Abracadaver (Esther Diamond Novel) (14 page)

“Oh, come on. You can do better than th—”

“Oppression precedes possession, though possession does not always follow,” said Max. “Oppression is the stage when the demon interferes with your daily life, isolating you, actively stimulating your negative emotions, and wearing you down.”

“And then what?” Quinn’s tone was dismissive. “I’ll be possessed?”

“In this case, I don’t think so. I believe that you are the entity’s tool rather than its prize.”

“Always a bridesmaid, never a bride.”

Max did not let Quinn’s flippant attitude distract him. “Am I correct in assuming that you have never been involved in any so-called occult practices?”

“Correct, and I’m not interested. So let’s just—”

“Have you ever participated in a séance? Used a Ouija board? Attempted to conjure a spirit?”

“No, I live in the adult world,” Quinn said impatiently.

“You have never invited a dark power into your life?”

“Not if we don’t count my first wife.”

Max ignored that. “Then it is as I thought. The Law of Invitation does not apply here, but rather the Law of Attraction.” He explained to the rest of us, “Those are the two typical paths a demon follows to invade someone’s life as this one has invaded Detective Quinn’s.”

“Oh, for the—”

“He didn’t invite this entity into his life,” I said, catching on, “which goes a long way toward explaining why he’s unaware of its presence.”

“Correct. The entity was drawn to him, but not because he sought or summoned it.” Max spoke directly to Quinn again as he continued, “I believe the infestation is relatively recent. It may have been a factor in the demise of your second marriage, but I think it more likely that it attached to you soon thereafter, attracted by your despair, disappointment, and sense of failure.”

“How do you know about my marr . . .” Quinn drew in a sharp breath and looked at me. “You scheming
bitch.
”

“That’s
enough,
”
John said sharply to him. “You’ve got no business talking to Esther that way.”

“You planted that actor with us to spy on
me,
” Quinn said in appalled amazement. “And here I thought you were trying to keep tabs on Lopez.”

“This entity has an affinity with dead bodies,” Max said, soldiering on. “Particularly with the recently deceased. That is probably how it first encountered you.”

“No, I’ve never been recently deceased,” Quinn assured him.

“I assume it followed you home from the scene of a homicide or similar deadly incident.”

“Followed me home? Is this thing a demonic
puppy
or something?”

“I gather you have investigated many homicides?”

“My fair share.”

“Within the past year, many things have gone wrong in your life,” said Max. “Haven’t they?”

Quinn glared at me again.

“You’ve struggled with depression and anxiety. Your health has declined, yet no diagnosis explains it. You experience sharp, random pains, nausea, and severe headaches. You’ve been suffering for some time from disturbing nightmares, which has in turn led to bouts of insomnia.”

Now Quinn looked sharply at Max. I sensed he had not told anyone about the nightmares.

I wondered how Max knew—then realized he must be reciting a list of classic symptoms. He had previously noted more than once, after all, that Quinn’s situation exhibited various typical features.

Max continued, “Mechanical devices keep malfunctioning and electronic equipment keeps failing. You may be receiving phone calls regularly in which you can hear only static—particularly in the middle of the night. Things in your apartment keep disappearing and then reappearing, turning up in places you know you did not leave them. Your personal belongings are being inexplicably damaged or destroyed, particularly things to which you have an emotional attachment.”

By now, Quinn was looking at Max as if
he
has just risen from the dead.

“On numerous occasions when you’re alone, you feel you’re being watched. You may hear sounds inside your apartment that you can’t account for—footsteps, breathing, doors opening and closing.”

Quinn’s mouth was hanging open. “How do you know all this? I haven’t told anyone about . . . about . . .”

“You’ve had problems at work, too,” Max surmised. “Given the nature of your job, I imagine you’re increasingly worried you’ll make a mistake that will lead to harm.”

