Ghost of a Chance

12 The Tail

Hannah and Leroy Cunningham lived in a six-story apartment building of stained, brown brick on the Outer-Ring side of Alphabet City. Alex left the crawler station two blocks away and turned south. The streets were lined with beggars and the lucky few who had boxes of apples or newspapers to sell. Since the market crash large parts of the city were overrun with the desperate, the drunk, and the vagrant.

Alex felt for them as he passed, ignoring their entreaties for money. He had a roof over his head and enough to stay fed, but he couldn’t even buy his own cigarettes. He chuckled humorlessly at the thought that he was only about a week away from joining these ragged souls.

When Alex reached Hannah’s building, he checked the address written in his notebook. The building wasn’t very far into the outer ring, but no outer ring building would have an elevator, so of course, Hannah’s apartment number was sixty-four.

A few minutes later, Alex reached the sixth-floor landing, sweating in the sweltering August heat. He pushed for a moment to catch his breath, then moved down to door sixty-four and knocked.

No sound came from inside, so he knocked again.

This time, a door across the hall opened and a middle-aged woman with a plump face, black hair, and too much perfume peered out.

“Do you know if Mrs. Cunningham is home?” Alex asked, putting on his friendly smile.

“You get out of here,” the woman hissed, closing her door so that only her eyes were visible. “I’ll call the cops this time.”

Alex held up his hands in a gesture of peace.

“Easy there,” he said. “I don’t know who you think I am, but I’m a private detective. Mrs. Cunningham hired me to look for her husband.”

“Well she don’t want to talk to anybody,” the woman growled. “Not after last time. You better get lost.”

With that, she slammed the door and Alex could see her setting the bolt on the other side.

He wasn’t sure what had happened, but it wasn’t nothing. Concerned, he pounded on the door again.

“Hannah,” he called. “It’s me, Alex.”

“Go away,” a ragged voice came from inside. Alex barely recognized it as Hannah’s. She was hoarse and clearly scared.

“I’m not going anywhere until you talk to me,” Alex said, firmly. “Now open up before I get the superintendent.”

A long pause followed and then he heard the bolt on the door being drawn back and the lock clicked. The door opened and Hannah stood inside, huddled as if she were cold. Alex could see that she had a black eye and a bruise on her cheek.

“Please,” she gasped. “They said they’d kill him if I talked to anyone.”

The apartment beyond the door was disheveled, with a broken chair leaning against the dining table and a trash can overflowing with shards of broken dishware. Alex pushed the door open and Hannah shuffled back.

“Please,” she said, holding out her arm. “They’ll know.”

Alex took her by the wrist and gently turned her arm so he could see the underside. A symbol had been burned there, as if Hannah had been branded with an iron. The symbol was rectangular with a rounded square on top of three curled shapes below. Inside the square was a cartoonish pair of eyes in a rounded head, with what looked like a stone on top. The stone had one large hole in the center and three to each side.

It reminded Alex of a television screen with an octopus staring out of it, its legs dangling down and a clay ocarina on its head.

He didn’t have to break out his ghostlight to tell it was magical; he could feel the power in the symbol when he ran his thumb over it. Hannah winced when he did and Alex noticed that the skin around the mark was still pink. Whoever had done this to her and busted up her place had done it recently.

“Someone told you to stop looking for Leroy?”

She nodded, tears streaming down her face.

“They barged in yesterday,” she said. “They told me they’d killed you. They even showed me your red book.”

She squeezed her eyes closed, forcing the tears out onto he cheeks.

“They said if I talked to anyone else, they’d kill Leroy.”

“They told you if you kept quiet, that they’d let him go?” Alex guessed.

She nodded.

“Then they put this paper on my arm and it burned me,” she wept. “They said if I talked to anyone, they’d know. That this,” she nodded at the symbol. “That they’d use this to kill me.”

Alex looked closely at the octopus symbol. From Hannah’s description, it worked just like a rune. There were three schools of runes: the Geometric school, which Alex used; the Kanji school that used Oriental characters; and the Arabic school which favored artistic, flowing script.

“I’ve never seen this kind of rune,” Alex said. “But I know runes. This isn’t complex enough to kill someone. They did this to keep you quiet.”

It was mostly true. Alex suspected the rune could very easily be a tracking rune, so whoever they had watching Hannah’s place could follow her if she gave them the slip. He leaned back out into the hall and checked up and down the corridor. So far as he could tell, they were alone. Whoever was watching, and he was sure now that someone was, they must be outside.

