Heaven can Wait Read online

  "I do wish you wouldn't wind up my officers like that."

  "And I wish they would accept me for what I am and not brand me a freak," I retorted, stepping up to the door and cutting Detective Braun off before he could properly enter the kitchen.

  "There's nothing more I can learn in here," I said walking past Braun and into the hallway. Eager to get away from that body in the kitchen.

  The cop on kitchen duty closed the door behind us and posted himself back outside. There was another officer on duty outside and he lifted the tape for Braun and myself to exit.

  "So you got nothing?"

  I shook my head, "It wasn't that I got nothing it's that there was nothing there to get."

  Braun gave me a look.

  "I'm not saying that just to cover myself," I said. "I'm not concerned with my image or reputation. This killer is a cold one, they did all that butchery in there and they didn't feel a damn thing while they were at it."

  Braun nodded. "Anything else, what about the missing pieces?"

  I shook my head. "I don't know. They could have been taken as souveniers, for some reason we don't understand or . . ." I trailed off.

  "Or?" Braun prompted.

  I shrugged. "They could have been eaten."

  "Something non-human could have done this?"

  "Don't tell me you haven't thought it yourself, Braun. You or someone like Perkins."

  "If something non-human did that in there Perkins would have every right to his opinion."

  I stared at the middle-aged cop. "One deviant doesn't make us all monsters. If a human being did that would I be right to condemn your whole race."

  Braun held up his hands, palms spread. "Hey I meant no offence."

  "Not everyone who causes it does, but that doesn't stop it hurting."

  CHAPTER NINE

  From the outside the office building looked to be in only a slightly better condition to the otherwise disused building where Selene had recently executed a demon. That impression wouldn't be changed by looking at the inside. Most of the offices stood empty, or had been taken over by squatters. The few people or businesses that still operated out of that building couldn't really complain. They had never paid any rent officially and ever since Selene had had a run in with the heavies who used to come around once a fortnight they had even stopped with the unofficial. A generator in the basement, kept running at a small cost divided between all of the remaining tenants, supplied them with electricity. There had never been a true landlord for them to complain to when anything needed fixing and so they just got on as they always had done. Each tenant looked after his or her own office space and if anything needed sorting on any particular floor it was up to the people on the floor to sort costs between themselves. So far there hadn't been anything go wrong with either of the stairways so the issue of whose responsibility it was to sort that hadn't come up. The lift had been out of order since before Selene moved in and nobody seemed inclined to do anything about it.

  Selene's office was on the fifth floor. From the outside a faded number on the door was all that marked it out from the other rooms. Inside that door were the trio of rooms that Selene had taken to use as her centre of operations. The first one through the door, the only that most of the few visitors she received ever got to see, was her business office. In her chosen line of work, she guessed demonic bounty hunter pretty much covered it, your office didn't really have to be that hi-tech. Which was good for Selene. There was a desk where a few scraps of paper from ancient texts shared space with an only slightly less ancient computer. A pair of chairs, one to either side of the desk, and a filing cabinet were the only other pieces of furniture present.

  Upon returning Selene had immediately crossed to the filing cabinet. She kicked it at the bottom right corner and the lowest draw came open. She dropped her guns, knives and a few other small fighting implements into that draw and then kicked it closed. She pulled open the middle draw next and rooted through the mess of papers inside. There was no system to the arrangement and she made them even more disorganised as she searched. Eventually she found the sheet she was looking for. She closed that draw again and placed the sheet on the desk under a stained mug.

  Other than the main entrance there was one other door in her office and no window. The other door was at the back of the office opposite the entrance. Selene crossed to it. She walked directly through the kitchen-cum-bedroom, a room with a microwave, sink, a couple of shelves for bits of food and a roll mat and sleeping bag on the floor. She went directly through that room tossing her jacket on the floor next to a pile of clothes on one side of her bed roll as she did so, and into the bathroom at the end. The building still had running water, sometimes her old boiler even managed to make it hot, and Selene meant to take full advantage of that fact right now and get that stinking demon mess off of her.

  Before she had had a chance to start undressing she heard a knock coming from her main door. She swore under her breath, the knock was repeated and she went to answer it. On her way there she pulled a revolver out of her desk draw. There wasn't much she couldn't handle with her own fists or feet and none of it knew where to find her, but it was always better to be prepared. There were some very dangerous people who would very much like to locate her.

  She opened the door a crack and looked out. Eric Thorne stood there shifting his weight from foot to foot and generally looking shifty. Of course Eric always looked shifty. His lank greasy hair, thin face and drooping moustache coupled with unkempt clothes and most especially beady dark eyes served to give him a truly sneaky appearance. Which suited him perfectly given that he was nothing if not a sneak.

