“Yes and no, Sugar,” Drea said. “In theory, the boys in blue make our fair city feel safe. Spot a few from time to time and it’s reassuring. See one on every corner and you start wondering what’s going on.”
I did know, and I hoped Drea would misunderstand my uncomfortable squirm. The police weren’t the only ones working to keep Charlestonians safe. And right now, I felt like we were letting folks down.
“Have you heard any more about the deaths?” I asked.
“Only that Jimmy Redshoes was one of the dead men,” she said, and took a long sip of her coffee.
“Oh no,” I said, hoping I sounded surprised. “What happened?”
Drea shook her head. “No one knows. They found him out by the Navy yard, that’s where he got his supplies for the do-dads he sold. There are some wholesalers over that way.”
“Will there be a memorial service?” I asked. I didn’t know anyone who disliked Jimmy. “Nothing official, but some of us down around the Charleston City Market plan to raise a glass in his honor down at Nicky’s tonight.” Nicky’s Bar was a locals’ joint, a little too far off the tourist maps to get the out-of towners. It was a favorite among the younger King Street and Charleston City Market area business folks.
“Count me in,” I said. If Sorren intended to check out the other two sites Teag and I had scouted – and I’m sure he did – I figured I deserved a night off to recuperate. And with the crowd that usually gathered at Nicky’s, I was bound to hear something interesting, maybe even something related to the deaths.
“Bring Teag, if he wants to come,” Drea said. “Are he and Anthony still an item?”
I grinned. “Yep. It’s over a year now. Looking good.”
Drea glanced at her watch. “Yikes! We’d better go. I meant to be a little late, but now I’m late.”
My muffin was gone, but I hadn’t quite finished my latte, so I scooped up the empty paper bag, slam dunked it into the garbage, and retrieved my drink. “I’ll see you tonight,” I promised, giving a wave as I headed off in the opposite direction.
I got to Trifles and Folly a few minutes before we were set to open at nine, just a couple of steps ahead of Teag. He looked a little flushed and I bet he had ridden his bike faster than normal.
“You’ll never guess what I heard,” Teag said breathlessly as I turned the key in the lock and went to disarm the security system.
“Jimmy Redshoes was the one they found dead in the Navy Yard,” I said.
“How’d you find out so fast?” he asked. “Anthony only heard when he got into the office this morning.
And it was what we suspected with the button and all but…”
I waggled my nearly empty cup of coffee. “Drea.”
“Figures,” he said. “Just once, I’d like to be first with the scoop.”
I chuckled. “You get your share of heard-it-here-first moments.”
“It’s so sad about Jimmy. Not that it wasn’t for the other victims. But he hits a lot closer to home. I never paid a lot of attention to the trinkets that Jimmy sold. He was just part of the scenery.”
Now that I thought about it, Jimmy Redshoes sold odd, and unusual pieces, the kind that might have been looted from someplace. He always spun such fantastic tales about their history to get you to buy, I thought. His stories were too outlandish to be true, but they always made me laugh. Now he was dead, and if I had a chance to make his killer pay, I would.
I headed for the back room to make a pot of coffee. The latte helped, but I was still feeling the effects of last night. Part of it was the crash after a mortal terror adrenaline rush. But the majority had to do with the cost of using my psychic gift in a major way. Drawing on that supernatural energy was exhausting, another reason I wanted time to recharge before heading back to the warehouse district.
“Speaking of which...” Teag said, following me to make a cup of tea in the hot pot. “I did a little poking around online. Look what I found out about unlucky Kevin.”
He spread out several pages he had printed out on the counter. Right away, I recognized the photos of Kevin in two different online newspaper stories.
“Kevin Harvey – the guy whose button you found at the Dennison house, was a hustler who seemed to dream of going straight. He had a pushcart down in the park for a while, and he had even done a regular table at some of the local flea markets.”
“What went wrong?”
Teag stirred some sugar into his coffee. “Kevin got busted for selling stolen goods. He managed to stay out of jail, but from what the article says, it ruined him.”
“Anything else?”
“Kevin’s murder was one of the things that helped finally shut down the boarding house for good. But get this,” Teag added. “He’s counted as one of the unsolved Navy yard killings.”
“They’re doing an impromptu gathering at Nicky’s in lieu of a service for Jimmy. I think I’ll go and see what I can learn. You still meeting Anthony tonight?”
“Yeah, hopefully it will be a ‘non-eventful’ evening so we can focus on a little romance.” Teag laughed.
I hoped so, too. It had been a little too eventful around here lately.
I WASN’T SURPRISED to find Sorren waiting for me when I got home from the service for Jimmy Redshoes.
My first clue that he was present came when Baxter didn’t yip himself silly when I came in the door. I had left a light on in the kitchen, and it was enough to see Sorren sitting on my couch with Baxter happily perched on his lap. Baxter looked bemused and glazed, and I knew Sorren had glamored the pup again.
“You know, that can’t be good for Baxter, scrambling his little circuits like that,” I chided. “You’re going to give him brain damage.”
Sorren chuckled, and stroked Baxter’s silky fur. “I assure you, all I’ve done is given him the equivalent of a mild sedative. It causes no ill effects.”
It certainly beat having Baxter bark until he was hoarse. “Cassidy, I hope you know by now that I would not harm you,” Sorren said. “I’m well aware of how fond you are of the dog. And if it makes you feel better, one of my patrons in Belgium had a very similar little dog, and we got on together quite well.”
No surprise, if you glamored him every time you saw the pup, I thought, but said nothing. Baxter certainly didn’t look any worse for the wear.
“Have you been waiting long?” I asked. Maybe I should be freaked out about finding an immortal vampire waiting in my house, but it didn’t seem any stranger than meeting him elsewhere, and Sorren didn’t like to be seen places he was likely to be remembered.
“Just a few minutes,” Sorren said. “Do you have any news?”
I caught him up on Teag’s research about the man I had seen in my vision at the Dennison house, and the confirmation about Jimmy Redshoes. Sorren listened intently.
“There was something else,” I added. “When I was leaving Nicky’s Bar, I spotted a photo on the wall.
Five young men in front of their ship, the Privateer, anchored down at the Battery.”
I met his eyes. “The Privateer was a salvage ship. Teag showed me a picture of the ship and its crew.
And I saw those same men among the ghosts that protected us at the Dennison house.”
Sorren nodded as thought over what I had just said. “Very good. I think there’s a link between all the deaths, the haunted objects, and that salvage team. We just haven’t found all the connecting pieces,” he said.
“Did your source turn up anything?” I asked.
Sorren set Baxter gently on the ground. Baxter ambled over to me and scratched at my leg to be picked up. He licked me once, then settled down and went to sleep.
“Yes, but in the negative,” Sorren replied. “No one’s seen Corban Moran in decades. That’s why I thought I had killed him. But apparently, he survived, and he’s been in hiding. If we can find out what he’s been doing, we should be able to figure out why he’s surfaced here in Charleston, with a demon to do his bidding.”