After a long, tense moment, Quinn started to speak, appeared to change his mind, and then finally said, “You’re very intuitive. Maybe you’re one of those people who can read facial expressions and accurately interpret the movements of the three hundred different muscles around the mouth—like a great criminal profiler.” He snorted a little and added, “Or a rich psychic.”

Beside me, I felt Nelli’s body go tense.

“Max is trying to help you, Quinn.” I stretched my hand up to John, who took it and helped me rise to my feet.

Nelli started growling.

“This hideous thing that jumped into a little old lady’s body and attacked us a little while ago?” I said. “It came here with
you.
”

“Oh, yeah?” he replied. “Well, it’s damn sure not leaving with me.”

A foul odor crept into the room. I wanted to gag. John noticed it, too—he put a hand over his nose and mouth.

The entity had regrouped and was returning. Without a body, this time.

Nelli rose to her feet, legs stiff, eyes darting, as her growling got louder.

“Actually,” said Max, looking around the room, aware of what was happening, “it does intend to leave with you. And without your cooperation, Detective Quinn, I cannot prevent that.”

“Speaking of leaving, it looks like your mad dog is about to go off her rocker again.” Quinn eyed Nelli. “So I think I’ll be—
Agh!
”

He suddenly staggered backward as if he’d been hit. Then he doubled over in obvious pain, one hand on his belly, the other on his head.

“Ow. Ow. Ow.” His face was contorted in a terrible grimace, and he was breathing hard.
“God.”

I inhaled. The odor was gone.

Nelli was staring intently at Quinn, and her growling was turning into a snarl.

I picked up her leash and said in alarm, “Lucky! I need help!”

Lucky stepped forward and seized hold of the dog’s collar.

Quinn was taking deep, shaky breaths. After a moment, he said in a strangled voice, “I think I’m going to vomit.”

“I’ll get a bucket,” said John, leaving the room in search of one.

Nelli made a little lunge toward Quinn, but Lucky held her back. Her eyes were fierce and glaring now, and her teeth were exposed in a snarl.

“The entity has attached to you again,” Max said to Quinn. “That is what you’re feeling. It’s what Nelli is sensing.”

“What a stupid name,” Quinn grumbled, obviously struggling to overcome physical pain for which there was no physiological cause. “I don’t want to be killed by a dog named
Nelli.
”

“She doesn’t intend to kill you,” Max said. “She’s challenging the entity that has attached to you. She wants to confront and battle it. That is her mission. Just as you have your mission, to serve and protect.”

Quinn lifted his head a little and squinted at Nelli. “No, I gotta disagree with you. She looks like she intends to kill me.”

John returned with a bucket. “Found it!”

Quinn took a few more deep breaths, then straightened up. “Thanks, but, uh . . . I’m not going to puke, after all. At least, I don’t think so.”

“I can help you, detective,” said Max. “If you’ll let me.”

“How? You got some good painkillers on you?”

“Exorcism,” said Max.

“What?” I blurted.

“What?” said Quinn.

I hadn’t realized that’s where this conversation was going, or that that would be the solution to this problem.

“I know where we can get a priest on short notice,” said Lucky.

“Oh,
there’s
a confidence-inspiring offer,” I said.

“What?” said Lucky.

“Exorcism?” I said in alarm. “Oh, Max, I saw the movie, and I really don’t think . . .”

“I really don’t think so, either,” said Quinn.

“You need help,” Max said to him. “You need to be free of this evil thing. So do those who come into contact with you.”

“All right, look, guys . . .
Enough,
” said Quinn. “You seem nice enough . . . Well, apart from Lucky, who’s a hitter for the mob, though we can’t make any charges stick.”

“I am just a businessman,” Lucky insisted, “pursuing my perfectly legitimate—”

“Not now,” I said to him.

“You seem sincere,” Quinn said to Max. “Very
weird,
but sincere. I think you probably believe what you’re saying. But, I don’t. And this is all getting way too strange and heavy for me. On top of which, you’ve got a badly named dog the size of a New England state who wants to rip out my throat so much, she’s
drooling.
”

“No, she drools all the time,” I assured him.

