Authors: James Swain
“They didn’t,” Peter replied. “When Wolfe was killed last night, the Order realized their plan was in jeopardy. They figured out it was Carr the same way we did.”
“So how did they find him?”
“Carr’s incident at the lab was on the news. The Order must have seen it on CNN, and realized he was the one. They probably used astral projection to search for him, and saw all the police gathered around Penn Station. That was the clue they needed. They possessed Wolfe, and sent him to intercept Carr.”
“So you’re saying they got lucky.”
“Afraid so.”
Garrison was burning up inside. He’d never had an assignment break this bad.
Peter’s cell phone vibrated. He pulled it out, and stared at the face.
“That’s my witch. I’ll call you when I know something.”
Garrison hurried with Perry to his car.
* * *
Peter stepped under the building’s awning to answer the call.
“That was fast,” he said.
“I just watched the film you sent me,” Holly said. “Is this a science fiction movie?”
“Wolfe’s body has been possessed, and he’s got his hands on a deadly nerve agent. You have to find him. Ask Max and Milly to help. The more eyes the better. He’s hiding out somewhere south of Twenty-sixth Street, on the west side of town.”
“Why’s he hiding? Why not release the nerve agent now?”
“He’s waiting until dark. It will make things easier.”
“There are only so many places a dead man can hide. I’ll call you when I know something.”
“Thanks, Holly.”
“No need to thank me. We’re all in this together, you know.”
Peter started to say good-bye, then stopped. Nemo had predicted that he would die at Wolfe’s hands tonight. That had not seemed a reality, until now. There were some things that even a psychic couldn’t change, and he realized he might never speak to Holly again.
“I’m sorry I’ve been such a shit lately,” he said. “You deserve better. Please forgive me.”
Holly’s voice softened. “You’ve been under a lot of pressure lately. When this is over, we need to talk. I have a special gift for you.”
He swallowed hard. Would he die not knowing what it was?
“What kind of gift?” he asked.
“It will change your life.”
“Really? Tell me.”
She laughed. “You hate being kept in the dark, don’t you? You’ll have to wait.”
“Come on. Please.”
“I’ll give you a hint. It’s three hundred years old, and came from Mary Glover.”
“The witch? What is it, a magical talisman?”
“That would spoil the surprise. I’ll call you once I’ve located Wolfe.”
He smiled into the phone. Holly wasn’t angry with him anymore. If he died tonight, he would know that at least he’d ended things right with her.
“Good-bye, Holly,” he said.
56
Holly folded her phone with a smile on her face. Peter sounded like his old self again. More than anything else, she wanted Peter to be happy, and not to suffer. If that wasn’t a definition of true love, she didn’t know what was.
She glanced at her aunt. The sleeping pill had knocked her out cold. She decided that it would be a bad idea to awaken her. Better to ask Max to help her track down Wolfe. Max had a keen eye for that sort of thing.
She found the old magician snoring on the couch in the living room. Several vigorous shakes were required to rouse him from his dreams. Max awoke with a start.
“What’s going on?” he asked excitedly.
“I just spoke with Peter. He wants us to find Wolfe.”
“That should be easy enough,” Max replied. “Wolfe’s in the morgue.”
“Afraid not. He’s become possessed, and is about to release a nerve agent on the city. He’s holed up somewhere below Twenty-sixth Street on the West Side. Peter wants us to locate him.”
Max dragged himself off the couch. The sleep was slow to leave his face. Shaking it away, he said, “He’s possessed? That makes him easier to find. Where do you want to do this?”
“How about right here? That way, if my aunt wakes up, we’ll hear her.”
“Fair enough. Get the potions, and I’ll set up by the window where the light’s good.”
Holly retrieved the herbs and potions from her aunt’s closet. Upon returning, she found a round vase filled with water sitting on the table. Max sat at the table, waiting.
“Isn’t that vase a little big?” she asked.
“My eyes aren’t what they used to be,” Max said. “The bigger the better these days.”
