Paint it Black: 4 (The Black Knight Chronicles) (6 page)

The troll yanked my knife from his arm and flung the blade aside, stepping back like he was going to kick my head somewhere into the next time zone. I rolled out of the way and drew my Glock as I came to my feet. I was shaky, but the full load of blood I’d drunk over the course of the day was already knitting my ribs back together. I drew a bead on the troll’s forehead and said those words that most people with a gun actually don’t mean. “I don’t want to shoot you.” I meant it, however. This guy was our only lead in at least two murders, so I didn’t want to shoot him. In the head, at least. Truth be told, I really did want to shoot him a little bit, but Sabrina’s been working with me on this crap she likes to call “impulse control.”

“Bullets won’t kill me, vampire. Ogg is strongest one there is!”

“Pretty sure that’s the Hulk’s line, buddy. And these are silver bullets. Does that make any difference?”

“No. Silver not hurt Ogg. Only cold iron.”

“Good to know,” I said as I pulled a fresh clip out of my shoulder holster and swapped it for the one in the pistol. “These are cold iron rounds. Now would you like to sit down and talk this out like civilized monsters?”

“Crap. Ogg hate vampires.” He turned and walked slowly to a Hummer parked a few spots away. He dropped the tailgate on the Hummer and sat. The back end of the vehicle sank about six inches, then held.

“Nice ride,” I remarked. I sat on the trunk of a Lexus parked nearby.

“Thanks. That’s Ginger’s car you’re on. She won’t like that.”

“I won’t tell her if you don’t.”

“Okay.” When he wasn’t trying to stomp me into a bloody smear in the parking lot, Ogg seemed like a decent enough troll. Maybe when this was all over we could hang out. I shook myself. I gotta stop looking for friendship in topless bars—it never ends well and is frequently very expensive.

“All right, Ogg. Why did you run when you saw us?”

“Last time you come around, big fight. Didn’t go so good for gargoyle. Before that, another fight. Lots of trolls end up dead. Ogg didn’t like odds.”

Smarter than the average troll
, I mused. “Good point. Well, we’re not here to kill anybody this time. Well, not specifically.”

“That’s good to hear, little vampire.”

Crap
. I turned to see Lilith standing behind me, holding Greg and Abby by their elbows. They weren’t struggling, but the look in Abby’s eyes would have turned Lilith to ash if vampires had those kinds of powers. And if magic still worked on Lilith, which I wasn’t at all sure about. The one thing I was sure about was that she didn’t look happy.

“Ogg is much more than a troll. He’s a valuable employee, and I would hate to think how much I would hurt you if you killed him.”

“Hi, Lilith.”

“Hello, James. Shall we go inside and discuss this like civilized beings, or do I need to call out reinforcements? Your friends here have already destroyed my front door, my awning, and three patrons’ vehicles.”

I raised an eyebrow at Greg, and he shrugged. “Sorry, dude. Those door guys weren’t quite as human as I thought they were. So things got a little breaky.”

“Are they alive?” I asked.

“They’re alive,” Abby spat. “But only because your partner has a bleeding heart. If he hadn’t stopped me, those morons would have been the ones with the bleeding hearts.”

Lilith laughed, a light, cheerful peal that nonetheless resonated with something in my gut and made me shiver. “I like this one, James. Can I borrow her sometime?”

“Keep away from the jailbait, Lil. I don’t want you to have to kick my ass over it,” I responded.

I slid off the trunk of the Lexus with a wince as the last broken rib poked me somewhere uncomfortable. I pulled up my shirt and saw it poking out under the skin of my abdomen. I gave it a sharp shove to snap it back into place. Then I leaned my head on the trunk of the car and pounded it with my fists for a couple of minutes while I whimpered every curse word I’d ever known and a few that I’d never tried before. When I stood up, there were a series of round, baseball-sized dents in the trunk of the Lexus.

Ogg looked at the car, then back at me. “Ginger is not going to be happy.”

“Tell her it was a freak hailstorm,” I muttered, stalking off toward the demolished entrance of the club. It looked like a grenade had gone off up there. Mangled metal and shattered glass littered the whole area. A pair of six-foot-tall planters lay on their sides with bouncers stuffed into them headfirst. One bouncer kicked feebly at me as I walked by, so I pulled him out of the huge concrete flowerpot. The other guy was out cold, so I figured it was better to just leave him there.

