John Mackie

Hazardous Goods

CHAPTER 1

I closed my eyes and inched under the hot spray, careful to shield the six fresh stitches on my forehead. The water thrummed, easing the tension in my neck and shoulders, while clotted blood from my hair sluiced down my side. At my feet, ribbons of red curled slowly around the shower drain.

My first day on the job. I’d be lucky to make it through the week.

Five jobs in my thirty-four years on this big ball of dirt, and every time, the first day had involved the same routine. Rush from one blurry introduction to the next. Murmured references to a project I could help with or a new deal coming down the pipe. Abandoned with a nameless lady from Human Resources and her stack of incomprehensible forms. Go home at the end of the day tired, but humming with the excitement of new challenges.

Five times I’d had that experience. But nothing could have prepared me for my first day at Arcane Transport.

I might never have joined the company, if fate hadn’t intervened. Nearly six months earlier, I’d lost my last position in a “restructuring” affecting “valued but not critical employees”.

I’d been Director of Marketing for an enterprise software company, a decent job with a six figure salary and five staff reporting to me. Not bad for a guy my age. Too bad the company was losing money like a pensioner in Vegas.

But when I started getting calls from recruiters wanting to get me placed and collect on a commission, I found myself putting them off. Fact was, I cringed at the notion of more battles over advertising campaigns, sixteen hour days at trade shows and endless meetings with no real agenda. I needed something tangible, and ironically, it was my mother — the backseat driver of my life — that found it for me, in the form of Arcane Transport.

Clay Jarvis was the founder and President of Arcane — Toronto’s “Premium Courier for Unusual Goods”. Specifically, he was the President of two delivery vans, one beat-up Honda Civic, three full-time drivers, one office clerk, one dispatch-lady who was a Jackie-of-all-Trades, and a couple of part-timers.

Clay was also a family friend. My mother had known Clay and his wife for nearly thirty years, since before my father died. And as it happened, Clay was looking for a business partner — someone to take over the business when he retired at sixty, just a few years down the road.

If I hadn’t spoken to Clay’s banker and several of his customers, I never would have believed it was a successful business. Especially when Clay told me about the “unusual goods” that Arcane shipped for clients.

But Clay handed over his entire customer list, and told me to call anyone on it. So I called a bookstore on Queen Street that looked pretty reputable, a local museum, and a West End art gallery. All gave glowing reviews, citing years of faithful service by Clay and his company. They also verified the nature of those “unusual goods”. Sure, it all sounded a bit strange, but I’m an open-minded guy.

Better yet, the company’s financial statements were spotless. Either Arcane Transport was a thriving venture, or Clay was a master chef when it came to cooking the books.

So I took a deep breath and made the plunge. Over three days, Clay and I worked out the details of our new business relationship. The net result was that I would start as a minority partner, earn a fifty percent interest over three years, then gradually buy out Clay’s interest. It meant a much smaller salary than I was used to, a small upfront investment and a lot of work for the next few years.

It was the most exciting thing I’d ever done.

Despite my efforts in conducting due diligence and a (relatively) open mind, my first morning had been an eye opener. Even Clay seemed to acknowledge it when we left the office just after lunch.

“This afternoon we’ll visit with some of our more mainstream customers.”

I snorted, mulling over the list of deliveries that morning. Celtic Cross Healing Arts? A psychic consultant? The Third Temple of Crocar? What was unusual about any of them? We could have dropped in on the Burning Church of Satan, with naked middle-aged men prancing around a fire wearing dead animal carcasses, and I wouldn’t have been surprised.

When Clay had first told me that Arcane was a delivery service for magic objects, I checked his pupils. No signs of drugs. Now, after talking to a few of the customers and seeing their businesses, I’d come to believe they believed, too. More important, they were paying customers who didn’t seem to be doing anything illegal. So I’d decided to treat it like a courier business for religious artifacts or historical treasures.

And if it turned out there was something to this magic thing? Well, it would be more interesting than sitting at a desk.

I had the wheel for the afternoon route, which took us east along Dundas, traffic lurching along in ten yard bites. Over the next four hours, we worked the van from Etobicoke into Toronto’s Financial District, hitting six drops and four pick-ups. Traffic was the typical Monday mess for Toronto, cars darting in and out of lanes as though competing in an Indy car race for the visually impaired.

Finally, we came to the last delivery of the day.

“Last stop?”

“Yup. Pull over wherever you can find a spot. And grab the package for Sun Consulting, would you?”

I followed instructions and joined Clay at the curb. Clay stared up at me for a moment, one eyebrow raised, before I clued in and clicked the remote locks on the van. It felt as though we were constantly getting in and climbing out, like some giant Whack-a-Mole game.

“Sorry. So, who are these guys?” I waved the package destined for Sun Consulting.

“The brochure says they’re a strategic advisory outfit.”

“Yeah, right.” If I’d learned anything in my half-day on the job, it was that the customers were never what they seemed to be.

Inside, though, the building was pure Bay Street. The security guard at the front desk, not so much. He looked like he would fit in well at a tailgate party, scruffy beard and a gut that slouched over his belt.

The two of us marched across a football field of marble just to get to the elevator banks, with me trailing behind. Clay was just a little guy, maybe five seven in new shoes and a buck fifty on the scale, but his pace was daunting. I’m a half inch over six feet, but I still had to do a quick hopstep every ten yards just to keep up with my new business partner. Probably didn’t help that I was carrying ten extra pounds of Molson muscle.

As we walked, I inspected the packing tube in my hands. Same size as a poster tube, but heavier. Maybe a big pewter candlestick holder. Or an enchanted blade used in sacrificial offerings. I weighed it in one hand. Nah. Candlestick holder.

The label said “Mr. Emory Quinn, Senior Analyst, Sun Consulting.” The box labelled “contents description” was empty.

“They didn’t fill in the contents description.”

“Not everyone does. No insurance if the contents aren’t specified, but a lot of our customers don’t care. Hard to put a value on some of this stuff.”

“You don’t run into customs issues?”

“Don’t deliver outside the country.”

“What about the cops? How do you know you’re not transporting drugs or stolen goods?”

Clay stopped dead in his tracks, causing a stern-looking lady carrying a stack of file folders to nearly run him over. She directed a nasty look his way as she passed, but Clay ignored her.

“Good question.” He shook his head, smiled, then resumed walking, but at a slower pace. “I have no interest in breaking the law. The delivery contracts are clear. We don’t transport stolen goods, drugs, any of that stuff. I sit down with every new customer and make them initial that clause. If I get a bad feeling, we decline the account. I can’t say for sure that it never happens. Never had any issues to date, but if I ever got to thinking a customer was working the system, I’d drop them real fast.”

“Never had any issues with the cops?”

“No, though I try to stay out of their way. Not sure what they’d think of our business.”

No kidding. I wasn’t even sure what I thought of the business.

“So, what do you think this is?” I curled the tube like a dumbbell, trying to judge its weight.

A sly grin crossed Clay’s face and he grabbed the tube from my hand.

“Let it go, kid. It’ll drive you nuts.”

Sun Consulting was on the forty-third floor, a longish elevator ride that caused my ears to pop. There was good news, though — the woman at the reception desk looked like she modeled swimsuits in her spare time. Long blond curls, perfect teeth and lots of curves. She smiled at me, and Sun Consulting moved onto my list of favorite customers.

Clay introduced me, and I turned on the charm. At least, I thought I did. I am definitely hit and miss with the ladies, a fact that my brother Ted reminds me of more-or-less daily.

After a brief chat, it was back to business. I passed over the packing tube along with my handheld, for the receipt signature.

“Kara said you also had a package for us?”

“That’s right. I’ll get one of the mail room guys to bring it down.”

While Clay waited with her, I wandered the office lobby. What appeared to be an original painting by Canaletto hung above a cream-colored leather sofa. I’d seen several paintings by the Venetian landscape master at the National Gallery in Ottawa, but was more than a little surprised to see one hanging in a downtown office. Considering Sun Consulting’s apparent link to the world of the occult, I might have expected a Picasso with skewed eyes and arms in the wrong places. Either way, it seemed to be an original. Muchos dineros in the consulting business, apparently.

Seated in a chair to one side was a fellow in an immaculate pinstripe suit that likely cost as much as my first car. He barely glanced in my direction, seemingly hypnotized by the screen of his cellphone. Addict.

When I circled back to the reception desk, Clay was comparing an entry on the handheld with the label on a package the size of a toaster. He smiled, and handed the box to me to carry.

“We’ll see you soon.”

“Thanks.” The blonde smiled in my direction. “Nice meeting you.”

“You too.”

In the lobby I winked at Clay.

“She likes me.”

Clay snorted.

“Nice try, kid.” For Clay, everyone was a kid. His wife, my mother… age appeared irrelevant. “She’s married and has a newborn daughter.”

“How the hell do you know that?”

They stepped into the elevator and Clay hit the button for the ground floor.

“I’ve seen her every week for the past few years. You get to know little things about people.”

“Hmph. Well, seems you don’t know her well enough to recognize when she’s fallen for someone.”

He snorted again.

The seconds ticked by as the elevator cab descended, until our smooth ride came to a stop at the eighteenth floor. No surprise there. I can’t remember ever having made it all the way to the ground floor in an elevator without some damned person interrupting my ride.

The doors opened, and we began shuffling to the back of the car to let a man in. It took a lot of shuffling. At first all I could see was a leather bomber jacket so big it must have required a whole cow hide to make. I just caught a glimpse of the floor behind the intruder — a jumble of plastic sheets and ladders. Maybe the big guy was in construction.

The fellow stared at us as he entered the elevator, and continued to do so as the elevator began its descent. Not a good sign, in my mind. No one does that, even if it means turning your back on a glamourous model in thigh-high boots and a low-cut top.

“Help you?” Clay was that kind of guy.

Big Ugly looked six five at least, maybe three hundred pounds. That gave him a four inch height advantage on me, and a big weight advantage. Clay must have felt like a Hobbit.

Nicotine-stained teeth, thin sneering lips, a nose broken more than once, and stringy black hair greased back from his forehead. He had a pseudo-beard, the unshaved look that seemed so popular in Hollywood twenty years ago, and wore a black shirt open most of the way to his navel — a considerable distance. But it was his eyes that caught my attention. Small, steel grey eyes.

“Who is this?” Big Ugly said. He had a definite accent, drawing out the e’s. It came out ‘hoo eez dees’. “I thought you worked alone?”

The question was directed at Clay, but Clay looked as mystified as I felt. What the hell was this guy talking about?

“Never mind.” Maybe Russian? Whatever the accent was, I was struggling to understand him. “As they say in your country, this is a stick up. Give me the package.”

I was ready to tell him where he could shove the package, but Clay’s calm voice cut in.

“I’m sorry, I don’t know who you are, but our client provided us with a destination, and we’re going to deliver it there. If you have any issues with that, take it up with the client.”

A nice, reasonable response by Clay. Unfortunately, the big guy wasn’t listening.

“You want to know who I am? My name is Niki Kuzmenko. The Bull.”

He said it in a way that suggested one of us should recognize the name, but I drew a blank. From the look on his face, it seemed Clay had too.

“Sorry. We have a contract with the client.”

“I don’t care about your client. Give me the package.” Big Ugly turned slightly and hammered his fist into the Stop button, bringing the elevator to a halt.

“No.” Clay was getting angry, his jaw jutting out slightly and his shoulders drawn back.

I took a deep breath, trying not to lose my temper. Most days, it was just a flickering pilot light. But this guy…

The big man stepped forward, clearly intimidating Clay by his sheer physical presence. My pilot light flared, and I stepped between the two men.

“Cool your jets, pal-.”

That’s when Big Ugly reached into his jacket and pulled out a gun.

A few things to point out. First, like most Canadians, I’ve never seen a handgun up close. Hunting rifles are one thing, but most Canadians have only seen handguns on American TV. They’ve also seen what handguns can do to Americans on TV. My presumption was that handguns have the same effect on Canadians.

“Okaaay.” I shifted a half step to my right, shielding Clay. Last thing I was going to do was let this goon threaten a man nearing sixty.

“You don`t listen.” The big man shuffled his feet, the gun now above me and pointing down at my skull from an awkward angle. “Give me the box.”

A ping sounded, and the elevator began descending again, the display counting off the floors.

“Man, what’re you doing? Armed robbery? Christ, there’s a bank downstairs-.”

“Shut the hell up.” Now the barrel of the gun was pressed against my forehead, and two bloodshot eyes were right in my face. The big man’s index finger twitched and I tensed, bracing for the bullet that would plow through my forehead and leave nasty bits all over the elevator.

Clay inched forward and offered the delivery carton to the man. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Clay’s face, red with anger. Big Ugly took the package in his meaty hand. Plain brown wrapping paper, destination marked on the label, one of Arcane’s standard overnight stickers in plain view.

Then a muscular arm lashed out and cracked me on the side of the head with the pistol. I fell to one knee, unable to distinguish up from down. There was an angry shout from Clay, and I tried to hold my position between the other two men. It didn’t help that I could feel my lunch working its way back up my throat, and the lights seemed to be flashing on and off in the elevator.

At the ground floor the elevator lurched to a stop, making the spinning worse. I heard the doors slide open and tried to get back up, but my hands and feet weren’t following commands. Clay was hunched over behind me, but only I could see our assailant as the man turned and looked right at us.

“I’m thinking you guys are in the wrong business.” Even stunned, I could hear the word “business” come out as “beeznus”. I tried to reach out, but just stumbled forward into the panel of the elevator, everything spinning.

Big Ugly smiled and set off across the lobby while I slid to the floor.

“Jesus. Are you alright?”

I was flat on my ass, the head-spins still out of control. Somehow I’d stuck a leg out to stop the doors from closing, probably the only reason the security guard from the front desk even came over.

“Some guy mugged us. Check on my boss.” My double vision was brutal, and blood was dripping freely from a cut on my forehead. Clay was slumped over in the corner of the elevator car.

“Clay, are you okay?”

The guard knelt before Clay, and I could hear him whispering. Clay gasping out a response, and the guard’s face paled. He turned and mouthed to me: “I think he’s having a heart attack.”

CHAPTER 2

I wanted to call for an ambulance. Call the cops. But despite the pain, Clay was stubborn. He asked me to flag a cab, and minutes later we were in the Emergency Ward at Toronto General. After they heard his symptoms, Clay went to the front of the line.

The waiting area in Emergency was quiet by inner-city standards. Amongst the wailing kids and drunk university students, a kid wearing a crop top and low cut denim shorts was slumped in a chair, the tracks on the inside of her arm visible from across the hall. Opposite her sat a businessman, a guy in his fifties wearing a rumpled suit with his tie tugged loose. He was cradling his left hand, a large pair of scissors buried to the handles into his palm.

I thought about asking what had happened, but reconsidered. Not sure I wanted to know, quite frankly. Instead I rubbed the palm of my own hand and tried not to think about why someone would do that.

Besides, I was in no mood for talking. My head was throbbing, but the pain paled in comparison to the agonizing frustration I felt at not having done something.

I’d always wondered how I would react if faced with a gun. Bat it aside, or wrestle it from the gunman’s grasp. But when faced with the real thing, I’d just stood there. Like a coward.

My ruminations were interrupted by someone calling my name.

It was Harper Jarvis, Clay’s wife. Silver grey feathered hair, slim and straight-backed. Her light blue eyes, normally bright and lively, wore the stress of the evening. She’d been in with Clay and his doctor for the last half hour.

I joined her in the hallway.

“How’s he doing?”

“He’ll be all right. But he has to calm down. I’ve never seen him so angry.”

“Can’t say I blame him.”

“No. But he’s not a young man anymore.”

I smiled, but I suspect it came out more grimace than grin. The doctors had given me a couple of Tylenol 3s after cleaning the cut on my forehead and stitching it up, but the medication hadn’t made much of a dent in my headache. The bright lights of the ER weren’t helping, either.

Harper grabbed a chair from the waiting area and signaled for me to sit down. I snorted in disgust at myself, having an old lady offer me a chair.

Harper must have picked up on my mood, because she leaned over and spoke in a tone just above a whisper.

“Stop being so hard on yourself, Donnie Elder. Why, if something happened to you, I don’t know what I would say to your mother.”

Clay and Harper have known my mother for as long as I can remember — old friends of her and my long-departed father. My memories of them are like a slide show made up of annual glimpses into their life. The two of them dropping by for a barbeque one hot summer, Harper adding a pasta salad to the buffet table. Celebrating Thanksgiving at their old bungalow, with Clay delighted to have two young boys around to join him in watching football.

I didn’t know them well, but what I did know was that they were good people.

“What did the doctor say?”

“Well, they’re still doing tests. But it looks like a mild heart attack. They’re going to keep him for a few nights. Thank goodness you were there.”

“Has he had one before?”

“No.” Her voice cracked, and she pulled a stark white tissue from her purse to dab at the corner of her eye. “He’s had to watch his blood pressure, but nothing like this.”

I sat quietly next to Harper, thinking I might be in shock myself. A few hours ago I was starting a new job, getting to know my boss. Now I was sitting in a sterile hospital waiting room, wondering what the hell was going on in the world.

I still couldn’t believe it. The guy pulled a gun on us. My temper wrestled with its leash, desperate to go out for a run, so I took a long, deep breath and blew out slowly.

“Should we call the cops?” The security guard had seemed in no rush to do so, probably more worried about his job than anything else.

Harper sniffed, and straightened.

“No. Clay was always insistent that when things happened we not involve the police. He’s been robbed before, but never at gunpoint. Once or twice his van’s been broken into. And someone broke into the offices a few years ago. He insisted, said the police wouldn’t understand. That it wasn’t the right thing to do for the customers.”

No arguments from me. I’d never had any problems with the police, and I wanted to keep it that way.

“Is there anything I should be doing?”

She put on a valiant smile. “Well, Clay was asking to see you, so why don’t we go find out?”

Despite being on the downward slope to sixty, Clay had always struck me as a robust and healthy fellow.

Now, though, Clay’s skin had taken on a grayish pallor, and his eyes were watery. Mysterious wires and tubes ran from his nose and arms to machines that clicked, whirred, beeped and hummed. I already had a jaundiced view of hospitals, a result of watching cancer eat away at my aunt. This visit wasn’t going to change my views, though it helped that Clay was awake and lucid.

“Caused a bit of a stir, did I?”

“Oh,” Harper kissed his cheek and dabbed her eyes again. “You did that, you old fart.”

“Sorry about that.” Clay’s eyes dwelled on hers for a long moment, then he turned to me.

“How are you doing, kid?”

“I’m fine. Just pissed off.”

“I know how you feel. If I was twenty years younger-.”

“Calm down, honey.”

He did need to calm down. I could see from the monitors that Clay’s heart rate and blood pressure had both jumped in the few moments since I arrived. Mind you, I tended to do that to people.

“I’m real sorry, Clay.”

“Not your fault. I’m just angry at myself. Never had that happen before.”

“Just makes me wonder, did I do something wrong? I mean, it was my first day — maybe I should have-.”

“No, no. You did everything you could. This was planned. I just can’t understand why.”

“Me neither.” Interesting. It did seem planned. “Kinda begs the question as to who was behind it, though. That big idiot didn’t strike me as a criminal mastermind.”

“No, that’s for sure. But we need to call the folks at Sun, let them know. Maybe they’ll know why someone would want the package so bad.”

“Let me sort that out. You need your rest.”

“Thanks, I-,” Clay winced and his eyes took on a faraway look. It was something I had seen when I used to visit my aunt in the hospital, before she passed. When the pain kicked in, her eyes would wander, as though searching for some place of respite.

Harper and I watched quietly as he worked through the rough spot. After a minute or so, his eyes cleared.

“Quite the first day, huh?”

“Ha. Yeah.”

“Sorry for that. Knew you could handle the weird stuff, but that was a new one.”

“I’m just sorry I wasn’t much help in there.”

Clay shook his head. “Without you, kid, I may not have made it to the hospital.”

He glanced over at Harper and squeezed her hand.

“Should I ask Kara to go in early tomorrow? Call the customers?”

Harper’s question took me off guard. The clock on the wall said it was eight fifteen, but it felt like I had been up for days. Still, with a rest I should be okay. The doctor who stitched my cut had said it was maybe a mild concussion. The use of the word maybe diminished the subsequent suggestion that I consider staying overnight. I wasn’t that big a fan of Jello and bare-backed gowns.

“Do you think she’d mind?” Kara was the office dispatcher, though to hear Clay describe her, she could do it all. I hadn’t even met her yet… tomorrow would be her first day back from vacation.

“She won’t mind at all.”

“Well, we’ll watch over things, don’t worry.” I looked in Clay’s eyes, and saw there was one other thing. Something that I had on my to-do list anyways. “And I’ll see what I can find out about the idiot who robbed us.”

“Not a good thing that he told us his name.”

I nodded. I’d had the same thought.

“I’ll be careful.”

Clay mouthed a thank you, though his eyes started to glaze again. The drugs must be kicking in — morphine or whatever was the painkiller du jour.

“Anyways, you need your rest. Harper, do you want me to call Kara, or-.”

“No, I’ll call her. She would want to hear from me about Clay. And I’ll touch base tomorrow, in case you have any questions.”

“Okay.” I patted Clay’s shoulder, but the older man was drifting off. “Take care.”

“You get some rest too, Darnell.” I winced at the use of my proper first name, something few people know. “If your mother hears we asked you to go back to work right away, why I-.”

“Don’t worry about my mother.” I could do that all by myself.

The lobby to the Lakeview was much like the rest of the place — gloomy, outdated, and with no view of Lake Ontario (or any other lake, for that matter). A leather couch and two chairs sat on one side of the unwelcoming entrance. On the other was a bulletin board crammed with posters and notes, and a bank of buzzers for visitors. “Elder” was listed across from the buzzer for Apartment 302.

I’d lived in the Lakeview for four years, since my Aunt Nicolette passed away. A branch manager at the local bank, Nicolette was my mom’s younger sister. She was also a regular volunteer, a member of a local choir, and a great sounding-board for my brother Ted and I. Though never married and without children of her own, Nicolette was like a second mother to us.

When she died, much of what she owned went to the two of us. The Lakeview condo, a ten year old silver Ford Taurus that Ted still drove, and most of the ninety grand in her savings accounts. The rest went to my mother.

Ted and I split the cash and shared the condo, though Ted kept his own apartment for the rare day when a woman consented to spend the evening with him. Most of my share of the cash was now in Clay’s hands, the first payment on my partnership stake in the business.

The mailbox was bunged up with the usual drivel, two pizza coupons and a Reader’s Digest “you’re a winner!” letter. I passed by the elevator — a death trap if there ever was one — and headed to the stairs. After a brief trudge up several flights, I entered the apartment to the sight of my brother flopped on the sofa, watching the Raptors on TV.

A Raptors forward missed on a drive down the lane. The Heat took down the rebound and launched their own fast break.

“What the hell happened to you? Mom called, yelling at me to keep you up all night, make sure you don’t have a concussion.”

“I’m fine. I’m going to sleep. Tell you about it tomorrow.”

Ted huffed, staggering to his feet. At six two and two hundred and twenty pounds, my little brother is a bigger, younger and paunchier version of me. The sofa moaned in audible relief.

“You had to get stitches?”

“Six.” I slipped out of my shoes and moved to the full-length mirror on the back of the front closet. “Dunno what it looks like.”

Peering into the mirror, I slowly pulled away the tape fixing a square of gauze to my temple.

“Ouch. That was from a punch?”

I leaned forward to inspect the cut. My temple looked like I’d tucked half a golfball under the skin, the flesh an angry red. About two inches long, the cut ran from just above my eyebrow to the hairline at my temple. The stitches zigzagged back and forth.

“Gun. He hit me with it.”

“Shit.” Ted’s big head loomed over his shoulder. “Still, looks like they did a good job.”

“You think so?”

“Absolutely. A few months, you’ll barely see anything. Like the cut on my lip, remember?”

I remembered. Grade Three. Four stitches from a split lip when Ted slipped on the monkey bars. He was right, you could barely see the scar anymore.

“Better than the butcher who did Chili’s knee. You see that mess?”

I was about to respond when the door to the apartment swung open and a woman blustered in.

Five foot four, wide of bust, hip and thigh, curls white as fresh-fallen snow. Where some mothers inspire warm feelings of adoration, my mother inspires one thing and one thing only.

Fear.

“He had a heart attack?”

I flinched. How my mother finds these things out, I will never know.

“Yes. But he’s OK. He’s over at Toronto General. I flagged a cab down and we were there in no time.”

“Does Harper know?”

“I waited for her to show. And I passed Willis on my way out.” Willis was Clay’s nephew.

“Poor Harper. I need to get over there and make sure she is alright.”

For a moment I thought I was going to escape any further harassment. No such luck.

“And you? You could not stop this thug?” It came out sounding like ‘dis tug’, her French Canadian accent butchering the “th” sound, one not used in her native language.

Ted snorted, and she went after him, her big purse swinging in an arc towards his head. I sighed and took a seat. This was what love looked like in the Elder family.

It was a short outburst, followed by her usual tour of the apartment, critiquing the state of disorder and the lack of nutritious food in the kitchen. Ted attempted to defend his precious Pop Tarts as a good source of a great many critical vitamins, which resulted in a look of disgust.

After her brief tour, she inspected my stitches.

“No girl will ever want you now.”

“Oh my God. Thanks.”

“Well, do you think I will live forever? I want to see my grandchildren before I die.”

There was no real answer to that one, so I sat quietly, tolerating her examination.

Finally, she turned away and began sifting through the mound of sundries on the hall table, a signal I had learned to interpret some time ago. I picked up her glasses from the kitchen table and handed them to her.

“I’ll get flowers on the way.” She perched the glasses in her hair, where she would no doubt forget them later in the evening.

“He’s going to be alright. The doctor said it was a small one, and they’ve got him on medication now.”

“What is a small one? The man had a heart attack on your first day of work! Now he may never work again. Mon dieu, si vous-.”

Nightmare. Now she was rambling in French, an accusatory tone in her voice. At the same time, her eyes were tearing up — the only sign of her true feelings.

“It’s okay. It’ll be okay. Go check on them at the hospital. Tell him I’m sorry.”

She stopped suddenly, staring at my lips. A quick turn and she was moving to the door, her leather bag/weapon over one shoulder and a silk scarf wrapped around her neck.

“Sorry? Why would you be sorry? It was not your fault. Just make sure you’re up early. Don’t leave Clayton wondering whether he should head in to the office.”

“I’ll be there first thing.”

“Do you have clean clothes to wear? You’re going to be representing the company, you need to-.”

I rolled my eyes skyward, seeking some respite from the hurricane that was my mother.

As the door closed and the clack of her heels carried down the hallway, I said a little prayer. Please God, let me have been adopted.

CHAPTER 3

Some people are morning people. They erupt out of bed, smiles already entrenched on their faces. They have big hot breakfasts, go for morning runs, read the paper, watch a morning talk show, play with their kids, and go to work.

I, on the other hand, am not a morning person. On a good day, I’m able to shave, brush some or all of my teeth, shower, get dressed — sometimes in clothes worn on prior days — and depart for work.

So when my alarm went off at five o’clock, my heart did a little hop and a skip to signal its displeasure. I managed to pry open an eye despite gummy yellow stuff having more or less sealed the lid while I slept. I just couldn’t get out of bed, though. That took a blaring radio alarm, my ringing cellphone alarm and, in the end, Ted hollering profanities.

I arrived at Arcane at a quarter to six, fumbling my way through the security code and taking way too long to find the light switches. Before I had left the hospital the night before, Harper had called Kara to tell her about the “incident” and ask that she come in a little early to make sure I didn’t destroy the place. I had fifteen minutes to render the building unfit for habitation.

Reception seemed in good order. A solid black leather sofa — worn, but still presentable. Pair of matching leather chairs. A square table with a glass top displayed a map of the Greater Toronto Area (the GTA, also known as the “Big Smoke” or the Centre of the Universe by those less fond of the city.).

Every driver was supposed to check their vehicle daily, but Clay had told me that he checked them himself, just in case. So after my inspection of the front office, I pulled open one of the loading doors and popped the hoods. Oil and fluids seemed fine. Tires seemed fine. No new dents or scratches. I pulled the hose out from below the dock and gave the vans a quick wash, then slid inside and wiped down the main surfaces.

I was just finishing up when Kara arrived.

Kara Sinclair’s title was dispatcher, but Clay had made it clear her role encompassed a lot more than that. As far as I could tell, she also handled customer service and inside sales.

For the past two weeks, Kara had been hiking in the Appalachians with her boyfriend, a fellow Clay described as a little “too” perfect. It all sounded pretty energetic to me, so I had pictured a tomboy-type — pretty in a next-door neighbor kind of way, maybe played softball on the weekends.

I got the pretty part right, but I don’t recall having any neighbors that looked like her.

When I glanced up at the sound of heels clacking into the room, I saw a woman with shoulder-length blond hair, maybe five three, and a figure that could not be hidden by a plain white blouse and dark skirt. Neither did her bookish, wide framed glasses hide her electric blue eyes and long lashes.

I climbed out of the van, suddenly feeling much better about my day.

“Good morning.”

“Uh, hi. I’m Donnie.”

“I’m Kara. Nice to meet you at last.”

She extended her hand, and I shook it — long, slim fingers, but strong.

“That is a nasty cut!”

“Hm?” She stepped forward, and then she was right there. Inches away, staring at the stitches on my forehead. This close, her lips popped red against her porcelain skin, and I could smell her perfume — a hint of vanilla.

“How many stitches?”

“Uh, six.”

Maybe it was the pause, but Kara’s eyes drifted from the cut down to my own. Normally hazel, more green than brown, I suspected they were mostly red that morning. In any event, our eyes met for a moment, then she blinked as though coming out of a day dream.

“Huh.” She was back-tracking now, moving away from the van and turning away from me. For a second, I thought I saw a blush rising on her cheeks. “My boyfriend had to get five stitches on his knee last summer. Scar’s mostly gone now.”

“What did he do?”

“Oh, he cut himself on a climb near Mount Nemo. We’re part of a rock climbing club.”

No one will ever convince me to try rock climbing. Man was not intended to hang by his fingertips a hundred feet above solid ground.

“Cool.” Reminder to self — she had a boyfriend. And I’d have no chance with her, anyways. Besides, I was her boss.

I felt like crying, but it was time to get back to the real world.

“Listen, I’m sorry you had to come back from vacation to this.”

“No, don’t worry. I’m just happy to hear Clay is alright.”

“So, what’s on the to-do list for today?”

“Well, I spoke to Helen Findlay last night… She’s one of the senior people at Sun Consulting.”

I nodded, signaling for her to go on.

“She was mystified. No idea why someone would want to steal the package.”

Interesting. That question had been running through my mind all morning.

“Now what?”

“Well, she asked if you would have time to meet with her later today.”

“Sure.” Oh shit. “Uh, did she seem upset?”

“No! No worries.”

Sure. Famous last words.

Big Jim was in just before six thirty, all five foot five inches of him. Right behind him was Harold — mid-fifties and an accent that suggested South Africa. Clay had called both of them the night before, ignoring his doctor’s orders, so they were up-to-date and ready to go. My impression from meeting them earlier was that both men were straightforward guys — work, get paid, go home. Their behavior that morning was consistent — stay out of their way and they would get the job done.

Jim was first out the door. He had the east end of the city, and would face the worst traffic. Don Mills, Willowdale, Scarborough and even Unionville. He’d be gone for the day.

Harold followed shortly after, headed to the airport for morning pick-ups in the car. He preferred the car, and that was just fine by me.

By six fifty I had readied my own deliveries and reviewed the schedule for the day. I would start out in the suburbs, the reverse commute. Two packages for Oakville, one for Streetsville, a half dozen in Mississauga. Time permitting, I would also try to make a few pickups in the West End. We had some catching up to do as a result of the prior night’s events.

Kara was setting up another shipment on her screen when I made my way out front.

“Ready to ride?”

I snagged a candy from the bowl on her desk.

“Yup. Wish me luck.”

“I can do better than that. Try the Lost and Found. Clay keeps the lucky charms in the drawer along the right wall.”

I chuckled, then realized she was serious.

“Then where was our lucky charm yesterday?”

She shrugged at that, and I saw the reminder about Clay had brought her down.

“I guess some days you need a pretty big charm.”

Clay had shown me the Lost and Found Room the day of our first meeting, which made me think it had been a bit of a litmus test.

No question it was full of temptations. A rack held a collection of swords, poles, walking sticks and similar items, most of them carved or embellished in some manner. A couple even looked like genuine weapons. The back wall was lined in clothes — musty leather cloaks, intricately detailed dresses, robes, scarves, even some kind of military uniform. A chair that in another place or time might have been called a throne. Several rolled carpets. A glass cabinet containing a huge array of jewelry — earrings, bracelets, necklaces, rings. On top of three shelves rested countless bottles and jars, containing various liquids and a few things that reminded me of biology in high school.

Most of it was undeliverable. Dropped in the Arcane night box by an anonymous donor, marked for pickup at the office and never claimed, or the destination wouldn’t accept. Clay said they would always contact the client where possible, but sometimes the sender had moved on, or refused to take an item back.

Once a year or so Clay would have a few customers in to scan the collection and take what they wanted. But over twenty-six years, they had collected a lot of junk.

Kara said the charms were in the glass cabinet. The ‘safe’ stuff was laid out on a green felt mat. The rest was housed in a jewelry box with a lock.

After a few moments of perusing, I selected a coin. It was bigger than a quarter, more the size of a Canadian toonie. One face read “Republica de Colombia — Lazaretto — 1921.” The other said “5 °Centavos”. It was cool to the touch, but not unpleasant.

Just to be safe, I went back to check with Kara.

“This one OK?”

Kara reached for the coin, then smiled.

“That one has a neat history.”

“Columbian? Some drug lord own it?”

“No.” She chuckled and shook her head, one eyebrow raised. Aparently I had a unique view of the world. “It’s a leper colony coin.”

“What?”

“I did some research on it when we couldn’t locate the owner. I guess a bunch of countries confined people with leprosy in the 1920s and 30s, to avoid spreading the disease. They were so concerned they printed special money for the colonies, so that they wouldn’t enter general circulation. A lot of collectors wouldn’t handle them for years afterwards.”

“Hm. Cool.”

“Yeah. Not for the people in the colonies, though. Professor Irving says the coin itself is not worth much nowadays. I guess there’s still a fair number around. But there are apparently stories about a witch doctor who blessed coins for family members confined to one of the colonies, and he thinks this might be one of them.”

Sol Irving was a professor at the University of Toronto, and a long-time friend of Clay’s. They tended to call on him once every few months, for help with some of the more difficult deliveries.

“A witch doctor, huh?” I chuckled. Weirder and weirder. “Thanks.”

I dropped the coin into my pocket and it slapped against my thigh with a solid thump. I wasn’t convinced it was magic. But lucky? I believed in luck. How else could anyone explain Ted’s occasional success with women?

The first solo ride of my career started with a pick-up. Old World Treasures, a curio shoppe in Oakville.

The ride west wasn’t bad. Tuesday morning was a good day for a drive out of the city. The eastbound lanes were already packed, cars lined up back-to-back as far as the eye could see. What a waste of humanity, all that waiting. Clay had the radio tuned to an all-news network, to monitor the highways. I left it, feeling a bit odd about tampering with things with Clay in the hospital.

OWT, as it was referred to in the pick-up description on my handheld, took up half of a Century home just east of the oldest part of town. Parking was shared with a Tim Hortons donut shop and an English pub. Fortunately, it was still early enough that I didn’t have to battle with caffeine-starved commuters loading up for the drive in to Toronto.

A sleek black cat rested on his haunches beside the door to the shop. I inched up the stairs, trying to avoid spurring the feline into moving across my path. I’m not superstitious by nature, but there’s no point in being reckless.

The cat watched me warily as I mounted the stairs. When I leaned down to scrub behind its ears, though, a rumbling purr resulted.

The door in front of me jingled, and a hand reached out, sliding a metal bowl of water in front of the cat.

“Oh! Hey — sorry. Didn’t see you there.”

When I’d seen the name Old World Treasures, I had expected an older bookish fellow. Sixties, hair mostly gone. Or an accountant-type. Short sleeve white dress shirt, pocket protector, blue tie and a pair of loafers.

Instead, I found myself staring at a tattooed tough guy, receding hairline pulled back in a ponytail.

He pulled the door wide and glanced down at the company logo on my polo shirt.

“Arcane? “

“That’s right. I’m Donnie. Donnie Elder.”

I held out my hand, and it was engulfed in a mitt with fingers the size of pork sausages. The man could crush me in an instant.

“Nice to meet you. C’mon in.”

Pasquale DeMarco preferred to be called Pask. And despite his appearance, he was a pleasant enough fellow. He gave me a quick tour of the store without even being asked. Antique maps and shipping documents behind glass, old globes, compasses, a pair of harpoons mounted on a wall, several sturdy banded chests. The place belonged at the end of a weathered wooden pier, open to the ocean wind.

Pask’s delivery was a three day ride. Deliver within the week. I watched as the big man took a white item from one of the cabinets at the back of the room, then placed it gently in a felt-lined box.

“Serpent’s tooth. Worn on a necklace or chain it can help treat malaria and certain fevers.”

“Serpent. You mean like a snake?” I eyed the item skeptically. It looked like an oversized golf tee.

Pask raised an eyebrow at me, then returned to his wrapping.

“You a skeptic?”

“Skeptic?” I eyed the man’s thick forearms. “No. Call me agnostic.”

The big man nodded and continued packing the very large white tooth. It was engraved with the image of a naval cannon, the detailing remarkable. The base of the tooth was capped in silver, carved in a swirl as though it was a cyclone rising from the sea.

“Well, I used to feel the same way.” He closed the lid, and began to wrap the box in bubble wrap. “Then my wife and I decided to sail the world, just the two of us.”

The bubble wrap was taped shut, then stuffed into a small carton, then a thick envelope, address marked on the front. Pask taped the envelope shut, then handed it over to me so I could confirm the label against the delivery information on my handheld.

“A few months sailing on the open sea, just two of you and the night — you see a lot of things you can’t explain.”

“I’ll bet.” I figured they probably got a little tired of singing ‘Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rum’, too.

“So you’re helping Clay out with the business, are you?”

“Yeah. I’m not sure you know, but Clay had a heart attack yesterday.”

“Really?” He seemed genuinely concerned.

I recounted the story of the mugging, Pask perched

on a feeble-looking stool.

“Unbelievable. Madness, really.” I eyed the stool, convinced it would explode into splinters. “You know, this is a very small community, and Clay is well-liked. Whose delivery was it?”

I paused, feeling a bit uncomfortable at the question.

“I can’t say. Confidentiality.”

“Oh, of course!” The big man blushed, and I realized he had been asking out of concern, rather than any malicious intent.

“It was one of our regulars, though. Clay was surprised. I guess he’s never had anything like this happen before.”

“No? Well, that makes sense. Clay’s always been seen as… I guess neutral is the best word, though that’s not quite right. I mean, people aren’t on sides per se, but he’s managed to stay out of the petty squabbles. Kind of a trusted intermediary. For someone to go after you guys — I’d be surprised if BOA doesn’t look into it.”

BOA? I had a vague memory of Clay mentioning the name. Might be worthwhile following up with him, to get a better feel for the politics of the occult world. Were there parties? Leaders? God forbid, elections?

“Well, Clay has asked me to follow up with our clients, let them know about the theft. If you notice anything out of the ordinary, maybe you could let us know?”

“Absolutely.” He paused, then leaned forward, elbows on his knees. “Though pretty much all of it is out of the ordinary in this business, if you know what I mean.”

We shared a chuckle.

“Though, now that you mention it… Hm. There has been some chatter about a few new players in town.”

“New players?”

“I haven’t heard much, but I got the sense they were throwing their weight around — hard-balling a couple of the downtown shops, trying to bully them into supplying stuff on the cheap.”

“Anyone in particular?”

“Naw. I mean, I’ve just heard rumblings, nothing specific.”

“OK. If you hear anything further, can you let me know?”

“Absolutely.”

As Pask turned to check something on his desk, I contemplated the bizarre nature of it all. Lucky charms I could understand, maybe even horoscopes or palm reading if a person needed someone else to tell them to leave their cheating spouse. I could also understand people who collected cool things, like fancy swords or flashy amulets.

But real magic? Curses and magic wands? I was still having a tough time with that, let alone the idea that bigger powers were at work, influencing the power of spells or potions. Who were these bigger powers? J. K. Rowling?

I remained unconvinced, but cautious. After all, God gave mankind thunder, but some people still wouldn’t pay attention until they were lying in the grass, shoes smoldering.

CHAPTER 4

I finished my West End run and did a few pick-ups before returning to the office just before lunch. Clarkson, Erindale, Etobicoke… I crossed the vast expanse of Mississauga, the suburban sprawl neighboring Toronto’s towers.

Scanning the area as I pulled into the parking lot, I mulled over the wonderful variety of businesses that could be found in some strip malls. Pizza shops, ice cream parlors, Chinese food restaurants, coffee shops, variety stores, electronics outlets. An endless list of distractions.

Arcane Transport was not in one of those malls.

Ours was the third unit of four. The first unit housed The Sofa Gallery, an outfit that appeared determined to sell every last piece of Naugahyde furniture still in existence. Next to it stood Signs and More, with windows displaying a vast array of colorful signs and posters. Arcane’s entrance was uncluttered in comparison to that of the sign shop. Just a simple sign above the door with the Arcane logo. Hours were marked on the window, along with a phone number.

The last unit housed something called the Urban Jungle. When I first saw the sign from the street, my thought was that it was some sort of rave club hidden away in this cement corner of Etobicoke (pronounced with a silent ‘k’, for some strange reason). But I had failed to anticipate the true evil housed within. This was no rave club. Oh, no. That would have involved drug crazed teens cavorting at late hours. This was far, far worse.

It was an indoor children’s playground.

As I passed through the front lot, I narrowly dodged a father passing by with a toddler hanging off his shoulder, wailing like a trapped racoon. I slowed, thinking the man was some kind of child snatcher. Then I realized no-one in their right mind would snatch that child.

Clay and I had eaten lunch in the bullpen area behind Reception the day before, so I grabbed my lunch bag from the fridge and wandered back. Kara was on the phone, with a second line on hold.

Today, the kitchen table was unmanned, with only one of the two offices next to the bullpen occupied. Jim was out for the rest of the day, though I thought I might see Harold. Maggie was on a three day week, so she’d be out until tomorrow. The one person in sight was a young fellow seated in front of a stack of paper invoices, one hand working away at a calculator and a laptop teetering on the corner of the desk.

“Oh, Mr. Elder! Good to see you again.”

John Vranic was an accountant with a local firm that I had met while conducting my due diligence on Arcane. He must have been six-seven at least, and maybe a hundred and sixty pounds, making him the human equivalent of a flagpole.

“Nice to see you.”

“Just going over the books for last week.”

John’s firm reviewed Arcane’s books — payroll, payables, receivables, the whole lot.

“Everything looking OK?”

“Hm? Oh, yes, absolutely. Arcane has very clean books. Never seem to have any bad debts, at least nothing material. Knock on wood. In fact, you have the best receivables record of any… “

The next few minutes were lost in a blur of accountant-speak.

“Slow down, big guy. You’re killing him with the details.”

Hallelujah.

Kara entered the room like a cool breeze on a suffocating summer afternoon. I noted the big goofy smile that crossed John’s face. Looked like puppy love.

“How’d the morning go?”

“Good. Gotta say, though — Arcane Transport has one strange group of customers.”

They laughed, and I was relieved to see I wasn’t the only one who felt that way. John pulled a lunch bag from his battered briefcase, and the three of us ate together, trading stories from the morning.

“I dropped by the hospital at ten — Harper said they had visitors all morning.”

“How was he looking?”

“He’s still hooked up to all the monitors and stuff.”

Kara paused, and I debated whether to fill the silence. But she took a breath and went on.

“He’ll be all right. Doctors say he’s stabilized. Just had a bad scare.”

“Well, Clay’s a tough old coot. He’ll be back soon enough.”

I thought John was probably right. In fact, I was counting on it.

“Oh, and I spoke to Helen Findlay again.” I responded with my best blank look. “At Sun Consulting?”

Crap. I’d managed to forget all about them and their now-missing package.

“And?”

“We set up a time — I’ve dropped it into your calendar.”

I checked my handheld, and there it was — time and location.

“So, uh… ” The corner of her mouth tweaked. “Did you get a chance to make that drop-off at Hidden Pleasures?”

The thought of that late morning delivery brought heat to my cheeks and ears.

“Hah!”

“Wild, huh?” John seemed to know more about Arcane’s customers than most accountants.

“I must say it never occurred to me that a — uh-.”

“Strip joint.” Kara was laughing at me. Oh, the shame of it.

“A strip joint would have need for our services. Yeah.”

“Potions and incense. They tried it three years ago, for “feature nights”. Saw a thirty percent increase in revenues that month.”

I smirked. “You seem to know a lot about the business, big guy.”

Now it was the accountant’s turn to blush. “Well, as it happens, they’re one of our clients too.”

After lunch, Kara and I sat down to go over the backlog for the rest of the day. Pickups north of the city, and a couple drops downtown. She had set it up so I could dodge the rush hour traffic and still have some time to meet with the folks at Sun Consulting. Harold was off to the airport again for the afternoon drops. He seemed to prefer that route, and he was getting no complaints from me.

As we wrapped up, another of Arcane’s employees strolled into the lunch room.

“Hey, it’s the new guy.”

Jamar Bailey helped out on deliveries two or three afternoons a week, depending on Arcane’s workload and his class schedule. He was a third year Commerce major at U of T, and a classmate of Clay’s nephew Willis. One smart cookie. He was also one of those black guys who seems to develop six pack abs just lying on the sofa. My six pack was looking more like a keg these days.

“Hey.”

“So.” He pulled up a fourth chair and dropped into it. “Where has the lovely Miss Kara got me going today?”

She fluttered her eyelashes, and spoke like a Southern belle. “Well, how does a drive out to cottage country sound?”

Kara’s trip for Jamar involved a ninety minute drive up to Orillia, a retirement community of forty thousand residents that served as the gateway to cottage country. My experience with Orillia was limited to losing two hundred bucks at the local casino, so Jamar was welcome to the trip. Besides, he wasn’t even going to Orillia, at least not the city proper. The delivery was to some four-corners town a little to the East of there.

I spent the afternoon working deliveries. Nothing unusual, though I did take a wrong turn and end up lost in Bloor West Village. It took three U-turns before I figured out where I was, a moment of panic that almost spelled the end of my new “lucky” coin. But I held off on lobbing it down an open sewer. The coin was on probation.

It was just past three when I arrived at Sun Consulting, having ridden up the same elevator Clay had collapsed in.

The friendly receptionist was at the front desk again, and a look of sympathy crossed her face as soon as I stepped off the elevator. We spoke for a few moments, commiserating about the situation and briefly discussing Clay’s health.

Helen Findlay turned out to be a tall slim lady with a sincere smile. She could have taught many an executive some lessons about courtesy and demeanor.

She also knew how to dress. My Aunt Nicolette had been a real clothes-hound, and Ted and I had learned more from her about clothing (men’s and women’s) than we ever wanted to know. So while another guy would have seen a simple suit, black jacket and matching pencil skirt, I could recognize a Versace outfit when I saw it. Cut right below the knee, to show her slim calves. Black Manolo Blahnik pumps and a diamond pendant necklace topped off the look.

It turned out she was one of the four principals at Sun, which explained the clothes. It also meant that she likely made more money in a year than Ted and I had made since graduation. Then again, the twelve year old who delivers my paper in the morning makes more money than Ted.

After asking about Clay, Helen led the way to her corner office. The view was terrific, the Canada Life building with its unique weather beacon tower standing out. I wondered if an office that big had its own weather patterns.

She offered me a seat, then settled into a high-backed leather chair.

I took a breath, then came out with it. “I am terribly sorry about this incident.”

“No, no. Not your fault. In fact, we think we’ve figured out how the thief knew about the delivery.”

That was another question that had been nagging at me.

“Turns out someone managed to hack into our mailroom records over the weekend. We wouldn’t have even noticed, if Emory hadn’t suggested that our I.T. group do a system security audit after the robbery.” Emory was the Senior Partner.

