5th Pentagram: The sequel to the #1 Hard Boiled Mystery, 9th Circle (Book 3 of the Darc Murders Trilogy) (Book 3 of the Darc Murder Series) (11 page)

Ouch. Trey tried not to look like he was paying too close of attention. Of course, he was totally riveted. He needed the answer to this question as much as Mala did.

But Maggie just laughed. It was Trey’s favorite thing about her. When she was really amused by something, it was like her laughter came straight from her gut, and nothing could hold it back. And those were the kind of belly laughs bursting out of her right now.

“Oh. Oh… I’m sorry. That must seem like I’m making fun of you,” Maggie apologized. “I’m not, though. Seriously. No. I don’t want to get back with Darc. He made me crazy.”

“That’s exactly what I’m afraid of. That he’ll make me crazy too.”

“But that’s just the thing. He won’t. Well, he will, but you’ll figure it out where I couldn’t.” She pointed at Mala. “You love his whole savant thing, right? I just tolerated it. Admired it at first, maybe, but mostly just put up with it.”

“Even if that’s true,” Mala conceded. “What about his disconnect?”

“Listen to what I’m saying to you. He’s
changing
. For you. In a way he never did for me, no matter how much I begged him to.”

“But—”

“He
lied
. That babysitter is a total stoner, by the way.”

Mala perked up at that. “But he said…”

“He
pretended
,” Maggie continued. “Don’t you get it? He
let Trey in his ear
. He never would have done that for me. Hell,
I
don’t even want Trey in my ear.”

“Hey,” Trey interjected.

“He’s different now,” Maggie continued after giving Trey a look that he knew meant she would deal with him later. “And that’s all about you.”

“That seems to make you sad.”

Maggie let out another breath. “Of course it makes me sad. Darc’s a great man and an amazing detective. It was a thrill to be involved in that, even on the sidelines.” She glanced over at Trey. “But I don’t love him. Maybe I did once, but not now.” Returning her gaze to Mala, she spoke with surprising gentleness. “But I think maybe you do.”

Mala dropped her gaze and looked over at Janey who was still sprawled out asleep next to her. Trey could tell that what Maggie had said was affecting her.

“Okay…” Mala began, then paused. “But I’m just not sure I have time for romance right now, with everything that’s happening with Janey…”

“I’m going to stop you right there. Saying
I have no time
is the same as
It’s not you, it’s me
. When the right thing comes along, we rearrange our lives for it. And you know that.”

Maggie’s words seemed to have gone deep, as Mala just stood there, her face thoughtful. Trey decided to try to tip the scales even further.

“What say we give it one more try?” Trey asked. “All four of us this time.”

“This time?” Mala answered, her tone pointed.

“Well, this time in person,” he answered.

Mala let out a huge sigh, then gave him a grin. “All right. Fine. One more try.”

Trey sat down in his chair and reached over for Maggie’s hand. As she made contact with him, he felt the familiar tingle that her touch always sparked in him. Ending up with Darc’s ex had been painful on so many levels, and had put him in physical danger more than once. But he wouldn’t have given it up for anything in the world.

It was nice to hear that she felt the same way.

CHAPTER 7

Janey hadn’t been asleep. She guessed that pretending was maybe not so good, but it wasn’t lying, right? Popeye started laughing at her, but she ignored him.

It was just that grown-ups didn’t like to say things around her. At least not important things. And because she had acted like she wasn’t awake, she’d gotten to hear all kinds of things.

Like how Mala didn’t want to date Darc anymore. That one had almost made her pop her head up. But she managed to stay relaxed, so she had also heard the whole conversation with Trey and Maggie. That had made it all better.

Well, mostly.

Because now Darc was out walking around in the rain. Trey said he did that all the time, but Janey was pretty sure he only did it when he was feeling lonely or sad. Like when Janey hid in the closet or underneath the sink.

When she wanted to be by herself, it was usually because she was thinking about her mommy and daddy. And those were times that she hurt in her chest. She bet Darc was hurting in his chest, too.

It wasn’t fair. Mala loved Darc, Janey knew she did. She saw the way that Mala looked at him when he was figuring things out.

