Catskinner's Book (The Book Of Lost Doors) (6 page)

I turned to the door that Catskinner had kicked down. There was a short hall and a larger space, it had to be the vacant storefront next door.

“Your whole life?”

I sighed. “When I was an infant my parents tattooed something on my back. It summoned him and bound him to my body. Like a magic circle or something. I don't know how it works.”

I stepped on the fallen door, walked across it to the open area.

Godiva followed me. “Why?”

“I don't know,” I said without turning around, “maybe there was nothing good on TV.”  

There was a good sized chemistry lab in there. One of the long walls had a row of tables against it and the tables were covered with glassware and tubing, a couple of big heavy boxes that could have been centrifuges or could have been toasters for all I knew. The smell was very strong, a mix of compost and spices.

There were a couple of the tanning beds, both of them looking like they'd been partially broken down for parts.  There was a lot of the usual junk that seems to accumulate in spaces like this, broken chairs, an aluminum extension ladder, a wheelbarrow, a rolling coat rack with what looked like a random selection of clothes on it, a bank of gym lockers.

Godiva went to the coat rack and started picking through it. I started opening the lockers. The first one seemed to be full of belts, canvas and leather, with big buckles. I went on to the next. There was a dusty lab coat hanging on a hook, a bunch of empty plastic tubes at the bottom.

Godiva joined me at the lockers, starting at the other end. She'd pulled a baggy gray T-shirt on, it made her older, somehow. More respectable.

I found a couple more lab coats and a stack of old, thick books.
Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, Common Reactions and Reagents, Physicians Desk Reference. Benway's Guide to Endocrinology
. Fun stuff.

“Hey,” Godiva called to me. I looked over and she smiled. She had teeth, very white and very shiny. She had a cute smile, but it looked odd, artificial. Maybe that was just because I'd seen her without them.

At the bottom of the next locker was a green metal cash box. I opened it. Cash, a couple of hundred at least. Godiva was at the locker next to me. I handed it to her. She glanced inside, then back at me.

“I figure it's your severance pay.”

She clutched the box to her. For a moment she looked very lost. “Can I touch you?”

“Sure,” I said and then I realized that she wasn't asking me. Can she?

i don't like it.

I'm not asking you to like it, I'm asking you not to hurt her.

if you must.

“It's okay,” I told her. “He won't do anything.”

She came to me and put her arms around me, still awkwardly clutching the cash box. Her body was very warm, soft and small. It was like holding a kitten. She pressed her head against my chest and her hair smelled like flowers.

“They're not coming back for me,” she whispered into my chest. “They're really not.”  

“No,” I agreed. “I don't think they are.”  

“I don't know what to do now.”  

I put my arms around her. I could feel Catskinner's revulsion. I ignored it.

“I don't either.” There didn't seem to be anything more to say.

She looked up at me. Her glasses slid down her nose and I met her strange animal eyes.

“Are you going to kill Dr. Klein?”

“If I find her.”

“I'll help you find her.” Her eyes were shining and she blinked away moisture. She stepped back. It was hard to let her go.

She went back over to the clothes rack and found a black clutch purse. She dumped the cash in it. She took a deep breath and pushed her glasses back up.

“Let's get out of this fucking place.”

“Yeah. And let’s get some lunch.”

She smiled at me, her artificial teeth bright and her pink lips shining.

I could get used to that smile, I thought.

predictable.

Just shut up, okay?  

Just before we left, Godiva stopped and held up a hand. “Wait just one minute, please.”

I nodded and she ducked back into the both where I had first found her. She came out with a pink Victoria's Secret shopping bag. The book she had been reading was sticking out of the top.

Catskinner tensed.
search the bag
, but it was a suggestion, not an order.

Instead I said to Godiva, “You've been living here?”

She nodded. “Just temporary.” She looked down and I wondered how long “temporary” had been, and what she had been doing to pay the rent.

