Broken Angels (28 page)

“None of them will even get close.”

“That’s some faith you have in your brethren,” Ava said.

“That’s not a commentary on them,” Robert said. “It’s an honest fear of what I think we’re dealing with.”

Ava didn’t ask for a clarification. She seemed to become lost in her own thoughts and stayed there until Robert turned the corner that put the house into view. They got out of the car together. He followed behind her as she took her first tentative steps across the street and onto the sidewalk. The streets weren’t as empty as they’d been the first time Robert was here. He saw a few dog-walkers and two strolling couples, all minding their own business; that was it. Police tape was still around the property. Neither Robert nor Ava paid it any heed as they stepped onto the lawn, but Ava stopped after two steps. Her face went blank. Robert saw her expression and thought it best to give her some breathing room.

“I’m going to check out the inside.” He might as well have been talking to himself.

Robert opened the front door and walked in, searching for clues like he did at Darryl’s, by manipulating light and his eyesight in every manner he could think of. With his eyes and mind, he counted all objects and measured every distance between one and the rest of them, hoping for a hint of anything askew, anything out of place. He looked for anything the police might’ve missed, or any sign left behind by someone who might’ve come back after the authorities left. He wasn’t completely sure what he’d do with anything he found; he wasn’t exactly the world’s greatest detective. But, depending on what he spotted, Robert figured maybe his mathematical instincts or the intuitional processes in his subconscious might push him on to the next step.

When he left the house, he saw Ava hadn’t moved a muscle. He didn’t want to risk breaking whatever trance she might be in, so he circled around to the backyard to give her a few more minutes of privacy. But he shouldn’t have bothered.

“Nothing,” she said when Robert stepped back into the front yard.

“What?”

“I don’t remember a thing about this place,” Ava said. “Or about what happened to me here.”

“Oh.” He shared her disappointment even though he knew her failure to recall anything was a much greater loss for her, a much more significant blow to her sense of self, her sense of wholeness.

“What about you?” she asked. “What’d you find?”

“Nothing useful.”

Ava blew a puff of air through her nostrils. “So we’ve come full circle. All for nothing.”

“No.” Robert looked at his left wristwatch. “We’re not done. It’s time for us to go speak with a friend of mine.”

“Dawn club?” Ava said.

Robert rolled down the driver’s side window and glanced both ways before making a left turn. “Yes,” he said. “Dawnclub.”

“They don’t have those where I’m from.”

Robert didn’t much feel like engaging in small talk. But in his mind, in his mood, he felt as if too many periods of silence would have the same effect as tiny pellets bouncing up against his eardrums—damn irritating.

“It’s a metropolitan thing,” he said. “Primarily on the East Coast. They’re all lounges and clubs that open up around four in the morning and stay open till about eleven, noon, or sometimes one in the afternoon. They’re a quieter answer to nightclubs. No alcohol, little noise. Most promote local performers—musicians, singers, poets. Mostly amateurs, but they’re all practitioners in the quiet arts. No rockers, angry rappers, or screamers. Just something to help the sun get smoothly into the sky.”

“They sound nice.”

Robert pulled the car into the lot, trying his best to avoid running over any busted bottles.

“Some are nicer than others,” he said.

 “Quite a few hours till four a.m.,” Ava said as they got out of the car. “Aren’t they closed?”

“The woman we want to see is here. She’ll let us in.”

Ava stood still, surveying her surroundings. Robert just glanced at her and kept moving; there was nothing he needed to see on the outside. He knocked on the club’s front door in a rhythmic manner, alerting the few people inside to his presence and his identity. He had to follow the same pattern twice more before the door finally cracked open. Half a face appeared in the opening.

“Hey, Rob. What’s up?”

“Hey, Julio. Sonya’s around, right?”

“Yeah.” Julio pulled the door all the way open. “At the bar.”

“Thanks. Didn’t see my boy here this morn, did you?”