“Really? That guy didn’t seem like the hacking type.”

“So I hear. Which makes us think he wasn’t acting on his own.”

Huh. I thought about that. The robbery had definitely been planned in advance.

“Well, listen — Clay wanted me to ask you if the package was replaceable, and whether there was anything we could do to help in recovering it.”

“To be honest, we had to do a bit of running around to even figure out what it was. Fortunately, Emory reminded me that we loan out one of our assets several times a year, to help out people in need. Private arrangements.”

I waited for her to continue, but it quickly became evident that Sun Consulting valued its privacy.

“Was it anything dangerous?” What the hell. I should at least find out if some lunatic had stolen the magic equivalent of a tactical nuke.

“Dangerous?” She turned slightly in her chair and gazed for a moment out the window, deep in thought. “No. I mean, we don’t think of our assets in that way. We use that one to help locate ore deposits. You can use it to find things, essentially. It’s a dowsing device.”

I tried to look in the know, but I suspect I failed.

“Relatively narrow range and sensitivity, even in the hands of an experienced diviner. And it’s not suitable for extended use. When it was returned, we would normally have placed the asset in storage for three to six months before accessing it again.”

“Any chance that the party you were delivering it to decided they preferred ownership over a loan?”

“No. Not likely. If anything, they are the ones most hurt by this. Not having the asset just leaves them in limbo.”

I felt like I was talking to some Oracle who would guide my way, but only in cryptic phrases and indirect hints.

“So, how can we help?”

They were the customer, after all.

“At this point, I’m not sure you can do anything. We’re looking into the security breach, but it’s not likely to go anywhere. Let us know if you hear anything, and we’ll keep our ears to the ground. Unfortunately, I suspect it’s gone.”

The rest of day two was uneventful, at least as compared to my first day on the job. The exception was Jamar lucking out at the antique shop that was his northern destination. I returned to the office to find him showing Kara a ring he had been given by one of the customers. The store owner hadn’t seemed interested in it, so the lady had just offered it to Jamar. For free.

I get robbed at gunpoint, and people were handing out gifts to Jamar. Typical.

“What’s the stone? Onyx?”

Kara gave me a funny look.

“It’s my brother’s birthstone. Don’t ask.”

“Huh.” Kara held Jamar’s hand in her own, then drew it closer, squinting to see something stamped or engraved on the face of the ring. “What does it say?”

“Dunno. It’s not in English.”

I leaned in. “It says ‘Toronto Maple Leafs. Stanley Cup Champions’.”

Kara gave me a shot to the arm and I laughed. But when her attention turned back to the ring, I casually rubbed my shoulder, wincing.

One of the things I had resolved to deal with before leaving for the day was touching base with a few key people about Clay, and reassuring them it would be business as usual. Kara had set up a list of names and contact numbers, so I started working through them after Jamar was finished showing off his new find.

Arcane had a few big accounts that I dealt with first. No issues there, though every one of them expressed concern about Clay’s health. Next up was Arcane’s bank. That was the one I was dreading the most. Nothing logical. Hell, Arcane had no debt, cash in the bank and an unused line of credit for slow periods. They were big customers for the local RBC branch. But I had my own history with banks — student loans and credit cards. I still got nauseous every time I got a piece of mail with a bank logo on it.

As it turned out, it was the second friendliest conversation I had ever had with a banker in my life. The first was the reference call I had put into the branch after I first spoke to Clay, when the branch manager spoke of Arcane as though Warren Buffett was a backer of the company. This time, the account manager ran me through Arcane’s various accounts, the bank’s cheque clearing practices, online account access, etc. Kara was going to tutor me on the online banking later in the week, but it was still a helpful overview.

Last but far from least I needed to sit down with each of the employees, to make sure no one was panicking. I spoke with Jim and Harold after each returned from their routes, and they were exactly as expected. Concerned for Clay, happy that business would continue as usual, no problems with “reporting” to me. The reality was that I would be hands off unless there were any problems. Why rock a steady boat.

I caught up with Jamar next, as he was packing for an evening class.

“Listen, with Clay being in the hospital — if you have any questions or concerns, just let me know.”

“Nah. It’s OK. I mean, it sounds like Clay will be OK.”

“Yeah, I think so. So, you’ve been working three days a week?”

“Full days on Thursday and Friday, and a half-day on Tuesday.”

“Is that working out for you?”

“Yeah. It’s been great. Helps pay for my rent and expenses. But listen, if you need to cut back my hours with Clay out and all-.”

“No, no. I just wanted to make sure it wasn’t too much with your course load.”

“Not at all.”

“Wow. You’re a workhorse, man. I had problems just getting out of bed when I was in college.”

“I know what you mean. First two years were like that, but it’s started to settle down.”

“Good. Well, if you want to change anything, let me know.”

“Great.” He seemed relieved, something I could identify with as a former student. I needed to work part-time just to cover my beer and wings expenses.

“You think Clay’ll be back anytime soon?”

The million-dollar question.

“I don’t know. Harper said they expect it will take a month or two for him to recover. But my sense is that she wanted Clay to cut back a bit anyways.”

“Yeah, Clay used to say that too. Frankly, we were getting a little worried about what would happen if he did cut back. Or up and retired. With you coming in as his partner, I think you’ll find people are a bit relieved.”

“Well, things are moving faster than either of us expected. But I’d like to stick with things as is, at least for now. When things calm down, we can talk a bit about the future. Clay said you’re doing your Masters at U of T next year?”

“Yeah. I may even do my doctorate here, if I can get the funding for a project I’m working on.”

“Well, by next week you may want to shoot me. But if I don’t drive you nuts… ”

“Thanks Donnie. I really appreciate it.”

Kara was next. Jamar agreed to hang on for a few minutes at Dispatch while she and I talked.

“Everything OK up front?”

“Yeah. I mean, everyone’s concerned about Clay. We already had a few bouquets come in. It’s a small community, and everyone is real supportive.”

“OK. Well, if you need to ask me anything, fire away. I mean, chances are it’ll be me asking you, but-.”

“Thanks.”

“So Clay was telling me that you’ve been here for four years?”

“Four years last January. I graduated from Sheridan, worked in their admin group for two years, then Clay found me.”

We chatted for awhile, and I told her a bit about my own background. Marketing in a public software company. About as different from Arcane as you could get.

“What was that like?”

“Egos and testosterone.”

“Sounds like Chad’s place. He works in investment banking.”

The boyfriend was a banker. Figured.

“Yup. Guys hovering over you while you try to finish that rush job at midnight.”

“Oh, God. I can’t imagine. I mean, we can get really busy here, but at least we try to keep it civil.”

“I’ve noticed. It’s a nice change.”

“Yeah. It’s weird. I mean, we’re a courier company, but I feel like we make a difference.”

That thought stayed with me as I drove home. It was a great company. Lord help me if I screwed it up.

CHAPTER 5

I went straight home after work. I had debated staying late to catch up further, but I was exhausted, and my head was throbbing from all the driving.

Just inside the apartment, I encountered a smell that made me think of forensic labs and bottle flies. For just a moment, I was worried — genuinely worried — about Ted. Had he lain in the apartment, unconscious in his own vomit after a liquid lunch in Chinatown? Was he sprawled in the bathroom, having slipped on the tiles and cracked his skull?

Then I spotted the source of the stench.

“Move your goddamned equipment!”

Hockey bag, goalie pads, chest protector, jock. Ted may as well have butchered three skunks with a blunt axe on the faux marble linoleum.

“Love you, too.”

“Asshole.” I kicked the blocker aside and entered the kitchen, grabbing a slice from an open box of pizza, Ted’s contribution to the week’s grocery bill. Cold soda, and a handful of Tylenol from the bottle on top of the fridge.

“You couldn’t leave your equipment in the car?”

“What? No way. You ever smell it after the bag’s been in there overnight?”

I stared at him, a dull pounding in my temple building to a roar.

“What?”

“You can smell that shit in the hallway. Have you seen Mr. Kenesky?” Oleg Kenesky was the building superintendent. His body was solid granite, formed in the cold winters of Krakow, Poland.

“Move it outside.”

“OK, OK. What’re you doing home, anyways? They fire your ass?”

“Right.”

As Ted gathered his odorous collection, I emptied my pockets on the side table by the front door. Keys, wallet, cell, and… Oh yeah. Lucky coin. I held the coin up to the light and took another look at it.

“What’s that?”

I flipped the coin to him like a bottle cap.

“Some coin they had in the Lost and Found at work. Thought it might be lucky.”

“Huh. Cool.” He flipped the coin back, and I dropped it on the table.

Then I took my traditional evening position in front of the TV set, remote in hand. Flip. Cartoon. Flip. Paid advertisement for a new vacuum cleaner. Might have to switch over to the computer. Flip. Flip. Flip. Stop. The news.

“In Business news, Ruscan Industries CEO Maxim Legenko appeared in court today at his preliminary enquiry, escorted by defense lawyer James Whitebridge. By Mr. Legenko’s side was his wife Elena Legenko, Chairman of Ruscan Industries and the Company’s controlling shareholder-.”

“Please turn it. Anything but the news.”

I tapped my thumb on the channel button, but continued to listen. It was a secret pleasure for me, watching the high-and-mighty fall into the muck. I’d followed Legenko’s case for the past six months.

“- as an ashen-faced Legenko sat quietly, Crown Prosecutor Barbara Moodie reviewed-.”

“Please!”

“Give it a rest. I just want to see this one story.” I nudged the volume up, trying to ignore Ted’s groaning.

“Prosecutors allege that Legenko embezzled $18 million through payments to offshore holding companies without the knowledge or approval of Ruscan Industries’ Board of Directors. Sordid details about Legenko’s spending during his tenure as Ruscan CEO, including private use of a company plane for vacations in Thailand and Bali and allegations of the use of company funds to pay for the services of high priced escorts for visiting dignitaries-.”

I noticed Ted had stopped with the sighs and was paying attention now. Put “$18 million” and “high priced escorts” in a story, and you would definitely get my brother’s attention.

“Did they say his wife owns the company?”

“Biggest shareholder.”

“Guy’s got a massive set, huh? Using company money to pay for hookers when his wife owns the place?”

I nodded in agreement. The on-screen image shifted from the news anchor to an image of the courtroom steps, with Legenko and his counsel surrounded by a wall of microphones and screaming reporters. Legenko looked like he was going to be sick, his stock brazen glare replaced by a deer-in-the-headlights look. His counsel was a decidedly unattractive man, comb-over blowing in the wind, bulging eyes and a sneer of a mouth. At his other side stood Legenko’s wife, a statuesque brunette who had modeled for several years before using her fame and fortune to establish a global real estate development conglomerate. The rest of the small entourage was made up of a tall crew cut fellow with “security” written all over him, a female lawyer dragging a massive briefcase on a trolley, and one guy who looked a little out of place.

“That’s his wife? Maybe she’ll need some company when hubby’s in jail.”

“Hmph.” She was hot. But something else had caught my eye.

“What the…?” I squinted at the screen and pointed. “That’s the idiot that robbed us!”

“What?” Ted had a goofy grin on his face, but it disappeared pretty fast when he saw I wasn’t laughing. “Which guy?”

“That guy!” I stumbled over the side table and stabbed at the image on the screen. Up close I could see it was him, same massive frame, same jacket, same greasy hair, same broken nose. He stood to Legenko’s left, just behind the security guy. A lit cigarette dangled from his lip.

“Legenko faces eight counts of fraud, money-laundering, tax evasion and obstruction of justice. If convicted, he could serve the rest of his life in jail.”

Ted lumbered forward to stand by my side. “You sure?”

“Yes, I’m sure.”

The image switched back to Mr. Anchor, who now moved on with a story about a school shooting in Nebraska.

I punched the Power switch with my knuckle, and took a long, slow breath. It was Kuzmenko. I was ‘they have weapons of mass destruction’ positive. But what the hell was he doing with a high-profile corporate executive? I would have picked the guy for a street hoodlum at best, maybe a low level bookie or dealer. Why would Maxim Legenko keep company with a piece of dog dooky like him? Legenko hung out in Yorkville, even spent a month every winter in Nevis. Guys like him did not consort with punks. It just didn’t happen.

“Here he is again.”

I turned to the TV, but it was still off. Then I realized Ted was sitting in front of the computer. And yes indeed, there was Kuzmenko again, in a photo from Legenko’s arraignment. No question about it. It was like GE’s Jack Welch had chosen to hang around with Paris Hilton, or one of the morons from Jersey Shore. The accompanying article said nothing new, but a sidebar link caught my eye. I pointed to it, and Ted clicked through.

LEGENKO WITNESS FEARS FOR LIFE

Toronto

— A Crown witness in the trial involving Ruscan Industries’ CEO Maxim Legenko now fears for his life because he is being forced to testify.

Andrew Simpson-Doig, former Chief Financial Officer of Timber Circle LC, a UK-based subsidiary of Ruscan Industries, was responding to a subpoena that compels him to testify next week at Legenko’s trial for corporate fraud.

“They may as well just kill me now,” Simpson-Doig told the media after a hearing before Justice Helen Richauer in which the court denied a request that the subpoena be quashed. Defence lawyer Alec Lawson argued that the lives of Simpson-Doig and a second unnamed witness are in jeopardy.

Certain recent events raise serious questions. The death of banker Marcel Papineau in April of this year marks the second death of an individual associated with the Legenko trial since the scandal was first discovered. Papineau, who had close ties to the Ruscan organization and was rumored to be a possible Crown witness, committed suicide in his Sedona, Arizona condominium nearly five weeks ago.

“These are extraordinarily powerful people we are dealing with here,” Lawson told reporters outside court. “We believe the Crown has significantly underestimated the lengths to which they will go in order to avoid a conviction.”

In addition to the testimony of Simpson-Doig and one other unnamed Ruscan Industries witness, the Crown has an abundance of evidence, including banking records, wiretaps, footage from security cameras and the testimony of other witnesses, said Crown Prosecutor Barbara Moodie. She also pointed out that both witnesses had been offered the opportunity to enter the federal Witness Protection Program, but declined, citing an unwillingness to relocate or to abide by restrictions regarding travel.

Approximately 25 % of witnesses decline protection offers, according to RCMP statistics. Simpson-Doig’s lawyer indicated they have made private arrangements for lodging at an undisclosed location during the trial.

“What’re you thinking?”

I wasn’t thinking anything yet. But something told me I had found a loose thread worth pulling at.

Two hours later I had managed to put my thoughts of Niki Kuzmenko aside. I was aimlessly surfing the Net, letting StumbleUpon guide me from cat photos to celebrity scandals.

When the phone rang, Ted crossed the room like a track star, hurdling the coffee table in one bound. I snorted. It was very easy to forget Ted was athletic. God knows, based on beer consumption and hours prone on the sofa, there was good reason to assume otherwise.

Phone in hand, Ted winked at me before answering it. He punched a button and tried out his latest spoof.

“Candy Condom. Try our newest flavor — big banana.”

He grinned at me like an idiot, but then the corners of his mouth sagged, like a balloon losing air.

“Hi. Where are you calling from? I didn’t recognize the number. What? Oh, sorry about that, had the TV on too loud.” He dropped onto the sofa, continuing to deflate. “It wasn’t me. It was some stupid sitcom. How was I to-.”

I could hear her from where I sat, and Ted was so far up shit creek it had opened into a lake.

After a five minute lecture on decorum and the family name, Ted claimed he needed to get some air. He reappeared half an hour later, having apparently detoured to pick up a couple of donuts and a large coffee.

Halfway to the sofa he paused, then erupted with a loud sneeze that shook the building foundations.

“Jeez, would you keep it down?”

“Sorry for living. Not my fault I- AAAASCHOOOO!”

He grabbed a box of Kleenex from the coffee table. I could see that his eyes were red, and his nose was leaking like a New Orleans levee.

“You got a cold or something?”

“Cold? No. AAAASCHOOOOO! Man. I must have caught something at the rink.”

I stretched out on the sofa, leery of catching whatever virus he had attracted. Ted was forced to plop down in the armchair, a sneezing, nose-dripping mess.

“I was thinking about this new job of yours. Let’s see… Your boss has a heart attack on your first day of work, and you were robbed at gunpoint by some goon who hangs around with the rich and powerful. You just don’t pay attention to hints, do you?”

I tried to ignore Ted’s usual enthusiasm.

“Clay’s a good guy. This could work out real well.”

“Are you forgetting who got you this job?”

So true. My number one concern about Arcane was the fact that my mother was close to Clay and Harper. In fact, she had spent more time talking to Clay in the week prior to my first day than I had.

“Did you even check this guy out?”

Sure I had. I was going into partnership with the guy. But I could tell Ted wasn’t going to let this go. For him, the Internet was the root source of valid information worldwide, never mind that the latest hot stock tip came from a pizza delivery guy in Winnipeg, typing a blog in his basement. In his underwear.

So I decided to humor the idiot.

I moved over to the desk, pulled up a browser, typed in “Arcane Transport” and hit return. Up popped the results — 1 of 10 of about 117. Not much, but at least someone had heard of them. Fact was, I knew Clay had no real presence on-line — it was one of my priorities for the coming months.

At that moment a chunk of greasy pastry dropped onto the keyboard.

“Watch the crumbs, man.”

Ted stood behind me, watching over my shoulder and munching a croissant. I tried to pry the flakes from between the U and the Y, but only managed to work them further into the bowels of the keyboard.

“Put it in your mouth, fathead.”

“There’s the website. Second one down.”

I double-clicked and the screen faded away, morphing into a black page with the name “Arcane Transport”, the company logo, address, phone number and the words “Premium Courier for Unusual Goods. Est. 1975.”

“Click on the name.”

“Nah. That’s all they’ve got — just the introduction screen.”

“Kinda sucks.”

Another clump of croissant fell, this time right down the back of my shirt. It felt like a moist lump of butter had dropped smack between my shoulder blades.

“Would you bug off!”

“Jeez. Lighten up.”

“Just eat the goddamned thing. Don’t spray it on me, don’t drop it on the keyboard, don’t leave crumbs all over the floor. Got it?”

He mumbled. “Sorry for living.”

I hit the back button, then tried the first item on the list. This one was a chat thread. A local forum, chatcentral.ca. The thread was Occult — Shopping.

“What’s this?” Ted leaned in to give it a read.

Anyone know of a reliable delivery service in town? I just sold a double-headed axe to a guy in Oshawa, but he wants it tomorrow and I don’t have a car.

Mitch (Fantasy Blades)

Hey Mitch. You might try Arcane Transport. They’re in the phone book. Very dependable. Is it an enchanted blade, or for simple rituals?

Azure Helen

I modeled it after one of the axes used by the dwarf in Lord of the Rings. It’s got a great leather grip.

Mitch

Might want to try FedEx.

AH.

“What’s that all about?”

Ted must have been finished with the croissant, since his question wasn’t accompanied by a rain of pastry crumbs.

“Haven’t figured it out yet?”

I checked three other websites, all of them standard phone-book type listings. The next site was for a bookstore, Northern Sanctuary. Clay and I had picked up a package from them on Monday. The shipping link said “All deliveries through Arcane Transport — Premium Courier for Unusual Goods.”

Then I flipped to their home page. Northern Sanctuary, your source for books on the occult. There were links for black magick, Celtic magick, druidic magick, sex magick, and so on. I had no idea why they spelled magic with a k, though I was already a supporter of their store, since I am a firm believer in the magical properties of sex.

“Okaaaaay. Donnie’s working for the Hogwarts FedEx. With a bunch of loonies.”

I nodded my head, saying nothing. God knows, Ted could well be right. Either way, I resolved to do some reading about the occult, if for no other reason than to be able to understand Arcane’s customers. In the meanwhile, I was going to do some thinking about Niki the Bull, and his friend Maxim Legenko. Something told me our paths would cross again very soon.

CHAPTER 6

I didn’t have much of a chance to consider the relationship between Maxim Legenko and Niki the Bull during my next two days on the job. Wednesday was “drive like hell” day. And on Thursday, I didn’t even make it out of the office before trouble showed up.

Kara paged me as I was stocking the van with the morning deliveries.

“Donnie, there are some visitors at Reception for you.”

The tone in her voice told me that something was up, so I grabbed the phone off the wall and buzzed her.

“Hey, it’s me. What’s up?”

“The guys from BOA are here.”

“Who?”

“Sure. I’ll ask them to take a seat in the conference room.”

The line went dead, and I stared at it. Something was going on. BOA? Where had I heard that before?

A moment later, Kara stood in front of me.

“Who are these guys?”

“BOA. Bureau for Occult Activities. Kind of a cross between Neighborhood Watch and the Guardian Angels. Volunteer police force for the paranormal community.”

“OK, and they’re here because…?”

“No idea. But they can be a pushy bunch, so I thought you should be warned.”

“Thanks. How did Clay get along with them?”

“Well, he didn’t like them and I think they knew it, but he cooperated with them. Clay felt they could be of some use from time to time.”

“Well, let’s go see what’s on their minds. Uh, one thing-.”

She smiled, bringing out the matching dimples in her cheeks. I felt a ridiculous grin cross my own face, like some love-sick teen.

“I’ll give them ten minutes, max, then I’ll interrupt and say you have to deal with an emergency.”

“Thanks.”

I grabbed a few of my business cards, then followed Kara out to the front. I tried not to focus on the sway of her backside.

She introduced me to two members of BOA, a wiry fellow by the name of Switzer, and a stern looking woman named Candice.

The three of us took seats in the conference room, Kara placing several bottles of chilled water on the table. I nodded at her, exchanging a glance, and she closed the door as she left the room.

“So, how can I help you folks?”

“Mr.-,” Spitzer glanced at my newly minted card. “Elder. Thanks for meeting with us.”

I nodded, waiting to hear what was on their minds.

“OK. Has anyone told you about our group, or our activities?”

“Not really, no.”

Switzer launched into a rehearsed script. “BOA was formed in 1927 by a bookstore owner in San Francisco. At the time, it was like Neighborhood Watch. Community members working together. Over time it evolved into what it is now — a volunteer organization that patrols communities to ensure that any activities involving the use of magic are monitored. Where we consider someone’s activities to be a threat to the Paranormal community as a whole, we step in.”

“How do you do that?”

“Think of it like a citizen’s arrest.”

“So you’ve expanded from San Francisco to Toronto?”

“And New York, Chicago, London, Paris, Tokyo, Shanghai. We also have new offices in Las Vegas and Orlando, Florida.”

The last one made sense. Need to ensure that Mickey and Goofy aren’t calling on the forces of evil.

“All of you wear the same uniform?” I nodded at their outfits — grey and white camo anoraks, black military-style pants (the ones with countless pockets in weird places), and black combat boots.

“Yup. With the BOA crest on the armband or chest pocket.”

OK. I had a feeling Mr. Spitzer here had earned his Master Geek Merit Badge to go with that BOA crest.

“So.” One more time, I thought. “How can I help you folks?”

“Well,” Spitzer’s colleague flipped through her note pad. “We had a report that on Monday evening a package containing a Class 2 Restricted device was taken from your possession at 150 King Street West in Toronto. Is that correct?”

“Not sure what you mean by a Class 2 device, but yes, Clay Jarvis and I were mugged on Monday night. How did you know that?”

She ignored me, continuing to look down at her notes.

“We understand no report was filed with the Mundane authorities.”

“Presuming that means the cops, that is correct.”

“Your colleague Mr. Jarvis was injured in the attack?”

“He had a heart attack.” I paused, but there was no reaction. “He’s resting and it looks like he’ll be OK.”

That got her to lift her head for a moment. Then she went right back to the notebook.

“This device was collected from the offices of Sun Consulting just a few moments earlier?”

I mulled that over for a moment.

“I can’t comment on that. The identity of our customers and any information relating to them is confidential.”

That seemed to catch Spitzer’s attention, and he turned from the window to face me.

“This was a violent crime, Mr. Elder. The sort of thing that might result in someone being killed next time around. Are you saying that you’re unwilling to help us investigate this matter?”

I took a deep breath, leaning back in my chair. This had turned confrontational awfully quickly.

“No. But I would hazard a guess that we have never given that type of information to you in the past, and I don’t intend to start now. If you want me to describe the mugger, I am happy to do so. He even gave me his name. But any details regarding our customers or their businesses are off limits.”

Spitzer shifted forward, resting his hands on the table and leaning towards me, apparently intent on building the drama.

“It doesn’t concern you that a Class 2 Restricted device was stolen from your possession, and someone could right now be using it to devastating consequences in our city?”

“If I knew what a Class 2 Restricted device was, it might.”

I held his stare, willing to bet there was no such thing as a Class 2 Restricted device. And Switzer’s “devastating consequences” comment was at serious odds to Helen Findlay’s description. These BOA guys had probably been stonewalled by Clay in the past and were hoping to slide one by the new guy.

“Class 2 is a magical device or talisman. Class 1 mixing agent, Class 3 spell — we can get you a copy of the classifications if you like. Each Class is categorized Inert, Non-restricted, Restricted and Prohibited. Restricted means that you are required to advise us in the event the device is lost or stolen.”

OK, so I was wrong. The guy was still a dick.

“This is some sort of government legislation?”

“No. These are classifications developed by BOA working together with leading practitioners.”

I snorted. Leading practitioners? Who were they? The Amazing Kreskin and Criss Angel?

“OK. Thanks.”

He stared. She stared. I fiddled with the pen in my hands. They stared. I unscrewed the pen top and began to lay the innards out on the table. Spring, ink sleeve, some plastic doohickey. Part of me was debating telling them about the possible relationship to Legenko, but it still seemed too thin. Besides, I wasn’t sure I wanted these two “crack investigators” on the case.

“I take it you are unwilling to cooperate with our enquiry?”

“Well, let’s say I will think about it. Do you have business cards in case I need to reach you?”

Both of them slid over their cards, fancy embossed plastic cards with their names, phone numbers and e-mail addresses. No office address.

“Let me ask Kara to see you out.”

Switzer stared at me for a moment, then gestured to his colleague. I waited until they were halfway out the door before calling to them.

“Did you want the name of the mugger?”

The two of them turned.

“Niki Kuzmenko. Calls himself the Bull.”

Both of them turned away and stepped out into the cool May air. I watched them climb into their car — a Range Rover, of all things — and considered the fact that neither of them had written down Kuzmenko’s name.

My mind was spinning. How had they even heard of the mugging, and what was with the attitude? Weirdness prevailed.

“How was it?” I turned to see Kara holding the door open for me.

“Oh, it was great. Just like my last visit to the dentist.”

That brought forth a smile.

“By the way, what the heck is a divination device? I thought the folks at Sun said it was some kind of dowsing thing. Isn’t that like a fire hose, or something?”

“Fire hose?”

A little off base, apparently.

“Device? Is that what they called it? Well, it could be anything. Cards, runes, Ouija board, crystal ball-.”

I suspect my cynicism was quite apparent.

“Hey, I didn’t make this stuff up.”

“So the Sun Consulting guys were using us to ship something that could be used to tell the future?”

“Or whether your girlfriend is cheating on you. Where you left your watch that morning. People use them to answer questions, sometimes locate things.”

That jibed with Helen Findlay’s comments earlier in the week.

“Hmph. Can you use them for anything?”

“No, not that I know of. A restricted Class 2 device would be pretty powerful, though. Think of it like accuracy. Prohibited devices are the most accurate. I think Clay said he had seen a set of rune stones once that were supposed to be accurate 99.9 % of the time.”

“Cool. Great for lotto tickets.”

“No kidding.”

The day had just started and I was already behind.

As if things weren’t bad enough, Jamar was three hours late getting in. By lunch time I felt like I had seen most of Southern Ontario, just trying to keep up.

I was munching on a sub when Jamar staggered in. Kara followed right behind.

“Don’t tell me. You lost your shirt at the Casino. No, your girlfriend is pregnant, but she’s not sure whether it’s yours.”

Sometimes the comments come out before I can stop them.

“Hey, Donnie.”

Jamar couldn’t have looked more down if he tried. Dark shadows under his eyes hinted at a sleepless night. Either that, or he had been doing some sparring. With a heavyweight.

“Hang in there, big guy,” I pulled a chair out for him. “Take a seat and tell Nurse Kara about your problems.”

She gave me a look that suggested the only person requiring a nurse was going to be me. Jamar slumped in the chair, staring at his lunch bag.

“What’s up?”

“It’s like I’m that guy who walks around with a rain cloud over his head. I swear, not one good thing has happened in the past two days. Tuesday I get home and my girlfriend announces she’s moving out. Yesterday I crack up my bike on the way to school, damn near kill myself. Last night I spent the night throwing up the sushi I had for lunch. And this morning I bum a ride from my Dad, and he announces he and my mom are divorcing! After 25 years of marriage!”

For a moment, Kara and I sat silent. Sheesh. That was a serious streak of ugly.

“You’re just going through a bad stretch. It’ll turn, and everything will be better again.”

She almost had me convinced, but then I was somewhat susceptible to Kara’s charms.

Jamar didn’t look as open to supportive commentary.

“I swear to God, guys — I think it’s this damned ring.”

“What?” OK. Every day, and in every way, this place was just plain weird. “The ring? The one that lady gave you?”

“Yeah, man.” He held up his hand and turned the ring on his finger. “It gives me a sick feeling just looking at it. You think maybe she-.”

He lost me, but Kara seemed to follow his train of thought.

“Cursed it?”

“I don’t know. All I know is that everything I touch turns to shit.”

Kara stared at the ring, then stood. “Let me get Professor Irving on the phone. Maybe he has some thoughts.”

She headed into one of the offices to call Professor Irving, and I turned to Jamar.

He did look like a mess. Normally quick to smile, his mouth seemed to sag from the strain of the past few days.

“Why don’t you just take it off?”

“That’s just it. It’s weird, man. I can’t budge the thing.” He held out his hand and tugged on the ring to show me. It was like the school ring you wore in high school that stayed wedged on because you gained a ton of weight. That’s not a comment on any of the women I saw at my last class reunion or anything. Just saying.

“Huh. Listen, cheer up, man. It’ll all work out.”

“Aw, it’s just… my parents. I can’t believe it. My Dad’s like, sixty-two. What the hell is he doing getting a divorce? What’s the point?”

“You don’t know for sure. Lots of people say they’re breaking up and never do. May just be a phase.”

“I don’t know, man. My Dad, when he says he’s doing something, he does it.”

“Well, even if they do divorce, it may still work out.”

“Man, this is all messed up.” His head sunk down onto his forearms, and I looked down on his shaved head. Not much I could do to help him out. I was the last person to talk about long-term relationships. Never been in one that worked, and my own father didn’t live long enough for me to see him and my mother together.

“I’ve got Professor Irving on the line. He has a theory.”

“C’mon big guy. Let’s go see what the Professor has to say.”

We moved into the office, Kara perching one hip on the desk while Jamar took one of the visitor seats and I stood by the door. After a morning in the veritable driver’s seat, I was happy to be on my feet for a short while.

“Professor Irving? I have Jamar and Donnie on the line.”

“Hello! Donnie, welcome to Arcane Transport.”

“Thanks, Professor. I hope we can meet face-to-face in the near future.”

“Absolutely. Jamar?”

“Hey, Sol.” Seemed like Jamar had a first name relationship with Professor Irving. I felt a brief tinge of jealousy. It would be a while yet before I was a part of the gang.

“Sounds like you’ve had an unpleasant few days.”

Jamar nodded. I debated speaking up on his behalf, but we weren’t on the stand.

“Kara described the situation to me. I can’t say for sure, but it’s possible that you’ve been exposed to a curse of some kind.”

“The ring, you think?” Jamar sat silent, but I figured it was OK to help out.

“Yes. Listen, can someone describe it to me?”

“Sure.” I turned, half expecting to have to do it myself. But Jamar spoke up.

“It’s black. You thought it was onyx?” He glanced up to me, and I nodded. “Donnie thought it might be onyx.”

“Is it entirely onyx? Or-.”

“Silver band with an onyx stone.”

“Men’s wedding band.” Jamar and I glanced at Kara, and both of us pretended to shiver. She displayed one of her slim manicured fingers in response.

“Are there any motifs or markings on the band?”

“There’s kind of a Celtic pattern, with some sort of symbol. It looks like a pair of triangles, one on top of the other. Maybe with some curls inside?”

“Maybe hearts?” I thought Kara’s description was closer.

“And there are a few words inscribed on the border around the stone.” He held his hand up to the light, the three of us huddled around it like idiots. “Um, let’s see… oh, crap.”

“What?” I leaned forward, trying to make out the words. “How do you say that? Horror Ubique Animos.” I could see why Jamar was concerned. Not a lot of positive phrases using the word horror. “Is that Latin?”

“I believe so. In fact, that sounds familiar. Hang on a second.” We heard typing in the background, then he mumbled something that sounded like “maybe in quotes”.

“Yes, yes. Virgil. From the Aeneid. Horror ubique animos, simul ipsa silentia terrent. The first part of the verse means everywhere horror seizes the soul.”

“Oh, that’s nice.”

“Stay calm, let’s keep examining it. How heavy is it?”

Jamar twisted the ring on his finger, but made no move to remove it. “Pretty much normal.”

“Here.” Kara held her hand out, but the Professor’s voice barked on the phone.

“No!”

We all sat and stared at the phone. Seemed a little pushy for a prof.

“Sorry, but if it’s a cursed object, the curse may end up just passing on to anyone who accepts it voluntarily. Doesn’t solve our problem.”

“Doesn’t matter anyway, Sol. I can’t get the damned thing off.”

Jamar tugged at it and looked up at Kara and me, his face wrought with frustration.

“Maybe you just need something to help it slide off. Maybe some margarine, or soap?”

Kara was already moving to the kitchen when Jamar spoke up. “Nah. Tried it. Tried margarine, soap, WD40, even tried to pull the damned thing off with pliers. All I managed to do was mess up a pair of my pants and cut my damned finger.”

He held up his hand, palm facing towards us, and I could see a cut on the inside of his knuckle, just below the ring.

“Sounding more and more like a curse, Jamar. Some of these objects cannot be removed or passed on to anyone else without their consent. Can’t even be removed until the other person has indicated acceptance. When this woman offered the ring to you, you must have been happy to take it from her?”

“Yeah. Sure.”

“Was she wearing it when you first saw it?”

“Huh. Yeah. I did think that was a bit weird.”

“Well, she needed your consent, ill-informed or otherwise. In theory you could do the same — offer it to some stranger and get it off your hands.”

Jamar shook his head.

“Naw. I wouldn’t wish this on anyone.”

“Then we need to come up with a way to eliminate the curse. Maybe you could get the woman to take it back?”

Jamar’s eyes lit up at that idea, if only for a moment. There was a way to get rid of his problem, and pay the bitch back at the same time. But…

“There’s no way she’s going to take it back.” At least not in my view.

“Doesn’t seem very likely, does it. Not sure she would have passed it to you in the first place if she had any moral fiber. So that puts us back at square one. Listen, Jamar, this is going to take some research on my behalf. Can you take a picture of the ring and e-mail it to me?”

“I’ll do it.” Kara stepped into one of the offices and drew a digital camera from a drawer.

“E-mail it to me, and I’ll try to look into it tonight. Jamar — I’m sorry I can’t find you a solution right away.”

“Not your fault, Sol. My fault for being too trusting.”

“All you can do is keep it simple. Stick to routine, no big plans or outings. Hopefully I can find you an answer before things get any worse.”

“Thanks, Professor.”

Kara hung up, and we both stared at Jamar. His head was down on the table again. For once, I was happy not to be in someone else’s shoes.

CHAPTER 7

That night I was getting together with two of my former colleagues from TechnoSoft, John Pepper and Jin Park. John went by the name Chili (Chili Pepper — who would have imagined), a carryover from college that had stuck. We were meeting at Chucks, the local greasy spoon we frequented when I was still with the company.

Unlike most places on the Airport strip, Chucks was a standalone business — separate building, separate parking lot, separate entrance. Land alone was worth a fortune, but the owner rebuffed all offers. He ran a diner. That’s what he did, and it’s all he wanted to do. Besides, the entire property was toxic with fry grease and stale condiments.

One great thing about Chucks was the brightness of the place. Three sides lined with floor to ceiling windows, the place was awash with natural light. I doubt they spent a dime on light or heat, other than in the evenings or the middle of winter. They most certainly did not spend a cent on air conditioning during the warmer months, resulting in a greenhouse-like sauna effect.

The glass walls were lined with booths and standalone tables filling the spaces in between. The entire back wall was a long counter, with two cash registers on one side. On the other side of the counter, a group of men who all appeared related slaved away over countless hot plates, fryers, cookers, and every other type of grease-generating device known to man. That might have explained the thin film coating the aforementioned windows. A sign over the cash said “All Breakfast. All Day.”

I pushed through the door and the accompanying wave of heat. A tide of scents washed over me — fryers that ran full out from dawn to dusk and grills that warmed the meats of every animal outside a zoo.

Chili and Jin sat by the windows on the East wall, out of the direct line of sunlight and thus a good five degrees cooler than the West wall at this time of day, which seemed to shimmer in the heat. The moment they spotted me, I felt my shoulders relax. Good to see some old friends.

“So you’re a partner in the business?”

“Yeah. The original plan was for me to earn my stake in the business over three years, then Clay would retire and I would earn out his half of the business. But now, I’m not sure. If anything, the whole thing may be accelerated. Either way, I end up owning the company.”

“So you manage the office? Sales?”

“Yeah. Manage the staff, sales, deal with customer issues that need to be escalated. And I drive a route too.”

“No kidding? Donnie Elder in a delivery truck?”

“Yeah. Well, not a regular route. Depends on what the delivery schedule is for the day. Right now, with Clay off work and business hopping, I’m on the road. Welcome to the world of small business.”

Jin had a bemused look on his face.

“What?”

“I just can’t picture it.”

“What?”

“Six months ago, you’re sitting in the boardroom, battling it out with the IT guys and the creative goofs at Pathway on the Version 3.0 Campaign. And you gave all of that up to drive a van and manage a five man office?”

“Jealous?”

“Shit, yeah.”

For the next two hours we traded stories about the goings-on at the company since I had left, and also a lot of great memories. We also chatted about Arcane, and my first week on the job.

“The guy had a gun?”

“Yeah. Can you believe it?”

“Shit. What did the cops say?”

“Well, we didn’t end up reporting it.”

“Why the hell not? Nah, I take that back. Officer, I was robbed at gunpoint. What did they take? Harry Potter’s wand and a magic lantern.”

“Harry Potter’s wand was stolen? That’s gotta hurt.” Chili was the perpetual smartass among my group of friends, which is saying a lot, when you consider the company I keep. “Yeah. No cops. Not that we’re doing anything wrong, but it just gets a bit weird.”

“You should talk to Amy, she’s pretty cool about that stuff.”

Hm. That was an interesting thought. Jin’s cousin Amy was a police officer in Toronto. Quite attractive too, I seemed to recall. Might not hurt.

“You don’t think she’d mind?”

“Nah. You can do it off the record, if you want. Cost you lunch, though. And she eats like a heifer. Why don’t I get her to give you a call?”

“That’d be great.”

“Yeah,” Chili with that sly grin on his face again, “that’d be great, alright. Donnie-boy’s hoping to get some uniform action. Nurse, check. Stewardess, check. Maid — nah, I’ve been to your place, you don’t have a maid.”

Like I said. Perpetual smartass.

Just before we left, Jin handed me a plain white file folder. I glanced inside and chuckled.

“We had everybody sign it. Never had a chance to say goodbye, so we figured this was the next best thing.”

“Ha! That’s great. Thanks guys.” I stared down at one of the few mementoes from my days at TechnoSoft. It was a good reminder that it wasn’t all bad memories. “He still pissed?”

“Oh yeah. No one can even say your name around the office without him losing it.”

“Good.”

We said our goodbyes, and agreed to get together again in a few weeks. When I got to my car, I dropped the file onto the passenger seat and headed over to the hospital for a quick visit with Clay and Harper.

I had a nice surprise at the hospital when I ran into Kara there. I paused at the door, a little hesitant about adding to the crowd, but Harper waved me in.

“Hey.” I shook hands with Clay, who sat propped up in bed. His color was back to normal, and he seemed in good spirits. I mouthed “Hi” and gave Kara my best smile.

“Hey yourself. Kara was just bringing me up to speed on things. Sounds like I’ve left the place in good hands.”

“Well, Kara can take most of the credit for that. She’s the one keeping us from destroying the place.”

“Oh, she did that for me, too. It’s always been that way.”

I took a few minutes to update Clay on my visit with Helen Findlay at Sun, and the drop-in by BOA.

“These BOA guys — what do you think of them?”

I had my own significant reservations, but I wasn’t about to share them with Clay yet.

“Oh, they’ve been around for years. Tend to stay out of our way, but they’ve had some changes at the top in the past year and a half. May see more of them, if they decide to play a more active role. I would cooperate with them, but don’t go out of your way. It’s never been real clear to me where they fit in the overall scheme of things.”

That jibed with what I had seen and heard.

“Any other players I should know about? People who may not have our best interests in mind?”

“Hm.” Clay took a sip of water, glancing at Harper for a moment. “It’s maybe not a bad idea for you to do some reading. Kara, can you pull a few of the reference texts from storage? Also, there are a few file memos, and that history that was written by Charlie Carter.”

“The author?”

“Yes. He wrote a book called The History of Occultism in Toronto a few years back. It’s a decent overview of some of the older players, not a bad introduction to some of the basics as well.”

“Hm.” Charlie Carter. Cool. He was one of my favorite authors. When the Axe Falls was on my top five list of scary reads.

“That one’s in my office, bookshelf just inside the door.”

“Great. Thanks.”

We chatted for a while longer, and Harper invited me to a barbeque she was hosting the following weekend. Sort of a welcome home party for Clay. It seemed like a good chance for me to meet some of Clay’s customers, colleagues and friends, so I promised to be there.

Soon after that, Clay’s nephew Willis showed up, and Kara and I excused ourselves. On the way down to the main floor Kara confessed that she had taken the subway in, since she hated driving downtown. I offered her a ride home, through I was a little unsure about the whole employer/ employee/boyfriend thing, but figuring I would take things as they came for now. Odds were I would get nowhere, anyways.

“Why thank you.”

“My pleasure.” I eased the door closed behind her and rounded my car to the driver side.

As I settled in and started the engine, I noticed Kara had a file folder in her hand, and was examining its contents under the car’s interior lights.

“Hey! Little nosy, aren’t you?”

“Maybe.” Didn’t stop her from reading. “This from your last company?”

“Yeah.”

“What, is it like a going away thing? ‘Donnie, We’ll miss ya. Donnie, Good luck. Call me once you find a job, so I can leave this hell hole.’”

I snorted. God help me. Not a smile or a chuckle. A snort. I was such a catch for a chick.

“Why would they sign an ad, instead of a card?”

Oh boy. “Well, as it happens, that ad was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Or in this case, my boss’ back.”

“Why? It looks fine. A little boring-.”

“Hah. Thanks.” I pulled into traffic and accelerated before a cab climbed up my ass. “Well, there’s a little background first. See, I was with these guys for nine years, straight out of college. Started in a market research position, then worked my way up in Sales and Marketing until I was involved in RFP responses, pitch presentations, product specs, the whole shebang.”

Stopping at a red light I glanced at her to make sure she wasn’t falling asleep, but she seemed genuinely interested.

“So after a few years, I became the number two guy in Marketing, working with a lady I got along real well with. But two years ago, she was replaced by this complete idiot. Guy from San Jose, everyone claimed he was a marketing genius. Jim Hill. From day one, I couldn’t stand him. Drove a massive SUV, dressed to the nines, and treated everyone in the office like shit. Everything we did became a huge project.”

“I put together a spec for our next software release, he tells me it’s unacceptable. So he expands the spec and five months later we cut it back because the development group can’t get the work done in time. I set up meetings with industry analysts for our CEO, and he decides to take the meetings instead, pissing off a bunch of my contacts. I put together a presentation for a sales meeting with a Fortune 500 company, he decides it needs to be completely reworked, and makes me work through Labor Day weekend to get it done. Sales guys hate it and cancel the meeting.”

“What a tool.”

“Oh yeah. And it started getting personal. He fired one of my staff, said they were incompetent despite the fact the guy was one of the best graphic designers I’ve ever worked with. Hill hires a lady who used to work for him, moves her up from Boston, pays her nearly twice the salary of my designer, then all she does is ship out all the work to firms.”

The Gardiner was nice and quiet, so I slipped into the fast lane and ran it up to my customary 125 km per hour (that’s 80 miles per hour, for the metrically impaired).

“I was pretty much on my way out the door by the time we put that campaign together,” I nodded at the file in her lap. “He would have me put together a presentation to the executive team, not bother to read it, then when I presented it he would say the whole thing was garbage. Prick even tried to get me to swallow a salary cut, due to ‘budget’ issues. This is the same budget that was paying for his wife’s car.”

“I was ticked, and so were a lot of other senior people. Problem was, a few of us were doing all of the work. If we decided to stir things up, he was going to have a problem. So he started firing people, knocking them off one at a time. I saw the writing on the wall, so I offered myself up for a package. Would have been nice to see him get his, but I didn’t have the stomach to stay that long.”

“Sounds like you did the right thing.”

“Yeah. Honestly, the whole situation was getting to me. I wasn’t sleeping, started getting headaches all the time. At first he told me I should quit. But I wasn’t going to leave without something. I didn’t have a job to move to. Then people started noticing I was in a bad mood all the time. Didn’t help morale. So he caved.”

“The day after we settled on my package, we both signed off on the Version 3.0 campaign. Web ads, print, a small release party, two trade shows, all set for later in the year. I was gone the next week, and the ad ran the following month.”

“Huh.” She opened the file and scanned the ad again. Then she turned to me, a quizzical look on her face. “I still don’t get it.”

“It’s an inside joke. Read the first two paragraphs.”

Kara examined the page again.

The header indicated it was from the February issue of Software Solutions Magazine. Page 19, full page ad. The top of the page was a photo of several business folk facing a Gantt chart, some convoluted project plan. A diverse, well-dressed and good looking group of executives, all of whom were unemployed actors in real life. Below the image were a few paragraphs of text, followed by the tag line “TechnoSoft. Get a handle on your projects.”

The rest was dull marketing speak. She read the first paragraph aloud, then silently mouthed the rest.

When she finished reading, Kara glanced over at me.

“I know, I know. Terrible. But it was the best I could do in the circumstances. OK, now read the first letter in every line, then the last letter in every line.”

“Like a secret message? Cool. So, first letter in every line, then — J — i — m — h — i — l — l — i — s — a — n — Jim Hill is an asshole! Ohmigod!”

She had a wonderful bawdy laugh. I loved the counterbalance to her innocent looks.

“Did he figure it out?”

“Not when he approved it. No one did. Not the agency he insisted we use, my staff, the product guys or Hill. But when the ad came out, one of our customers spotted it and called him. Hill called me at home, sounded like he was going to pop a blood vessel.”

“What did he do?”

“What could he do? I had already been paid. And I pointed out that it was the first time that particular customer had called him in nearly two years. I think I called it ‘subversive marketing’. He put his lawyers on it, but I heard they couldn’t come up with anything to hang me on.”

“What on earth possessed you to do it?”

“Well, a few of us in marketing used to fool around with acrostics. That’s where you build a code into text. We’d slip something into a presentation. You know, “Hi Ron” or “TGIF”. That kind of thing. See if we could make one of the others crack up in the middle of a pitch. This time, I guess I just got a bit pissed off.”

“Wow. Remind me not to get on your bad side.”

“Never going to happen.”

We chatted all the way, not a single moment of uncomfortable silence. I dropped her off at her apartment building in the Annex, and watched as she passed through Reception and stepped into the elevator.

Nice lady. Too bad about the boyfriend.

CHAPTER 8

It wasn’t until Friday that I had a quiet moment to think some more about the connection between Maxim Legenko and my new friend Niki the Bull. I had just delivered a package in Rosedale, and was heading down Yonge Street (longest street in the world!) to the Financial District, when I realized I was passing the headquarters for Ruscan Industries. Seemed like as good a time as any to stop for lunch, so I turned onto St. Clair and slid the van into a 30 minute parking spot.

A moment later I was seated on a park bench across the street from the Ruscan Building, munching a sausage on a bun and trying not to spill sauerkraut in my lap.