She prepared the potions, mixing them together with the tip of her little finger. “Unless Wolfe’s hiding someplace obvious, we’ll have no idea where he is. Will we?”
“The possessed are easy to find,” Max explained.
“You’ve lost me, Max.”
“Do what needs to be done. Then I’ll explain.”
Holly poured the potions into the vase, and the water turned a milky white.
“Spirits all so knowing,
I’m looking for a man who’s stopped growing.
His name is Wolfe, and he’s become possessed,
and now hides somewhere in the city.
Show me where, and I’ll be forever thankful,
that you chose to show me pity.”
“Not bad,” Max said, nodding approvingly.
“I’ve been working on my rhyming.” Holly pulled up a chair, and sat next to the old magician. “Now tell me why the possessed are easy to find.”
“It’s because of the baggage they inherit,” Max explained. “When a person dies, their soul leaves their body, and leaves behind things which are no longer of use to them. I’ll give you an example. Let’s say Wolfe was a smoker. When he died, his craving for nicotine stays behind. When Wolfe’s body became possessed, the possessor becomes a smoker.”
“How does that make Wolfe easy to find?”
“The human instincts also stay behind. Wolfe is now in hiding, correct? Well, I can tell you that he’s hiding in a place that is comfortable to him. A place that he knows.”
“Like a child would do.”
“Exactly. Just like a child. The possessor can’t control this.”
“What kind of places would Wolfe find comfortable?”
“Someplace he’s already been to. Perhaps a bar, or a restaurant. We’ll have to see.”
The water inside the vase had gone from cloudy to crystal clear. An image of a man appeared. It was Wolfe, wearing the same clothes which had been burned after his fall. The skin on his face was hideous to behold, with rigor mortis setting in. At his feet lay a child’s knapsack.
“That’s him,” she whispered. “It looks like he’s in a basement.”
Max leaned in. His bushy eyebrows came together as he stared. “I believe you’re right. He’s in the basement of a building. I can see the outline of a stairwell on the far wall.”
“I see it, too,” Holly said.
“Beneath the stairwell there’s a large object beneath a sheet.”
“You’re right. It looks like a child’s dollhouse.”
“Yes, it does.” Max brought his hand up to scratch his chin. “Damn it. Excuse me for swearing, but I’ve seen that shape before.”
“But where, Max?”
“It will come to me. Just give me a little while.”
They watched Wolfe pace back and forth. The dead man’s movements were stiff, yet animated. Once darkness fell, he would venture outside, and wreak havoc upon the city.
“We’re running out of time, Max.”
“I can’t rush this, Holly,” the old magician replied. “My brain is filled with thousands of pieces of useless information. It’s the curse of growing old. I need time to sort through it.”
“I’m going to call Peter, and tell him what we’ve found. Maybe he can make sense of it.”
“By all means. Peter is good at this sort of thing.”
The haunting blast of an air raid siren filled the apartment. It was frighteningly loud, and drowned out all other sound. Her aunt called from the bedroom.
“What is that awful racket?” Milly asked.
Holly rose from her chair, and put her face to the window. A long line of police cruisers were snaking down Central Park West with their bubble lights flashing. The lead cruiser had a loudspeaker on its roof from which came a policeman’s voice.
“Go inside! There is about to be an attack on the city,” the policeman warned. “Seek shelter at once. Do not come outside until told to.”
The street cleared out, with not a soul to be seen. Holly felt her body start to shake. The attack Peter had warned them of was about to happen. And only Peter could stop it. She dug out her cell phone while looking at Max.
“I’m trying,” the old magician said.
“Try harder,” she told him.
57
An air raid siren pierced the air. Peter had never heard one, except in old war movies on late-night TV. It was haunting enough to instill fear in a person, which he supposed was the point. People ran past. Before long, he was the only person remaining on the street.
A steel-gray sky blanketed the city. It was like a dreary canvas waiting to be completed. Would the picture be happy, or sad? Even he could not predict how it would look. There was another hour of sunlight left, maybe less. He tried to guess where Wolfe could be hiding. He’d read about trackers who could locate people in vast forests, but this was the city, with no footprints to be found. The expression “finding a needle in a haystack” came to mind.
