrilled to find out all their fears about magic, and the mysterious Authority, are true.”

“Blackmail, darling?” I said. “Really? How will that help your hunt? I don’t think having cops and reporters crawling over every move is going to give you time to find anything except a good lawyer.”

“Either I’m in on finding the man who killed my brother and your friend there, or I’m going to make sure that we’re all out.” An ultimatum. Gutsy move.

I opened my mouth to tell her she was out of luck.

“Then you’re in,” Terric said.

I kept my surprise to myself. “Wonderful,” I muttered.

“Good,” she said, looking surprised at his decision too. “Good. Where do we start?”

“We’ll need to see if there are records on your brother we can pull,” Terric said. “Did you drive here?”

“Yes.”

“You can follow us downtown to the office.” He locked the drawer, then started toward the door, pausing only to take her guns and shove them in his pockets.

“Those are my guns,” she said.

“Not while we’re working together, they aren’t,” he said without looking back.

Have I mentioned there are moments when I really, really like that guy?

“They’re not my only guns,” she said.

“Then you can give me the rest at the office,” Terric said.

Davy just shook his head. “You have no idea what you’re getting into, Leeds.”

“Don’t I?” she asked as she followed Terric. “All right. How about you fill me in?”

“I think you’ll find out soon enough.”

He followed behind her. I noticed Davy did not put his gun away.

Me? I paused next to the door. Let them all get a distance down the hall. Then I said a prayer for Joshua. Hell, said a prayer for the rest of us while I was at it.

I had a bad feeling we’d need all the help we could get.

Davy was gone before any of the rest of us, slipping down the street and rumbling away in that big old truck. I figured he was going to report Joshua and Dessa and everything else to the Overseer.

We had maybe fifteen minutes tops before Clyde Turner found out and locked us out of the records, and any- and everything else he thought we shouldn’t be digging around in.

I swung into the passenger seat of Terric’s car.

“Fifteen minutes?” I said.

“Until?” he asked.

“The Overseer tells Clyde to lock us out of this case.”

“Clyde might say no.”