KISS THE WITCH (33 page)

Carlos and I drove to work in his Corvette.
On the ride out, I told him about the linking thing with
Ursula.

“
Really?” he said, his
boyish grin pulling at the lines around his eyes. “She comes to you
just for thinking about her?”

“
Yes.”

He looked me up and down suspiciously. “How
come she ain’t here now?”

“
What do you
mean?”

“
You’re thinking about her
now. Aren’t you?”

Good question, I thought. “I don’t know.
Guess she has to want to come.”

“
Probably a good thing.
Where would she sit, in your lap?”

“
She wouldn’t have to sit.
She only comes to me in my head.”

“
But you can see her,
right?”

“
Of course.”

“
She ever come to you
naked?”

“
Carlos.”

“
What? It’s a fair
question.”

“
I’m not answering
that.”

“
Why? Afraid I’ll tell
Dominic?”

“
I know you will tell
Dominic.”

“
So, she does.”

“
Carlos.”

“
Tony.”

“
I’m changing the subject.
Did we bring Ferguson in last night?”

“
Are you going to tell
Lilith?”

“
No. Yes. Maybe. Tell me
about Ferguson.”

“
Corporal Olson brought
him in. She is going to find out, you know?”

“
Olson?”

“
Lilith.”

“
Yes, I know. Is he
talking?”

“
Ferguson? He’s talking.
What do you think she’ll do?”

“
Who?”

“
Lilith.”

“
I don’t know. What’s he
saying?”

“
The shit is going to hit
the fan.”

“
Ferguson said
that?”

“
No. I’m saying that. With
Lilith.”

“
I’m talking about
Ferguson.”

“
Does he know about you
and Ursula?”

“
Ferguson?”

“
Dominic.”

“
Carlos, please. Can we
talk about just one thing at a time here?”

“
Sure.” He fixed his gaze
on the road ahead, but I saw his eyes squint with a brewing smile.
“Does she kiss like Lilith?”

“
Carlos, we are not having
this conversation.”

“
Does that mean she
doesn’t?”

“
Carlos.”

He soured his face at me. “Ferguson says
he’ll talk. Wants to make a plea deal.”

“
That’s good.”

“
No it’s not. He said he
will only talk to the Feds.”

“
We’ll tell him
no.”

“
Too late. The D.A.
already said yes. We have to turn him over to the FBI. Dominic
called his buddy from the Bureau. He’s coming in this morning to
conduct an interview with him.”

“
Dominic is working
today?”

“
Dominic works every
day.”

“
Yes, but not on the day
after his wedding. What’s wrong with that boy?”

“
I don’t know. Maybe he
had a fight with his wife because she keeps running off in her
dreams to be with another man.”

I shook my finger at him. “I’m warning you,
Carlos. I’ll shut you off completely.”

“
No. Come on, Tony. You
know I live vicariously through you.”

“
Then behave.”

And he did. For the rest of the ride all we
talked about was how much it sucked that we had to turn Ferguson
over to the FBI. At the office, Dominic seemed even more
disappointed than we did. Though admittedly, his hangover may have
exaggerated that disappointment. Carlos and I caught up with him in
the Detective’s lounge, nursing a hangover while sipping black
coffee through a straw.

“
There’s the happy
bridegroom,” I said. I came up behind him and put my arm around his
shoulder. “How’s it going? Married life treating you
well?”

“
Please,” he said, rubbing
his temples briskly. “Not so loud. Have some respect for the dearly
departed brain cells.”

“
Hung over are
we?”

“
Don’t know about we, but
I am.”

“
So, how was your first
night as a married man?”

Spinelli lifted his head from his hands and
tried to smile. “It was nice,” he said, his eyes squinting for the
bright lights in the break room.

“
So, you’re no longer a
vir––”

“
Carlos. Stop
it.”

Spinelli’s head went back into his hand.
“That’s okay. You can say it. I’m no longer a virgin. I waited
until my wedding night. I’m proud I can say that.”

“
As well you should be,” I
told him.

“
I wasn’t going to say
that,” Carlos complained.

“
No? What were you going
to say?”

“
Well, I don’t know now. I
forgot.”

“
Dominic.” I patted him
lightly on the back. “I just wanted to say congratulations again.
You and Ursula make a wonderful couple.”

“
Thanks, Tony.”

“
Yeah, Dom.” Carlos patted
him in turn. “Congrats buddy. May she make an honest man out of
you, and you of her. No more secrets. You hear?”

Spinelli’s head came up again. “What’s that
supposed to mean?”

“
Yeah, Carlos.” I shot him
the evil eye. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“
Nothing. It’s just a
saying, right?”

“
No. That’s not a saying
for a newlywed.”

“
Do you know something?”
Spinelli asked.

“
What? Me? No.” I saw his
eye begin to twitch. “I don’t know anything. Do I,
Tony?”

I swear I wanted to hit him. “He means
nothing, Dominic. Why, is something on your mind?”

He took a sip of coffee through his straw
and settled back into his seat. “Nothing. It’s just that….”

“
That what?”

He shook his head. “I don’t know. Maybe it’s
a witch thing.”

“
What is?”

“
Let me ask you, Tony.
Have you ever walked in on Lilith only to find her just sitting
there staring off into space?”

“
Are you kidding?
Sometimes I think Lilith is in space. Why do you ask?”

“
Last night,” he paused to
gaze into the sheen of his coffee. “I fell asleep after Ursula and
I ahm…you know.”

Carlos interrupted. “Yeah, I always get
sleepy after sex, too.”