Ruscan’s headquarters were housed in a pre-World War I five story structure. Nestled between a twenty story condo tower and a ten story office building, the Ruscan head office seemed the weak sister at first glance. But as I sat and looked, I noticed some of the fine detailing. Cornice molding framed the tops of the doors and windows. A number of ornamental sculptures, though I didn’t see any gargoyles. Decorative arches over the windows, which were made of that annoying reflective glass. But no cardboard silhouettes of falcons to scare away birds. They probably found a dead or dying bird lying outside the building once a week. Bastards.

Not sure what I expected to see. However it was the lunch hour. Maybe I would get lucky and spot someone. Far as I could tell, they did not have an underground garage.

I finished the sausage and missed on my attempted three pointer aimed at a nearby garbage bin when the first signs of activity started outside Ruscan headquarters. A group of secretaries strode out, intent on wasting no time getting to the local Starbucks. As I watched them move together, I mulled whether “group” was the right word. Should it be a flock of secretaries? Maybe a gaggle? Better yet, a gossip. Yes, a gossip of secretaries. It’s critical to spend time contemplating such important issues.

A few stragglers followed in the next five minutes. Then I began to see suits. At that point I slouched down, figuring that I shouldn’t make myself too visible if my mugger friend did indeed happen to exit the building.

I was kicking at a pigeon that had spotted a small piece of popcorn resting in front of the bench when out strolled Niki. No question about it, the greaseball himself.

Still displaying that ridiculous pseudo-beard. How on earth did he manage to keep it trimmed to a millimeter in length every day?

Today he wore a huge brown suede shirt with a seventies-length collar spread wide to display his chest. Standard thug black leather coat (though this one could have housed a family of three), and a cigarette that dangled from his lip. Right behind him followed Mr. Maxim Legenko. Lean bordering on thin, hair cut tight to the head in a military style.

Niki stepped to the sidewalk and signaled a limo which had been idling just down the street. As I watched, the limo pulled up and Niki opened the door for his boss, if that’s what Legenko was.

I watched as both men ducked into the car and the limo pulled into traffic.

So it wasn’t my imagination. Our thuggish friend had some sort of connection with the Legenkos.

I glanced back at the Ruscan building, the mirrored windows staring back like the eyes of a massive insect. I wasn’t done with this yet.

I was heading back to the office when my personal cell went off. A number I didn’t recognize.

“Pizza Weasel.”

“Hello?”

“Today’s special is deep fried weasel, with your selection of dipping sauce.”

“Uh, may I speak to Donnie, please.”

I can’t help it. I’m an idiot.

“You’re talking to him.”

“Oh! Donnie, it’s Amy Park.”

“Hey. Sorry to be a goof.”

“No problem. Jin told me of your situation.”

“Yeah, listen, I don’t want to impose.”

“No, no. I was going to say — do you have time for a coffee after work? I’m on the clock today, but I can take a few minutes, say around six? We can talk about it, see if I can help out in any way.”

Seemed more than reasonable, so we made plans to get together at a coffee shop she knew in Cabbagetown.

I had only met Amy Park once, five years ago. I couldn’t remember what she looked like, other than that she was attractive. Hopefully she would be the only Asian woman in the coffee shop. As it was, I got lucky.

Then again, how I forgot what Amy Park looked like is a complete mystery to me, and frankly a bit worrying.

Tall, at most an inch shorter than me, she wore an auburn suede jacket over a black blouse and slacks. No heels. Thick, midnight black hair, pulled back into a pony tail. Slim, with skin the color and texture of caramel.

I love caramel.

“Donnie?”

“Hey Amy.”

We sat in comfy chairs nestled in a corner of the shop. The place smelled great — roast beans with a hint of sweet pastries. She reminded me of the first time we had met, at a party at her cousin’s house, and I was secretly delighted I had made a lasting and not negative impression.

“So Jin was saying you were mugged?”

“Yeah, well-,” I shrugged, a bit embarrassed and a little concerned about speaking to a police officer, on the record or off.

“Listen, it’s OK. He mentioned you were leery of filing a report. Why don’t you tell me about it, and maybe I can come up with some suggestions for you.”

So I told her. About Clay and Niki, the gun, the package, and my discovery that Niki was somehow tied into Maxim Legenko. But not about the magic. I was still getting my own head around that.

“Really? Legenko?” That got her attention.

“I wouldn’t have believed it either, but I’m positive it’s him. I even have a picture.” I passed her a copy of the article and photo from the Daily Times. I had circled Niki’s face in pen.

“This him?”

“Absolutely.”

“You sure? You must have been pretty startled on the elevator. Memory is a funny thing.”

Yeah, I thought of that. Even wondered whether I made up the connection in my mind. But when I saw him on TV, during coverage of the trial, he was walking with Legenko, and I recognized the whole package. Not just his looks, but his clothes and the way he walked.

“I don’t think so. This guy’s pretty distinctive.”

“Hm.” She studied the photo. “You know, I think I’ve seen this guy before. Big guy, right? Six five or so?”

“Yeah.”

“I know I’ve seen him somewhere around town. One of the clubs, maybe. Listen, I’m going to check if he’s got a record. Do you mind if I keep this?”

“Go ahead. I know what he looks like.”

“I may also call the Ruscan Taskforce, see if he has come up in their investigation.”

“That would be great.”

“No problem. But listen — you’ve got to be careful. Guys like this don’t fool around.”

It was nice of her to care. Between her and Kara, I had two attractive women being nice to me on a daily basis, which left me very suspicious. Anyone who knows us realizes the Elder brothers never have good luck with women. It’s a basic law of nature.

My luck couldn’t last.

CHAPTER 9

Monday of Week Two began with an incident I will treasure for the remainder of my days. Unfortunately, it also put a damper on my erotic fantasy life, at least as it involved Amy, Kara, me and a tub full of strawberry jam. Sticky but sweet.

I had arrived early again, having resolved to clean the parcel racks before heading out in the morning. Not the biggest challenge, but I was beginning to feel proprietarial about the office. I also felt like I had to get to know every nook and cranny of the place. Eventually I could let others just do their jobs, but this was a great chance for me to delve through the innards without pissing anyone off.

One at a time I removed the parcels from each rack, wiped the metal bars clean with a rag, then replacing the parcels. I was replacing the items for Airport and Area when I happened to knock a small box off the edge of the rack.

I cringed and dove to grab the box. No luck.

“Shit.”

The box had fallen on its side between two columns of racks. I had to lie down and extend to my fullest to reach the damned thing, physical exertion which I did not appreciate this early in the day. But moments later I had recovered the item. Unfortunately, it seemed to be leaking, and a quick glance confirmed that there was also a small stain on the floor.

It took me a good five minutes to clean the liquid off the rack, the box and the floor, most of it spent lying stretched out on my side, squirming to reach the damned puddle at the bottom. Once I was finished, I managed to locate a plastic zipper bag for the package, wiped off the guck I had managed to get on my hand and wrist, and headed out front to look for Kara.

She was chatting with Jamar in the reception area, the two of them standing and sipping coffee.

“Hi guys.”

“Hey man.”

“Hi Donnie.”

Jamar looked his usual self this morning. Maybe the curse on his ring was wearing off or something. Kara, on the other hand — I don’t know whether she was wearing more mascara or had changed her eyeliner, but she was looking even hotter than usual. Her eyes had a definite ‘come hither and thou shall have a glorious time’ look about them. I paused, waiting for her to speak, but she just stared at me.

“Um. Can you check with a customer for me? I knocked over this package, and something leaked through the wrapping.”

“Sure.” I held out the package, but she put her coffee down and stepped towards me, closing the gap between us to paper thin.

I have to say, standing a few inches away from a hot babe is not something I should complain about. God knows it seldom happens to me. But we Elders have our issues with personal space, and Kara had invaded mine. I tried to lean back without causing any offense, but found myself bumping into the reception desk.

“Here you go.”

She ignored the package in my hand, now trapped between us. I could feel a hot flush rising up the back of my neck and my ears.

“Kara?”

“You are so hot.”

I snorted and looked to Jamar. I will admit to being gullible, but the quizzical look on his face suggested he was not in on the joke. So I looked back to Kara.

Problem was, I could feel the heat coming off of her. Her cheeks were red, eyes wild, nostrils flared, lips engorged. Jesus. I pressed back into the reception counter, now worried that she would notice how my slacks were beginning to bulge below the waist. However, that was the last thing I needed to worry about.

One moment we were frozen, inches from one another. The next, she launched herself at me, arms and legs wrapped around my hips and shoulders (arms to shoulders, legs to hips — pervert). And her lips. Those sweet, sweet lips.

I admit it. For what seemed like an eternity, I just went with it. My whole being was focused on her lips, pressed to mine, then her tongue thrusting into my mouth. I made a tentative move with my own tongue, and she vacuumed it into her warm mouth. I groaned in pleasure and that seemed to ramp it up even more. Now her hips were thrusting against me, and I could feel myself responding. It took every ounce of decency in me not to throw her onto the reception desk and start pulling off clothes.

Finally we both needed to breath and our mouths separated, just for a moment. And in that few seconds, the sheer lust which had overwhelmed me was beaten back just enough for me to act.

“Hang on, hang on. I mean-”

She was on me again, lips on mine, tongue exploring. And she smelled so good. Florals, vanilla, and a primal musk. Despite myself, I pushed her shoulders back, leaving her latched onto my hips and trying to pull herself forward with her arms. Her hair was feral, blond strands curling down to her lips.

“Kara?”

Her eyes were glowing embers.

“Babe?”

I looked around us, desperate to find a way out of this paradox of pleasure and pain.

“Jamar!”

“Dude.” He was halfway out the door, having concluded that spectators were not welcome.

“Get her off of me.”

“What?” He looked at me as though I had grown a third eye.

“I know, I know.” I swear I sobbed. “Please.”

He didn’t say anything, but I think he knew. Something was wrong about this. So very, very right. And yet wrong.

“Kara? Girl?” When she ignored him, he locked his arms around her waist from behind and pulled, with me pushing on her shoulders. I had a very bad feeling someone was going to walk in on us and conclude that the premises were being used for a low budget porn flick. It took a fair amount of work, but he pried her off of me and got her seated in one of the reception chairs.

“Kara? Babe, what are you doing?” Jamar held her down in the chair, trying to make eye contact with her. Her hair had a wild, post-coital look that won hands-down over any sleek sophisticated hairdo I’ve ever seen. I remained at the reception desk, tucking in my shirt and trying to rearrange the lap of my slacks.

“Jamar.”

“Kara. You OK, girl?”

“Let go of me.”

He glanced back at me and I shrugged. What the hell was going on?

“I’ll let go of you if you promise to be a good girl.”

“I don’t want to be a good girl.”

Oh my God.

“Babe?”

“Please, Jamar. I need him.”

The way she said that, I almost shoved Jamar out of the way and jumped her.

“What are you talking about, girl?”

“Why don’t I just get a few things done in the backroom?” I turned to go, and the screaming began.

“No! Donnie, I need you. I NEED YOU!”

“Run!” I swear, that’s what he said. It was like Jamar was the guy in the horror movie that decided to sacrifice himself to save his friends. Only this monster was five three, blond, and in heat.

I ran.

She had been talking dirty to me for fifteen minutes before Jamar was able to get through to Professor Irving.

I was trapped, sitting with my back against the inside of the door to the Lost and Found Room, listening to a smoking hot woman tell me what she was going to do to me if I would just open that door. It was like she had snuck into every private fantasy I had ever had, and was now offering to make them real, describing every act in explicit, excruciating detail. I was shaking like a heroin addict watching his last fix go down the toilet.

“Jamar!”

“I got it!”

“- and then I’m going to pour butterscotch syrup all over your-.”

“Got what? What?”

“He says there’s an incense stick in there with you. Third shelf from the floor, left side.”

I stood, and the door shook as Kara threw her shoulder into it.

“Which one?”

“Blue, with a white wax tip.”

OK. Got it.

“Slip it under the door to me.”

“- I can wear a uniform, anything you want. I can put on a nurse’s outfit, with the-.”

I was feeling lightheaded. I swear I thought I would pass out. It was as though my primitive brain was scrabbling to override the slim thread of decency that was holding me together. I dropped to my knees and slid the candle under the door to Jamar.

“Hang on, big guy.”

“- just want to run my tongue all over-.”

I heard a match strike, and Jamar’s calm voice.

“Breath this, babe. Take a deep breath.”

“I don’t want to breathe your stupid-.” Kara’s voice petered out.

“Jamar?”

I listened for a sound, anything that might indicate what was going on.

“Kara?”

I could hear her voice. A whisper. “What — ? What was — ? Oh.”

I opened the door and peered around the corner just in time to see her turn and sprint to the front of the shop, hands to her face and tears streaming down her cheeks.

If it wasn’t clear to me earlier, it was clear to me at that moment. God has every intention of ensuring that the Elder family name comes to an end with Ted and me. No wonder my mother always seems so unhappy.

I suppose I could at least be thankful that it was Maggie’s day in the office. In her fifties, Maggie had a son who was nearly as old as Kara, and a daughter just a few years younger. She also had a kind face and a soothing voice.

Jamar was kind enough to bring her up to speed, so a few minutes later she was able to talk Kara out of the washroom and calm her down. I figured staying out of the way was a priority, so I used the time to stock the van, all the while mulling over what had just happened.

“You OK?”

I turned, and Jamar had a strange look on his face. Half smile, half concern.

“Yeah. I mean, it’s not like I could complain, is it?”

We both chuckled softly, trying to avoid Kara hearing anything.

“Is she OK?”

“She’s embarrassed. I think she’s scared you’re going to fire her.”

“What? I’ll go talk to her. It wasn’t her fault. It was the potion.” That was one thing we had figured out. The liquid I had spilled by the racks was some sort of a “love potion”. At least that’s what Professor Irving told Jamar. When things quieted down and I had a chance to check the package it would all start to make sense. Destination: Hidden Pleasures.

“Yeah, well-,” he looked away, and I sensed he wasn’t telling me something.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“Jamar — I am going to go talk to her now. If there is something you know that will assist me in not digging myself deeper into this mound of steaming shit, I would appreciate it if you told me now.”

He looked at me as though weighing my intentions.

“The fact is, I think she likes you. But she’s got a boyfriend. Which just makes all of this even worse.”

Shit.

I was elated. Deflated. Frustrated. I had a chance, and I may have just blown it. Because I was a clumsy oaf.

“Shit.”

“Yeah. No kidding. So she’s mortified by what happened. Plus it was all a bit, you know, a bit raunchy. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.”

“Shit.”

It was all I had to say.

I went out front a few minutes later, intending to tell her everything was OK. But she couldn’t look me in the eye. And to be honest, my hormones started raging the second I got a whiff of her perfume. I swear my mouth started watering.

So I kept it simple. Told her I was sorry about screwing up. Didn’t intend to spill the stuff. Never imagined something might have that effect on a woman. I respected her as a person, and as a colleague. Try to put it behind us. She kept quiet the whole time, though I sensed she wanted to say something.

So I headed out back to get on with the morning deliveries, leaving both of us to spend the next few hours mulling over sixty seconds of rapture.

When I returned from lunch, Jim and Harold didn’t seem worried. I could hear them laughing in the lunchroom from the back of the loading area. Kara and Maggie had stepped out to go for a walk, leaving me to feel like a huge pile of steaming horse doody. Fortunately, Jamar was at the desk. He reassured me that Kara didn’t hold anything against me. If anything, she felt horrible and was worried I would hate her for the events of the morning.

The look on my face said it all.

“I know, man. No guy in the world will ever hate a woman for jumping his bones.”

Laughing, I returned to the back to grab my sandwich and a few minute’s peace. But Jamar paged me before I could get in a bite. I sighed and grabbed the wall phone.

“Hey.”

“It’s your lucky day. You’ve got the guys from BOA again.”

Great. Just what I needed.

“Can you tell them I’m out?”

“They spotted you pulling in. I have a sneaky feeling they were waiting for you to return from your route.”

I sighed, then went out to meet with the BOZOS, as I had come to think of them. I would have to make a serious effort to be polite.

“Folks.”

It was Spitzer and his female colleague again. Same uniforms, though this time both wore black gloves and camo ballcaps in deference to the cooler weather. Spitzer glared at me with a look just short of open hostility.

“We understand someone made use of a Class 1 Restricted agent this morning.”

So much for the niceties.

“Guys. Class 1? Class 2? I still don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.”

Spitzer stared at me as though trying to determine whether I was an idiot, or just stubborn. Fact is, I can be both.

“This morning,” his colleague was back to her notebook again, “around oh-seven hundred hours, a Class 1 mixing agent was used to initiate a spell on these premises. The medium utilized is unknown, however we believe it may have involved a potion, unction or incense.”

“Unction?” My eyebrow went up. These guys were weird. “I have no idea-.”

Wait a second.

“What time did you say?”

“Oh-seven hundred.”

Shit.

“OK. Around seven a.m. I accidentally knocked over one of our delivery packages, and spilled a few drops of the contents in our backroom.”

That caught their attention. Spitzer flipped to a new page, and pulled a pen from his back pocket.

“What, if anything, resulted?”

“Well… “

They stared at me.

“We had an incident. One of the staff became somewhat affectionate. To me.” Christ, this was humiliating.

The woman spoke, a nasty tone of sarcasm in her voice.

“And was this ‘staff person’ aware she was under the influence of magic?”

“What?”

“Was she aware she was under the influence of magic?” Voice was getting a little shrill… “Or did you just bang her on this conference table and leave her to wonder what had happened?”

“Nice.” Bitch. “As it happens, one of my colleagues assisted me in defusing the situation until we were able to obtain aid in neutralizing the, uh, unction.”

“Is it safe to assume that the affected person was your receptionist, Miss-” she checked her book “Sinclair?”

The look on her face suggested she was interviewing a convicted rapist. As if I wasn’t feeling bad enough, I was starting to feel like one.

“Yes.”

“And you’re saying this was accidental.”

“Yes.”

They both gave me the same look my mother used to give me when I came home from a party and denied having anything to drink. At least when that happened I was too drunk to care.

“How were you affected by the spell?”

Me? Well, I got jumped by a pretty girl.

“I wasn’t.”

“How do you mean?”

“I’m not sure what you’re asking. I wasn’t affected. Kara was.”

They traded a look, again making me feel like I was being excluded from their little club.

“I thought you said this incident was not deliberate?”

“It was an accident. If I wanted to get involved with her, I would just ask her out.”

Silence.

“And then she would reject me, and that would be that. Anyways, I’m not about to do that kind of thing.”

“You’re saying you have no interest in a relationship with Miss Sinclair?”

“No. Well, yes.” Now I was going in circles, I think. I rubbed my eyes, and sighed.

“Let’s move on, shall we?”

After they finished questioning me, the two of them insisted on waiting for Kara to return in order that they could meet with her. I wanted to wait for them to finish with her, to make sure she was alright. But we were already behind, and couldn’t afford more delays.

Maggie seemed convinced the whole thing would blow over, that there were no hard feelings, just embarrassment.

“What a nightmare.”

“Well, it could be worse.”

I squinted at Maggie, trying to see how that was possible. All I could see was a glint in her eye that suggested mischief.

“Imagine if Jamar hadn’t been here to help.”

Oh, I was desperately trying not to imagine that.

I asked her to call me when Kara got out of the BOA session, to let me know she was alright.

I trudged to the back, feeling lower than I had felt in a long, long time.

By six, I was exhausted. Big Jim and Harvey had finished for the day, and Maggie had left after checking one more time that Kara was alright. Jamar was helping me tidy up in the back, while Kara waited at reception for her ride home.

My brain should have been able to put one and one together when Maggie told me Kara had gotten a ride in that morning and would be picked up by a quarter past six. Should have, but I guess I wasn’t thinking all that clearly.

So when I heard voices out front, one soft and calm, and the other harsh and escalating in volume, I figured it was none of my business. At least, not until a tall fellow wearing a dark suit, blue shirt, striped tie and black shoes stormed along the corridor from reception, past the bullpen and into the garage where Jamar and I were finishing up.

Things became a little clearer when that same fellow strode up to me and planted a right jab hard on my chin.

I spun and fell to a knee, as much shocked as anything else.

“Chad! No! I told you — it wasn’t his fault!”

“Yeah, right!” Chad grabbed the collar of my shirt and pulled me back to my feet, turning me as he did so. “Sonofabitch.”

Another punch, this one glancing off my cheekbone.

Behind the angry boyfriend, I could see Jamar holding Kara, tears running down her cheeks.

“I’m sorry. Look, it was an accident-.”

He was still throwing punches, with me bobbing and moving my head to lessen the impact. No damage so far, but the last thing I needed was to open up the cut on my forehead or aggravate my concussion.

Finally, Jamar stepped forward and took hold of Chad by the shoulders, dragging him out of the fray. He took a couple of elbows to the face in the process, though I don’t think those were deliberate.

“Asshole!”

“It was my fault, and it never should have happened.”

I tried to explain, but by then Kara had taken hold of him and was angrily maneuvering him to the door. By the time they were in his car — a slick BMW M3 convertible, of course — I was seated in the bullpen with a bag of ice pressed to my cheek.

Time to call it a day.

On the way home I put a call into Clay and Harper at the hospital.

Harper sympathized with me, and said she would call Kara that night to make sure she was alright and reassure her there were no hard feelings about the boyfriend’s outburst. Throughout it all, I could almost see the smile on Clay’s face. If laughter was the best medicine, Clay would be up and dancing the tango within a day or two.

That night Amy called. It was great to hear her voice, particularly in light of the day I had just had. Though to be honest, the last thing I needed was to get any hornier. I was beginning to feel like a teenage boy in heat.

No wonder my pranks were getting so puerile. I was normally so mature.

Right.

“Whores and s’mores. Sticky outdoor fun. Adults only, please.”

“Aagh. That’s disgusting.” At least she was laughing at my jokes. I’ve got to say, she was a hell of a lot more patient than most women I’ve known. “Hey — we’ve got a file on him. Nikolay Kuzmenko. Immigrated to Canada in 1998, from Russia. Same neighborhood in Moscow as Maxim Legenko. Served 38 months in Joyceville for possession for the purpose of trafficking and assault. He’s been off the radar for five years now.”

“Wonderful. Why would a guy like Legenko hook up with this idiot?”

“Good question. My contact in the Taskforce tells me there have been rumors all along that Legenko is tied into the Russian mob. Kuzmenko fits the profile, and they’re from the same hometown. I know the Organized Crime guys investigated Legenko’s possible mob connection a few years back, but they couldn’t prove anything. Ironically, it was some of that work that opened up the door to the current trial.”

“Hm. Maybe Legenko’s still mobbed up.”

“Could be, but my sense is they see the fraud case as the only real chance they have to put him away. Either way, Donnie, you have to stay away from this Kuzmenko dude. He’s serious trouble.”

“I hear ya.”

“Do you? It sounds to me like the gears are turning in that head of yours.”

“Don’t worry. I’m not going to do anything stupid.”

“Well don’t. Listen, I’ll be on nights for the next week or so, but call me if anything else comes up.”

“Sounds good.”

That should have been it. A simple ‘talk to you later’ and I would have been home free. But oh no, I couldn’t possibly be that intelligent. I had to stir up the wasp nest, then drop it down my own shorts.

It occurred to me, out of the blue, that I no longer had any chance with Kara in the foreseeable future. Not only were things incredibly awkward, but how could either of us tell whether it was just some strange after-effect of the love potion? Let alone the fact that she worked for me. So just yesterday, I had two intelligent, sexy women that acknowledged my existence. Now I only had one! For some reason, that led me to think that I should make my move on Amy.

I had forgotten my own cardinal rule of dating. The possibility that a girl might go out with you is far preferable to the certainty that she never wants to see you again.

Stupid, stupid me.

“Say, are you up for a drink at some point?”

“Why, Mr. Elder. Are you asking me out on a date?”

Well yes, I was. But I hated it when girls focused that much attention on it. Freaked me out. Not that I’m commitment-averse or anything.

“Depends. How do you define a date?”

“Hm. Let’s see. OK. One person asks the other out, with the hope that it might turn into something.”

“Turn into what?”

“A long-lasting relationship. True love. Marriage. Kids.”

“Aagh!” I admit it. I panicked. Or maybe it was an after-shock from my experience with Kara. Either way, I blurted out the first thing that came to mind. “What if one person asks the other out, with the hope that it might lead to meaningless sex?”

The line was quiet, and time seemed to barely move, like the flow of ketchup from a bottle when you’re desperate to cram down a plate of French fries. I stopped breathing, and imagined tearing out my own tongue by the root, then flogging myself with it as penance for my outright stupidity.

“Was that what you had in mind?”

Kill me. Kill me now. I was caught in a dilemma of my own making. Tell her no, and have her think I was not attracted to her. Tell her yes, and have her think I was only interested in her body. It was like I had littered a field with landmines, blindfolded myself, and gone for a walk. There was no good answer. I was gay or an asshole. Not that there’s anything wrong with either.

“Donnie?”

“Hi. Uh-.” Crack a joke, that’ll break the ice. “Uh-.” Say something! “Uh, I’d love to have sex with you! But that’s not why I’m asking you out for a drink. I mean, that’d be great, but I like you too, and we wouldn’t have to, you know, not for like a while. And if you just wanted to be friends that’s OK too. But I am attracted to you. I mean, you’re hot. Totally. But I’m a bit of an idiot, so I know I don’t have much of a chance. I, uh, shit.”

It would have been easier to get on a plane, fly to Tehran, and walk through town wearing an “I Love George Bush” t-shirt while drawing humorous caricatures of Mohammed. At least then I would know for sure I was a dead man. In fact, I was holding the phone away from my ear in order to press the Off button, when I heard her laughter build from a whisper to a roar. Putting the receiver back to my ear, I heard her laugh and laugh and laugh. And laugh. Only problem was, I didn’t know if she was laughing with me, or about me.

“Hello? Hellooooo? Amy? You having a good time?”

“Yes- Ha ha- Oh, Donnie. Yes, I am having a good time. Boy, for a good-looking guy, you are the most insecure thing. Don’t worry. I’d love to get together for a drink, date or not. See ya.”

She hung up, and I sat back in my sofa, feeling pretty damned good about myself for the first time that day.

CHAPTER 10

For the second time in just two weeks, I was visiting a customer on a mea culpa visit. Not the best for customer relations, if I was going to take over this business from Clay one day. There was no getting around it, though. Pain deferred is seldom pain avoided.

As it was, there were worse places to visit. Hidden Pleasures was a gentlemen’s club. Or, as some of Ted’s buds might have called it, a titty bar. Admittedly a higher class of joint than the type those guys frequented, but the basic concept was the same.

No one out front, so I strolled through two large oak doors into a lobby, reception at one end and coat check at the other. A young lady — clothed — welcomed me at reception.

“Welcome to Hidden Pleasures. Table for one?”

This was mortifying. I found these places embarrassing as it was, never mind being on my own in one. Not just that, it was my second visit in two weeks. I wasn’t here on “personal business”, but good luck explaining that if I ran into someone I knew. I would rather be found wearing woman’s underwear. Maybe not. But it would be a toss up.

“Uh, no. I’m here to see Melodi Roberts? I’m with Arcane Transport.” I tapped the company logo on my shirt.

“Sure, come with me.” She led me through another set of doors, these with clouded glass inserts.

The inner sanctum.

A stage dominated the room. Shaped like a “T”, the main stage ran across the back of the room, with a single runway platform extending out into the seating area. A few poles were scattered around the stage, with pot lights, a couple of mirrors and the ubiquitous mirror ball.

Chairs lined the front of the stage, paired in front of small tables. The rest of the main floor was taken up with large round dinner tables surrounded by chairs and a small stool at each. My recollection was that the stool was for the girls — easier to step up onto the table for a dance. It was three in the afternoon, late for a liquid lunch, but even so there were groups at five tables, and another six or seven loners interspersed between the bar and the stage-side seats. Two girls were dancing on stage to some Nickleback song, and a lady clad in a bikini was sitting with a group at one of the tables. A waitress was carting a tray lined with pints of beer toward the same table.

The opposite wall from the stage was broken up by two bars, both western-style with brass foot rails to rest your boots on, fixed bar stools and a lighted canopy. At the near end of the bar was a narrow hallway to the washrooms (men and ladies, I was interested to note).

“Just in here.”

The hostess led me through an access hatch in the bar to the door of the Manager’s office. She entered ahead of me, leaving me standing on my own for a moment. I smiled awkwardly at the bartender, who was stocking one of the multiple fridges lining the inner wall of the bar.

I heard a brief conversation, then the door opened and the hostess waved me in.

Now let’s get something on the table right now. While my experience with peeler bars was limited, I suspect my expectations regarding the owners of such establishments are typical. Overweight bald guys with hair sticking out of the back collar of their shirts, rings on every finger, and various scars that hinted at their management techniques. When Kara had told me that the owner was a lady, I had revised my mental image to include as an alternate an overweight frizzy haired woman with rings on every finger, multiple gaudy necklaces and a drinker’s voice. As usual, I was dead wrong.

The office was simple and professional. Oak desk, two simple visitor chairs, a bookshelf and a few old movie posters. Seated behind the desk was a petite lady wearing a tan jacket, black silk blouse open to the navel over a white tank top, and beige slacks. She wore funky oval glasses, with long straight brown hair swept back from her pretty face. Combining the look with her rather significant frontal globes, she had the sexy librarian look down pat.

It was official. The specialty courier industry had the hottest chicks. Hands down.

“Melodi Roberts.”

“Donnie Elder.”

She smiled, shook hands and offered me a seat.

“Would you like a drink?”

Lord, could I use a beer. “No thanks.”

She nodded, and the receptionist departed the room, closing the door behind her.

“So you’re working with Clay now?”

“Yeah. He was looking to take on a partner. Though I don’t think anyone anticipated the last two weeks.”

“Oh my God, yes. Kara was telling me about his heart attack. Is he alright?”

“I think so. He’s heading home tomorrow. Seems to be in good spirits.”

“Well, I’m glad.”

That was it for the pleasantries, and a split second gap in the conversation stretched into a pregnant pause. I focused on keeping my eyes up. For a second, I thought I saw a smile cross Melodi’s face, but that was no doubt my own paranoia.

“I thought I should apologize in person for my mess-up with your package yesterday.” Maggie had called to let them know while I was on morning deliveries. She said they were fine, but I was not. I couldn’t afford to screw up like this. Clay was depending on me.

“It’s-.”

I raised my hands, asking her patience to let me finish.

“I feel terrible about this. The last thing you need to worry about is whether you can trust us to service your company. It won’t happen again.”

“I know.” She smiled, and again I felt like I was missing out on something. “Kara called me, and told me all about it.”

Aaagh. It had never crossed my mind that Kara might speak to the Hidden Pleasures folks, let alone that she might be friends with the owner. What had she said? Did she make me out like some kind of jerk, trying to get in her pants? Who else had she talked to? I felt my ears and neck heating up, and here it came again. A blush crossed my cheeks.

Melodi burst out laughing.

“She said you would be embarrassed!”

I have come to believe that my primary reason for being on this planet is to provide women with a few laughs. Every day, I endure some form of confirmation of this belief.

“I just feel like a total ass. I mean, here she is, this wonderful lady, and I manage to spill a love potion on myself? A love potion? Come on. I’m a total dickhead.”

“Relax. She’s not blaming you.”

“Good. I’m trying to make a good impression, you know — as her boss and everything. And-,” I shrugged.

Melodi smiled, and said exactly what I wanted to hear.

“Don’t worry. Kara’s not mad. If anything, I think she’s as embarrassed as you are.”

“Oh God, I hope not.”

“She’s pretty embarrassed. One thing, though. I’m curious. When Clay was telling me about your coming on board, he said you had never had any exposure to magic?”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

“But the potion didn’t affect you?”

People kept asking me that. “Nope. I mean, not in the same way it seemed to effect Kara.”

“A quarter of the bottle?”

I winced. “Sorry.”

“No, it’s okay, it’s just — that’s quite a lot for it to have no effect on you.”

I shrugged. “Can’t explain it.”

“Hm. Interesting.”

I waited for her to follow up on the thought, but apparently it was something she wanted to mull over.

After that, we spoke about my background. I had a question of my own, though I was reluctant to ask it.

“You’re asking yourself how a lady like me ended up in a place like this.”

I am transparent to women.

I nodded. Don’t take me wrong, if Melodi wanted to work in a club, so be it. It was none of my business. Still, she didn’t seem the type, whatever that was.

“Well.” She leaned forward, a wonderful sight if I hadn’t been so focused on not looking. A perfectly manicured hand turned a picture frame resting on her desk towards me. The photo showed a father and daughter. Melodi and her dad, I presume. Dad himself was nothing like my mental image of the peeler bar owner, either. Tall, slim and well-groomed.

“My Dad and me. He started the club with my mother when they first moved here from Windsor. When my mom left, it was just him running the place, so I started helping out. A little time at reception, then the bar.”

I said nothing, but once again my poker face was not up to the task.

“No, I never danced. But when my dad passed away, I had a choice — sell the place or run it. I can’t say it was one of my lifelong dreams when I was a little girl, but it’s a good place to work. I get some of the best girls because of the way I treat them. And we have managed to maintain a high level of customer.”

“Makes sense, to be honest. Just wasn’t what popped into mind.”

“No, I guess not. But it’s worked out pretty well.”

“I can see that. Well, listen. I wanted to apologize to you, and to say that if there’s anything we can do to make it up to you down the road, you just-.”

“Kara said you would offer.”

I paused. I felt like I was a marionette, with every woman in my life holding the strings. Most days my mother was the number one puppeteer, but on other days it was just whichever woman happened to get a hold of the controls.

“Uh huh.” Master of witty repartee, that’s me.

“And there is something.”

The strangest feeling came over me. A mix of dread, anticipation, excitement and fear. Seemed like I was incapable of experiencing one emotion at a time anymore. Partly I was curious to know how I could help out around this place. Can’t say it seemed like hard time.

“One of my doormen can’t work this week, and we have a big convention renting the main floor on Thursday night. I wouldn’t worry about it, but the guy who can make it is pretty green. Kara said she thought you or your brother had worked door in the past?”

Kara had said? When the hell had I… Oh, yeah. We had talked about jobs in college over lunch the other day, and I think I had mentioned that Ted and I worked door at the University Pub. She remembered that?

“Yeah. We both worked door at one of the U of T pubs. Ted still works door on occasion. He’s done the Brunswick House, Horseshoe.”

“The Brunny?”

“Yeah, I guess they sponsored his hockey team one year, and he got to know the manager.”

“Any chance you could help us out?”

I paused for a moment. I could offer to help out, but I hadn’t worked door in a long time. Can’t say I was looking forward to standing up to a bunch of drunken businessmen on a weeknight. Ted, though… He still worked door from time to time, and he was always looking for a free beer. The only problem was that he was Ted.

What was more important? Saying yes to her request, or taking the chance that Ted might make a complete ass of himself, resulting in the requirement for another apology? It was a coin flip at best.

But I owed her. And, in case you hadn’t noticed, I’m a sucker for a pretty lady. So I told her I would call Ted right there and then. And lo and behold, he agreed.

CHAPTER 11

The next three days were uneventful, other than several awkward moments when Kara and I found ourselves together. Plus the one afternoon where Chad dropped by to have lunch with her and spent the entire time scowling in my direction.

As the days passed we both relaxed and things returned to the comfortable atmosphere of the prior week. I have to admit, though — every time I was within three yards of her, the hairs on the back of my neck rose and I felt blood rushing to a certain extremity. It was like I was addicted to her fragrance. Men are dogs, and Dr. Pavlov would have found me a very predictable one indeed.

On Thursday night I was resigned to an evening in the office. John Vranic was in a bit of a panic about our GST returns, and had asked if I would mind keeping the office open one night so he could get them done. I agreed, figuring I could use the time to catch up on a few things that had fallen between the cracks with Clay out of the picture.

Jamar was the last out the door after Kara had shut down Dispatch, and couldn’t resist getting another dig in. It had become a daily ritual.

“I’m telling you, Donnie. This would be a lot easier if you two just got it on.”

Right. As if that was ever going to happen.

I took a playful swipe at him, but he danced out of my reach and threw his backpack over his shoulder.

“See you tomorrow.”

So I was the only one in the office when the walking flagpole showed up.

“Hey, thanks for sticking around. I want to get these filings completed, so we don’t end up with any late filing penalties or interest.”

“No problem.” I stepped aside, and John maneuvered past me with a barrister’s briefcase and two expanding files in his arms. “Better you than me, big guy.”

As John worked his way to the back, I glanced around the lot. Signs and More closed at six, like we did. A rusted Accord that the building janitor drove sat out front of their unit. We had him in twice a week, but I was pretty sure the other tenants had him in more often.

The Sofa Gallery was open until nine, but I had never seen any vehicle parked in front of that shop other than the Lexus that sat there every day. In front of the Urban Jungle sat ten or twelve cars — every one of them a minivan. Must be a birthday party or something. I locked up, and headed back.

John was seated and hard at work in one of the offices. He looked like one of those dipping birds, his head and shoulders at a precarious angle over the desk as though he was about to tip forward. Same white shirt, solid charcoal grey suit and black tie he was wearing the last time I saw him. His initials were stitched on the cuff of his shirt, which made sense since there was no way he was buying suits off the rack.

“John.” He glanced up. “Feel free to go casual whenever you’re in the office. We’re a pretty relaxed place.”

“Thanks.” He stretched back in the chair. “I prefer the suit. Helps me stay focused.”

“Really? I got fed up with ties.”

“I tend to forget I’m even wearing one.”

“Okay. Well, I’ll be puttering about. If you need anything, just let me know.”

“Thanks. I’ll try to finish by ten at the latest.”

I wandered out into the middle of the staging area and stood for a moment, hands on my hips. I had a sudden impulse to throw my hands in the air and proclaim “Mine! All this is mine!” At least it might be if I didn’t keep screwing up.

I dealt with the vans first. Jim kept the car at his place, so I would take a glance at it over lunch hour the following day.

Both vehicles were in good running condition, but I had managed to make a mess of the interior of Arcane 1 in the past few weeks (Clay had swung for vanity plates a few years earlier — Arcane 1, Arcane 2 and Arcane 3). Crumpled food wrappers, empty pop bottles, the Sports section from nearly a weeks’ worth of Toronto Star issues. I dragged the recycling bins over and worked my way through the mess.

I was vacuuming when John called out, damn near causing me to soil myself.

“Didn’t hear you there.”

“Sorry about that. You want some pizza? I was going to order in.”

“Sure.”

“Pepperoni and cheese? Anything else?”

“Nah, that’s fine.”

He strode off, leaving me to finish with the van.

After dinner I finished with the sorting area, hit the lights and moved to Clay’s office (now mine too, I suppose). Maggie had put aside a tottering stack of paperwork for me to go through, and I did just that, my feet kicked up and chair leaning at an angle which threatened its structural integrity. I grabbed the top few items off the stack and started reading.

A couple of credit notes for customers who had overpaid accounts, bless their souls. One reminder letter about a past due account. Bindings bookshop, owned by a Dr. Bernie Galt. I’d met Galt on my first day, but only briefly. Clay had since warned me about him, and he was right, the guy was proving to be a pain in the butt.

Two checks to be signed — one to DeVenny Devos (John’s firm), the other to our landlord. Clay had signed those checks in the past, but he seemed delighted to pass the responsibility to me. He had online access to the accounts anyways, and seemed confident that we would let him know if anything unusual came up.

I went through the weekly cash flow statement along with the balance sheet and income statement for the prior month, which I knew were e-mailed to Clay and Harper.

There was also a commentary on the April financials, summarizing results versus prior year and prior quarter and reviewing a few key metrics. The biggies were on time delivery, customer queries and complaints, committed schedules for the remainder of the year. I’m embarrassed to admit that the analysis was more detailed and reflected more knowledge of the business than anything I had ever seen at my previous employer, which had twenty times the revenue, fifty times more employees and zero profit.

There was a letter from John confirming that payroll deductions for the month had been remitted. Also an old memo reminding Clay that March and April were tight months for DeVenny Devos due to tax time. Not an issue for us, since Arcane’s year end was October 31, like the big banks. I suppose all major organizations think alike.

We had received a recommendation from the insurance brokers regarding the upcoming renewals. Looked like a small increase, but expanded coverage. Sounded good to me, and I made a note to that effect for Maggie.

A few other odds and ends, including a note from Kara suggesting a few purchases to stock up the office. I was getting to the end of the stack when John’s voice rang out.

“Mr. Elder, do you hear that?”

Every time he called me that I aged five years.

“What was that?”

I heard him rise from his seat, then he appeared at the door. His face was flushed, and it took me a moment to realize that he was blushing. Embarassed?

“Sounded like scratching. Through the wall. And I thought I saw a light go on in there.”

I glanced into the staging bay. Dark, and as far as I could tell, very empty.

“Haven’t heard anything myself.”

“Huh.” He seemed hesitant. “Sorry about that, must be my imagination.”

The big man disappeared from sight. Ten seconds later, he was back.

“OK, you must have heard that.”

“Nooooo…” Hadn’t heard a thing. Was young Mr. Vranic a little loopy? They said dentists often went over the edge. Was accounting not an equally soul draining profession?

John stepped out into the kitchen area and stood stock-still. A man may not be able to perk up his ears like a hunting dog, but he gave a close approximation. It was enough to cause me to stop chewing my gum and listen.

“Huh.” There was a scratching sound. Coming from the staging bay, I thought.

“You hear that, eh? Not just my imagination.”

“Nope. Not unless we’re both on the same drugs.” I eased my chair back, figuring I was better not to scare off whatever had made its way into the building.

“What do you think it is?”

“No idea. Raccoon, maybe? Little bastards can get in anywhere. Maybe a squirrel? Rat?”

“Rats… brrrrr. I hate rats.” He actually cringed when he said it. Mind you, I’m not a big fan of rats, either.

“Well, let’s check it out.” I stepped out into the staging bay and glanced around, but it was real dark in there. The only sources of light were the kitchen and an emergency exit light over the back door.

After peering into the dark without success, I flicked the three light switches for the overheads. The fluorescents sputtered, then lit up the room. John and I edged our way further into the staging bay. I have no doubt we looked like a pair of idiots.

“Where do you think it was coming from?” I glanced around, but there was no sign of any animals or any damage. I scanned the package racks to make sure nothing had been torn open. That would have made my day.

“It sounded like it was inside the wall, or just on the other side.”

I turned to scan the wall adjacent to the office John had been working in, and felt a sinking feeling in my stomach.

Lost and Found Room.

“Shit.”

It took me a few moments, but I got my nerve up and unlocked the door to the Lost and Found Room. At the same time I stabbed my hand out and flicked on the light switch.

I eased the door open and we both stood surveying the room.

“See anything?” John’s whisper came from just behind my left shoulder.

Same as usual. Nothing appeared to have been disturbed. I shrugged and stepped back to scan the rest of the docking area. John moved into the room, leaning back as though ready to defend himself against attack. I couldn’t see anything under the vans.

As I turned back to the room John was in, I could see that the only places where something might be hiding were in the stack of carpets or the clothes rack at the back…

“There!”

I saw it. Something, anyways. The hem of a dark raincoat had moved, and the belt was swinging. John moved forward, and parted the clothes along the wall.

Sitting on its haunches, staring at him with whiskers twitching and obsidian eyes, was the biggest darned rodent I have ever seen. A good ten or eleven inches, with a tail again as long.

“Shit! Shit, shit, shit-!” As he darted past me into the staging bay, John’s voice rose in pitch, the exact opposite of the Doppler effect an ambulance siren makes as it passes you. He sounded like an eight year old girl.

I snorted, but when I turned back the rat was gone from sight so I followed in his footsteps.

“Did he get out of the room?”

“No. No way. I would have seen it. Jesus, did you see the size of that thing!”

“Big bugger. OK, let’s see if we can corner him.” I moved into the room this time, figuring John’s pride would force him to follow me. A few seconds later he shuffled in. I began peering behind the carpets and a few pieces of furniture, while John moved to the clothing racks.

“He must still be behind the clothes. I’m going to have to move the rack out from the wall.”

“There.”

Yup. John was right in front of the rack, and that jacket moved again. This time I could see eyes shining in the dark of the shadows. It occurred to me at that moment that our little visitor might bite, or worse yet have rabies or some damned rat flu. So when I began to move, I did so with extreme caution. Grasping the metal rack, I began to pull it out from the wall. A dark body darted out from under the rack and dove into a gap in the stack of carpets.

This time John flinched as though he had stuck his finger in an electrical socket. He didn’t move, but the blood ran from his face, and his eyes were as wide as one of those Japanese cartoon characters on Teletoon.

“You okay?”

He was breathing, but it was shallow and quick. I had a bad feeling that I was going to see a six foot seven man faint at my feet if I wasn’t careful. Glancing back to make sure the rat hadn’t shown itself again, I turned and led John out of the room, closing the door behind me.

We were back in the kitchen before he seemed to regain his wits.

“Sorry. Sorry.”

“No problem. That is one big rat. He could take on any mouser we set on him.”

“I’m scared shitless of those things. My brother tucked one into my bed sheets when I was in grade two, and every time I see one I remember the damned thing scratching and clawing to get out.”

Great. Somehow I had managed to terrify my accountant. I suppose others can say the same, but those cases tend to involve an SEC investigation or a shareholder lawsuit.

“Listen, why don’t we call it a night? I’ll take a few minutes to see if I can sweep the little bugger out the back door. If I have no luck, I’ll get an exterminator in tomorrow.”

Relief crossed his face. It was like I had given him a three month extension on this year’s tax returns. He was that happy.

“You sure?”

He tried to put up a brave face, and I appreciated that. But five minutes later he was out the door and on his way home. Ten o’clock on the button. Leaving me to face Mr. Rat on my own.

“Here, Ratty Ratty.” I had taken to brute force measures, and was carrying a hockey stick I had plucked from the trunk of my car.

To avoid an exhausting chase around the entire office, I entered the Lost and Found Room and closed the door behind me.

I started with the stack of carpets, rugs and similar furnishings. As I lifted each with one hand, I held the hockey stick out. I felt like some cheesy lion tamer, carpet and stick instead of chair and whip. Each time I lifted a carpet I leaned it against the wall to make sure Mr. Rat couldn’t dart into a new hiding spot.

No luck.

I turned back to the coat rack. No swaying hems. I pulled it out further from the wall. Nothing.

Time to get creative.

I started behind the door, scanning every inch of the wall and floor for holes or hiding spots. They’re not a sneaky as mice, but rats can get through much smaller spaces than you might think.

I glanced inside the centre of one of the carpet rolls and lifted it, thumping it down on the floor. Nothing fell out. Same for each of the other rolls. Checked the back of the dressers to make sure there were no holes he might have used to climb into one. Rifled through the clothes on the rack, even searching pockets.

Nothing.

Shit. It must have gotten out into the bay.

I opened the door and stared around the open room. This was going to take a while.

I stumbled in the door of my apartment at a quarter to two in the morning. Not exactly working the nine to five.

I ended up checking the staging bay, the package racks, the vans, the two offices, the kitchen (including the fridge and all of the cabinets), the washroom, reception and the front conference room. No luck. Little bastard had gone into hiding. Ninja rat.

I made a mental note to have Kara get an exterminator in as soon as possible the next day. Last thing we needed was for the damned thing to poke its head out while she was talking to a customer. Or worse yet, have it chew through a couple of delivery packages.

The apartment was dark and quiet, leading me to assume Ted was sleeping at his place. I would have heard his snoring otherwise. And the walls tended to vibrate.

I grabbed the home phone on my way into the kitchen, pulled a caffeine free pop and a hunk of cheddar from the fridge, and worked my way over to the sofa.

The phone was sounding a fast busy tone — must have a message. I dialed in, and punched out my password.

“You have seven voice-mail messages.”

I glared down at my cellphone, and kicked it off the coffee table with a bare foot. What the hell was the point in even carrying the thing?

“To listen to your voice-mail, press-.” I punched one, and listened to the first message.

“Hey, it’s me. Just settling in, thought I’d give you an update. Pretty quiet so far, maybe forty guys, mostly lonely old men. See what you mean about the ladies, though. Whooo. Some nice racks in this place. And the girls are friendly. Thanks for the referral.”

