Hoping that was good news, I peacefully held out my hands to be cuffed and tried not to think too much about my dwindling hopes that Lugh was just a figment of my imagination.
CHAPTER 9
I made bail, which was a relief. It didn’t mean the murder charge would go away, of course. I trusted the justice system to some extent, but not enough to just sit back and let them handle the whole thing.
I’d been mulling over the question of who might hate me enough to frame me for murder, and a name had finally risen to the top of the list: Dominic Castello. He hadn’t been very happy with me on the day I’d cast out his demon. And if Dominic was involved, that would explain Adam’s mysterious interest in the case.
My first priority when I got out of jail was to get cleaned up and change into fresh clothes. I momentarily regretted that I’d chosen to live out in the suburbs instead of in Center City, because this little jaunt was going to cost me around three hours. Still, I felt too grungy to skip it.
I wasn’t surprised to find my house had been thoroughly tossed by the police. It didn’t look like they’d made any particular effort to be messy about it — it wasn’t like on TV where they sweep the contents of bookshelves on the floor and leave them in a heap — but lots of things weren’t where they belonged. But I was just going to have to live with it, because this wasn’t the time for housekeeping.
They had, of course, confiscated my Taser. Normally, I wouldn’t have minded so much. There were times I carried the Taser when going into the city, but it wasn’t like it was glued to my hip. Right now, though, I kind of minded because I was about to do something that might be a tad on the stupid side. I was going to pay a visit to my good friend Dominic.
Since he wasn’t demon-possessed anymore, you might think I didn’t need the Taser for self-defense. However, he was still considerably larger than me, and if he blew a fuse, I’d be at a distinct disadvantage. But that wasn’t going to stop me.
I looked him up in the phone book, and, sure enough, he was listed. He’d made it real tough for God’s Wrath to find him. He lived in South Philly, in a largely Italian neighborhood. I wondered if he had Family connections, in which case visiting him might be even stupider than I’d originally thought.
I took the train into the city, then took a cab to the address. I stood on the front stoop for a moment, gathering my wits. On the stoop next to Dominic’s house, an old man wearing an undershirt sat on the steps smoking a cigarette and eyeing every woman under the age of fifty who passed by. When I felt his attention lock onto me, I decided it was time to get moving.
I rang the doorbell, keeping a watch on the geezer out of the corner of my eye. He was definitely giving me the once-over. As long as he was just looking, I was fine with that. I wasn’t dressed particularly sexy today, thank goodness.
I had just decided Dominic wasn’t home when his door opened. He didn’t look happy to see me.
“What do you want?” he asked. It wasn’t quite a snarl, but it wasn’t much friendlier. Oh yeah, this guy was holding a grudge, all right.
I tried to look sympathetic even while I moved him a little higher up on my suspect list. “I wanted to check up on you, see how you were doing. You were pretty broken up the other day.” I shrugged and looked abashed. I think. “I feel terrible about it. You got a raw deal.”
He didn’t seem to know what to do with that. I could see the belligerence drain from his eyes, and his posture relaxed, though he still looked wary.
“You came all the way out here to check on me?” he asked.
Ah-hah! I thought. How did he know how far I had to come to check on him? Maybe he knew where I lived because he’d had to look it up so he could break in and jack with my Taser.
I smiled at him. “I’ve been having a rough couple of weeks. I figured I could use the good karma.”
He actually smiled back, which made him feel less like a suspect in my book. He opened his door a little wider.
“Would you like to come in, have a cup of coffee? Since you came so far.”
Well, how friendly of him! Unless he was just trying to allay my suspicions. Or trying to lure me into his house so he could beat the crap out of me.
“I’d love to,” I said, and walked into his house as if I trusted him implicitly.
The place was tiny, narrow. The whole first floor consisted of a living room, dining room, and kitchen that all blended into each other, no doorways or anything. Dominic apparently shopped a good deal at Goodwill and the PTA thrift store. Nothing matched, not even the four chairs that surrounded his dining room/kitchen table, and everything was just a little worn and faded.
He pulled out a chair for me-a red vinyl number with a slash in the seat through which stuffing peeped out — and moved the two steps it took him to get into the kitchen.
“So how are you holding up?” I asked as he busied himself starting a pot of coffee.
He shrugged with his back still turned to me. “I’ll live.” He started the coffee brewing, then turned around to face me, leaning his butt against the counter and crossing his arms over his chest. “But someone very close to me just died, and it’s going to take a long time for me to recover.”
His eyes shimmered with unshed tears, and I wondered if I was being the world’s most insensitive bitch to come here and interrogate him — under the guise of friendship, no less. But I considered him my best suspect, so I soldiered on.
“I’m sorry about that, Dominic,” I said in my gentlest voice. “I really am. What happened to you and your demon wasn’t fair. But at least you survived, and your mind is intact. It could have been much worse.”
He blinked away the tears and glared at me. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. You can’t imagine what it’s like.”
No, I couldn’t. I couldn’t imagine having my own free will and personality restored to me and being distraught about it. Then again, I couldn’t understand volunteering to give it all up in the first place.
Dominic stepped forward to put his hands on the back of the chair across the table from me. His knuckles turned white as he met my gaze. “Last week, I was a hero. I made a difference in this world. I saved lives that no ordinary human being could have saved.” His eyes glowed with fanatic intensity. “My life meant something. Now I’m just another guy.”
My hands clenched into fists and I ground my teeth. I tried to moderate my response, I really did. But he’d hit a nerve, big time. “Just because I’m not hosting a demon doesn’t mean my life is meaningless!” I snapped. Okay, forget for a moment that I was hosting a demon. I was still trying very, very hard not to think about that. “My life means a hell of a lot to me. Why should yours mean any less to you?”
The coffeemaker gurgled to a stop. I’d have ignored it in his shoes, but he shoved away the chair he’d been gripping and turned to the kitchen. I couldn’t believe he was actually going to serve me coffee after that little exchange, but he opened a cupboard and pulled out a pair of mismatched mugs. When he reached for the coffeepot, a red stain spread across the back of his white button-down shirt. A stain that grew as I watched it, forming a long stripe across his shoulder blades.
My mouth dropped open, but Dominic was oblivious as he poured the coffee. It wasn’t until he’d set the mugs on the table that he noticed my expression. His eyes widened.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
I swallowed hard, wondering if that stain could possibly be what it looked like. “Your back,” I whispered.
To my surprise, a rosy blush colored his olive-skinned cheeks. Not the reaction I’d expected.
“Did that happen when the God’s Wrath people came after you?” I asked, though I already knew the answer.
He shook his head, his blush deepening as he stared at the scarred tabletop instead of at me. “Uh, no. Saul — my demon — healed those wounds long ago.”