INK: Vanishing Point (Book 2) (19 page)

McFruitcake puts his hands on his hips
and examines Pitch. “Good job. Now pick him up.”

Pitch leans his hand down to me, but I
get up without taking it. It’s then that I notice the
difference in size between us. He’s even shorter than Aiden.
This kid’s got some balls, I’ll give him that. I tower
over him and look him in the eye. “Never again.”

“Whatever, man.” Pitch turns
his back on me, dismissing me with his hand motions. I watch him walk
away with a strange rock to his gait.

“It’s fog, not smoke,”
McFruitcake says.

“What?”

“There’s no fire; it’s
fog billowing from the bedroom.” He motions toward the hallway.
“The firemen are leaving, but we’ve found some very
strange readings.”

I can’t answer; I’m just
looking around at the mayhem in my house. I’m also trying to
figure out what just happened. Did that just happen? What the hell is
the Specter? Oh, and my biggest fear right now is that Trish is going
to find her way back in here.

“Eli?” McFruitcake barks.
“What happened to you?”

My head shakes from side to side slowly.
I’m trying to process everything that happened. Is what I saw
real? “I don’t know.”

“Look, you are going to have to
trust me. You are going to have to accept the possibility that there
are things at work here that you don’t understand,”
McFruitcake says with resolve.

“He has Shay.” The words
spill out of my mouth almost involuntarily.

“Who has her?” he asks.

“The Specter. The thing from her
comic has her,” I answer. My attention is drawn to Rex, who’s
still making retching noises. McFruitcake’s face blanches.
“It’s just a little dog puke. He must’ve eaten
something disagreeable.”

I lean down and stroke Rex’s head
to comfort him. “It’s okay, boy.” At that, Rex
finally purges whatever was making him ill. He spits out a strange
piece of clear pliable plastic. It’s more substantial than a
zip lock baggie, but not quite rigid. There’s some sort of
liquid oozing from some of the punctures that Rex put in it. I pick
it up, examining it to try to figure out what it is. I’m
worried that he could get sick from this.

One of the deputies comes into the
kitchen. “We are about to…” He stops for a moment,
taking in the scene of McFruitcake and I on the floor with a pool of
dog vomit and this plastic thing. “What have you got there?”

McFruitcake looks at me with panic in
his eyes and grabs the plastic thing. “Bad boy, you have to
stop chewing on shoes.” He looks up at the cop. “Damn dog
got my Doctor Scholl’s insert.” More than half of the
plastic thing is concealed by his hand; he quickly slides it into his
pocket.
Odd.
“You
were saying?”

“We’re about to leave. I
just wanted to let you know we’d appreciate a call if Miss
Baynes comes back.” He hands me his card.

The deputies leave. McFruitcake leans
back on the kitchen cabinet and releases a ragged breath. Rex puts
his tail between his legs and heads for his bed in the mud room. That
can only mean one thing – Trish.

“Eli?” she barks. I press up
against the cabinet next to McFruitcake. He looks over at me,
puzzled. I put my finger to my lips, then point upward and shake my
head as an indication that she’s the kind of trouble I can’t
cope with right now. “Where the fuck are you, Eli? I know you
are in here, you little chicken-shitted prick.” Her voice fades
as she walks toward the patio.

I roll my eyes and blow out a breath.
McFruitcake looks over at me, his expression changed to relief. It’s
like he knows what we just avoided. “Do you know what that
thing is?”

“By all accounts, my best bet
would be Trish.”

“No.” I look at him like
he’s stupid and point to his pocket. “The plastic thing.
Do I need to take Rex to the vet?”

“No,
he’ll
be fine. But um…” He takes it out of his pocket and
squishes it in his hands a bit, examining it. “But whoever this
belonged to won’t.”

“What the hell is it?”

“It’s a saline breast
implant, Eli. A
breast
implant.” He cuts me a hard look waiting for my reaction. For
which he doesn’t have to wait long.

“Are you sure?” How the hell
does he know that? My eyes fall to his chest for some reason.

“I live in L.A., I’m sure,”
he deadpans, continuing to
handle
the implant.

“Fuck.” I bang my head
against the cabinet. “Well, what’s your move?”

“How do you mean?” His eyes
are curious.

“I’m sure you’ve come
to the same conclusion I have.”