“Darryl? Nah. He’s rarely here unless you are.”

Ava followed Robert to the bar, where two women were sitting and talking. Seeing Robert, one of them smiled and waved.

“Rob!”

He nodded in return. The other woman said nothing. She just tightened her lips and widened her eyes. Robert narrowed his as he met her stare, searching for any recollection that he might know this person. He then turned to Sonya.

“Got a minute?”

“Sure,” Sonya said. “I’ll meet you for a smoke out back, VaShawna.”

The other woman stood up, looked at Robert with no sense of pleasantness, and headed toward a side door.

Sonya grinned. “Nice to see you up past bedtime for once.”

Robert waited until VaShawna had vanished before responding. He nodded in the direction of the slammed door. “Who’s that?”

“New employee,” Sonya said. “Bartender. Get used to her.”

Robert made a noise in his throat—part grunt, part hum—then said, “Sonya, this is Ava. The girl Darryl and I found on Friday.”

“Oh!” Sonya rushed to embrace Ava before she could back away. “We’re so glad you were found!”

Ava looked embarrassed. “Did I—did I know you?”

“No,” Sonya said, “but every found person is a recovery for us all.”

Ava looked at Robert; he only looked at his left-wristwatch and asked Sonya, “Can I get some water, please? Lukewarm.”

“Oh, sure.” Sonya went behind the bar and retrieved a plastic bottle.

“Thanks.” Robert untwisted the cap and sipped a little, just enough to wet his tongue and throat. He then took a pill bottle from his jeans pocket, untwisted it, and shook out the last two multicolored capsules. His regular dosage was four; he’d have to remember to refill at The Burrow as soon as he returned. He swallowed the two pills together, gulping them down as Ava eyed him curiously. He ignored her and asked Sonya, “You haven’t seen or heard from Darryl, have you?”

“Not since Saturday. Why?”

“One day we find one, another day we lose one.”

“Seriously?”

Robert nodded.

“Well, he can take care of himself, Rob. You know that.”

“I know he can’t take care of himself in the situation I think he’s in,” Robert said. “On Saturday, you saw that blonde he was speaking to, right?”

“Yeah,” Sonya said. “She asked me about him before she went over.”

“What’d you tell her?”

“Just his name, and that he wasn’t married.”

“She give you a name?” Robert asked.

“You mean hers?”

Robert nodded.

“It’s Veronica Blake.”

“You know her?” Robert asked.

“Of course,” Sonya said. “She’s a talent scout. And the manager of Phantasie’s rEVEnge.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” he said.

“Why would I?”

“Any idea where I can find her?” Robert asked.

“She mostly goes where the band goes,” Sonya said. “Find them, and she’s probably nearby.”

“Well, they were here two days ago…” Robert looked at the stage. “I don’t suppose anyone here has a schedule of their performances?”

“I can do a quick search on the web,” Sonya said. “Benjy’s got a laptop in back. Hold on.”

After she left, Ava asked, “You really trust her?”

“What do you mean?” Robert asked.

“I mean you believe she’s not going to send you running after red herrings? How do you know she’s not friends with this Blake woman? How do you know she’s telling you everything, or that she’s not back there making phone calls?”

“Because I trust her absolutely,” Robert said. “One hundred percent. I wouldn’t have come to her if I didn’t.”

“Well, I guess that makes one person on the planet who can fit into your little circle.”

“It’s an exclusive club,” Robert replied. “Maybe one day you’ll have the currency to pay your way inside.”

“I can think of better ways to waste my money,” Ava said with a snort.

The amusing comeback almost put a smile on his lips, but Robert was quick to prevent it by taking another drink of water.

Ava waited for him to finish the bottle before asking, “What were those pills?”

“Huh?”

“Those pills you took a few minutes ago.”

“A placebo,” he said with a joyless grin. “Something to help keep the visions of sugarplums dancing in my head. Without it, I’d trip on my feet and fall right on my ass.”

