The Witch's Key (17 page)

“Huh?”

“Do you want to kiss me?”

“Kiss you?”

“Yeah.” She rocked up on her toes and leaned in to
kiss me.

“Lilith!” I pulled back. “What are you doing? You’re
supposed to be my sister. You can’t…. Oh, wait a minute. I get it.”
I looked over my shoulder at Melissa. Her eyes were wide as
soupspoons. I shook my finger at Lilith. “You promised. Now please
behave.”

She rolled back on her heels. “All right, just
remember this the next time you want to kiss me.”

“No. Don’t even play that game.”

“What game?”

“Detective Spitelli!”

I turned abruptly and found India practically in my
face. “Oh! Hey, India. So good to see you.” And I meant it, too.
She looked amazing, and definitely not dressed in standard issued
hospice care apparel. Her low-rider blue jeans fit as snug as
anything Lilith had ever worn. With a waistband six full inches
below her navel and cuffs halfway up her shins, I imagined that a
two-fingered glove could hardly have fit her better. Her top was
sleeveless, button-less, backless and almost stitch-less. Her hair
flowed down around her shoulders with delicate bangs spilling into
her eyes ever softly. It made me think of how she might look in the
morning after waking up on a sandy beach. She might brush her hair
aside with her hand, but the gentle ocean breeze would tease it
back into her eyes like a playful imp. When she smiled, her face
lit up in spirited animation, filling the room with an aura of
life. I put my hand out, anticipating the warmth of her touch to
arouse my senses higher.

“You look wonderful!” I said, grateful that the words
hot, sexy, smokin`, bitchin` or delicious hadn’t slip out by
mistake.

She shook my hand, delivering that instant rush of
adrenaline I had expected. “Oh, how kind, Detective.” Her eyes
fluttered as if on cue. “Thank you. You’ll have to excuse my
appearance.” She stepped back and splayed her arms to showcase her
attire, though I suppose Lilith saw it as shameless advertising.
“It’s my day off, but I thought I would sneak in quickly to check
my email. Looks like you caught me off guard.”

I smiled back wolfishly. “I see. I guess I Gotcha!
Ha-ha. So, you going to the beach or something?”

“No. I was just going to hang out at my apartment,
alone, maybe sip some wine, kick my shoes off and cuddle up with a
good book.”

“Oh?”

“Yes, I’m reading one now called,
Abandoned
.
It’s a paranormal mystery by a new author I found. He’s wonderful.
Maybe you’ve heard of him?”

“Maybe. What’s his name?”

India started to tell me, when Lilith piped in rather
loudly. “Ahem! Excuse me. Invisible woman here.”

I retreated, reeling my primal instincts back in. “Of
course. Sorry.” I turned to Lilith in humble modesty. “Where are my
manners? Lilith? India.” I stepped back a little. “She’s in charge
of operations here. India, my sister, Lilith.”

Until that moment in the introductions, I do not know
whose face looked more soured. Neither woman seemed very receptive
to meeting the other. But when I introduced Lilith as my sister,
India nearly ignited with enthusiasm. She came forward with
outstretched hand, practically tripping over me to get to her.

“Hello,” she said, paying no attention to Lilith’s
frozen stare. “Actually, it’s staff supervisor. Operations is an
entirely other department. But sometimes I do wonder how they get
along without me.” She laughed faintly. “I’m joking, of
course.”

“Of course,” said Lilith. “Aren’t you funny?”

“Are you two here to see Mister Marcella?”

I inserted myself between the girls like a wedge.
“Yes, we are, if that’s all right. You see, my sister is a big
train buff and she’d just love to hear one of Mister Marcella’s
stories about life on the rails.”

India checked her watch against the clock on the wall
behind Melissa. “Oh, my. I’m afraid it is getting late. Visiting
hours are over in ten minutes.”

Lilith tossed her hair back over her shoulders.
“Well, we tried. Better luck next time.”

“No, wait!” I turned to India and laid my best puppy
dog pout on her. “Are you sure we couldn’t see him for just a few
minutes? We won’t tire him out. I promise.”

I watched her lips purse softly as she thawed by
degrees. I knew she would say yes. It was only a matter of time. I
also knew that she intended for me to work on her until I
understood that she was the boss. Only then, would she acquiesce.
Women work that way, I have found, or so I have learned from
Lilith. A man can have anything he wants just so long as he
understands that it’s the woman’s idea to let him have it.

