Dane Curse (21 page)

Chapter 40

It took some convincing, but Widow lent me her car, and I drove straight to Comics and Robots. It was just like I remembered, except that in the middle of the store sat a new tabletop display, though shrine’s a more fitting term. It was covered with framed pictures of Pinnacle, action figures, limited edition comics, and even a copy of the very rare, and very unauthorized cookbook The Pinnacle Diet: How To Put On Super Muscle, Super Fast.

After a few minutes of perusing I took a seat at the counter, grabbed the TV remote, and filled the room with morning news chatter. I hoped it was loud enough to rouse the slumbering geek one floor up, because if not I’d have to wake her by hand, but to both our benefit not thirty seconds later I heard the patter of tiny feet.

“Hello?” she called from the top of the stairs. “If anybody’s there you better get the hell out, I’m armed and pissed and in no mood for play.”

She crept down one step at a time, her weapon raised and ready.

“Morning slugger,” I said, “nice bat. It new?”

“God damn, Dane.” Fangirl relaxed and trudged down the last four steps. She had on two different socks, an extra large t-shirt, and her puffy, pale face was half hidden by a mop of black hair that looked like she plucked it from the drain. “Don’t you ever knock?”

“Just heads. What’d you get into last night? It looks like you got banged by the whole Russian army.”

“Look who’s talking.” She sat down on the opposite side of the counter, and pointed the bat at me. “What happened to your face?”

“Ran into a door.”

“Must’ve been some door.”

“It’s was certainly harder to get past than yours. By the way, I thought you might like to know that nugget panned out.”

“Cool. Listen, I don’t mean to sound harsh, but it’s not a good time.”

I covered one of her hands with mine. “I can tell. How you been?”

“Drunk. Ever since I heard the news.” A tear and a sniffle tried to make a break for it, but she caught both before they got far. “Since then, I’ve spent so much time in the bottom of a bottle I’m thinking of having my mail forwarded there.”

I gave here the friendliest smile I had. “Well if you want some company, I’m your man.”

“Now that’s a good idea.” Fangirl leaned over and pulled two bottles out of the fridge below the counter. “Which one you want?” She had tequila in one hand, and vodka in the other.

“Too early for cactus,” I said.

“Ivan it is.” She placed the bottle of vodka in front of me. “Anything with it? We got orange juice.”

“Yes please, I could use the vitamins.”

“You ok with pulp?”

“What do you think?”

“Right. Stupid question.” She retrieved the carton from the same fridge along with a glass, and I fixed myself a screwdriver clear enough to read the paper through.

“Cheers.” I took half down in one gulp.

Fangirl sighed. “Whatever.” She took her pull straight from the bottle, and we sat for a few moments enjoying the feeling of a good morning buzz. “It’s not like I don’t enjoy the suspense, but I got to ask, what’s with the house call?”

“I need a favor.”

“Ha, that should be your battle cry.” She got to her feet with one hand on her hip and the other pointed up. “Do your worst, for I’m Dane Curse. But first... I need a favor!” She laughed at her own joke, a sweet little thing made of equal parts sugar, spice, and agave, but it melted away like one of Dali’s clocks just as quick as it came. “So, what do I get in return?”

“Nothing. Just that special feeling that comes from doing the right thing.”

“Really?” she said. “That doesn’t seem right. Pachy-dermis aside you’re a soft touch, and the sack I keep my charity in is running kind of low.”

“Sorry kitten, today’s visit isn’t about info you’d trade for. It would be,” I searched for the right words in my cocktail. “Beneath you.”

She leaned forward. “Is this about Pinnacle? You’re not buying the Mindgame theory?”

“Nope, and I need to speak with a member of Team Supreme about it.”

“Why not call their hotline?”

“That will only get me someone whose day consist of calls from geeked out fans and ten cent crazies. I don’t need one of them. I need one of those other people. The ones who will take what I have to say seriously.”