  Eric looked back at her through the crack. His eyes widened to almost as open as a normal person would have their eyes as he took in her blood and slime coated clothes.

  "You did it-" he started before Selene shot a hand out through the doorway and dragged him inside. He took a moment to brush himself down, as if that would help only incineration could remove the dirt from those clothes now. "You did it then? Finished the job, demon gone."

  Selene sighed wearily. "Yes. So I believe you have something for me."

  Eric studied the floor between his feet. His shoes, while a pair themselves, were laced up with two different laces. "Well . . ." he started hesitantly. "You see . . . I was just comin' to talk to you about that."

  Selene stepped towards him and he backed away from her. "What's to talk about?"

  Eric was visibly quaking. "It's not me. It's these guys I do some work for. You know? The ones who wanted me to get you to help with-"

  "I know what I was hired to do. These people you sometimes do a little work for had a problem with a couple of demi-demons. I took one down a few nights ago and I've just finished dealing with the second. Now we had an arrangement."

  Eric held his hands up towards her palms open. "I know that, Selene. And I know better. This ain't my idea, honest. But since you took care of their first problem these guy's have decided to go back on that deal. They figure there isn't any legal way for you to force 'em to cough up. Demons might not have many rights but you can still get in the shit for killin' 'em without going through the proper formalities."

  Selene had heard enough. She should have known any group that kept Eric as one of their associates would turn out to be trouble. She turned away from Eric and started back towards the inner rooms of her office.

  "Fine," she said. "You've delivered you're message, you can leave. I wouldn't go back to them though, because legal or not I can make them cough up."

  Selene took a quick, cold shower. Not cold through choice, her intermittent boiler was doing that not working thing again. At least she was clean, though. There was little chance that demon slime would be next seasons must have fashion accessory. She stuffed the clothes that had been stained in blood and ichor into a black bag. She would take them to the laundrette for cleaning when she got a chance. At the moment such things could wait until she had convinced the people who had br
ought these last two demons to her attention to pay what they owed.

  It was that goal that had Selene standing on the roof of an empty building. The building was empty because it was still the middle of the night and consumerism hadn't taken over so completely that all shops were open twenty-four seven. The reason she was on that rooftop was to keep a watch on the building opposite which was still open. That building was a small club with a few rooms at the back that were used for gambling. Selene had done a little bit of checking when these people first approached her and had been surprised that the gambling actually took place legally under a full licence and everything. What wasn't legal were the drug deals, loan sharking and extortion that ran out of the place.

  Selene hadn't been really concerned with the type of people she was working for until now. Their money was as good as anybody else's as far as she was concerned. It didn't bother her where it came from. It only concerned her now because the type of people who were into those sorts of extra-legal would be the sort of people who surrounded themselves with armed heavies. If Selene meant to get what was owed her she would have to go through those same heavies to get it.

  The most conspicuous allocation of force was located just outside the main entrance of the club. At the head of a queue of hopeful entrants stood the guys who decided whether or not they actually got into the club. Four large men with shaved heads and tattoos, dressed in suits to give a resemblance of respectability, were the actually muscle. An average sized man, who looked more at home in a suit, was the one who made the final decision on who got in. The management wasn't that picky when it came to the class of person who was allowed entry. Rather it was the size of their wallet that mattered, and while money could buy many things real class wasn't one of them.

  The frigid air fogged as Selene released a breath. She had just come to the decision that it was time to move, that standing there any longer wasn't going to get her any more information on what to expect inside, when a flash of movement caught her attention. She let the demon blood which pumped through her veins manifest on her physically. Her normally human appearance was subtly altered. She fought down all but the smallest change and let her eyes darken to black. With the improved sight her demon side offered she could easily make out the cause of the commotion.

  Eric the weasel hadn't bothered to change in the time since he left her office. But then that was something Eric did rarely enough anyway. He was in much the same state as when he had left her but Selene's enhanced vision let her pick out a tightness to his eyes and red on his cheeks that had more to do with the bottle in his hand than the cold air. He pushed and stumbled through the otherwise orderly queue. The average-sized doorman waved a hand and two of the goons went to fetch Eric.

  The little snitch was dragged more than walked between the two with his feet leaving the floor entirely on more than one occasion as he was manhandled. The goons set him down in front of the smaller doorman but remained holding him one to either side. The remaining pair of doormen stepped forward to discourage the queue from forming a crowd around the confrontation. The average doorman said something to Eric. The weasel tilted his head to his drink but his arms were held fast preventing him from taking another swig. He brought his head back up and started speaking frantically. When the doorman had heard enough he held up a hand to silence Eric then stepped away and spoke into a two-way radio he brought out of his jacket pocket. After a short exchange he waved the goons with Eric forward, they passed him on to another pair who came from inside the entrance and then immediately went back taking Eric along with them.