Ted. I had forgotten all about it. This was Ted’s night on the door at Hidden Pleasures. I was glad to hear it was going well. Maybe he could help clean up my mess with the love potion.

I punched seven to delete, then one to go to the next message.

“Hey, it’s me again. Well, it’s picked up big-time. Must be a hundred and fifty guys in there. Ivan, he’s the other guy on door — nice guy — we’ve been taking turns on door and in the club. A little rowdy, but so far no major issues. Did have to drag one guy into the can. Lucky thing, too. He launched just as we made it in. Still, so far so good. Talk to you later. Where are ya?”

For some reason he felt it was necessary to provide me with a running commentary. I hoped he wasn’t spending the whole night on his damned cellphone, but I appreciated the update.

Seven. One.

“It’s your Mother. Call me.”

Great. Typical friendly message from Mom. I would have to call her in the morning.

Seven. One.

“Uh, yeah. Me. Little crazy over here. Buncha idiots from the sales convention started grabbing at April. She’s one of the girls, unbelievable. Uh, well, they were grabbing at her, and Ivan tried to step in but one of the guys took a swing at him. They called me in, and I dragged three of these idiots out into the lot. Nothing major, lot of shoving, couple of punches thrown, but no major blood or anything. One of the other tables was starting to act up too, but, uh, hang on… let me call you…”

Huh. I punched one. Time of the call was eleven forty-eight. Nearly three hours ago. Great.

Seven. One. Time of next call — twelve seventeen.

“Christ, place has gone nuts, man.” I lay down on the sofa and closed my eyes. “If you’re not up to anything, we could use some help here. Some guy took a swing at me with a bottle. Didn’t break the skin, but I’m going to have a nasty bump in the morning. He’s a bit messed up, I took him out back, never mind that. We had to call the cops. Nice guys. They took three of the sales idiots in. Can you believe it? Morons are in from Des Moines, see a couple chicks take their thongs off and they completely lose their goddamned… Hey. Hey! Get your hand off her ass! Yeah, you! Don’t you f-!”

Seven. One. Time of next call — twelve fifty-three.

“Good news. Everything’s under control. Total fluke, man. Pete and the boys showed up. You remember the Riverview Ramblers? I mentioned at the game the other night that I would be working door, and they decided to check the place out. Things started running out of control, Melodi was about to call the cops again, and here come the boys. It was like the arrival of the goddamned cavalry. We cleared house, must have thrown out nearly twenty guys. Couple big fights in the parking lot, until Pudge — you remember Pudge, man — he pulls a crowbar out of his trunk, and they suddenly decide it’s time to hightail it out of there. Man, this place is wild. Most fun I’ve had in a long time.”

I sighed and punched seven. One. Time of last call — one thirty eight. I just missed him.

“Hey, where are you, man? You out with some girl or something? Just calling to say we’re closed for the night. Melodi seems happy. Sounds like they had a good night at the bar. Couple of broken chairs, but one of the guys says he can get them replaced. There’s a wholesale place off the Danforth that handles restaurant furniture — anyways, never mind. Listen, I’m going to crash at my place tonight. Or sometime tomorrow, anyway. Heh. I’m heading over to an afterhours place with Pete, a couple of guys from the team, and four of the girls. Man, these chicks are… Yeah? Sure, I’m coming. Just letting my brother know what’s up. Okay, man. See ya.”

“You have no more voice-mail messages.”

I smiled, lay my head down, and fell asleep.

CHAPTER 12

I was being mocked.

“Is big Donnie scared of a little rat?”

No question, they were mocking me.

Kara and Maggie had seemed very chipper that morning, with Kara’s bright smile wider than ever.

“You two seem awfully chipper this morning.”

“Don’t try to change the topic.”

“I’m not. You just seem very happy for this time of day.”

“Why wouldn’t we? The birds are out, it’s a sunny day.” They laughed. “And Donnie is a chicken. Donnie is a chicken. Donnie is a-.” Maggie sang it as she wandered about the office checking that everything was in order. Quite a nice voice, truth be told.

“Alright, alright.” I admit it, I can’t take taunting. Taunt me, and you can get me to do almost anything.

I pulled the keys from my pocket as I strode to the back. Maggie followed close behind, humming her annoying little song.

“Hey, does that camera work?”

I had just remembered. A security camera mounted high on the wall in the loading bay, but turned to face the corner. Could it have caught the damned rat on tape? Maybe it swiveled.

“No. Clay just had them installed two weeks ago. We haven’t set them up yet.”

“Where else do we have cameras?”

“Reception, outside at the back, and in here. There are cameras in the front parking lot, but those are provided by the landlord. We can access them online, if you ever need to.”

Huh. Well, we would have to get the system up and running once things settled down a bit. But that wasn’t going to solve today’s problem. Mr. Rat.

Key in lock, deep breath. Open door, flick on light and enter.

Nothing.

“Where the hell are you?” I nudged the stack of carpets with a toe, then the coat rack. “For God’s sake. Must’ve gotten out somehow.”

“Or maybe your rat was just a little mouse, and he’s hiding.” Here came Kara, blonde hair bouncing with her every step.

I snorted and stepped aside. She moved toward the clothes rack, and as she was reaching out to shift a coat aside, a bright light filled the room.

When I was in grade eight, my science partner was Mike Cooke. Mike was all dork. Dungeons and Dragons club, chess on weekends, and threw a baseball like a girl. But when it came to science, no one could have a better partner. He was the mad scientist, never afraid of anything. When it came time to dissect frogs, he was in there with wires and a battery, making muscles twitch and grossing out the girls. And when our teacher introduced us to magnesium strips, well let’s just say that it was the only time in school where I experienced a fire alarm that was not a prank.

You remember that brilliant, almost painful light magnesium emits when it burns? For just a brief moment, that’s what we experienced in the Lost and Found Room.

“Jesus.” I winced at the flash, then rubbed at my eyes. The afterimage glowed, even when my eyelids were closed.

It took a good five seconds for my vision to clear enough to see around the room. I was staring at the far wall, watching a small bright ball of light darken and jitter. Gotta love it when you burn your retina out of your head. In any event, I was looking away from Kara when the next surprise came up. She announced it in the form of a shriek.

“Spider! SPIDER!”

I turned, and she charged past Maggie out of the room. The whole thing was just so bizarre I had to laugh.

“Oh, big brave guy now, are you?”

I glanced down and spotted it. A daddy longlegs. Big one. Leg span a good seven inches across. Freakish big, really. But while I can’t say I’m a fan of spiders, the daddy longlegs bother me the least. They’re all legs (hence the name). More important, they were easy to track and stomp.

That’s me, friend to nature.

I stomped.

A quick check of my shoe confirmed that Mr. Spider was indeed dead. In the off-chance that the brown goop on my shoe was not in fact his innards I checked the floor. Matching goop stain.

“He’s dead.”

“Thanks.” Kara was blushing, her porcelain skin so white that I could see the red rising ten feet away. I decided to hold back on the taunting, just in case she was better at handing it out than taking it.

That would have been the end of it all, had I not bothered to clean the floor and the bottom of my shoe. But I did, and that’s why I found myself staring intently at both for so long that Maggie spoke up.

“Everything okay?”

“Yeah. I think so. It’s just — this doesn’t — it sounds strange, but this doesn’t look like dead spider to me.”

It didn’t. Sure, I would expect to see brown goop. But that’s all there was. No legs. Every insect I had ever killed ended up looking like a mangled version of its original self, except those rabid little mosquitoes that disappear in a cloud of the blood they just drained from your calf. And I seem to recall that when I last stomped a longlegs, those legs kept twitching for some time afterwards. So what had happened to Mr. Spider?

“What’s up?”

“Hey, Jamar.”

“We had a spider!”

Kara went on to tell Jamar of her close call with the massive spider-beast that had been dwelling in our Lost and Found. The whole time she spoke, he had a hint of a smirk on his face.

“Well, maybe the spider and the rat are working together.”

I snorted. Smartass.

“Come over here for a second.”

I watched as he pulled his shoulders back, pumped his arms up and walked towards me like some Victorian era strongman. All he needed was a one-piece and a handlebar moustache.

“I’ll handle the little spiders, Donnie. Why don’t you go sit with Kara and the two of you can commiserate.”

“Check over by the coat-rack.”

He stepped past me and I took three quick steps back, so that I was just outside the room. If I was right, it was going to happen in just a…

Flash.

“A rabbit? You’re afraid of bloody rabbits?”

I laughed so hard my stomach muscles hurt. Jamar and Kara were staring at me as though I had just walked out of the mental health institute, still wearing my white gown and shoes without laces. Unbelievably, Jamar had inched behind Maggie, as though seeking protection from the floppy-eared villain. All I could think of was the vorpal bunny from Monty Python and the Holy Grail (one of my all-time favorites) — “What’s he do, nibble your bum?”

By the time I was done laughing I had to wipe tears from my face. Kara was finally smiling, but Jamar looked like he was going to be sick.

“Sorry, man.” I closed the door on the rabbit. “I had a hunch.”

“Some kind of fear spell, or something?” Kara had her arms crossed, hip jutting out. I was sensing hostility.

Jamar glanced from me to Kara, sensing he was on the outside of this particular conversation. I let him in.

“Hey, not my fault! When John started going on about the rat, I was convinced we just had a pest problem. But then I couldn’t find it, and suddenly the spider shows up when Kara goes in. When I stomped out that one, it looked like that ecto-goo. Ghostbusters slime, or whatever they call it. So I figured I’d test it out on you.”

“Thanks a lot. As if I didn’t have enough crap going wrong right now.”

“Sorry, big guy.” I’d forgotten about the ring. Something to follow up on later.

“Wait a minute — how come it didn’t work on you?”

Kara’s question was a good one. Hadn’t even occurred to me, I was so caught up in the fun.

“Yeah, if it worked on Big John, Kara and me, what about you?”

“No fear, baby. No fear.”

They snorted. “Yeah, right.”

“Don’t know. Maybe it’s because I’m new? Maybe the spell takes time to take effect?”

Jamar seemed to accept that as a possibility, though he looked as though he just wanted to get on with the day. Kara seemed less open to the idea. I shrugged, and gave her an apologetic look.

“Listen, why don’t you guys get started, and I’ll try and figure out what caused it.”

Jamar seemed relieved to be moving away from the Lost and Found Room. I waited until both had left the staging area, then headed in to face the killer rabbit.

As I suspected, with Jamar headed out front the rabbit was nowhere to be seen. But the second time, I had paid more attention to the magnesium-like flare. The most intense afterimage was in a very specific location, so I went straight to the spot. I parted the line of coats, cloaks and other sundries on the coat-rack, isolating one double-breasted trench coat, beige. I lifted it from the rack by the coat hook, and laid it out on one of the chairs standing along the west wall.

I felt like I was on CSI. Call it CSI Canada, with half of the episodes dedicated to investigating mysterious deaths involving hypothermia, beer, and a killer moose.

I scanned the coat front and back, looking for something, anything, out of the ordinary. Nothing of note. Bit of a smudge on the seat, but looked like normal wear and tear to me. Buttons, shoulder straps, belt, cuff straps — all of it looked standard to me.

I opened the coat. Burberry, so it was higher end than I could afford. Size was 36S. A little guy. Nothing in the front pockets or interior breast pockets. I lifted the jacket by the coat hanger, and balanced the tip of the hanger on my finger. Hmm. It was weighing down on one side. Felt along the hem, and that’s when I found it.

Same place I always found loose change, between the lining and the coat, right at the hem. I unzipped and removed the lining, and voila — a tiny stone egg. Wasn’t just a stray rock or gravel, it was far too smooth. Looked like a tiger’s eye, that neat mix of multiple browns and dark yellows. Small as the tip of my little finger.

It was the only anomaly I had found in the coat, but was it the cause of our haunted house? I figured a test was the only way to find out.

Three minutes later we had another phantom bunny hopping around the premises, and Jamar was packing the van at record speed.

I left the stone in the Lost and Found Room while I worked my morning route. Kara was kind enough to call Professor Irving, who called back later in the morning with some suggestions on how to defuse the damned thing. But first he gave me his thoughts on Jamar’s ring.

“I’m almost positive that it’s cursed.”

“Great.”

My sarcasm seemed to float right past the Prof.

“Not great. No. This is serious magic. Imbuing an object with that kind of energy requires a practitioner with considerable ability, or a significant power source. Either way, not good.”

“What do you mean, power source?”

“Think of it like having a rabid dog sicced on you. The practitioner can turn the object into a rabid dog. It bites everyone in its path, unless instructed otherwise. Or the practitioner can turn the object into a sort of alarm bell. When someone triggers the bell, a third party sends a rabid dog your way.”

“Third party?”

“A spirit or a god, notionally. In this case I haven’t been able to identify which type of curse it is, but everything I have read suggests the curse is pretty much impossible to break, unless we can locate the person who cast it in the first place.”

“Can I even assume that the woman Jamar met cast this thing?”

“I would think not. His description of events sounded more like someone trying to rid themselves of the ring, rather than a person with a specific grudge against him.”

“So what do we do?”

“I don’t know. I’ll keep asking around.”

“OK. Thanks. What about this stone? Any suggestions?”

“The fearstone? That’s more of a prank than anything else. Much easier.”

The process for neutralizing the spell on the ‘fearstone’ involved a bucket of hot tap water, salt, and some rubbing alcohol. Sounded like something I might have drank in college. I think it worked, but neither Kara nor Jamar would agree to a test. Since it didn’t seem to affect me, I agreed to keep it on hand, so by the end of my lunch hour the egg was resting in my pocket, next to the leper coin. At this rate, I was going to need a Batman utility belt.

Still, that left the mystery of who put it there, why, and how it ended up sitting in the Lost and Found room. Problem was, I already had a mystery on my hands — what to do about Niki the Bull. My solution? I exercised my powers of delegation, and pawned the new investigation off to Kara, who seemed pleased to take on the project.

I also asked her to check in on Hidden Pleasures, to make sure everything had turned out all right with Ted’s night on the door. The big guy still hadn’t called in, so I was getting a bit queasy contemplating the possibility that things had skewed sideways at some point.

I was getting that feeling a lot recently.

CHAPTER 13

It turned out my concerns about Ted were unwarranted. When I returned to the office that afternoon, Kara told me that Melodi Roberts had been delighted with the way things had gone the prior night, and was even considering taking on Ted for special events. Just goes to show you that as intelligent and level-headed as someone may seem, they can still make grievous errors in judgment.

Jamar, though, was still having a rough time. The news that Professor Irving had come up with no real suggestions for dealing with the ring had hit him hard. And now Jamar’s father had announced he had been dating a Ukrainian woman half his age. Online. Next up was a trip to Kiev to meet her face-to-face and try to convince her to return with him to Canada.

Jamar was despondent, and I felt like we had to try something. Which is why I told him I was going to spend my Saturday scouring cottage country for some crazy lady, even though he was going to be at an uncle’s birthday party and couldn’t make it.

As it happens, Kara noted we had a run up north that was in the neighborhood. I guess we had a two week window to make the delivery each quarter, and that window opened on Saturday. She was also able to get contact information on Crazy Lady from the Treasure Chest — the customer outside Orillia that Jamar had done the original delivery for. I had a name and address, and figured it was worth meeting with the scheming wench.

“By the way, I think I might have a lead on that fearstone thing.”

“Really?” That was quick.

“Well, it’ll sound silly, but I swear I have seen that jacket before. I checked with Clay, and he thought I might be right.”

“Okay. And…”

“Bindings. I think it belongs to the owner.”

Bindings. Interesting. Kara was going to look for some evidence to back up her suspicions. Then we would need to decide what to do about it.

The following day I picked up Arcane 1 from the office and headed out for a weekend drive. It was a beautiful sunny day, rolling emerald hills, bales of hay baking in open fields, and mile after mile of glorious quiet. That absence of sound that I love so much. No horns honking or engines revving, no voices shouting. Just quiet.

“Goddamn this is boring.”

Oh — one thing. When I told him about my trip north, Ted had insisted on riding along. I flipped on some music, in an attempt to humor him.

“C’mon. No traffic, just tunes…” Arctic Monkeys. Great band.

Ted snorted. “You can’t even understand the guy! Please tell me you’ve got some Southern Rock on that thing. Skynrd? Allmann Brothers?”

“Forget it. My van, my iPod, my tunes.”

The complaints continued for the next hour.

I spotted the sign for Anadale Corners as we swept out of a long swale in the road. Kinsmen, Shriners and Knights of Columbus seals. Pop. 2387. Est. 1833. Just ahead I could see our destination. Just this quick drop, then we were off to find Crazy Lady.

“Is that it?”

Ted tilted his head forward and opened his eyes.

“Looks like it.”

I slowed, checking my rearview mirror to make sure no one was watching. Then pulled over onto the gravel shoulder, careful not to wander too close to the ditch. The van crunched along, kicking up dust as I slowed to a stop in front of an old cemetery.

Seventeen headstones of various sizes and shapes, all arranged in a semicircle facing a wooden arch which bore the legend Founders’ Resting Place. A path lined with woodchips ran from the road through a wooden lych gate to a point in front of the centre headstone, which was also the tallest of the group — a speckled granite cross that stood three feet high. Interspersed among the headstones were a number of shrubs, as though nature felt it necessary to bring life to this testament of death.

The nearest building was a home a half mile back, and there wasn’t a person in sight. I stepped out of the van, and Ted joined me.

It was quiet. Peaceful. When they laid me down to rest, this would be a good choice. A red-winged blackbird hopped on the branches of a birch ten yards behind the graves, its scarlet red epaulets vivid against the white and grey background.

A sneeze shattered the stillness, thundering across the landscape.

“Gesundheit.” Ted had been sneezing in the van for the whole drive, no doubt infecting me with some lethal virus.

He sniffed, a Kleenex in his hand. His eyes were watering.

“Must be my allergies.”

I stared around the cemetery. Wild flowers, grass, ragweed. A witch’s brew of allergens. Ted was your classic outdoor allergy sufferer, so late Spring and late Summer were the worst for him. Still, he didn’t usually get much more than a runny nose. Must be a bad year.

“Got your Claritin?”

“Nah, forgot it at home. I’ll be alright, just the sniffles.”

The two of us walked in silence to the headstones, then drifted in either direction along the line of them, taking in the names and dates.

In Memory of Benjamin Pollock, died 12th August 1841, aged 30 years.

James Bain, son of Archibald and Ellen Bain, died 19th July 1841, aged 6 years.

Two stones side by side — In Memory of Archibald Bain, died 31st July 1841, aged 28 years; In Memory of Ellen Bain, died 28th August 1841, aged 23 years.

“Christ, are they all the same on your side?”

“July and August 1841?”

“I have one in June.”

Seventeen tombstones, five families, all dead in less than three months during the summer of 1841. Pollock. Bain. Davies. Bryson. Turnbull. Six children ranging in age from three months and four days to ten years. Nine adults. Four couples and Josiah Davies, husband of Charlotte, father to John and Alexander.

“Anything for Charlotte Davies or the kids?”

“No.”

“No one else made it?”

Presuming they were the only families in town at the time, it appeared so. Life had been tough for the early settlers.

As instructed, I left the package behind the smallest headstone — Josiah Davies.

“That’s it?”

“Yup.”

“Kind of bizarre, huh?”

“Yeah.” It was bizarre. And sad. For some reason, I found this place incredibly sad.

We strode back to the van in silence.

We had traveled no more than a mile when Ted called out, just as he had when we were kids.

“I need a washroom.”

I slowed the van and began rolling to the shoulder.

“Not a piss. I have to take a squat.”

Great.

As it turned out, Anadale Corners was not far, just on the other side of an apple orchard that spanned both sides of the road. A four corners collection of buildings, the first few abandoned, then a general store with a somewhat bizarre list of offerings posted on a shingle by the front door — “Key Cutting, DVD Rentals, Spring Seeds, Ice Cream”. Gas station with adjoining diner, a church, and Anadale Depot — the local farm equipment sales office.

Pump and a dump would have been logical, but there was no one home at the station. A letter posted in the window said the owner was traveling for three weeks. Back in June! We opted for the general store, where Ted was able to pick up some Benadryl and a box of Kleenex. Plus, the owner was kind enough to allow Ted the use of the facilities. He may not have been feeling so kindly after we departed. Seemed Ted was having some intestinal issues.

By the time we arrived at Crazy Lady’s place, Ted’s mood had improved, in part thanks to the Benadryl. Didn’t hurt that he had taken three times the recommended dosage.

The neighborhood seemed to be mostly Victory Homes, 1940s bungalows built as low cost housing for returning war veterans. If this neighborhood had been closer to the Big Smoke we might have seen the occasional monster home where a buyer had torn down the original home and used the lot to build a three story behemoth. Instead, all of the original homes remained — simple one story homes, no basements, decent-sized lots. Well taken care of, with green lawns and lush flowerbeds benefiting from the humid spring.

The house at 441 Bristol Crescent was an unfortunate exception to the rule. Instead of a well-manicured lawn extending to the ditch at the road, the home bore a front yard of dirt, the occasional flowering weed adding a bit of color to the fallow brown stretch. A pseudo-walkway of stones split the dirt in two, and a plain wire fence shut off access to the yard from the road or the walkway.

Beside the front door, and thankfully on the other side of that fence, stood a dog house that must have been five feet tall.

“Nice.”

“Beauty. You think she lives in the big house, or the little one?”

At least he had kept his sense of humor.

We approached the front door cautiously, expecting to see a vicious attack dog emerge from the dog house in a rage of spit and teeth. Seemed Fido was asleep, though, and our approach went unnoticed. Spotting no doorbell, I banged on the rotten door frame.

The girl who came to the door was tiny. Maybe four and a half feet tall at most. Jet black hair, light skin but Asian features. And scary skinny, like a skeleton wrapped in skin-colored Saran Wrap. In her frilly black microskirt, beaded crop top and strappy leather sandals she seemed to be striving for a Jarvis Street hooker look. Her eyes betrayed her, though. Wide, fearful eyes that spoke of mistrust.

“Yes?”

“We’re here to see Mrs. Lucas.”

“Mrs. Lucas?” That seemed to startle her. “Moment-.”

She bustled to the back, glancing back over her shoulder as though not trusting us to stay where we were. From the door we could hear her footsteps carry down the main hall to a room out of our sight, then a knock and voices. One voice gradually rose in volume. I was able to hear just a few words — “who”, “interrupted” and “sister.”

Moments later, an elderly woman worked her way down the hall towards us.

“Come in. C’mon, don’t stand out there like a pair of idiots. People are watching.” Her voice was like sandpaper on glass. I glanced at Ted and shrugged. In we went.

The girl who had met us at the door squeezed by me as I entered the front hall, and closed the main door behind us.

The home before us was as impressive as the exterior. Having no doubt consulted with an interior designer, the old lady had left the ceiling exposed, further emphasizing the decrepit institutional feel of the place. The result was an enticing combination of exposed beams, pipes and fiberglass wool insulation. The walls were in place, though several stretches of dry wall were unpainted. The floor was a patch-work of mismatched linoleum strips. Furniture was second hand, to put it politely.

She stepped aside, waving for the two of us to move further into the home. We followed her to a space that might have been called a common room, had this been a frat house. There we came upon another girl, this one stretched out on a garish plaid sofa bed, watching a TV with rabbit ear antennas. I hadn’t seen those things since I was in pre-school. She glanced at us with the mildest curiosity, then turned back to her show.

Lucretia Lucas was Crazy Lady’s name, and she was five five, maybe five six. Short grey hair, tousled and greasy from not being combed or washed. Oversized round tortoise-shell eyeglasses, a blue cardigan top with a dark stain in the shape of the state of Maine, and black slacks. The lines on her face were etched from frowns, not from smiles, and her direct stare and thin lips convinced me this was one tough broad. I was guessing eighty plus years of age.

She matched Jamar’s description so well I felt like I had seen her before.

“You want one of ‘em, or both of ‘em?”

“What?” That eloquent statement came from Ted, though I’m not sure I could have done any better.

“One or both? You stupid? They’ve had their shots.” She turned the first girl by the shoulder and clutched the cheek of her buttock. “They don’t leave the house. You can use any room except the bathroom and my room. That’s the one at the end of the hall.”

I looked at the first girl, trying to figure out what the hell was going on. As I stared, a tear welled in her eye then trickled down her cheek.

Wow. Was she-? Were they-? Was this-?

“Hang on a second, lady. We’re not here for the girls.”

“What? The what?” Ted was taking a second to catch up, which was a good thing. It scared me that I had caught on so quickly.

“Then who the hell are ya?” She shoved the first girl aside, and stepped forward. Both Ted and I took a half step back, as though a Rottweiler had bared his teeth at us. I was starting to wonder whether the old lady did sleep in that dog house by the front door.

“I’m here about a ring you gave to my friend a few weeks’ back.”

I held a photo out, and the lady took it and glanced down with the eye of a pawn shop jeweler. There was a pause while she assessed the ring in the picture, and I glanced at the girl on the sofa bed, who was now ignoring the TV. Apparently our arrival was somewhat out of the ordinary. She and her friend were eyeing the interaction between us, murmuring in an anonymous (to my ears) Asian language.

“What about it. Never seen it in my life.” The glare she gave us, and the way she said it, together constituted one of the most bald-faced outright lies I have ever experienced. The corner of her mouth even turned up a little, so difficult was it for her to say with a straight face.

“Nice try, lady.” Seemed Ted had recognized that social correctness would get nowhere with this woman. I happened to agree.

“Listen, you gave this damned ring to my friend, and we want you to take it back.”

“Oh ho!” The denials were quickly gone now. “Take it back. Do you have any idea how hard it was to get rid of? If not for these stupid girls,” with that she cuffed the back of one’s head, “I never would have been stuck with it. I’m not taking it back.”

“Lady…”

“Listen,” I have always had some success with the role of mediator, so I decided to try the logical route. “Jamar didn’t understand what was involved with the ring when you offered it to him. If you had warned him, he would have been able to think things through, but-.”

A look of complete disbelief was not the response I had hoped for.

“What the hell are you talking about. I’m not taking the ring back. Now if you’re not here for the girls, you get out of my goddamned house!” Other than my mother, I don’t believe I’ve ever been frightened of an old lady. But she was rattlesnake mean, that woman.

She began to shove at us, and I had no idea how to react. As I’ve said, my normal response to physical violence is instinctive. Multiply by ten, and return to sender. But the rules went out the window when a woman was involved, no matter how reprehensible. Still, holding my ground seemed not unreasonable, and Ted appeared to have concluded the same.

“Lady, you have single-handedly destroyed this guy’s life, and there is no way-.”

“You get out of my house.” This was delivered face to chest, with her chin jutting out and spittle flying. Ted was staring down at her with a mixture of disgust, anger, confusion and humor. What was she going to do about it? We could stand here all day, whether she liked it or not.

Or so we thought.

I should have recognized the first sign of trouble. Crazy Lady started stabbing Ted in the chest with her index finger, lacing her angry demands with profanities I had never heard or imagined before. The two girls darted out of the common room, high-tailing it to the back of the house. Maybe it was the look in her eye, or maybe the ferocity of her verbal attack, but they saw it coming.

She turned and stormed down the hall, turning into an alcove that might have been the kitchen. Now pissed and hot on her heels, Ted was damn near clipped when a mixing bowl came flying out. It smacked into the wall, leaving a small indent in the drywall, then fell to the floor with a metallic clatter.

“Missed! Hah!” I had a feeling he was a bit overconfident.

The next object to come sailing through the air was a lamp — this one thrown with quite a bit more force than the mixing bowl had been. Ted ducked and it glanced off his shoulder, hitting the far wall and exploding in a flurry of ceramic chips.

“Jeezus!” That seemed a bit extreme.

His face was now showing real fear, and I could see that a few shards of ceramic had caught him in the back. He was still hunched over when a volley of bottles and jars exploded from the doorway, several hitting him flush in the forehead. Those that missed shattered on the far wall, more small shards hailing down on Ted as he brought his arms up to cover his face. A couple of the bottles embedded themselves into the drywall, which was now painted with a muddy brown mixture of salad dressing, tomato pulp and god-knows-what else.

At that I moved forward, intent on stopping Crazy Lady from hurling any more household objects at my brother. But as I rounded the corner I saw that all was not as I had expected. Instead of a bunch of coffee cups dangling from her hands, I found her standing dead still in the middle of the kitchen, eyes closed with a look of sheer fury on her face. And a microwave hovering in mid-air right in front of her.

I stood in front of her, staring open mouthed. Magic. This was the real thing. You might have faked the fearstone stuff with holograms or put some drugs in my coffee, but there was no ignoring this.

“Duck!”

It was one of the girls who cried out, and she might have saved my life. I did duck, and the appliance sailed through the air, hammering into Ted’s shoulder.

“Jesus Christ. Are you out of your mind?”

She ignored me, and I felt the blood drain from my face as the refrigerator in the corner of the kitchen began to slide towards the centre of the room.

“Move.” I turned and grabbed Ted under the arms. We had to get the hell out of there. I dragged/carried him down the hall to the front door, all the while hearing the squeal of linoleum being gouged by the refrigerator’s foot pads as it moved out into the hall.

I was fumbling with the door knob with Ted at my back, when he began struggling to move forward. I glanced over my shoulder and saw her at the end of the hall, the refrigerator now in front of her. She was going to put a big-time hurt on us if she sent that thing flying through the air.

Ted managed to work the door open and stumble down the steps, but it was too late. I could see it. A ripple of energy reached out from her hands and took hold of the refrigerator. Slowly it rose into the air, the freezer door swinging open and frozen packages of peas and fish sticks poured out onto the floor. That had to be at least three hundred pounds hovering in the air. If she hit me with that thing, I was dead.

In high school I might have leaped aside in a catlike motion. But that was fifteen years and twenty pounds ago. Now I moved like a toothless tabby who didn’t always make it to the litter box. So maybe it was shock, but I suspect it was just god-awful slow reactions. Whatever. I didn’t move in time. I saw those ripples build, then expand, like a sound wave in front of a nuclear explosion. The fridge wobbled, then leaned and flew through the air towards me. I raised my arms, and braced for impact.

There was an impact alright. The fridge lay flat on the floor not two feet from me. The linoleum around it was crumpled, and I could see that even the floor boards had snapped in one or two places. Damned good thing this place didn’t have a basement.

I peeked out from behind my arms, thinking somehow Crazy Lady had recognized the error of her ways. Turned out that was far from the case.

Her face shifted from shock, to cunning, and back to her old familiar. Nasty bitch.

“Pah! So you have simple skills of defense. You are nothing.”

Defense? What the hell was she talking about? I didn’t have the chance to try and figure it out, though, because what she did next was fascinating and scary. Leaning forward, she opened her mouth and vomited a stream of particles which expanded as they approached me, reminding me of a pointillist work, distinct points of black and yellow shimmering in the air. On either side of the hall, paint began to bubble on the walls, then peel back from the surface. But while I could see the heat emanating from her attack, I couldn’t feel it. Something seemed to be protecting me from its effect.

That became all the more evident when the stream of particles halted in mid-air, two feet in front of my eyes. It was as though I was at the bottom of a waterfall, under a glass roof. The stream bounced, then rippled across some unseen surface, flowing in all directions but getting no nearer to me. I think at that moment I might have added a stinging comment, were it not for the fact that the whole house suddenly seemed to catch on fire.

Flames twitched up the wall, then raced across the ceiling into the common room. Within seconds, the wire TV rabbit ears that I had noticed earlier sagged, as if the rabbit was no longer listening. The plaid sofa bed began to smoke, a thick chemical smog rolling off the cushions as individual tentacles stretching to all corners of the room.

I’m not a stupid guy. I know when I’m no longer welcome. I ran into the front room, grabbed the thin wrists of both girls, and charged out the front of the house.

I left them coughing on the road in front of the smoking home, then joined Ted in a race to the van. As we ran, Crazy Lady exited her house, chalky smoke and dancing flames marking her passage. What scared the crap out of me was that she seemed unfazed by the whole thing. She even buttoned up her cardigan, as though chilled by the crisp Spring air. Ted slid into the passenger side just as I popped the gearshift into drive. I stomped on the gas and his door slammed shut, barely avoiding his fingers and toes.

“What’s she doing?”

He squirmed in his seat to look through the back window, and I hunched down, convinced the back of the van was about to be hit by some hail of magic energy. Or a simple lead projectile, exploding from a rifle she probably kept in a closet by the front door.

“Nothing. She’s just staring at us.”

“You sure? She’s not waving her hands or chanting in foreign tongues?”

“Nah.” We rounded the corner and I began to relax as she disappeared from sight.

“Looks like we’re out of trouble for now.”

I drove faster than I should have through the neighborhood, slowing only to let some kids nudge their hockey nets a few inches out of our path. “That lady was nuts.”

“And apparently a witch. Or something.”

I glanced at Ted, realizing he might well be in shock. Bad enough that I had now seen several examples of real world, dangerous magic in action. But Ted might not be as capable of adjusting as I was proving to be. I could also see that he had numerous small nicks and cuts on his forehead and cheeks, from where ceramic shards had glanced off him.

“You alright? You’re bleeding.”

He flipped down the passenger vanity mirror and glanced at the cuts.

“I’m fine. Need to wash these cuts though. God knows what was growing in that lady’s kitchen.” He continued to look over the cuts but I could see he was thinking about something. “Hey. What was with that defense comment?”

I had forgotten about that.

“You picking up a few tricks on the job?”

“No. I don’t know what she was talking about.” And that was the fact of it. “It’s happened a couple of times, where I’ve been around a spell or something, and it doesn’t seem to work on me.”

“Like you have a fairy godmother looking out after you?”

“No.” At least, I didn’t think so. “It doesn’t feel like anybody’s doing anything. The spells just seem to run out of steam.”

“Huh. Cool.”

“Listen, you OK? I mean, this is pretty freaky stuff.”

I glanced again, only to find a curious expression on his face.

“Okay? I’m great. That was a blast, man. You have got the coolest job ever.” And with that he gave me a punch to the arm.

God help me.

As we headed to the 400 and a long drive south, we heard sirens.

“Fire truck?”

“One of the neighbors must have called.”

“What do you think that crazy bitch is going to say?”

Good question. She couldn’t exactly admit she had been screwing around with black magic. No, she wasn’t the type to accept any responsibility. She would…

“She’s going to say we started it.”

“Yup.” Damn. It took me about thirty seconds to realize I needed to make a call. To Amy Park.

We were home and having dinner when Amy called with an update. I grabbed a plateful of nachos (the ones with the most cheese on them, to Ted’s displeasure) and moved to my bedroom.

“Hey. Sorry again about calling you on a Saturday.”

“You can call me any time you want. You’re making me look like a genius.”

“Really?”

Really. It turned out that my tip to Amy — that Crazy Lady was pimping out two underage Asian girls against their will — was dead on. While the fire investigators were inspecting the damage, two officers from the Ontario Provincial Police had taken the girls aside, despite the protests of her Royal Nuttiness. Turned out she wasn’t their legal guardian, they were illegals, and they had a whole lot to say about life at 441 Bristol Crescent.

The OPP were bringing in a translator to get proper statements, but were very confident that our Crazy Lady Lucas would be charged with forcible confinement, living off the avails of prostitution, and a host of other tasty crimes.

“Very nice.”

“Oh yeah. They love me. Between this and the tip on Kuzmenko, I’m having to do a major dance on my sources, but no question I’m not hearing as much bullshit about being an equal opportunity hire. Maybe they’ll even let me work a few cases not involving Koreans. It’d be nice not to have to eat another bowl of pork-bone soup.”

Hearing a woman say the words pork and bone in one sentence proved oddly erotic. I was so distracted that I let my plate tilt, and a clump of nachos, cheese and salsa sauce dropped smack in the middle of my laundry compost.

“Shit.”

“What’s that?”

“Nothing, nothing.” I kicked a stray undershirt over the whole mess, hoping that the nachos would just disintegrate if and when I managed to toss the pile into a washer. “That’s great news. Listen, you might want to warn them about her, though. She may not be easy to keep in custody.”

“Isn’t she like, eighty years old or something?”

“Yeah, but she’s a nasty piece of work.”

“Hm. Well, they seemed to think she was a handful too. I’m sure they’ll be fine.”

I hoped so, but there wasn’t much I could do about it anyways. I didn’t see any way to warn the OPP that Miss Crazy Bitch might power up an energy spell and blow a hole in the wall of their local jail.

“So we going to get out for that drink?”

Without warning Ted appeared at the door to my room, eyebrow raised and munching on a chicken wing. I tried to ignore him, but he started pumping his hips and calling “Oh, Donnie! Oh, Donnie!”

“I take it you have a visitor?”

“Nah.” I got up and slammed the door, which at least served to muffle Ted’s ongoing porn movie sound track. “Just my idiot brother.”

“Jealous?”

“Oh yeah. And if he ever met you, it would eat him alive.”

“Well I’ll need to drop by some day, then.”

I was starting to like this lady.

CHAPTER 14

I awoke that night to the muffled sound of voices. Since my alarm clock read 3:18 A.M., I can’t say I was real thrilled. What the hell was Ted doing up at this hour?

I prefer that my bedroom be cold and dark when I sleep. It gives me a sense of hibernation, of detaching from the stresses of the day, even if only for a few hours. The result, however, is that I find mornings to be a brutal re-introduction to light and noise. If anything, arising at a quarter past three seemed even more jarring.

I stumbled into the hallway with a yawn, my bare feet landing on every jagged grain of grit on the cheapass linoleum floor. Time to sweep the hall, I thought, filing that task with the endless to-do list which only came to mind at the least convenient of times. When I was enjoying a bowl of ice cream in front of a rerun of Extreme Makeover, for example. I tugged at my t-shirt, which had somehow become twisted ninety degrees around my body during my “rest”.

Weird. There were no lights on in the hall or the living room. Instead, Ted’s door was ajar, a soft glow lighting the gap. Christ, was he resorting to lava lamps? Ted’s history with girlfriends was as bad as my own.

The last regular was a girl named Robin, whose most annoying habit was that if she started laughing while on her feet, she threw her hips forward as though presenting her groin for inspection. Or consideration.

I was ready to notch the moment up to a late night visit by one of Ted’s irregulars when his voice rang out, loud and clear.

“I know, I know. I’ll get it in for a tune up next week.”

Quiet, then:

“It’s fine. I’m only driving it in the city. C’mon, Aunt Nicole drove the-.”

Again quiet, then:

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”

Was he talking to Mom? At three in the morning? It was so bizarre that I risked the possibility that Ted was with some girl, in the midst of some truly disturbing Oedipal role play. If that proved true, I could kiss a good night’s sleep goodbye for more than just one night.

I eased the door open.

And there she was. My mother, Huguette Elder, standing — no, looming — over Ted’s prone body. She was glowing like some giant firefly, the light bright enough to hurt my eyes.

“Mom?”

She didn’t turn. Didn’t even acknowledge me. That in and of itself was not unusual, though I would have thought that at this particular hour, she would have done me the courtesy of a nod or even an angry wave to leave her alone.

Meanwhile Ted lay flat on his back, his head resting on a pillow as though he were talking to a psychiatrist. He was mumbling on and on about his car, his driving, road rage and my mother’s incessant concern that some driver would one day pull out a shotgun in response to Ted’s ubiquitous one finger salute.

“Aaachooo!”

Ted’s sneeze scared me so badly that I let out an “eeep!” and nearly tripped as I furiously backed away from the bed. Remarkably, neither of them reacted to my apparent lack of manliness.

“Hellooooo?” I looked at both of them with frustration. They were ignoring me, plain and simple. Which might have been fine at any other time, but was not fine when they woke me at three in the morning.

“Hey!”

Nothing. I was getting ticked off now. In fact, I was on the verge of storming back to my room when a stray band of neurons fired deep within the void that is my skull.

Why was my mother glowing?

I tiptoed around her, my left foot slipping on a stray item of clothing. Ted’s room was a mystery at the best of times, so I tried not to hammer my toes off some stray table leg.

Having navigated my way around the room, I turned to face my mother.

It was eerie. She was glowing. Just as strange, she was talking, but no sounds were coming out. (What do they say about looking a gift horse in the mouth?). Worse yet, Ted seemed to be answering her.

Then the rest of the neurons in my skull fired, all at once.

Fearstone.

I coughed, then started to laugh. I couldn’t help it.

My mother. Ted’s greatest fear was our mother. And I thought I was the only one.

I glanced one more time at the remarkable golem before me, an identical duplicate of Huguette Elder, right down to the way she stood, as though anchored to the ground. Then I marched into the front hall, and grabbed the fearstone off the table by the door. It was easy to find, seeing as how it was glowing like a child’s night light. But moments after I picked it up, the glow disappeared. The light from Ted’s room also disappeared.

Strange. I had hoped that Sol’s suggestion would succeed in muting the power of the thing. Apparently not.

I had also assumed that since the stone had not affected me, it would not affect Ted. For some reason that thought had comforted me in recent days. If magic couldn’t affect me or my family, we could remain a bastion of sanity from the insanity around us. But if he was affected, then magic had inserted itself even further into my reality — a situation which I found extremely uncomfortable.

I stood by the door to his room, looking down on Ted’s now calm face, a faint snore rising from the bed.

Magic was real, and posed a threat to those close to me. It was a disturbing thought.

CHAPTER 15

While I blew most of Saturday on my mercy mission for Jamar, I was hoping Sunday would prove a better day, with the BBQ at Clay’s house. If nothing else, it seemed unlikely there would be another crazed witch launching home appliances at me like cruise missiles.

Clay and Harper lived on the Credit River Valley in Lorne Park, a suburban neighborhood in Mississauga that had once been a resort community for Torontonians. Before that, the valley was the home of the Mississauga band of the Ojibwa tribe, and before them, the Iroquois.

The Iroquois of the day would not have known what to make of Lorne Park now. The neighborhood was a nice one — fairly upscale. In Clay’s case, quite a way upscale. His lot was seventy five or eighty feet wide, by three hundred deep. I was impressed.

Ted whistled.

“Nice. This is your boss’ place?”

“You don’t remember the house?” My mother sat in the back, and always gave you the sense she was peering over your shoulder. “We used to visit when you were children. The four of us.”

The car was silent for a moment. Wasn’t often that any of us made reference to my father. After a quarter century, even the dearest of family can begin to fade in the shadows of time.

“Why haven’t we been over since?”

“Oh, Harper offers to have us over every year for Thanksgiving. Just didn’t seem right without your father. I see her all the time, though.”

I could understand that. I was old enough to know many of the things we had done before my father passed away. Visiting certain parks, skating at a neighborhood rink, weekends at a campground north of the city. They had somehow become hollow places without him.

The driveway was long enough that I was able to pull in behind Clay’s White Yukon and still leave room for two or three more cars behind me. There were several cars already parked along the road, a few pulled over so far that they looked as though they were about to slide off the shoulder into the ditch. We exited the car and my mother handed Ted a bottle of wine and a platter of crudites, still disgusted that neither of us had brought so much as a bag of chips.

Like a lot of the older properties in the area, the Jarvis house itself was relatively small. It was a chalet bungalow, brick exterior the color of goldenrod. Tucked well off the road behind a canopy of ash and maple, none of the trees shorter than thirty feet tall. A stone walkway led from the driveway up to a pair of welcoming black doors with window cut-outs to let some light in. To the right of the doors the roof overhung a patio, well-worn wicker furniture suggesting this was a familiar leisure nest for Clay and Harper. A pine wreath hung from the door.

I knocked. Just a habit — I can’t stand the sound of doorbells. Call me a freak.

Moments later the door swung open.

“Darling, thank you for having us over.” My mother hugged Harper and kissed her on both cheeks. To my knowledge she has never been to Europe, however the cheek kissing thing seems as popular among French Canadians as anywhere across the Atlantic. I’m convinced they’re checking to see if you’ve washed behind your ears.

Harper stood an inch or two shorter than my mother, but where Mom was solid and matronly, Harper was slim. Elegant.

“Darnell.” She took my hand and I kissed her cheek lightly.

“And this must be Theo.”

I snorted, and Ted gave me a short jab to the ribs. Very few got away with using our real names. Theodore in particular was touchy about the whole thing.

He gave her a quick kiss. “Where would you like me to put this?”

“Did you boys cook for us?”

My mother snorted. “Yes. That would be the day. We would be bringing toast and bacon.”

Somehow I felt like I had gotten in trouble again. What the hell did I do?

“Well, come in. Make yourself at home. Clay’s on the back patio, and he’ll be delighted to see you.”

I spent most of the first hour with Clay, being introduced to at least two dozen customers and friends. Pask DeMarco was there, as was Helen Findlay from Sun Consulting. The others were a blur of faces and names.

An hour later I was tending the barbeque under the watchful eye of my mother. Ted had somehow scammed his way into serving drinks, and seemed intent on doubling up every shot he offered out. One of Clay’s nieces was starting to laugh just a little too loudly at Ted’s jokes.

“They managed to put you to work here too?”

Wow. Kara. I had been watching for her for the past 30 minutes, and she still managed to sneak up on me. No wonder Clay and I had been mugged.

“Hey.”

There was an awkward pause, then I realized that introductions were in order.

“Sorry. Kara, this is my mother. Mom, this is Kara. From the office.” I couldn’t remember — introduce the older person to the younger person? Family member to non-family member? Whatever the order, my mother’s eyebrows suggested I had screwed it up again.

“Kara! Very pleased to meet you.” Hug, kiss, kiss. I could see Kara was a little startled, but she took it well.

“Nice to meet you. Donnie talks about you all the time.”

Only a pretty lady like Kara could get away with a line like that.

“All lies.”

“He mentioned you were from Chicoutimi. My uncle was based out of CFB Bagotville.”

“Bagotville? Mais oui! I worked in Bagotville when I was-.”

Within three minutes, Kara had developed a better relationship with my mother than I have to this day.

“Hockey pucks.”

“Screw you.”

“I’m telling you. Throw ten in a bucket and I’ll take them to the rink tomorrow.”

“Doesn’t seem to be affecting your appetite.”

Ted waved the burger at me, his third. “I’ll eat anything. You know that.”

True. I had indeed burned a few of the burgers. But overall, things seemed to have gone OK. Hell, I had grilled a few plates of chicken breasts, and no one was on their knees vomiting. That was a personal success.

The weather had cooperated as well. Fifteen degrees was pretty good for mid-May in Ontario. Just a shade under sixty degrees Fahrenheit — hat and mitts weather in Jacksonville, t-shirt and shorts in the Great Lakes region.

“So what’s with this Kara babe?”

I glanced over at Kara, still ensconced in conversation with my mother, the two of them since joined by John Vranic and Jamar.

“She works at Arcane.”

“Get out.”

“She’s the receptionist. Does Dispatch too.”

“She’s the one with the potion? The love potion?”

Who the hell told him about that? I had never mentioned the love potion incident to Ted, and had never intended to. Last thing I needed was another piece of ammunition for him to fire at me daily. Shit, must have been Melodi Roberts. That’s if the story hadn’t made the rounds to every person at Hidden Pleasures by now.

“Yes.”

“Smokin’. So, you see her, like, everyday?”

“Yup. Have lunch with her once in a while, too.”

Ted gazed at her, a little too obviously for my comfort.

“Perky breasts, magnificent butt… she’s too good for you, man.”

In Ted’s mind, too good for Donnie meant perfect for Ted. As I said, the man is delusional.

“Don’t even think it.”

“What are you talking about? I can’t just walk away-.”

I moved in front of him, cutting off his stare and drawing his attention.

“I’m calling dibs.”

“You’re what? Ha-.” The laugh caught in his throat when he saw the look on my face.

“Man, you can’t do that!”

“The hell I can’t.”

The first time either of us had called dibs, I was seventeen and Ted was fifteen. He called dibs on a girl in his gym class. We had agreed to the system following an unfortunate event involving twin sisters which still haunts me to this day. It had, however, been at least 10 years since either of us had called on the rule.

“Dibs. She’s got a boyfriend. But if that ever changes, I have dibs.”

“Man, she’s not going to go with you anyways. You already messed up big time with that stupid potion!”

“Maybe. But I’m calling dibs.”

“Look. Even if you hadn’t screwed up, you’ve still got to ask them out. When was the last time you did that?”

“I don’t care. I like her.”

“She works for you.”

“I know. I’m still trying to figure that out.”

“Wait a second, what about that chick you were talking to yesterday? The cop?”