Sabrina was waiting for me inside what was left of the doorway, now just a gaping void surrounded by cinderblock and electrical wires. “Never a dull moment with you, Jimmy. I gotta give you that one.”

“This wasn’t my fault. I was busy getting my face kicked in by an elephant.” I took her arm as I walked past, and headed right back to the bar. I ordered three doubles of Patrón and a beer chaser, and had two of the tequila shots burning their way down my throat by the time Lilith and the others made it inside.

LILITH SLID IN next to me at the bar and downed my last tequila shot. I glared at her, reaching in my pocket for cash, but she shook her head at me and nodded at the bartender. Since I got the shots for free, I figured I wouldn’t whine too much.

“Would you like to move this discussion to my office, James, or am I mistaken? Was your blonde friend only here for amateur night?” Lilith purred the questions in my direction, but didn’t wait for an answer. We followed her down a hallway past the VIP rooms into her well-appointed office. Lilith had taken out the pole and small stage that Phil had in one corner of the office. She’d replaced it with a conference table and half a dozen high-backed leather chairs. I pulled a chair out from one end for Sabrina and took a seat near her with my back firmly pointed at a wall.

Abby and Greg sat, then Ogg tried to wedge himself into one of the remaining chairs. After a couple of unsuccessful attempts, he dragged a granite end table over and crouched more than sat on it. The troll loomed over the entire table, looking mildly ridiculous, but every time I glanced in his direction my ribs reminded me that he was anything but funny.

“Can I offer any of you a drink?” Lilith inquired from the head of the table. Ever the perfect hostess, she pressed a button on the wall and a leggy blonde came in to take drink orders. Sabrina and Greg passed, I requested a beer, and Abby asked for a bag of B-positive. The blonde returned with my Miller Lite, a huge mug of something foul-smelling for Ogg, and a glass of amber liquid I presumed to be scotch for Lilith. Then she sank to her knees in front of Abby and pulled her hair to one side. Abby looked around the table for a second, then shrugged and drank deeply from the girl. I smelled the fresh blood as soon as her teeth made contact, and took a deep swallow of my beer to keep my hunger in check. It’s hard to drink beer when your fangs involuntarily extend. I managed not to spill anything on my shirt. Barely.

Abby pulled away from the girl’s neck and looked at me with one eyebrow raised. I declined with a shake of my head, and she whispered her thanks to the girl who’d just offered herself up as a snack. The girl stood on shaky legs and left the room, hopefully to go lie down and maybe have a cookie or something. I looked at Lilith, and she returned my stare with one even blanker. We sat in silence for several long minutes before Ogg raised his hand.

“Yes, Ogg?” Lilith sighed.

“Ogg gotta pee.”

I burst out laughing, which made Greg and Abby laugh, which made Lilith chuckle, which made Sabrina elbow me in my broken ribs, which made me collapse face-first onto the polished oak table, which made Ogg look even more confused.

Sabrina was the first to regain control of herself, probably because she never truly lost control. “Ogg, you can’t leave this room until you answer my questions.”

“Which means you shouldn’t pee, either,” Lilith hastily added. She looked at Sabrina and shrugged. “Troll urine is harder to get out of a carpet than blood, and there’s no ScotchGard-ing that crap.”

Sabrina’s shoulders sagged as she saw yet another interrogation veering into territory never mentioned in the police academy, but she took a deep breath, set her shoulders, and soldiered on. “Ogg, what do you know about the death of Teresa Chapin?”

“Nothing,” the troll replied.

“What about the disappearance of Veronica Moore?”

“What about it?” came the sullen reply.

“Where were you on the night of March 17th?”

“Here.”

“Can anyone verify your whereabouts?” Sabrina was up now, prowling the room like a mountain lion, all lean muscle and danger.

“What’s a
whereabout
?” The troll’s head was on a swivel trying to keep Sabrina in his sight.

Lilith cut in. “I can verify that Ogg was here all night. Saint Patrick’s Day is one of our busiest nights, and Ogg is one of my best bouncers. I’d never give him that night off.”

“Sorry, Lilith, but you’re not the most trustworthy alibi. Is there any proof that what you say is true?” Sabrina turned her attention to Lilith, and I reminded myself to be somewhere else whenever these two finally threw down. Lilith sat at the head of the table, all calm reserve and inscrutability. Sabrina stalked the room like a predator. It was a classic spider versus scorpion matchup, and I wasn’t really sure who was who.

