Cat Adams - The Isis Collar

A tentative single flick.

“That’s why she’s in a place where she can get help. Are they talking to her about her drinking?”

A single blink followed by a wild series of flickers.

“Ivy. Stop. Are they helping her, even if she’s sick?”

A blink.

“There’s nothing I can do, hon. I want to help her. I do. But even Gran can’t help now. She has to go through this all by herself and that will be hard. She’ll be angry and scared and will cry and rant before it’s done and she’s better. But you don’t have to watch. That’s too much to ask of you. Maybe you should not go back for a while. Would that be easier?”

It was hard to talk esoteric stuff with Ivy. Emotionally, she was stuck at eight years old, and her grasp of adult quandaries was limited. “Would you rather stay here with me for a few weeks until she’s better? We can play that video game you like.”

A long pause. Then the lights started flickering again, so fast it looked like Morse code on angel dust. The bulb finally gave out in a bright flash before going black. Then Ivy disappeared in a burst of ectoplasm. I’d never seen her do that before. It would disappear eventually, but the jellylike substance near the ceiling was a reminder that even a ghostly sister can stomp out of a room and slam the door.

I sighed and looked around for my phone, hoping to finish the e-mail before the battery died. I realized that my sudden exit from the water had knocked my phone into the water. Damn it. At least it was floating, screen side down, among the bubbles. Maybe the battery and memory card hadn’t been damaged too badly. I carefully plucked it out of the water and immediately put it facedown on a towel to pull out what water I could. When I carefully turned it on its side to get a look at the front, water dripped out and the screen was dark.

I let out a sigh and took it with me to the bedroom after sopping up the spilled water on the floor with another towel. It would be just my luck today to go to put on my makeup, slip on the spill, and crack my head open.

I was hoping that once the unit dried out it would work again. Otherwise, I’d have to buy a new one and reinstall my whole phone book. I hate it when that happens—I have a big list of contacts. Plus, I hadn’t pressed the send button on the e-mail I’d just typed. So that was probably gone.

And for the moment, I was down to my house and office phones until I either replaced the cell or it started working again. I’d heard you could put a waterlogged cell phone in a zipper bag with dry rice and the rice would absorb the water.

If only I had some rice. Sigh.

I knew Rizzoli would probably want me to stay nice and safe here at the estate. He hadn’t put any officers on me after the break-in at the office. Since she’d apparently gotten what she wanted—the book about demons—they weren’t worried. So there was no one to make me stay home. Besides, I knew that I’d lose my freaking mind from boredom if I just sat around waiting for the other boot to drop. And while it’s never a good idea to piss off a Federal agent, I really didn’t consider it my life’s work to make Rizzoli happy. There were people I needed to talk to. When I’d used the landline to call in for messages left on my cell phone, I’d gotten an earful from practically everyone in our crowd. But hey—not having the phone was a good excuse for not having to listen to it.

The only messages I was sorry I’d missed were the ones from John. “Hi, Ceil. I’ve got something. Call me.” I saved it and went to message two. This time his voice sounded more unsure. “I’ve tracked the caster, but it has to be a stalking horse.… We should talk. Call me ASAP.” Another save and on to message three. Tension and worry threaded through his words. “Unless something’s gone horribly wrong at your end, you really need to ca—” Then a mechanical female voice: “End of Message. If you’d like to listen to this message again, press five. To save—”

I pressed 5. I listened, then pressed 5 again. There was an odd sound on the recording, right at the end. I couldn’t make it out, even after repeated attempts. I saved the message, just to be safe. Then I pressed the button to return the call. It rang four times and went to voice mail. “John, it’s Celia. Sorry I didn’t call back yesterday. I know you’ll be shocked to hear that things went horribly wrong, but it’s all okay now. Call me and we’ll talk.”

I started to hang up, but no, I needed to try to reach him. If he felt it was important, it probably was. I dialed his office number. I knew he often stayed there, in a bedroom next to his ritual room. Four rings later, I figured he wasn’t there, and I was just about to press the end call button when I heard a voice on the other end. “… help you?” It wasn’t Creede’s voice, but it was kind of familiar.

“Hello? Is John there?”

The smoothly professional male voice responded, “I’m sorry, our office is closed today. I’ll put you through to Mr. Creede’s voice mail.”

“No! Wait. This is Celia Graves. John left me a message and said it was urgent I call him back. I can’t reach him on his cell. Have you heard from him today?”

The man’s tone changed slightly, becoming more friendly, and I suddenly realized I was talking to John’s assistant, whom I’d met at a party to launch a wine John had helped produce. “Oh, I’m sorry, Ms. Graves. This is Andrew. No, I haven’t talked to John yet today. I sort of expected him to be here already. He has his first meeting in a half hour and he’s normally early. I’ll let him know you called, and if you reach him first, would you remind him about the appointment?”

An initial client meeting on a Saturday was pretty common in our business. Most people who require bodyguards work odd hours and expect us to as well. Well, at least I knew where he’d be later. Because Andrew was right. John was always early … for work, that is. For dates, though? He might show up hours late, if at all. I swear the man is as much of a workaholic as me. “Will do. Thanks, Andrew. Bye.”

After the call, I tapped one fingernail on the edge of the screen. I’d thought of asking for John’s home number, but I doubt Andrew would have given it to me. Decent assistants don’t give out that sort of thing. Given what was going on between us, I probably should have John’s home number, but I’ve never asked. It’s probably just how I was raised, but I always thought it sounded sort of … needy to ask for a guy’s home phone number, even though it’s fine for a guy to ask the girl. There’s no rational reason, but there you go.

But that was only part of the problem. And I knew it. I promised myself that I’d discuss it with Gwen at our next appointment. In the meantime, I had other things to discuss—with other people. And I knew just where I wanted to do it. La Cocina is a wonderful little Mexican restaurant in an iffy neighborhood near campus. It’s been the traditional hangout for my friends and me since my first week of college. Rather than repeat myself over and over on the phone I sent a group e-mail on my laptop, asking a few key people to meet me there for lunch.

Unfortunately, a glance up at the clock showed me I was going to have to scramble to make it to La Cocina on time. Sighing, I stomped back into the bedroom to change.

I dressed all in black, which suited my mood, and added only the garnet earrings that had been one of Vicki’s last gifts to me, along with a new necklace that I’d had made to match. The original one had disappeared when I was turned. Slathering on the sunscreen, I started out the door.

I hadn’t made it more than two steps down the stairs when the phone inside rang, which caused me to scramble to get the door open again and reach the nearest phone. “Hello?”