Polterheist(47)

Nelli was barking again-but joyfully now, announcing their victory.

"Oh, thank God," I said. "The demon has been sent back to hell."

"Noooooo!" Elspeth wailed. "No, no, no, noooooo. . . ."

Naked and weeping hysterically, she collapsed to the floor. I immediately heard a bunch of feet stampeding this way, coming from the direction of the solstice mural. I tensed as I looked that way, and was surprised to hear heavy, authoritative voices shouting, "NYPD! Freeze! Police! Get down on the ground! FREEZE!"

"Lopez!" I cried, seeing him among the officers running in this direction. He was wearing a bullet-proof vest, which struck me as an odd thing to wear to a demon's summoning.

"Esther?" he stopped in his tracks, looking stunned.

Then I felt the barrel of a gun against my temple as Rick grabbed me from behind, his hand around my throat, choking me so hard that my eyes watered and I felt dizzy. He started dragging me backward, using me as a shield, telling the approaching cops to back off or he would kill me.

Lopez looked horrified, but he didn't drop his gun or stop pointing it at Rick. "Let her go!"

Other cops were screaming things at Rick like, "Freeze!" and "Drop it! Drop it! DROP IT!"

Given how agitated my captor seemed as he jammed his gun against my head, I really questioned whether all this screaming was a good idea.

I tried to scramble away from Rick, but my ball gown made my movements slow and clumsy.

He tightened his grip on me and said, "I like you, Esther, but I'll shoot you if I have to."

Breathing hard with fear and adrenaline, I shifted a little to look into his eyes . . . and I realized that I believed him.

"And he wouldn't like that, would he?" Rick added to me as he flicked a glance at Lopez.

I started shaking all over. Oh, my God, this manipulative, demented, greedy bastard is going to shoot me in the head, I thought. It was easy to see now how Rick had tried to manage the volatile situation in recent days, create an impression of himself as innocent in all matters, distract my attention, and convince me that nothing strange was going on at Fenster's. And now the lying, thieving bastard was going to shoot me in the head.

"I want out of here!" Rick said. "Esther comes with me!"

Lopez just shook his head; I could see the fierceness of his expression from here, even in Solsticeland's gloomy light.

"I'll shoot her," Rick warned. "I'll shoot her!"

"No, you won't," Lopez said coldly, his eyes hard. "You know what I'll do to you if she dies."

There was a short, very tense silence . . . and then we all collectively flinched as the sky started moving above us. I looked up and saw Twinkle's lunar eclipse taking place overhead. He had uploaded the program after all, hoping there'd be a chance to use it. He must be running it now, trying to create a life-saving distraction.

Lopez tried to use that moment of surprise to get a better angle to take a shot at Rick; but Super Santa was ready for that and kept me safely in front of him, his gun still pressed against my temple.

I was shaking all over and seriously starting to fear I'd become a long-term hostage. Or a fatality. I couldn't stop trembling.

"Hold still!" Rick screamed, terrifying me.

For a moment, I thought I saw Lopez's eyes flash like blue fire. And then the next thing I knew, Twinkle's lunar eclipse exploded directly overhead. It noisily showered shards of Solsticeland's sky all over us, along with tiny electrical stars, bits of flaming debris, and torrents of floating sparks. Rick flinched and backed up a step, losing his hold on me. Determined not to let a cumbersome ball gown be the cause of my death, I threw myself bodily in the opposite direction.

By the time Lopez was scooping me off the floor to check me for injuries (none), Rick was on the ground, face down, being handcuffed.

Breathing hard in reaction, Lopez looked up at the sky. "Who turned on that display?"

"Twinkle," I said with certainty. "It was his idea. His design."

"It was good thinking," Lopez said. "It almost worked."

His hands were clutching me hard enough to hurt, but I didn't protest. He hugged me for a long moment. Then he looked up at the ruined Solsticeland sky again, a wreck of shattered parts, sizzling wires, smoking sockets, and exploded little lights.

"Jesus," he said, "this place really is falling apart."

I thought I knew better, though. There had been other incidents. Other bizarrely fiery moments, such as the exploding sewer tunnel that killed a homicidal vampire while mysteriously leaving Lopez and his colleagues unharmed. And tonight, I was looking right at him when the sparkling lunar sky of Solsticeland had exploded in a lifesaving shower of fire and sparks, heat and smoke . . . and I thought I had seen something powerful pass through his eyes a split second before that happened.