“I’m pleased you hold such a mediocre opinion of me, Detective. Of course there is video of the evening’s activities. Would you like the entire club, or just the VIP rooms?” Lilith gave Sabrina a nasty smile that implied all sorts of naughtiness.

“I’m not interested in voyeurism, just proof that Ogg was on the premises all night.”

I raised my hand and said, “If I could get a copy of those VIP-room tapes, it would be great.”

Sabrina said, “Crap.”

I could almost see the wheels turning in her head. Ogg was our best lead, but not only did he have an airtight alibi, I actually believed it.

Greg raised his hand, and Sabrina nodded to him. “Not to be stupid or anything . . .”

“Not that you’ve ever let that stop you.” I couldn’t resist.

He went on after taking a moment to pause and flip me off. “But isn’t there a different question we’re all forgetting to ask?”

“Yes. Feel free.” Sabrina made a confident “go ahead” gesture with one hand as if she was two steps ahead and already knew what Greg would ask.

“Ogg,” Gregg started. “Why did you have human jawbones in your possession?”

“Ogg bought them,” the troll replied.

The non-trolls at the table exchanged confused looks. The troll’s answer, while probably completely honest, didn’t clear anything up. Greg followed up with the next logical question. “Why did you buy jawbones?”

“Ogg wanted teeth.” An apt statement, since getting any information out of the troll was like pulling teeth. I gave Greg my best “let me hit him” look, but he just waved me off.

“Why did you want teeth, Ogg?”

“OggMarie make necklaces and earrings out of teeth. Sell for big money. Ogg trying to save up for place in the suburbs to make OggMarie happy, so we pinching pennies. Pennies scream if you pinch hard enough.” The troll actually chuckled at that. I got just a hint that there was something buried deep behind that stupid demeanor. But just a hint, then he was back to being stupid.

I sat back down at the table and put my head in my hands. “So we’ve got a crafty yet fiscally conservative upwardly mobile henpecked troll buying human jawbones to make girl-tooth necklaces. Somebody please explain to me how this is a better use of my time than me being drunk in a graveyard?”

“At least you’re not littering,” Abby said, reaching over to give me a pat on the shoulders.

Sabrina continued pacing, more a frantic stomping around now than the measured stalking she’d been doing. “So now what? We know Ogg didn’t kill these women, so who did?”

She turned to the troll. “And more importantly, Ogg, where did you buy the jawbones?”

“At the Goblin Market.”

Sabrina froze in mid-step and turned to look at the troll. Lilith leaned forward as if to slap the green-skinned goliath upside the head, and Abby, Greg, and I just looked at each other in confusion.

Sabrina spoke first. “What is the Goblin Market, Ogg?”

“Shut up, Ogg. One word and you’re fired, and you know what OggMarie will do to you if you lose another job. This interview is over, and I’d like for all of you to leave.” Lilith stood and pointed at the door. Nobody moved. She repeated the gesture, with similar effect.

I stood up and put a hand on Ogg’s shoulder. The troll was just sitting there, staring up at Lilith in terror at the mention of his wife. “Don’t worry, big fella. She didn’t mean it. Did you, Lilith? Ogg’s not really going to be terminated for cooperating with the lawful authorities, is he?” I put as much weight into my words as I could, but it’s hard to intimidate a woman who remembers Moses before he had a beard.

“Cooperating with the lawful authorities is listed in my employee handbook as a termination-level offense, Black. But no, I won’t fire Ogg. But you all have to leave, now. No one here will tell you anything about the Goblin Market. We’ve already said too much.”

“But you haven’t told us anything!” I protested.

“That’s the point. And that’s all I will tell you. Now get out of my club.” She pointed toward the door again, and this time I felt a little push behind my eyes. Suddenly the desire to get out of that room and not come back for a long, long time was almost overwhelming. I looked around for Greg, to see if he felt it too, but he and Abby were struggling to get through the door at the same time, a fight that was going very poorly for Abby. I gave my head a sharp shake, but the feeling didn’t slacken. Greg had finally pushed his way past Abby and through the door, freeing up that logjam. Abby was hard on his heels. Sabrina was almost at the door with them, and it took everything I could muster to grab hold of the table with one hand and draw my Glock with the other.