“That this little bag o’ fun
belongs to Taffy? Yes Eli, we’ve reached the same conclusion.”
He pauses, looking at me with utter seriousness. “Now we figure
out how Rex got it and where its counterpart is.”

I don’t know what to say. I don’t
want to give him any ideas about calling the cops or turning me in.
That’s pretty damning evidence right there. Maybe he’s
not such a bad guy after all. Then we hear it like the oncoming
screeches of Mothra. “Eli! You fucking douche canoe, are you
hiding from me?”

I look straight up to see her leaning
over the island looking down at McNab and me. “No Trish, we
were just trying to figure some things out.”

“Like who’s going to swallow
tonight?” She shifts her gaze between McNab and me and makes a
clicking sound with her tongue. “Where the fuck is Shay?”

“Isn’t that the million
dollar question?” McNab answers.

Trish walks around the island to the
same side we are on.
Jesus,
even her footfalls are annoying.
“You
must be the ‘Mysterious McNab.’” Trish bends down
rigid at the waist, pushing her tits together trying to make them
look bigger, and offers her hand.

McNab slips the implant back into his
cargo pants, leaving his hand in there. “Yes, and you must be
Trish.”

She plasters a fake smile on her face,
only a little put out by his not shaking her hand. “Oh yeah,
Shay mentioned you have some ‘
peculiarities
.’”
She violates him with her eyes, I squirm a little for him. Her gaze
rests a moment longer on his biceps and she licks her lips. “Oh
yeah, she’s told me about you.”

McNab lets out a cough, looking a little
green around the gills. He nervously glances in my direction. This is
the part where I’m supposed to be upset because of the
implications Trish just unsuccessfully dropped on us like a stale
fart. It’s all part of her divide-and-conquer routine. This is
pretty typical for Trish. But honestly, I’m not really the
jealous sort. Besides, Shay may be screwed in the head, but I
seriously doubt she’d add a fourth wheel to this asexual
gangbang of emotions. The only thing getting fucked around here is my
heart.

Trying to push Trish backward, I move to
get up off the floor. She takes a step back into Rex’s vomit,
sliding a little. She looks down, then lifts her shoe to examine it.
“Fuck me! These are my brand new Jimmy Choos. What the fuck is
on the floor?” She slides her shoe off and starts dabbing the
suede with a paper towel.

“Puke,” I answer simply,
leaning against the counter with my arms folded across my chest.

She stops dabbing at her shoe and looks
me dead in the eye. “‘Puke?’ Fuckin’ A, Eli,
why is there puke on your kitchen floor and what the fuck were you
two doing sitting in it?”

McNab leans against the island trying to
contain a laugh. “Hiding from you.”

She gives us both the finger. “Whatever.
You know I really hate you, Eli, right?”

“I wouldn’t have it any
other way,” I say with a shit-eating grin.

She shakes her head in exasperation. “Is
Shay here?”

“No, no one knows where she is,”
McNab answers.

“Well then why the fuck did she
text me to come over here?” She puts her shoe back on.

“When did she text you?”
McNab looks at me, puzzled.

Trish looks at her phone. “About
forty minutes ago. It said, ‘Come to Eli’s, life or
death! 9-1-1.’” She turns the phone toward McNab and me.

Rex, barking, darts out from the mud
room heading for the door. The doorbell rings, but no one is opening
the door. “Jesus, with all the people in this house, not one of
them can open the damn door!”

Shit
is all I can think when I open the door to find Detective Glass
standing there. “What do you want, Glass?”

“Miss Baynes asked me to come.”
He has a smarmy smile on his face like he’s about to get what
he wanted for Christmas.

“She’s not here.” I
begin to close the door. He is on the top of the list of fuckers I
don’t want to see today.

He stops the door from closing. “She
asked me to come here.”

“Really?” I’m dubious.

“She sent me a text message.”
He pulls his phone from his pocket, holding it up.

“Well she isn’t here, so
you’ll have to look for her elsewhere.” I close the door
without looking to see if he tried to stop me again. This is strange,
but Glass is the last one I need in here snooping around.

“McNab, something strange is
happening.” I walk into the kitchen, and Carl is standing next
to McNab with his cell phone in hand. Carl nods.

