Obsession(29)

“A woman came in here last night wanting a tattoo. Jade Roberts?”

Haley nodded. “Yeah. Uptight businesswoman type, but she was wearing leggings. Go figure. I was really surprised she wanted a tat.”

“You’re the artist she was working with?”

Haley nodded again, popping a wad of gum.

“She wanted a particular image. A phoenix. Can you tell me where you got that image?”

“She found it in one of our books. It wasn’t anything I had done before, but I was pretty easily able to copy it for her. We were about to get down to business when she got a phone call last night.”

Thank God Marj had called her. If Julie hadn’t shown up at my house last night, Jade would have that damned thing on her back right now. Permanently. I shook my head. I never thought I’d be thankful for my sister’s meddling.

“Listen, I need you not to do that tattoo on her.”

“Dude, I tattoo anyone who wants me to tattoo them. It’s kind of what I do for living. You know, how I pay my bills?”

I pulled a couple hundreds out of my wallet and set them in front of her. “Is this enough to convince you not to tattoo her?”

“Well, it’s enough to convince me not to tattoo her once. I charge about two fifty to three per tattoo.”

Was she serious? Three hundred bucks to draw on someone’s body? Unreal. Time to attack this from a different angle. This woman wasn’t the only tattoo artist in Colorado. Hell, she wasn’t even the only tattoo artist in Snow Creek. I knew Toby. I could go straight to the top and tell him not to tattoo Jade. Of course, that would piss Jade off. I seemed to be good at that.

“Okay. Yu can keep that. It’s for your time that was wasted last night. What I need you to do now is show me the book where Jade found that phoenix tattoo.”

“No prob.” Haley pulled a couple thick books onto the counter. “Phoenixes are under mythological creatures, and there might be some under birds. Take a look. I gotta get back to work. I’m in the middle of a tat.”

I nodded. “Understood. Thanks. I’ll take a look at these.” My heart beat rapidly as I started thumbing through the book. I turned to the birds section. A psychedelic peacock nearly jumped off the page. There was even a chicken and a turkey. Who the hell tattooed a turkey on himself?

No phoenixes, though. Why hadn’t I begun with mythological creatures? I found the requisite section and began perusing, my fingers sweating. Some of the dragons were pretty cool. I slowly turned pages, finding nothing.

A couple minutes later, Haley trotted back up front. “Dude, I forgot. I wrote down the page number of the book when I drew the image. It should be on page 307, mythological creatures.”

Page 307… Ice penetrated my skin.

I gripped the sides of the book, my knuckles whitening with tension. The red bird, colorful wings ending in orange and white-blue flames… My stomach dropped, and acid crawled up my throat.

Identical, or nearly so…and the photo was of a forearm.

I gulped down a giant lump that had lodged in my throat.

Was it the same?

The same?

My knees buckled beneath me, and I grasped the counter for support.

I cleared my throat, desperately trying to dislodge the caustic lump. Keep it cool. Keep it cool, Talon.

Images whirled into my mind, conjuring themselves from the blackness. The walls filled with photos of tattoos inched forward, the colors pulsing, vibrating. No. No flashback. Not here. Not now.

“Hey, Haley!” I yelled, the room spinning back into focus.

She trotted back up to the counter, looking pissed. “Yeah?”

“Are all these photos from tattoos that were done here in Snow Creek?”

“I haven’t the foggiest. Some of the photos are really old.”

“Maybe over twenty years old?” I asked.

“Oh, yeah, probably. Toby bought this place from some dude a while back. He’d know better than I would.”

“When’s he coming in?”

“Probably later this afternoon. I think he’s got an appointment scheduled.” She strode quickly back to her client.

Quietly, I pulled the photo out of the book. The colors had faded. Yes, it was an older photo. Toby and I would be having a chat.

“What’s Toby’s cell number?” I yelled back to Haley.

“Not sure I should give that out.”

I pulled out another twenty and waved it at her. “How about now?”

Haley laughed and returned to the counter. She wrote a number down on the back of a business card. “Here you go. Pleasure doing business with you.”



The boy emptied his stomach.

He wasn’t sure why they bothered to feed him. He didn’t keep much down anyway. His wrists were noticeably skinnier than when he had been brought to the cold, dark cellar.