Play with Fire

chapter Thirty-Three

“HOW MANY FINGERS?”

“Three.”

“Close your eyes. Now open. How many fingers this time?”

“Still three.”

“Keeping your head still, follow my fingers with your eyes.”

“Yes, Quincey.”

“Good. What’s today’s date?”

“Um – March 3rd.”

“Who’s Carnacki?

“A fictional ghostbuster, created by... William Hope Hodgson. It’s also the name of your hamster. How’s the little guy doing, by the way?”

“He’s fine.”

Morris leaned back and looked at Libby, who was seated on the bottom step of the staircase that connected the bookstore’s basement with the sales floor.

“Well, I don’t think you’re concussed,” he said. “Although we should get you to the ER and let professionals make that judgment.”

She shook her head – slowly. “I’ll be fine. But you know, it’s funny.”

“What is?”

“I never read War and Peace in college. I’ve always figured I’d get around to it someday – but this wasn’t quite what I had in mind.”

Morris gave her a quick grin. “Bad jokes means you’re probably okay. But stay here for a few minutes, will you? I want to check the upstairs.”

“Me and my throbbing head will be right here.”

Several minutes later, she heard footsteps descending the stairs.

“Scoot over,” Morris said. When she did, he sat down beside her.

“The old guy upstairs, Mister Schwartz – he’s dead. Throat torn out. And it looks like our werewolf friend took a few precautions – whether before or after he transformed, I don’t know.”

“What kind of precautions?”

“He put the ‘Closed’ sign on the door, and locked it. He also turned off about half the lights up there.”

“No wonder there haven’t been any customers barging in – and good thing, too. That... thing killed enough people, as it is.”

“And did you notice the surveillance cameras upstairs when we came in?”

“No, I didn’t – but I’m not surprised. It seems like everybody’s got them now.”

“The system feeds into a digital recorder that was behind Mister Schwartz’s desk. Somebody pulled out the hard drive, and smashed it.”

“Clever little werewolf – well, not so little. So, there’s no video of anything that happened upstairs. Are there any cameras down here?”

“No, I checked.”

Libby sat there rubbing her head for a little while before she said, “Poor Adelson. What must have possessed him, to take on a werewolf with a f*cking penknife? Mind you, I’m glad he did, from what you’ve said.”

“Maybe fear made him crazy,” Morris said. “I know he was terrified by the thing. So was I, but at least I understood what it was. Adelson must’ve had trouble believing his own eyes. Maybe that led to some kind of psychotic break.”

“And what you’re being too nice to say is that my spell might have contributed to that, somehow.”

“No way to be sure, is there?” Morris said. “I don’t imagine the spell textbook, or whatever it is you learned magic from, has much to say about the effects of combining a rapidly fading compliance spell with sheer terror.”

“No,” Libby said soberly, “I don’t suppose it does. So I’ll never know whether I played a role in the poor man’s death.”

“No, I don’t reckon you will,” Morris said. “But you might keep in mind that what Adelson did, whatever his motivation, saved our lives – and also represented some payback for what happened to Mister Schwartz.”

“My head hurts too much to consider complex theological issues right now,” Libby said. After a moment she added, “I suppose calling 911 is out of the question.”

“Not unless you fancy explaining to the Cambridge P.D. that of the three dead guys in here, two were killed by a werewolf. And the third fella – well, he was killed by me, but it’s okay, officer, because he was a werewolf.”

“Well, when you put it that way...”

“The cops would probably figure it was the most original insanity defense they’d ever heard.”

“Then we’d better get out of here, before somebody from Adelson’s family, or maybe Mister Schwartz’s, comes down here looking for him.”

Morris stood up. “Sounds like a good idea. But there’s something I want to pick up before we leave.”

“What’s that?”

“Those first four volumes of the Corpus Hermeticum.”