“
Carlos.”

“
Well, I do.”

“
Go on,
Dominic.”

“
Anyway, I fell asleep,
but I guess for just a few minutes. When I awoke, Ursula was no
longer in bed with me. I figured she probably got up to go to the
bathroom or something.”

Carlos said, “Yeah, that’s the other thing I
always have to do right afterwards.”

This time a look is all it took. I don’t
think Spinelli even heard him though. He picked up his straw and
began stirring his coffee absentmindedly. “After a while, when she
didn’t come back to bed, I went looking for her, you know, to make
sure she was all right.”

“
Yes, of course. And was
she?”

“
I don’t know. I mean, she
was, but I didn’t know it then. I walked into the bathroom and
found her sitting on the edge of the tub in her nightgown, staring
off into space. I called to her, but she didn’t seem to hear
me.”

“
Was she
sleeping?”

“
I don’t know. Her eyes
were open. I walked over and touched her on the arm. She felt cold.
I started to worry. I shook her and called her name, and then she
heard me. She blinked. Looked at me. Smiled. And then stood up and
gave me a hug.”

“
Aww,” said Carlos. “How
romantic.”

“
Has that ever happened to
Lilith?”

I dismissed his question as routine. “Oh,
sure. Happens all the time,” I said, lying through my teeth. “It’s
nothing.”

“
Really?”

“
It’s a witch thing. A
sort of meditation. It means they’re happy.”

I could see the relief washing over him.
“Oh, man, you don’t know how glad I am to hear that. I thought she
was having second thoughts about marrying me.”

“
What?” My heart fell.
“Dominic. Ursula loves you to no end. Don’t ever forget that. There
is not another man in the world that could take your
place.”

“
You think?”

“
Of course.” And just as I
said that, I noticed that electric blue vein of light stretching
from my feet, through the open door and down the hall. Carlos and
Spinelli were looking too, but I knew they could not see it. They
were simply looking at me looking at it.

“
Excuse me,” I said. I
followed it down the hall and around the corner where it
disappeared under the door leading to the stairwell. Not knowing
what else to do, I pushed the door open and stepped over the
threshold. The light at my feet erupted in a brilliant flash of
blue and white. It blinded me for an instant and left me dazed. I
reached for the handrail and instead found myself holding on to the
edge of a kitchen counter top. My eyes began readjusting to the
ambient light. No longer was I in the stairwell. I was home. I
thought. Only things were not exactly the same as home. Ursula was
there, her back to the wall, tucked in the shadows. She wore a
black overcoat and hat, and looked positively
surreptitious.

“
Ursula?” I approached her
with trepidation. “What are you doing here? Is this my
house?”

She stepped forward into the light. “You are
in my house. We are linking.”

“
I came to
you?”

She nodded.

“
So then, I’m not really
here. I’m still in the stairwell at the office.”

“
Aye.”

“
Why did you pull me away
like that?” I thought linking meant we could talk without anyone
seeing us, and everything moves in slow motion.”

She shook her head. “That is so only when we
are both physically present,” she said. “Only then do thoughts
exchange at light speed. The same is not so at greater distances.
What thoughts we share at sight, we share in time unbroken. Apart,
our thoughts are stretched and time must stretch along the witch’s
line.”

“
Time
stretches?”

“
Aye, as thin a line doth
stretch to thee, so too doth time resist.”

“
A lag time.”

“
Aye.”

“
That’s why Dominic found
you in a trance last night in the bathroom. You were talking to
me.”

“
`Tis a matter of matter,
dark and heavy.”

I gestured at her attire. “Why the cloak and
dagger getup?”

She laughed timidly. “Ask thyself as thou
wilt know.”

“
I see. I did that,” I
said, realizing I had dressed her in garb de`clandestine. “It’s the
detective in me.”

“
Methinks I
understand.”

“
Tell me why I’m
here.”

“
I know how to break the
link.”

“
That’s great.
How.”

“
Thou must kiss another
inside a witch’s circle.”

“
Another
witch?”

“
Aye.”

“
Great. Any ideas
who?”

“
Thou knows but
not?”

“
Guess you mean
Lilith.”

“
Of course.”

“
She won’t go for it.
She’s going to be pissed as it is. There is no way she will want to
link with me after she hears what I did.”

“
Doth thou knowest another
witch?”

“
Nooo,” I said, probably a
bit snootier than I had a right to. “Thou doesn’t know-est another
witch. I thought you were working on your modern speak. What
happened to the accent you used in the kitchen the other day? It’s
about time you got with the program, isn’t it?”

Ursula’s face fell into a frown and my heart
just melted. “Ursula. I didn’t mean that” I kicked the base of the
kitchen cabinet with the tip of my shoe. “I’m sorry. I know I
shouldn’t have––”

She disappeared before I could finish. I
looked about and found I was back on the platform in the stairwell.
I thought of calling her back, but I knew she would not come. I
also knew that she was right. I had no choice but to tell Lilith
about the witch’s light. After everything that happened, it was
time to come clean. If for no other reason than to free Ursula and
let her get on with her life without the ball and chain around her
ankle that I represented.

That night, I tried three times to tell
Lilith about the light. She stopped me each time, silencing me with
her kiss and dragging me off to the bedroom for some intimate
one-on-one. She told me she had not realized how much fun it would
be having the house all to ourselves. I told her that was all I
could think about ever since Ursula and Dominic announced they were
marrying. We were on our way back to the bedroom for a fourth time,
when the doorbell rang.