Jesus, had he tapped my phone now?

“Dibs on both of them.”

“Wow. Kinky.” He smirked. “OK. Chances are you’re going to bomb out with at least one of them. Hedging your bets, huh?”

He knew me too well.

“Fair enough.” He peered over my shoulder. “Alright. Dibs it is. But I call dibs on Mrs. Jarvis.”

I snorted, loud enough that a few heads turned in my direction, including my mother’s. Up shit creek again.

I was the last to eat, and piled my plate high with a burger, chicken breast, spinach salad with bacon dressing, and a spoonful of pasta salad. Cradling the plate, utensils, napkin and an unopened but ice-cold Sleeman’s, I maneuvered my way down to the lower tier of the deck and balanced each item on top of the railing. I was mid-bite on the burger when my mother appeared at my side.

“Please tell me you are not going to eat all of that.”

“Mmfff.” I coughed, sending a fine spray of hamburger towards the Valley floodplain.

“Close your mouth when you eat. Mon Dieu.”

Ah. How I enjoy these tender moments with my mother.

“Hey.”

And Ted, too. Could it get any better?

“Kara is a lovely girl.”

“Hm.” Neither Ted nor I said anything, sensing danger looming over the horizon.

“She works at your company?”

“Yes. Dispatch and Reception.”

“And Lamar?”

“Jamar. Yup. He works part-time as a driver. Goes to U of T.”

“These are very nice people. You had better treat them well.”

Ted eyed me suspiciously over her shoulder, as if to say he would be watching me too.

“And don’t think I can’t see you there.”

“What?”

“Every time I try to talk to your brother about anything serious, you…”

Adopted. Or maybe I was a test-tube baby. That was it. Donated egg and sperm, a famous actress and her billionaire husband. Must be.

The brief spat having petered out, the three of us admired the view in silence. Ted picked stray pasta noodles off my plate.

“Nice spot, huh?”

It was that. Clay’s lot was deep, and the two level cedar deck extended a third of the way to the back fence, a low driftwood affair that could not possibly be to local code. One advantage, though, was that the view was unobstructed.

A gradual slope led down to the floodplain of the river. The slope was populated with a mixture of ash and maple, but I spotted the paper curled bark of a few birch interspersed here and there. The ground was undulating, fallen branches and leaves mixing with the natural undergrowth to form an organic quilt. The floodplain beyond was similar, but included a few big willows, fifty feet plus and a good yard wide at the trunk. Then came the river, the smooth surface broken here and there by ripples.

“Hard to believe the natives hunted and fished along here, huh? From Lake Ontario to Georgian Bay. Then, in the 1800s, the good old white man bought the land, and set up a trading post at the mouth of the Credit. De-forested the whole region.”

I stared at Ted, dumbfounded by the words coming from his mouth.

“What? Not all TV is crap, you know. Anyways, looks like nature has battled back, huh?”

It had, at that. The Valley was a restful calm in the midst of suburban rush — peaceful running water and banks of foliage.

“Beautiful.”

For once, I knew exactly what my mother meant.

As we drank in our surroundings, we were gifted with a special moment. Maybe it was the peaceful spell that caused her to step out. Or maybe it was divine intervention. In any event, a white-tailed deer — a doe — peeked around the trunk of a tree, then trotted into view.

My mother clutched my arm, but we watched on quietly. She was a beauty. Grey-brown coat with the distinctive white under the tail. She nosed through the undergrowth, foraging for just the right leaves or shoots and pausing to munch when she found something worth eating.

We learn from very young that time is absolute. A day has twenty-four hours. You have a birthday once a year. No one lives forever. But at that moment, it was clear to me that time is relative. Those few seconds, maybe fifteen or twenty at most, they were the longest, most peaceful, most content seconds I had known in a long time.

Then one of Clay’s guests clinked a glass on the back of a deck chair, and the moment was broken. The doe froze, eyes and ears on alert, legs crouched slightly to permit a quick getaway. A second later she sprung forward, towards us in one arcing leap, then completing a tight turn with quick strides to dart back into the brush.

“Nice going, Jamar.” Several of the guests razzed him, while Willis punched him in the arm. Seemed others had shared the moment with us, though it had felt as though we were alone in the world.

The three of us remained in place, content to be together as one family. It was a good reminder that magic is around us every day. We just needed to slow down, and look.

CHAPTER 16

Much as I would have been delighted to spend the entire day drinking beer on the back deck, it seemed events were conspiring to eliminate that possibility. A short while after everyone had finished brunch, Harper gathered the guests for a toast to Clay’s health. As the group dispersed, Harper took the opportunity to introduce me to Sol Irving, who I had never formally met, despite our many phone conversations.

I had a vision of the Professor, borne of my own experiences in college. As it turned out, Sol looked more like a retired businessman then my image of a Religious Studies lecturer. His meticulous white moustache and beard stood out against his deep tan and bald forehead, giving the impression he spent his winters playing golf in the Caribbean. Age lines, but more from the sun than stress. He wore a buttoned down long-sleeve dress shirt in a black gingham check, simple olive chinos, and black penny loafers. He could have fit in at any restaurant in Palm Beach as easily as he did at Clay Jarvis’ place. Hard to believe he had a PhD in Theology from Yale, and taught such esoteric subjects as “Native Americans — Myth and Oral Histories”.

Sol proved a fascinating guy to talk to, at least for a big-time geek like myself. He was also one of my few windows into the new world I was learning about.

I suppose I have always been open to the idea of magic. Certainly after sitting through a quantum mechanics seminar in Physics 101, I remember thinking that it sounded like magic. After all, if reality itself is determined by our perception of it, how can anyone say what is possible or not? Then years later I saw a show on the Discovery Channel about a woman with synesthesia, whose neural wiring had been crossed at birth. When she heard a sound, she would also see a color. Others tasted certain flavors when they heard music.

To my simple mind, synesthesia raised a whole host of questions. If the woman saw black when she heard bass, did that mean the “color” of bass was black? Were the rest of us simply unable to see it? Maybe if we could use this portion of the brain that none of us seem to access, then all things could be interpreted by all senses. Colors would have tones and tastes, textures would have smells. And if that was true, how could anyone truly say there was no such thing as magic? After all, what is magic but something unexplained? A TV remote would have seemed magical to Archimedes (as would TV, for that matter). That didn’t make it any less real.

But believing something may be possible, and seeing it with your very own eyes are two completely different things. Believing the Maple Leafs will win the Stanley Cup again, and seeing it in real life… well, maybe that would be magic.

In the past few weeks, I had come to believe that there was such a thing as magic. Having a fridge thrown at you by an elderly woman tends to put a different spin on your views of the world.

Why these things happened was still an open question in my mind. Whether or not science would ultimately explain all of the so-called supernatural, I had seen things happen which were real.

So talking with Sol helped me understand how this new world operated.

“When the average person thinks of the occult, they think ‘abracadabra’. Ritual magic with a wand and a magic phrase. Harry Potter. But that’s a massive oversimplification. Most of them read their horoscopes, that’s astrology. Some may have had their palms read — palmistry. Both are forms of divination, an attempt to divine, or discover, information using so-called ‘magic’.”

I nodded, feeling like I should be sitting at a desk taking notes. We had spoken about the nature of the package Clay and I had picked up from Sun Consulting on the day of the robbery. The Sun folks had apparently opened up a bit about the stolen item, and revealed it was a pendulum with a special stand, that operated like a Ouija board. He thought it might be mounted over maps or photographs. That seemed to ring true with the snippets I had mined from Helen Findlay.

“Beyond those you have alchemy — the old ‘lead into gold’. Voodoo. Try visiting a backwoods town in Louisiana and telling people there’s no such thing as magic. And countless other forms of worship, dating back to the earliest days of man. Shamanism, Wicca, even Satanism, the favorite of Hollywood producers and the authors of cheap horror stories.”

“Hey, that’s my taste in reading that you’re putting down.”

“Ha! Mine too, if the truth be told. My point is, we have lumped this vast collection of religions, beliefs, practices, habits, all of them into the ‘occult’. But there are as many variations in the occult world as there are outside it.”

“What I don’t understand is why we don’t hear more about this. I mean, I had never heard of most of our clients before.”

Sol scooped another shrimp, dipping it into the seafood sauce then wolfing it down. I loved shrimp, but the sauce was too heavy on the horseradish for my taste. I start sweating at the slightest hint of spicy. Love it, but it eats me alive from the inside out.

“I can’t say for sure, but I see two obstacles. The first is mankind’s naive perspective on the world. I would wager that the average person on the street believes we know everything there is to know about this planet of ours. But there are tens of thousands of new species discovered every year. There are still tribes of people living on this planet that have never been seen by a white man, or examined by modern scientists. For goodness sake, we haven’t even cured the common cold. So why we would believe we know all there is to know? It mystifies me. Second, you have to look to history. Society does not treat these people well. Man has always attacked that which is different. You don’t need to be Jewish, or Islamic, or black, or Native American, to recognize that. Tell me, you’ve heard of the Salem witch trials?”

I nodded, crunching away on a carrot. Kara had ambled up during our conversation, and I had a tendency to become a health food fanatic around pretty ladies.

“How about the trials in Bury St. Edmunds? Or the Basque?”

I’m not sure I could even say what countries they were in. I shook my head.

“Kara?”

“I think I’ve heard something about the Basque.”

“OK. How about witch hunts? Were you aware that the term ‘witch hunt’ originated with actual hunts in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries? Mob hysteria, lynching.”

Made sense.

“So, how many people do you think were killed during the witch hunts and trials?”

This one I might be able to figure out. My interest in horror fiction was paying off.

“Well, I seem to recall there were twenty witches killed in Salem.” The Professor nodded for me to continue, so I figured I was close enough. “So, assuming there were ten, even twenty towns worldwide where they held trials… that works out to about four hundred. Let’s be wacky and, I don’t know, quadruple it to take into account hunts and the like. Say, two thousand?” The number seemed big to me, a bit overblown. But I sensed the Professor had a big number in mind, and I didn’t want to insult his sensibilities.

“Kara?”

“That sounds about right. Maybe even a little high?”

Sol sharked down another shrimp.

“How about forty thousand?”

Forty thousand? That’s a big number. Wait a second — forty thousand?

“Seriously?”

“Oh, academics will debate these things well past last call. Some will say the maximum is no more than ten thousand, others will tell you that it’s more like one hundred thousand. My feeling — an unsubstantiated guess, mind you — is that it is somewhere in between. So forty to fifty thousand.”

That was a lot of people. Maybe not significant in the overall course of history. I knew that 20 million Russians had died in World War II, and just as many Chinese. Six million Jews had lost their lives. Those were horrible numbers, stark evidence of humanity’s inhumane nature. Hell, you didn’t need to be a combatant in a war, or even the innocent civilian of a nation at war to recognize that mankind was gifted when it came to killing one another. Rwanda, Darfur, the list went on.

But forty thousand was still not a number to ignore. Cultures had gone to war for a hell of a lot less.

“The fact is that witch hunts, the condemnation of occult practices and the persecution of practitioners, all have gone on since pre-Biblical times. Exodus 22:18 — ‘though shalt not suffer a witch to live.’ A lot of men, women and children have died because they were suspected of being witches, or having occult powers. Tens of thousands of people burned at the stake, stoned to death. The Witch Trials during the so-called Age of Reason. Heck, in 2011, a young woman and her mother were stoned to death for witchcraft in South Africa. 2011! And there are many other more recent examples. If you don’t believe in magic, these deaths are a travesty. If you do, it’s genocide. No, even in the best of times, practitioners have kept low profiles.”

“But look at Arcane. Look at our business. We couldn’t stay in business if people weren’t interested in the occult. And it’s not just a handful of folks. We must be talking hundreds in the GTA alone.”

“Yes, but look to the simple math. When the witch hunts took place, there was half a billion humans on this planet. If you were to assume that all of those people who were executed were practitioners, and you were to apply it to our world today, you would end up with a number in the hundreds of thousands. However we know that a significant number of the trials were politically or personally motivated. So cut it in half. You still end up with a number in the six figures. And that’s practitioners. I’m not including dabblers, or the simply curious.”

I did the math in my head. Couldn’t help myself. Let’s face it, I was running a business here. So, just under six million in the GTA. Seven billion worldwide. Call it one in eleven hundred. So if there were one hundred thousand occult types worldwide, and maybe ten times as many who dabbled or were just plain curious, that worked out to more than 1,000 potential customers in the GTA.

I was going to work out market share, but I noticed Kara and the Prof both looking at me in silence.

“Sorry. Just trying to see how that compared to what I’ve seen so far.”

“And?”

“Sounds about right. Might even be low, if you assume even distribution globally.”

“Well, that’s another interesting point.”

After an hour of chatting with the Professor, I excused myself. My head was spinning with way too much information.

Harper had said we had the run of the place, and a group was settled into the living room, two matching tan-colored sofas on either side of a sunken sitting area, with a pair of wicker chairs pulled up to accommodate the head count. My mother was fussing with a stack of cushions, moving them aside to give Clay more room to sit. I kept my head down, and stepped through the first door I saw. In front of me was a short flight of stairs leading to the basement.

Small bedroom to my right — looked like a guestroom. Washroom. Then a room that smelled of leather and appeared to contain a very large TV set.

My kind of room.

Turned out Clay had real nice taste in electronics. Sixty inch widescreen LCD set. Built-in sound system. Two rows of black leather theatre-style seating, with the works — built in consoles and drink-holders. Small bar in the corner. I wandered over to the bar, looking for nothing stiffer than a Coke. I found a Ginger Ale in the bar fridge. I was checking out some knick-knacks displayed in a glass cabinet on the wall behind the bar when a voice startled me out of my reverie.

“So, what do you think of my little hidey hole?”

Clay was looking better. He still walked with a cane, which made his trip down the stairs awkward. But his strength was improving, and his skin was no longer the dull shade of grey that had given me such concern in the hospital.

“Very nice. Something to aspire to.”

“Heh.” He shuffled over to one of the theatre seats and took a seat. “If you told me forty years ago that I was going to own a color TV, I would have laughed. Now I’ve got three, and every HDTV, HDMI watchamacallit going.”

“Not bad.” I gestured to the cabinet and some of the keepsakes on display. “I like the salt and pepper shakers.”

“Neat, eh?” The shakers were miniature Mason jars, one filled with salt, the other with pepper (go figure). Both bore the Arcane Transport logo, engraved on the side. “We did them up for our 10th anniversary, way back when. Sent a set out to all of our customers. I can dig up a pair for you, if you like. I’m sure we have extras floating around.”

“That’d be great. Thanks.”

“My pleasure. Take a closer look, if you want.”

I opened the glass cabinet and lifted the shakers out. Pretty neat. Must be my geek nature, but I love quirky things like that. As I replaced them, I glanced at the other items in the cabinet. On the same shelf as the shakers, there were a few other items bearing the company logo. Mouse pad, keychain, sleeve of golf balls. The next shelf up was occupied by several photos — one showing the office staff, standing out front of reception. The other two showed Clay receiving business awards. I had seen similar photos at the office, along with the actual awards.

“Is that Mayor McCallion?”

“That’s right. Hurrican Hazel. We won a Board of Trade award a few years back, and she attended the ceremony. Harper had always wanted to meet her, so we caught up with her afterwards, and she agreed to have her picture taken.”

“What was she then? Eighty-five?”

“Eighty-seven. Amazing.”

“No kidding.”

The top shelf appeared to be personal items — a pottery jar, Eskimo soapstone bear and a glass bowl. The jar immediately caught my eye. Black on black, with matte images carved into the polished surface. The decoration reminded me of some of the Pueblo art I had seen in the past.

“Where did you get the-,” I reached out to lift the pot from the shelf.

“Don’t!”

“Huh?” Too late. I spun, just managing not to smack the pot on anything.

“Oh! I’m sorry, Clay. Didn’t mean to presume.” I reached to place the pot back in the cabinet.

“No, no. It’s OK. Just — don’t worry about it. Feel free to take a look.”

I glanced at him and noticed he seemed a little flustered. Not a good thing in his condition. I was debating getting Harper when she descended the stairs.

“There you are! I wasn’t sure if you’d gone to lie down, or — oh, hi Darnell.”

“Hi Harper.” I glanced down at the pot in my hands, to give her and Clay an opportunity to talk for a moment. She was no doubt checking in on him to make sure all was well.

The pot was maybe four inches tall by five inches wide, and seemed to be half-full with salt or something similar. The polished parts of the clay surface were so reflective that they served as curved mirrors, and I could see my own face looking back at me. Several bands had been etched into the circumference of the pot, with geometric representations of various animals, reminiscent of the totem poles of the Canadian Pacific Coast.

I was still taking in the remarkable artistry of the piece when I noticed that Harper and Clay were not talking. A glance confirmed their silence, and I saw both were staring at me.

“Uh, I wasn’t supposed to take this out of the cabinet, was I?” I turned to set it back in its original resting spot. “What, is this thing worth a small fortune?”

“No, no.” This time it was Harper. I turned back, now wondering what the hell was going on.

“Somebody want to explain what’s going on? I feel like I’m missing something here.”

They exchanged a look, and Clay seemed to make a decision.

“When you spilled that potion, did it have any effect on you?”

OK. That was from left field. More than a little embarrassing, too. It seemed I was never going to escape that incident. It would have been nice not to have to discuss it in front of Harper, though.

“No. Not that I noticed. I mean, it was a little difficult to tell.”

“And in the Lost and Found Room?”

“The Lost and Found? Oh the fearstone, that. Nope.”

Seemed like I wasn’t the only one noticing a few odd things. I hadn’t even told them about the events with Crazy Lady Lucas from the day before. Wasn’t sure I wanted to, but I didn’t have any choice now.

“Maybe we should ask Huguette and Sol to join us?”

Harper headed back up the stairs.

“OK. Now you’re starting to freak me out, Clay. Did I do something wrong?”

Clay studied me — that’s the word, studied — and shook his head. “Nothing wrong, kid. Just the opposite, in fact.”

Now my mother and Sol were clumping down the stairs, followed by Harper. I could hear my brother’s voice from the living room, then the sound of laughter from the remaining guests. I suspect he had determined that I was in a shitload of trouble. Which remained to be seen, but was always a possibility.

“OK. Somebody tell me what the heck is going on.”

My mother gave me that look. The one that says don’t you swear in front of others, even if it is a grade two swearword. Then she saw the pot in my hands and paused.

“Is that — is that the pot from Santa Fe?” She had turned to Harper, who nodded in confirmation.

“But I thought — .”

“I know. Clay?”

Now they were all staring at me, and I was distinctly uncomfortable. I put the pot down on the bar and took a swig of my Ginger Ale.

“Anybody?”

Sol stepped forward.

“I believe — correct me if I’m wrong Clay — I believe that pot is a protective talisman that Clay and Harper were given by a Pueblo Indian medicine man when they visited New Mexico. What, ten years ago?”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

The Professor was standing in front of the bar now, studying the pot.

“So, I wasn’t supposed to pick it up?”

“Well-.”

I sighed, and they could all tell I was exasperated. It was my mother that answered, oddly enough, and for once her answer was clear and to the point.

“You shouldn’t be able to pick it up.”

I had moved around to the front of the bar, and was perched on one of the leather stools. The others had settled into the theatre seats, making me feel like I was facing a jury.

I still wasn’t clear on what my crime had been, or for that matter what the potential penalty might be. But apparently it had something to do with the pot in my hands.

“So tell me that again?”

“We were given that pot in ‘98 by a Pueblo Indian who was a medicine man. It was a gift for letting his daughter stay with us during her senior year at Ryerson.”

I nodded, half listening and half checking out the faces of the others in the room, in particular my mother. I kept expecting her to signal her displeasure with me in some way, for not paying attention, or picking up the damned thing, or simply being here. But she was listening intently to Harper, and when she glanced in my direction, it was with a solemn look on her face.

“He lived in a tiny village fifty miles outside Santa Fe. Paranoid about big cities, crime, that kind of thing. When he gave us the pot, he claimed that it was a protective talisman, that it would prevent unwanted visitors from entering our home. I don’t know if it works. Suppose we never will, unless someone tries to rob us one night. But he also cast a ward on it, to ensure no one other than Clay or I could remove it from the house.”

“OK. And this ward is supposed to prevent anyone from taking it out of the house? Well, I haven’t-.”

“Not just take it out of the house. No one is supposed to be able to touch it.”

I must have had a skeptical look on my face, because this time my mother scowled.

“Maybe the ward has worn off?”

Professor Irving piped up. “I don’t think so. These types of spells aren’t supposed to have a shelf life. Excuse the pun.” Not sure I could. It wasn’t very punny. “Certainly the last time I tried to pick up the ward it seemed to be working just fine.”

“What does it do?”

Sol glanced at the others and apparently concluded he was the one best suited to show how it worked. Sighing, he wrestled his way out of his leather nest in the second row and headed my way.

“Why don’t you put it on the bar. Make sure it’s not near the edge.”

“Sol, you don’t need to-.”

Sol patted Harper on the shoulder, and continued toward the bar. “I think it is well worth it, if we can prove that the ward is still working.”

I moved aside to let the Professor stand at the bar. Up close, I could see that drops of sweat were forming on his forehead. He gave me a quick grin, but I could see in his eyes it was much like the smile a patient gives his dentist just before the root canal procedure begins. Then he reached out his right hand, the fingers trembling ever so slightly. He paused for a moment, just a few inches from the lid of the pot, then closed the gap.

The Ontario Science Centre was one of my favorite places to visit as a kid. And one of the exhibits I looked forward to most was a Van de Graaf generator in the Science Arcade. A big aluminum sphere, the generator always made me think of a metal mushroom. Operating at 500,000 volts, the device was terrific for introducing kids to electricity and its effects. I just loved watching the girls get up there. When their hair stood on end, they looked like giant dandelion puffballs. And I remember how, if you got up close, you could feel the charged air around you, and the hair on your arms would stand up.

Sol’s finger was about three inches from the pot when a spark jumped through the air. This was no carpet spark. I swear a mini-lightning bolt formed in that room before our very eyes. There was a crack like an axe splitting a log, and the room lit up. I think I may have yelped like a startled puppy. I know I hopped back a few steps.

The ladies both cried out in surprise, and Clay fell back in his chair with a thump.

What was three or four seconds felt like thirty. Finally, my voice seemed to work.

“Are you OK?”

Sol was staring at his finger, inspecting it for burn marks. The pot seemed to be rocking ever so slightly on its base.

“Yeah. I’m OK. Jeez, that’s the third time I’ve done that. I should know better by now.”

“Everyone OK down there?” That was Jamar’s voice, I thought, calling down from the living room.

Harper called out in response. “All good. Just crossed the wrong wire.”

More laughter upstairs. Ted was no doubt mocking the old folks in the basement.

“That seemed a lot more powerful than last time.” Clay’s eyes were filled with concern for his friend.

“Yeah, that had a bit of pop to it, that’s for sure.”

“You sure you’re OK?”

“Yeah.” He smiled, first at me, then at Clay. “Well, it seems to be working just fine.”

Which raised an obvious question.

“Then why didn’t it zap me?”

Two shapely legs descended down the stairwell and a moment later Kara’s eyes met mine. Right behind her was a pair of significantly less shapely legs, covered in dense hair. Those belonged to Ted.

“We’ve been sent down to make sure everything’s alright.”

Both were smiling as they entered the room, but the smiles faded as Harper took them aside in the second row of seats and began to whisper to them.

For a moment I wondered whether the other guests were beginning to feel left out, then I heard a roar of laughter upstairs, followed by Harold’s voice objecting to Jamar’s telling of past adventures. Seemed they were holding down the fort.

“Do you mind picking it up again?”

“Thanks a lot.” I smiled wryly. Now I was the subject of a science experiment.

I found myself wincing as I reached out to the pot, convinced that this time it would feel like I had stuck my finger in a light socket. I tensed, then stabbed out clumsily to grab it. Probably looked like an idiot in the process, but no damage done.

“Nothing?”

“Nope. Not a thing. Just feels like an ordinary pot.”

“It’s like in that lady’s house.” That was Ted, speaking up from his consultation with Harper.

“Yeah, I guess that’s right.”

The others stared back with blank faces, so Ted explained the incident up North, and how we had been fortunate to avoid Crazy Lady Lucas’ wrath. My mother’s face settled into a familiar expression — livid anger.

“That sounds pretty serious.” Clay spoke up, the voice of reason.

“Yeah. Sorry, we didn’t expect anything like that. We just got back last night. No real harm done, though.” I gave Ted a quick warning glance. If he mention the fire or the cops, I would beat his ass.

“Still, that sounds like a lot heavier magic than a protective spell, or a love potion.” That was Sol speaking, but a lot of heads were nodding in response.

“Maybe its because I’m new to Arcane? Or maybe it’s the type of magic?”

Silence. OK, so maybe neither was a great theory. They could at least act supportive. Geez.

“Or- Oh! I’ve been carrying around a lucky charm, the one from the office.” I pulled out the leper coin and the tiger’s eye stone from my pocket, and handed Clay the coin. “Maybe it’s been protecting me.”

That seemed logical. Certainly Ted was nodding in agreement. But everyone else was giving me a skeptical look.

“That coin is strictly playtime, Donnie. Might even be classified as inert.” Clay was up and leaning on the back of the chair in front of him, energized by the discussion. “What Ted described, that’s serious mojo.”

Hm.

“AAAACHHOOOOO!”

I almost fell off the stool, and Clay looked like he was going to have another heart attack.

“Sorry about that.”

“Bless you.” That was from Harper.

“Don’t do that again. Tsk.” And that was from my mother.

“Uh, where were we? No, it’s almost as if you’re protected, or immune. It’s like the magic can’t affect you. Unless you’re wielding some heavy duty magic yourself.”

Yeah, right.

“Assuming there even is such a thing as magic, why wouldn’t it affect Donnie-boy the same way it does everyone else?” I’m sure Ted’s cynical tone wasn’t making him any friends, but it was a good question.

“I have no idea. Huguette? Any thoughts?”

I realized then that my mother had been very quiet throughout this entire turn of events. For my mother, quiet was uncharacteristic. Even now, she remained seated in the front row of theatre seats, watching the discussion as though observing a lecture.

“Well, we suspected something was different when they were very young.”

“We did?” Ted and I spoke out in unison. I might also have queried the word “they”.

“Well, your father and I. From time to time one of his friends would give you a special gift for a birthday or for Christmas. Say a teddy bear that could say your name. But you and your brother, the gifts never worked for you. It seemed a strange coincidence. But it never occurred to us that magic might not work around you at all.”

“Maybe the batteries weren’t working.”

“These weren’t battery operated.”

“Oh. Then why wouldn’t they work?”

“It’s like magic is… desamorcer?” She looked at Ted and I, but we drew a blank. Count on Sol, however.

“Defused.”

“Yes. It seems to be defused when you are nearby.”

“Me, anyways. I’m not sure about you.” I was looking at Ted.

“Thanks. You make me sound like I should be riding the short bus.”

That brought a scowl to my mother’s face. Sol stepped in, apparently willing to risk the wrath of the she-beast.

“Listen, for all we know, a great many people react to magic in this way. The fact is, much of the world has never seen magic employed. It’s just that, well, you would think we would have seen some example of this before.”

I was thinking through what I had heard over the past few minutes.

“So you’re saying I can’t use magic, and no one can use magic against me?”

Clay seemed to flinch at that, and spoke up from his chair. “I wouldn’t be too quick to assume that. We don’t know that others can’t use magic against you.”

My mother joined in. “There are some very powerful people out there. You can’t just suppose that they cannot do anything to you.”

And why would my mother know anything about that? This whole day had gone sideways into some weird dimension.

“It does make for an interesting situation, though.”

“Oh yeah? And what’s that?” Ted’s mood and manner were degenerating rapidly.

“Well, it’s just ironic that Donnie has ended up working with Clay here. I mean, a courier business for magic items!”

I suppose it was somewhat ironic, but Professor Irving seemed inordinately pleased with the point. Maybe it was the look on my face, but he seemed to realize further explanation was warranted.

“It was not unusual in ancient times for couriers to be illiterate. In fact, it was desirable. The nobility could rest easy knowing that the person delivering a document could not understand its contents. There is a parallel here. If it is true that you’re not able to use magic, then you’re well suited to transport magic goods for others. The fact that others may not even be able to use magic against you makes you even more fitting for the role.”

Did he just call me illiterate?

“Bit of a strange coincidence, don’t you think?” I don’t know whether I was directing my comments at someone in the room, or the world at large.

“That’s what worries me,” said my mother, and I knew what she was going to say next. “There are no coincidences.”

CHAPTER 17

The ride back to my place was a quiet one. Ted closed his eyes and seemed to be napping, possibly a consequence of his “one for you, one for me” policy while tending the bar. My mother stared out the window in silence. And I considered my last few weeks.

I had a lot of questions, and no answers. Why did magic appear not to affect me? What did Niki the Bull have to do with Maxim and Elena Legenko? How could I help Jamar out? Where did the tiger’s eye come from? Should I make a move on Amy or Kara? Could I hope for Amy and Kara? Could I keep Arcane afloat, or was I going to run it into the ground?’

The questions flitted in and out, like mosquitoes drawing blood then racing off to be replaced by their brethren.

No one said a word until we were ensconced in the apartment. I was grabbing a beer from the fridge when my mother spoke up.

“We should talk.”

I glanced around the corner, just in time to see her settle into the sofa with a swoop of her coat. Ted observed this with a leery look on his face, as though doubtful of her intentions.

She gazed up at me, and I could see that her normally terse mouth and stern eyes were somehow softer, a look of concern taking their place. It’s funny. We spoke most days, visited at least weekly, but seldom ever focused on one another.

“Do you have any wine?”

Ted was seated on the other side of the sofa, leaning away from her. I flashed the Sleemans label at him, and he nodded.

I am by no means a wine hound. We kept a bottle or two of red in the apartment for guests, but more often in case we needed to bring something to a party or a friend’s place. Come to think of it, that would have been a sensible thing to do for the visit to Clay’s place. Duh.

The wine selection process was very simple. I just walk into the local Vintages and pick something I’ve never had off the shelf. Sometimes I’ll read the little review cards below the bottles, but more often than not I’ll just go for it. The result is that sometimes I pick real crap, other times I look like a wine genius.

I pulled the nicest, or perhaps more accurately, the most expensive — a Barbaresco — Dante Rivetti 1997. Fumbled through the utensil drawer until I found the opener, and worked the cork out. I then did something that would cause many a vintner to cringe, or crush me like a grape. Without decanting or even allowing it to air, I filled a tall narrow glass to just below the rim. At least it was stemware.

I didn’t think my mother would care, and I was right.

The three of us sipped at our drinks in quiet for a moment, then she broke the silence.

“What is this about a love potion?”

Great. What better place to start.

I walked her and Ted through my first few weeks at work. The robbery, most of which they had already heard. I gave her the PG-13 version of the story about the love potion, embarrassing as that was to discuss with my mother. Jamar’s ring, the tiger’s eye stone, even what I had been able to find out about Niki the Bull and his connections to Ruscan Industries.

“So you have this fearstone on you?”

“Yep.” I pulled it from my pocket and dropped it on the table, with the leper coin beside it. She picked up each, one at a time, and studied them as though through a jeweler’s loupe. I noticed that she held the coin like I would hold any common object, calmly turning it in her hand to read both sides and study the simple stampings. The tiger’s egg was another story. That she picked up with her thumb and forefinger, as though mimicking the gesture of picking up a tea cup. And she held it at arm’s reach.

Ted leaned forward to examine both as well, but when he reached out to pick up the stone she slapped his hand away. It was a true deja vu moment — the exact motion she would use when we were kids, to keep us from grabbing a warm cookie off the baking tray. Ted’s reaction was a deja vu moment as well. He slumped back in the sofa with his lower lip jutting out, just as it had when he was a tyke. Deja two.

God, we were dysfunctional.

“This stone worked with your friends at the office?”

“Yup. Ted, too.”

“What? No it didn’t.”

I debated telling them the whole story, but thought better of it. He would be pissed I hadn’t told him. And her? Well, she would either be heartbroken or proud.

“When you were sleeping last night.”

“It isn’t working now.” My mother still held it in her hands.

“I know. It’s weird. With others, if I was far enough away from the stone, it would activate. With Ted it only happened when he was sleeping.”

“So it may not be working because you are close to us?”

“I think so. Don’t know for sure.”

“What did people see? Images, or something concrete?”

“They were real. I could touch them. Didn’t seem dangerous, though. Might move around, but it seemed to me that the illusion was the scary part.”

“Why don’t you move back, to the wall there.”

I stared at her for a moment. I wasn’t liking this at all. But the look on her face suggested that this was not a request.

I gestured to Ted, and he slipped off the sofa and joined me. The two of us then backed away several feet. Nothing, so we backed up a few more.

And the stone began to glow. The air before my mother rippled, then flash.

A man stood before her. Tall, slim, brown hair and beard salted with gray. He was taller than Ted, maybe six three. Wearing a tuxedo, of all things.

Ted and I slid along the wall to get a better look at the man, and in the process we were able to see my mother’s expression. Her eyes were round with fear, mouth open and lip trembling. I sensed revulsion as well, in the way she hunched her shoulders and leaned back into the cushions. She was terrified.

So I cut the experiment short. I stepped forward and snatched the stone from her hand, causing the illusion to dissolve before our eyes.

“Mon Dieu.”

I said nothing, but Ted returned to the sofa, this time by her side. She was wringing her hands, but her breathing slowed and her shoulders dropped.

“Who was that?”

She didn’t answer Ted, just shaking her head as if to deny him or the illusion we had just observed.

“Give me that thing.”

I glared at Ted, determined not to have another member of my family go through with this nonsense. But the look on his face brooked no argument, and my mother stood and joined my side.

“Give it to him, Darnell. We must see what happens.”

Great. My mother was about to discover that her youngest son’s greatest fear was a conversation with her. I sensed years of therapy in the offing. Still, there was no sense in arguing. Two of the three most stubborn people I know had set their minds on this path.

I laid the stone on the coffee table, and my mother and I backed to the spot where I had observed the previous illusion. Ted reached out and picked up the stone, tentative at first, but then flipping it in the air like a coin. He tossed it from hand to hand, and my mother let out a sigh of exasperation.

Nothing.

“Huh. Maybe I’m still too close.” I walked past the sofa, my mother’s heels clacking as she followed me down the hall towards the bathroom. We turned, now twice the distance we had been before.

Now Ted was rolling the stone over his knuckles. I stepped into my bedroom and moved to the far wall.

“Anything?”

My mother peered at Ted. “Nothing.”

“Huh.” I returned to the hall, then the two of us headed back to the living room. “Maybe he isn’t-.”

“AAAACHOOOOOOOOO!”

Scared the hell out of me. Again. My mother and I both stopped dead in our tracks, startled by the explosion of noise.

“Cover your mouth.”

“Sorry. I must be-. AAACHHOOOOO!”

For God’s sake. This building was not earthquake proof.

“Man. My allergies are acting up big time.”

“Well, at least it seems like you aren’t susceptible to magic. Not when you’re awake, anyways.”

He tossed the stone to me, and I palmed it, then slipped it back into my pocket. No point risking another glowing green visitor in the night.

I was expecting some sort of snide remark, but Ted was staring at his hand, the way he would if a puck beat him on his glove side.

“What is it?” My mother moved to his side.

“Look at this.” He held up his hand, the one he had been holding the stone with, and it was dotted with angry red bumps. “Some kind of rash.”

Now that was weird.

“Do you have any calamine lotion?” Count on my mother to remain practical.

We did, and I recovered it for Ted, who then lathered it onto both hands, his left hand also beginning to show the rash, though in a much milder form.

“I didn’t get a rash from any of that crap the Crazy Bitch threw at us.”

I knew my mother was caught up in the moment, because the B word slid on by.

“No. Though, weren’t you loaded up on meds?”

“Benadryl. What, you think I’m allergic to magic?”

My mother slumped back in the sofa, and the three of us sat without talking. Finally my mother broke the moment by finishing her wine with a tip of her head, then returning the glass to the coffee table.

“What was this about a witch up North?”

I filled her in on my trip with Ted up North — the visit to Crazy Lady’s estate, the fire, my call to Amy, and even the mystery delivery to the Founders’ cemetery outside Anadale Corners. Through the whole thing she listened quietly, her face set in its usual expression of disapproval and suspicion. But when I mentioned Anadale, she gasped.

“Anadale? Anadale Corners? West of Orillia?”

“Yup.”

“Why were you there?”

“Arcane has a quarterly drop-off. Pre-scheduled, three packages come in from local shops and one from New Orleans. We bundle and deliver. Two week window. Not exactly a big customer, but we find a way to tie it into our delivery schedule.”

“Who is the customer?”

“Don’t know. Anonymous delivery.”

“I did not know this.”

I studied her eyes, but she was ignoring me, caught up in her own thoughts. As usual, Ted took the direct route.

“And why, exactly, would you expect to know anything about it?”

“Hm? Oh, it’s-.” She paused, and I finally saw her exhaustion. As though I were merely an observer, distinct from these people and this conversation. The slump in her strong back, shoulders dropped, bags under her eyes. She was tired. We were all tired. Too many strange things in one day. But apparently there was one more to come.

“Anadale. Your father was from Anadale Corners.”

“Okay, too much wine for you.” Ted picked up her wine glass and began moving to the kitchen. I stayed behind, turning over her statement in my mind.

“Dad was from Hamilton. I’ve even got his old passport floating around somewhere. 1950. Hamilton, Ontario. Didn’t you say he was born at St. Joe’s?”

“He was born in Hamilton, yes. But his family was from Anadale. His mother was to deliver at home as she had done with your uncle, bless his soul. But the midwife determined that it was to be a breech birth, a very awkward position, so they were put in touch with a specialist in Hamilton who was familiar with newer techniques to avoid risk of injury to the mother or child.”

“Hunh.” That brought Ted to a halt, and he set the wine glass and beer bottle on the counter by the apartment door, no doubt to stay there until I removed them.

“He lived in Anadale Corners with his family until he was fourteen. When his father passed away, Robert’s older brother took over the running of the grocery they owned. But his mother was unwell, and needed medical treatment in the city. So while the brother ran the store, Robert moved to Toronto to care for his mother. They lived downtown, in a basement flat off of Beverley. He spent his mornings in school, walked his mother to the hospital at lunch, spent the afternoon with her, walked her home, made her dinner, put her to bed then did his homework. Worked at the local grocery Fridays and weekends. For three years, until she passed away.”

Tough life. One of the few memories I have of my Father was of him talking to us of his childhood and the hardships they had endured.

“Didn’t you meet him in Toronto?”

“Yes, we met that last year, before his mother passed. That summer I visited Toronto and stayed with my Aunt and Uncle. I worked as a candy striper. We met at the hospital.”

That was something I didn’t know.

“I thought you moved in together while he went to University?”

“Yes, but first he moved back to Anadale. Lived there from — let’s see, 70 to 72. Two years. Then his brother died, and Robert decided to move back to Toronto. He closed the grocery and there was a bit of insurance to pay the family’s debts. When he moved here, he had nothing. A canvas bag with his clothes, a few pictures, and the names of several friends of his parents. Still, he managed to find a job and a place to live. When I found out he had returned, I visited my Aunt and Uncle again. As they say, the rest is history.”

This was kind of interesting. It had been years since we had last talked about Dad, and frankly I couldn’t remember much.

“Married in-.”

“1975. He was twenty-five, and I was twenty-four.” Ted blew out a breath, as though astonished anyone could consider such a thing. “I had you in 1978, then your brother the next year.

We found out about your father’s cancer two years later, and he passed in 1984.”

“That’s when Aunt Nicole moved here?”

“Yes. It was a huge move for her. She had never been outside of Quebec, let alone to a big city like Toronto. But she insisted on helping with the two of you. She loved you very much.”

That brought a moment’s silence to the room. Ted and I had adored Nicole.

“Weird. Anadale Corners, huh?”

“Yes. I had not heard that name in over twenty years.”

“But Dad didn’t have any relatives left, did he?”

“No. The two of you are the last of the family line.”

“Okay. So where does all of this leave us? I may be unaffected to magic. Ted may be — what? Allergic? No idea how, or why. Arcane may be making deliveries to Dad’s old hometown, which is probably just a coincidence, though we all know there are no coincidences. I haven’t even asked who that man was that you imagined. Or why Clay and I were mugged.” I stared at my mother, sensing she might know more, but convinced she had few of the answers. The look on her face told me that.

“I don’t know. I’m sorry.”

CHAPTER 18

The week after the BBQ started out on the same upbeat tone that was becoming the standard. On the way into work, Harper called me to say that Clay had been readmitted. The excitement of the weekend had been a bit much for him, and they were bringing him back for a few days of further observation. We spoke briefly, and she reassured me that all would be fine.

Still, the roads were quiet, and no one mugged me or tried to kill me with a refrigerator.

I arrived back at Arcane for lunch to find paper spread out all over the conference room table. Kara seemed to be energized by the assignment I had given her to investigate the source of the fearstone. Unfortunately, the Miscellaneous files were a lot more paper than I would have anticipated — three thick folders running back twelve years. But if there was anything about a Lost and Found item in our records, this was where it would be.

After a quick visit to the little boy’s room, I grabbed my lunch and a chair.

Today Kara was sporting a company polo, but in a nice lavender color. I didn’t even know we had them in any color other than black, though black worked just fine for me. For her, lavender was very, very good. Hugged her figure without being so tight as to have me drooling on the floor. Dark low cut jeans with a belt that didn’t show off any skin, but hinted at a narrow waist and flat stomach. Black pumps over bare feet.

In the presence of this lovely, I could sit and go through old files all day.

“Take a look at this.”

“Hm.” It was a bill of lading, from several years earlier.

“Is this for the jacket?”

“Yup. I checked against the tag.”

And how about that. The bill identified Bindings as the destination, and… “Is that their account number?”

“Yes.”

“Hm.”

The bill was stamped “Overnight Drop”.

So someone had dropped off a package in our overnight slot containing one Burberry coat, addressed for delivery to Bindings, and referencing Bindings’ account number.

“So we delivered to Bindings, and what happened?”

“They said it wasn’t theirs. Refused delivery. Harvey made the delivery, said it confused the heck out of him, but they were insistent.”

Weird. Still, it had to be someone who knew Bindings was a client, even knew their account number (which was printed in neat capital letters in the appropriate box).

“Nice signature.”

“No kidding.” Chicken scratch. It looked like a real signature. Frankly, there was no need to make up a name if your handwriting was that bad. Damned if I could figure out what it said.

But so far Kara had had no luck in matching the signature to the names for any Bindings employees we knew.

“What is that, an S?” I would classify the handwriting as twitchy cursive. The first letter seemed to have a tiny loop at the top, with a larger loop below. S was a good guess. I suppose D, maybe even R. They may as well have just scratched an X in the signature box.

“Sott? Maybe Scott?”

I glanced at the original bill of lading. Short would be a stretch (excuse the pun). I could see the S and the T, but the rest didn’t match up. I shrugged, and Kara agreed.

“Maybe if I pull the Bindings file, we can try to match up a name in the file with the signature?”

I’d endured less pleasurable lunch hours, so I was open to the idea.

“Okay.”

And that’s how we spent the next fifteen minutes, with one of us reading names from the correspondence in the file, and both of us examining the signature to see if it might be a possible match. Boring, to be honest. But it had the advantage of causing Kara to shift her seat next to mine, so we could both look at the signature at the same time.

In the process, I noticed her perfume. A blend of Obsession, I think, with a hint of orange and flowers, and her own natural scent. That smell conjured up images that were causing me to shift in my chair every minute or two.

“Did they change receptionists?”

I missed that, and had to ask her to repeat herself. She turned, and whispered it into my ear with a smile on her face. I shifted again in my chair, and started to wonder about how I was going to escape this room without experiencing serious embarrassment.

“Uh, the one I met was a redhead. Thirty-ish?”

“Uh huh? Hot?”

I could feel the heat rising under my collar, then creeping up the back of my neck to my ears. God help me, but I was pathetic around women.

“She was attractive.”

“Yeah. Well, I think they may have changed receptionists. The one I knew was a brunette. Boobs the size of watermelons?”

I smirked. “Don’t recall seeing those.”

“You would have recalled them. Believe me. Her name was-,” she referred to one of the older bills, “Dianne Morgan.”

“OK.” I leafed through the pages until I found one of the most recent. “Yup, looks like they have a new one. Mary O’Connell.”

“Galt.” She pulled the bill of lading from the top of the pile to look at it again. “You think it might be Dr. Galt?”

“Naw. That was an S.” I glanced at the original bill, now in her hand. Huh. I had taken the cursive letter at the start of the surname as an S, but it could be a G. A little too casual on the final loop, letting it round out rather than including the point of the G. And the horizontal line crossing the two letters at the end — that could just be sloppy as well.

“Might be. Galt. Huh. But we have a copy of his signature in the file, don’t we? “

“Yup.” She leafed through the second folder, then pulled out a letter on Bindings letterhead, original signature in pen at the bottom. “That’s what I thought. Not even close.”

“Maybe a family member?”

“Could be.”

That was interesting. “I think it’s time for me to pay a visit to the good doctor.”

I helped Kara sort the paper and put it back in the files. Then the two of us headed back to the offices. On the way, we ran into Harold.

“Hey Harold. How’s the day?”

“Looking good, boss. Though-,” he lowered his voice, leaning towards both of us. “The young fella’s been on a bad run. Just terrible.”

Sounded like the curse ring was continuing to haunt Jamar. I nodded my thanks to Harold, and headed into the lunchroom.

“Oh no! What happened?” Kara was staring at a cast on Jamar’s wrist. I was more worried by the bags under his eyes and the way they looked red and watery. I was sensing despair.

“Fell down the stairs in my apartment building. Decided I shouldn’t risk the elevator, so I tried the stairs. Three steps, slid on some gravel or something.” His voice was monotone to match his expression.

“Did you break it?”

“Broke two bones. Doctor says I may not get full motion back.”

Shit.

“C’mon. Let’s take a seat.” I took his arm and lead him into the conference room. Kara headed into the kitchen to get him a coffee.

We sat, and it felt to me as though I was facing a condemned man. The slump in his shoulders, lifelessness of his eyes. I had a bad feeling Jamar was giving up.

“You’ve got to hang in there. We’ll find a way to deal with this thing.”

He leaned forward then, one eye on the door, and I realized he was watching for Kara. With the barest of whispers, he said “This thing is killing me, man.” His eyes welled up, and his voice cracked. “I can’t live like this.”

There was the faintest of sounds from the hall, and Kara rounded the corner, two bottles of water in hand. The look on her face told me that she had heard at least part of what Jamar had said. Enough to hurt.

I sighed and leaned back in my chair. The ceiling above me was standard industrial — a drop tile grid of two foot by four foot panels. Fire, mould and sound resistant. Speckled dots on a white background, a star-filled night sky in negative.

This was turning out just great. First day the boss has a heart attack. Now, after a few weeks of constant insanity, one of my drivers was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. At this rate, I would destroy Clay’s legacy by Canada Day.

I needed a solution for Jamar, a way to deal with that damned ring. And yes, I believed that Jamar’s ring was cursed. I believed that anyone who wore that ring was subject to some sort of power or influence which attracted the negative, sort of like one of my old girlfriends. Which meant we needed to find a way to protect him, to shield him from its influence.

I continued gazing at the ceiling as I mulled this over, aware that both Jamar and Kara were now openly staring at me. I turned the issue over and over in my head, looking for a solution. But I could see only one route out of this mess. So I turned back to Jamar and leaned forward, right hand out-stretched and palm out.

“Hand it over, big guy.”

“What?”

“The ring. Give me the ring.”

“What! No, Donnie!”

At least Kara seemed concerned for my well-being. That was a good thing.

“Listen. Everything I’ve seen suggests I may not be as susceptible to this kind of thing as you guys are. I’m figuring I should be able to take it from you without being affected by the curse.”

For the first time in a long time, I could see a glimmer of hope in Jamar’s eyes. I waggled my fingers, gesturing for him to pass me the damned thing.

He paused, then in a quick gesture tugged at the band. When it slid off into his palm he looked startled, as though unable to believe it had come off. The three of us stared at it, this innocuous lump of metal that had caused so much pain. I gestured again, and he dropped it into my palm.

