The Book With No Name (33 page)

As it was, he had been scoping the place for less than twenty minutes when it was suddenly brought home to him that he had made a slight error of judgement. His cellphone rang. Out loud. The sound, shockingly loud in the dark silence, nearly made him jump out of his skin, and having heard it he couldn’t answer the damn thing quickly enough.

‘Hello, Somers, that you?’ he whispered

‘Yeah. How are you gettin’ on?’ Somers’s voice crackled out from the handset.

‘I’m at that place we talked about, but I haven’t seen anything yet. How ’bout you?’

‘Not much doin’ here either. I’ve checked out a couple of hotels, but you know what it’s like. Bunch of unhelpful
bastards. Anyway, the reason I was calling was to tell you to make sure you’ve got your phone on silent. Didn’t know if you were familiar with stakeout etiquette.’

Jensen cringed. ‘Of course. What do you take me for? Anyway, I thought you said not to use the phone unless it was absolutely necessary?’

‘Yeah, you’re right. Sorry. It’s just that we can’t be too careful. You think you’re in the slightest danger, you get out of there, okay?’

‘Okay, Somers, I will. Don’t worry.’

‘Good. Now listen, I’ll check in with you when I come off duty later, so make sure you keep the phone on vibrate. Little details like that save lives, Jensen. You go careful, there could be armed guards all round that place. You get nervous about it, get your ass out of there.’

‘You got it. Take care yourself.’

‘Sure. Speak to you later.’

Jensen switched the settings on his cellphone to vibrate. Idiot, he thought. Schoolboy error to get caught out by the old ringing-phone scenario. The realization that he had so nearly slipped up like that only served to fuel the uneasiness he already felt. It was getting truly dark very quickly now, and the Casa de Ville was beginning to look more and more creepy.

As it happened, Jensen chose not to move from his post opposite the front gates. He stayed for almost two hours, staring at a mansion that never moved. Nothing came in, nothing came out, and, curiously enough, nothing even came past on the road. Not one vehicle. Not one pedestrian. Not even one woodland animal. Maybe people knew to stay away from this area once it got dark? It was certainly easy to see why. Once the moon came out to shine down on the Casa de Ville it made the place look truly sinister, a total frightfest. Two hours here was enough for anyone. To hell with it, Jensen thought. If ever the creatures of the night, the undead, were going to come out looking for prey, it was now. And it was probably here. With the clock edging towards ten-thirty, he decided it was time to
make his way back to the car. It would be even harder on the way back, fighting his way through the thick woodland, but as long as he could still see the road without actually letting himself be in a position where someone on the road could see him, he would be okay.

He stood up slowly from where he had been kneeling. His legs had gone a little numb in the cold, and he could feel a pre-cramp sensation coming on. He had just taken a step to his left to head back the way he had come when he received his second fright of the night. It wasn’t a phone ringing that made him jump this time, though. It was a voice. A deep, throaty man’s voice from somewhere behind and above him.

‘I thought you were going to wait down there all night. Not many people last as long as you have.’

Jensen’s heart leapt into his throat. He spun around towards where the voice had come from. At first he could see nothing but dark tree branches. Then, in the darkness, he made out the darker silhouette of a very large man standing on a tree branch almost ten feet above where he had been crouching.

Kacy sat in the motel room with the lights off, looking out of the window, waiting for Dante. She had expected him to arrive back no more than five minutes after her. Forty-five had passed. She had tried to watch TV for a while but she couldn’t concentrate on any of the programmes. She had tried pacing up and down the room. That didn’t help, because the room just wasn’t big enough. A double bed in the centre took up over half the floor space, and what was left had not exactly been designed for strolling around in.

It had become pretty dark outside by now and she was afraid, not so much for herself, but for Dante. He had that hot-headed streak which, she knew, would one day get him into some trouble he couldn’t deal with. She knew how dangerous it was in Santa Mondega, but occasionally she got the impression that Dante had no idea. He was fearless sometimes, without any good reason. Totally fearless. She loved him for it, but it really did give her the shits.

She had been staring through the open slats of the window blind for what seemed like an eternity when she finally saw a car approach. At first all she was able to see were the headlights. They were not the everyday, standard sort of headlights, either. Kacy didn’t know a lot about cars, but at a guess she would have said these were headlights like those you find on a Cadillac. And that would have been an accurate guess, too. She was tempted to pat herself on the back when she realized it actually was a Cadillac. A bright yellow Cadillac, from what she could see. The motel room was on ground level, so she got a good view of the car as it approached. It cruised
up slowly to the room she was in, its shiny yellow paintwork gleaming in the night. Then it pulled in right in front of the window. The bright beam of the headlights blinded her, so that she was unable to make out the driver. And now she felt even more afraid. Why would this Cadillac pull up directly outside their room at the motel? There were plenty of other free spaces it could have parked in.

The car’s engine was pretty loud, so in some ways it was a relief when the driver turned it off. It took a few seconds for the vibrations to die down completely. Then the headlights dimmed and went out. Kacy, however, was still dazzled by those lights, her eyes struggling to adjust to the darkness. She heard a car door shut, but she still hadn’t seen anyone get out of the Cadillac. The next thing she heard was the sound of footsteps, hard-soled shoes crunching on the small gravel stones of the parking lot. As if she believed it might do some good, she closed the blinds and jumped back in the hope of not being seen.

