Eye of the Witch (5 page)

“
What?” he said. I watched his smile fade.

“
Do you think that was wise?” I asked him.

“
What do you mean?”

“
That note. You don’t really think she’ll give it to Natalie without reading it. Do you?” I almost started laughing.

“
Yeah, why?”

“
You told her it was police business. Curiosity will surely get the better of her. She’ll read it and think you’ll want to ask questions about her. Natalie will never get it now.”

“
You think?”

“
Sure.” The urge to really let it out nearly overtook me. But you learn to keep a poker face when you’re a cop, especially when playing a joke on a fellow officer. And the longer you can keep it up, the greater the reward. I kept a straight face and dismissed it like it meant nothing. “You know what, Carlos?” I waved my hand in a flutter. “Don’t worry about it. We’ll get to talk to her some other time.”

I probably shouldn’t have done it to him. Carlos worried so much about Natalie getting his note, that he barely touched his extra meatballs. All during lunch I caught him looking over his shoulder at the lunch counter to see if she would notice him. Each time he saw her eyes drifting toward our booth, he would try nodding or waving to get her attention. Despite his efforts, or in spite of them, she failed to acknowledge his existence.

We were about to ask for our tab and leave, when I heard the little bell chiming up over the door. At once, nearly every head in the place turned, including Carlos’. In all my years, I only knew one individual who could command that kind of presence when entering a room. I turned to the door, and her name spilled from my lips like a song.

“
Lilith Adams.”

She appeared more stunning than I remembered. Perhaps because the last time we met, I was actively engaged in an investigation to nail her for murder. You tend to see through a person’s beauty when you factor a homicide into the equation. With the fog of nadir lifted, I could now fully appreciate the utter brilliance of her beauty. Her skin, the color of cappuccino even in the perpetual gloom of New England’s April rains, seemed to radiate a luminescence unequaled in nature. Her long black hair flowed in silky threads like smoke on glass. She stood against the open door, one hand on her hip, one knee bent, her blue jeans tighter than cellophane, her buttoned shirt half-opened down the front but tucked in along the back. It’s not to say that I had forgotten Lilith Adams altogether, though hard I tried. Visions of her all but consumed me the first few weeks I was away from New Castle. Shades of Lilith filled my sleepless nights. I could not shake the insult of her sassy attitude, snide remarks and daring laugh. Her cocky posture burned in silhouette deep within the crevices of my mind. A man my age can only hope to forget such things in a woman, especially one so much younger and vivacious. But there is one thing a man can never forget, something I will never forget: her eyes, her wildly captivating, hopelessly hypnotic, fathomless, flirtatious, blazing and beguiling ebony eyes. They shall haunt me in my dreams for as long as I live. I have looked into those eyes and seen the fervency of hell, yet I hold that somewhere in her soul she knows of it only from a distance.

Lilith patrolled the diner with sweeping glances, starting at the front by the lunch counter and working back. Those who recognized her scooted their chairs away from the door. Those that didn’t, followed suit just the same. When the mine sweep crossed our booth, our eyes locked. I heard Carlos swallow back the lump in his throat. I reached across the table without looking and patted his hand to hush him.

“
Easy, boy,” I said. “She’s not going to bite.”

His whispered reply I could hardly hear, but I believe he said, “Are you sure?”

She let the door go, and as it hit her ass, she started walking. She headed straight for our booth with a whip in her strut. I saw Carlos’ hand slip behind his jacket on his holster side. He could have pulled his gun and shot her, and I suppose it would have all been worth it, except for some paperwork. But I slapped the hand that he still had on the table and I made him stop reaching. Lilith clicked her heels at the foot of our table and folded her arms tightly below her breasts.

“
Detective Marcella,” she said, and it didn’t sound very cordial. “I heard you were in town.”

I smiled up at her, pleasantly as I could. “Well, what a coincidence. I heard you were in town, too.”

“
No coincidence. I live here. But you know that.”