I admit I experienced a moment of dread. Wouldn’t have been the first time I regretted acting on a hunch.

Jamar sagged, as though he had just crossed the finish line in the New York Marathon.

“Feel anything?”

I glanced at Kara, who was watching me like I was clutching my chest.

“Nope.”

“Nothing?” Jamar’s eyes were wide, like I had said I could walk on water.

“Not a thing.” I moved to drop the ring on the tabletop, but it slid across the palm of my hand then stopped as though magnetized. I turned my hand over and stared at it, hanging from my palm. “Weird.”

“No kidding.”

Looked like I wasn’t going to be able to just drop it in the garbage can, which had been my first inclination. So I slid it over to my right palm, then onto my ring finger. As I was admiring it (and feeling testosterone — challenged), something occurred to me. “Does it mean anything if you wear a ring on your right hand like this?” I glanced at Kara, since her opinion was the one I was looking for.

“Nothing, I don’t think.”

“Doesn’t mean you’re gay, or anything?”

“Not that I know of.” I glanced at Jamar for confirmation, but he seemed offended that I should even ask him for advice on homosexual fashion practices.

Throwing caution to the wind, I went for it. I could care less whether someone was gay or straight, but I had no interest in false advertising.

The look on Jamar’s face made it all worthwhile. Grinning from ear to ear.

“Man, I feel great!” He rubbed his eyes, as though awakening for the first time that day. “It’s like a huge weight was lifted off me, you know? You sure you feel all right, man?”

I shrugged. I felt exactly the same. No strange tingles, voices in my head, burning sensations. Nothing.

“Thank you.” Jamar stood and enveloped my hand in his. “I owe you, man.”

“No problem. In fact…,” I reached in my pocket and pulled out the coin I had taken from the Lost and Found. “Why don’t we see if we can give you some good luck for a change?” I dropped the coin in his palm.

“Now — can we get back to work?”

CHAPTER 19

That afternoon was a bit of a bugger. I considered whether the ring might have had something to do with it, but from what I could tell, everyone was experiencing the same damned thing. Storm clouds had started to drift in off the lake by two p.m., and there was a chill in the air. As usual, summer had peeked its head out in late April and early May, only to get one last slap-down by Canadian winter. People on the streets were wearing everything from winter jackets and mitts to shorts and t-shirts. Stubborn bastard that I am, no way was I going to put on a jacket.

Celtic Cross Healing Arts was based in a second floor walk-up on Bathurst, just off Queen. They had several bags of healing stones and crystals for direct delivery to a residence in Leaside.

I was walking at a quick pace back to the van, a small canvas bag dangling from each of my hands, when I was confronted by two ambassadors for Toronto’s Christian Youth organizations. Okay, they were more like ambassadors for Toronto’s Living on the Street, Can I Squeegee Your Car organizations. Hanging back at the corner was another kid, this one with spiked black hair, a safety pin through his cheek and half a dozen rings in the one ear I could see. Combined with the old-style Doc Martens, torn black jeans and a torn hoodie over an old concert t-shirt for The Cramps, he could have blended into the 1970s punk scene with no difficulty. The guys in front of me were similarly dressed, though one wore a Dead Kennedys shirt and the other a Black Flag shirt. Apparently there had been a sale on American punk band t-shirts.

I sidestepped to avoid one of the kids (Mr. Kennedy), but he moved to cut me off. With the usual Elder personal space concerns, I tried to avoid contact, but he seemed determined to bump me.

Any other time I would have apologized. It’s the Canadian way. But the way he was staring at me made it clear this little dance was on purpose. Maybe it was because of the incident in the elevator, but my immediate instinct was to assess the situation. Three kids, maybe seventeen or eighteen. Two my height and one a few inches taller — maybe six two. None of them weighed more than one fifty soaking wet. No obvious weapons.

I had taken to driving with a miniature baseball bat in the van, a memento from a Blue Jays game a few years earlier that seemed ideally suited for swinging at heads. But the van was a block and a half away.

“Is there a problem here?”

Ask a stupid question…

“No problem, shithead. Just hand us the bags and your wallet, and you can go on your way.”

I couldn’t believe it. Second time in a month. This was Toronto, for crying out loud!

“And what makes you think I’m going to do that?”

The other guy spoke — the kid with the Black Flag shirt. His face was splotchy, with the uneven facial hair of a kid who needed to shave once a week at most.

“You remember what happened last time?”

I glared at him. These little shits had heard about the attack on Clay and me, and had decided they would try to score a little something for themselves.

Well this time, there was no gun. And I wasn’t worried about my boss getting hurt. And I was pissed.

I shoved Mr. Kennedy with my shoulder, bags still in my hands, and stepped up to him — chest to chest.

“You wanna go?”

For a moment I thought that would be the end of it. They would take a look at me, sneer, and pimp-walk down the street looking for some other action. But my guess is that Kennedy didn’t want to be seen backing down in front of his boys. Well, he took the wrong route. He took a swing at me.

I dropped the bags and ducked, taking the punch high on the cheek. Then I moved in, grabbed the lapels of his jean jacket with both hands and drove my forehead into his nose. Zenedine Zidane, eat your heart out. As he fell back, I took the opportunity to stomp down hard on his instep.

Unlike in the martial arts movies I watch on TV, real-life fights with more than two combatants tend (in my limited experience) to look more like mob clutch and grabs than the structured “your turn, now my turn” choreographed fights. True to form, contestant number two was all over me even as Mr. Kennedy fell to his knees. One arm around my throat, the other throwing punches to the back of my head. Queensbury would have turned in his grave. I tried to turn into him, but he clung to my back like Yoko Ono. Meanwhile, the kid with the Cramps’ shirt was wading in, charging me with a lowered shoulder that managed to knock much of the wind out of me.

As I spun around trying to free myself, I noticed a handy light pole just a few feet away. With a shove off the Cramps kid, I backpedalled into the light standard and heard with some satisfaction a lungful of air escaping from Black Flag’s lungs. Taking advantage of the moment, I reached over my shoulder and took hold of his hood. That has always been a mystery to me. Why the hell would you fight someone while wearing a hood? It proved an excellent lever to haul him over and slam him to the ground. I then pulled it down over his head and held it with my left hand while raining down punches with my right.

I took a moment to catch my breath when I noticed that the two friends had backed off, Kennedy and the Cramps kid slinking away and trying to look invisible. Nice friends.

I stepped away from the kid I had been pounding on, and straightened out my shirt while he came to his senses. The Cramps kid, sensing that my temper tantrum had come to an end, edged forward and helped him to his feet. I brushed sweat and dirt from my forehead, checking for blood.

My stitches seemed to have held, so I watched them to see what their next move would be. A quiet look between the three of them seemed to resolve the issue, and they began to move off, occasionally checking over a shoulder to see if I was following.

I watched them walk away and sighed. Another great day in the big city.

Call it a hunch. Or perhaps better to frame it as a grudge. Either way, I realized as I watched the three of them walk away that one of them must have a link with Niki. As I walked to the van I considered that, with the result that a minute later I was pulling the van around in a tight u-turn, eliciting a few choice words from a cabbie behind me. Stopping at the curb, I watched as the three punks sauntered along Queen West towards Spadina.

At Spadina they broke up, with Mr. Kennedy and Black Flag heading south. The Cramps kid continued along Queen, but I had to pull ahead with traffic now building behind me. I drove a block past the kid and turned, dropping the van into park ten yards north of Queen. I was lucky. He continued straight and I spotted him just a few moments later, dropping onto a bus-stop bench.

I stared, then in a moment of spontaneity turned off the engine and stepped out of the van. It took me less than twenty seconds to jog up to the bench and drop down next to the kid.

“Hey, fancy meeting you here.” I put my arm around him and pulled him tight to my side, in case he tried to make a run for it. But my sudden appearance had clearly shocked him, because other than a twitch at my voice, he froze.

“Cat got yer tongue?”

“N — no.” His voice came out shaky and high pitched. Up close I could see that he was fifteen at most, a faint moustache growing in for the first time.

I glanced over my shoulder and smiled at a woman in a dark overcoat and leather boots as she strode by. No reason to draw attention to us.

“Tell me, how did you happen to hear that we had been mugged?”

I suppose even the meek have a backbone. He sat silently staring at his lap. I gripped his arm and squeezed. He struggled, not real happy with the direction this was going. But his upper arm was thin enough that I could close my fingers around it, and I wasn’t about to let go.

“Speak up, or I’m going to finish what we started.”

“Some guys were talking outside the Riv last week, and one guy was bragging about it.” The Rivoli was a long-standing club on Queen West, not far from where we were seated, as a matter of fact.

“Aren’t you too young to drink?”

“Yeah, but sometimes you can score an invite to a party.”

And a place to spend the night, if you were lucky.

“What was this guy’s name?”

“I don’t know.”

I squeezed again.

“I don’t know! He was a big huge guy, German or something. Dressed like a Gino.”

Nice. Though it did sound a lot like my Russian friend.

“Name?” I squeezed one more time, until I saw tears in the corners of his eyes. Seemed he didn’t know Niki’s name.

“Alright. Then how did you know where to find me?”

He shrugged. “Dumb luck. Saw your van.”

Shit. Maybe the ring was affecting me. I made a note to myself. First indicator of possible disaster.

“Then where can I find this guy?” I knew one place I could find him, but maybe my punk friend had some other ideas.

“I don’t know!” I squeezed. “Alright! He hangs out along Queen West some nights, I think he’s a dealer. Rev, maybe a bit of coke.”

“Rev?”

“It’s new. Hard to get a hold of, but supposed to have an unbelievable kick.”

Great. Niki the Jerk was getting kids hooked on drugs. I nodded for the kid to continue.

“I’m not sure where he lives, but I think he said something about the Century Club once.”

OK. More than I had before. I stared down at the kid, and then it sunk in. Fifteen years old. I was in grade ten, just got my first job cutting lawns for the summer. High school hockey and a new interest in girls. Meanwhile, this kid was living on the streets.

“What’s your name?”

“T-toby. Toby Barnes.”

“Well, nice to meet you, T-toby.” It was not particularly nice of me to imitate his stutter, but I was in no mood to be nice.

“Tell me about yourself. Better yet, you got some ID on you?”

“Y-yeah.”

“Hand it over.”

That got his attention. I let him fumble in his front pocket, then watched as he pulled out a grimy brown leather wallet with a zipper. Moments later I had his Health Card in my hand.

“OK, T-toby Barnes of Kenilworth Ave. What is that, off the Beaches?”

He nodded.

“Your parent’s place?”

“Mom’s.”

“And where would you be resting your weary head these days?”

“Covenant House, mostly.”

“Gerrard Street, off Yonge?”

He nodded.

Covenant House was the largest youth shelter in Toronto. With nighttime temperatures between 20 and 50 degrees Fahrenheit from the end of September to the beginning of May, sleeping outdoors in Toronto was a death sentence for the thousands of kids living in the streets. Runaways, abused kids, those without work — the numbers kept growing. Places like Covenant House were a lifeline for kids like Toby Barnes.

“You got a phone?”

“Yeah.” He showed me a cellphone tucked into his waistband.

“Let me see the number.”

He told me the number, but I insisted on checking the screen.

“OK, T-Toby,” I flipped his Health Card into his lap. “Thank you for being such a help. Now — here’s the deal.”

I pulled my own wallet out, and after a moment of thought, handed him a twenty.

“If I hear you spent this on booze or drugs, I’m going to pound your ass.” I lifted his chin to make sure he saw I was serious. “Now, I may need to call you from time to time — ask you to keep your ear to the ground.”

I thought about it, then handed him another ten bucks.

“For a calling card. If I call, you answer. If I ask you to meet, we meet. You understand?”

T-Toby looked at the cash in his hands. Probably as much money as he might see on his best day working squeegee.

“Yes.”

“Alright kid. Get outta here. Find a roof before it gets too dark.”

CHAPTER 20

The incident with the punk rock trio settled it for me. It was time to have a chat with Niki and the Legenkos.

This time I didn’t stop at the park bench. I parked just off St. Clair and marched over to the Ruscan Industries offices. Straight up the front stairs and through the doors into the reception area.

What looked impressive outside looked even more so inside. The entrance opened out into a large two story atrium, bracketed by a mezzanine accessed by a central staircase. Front and centre was a semicircular reception desk the size of a small coffee shop, manned by a single receptionist. On either side, under the overhang of the mezzanine, was an actual coffee shop with a display of pastries and fruit, and on the other side, a series of seating areas — boxy leather sofas and reclining chairs, the leather an olive color, with rosewood frames and arms.

Seemed appearances were important at Ruscan.

I also spotted out of the corner of my eye a private security guard, leaning nonchalantly against one of the floor to ceiling columns. He was chatting on a cell phone, but he nodded his head when we made eye contact. Great.

Start from the beginning, I thought. I turned to the receptionist, who struck me as one of those professionals who have a way of listening that makes you think of plastic. Face and body set in posture and expression, the look one of rapt, pleased attention.

“I’m here to see Maxim Legenko.”

She paused, looking at me, but I felt like being difficult.

“I’m sorry, sir. Mr. Legenko is on leave. Is this a leasing matter, or…?”

Made sense. Guess it’s a bit hard to continue as CEO of a public company when you’re the subject of an ongoing criminal trial.

“How about Elena Legenko? Is she in?”

It was amazing. No change in facial expression at all. She could have been a computer-generated hologram, for all I knew. A computer-generated hologram with a very large mole at the corner of her mouth. Not a Cindy Crawford mole, either. Think creepy cleaning lady mole.

“Is Ms. Legenko expecting you?”

“No. Tell her it’s about Niki Kuzmenko and her husband.”

That seemed to get her attention. A flush of red caused her cheeks to glow, which made me think that Niki must have made his presence known around the office. She hit some buttons on the phone in front of her and spoke into her headset, studiously avoiding looking into my eyes.

“There’s a gentleman here to see her. Err — just a second, please. Your name, sir?”

“Donnie Elder.”

“Company?”

“Arcane Transport.”

“I’m sorry?”

I started to repeat myself, then gave in and spelled it out for her. She then repeated the information into the headset, though she referred to me as Don, rather than Donnie. For some reason people think that is more professional. I find that absurd and a bit pompous. Johnny Cash, Andy Warhol, Gordie Howe. They were all okay in my book. Though Warhol was a bit of a freak.

“They’re checking to see if Ms. Legenko is available to see you.”

I said nothing, trying to keep eye contact without allowing Mr. Mole to distract me.

“Hello? Oh! Yes, yes ma’am. Right away.”

“That was Ms. Legenko. She says you’re to go on up to the fourth floor. I’ll need you to sign our guest book, and wear this visitor tag.”

I printed my name and the company name deliberately in the sign-in book. Kind of old-fashioned, but what the hell. The name tag she gave me was far from old-fashioned, though. I looped the cord around my neck, letting the tag hang in front of my chest. Blue with a large red stripe which I took as the “I am a Stranger” warning. Of more interest was the label I had seen on the back-side of the tag. An active RFID device. I wasn’t going anywhere in this building without someone knowing about it.

I could see from ground level that a staircase ran from the mezzanine up to the second floor, and presumably beyond. However, I could also see that in the same general vicinity there was a pair of elevators, one with its door wide open in invitation to me. Despite the obvious allure of staggering up eighty or more steps to arrive sweaty and disgruntled at the fourth floor, I chose to instead travel in comfort. Fact is, I would arrive disgruntled either way.

The elevators, and the staircase for that matter, opened onto a small reception area on the fourth floor. A Louis XVI reception desk with a simple chair and phone sat before me, unoccupied. Beyond the desk, I could see most of the floor.

This was clearly the executive level. The outer wall was all offices, the open cube approach not being acceptable for Maxim Legenko, et al. Most of the offices had glass walls, though, and were still very visible, except for one large expanse on the South Wall where the glass was a milky white opaque. Based on the apparent size of the space and the carriage of the assistant seated at a desk before it, I assumed that was either Maxim’s office, or Elena’s. I was interested to find out who had greater sway.

All of the other offices were guarded by desks, each occupied by a young man or woman intently typing, reading or speaking into a headset.

A Joe College-type in Hugo Boss stood from one of the desks and headed my way as I emerged from the elevator.

“Mr. Elder?”

I nodded.

“Elena will see you now. Can I get you a coffee or water?”

“No thanks.”

“OK. Right this way.”

He led me to one of the corner doorways, which appeared to be a small boardroom. One or two of the assistants glanced up at my passage, but most seemed uninterested.

Joe College arrived at the door ahead of me, and did a good job of shielding my view.

I heard a brief exchange.

“Ms. Legenko? Mr. Elder is here.”

“Yes, show him in. And give us some privacy, please.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Then Joe College leaned into the room, as though to adjust the lighting. It was far more interesting than that, however. Instead, the glass windows became tinted, then opaque.

Cool. I had seen this on some TV show. Liquid crystal privacy glass. Flip a switch and it runs a current through special layers in the glass, changing it from transparent to opaque. Looked like it might even have a dimmer switch that allowed you to pick a level of opacity. My inner geek was thrilled.

Joe College gestured for me to enter the room and I slid past him, the door closing at my back.

The centerpiece of the room was a massive oval table with an inlaid image of what appeared to be the Zodiac, though I didn’t recognize any of the signs. A vague warning signal began sounding in the back of my mind, though I couldn’t figure out why.

In one of the chairs slouched Maxim Legenko, a look of complete disinterest on his face. So much for being on leave.

This was my first time seeing him up close and personal, and the one thing that stood out for me was angles. Angles and edges. Even his Adam’s apple seemed about to burst through the skin at his throat.

Standing at the windows and staring at the view of downtown Toronto was Elena Legenko. Impressive on TV, she was stunning in person. Alabaster skin so white as to seem bleached, in stark contrast to raven black hair and blood red lips. Her eyes were dark, the irises seeming black as though her pupils were fully dilated. She wore a simple black dress that ended just above the knee, and stilettos a good inch higher than seemed appropriate for an office.

“Mr. Elder, is it?”

She had no accent, which surprised me since she exuded “mysterious Eastern European lady”. Maybe she had learned to hide it during her modeling career.

I nodded.

“Please, take a seat.”

I pulled the chair out that she had gestured to, and sat.

As we stared at one another, Maxim tooled around on a cellphone that seemed to have captured all of his attention.

“I understand you have come here to speak to me about my husband and Niki Kuzmenko.”

I’m pretty sure I heard a snide undertone when she said “my husband”. Interesting.

“Yup. I’m trying to understand why Niki robbed me at gunpoint a few weeks ago. It seems to have encouraged a rash of these things.”

That caught her attention. In contrast, Maxim seemed to hunch down even further over his cellphone, typing out some text message with his thumbs.

“Maxim?”

“Hm?” He looked up as though noticing where he was for the first time. His eyes darted from her, to me, and back.

“What has Niki been up to?”

“I don’t know. I am not his keeper.” Maxim’s voice was heavily accented, the difference from Elena’s cultured tones almost comical. “Niki does as he wishes. But this sounds like bullshit.” He stared me down on that last sentence, as though daring me to disagree.

I happily complied.

“Oh, it’s no bullshit. He robbed me at gunpoint, and I think you know it. A guy like that doesn’t come up with the idea to rob a specialty courier on his own.”

“Specialty courier?”

I turned to Elena, focusing my attention on her.

“Our customers deal in non-traditional goods.” Christ, how to explain what we do without sounding like a lunatic. “Antiques, artifacts, objects with purported magic or occult properties.”

“Occult?” I expected her to give me a look of disbelief, or maybe call Joe College to have Security escort me from the premises. What I didn’t expect was for her to scowl at her hubby. That I didn’t expect at all.

They both recovered quickly. So quickly, it made me wonder whether I had imagined that look.

“I don’t know you, Donnie Elder.” Maxim said this with a bit of a sneer, apparently having found his tongue. “I don’t know your business, and I don’t care to. Maybe Niki robbed you, maybe not. It is none of my business. If it bothers you, take it up with him.”

“Oh, I intend to.” I shoved back from the table, seeing from the expression on both of their faces that I was being stonewalled. “I’ll be talking to Mr. Kuzmenko. You can let him know, if you want. This is far from over.”

Elena’s attention had wandered from me, and she was staring at the back of her husband’s head, a distinct look of displeasure writ large. Maxim was oblivious though, having switched into cocky bastard mode.

“Maybe it should be over, Donnie Elder. Perhaps you should just ‘carve your losses’, that they say.”

I snorted and turned. Joe College was already opening the door to guide me to the elevator. No problem. I had a feeling I would be back.

CHAPTER 21

I was determined to visit Clay after work, make sure he was taking it easy. Pain in the ass drive, but I still felt responsible. Despite the craziness with the punk rock trio and the Legenkos, I opted to drop by before making the run back to the office.

I entered the room to find he and Harper chatting, with Clay sitting upright, his back propped against two pillows.

“Hey, you gave us another scare.”

Harper stood and kissed me on the cheek, and I shook hands with Clay. Despite the return engagement at the hospital, his grip had a bit of oomph to it.

“Well, I think they just want to keep an eye on me. I’m sure everything’ll be alright.”

“Good.”

“How did today go?”

I walked Clay through the day, pausing from time to time to let him insert anecdotes about certain customers. As usual, I found myself taking notes on a scrap of paper. Sick or not, Clay knew the business inside and out.

“How about you, how have you been?”

“Oh, I’ve been good. Feeling a lot stronger. I think I just overdid it a bit.”

On hearing that, I considered skipping over my visit with the punks. But it was Clay’s business, so I walked them through the robbery attempt that afternoon, and my visit with the Legenkos.

If anything, Clay seemed impressed.

“Well, maybe our mugger friend will find himself in a heap of trouble with his employer.”

“Wouldn’t that be nice.”

“You going to pass on your suspicions to Sun?”

“I was thinking of giving it a few more days. See if anything comes of our session today.”

“Sounds reasonable. You’re doing well, kid.”

“Thanks.”

I left feeling like maybe I was getting a hang of things at last.

Silly me.

CHAPTER 22

I was getting ready to start another day on the road when the repercussions of my visit to Ruscan arrived at the door.

“Uh, Donnie?” Kara’s voice rang out over the intercom, sounding a bit off. I picked up the phone.

“Hey.”

“Hi. Uh, there’s a gentleman here to see you. He says you know him?”

“What’s his name?”

“Nikolay?”

Kuzmenko. Here?

“Give me a second.”

What was best? Grab the bat? Grab a crowbar and ask Jamar to back me up? Make a run for it? I needed the upper hand on this guy. I twisted the ring on my finger, a new habit that I had come to find soothing. Maybe I should call Amy. Or Ted.

I closed my eyes and tried to calm my thoughts. Okay, what did I need to do? Well, I needed leverage on this idiot. Then, I needed to get that damned package back. But first, I needed to make sure he didn’t shoot my ass right here and now.

And then I had it. A stroke of genius. Or maybe a stroke of modest intelligence. Whatever.

I rifled through my pockets, pulling out my wallet, car keys, some change and an old movie pass. Pulled the watch off my wrist, and lay it down next to the items spread on the kitchen table. Jamar had stopped eating his breakfast — a huge bagel with a good half inch of cream cheese on it — and was staring at the junk on the table with a question on the tip of his tongue. I held a finger up to keep him quiet.

Drivers license, credit card, bank card, health card. I pulled everything I needed out of my wallet. Left in an old library card, the passcard for my former employer’s office, a ten year old Blockbuster Video membership card and $40. Jammed my wallet back in my pants. Movie ticket and change back in pockets. I glanced at the watch. Decent Timex IronMan. Pretty sure Ted bought it for me for Christmas a few years ago. I would rather not lose it, but… I slid it back on my wrist.

Then I grabbed one of our pink notepads and a pen, and scribbled a message down.

Peter Martin, Chief Financial Officer

Harding Philips Gallery

Oaktree Terrace, Suite 718

Toronto,

Ontario

With a wave for Jamar to follow me, I headed out front.

There he was, in all his shirt buttons open, greasy hair glory. He was leaning over the counter trying to sweet talk Kara, who seemed engrossed in whatever form she had managed to pull up on her screen.

I edged my way out from the back, even leaning back slightly. Had to sell this.

“Kara, can you take care of this for me?” I held out the note, but big Niki reached out and snagged it from me.

“What is this?” He scanned the note.

“It’s the address for a customer, asshole. I need Kara to open a file for them.”

He glanced again at the note, then handed it back to me. I passed it to Kara.

“Can you open a file on them? The rest of the paperwork is in my office, cabinet in the back. Jamar can sit desk.”

“OK.” I could tell she was puzzled, but she played along. Either way, it was a good idea to get her away from Niki. She stood and headed to the back, and Jamar took her place.

I turned my full attention on Niki.

“OK, asshole. What do you want?”

“Donnie Elder! My friend.” The look on his face said anything but. “You visited with my employer yesterday.”

“Yes I did.”

“That was not a wise thing.” Niki pulled back his jacket, and showed me his gun. Again. I saw Jamar tense up as he realized who the man was. This was my chance.

“You shit.” I tried to look scared, not so hard since I was. “Think you’re tough when you’ve got a weapon in your hands, eh?”

“Never fight fair when you can fight dirty.”

This guy was crossing the line.

“Fine!” This I belted out, startling Jamar so much that he kicked his seat back, gliding back a good four feet until the chair nudged up against the inner wall. “I guess assholes like you don’t know when to stop, huh?” I pulled my watch off, dropped it on the reception counter in front of him, dug into my other front pocket and slapped the movie ticket next to the watch, and then laid on the gusto, pulling my wallet out with a flourish and tossing it down next to the other items.

“You satisfied?”

Niki had a huge grin on his face. “Much better, yes.”

He reached out and grabbed the watch, pocketed it. Slid the bills out — three tens and two fives. He pocketed those too. I still had forty dollars tucked into my front pocket, but saw no sense in being charitable.

There was a soft clicking sound behind me, over my left shoulder, but Niki was enjoying himself too much to notice it.

“I suppose you want my goddamned school ring, too?” I grasped the ring, then held my breath.

The big oaf smiled and gestured for me to toss it to him. It slid off easily, and I nudged it across the counter to him.

“That’s more like it.” He picked the ring up, apparently impressed by the stone, then slid it onto his baby finger. Thank God it fit.

Got him. I saw Jamar’s seat turn as he faced me, a look of confusion on his face.

I held to the act, snarling. “Now get out of here. Leave us alone!”

“For now, Donnie Elder. But if you speak to my employers again, it will not go well for you, or your colleagues.” He snarled at Jamar, and for just a moment I considered going after him then and there. But I wanted him to get the full experience of the ring before putting the squeeze on, so I shut up.

The big man turned, a chuckle rumbling in his gut.

I watched him stroll across the parking lot to his car, a blocky old BMW 325 that probably reminded him of home. He opened the door and, with some work, managed to finagle his body into the driver’s seat. As he did, I noticed something fall from his pocket to the ground. Maybe my wallet? Seemed almost too much luck to ask for, but I had seen what that ring could do.

Niki pulled out of the lot, and I opened the door and jogged over to the parking spot where the BMW had sat.

No wallet.

Instead there was a small plastic bag, like the ones they put the spare button in when you buy a pair of pants. The bag contained a chrystalline powder that made me think of cocaine, except it was black.

I wondered what Amy might make of it. Maybe the ring had already started working its mojo.

Back in the office, Jamar and Kara started firing questions at me.

“Was that the guy-.”

“Did he have-.”

“Did you just give him the-.”

“Yes, yes and yes.”

Smiles crossed both of their faces, as they realized what I had done.

“What did he drop?”

“I don’t know.” I held the bag up, showing them the powder it contained. “But I have a feeling my police officer friend might be interested in taking a look at it. Now,” I cringed as I looked at Kara, hoping for the best, “any luck?”

She pulled the office camera out from behind her back.

“Yup. Three great shots.”

“Thank you! Wasn’t sure if you would get it.”

“C’mon, give me credit.”

“Hey, you deserve it. Thanks. So, you said we can access photos from the parking lot security cameras too, right?”

“Yup. I just go to their website, type in our password, and voila.”

“Great. Let’s see if we can print off a few pictures, then.”

Maybe the old adage was right after all. What comes around, goes around.

That night Ted called to say he was going to be out of town for a few days. Tournament in Barrie. My plan was to take advantage of the quiet and spent the night channel surfing, but I happened to come across an article in the Globe while eating dinner.

CORPORATE FRAUD TRIAL COMMENCES

Key Witness Commits Suicide

TORONTO — The trial of Ruscan Industries’ CEO Maxim Legenko commenced yesterday, with opening statements from Legenko’s defence and the Crown prosecutors trying the case.

Legenko was formally indicted two years ago on charges of embezzling almost $18 million in company funds and laundering criminal proceeds through Ruscan Industries accounts.

However the prosecution was dealt a severe blow yesterday when Andrew Simpson-Doig, a key witness and former senior officer of Ruscan Industries subsidiary Timber Circle LC, was found dead in a Forest Hill mansion in what is assumed to have been a suicide. Simpson-Doig had been staying with Declan Quinn, Chairman of Global Youth Charities. Quinn and Simpson-Doig graduated together from the London School of Economics in 1971.

Crown Prosecutor Barbara Moodie indicated that, while police will be investigating Mr. Simpson-Doig’s death, preliminary findings suggest no indication of wrongdoing.

“Unfortunately these trials can cause tremendous stress for all involved, in particular witnesses who are called to testify in court. We pass on our best wishes to Mr. Simpson-Doig’s family.” Ms. Moodie later advised reporters that the death was not expected to impact the Crown’s case against Mr. Legenko. She did confirm that a second witness, still unnamed, has agreed to enter witness protection and is presently under RCMP watch at an undisclosed location.

Alec Lawson of Lawson Kenetti, who was representing Mr. Simpson-Doig, could not be reached for comment.

I couldn’t finish my sandwich.

“Goddamn it.” I pushed the plate away. If O.J.’s trial and the Bush administration weren’t sufficient evidence that there was in fact no justice in the world, this was. Imagine the luck.

Or was it luck?

The article got me thinking about the mugging and the stolen “dowsing device”. And the more I thought about it, the madder I got. I had a bad feeling I knew why Clay and I had been robbed, and I didn’t like it one damned bit.

I had to get that package back.

CHAPTER 23

Two days later, Amy agreed to get together at a local Timmies for breakfast, provided I sprung for her coffee. Man, can that woman drink coffee.

“Kuzmenko’s dealing something.”

I passed her the plastic baggy Niki had left in our parking lot, cupping my hand around it to hide it from the view of the others in the restaurant. Amy’s eyes widened, but she took it from me.

“Any idea what it is? I gotta admit, I’ve seen stuff like pot, hash. But when it comes to pills and powder, I have no idea.”

“Good. Keep it that way,” she murmured, reaching into the bag with two fingers. She pinched a few grains and held them up to the light.

“Well, well. Rev.”

“Rev?”

“Rev. Supposed to be short for Revelation. It’s new. We just started hearing about it last year. The hospitals notify us of possible overdoses, that kind of thing, so we can monitor the street. We’ve had three kids die in the past six months because of this shit. But we’ve only been able to get a couple of pills for study. This is the most product we’ve been able to get a hold of to date.”

“You think Niki is dealing this shit?”

“If he is, he just moved to the top of our hit list.”

I gave her an edited account of Niki’s visit to the office, leaving out the part about him “mugging” me. Not sure what she would have thought about the whole ring thing, but I wasn’t about to get into it.

It occurred to me that this might be a particularly good time for Niki to have a run of bad luck.

“What’s so funny?”

“Nothing.” But I couldn’t hide my grin. Maybe things were looking up after all.

After work I picked up Ted at the apartment and we headed over to the rink.

I don’t play a lot of hockey anymore. My body can’t handle the aches, pains, bumps and bruises. It also can’t handle the post-game beer and wings. But Ted’s car was in the shop, and so he talked me into joining him for a pick-up game. Fact was, he hadn’t found a cabbie yet who would let him put his equipment in their car.

Unfortunately, he had failed to point out we were playing at Pineview Arena. Not the easiest spot to get to in rush hour traffic. I found myself experimenting with a number of combination profanities as I slogged through traffic on the 427, then the 401.

A bunch of the regulars were already in the change room when we arrived, thus explaining the stench emanating from the hallway. With a deep breath and a prayer, I headed in to get ready.

The puck was deep in the corner, right below the Hyundai ad on the boards. I charged in, determined to beat the defender to it.

Too slow. He picked it up and rounded the net, with me hot on his heels. I was hoping Chili would be there to cut him off, but the lazy bugger was headed to the bench, sucking air like a long haul trucker. He was two years younger than me, but skating like a senior. So I continued my chase, tapping my opponent’s shin with my stick on every stride, to let him know I was coming fast.

Good lead pass to one of their wingers, who sliced between our defenders and roared in on Ted unobstructed. Shimmy right, drag back left. Ted stayed with him, but was too slow sliding to the post.

Goal. Three — two for the bad guys.

“Shit!” Ted glared at his two defencemen, who knew better and had headed off for a change. I laughed as I joined Chili on the bench.

The next shift barely cleared the zone before the other team gained possession and pressed again. This time, they took position in our end of the rink and began cycling the puck around the perimeter, looking for a clean shot. Their big forward planted himself in front of Ted. Guy was wearing a 1972 Team Canada jersey, the new Nike skates and a new Easton composite stick that cost four hundred dollars. Jerk.

“Guy has no idea what he’s in for.” Chili had a huge grin on his face, watching the scene with rapt attention.

How right he was. Ted shoved the guy twice, trying to gain line of sight on the puck as it cycled between the other team’s defenders. Then one of their other forwards took possession at the half boards, angling for a shot, and the jerk moved back into Ted’s line of sight, his big ass sticking into the crease and right on top of Ted. Ted clumped him in the back of the head with his stick hand, nearly knocking him flat.

That got the jerk’s attention. He snarled over his shoulder at Ted, then resumed jostling for position in front of the net. One of our guys came over to help out, but he couldn’t budge the big guy. A shot came in, low to the near side. Ted snapped his knees down into a butterfly and the puck ricocheted into the corner. But our defenceman was too slow, and they regained possession. This time the jerk backed right into the crease in front of Ted, who had to peer around him to see the play.

Ted slashed at the back of the jerk’s legs just as a weak shot floated in. He caught it and stood, a wicked grin on his face.

“Whataya doing, man?”

Chili and a bunch of the other guys on the bench erupted into laughter. Big Jerk was crouched over, holding the back of his knee where Ted had laid on the lumber. I knew that feeling. Stung like a rusty nail through the sole of your boot.

Ted snorted, dropped the puck on the ice, and skated off to the corner so he could cool down. But the jerk didn’t know when to let things be. He skated towards our bench with the puck, then launched a hard wrist shot over the boards.

A little lesson on the game of hockey. A hockey puck is a vulcanized rubber disk, one inch thick and weighing a little under half a pound. A topnotch pro can shoot a puck at over a hundred miles an hour. Even at half that speed a puck can break bone or leave a purple and black bruise on sore flesh. And we were no pros. Most of us wore helmets but no facemasks, some with plastic face shields that covered the face from the forehead to nose.

So when Mr. Asshole fired into our bench, he knew there was a good chance someone was going to get hurt. As it happened, it was Denny Mills who took the shot right in the mouth.

Split lip and a lot of blood. Thank God he had been wearing a mouthguard, or he would have lost a few teeth for sure.

I went over the boards.

The game came to a sudden close after my tussle with Mr. Asshole. No big deal — we only had ten minutes of ice left anyways.

“Thanks, man.”

I glanced up from untying my laces to see Denny with a towel to his mouth. The bleeding had stopped, but you could see a half inch V cut into his upper lip. That was going to take two or three stitches to close, for sure.

“No problem, Denny. You going to be alright?”

“Yeah. My wife’s going to kill me though. I’m supposed to be going to my sister-in-law’s wedding this weekend. In all the photos.” He tried to smile, but it came out as a grimace.

“Guy was a complete jerk.”

“No kidding. Well, thanks for standing up for me.”

I nodded and watched as he slung his bag over his shoulder and headed out.

“Who was that guy, anyway?”

Chili had been talking to a few guys on the other team, who had stood by and watched when I went after Mr. Asshole. Apparently he didn’t rate a lot of loyalty from his teammates.

“Real estate agent. Cokehead. Went to Laurier with some of their guys.”

“Well if he shows up again, I’m going to break my stick over his head.” Chili glanced at Ted, then back at me. He knew Ted as well as I did. If Mr. Asshole hit the ice with us again, he was going home with a broken helmet and a skull fracture.

Ted was waiting for me in the hall when I emerged, his pads, bag and sticks in a mound blocking traffic in all directions.

My timing was impeccable as always. Just as I stepped out of the dressing room, Mr. Asshole emerged from the room next to us.

I stared up at him, a good four inches taller than me and with muscles on his muscles. A vivid welt shone under his left eye, and another on his chin, both remnants of our little battle on the ice. The knuckles on my right hand throbbed, reminding me that my first two punches had landed on the top of his helmet. I really did not want to go again, and I hoped he didn’t start something.

He stared down at me, anger flashing for a moment in his slate grey eyes, then his face relaxed.

“Sorry about that. Your friend okay?”

“Yeah. He’ll be fine.”

“Good.” He stepped past me gingerly, worked around Ted’s bag, and headed for the exit. As he passed Ted, he called back. “You throw a mean punch for a little guy.”

I looked at Ted, and we both shrugged.

“Let’s get outta here.”

“Hang on a sec, I’m just gonna grab something to eat.”

Good idea. I was starving. Normally we would hit a bar with the team after a night game, and on a night like tonight I might have joined them. However, half of the guys couldn’t make it, so they had postponed. The result was that there were no chicken wings or nachos in the immediate horizon, a discouraging thought.

“Grab me some fries, willya?” If I was going to drive for fifty minutes just to get him home, he could cough up for some carbo sticks.

A Peewee team was heading in for a practice, the kids staggering under their bags like miniature sherpas. I dragged our equipment out of the way, to avoid a pileup of twelve year olds.

“Two hot dogs, two plates of fries and a Coke, please. You want one?”

I nodded.

“Sorry, make that two Cokes.”

The Chinese lady behind the counter had been smiling and shaking her head up and down while Ted placed the order. Unfortunately, the smile was replaced by a look of confusion.

“Hot dog?” It came out as “haw dawk?”

“Yeah.” Ted pointed at the steamer cabinet to her left, where two plump dogs were turning next to a bag of buns.

“Ah! Hot dog!” Same “haw dawk”, but apparently she had caught on.

After a strange flurry of action involving paper plates mysteriously stored behind the candy rack, Cokes grabbed from a Styrofoam cooler on the floor rather than the standup glass-front refrigerator behind her, and a single napkin selected from the top of a five inch stack of napkins just out of my reach, we had our food.

“Ketchup?”

I glanced around the lobby, to see if they had set up a separate table for condiments.

She stared at Ted blankly, so he asked again.

“Ketchup?” That came out as “ketta.”

“Ketchup? Mustard?”

She couldn’t have looked more mystified if we had flown in on a UFO and asked to see her leader. Ted glanced at me, his left eye twitching just slightly.

“Heinz?” He mimed pouring ketchup across the top of his hot dog.

“Sauce?”

“Yeah. Sauce.” He glanced back at me, eyebrows raised and shoulders shrugged. What the hell.

“Yes, yes!”

With that she turned and headed to the refrigerator cabinet filled with pop that was apparently not suitable for distribution. At least not as compared to the pop in that classy Styrofoam container. Opened the door and leaned way down, reaching into the back of the bottom shelf. From where I stood, that shelf appeared to contain several industrial sized bottles of unknown origin, a bunch of paper plates and napkins (did they have several caches, in case of emergency?), and a very large piece of cheddar poorly wrapped in plastic.

“Christ’s sake.” Ted was muttering now, while I turned and smiled gamely at one of the Peewee moms.

“Ah!” That cry of triumph was accompanied by the site of serving lady hauling a magnum-sized plastic bottle of no-name mustard from the fridge, and thumping it down on the counter.

Ted nodded his head and smiled. She nodded and smiled back.

“Ketchup?”

“No, no ketchup. Sauce OK?”

Big sigh. Ted turned to me, then ripped into the bare hot dog with his teeth, mumbling throughout.

“Let’s get out of here before I jump the counter.”

I dropped Ted at home and headed straight out again. Amy had called right after I finished my yummy “haw dawk”, and asked me to meet her at Starbucks for a coffee. I guess she had been on duty since I saw her that morning, though she looked just as good, maybe better.

“Turns out it was Rev. Narcotics have been on my ass all day, wanting to know where I got the stuff. So you’ve officially become my confidential informant. That means I’m keeping a CI file with your name and contact details in it, but the file is confidential.”

“I’m cool with that. Do I get a code name?”

“Sure. How about — Mr. Dimples? Freckles Malloy?”

Great. I hated it when chicks played the “cute” card. Often the first sign I was headed for the friend zone, or at least the first sign I was capable of reading. Yes, I have dimples. And yes, I have so many freckles I look like I have a perpetual tan. That does not detract from my manliness.

“Nah. How about Studly Doright?”

“Ha! Yeah. Mr. Dimples it is.”

She tweaked my cheek, and I felt very small.

“You may need to meet with my supervisor at some point. He’s going to let me know.”

I wasn’t looking forward to that, but one thing I was sure about — I wasn’t leaving Amy out to dry on any of this. “OK. Whatever you need. So, what does all of this mean for Niki?”

“It means Narcotics are putting a team on him, starting right now. Once they find him, he’ll be put on surveillance.”

“If they don’t have any luck, tell them to try the Ruscan Industries’ head offices on St. Clair.”

“We figured that. They’ll head over there if they don’t spot him at his apartment.”

I returned home to a litany of questions from my dear brother. Did we do the deed? Was she wearing handcuffs? Was I wearing handcuffs? Who did the cavity search?

Ted needed to get out more.

He went to bed just after eleven, but I was too wound up to sleep and ended up watching an hour of MMA fighting. Mixed Martial Arts, or no-holds barred beat’em bloody fighting, as I like to think of it. You would imagine I had seen enough violence for one day, but it was just nice to see someone else throwing punches for a change.

Some guy was bending his opponent’s arm in spectacularly abnormal angles when the phone rang.

“We got him!”

What?

“Niki?”

“Yup. Right in the middle of a deal, four grams of Rev. And he was carrying a gun.”

“No kidding.” Jeez, how long had the guy been wearing the ring? He was getting it even worse than Jamar had. Sweet.

“Oh yeah. High fives all around. Narcotics love me right now. I owe you dinner.”

My heart leaped and I admit it was not the only part of my anatomy that experienced a surge.

“Sounds good to me.”

“Don’t get any ideas. Anyways, keep an eye out. We’ve got him, but he’ll probably make bail and be back on the street in a day or two.”

“He’s a hard guy to miss.”

“True, but he’s also a real hardass. They’re still questioning him, but he refuses to give up any names. Guy’s been in the system awhile. He’ll be a tough one to crack.”

“You get the sense he was supposed to be dealing, or is he doing this on the side?”

“Can’t figure that out yet. He was definitely dealing in the club when our guys arrested him, but he had enough at his apartment that we think he might also be a middle man.”

“I thought that was a real no-no in the drug world.”

“No kidding. The whole idea is to maintain cut-outs, not rely too much on any one player in the game. The guys up the chain stay off the street to reduce their visibility. If Kuzmenko really is a distributor, then he’s in for a heap of shit. We’re squeezing him like crazy, trying to climb the chain.”

“Any links to Legenko?”

“Nothing. But we’re going to keep searching. If he’s a supplier, there may be some leads from the surveillance. If we’re lucky, his tracks will lead us to Legenko.”

CHAPTER 24

Hard as it is to believe, the next few days were quite pleasant. The thought of Niki’s ass lodged in jail was of tremendous comfort to me. Not only that, but Amy had been calling me every night, to update me and just to chat.

That gave me a chance to sort out a few things back in the office, including following up on our suspicions regarding Bindings, Dr. Galt and the fearstone. I had Kara make an appointment for me to meet with Dr. Galt, and I dropped by their offices at the end of the day on Thursday.

Bindings was located in the Theatre District, which was hopping at this hour. The mid-day trickle of suits had been replaced by casual blazers, open collars and ladies in evening wear.

The store was open for business, and several customers were milling about. Galt spoke with two men in suits who looked like bankers, and one of his associates checked in with the other shoppers, pulling out a book for examination by one fellow, and reviewing the history of another text with a younger couple. The receptionist was the same blonde I had met on my first day — Mary O’Connell, according to Kara.

I’m pretty sure the good doctor registered my polo shirt when I entered, but it still took a good ten minutes and three reminders from the receptionist before he excused himself and gestured for her to lead me in. Not so much as an insincere apology.

Ms. O’Connell led me to a small sitting room tucked in an alcove I had not registered on my last visit. Galt lowered himself into a wicker chair in the corner, and I opted for a matching chair facing him. I eased myself down, conscious of my long-standing view that wicker is a fragile substitute for oak or metal. The checkerboard strips creaked as my weight settled in, and I tried to hide my wince.

“…was saying this was about a lost package?”

“Yes,” I drew the trench coat out of the gift bag Kara had provided for the trip. “I guess last year this coat was left with us to deliver to your offices, but your receptionist at the time,” I referred to my notes, anal fellow that I am, “Ms. Morgan? I guess she told Clay you hadn’t ordered any coats.”

He extended a manicured hand, and I passed him the coat. He turned it over in his hands, checked the label and length, and even sniffed the damned thing. I took the opportunity to observe my customer. Omega watch and bespoke suit. Apparently old books were good business. His motions were precise and delicate, with the fine dexterity I associated with a dentist. Or a pianist. I suppose that made sense for someone handling antique papers on a daily basis.

“Well, this appears to be one of my own coats. I thought I had lost this some time back. But you’ve had this for several years now — why did you take so long to contact us?”

Prick. “Well, as I said, we tried to effect delivery, but your receptionist refused to accept the package. The file indicates we called on several subsequent occasions, as well.”

“Well if you had spoken to me, I would have confirmed immediately that it was my coat.”

He sniffed. “Unfortunately it is now ruined. Stained here, and here.” He gestured to two areas of discoloration. I figured if he kept this up, there might be a few more stains on that coat.

“As I said, we did attempt delivery. We don’t maintain goods in long-term storage, particularly when we have no idea of ownership.”

“I presume our account will be credited with the cost of a replacement?”

He stared at me with his weasel eyes, and I debated driving my thumb through his larynx. Nervy bastard, for sure. I had no intention whatsoever of crediting him one damned dime, but I wasn’t up to the fight. So I took the chicken route.

“Let me take that into consideration. I’ll see what we can do.” Cluck cluck.

He obviously wasn’t satisfied, but seemed intent on returning to his customers.

He stood as though to see me out, but I could see he was lost in thought. His right thumb and index finger stroked the cloth of the coat as though it were a soothing stone.

It was a good fifteen seconds before he noticed I had not risen from my seat.

“I’m sorry,” he sat once again, “was there anything further?”

“Your receptionist must not have recognized it.”

“No — no reason for her to do so…” That seemed to get him thinking again.

“Maybe a good Samaritan found it somewhere?” That one was a bit of a setup, and even in his distracted state, Galt seemed to know it.

“No. No name tag. And how would they know to call your offices?”

“Maybe something in the pockets?” No reaction.

“Unlikely.” He sifted through the pockets as we spoke. “I make it a rule not to keep anything in my coat pockets. Fouls the hang of the garment. Just as leaving a jacket hanging from a cheap metal hanger for an extended period will do irreparable damage.”

I wondered to myself whether anyone had ever beaten the mouthy little bugger to a teary-eyed mess when he was a child. I thought not. No one would talk that way if they had any idea what a punch to the face felt like.

I concluded it was time to get out before I committed a criminal act. But as I stood to leave, I spotted a photo resting on a mantle above the faux fireplace.

“Your wife?”

The picture was of Galt and a woman at some southern resort. He wore a Tommy Bahamas top and beach shorts. She wore a spectacular fluorescent green two piece, spectacular primarily because of the engineering required to suspend the enormous boobs jutting from her chest. The grin on his face made him look like the guy in the Saturday paper who is photographed holding the winning ticket from the prior night’s lottery.

“Oh no. That’s Dianne, my girlfriend. We’ve been dating for a few years now. Quite the little minx, I must say.”

