NOIR-vember_ COMMAND PERFORMANCE_BLACK MAGIC_CHAPTER ONE
Ever wonder how a wolf feels in a trap, leg hopelesslycaught in the iron teeth of it, watching the trapper slowly walking towards it?
Me either.
Until now.
The odd stained-glass window behind me looked out at nothing … at least notanything of this world.
But a chill wind blew out from it though it was notopen. But then, Lake Pleasant was full of oddities like that.
It was said that people foolish enough to look hard into itsaw things in it.
What kind of things they were no longer able to saywhat with their minds wiped or reduced to drooling insanity.
When swept into the office, I wisely kept myeyes to myself. I had more than enough nightmares to trouble my sleep withoutadding to them.
Anthony Vincent toyed with the cigar he never smoked … notsince his lung cancer surgery.
“Been watching you a long time, Black. You, asmall-time hustler ….”
“Detective. Got the license and everything.”
“Whatever. Doesn’t change the fact you barely make a living,feeding off the bottom of the pond. You want to know why I bother?”
I shrugged. “Some people watch goldfish. You got me.”
“I got broads when I get bored.”
I fought to keep my face blank. Me being PC would only getme very painfully dead.
You didn’t get to be the broker of all things criminalin this sprawling city by being a Rhodes Scholar.
You achieved the blood throneby being more vicious and cunning than every other would-be King.
AnthonyVincent had been sitting on that dark throne a very long time,
and he was in nodanger of losing it judging from what I had seen … feeding off the bottom.
“What I don’t got any more is Gloria.”
He didn’t bother telling me Gloria Vincent was his daughter,though he looked old enough for her to be his granddaughter.
When you are oneof the surfs of his vicious fiefdom, you were expected to know the faces youwere supposed to bow and scrape before.
Not that I did that.
I just kept to theshadows when they went slumming where I lived and worked.
Apparently, I hadn’tsucceeded in hiding all that well.
Or maybe you didn’t stay King long if youdidn’t keep minute track of who could be useful to you … or deadly.
Merde.
Had I slipped up and let someone see what I could do?
I hadalways been so careful when going “sideways” as I called it.
But often when Ihad been one inch from dying, I sometimes popped out in the oddest places.
Ialways checked to see if there were any witnesses then.
I could have missed awitness, for I was only … human.
The headmaster at Saint Rita of Cascia Orphanage didn’tthink so.
He thought me being dumped at night in front of the iron gates mademy humanity suspect.
He made me pray her prayer each night:
“O Glorious St. Rita, who didst miraculouslyparticipate in the sorrowful Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, obtain for methe grace to suffer with resignation the troubles of this life, and protect mein all my needs. Amen”
She was known both for practicing mortification of the fleshand for the efficacy of her prayers.
Father Meyers loved to nightlymortify my back with that cane of his after I prayed her prayer …
until my backstopped bleeding.
Maybe there was something to the efficacy of her prayersafter all.
He gave me the last name of Black then. I think the nicknameof “Black Magic” came from him, too.
I could never prove it, nor did Imuch care to.
I just knew it unsettled the bullies at the orphanage enough tohave them pick other prey.
I was so satisfied with that result that I startedusing the name on the streets once I had “graduated” the orphanage.
I hurriedly ran the halls and rooms of this mansion throughmy mind that I had memorized when roughly shoved through them for thisaudience.
If this went south, I did not have many good options.
His estate wasa regular fortress. I fought a smile.
A talented bottom feeder like myselfalways found a rat hole to scurry into.
At least so far. There was always a first.
Like Anthony Vincent asking instead of ordering.
“I need youto find Gloria for me, Black.”
“It’s an active police case. I could get my license revokedfor poking around into it.”
“Do I look like I give a damn for your license beingrevoked? You find her, and I’ll make it worth your while.”
“How so?”
“You get to live.”