“I’ve got to get out of here,” Quinn said suddenly.

Max tried again. “Please consider—”

“No, I’ve got to get
out
of here.
Now.
”

He turned and left the room. Max and I followed.

“Lucky, keep Nelli here with you,” I said, looking over my shoulder at him.

He nodded and tightened his grip on the familiar’s collar as she attempted to pursue Quinn.

Out in the corridor, coming from the direction of Antonelli’s, we heard a man calling, “Hello? Is somebody there?”

Quinn flinched.

I froze. I knew that voice.

“Lopez?” Quinn said tensely, raising his voice.

“Yeah, it’s me!”

Quinn seemed more alarmed than relieved. Well, I supposed that was understandable. He probably didn’t want his new partner to know anything about the things we’d just been discussing, so this was bound to be awkward for him.

Even though my heart did that little skip it often did when Lopez showed up, I found it awkward, too. I had, after all, participated in holding Quinn hostage this evening.

I really hoped the detective had forgiven us for that, all things considered.

“Andy?” Lopez called. “Where are you?”

“Coming!” He looked at me. “Not a
word,
Esther. Agreed?”

I looked to Max for a cue, unsure of whether I should guarantee my silence.

Quinn leaned closer to me and whispered, “Do you know how many charges I could file against you and your friends right now?”

“Okay, not a word,” I agreed in a low voice. Apparently he wasn’t the forgiving type.

“I’ve been waiting outside in the car for twenty minutes,” Lopez said, his voice getting closer. “You’re not answering your phone.”

“Sorry,” Quinn said. “I got, uh . . . waylaid.”

We were nearly at the entrance to the reception hall that Lopez’s voice was coming from. I could hear his footsteps approaching us.

And then behind us, back in the room from which we had just come, Nelli started barking madly.

“No!” Lucky shouted. “No! Stop!” Then: “
Watch out!”

I turned around to see Nelli round the corner and come bounding toward us in great strides, her teeth bared, her jaws dripping.

“Nelli, no!” I stood in her path.

“Andy!” I heard Lopez shout behind me. Then:
“Esther?”

Nelli knocked me over, not even pausing in her mad beeline for Quinn’s throat.

“Don’t shoot!” I heard Max shout as I hit the floor—
hard.

“Arrrgh!” Quinn screamed as Nelli’s full body weight hit him and knocked him against a wall.

“Get out of the way, Max!” Lopez shouted. “Move!”

“No, please!” Max cried.

I rolled over and looked at them all from my position on the floor. Nelli was snarling ferociously, standing up on her hind legs, her dripping teeth only centimeters from Quinn’s throat. Lopez was standing about ten feet away, his gun drawn and aimed at Nelli—and Max was standing between them, his hands raised, blocking Lopez’s line of sight.

The demon was certainly getting a full meal tonight.

“N
elli! Come back!” Along with Lucky’s shout, I heard the sound of running footsteps approaching.

“Max,
MOVE!
” Lopez ordered as the old mage kept himself positioned between the gun and the dog.

Nelli’s big paws were on Quinn’s shoulders, pressing him against the wall. Her bared fangs dripped saliva and she stared fiercely into his frightened, wide-eyed gaze. He was holding as still as he possibly could, but his chest was moving rapidly with his agitated breathing. When Nelli sniffed his carotid artery, he flinched a little and closed his eyes.

The footsteps that were thundering toward me stopped abruptly as Lucky and John arrived and saw what was happening.

“Nelli!” Lucky said sharply. “Sit!”

To no one’s surprise, that didn’t work. The dog snarled ferociously at Quinn and snapped at his face.

Lopez tried to circle around Max, who blocked his path, staying between him and Nelli. “Goddamn it, Max!”

About six feet tall with a lightly athletic build, Lopez had a dark golden-olive complexion, strong features, thick black hair that shone darkly under the overhead lights, and rich blue eyes—which were cold with focused anger right now.