I waited until India’s eyes came back to mine before
locking onto them tightly. After that, just one sappy, “Pleeease?”
was all it took.

She opened up to me like a flower. “Well, all right.
Come on you guys. This way.” She turned and started toward the
elevator. As we followed her down the hall, Lilith tugged on the
back of my pants, slowing our pace enough to put some distance
between India and us.

“Nice work, Casanova.”

I smirked innocently. “What do you mean?”

“You know what I mean.”

I did, of course. “No, I don’t.”

“Come on. You were drooling all over her.”

“Was I?”

“Yes, and what’s worse, she was drooling all over
you.”

“Huh, I hadn’t noticed.”

“Liar,” she said, and she poked me in the ribs. “You
were eating it up.”

That made me laugh. “Listen to you. You’re
jealous?”

“Ha! Of that skank?”

“Uh-uh. Wrong answer.”

“What, she’s not a skank?”

“No, you were supposed to say you weren’t jealous.
Instead, you attacked her character, and that’s something only a
jealous woman does.”

“Oh, so now you’re an expert on women?”

“No, but I am good at observations.”

“Yeah, well, observe this.” She pulled away and
double-stepped ahead of me, employing a conspicuous accentuation to
her strut that seemed designed for maximum exhibition. By the time
she caught up with India, I was looking at bookend bottoms paired
for action and ready for battle.

At the elevator, India stepped back to let Lilith and
me in first. After coming in behind us, she hit the button for the
second floor and addressed the front of the elevator with her back
toward us. I watched her face in the reflection of the doors, and
her smile, which went from pleasant when she saw me watching her,
to sour when she spotted Lilith’s scowling face watching us
both.

I thought the awkward moment could hardly get worse,
but I was wrong. Halfway through the ride, India got down on one
knee to tie her shoelace. When I looked down at her, I noticed two
things of particular interest. One was the tattoo on the small of
her back that looked like frilly handlebars. The other thing, and
certainly more compelling, was the way the back of her low-rider
jeans flared open at the waist, exposing her t-back three-quarters
of the way down her butt. I tried not to look. I really did, but
the draw proved too overpowering. Lilith caught me looking and
dutifully elbowed me in the side. I straightened up, coughed to
catch my breath and then fixed my eyes dead ahead. India stood up
just as the elevator came to a stop on the second floor. I thought
that I had escaped total humiliation, but for Lilith, who couldn’t
resist the opportunity.

“It’s called a panty wink,” she said, as the doors
opened, but not before I saw India’s face turn red with
embarrassment in their reflection.

“Shut it,” I said, and we followed India out of the
elevator and down the hall.

Lilith went on. “You see, they call it that because
of the way the t-back peeks out the top of the pants like that and
sort of winks at you.”

“Enough, Lilith.”

“It’s like, hello! Look at me!”

“I get it, Lilith. Now drop it.”

“Of course when you got a big ol` tramp stamp like
that on your back it’s hard to tell what you should look at first.
I guess if I had a butt that large I would—”

“Lilith!”

“You know I’ve been thinking about getting a tattoo.
What do you think? Maybe a little butterfly?”

I grabbed Lilith’s wrist and pulled her aside in the
hall just as we reached Pops’ room. “Forget the butterfly. How
`bout an ass?” I said. “You can tattoo it to your forehead. That
way people will know what you are, coming and going.”

She pulled her hand free with a jerk. “Screw
you!”

“No. Screw you! If you don’t want to be here, fine,
then go. I don’t need you.”

“Oh, you need me.”

“Do I? For what? For you to lead me around by your
leash like a dog? You pull me in just to push me away. I can’t
figure you, Lilith.”

“So, what do you want?”

“I want the truth. I want to know what you’re hiding
from me. I want to know where you go at night to all hours of the
morning. I want to know what I really am to you, why you don’t let
me in. Is it because you don’t want to, or because you can’t?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You tell me. I’m sure you have your reasons. You
either know them or you don’t. Regardless, you need to stop
stringing me along.”

“Stringing you…. Uh, is that what you think?”

“Well, what do you call it?”

Our voices were nearly at a shout until India
intervened. “Excuse me! We can’t have this. People here are sick
and dying.”

I pulled back to regain in my composure, and after a
couple of deep breaths, I said, “I’m sorry, India. We didn’t mean
to cause a scene.”