The address on Dr. Klein's magazine was in West County. I pulled up to the first drive thru place we passed and we ordered a lot of food. As we pulled away Godiva sorted through the bags then looked up at me shyly.

“I can't eat with the teeth in,” she said quietly.

“Take them out. Nobody will see in.”

I didn't look over at her while she was eating. I kept my eyes on the road and snagged a couple of burgers. On the highway she put her hand on my arm and I glanced over at me. She looked serious, her teeth back in place.

“Are you going to kill Dr. Klein now?” she asked.

I sighed. “I don't know. I might. I want to talk to her, see how it goes from there. Hell, she might not even be home.”

Godiva looked at me, her eyes unreadable behind her glasses. “I think I should go with you,” she said at last in a small voice.

I nodded. I figured she deserved to be a part of whatever happened.

We took 270 around to Ladue road. I had a street guide in the van. Godiva looked up the address. She turned out to be a fine navigator.

“Have you been out here before?” I asked her.

“Not in years,” she said, “but I grew up around here.” Her tone of voice didn't invite further inquiry.

Dr. Klein's house was an imitation castle on a corner lot with a high privacy fence surrounding most of the property. I parked down the street. I still didn't exactly have a plan, but I trusted Catskinner would take over when the time came.

“You stay in the van,” I told Godiva.

i don't trust her.

“Maybe I could help.”

It was confusing, both of them talking at once. It wasn't something that I was used to. We have to trust her, I told Catskinner.

Aloud I said, “Probably not—Catskinner's used to working alone. Besides, if anything happens to me, I don't want her to know you were working with me.”

“I don't want anything to happen to you.” She looked very serious.

I smiled. “Me, either. Don't worry, I'll be fine. You just wait here.”

if she doesn't wait?

We'll deal with that if it happens. It was another one of those neighborhoods where no one walks. They didn't even have sidewalks.

Police response time is probably pretty quick around here, I thought to Catskinner.

agreed. best to be quiet.

I could feel the electric heat on my back, his eagerness, his hunger to destroy. For once I knew how he felt. As I walked up the driveway I could see the shape of a van in the garage. The Land Of Tan van. I hope that meant she was home.

The door was a big slab of ornate wood with a stained glass window in it. Very pretty. I rang the bell.

Are you ready?

it's showtime.

Chapter Five

“there is no right answer to the wrong question”

“Hi there. My imaginary friend wants to skin you alive.”

Her reaction was all I could have hoped for. She'd answered the door in an elaborately embroidered robe that looked like silk. She looked stunned to see me. She'd probably thought I would die when she left me pinned to the wall.

For a moment she just stared at me.

“That Solomon trick won't work twice,” I said. “My friend doesn't need to see you to kill you.”

I stepped inside and she backed away slowly. I shut the door behind me. We were in a two-story foyer with a painted tile floor. Archways were open to the left and right; straight ahead carpeted stairs led up. There was a bookcase against one wall full of little gewgaws and doodads, most of them looking vaguely Aboriginal. Pier One schlock.

“I've got some questions.”  

She nodded. She looked scared, but not scared enough to talk. Not yet.

“I want to know why you killed Victor—”

“He died a long time ago.”

“Shut up,” I said. She glared at me, but didn't say anything else.

“I want to know why you killed Victor. I want to know what you took from his safe, and I want it back. After that, we can talk about how you're going to die.”

She folded her arms across her chest. “Is that all?” She was starting to look more angry that frightened.

“Yeah, that's about it.”

She shook her head. “You have no idea what Victor was, do you? You don't even know what you are.”

“Maybe so, but I know what you are.”

Oh, really?  And what's that?”

Catskinner answered for me. “
skin. muscle. blood. bone.
”

That rattled her.

“My friend's still kind of upset. As I'm sure you know, I can't always control him.”

“You can't ever control it, and you never will. You're just a puppet.” Her voice dripped contempt.

I shook my head. “If that was true, you'd already be in pieces.” In my head I asked, Can you scare her without killing her? I want her to talk.