The silhouette of a man moved past the window and up to the door. It looked a little like Dante, but she couldn’t be certain. The round brass doorhandle shook as the man tried to turn it from the outside. Kacy had locked it behind her when she’d got back to the room. She wasn’t about to take any chances. The handle continued to rattle, more violently with each passing second. Should she call out to see if it was Dante? Or should she stay quiet in case it wasn’t? Surely if she waited long enough he would shout through the door to ask her to let him in? But what if he didn’t, and then went off to look for her instead? Goddammit. She decided she’d call out.

‘Dante? That you, baby?’

The handle on the door stopped shaking, but no voice answered. Kacy tiptoed to the door.

‘Dante?’ she repeated, a little more quietly. Still no answer. Now she was really scared, but she couldn’t think what else to do but open the door. The man outside didn’t appear to be going away, and the thought of him kicking the door down to get in terrified her so much that she decided it would be
best just to open it. At least then she could pretend to be someone else, someone with nothing to hide. She reached out and placed a trembling hand on the key in the door. She was trembling so much that she accidentally turned the key before she was ready to, and the door immediately swung open a few inches. A hand jabbed in through the gap and grabbed hold of the door, pushing it open from the outside. Kacy jumped back a few paces and let out a small squeal of shock. Standing in front of her, smiling and holding up a set of car keys, was Dante.

‘Oh, baby. You scared the shit out of me! Why didn’t you answer me when I asked if it was you?’

The smile disappeared from Dante’s face.

‘Kace,’ he said seriously, ‘if you didn’t know it was me, you shouldn’t have answered the door. You’ve gotta be more careful than that, okay?’

‘Sorry, baby, but I was scared, bein’ on my own an’ everything.’

Dante threw the keys down on the bed and walked over to her. It comforted her greatly when he put his arms around her and kissed her full on the lips. Then he took her hand and led her over to the door, which was still open. Stepping out, he pointed at the car parked outside their room.

‘Take a look at this, honey. Whadda ya think of my new set of wheels?’ he said, admiring the yellow Cadillac outside. Kacy peered around the door and her eyes opened wide.

‘Wow! That’s a sexy car. Where d’ya get it?’

‘I just found it in the street after I left the bar. It was just sittin’ there with the keys already in the ignition. Seemed kinda rude not to take it, you know? I mean, someone coulda stolen it.’

Kacy wanted to be really furious with Dante for being so stupid as to steal a car when they really didn’t need to be drawing attention to themselves. But she was so relieved to have him back that she couldn’t bring herself to get too angry with him.

‘Baby, you lost your mind?’ she said, shaking her head.
‘Half this town is looking for us because we got this Eye of the Moon thing, and you’ve stolen a bright yellow Cadillac. It’s not the height of discretion, is it? And where the hell have you been? You’ve been gone nearly an hour!’

Dante walked back into the room and shut the door behind him. His cheeks were rosy, as if he had been out in the cold for an unhealthy length of time, but that wasn’t actually the case. He owed his high colour simply to the fact that he was in a good mood.

‘I got more great news. Those two monks that come in the bar? Well, they walked over and sat with me. I was a bit fuckin’ worried at first, I can tell ya, but it turns out they don’t have a clue about us. They don’t know we’ve got that stone.’

‘Oh God! You didn’t mention it to them, did you?’

‘Of course not. Whadda ya think I am? A moron?’

Kacy raised an eyebrow, but otherwise chose not to respond. She was eager to know exactly what Dante had been discussing with the two monks. And it seemed that he was as eager to tell her, so she let him continue.

‘Well, anyway,’ he went on, ‘I got talkin’ to them, and they were actually really nice guys. Then I said I’d heard through the grapevine they were looking for the Eye of the Moon …’

‘Oh Dante, no …’

‘Yeah, baby, but it’s cool. I said I thought I could get it for them, but only at a price. They’re gonna give us ten grand for it!’

‘But, honey, we don’t need another ten grand!’

‘Yeah, I know. But it wouldn’t hurt, would it? And these guys weren’t violent at all. They were into peace and all that karma crap.’

Kacy moved away from Dante and sat down on the end of the bed with her head in her hands. ‘So what now? Are they comin’ here?’ she asked, fearful of what the answer might be.

‘God, no. I’m not stupid. I said I’d meet them in the same bar tomorrow morning at opening time.’

Kacy was far from convinced of the merits of this plan.
Dante had obviously not thought it through, and was only now discussing it with her having already made up his mind about what to do.

‘I don’t think we should still have that stone tomorrow when the eclipse is due. I wanna get rid of it now and get out of here,’ she pleaded.

‘Kacy, calm down and trust me, will ya? Have I ever let you down?’

‘Yeah, you have. Remember that time when we had no food and you spent all our money on those
Captain Hook
DVDs?’

‘Well, yeah. But come on, someone had told me there was a lot of money to be made sellin’ pirate videos. How was I to know the word pirate had more than one meaning?’

Annoyingly, Dante had a cheeky grin on his face that Kacy knew she couldn’t resist. ‘You’re such a prick,’ she said, but the edge had left her voice.

‘Yeah, I know.’ He grinned down at her. ‘But this time I know what I’m doin’. I swear I’m not gonna let you down.’ He sat down next to her on the end of the bed and put his arm around her shoulder, pulling her to him. ‘I’ve got it all figured out. Tomorrow is the day of the eclipse, the last day of the festival. That’s the day when everyone dresses up in fancy dress. I can go out in some real hot disguise so no one, not even the monks, will recognize me. That way, if there’s anything bad goin’ down, or if anything don’t look quite right, I can just get the hell out of there. You can chuck that stone in a ditch if you want, but for ten grand I reckon it’s worth taking a chance, don’t you?’