But Mala didn’t seem to know. And Darc wasn’t very good about explaining things. Like why he should be with Mala. And with Janey, of course.

That would make everyone so much happier. Darc would be with Mala. Mala would be with Darc. Both of them would be with Janey.

The only one upset would be Popeye, but that was only because he had a crush on Mala. He said he didn’t, but Janey knew better. Popeye stuck out his tongue at her. Naughty bear.

But maybe Janey could make things better. Maybe she could behave really well so that the date would go better next time. If she hadn’t snuck down to the car, it might have gone well.

Mala carried her up the stairs to the front of the apartment building where they lived. It sounded like she was tired, and Janey felt bad, but if she woke up now, Mala might know that she had been awake the whole time.

So she stayed quiet and still.

When they got up to the apartment, Mala tucked her into bed without even putting her in pajamas. She just pulled Janey’s shoes and socks off and pulled the covers up over her. Janey stirred, and almost decided to open her eyes so she could give Mala a big hug. It seemed like she needed one.

But Janey had something she needed to do.

Darc saw the bands of light and color just like she sometimes did. But he never saw them about people. That’s why he didn’t know that the lawyer guy that tried to date Mala had been such a bad person. But Janey did. She saw those things.

And she knew something that he didn’t about the man from the ferryboat.

She pulled out some paper and a crayon and started drawing.

* * *

Darc squinted against the sunshine as he walked into work. It had been four o’clock in the morning when he finally arrived home from his conversation with Mala, drenched to the bone, with his body aching. It had distracted him somewhat from other deeper and darker emotions that were swirling under the surface of the ocean of his consciousness, like psychological sharks ready to attack.

But now he had no car with which to drive himself to the precinct. He could have called Trey, but the thought of speaking with his partner caused additional turbulence in the inner emotional currents. Trey was partially to blame for the events of last night.

The logic strands burst and disintegrated around that idea. It was not accurate. Trey had done nothing but try to assist him in navigating an uncomfortable social scenario with which Darc was largely unfamiliar.

The intoxication, however, was another matter. That deserved a lengthy conversation.

The sun beat down against Darc’s forehead, the light striking his eyes in a way that made them water. Sunshine of this nature was uncommon in Seattle. It was a statistical anomaly during late October. It added to the sense of discombobulation that Darc was experiencing.

He entered the building and immediately ran into Trey, who was hovering around the entrance, apparently waiting for him.

“Okay, dude. I’ve got good news and gross news. Which one do you want first?” He paused for a millisecond, then continued. “Never mind. I’ll tell you the good news first. Mala wants to go out with you again.”

Darc felt something surge within him, a bubble of warmth that was inexplicable. And yet, in spite of the fact that it felt good, he found he did not trust it. Nor the messenger, for that matter.

“She does not. Last night she told me she did not think our relationship was a good idea.”

“No, no. This was
after
that. I talked her into having a double date. You, me, Mala and Maggie. Isn’t that awesome? You can thank me later.”

Darc had no idea how to respond to this information. The majority of that news did indeed seem positive, but there was a reaction around the nature of the double date that seemed to be creating the effect of heavy ballast, pulling back on the sensation of that bubble of warmth within.

Trey continued, unfazed by Darc’s lack of response. “So, here’s the gross news. What’s-his-bucket… you know, the intern from the ME’s office…”

“Cody Lyons,” Darc prompted.

“Right, Cody. Anyway, he was looking at the body of that councilwoman from the third crime scene, and he found something. He wants us down there ASAP.”

Trey grabbed Darc’s arm and propelled him back out toward the parking lot. Darc’s car was there, right next to Trey’s Land Rover. Trey saw Darc staring, and responded to the unspoken question.

“Maggie helped me bring your car back this morning. She took a cab back. Figured you’d probably had a rough night.”

He moved around Darc’s car to his own, pulling open the passenger side door and cramming Darc into the seat. He then ran around to the driver’s side.

“Sorry about the manhandling,” he apologized. “It’s just that Cody said it was time sensitive, and you’re moving a lot slower than you usually do.”

