Hardboiled: Not Your Average Detective Story (The Lillim Callina Chronicles Book 5) (3 page)

I felt my heart start to hammer as I turned back toward Connor, but before I could say anything, my father clapped his scarred hand on my shoulder.

“Hi there,” my dad growled, pulling the cigar from his mouth and smiling at Connor. “Would you like some candy?”

That was pretty much when I was sure I had died. If I hadn’t, it was going to happen pretty freaking soon. The cause? Advanced mortification.

Connor stared at my father for half a second, before a grin crossed his lips. “Is it in your van?” he asked. “Because I only take candy from strange men in vans. No van, no candy. It’s my rule.”

I’ll admit it. I almost laughed. Partially from Connor, but mostly from the look that flew across my father’s face at breakneck speed. It was a cross between surprise and amusement. It was a look that melted into, “well, two can play this game.”

“Dad, this is Connor. Connor, this is my dad. He is pretending to be a crazy person for no apparent reason,” I replied, turning to narrow my eyes at my father. I flashed him my,
what the hell are you doing,
look.

“You want to know how I got these scars?” my father asked, looking past me at Connor.

“I’m going to go with a fishing accident,” Connor said, still smirking.

“Dad!” I said, reaching out to grab his arm. My father smiled then, reaching one hand out toward Connor. Before I could stop him, Connor took my father’s hand and pain flashed through the boy’s eyes.

“I stood on a mountain for days, while vicious beasts tore the flesh from my body with their claws,” my dad said, and as he said the words, Connor bit his lip to keep from crying out. “I saw you holding hands with my sweet innocent daughter. What exactly are your intentions, if you don’t mind me asking?” He pointed at Connor with his cigar.

That was when I died because my heart exploded, and I became completely insubstantial as I tried to melt through into the ground and hide amongst the grass.

“Sir, I only have the best intentions for your daughter,” Connor replied through clenched teeth. “And you have one hell of a grip.”

“Good, I’d hate to have to do to you what I did to the creatures who did this to me.” My father released him and pointed at his own face. “Come on, Lillim. There’s a police officer who wants to speak with you.”

“Okay…” I mumbled, still sure I was caught in a horrible dream from which I could not wake.

Chapter 3

“What the hell is wrong with you? Are you a psychopath?” I asked as I flung open the door to the tiny golden VW bug my Dad had managed to scrounge up from God knows where. Why he got a car, and I didn’t, had yet to be explained. Still, if it was a choice between walking and driving a bug that was eighty percent rust with two primer-colored doors… well… I’d probably still use the car.

“What’s wrong with me?” my father asked incredulously as he placed one hand to his heart. “Of the two of us, who is the parent and who is the daughter who sneaks out to go gallivanting through graveyards all night?”

“That is one hundred percent totally irrelevant to this conversation,” I snapped. “You just made a fool of me in front of the one guy who was nice to me on my first day of high school. You’re pretty much the devil.”

My father got out of the car and shut his door, still shaking his head. “I’ve met the devil. He has better hair,” my father said, glancing up the stairs toward the police station. “I don’t even know why we took the bug,” he added a moment later. “Since the police station is across the street.”

“I don’t know why you’re here at all,” I growled, my hands tightening into white-knuckled fists.

“Because I need to sign some forms so that you actually get paid to work on Detective Lang’s case,” he replied, glancing at me like I was a petulant child. “You’re still under eighteen, remember?”

“I… erm… okay,” I said as he stepped up to the door and held it open for me.

“I thought I’d surprise you on your first day, but then I saw that boy, and well…” He smiled at me sheepishly. “You’re not lying to me about the graveyard, right? You weren’t out with that boy, were you?”

“Um… no. I just met him today.” I felt a blush rising across my cheeks. If my father had thought there had been something there, what would Caleb think? I brushed the thought away like an annoying cobweb and glanced at my father. “Why do you have to do this now? The paperwork, I mean.”

My father ignored me as we stepped inside. He strode up to the receptionist and smiled, weaving a wall of glamour over himself to hide his scars and make his dress more… presentable. Just like that, he was clad in a two-thousand dollar suit, and his skin was free of blemishes.

“Hello,” he said, voice booming in the entryway. “I’m here to see Detective Jeffry Lang.”

