Keeley Thomson (Book 3): Mistress of Souls (18 page)

"Keeley? I have to go, sorry to be abrupt. I'll get back to you? Or, you know, see you at the party, since I want to catch an interview with you. Mrs. Gibson and Roy too. See you there?"

"Sure will. I have another engagement too, so I won't be there for the whole thing, but I hear it's going to be great..." She made her voice sound happy enough and smiled, letting it carry into the conversation. It was a trick that sales people used to influence minds, but it would work for almost anyone.

That done she just had to sit for a few seconds, letting her mind clear. There was nothing that came to her, but that was alright, she decided. She'd just go and bake something, then make dinner. If nothing else she could feed the night shift at the police department and maybe branch out. Firemen needed love too, didn't they? They had a local newspaper she hadn't visited yet either.

That decided, she moved into the kitchen, then had to run back and look things up on the web. For all that her father hadn't let her have a cell phone, he'd never stopped her from having the internet in her room. That was an oversight, but she'd never mentioned it to him. It was handy for researching school projects. Recipes and food tips too.

No one came out of the office until five, though both of the others sniffed the air as they did, looking a bit too shocked for comfort. She'd pushed a little and made six different kinds of cookies and a tray of cinnamon rolls with a rich frosting. There was also a large pan of pork chops going on the stove top and a pot of boiling sweet potatoes she intended to mash. There were some green beans in the steamer, but it wasn't turned on yet. Things would steam faster than the others would cook. That and some gravy would have to do, because that was all she'd looked up.

Eve started to snag a cookie, a butterscotch coconut thing that had a medium difficulty level as far as such things went.

"Or should I not snack before dinner? I mean, am I staying for dinner?" She smiled though, clearly not expecting to be kicked out before the work was done. The flowers hadn't even arrived yet, so that wasn't too likely.

Keeley waved a wooden spoon at her a pointed at the cookie.

"OK, but just one. You can tell me if they're going to poison people or not."

The single bite looked pensive then, but she took another before speaking, her eyes going wide.

"These are good. Really good. Sherry, try these..."

That started a cookie tasting that meant sacrificing one of each kind and a single still warm roll that Keeley had to sneak a little of the frosting on to so they'd get the full effect. Sherry beamed and looked around the space warily, even though it was still mainly clean.

"To what do we owe the sudden..." She waved and took a second bite of a simple chocolate chip.

"Bake shop opening in our house? Is it going to be a constant thing, because I don't think my waistline could survive that." She wasn't kidding, which was kind of heartening, in a way. It meant the food wasn't all that bad.

"Just making some things to take around this evening. To the local fire station and the police. You know, making friends and what not. Besides, Gladys from church and I are going to be working together to actually make the treats I think, so I wanted to get some practice. She seemed like a nice lady, didn't she?" It was a throwaway line, because of course she had.

Dinner was ready about fifteen minutes later and they ate in the dining room, plates set out with the real linen napkins. The flowers came part way through, which got Eve and Sherry to bolt their food, needing to get to work quickly. It was a decently large order after all. Sixteen large boxes of flowers, which probably meant it would be twice as much work as the wedding had been. It turned out to be for a funeral.

That made sense, given everything. Three days to get it done, the call coming in last minute like it had.

Sherry tried to clean up the dishes, but that just got her moved out of the room.

"Go OCD on the flowers mom. I'll handle this part. My mess anyway and I swear it will be so clean that you can't tell it wasn't done by you personally." What else did she have to do anyway?

The relative boredom got her to realize she actually did have some things to get started on, if not that much fun. She had a house to renovate after all. Another one sitting empty to do something with too. That would keep her busy for a bit. Instead of rushing to the house, she spent a few hours cleaning the kitchen and going out to deliver the treats. Everyone seemed pleased enough and this time the desk officer actually recognized her, if not by name. He'd worked the Homecoming thing and remembered her as flasher girl.

She nodded and smiled.

"The same one. Don't tell everyone though. Youthful indiscretions and all that." They shared a grin and the man who had to be pushing thirty made some significant eye contact, as if she wasn't a high school girl. It was flattering, but a bit dangerous for someone on the police force. They needed to try and appear clean and good all the time, holding to a higher standard than a regular person. It didn't have to
be
that way, but any cop not giving it a good go was a fool. They attracted scrutiny.

The fire department guys were baffled that anyone had come by at all, though happy enough to see her.

"Bribing us is nice, but you do know that we'll come to save your house anyway, right?" The woman that said it was in her forties and seemed to be in charge, hair short and just going to gray at the edges, with no pretense it wasn't.

"Of course, but I was taking some to the police and figured that I should spread the love around. Besides, why does it have to be about what you can do for me? Sometimes it's the other way around, isn't it? What do you need?"

The woman chuckled and shook her head, but from behind her there was a dark laugh. The guy doing it was probably close to retirement age and had visible burn scars on his neck. The voice was a bit raspy and he kept wiping the fire truck in front of him as he went.

"What do we need? How about better safety gear? Or even to have the fire hydrants in town serviced? The system works, but every time we use them now we run the risk of stripping the threads, just because the things are so old. Half of them leak, which means lower water pressure. It's a huge risk, but the city council won't hear us, because road work is a lot more glamorous. Not that you heard it from me, but they're a bunch of narrow minded assholes." He didn't seem to realize he was talking to a sixteen year old girl, but the woman, who's badge said her last name was Smart did and still looked a bit put out by the idea.

Keeley nodded.

"Alright. I'll see what I can do. Which one is more important?"

The idea seemed to take them off guard, but an answer came eventually, from Smart.

"The hydrants. Without water we're functionally crippled. We have gear, it's just not top line anymore, but..." She looked away then, as if sorry about the complaining.

Keeley left them both cards and made her way home, thinking.

