Affairs of the Dead (9 page)

Beth scurried away from the door and took us to her apartment on the second floor. Larry didn’t go in, so I leaned against the banister and waited for Beth to come back out. A few minutes later, she reappeared, half hiding behind her door, and handed Larry a single key.

“Thanks,” Larry said, closing his fist around the key.

“Leslie ain’t here,” Beth blurted. My eyebrows rose slightly. Larry gave a little laugh.

“I know,” he said. “I’m just here for the key.”

“Oh,” she said, looking between Larry and me for a moment. “I haven’t seen her in years,” she added.

“I didn’t ask, Beth dear,” he said. “I can see my wife if I want. You don’t have to worry.”

She regarded him for a moment, then closed the door, and I could hear her practically running away from it.

“Is it me or is she a tad mistrustful of you?” I said as Larry started up the stairs.

He shrugged. “A lot of people who knew me are like that.”

“I can believe that,” I said. “Who was she anyway?”

“Just someone I asked to hold a key.”

“She knew your wife.”

“She did,” Larry said.

“I saw Leslie the other day, you know,” I said. At that, Larry stopped walking and looked over his shoulder at me. We were halfway up the stairs to the sixth floor. My thighs were beginning to burn a little.

“How is she?”

“Seemed like she was on her way to becoming a Leech Baby junkie,” I said. I wasn’t going to lie and say his wife looked fabulous. Would that even make him feel good? “I saw her at a Leech House. She asked about you.” In the same sort of hesitant way that Beth had just interacted with him, but I didn’t say that.

It only now occurred to me that Larry and his wife may not have had a beautiful love affair just because they’d been married. That could explain why neither made much effort to meet.

“I see,” Larry said, continuing on up.

I wanted to be nosy and ask why neither he nor Leslie ever seemed to want to see each other, but something about the tense set of his shoulders made me decide not to pry. It wasn’t my business. What was my business was whatever was beyond the door Larry was currently unlocking.

“Here we are!” he announced, striding into the room.

When I walked in and closed the door, I gaped. The room was jam-packed with stuff, and when I say jam-packed, I meant along the lines of a hoarder’s paradise. Something that would have gotten Larry onto one of those TV shows that tried to help pack rats clear out their crap. And that often involved finding the bodies of dead cats under piles of junk.

Larry picked his way over the boxes on the floor, but I wanted to turn around and run out of the apartment. It was clear a window hadn’t been cracked here in years, and the stale air was laden with that old, musty smell you could only find in a sealed-up apartment full of God knows what.

“Larry, what exactly is the plan of action here?” I asked, though I didn’t really want to know the answer. He looked up from where he was already rifling through a box.

“Clearing out,” he said with a grin. I felt a small part of me die. “This is one of my last storehouses, and I need to get everything sorted and sent off to where it needs to go.”

“And Andrew knew this and only sent me to help you?” I was pissed. It was only natural to be pissed after seeing what I was faced with. This was a gargantuan task for one human and one ghost, even if the ghost was tangible. We were going to be here all damn day. I finally moved away from the door and walked farther into the room.

“Larry, why the hell didn’t you tell me we’d need boxes and a moving truck?” I said. Not everything in the apartment was boxed up, and there was a lot of furniture here. Only a moving truck would help with that.

I’d made it to the other side of the room where the windows were and started working the dusty things open to let some fresh air go to combat in here. The slightly sick feeling in my stomach made me think that something did in fact die here. I really did not want to come across that.

“Must have slipped my mind,” Larry said absently. He’d moved from the living room to the kitchen. I gave him the evil eye. “I suppose a moving truck would make things a lot easier, doll. Maybe you can put in the call?” He grinned at me, and I almost took advantage of the fact that he was tangible by punching him.

Instead, I took out my cell phone, called Amy, and asked her to arrange to have a moving truck, equipped with empty boxes, come out to where we were. After that, Larry asked me to help him in the bedroom, where there were actually some empty boxes and a room full of stuff to put in them. I sulked as I got to work, and Larry whistled.

