Kiss The Witch Part 36

"What is?"

"Let me ask you, Tony. Have you ever walked in on Lilith only to find her just sitting there staring off into s.p.a.ce?"

"Are you kidding? Sometimes I think Lilith is in s.p.a.ce. Why do you ask?"

"Last night," he paused to gaze into the sheen of his coffee. "I fell asleep after Ursula and I ahm...you know."

Carlos interrupted. "Yeah, I always get sleepy after s.e.x, too."

"Carlos."

"Well, I do."

"Go on, Dominic."

"Anyway, I fell asleep, but I guess for just a few minutes. When I awoke, Ursula was no longer in bed with me. I figured she probably got up to go to the bathroom or something."

Carlos said, "Yeah, that's the other thing I always have to do right afterwards."

This time a look is all it took. I don't think Spinelli even heard him though. He picked up his straw and began stirring his coffee absentmindedly. "After a while, when she didn't come back to bed, I went looking for her, you know, to make sure she was all right."

"Yes, of course. And was she?"

"I don't know. I mean, she was, but I didn't know it then. I walked into the bathroom and found her sitting on the edge of the tub in her nightgown, staring off into s.p.a.ce. I called to her, but she didn't seem to hear me."

"Was she sleeping?"

"I don't know. Her eyes were open. I walked over and touched her on the arm. She felt cold. I started to worry. I shook her and called her name, and then she heard me. She blinked. Looked at me. Smiled. And then stood up and gave me a hug."

"Aww," said Carlos. "How romantic."

"Has that ever happened to Lilith?"

I dismissed his question as routine. "Oh, sure. Happens all the time," I said, lying through my teeth. "It's nothing."

"Really?"

"It's a witch thing. A sort of meditation. It means they're happy."

I could see the relief washing over him. "Oh, man, you don't know how glad I am to hear that. I thought she was having second thoughts about marrying me."

"What?" My heart fell. "Dominic. Ursula loves you to no end. Don't ever forget that. There is not another man in the world that could take your place."

"You think?"

"Of course." And just as I said that, I noticed that electric blue vein of light stretching from my feet, through the open door and down the hall. Carlos and Spinelli were looking too, but I knew they could not see it. They were simply looking at me looking at it.

"Excuse me," I said. I followed it down the hall and around the corner where it disappeared under the door leading to the stairwell. Not knowing what else to do, I pushed the door open and stepped over the threshold. The light at my feet erupted in a brilliant flash of blue and white. It blinded me for an instant and left me dazed. I reached for the handrail and instead found myself holding on to the edge of a kitchen counter top. My eyes began readjusting to the ambient light. No longer was I in the stairwell. I was home. I thought. Only things were not exactly the same as home. Ursula was there, her back to the wall, tucked in the shadows. She wore a black overcoat and hat, and looked positively surrept.i.tious.

"Ursula?" I approached her with trepidation. "What are you doing here? Is this my house?"

She stepped forward into the light. "You are in my house. We are linking."

"I came to you?"

She nodded.

"So then, I'm not really here. I'm still in the stairwell at the office."

"Aye."

"Why did you pull me away like that?" I thought linking meant we could talk without anyone seeing us, and everything moves in slow motion."

She shook her head. "That is so only when we are both physically present," she said. "Only then do thoughts exchange at light speed. The same is not so at greater distances. What thoughts we share at sight, we share in time unbroken. Apart, our thoughts are stretched and time must stretch along the witch's line."

"Time stretches?"

"Aye, as thin a line doth stretch to thee, so too doth time resist."

"A lag time."

"Aye."

"That's why Dominic found you in a trance last night in the bathroom. You were talking to me."

"'Tis a matter of matter, dark and heavy."

I gestured at her attire. "Why the cloak and dagger getup?"

She laughed timidly. "Ask thyself as thou wilt know."

"I see. I did that," I said, realizing I had dressed her in garb de'clandestine. "It's the detective in me."

"Methinks I understand."

"Tell me why I'm here."

"I know how to break the link."

"That's great. How."

"Thou must kiss another inside a witch's circle."

"Another witch?"

"Aye."

"Great. Any ideas who?"

"Thou knows but not?"

"Guess you mean Lilith."

"Of course."

"She won't go for it. She's going to be p.i.s.sed as it is. There is no way she will want to link with me after she hears what I did."

"Doth thou knowest another witch?"

"Nooo," I said, probably a bit snootier than I had a right to. "Thou doesn't know-est another witch. I thought you were working on your modern speak. What happened to the accent you used in the kitchen the other day? It's about time you got with the program, isn't it?"

