Werewolf Upstairs (2 page)

Chad followed Roz into her empty apartment, continuing to chat at her, as though she could hear every word. After all, he never knew when he might run into a sensitive soul who could sense, hear, or see his presence.

Roz glanced up at Konrad. “I just want to take a quick look around to figure out where I’m going to put things when the movers come.”

“Would you like me to step outside?”

“Only if you want to.”

Chad continued, still hopeful. “
The others in the building don’t know much about me, except Morgaine and Gwyneth. They’re the witches in apartment 3B, and they’re noisy because they’re phone-sex actresses. Some of their clients like screamers.”

Still no reaction from the new tenant. Damn. I like making Dottie and Ralph’s ceiling fan spin around. Dottie thinks I’m riding it, and Ralph, who doesn’t believe in ghosts, scratches his head and tries to find a logical explanation. A short in the wiring? Oh, come on. It wouldn’t work at all, if that happened.

Roz pulled on her hoodie sweatshirt and fumbled for the zipper. “It’s cold out. Don’t you want to get a jacket?”

Konrad shook his head. “Nah, I’m good.” He opened the apartment door as wide as it would go and said, “Hang onto this a minute.” He carried over the marble pedestal table from the foyer and propped the door open, presumably to carry furniture through it.

Roz shivered. “It’s freezing in here, too, but I’d better wait to turn the heat on. Otherwise it’ll all just rush outside.”

Oh, maybe she sensed me!
Chad floated in front of her and made a scary face. “
Muu haua huaha. Damn, I hope you’re sensitive and just ignoring me because we’re not alone. I’m sick of talking to myself all the time.”

Konrad opened the front door for Roz and held it as she stepped right through Chad to the outside. Disappointed, he floated back upstairs, hoping to find one of the witches to talk to.

***

Roz and Konrad settled on the front stoop. Konrad sat so close that Roz could feel his body heat radiating into her skin. It felt oddly comforting.

Konrad spoke first. “I heard Dottie giving you her take on the neighbors, and thought I’d try to put your mind at ease.”

“You heard her? Right through your apartment? I didn’t realize we were speaking loudly, or are the walls that thin?”

“No, I—uh, seem to have extra acute hearing.”

And kind of cute ears, slightly pointed at the ends.
“So, about the neighbors…they’re not as bad as she thinks they are?”

“They’re not bad at all. Dottie’s the crazy one, if you ask me.”

“How so?”

“Always sticking her nose into other people’s business. She acts like she has to protect her nephew’s investment or something. Like one of us is about to burn the place to the ground at any moment.”

Roz reeled back. “Why would anyone do that? You live here too.”

“Exactly.”

She shook her head. “Well, you don’t have to worry about her influencing my judgment. I’m an attorney. I form my own opinions based on evidence, not hearsay.”

“Sheesh, you even sound like a lawyer.”

She chuckled. “Comes with the territory, I guess. But I wish I could find some other lucrative line of work.”

“Really? Why? Isn’t law fulfilling?”

Wow, he seems genuinely interested. How rare is that in a man? Plus kind and good looking. Maybe living here won’t be so bad, even if he turns out to be gay. Maybe we could go shopping together.
“Well, to tell you the truth, the job is changing me in ways I don’t like.”

“Ah. You’re becoming jaded.”

“You said it. That, and it’s no fun. I wish I could find a job that I could be passionate about
and
have fun while I’m doing it.”

“I get that. I’d like the same thing. So what type of law do you practice?”

“I’m a public defender, low on the totem pole, so I get all the weird cases. Tomorrow night’s the full moon. I can hardly wait to see what the next day will bring.”

Konrad laughed. “Imagine that, Roz Wells gets the weird cases. You must have some stories to tell.”

“Yeah, too bad about that attorney-client privilege thing.”

“Oh, come on. You can talk in generalities. Some of those stories probably wind up in the news anyway.”

“True.”

“Give me some examples of full-moon cases.”

She sighed. “Well, there are the usual extraterrestrial sightings, but with what I call the loonies, there’s always an unusual twist.”

“Like zealots with shotguns wearing tin foil hats for protection?”

