Sixth Grave on the Edge(12)
I poured Cookie’s cup, knowing full well she was interrupting my “meeting” with Denise only to save me from her. I adored that woman. Cookie! Not Denise. After taking the coffee to her and handing her the box of wafers with a wink, I started to close the door between our offices as she took a sip of the piping fresh brew. She rolled her eyes until I saw only white. It was kind of creepy. We were kindred spirits to the core.
“It’s a little embarrassing,” Mr. Joyce said after I offered him a cup, poured my own, then sat behind my desk. Reyes had disappeared as he was wont to do once any immediate danger was dispelled.
“Why don’t you start from the beginning?” I felt the agitation he was sporting externally, but I also felt anxiety and extreme fear. Like gut-wrenching fear.
“Um, okay.” He twisted the baseball cap in his hands before pinning me with his gaze, taking a deep breath, and blurting out, “I sold my soul to the devil and I need you to get it back for me.”
That was new.
I blinked a few times, took a slow sip, then asked, “Did it fetch a good price?”
“What?” he asked, surprised by my reaction.
“Your soul. What’d you get for it?”
He bit down and charged forward. “Ms. Davidson, I’m not kidding.”
“I can see that.”
“I’ve talked to a few—” He glanced around, worried we’d be overheard. “—individuals in your field, and they all recommended I hire you. Said if anyone could get it back, you could.”
“Really? And what kind of individuals are in my field?”
“You know,” he said, setting his ball cap on my desk and easing forward to whisper. “The supernatural kind.”
“Ah. Right. Because they’re on every street corner. So, this demon you sold your soul to—”
“Devil,” he corrected, punching the air with an index finger. “He was the devil.”
“Okay, first of all, the devil is never on this plane this time of year, so if the guy who bought your soul says he’s the boss man himself, he’s lying.”
“Seriously?” he asked, surprised. “Well, maybe he didn’t say he was the devil, but he had powers, you know? He had an intensity I felt every time he looked at me, like the weight of it alone could crush me. And he has my soul. It’s gone. I can’t feel it anymore.” He patted his clothes as though searching for his wallet.
Wonderful. Mr. Joyce was crazy. I took out a pen and pad. “Okay, can you describe your soul in detail? I’ll put out a BOLO.”
He leaned back, annoyed with me. It happened. “I thought that you of all people would understand.”
I put down my pen. “Why me of all people?”
“I know what you are,” he said. “He told me.”
“The devil told you?”
“No, the guy.” He raked a hand through his hair. “The guy who took my soul. Maybe he just took it for the devil. I don’t know.”
As entertaining as this was, I needed to call Uncle Bob and ask him what was going on with my dad. No way did I call Dad. If he didn’t want me to know something, I damned sure didn’t know.
“Okay, well, thanks for coming in, Mr. Joyce, but—”
“Hedeshi!” he shouted, remembering a name. A name that I knew well.
“Hedeshi is dead,” I said, wondering how he knew the name of the demon sent to kill me. Thankfully, I had the son of Satan and a guardian departed Rottweiler named Artemis backing me up, or I wouldn’t have been there at all.
“Right, he told me about Hedeshi. Said he was dead. During the card game, he’d—”
“Card game?”
“The poker game,” he said, growing more agitated by the second. “The one where I lost my soul.”
I clasped my fingers together. “Let me get this straight. You gambled your soul away?”
“Well … no. Not exactly. I needed money. He knew it. Used it against me.” Shame washed over him in one bright-hot wave. “It was for a good cause. I needed money and he had the highest game in town, so I took a chance. I hocked everything we had just to get a seat at the table, and then I lost every penny.” He scrubbed his forehead, embarrassed. “When he saw how distressed I was, he made me an offer I couldn’t refuse, so I said yes. I sold him my soul.”
“Of course you did. Hedeshi,” I reminded him.
He squinted his eyes, trying to remember. “The guy, the dealer, said there was a grim reaper in town wreaking all kinds of havoc on his brethren. Said you managed to kill one of the top generals from hell, a man named Hedeshi.”