Let's Straighten Things Out - Part Sixteen

Previously on - Helen woke up and it was time for her and Laurent to have a little chat, but first she needed to dress and make sure he hadn’t done anything… untoward with his time while she was unconcious. Satisfied he’d been a good boy, she demanded he tell her everything about his involvement with Willy, no matter how hard to believe he thinks it will be for her.

"Try me."

I cleared my throat, thinking of how to phrase the more delicate truths. "Willy called me here from a very bad place to help him and protect you both. I wasn't able to do that for him, but I can still do that for you. He was supposed to tell me who he was in danger from, and I was supposed to take them out. Once that was done, I would go back to where I was."

"The bad place?"

"Yes. Going back was required, whether I succeeded or failed. Originally I was to go back by sunup this morning. I've been given an additional seventy-two hours and I've been told that I can stay if I can do what I was originally called here for."

"There's something you're not telling me."

"There's a lot I'm not telling you." The car began to slow. ""Alright, I'll tell you more. This is the part you will not believe. Your brother... summoned me here." The car sped up.

"Let me guess, you were in Hell."

"Yes."

Her teeth clicked together. "You're right. I don't believe you."

I shrugged. "Immaterial. A more powerful sorcerer says that if I can complete my mission as stated in the summoning, he can arrange it so I can stay. He also needs the text of the spell. Mr. Payne is getting that for me."

"So you're a demon."

It was evident that she still didn't believe me. "No. I've told you that I'm a faerie. And I know that you don't believe in either creature. Suffice it to say that I'm, as you said, on a tight deadline. We win and I get to stay free. We lose and I go back and that means you're probably dead."

She turned the car suddenly and on the next block nearly ran a red light. "I think that will lose them." She looked back in the rear view. "Yep. They were just a little too complacent."

"I promise you, I'll do anything in my power to see that you live."

"I don't blame you. If I were going back to Hell, I'd want to save me too."

"Whether it saves me or damns me, I will save you." The emotion clogged my throat and I managed to surprise myself again with the honesty in my voice.

"That's... kind of you." She glanced at me briefly. "I have a deluded stalker."

"That's the best kind. Probably the only kind."

The rest of the drive proved that we'd evaded our pursuers. She parked a block up from Willy's place. We got out and put the long guns in a bag she'd taken from her back seat. I had one pistol and she had the two others. Yellow police tape crossed the door. She produced a key and we entered the apartment.

"Willy was killed by blunt trauma. The coroner impressed the amount of sheer force delivered on me. His words, 'It looks like someone hit him in the throat with a maul.'"

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Even I was a bit shocked by the coroner being so blunt with her. "He wasn't looking to spare your feelings."

"He didn't know that Willy is my brother. The department thinks that he's my CI. That's cop talk for informant. A few people know the truth, very few. Hunter and Sparrow are two of those people. I think you're the fourth. Otherwise I wouldn't be on the case."

The apartment was just as messy, but I could tell it had been gone through to some degree. "You've seen this before."

"I was here this morning with the crime scene investigators. I hope you'll see something new."

"Does Willy have a computer or anything he keeps client information in?"

She went to a battered secretary. It was the only spot of order in the room. "Anything like that would be here."

"You have a look through that. See what his last few client meetings were about. I just want to have a look around." The spot where his body had lain was as clear to me as if he were still lying there. I looked more closely at the clippings on the wall. I paid more attention to the sort of ward he had placed, hoping that it would give me an indication of what he feared.

As I examined the house and the ward that Willy had placed, something clicked in my mind. I pulled the scrap of paper from my pocket. It was the one I had taken from Willy's body. It held my name. I brought it close to my nose and inhaled. The parchment it was written on was old. I touched it with my tongue. The ink was made of organic material.

"I have a question about your modern technology."

She looked up from the secretary. "Go ahead."

"Do you have the ability to transmit things physically across long distances?"

She laughed. Until she saw the look in my eyes. "No. We can fend facsimiles, but nothing original. If you want something sent physically you still have to use the mail or some other courier service."

I remembered the words that the bookseller had for me. He said that he didn't have the original. "How far is Colorado from here?"

She shrugged. "At least a thousand miles."

"How well do you know Mr. Payne?"

"He's a kook, like you and Willy, but he's a solid citizen. Why all the questions?"

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I held up the parchment. "He told me that he gave Willy the words to the spell that brought me here. That would have been enough. Instead I hold a page from the actual book the spell had been written in. Mr. Payne didn't realize that I had this. It tells me that he lied to me. No one who knew how valuable this was would send it via courier. Frankly I'm a bit shocked it was ripped from the original book but such things happen over time. He sold Willy this page."

I gestured at the things stapled to the walls and to the aluminum and then to the floor. "These wards were intended to hold me in place and to protect him. It would fool most amateurs. It fooled your brother into thinking that he'd be safe from whatever stepped out of that circle."

"But he wasn't?"

"No."

She had her pistol out and pointing at me with amazing speed. "So you killed him." Her words were dangerously level. "You lied to me about how you knew Willy. If I take you at your word then Willy summoned you to protect him."

"That was his intent." I had been careless, but I knew her gun would be worthless against me so I held my ground.

"Instead what you're telling me is that whoever sold him the spell and the protection knew that it would likely kill him?"

"Far from a guarantee, but most summoners are killed by the thing they summon unless they are powerful and careful enough to avoid it."

The gun went off. The pain in my right leg flared brilliantly. I clutched at the point of impact with a look of astonishment. "What? How?"

"Well would you look at that? You can be hurt." She stepped forward and pointed the gun at my head. "Now tell me the truth."

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