She crowded her brows down low. “Are you guys really
brother and sister?”

“No!” said Lilith. “There’s no blood relation between
us.”

“Ah-ha! Finally,” I said. “Do you mean that?”

“What?”

“Spitelli! Is that you?”

I turned in the direction of the voice calling for me
and realized right away that it was Pops’. “Hey, Pops,” I called
back. “Yeah, it’s me.”

“Well come in here.” His voice sounded weaker than
usual. He had lost his raspy scratch entirely and picked up a
nasally whistle. “I want to talk to you.”

“Be right in, pops.” I pointed at Lilith. “Don’t go
anywhere. You are going to meet this man. You understand?”

She nodded silently, something I did not expect her
to do. It struck me as a genuine moment, and made me want to go to
her and hug her and tell her that I was sorry for yelling at her.
Those big dark eyes had never seemed so empty and needy. I wondered
for a moment if I had hurt her feelings, as impossible as I thought
that was. But I had seen hurt in other women’s eyes before, and it
looked much the same.

I walked into Pops’ room feeling full of hope. For
the first time, though possibly only temporary, I felt like I was
on an even footing with Lilith. I thought that if the next few
minutes went well, then maybe, just maybe, Lilith and I could
reconcile the mystery of our relationship.

I walked up to Pops’ bed and took his hand. It felt
cold and limp, as if he had already died. But his eyes remained
full of life, and he smiled with them, even though his mouth did
not. I smiled back, and perhaps it was just me, but I swear I felt
the warmth in his hand return with my touch.

“How are you, Pops? Feeling all right today?”

“I feel great,” he said. A better lie I had never
heard.

I looked out the window. It was still light out, but
a thin haze had blown in from the city, making it hard to see the
trains at Minor’s Point. “Anybody catch out today?”

“Oh, probably,” he said, though mostly I lip-read his
answer. His words were fading by the second. “I s`pect a few fellas
caught out this morning. All the evening trains are pulling tankers
and flat cars, you know.”

“Ah, I see. Yeah, we don’t like riding those, do
we?”

He laughed weakly. “Noooho, we don’t.”

“So, all the boxcars rolled out this morning?”

“Yup, first light.” He lifted his head a few inches
to steal a glimpse outside the window. “Should`a seen the way the
sun tripped off the tops of `em,” he said, speaking of the boxcars.
“Mighty pretty, it was.” And he let his head drop back into the cup
in his pillow. “Mighty pretty.”

“Is that the best time to catch out, Pops? In the
morning?”

“Usually.”

“Why’s that?”

“Best seats. Ya wanna catch out b`fore the punks and
angellinas hop aboard. Otherwise ya get stuck sitting near the
doors where the bull can get ya. Ain’t no faster way to find ya
self hittin` the grit. Ya know what hitting the grit is, don’t
ya?”

“Sure,” I said. “It’s when you get tossed from a fast
moving train.”

“That’s right.”

“You ever hit the grit, Pops?”

He laughed nearly silently. “Oh, you betcha.”

I laughed, too. “Yes, I do. I bet you hit the grit a
lot, huh?”

He looked up at me with smiling eyes. “Son, I damn
near made a livin` at it.”

I waited until his thoughts receded from those old
days and watched them bring him back into the room like a tap on
the shoulder. “Hey, Pops. India tells me that we don’t have a lot
of visiting time left this afternoon, but I have someone out in the
hall I would like you to meet. Are you up to it?”

He crowded his gnarly white brows together tightly.
“Male or female?”

“Female.”

“Is she cute?”

I leaned in close and whispered, “Let’s just say
she’s hotter than a Cummings diesel and tighter than a spruce
caboose.”

He wet his fingers and flattened his hair down
neatly. “Well, don’t just stand there. Bring the young lady
in.”

“Great. Wait right there.” He shot me a look like I
must be kidding. I suppose I was.

Out in the hall, Lilith and India were talking in
whispers. They both zipped it up tight the moment I walked out, and
then began laughing in giggles when they realized that I caught
them talking about me. In my typical sometimes-paranoid mind, I
imagined that Lilith told India about finding me in her bed naked,
and about what Lilith had done next, which may or may not have
involved my unwitting participation. Judging from the looks I got
from India, I could not tell if my reaction should reflect pride or
prejudice. I settled on something in-between and smiled thinly. I
walked up to Lilith and motioned with a nod toward the room.