Smoke

“You were right,” Dax said to Vivian when he returned to her from the bathroom. “I do feel better after that cup of tea.”

She looked at him skeptically. He extended his hand and she placed hers in his. Her grip was steely, her kind eyes were searing into him now.

“I’m going to think about the things you said, Vivian. You’ve really made me feel a lot better. Thank you so much.”

“I’m glad,” she said quietly. “Are you sure you wouldn’t like to sit awhile longer?”

“No, thanks,” he said, giving her his best sad smile. “I have a lot to think about.”

I just had the feeling she was watching me for the effects of whatever was in that cup,” he told them. “I washed my face and hung out in the washroom awhile,” he told Lydia and Jeffrey. “She was waiting outside for me when I exited. I just didn’t have the opportunity to dig around. I did notice one thing, though. That high-rise that stands behind the church? It’s connected by a walkway.”

“Do you have the cup?” Lydia asked eagerly.

“I already gave it to Striker when I came in. He said he’d get it to the lab, get a tox and fingerprint analysis.”

“Good,” said Jeffrey.

“What you said about the alarm system not having a brand name. Why is that relevant?” asked Lydia.

“Because the commercial alarm systems are about being a deterrent as much as about alerting a home owner that someone has succeeded in invading their house. They’re actually somewhat useless because, think about it, once you’ve heard that alarm, the system has already failed you. Like, someone is in your house, man; get your gun. But people like them because it gives them a false sense of security. People who actually need and want to keep people off the premises are going to find someone to install a real security system. On my way in I saw motion detectors, three exterior cameras that I could count without being conspicuous. Inside I saw laser sensors, and noticed that there were security shutters over the windows and doors that probably come down at night when the security system is activated. All very discreet, though. You’d not notice any of it unless you were looking and even then you’d have to know what you were looking for. Anyway, there are only a few companies that do that kind of work in the U.S. for the private sector. I’ll make some calls.”

“Do you think they’ll follow up with you? Did you give them a way to get in touch with you?” asked Lydia.

“She asked for my number so that she could call and check in with me but I told her I didn’t feel comfortable with that. I told her maybe I’d come back for that open meeting I read about on the Internet. I left then. She didn’t look happy.”

“You should have given them a number,” said Lydia.

“Oh, they’ll find me. Ignatius Bond is listed. I guarantee we hear from them within twenty-four hours. Vivian looked to be a bit of a die-hard.”

“You told her your name was Ignatius Bond?” said Lydia.

“Yes, you can call me Iggy.”

“That’s a pretty conspicuous cover name, Dax,” said Jeff.

“Exactly. So conspicuous that no one would ever suspect you’d make it up, yeah? Not like John Doe or some shit. I have a social for Iggy, the whole nine, so if they run a background check on me, I’m covered.”

“What does Iggy do?” asked Lydia, just out of curiosity.

“He’s a construction worker.”

It fit with his whole not-being-able-to-work-because-of-his-injuries thing.

“She’ll be calling, trust me. I think she was hot for me.”

“Naturally,” said Lydia. Dax leaned back again into the couch and stretched out his legs painfully.

“We need to get back in there,” said Lydia, looking at Jeffrey.

Jeffrey nodded and looked at Dax. “What do you think?”

“I’m going to make some calls to the security companies I know, find out what I can about that alarm system. When I know what we’re dealing with, we’ll try to get a look without Vivian breathing down my neck.”

Dax let a moment pass, then looked at Lydia sheepishly.

“Forgiven?” he asked, maybe feeling a little bad for jerking her around.

“We’ll see,” she said, rising. “I’m going to go check my email.”

“I have to go to physical therapy,” he said in a clear bid for sympathy as she walked past him.

“I hope it hurts,” she tossed back at him. “A lot.”

Dax looked at Jeffrey with a mischievous smile. Jeffrey didn’t return the grin. He’d been Dax’s partner in torturing Lydia in the past but he felt like Dax had stepped over the line and he didn’t like it.

“You need to be gentler with her,” said Jeffrey after Lydia had left the room. “She’s fragile these days.”

“She’s as fragile as a bag of nails,” said Dax.

Jeffrey looked at Dax sternly. Part of the love between Lydia and Dax, he knew, was antagonism… and most of the time it was pretty funny. But he was feeling protective of his wife. He walked over and shut the door.

“She just learned that her father, a man she barely knew, has died. And that,” he said, nodding toward the box that sat in the corner of his office, “is a box of things he left her. She’s not ready to deal with it-which means she’s not ready to deal with a lot of things regarding her father. Furthermore, it hasn’t been a year since we killed Jed McIntyre and she had the miscarriage. She’s just getting her feet under her and now she has to deal with this. So… just go easy on her.”

Dax looked down at his feet. “All right already,” he said, getting up. “It’s been a hard year for you two, huh?”

Jeff looked at him. “For all of us, man.”

Dax nodded. “I’ll call you after I find out about the security system. A couple hours tops.”

Lydia came back through the door without knocking, holding a photo printout in her hand.

“Take a look at this,” she said. They came and stood behind her, gazing at the blurry photograph of a girl running through a crowd of people wearing costumes.

“What’s this?” Jeff asked.

“It’s a witness photograph from Halloween night in Riverdale. Apparently, a girl was shot in the middle of this parade. Police were unsure whether it was a Halloween prank or not, since there was no blood found at the scene. But look at this,” said Lydia, pointing to the white van. There was a logo they could just barely make out on the side of the van, the image of a sun with some geometric shapes inside.

“The New Day,” said Dax slowly.

“Is that the van you saw last night?” she asked, looking up at him.

“Yeah, or very similar,” said Dax. “I think I’d better skip that PT appointment and make those calls now.”

“Sounds like a good idea,” said Lydia.

“Does that look like Lily Samuels to you?” asked Jeff.

“At first glance, I’d say no. Too thin and her head is shaved,” said Lydia.

“You better hope that’s not her,” said Dax, looking closely at the photograph. Lydia could tell he was noticing the things she had noticed, the way her shoulder blades were visible straining through her flesh, the way she was clad only in panties and a thin tee, the way her arms were pumping in a dead heat. The woman in the photograph was running for her life and Lydia was sure if they could see her face that it would be a mask of terror. She prayed it wasn’t Lily. Because if it was, they might be too late.

Pink diamonds are for the very wealthy,” said Christian Striker, holding the gem in his hand. “This stone is just more than a carat. Very pricey.”

“Strange thing to find in the dirt at an abandoned house,” said Jeffrey.

“Is that where you found it?” he asked with a shake of his head. He pulled a loupe from his desk and examined the diamond.

“When you talk about diamonds, you talk about four things: cut, carat, clarity, and color. This is a brilliant stone, heart-shaped cut, nearly flawless. I can see one minuscule imperfection in the stone, making the clarity like a VVS1 or 2, meaning that the inclusion is not visible to the naked eye. And then there’s the color. White diamonds are measured by the colorlessness. Colored stones, called ‘fancy’ diamonds, are more valuable the richer their hue. Many colored stones are irradiated these days, meaning that the color was created in a lab. This is just because they’re in style but exist so rarely in nature. But to me this looks like a natural pink diamond, only because