The receptionist, a brown-haired pudgy woman in a frumpy blue dress-suit glanced up at him, narrowing her eyes as she pushed her spectacles up on her nose. “Do you have an appointment?”

“As a matter of fact, I do,” he replied, reaching out and tapping the top of the computer screen. I’m not sure what he did exactly, but the woman’s mouth fell open as she leapt to her feet.

“I’m so sorry, Mr. Callina. I’ll go get him right away.” The woman had barely finished her statement before she was gone, and I half expected to see one of those cartoon clouds of dust left behind in her shape.

“Wow,” I said, and my father glanced at me and smiled. The image of his face flickered in front of me. Whenever he used glamour, it was hard for me to look at him because I always saw two images, one was the shell, the magic he used to camouflage himself, but beneath I could see what he really looked like. I probably shouldn’t have been able to see through his spell, especially since he did this one so frequently, but for whatever reason, I always saw my dad as he really looked. All scars.

“To answer your question from earlier, Lillim. I have to go on a trip,” he said. “I probably won’t be back for a couple weeks. I need you to look out for yourself, since I won’t be around.”

“You’re leaving? Already?” I said, and my heart fell into my toes. “I mean we just started to live together… how can you be leaving?”

“Lillim, there’s a case I need to see through, and I know what you’re going to say, but it really can’t wait, and you can’t come.” He looked away, staring past me toward the upper corner of the room where a camera stared back at him.

“Fine, whatever, I didn’t want you around anyway,” I grumbled, turning away from him and flopping down in one of the hard visitor’s chairs. “This is great, just great!” I added. “I’m going to have a huge party. I’ll be the most popular girl in school.”

“I trust you, Lillim,” my father said, voice calm. “If you want to throw a party, I trust you.”

His words annoyed me. How dare he guilt me into not misbehaving by saying he trusted me to do what I thought best… the nerve. I glared at him as he smiled at me all doe-eyed.

“That’s not fair,” I said, folding my arms over my chest.

“True. How about when I get back we talk about you getting a car of your own,” my wonderful father said, and with an underhand toss, threw the bug’s keys at me. “Until then, you can use the bug.”

I caught them and turned my head, staring out into the parking lot at where the bug was. It sat there like a half-washed slug, but still it was mine… at least until he got back. In that moment, happiness filled me. I had a car! After begging and pleading, my father had actually let me have a car. It was a little out of the blue, sure, but it was a car. As I stared out at it, I thought about asking him why he’d suddenly changed his mind but thought better of it. I didn’t want him to take it back, did I?

“Mr. Callina, I see you’ve made quite the impression on Beatrice,” Detective Lang said in his high-pitched nasal voice. I swung back around as my father reached out to shake hands with the detective. Great, now they were friends. My social life was as good as dead.

“Indeed,” my father said, smiling so brightly that it made my stomach turn to watch. “She was very helpful,” he added, and I was pretty sure Beatrice melted.

“Great,” Detective Lang replied, shoving a handful of papers into my father’s hands. “Just sign these. I’ve gotten the added authorization for increased hours like your daughter asked for. Your phone call worked wonders with my boss.”

“I have a way with words,” my dad said, winking at me. No fair. He’d totally used magic to influence the guy. That was so against the rules. Well, two could play at this game. Straight A’s here I come.

My dad looked down at the ream of paper in his hand and sighed. “This is going to take a while, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” Detective Lang said, voice very nearly crackling with annoyance. “You have to be put on the independent contractors list. It’s a process most people don’t do in one day, but somehow, I’m supposed to rush you through it.”

“This isn’t your normal job, is it?” my father asked, looking up from the papers and glancing around the room, presumably looking for a desk or table to fill out his paperwork.

Detective Lang grabbed the badge that hung around his neck with one slender hand and looked at it, a look of consternation on his face. “Huh,” he said, “You’re right. This says ‘detective,’ not ‘guy whose job it is to personally make sure whack-job private investigators go through the process without a hitch.’”

My dad shook his head, and guilt flashed across his face. In that moment, I was pretty sure he’d used his charm speak over the phone to ensure Detective Lang would help him. It was probably because he was the only detective my father knew, but evidently Lang didn’t want to be out here helping us. Swell. I was on a case for a guy who not only thought I was a lesbian witch, but now he thought my dad was screwing with him.

