Page 130 of Demon's Bluff
“Don’t listen to me. It was smart.” I paused. “If I’m the barista, who are you?”
“I’m a coincidence wrapped in a mistake and rolled in luck sprinkles.”
“Got that right.” We took the building stairs fast. I hadn’t seen Slick, but I figured her familiar was around. Bold as brass, we walked in the front door. No one even looked at us. It was late afternoon, and the tall-ceilinged lobby had a moderate amount of activity, both in and out.
“Stairs,” I said, looking at the fire door, and Elyse nodded, scanning the lobby as she held the door for me…and then we were in the echoing stairwell, the door slamming shut behind us.
I took a breath, my skin tingling as I pulled armfuls of energy off the line and spindled them in my chi.
“You okay?”
I glanced at Elyse, wondering how we had gone from antagonists to partners in a mere three days. I liked her, and there was nothing but misery waiting for her back home. She thought she could make a decision and the rest would follow…but I knew better. “Ah, I took a call from my mom,” I finally said, and her expression scrunched up in sympathy.
“Ouch. How did that go?”
She didn’t know it, but she needed the mirror as much as I did now, because breaking Brad’s curse was the only way she was going to keep me out of Alcatraz and her leading the coven. Trusting me was going to ruin her career. “Mmmm, about what you would expect,” I said lightly, and she chuckled, almost bouncing as she went to get the door at the landing, slamming her weight into the heavy metal to shift it.
The hallway was its usual cool emptiness, and the scent of the coffee seemed to become stronger. “You want to play this same as before?”
Elyse bobbed her head. “I’ve got ley line. I’ll go first. Save your ergs.”
“Right. Try not to break anything.”
She put a hand on the door, her smile mischievous. “Unreasonable expectations seldom make for a happy life.”
Eyes closing in a strength-gathering blink, I gestured for her to have at it. She seemed eager enough, and after seeing her in action, I had no qualms about her doing the heavy lifting. Me, though? My gut was in knots. I was going to cremate a perfect stranger, take any closure his family might have away from them. It bothered me.
Rachel, you need to think a plan through before you commit.
Elyse, though, was boldly pushing through the swinging doors, ready to do whatever I said if it would get her home. My God. The woman hadgone to the ever-after, made a bet with a demon, slept in a library basement, and stolen a body. Why she trusted me now, I didn’t know.
Tense, I listened to her feet scuff on the disinfected tile…and then nothing.
I started when the door shifted and she poked her head out. “There’s no one in here. Or the morgue area,” she said.
“Huh.” I followed her in, slowing as I studied the waiting gurney with its locked wheels and carefully folded modesty blanket. Senses searching, I set the coffee on the disorganized desk and felt the chair. It was warm, and a frown furrowed my brow.
“The back is empty, too?” I whispered, hoping we hadn’t gotten Iceman in trouble.
“Key,” Elyse said, and I took the naked doll from the hook on the wall.
“I don’t like the feel of this,” I said as I yanked the top drawer open, shuffling about until I found the oversize key to open the furnace. Elyse was waiting by the second set of double doors, and together we pushed through them. The sound of fans and the scent of disinfectant grew stronger as we looked the space over. “I’ve never seen the morgue without an attendant. There are undead here undergoing self-repair. What if one of them wakes up?”
Elyse swung her arms as she strode between the rows of drawers, an almost cavalier attitude flowing from her. “You said Kisten was cremated before you could identify him. Clearing the room would facilitate that, wouldn’t it?” She turned at the end of the long room. “We’re good. I don’t sense anyone.”
“Yeah, but I have been working under the assumption that we were responsible for it.” A sigh slipped from me. She was the one who could connect to a ley line, and after a last glance at the empty reception area, I let the door swing shut behind me. “Let’s get this done,” I said as she flounced to the door to the furnace and punched in the code.
“We’re good. It’s clear,” she said as she peeked inside.
Good,she said, but it felt anything but. Uneasy, I moved down thetruly dead side of things, searching for Kisten’s name. A pang of anticipation hit me when I foundK. Felps, and I set my bag on the floor to wrangle the key-draped doll forward to unlock his drawer.Someone ought to put some clothes on this thing,I thought as the Bite-Me-Betty doll hung upside down, the key fastened to her foot in the drawer lock.
I pulled it open with a rasping rattle. As expected, it was Johnny draped in a modesty sheet, a little worse for wear from his night out at room temperatures and his ride in the back of a truck, but just the fact that he was in the drawer markedFelpsmeant that the glamour was holding. I hadn’t liked leaving him on the boat. But almost as fast as it had come, my relief shifted to guilt. His family would never know what happened to him.
“Elyse, can you get me that gurney?” I called, and the young woman came out from the furnace room.
“Sure.”
I winced at the metallic clang of the gurney, but the outer lobby remained quiet as she locked the wheels and we shifted Johnny onto it with a precision born from necessity. The toe tag with Kisten’s name on it fluttered, and I stared at it, a lump forming in my throat.