Darc took in the statement, the bands of light wrapping themselves around the information and spitting back out an answer. Trey was correct. Darc was moving much more slowly than was typical for him.

That was unusual.

The ME’s office was only about a mile away from the department building, so a few minutes later, Darc and Trey were making their way down to the morgue. The building was a part of a much larger complex that spread over several city blocks.

When they entered the morgue, Cody ran forward to greet them. “You will not believe what I found when I was cutting this woman open.”

He escorted them to the side of the body, and pulled back a flap of skin that was covering the woman’s internal organs. There, burned into the surface of the woman’s heart, was a pentagram.

“Well, that totally qualifies as gross, Cody,” Trey affirmed. “But how the hell did the killer get that in there?”

“That’s the thing. I found a small incision right here where the bellybutton is. They went through with some kind of soldering or wood burning tool and cauterized the tissue.” He shook his head. “It’s fascinating, right? I mean, totally creepy and all, but fascinating.”

Darc looked at the pentagram. There appeared to be three points that had been burned deeper and wider than the rest of the figure. All three appeared at some point in the five-sided star, with one at one of the points along the left hand side, the other two found at the angle formed by two of the arms. The spacing appeared familiar to him.

The symbol lifted itself off of the organ in Darc’s mind, spinning around and forming associations to other numbers and logic pathways previously formed. The pentagram superimposed itself on a map of Seattle, the darker points glowing in recognition and harmony.

Darc stood up and ran toward the exit, not bothering to alert his partner. Trey would follow soon enough, and Darc had to follow the trail laid out by the gleaming threads converging all around him.

There was no time. No time at all.

* * *

Trey watched as Darc bolted out of the morgue. Now there was the savant detective he knew and loved. He shrugged an apology to Cody and prepared to race off after him.

“Does he do that a lot?” Cody asked.

“You have no idea.” Trey ran to the exit, searching for and finding Darc’s retreating back. Well, that was a familiar sight.

“But there was something else…” Cody called out after him.

“Later!” Trey shouted back. He couldn’t afford to lose Darc when his partner was on a tear like this. True, Trey had the car, but he wouldn’t put it past Darc to hotwire the sucker and leave Trey stranded. Keeping up was a matter of survival.

Plus, he had to admit, it was pretty exciting.

“Where are we going?” he asked Darc, once he caught up to him. He was proud of the fact that he hadn’t completely lost his breath yet. Maybe he was starting to get into better shape.

And then Darc put on a burst of speed, and Trey realized that his partner had just been waiting for him. Sort of.

By the time they got out to the car, Trey could barely walk, much less talk. “Where…? How…? You…” Darc moved over to the passenger side door and just stared at Trey. “Yeah… never mind. I guess… you’ll tell me.” He unlocked the doors and climbed in. At least Darc wasn’t trying to drive. He’d have to give Trey some information if he wanted to get wherever he was going in such a hurry.

By this point, Trey was starting to catch his breath. Pretty much. “So what was that all about?”

“We need to get to the corner of 7
th
Avenue and South Elm grove Street in South Park.”

“Okay, yeah. But how do you know that?”

Darc spoke without taking his eyes off the road. It was almost like he was following a map in his head and was making sure he didn’t miss any of the turns. For all Trey knew, that was exactly what was going on.

But he did finally answer. “The pentagram was a map of part of the city.”

“Whoa. What?” Trey did his best to process that information. Nope. Too much. “What?”

“Each of the darker points on the star referred to the three locations of the murders to date.”

“So, this guy is killing people along the points of a pentagram?”

Darc said nothing, continuing to look out the window. And now that Trey knew what was in his partner’s head, he could see that Darc was indeed following a map. A freaky savant map that Darc could apparently superimpose over three random dots that he found carved on a victim’s heart.

Sometimes, his partner’s gifts totally freaked Trey out.

* * *

The stage was set.

The players were on their way.

It was time for the show to begin.

There were moments when playing the game seemed unfair. There was no way the players could have any idea what was coming. But that was part of the way the world had to work. If they were truly worthy, no amount of unfairness could stop them. Plus, if the Intermediary allowed the playing field to become level, there was always the possibility of ultimately losing.