His cell phone vibrated. He hoped it was Holly calling to tell him that she’d discovered Wolfe’s hideout. Instead, he saw that it was Liza. They hadn’t talked all day.
“Hi,” he answered. “I hope you’re not angry at me for not calling.”
“How about livid?” his girlfriend said icily.
“I’m sorry. Really.”
“I’m sick and tired of hearing you say that. I’m at the theater. Where are you?”
“What are you doing at the theater?” he asked, hearing the panic in his voice. “I told Snoop that you guys needed to stay at his place. The city’s in danger.”
“Don’t you remember? A foreign tour group booked the theater this afternoon. You were supposed to give them a private show. I had to send them back to their hotel. They were heartbroken. I’ve never been more humiliated in my life.”
“I’m sorry. I forgot all about it.”
“Look Peter, I don’t know what your deal is, but I’ve had enough of this. I don’t want to be a puppet in your life anymore. You’re manipulating me.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Say that one more time, and I’m hanging up.”
“But I am. I should have come clean long ago. You had a right to know who I am.”
“You can’t undo what’s done,” Liza said.
“At least give me a chance to try.”
A motorcycle cop rocketed down a deserted First Avenue. The cop spotted Peter standing outside, did a sharp U-turn in the street, and drove back to the building.
“Get inside,” the motorcycle cop ordered him.
“Yes, sir,” Peter replied.
Peter feighed going inside. The motorcycle cop sped away, and he returned to where he’d been standing. There were people inside the lobby, and he didn’t want them overhearing his conversation with Liza. His life was already complicated enough.
“Who was that?” his girlfriend asked.
“A cop. The city’s being shut down. There’s about to be an attack. I’ve been trying to stop it with the FBI. They asked me to help, and I couldn’t say no.”
“Still playing superhero?”
He didn’t feel like a superhero. Superheroes didn’t fail.
“This isn’t a conversation we should be having over the phone,” he said. “I want to be with you. Please give me a chance to make things right.”
“You want another chance?” she asked. He heard hesitation in her voice, and knew he was doomed.
“Yes. That’s all I’m asking for.”
Peter heard a loud beep. Someone was calling him. Caller ID on his phone said
HOLLY
. She wouldn’t be calling unless she’d found where Wolfe was hiding.
“I need to take this call. Let me call you back,” he said.
“Are you kidding?” Liza said in disbelief.
“This is life or death,” he said.
“I’m sure it is. Call me when you have a spare minute to devote to our relationship.” Liza hung up on him.
He brought his hand up to his face. The world was spinning out of control, and he was about to fall off. He took Holly’s call, hoping she had good news to share with him. Anything would have lifted his spirts at this point.
“Tell me you found Wolfe,” he said.
“Max and I are looking at him right now,” Holly replied.
“That’s fantastic.”
“Don’t get too excited. We haven’t pinpointed where he is. Here’s what we do know. Wolfe’s hiding in the basement of a building. He keeps glancing at the ceiling, which makes us think there are other people in the building. Max says it’s a building Wolfe’s been to before.”
“How does he know that?”
“Max said that the possessed revert back to old habits, and return to familiar haunts. Even though Wolfe’s mind is possessed, his body is still functioning as if it’s his.”
“Are there any other clues?”
“There’s something stored beneath a sheet in the basement. It looks like a large dollhouse. Max is convinced he’s seen it before, but can’t place where. I’m guessing it’s a prop to a stage production, and that Wolfe is hiding in a theater.”
“How many theaters are there below Twenty-sixth Street on the West Side?”
“I’ve found six on Google so far.”
Holly started to recite the names when Peter heard a noise. The motorcycle cop had returned, and parked his bike at the curb. Seconds later the cop was standing beside him. “I told you to get inside,” the motorcycle cop said angrily.
“I have a lead on the man you’re looking for,” Peter replied.
“You and every other joker in this city. Get inside the building. That’s an order.”