“Look, my boyfriend is waiting for
me in the car. I thought this was some kind of emergency. If you find
her, tell her to call me.” Trish tries to brush by me, and I’m
compelled to grab her arm. I’m not sure why I’m suddenly
angered by her leaving.

Leaning down into Trish’s ear I
say in a low tone, “Look around Trish; we can’t find her.
This
is
a fucking emergency. A little real concern for Shay and possibly even
Kevin whom you’ve known for nearly ten years would be
appropriate. Although I’m well aware that you are too much of a
selfish bitch to care about anything other than yourself and your
Jimmy Choos.”

Trish stiffens at the mention of Kevin
and looks up at me with fire in her gaze. “Well perhaps if you
showed a little more concern for Shay than you did a bottle of booze
none of this would be happening. But you’d rather walk around
with your limp dick in your free hand, crying for Shay day and night,
instead of doing something about it.” She pulls her arm out of
my grip and walks toward the door. She turns back to me before she
exits, nearly expressionless. “Eli, if you’re not
careful, bad things can happen to you. I’d watch my mouth if I
were you.” With that, she leaves the house.

“Wow, what a total cunt,”
Pitch says from behind me, scaring the shit of out me. He’s a
sneaky little bastard.

“No, that would imply that she has
both warmth and depth. She possesses neither,” I say without
turning around.

Trish

Billy isn’t in the car; which is
weird. I look around and finally see him round the corner from the
back of the house. He smiles when he sees me waiting. I want to get
the fuck out of here. This is a beautiful clusterfuck with all the
damn fire-trucks and cars and vans and shit. This is ridiculous. The
only saving grace is that I know this has to be driving that fucking
twat-waffle crazy.
Fucking Eli
.

“Where you been, babe?” I
ask as Billy gets in the car.

“I was just looking around; this
is a really nice neighborhood.” He buckles in. “Let’s
boogie, I’ve got plans.” He twitches his brow at me.

“You got it.” I pull away
from the curb, trying to leave the bad feelings in Eli’s house
behind. “So what do you have planned?”

“You’ll see,” he says,
looking straight ahead. “So what was with the fire trucks?”

“I have no idea; it was a madhouse
in there.” I reach the gate, not looking forward to making it
past all the media people that are still congregated outside. “You
would think these assholes would leave Shay alone; she’s been
cleared of the murders.”

“Has she been cleared?
Completely?” Billy looks out the window as though not
interested in the answer. “I mean I thought it was pretty clear
that she did it.”

“No, it wasn’t clear. She’s
a lot of things, and one of them is squeamish. She couldn’t
have killed them. That girl couldn’t hurt a fly.” That’s
a little fucked that he’s questioning that.

“Don’t take offense. Anyone
that needs that many people protecting them seems pretty guilty,”
he says, looking straight at me.

“Not guilty, just fucking clueless
and helpless.” I shake my head and pop a piece of gum in my
mouth. “The last text she sent me was a rescue text. It’s
like they are holding her hostage in there, so I figured she might
need me.” I concentrate on pulling out onto the main road, then
continue. “But she wasn’t there.”

“What? She wasn’t there?
Where is she?” He’s taking a weird interest in this.

“I don’t fucking know;
apparently nobody does. And Eli was acting all weird and spacey.”
I remember that little shit hiding from me. “He and some guy
McNab were actually hiding from me, hunkered down behind the kitchen
counter.”

“McNab?” he asks with a hint
of familiarity in his tone.

“Yeah, do you know him?”

“Well if it’s the same guy,
doesn’t he have some kind of TV show?” He tugs at the
little soul patch he’s growing. It’s adorable.

“Yeah, some kind of paranormal
ghosts and ghoulies or some shit.”

“Why would he be there?” He
turns toward me in his seat.

“Fuck if I know. I just went over
there because Shay sent me that text. What’s with the twenty
questions? What do you care? You don’t even know her.”
I’m getting really irritated with his inquisitive little
nature. I prefer it when he isn’t talking.

Billy puts his hand on my thigh and
starts riding it up under my skirt. “Because she’s your
best friend, and if you’re worried, I’m worried.”

“I never really said I was
worried. She’s got enough testosterone in there to dope major
league baseball for two seasons; I’m
not
worried.” I hope he gets the sarcasm in my tone. She really
doesn’t need my help.