“Don’t shoot!” Max’s voice was hoarse. “
Please,
detective.”

I had seen Max use his power in the past to make a weapon fly out of someone’s hand, but he didn’t attempt it here. Probably because Lopez had too firm a grip on his gun for it to work. If he felt the weapon move, he wouldn’t let go, he’d reflexively tighten his grasp—and perhaps inadvertently squeeze the trigger and put a bullet in someone.

“Put down that gun!” Lucky shouted at Lopez, sounding scandalized. “You could hurt someone!”

I was too scared to appreciate the irony of Lucky urging gun safety.

“Stay where you are!” Lopez shouted back.

An attacking dog, a cop with a gun, a Gambello killer, and a demon working overtime to inflict stress and evoke anger. This would go very badly if someone didn’t do something right
now
to defuse the situation.

I took a deep breath and, fueled by adrenaline, I leaped to my feet, popping up as if propelled by a spring.

“Move away, Esther!” Lopez urged.

I ignored him, lunged for Nelli, and put my hand on the familiar’s pink leather collar.

John blurted, “Esther, don’t!”

“Esther,
no!
” Lopez’s shout was very agitated. “Get back!”

I prayed that his stress wouldn’t produce another involuntary incendiary incident. We had enough things to deal with right now.

Natural instinct made me wary of touching Nelli, but I shook her collar to get her attention as I shouted her name. Her massive body was quivering with tension as she snarled and sniffed, growled and glared. But I maintained control of my breathing, which helped me keep control of my head.

Max had said Nelli didn’t want to hurt Quinn; she was challenging the entity that was attached to him, demanding that it confront her and do battle. So she was trying to protect the detective, I reasoned. Trying to free him from demonic oppression. Her way of expressing this, as a (very large) canine familiar was terrifying, but she hadn’t lost her head, and she wasn’t out of control. She was just trying to do her job.

This was my working theory, anyhow.

“Nelli!” I took another breath and willed myself to speak more calmly. “This won’t work. You must stop.”

She kept growling and snapping furiously at Quinn, menace in her eyes, her hair standing on end. The detective’s face was pasty white, his expression taut and tense as he avoided the dog’s fierce gaze, his chest rising and falling with his rapid breathing.

“Esther, get
away!
” Lopez shouted.

“Nelli,
no,
” I said firmly. “It will not come out and face you! Not while
he
gives it such a safe home.”

“No, John, stay back,” I heard Lucky say.

“But—”

“Let her handle this.”

“Nelli, are you listening?” I looked at Quinn. “He
wants
to keep it. It won’t confront you while he protects it!”

To my relief, the familiar reacted. I didn’t know whether it was my tone, my words, or her own realization that she wasn’t getting the response she sought, but Nelli paused and reconsidered what she was doing.

She remained where she was, her body weight pressing Quinn up against the wall, her paws still on his shoulders . . . But she ceased the terrifying growling and snapping and now just stared fiercely at the cop, as if trying to decide what to do next. She was breathing hard, her rib cage pumping in and out, her panting breaths ruffling Quinn’s red hair.

“Esther, get
away
from that dog,” Lopez insisted in a hard voice.

Quinn risked taking a look at Nelli and appeared to recognize that she was calming down.

“Nelli,
enough,
” I said. “It won’t do battle. Not like this.”

I could feel the tension in her big body, every fiber of her being protesting against simply letting the entity leave this place, free and unvanquished.

“We’re just making it stronger,” I warned her. The fear, tension, and anger among us now was so active, it felt like a small tornado was whirling around us. The walls practically vibrated with our negative emotions. “We must
stop feeding
it, Nelli. Right now.”

“Max, if you don’t get out of the way . . .” Lopez warned coldly.

