Part 27 (1/2)
Morris waited a few seconds, then pushed the door slowly open.
Libby Chastain's body, lifeless or otherwise, was not on the bed.
Morris listened for the sound of the shower running. Silence from the bathroom. He went and checked, anyway-the bathroom door was open, the little room dark. He flicked on the light. No Libby.
It was highly unlikely that Libby would ”return” from the confab, and just leave through the room's main door, but he looked around for a note, for anything that would give him a hint of where she'd gone. Nada.
Then it occurred to him to check the door itself. It was triple-locked, and two of those locks could only be engaged from inside the room. He also saw that Libby's magical wards were still in place on and around the door.
A sudden thought chilled him, and he quickly went over to the window. They were on the ninth floor. If someone had managed to steal inside, and slip her limp body out the window...
Apparently Ramada Central had something similar in mind, give or take the magic part. The big window had no hinges or latches. It was designed to let in light and provide a view, no more.
It was then that Morris's subconscious decided to give his forebrain a wakeup call, and he realized there was a faint odor in the room that had nothing to do with Libby, or any perfume she might have brought with her.
Black magic has a scent all of its own.
Morris stood there in the middle of Libby's hotel room and did ten slow, very deep breaths, using his stomach muscles to push the air out hard. He did this to help quell the incipient panic that threatened to send him over the edge.
He went back to his own room and picked up the phone.
”Fenton.”
”It's Morris. Forgive the melodrama, but they've got Libby.”
Silence, for three slow heartbeats, then Fenton's voice: ”Tell me. Take your time with it.”
Morris related what he knew, then answered the questions that any intelligent cop would ask under these circ.u.mstances: was Morris sure he hadn't fallen asleep while Libby was ”napping.” Had Morris been drinking or, G.o.d forbid, using any kind of drug? Did Morris and Libby quarrel about anything before she disappeared? And so on. Morris didn't take offense, but he was glad when the litany was done. Then he asked Fenton, ”Is your partner up and around again?”
”Yeah she is. She seems okay.”
”Is she there?”
”In the next room, why?”
”Get her, please. I need to talk to her.”
More silence. Then, ”Hold on.”
Less than a minute later, a female voice was saying in Morris's ear, ”This is Agent Colleen O'Donnell.”
”Did Fenton tell you why I called?”
”He said Libby Chastain's missing from her room.”
”Yeah she is, and there's a faint whiff of black magic in the air.”
”Mister Morris, maybe you should confine yourself-”
”I know you're in the Sisterhood, Agent O'Donnell.”
It got so quiet, Morris wondered if he'd lost the connection. ”h.e.l.lo?”
”Did Libby tell you?”
”No, I realized it the first time we met, in L.A. I have something of a nose for magic, both white and black.”
”Yes. Yes, it would appear that you do.”
”Listen, I realize that Fenton doesn't know. I didn't tell him-I figured that was between you and him. I'll do whatever you want to help preserve your cover, but-”
”f.u.c.k that, there are more important things to think about. In fact, I guess I'll tell him after we're done here. It's time, anyway.”
In the background, Morris heard Fenton's voice say, ”Tell me what?”
Morris heard mumbling for a little while, so he a.s.sumed that a hand was over the phone at the other end. Then the mumbling stopped.
”Agent O'Donnell?”
”Maybe, all things considered, you might as well call me Colleen.”
”All right, Colleen, I'm Quincey. So, can I a.s.sume you were at the confab tonight?
”The what?”
”Sorry that's my name for it. Where the Sisters leave their bodies and convene someplace.”
”Yes, I was there.”
”Did you uh, 'see' Libby there?”
”Yes I did. In fact, she was very helpful in bringing us up to date with the facts and suppositions-hers, yours, and the FBI's.”
”Did you all leave together, if that's the right term?”
”Yes, we did. No one leaves until the Circle is dissolved. Then we all go back... where we came from.”
”Forgive my ignorance of the way these things work, Colleen. But is it possible for Libby's 'spirit' to end up someplace other than back in her body?”
”Absolutely not. The spirit instinctively seeks its home, which is the body. There are various theories about what might happen if a Sister's body were destroyed, say, by an explosion, while her spirit was elsewhere. But that has never happened in the Sisterhood's recorded history, which goes back a long way. And it doesn't sound like that's happened here, anyway.”
”No, I reckon not, but we still don't know that the f.u.c.k did happen.”
”Well, given what you've described, I think I know the what, if not the who, or the why.”
”I'll take anything you got.”