“
You’re right. I also know you didn’t come here for the food. Please, have a seat anyway. It’s been a while.”

I scooted over enough to let Lilith slide in next to me. She smiled pretentiously, and instead slapped Carlos on the shoulder. “Move it, Fidel!” she barked, and then crowded him into the corner where the rips in the imitation leather seats jabbed at his butt. I tried not to laugh, but the look of absolute violation on his face seemed priceless. It didn’t help matters when she nudged the plate of extra meatballs in front of him with a fork like it was nuclear waste. Carlos relocated the plate to a section of table less offensive.

“
Do you mind?” he said, wiping his fingers clean of sauce with a paper napkin. “Really. What is your problem?”

“
My problem,” she said, and this she directed at me, “is that I’ve been trying to find a way to reach you for nearly a year.”

“
Me?” I said, pointing at myself.

“
Yes. Nobody in your stinking precinct would tell me where you went or what happened to you.”

“
Really? Lilith, I’m touched. I didn’t know you cared so much.”

She made a face as if a sour nut had just come up her throat. “Hardly. You have something I want.”

I straightened up in my seat and pulled the kink from my tie. “Do I? Frankly, I didn’t think I was your type.”

“
P—leeease, Detective. I’d sooner sleep with Fidel, over here.” She jabbed her thumb into Carlos’ side, hitting his holstered gun. They turned and looked at each other, equally surprised. “Yeah, you,” she said. “You can just forget about it, my little Copacabana boy. You’re already about as close to me as you’re ever going to get. So, take a deep breath and savor it.”

“
Lilith!” I said, no longer amused. “You’re getting a little mean-spirited in your old age, aren’t you? Whatever happened to graciousness and courtesy?”

“
They’re dead, Detective, along with my friends from the research center.”

“
And whose fault is that?”

“
Not mine!” she snapped, loud enough for heads in the diner to turn again. “If that’s what you’re insinuating.”

“
Oh, no?”

“
Certainly not.”

“
Right, I forgot. I guess Shekina and Akasha Kayo weren’t friends of your. So, killing them doesn’t count.”

“
You can’t prove that.”

“
How about Doctor Lieberman?”

“
Yeah, how `bout Doctor Lieberman? You had his killer in jail and you let him hang himself. Or maybe he had help.”

I slammed my hand down on the table hard, causing silverware to chatter on plates and Carlos’ Coke to splash from his glass. “What’s that supposed to mean? Are you saying I had something to do with Gordon’s suicide?”

“
I’m saying he was yours to watch. You had a responsibility. Hadn’t enough people already died by then?”

“
Why—you little bitch….” I lunged across the table at her. So help me, I wanted to hurt her. I don’t know why. I had already beaten myself up over Gordon Walsh’s death. To a great degree, though, Lilith was right. Gordon was mine to watch. I should have known he was suicidal after all that happened. But things were really falling apart at that point in the investigation. And that I was with Lilith when he killed himself only made matters worse. I suppose Carlos, witnessing this verbal joust, predicted my unprofessional response to her overtures. As quickly as I came at her, he somehow managed to insert himself between us, preventing my fool-hearted assault.

When things settled down, I apologized to Lilith and to Carlos, too. I expressed my regrets and condemned my actions as conduct unbecoming an officer of the law, retired or otherwise. Carlos, of course, accepted. Lilith’s forgiveness came in a more roundabout way.

“
That’s all right, Detective,” she said. Strange, but I noticed how not a single hair on her head went amiss. “I understand you still have some unresolved issues regarding your last case. Believe it or not, so do I.”

“
You?” I said. “That’s funny, because I thought you were the only one that got from the case what you wanted.”

“
And what was that?”

“
Validation. I know they all laughed at your witchcraft and your witch’s ladder. But you showed them. Didn’t you?”

“
That witch’s ladder saved your wrinkled old ass.”

“
I’m not denying that.”

“
No, you’re not. But since we’re on the subject, let me tell you why I came looking for you.”