Alex stepped back into Hannah’s apartment and shut the door behind him, pausing to set the bolt.

“Hannah,” he said, looking her straight in the eyes. “I know you’re scared, but I need you to listen to me, okay?”

She took a deep shuddering breath and nodded.

“Whoever did this is trying to scare you, to keep you quiet while they do whatever it is they took Leroy to do. Whoever they are, they’re not going to just let your husband go once they’re done. He knows who they are by now — he’s been with them almost a week.”

Hannah gasped, and her trembling got worse. It was clear she was moments away from simply breaking down.

“There’s good news, though,” he went on. “Doing this,” he took hold of her wrist and turned her arm to reveal the rune. “This means they’ve got someone watching you, making sure you don’t leave this building.”

“How is that good news?” she wanted to know, her eyes darting to the door to make double sure Alex had bolted it.

“It’s good news because it gives us a way to find Leroy, but you’ll have to be very brave for it to work.”

To her credit, Hannah stopped shaking and stood up straight.

“What do I have to do?” she asked with only a hint of controlled fear in her voice.

“You need to do exactly what they’re afraid you’ll do,” Alex said. “I want you to go down to the station and catch a northbound crawler. Go straight to my office. Stay at the station when you change crawlers and don’t stop along the way, understand?”

She nodded, her eyes a bit wild.

“But how will this help find Leroy?”

“Because,” Alex said with reassuring smile. “When you leave here, whoever is watching is going to follow you. They’re going to want to know where you’re going.”

Hannah shuddered and wrapped her arms around herself.

“Don’t worry about that,” Alex said. “He won’t bother you until he knows where you’re going. I’m going to go out the back and get a cab. Once I see that you’re safely on the crawler, I’ll go back to my office. I’ll find a good place to wait and watch for you. When you get there, I’ll be able to see who’s tailing you.”

Hannah thought about this and nodded. It looked like she was trying to convince herself rather than simply agreeing.

Alex dug a folded vault rune and his lump of chalk out of his pocket. He quickly drew a door on the wall of Hannah’s apartment and opened his vault. He still hadn’t made a backup rune book but there wasn’t time for that now. He needed his 1911 and his knuckle duster.

Once he had slipped the brass knuckles into his jacket pocket and put on his shoulder holster, Alex closed the vault. Next he used Hannah’s phone to call Iggy. He explained about the strange rune and asked the doctor to meet Hannah at his office, and to bring his silver pocketwatch. His preparations complete, Alex hung up the phone and turned back to Hannah.

“All right then,” Alex said with a nod. “I want you to wait five minutes after I leave, then go straight to the crawler station. Don’t worry, I’ll be watching.”

“What are you going to do once you find the man watching me?”

Alex shrugged.

“Once I get the drop on him, I was thinking of tying him to a chair and beating your husband’s location out of him. Unless you have a problem with that sort of thing,” he added.

Hannah looked around at her ransacked apartment and then at the burn mark on her arm.

“No,” she said. “No problem at all.”

Twenty minutes later, Alex stood just inside the window display at a five and dime near his office. It was positioned perfectly in the block between the crawler station and his office on the opposite side of the street.

For the fifth time, Alex brushed his hand against the slight bulge under his left arm, feeling the 1911’s reassuring bulk. He didn’t have to remind himself that the man following Hannah was in league with whoever tried to kill him yesterday. There was a real chance he might try to kill Hannah before she could get to Alex’s office.

He took a puff on his cigarette and tried to calm his nerves. He knew it was an indulgence, but he’d bought a pack of smokes from the five and dime to help with the waiting.

As refreshing as it was to have cigarettes again, it really wasn’t helping calm his nerves.

At least Jessica’s potion is working, he thought, looking at his steady fingers.

He swore.

Jessica.

He was supposed to go back and see her yesterday and he’d completely forgotten.

Getting shot will do that.

Smoking his cigarette down to the nub, Alex resolved to see Jessica tonight, if he had time. The idea wasn’t unpleasant, of course, but he had to find Leroy first.

As if on cue, Hannah came hurrying by on the far side of the street. She walked purposefully, but to her credit, she wasn’t running.

Alex moved to the door and looked out through the glass. A moment later a man in a gray suit walked by with his hands in his pockets. He didn’t seem to be following, but his steps were quick, much faster than his nonchalant demeanor would suggest. Of course, he had to walk fast if he didn’t want to lose Hannah.

Slipping out of the five and dime, Alex turned up the street and began walking parallel to the man in the gray suit. Once Hannah ducked into the lobby of Alex’s building, gray suit crossed the street, heading for an alley between two buildings just a little ways up.