Catskinner's reply was to lash out to the shelf next to me. Something dark blurred past her head and exploded into pottery shards against the far wall. He grabbed another one and it detonated at her feet. The next one he crushed in my hand and threw a handful of red-brown dust in her face.

Now I was seeing real fear on her face. “Stop it!” she cried out.

Catskinner snatched up a bit of crystal and snapped it against the shelf, shattering it. With one of the shards he thrust forward, cutting her robe across her chest without touching the skin below it. He snapped the shard to one side and it embedded in the shelf.

“
it stops when you talk
.”

“The book!” she shouted at me. “His book was in the safe.”

I felt Catskinner pull back.

“Book?” I asked. “What book?”

“The Book of Thoth.”  She glared at me defiantly.

“Thoth, huh?  Egyptian guy, head like a bird or something? That Thoth?” I took another step towards her, she took another step back.

“You don't know anything.”

“So tell me, and then I'll know. Where's Thoth's book now?”

“Gone. Dissipated.”  With a contemptuous glare. I wanted to slap that look off her face.

“So you were just there for kicks, then? Just because you get off on killing people?”

“There were no people there. Unnatural things.”

I was starting to lose my temper. “Unnatural?  As opposed to what you did to Godiva, which was perfectly natural?”

Damn. I hadn't wanted to mention Godiva. The response was gratifying, though. Her eyes widened and she backed up a few more steps. She hadn't expected me to know about Godiva.

I pressed on. We were by the stairs now. “How do you think I got your address?”

“Godiva wanted it done.”

“And that makes it okay to leave her—”

She interrupted me by laughing. “You're an idiot.”

“Maybe so, but I know evil when I see it.” I walked closer. She backed away through the arch to the left. I could see more of her house now. A conversational grouping, matching chairs and couch, polished blond wood and brown leather. It looked expensive.

“Evil? With that reaver inside you?”

“Reaver?”

i do reave upon occasion.

Thanks, I know.

shall i scare her some more?

Not just yet.

She was looking at me closely, as if she could sense my internal conversation. Deliberately she took two slow steps back. I followed her.

“Where are you going?” I asked sharply.

She spread her hands. “You tell me.”

“I like this room. We'll stay right here.”

 She planted her feet and folded her arms and glared.

She was right about one thing—I didn't know half of what I needed to, and I didn't even know the right questions to ask.

“Who else was with you?”

“Just me and my imaginary friends.”

Okay, your turn.

Catskinner lashed out and slapped her across the face, hard enough to knock her off balance. With my other hand he grabbed the front of her robe and yanked. She fell, naked, and Catskinner tossed the torn pieces of the robe behind me.

Now there was real fear in her eyes. She crawled backwards and Catskinner stalked towards her, driving her back to where a plate glass door separated the room from the fenced back yard. Idly I noticed there was a large in-ground pool. Typical.

“
you live on an island gathering shells on the shore and you think that you can control the tides because you can reckon their rise and fall. you see the surface of the waves and you think you know the sea.
”  

She scrambled backwards, her eyes wide with panic. She reached the glass door, pressed up against it, Catskinner bent down to put my face close to hers. I could feel his death's head rictus on my face.

“you walk across the skin of this world and you think the ground is solid under foot. you close your eyes when you fall under the shadow of great black wings, and you tell yourself the sun will rise again.”

“but you know,”
–he reached out to brush my fingers across her arms, crossed tight against her chest—
“you know in your heart that one day the sun will set and never rise again. you know the deep that waits for you, in the cold, in the dark, in the stillness, in the forever.”
 

He straightened, pressed my palms against the glass door. I felt the tension gather in my arms and then the glass exploded outwards.

She screamed and he leaned back down to her.

“hush. just answer the question.”

“I don't know their names! Keith arranged it! They were just drones from the Manchester nest!”

Catskinner turned and I felt his control slip away. I turned back. “Thank you, Dr. Klein.”