“Okay, why don’t you take the bug home, Lillim? I think I’m going to be here a while,” my father said, sliding into a small booth and chewing on his pen. I smirked because there was no way my dad was going to successfully fill out all that paperwork on his own, partially because there’s no way he’d know what things like bonded and insurance meant.

“Alright,” I said, my voice brimming with glee. “I’ll order pizza, but you can’t have any if you charm the secretary into helping you.”

“I make no such promises,” he said, smirking. “Oh and I know you’ve been arguing with Caleb but… I think you should try and forgive him, maybe go out with him, have some fun.” He smiled his ‘dad smile’ at me. It made me blush and look away from him. “You deserve some fun, Lillim.”

“Who are you? You’re never this nice. What have you done with my real dad?” I asked as I turned, smiled up at Detective Lang who scowled back at me, and left the building before he could respond.

I’d barely made it three steps down the stairs when something grabbed me around the waist and hoisted me into the air. I screamed, my arms and legs lashing out at whatever it was. My blows struck air as I whirled to see… no one.

“Too slow,” Caleb said from behind me. I spun to see him grinning at me like some kind of idiot.

“That wasn’t cool,” I murmured, clutching my heart so it wouldn’t burst out of my chest and run away. “And I’m not talking to you. I’m not quite sure why you’re even here.”

The grin on his face faded, and he sighed loudly. “I wanted to see you after your first day,” he replied, voice careful.

“Great, you’ve seen me,” I replied, crossing my arms over my chest and glaring at him. “Now unless you’re going to explain why you didn’t save my mom, you can go away.”

“Lillim…” he trailed off, looking down at his shoes. “I’m sorry, but I
can’t
do things like that. I don’t know what else to say.”

“Say you’re going to go back in time and bring her back,” I snapped, taking a step forward and poking him hard in the chest. “Say you did the wrong thing. That you should have saved her.”

“I can’t, Lillim. That’s not how it works.” He swallowed, still not looking at me.

“You’re fused with the Blue Prince, Caleb. He’s basically a god. You could have saved her. You just didn’t. Why didn’t you?” I said, my voice cracking partway through as tears spilled down my cheeks.

“Lillim…” he swallowed, looking up at me as something dark and ominous swam through his eyes. “I am not a god. The Blue Prince may be, but I can’t use his powers for things he doesn’t want me to. I tried to do something, and he wouldn’t let me.”

His words hung heavy in the air between us, like a huge wet blanket threatening to smother me. He’d told me that before, of course, but I’d been ignoring it. Every time we had this argument it was the elephant in the room. Caleb couldn’t make the god within him do things it didn’t want to do. The last time he had tried, it’d nearly cost Caleb his life.

“Sorry,” I mumbled, looking away so I wouldn’t have to stare into his face. What was I supposed to say? I’m sorry but I’d rather have my mom than you? And the truth was, I wasn’t sure I wanted to make a statement like that out loud. I wouldn’t be able to take it back.

“It’s okay,” he said, leaning in and kissing me. The feel of his lips on mine was so surprising that my mind sort of stuttered and went blank. He put his arms around me, pulling me close to his body, and leaned in close so he could whisper in my ear. “I planned a surprise for you, but we don’t have to go if you don’t want to. I can leave if that’s what you would like.”

“Oh?” I asked, somewhat confused. We’d barely spoken over the last couple of weeks, and now he had a surprise for me? A blush rose across my cheeks as I stared at him. Maybe I was being a little unreasonable… “Is it a good surprise?”

“You tell me,” he replied, snapping his fingers. The sound hadn’t even faded when we were standing inside a swanky restaurant… somewhere.

I swallowed, glancing at Caleb in awe as he took me by the hand and led us toward the hostess. I’d never seen him transport someone before, much less like that. I knew he had some cool powers, but instant teleportation? That was new.

The hostess, dressed in a white tuxedo with a red rose pinned to her lapel, smiled up at Caleb, her ruby red lips bright in the low light. “Do you have a reservation?” she asked.

“Yes. It’s under the Prince of Space and Time,” my boyfriend replied with a sidelong glance at me.