There was also the time my bed burst into flames, while we were in it together.

I suddenly needed to sit down, feeling very shaky.

Lopez called another cop over to sit with me while he went around securing the scene. Elspeth was still screeching and weeping hysterically, which was getting on my nerves. The police had custody of her and were evidently calling for a stretcher.

Lopez went through the forest and over to Solstice Castle, where Max and Nelli had contained the demon and freed the actors from their psycho-mystical thrall to Elspeth and Rick. I could hear Satsy's voice from all the way in here, and it made me smile.

At some point, feeling as if I was experiencing everything through a fog, I asked Lopez how he had found us.

The answer was absurdly simple. NYPD thought that a hit on the store on Christmas Eve, after closing and when security was light, seemed probable. By then, Lopez had also zeroed in on Rick during his investigation of the employees. And I'd been right in thinking that Elspeth and Rick had picked off too many Solsticeland actors. After I'd mentioned the high attrition rate to Lopez, he'd gotten curious and had looked into it. That had let him start connecting the dots, just as Freddie's arrest and the smooth, inside nature of the planning had done, too.

"Plus," Lopez said, watching his colleagues haul Rick away, "I always thought the perp had to be Santa Claus. Always."

Well, yes. There was that.

"Vindicated at long last," I murmured dryly.

But once he recovered from thinking I might get my head blown off, Lopez started giving me some dark looks, and I realized he'd want some detailed explanations about what I was doing here in the middle of this mess, with Max, Nelli, and Lucky-none of whom he'd been pleased to find in Solsticeland tonight. Lopez also started muttering grimly about what the hell he was going to put in his report.

That was when Lucky decided that if the detective didn't object, then he'd be moving along now. Since Lopez apparently didn't want to have to explain to anyone what a Gambello hit man was doing at his crime scene, he agreed with this suggestion.

Then Lopez asked Max to see me safely home. Max agreed with alacrity. But I could tell from the parting look Lopez gave me that I would soon be facing a tense conversation about this night's work.
                       
       
           



       
19





Max saw me home in a taxi whose driver was avidly curious about why I was dressed as a disheveled princess. I ignored him and didn't really hear what Max said.

After we arrived at my apartment building in the West Thirties, Max took the key from my cold hand, opened the front door, and came inside with me. He supported my elbow as I climbed the two flights of stairs in my homely old building. The ball gown I wore felt as heavy as a bag of bricks by now.

Inside my small, cheerfully shabby apartment, Max gently urged me to sit in the easy chair, purchased from a thrift shop, and then wrapped a blanket around me. He entered the kitchenette and puttered around, making me a hot cup of strong, sweet tea. When he handed it to me, I took a sip and, for a nasty moment of suspense, thought I might gag or throw up. Then I crossed some unseen threshold, started to calm down, and swallowed the tea.

Max sat watching me with concern while I drank the whole cup, bit by bit, feeling a little warmth start to creep through me.

Then I realized who was missing. "Nelli! Max, where's Nelli? We have to go back and get-"

"No, no, my dear, she's with Lucky. He's taking her back to the bookshop. He and I realized that getting you home and wrapped up was an urgent task that shouldn't be hampered by finding a cab driver willing to transport Nelli."

"Oh."

He offered to make me another cup of tea, but I declined. I was feeling better now, the shock and cold wearing off. I also noticed how gray with fatigue Max was looking, and I realized that tonight had been exhausting for him.

"You ought to go home and rest," I said, standing up to show him that I felt okay. "I'll call you a cab."

"I am rather fatigued," he admitted.

We chatted quietly, in soft, distracted voices for the next few minutes, while I looked out the window and watched for the taxi to pull up in front of my apartment building. I said I was so glad we had rescued the missing employees. He said he was relieved he and Nelli had succeeded in containing the demon.

We didn't talk about the police, or about whether Lopez had unwittingly caused the spectacular shower of fiery light which had distracted Rick enough for me to escape, or about whether we might have to pay for damaged Solsticeland costumes. It all seemed like too much to think about right now, when we were both stupid with fatigue and I was just glad that there wasn't a bullet in my brain.