  Well that was that then. Selene's intentions were about to be brought into the open. To wait any longer would give them too much time to prepare a lethal reception for her. She had to act now.

  It was a drop of maybe twenty-five metres from the roof to street level. Selene touched down, bending her knees as she hit to absorb some of the shock of impact. A quick glance around revealed nobody that could have witnessed her inhuman feat.

  Gaining access to the club proved to be just as simple a matter as getting down from her vantage point. The back side of the club and the building it backed up to formed a dark and narrow alleyway populated only by scattered bags of rubbish and rats. Opening out onto the alleyway was a metal door covered in scribbled graffiti and a pair of small frosted-glass windows. The fire-exit was bound to be guarded, or at least watched, and getting through the metal door would generate more noise than Selene was willing to risk.

  Both windows were open just a little letting the cool night air get inside and also allowing sounds from inside to carry back out. From the window on the left came the sounds of women talking. That put it as the right room for her to be in but also from the sounds of it it was way too occupied. Selene heard little from the other window, there was no talking but she did hear a toilet flush.

  She gave whoever had flushed the toilet a few seconds to get out of the bathroom and then jumped up and caught hold of the edge of the depression in which the window sat. From this much closer Selene caught a stink from the room that indicated that most of those who used the room weren't as sanitary as the man who had just left. She dangled from one hand while she used her other to open the window wide enough for her to slip inside. She landed on the tiled floor and almost slipped as her feet sought traction on a floor that was covered in what had to be the source of much of what she had been able to smell outside.

  Selene wasn't so lucky that the bathroom was completely empty but it was almost empty. A lone man stood watching her. His hands were in place either to guide himself as he did what he had come in here to do or to put himself away and zip up having just finished.

  His eyes had gone wide at seeing Selene make her entrance and he had frozen leaving himself exposed to her. For her part Selene stood and regarded him coolly waiting to see how he would react when he got over his surprise and was actually able to do something. It didn't take long. The expression on his face shifted from surprise to lechery and the way his body reacted left her no way to mistake what he was imagining himself doing next. He made no move to cover himself.

  "You trying to sneak in here?" The man asked. "You know, there are reasons why not just anybody is allowed to come and sample what this club has to offer. The people who run the joint don't take kindly to trespassers." His voice went thoughtful. "But maybe I could be persuaded to overlook telling them about this if you could find your way to helping me out with a little problem," his eyes flicked to look down at himself. "Well not so little." He finished arrogantly."

  Selene locked her eyes on his and then turned then down to where he had looked. She gave a disinterested sigh and brought her gaze back up to his. She arced an eyebrow as she spoke; "You want me to help with your little problem?"

  For a split-second the man seemed to be taken aback but then the bravado kicked in once more. "I sure do." He took a step towards her.

  Selene stood her ground. "You're certain about this?"

  The man's cheeks went red with anger as his blood was split evenly between his upper and lower parts. "Look, Bitch, just get yourself up against that wall with your legs spread. And you might want to get your trousers down around your ankles if you want to keep them in one piece."

  The man continued to advance towards her and Selene continued to stand her ground. "Just remember that you asked for this."

  She let him close right up, let him put his filthy hands on her shoulders intending to force her back up against the wall, before she made any move. She fired a hand out and took hold of his zip. She brought it up, fast so that the teeth sliced through a good portion of flesh before being jammed with bloody matter. At the same time she clamped her other hand over his mouth to muffle the agonised screams.

  He was lowered to the ground in a controlled motion her hand covering his mouth the whole time. The pain was too much for him and he passed out. Blood spread from his shrunken and mangled groin area and mingled with the fluids on the floor which more usually came out of
that area.

  Selene dumped the unconscious body in one of the stalls and made her way out into the club proper.

  CHAPTER TEN

  Braun organised for a patrol car to take me back to my small flat. If not I would have been stuck on public transport, and at this time of night that would have been problematic enough for mere mortals, for someone like me travelling so close to the Zone . . . it could be more than problematic. And if I wasn't back safely at home by the curfew things would be worse.

  As it turned out the trip in the cop car wasn't exactly pleasant. The officers who were escorting me weren't overtly hostile. Whenever they deigned to speak to me they were polite enough. But there was something about those long silences, something in their tone of voice when they broke their silence that said they didn't like me. I caught the glances the pair aimed at me in the rear-view mirror.

  I could have dropped the mental barriers which kept others feelings out of her head and had her suspicions confirmed. But I didn't need to have my suspicions confirmed. And I certainly didn't need to have some closet bigots prejudiced feelings bouncing around inside my head. I didn't need to know what they were feeling to know what they were feeling.