Ursula's face fell into a frown and my heart just melted. "Ursula. I didn't mean that" I kicked the base of the kitchen cabinet with the tip of my shoe. "I'm sorry. I know I shouldn't have"

She disappeared before I could finish. I looked about and found I was back on the platform in the stairwell. I thought of calling her back, but I knew she would not come. I also knew that she was right. I had no choice but to tell Lilith about the witch's light. After everything that happened, it was time to come clean. If for no other reason than to free Ursula and let her get on with her life without the ball and chain around her ankle that I represented.

That night, I tried three times to tell Lilith about the light. She stopped me each time, silencing me with her kiss and dragging me off to the bedroom for some intimate one-on-one. She told me she had not realized how much fun it would be having the house all to ourselves. I told her that was all I could think about ever since Ursula and Dominic announced they were marrying. We were on our way back to the bedroom for a fourth time, when the doorbell rang.

"Who the h.e.l.l is that?" She asked.

I knew. I just did not want to say. I stepped into my pants and handed her my shirt. "I don't know."

She put the shirt on and b.u.t.toned it up only to her navel. I was glad to see the long shirttail covered her tattoo and then some.

"Carlos," she said, opening the door. The warmth in her voice seemed only half-genuine. "Ursula. Dominic. What a nice surprise." She looked over her shoulder at me and made a face like a gargoyle. "Look, Tony. We have company."

I forced a smile. "Yes. You gonna let them in?"

She gritted her teeth. "No."

"Be nice." I waved them in. "Come on, guys. We were just going to watch a movie...or something."

Lilith pulled the door open fully, stepped back and presented a path in with the sweep of her hand. "Sure, why not. Come in. Tony's not good for four in a row anyway."

Carlos entered first. Looking down at Lilith from his vantage point, I imagined he felt more welcomed than the others did. "Nice shirt, Lilith."

Dominic entered next, oblivious to Lilith's dress, or lack of it. Ursula came in behind him. Her smile told me she knew what we were doing. "'Tis a nice blouse," she said, lifting the tail and exposing Lilith's tattoo. "Drafty, is it not?"

I was thankful Carlos and Dominic did not see it.

"So," said Lilith. "To what do we owe the honor of this visit?"

"Actually," I said. "I knew they were coming over tonight. That is, I knew Dominic and Ursula were coming over. I didn't know they were bringing Carlos."

"Oh, they didn't bring me," said Carlos. "I met them out front. I came here to tell you something."

"Tell me what?"

He looked at Dominic with a glance that almost seemed painful. I knew it was bad news. "It's about Ferguson."

"What about Ferguson?"

Carlos cleared his throat and swallowed. "He's sort of, umm....dead."

"Dead?" I stepped up to him, toe-to-toe, thinking he would back down, laugh and announce he was joking. He did not. "What the h.e.l.l do you mean he's dead?"

"Dead, Tony. How many other meanings for dead are there?"

"What happened?"

He gave Dominic another painful look. "Poisoned, near as we can tell. Have an autopsy scheduled for the morning."

"What does Dominic have to do with it?"

"What do you mean?"

"You keep looking at him."

Lilith said, "I'm going to go get some clothes on."

As she walked away, I saw Carlos' eyes follow her down the hall and into the bedroom. She shut the door and he snapped back to the conversation guiltlessly. "It was his buddy," he said.

"What buddy?"

"That Tom Bradley guy from the F.B.I. He was the last one to see Ferguson alive."

Dominic said, "That doesn't prove anything."

"No. It does not. But when I called the Boston bureau looking for Bradley, they said they never heard of him."

"That's impossible. He's been with the bureau for years."

"Sorry, Dominic. I checked. The F.B.I. has four agents named Tom Bradley in the entire organization. The youngest is thirty-seven, and he's based in London." He shook his head faintly. "None of them are your guy."

Carlos reached into his coat pocket and produced a plastic evidence bag containing a silver ink pen. He held it up for inspection. "We found this in Ferguson's cell. Bradley gave him this pen to sign the terms of the negotiation. The lab found traces of a deadly neurotoxin on it. Called it a lipophilic alkaloid I think."

"Dart frog," said Dominic.

I hooked my brow at that. "Excuse me?"

"It's a frog. Probably the Phyllobates Terribilis from Colombia, found along the western slopes of the Andes. They secrete enough toxins through their skin to kill a hundred men."

"Wow," I said, thoroughly impressed with his knowledge on the subject. "How do you know so much about exotic toxin-producing frogs?"

He lowered his head and shook it faintly. "Tom went to Colombia and wrote his college thesis on it. I helped him edit his paper."

I said to Carlos. "Where does this leave us now?"

He shrugged. "Guess we'rehow do you sayf.u.c.ked?"