Heller’s Decision (31 page)

“
Yes, there is evil, but it’s not caused by
magic. It’s caused by men.”

“I suppose.”

“
What was the business proposition that man
offered you?”

“You don’t want to know.”

“Yes, I do, Matilda. I want to know
everything about you.”

“It was icky.”

He smiled. “I can cope with ‘icky’. Tell
me.”

“He wanted some of my hair in exchange for
his . . . ‘seed’.”

“
What for?”

“
I don’t know. Some ritual, I suppose. He
said something about wanting my light. It didn’t make any sense to
me. I told him I wasn’t interested.”

“
He’s lucky I didn’t know that when I was
there with him. Otherwise his evening would not have ended so
peacefully.”

“
He
’s definitely weird, but he does have a lot of followers.
They all must believe in him and his claims about his powers. Those
girls wouldn’t have murdered their families if they didn’t believe
in him.”

“
There will always be people who feel lost
in their lives and look for something that will give them the
answers to questions that sometimes may have no
answers.”

I smiled wryly. “You’re very philosophical
tonight.”

He stroked my cheek and smiled back. “I’d
rather be physical.”

“
Are you trying to use mind tricks on me?
Power of suggestion?”

He laughed. “Maybe I already have, my sweet.
I had to think of some way to get you into my bed, seeing nothing
else was working.”

I slapped his thigh lightly. “I got into
your bed of my own accord.” I paused and cut him a glance. “Didn’t
I?”

“
You have told me a few times that sex with
me is magical.”

“Now you’re just being silly.”

“
Would you like to experience some more
magic tonight? I can guarantee that when I touch you, you’ll really
feel something magical inside.”

I giggled.
“Heller! You’re such an egomaniac.”

“
It’s not being an egomaniac if it’s true,”
he grinned.

“
Well, you better prove
that to me tonight.”

“
I thought you
’d never ask.”

Soon, back at the Warehouse, he did prove
it and once again, it was magical.

Later, his arms around me and his leg
thrown casually over mine, the post-coital glow should quickly have
led to satisfied slumber, but I couldn’t quite shake the memory of
that feeling I’d experienced at Malefic’s touch. I lay awake for
hours afterwards, reliving it.

……

Farrell and Bick had
been charged with the task of rescuing my
car, and they waited for me to fly down the stairs, still
haphazardly dressing myself. Clive looked pointedly at his watch.
“Late again.”

“Sorry. I didn’t sleep well. Something creepy
happened to me yesterday.”

“
We don’t need to hear your life story,” he
said gruffly. He nodded over to the doorway, where the two men’s
backs disappeared from view. “Better haul your arse. Looks as
though they’re going without you.”

I clattered down the stairs at the double
after them and flung myself into the back seat, just as Farrell
reversed. Ignoring their moans about having real work to do that
didn’t involve them being my handmaidens, I sweet-talked them into
detouring to drop me at the courthouse before they went to the
station.

“How’s it going with Dixie?” I asked
Bick.

“
I don’t know,” he replied morosely. “She
always seems to be busy when I call.”

“She has to do a lot of auditioning, I
guess,” I offered up as a weak excuse.

“Do you think she’s seeing someone else?”

“
I don’t know, Bick. I honestly don’t.” But
I really should have said,
probably
.

“Oh. I should ask her, but I’m not sure I
want to know the answer.”

I hastily changed the subject.
“How’s your love life going,
Hugh?” It was a bold question for me to ask, but I felt sure I
could trust Bick not to say anything to anyone.

He met my eyes in the rear
view mirror. “Scarce, Chalmers.
That’s the best that could be said for it.”

“
Oh. Well, I’m sure there’s someone out
there and . . .” I petered out, embarrassed and wishing I’d never
brought it up
in the
first place.

He met my eyes again. “
Don’t worry about me, Chalmers. There’s
someone out there for me and I’ll be waiting for them when they’re
ready.”

My cheeks began to burn. “You shouldn’t
put your life on hold like that
waiting for someone. You deserve happiness right
now.”

“As I said, don’t worry about me. I’m a
patient man. I know what I’m doing.”

I held his eyes
for a moment longer, then broke off to look
unseeingly out of the window. None of us said much more for the
rest of the journey.

As this was expected to be the last day of
the hearing and the magistrate would deliver her judgement on
whether the two women would be committed to trial, the public
gallery was even more crowded, which seemed an impossibility to me.
I found enough space for one butt cheek on the end of a long bench
seat in the media gallery and perched there uncomfortably during
proceedings.

Though aware of Malefic’s presence in the
public gallery, I studiously avoided making any eye contact, not
wanting to encourage him to talk to me again,
especially
about him ‘gifting’ me with any of his
bodily fluids.

The defence team finished their
unconvincing argument and both sides summed up. The magistrate
retired to her chamber to consider her judgement. She returned a
bare hour later, obviously having found the case as cut-and-dried
as the rest of us. Alice and Charlotte were each separately and
sullenly made to stand and hear that the magistrate had decided
there was enough evidence to charge them with a number of criminal
offences and proceeded to read out the long list of
them.

When she asked them how they
would plead to the charges,
they surprised everyone by pleading ‘not guilty’ to each one. As
they’d confessed to the murders previously, most people expected
them to proudly plead ‘guilty’, but I guess their defence lawyers
had finally started earning their public defender
salaries.

With pursed lips, the magistrate had no
choice but to commit each woman to trial in the Supreme Court
and
order them to remain
on remand until that date.