With Hannah safely in his office, Alex turned the corner of the street and broke into a run. He circled the block, reaching the other end of the alley where Hannah’s tail had vanished and peeked around the corner.

At the far end of the alley, the man in the gray suit was smoking a cigarette and watching Alex’s building.

Taking care to be quiet, Alex moved carefully along the alley. The man in the gray suit never took his eyes off the building across the street. He clearly wasn’t expecting trouble.

Alex reached inside his coat and tugged his 1911 free.

“Hold it,” he said when he was only a few feet away.

The man jumped but froze when he saw the gun. He almost jumped again when his eyes darted up to Alex’s face.

“Bet you weren’t expecting to see me?” Alex said with a grin. “Was it you who shot me in the back yesterday?”

The man’s face hardened into a mask, but Alex didn’t care; his reaction had told the story.

Alex looked the man over carefully. There was a tell-tale bulge in the right pocket of his jacket. He looked young, in his twenties, with tanned skin and dark hair. His face was blocky and angular with a prominent nose.

Indian heritage, Alex thought.

“You want to tell me where the girl’s husband is now, or does this have to get ugly?”

“Don’t look at me,” the man said with a shrug. He had a sullen, Jersey accent that tended to slur his words. “I just get paid to follow the girl. I don’t know nothin’ about any missing husband.”

“A liar and a back-shooter,” Alex said. “Your mother must be so proud.”

The man’s face curled into a sneer for an instant, then he relaxed.

“You shouldn’t meddle in things that aren’t your business,” he said with an easy air.

“Like what, for instance?”

He just smiled and shook his head.

“It’s your funeral,” Alex said, nodding toward the street. “Let’s go. I’m sure Hannah will want to talk to you.”

“You should worry about yourself,” he said, turning to face Alex squarely.

The move was odd, but Alex didn’t think anything of it, he had a .45 caliber semi-automatic pistol pointed straight at the man, after all.

Gray suit opened his right hand and let the cigarette he was holding fall to the ground. Alex’s eyes followed it for half a second and he didn’t see the symbol burned into the man’s palm.

He felt the rune activate before he saw it, then a wave of force hit him and knocked him off his feet. Alex rolled into a ball to avoid hitting his head on the ground but ended up flat on his back nonetheless. Pain exploded through his side when he tried to rise.

Broken rib.

At the end of the alley, gray suit was clutching his arm. He hadn’t been braced when the force rune or whatever had been on his hand went off. The way he was holding it, the backlash had broken his wrist. He scrambled with his left hand to get the gun in his right pocket, finally jerking it free, then he rushed down the alley toward Alex.

Alex didn’t hesitate. He raised the 1911 and fired twice. The first bullet hit gray suit in the shoulder but didn’t slow his charge one bit. The second hit him square in the center of the chest and he faltered. Taking a stumbling step, he collapsed next to Alex, his gun skittering away on the concrete.

Rolling onto his knees, despite the screaming pain in his side, Alex pointed the pistol at gray suit’s prone form, but the man didn’t move. He put the barrel of the 1911 against the side of the man’s head, then checked for a pulse with his other hand, ignoring the protestations of his ribs.

Dead.

Looking around, Alex tucked his 1911 back into its shoulder holster. Two gunshots were bound to bring the police to the scene and Alex did not want to be nearby when they arrived. He was already on Detweiler’s short list and he didn’t want to give the man any more leverage.

Working quickly, Alex turned out Gray Suit’s pockets. In the inside jacket pocket he found his own red rune book, and a black baked book filled with strange picture runes in it. Pocketing both, he kept looking. The dead man’s pants pockets yielded a ring of keys and a brass compass whose needle pointed right at Alex’s building.

Something tickled against Alex’s senses. He’d felt the same thing right before the force rune had cracked his rib and put him on his back. Standing up as quickly as he could, Alex backed away from the body. Magic erupted from the dead man and a sudden flash of fire burned a hole in his shirt front from the inside. Fire spread from the hole, enveloping the body in seconds.

Alex was forced to move back as waves of intense heat assaulted him. Shielding his face, he nearly tripped over the burning man’s revolver.

Alex bent down and picked up the gun, shoving it in his own jacket pocket. His side burned where the force rune had hit him, but his attention was focused on the immolating body.

In less than a minute, the flames died down and burned out, leaving nothing behind but a pile of ash, a scorch mark on the ground, and the rank odor of burnt flesh.