Swedenborg 17

      17

 

Jack got back to the apartment long after Frank did. Frank was sprawled on the couch, reading  a thick textbook.

“How was class?” Jack asked.

“Good. Should be interesting,” Frank said, holding up the book. “Lots of reading, though. I thought your shift was over hours ago. Something break?”

“Not sure,” Jack said, dropping his bag on the cluttered coffee table. “There was a girl killed today. House fire.”

“I think I got rerouted by that.”

“A cop I know told me that it looks like the fire killed her,” Jack said. “But there are signs she may have been unconscious before it started.”

“Suicide?”

Jack rubbed his temples.

“Yeah, possible.”

“Or maybe a murder? Someone covering up?”

“Maybe,” can’t tell in Carthage these days.” He sighed. “Turns out I knew her.”

“Oh, sorry. Friend?”

“Not that way,” Jack said, flopping into a rocking chair. “The cop mentioned her name off the record. They still have to notify next of kin. I thought I’d heard it before. I went back to the station and filed a report about the fire, then checked some files.

“I’d talked to her once a while back. She’d quit the INS. Not happy. She said she wanted to talk, but before we could meet she called to say forget it.”

He gave Frank a significant look.

“You think she got scared?”

“Yeah. But then I thought about that caller today that got under Soehner’s skin. I think that might have been her.”

Frank gave a questioning look.

“She bugs Soehner, and then she’s dead. Maybe, but it might be just paranoia.”

“You haven’t been around here. Some things just seem more than a coincidence.”

“All I know is it’s a pretty violent place. I had to break up another fight. In the bookstore. I almost got arrested.”

He told Jack of the incident. Jack laughed.

“That would have given you more character,” he said, smiling. “Liza might like that. She goes for bad boys.”

“Seriously, what’s the deal with her?”

“She is a free spirit,” Jack said and chuckled. “Even said she’d like to convert me.”

“But what about all that witchcraft stuff? Come on.”

“Wicca. Careful to use the right word around her. She gets defensive.”

“She seems too smart to be serious about junk like that.”

“Oh, but she is serious. She knows a lot of it is pop feminist crap, but she went back and read the old stuff. She reads Latin, Greek, a few other old languages. Gaelic, I think. Anyway, she’s serious.”

“Nutter?”

“Who isn’t? But things do seem to happen around her. I try not to push it.”

Frank was mildly surprised. Jack prided himself on being an agnostic and picking apart everyone else’s beliefs. Frank had found his own Catholic upbringing under attack from the start, even though he hadn’t practiced in years. And witchcraft would seem to lend itself to his sarcastic ways.

“So should I bring wolfsbane or a cross to her place Friday?”

Jack looked uncharacteristically serious. “Just don’t be surprised at anything, okay?”

Frank gave him a skeptical look. “Okay.”

“Hey, I’m not nuts,” Jack said. “You know me.”

“`Nuts’ is a matter of debate. But, yeah, I get it. I’ll be careful. Speaking of careful, if Soehner is so bad, aren’t you worried? You’ve gone after him, right?”

“Some things have gotten me wondering,” he said mysteriously. “I just wish I could get some real dirt. Someone on the inside, maybe.”

“Maybe I should take him up on his offer,” Frank said, chuckling. “Be a spy.”

Jack turned serious. “That would be good.”

“No, I’m just kidding,” Frank said quickly. “I’ve got too much work. And the guy gave me the willies. Besides, I’ve got a witch to deal with.”

He started to sing, “Witches to the left of me, killers to the right, and here I am …”

“Stuck in the middle with me,” Jack finished the verse.

“Can’t think of too many people I’d rather be stuck in the middle with.”

“Flirting?”

Thin ice country again.

Jack was pretty upfront about being gay. And Frank was equally upfront about his being strictly straight.

But it had led to others speculating about the nature of their relationship.

“By the way,” Frank said, “one of the things about Liza is she’s pretty, um …”

“Sexual?” Jack finished. “Yeah. She’s pretty bold about it. She flirts openly, and I think there’s been more than a few guys. She says it’s an energy thing.”

“Part of the wicca stuff?”

“At least she says so. I think she just uses it as an excuse. Never serious about any of the guys, as far as I can tell.”

Jack smirked and added, “And I think she’s got you in your sights.”

“Yeah, right. And what’s all that virgin crap?”

“You’re about the most virginal guy I know. I’ve even been with more women than you, and I don’t even like them all that much.”

“Liza too?”

“Well, yeah, once or twice. Friend sex when there was no one else around.”

Frank shook his head.

“Oh, there’s that prude streak in you coming out. Let’s eat before you start to lecture me about venereal diseases Sister Frank.”

Pax et bonum