Malefic stood. “Fear not, my sweet demons. I
will be at the trial at the right time. Malefic never forgets a
loyal subject.”

“
Thank you for your generosity, my Dark
Lord. We worship you every day,” Alice sobbed. Charlotte didn’t
even get to say anything as the correctional officers took them
from the courtroom to return to prison.

And then it was all over and we filed out
of the courthouse, small groups of people standing around,
discussing the verdict. I wasn’t really sure what I should do for
the rest of the day, as it was only lunchtime. I had a vague
feeling I should go to work, but wasn’t positive I still had a job
or that I’d be welcome there at the moment after the previous
evening’s fiasco.

I rang Viv to find out if she had any
information on
Reverend
Joshua’s state of health. Surprisingly, he had checked himself out
of hospital last night, declaring that once out of the presence of
‘that abject and debased sinner’, the power of prayer had
decisively cured him of his ailment. She told me management were
urgently discussing strategies to deal with him in the event he
decided to sue the station and gently suggested it might be best
for everyone if I didn’t show my face there today.

At a loose end and appearing to have
avoided Malef
ic, I
wandered out of the courthouse, wondering if Daniel and Niq wanted
to visit the shopping mall this afternoon. Since the incident on
the rooftop, Daniel had only left the Warehouse under sufferance,
which meant that Niq hadn’t left much either. Heller saw absolutely
no problem with that situation continuing indefinitely, and indeed
his strong preference would be to keep the two of them, as well as
me, permanently sequestered inside the brick walls of the
Warehouse. But I worried that Daniel would never regain that small
amount of self-confidence he’d been slowly growing if he didn’t
confront the real world at some point again.

Although the hearing was over and
Reverend Joshua’s comments
about them were done and dusted, the Cybelians still congregated at
the front of the courthouse. The atmosphere of the gathering had
changed though, becoming more festive in nature, more of a
celebration rather than a protest. A number of Cybelians had set up
trestle tables selling various items such as jewellery, foodstuffs
and ‘potions’.

Not particularly interested in buying
anything, but with nothing better to do, I dawdled around looking
at the wares on offer. The jewellery was unusual,
rings, pendants and earrings
featuring goddesses, astrological signs, trees and unfamiliar
symbols. My eye was caught by an infinity ring and I tossed back
and forth in my mind about buying it and forcing Heller to give it
to me, as purchasing one for me himself wasn’t something he’d ever
think of doing. I moved on in the end, not buying it, deciding it
would be a sadly desperate gesture to buy it for myself.

One of the potions stalls was doing well,
probably due to the stallholder being Liya. She was as commanding
and beautiful as she’d been the other night, also proving to be a
canny and charismatic retailer. She nodded at me with regal grace
and I gave her a tight smile in return, not wanting to chat to
anybody else dabbling in magic, whether good or bad.

I drifted on past a couple of other stalls
that didn’t much hold my attention until I reached the last one.
There were no customers in sight and the stallholder, a young woman
with thick curly brown hair and enthusiastic features, brightened
as I approached. I could almost smell her hopefulness that she
might make a sale. It didn’t look as though she’d moved much of her
stock so far.

“
Hello!” she gushed.
“My name’s Meredith.”

“
Hello, Meredith. What are you
selling?”

“Potions.”

“What kind of potions?”

“
Oh gee! P
otions for just about
everything
.”

“Have you sold much today?”

Her face fell. “No.” Then she brightened
again. “But I’m positive the right person is going to come along
and buy one from me.” The eager look she gave me would have done a
puppy proud.

My heart sinking, but feeling sorry for her,
I said, “Well, I suppose I could buy one.”

“
Really? That would be super-duper! It
would be my very first sale
ever
.”

Oh great!
I thought, trying to maintain my smile.
“So, you’re not very experienced at making potions
then?”

“
Nope. Not much experience at all. But
don’t worry, I’ve been following the recipes really, really
closely. I’m
fairly
confident
I’ve got them right. Mostly confident.” She leaned forward and
dropped her voice. “You see, I’ve just started being a
Cybelian.”

“
Why don’t you work under Liya for a while,
to learn the . . . um . . . trade of potion-making? She looks as
though she has a lot of experience.”

Her face fell again. “Oh, I’d just
love
to work under Liya. I think
she’s
wonderful
. But
I’m not in her coven. I’m not in any coven yet. I think people want
to check me out first because I’m new. That’s why it’s
so
important that I get my potions
right. I’ve been extra, extra careful, um . . . What’s your name? I
want to remember my very first customer forever.”

Hopefully she wasn’t going to be
remembering me for the wrong reasons. I introduced myself and we
chatted for a while as she showed me her range. Nothing
m
uch excited me, but for
a laugh I chose a love potion. It would be kind of fun to see if it
had any effect on Heller.

“
Oh, no, no, no!” exclaimed Meredith in
alarm when I told her that. “It’s for
you
to take, not your partner. Otherwise you’ll end up
making
him
more
attractive to other women.”

“
God! I have enough
problems with that already. Thanks for the
warning.”

“
And remember, ten drops once a day. Taken
in the beverage of your choice.”

I handed over a ludicrous amount of money and
she popped the green vial into a small paper bag for me.

“Well, thanks Meredith. It’s been nice to
chat to you.”

“Thanks, Tilly, for being my first customer.
I hope the potion brings you the results you want.”

“Me too.” A bit of romance in my life would
make a change from all the sex.

“
And don’t forget me if you ever need
another potion. Maybe you might tell your friends about me too.”
She fished out a sparkling new business card.