“Lilith, don’t make me shoot you,” I said through gritted teeth. She glared at me, but said nothing. I leveled the gun at her left leg and squeezed the trigger. Lilith moved faster than any living creature I’d ever seen, and faster than more than a few dead ones as well. She snatched the bullet out of the air and flung it back at me hard enough to put a hole in my leather jacket. I poked a finger into the hole to make sure she hadn’t managed to actually hurt me, but the crumpled bullet just fell to the carpet, all its energy apparently expended.

I was kinda glad I hadn’t actually shot Lilith, and even more glad that my attempt to break her compulsion had worked. Greg and Abby were standing just outside the office door looking at one another, probably wondering how they’d gotten there. Sabrina had stopped just inside the room.

I just stood there staring at the immortal woman and said, “This is my favorite coat, you know.”

“And this is one of my favorite legs.”

“Then we understand each other. Now will you stop screwing around in our heads and let us get the information we need, or will I have to go through a whole clip?”

“Sit down.” She waved me to the table and retook her seat. I did the same, leaving my pistol on the table. Lilith raised an eyebrow at that, and I gave her a little shrug. If she was going to play mind games, I figured I needed to keep my artillery handy. I had no illusions about actually being able to hurt her, but the experiment of a moment ago proved distraction was good enough to screw up her mojo. I’d take it. The others took their places around the table, sharing worried glances. When everyone was settled, I turned back to the troll, who had never moved.

“Ogg, tell us about the Goblin Market.”

He shook his enormous head, and I repeated the request. He shook his head even more forcefully, and a few long strands of troll-slobber escaped from his bottom lip. I picked up the Glock and pointed it at his kneecap. “Ogg, tell us about Goblin Market or I’m going to start shooting you. These bullets are cold iron bullets, so they’ve got a better chance of killing you than anything else I can think of. But even if they don’t, they’re still bullets, so they’re going to hurt like hell. And I have a lot of bullets. So either start talking, or I’m going to have to recarpet Lilith’s whole office.”

Ogg looked at me with a furrowed brow, then grinned and said “Oh! Ogg get it! You have to do new carpet because Ogg bleed all over the old carpet.” His smile disappeared, and a coldness flashed across his face that sent a shiver down my spine. “Ogg not like that idea.”

“Then tell me about Goblin Market.”

“Uh-uh. First rule of Goblin Market is no talk about Goblin Market.”

Another facepalm moment and I had only met this guy tonight. Usually it takes weeks for someone to become this irritating. Ogg was verging on world-record status here. “Ogg, that’s
Fight Club
. And it’s a movie. It’s not a real thing.”

“Actually, it was a book first, by Chuck Palahniuk,” Greg chimed in.

“I know that!” I said, motioning for him to be quiet.

“No, you didn’t. I know better. And really, Jimmy, it’s not like you’re a big reader.”

“I read!” I protested. My partner is admittedly the smart one, but I’m not a total Neanderthal.

“What was the last thing you read?”

“
Transmetropolitan.
”

“What was the last thing you read that wasn’t a comic book?”

“Shut up.” I turned back to Ogg. “Now, about Goblin Market.”

“What about it?” the troll replied. I still wanted to shoot him, just a little, but I thought Sabrina might object. Or worse, that Lilith might.

“What is it?” I asked with a deep sigh. I braced myself for some kind of half-assed non-response, but Ogg surprised me.

“It’s where you buy stuff. From the goblins.”

“What kind of stuff?” Sabrina asked.

Lilith finally contributed to the conversation. “Anything you want. Jawbones for necklaces, extra years to live, baby’s breath, stardust. Whatever you want, you can get it at the Goblin Market. You need a love potion? Goblin Market. You want a cloak which will let you walk between raindrops? Goblin Market. You want a lampshade made of human skin? Goblin Market.”

“But cheaper on eBay,” Ogg added.

“So this is where you bought the jawbones?” Sabrina continued.

“Yeah. I got a guy. He save them for Ogg.”

“Saves them from what?” I had a feeling I didn’t want to know, but I asked anyway.

“From man-brain stew. He buy heads from some other dude, makes yummy stew, but no meat on a jawbone, so he save them for Ogg.”

Sabrina looked horrified; Greg looked grossed out. Lilith looked smug, but Lilith always looked smug, so I had no idea if it had anything to do with Ogg’s revelation or if it was just her face. Abby looked fascinated, and I felt a little queasy, but also just a little bit hungry. And that made me even more grossed out. I leaned in to Ogg. “You’re going to take us to see this brain stew guy. We need to talk to his supplier.”