Quinn met my gaze for a moment, and then he looked at the dog again. “Get d . . .” He cleared his throat and tried once more. His voice was faint, but functional. “Get down, Nelli. All you’re doing is . . . scaring
me.
”

Nelli looked at him for a long moment, then let me pull her off him. My hand still on her collar, we backed away from Quinn, who sagged with relief.

With Nelli’s teeth no longer so perilously close to a human throat, Lopez risked agitating her by knocking down Max. As the old mage hit the floor with a loud grunt, Lopez trained his gun on Nelli’s head. “Get away from that dog, Esther!”

Quinn suddenly moved and staggered into Lopez’s path, putting a hand on his shoulder to halt him. “No!”

I stepped in front of Nelli, just in case. Max started crawling toward us.

“Don’t,” Quinn said to Lopez, still breathing hard. “Leave her be.”

“Are you
crazy?
” Lopez tried to shake him off, but Quinn didn’t let him.

“It’s all right now,” Quinn insisted. “Just a little mis . . . misunder . . .”

“You’re in shock. Go outside and sit in the car.” Lopez tried to shove him aside and get to Nelli, but Quinn used both hands to grip his partner now.

“Oh, that’s right, Mr. Sensitivity,” I said to Lopez, my own negative reaction welling up as fear subsided. “Tell someone who’s in shock to go sit alone in the cold and the dark.”

“You go with him,” Lopez snapped at me. “While I deal with this dog.”

“You stay away from her!” I said.

“Yeah,” said Lucky, wisely staying at his end of the corridor. “Pulling a
gun
on our dog? Jesus, they’ll give a gold shield to
anyone,
won’t they?”

John brushed past Lucky and came toward me. “Esther, are you okay?”

“Yes.”

“Are you sure?” Lopez asked me, shedding his anger enough to be concerned for a moment.

“I’m fine.”

“
I’m
fine, too,” Quinn piped up. “In case anyone was wondering.”

“Andy, you should get out of this building,” Lopez said, eyeing Nelli.

John seemed to be thinking of the cadavers inside the building when he said, “Detective Lopez is right. You should go outside. Right away.”

“For chrissake, could I just take a minute?” the redheaded cop said irritably. “I’m trying to catch my breath!”

Max rose to his feet and finished staggering to Nelli’s side. He grasped her collar as his gaze met mine. I released her and gave Max a nod. He kept on moving, pulling her with him, clearly intending to get her out of Lopez’s sight and the demon’s immediate presence.

“Stop!” Lopez ordered.

He tried to follow them, but Quinn grabbed him again and insisted, “Let her go.”

“What’s
wrong
with you?” Lopez demanded, glaring at Quinn.

“Come on, Nelli,” Lucky crooned, putting a hand on her head when she was close enough. “Let’s get away from the mean man with the gun. Good girl.”

Nelli turned, gave Quinn a last look and snarled once more at the demonic presence that hovered around him, warning the entity that this wasn’t over.

“I’m calling animal control,” Lopez said firmly. “That dog is too dangerous to—”

“She was protecting the premises,” I said with sudden inspiration, while Lucky and Max led Nelli back to the working area of the mortuary, safely out of range of both Quinn and Lopez. “She mistook your partner for a trespasser.”

“Why are you even wasting your breath on that story, Esther?” Lopez said in exasperation as he holstered his gun. His heavy winter coat was hanging open, probably because he’d been sitting in an idling car with the heater on.

John was at my side, so I gave him a gentle jab with my elbow, alerting him that I needed support.

“Huh? Why are you—Oh! Um. Okay.” He said awkwardly, “That’s right, Nelli is our . . . our watchdog!” John nodded, apparently thinking he sounded convincing.

“Yeah, right.” Lopez reached into his pocket for his phone.

“She is,” I insisted. “Nelli was guarding this place against an intruder.”

“Yes,” said John, trying so hard to help. “We need her here. Where she roams free to protect our valuable, um . . . corpses. And stuff.”

And him such an educated boy, too.

Lopez said to John, “You’re not an actor, are you?”

“No, I’m scientist.”