The guy was an insufferable twit. It was pretty apparent to me that the bathing beauty in the picture was Dianne Morgan, former receptionist at Bindings and now apparently number one girlfriend of the owner. I did not want to hear about his rolls in the hay with Ms. Morgan and her silicone twins.

“No plans of marriage?”

“Oh, well I’ve been that route, and it wasn’t much fun.” As usual, I had managed to insert my entire foot into my mouth. “The woman was insufferable, and a bore in the bedroom.”

With that, Galt dismissed me as though I was the hired help (which in a sense I was). He turned to face a client, leaving me staring at his back. I considered grabbing him by the neck and driving his head through one of the glass cabinets, but common sense prevailed. I was going to head home, see if Ted had managed to leave me any Guinness in the fridge. Maybe nine or ten beers would help put this buffoon out of my mind.

“Calling his ex names again, was he?”

“Hmm?” It was Galt’s receptionist. The new, icy one.

“Acts like he’s hard done by. He was the one having the affair.”

With Ms. Massive Mammaries, no doubt.

“You think the wife knew?”

“Not at first. But I think she found out.” She leaned forward, her voice dropping to a whisper. “When she figured it out she went after him big time, but he lawyered up with one of the biggest names in town. Ended up keeping it all, and leaving his wife in the cold. If I were her, I’d want to kill the bastard.”

Interesting. I mulled that over for a moment.

“Any chance you have her address?”

“Yup. Hang on for just a moment.”

I took the address from her and headed out the door. Ms. Veronica Galt. I could see her being angry enough to plant the fearstone. After spending just five minutes with her ex, I was surprised she didn’t just poison him and get it over with.

CHAPTER 25

“Visitor for Donnie.”

I sighed and put my sandwich back down. BLT on brown, not toasted. It would have to wait.

I entered Reception to find Niki waiting for me. Again. I had expected it to take two, maybe three weeks before he got a little edgy. This was way beyond my greatest expectations.

He looked like bran cereal after it has hardened to the bottom of the bowl. Dark shadows under both eyes, his hair unkempt with some gummy wad knotted up in a clump just above his temple. His clothes were rumpled and smelled, though it was hard to tell if that was unusual or not.

Kara was eyeing him warily, obviously recalling the threat of gunplay during his last visit. The smell of cheap cigarettes emanated off Niki like steam off a pile of fresh dog shit.

“You! You are going to tell me what this goddamnable thing is.” He thrust his hand at me, emphasizing the curse ring wedged onto his fat pinky finger.

I said nothing for a moment, taking it all in. Nicotine fingers now with nails chewed past the quick — angry red marks where he had broken skin. His hand trembled. Fury on his face, but fear too. That was what I had wanted to see. Between the ring and a few nights in jail, Niki was feeling the squeeze big time.

“I leave here, and get into an accident not three blocks away. With a police car.” I snorted, he growled. “Then I get home to find someone has broken in, stolen my TV and stereo. That had better not have been you, Donnie Elder.”

“Right. You’re the mugger, pal, not me.”

“Nyet? Well, Donnie Elder, with the week I have had, you will have much to regret.”

I smirked. For once I was enjoying one of these impromptu get togethers. That is, until the gun came out. Again.

“Oh!” Kara cried out, and dropped into her chair with a thud. I tried to catch her eye, to let her know it would be all right, but she was clearly terrified.

“What did you do to me, you shit?” I could see anger, fear, and uncertainty in those eyes. He pushed at the ring with his gun-hand, trying to lever the thing off his finger. Then he waved his hand like a grade school girl trying to fend off a bee.

“You wanted it, you got it, asshole. Now let’s see you get rid of it.”

In hindsight, it was maybe the stupidest thing I have ever done. Maybe. I’ve done a lot of stupid things. Still, it’s a good thing he acted before I had chance to consider the implications.

With a quick jerk, he jammed the pistol into my shoulder and pulled the trigger.

Behind me I heard Kara gasp. But I didn’t utter a sound.

Click.

I kept my face calm, and held back from clocking the son of a bitch.

Click. Click.

“Got a problem there?”

He jerked at the trigger again, then pulled back and swung the pistol at my head. I simply reacted, thrusting my hand up and out. Grabbed the pistol, and twisted hard.

Crack.

“Aaauggghhhh!”

He held the pistol awkwardly, but I could see the finger holding the trigger guard had bent like a straw. Niki dropped to one knee, cradling the gun and hand.

I crouched down, and lifted his chin.

“Hey.”

His eyes were wet with tears, focused on his badly broken finger.

“Hey.” That got his attention.

“You tell anyone, and it’ll just get worse.” It was another gamble, but my hope was that he wouldn’t tell anyone how he had screwed up. If he did, and they could break the curse, I was in for a serious ass-whooping. At best.

“What is it you want?”

“Bring me the package you stole, and I’ll take the ring back.”

“Mother-.” He tensed to come at me again, but must have seen something in my eyes. He may also have been learning. With that ring on his finger, nothing was going to work out well for him.

“I cannot. Maxim has it.”

I curled my hand around the back of his neck, and steered him to the door.

“When you get the package, drop by.” Shove to the back. “Until then, keep your head down.”

Veronica Galt lived in a tenement building north of King, west of Dufferin. Some would say the area was undergoing a revival with a thriving arts community. I was somewhat more cynical. My hope was that I could get back to the van by sunset.

Parkdale was once a neighborhood with a bit of cache, named to reflect its park-like setting by the lake. But with the construction of the Gardiner Expressway in the 1950s, the view of the lake was replaced by a view of traffic smog and highway tarmac. The closure of psychiatric institutions in the area in the 1980s, part of the move away from so-called “asylums”, didn’t help. Cheap rooming houses sprung up across the area, and the drug trade thrived. Nowadays, the name Parkdale was a cynical joke.

Ms. Galt lived in a twelve story apartment building that may have seen better days years ago. Maybe. Balconies lined every floor, littered with all manner of things. Bikes, furniture, flags, barbeques, laundry — you name it. Most of the balconies also seemed to be missing chunks of concrete, which is always a reassuring sight.

A script lettered sign over the main entrance identified Galt’s building as The Empress, suggesting a regal flair which the structure did not possess. A few kids were sprawled on the concrete out front, drawing hopscotch grids with colored chalk. They stared at me as though they had never seen a man my age without tattoos or piercings.

Veronica buzzed me up and I took the elevator despite my reservations. The choice was personal safety or five vertical floors, so I chose the easy route.

Safely ensconced on the fifth floor, I turned left and marched down the hall searching for Apartment 508. A moment later I turned and headed the other way when she called me from the opposite end of the hall.

Veronica greeted me at the doorway, shook hands, then slipped her hand back into her sweater sleeve. She was not what I had imagined. In light of her husband’s apparent interest in top-heavy, leggy trophies, I would not have guessed her to be a somewhat tired looking lady in her fifties with pleasant manners and an entrenched British accent.

I followed her into the small apartment and instantly felt the crushing grip of claustrophobia settle over me. I considered jamming my foot in the door to prevent it from closing all the way, just to preserve some sense of space — or an exit route, in the event of a fire.

The place was all books, as though the walls themselves had been fashioned from hardback covers, their spines serving as layered bricks. We crossed the front sitting room to a small sofa and recliner, the only free surfaces I could spot in the room, and I stepped carefully to avoid an avalanche.

“Wow.”

“Oh, the place is such a mess I’ve just given up. Can’t even be bothered to dust anymore. It’s overwhelming.”

I saw now that the walls were lined with wooden shelving, each shelf so packed with books — standing side by side, stacked one on top of the other, squeezed into every open space — that each row sagged like a rope bridge.

“Is this your personal collection?”

“Most of it. I really shouldn’t have them here. Too humid, temperature fluctuates up and down. I can’t even open the drapes in my bedroom, for fear the light will damage the collection. But since the divorce I barely have the money to pay rent and utilities, let alone storage costs.”

“That must be very hard.”

“Life is hard, as my father told me. So, how can I help you, Donnie Elder of Arcane Shipping?”

“Transport.”

“Sure.”

“Well,” I pulled the tiger’s eye from my pocket and placed it gently on the table between us. “I’m wondering if this stone is familiar to you.”

Veronica Galt may have been a bit eccentric, perhaps even nuts. But she was a damned poor liar. The pause was as good as a screaming confession, despite her next words.

“No. Should it be?”

I let the stone rest on the coffee table, watching her eyes as they flitted from mine to the stone and back again, like a squirrel trying to decide whether to cross a roadway.

“It seems that this stone was found in a coat owned by your ex-husband. A coat that was left with us to deliver to his shop. Unfortunately, delivery was never completed, and we’ve had it in our storage room for some time now.”

Her cheeks were flushing a blotchy red and white, and her eyes had widened to the point that I could see white above and below the light blue iris of each.

“Last week we were moving some items off-site,” (a bit of embellishment on my part). “When one of our staff made to pack the coat away, we had a rather strange incident.”

“Oh Lord, no one was hurt, were they?”

It was almost comical, how she blurted it out. It was like a bad Jerry Springer episode, with LaWanda revealing she had slept with Cletus the night that Ricky Bob’s truck stalled at the town carnival.

“No. Nothing like that.”

“Thank God.” Her shoulders sagged, and I flinched as a massive calico cat hurled itself from a hiding place on one of the shelves, landing with a thump on the back of her chair. She picked up the cat, stroked its back and scrubbed the fur behind its ears while the big bugger stared at me with suspicious eyes. I tried not to make eye contact.

“Why was it never delivered?”

“We tried, apparently. But the receptionist at the time,” I pretended to refer to my notes, “Ms. Dianne Morgan, would not accept the package. Said it wasn’t theirs.”

“That lying bitch!” The cat sprung from her lap, knocking over a pile of texts and hurtling down the hall. “She knew damned well it was his coat.”

And she was off to the races.

“I just wanted to scare that S.O.B. Fifteen years of marriage, me setting up his store, hunting the province for garage sales, estate auctions. Then one day his coat is delivered to the house by a bellhop from the Royal York. Says my husband must have left it the other night when he attended a client dinner. Remind me again what night that was, I said. Last Thursday. Well, that Thursday he and I had lunch at the King Eddy. It was our anniversary. It was also the night he called to say he would be staying late at the shop. An estate valuation. Didn’t come home until past midnight. How stupid did he think I was?”

I sat silent, well aware of the risk that anything I might say would cause her ire to be directed at me.

“So I spent the next three days scouring through old texts in my collection. Looking for a spell that seemed innocuous enough to make my point without killing the cheating bastard. Found it, cast it, placed the stone in his jacket and dropped it in your night slot. I had worked with Bernie in the earlier years, and remembered your outfit. But you say it was never delivered?”

“No. We tried, but she wouldn’t accept the package. Claimed she didn’t recognize the coat.”

“Well she should have, the skank.” Jesus. Remind me never to anger an English woman. “She was sleeping with my bloody husband.”

Still is, I thought to myself.

“Well, unfortunately he never received the gift. But a few of my employees got a bit of a scare when we found the coat.”

“Oh I’m sorry. I never meant to hurt anyone, other than that son of a bitch. I hope nothing horrible occurred?”

“No, nothing major.”

“And you’ve broken the spell since?”

“Actually, no. We’ve tried to, but it appears to still be active. Just happens that it doesn’t work with me, for some reason.”

“How odd.” She seemed to be puzzling something out, her thumb stroking the underside of her chin. “But, that was several years ago. I would have thought the spell would have dissipated over that time.”

“Well, that’s the other reason I’m here. I wanted to confirm the source of the spell, just to make sure there wasn’t something we needed to worry about. And I was also hoping to get a copy of the spell, to see if one of our contacts could deactivate the thing.”

“Yes, well that seems sensible, doesn’t it.” She stood and brushed fur off her lap. “I’m fairly sure I can find you the text. Just a moment.” Her voice trailed off as she left the room, heading to the back of the apartment.

I decided not to follow, out of fear that there would be even less space in the back rooms. Instead I glanced at titles, trying to see what a lady such as this would be interested in. American Book Prices 1991. Architectural Record 1946. A collection of old Dr. Seuss books. Illuminated Manuscripts of Medieval Spain. Was there any sense to this collection?

“Here we are. Weller on Voodoo and Witchcraft. I’ve placed a bookmark at the relevant page.”

“Do you mind if I borrow it?”

“Not at all. I’ve come to accept that many of my books will never find proper homes. Since the Bastard left, I’ve been trickling them out over eBay, but I find my heart isn’t in it. Books are meant to be touched, held, read. Selling them over the Internet just seems so gauche.”

“We’ll return it shortly.”

“Thank you. And my apologies to your staff people. I never meant to hurt anyone.”

“No problem. I guess your husband’s lucky he didn’t take receipt of the package.”

“Oh, he’s lucky alright. The way he treats people, it’s unbelievable.”

Awkward. I didn’t know the lady, but I could feel the anger at her ex-husband emanating off her like heat off an element.

“It certainly sounds like he treated you poorly.”

“Oh yes. I hope he at least treats you and your staff with some courtesy?”

“Oh sure.” Other than being a bit of a jerk. “Be nice if we could get him to pay his bills on time, but I guess business is tough all around.”

At that she snorted, then clutched my arm and looked me right in the eye.

“Business is not tough for Bernie. Never has been. He has one of the most profitable shops around. The fact is, he stretches payment every time he can get away with it. It’s the way he does business — scratches and claws for every advantage he can get.”

Sol seemed so excited by the Weller book that I left it with him, on the understanding that Veronica Galt would hunt both of us down if anything happened to it. He promised to take good care of it, and was handling it so gently I figured he was telling the truth.

I hadn’t even returned to the office before he called me back.

“I’ve gone over the spell, and it seems fairly straight-forward. But I must confess, she’s right. A spell such as this should have dissipated a long time ago. For it to have a life of a few days, maybe a week, would be the norm. But for it to remain as potent as the day it was cast years later — well, that’s extraordinary.”

“Maybe she really hated him.”

“Oh, I’m sure she did. Yes indeed. But even so, this is not the type of spell that would entrench itself so firmly as to carry on for years. And as you describe her, she’s not someone with a lot of experience in the craft.”

“Not from what I could tell.”

“It’s all very odd. Let me sort out the spell on that stone of yours. But you might want to keep your eyes and ears open.”

CHAPTER 26

This time it was Jamar who let me know that Niki was waiting out front. I had come to enjoy his little visits.

There was no one waiting at Reception, so I turned to Kara with a question on my lips. No need. She nodded at the window. Outside, white smoke curled into the cold morning air from the cigarette in the big Russian’s mouth. I turned my back to the window, pulled my phone from my pocket, and punched through buttons until I got to the record and speaker phone functions. We had tested it earlier, and it seemed to pick up conversations okay, but I had a feeling it wouldn’t work if I slipped it back in my pocket. So I held it in my left hand, and hoped he would be too pissed off to notice.

As I moved to the door, I checked out the parking lot. This could be a set up. But there was no obvious danger and Kara had confirmed the cameras were operating. So out I went.

Niki turned to the sound of the door opening, and I figured that was welcome enough. With both thumbs hooked in my pants, the cell cupped in my left hand, I waited for him to speak.

“You think you are King Shit, do you not?” He dropped the cigarette to the pavement and crushed it under his boot.

I opted for silence.

“Well, I have your precious package.” He glanced at a rust-bucket Ford parked three spaces down, presumably the replacement for his now damaged BMW. A paper bag sat on the hood, about the same size and shape as the package Clay and I had been delivering so long ago. No sign of anyone in the car, but it wouldn’t be too hard to duck under the window. “So now you’re going to take this damned thing, right?”

I am a terrible poker player. At Ted’s suggestion, I have been to a half dozen poker nights sponsoring some hockey team or another. Sixty dollar tickets, forty dollars in initial stakes. I would guess I have never lost less than a hundred dollars in one night. One reason I had no intentions of ever going to Las Vegas. But if there was a time when I needed to get a read on the other guy, this was it. Was Sun’s device in the bag, or was this just a scam to get the ring off his finger?

Even if it was the package, would he let me walk away with it, or was he going to pull a gun on me again?

I stared at his eyes, then gazed at the bag.

“Show it to me.”

That pissed him off. I suppose even dirtbags feel they should be trusted. With a scowl on his face, he marched over to the Ford, snatched the bag, and tossed it to me. I opened the bag and pulled out a metal cube, open on all faces, with a pendulum hanging from the top surface. The pendulum was held in place by a plastic insert to prevent it from being damaged in transit. I examined it as best I could, even peeked underneath. Seemed intact. And it looked like the dowsing device Sol had described. But the frank reality was — I had no way of knowing for sure.

I put it back in the bag and slipped the handle onto my left hand, keeping the phone clear. Took a deep breath, and launched into it.

“Before we do this, I want to be clear about something. Take a look over there.” I pointed to the corner of the building, just outside the door to the Urban Jungle.

Niki turned and spotted the camera I was pointing at.

“There’s another over there,” I pointed at the front of the parking lot, “there”, our Reception area, “and at the back loading docks.”

“No local tapes. Everything is transmitted to a security company off-site and a remote server.” One more gambit. I looked back to Kara, and she stepped out, handing me the file we had assembled after Niki left a few days prior.

“Plus, you might want to ask yourself how the cops would react, if they saw these.” I opened the file and dropped several photos on the hood of a Nissan. Harold’s, I think.

The photos were terrific — high quality digital images fit for printing on any wanted poster. Niki exiting his car. Niki at our front reception. Niki’s gun aimed at my chest. After his first visit, we had the cameras in the office activated, giving us that last photo. It was a beauty.

“Try anything stupid, the cops’ll have all of this in minutes.”

He wasn’t happy, that’s for sure. But he had gotten the message.

So I held my right hand out, palm up. Quicker than a horny teen removing his girlfriend’s bra, he tugged the ring off his finger and dropped it in my palm. For a long moment we both stared at it, him apparently concerned that it would somehow spring from my palm back onto his finger, and me wondering whether this was such a good idea after all. When the moment passed, I checked his face and saw elation, relief, and then anger.

“Give it up, pal. Your friend Legenko is going to jail, and so are you.”

Niki snorted and pointed one nicotine-stained digit at me, the tough guy act now back in place.

“We took out the first, and we are going to take out the second. Maxim is not going to jail. You can count on it. We will find him, with or without this damnatory thing. And when we do, it is going to be the same book all over again — suicide or heart attack, car accident or falling down the stairs.”

“Same story.”

“What?”

“Never mind. Maybe this time the cops’ll be ready for them.”

“Ready? You cannot be ready for this. These people, they can get you anywhere. Wave of the hands, hocus pocus, you are six feet under. And you are the next, asshole.”

“Well when I go, I’m taking a whole lot of people with me. And you’re at the top of the list.”

“Keep thinking that, asshole. If you think I am going to forget this, you are dead wrong.”

I stood silently, and watched him march back to the Ford, climb in, and pull away in a storm of spinning tires and gravel.

I wasn’t able to get out to Sun Consulting until late afternoon. Fortunately Helen Findlay seemed happy to see me. A nice response, considering the events of the past few weeks.

“Hi Don. C’mon in.” I wasn’t going to correct her. Paying customers can call me whatever they want, profanities excluded.

Today she was wearing a Versace pantsuit, ivory with silver buttons. Matching sleek Bruno Magli dress pumps, with a few inches of heel to enhance her already significant height.

I followed her to a small boardroom directly behind the Reception area. The opposite wall was glass, providing a view of an atrium with live plants and a six foot waterfall. A bench sat in the middle of the space, an apparent oasis in the downtown core. A man sat cross-legged on the bench — eyes closed, breathing in through his nose, out through his mouth.

We could use a spot like that. Maybe I could reserve the bouncy castle at the Urban Jungle for an hour a week. Meditation purposes.

The boardroom itself was high-end Toronto corporate. Six padded leather chairs around a solid mahogany table. Matching side-tables with brass lamps sat in the corners. On the walls hung what appeared to be a pair of originals — a Bertram Booker abstract and one of Alex Colville’s works.

“So,” I teased open the box, “I hope I haven’t gotten your expectations up for nothing.”

I pulled the item from the box, unwrapped it from the multiple layers of bubble wrap Kara had insisted on using, and handed it to her. So far so good. She didn’t proclaim me an idiot and swing it at my head, anyways.

“Far from it.”

“Does it look OK? Any damage?”

She rotated the cube in her hands, holding it to the light.

“Well, we won’t know for sure until we use it, but it seems to be in good condition.” Turning, she laid the item on one of the side tables and punched a button on the conference room phone.

“Clair? Would you please ask Emory to come to the Conestoga Room?” Conestoga. Everywhere you go in Ontario you will find references to the native tribes that once dotted the shores of the Great Lakes. Not clear to me whether we were showing respect for those who came before us, or touting our claim over their lands.

The response from Reception was unintelligible, much like the order taker at a fast-food drive through.

She turned from the phone and offered me a drink. “Coffee? Tea?”

“No thanks. I’m fine.”

“OK.” She grasped the item again, as though unable to leave it sitting for more than a moment. “Please, take a seat.”

I pulled a chair out and sat when she did.

“So, Don. Do you mind if I call you Don, or do you prefer-.”

“Don’s fine.”

“Don, then. Anything we should know about how you recovered our package?”

I glanced at her hands, both palms resting on the table on either side of the cube. Long slim fingers tipped with ruby red nails. Not a grain of dirt under those nails, that I could see.

“Nothing illegal, if that’s what you’re worried about. As it happens, I was able to convince the thief to return it.”

“Really? Anything that’s going to come back to bite us?”

“You? No, I can’t see it. I can’t promise they won’t try to steal it again, but I don’t see this as personal for you or your firm.”

“Good.”

I turned to find Mr. Meditation standing behind me.

“Don Elder, meet Emory Quinn, our Senior Partner.”

“Hi, nice to meet you.”

“Good to meet you. Goodness, is that-?” He reached out and Helen Findlay passed it to him.

“What do you think?” she asked.

“Let’s take a look.” He moved to the head of the table and set the cube down, taking a seat before it. Disconnecting the pendulum from the plastic insert, he let it dangle, then took a few deep breaths. As I watched, he seemed to enter the same fugue state I had observed in the adjoining atrium.

Then the pendulum began to move.

Not in the swaying, metronomic way I have seen pendulums move in the past. Instead in a jerky manner, moving to the left, then jerking forward, then back, then forward again. This continued for a few minutes, with the pendulum moving as though directed by a finger. Then it stopped, and Quinn opened his eyes.

“Good! It seems to be just fine. This is a very pleasant surprise, Mr. Elder.” He spoke next to Helen. “It’s definitely been used. We’ll need to put it back in storage. Have they been able to make use of the other object we provided?”

“Yes. Sounds like it has worked well for them.”

“Excellent.”

“So, Don. I have a feeling you went well out of your way for us.”

“For Clay too. Can’t say either of us took too kindly to being mugged.”

“No, I imagine not. How is Clay doing, by the way?”

“Good. He’s back in the hospital for some tests, but the doctors seem confident he’s through all of the rough stuff.”

“That’s wonderful news.”

I looked at the two of them, obviously happy at my success in regaining the cube. Should I tell them about Ruscan? Part of me thought it was better to just move on. But part of me felt they should know.

“Listen, can I tell you something in confidence?”

Quinn glanced at Helen, then back at me.

“Absolutely.”

I pulled the photos from the envelope I had stuffed in my back pocket, laying them out in front of them.

“This man is Nikolay Kuzmenko. He is a colleague of Maxim Legenko. You may have heard of him.”

“Indeed.”

“Kuzmenko was the mugger. From something he said to me, I believe Legenko was the one who used the device.”

“Not his wife?”

Interesting. Seemed Ruscan was known to the Sun Consulting folks.

“Uh — is there some history here that I should know about?”

“No, not at all. We’ve never spoken to them. But they have a bit of a reputation.”

“Other than the trial?”

“Trial? Oh, yes. No, separate from that. More to do with the wife. Elana?”

“Elena.”

“Yes. She had a bit of a reputation in her home country.”

OK. Seemed like there were major undercurrents here. I opted to stay at the surface, hoping that by treading water I could avoid being sucked out to sea.

“Well,” I sensed a courteous boot out the door coming my way, “thank you very much for your help. And please extend our best wishes to Clay. I must say you went way beyond the call of duty here, but we appreciate it.”

“My pleasure.”

I took two steps, then paused. Curiosity, I suppose, though we know what happened to the cat. I turned and faced them.

“If you don’t mind my asking… why were you lending it out?”

Quinn seemed to mull that over for a moment, then answered in a soft voice.

“Missing children. Once a year, one family. I wish we could do more, but the device would be worthless if we overused it.”

Imagine that. Something good might have come out of all this nonsense.

“Well, I’m glad we were able to help.”

We exchanged a few more pleasantries before I exited the room. As we headed out to the elevator bank, Emory and Helen huddled briefly, his voice carrying just enough for me to overhear.

“Let’s open a file on the Legenko company. I’ll ask one of the interns to do the usual background research.”

Seemed like Ruscan had managed to get itself on Sun’s radar screen. Whether that would gain them accolades, or a torpedo aimed at their starboard side, remained to be seen.

CHAPTER 27

While I was meeting with the Sun Consulting folks, Ted was at the hospital with my mother. She had insisted he accompany her to visit Clay, and he had complied. No idea why. He wasn’t the one working at Arcane. But with Mom, your role is not to question why.

A few days later, when things had calmed down, he recounted to me what went down that afternoon.

Ted eyed the monitors warily. He hated hospitals. Hated the smell of antiseptic, the whispers and empty hallways. Had for as long as he could remember.

“Get some ice and fill this up.”

He took the Styrofoam beaker and stepped out in the hall. Maybe he would spot a hot nurse with fishnet stockings and a uniform that could barely contain her luscious bod.

No such luck. One old fellow duck-walking down the hall with an intravenous stand in one hand and his wife holding the other. Really ought to have full coverage hospital gowns. The guy’s butt looked like a shriveled peach.

Ice around the corner, water from the fountain.

“Here you go.”

“Thank you, Theo.”

Old Mrs. Jarvis. She was one of about three people on the planet who had managed to call him Theo or Theodore without getting a shot to the head.

“No problem.”

“Harper and I are going down to the coffee shop to get some drinks and a snack. We’ll be back in fifteen minutes. If he wakes and asks for anything, just call one of the nurses.”

“Grab me a muffin and a pop?”

The look on her face suggested that there was no food heading his way.

A few moments later, Ted found himself alone in the semi-private room, watching over Clay’s sleeping form. The old fellow didn’t look too bad, all things considering. Seemed to have decent color in his face, and based on the volume of his snoring he appeared to have achieved a decent state of rest.

Flopping into one of the two visitors’ chairs, he leafed through the stack of magazines resting on the side table. Country Living, Chatelaine, People, Oprah. He couldn’t figure out if the last one was the actual name of the magazine. Seemed a little pretentious. You didn’t see Bill Gates calling Windows “Bill”.

He dropped the stack back on the side table, then pulled the drawer open. Kleenex, a few pill bottles, glasses case. Vital signs monitor? Pulse rate 83. Blood pressure 142/86, if he was reading it right. He stood and peered at the screen. Systolic 142, now 139. Diastolic. 86. Resp. 17. Respiration? 17 seemed low to him. He glanced at Clay, but the old guy seemed to be sleeping just fine. Temperature, one of those goofy EKG lines, bunch of ports, Start/Stop, Print, Auto/Standby. Who the hell was he kidding. It was all gobbledygook to him.

He stepped around the chair and peeked past the curtain into the other half of the room. Clay’s roommate was younger. Maybe mid-forties. Wasn’t looking so hot. Had on one of those Darth Vader breathers, with one leg raised above the bed in a cast and bandages around his forehead. Car accident, probably.

Ted opted to take a quick leak before stooping to read Clay’s charts. If Mom didn’t get back soon, he was going to go crazy.

He was just finishing when he heard heels clack across the linoleum into the hospital room. He stepped on the flush lever, and winced as the toilet roared. Christ, it was like one of those airplane toilets. Quick rinse under the tap, and out.

Ted was drying his hands with a paper towel as he stepped into the room.

What the-? Two people in the room that he had never seen before. One a huge greasy guy, and the second a weasely looking guy in a suit.

“You are not Donnie Elder. His brother, perhaps?”

Ted frowned. Why did people always think he and Donnie looked alike? He was by far the better looking of the two.

“Maybe. Who’s asking?”

“I am Maxim Legenko. And this is my colleague, Nikolay.”

He stared at Ted as though waiting for a reply.

“Man, I have no idea who-.” Wait a sec. Russian business guy and a massive greaseball. Legenko. And the guy who mugged Donnie?

“No matter. You and your colleagues will not interfere with our business again.” He glanced at the greaseball, then turned to Clay’s sleeping figure on the bed.

In two quick steps the big man was on Ted, one callused hand squeezing his windpipe. Ted was knocked off balance and stumbled back into the wall, but his opponent went with the movement, not loosening his grip an iota. He pulled at Niki’s wrist with one hand and pressed his head away with the other, desperately trying to break the man’s grasp.

A glimpse of movement and Ted could see that Legenko was now leaning over Clay, reading from a book he had pulled from his pocket. A small white cloud was forming in the air before him, as though a tiny cumulonimbus had formed out of thin air.

“Huhhhnnnnn!” Niki staggered back, hands to his face. Ted had thumbed him in the eye, opting to forgo any rules of civility. Niki moved in again, hands up to protect his face, in particular the one eye which he still could not open. Still gasping, Ted stepped into him, wrapped his lower leg around the back of the man’s knee, and pushed. The two of them went down hard, with Niki’s head smacking off the bed frame like a pumpkin on concrete. Ted rolled off the man, whose eyes were fluttering, unfocussed.

Getting back to his feet, Ted grabbed the bed rail and stepped towards Legenko.

“Get away from him, asshole.”

Legenko spun towards Ted, hands raised in front of him like a doctor entering surgery, but with the palms facing out. Slim wrists and wicked long fingers gathered the small white cloud that had been over the bed.

Ted instinctively drew back from the man, but Legenko reached out and grasped his face with both hands, the cloud now enveloping Ted’s face.

Cold. G-goddamned cold. He tried to pull away, but Legenko backed him up against the wall. His eyes stared vacantly past Ted, a rapturous smile stretching blood red lips.

After the first shock of the cold of his hands, Ted began to relax.

“No offense, but I go for girls.”

Legenko staggered back as though he had slapped him, the smile disappearing from his face in a comical evolution from ecstasy to shock to horror and then to raging fury.

“What is this? You have no power. I can see you have no power!”

“Speak for yourself, asshole.”

The monitors began beeping furiously. Ted looked past his attacker and saw that three of the numbers were now flashing red. On the bed, Clay was gasping for air.

“Hey, what the hell did you do to him?” Ted pushed Legenko aside and went to Clay’s aid. His eyes were open now, but unseeing, darting back and forth. Flushed cheeks, rasping breath. Ted turned and ran into the hall.

“Doctor — we need a doctor!”

There was a flurry of action as first a nurse, then a second nurse and a doctor raced into the room. It was like a NASCAR pit crew, though there was more at stake than a car race. Ted tried once or twice to ask what was going on, but the medical staff were focused on the patient. So he stood by the door, trying to stay out of the way.

He noted Niki and Legenko had disappeared. Just as well — Ted wasn’t feeling too well himself. He tried to clear his throat, wondering whether that weird cloud had done something to his lungs.

“Oh my! What is going on!”

The doctor turned from his ministrations in response to Harper’s outburst.

“His blood pressure spiked suddenly, but we seem to have it under control thanks to this fellow’s assistance.”

“But why would it happen now?”

“Well, it could be a number of things. Was he conscious, do you know?”

“No.”

“Well…” The doctor and Harper moved down the hall for some privacy. Ted could see he was trying to reassure her. In the room behind them, the nurses were rearranging Clay’s sheets, apparently satisfied that all was well again.

“What happened?”

Ted coughed and rubbed at his throat. He could see now why strangulation was so effective. Ted nodded for his mother to move down the hall out of earshot of the doctor and his staff, then told her of the visit by Legenko and his thug friend.

“What on earth were they doing?”

“Just a sec.” Ted’s throat was killing him now. Felt like the strep throat he had experienced in high school. Scratchy and dry. He stepped down the hall and took a sip from the fountain, but the scratchiness would not go away. And worse, now he was getting the spins.

“Are you OK?”

“Yeah, just a bit too much excitement, I guess.”

She took Ted’s arm and started to lead him to a bench at the doorway to Clay’s room, but Ted didn’t make it. With one whistling breath he dropped face first to the floor.

I arrived half an hour later, having just left Sun. My mother’s voice had made it pretty clear that something serious was going on, so I had left the van off King and ran to the Hospital.

At the Emergency Ward I went straight to the triage nurse at the desk.

“Ted Elder?”

She looked to the board behind her, then referred me to Room 114. As I marched past the waiting area, I could see that things were a lot busier than they had been the night Clay and I were mugged. Two police officers sat on either side of a fellow who appeared to have been in a nasty fight — his left eye was swollen shut and he had a gap in his mouth where two or three teeth had been knocked out.

At the room I found my mother sitting by Ted’s side, my brother on a respirator.

“What the hell happened?”

My mother turned, and for a moment, I had a horrible thought that Ted wasn’t going to make it. Her eyes were red from crying.

“I’m not sure. He was watching Clay, and something happened. He had some difficulty breathing, and he fainted.”

“What is the doctor saying?”

“I can answer that.”

I turned to see a tall slim fellow in a white smock. The tag on his lapel read Dr. Aminpoor.

“You are the brother?”

“Yes.”

“I am Dr. Aminpoor. As I said to your mother a few minutes ago, your brother gave us quite a fright. Anaphylaxis, we believe. When we got to him he was in severe respiratory difficulty. Wheezing with swelling around his neck.” The doctor moved to Ted’s side and shifted the respirator mask and tube slightly so that we could see. Ted’s neck was swollen. And an angry red.

“We immediately put him on a respirator for oxygen and injected epinephrine.”

“Adrenaline?”

The doctor nodded. “It seemed to help a bit, but we had to repeat the dosage. Whatever he is reacting to, it is quite severe.” He pointed to two IV bags hanging at Ted’s side. “We’ve put him on chlorphenamine and hydrocortisone, which should reduce the swelling and irritation, allow his breathing to return to normal. For now, though, I’d like to keep him on the oxygen.”

“Que dit il?” My mother looked to me for a moment, then to the doctor.

Fortunately he seemed to recognize the need to spell it out for both of us using a more basic vocabulary.

“He should be okay. As far as we can tell, he is suffering from anaphyl… he is having an allergic reaction to something. We’re not sure what. The drugs we are using should counteract the reaction and allow his body to fight back. I’d like to talk to him when he wakes, but I feel we have things under control.”

When the doctor left, I turned to my mother. She was holding Ted’s hand as though he was hanging off a cliff.

“What happened?”

“I went downstairs with Harper for a few minutes. When we got back, the doctors were fussing over Clay, and Ted told me he wasn’t feeling well. Then he passed out.”

“But they don’t know why?”

“Ted said those people did it. The Russians.”

“The Russians? Kuzmenko? The guy who robbed us?”

“And his boss.”

What the hell? I stared at Ted, with intravenous lines running into both arms and a breathing mask pumping air into his lungs. The marks and swelling around his neck were reduced but still looked painful. They must have used magic. Ted stepped in to stop them, and now he was having a reaction.

“The Russians.”

“Yes. It sounded like they were trying to hurt Clay, and Ted tried to stop them.”

This was about the cube. Legenko must have been pissed about losing it, and decided to take it out on Clay. Having Ted there was just a bonus.

Behind me I heard a gasp, and Harper hurried into the room to sit by my mother’s side. She wrapped an arm around my mother’s shoulders.

“Oh, Huguette. The doctors told me about Ted. I’m so sorry. I was watching Clay to make sure he was OK.”

“Is he?” I felt a throbbing start in my temple.

“Yes. The doctors said he had a spike in his blood pressure. Very sudden. Someone was apparently in the room?”

“The mugger. Again. And his boss.”

“Animals. These men are animals.” My mother was staring at Ted, but her face was wrought with pain and anger.

“Yes they are.” I gave her a kiss, and squeezed Harper’s arm in sympathy. Then I turned and headed out the door. “They’re rabid, and they need to be put down.”

CHAPTER 28

I was pissed off.

Legenko and his henchman had gone after Clay and my brother, intent on hurting them, maybe even killing them. That just doesn’t work for me.

But traffic moves for no man. Like it or not, at this time of day it was going to take a half an hour or more to get from the hospital to Ruscan Industries’ head office. So I used the time as best I could, calling Amy, then e-mailing a file to her. She in turn had a great suggestion, which resulted in another call, and a second e-mail of the same file. I also took a few minutes to stop off at the University, which just happened to be on the way.

By the time I arrived, I had done what I could.

I parked just off St. Clair, grabbed my bat from the space between the two front seats, and marched over to the Ruscan Industries offices. Straight up the front stairs and through the doors into the reception area. At least I was calm enough to slip the bat into my pants, between my right thigh and pant leg. With a wrench of my belt, and the use of a notch I hadn’t used in several years, I was able to secure the weapon in place.

Ms. Plastic Receptionist didn’t have a chance to even flash her picture-perfect teeth at me. I stalked straight over to the stairwell and began to climb. I was already on the mezzanine, heading to the stairwell that lead up to the offices, before one of the security guards took notice of me.

“Hey!”

Despite his eloquent statement, I elected to press on. As I turned into the second stairwell, he sprinted with surprising speed across the atrium floor.

Still, he was a good floor and a half behind me when I stepped out onto the executive floor, again with an unoccupied reception station. This time, however, all heads were turned in my direction. Reception must have called ahead.

“Uh, sir. Do you have an appointment to see one of the executives?”

Joe College again. He strode up, taller and likely stronger than me, but not used to aggression. His eyes were just a bit too wide, and his voice quavered.

“I’m here to see the Legenkos again. Which way?”

His quick glance at the large office along the back wall told me all I needed to know. I slid past him, and marched down the lane between cubicles to the open door at the back. As I moved, I pulled the bat free, holding it tight to my thigh. A bewildered assistant stood, hands clutched to her chest.

“Relax. I’m not here for you.”

As I passed she backed up against the far wall of the cubicle, staring at me as though I was a madman. And in a way she was right, because I had just spotted Niki, standing in the open doorway and awaiting my arrival.

I made a beeline for him, no doubt invading the notional work boundaries of several more Ruscan employees. I was past basic courtesies.

He stood firm as I approached, though I noticed he held a cold compress to the back of his head, and seemed to have collected a few more abrasions above the neck. Wasn’t so confident when I brought the bat up, though. Instead of bashing his skull in, I held it up in front of me, poking him in the chest and pushing hard. There was a chance I would just bounce off him, like clothing off of Paris Hilton. But my stubbornness knows no bounds, and the threat of the bat had taken him by surprise. The Bull stumbled back into the office with an angry laugh, unhurt but even more pissed off at me.

College Boy said something behind me, and I could hear the voice of the security guard as well, but I slammed the door shut behind me, and locked it. Finally, I turned to see what I had gotten myself into.

The first thing I noticed was Niki moving in my direction with a look of nasty intent, his hand slipping into his jacket where he had a pistol holstered under the side of ham he called a left arm. I snarled, but a shout stopped him in his tracks.

“Nikolay!”

He stopped, wavered, then removed his hand from under his jacket and backed up to lean against the wall.

Turning to the voice, I saw Elena Legenko seated at a small antique desk with an inlaid rosewood pattern. It was a small desk, and looked out of place tucked in the corner of the large office. Beside the desk was a sculpture, seemingly constructed of ivory, wood and bone. It was shapeless, as far as I could tell, but a shiver ran down my neck as I looked at it. I tore my eyes away and looked to her, perched on a small leather chair, her long legs crossed and showing far too much creamy thigh for an office environment.

Behind her, floor to ceiling windows provided a terrific view of the downtown city core, the site even more spectacular in the crisp light of late afternoon. I could see City Hall, the BMO Building, CN Tower, all of it. Etched into the glass of the windows was a perfect outline of the buildings in the distance, several shaded with crosshatching. The overall effect was surreal, as though I was viewing a satellite image laid out on stained glass.

As with the boardroom, an oval table with an inlaid image of what appeared to be the Zodiac served as the central piece of the room. And once again, Maxim Legenko sat slouched in one of the chairs, this time with a flustered look on his face. I sensed I had just interrupted a heated discussion. Both he and Niki were sweating hard, suits disheveled, presumably from their recent bout with Ted. And Elena looked as pissed at them as she was at me.

“Again you are here, Donnie Elder? You are very stubborn, yes?”

I said nothing. This was about delivering a message, and not one other piece of information.

I dropped into one of the chairs and kicked my feet up onto the table, dragging my heels on the surface as I did so. Maxim was pissed, but Elena remained impassive. An observer.

“You show a lot of nerve, Mr. Donnie Elder. Again you are disrespecting me and my friend Nikolay. Tell me — why I should let you leave this building alive?”

He seemed awfully sure of himself. Can’t say I felt the same way.

“If I want to leave, I’ll just walk out that door. And you won’t be able to do a damned thing to stop me.” His eyes flashed with anger. “But first you have to understand something. You keep coming after my friends and family, and I’m going to bring this place down around your ears.”

It was Niki who reacted first, a low belly laugh building into a freight train rumble. Maxim seemed to share his view, flashing a grin. Elena was the last to laugh, though the humor never reached her eyes.

“Mr. Donnie Elder — Donnie — there is nothing you can do to us.”

“Oh no?” I pulled my cellphone from my pocket and flipped it open, keeping one eye on Maxim. “Well, that remains to be seen.” I punched buttons until I got to the Tape function, then hit Play.

And as the audio rolled, I took another glance at that window.

“We took out the first, and we are going to take out the second. Maxim is not going to jail. You can count on it. We will find him, with or without this damnatory thing. And when we do, it is going to be the same book all over again — suicide or heart attack, car accident or falling down the stairs.”

“Same story.”

“What?”

“Never mind. Maybe this time the cops’ll be ready for them.”

“Ready? You cannot be ready for this. These people, they can get you anywhere. Wave of the hands, hocus pocus, you are six feet under.”

I hit STOP.

Elena turned and glared at Niki, her jaw clenched in anger. But Maxim didn’t even blink, nervy bastard that he was. He leaned back in the chair, hands behind his head. Big sweat stains had leeched into the fabric of his blue dress shirt, but he made no effort to hide them. I got the feeling those stains showed up early every day. “It’s just a tape. The cops cannot use this. They can’t prove anything.”

“I suspect you’re right, asshole. But I sent it to them anyways. And I sent a copy to a contact at the Daily Times.” Thank you, Amy. “In about ten minutes they’re going to post an article on their website, publishing the conversation on that tape word for word. Tomorrow morning it’ll be front page in the business section. I’m told the prosecutor is pissed. You can be guaranteed it won’t be so easy finding that last witness now.”

All of a sudden, Maxim wasn’t looking so cocky. A drop of sweat appeared just above his right eye, and traced a wavy trail down his forehead toward his eyebrow. Niki seemed to be trying to melt his considerable bulk into the wallpaper, under Elena’s withering eye.

“Don’t kid yourself. Judges and juries find out about this stuff, and they don’t ignore it. So, little Maxi boy — I suspect you’re going to jail for a long time.”

Elena Legenko slowly turned away from Niki and stared down at the papers in front of her. It spoke to me of acceptance, perhaps resignation. Maxim, however, took a different tact. Sneering, he grabbed an object from the table — a crystalline pyramid the size of a stapler. He stared into it for just a moment, and I could hear him muttering, though too quietly for me to catch it.

Elena’s head snapped up, as though reacting to a gun shot, and Niki rolled forward on the balls of his feet. I glanced at both of them, then back to Maxim, who appeared to be waiting for something. And something was happening. The air between us shimmered slightly, like still air over hot tarmac. Maxim was still staring at me, as though expecting something dramatic.

Too bad for him.

I shifted my feet, again dragging my heels across the table top. He stared, and I stared back. I felt like I was six years old on the school bus, bound and determined that this time I wasn’t going to give up my seat.

“Enough.” We both ignored the voice, which I took to be Niki’s based on the apparent source.

“Please! Maxim!”

I glanced to Niki and saw that the shimmering air was drifting towards him. He was standing bolt upright, and looked very uncomfortable. Sweat was beading on his brow and upper lip. Maxim himself was not looking so good either, his skin taking on a slight mustard tone.

Elena angrily waved her hand, and both of the men sagged.

“You think I’m an idiot? I’m going to walk in here without protection? Don’t get in your head you’re going to do anything to me.” I’ve never been much of a bluffer, but I figure if you’re going to try it, you’ve got to commit to the fake. So I hauled the fearstone out of my pocket, and showed it to him. Then I threw it, a soft lob that I figured even he could catch.

And he did.

“What is-?”

Flash.

I was ready for it this time, and so I saw the spell in action. As the others fought to regain their sight, I saw faint tentacles of smoke rise from the stone, then coalesce and take shape. It was easy to recognize the figure. An exact duplicate sat not ten feet beyond, staring in rapt fascination without a hint of fear in her eyes.

Elena.

This golem, crude and without any real power, scared the hell out of Maxim and Niki. And I could see why. For the golem had captured something more than just her animal attractiveness or brazen confidence. It showed a hint of her power. I could see that in Maxim’s face, wide-eyed in shock and deference.

But he quickly saw through the gambit and came to his feet, snarling. Ignoring the spectre before him, he slammed the crystal pyramid down on the fearstone, shattering both into dust-like fragments.

I think in that moment I saw the true Maxim Legenko. A sinewy rage of fiery eyes and meat-tearing teeth.

Last time I thought there had been something going on. This time I knew for sure. A beam of energy, almost like a tight jet of water from a fire hose, leapt from a ring on his hand and arced across the room towards me. It was just like with Crazy Lady, a stream of particles which expanded as they approached me, pointillist in form, with the same distinct pebbles of black and yellow shimmering in the air. And again, the beam didn’t get to me. About twelve inches from my chest it just stopped. It didn’t deflect and race off in another direction. Didn’t explode on impact. It just reached a point a few inches away from me and stopped.

He stood, trembling, the beam of energy continuing to stream from his fingertips for a moment, then fizzling out.

“You done yet?”

Apparently not. He tried again. Red flames shot from the ring and scorched the table top in their race across the room. This time I didn’t flinch — I leapt out of the way. My finely honed cowardice had taken charge.

The heat swept past me, roaring out of my peripheral vision and slamming into the door and wall behind me. As I turned, I saw the door explode out of its frame, spinning into the office space beyond and clipping a monitor on the way. Tongues of flame danced along the wall, as patches of old wallpaper began to smolder, then ignite.

That little display seemed to get everyone’s attention, including Niki’s since the right shoulder of his jacket was on fire. He was slapping wildly at the flames while I righted my chair. And Elena seemed as angry at her husband as she was at me, perhaps more so.

“Figure it out. Your magic tricks aren’t going to work on me. But you keep messing with us, and I’m going to bring a heap of shit down on your head.”

I think that time I got through to him. He was still staring lasers at me, but his breathing seemed to slow, and I could see intelligence returning to his eyes, replacing the untempered rage. In fact, at that moment, inching toward the door and seeing the faces of Elena and her husband, I was convinced I was going to be leaving with my hide intact.

Unfortunately I had managed to overlook one very large, very pissed off and now smoldering Russian mobster. Niki came off the wall as though I had waved a red flag in front of him. I could imagine steam erupting from his nostrils. I was just able to turn my body and take the impact on my shoulder, but that did nothing to slow his momentum.

I flew backwards a good six feet, and would have gone farther had it not been for College Boy’s cubicle. Instead of continuing to sail through the air I slammed into the fabric panel that served as a partition, sending it toppling over onto College Boy’s desk. From the crunching sounds behind me, I presumed a keyboard or laptop had just bitten the dust.

“Jesus.” I tried to roll off the panel quickly, but Niki was there again, this time grabbing my shirt and throwing me like a bale of hay. I hurled over the adjoining cubicle wall, narrowly missing another assistant, and landing ribs first on an open file drawer. That hurt. Big time.

I was gasping for air, still slumped over the drawer, when Niki rounded the cubicle wall and grabbed my shirt collar and the back of my belt. Fortunately I had just enough of my wits about me to bring up the bat. I swung as hard as I could, and the bat exploded on impact, sharp pieces of wood spraying around us. Niki grunted, and dropped me with a thud.

