Anton Strout - Dead Waters

Connor shrugged and started in on his paperwork. “Depends on the chest of drawers, I suppose.”

“That’s just it,” I said. “One second we’re fighting ghosts; the next I’m snapping at her about the dresser she liked there.”

Connor looked up at me. “And that’s an issue . . . why?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “Because right now she only has a single drawer in my apartment and wants something more, I suppose.”

“And you think this was all due to your interaction with the tattooist, kid? You sure you just don’t have commitment issues?”

“I’m not sure,” I said. “I know I have my issues when it comes to women. I’ve never gotten as close to someone as I have with Jane. I’m in untested waters there. Plus, you know how particular I am when it comes to antique furniture and all that. I spent years making money off of pieces here and there. Let’s face it, Connor. . . there’s an importance to assigning a piece of furniture to someone, a charge of emotional attachment that comes from taking a big step like that. Don’t you think?”

Connor rolled his eyes at me. “Yeah, I can see how her wanting more than your old underwear drawer to keep her stuff in is totally unreasonable,” he said. “Oh, wait. No, I can’t . It’s not like she asked to move in.”

“You think she wants to move in?” I asked, a strange panic rising in my chest.

“Did she say that?”

“Well. . . no.”

Connor rolled his eyes at me. “Relax.”

“Forget it,” I said, trying to calm myself. “If you had been through all that raw pain like I had, you might stand a chance of seeing where I’m coming from.”

I grabbed my pen and started up with my paperwork again. Compared to getting advice from Connor, it was almost enjoyable, and the panic fell away.

“Tell me this, kid,” he said. “How many nights does she stay over?”

“In a week?”

“Yeah,” Connor said. “How many?”

I calculated it in my head. “Five or six, I guess.”

Connor threw up his arms. “Jesus, kid. Whether you want to admit it or not, you are living together already. If that’s the way it is, give the girl some more storage space.”

Doubt crept into my mind. If Connor was this exasperated with me, maybe I was overreacting. “You think?”

Connor leaned forward over his desk, lowering his voice. “Listen, I know you’re still new at relationships and all, let alone having one that works, and it hasn’t been that long. But trust me on this. As much as I frown on office romances, I like Jane, and though it pains me to say it, I think you two kind of work well together. You push her away on something as trivial as this and it’s going to build, fester. You’ll ask her to pass the creamer one morning and next thing you know, it will be smashing on the wall next to your head from her throwing it at you. Give the girl more space and man up.”

“You’re right,” I said, finally conceding. “I hear you. I just wish I didn’t have this damn ghost’s emotional baggage sitting so deep in me. I can’t shake it.”

“Shake what?” Jane’s voice came out of the blue from behind me. I jumped in my seat.

“God,” I said, trying to check my nerves as best as I could. “Don’t sneak up on me like that.”

Jane looked at me with a curious smile. “O. . . kay,” she said. “Sorry. So, what can’t you shake?”

I really didn’t want to reveal what Connor and I had just been talking about. There was stuff you said to your male friends that should never come to the ears of your significant other. Even I knew that.

Connor laughed and spoke instead. “The kid was just saying he couldn’t shake this sense of dread from all the new paperwork coming our way.”

Jane nodded and relaxed. “Tell me about it,” she said. “When I went over to Greater and Lesser Arcana, I thought they took away my desk and turned my area into a storage room, but apparently that’s just all the work piling up for me.”

I spread my hand out over our office space. “Welcome to the club,” I said.

“Thanks,” she said. She looked around, and then lowered her voice. “Do you think this Professor Redfield thing is going to take long? I don’t mind helping out the Inspectre, but I’m not part of your Other Division and Wesker will be all over me if I don’t get back to all my Arcana stuff soon.”

“I don’t know how long it’s going to take,” Connor said. “I guess some of it depends on you. Did you bring back any good news after questioning all of the professor’s neighbors?”

Jane’s face turned sour. “Remind me to thank Davidson for that later. I’ve got a nice cantrip I’ve been dying to try out and he’s earned a nice Pinocchio nose for a few days, if you ask me.”

“Hell hath no fury. . .” Connor said, trailing off and shaking his finger at me. “Remember that kid.”

I nodded but didn’t respond. If Connor was making a crack related to our previous conversation about the cuckolded tattooist, I wasn’t sure, and now was not the time to ask him. Instead, I looked up at Jane. “What did you find?”

Jane leaned back against the wall of our sectioned-off area. “Well, for starters,” Jane said. “The neighbors are saying that the place is haunted.”

“The whole high-rise?” I asked.

“No, just the area by Professor Redfield’s apartment.”

Connor gave a dismissive laugh. “Sorry to burst your investigative bubble, but I seriously doubt the place is haunted,” he said. “I didn’t sense a Casper in sight. That building is practically new. It hasn’t had enough time or tenants to get haunted.”

Jane threw her notebook down on my desk and let out a deep sigh. “Look,” she said. “It’s bad enough that I got relegated to patrolling the halls of that high-rise. Between the ogling from the male tenants and the general reluctance of most of them to give up anything useful, it was a real blast, let me tell you. But! Please don’t belittle the messenger, okay? I questioned all of them separately and didn’t lead the conversations. Everyone gave up variations of the same story. Gorgeous lady in a blue-green dress, long dark hair past her shoulders. When they approached, she would vanish. Happy?”

Jane turned in a huff and headed out of our space and back up the aisle toward the main bull pen. Connor got up from his desk first, grabbed his still-wet trench coat off our makeshift coatrack, and ran after her. I took longer, grabbing my own coat and gathering up my umbrella and retractable bat before heading after them. I caught up with them when I entered the café area of our cover operation and found them over by the condiment station by the curtained-off door to the theater.

Connor held up his hands. “Sorry, Jane,” he said. “I’m not saying I don’t believe you. I’m just saying that I didn’t catch a hint of anything ghostly when we were there.”

“Maybe we need to go over the place again,” I offered. “Not that I’m looking to head back out in this weather.”

A dark look crossed Connor’s face. “Dammit,” he said. “We can’t let it wait. The longer we put it off, the exponentially colder the trail will get. Whatever’s going on, we have to attend to it sooner than later.”

I looked toward the front windows of the Lovecraft Café. The storm was still pouring down sheets of rain outside. “You don’t need Jane and me for that, do you? I mean, I was kinda hoping for a little bit of warmth indoors tonight.”

“Sorry, kid,” Connor said. “Like it or not, the two of you both qualify as investigators on this case. Everybody gets to return to the scene of the crime.”

“Great,” Jane said. “I still have to write up all the paperwork on my going door to door, but I guess that will have to wait.” She looked at me, tired. “Next time, remind me to come back with less investigation-stirring data, will you?”