On closer inspection, I realized that a lot of the items here were in good condition. The closet was full of designer handbags, as well as expensive dresses and suits. The dust-covered jewelry boxes on the dresser had a lot of jewelry in them, and the price tags had no less than four figures. Some had six.

“Dare I ask if these items were bought or stolen?” I asked.

Larry laughed. “Which answer do you want to hear, doll?”

“I think I just got it,” I muttered. “Where are you planning to send these things anyway?”

“Family, friends, people I owe something to,” was his reply.

Great. So along with packing up this place, I had to play delivery girl. Good thing I had worn flats today. I’d learned my lesson from doing track and retrieve in pumps.

Nature called, so I headed to the bathroom, but when I pulled the door open, I jumped back and yelped when something darted past my feet and ran into the living room. My necromancer magic also flared, so I headed into the living room after it.

“A cat?” I said. “A ghost cat?”

Sure enough, the ghostly form of a cat was crouched in a corner, regarding me with eyes that were brilliant green even though the rest of it was a pale figure surrounded by a white glow. Seeing the ghost of an animal was rare since animals didn’t tend to die with unfinished business, but it wasn’t unheard of to have an animal’s ghost rise, though who knew what the reason was. Maybe they’d died without getting their afternoon belly scratch or something. Necromancer circles were performed to take care of animal ghosts, and thankfully, they were a lot less arduous than necromancer circles for human ghosts.

“Oh yeah, that’s Vicious,” Larry said, coming up next to me. As though responding to its name, Vicious hissed, well, viciously. “He belonged to my brother,” Larry continued. “He loved the cat, but accidentally killed him.”

“This happened before you died?” I asked. Larry nodded.

“Tell me the body was disposed of,” I said, looking around at the many ways a cat could get crushed in this place.

“Don’t worry,” Larry said, which wasn’t exactly an answer, but I shrugged and went back to the bedroom.

When I ran out of empty boxes, I figured I’d consolidate the full ones in the middle of the room. The bedroom was big enough to make it work. I spotted another closet, and inside there were more packed boxes. I dragged one out.

“What are you doing?” Larry asked. I turned around, raising an eyebrow at the sharp tone in his voice. Vicious the cat was sitting in the doorway, looking on.

“Um, I’m helping,” I said. “I was just going to put all the boxes in the middle of the room.”

“You can leave those,” Larry said. I looked down at the box. It was labeled “MG,” which I figured must be someone’s initials.

“It’s just old junk in there,” Larry continued. “They’re not going anywhere, so just leave those boxes in the closet.”

“O…kay,” I said. Whatever, the fewer boxes to deal with, the better.

The other boxes in the closet were labeled “MG” as well, and from their old, mildewy look, it didn’t seem like they contained jewelry or designer bags. I shrugged and put the box back, and Larry returned to the living room.

About half an hour later, the moving truck showed up and we started to pack it up. Larry was careful about what we packed together; he didn’t just want us to haul out random boxes. Therefore, it took a while before we headed out with our first set of loot.

The truck followed my car, and with Larry’s directions, I found myself driving all over the Bronx, knocking on people’s doors and explaining what Larry, me, and a sofa or end table was doing there. Most were shocked to see Larry, but everyone was happy to receive whatever he had for them. Larry was like Santa the Criminal Ghost.

It took all day to deliver everything in the apartment, but when we were done, Larry informed me that we would now have to clean up. My body was sore from pushing, lifting, and carrying boxes, so I was not enthused by the fact that we would still have to clean.

It was after seven, and I had only managed to grab a donut for lunch, so on top of being sore and cranky, I was hungry. But I just gave Larry a tight smile and went to buy cleaning supplies while he waited at the apartment. When I returned, it took two hours to clean the damn place, and I came away filthy and even more exhausted.

When we were finally ready to leave, I looked around for Vicious but didn’t see him. I had planned to transport him back to the office so we could send him off.

“Where’s the ghost cat?” I asked Larry. He shrugged, casting a glance around him.

“He’s a ghost,” Larry said. “Probably ran through a wall or something.”