There is something very unsettling about having a witch tell you that she’s been looking for you. I couldn’t imagine it was a good thing. I pitched back in my seat and gestured for her to continue.

“
As I said, Detective, you have something I want.”

“
And that is?”

“
You remember when you rescued Leona Diaz from the basement of the research center?”

“
Where Doctor Lowell had her tied to the bed, of course.”

“
Well—”

“
Detective Rodriquez! Detective Marcella!” Dominic Spinelli came into the diner and spotted us from the front door. He hurried to the booth in a sprint. “There you are. I thought I might find you here.”

“
Dominic!” Carlos clearly seemed happy to see him. “How did you get here?”

“
I caught a ride in a black and white.”

“
Well, good!”

“
Spinelli,” I said. “Have a seat. Let me introduce you to Lilith.” He took a seat next to me and offered her his hand. She looked at it, at him, and then finally at me. That sour expression revisited her face. I smiled and said, “Humor him. He’s a good kid.”

She reached out and they shook. “You’re a detective? What are you, like, fifteen?”

“
I’m twenty-six,” he replied, feeling insulted, but I suspected he got that a lot. “Probably older than you.”

“
Don’t go there,” I said. “You don’t ever want to ask a witch her age.”

He looked at her with splayed eyes. “A witch? Right, you’re Lilith Adams! I read about you.”

She pulled back, and although she seldom showed it, we all saw her smile. “Did you?”

“
Yes, in the official case reports that Detectives Rodriquez and Marcella filed last year. Of course there were no mentions of you being a witch. But Detective Rodriquez filled me in on all the juicy tidbits. Hey, you know someone should write a book on you.”

“
You think?”

“
Absolutely! You’re fascinating.”

Lilith glanced our way. “Detectives, where did you find this boy? He’s adorable.”

“
Hey,” said Carlos. “Maybe Dominic should write a book.” He turned to Lilith and offered, “He’s expertly versed on the occult, you know. He would do a great job with it.”

“
Would he, now?” She leaned her head back and sized Dominic up one side and down the other. “You’ve studied witches?”

“
Some,” he replied. “Witches, witchcraft, the Wiccan religion and basically all the Neo-Pagan theologies.”

“
What do you mean all of them?” Carlos joked. “Isn’t one Satan worshiper the same as another?”

“
Ho, boy, here we go,” said Lilith, rolling her eyes. She turned to Carlos and fed him a—let me tell
YOU
something—look. She started in, “First of all, Fidel, witches aren’t—”

“
Please,” said Dominic, reaching across the table and touching Lilith’s arm. “Allow me.” He looked at Carlos, but kept his hand on Lilith’s sleeve. Surprisingly, she didn’t pull away. “Carlos,” he said, “if there’s one thing you should know about Neo-Pagan worshipers, it’s that they don’t worship Satan. And although witches are Neo-Pagans, not all Neo-Pagans are witches. Some Neo-Pagans are Wiccans. And, though witches aren’t Wiccan, some Wiccans practice witchcraft. And most, particularly witches don’t believe in Satan. Like Wiccans, witches believe in deities of nature—natural spirits. A traditional witch’s rede is, ‘If thee harm none, then do as thou wilt.’” He turned to Lilith and smiled. “Does that sound about right, Miss Adams?”

She smiled back, her thin brows punctuated in parentheses. “Yeah,” she said, satisfied. “Close enough.” They held eye contact for a curiously long time. Looking at Spinelli it wasn’t hard to tell what he was thinking. Lilith, on the other hand—and as usual, was much harder to read. This continued until both Carlos and I felt sufficiently uncomfortable. I nudged Spinelli out of his groove like a stuck record needle. He blinked the spell broken. Lilith turned to me next, and her expression changed dramatically.

“
Detective,” she spat, “about Leona Diaz.”

“
Yes,” I responded, zeroing in where we left off. “Of course, I remember rescuing her from the basement of the research center. What about it?”

“
Leona had in her possession at the time a string of beads. Do you remember that?”

“
Her rosary.”