Okay then, looks like I was good, except for one tiny detail.
“Is there any way to shift this thing to the left? Just about ten feet or so?” I pointed to the spot I thought would work on a nice mound of dry sand.
Both of the guards shook their heads.
“Is it a technical problem or something?”
Another shake.
I got it. Apparently, some people were a little put out about getting hailed on last time.
“You have to know, the hail was an accident. I didn't realize I'd cause a storm.”
One armored hand raised and pointed to a dent in his helmet. They had been pretty big hailstones.
“I swear, it won't happen again.” That might be a lie. It could possibly reoccur. “Intentionally, anyway.”
His partner raised a gloved hand to point at a dent in his shoulder.
“Come on guys! They're barely more than dings.”
Nothing. No response and it was tough to read an expression through a masked helmet.
I kicked off my sandals and rolled up my pants. Looked like I was going to be wading.
Chapter Fourteen
Fate was sitting in a corner booth at the luncheonette located at the address I was given.
He watched as I entered. If he was surprised, he didn't look it. He was relaxed back in his chair, a half eaten sandwich of some type in front of him.
“Why are you soaking wet?” He popped a fry in his mouth as he perused me.
Not, why are you here? or how did you know? Maybe even a, sorry, I'm a complete ass on so many different levels.
“The door guards are still a bit miffed over the hail. Why didn't you tell me?” I yanked back the chair and made a horrible little squishing noise as I sat across from him.
“He'll be here any minute.” He pointed to his plate. “Want a fry?”
I leaned across the table, ignoring the fry he picked up and tried to hand me, trying to lull me into a side order distraction. “Don't try and disarm me with fries.”
“It's just a potato.” He dropped the offending fry onto his plate.
“What do you know and why didn't you tell me?” My stomach growled. They certainly smelled good, but I couldn't eat one now.
“I don't know anything, yet. I just got a glimpse.” He shrugged and tapped a finger on the table. “I don't even know if it's your guy.”
I nailed him with an accusing stare but said nothing.
“What do you want me to do? Drag you around on every vision I get just in case it ties in?” His eyes darted to the side as the waitress approached.
“Just coffee,” I said as a she came to the table.
Fate watched her retreat before he spoke. “I don't even know what this is yet.”
“Bullshit. You left me out on purpose. Me and you? We're partners. All or nothing. You want to suck my psyche dry, whatever exactly it is you do, for information and past life stuff, then you’d better be prepared to share.” I might have ruined my hard ass approach when I took a fry off his plate after my speech. I should've grabbed lunch before I left.
“Fine.”
“You go? I go. You know? I know.” I just needed one more fry.
“I. Get. It. Jesus, you're like rain man. I'll tell you if you promise to shut the hell up with the I go, you go shit?”
Feeling smugly confident I'd gotten my point across, I gracefully ceded the floor so I could eat the rest of his fries.
“I got a lead on this guy and I thought he might be tied into this somehow.”
“How so?” I had trouble getting those two words out as one of the fries decided to put up a fight on the road to my stomach.
“I don't know yet or I would've said. I know, you know,” he mocked in a false falsetto as he pushed his soda toward me.
The coke wrestled the rest of that stubborn fry down.
“Why do you think he's connected to me?” I asked, now that I could speak easier.
“Because you were there as well.”
“What was I doing?”
“I don't know. Nothing really.” He looked away, agitated at the question for some reason.
“I don't get it. Was it a vision? Where was I?”
“It was more...dreamlike.” He cleared his throat looking everywhere but me.
“Was I talking to him or something?” Why was Fate acting so oddly about a vision, or dream he had?
“It wasn't that clear!”
“You don't need to get all testy. I just wanted some details.” Sleeping on the couch was making his mood worse than ever.
“I don't have any. Just follow my lead. No crazy moves or breaking necks. Agreed?” Now that he was calling me a murdering freak, he had no problem making eye contact.
“No. Not agreed. This is a mass murderer we're talking about. Isn't my job evening the score? Why wouldn't I? If he's the guy, he deserves it.”
He leaned forward, halfway across the table now. “No. Killing.”
Something about this scene jarred my brain and I had one of those perfect moments of clarity. The kind where, just for a few crystal clear moments, your biases and delusions drop away and you see your reality for what it truly is.
And mine scared the hell out of me.
His eyes jerked quickly to the side and then back to me, a thankful distraction from the truths I'd almost been forced to contemplate.
“What?”
“He's coming. Don't look.”
That was fairly easy, since my back was to the door. The waitress placed a coffee in front of me and I tried to busy myself, so I wouldn't stare or scream “bloody murderer” across the room.
Fate's hand gripped my arm briefly. “Look now,” he said.
I glanced toward the man sitting a few tables away. Mid-fifties, balding and wearing a gray suit. If I were a normal human, I wouldn't have looked twice at him. But I wasn't anymore and there was something slightly off about this man. He was like that odd piece of broccoli that showed up in my pepper steak order every now and then.
I looked back at Fate and squinted my eyes in silent acknowledgment. His face reflected my own expression.
“You ever seen him before?” he asked.
“No, never.”
“You're sure?” There was a heaviness to his words.
“I'm positive. Why?”
He looked back at the guy and then me again. “When he walked in, it looked like he recognized you.”
“Don't squint at me like I'm lying.”
He leaned forward. “You’d better not be.”
“Great, here we go again with the threats,” I said mockingly, to hide the slight worry he'd instilled. I didn't know the guy, but what if he got it into his head I did? The clarity I'd felt moments before leaked over on to him a bit. I treated our situation like I knew Fate, as if there was a level of safety there, because we worked together. In truth, I knew very little and the more I found out, the less comfortable I felt.
We looked at each other, coming to some unspoken agreement. I didn't trust him and he certainly didn't trust me. Our cards were finally on the table. As weird as it was, it was the first solid foundation we'd had.
Our guy was sitting, minding his own business, at his table when Fate stood and pulled a couple of bills out. He laid them on the table and nodded toward the door.
I looked at the guy, then shook my head and didn't get up.
His eyes widened, a silent come on already, I have a plan.
Fine. I got up and followed him out.
I stopped right outside the door. “Why are you trying to leave?”
He stopped as well. “Because I want to search his car.”
“Ahhh, okay. That's a good idea.”
“It's that dark gray Camry.” He pointed toward the luncheonette. I followed him, eager for some clues who this guy was and maybe why he'd decided to kill hundreds of humans in one fell swoop.
“Watch for him.” Fate opened the passenger door and then turned and looked back at me again. “You're supposed to be watching the guy, not me.”
“Why? He can't see us and I want to look too.” I tried to step around him to get to the glove box but he blocked me.
“Searching his car right now has nothing to do with a job. His fate isn't out of whack, or his karma. There is no camouflage.”
His logic would make sense except for one problem. “No one saw the door guys and that had nothing to do with me fixing someone's karma. You just want to have all the fun.”