She chuckled. “Yeah, or like one time when a guy claimed to see a spaceship melting. Funny how it happened on a hot day on a tar road.”

“Ah, so he was seeing a mirage?”

“Probably. I didn’t hear about any melted spaceships.”

“Why did he need a lawyer? It’s not against the law to report an extraterrestrial sighting.”

“But shooting out the windows of a ‘melting’ minivan is kind of frowned upon.”

Konrad’s laugh was deep, sort of like Santa Claus without the “Ho, ho, ho.”

“The moon isn’t full every night. What do you do the other twenty-seven days?”

“If it’s not the nuts, then it’s the dregs of society. Drug dealers who hang around playgrounds getting into turf wars with the pedophiles, each one claiming the same street corner. Once I had a not-so-bright client who called the cops on the druggies, only to be picked up himself for violating his parole. And of course there are the vandals who like to show off their colorful vocabulary by hating a particular subgroup in graffiti.”

“Yeah, that doesn’t sound like a barrel of laughs, but you knew it wouldn’t be, right?”

“Sure, I knew I’d meet my share of dirt bags. But I also pictured the occasional innocent person I could really help. Most of the time the son of a bitch is probably guilty and lying his head off, but everyone deserves a fair trial, presumed innocent until
proven
guilty, right?”

“Right.”

She shook her head. “That assumption is rapidly evaporating. Now I look at a defendant and the first thing that pops into my mind is, ‘What the hell did this one do, and what line of bull is he going to feed me?’”

“You could go into a different type of law practice.”

“I already have. I used to do civil law. Lots of nasty divorce cases.”

Konrad groaned. “Don’t tell me. Now you think all men are scum.”

“Not anymore. It took a while to find the old die-hard romantic in me, but I eventually did. Now I think all men are criminals.”

Konrad laughed, but there was a nervous edge to it. He scratched the back of his neck, uncrossed his long legs, and crossed them the other way.

Roz stretched to get comfortable too. “So what do you do?”

“For a living?”

No, for kicks, nervous boy.
“Yeah. What kind of work do you do?”

“I work nights. In security.”

“You’re a security guard? Well, you have the size for it, but that wouldn’t have been my first guess. You sound so well educated. I mean, who uses the word
ravishing
these days? Oh! Not that you couldn’t be extremely intelligent and still be a security guard. I didn’t mean to—”

“Put your foot in your mouth?”

“Yeah, sorry. That happens when I meet a cute guy.”

He laughed. “Don’t worry about it. Actually, I used to be an educator.”

“A teacher? Where?”

“A private school for boys.”

Before she had a chance to ask him more about it, he was already rerouting the conversation to the present.

“And now I’m more of a security specialist. I analyze a company’s weak spots in its off hours and recommend the best protection to suit each company’s individual needs. My brother and I own the business together.”

Maybe the past isn’t something he wants to talk about.
“He works nights too?”

“Sometimes, but not for the company. He’s a cop, but he installs our alarm systems during the day. It’s far more lucrative than teaching.”

“I can imagine. Teachers don’t get paid enough for all they do.”

“What brought you to our building? Did you move here to be near your friend?”

Roz wondered why he suddenly shifted the conversation back to her. It seemed kind of abrupt.
“Yes, actually.”

“But you wanted to keep your being here a surprise until she gets home? Why is that?”

Roz bit her lower lip and then came out with the truth. “I figured after I was all settled in, she wouldn’t try to talk me out of it.”

Konrad leaned away from her and appeared puzzled. “Why would she want to do that?”

“Oh, uh…no reason. I was just kidding.”

“No, you weren’t.”

Roz’s shoulders slumped. “You have one of those built-in lie detectors, don’t you?”

“Comes with the teaching gig.”

“Yeah, I’ll bet you heard your share of dog-eating-the-homework stories.”

“Oh, yeah. Dogs, wolves, something was always eating homework.”

“Wolves?” Roz shivered. “Where did you teach? Montana?”

He laughed. “No, Newton, Massachusetts, but you should have heard the more creative excuses. Almost made me want to give extra credit for imagination.”