“Then you’re here for a direct number to TS heavy hitters.” Fangirl took another mouthful of tequila. “This can be done. Easier than easily in fact, because I have more than one connection to the top of Top Tower, but before I hand it over I need to know what this involves. Exactly.”

“I can’t say. Exactly. But I don’t buy the tale they’re telling because I think some very serious people are involved in Pinnacle’s death, and if justice is to be served then I’ll need some equally serious back up. Can you help?”

“Point of fact I can, but why do you care?”

“How do you mean?”

“I looked into you after our last meeting.”

“And?”

“And there’s not much to find. You haven’t made the papers in the last fifteen years, at least. There are no pics of you with Dread Division, no listings of your business. There’s some murmurs here and there, but all of it points to you being small potatoes. So what I want to know is why are you working so hard to find Pinnacle’s killer, instead of popping champagne with the rest of the black cape community?”

“He and I.” I took a deep breath. This story wasn’t one I shared that often. “We met once, a while back. It was about a case, actually. When I first started working solo a guy named Landslide bought it, and nobody knew how. His girlfriend suspected his partners so she asked me to help. First thing I did was locate the last person to see him alive. It turned out to be Pinnacle.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. So I waited on one of the rooftops, and when he passed by I called out. I figured it was a long shot, but it worked, the Red Wonder came down and landed a few feet from me. I remember how dumb I felt standing there, stuttering like some reg, but I found my tongue, and told him what I needed, and why I needed it, and he answered all my questions.”

“That’s it? He helped you with a case? That’s why you’re walking through the grinder?”

“No, that’s not all. At the time my mother was sick, dying in the hospital. She still blamed me for my brother’s death. And more. During one of my last visits she begged me to go straight so I could atone for my mistakes. I told her that I already had, but she didn’t believe me. You know, she loved Pinnacle. Almost as much as you. So I dropped his name, and said he’d vouch for me. I was upset, so I was kind of being sarcastic about it, but she wrote him to check up on my story, and-”

“He visited her.”

“Yeah. He did. He told her that she should be proud of me, and what I was doing. Two weeks later she died. But in that time we made our peace.”

Fangirl put her bottle down. “Well ok then.” She grabbed the remote and turned up the volume. “You watch some news, I’ll go dig up what you need.” She headed upstairs, while I sat listening to the happenings around town. I ignored it as best I could, but snapped to when I heard the anchorman say, “And now we go to Team Supreme for breaking news on the murder of Pinnacle.”

The camera switched over to the lobby of Top Tower where Team Supreme was standing shoulder to shoulder, looking every inch the world’s greatest heroes they were. It’s a rare thing to see them all together like that. Usually one or more would be out on patrol or battling the forces of evil, but not right then. Right then they were all present and accounted for.

All except Pinnacle.

Glory Anna had taken his spot in the center. She was in her standard battle armor, no worse for last night’s wear, while Doctor Velocity looking streamlined in black, and the kid master of energy Boy Mercury, stood to her right. On the other side was Blastema, the lady with the metal arms of might, and Hayflick, who was clad in yellow and could clone himself at will.

There was a murmur going through the room full of reporters, but Glory Anna cleared her throat and silenced it. “As all of you know through exhaustive investigating Director Humphries has discovered significant evidence to Mindgame’s involvement in the murder of Pinnacle. Initially we were convinced he acted alone, however, due to recent events, we believe that is not the case. The body of a criminal known as Sledge was discovered last night among proof that he too, was involved with the cowardly murder of our greatest champion.”

She paused to let the words sink in.

“Furthermore, there is strong evidence that the man seen here is the mastermind behind it all.” Two pictures appeared in the corner of the screen. One was of me fighting the SPECs outside Sledge’s, and the other was from when I found the Kapowitzer in Mindgame’s lab. “He was present in both crime scenes, and while he is yet unidentified no effort is being spared to find him. If any citizen has information to this person’s identity, or his whereabouts, please contact Team Supreme or any of the city’s law enforcement agencies.” Glory paused and took a deep breath. I had seen moments like this before, the stoic hero, the flashing bulbs. I knew what was next.

