“Toughen up, Brad. Hell, you’re a cop. You know what people think, and you know it doesn’t matter. What matters is thinking of every single detail, of following every little clue.”
Wincing, Brad nodded. “I know that, and I’ve tried. We’ve thought of everything…Hell, the cops here have even looked at the idea that Mary was pulling a disappearing act to get even with me. But she didn’t. Mary isn’t like that. You know her, and you know she’d never do anything like that. Plus we found her cell phone and her purse, with her credit cards and ID still in it, lying on a grave.”
“Have they investigated the grave?” Jeremy asked.
Brad shook his head, reaching for his drink again. “It wasn’t disturbed. Jeremy, it really is like she disappeared into thin air.”
“I told you, no one disappears into thin air. No matter how efficient the kidnapper was, he’ll have left evidence. For now, tell me everything about that day.”
Brad shook his head. “You must have heard everything already by now. I’m sure you were on the Internet two minutes after I called you.”
“I want to hear it from you. The whole day, from start to finish.”
Brad almost smiled. “With details? We started the morning off with a wild bout of sex. Honest. That’s the best thing about making up, starting over. Man, the sex has been good again. Had been good,” he added in a whisper.
“The rest of the day, Brad. Everything. You had sex. And then…?”
Brad nodded. Took a deep breath. Started talking. He had street names down pat, along with museum and shop names. But he hesitated when he got to the afternoon.
“It was that Damien guy. I know it. He was a real creep. He liked Mary right off. I saw the way he looked at her.”
“That guy—you’re talking about the fortune-teller the police haven’t found yet, right? The one who didn’t have a permit,” Jeremy said.
“There was something wrong with him. He was…scary,” Brad said. “And Mary…Mary was freaked out by him, too.”
“But nothing actually happened in the tent, did it?” Jeremy asked.
“No. Yes. No.” Brad was frowning, thinking back. He shook his head. “Not physically, but the guy…said things. He said I was weak. That Mary was in danger. And his special effects, the stuff in his crystal ball…it was freaky. I mean, you could see things in that ball as if they were real. It started with a turkey.”
“A turkey?” Jeremy repeated. He looked at Brad’s glass. The bourbon was all gone. He wondered just how many his friend had drunk before this one.
“A turkey dinner,” Brad said impatiently. “I could see it as if it were real. It was like I could smell it, too. Almost taste it.”
Jeremy sat silent for a minute. “What did the guy look like?” he asked.
Brad was thoughtful. “Showy—you know, like he was having fun being dramatic for Halloween. He was tall, or maybe it was the cape.”
“Okay, he was wearing a cape. Ethnicity? The color of his eyes? Come on, Brad, you know how to give a description,” Jeremy reminded him.
“He was wearing a cape and a turban. Tall, dark and lean. But it was hard to really read his features, because he was wearing makeup. You know, around the eyes—maybe he had darkened his skin, too, I’m not sure. But he was real—lots of people saw him and the tent. The thing is, it’s been hard for the cops to track him down, because it was Halloween. The city was full of tourists, and most of them have gone home. Besides, the cops think I’m just grasping at straws, pointing the finger at that guy. Mary didn’t even disappear right after we saw him. The thing is, they didn’t see what I saw in his tent. They didn’t hear the way the man talked. As if he knew us. As if he was threatening us.”
“You have to remember exactly what this guy said,” Jeremy told him.
Brad hung his head. He looked as if he was going to start crying at any minute.
“Look,” Jeremy said firmly, “I’m going to walk you to your hotel, and I’ll be back for you at nine tomorrow morning. We’re going to retrace every step you took that day. All right?”
Brad nodded, then looked up at Jeremy. “Sure,” he said listlessly.
“Brad, it’s important.”
“It won’t help.”
“Why not?”
“Because that Damien guy is gone, and no one knows where he is. But he took Mary. I know he did.”
“Brad, did this guy claim to have any special powers? Did he say he was a wiccan or anything?”
Brad shook his head. “Oh, no. He wasn’t a wiccan. He told us that right away, when Mary asked.”
“Did he say anything about having a local business? Did he say where he was from? That he belonged to a magicians’ union or something?”
Brad solemnly shook his head again. “No. He didn’t say anything at all. But I know what he is.” He stopped, his expression grim.
“And what’s that?” Jeremy prompted.
“The devil,” Brad said seriously. “He’s the devil.”
5
Rowenna saw Jeremy sitting alone at the bar when she went in and joined him.