“Well, I’m sure he’ll be rounded up sooner or later,” I said. Animal ghosts didn’t manifest into beasties, so rounding them up wasn’t top priority.

Larry and I finally left, and Larry left the key with a nervous Beth before we headed back to my car. I didn’t know why he’d leave the key if we’d emptied out the place, but I didn’t care enough to ask. I drove us back to the office. Larry had a room on one of the lower floors where he could hang around. There, he was allowed to wear energy rune stones for periods of time so he could do things like hold the remote to watch television. Once we were back at the office, I took my rune stones off him. He’d get others when he got to his room.

“Thanks for your help, doll,” Larry said as we rode the elevator.

“You’re welcome,” I muttered, dropping my head back and closing my eyes. I leaned wearily against the elevator wall. “Think you’re any closer to crossing the hell over?”

Larry chuckled. “Everyone just wants to see me go, don’t they?”

“It’s only natural,” I said. “You can’t hang around here forever.”

“What a shame,” he said. The doors opened on the fourth floor and he got out. “Catch you later, doll.”

The doors closed and I continued up to tenth. By now, it was after ten and the suite was mostly empty. I was tired, and technically, I was supposed to do a write-up of the day’s activities and add it to Larry’s file, but I had no interest in doing that right now.

I headed to Andrew’s office, where I found him behind his desk. Could always count on Andrew to be at the office late. I slammed the door to get his attention, and he smiled when he looked at my worse-for-the-wear appearance and sour expression.

“I’ve just endured the longest day of my life,” I announced. “I spent the day moving boxes and cleaning out an apartment, and I am tired and filthy, but I am here to hand out your punishment.”

I started peeling off my clothes, and Andrew’s face took on a lascivious look as he loosened his tie. I walked around his desk, and he turned in his chair.

“Now I know straddling you in that chair and riding you until you’re as sore as I am isn’t exactly what you’d call a punishment, but since I am so unclean right now, consider getting my stink all over you your punishment.”

Andrew just laughed, pulled me into his lap, and got me out of my underwear.

Chapter Seven

When I woke up the next morning, I was still sore from all the manual labor with Larry, but I was also sore from my romp with Andrew, which was the only type of soreness I enjoyed. The first thing I did after rolling out of bed was take my reanimation power back. I had been too tired to do it last night.

I got out the binding rune and sat with it on my bedroom floor, holding it tightly in my fist and closing my eyes. Concentrating on the power I had stored in the stone, I opened myself so I could take it back. The process was less time consuming and draining than transferring my power to the stone had been, and it took only a few moments. When it was done, I opened my eyes and smiled, feeling so much better now that I was whole again.

After I hid the binding stone away, I got ready for work. Ethan milled around the living room, looking despondent, but I got out of the house as quickly as I could since I hadn’t yet done the tracking ritual. Once I’d mentioned that, he had gotten all huffy and upset, but I promised him I’d do it tonight, and I hoped I’d be able to keep that promise. I just had to stop doing things that completely drained me. There was a marathon of
Planet Earth
on the Discovery Channel, so I hoped that would distract his nerdy heart until I got home.

When I got to work and sat at my desk, the first thing I noticed was a white card with my name written in beautiful italics on it. Turning it over, I saw that it was an invitation to a cocktail party at Andrew’s condo this Saturday night. When I looked around, I saw others reading their invitations and seeming excited about it.

I smiled. Andrew periodically invited us to cocktail parties at his place, and unless it was Christmas or New Year’s, there was never a reason for them other than he had a vast stock of alcohol and was a social drinker. I enjoyed them since I wasn’t the type of girl to turn down a drink. Especially if it was free. Plus, ever since Andrew and I started sleeping together, going to a cocktail party at his house when his wife was there was something of a thrill. Now I’d have to figure out what to wear.

But there was still the rest of the week to get through before I could get my drink on, and though I had every intention of cranking out my report on working with Larry yesterday with record speed, I had done little more than boot up my computer before Micah and his sourpuss face came up to me.

“Andrew wants to see us in his office,” he said. Then he walked off.