Lopez searched for something on his phone’s screen as he said absently, “Yeah, you don’t have her flair for improvisation. Though this isn’t one of her better efforts.”

I gave Quinn a look, silently urging him to do something more constructive than stand around catching his breath.

Quinn just shrugged, his expression indicating that this wasn’t his problem anymore. Apparently stopping Lopez from
shooting
Nelli was as much damage control as he felt obliged to contribute.

Well, we’d see about that.

I said, looking right at him, “I guess we should explain everything that’s happened this evening and exactly why Nelli thinks Detective Quinn is a threat to our safety.”

Lopez paused and looked up from his phone, his expression skeptical. “Is there going to be a single word of truth to this?”

Standing a little behind him, Quinn was emphatically shaking his head at me.

“Your partner wasn’t answering his phone,” I said to Lopez, “because it’s gone dead. Isn’t that an amazing coincidence?”

Quinn ran his hand sideways across his throat in a frantic gesture signaling that I should
cut! cut!

Or maybe he was threatening to kill me if I kept talking. It was hard to tell.

“Jesus,
your
phone’s gone dead?” Lopez said over his shoulder. “What the hell is going on around here?”

“We can explain what’s going on, can’t we, Andy?” I said, raising my brows.

Quinn glared at me.

“I know you wouldn’t want our dog to be blamed for your problems,” I prodded, returning his glare.

No
way
was Nelli getting impounded because Quinn was hauling a demon around with him.

But Lopez was off and running. “Jesus, doesn’t anyone make anything that
works
anymore? What is this, the decline and fall of Western civilization? How the hell are we supposed to function if nothing
around
us functions? Between the two of us, that’s
three
goddamn phones that have broken down in just a few weeks!”

I asked Quinn, “Should we introduce him to Grace Chu?”

“Yikes,” said John.

“No,”
said Quinn.

Lopez said, “I mean, who can
work
like this? I’m not a Bow Street Runner or a sheriff in the Old West, for God’s sake! I’m an NYPD cop in the digital age, and I need a working phone! Also a police radio! And a car that doesn’t keep breaking down! And a computer that works! Why is that too much to ask?”

Yeah, his stress level was off the charts all right. That demon had figured out exactly how to play him.

I said firmly to Quinn, “Convince him to leave Nelli alone.”

“Is this all because of outsourcing?” Lopez wondered, lost in his own fresh hell. “Is this what happens when a country surrenders its manufacturing industry to the greed of global conglomerates?”

“Please tell me,” John said, looking at Lopez, “that this isn’t about to turn into a diatribe about ‘Made in China.’”

“You wouldn’t believe how much of this I’ve had to listen to lately,” Quinn said wearily.

“All right, everyone
stop,
” I insisted. “We need to focus.”

To my relief, they all shut up and looked at me.

“Why is it always up to
actors
to get things done?” I said in exasperation. “
I
have to clean up this situation, and Nolan’s tailing your suspect, while you two stand around bitching and moaning. Well, I suppose it’s because
we’re
trained to focus, but I really would have thought that—”

“
Where
did you say Nolan is?” Lopez interrupted.

“Oh, actually, I guess he’s done tailing him now.” I remembered the phone call. “Nolan’s gone home for the night, safe and sound.”

“Who was he tailing?” Quinn asked in confusion.

“Nolan was
tailing a suspect?
” Lopez turned on Quinn. “You were supposed to babysit him! Don’t I have enough problems without a TV star getting killed on my shift?”

“That guy with you was a TV star?” John said to Quinn in surprise. “I thought he was a cop.”

“
What
suspect?” Quinn looked at me. “Who are we talking about?”

“Danny Teng,” I said.

“Nolan is tailing Danny Teng?” Lopez said in horror. “Well, there goes my badge.”

“No, I told you, he’s done for the night. Nolan called me a little while ago,” I said. “By now, he’s probably at home, fondling his treadmill one last time before he goes to bed.”