Solitary Read online

CHAPTER 2

  After a rather instantaneous travel from the nearest station to the one near the police precinct – during which her passenger had behaved with utter indifference, just as if going through a portal was something it did every day – Amanda walked the short distance to her destination.

  She was about to enter the building when, suddenly, the cat slipped out of her hands, touched the ground for less than an heartbeat and climbed on the trunk of a nearby tree. She could only watch it jump from branch to branch, until it climbed down from a different tree and disappeared leaping into an alley. She tried to follow, but it was a wasted effort. By the time she reached the corner, the cat was already gone without a trace.

  Thinking that sooner or later it would go back home even without her help, she shrugged and turned back.

  The precinct looked much less frantic than the last time she had visited. She didn't have any trouble drawing the attention of the officer at the reception desk and ask him to inform detective Stonehand that she was there.

  The man touched the communication crystal on his desk and, further to a short telepathic conversation that she obviously couldn't hear, he announced, «He says to reach him in his office. It's...»

  «Yes, yes, I know, thank you», she interrupted with a thankful smile, going forward through the corridor.

  Soon she was knocking on the office door of Shim Stonehand, the detective head of the Magic Control Department, and entering without waiting for an answer.

  Shim, sitting at his desk, absently closed a folder of documents he was reading, and looked up to her.

  «Manda. How come you're here?»

  «I came to see how you were», she replied. «I know you've had quite a miserable time».

  «I've been put back to form», he said, showing her his perfectly normal left hand. Nothing showed that just a few days ago it had been no more than a heap of charred flesh. She didn't make him notice that she didn't know enough about the events to understand his gesture.

  «I've been at the clinic this morning, I thought you might be there but they told me you weren't. I understood you were already back at work.»

  «Elmond's clinic?» he asked.

  She nodded, vaguely surprised by that question. When speaking about clinics in Tejarak, there wasn't much need for further information usually.

  «I didn't go there at all. I don't find doctor Elmond really... likeable.»

  «I can't blame you. But... don't tell me you went to a temple for healing?!»

  «Indeed I'm not telling you. No, there's a new clinic which started recently, in the historical center.»

  «Really?»

  He nodded. «I don't know why they call it a clinic at all, actually. There's only one healer taking care of everything. Probably even cleaning the place. But he's good.»

  «Just one? He mustn't have a lot of work if he is able to do everything.»

  «He's busy as hell. I don't know how he handles all that. But he's good. He fixed me in a second, and you should have seen what a mess I was.»

  «How a mess?»

  «Like someone who had a fireball explode in his hand.»

  «What was that happened to you exactly?»

  «A fireball exploded in my hand.»

  «Ah!»

  A few instants passed before Amanda started to talk again, breaking the embarrassed silence she had fallen into.

  «I brought something for you», she said, starting to rummage in her bag. After a while she pulled out a rectangular box, of a brown so dark it was almost black.

  «Chocolates?» he asked unconvinced.

  «Dark chocolate and rum», she pointed out.

  «How nice», he replied in a polite tone. They had been knowing each other since she still needed diapers, and she'd never seen him eat chocolate. Still that didn't stop her from bringing some to him at any even slightly favorable occasion.

  «You could at least taste one.»

  «I could», he mumbled.

  «One day I'll convert you to chocolate.»

  «Unless I have myself killed in the meantime.»

  «What's this sudden burst of pessimism?»

  «No pessimism. I'm realist. I’ve been flying on an ambulance twice in less than a month lately. If I haven’t yet been able to get myself killed, that's just because I didn't try hard enough.»

  «And knowing how near you could be to your last breath, you really want to leave this world without ever tasting a delicious rum-filled dark chocolate?» she mocked him.

  «No. I'm sure you'll put one in my mouth on my deathbed.»

  «Now that's an idea.»

  «By the way...»

  «About ideas?»

  «About dead.»

  «What a happy morning today...»

  «We collected the books in the house of that Marsten, do you know who I'm talking about?»

  «All too well». How could she have forgotten the man who had summoned a succubus who had almost killed her, not before using her in ways she really hoped she could delete from her memories?

  «I was reading the report just now. It seems there was no spell for summoning incubi in there.»

  «No?»

  «What he was trying to do, according to my experts, was summoning a demon.»

  «Really?»

  He nodded seriously.

  «Then we're lucky he only succeeded in summoning a succubus.»

  «So it seems. But that doesn't sound right. How can you try to summon a demon and end up with a succubus instead?»

  «Are you asking that to me?»

  «No. I asked my experts, and they say there is a connection between demons and incubi which could explain that.»

  «But?»

  «But I never liked conditionals. I'm trying to obtain a permit to question Marsten directly, provided the bureaucracy allows me.»

  «Since there is no trial involved, they shouldn't have a problem with that, should they?» Questioning deceased witnesses, just like using seers to learn about past events, was an activity subjected to strict controls, because results obtained that way weren't deemed valid evidence in a court case. There was no way to record or publicly show what the medium or the seer had learned, and regardless of the trust that could be put in them, there was still some uncertainty. For this reason, permits to proceed with this kind of investigations were granted very rarely, not to run the risk of voiding an entire trial.

  «They shouldn't, indeed. I told you I don't like conditionals. I've started to think they see problems anyway, just for the sake of it. Anyway...» he literally jumped down from the chair and turned around the desk. By then he was quite trained in going up and down chairs which were completely unfitting for his size without looking clumsy or ridiculous.

  «I'm glad you came but I have to get back to work», he said. «What are your plans? Maybe we can meet later for a coffee. I'll pay.»

  «I'm free for the rest of the day. I'm going to do some shopping. What about coming for dinner at my place?»

  He stood silent for a while, pondering something.

  «I'd like to, but I can't.»

  «I didn't say I am going to cook», she giggled.

  «Fine. But still it will be for another time. I think I'll go to bed as soon as I finish here.»

  «Right, right, you're recovering, you can never be too serious with things like that at your age...»

  She stood up and went to the door, turning her back to his smile and his simultaneous reproachful gaze. «Don't bother to show me the way out, I know it. See you soon.»

  «Don't bring chocolates!» he shouted at her back while the door was closing.