“And it is to that vile coward that I now speak: You can run and you can hide, but you cannot evade justice forever. We will find you and we will bring you in. That’s our promise, my guarantee. Glory Anna and Team Supreme have the power and the will, and if need be we’ll scour the Earth and we. Will. Find you.”

Questions exploded through the room.

All things considered I should’ve been scared since I was that vile coward she was talking directly to, but instead I couldn’t help but be bolstered by the bravado. It made me feel safer. Maybe it was the pauses in the end of her speech, they were a nice touch, or maybe it was because I truly believed that she wouldn’t stop until she got justice for Pinnacle, and if anyone could help me get it, it was her and the crew she led.

And why wouldn’t they join team Dane? Righting wrongs is like white cape catnip, and the wrong I was bringing them needed some heavy-handed righting by the absolute best. As I watched Glory answer questions I couldn’t help but think that she was a fitting replacement for Pinnacle.

“That girl is such a dick.” Fangirl returned and hit the mute button. “Here.” She slid one of her cards to me. A number was scrawled on its back. “This’ll get you the ear of a person who can help.”

“Excuse me?”

“You asked for an inside number to Top Tower, and here it is. It’ll get you their public liaison, a woman by the name of Shelly Bernheart. She works directly with the team, so if you got info about Pinnacle, and it’s the real thing, she’ll see that it gets to the right people.”

“No. Not that part, the first part.”

“What? Glory?” She gave the TV a disapproving shake of her head. “She’s a dick. And I don’t mean slang for a detective.”

“Seems heroic to me. You should’ve heard her a minute ago, I practically got chills.”

“Yeah, she can do that. But let’s be clear, she’s not a real hero. Real heroes, they sacrifice, Glory is just in it for… well, the glory. Did she do the whole ‘power and will’ thing?”

“I believe she did. Is that her trademark?”

“Sort of.” She spun around, plucked a comic book off the wall, and handed it to me. It was in a clear plastic bag, and across the top in fine, crisp lettering it read: Glory Anna - Origin Story. “This is the popular myth, but there’s way more to her than that.”

I looked at the price and let out the exact type of whistle it demanded. “A thousand dollars. I’m in the wrong racket.”

“Oh, a thousand’s not so bad.” She slipped the comic out of the sleeve, gave it a look, and then handed it to me. “It’s mint, and limited edition to start with.”

I flipped through the book. “See here.” I pointed at the good old fashion derring-do on page eight. “I remember this, when she stopped that plane from crashing into the bay.”

“Uh yeah, but that there’s the truth, not the whole truth.”

“I know people have more than one side, but still.”

“But still.” Fangirl shook her head and pat my arm. “Listen, I don’t want to ruin your crush on golden girl, but it’s not what’s in the book that I’m basing my judgment on. It’s the stuff they don’t print, the stuff your average fan won’t hear about.”

“Like what?”

“Glory Anna’s killed before.”

“A killer. Got it.” So she’s laid a few villains down deep in her time. Who hadn’t? Considering what I was going up against it was literally the best news I heard all week.

Fangirl shook her head. “No Dane. I’m not talking about accidentally killing a few guys in battle, I’m talking in the dark of night, putting her hands on black capes with the expressed purpose of murdering them. I’m talking about asking them hard questions during interrogations until they couldn’t answer, that sort of stuff.”

“Sounds terrible.” I returned my attention to the comic, more interested in the fiction in my hands than the one in my ears. “Did Pinnacle know?”

Fangirl’s face dropped. “Oh yeah, he knew. The whole team does. It’s not something they advertise though.”

I flipped a page to see Glory Anna throw a gasoline truck onto Backslash. “And?”