“Such as?”

“You’re distracting me from my original question, aren’t you?”

“Damn, you’re good.”

“What’s the answer?”

“What was the question again?”

He gave her the hairy eyeball.

“Okay, okay. Do you remember that day Merry and I were having lunch in the burger place?”

“When I was sitting right behind you and overheard her telling you that Jason’s a shapeshifter?”

Roz gasped. “You heard that? You know?”

“Yes. I was quite impressed with how well you handled the news. I liked how you were there for your friend, no matter what she said or how crazy it sounded. You must be a very open-minded woman.”

She hung her head. “I may not be quite as open-minded as I seemed. I actually want to keep an eye on Merry. I can’t do that from Allston. But if she knew my intent, she’d kill me. Her family has been overly protective her whole life. I don’t want her to think I am too.”

“But you’re worried about her.”

“Naturally. She’s my best friend. I don’t want to doubt her sanity, but shapeshifters? Really?”

“You’re not willing to entertain the possibility of aliens
or
shapeshifters?”

“I never said that.” Roz sighed. “Look, I’m used to logic and objectivity. If I can’t see it with my own eyes, there has to be some kind of explanation. I can’t just flex the laws of physics on someone’s say-so. You have to admit the whole idea is kind of weird, and she means the world to me. I don’t want to see anything bad happen to her.”

“Bad? Like what? Are you afraid it’s going to rub off on her?”

“No…yes…hell, I don’t know. I can’t imagine why Jason would make that up. I mean, how did you take it? Weren’t you a little weirded out?”

“I was surprised, but not weirded out. Is
weirded
a word?”

“It is now.”

He smiled and bumped her arm playfully. Then he cleared his throat. “You may have moved to the wrong place if you’re easily, um, weirded.”

“Yeah, now that I know there’s a ghost here as well as an alleged shapeshifter. Holy crap.”

Konrad glanced the other way and mumbled something under his breath.

“What was that?”

“Oh look, there’s the moving van.”

“Yup. It looks like their GPS is working.”

Konrad kissed her on the forehead, rose, and jogged down the stairs to meet them, as if he were the one moving in.

Surprised, Roz touched the spot, and it tingled.
He’s like a big, friendly Great Dane. Jeez, I hope he’s not gay.

***

Konrad slid into a booth across from his identical twin brother. “Nicholas, we’ve got to be even more careful now. A lawyer has moved into my building. She’s a public defender, but they know people.”

“Crap. First a private dick, and now a lawyer. Like attracting like again?”

“Maybe. This one’s cute though. Kind of has that sexy secretary thing going on. Looks innocent as vanilla, but underneath there’s something very spicy. She even smells like cinnamon.”

“Steer clear, bro. She could be trouble.”

Konrad leaned against the padded vinyl back. “What if I don’t want to?”

Nicholas leaned back too and folded his arms. “Are you out of your mind? Should I remind you what you do for a living? A thief and a lawyer aren’t a match made in heaven—unless God has a really twisted sense of humor.”

“The attempted-robbery gig is temporary. It’s always been temporary. Besides, her job sounds temporary too. She’s trying to find a whole new line of work. Being an attorney doesn’t agree with her.”

Nicholas grinned and leaned forward. “Maybe she could become a librarian.”

Konrad almost sighed aloud as he fantasized. “Wouldn’t that be nice? I can picture her in glasses, riding the rolling ladder in my living-room library.”

“The ladder you’ll
never
need unless you’re chopped off at the knees?”

Konrad chuckled. “Hey, it goes with the old-world look of the place.”

A waitress strolled over to take their lunch orders. They both ordered rare steaks, bloody, with cold centers and no side dishes. She wrinkled her nose, but jotted it down and left them to continue their conversation.

“How tall is she?”

“About five six or seven.”

“You’re about a head taller. She’d need the ladder just to look you in the eye.” Nick grinned, wickedly. “Or you could find more interesting uses for it. It’s probably been gathering dust, just like you have.”

“Is that a crack about my social life?”

“No, it’s a comment on your lack of one. But you should wait to ask her out until one of you finds another line of work.”