The poor joke most likely went over her head, but one thing he’d said touched a nerve.

“Language.” Ava shook her head. “All the cursing is really annoying.”

“Then bless me, Arkangel. Maybe that’ll help me keep balance.”

Ava started to respond, but Sonya rushed back into the room, waving a piece of paper. “Their schedule for the whole month!”

Robert grabbed the sheet and quickly scanned it.

“Sorry it took so long,” Sonya said. “The printer kept jamming. I hope it’s useful.”

“It is. Let’s go,” he said to Ava.

The pair rushed toward the door.

“Thanks again,” Robert said over his shoulder. “Call me if you have any other ideas.”

“I will, but you really need a
burner
,” Sonya said, referring to the prepaid disposable cell phones popular with criminals. “Landlines are no good for you, or anyone else these days.”

The moment the door closed behind them, Robert saw VaShawna leaning against a wall, glaring at him as she took a drag on her cigarette. Without being too obvious, Robert kept her in his range of vision as he and Ava made their way to his car.

“You should go back and give it to her,” Ava said.

“What to whom?” He kept his eye on the potential enemy, paying only partial attention to Ava.

“Sonya. You should give her your watch number.”

“Funny, Arkangel. You’re hilarious.” He saw VaShawna take a long last drag, throw her cigarette to the ground, and walk back inside the club.

“I was trying to make a serious point,” Ava said as Robert, seeming to forget himself, opened the car’s passenger-side door for her. “Who doesn’t have a cell phone? How is anyone supposed to get in touch with you in an emergency, or a moment of desperation? Anyone who doesn’t have one of those heart-to-mind readers is out of luck.”

Her comment surprised him, but Robert kept his face blank and his mouth closed. He started the car and waited until he’d driven it out of the lot before he asked, “And just what makes you think you know how the watches work?”

“Just a lucky guess.”

Doubtful. Robert himself had little idea how they worked; he just knew they did. The devices had been a joint invention by Zel and Vince. All Watchers had taken a training session on how to use them. Not once during the session were the exact mechanics explained to them; intuition had been emphasized over hard science. No words or sounds were used to create messages, just thought and touch. Psychic Morse code. Robert had always figured the method of message transmission had to do with some kind of connection between electromagnetism and the human nervous system. Even though the watches wrapped around pulse sites, he never once considered the heartbeat—not until now, anyway.

“I don’t give a damn how smart cell phones are today,” he said, “there are plenty of folks out there who are smarter, and up to no good. Whatever you write or say, someone could easily intercept the message, maybe an important one. Transmitting directly from mind to mind is the only truly secure way to communicate. The watches are the best instruments we have for that.”

Ava said nothing for the next several minutes. During that time, Robert dwelled on VaShawna. He’d never seen her before, and yet he had a sense of familiarity when he saw her today, much like he’d had when he saw the word “Charma.” It was possible—even probable—the woman was a previous charity case of Darryl’s, someone who hadn’t been left to stroll on the straight path to
peace
but instead had been dumped on the muddy, rocky, winding road to
nowhere
. Such a one couldn’t help but feel wronged, angry, peeved toward others, particularly men, and especially Darryl and his associates. The woman must’ve seen Darryl and Robert together in the club—or together in another club—at some point. She must’ve known they were close.

The only things Robert knew for sure were that he was losing time, he was probably losing his partner, and he was definitely losing his patience.

“Maybe I should sign on formally,” Ava said. “As an IAI agent, I mean. I could use that generous allowance Mister Smith mentioned. I wouldn’t mind buying a cell, or even a burner. And I don’t know if you noticed, but I’ve been wearing the same clothes for a couple of days now.”

“I noticed,” Robert said. “Where’d you snatch them?”

Ava at first seemed confused by the question. It couldn’t have been because Robert had blurted it out without thinking; he suspected instead she hadn’t meant to draw attention to her clothes. Or she thought he’d been too stupid all this time to notice the obvious.