She didn't know the city council members, but that, meeting them, seemed a good place to start. Maybe Roy would be able to get her an introduction, or at least tell her who they were, so she could track them down on her own. It would take a while most likely. If she pushed it too fast it would end up leading back to her. She also needed to figure out how to gain influence over the higher ups in the fire command structure before she acted. After all, while it didn't seem like it in the main, having the fire department beholden to her could help a lot in the long run. Even simple endorsements made by the Fire Chief would hold weight that most wouldn't understand was happening at the time. Anyone in authority had that effect. If they said something, or someone, was good, it carried more force than if a regular person did it.

She looked in on her mom and Eve at about ten, then decided to try and make several trips on the inroads in a row, without stopping to eat. It was pushing it, especially since she was going to be carrying a heavy pack with her the whole time. It didn't take as long as all that, since walking the roads just didn't, but the effort was a lot greater than she'd thought it would be. When she got back to her room she collapsed to her knees for a few seconds, gasping as pain fired through every part of her. It was torture, but she made herself stand and walk to the kitchen.

Then after eating and trying to adapt for half an hour she did it again. It burned energy and food, but each time was easier. By four in the morning, Eve asleep on the sofa and Sherry still trying to get the flowers around, the pain was barely noticeable.

The funeral was at two in the afternoon, which meant Sherry had to be there about four hours early to get the work done, having to do it all herself. Eve had school and so did Keeley.

"That part isn't hard though, but I could use Freida, if that's workable for you? I could lend you my car... I... Well, it's still in your father's name. I don't know if we should be driving it right now. What if you got pulled over and it caused a problem. I don't want..."

It wasn't a real fear, knowing what Keeley did, but kind of made sense from a worried mother that thought her husband was a creep that had abandoned them suddenly. Touching her mother's arm, a wash of pain and remorse came off of her. As well as severe tiredness. She hadn't really been sleeping at all since Charles had left, which wasn't a good thing. It didn't have anything to do with work either, just a feeling of loss and that she wasn't good enough for some reason. She blamed her own problems for having driven him away, but Keeley knew that wasn't the case.

 She didn't say anything though. It was something that had to be worked out on her own. No one could fix it for her. Not without mind control and that wasn't a fix as much as losing everything.

"Not a problem. I can walk to school. It isn't far. Up until a few weeks ago I did it every day. Managed to survive and everything. That..." She looked at her mother and took a deep breath. Demon or not she hated asking for anything. True, she could pay for it, but if her mom said no Keeley would just have to eat it. She was the child and it wouldn't make a very convincing cover if she just disregarded what she was told, would it?

Sherry gave her a world weary look in return.

"Yes?"

"OK... I was thinking, if I pay for it myself, would you be alright if I got a car of my own? Freida belongs to Darla and we should have a real van for carrying things, for business. I was thinking that we could buy it used, since we don't want to look like we have millions of dollars just sitting around suddenly. Also..." This one was the kicker. She'd never asked before, but it had clearly been forbidden.

"Can I get a cell phone? It will let me stay in touch and I promise I won't abuse the privilege. Very few drug deals or anything like that. Please?" She drew the last word out, trying to look hopeful. It got a hand wave in return.

"I can stop you? You have all that money and you know, Demon. I'm surprised you listen to me at all. Dan said that you might just make me a slave, since that's what your kind normally does with their mothers. Not something I've been looking forward to." She spoke the idea warily.

It made sense though. If Keeley took her, then no one else could. Sherry couldn't really be used against her, she didn't think, because she could kill off any emotional reaction to her death or torture. Still, that would be awful. What if Xenses or someone like that got her and then used their relationship against Keeley?

"I... Well, it could be needed. I'll explain that later, but if it is I won't let you be abused. You might not even notice it, except that you'd feel happier. Still, if you say no van and no phone, that's what happens. I think they're good ideas and we should change the registration on your car, if you don't want something newer. Why don't you think about it all and let me know later?"

"OK honey. Thank you for trying to be understanding. This is all so strange to me. Will you help me load the flowers? Eve didn't get to sleep until about an hour ago, I don't want to wake her until she has to go to school. I offered to call her mother, but she just said that probably wouldn't be needed. I take it things aren't great there?"

It was an understatement. The woman was a drug addict that had let her baby daughter be raped by a long string of men that had basically been passing her around as a plaything, using drugs to pay for her. The only saving grace there was that it hadn't been the direct bargain, just the woman being too stoned to notice what was happening. If it had been a real payment, Keeley would have hunted her down and killed her for it. As it was she was waiting for Eve to go off to college or into the military first.

"Not a huge issue at all. It does remind me of something though." That being that there were some men out in the world that needed to die very badly.

Keeley looked at the sleeping Eve and nodded. They could talk about it later.

On the way to school.

Chapter ten

"I can't believe I totally forgot about work. I'm so sorry Darla. Am I fired?" Keeley really had. It wasn't like her to do that, but she'd gotten distracted by Demon stuff and just hadn't gone. Getting the items from Edith's old house in fact.

The statement got a slow head shake as her sister looked around the school cafeteria. It was Tuesday, so that meant cheese zombies and tomato soup for lunch. It wasn't enough food, but it was actually decent considering what they had to work with as far as supplies went.

Darla was eating a lunch she'd made at home, which was an assortment of veggies with a large container of dip. Really looking at it showed Keeley that it wasn't a low-cal head cheerleader lunch at all, but a very high calorie one. The dip was nearly pure fat mixed with some spices and just enough cream cheese to hide that it was basically lard.

Clever.

"No... My Grandmother told me that you've been suspended, while they investigate the thing with your father. That isn't really true of course, since you're still organizing the party for Coretechs, but on paper Bob Richards is in charge now. It's just to make sure you don't get hit by any suspicion."