“Wulf isn’t making my job any easier,” Diesel said. “It’s bad enough we’re underground….I don’t want to drive Ammon underground.”
“Maybe it wasn’t Wulf. I mean, it’s hard to believe he could pitch a fit and blow up a house. I’m going with gas leak. I thought I smelled gas when I was in the house.”
“Were you standing by Hatchet?”
—
There was mutiny in the rumpus room when we returned, so we sent everyone home. It seemed like Rutherford and Ammon had what they wanted anyway, and the danger level was insignificant. Broom whacked Josh one last time, but it was halfhearted, and Glo thought Broom might not be all that mad anymore. If it was me, I wouldn’t be so forgiving. But then Glo dated guys with snakes tattooed on their foreheads, and I wouldn’t do that, either.
Cat was waiting at the door when Diesel and I stepped into the house. I picked him up and held him close, and carried him into the kitchen.
“I’m glad you weren’t in any danger,” I said. “I was worried about you.”
Cat probably thought this was stupid. He was self-sufficient. It was unclear how many lives he’d already had, but clearly this wasn’t his first. Still, I wanted him to know I cared. Cat and I had become family.
“Eeep,” Carl said.
I looked down at him. “Yep,” I said. “You, too.”
“How about me?” Diesel asked.
“What about you?”
“Am I included in this happy family?”
“Sure. What the heck.”
He grabbed me and kissed me. “What’s for dinner?”
“Something from the freezer.”
“Is there dessert?”
“I can arrange it.”
My phone rang, and I saw that it was Glo.
“Help,” she said. “Oh crap. Low battery.”
And the phone went dead.
“Glo’s in trouble,” I said to Diesel.
“Where is she?”
“Don’t know.”
“This doesn’t look good for the dessert, does it?” Diesel said.
“We should go over to her apartment and see if she’s okay.”
Diesel took a box of cereal out of the cupboard and handed it to Carl.
“Knock yourself out,” Diesel said. “Bananas Foster when we get back.”
Carl grabbed the box and gave Diesel the finger.
I snagged a sweatshirt out of the coat closet and hung my tote bag on my shoulder. It had started to rain and the temperature was dropping.
“Search and rescue of senior citizens isn’t in my job description,” Diesel said.
“You only do what’s in your job description?”
He opened the door to the Porsche for me. “Apparently not.”
Diesel drove through Marblehead and crossed into Salem. He was a block from Glo’s apartment when she darted into the road in front of the car. Diesel hit the brakes, and I was thrown against my shoulder harness.
“You gotta love the ceramic brakes,” Diesel said. “I have a distant relative in New Jersey who drives a black Porsche Turbo, and I’m beginning to see why. I’m liking this car.”
Glo yanked my door open. “Let me in. They’re after me!”
I jumped out, and Glo climbed into the miniseat in the back, taking Broom and her bag with her. I got back in, and Diesel cruised down the block, past Glo’s apartment. She lives in a large house that had been built for a single family in the ’50s and converted into four apartments in the ’70s. There was some paint peeling off the window frames, and the yard was minimally maintained, but it was in a relatively safe part of town, and it was in Glo’s budget.
A black Cadillac Escalade was parked in front of the house. Headlights were on and windshield wipers were working. Windows were tinted. No way to know who was inside. Diesel made a U-turn and pulled to the curb a block away, so we could watch the Escalade.
“It was Rutherford,” Glo said. “I saw him through my peephole, and I wouldn’t let him in, so he broke down my door. Honestly, that is so rude.”
“What did he want?” I asked.
“He said he feared somehow Mr. Ammon had been put under an evil spell, and he wanted me to lift it. I tried to explain that it wasn’t so simple, but he wasn’t listening. He kept saying how Mammon was angry. And time was short. That Mammon had awakened but wasn’t able to achieve his full potential in his present form.”
“His present form being that he thinks he’s a poodle?” Diesel asked.
“More like a rabid honey badger,” Glo said. “Rutherford had a big bite mark on his hand. When he saw me looking at the bite mark he said that Mammon had a hunger that needed feeding. And then he mumbled something about human sacrifice.”
“Human sacrifice isn’t good,” I said. “That never ends well.”
“How did you get away?” Diesel asked.