Crawling back into the cubicle, I turned to see that my swing had done more damage than I could have hoped for. A flap of skin hung from his forehead, partly obscuring his left eye, with several long splinters jutting from the wound. Blood was just beginning to flow.

“Raaaagggghhhhhh!”

Seemed I had enraged the Bull. I turned, stepped up onto one of the visitor chairs in the cubicle, and hopped over the back partition.

Niki took the more direct route, plowing into the partition and using it to slam me up against the internal wall. He was panting just like his namesake now, and he was close enough to me that the blood from his forehead was dripping down on my exposed arm and shoulder. The rest of my body was trapped between the partition and the wall. I tried to bend my legs, to gain leverage, but Niki growled and pressed even harder. The metal frame of the partition was digging into my chest and neck and now I was having trouble breathing. Niki was crushing the life out of me.

I raised my arm and tried to get my hand under his multiple chins, hoping I could force his head back and ease the pressure. But his neck was as thick as my thigh. I couldn’t budge him. I slipped my hand up over his chin and snapped the heel of my palm into his nose, hoping for the mythical strike that drives a bone into your opponent’s brain. His response — pounding the partition a further inch and a half closer to the wall — almost caused me to black out, but the dry wall behind me gave just enough to keep me conscious.

I went after the only weak spot I could find. I reached for one of the splinters jutting from the open wound on his forehead, and hammered down on it.

Niki bellowed and stumbled away, trying to get away from my hand. The partition fell to the floor between us, and I sagged to the carpet gasping for breath. My brain was screaming at me to get up, to get the hell out of there. But my lungs were demanding my attention. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs in action.

Still, I managed to gain my feet before Niki was able to turn his attention back to me. A feat in and of itself. I was grimly marching towards the stairwell when a voice called out.

“Enough!”

Even in the heat of the moment, I stopped in my tracks. That was a voice that demanded your attention.

Turning, just steps away from the stairwell and apparent freedom, I scanned the floor.

We had left a real mess. Smoke was snaking out of Elena’s office, drifting across the ceiling of the central space, and flames continued to dance along the door frame. I was amazed no fire alarm had gone off. The cubicle outside her office was demolished, a rubble of fabric, metal frame, desk and computer equipment left in our wake. College Boy stood at the base of the rubble, seemingly in shock at the sudden turn of events. Two other cubicles were wrecked, and one of the assistants was being cared for by her colleagues, apparently having been knocked aside in Niki’s efforts to annihilate me.

At the entrance to her office stood Elena Legenko, now fully resembling the golem from before. Even from across the floor, the most arresting thing was her piercing stare. Part of me wanted to apologize, part of me wanted to run like hell.

Maxim was the first to speak, turning to her from his spot halfway across the floor.

“Darling, this — ingrate — has attacked Nikolay and I. Niki was simply defending us.”

“SHUT UP YOU FOOL! You and your idiot friend have tested my patience for long enough!”

Elena stared at Maxim. He shied from her attention, but stood his ground. Elena’s focus then turned to Niki the Bull, who had taken a seat at one of the work stations, one hand to his forehead with blood still trickling between the fingers. Niki was staring at me as though he might be able to stop my heart with his eyes. Lastly, Elena turned to me.

“You and I must talk, Mr. Elder.”

I debated whether to respond. But at that point, it didn’t seem to make much difference.

“I’ve said everything I had to say. Stay away from us.”

I wasn’t sure whether she intended to do so, but it didn’t matter. I wasn’t hanging around to chat. I turned and began moving to the door again. Behind me I heard the squeak of an office chair as Niki lurched to his feet and bulled towards me, intent on ensuring that I did not make it down the stairs, at least not intact.

“I SAID ENOUGH!”

This time I didn’t even see it coming. One second Niki was rushing towards me, a three hundred pound bull determined to trample me in his path. The next he was hurtling sideways through the air, his feet clipping yet another cubicle and causing him to spin head over heels before slamming into a structural concrete post in the north east corner of the floor. I glanced back at Elena and sure enough, her hands were raised before her, as though she was manipulating the very air.

That was enough for me. I turned and reached out for the door to the stairwell, only to flinch as a crimson streak passed over my shoulder and enveloped the door and its frame. It was a subtle light — not flame, but energy — and radiated just a few inches from the surface of the door. But I saw it with my own two eyes, dead sober and with all my faculties intact.

This was going to be interesting. Without so much as a glance back at Elena, I reached out to the door handle. As my hand neared the door, the crimson glow dissipated, first from around the handle, then in a growing circle around my hand. By the time I was touching the handle, the glow was gone.

I turned the handle, opened the door, and ran like hell.

CHAPTER 29

I jogged out of the building, trying to remain innocuous while keeping in motion. The van was a block and a half away, but no one tried to stop me. I did a quick sortie around the vehicle to make sure all was in order, then hopped in and sped out into traffic.

I needed to find a computer, fast.

With a PC at home, several in the office, and internet access on my phone, I don’t think I had ever needed to use an internet cafe in my life. Now with WiFi in every coffee shop, I couldn’t imagine that such places had a long life span. But if I ever needed one, now was the time. It was simple. My memory was a sieve, and stuff was leaking through already.

I figured my best bet was to stay on St. Clair, and it turned out I was right for once. Just past Bathurst I spotted a place called Cyber ‘Spresso, the window advertising “stations, wifi, smoothies and snacks”. I squealed into a lot on Raglan and sprinted back to the shop.

Nothing too complicated. Four stations along one wall, two occupied. Three tables in the middle, and a counter on the opposite side. Standard coffee shop. I went straight to one of the stations and pulled up the browser. Google Maps.

I was just drilling down into satellite maps of Toronto when a man’s voice interrupted.

“Excuse me, sir?”

I did not need an interruption right now.

“Yup?”

“The stations are $4 per hour.”

Oh. Right.

I glanced over my shoulder at the man. Smallish, East Indian. “Sorry about that.” Dug in my pockets, and managed to find nothing smaller than a twenty dollar bill. Goddamned ATMs.

“Uh.” I glanced at the counter. “Can you grab me a bottle of Coke and a muffin, if you’ve got it?”

“We have Cranberry Pineapple, Blueberry Raisin, Banana Cinnamon, Chocolate Caramel and Oatmeal.”

WTF? Was that five muffins, nine muffins or one? “Uh — Oatmeal. Thanks.” As he moved away, I cringed. Oatmeal always made me think of construction paste.

So what was I…?

Map.

I turned back to the map, and the last remaining neurons still firing with memories of what I had seen on the boardroom windows managed to give me a final snapshot. Six or seven buildings, lower east side, all of them hashmarked.

I drilled down in the satellite images, until I began to spot familiar intersections and street grids. Shuter. Sumach. South Regent Park.

OK. I sagged back in my chair.

Why the hell would they have any interest in Regent Park?

To say that Regent Park was an unsuccessful social housing experiment was an understatement. Built in the 1940s, the Regent Park projects rose from the ashes of Cabbagetown, then one of the worst slums in Canada. Apparently, once a slum, always a slum, as the area was still home to a very low income population. Some say as many as 75 % are below the poverty line, many recent immigrants. For years, it was known as a violent, crime ridden community where drugs and prostitution reigned.

In recent years, there had been signs of improvement, but Regent Park was still not high on my list of places to visit after dark. Keep in mind, I’m a big guy who can protect himself, all recent evidence to the contrary. On the other hand, I’m a Canadian. So it’s a rough place, but it ain’t Beirut. Or Detroit. But it was still not a nice place to walk at night.

Which begs the question. Why on earth would Ruscan Industries be interested in that area?

The first thing that came to mind was revitalization. Torontonians loved revitalization projects. You’d think there had been a city in this area for thousands of years, based on the number of times that neighborhoods were designated for “revitalization”. Current favorites were the Distillery District and the Waterfront Lands, both just to the South. And Regent Park was perpetually on the list. Was Ruscan looking to get in on the game?

I spent twenty minutes scanning the web and looking at satellite maps while mawing down a dry oatmeal brick. Finally, with a handful of printed maps in my hand, all marked with my scrawled notes, I headed back out to the van.

Then I made a few phone calls.

Started with my mother. Ted was continuing to improve, and Clay was awake and reading. Then to Amy.

“Your guys had any luck in checking out Niki’s tracks?”

“Not yet, but the guy moves all over town. Ten minutes here, ten minutes there. Thousands in tickets. We’d impound the thing, but we want to see if we can catch him on something worthwhile first.”

“Any chance he’s been visiting Cabbagetown, or say Regent Park?”

Amy’s silence told me two things — yes, and I was pushing it.

“See, I think I might be able to dig up something on our boy if it turns out he has.”

“Donnie, you’re going to get yourself in deep shit here.”

“No kidding. Problem is, I think I’m already in deep shit. I’m trying to dig my way out.”

More silence. I had a way of rendering women speechless.

“C’mon, babe. I swear I’ll be careful.”

And for once, the sweet-talking worked.

Niki had been sighted entering two buildings in the area I had in mind, and it turned out both were marked with Xs on my printed maps. Ruscan buildings.

Was he doing some sort of security walk around, or something more than that?

I decided I would check in on Ted in person, then maybe spend the night fending off crack whores in Regent Park.

Thankfully, it was dark. I would have stood out like a sore thumb in the daylight. As it was, I just looked like any other mugging victim wandering the streets of Regent Park at ten to midnight.

What the hell was I thinking?

I was seated on a birdshit-covered bench in front of the van, which was parked illegally in a visitor parking space for one of the project apartments. I had managed to avoid the scrutiny of any passers-by, so far, because I was tucked in under an overhanging maple and behind the van. But the spot gave me a good view of the warehouse across the way, despite the lack of street lights out front.

So I sat quietly, flinching at every sound that suggested the snick of a knife.

My mind was a twisting dervish, worries about Ted and Clay, anger at Legenko and Kuzmenko, confusion about Amy and Kara, a deep concern that I might end up destroying Clay’s business, and the list went on. There were so many permutations and combinations that I felt I couldn’t anticipate any of them. The result was that I was itching to do something, to act. To somehow deal with this feeling of helplessness that had overcome me.

As it was, I didn’t have to wait all that long. Not more than twenty minutes after I sat down, I spotted activity. A dread-locked white dude on a mountain bike rolled up, keyed open the side door, and entered the building, bike and all. I could see faint light inside, suggesting one or more rooms in the back of the building were alight. Shortly after him, two more guys arrived in an old Nissan — boxy frame and rusted wheel wells. More lights were on now, and I could see from the faint changes in lighting that they were moving around inside. But there were no sounds that I could hear.

I glanced around, then jogged across the street. A quick walk-around earlier had confirmed that there were windows on the north wall that had been boarded up, so I had tugged two out of position to give me a view.

When I rounded the corner, the boards were still where I had left them, lying right below the window. I could see light shining from the window, much brighter than out the front.

Edging to the opening, I stared at the wall opposite to see if the light changed. Nothing to suggest anyone was near the window itself.

So I took a chance and peeked.

Before, despite having pulled the boards down, I had not been able to see a thing. Already late at night, no lights on inside and not even a hint of moonlight, I was blind. God forbid I might have a flashlight in the van.

Now though, I could see the space beyond. The building appeared to be divided into four large rooms, each with several lines of manufacturing equipment collecting dust. The boys were set up in the northeast corner of the room closest to me, about half of which I could see from my vantage point. That corner appeared to have been some sort of inspection space — there were four tables with stools in front of them, and in front of each stool was a magnifying glass mounted on a strange box-like device. Looked to me like each worker would take a finished product, mount it under the magnifying glass, and examine it for flaws.

These guys seemed uninterested in the original purpose of the space. They had swept aside the equipment and replaced it with what appeared to be a chemistry lab from high school. Plastic bottles, lab flasks, glass bottles, buckets, plastic feed hoses, two funnels. It reminded me of a still I had once seen in a friend’s basement, but giant-size. One other major difference was that all of them were wearing protective respirators. This was not Bill Nye the Science Guy.

All three were hard at work, measuring ingredients, mixing, or in one case heating some sort of concoction over a Bunsen burner.

Sort of strange conduct for an abandoned warehouse at one in the morning. Maybe they were making the mix for Banana Cranberry muffins.

I fiddled with my phone, hoping desperately that it wouldn’t suddenly emit some random beep that would shatter the silence.

So far so good. Put it in camera mode, zoomed in to the max, adjusted as best I could for lighting. One, two, three, four pictures. I ran back through them quickly. Yup — the lab and faces of two of the three men were clearly visible. Gotta love technology.

Tucking the phone back in my pant pocket, I was just getting ready to return to the van when I heard a voice call out, way louder than the whispers these men had been using until now.

All of them turned to the door, nodded briefly, then returned to their work. Then, from the edge of my field of vision, Niki appeared. He was wearing a toque, the edge of a bandage sticking out where I had smacked him with the bat. His face was covered with bruises, and he was limping badly.

I hunched back further, trying to keep my big noggin out of sight while still watching what was going on.

Niki clumped over to the last table, where several plastic bags rested. He opened the nearest one, licked a finger, stuck it in and stirred it around. Put the finger to his mouth, licked it clean then sagged onto a nearby stool.

“Good stuff, eh?” That was dreadlock boy, speaking with a Slavic accent. Incongruous, to say the least. It was like a Yakuza gangster speaking in Spanish.

“Dah.” Niki’s eyes were closed, and he went quiet.

I slid the phone out of my pocket one more time, and managed to squeeze out two good shots of Niki in profile, sampling the wares.

Time to call in the cavalry.

I moved back ten yards, keeping the four of them in sight, then punched out a text message to Amy.

Babe — Chk ths out. My frnd Niki wrkng a drg lb. 1710 Greylawn. Gd time fr a bst? SMEM ASAP. D

I read it through quickly and said a prayer that my textspeak was intelligible. SMEM I knew — send me an e-mail. The rest was just English minus the vowels. Nglsh. My biggest issue was the goddamned mini keyboard on my phone. I spent half of my time trying not to press three buttons at once. I attached the six photos, and hit send.

If I didn’t hear from her in five minutes, I would need to fall back to the van and call her. But I prayed that wouldn’t be the case. I didn’t want to take my eye off Mr. Kuzmenko.

As it turned out, Amy must be the lightest sleeper on the planet. Either that, or she had her phone on top volume. Not more than four minutes later I got her reply.

D: WTF? R u nuts? Units on way — shd arrve n 5 mins max. GET OUT! A

I couldn’t decide if she was pissed at me, or worried. Figuring if it was the former I was up the creek anyways, I took the optimistic view. Glanced to make sure my four pharmaceutical friends had not gone anywhere, then texted her a quick one back.

ABT2 go. GL D

All the shit I was dumping on her could prove to be fantastic for her career, or it could bring a premature end to it. Figured wishing her good luck was a wise idea. She was back to me in seconds.

D DLTM. GET OUT NOW. A

Lie to her? I wasn’t lying to her. I was leaving! Talk about not having any faith in a guy…

TM SYS D

Trust me. See you soon.

And I did leave. I debated staying until the cops arrived on site, just in case Niki decided to take a flyer, but the reality was I had already been way lucky. No point asking for it. So I headed home.

Despite the hour, and the exhaustion that settled in as I looked back on the day, I was still awake when Amy called two hours later.

“We’ve got him!”

“Thank God.”

“All four of them, busted. If anything, I think he was relieved. What happened to him, anyway?”

“Were you there?”

“Of course! You think I’m going to let everyone else take the glory? No way.”

That was disturbing. Up until now, I had assumed Amy would be safe, funneling tips to the various resources in the department. But to know she was out there with the wackos…

I felt like I should have stayed.

“It’s my job, Donnie. I catch bad guys.”

“I know. I just didn’t think it through.” In other words, I didn’t consider that by opening my big mouth, I was putting her in the line of fire.

“Well don’t worry about it. I carry a gun, I’m a black belt in karate, and we go in as a team. You’re more likely to get hurt than I am.”

“Thanks.”

“Oh, am I threatening your macho worldview?”

“As a matter of fact, yes you are.” And she was. “But I’ll get over it.”

“Good. Cause this is a great day. The whole Drug Squad’s in there right now, ripping the place apart. It’s the first Rev lab we’ve ever seen.”

“You getting pushed on your source?”

“Not yet. That’ll happen later. Right now they’re all happier than pigs in shit. But I’ve got to believe they’ll grill me over the next few days, might even catch IA’s interest.”

“Listen, if you have to give me up-.”

“I’m not saying a thing. I’m not an idiot, Donnie. I know you’re not telling me stuff. But you’re on the right side, which is what matters to me. They’ll press, but when push comes to shove they’ll back off. This is a clean bust. The lab was visible from the next lot.”

“And Niki?”

“He’s facing long time for sure. Not sure whether he’ll be out on the street — they may give him bail again. He’s got one of the best lawyers in town. But eventually, he’s going away.”

“Great. Listen, one other thing.”

“OK.”

“You should look into who owns the building. I suspect you may find the owner is linked into Legenko, or Ruscan.”

“We’re already on it. I don’t think we’ll get all the way to Ruscan, but it sounds like we may have something on Legenko there.”

“Listen, I’ve got to get some sleep. Call me if anything weird comes up.”

“Will do. Sweet dreams. And thanks, Donnie.”

“My pleasure, babe.”

Two days later, the headline of the Daily Times was a beauty.

POLICE BUST REV LAB IN MOSS PARK

Late Tuesday night, Toronto police uncovered an illicit drug operation in a Moss Park warehouse on Greylawn Street, sealing off the area bounded by Shuter Street, Queen Street East, Sackville Street and River Street. Responding to an anonymous tip, officers swarmed a former publishing house on Greylawn just after two o’clock AM, and discovered a sophisticated drug operation.

Similar to methamphetamine labs uncovered in the Metro area, a potentially toxic and explosive combination of chemicals led police to immediately vacate the premises. A hazardous materials team called in to assist with the initial site assessment were still removing drums of chemicals, refrigerators, chemical laboratory instruments and huge quantities of Rev and ecstasy from the site by mid-afternoon. Neighboring buildings were cleared of their occupants, and local residents have been evacuated pending completion of the clean up.

“This lab posed a substantial risk to local residents” said Staff Inspector Earl Chamberlain, head of the Toronto drug squad. “We have called in the provincial police crime lab, firefighters, RCMP and Health Canada experts to assist with the investigation and clean up of the site, and ask that area residents remain patient as we sort this mess out.” Sources indicate that the police have also contracted with Greencor Environmental Rehabilitation, a subsidiary of Toronto-based Sun Consulting, to assist with the recovery of the site.

Four men present in the building faces multiple charges including possession with intent of trafficking, and conspiracy to commit an indictable offence. Oleg Sidorov, 35, of Toronto, Arkady Sidorov, 32, of Windsor, Nikolay Kuzmenko, 41, of Toronto, and Gabriel Brunet, 57, of Montreal, Que., are to appear in court today.

“We haven’t seen any evidence of Rev distribution outside of Metro Toronto,” said Staff Insp. Chamberlain. “However, if this entire cache was intended for our streets, we would have seen an epidemic.”

He said detectives are looking into links with organized crime, including the Russian mafia. “This was a sophisticated criminal endeavor.”

CHAPTER 30

Remarkably, the next few days were quiet. We had finally managed to clear the backlog at the office, and Jim, Harold, Jamar and I had settled into a daily routine. Clay was back home again, under Harper’s watchful eye. Unfortunately Ted was home too, though he was taking some time to recuperate. Couldn’t hurt that the first night he was home three girls from Hidden Pleasures came by to check on him.

With everything seeming under control, I decided to deal with some unfinished business.

I arrived at Bindings before they opened. Knocked on the glass and gave my best smile for the blond receptionist.

“Good morning.”

“Hi.” A lackluster, pre-coffee, first thing in the morning greeting. I knew how she felt.

“I’ll get that, Mary. Please finish up the dusting.” The good doctor was unaffected by the glare she directed at him, even turning to admire her curvy butt as she walked away.

“Remarkable about that coat the other day.” He took the clipboard from me and signed next to my finger. “Hadn’t thought of it for years.”

He finished signing but held onto the clipboard.

“You ever find out who sent it?”

I stared at him. Ballsy son of a bitch. I had a feeling he knew exactly who sent it. Knew from the moment his new girlfriend turned it away. Never said a word to us.

“We looked into it. Nothing to worry yourself about.”

He waited for me to say something more. I placed the package on the reception desk, letting the silence stretch.

“How’s business?”

“Oh,” now he handed me the clipboard. “It’s okay. Always has been a tough business, from the very start.”

Right. Another Omega on his wrist — this one different from the one he had worn last time. Initials on the cuff of his custom shirt. And on my way in I spotted his car, parked at the end of the alley — a metallic beige BMW 760Li. More than a hundred grand tied up in a car that to my uncultured eye looked like any other sedan. Tough business, my ass.

“Sorry to hear that. Listen, our Accounts people were telling me that your bills are running quite late. Would you be able to bring them into good standing in the next week or two?”

That got his back up. His chin raised ten degrees, head tilted back in order to emphasize the sense he was looking down his nose at me in disdain. A bit goofy, considering I was five inches taller than him. I ended up with a terrific view of his nostrils, though. Trimmed regularly, from all appearances.

He sputtered.

“Haven’t I just told you how difficult things are for us?” That elicited a snort from his receptionist, who quickly turned her attention to a cabinet she had already polished. Twice. “We’re barely able to pay the rent on this store! I’m afraid I can’t pay you any earlier. It would be devastating to our cash flow.”

Three grand. I had asked John Vranic to confirm the balance owing by Bindings a few days ago. That was when he told me they averaged one hundred and fifty-eight days on payments. Six months, to pay an average bill of five hundred and fifty dollars a month. It was never going to be enough money that I would lose sleep over it. It was the principle of the matter. That, and the guy pissed me off.

“Maybe you could put off one of your other suppliers? Maybe your tailor?”

She snorted again, and this time made no effort to hide it. Instead she marched to the back of the room, hands to her face and her back convulsing in silent laughter.

“Is this a joke for you? Our financial situation?”

Nervy bastard, I would give him that. Apparently he was determined to play this gambit to the hilt.

“Listen, no offence intended. But we’re running a business too.”

I stared him down, but he seemed determined not to let it go. I guess he was used to bullying people into getting his own way, just didn’t realize I didn’t take kindly to bullies.

“Well I can’t imagine how your superior will respond when he hears how you’ve treated us. Clay Jarvis would never do such a thing.”

“Nice try. Clay said I should just move the account to a collection agency.”

“What? Then it sounds as though we will no longer be doing business. I will not have anyone treat me this way.”

What way? Requesting payment for services rendered?

“Fair enough. We’ll send you a closing statement. I hope business improves for you.”

I turned and walked out, ignoring the smug look on his face. I had mentioned Galt to Clay the night before, in one of our update calls. Without any prompting at all Clay had said Galt was one of those clients we might be better off without — small account, high maintenance, slow payer. I got the feeling he would have liked to see me put the good doctor in his place.

I was running up so much phone time with Amy I was thinking she could run a 1-800 service, maybe 1-800-SEXYCOP. She’d be retired in three years.

She’d been calling me twice a day with updates on the bust and Niki’s trip through the justice system, and I was eating it up. It was like my own episode of Law and Order, delivered by a sexy narrator.

“The lab guys are just drooling over this stuff. They didn’t have enough samples to figure out the chemical makeup of Rev before, and now they’re handed a full lab. Turns out it’s fairly close to meth — ammonia, lye, lithium, battery acid. All nasty shit. Even some weird plant,” I could hear the sound of pages turning, “get this — black fringed bloodroot. It’s a rare poppy, native to just a few areas of Northern Ontario and Quebec. Sounds like something one of your customers would come up with.”

Yes it did, which is why I had pulled a pad of paper in front of me and written the words black fringed bloodroot in capital letters, then drawn a frame around the words. Could be worthwhile checking into that one.

“So you think the bust’ll keep some of this crap off the street?”

“Oh yeah. Rev sells for twenty, maybe twenty-five bucks a point. We figure there was half a million dollars of finished product, maybe three times that much in production. And that assumes they were delivering pure product. You could cut this shit by as much as fifty percent and still sell it for full value.”

“One other thing — the paper trail is looking real promising. Seems like Mr. Legenko didn’t insulate himself near enough. The Taskforce is leaning on him big-time, threatening to expand the charges and go international with the investigation if he doesn’t cop to a plea.”

“What about Niki?”

“Kuzmenko lawyered up pretty quickly. Some hotshot from downtown. Somehow, he managed to convince the Bail Court that Kuzmenko wasn’t a threat. He’s out on bail already.”

Great. Ah well, I just had to stay out of his way for a short while.

CHAPTER 31

Tuesday of the week following the big bust, I woke to find Ted plowing back a massive bowl of Fruit Loops, engrossed in the front section of the Daily Times.

“Hey. Take a look at this.”

I glanced over his shoulder, then leaned forward when I saw the headline.

RUSCAN INDUSTRIES’ EXEC GUILTY OF FRAUD

Toronto

— CEO Maxim Legenko was lead away in handcuffs yesterday after pleading guilty to eight counts of fraud, money-laundering, tax evasion and obstruction of justice arising from his activities at Toronto-based real estate developer Ruscan Industries.

Legenko’s wife Elena, founder of Ruscan, watched on stoically as her husband was led away to begin his jail sentence.

Prosecutors have confirmed that Legenko was the mastermind behind the embezzlement of tens of millions of dollars from Ruscan subsidiaries through payments to offshore holding companies. He also bribed foreign dignitaries in connection with the apparent transport of illegal substances across borders in Asia and Europe, though details of these shipments remain unclear.

It was widely assumed that the prosecution’s case against Legenko was irreparably damaged nearly three weeks ago, when Andrew Simpson-Doig, former Chief Financial Officer of Ruscan Industries subsidiary Timber Circle LC, was found dead. Simpson-Doig’s death was ruled a suicide by the Toronto coroner’s office. However, rumors persist that his death was a hit sponsored by Legenko.

Under the terms of the plea agreement, Mr. Legenko faces up to fifteen years of imprisonment and a maximum fine of $650,000.

“This case was a brazen example of the manner in which certain corporate executives view company assets as their own” said Crown Prosecutor Barbara Moodie. “This prosecution and the resulting plea serve as notice of our intent to weed out corruption in Canadian companies.”

Little Maxi was going to jail. That was great news. Made me think the whole mess might go away for good.

How wrong I was.

CHAPTER 32

Two weeks later, I found my patience being tested in an entirely different arena.

Fact is, I’m a tolerant driver. Ted is your classic road rage meathead, but I don’t let the frustrations of driving get to me. Not sure I could have worked at Arcane if I did. However, there are some days when you just want to slam on the breaks, jump out of the van, and smash every window on that bubblegum blue Ford Focus, the one with the asexual plump and curly haired driver who was pointing his or her finger at me, demanding to be let into the lane I was occupying despite the fact that I had seen him (or her) race down the unoccupied merging lane to gain as much headway as possible before having to join the rest of us drones. License plate AAVW 774, if you should happen to care.

I had stupidly allowed myself to get trapped on the QEW, just past Park Lawn. Rather than cut off and work my way through smaller feeders into the Core, I had been suckered into going for it — trying to take the whole plate of nachos in one go. Which left me in one of four lanes heading East, bumper to bumper as far as the eye could see, and some shemale trying to gain a twenty foot advantage (sixteen feet and nine inches, to be exact) by sliding in front of the van.

Over my dead body.

I stayed the course, never allowing more than three inches between the front of the van and the back bumper of the Subaru hatchback in front of me. Didn’t seem to be helping the stress level of the driver in front of me, who was clutching her steering wheel so tight her hands were shaking from the strain. I’m sure it also didn’t help that every few seconds a plastic toy projectile was hurled from one of the two baby seats in the back of her car, just clearing her head rest and thumping off the back of her skull with enough force to make her question whether it could be considered infanticide if you were to stuff six bath toys into a three year old’s gaping mouth.

But by God, I was not giving up the fight.

Terry, or Pat, or Morgan, Jamie, Taylor or whatever Gender Neutral Person called itself, was now beginning to realize the quandary he or she was in. Closing fast on the right side was a three and a half foot high concrete barrier which already bore battle scars from a tussle with one or more front quarter panels. Based on the lack of any damage to the barrier, it appeared to me that Mr. Barrier tended to win such battles. The Focus was now inching along in a space no more than six inches wider than the vehicle, three to a side, with one side narrowing ever so gradually with every foot of forward movement.

Curly was near apoplectic now, finger stabbing out the window and prodding the side of the van. But finally, the Focus stopped.

I pulled forward, foot by foot, and when my back bumper cleared the front bumper of the Focus, it pulled into a space kindly provided by the elderly couple in the Oldsmobile behind me. So for the next forty minutes, I was able to enjoy the sight of the sexless wonder shrieking and miming various anatomically impossible acts. All in my rearview mirror.

It was at the end of this saga, as I exited the Gardiner at Lakeshore, that my cellphone rang. I bulled my way across two lanes and pulled into the front drive of one of the waterfront condos, hoping my reception would stay clear. Whenever possible, I pulled over for calls, even with my wireless earpiece. I couldn’t face Clay if I ever got into an accident while on the phone.

“Arcane Transport.”

“Donnie? It’s Kara.”

“Hey.”

“A call just came in for you, from Elena Legenko.”

Interesting. Or should I be worried? Maybe worried was the more appropriate state.

“Did she say what she wanted?”

“No. Just asked that you call her back.”

I debated for a moment. What was better? Call her back now, or make her wait? Part of me wanted to put it off as long as possible, maybe even the next day. But as usual, my curiosity got the better of me.

“You have her number handy?”

I spent two minutes waiting for her assistant, only to have to wait another three minutes waiting for Elena herself to take the phone.

“Mr. Elder?”

“Mrs. Legenko.”

“I will get to the point. I would like to meet you in person. Today, if possible.”

Hm. My worry meter was moving rapidly to red.

“Can I ask why?”

“I would prefer to discuss it in person. Would you be available to meet me in my office at seven o’clock this evening?”

Her office. No way was I going to meet her in her office. I had no doubt that if she wanted to, I could be killed on the premises, sliced, diced, and put out with the organic waste green bins without a soul finding out. I needed neutral ground. Somewhere I could get to easily.

“How about we meet at Queen and Bay, instead?”

“Downtown?”

“Yeah. By the fountain.”

“You do not want to meet in my office?”

“No.”

“You do not need to be afraid, Mr. Elder.”

“Neither do you. But I prefer City Hall.”

“City Hall it is. I will see you this evening at seven o’clock.”

The line went dead, and once again I was left wondering what the hell I had gotten myself into.

As I completed my rounds downtown, I was on my cell. First with Clay, to let him know of the planned meeting. He made it clear that, doctor’s instructions or not, he was going to be there. So my next call was to Sol Irving, who once again came through, agreeing to pick up Clay from his home and accompany him downtown.

Next to Kara, to let her know I would not be returning to the office that evening, though I hoped to be able to return the following day. Fortunately Jamar and Harold were on, and she was able to divvy up the rest of the dailies.

I had just hung up on Kara when my mother called. Despite caller ID, I answered the phone. Clay had told Harper, who had called my mother. She in turn had called Ted. I could expect him at six o’clock, at Union Station.

I wasn’t thrilled with that, the memory of Ted in the hospital still fresh in my mind. But she insisted he be there, to observe at a distance at least. Last call was to Ted, who was mystified by the whole damned thing but would do as he was told.

I met Ted at Union just after six, as he disembarked the 5:30 from Port Credit. He had a camera bag under his arm.

“Good idea.”

“Wasn’t sure, but I figured you might want a video, just in case.”

“Can’t hurt. You have your Epi-Pen?” They had prescribed an Epi-Pen for Ted’s anaphylaxis, just in case. If his breathing became labored, he could self-inject epinephrine, at least give himself a fighting chance. The doctors thought it was for a vicious peanut allergy, but what the hell. They would have wondered if they ever saw Ted vacuum a bag of beernuts, though.

“Yup. And I’m loaded with antihistamines. So. What’s the plan?”

The plan was pretty simple. Ted would capture the meeting from a bench on the West side of the fountains, by the Courthouse. Clay and Sol would be seated alongside the fountain itself. I would wait for Elena in the middle of the courtyard. Out in the open, with lots of people around. I was hoping that would discourage her from trying to blast me into dust molecules.

I left Clay and Sol by the fountain and took up a position in the courtyard at five minutes before seven. Not thirty seconds later, a stretch limousine pulled up on Queen Street, on the other side of the fountain from where I was standing. The driver worked his way around to the curbside passenger door, and opened it.

First out was a man I had never seen in my life.

Asian. Dark hair parted on one side and cut short. Strong cheekbones. Plain white short-sleeve shirt. Aside from the color of his skin, he looked like a 1950s American business man. He stood for a moment, puffing on a cigarette, the blue smoke curling about him.

After a quick glance about, he offered a hand to the next passenger, who turned out to be Elena Legenko herself.

This time she was dressed more conservatively. Likely realized my choice of meeting spot was out in the open, an easy place for someone to recognize her if she strolled out in stilettos and a thigh-slit dress.

The driver shut the door behind Elena and returned to his post at the wheel.

Elena and her companion, meanwhile, were looking about the fountain area, searching for me. I held a hand up to catch their attention, but made no effort to move. I wanted them out in the open, not five feet from a car door they could disappear me into.

Their stroll around the fountain to my side was leisurely, and I took a moment to glance around. Ted was set up. Clay and Sol had fortuitously settled opposite the side that Elena and her companion were now rounding. The limo remained parked. I saw no one else paying us much attention. A few tourists with cameras, trying to get a shot of the fountain. Couple school kids. Business-folk crossing this way and that.

“Mr. Elder. We meet again.”

“It’s getting to be a bit of a habit.”

“Yes, it seems so. I trust you have been reading the newspapers?”

“I see your hubby is going to be spending some time behind bars. A real shame.”

“You are either very stupid, or very sure of yourself, Mr. Elder.”

“Well brave I ain’t. So, is there a purpose to all this, or are you just here to hit on me?”

“Oh, there is a purpose.” She turned and raised her hand in the air, snapping her fingers as though calling a cab. Behind her I could see the limo door open again.

“More friends?”

“A mutual acquaintance, let us say.”

So it was. The driver opened the passenger door, and with some effort assisted Niki Kuzmenko out of the vehicle.

From where I stood, a good thirty yards away, I could tell that it was Niki. I could also tell that he wasn’t faring so well.

He was hunched over, one arm in a makeshift sling. From the way he was walking, I figured he had done some serious damage to his left knee. The cut on his forehead was still stitched shut, but it was a black and purple mess, and there were several other bruises on his face that I was fairly certain I had not caused.

The driver helped Niki limp down the same path Elena and her companion had followed. But instead of approaching us, he led Niki to the fountain and sat him down on the edge. He then returned to his vehicle, leaving Niki seated and swaying slightly, watery eyes focused on the three of us.

“You recall Mr. Kuzmenko, I trust.”

I ignored her, trying to figure out what the hell was going on.

“You mentioned my husband when we spoke on the phone, Mr. Elder. As much as he has proven to be a very stupid man, he is loyal. Nikolay, however, has proven to be both stupid and disloyal.”

“At first I was angry at you, Mr. Elder. Very angry. I believe it is safe to assume that your actions led to Nikolay’s arrest, and ensured that Maxim would spend time in your jails. I am also being denied access to the Greylawn property, which upsets me greatly. Yes, Mr. Elder, you have proven to be a terrible nuisance.”

I smirked at that. Couldn’t help it. She was sucking up to me.

“But then I realized that if it were not for Maxim and Nikolay, I would not have had to suffer your insolence. Their decision to steal from you was ill-advised, at best. A decision made without my knowledge or approval, by the way.”

“How about the decision to kill the witnesses. Was that a big problem for you?”

“Also a decision made without my knowledge. My husband continues to believe the ways of our mother country are best. Unfortunately, that has not always proven to be the case. But he will be paying the price for his mistakes, and he will keep his mouth shut. Mr. Kuzmenko is another matter. This tape of yours — that was sheer stupidity on his part. That alone I might have forgiven, though it forced my Maxim to accept a plea. His decision to sell drugs, however, was a different matter.”

“Sell drugs? Or sell them for his own account?”

That pissed her off. She pursed her lips, then continued.

“I believe Mr. Kuzmenko must be punished for his disloyalty. Certainly that is something we could address on our own. But I felt it best that you be present — consider it my way of apologizing for the inconveniences we have caused for you.”

Sure. An apology. And a threat. But if she thought one of them could set Kuzmenko on fire or blast him with energy without consequences, she was wrong. I resisted checking on Ted to make sure he was getting all of this on tape.

“Mr. Rath?”

The Asian nodded, and began walking towards Kuzmenko.

“You’re not planning anything stupid, I hope. There are a whole lot of witnesses here.”

“Witnesses?” She laughed. “They are hollow automatons. Tell me, which of these people has spent more than five minutes in the past year considering their purpose on this planet? Or contemplating how they might change the world? None of them.”

Hey. If you’re going to pose a question, you could have the courtesy to allow me to answer.

“They are drones. Concerned with the past two hours and the next five minutes. How do I pay the bills, where will little Johnny go to school, does my boss like me. Faced with the remarkable, or the terrible, they cannot compute. That is why a woman can be raped and murdered in broad daylight, or a politician can lie outright, and no one is punished. Do not kid yourself, Mr. Elder. Those who even turn to watch will convince themselves that all is not as it seems. Or that someone else will do something. And by the time they get home, the events that pass here will have been tucked into a deep corner of their minds, in order that they can focus their attention on what to wear to that party on Friday. They don’t want to know anything that would threaten the numb comfort of the lives they have built themselves.”

It was a scary thought, and the sad part was that I thought she was right. But that was why we were there. To do something about these people.

I watched as Rath approached Niki. The big Russian sat still, seemingly too beat up and tired to move.

Rath stopped in front and to the side of Kuzmenko, glancing down at the big man for just a moment before looking out over the fountain and several children wading in the clear pool. He reached out, placing his hand to Niki’s forehead, like a father checking a child for fever. His other hand flicked ash from his cigarette onto the concrete, then returned it to his lips.

For a moment, Niki remained slumped over, unresponsive. Then his head lifted, eyes filled with fear and confusion.

“Remarkable, isn’t it? Man fears nothing as much as pain. Yet pain itself is ephemeral. Pain alone leaves no marks. Is my pain greater or less than yours? Did her childbirth leave deeper psychological scars than his heart attack?”

I watched as Niki’s back arched, his chest heaving to gain air.

“What the hell…” I began to move towards Rath. No matter how much I hated that idiot Niki, this was wrong.

I was still ten feet away when the air changed. If you have ever been in an open field during a lightning storm, you will know the feeling. Edgy, metallic. Niki’s body quaked, and his mouth opened wide in a silent scream.

Then he slumped over, tipping until he fell face first to the pavement. I ran to his side to check his pulse, but I knew there was no point. The Russian was dead.

“Mother…”

I stood and drew my hand back for a punch. But I didn’t throw one. There was no point. Niki was dead. Which might very well have been a good thing, depending on how you looked at the world. I was pretty sure Rath couldn’t hurt me, but the margin for error on that assessment was razor thin. He watched me through the swirl of blue smoke off his cigarette, impassive. Elena strode over to join him.

“We will part ways now, Mr. Elder. It is my sincere hope our paths never cross again.”

As I stood there, not four feet from Niki’s cooling body, Rath moved to her side and they began strolling back to the limo. She stopped, turned, and in a stage whisper called out:

“Oh. Please say hello to your colleagues for me.” With that she cast a wave at Clay and Sol, then Ted, and walked away.

CHAPTER 33

My hope was that we would have video evidence of Elena’s involvement in Niki’s death. Unfortunately, that hope proved unfounded. Moments later, Clay, Sol and I watched as Ted ran us through the video — a perfect recording of Niki taking a seat by the fountain with the assistance of a limo driver, then a minute later arching his back in pain, crying out, and falling dead to the concrete. Despite viewing the tape several times, the three of us huddled around the small camera in the middle of Nathan Phillips Square, we saw no sign of Mr. Rath. It was as though he had never been there.

By the time we tore our eyes away from the small LCD screen, Niki was no longer there either. All that remained of the incident were a few clumps of ash from Rath’s cigarette, already drifting away in the soft breeze.

The next day, the following article appeared on page A13 of the Daily Times:

LEGENKO ASSOCIATE FOUND DEAD

Nikolay Kuzmenko, aged 41, was found dead of unknown causes in a Bay Street condominium early Saturday morning, the police reported yesterday. Mr. Kuzmenko was rumored to be an associate of Maxim Legenko, the former CEO of Ruscan Investments, who pled guilty earlier this week to charges of fraud and money laundering.

A police spokesperson, Sgt. Neil Cooper, said a neighbor called 911 at about 7:30 A.M. Saturday after finding the body of Mr. Kuzmenko in the living room of his open seventh floor unit. Kuzmenko resided at the Century Club Towers, a condominium complex at 1057 Bay Street, just south of Charles Street West.

Kuzmenko, who Sgt. Cooper referred to as “known to police”, served three years in prison for trafficking and assault, and was released from Joyceville Institution in 2004. He was charged two weeks ago with possession with intent of trafficking and conspiracy to commit an indictable offence, in connection with the raid of a Rev lab in an industrial warehouse on Greylawn Street last week, the first raid of its kind in Canada. Rev began appearing in Toronto clubs and raves late last year.

Detectives would not comment on any possible connection between Mr. Legenko and the Rev operation.

CHAPTER 34

It was August 6th, and I had been with Arcane Transport for exactly three months. It felt like I should be getting a gold watch.

My first ninety days had been hectic, to say the least. But I was starting to feel comfortable at last. Jim, Harold and Jamar were handling the majority of deliveries now that things had calmed down, giving me a chance to do some meet-and-greets with those customers I had not met face-to-face. Our days were a little less crazy, and I hadn’t heard from the Legenkos or their colleagues in over a month.

Maxim Legenko had been transferred to Collins Bay in Kingston, and was apparently adjusting well to prison life. I wished him a long and pleasant stay.

Niki Kuzmenko was cremated, and a memorial placed in his name at York Cemetery in North York. I visited the site two weeks ago, to satisfy some strange need for closure. Someone had spray-painted his monument with a single word. Traitor.

At long last, Amy and I had our dinner, a great evening of prime rib and red wine at La Castile, a goony castle-like steakhouse on the Dundas strip west of the city. As to what happened afterwards — I don’t kiss and tell. But we’ve been seeing one another regularly since.

As for me, I was settling in. I had found some time to read up on Arcane, its customers, and their fascinating beliefs. I found a copy of Clay’s original business plan for the company, prepared in 1974, white-out still marking where he had made revisions. I also had a chance to start reading through Charlie Carter’s History of Occultism in Toronto, which was proving to be a real eye-opener. Of particular interest to me was a paragraph on page 64, suggesting that my parents had run a herbal pharmacy in Toronto, from 1974 to 1983. That was a fact that my mother had never mentioned in my thirty-four years on the planet. It also helped explain why Elder Herbals appeared in the list of potential customers identified in Clay’s business plan, though it raised a whole host of questions I would need to explore when I had the energy.

As for Jamar, Kara and Ted? Jamar was back with his girlfriend, and his dad had chickened out on the flight to Kiev. Kara and I had settled into a comfortable relationship as friends and colleagues, though at times I felt there might be more lurking beneath. Her boyfriend Chad seemed to think so too, so we’ll never be BFFs.

Ted? Well, he and two buddies had formed a hockey academy for kids, which was taking up the majority of his time. He still worked once and awhile at Hidden Pleasures, and was seeing a dancer with the unlikely name of Chastity.

With an hour left in the day, I was going through a file from John Vranic’s office when a voice came through on the intercom.

“Donnie? Call for you on line one.”

I pushed the payroll statements to the side, happy to do something other than review another page of numbers.

“Donnie Elder speaking.”

“This is Dr. Bernie Galt.”

Interesting. I wondered whether he was going to try to weasel his way out of the final balance he owed us. Our statement had gone out three weeks ago — $3,245.32 all in. He had been dodging Kara’s calls ever since.

“Bernie. How can I help you?”

“I am,” he paused as though wanting to start again. “I am calling to advise you that we will not be terminating your services after all.”

“I see.”

“Yes. I have considered the matter further, and determined that it would be best for Bindings if we continue to utilize your courier services. No doubt you will be happy to hear that you can continue to cite us as one of your higher-profile customers.”

“Mm hm.” So, his eyes must have popped out of his head when he saw how much it would cost him to ship via a regular courier service. Either that, or someone had balked at delivering to the Blooded Sisters of the Divine. Probably scared off by the chicken guts smeared on their front door.

“And in that regard, I have asked Ms. O’Sullivan to prepare a check today for my signature in payment of — of one-half of the outstanding balance we presently owe you. We will be getting that out to you this evening.”

“Hm.”

“It will of course cause us some short-term financial difficulty, but we will manage.”

I kept my mouth shut, not convinced I would be able to say anything without inserting a lengthy and colorful string of expletives that were unlikely to facilitate this supposedly renewed relationship. The result was a prolonged silence on the line, one underscored by Galt’s breathing, which I now realized was quite audible, even a little raspy.

“Alternatively, we could — yes — perhaps that’s what we will do. Mary? Please prepare the check in full payment of the account. Yes, it is only reasonable that we should make full payment of your account in light of your many years of good service. Full payment. We will have that off to you by end of day.”

Maybe I should try the silent treatment more often.

“I trust we can then proceed with business as usual?”

“Sure.”

“Good, good. We’ll have that check off to you shortly. Okay, then. Good bye.”

I set the phone down, shaking my head. It’s amazing how some people believe they can do whatever the hell they want and get away with it. I paused, considering that for a moment, then decided to tell Maggie and Kara the good news face-to-face.

The kitchen was oddly quiet at this time of day, but I could hear a host of voices out front. Must be a late afternoon drop off, or a few of the staff catching up.

I entered the Reception Area to find Kara, Harold and Jamar all gabbing with Harper, and with Clay, who looked like a new man.

“Donnie!”

“Clay! I didn’t know you were dropping in.”

“Oh, Harper and I thought we should pop in to say hello to the gang, make sure everyone remembered who I was.”

“Yeah, right.”

“So, what have you been up to?”

“Well,” I laughed. “I just got off the line with good old Bernie Galt at Bindings.”

Clay chuckled, and surprisingly both Harold and Jamar rolled their eyes. Seemed the not-so-good doctor had not made any friends.

“Trying to get out of that last bill?” I had walked Clay through the ups and downs of the Bindings relationships during our weekly calls. To say he was in favor of terminating the account was an understatement.

“Hah! That’s what I thought, too. Nope. Turns out our friend Dr. Galt would like to restore our relationship. He’s even prepared to pay us in full.”

“I’ll believe it when I see it.”

“Me too. But if it does come in…”

Faces fell. Boy, they sure didn’t like this guy.

“Relax. No deliveries until the check clears. But once we do have the check, I’m changing the rules. No cash, no delivery. Payment up-front.”

“Now we’re talking!” Harold clapped me on the shoulder, and Clay seemed delighted with my course of action.

“Well it sounds like you have everything in good order. Maybe this is a good time to tell them, then.” Clay was looking at Harper, but we were all looking at him. She smiled and nodded, and he turned back to face us.

“We’re going on a vacation. Four weeks. Hawaii. Leaving tomorrow.”

No kidding. Good for them. The group cheered.

I felt a bit of pride, hearing that. Clay trusted me enough to leave his baby with me for four weeks. Made me think the past three months had been worth every minute.

Three days later, we got our check from Galt. And two days after that, it cleared.

Content

John Mackie
Hazardous Goods

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 8

CHAPTER 9

CHAPTER 10

CHAPTER 11

CHAPTER 12

CHAPTER 13

CHAPTER 14

CHAPTER 15

CHAPTER 16

CHAPTER 17

CHAPTER 18

CHAPTER 19

CHAPTER 20

CHAPTER 21

CHAPTER 22

CHAPTER 23

CHAPTER 24

CHAPTER 25

CHAPTER 26

CHAPTER 27

CHAPTER 28

CHAPTER 29

CHAPTER 30

CHAPTER 31

CHAPTER 32

CHAPTER 33

CHAPTER 34