The Shadow Read online

  “So many questions,” said Breece, lifting his imposing nose into the air. “Perhaps you’ll do me the courtesy of answering mine first.”

  “Well, if you’re asking about the accommodations,” said Jessica, “the mattress is uncomfortable, the toilet is backed up, and the view could be better.”

  “Do you take this for a joke, Mrs. Gomes?” Breece replied. “I assure you, it is not.”

  “Did I forget to clean up after my dog?” asked Jessica. “Because I think a simple fine would have been appropriate. Maybe just a warning.”

  The guard shifted nervously, adjusting the grip on his rifle.

  “Or did I litter?” Jessica wouldn’t quit. “Did I add another scrap of paper to your trash heap of a city?”

  Breece held up a hand, his patience at an end.

  “Lamont Cranston,” he said evenly.

  Jessica pursed her lips and tilted her head. Her heart began to thud in her chest.

  “Odd name,” she said.

  “I agree,” said Breece. “Quite old fashioned. Of another time.”

  “What’s he have to do with me?”

  “Exactly my question, Mrs. Gomes!” said Breece. “That’s what we want to know. We know that Lamont Cranston is in the city. And we assume that he has been in contact with you.”

  “Why me?”

  “Another excellent question,” said Breece, leaning in. “Who are you to Lamont Cranston?”

  Jessica folded her arms over her chest, afraid that her heartbeat would show through the jumpsuit.

  “Old boyfriend?” she said. “Hard to know. There were so many.”

  Breece took another step forward, his lower jaw thrust out, eyes flashing, his face only inches from Jessica’s.

  “Listen to me, you bitch!” he said.

  “I’m listening,” said Jessica, not moving. She stared him right back. She concentrated.

  Suddenly, Breece’s knees buckled. He fell to the floor in a dead faint.

  The jailer caught him just before his head hit the tile. The guard flipped his rifle up and put the green laser dot in the middle of Jessica’s forehead.

  “He’ll be fine,” said Jessica. “Probably just low blood sugar. Tell him we’ll talk more when he’s feeling up to it.” She stepped forward so that the muzzle of the rifle pressed into her skin. “I’m sure he’d tell you that executing a valuable prisoner would put a big black mark in your file.”

  The guard lowered his rifle and helped to drag Breece out of the cell. He slammed his palm against a button to close the cell door behind them. Jessica heard a hubbub from down the hall as other guards scurried to help.

  “Have a beautiful day,” she called out.

  When the noise receded, Jessica collapsed backward on the cot. She was exhausted and scared. Her heart was still pounding hard. But she was proud of herself too.

  “Still got it,” she said softly.

  CHAPTER 51

  “LAMONT! GET ME out of these rags!” shouted Margo. “I smell like mothballs.”

  Maddy had raided her grandmother’s meager closet that morning when she’d gone back to retrieve Bando. She figured that Margo and Grandma were about the same size. But nothing in the selection came close to Margo’s fashion standards. Not the housecoat. Not the pom-pom slippers. And definitely not the threadbare flannel nightshirt she was reluctantly wearing.

  “Your dress is still drying!” Lamont called back. He had rinsed the delicate frock the best he could in the industrial sink. Now it was hanging from a crude clothesline strung between two massive wooden posts.

  Seeing Margo in her grandmother’s clothes gave Maddy a pang of guilt. As if she’d given up on finding Jessica again. Which she hadn’t. But since finding Margo, she’d been helping make a new home out of nothing. And now it was too late to go out searching. Too late and too dangerous.

  They had all settled into the warren of small rooms at one end of the vast upper floor. Lamont had pulled desks and chairs out of an office to clear a private space for himself and Margo. It was furnished only with a flashlight and a pile of thick packing blankets. Maddy had created a nook of her own against the wall on the opposite side of the floor under a clouded skylight.

  Lamont headed for the door. “I’m going out for wood,” he said.

  The wood was for the massive factory stove that sat at the back of the warehouse space. Early in its life it had been fed with coal, but Lamont had discovered that it burned scrap lumber just as well.

  After Lamont’s footsteps receded down the stairs, Margo waved Maddy over to the corner where she was sitting. She sat down next to Margo, with Bando nestled between them. Maddy had told Margo all about her grandmother and how scared she was for her. And now it seemed like Margo was trying to take her mind off it a little bit.

  “So. Maddy,” Margo said. “Lamont tells me you’re a woman of many talents.”

  Maddy shrugged. “Pretty good with scooters,” she said. “Not so great with cars.”

  “So I heard,” said Margo. “But I’m talking about mental skills. The power of the mind.”

  “You mean getting people to do what I tell them to do?” said Maddy. “Yeah, I’ve always had that. My little mojo.”

  “It’s called mind control, darling. And it’s nothing to sneeze at.”

  Maddy realized that other than Grandma, she’d never really had another woman to confide in, and Margo seemed eager to listen. Sharing felt nice.

  Maddy moved a little closer.

  “There’s another weird thing about me,” said Maddy, “and Lamont.”

  Margo tilted her head, curious. “Go on,” she said.

  Maddy cleared her throat, then paused. She felt awkward.

  “Okay,” she said. “When Lamont turns invisible…”

  “Yes?” said Margo, leaning in. “I’m listening.”

  “Well,” said Maddy, “I…I can see him the whole time.”

  Margo sat back. She tapped her chin.

  “Now that is interesting,” she said. “God knows I can’t.” She turned this new information over in her mind, then reached out to hold Maddy’s hand.

  “Have you ever tried it yourself?” she asked.

  “What?” said Maddy.

  “Invisibility.”

  Maddy scratched her head. “Uh…no. Never. Lamont’s the Shadow, not me.”

  Margo stood up and pulled Maddy to her feet. She placed her hands on Maddy’s shoulders.

  “Stand straight,” said Margo. “Get balanced.”

  Maddy rocked her hips and shifted her feet a few inches farther apart until she was in a solid stance.

  “Now,” said Margo. “All I know about this is that it has to come from inside you. You have to will it. You have to feel it. You have to believe it.”

  Maddy felt awkward, not really sure what was going on.

  “Wait,” she said. “You want me to try to turn invisible?”

  “Why not?” said Margo.

  “Right now?” replied Maddy nervously. This felt ridiculous.

  “No time like the present,” said Margo. “It’s about accessing a part of your mind that you’ve never touched before. Maybe it’s possible for you. Maybe it’s not. But you won’t know if you don’t try.”

  “Okay,” said Maddy. “Then I’ll try.”

  She closed her eyes. She concentrated on disappearing. She pictured herself disappearing. She whispered the word “disappear” over and over. She felt her mind straining, like trying to remember a trig formula. She clamped her eyelids even tighter. She let out a slow breath.

  “Well,” she asked. “Am I gone? Am I invisible?”

  Margo patted her on the shoulder. Maddy opened her eyes.

  “Sorry, dear,” said Margo. “You’re still here.”

  They heard Lamont’s shoes tromping up the staircase.

  “The noble woodsman has returned!” Margo called out. Lamont walked in with a stack of flooring strips in his arms. He dumped them on top of the pile near the door and brush
ed the wood dust off his sleeves.

  “What are you two up to?” he asked.

  “Just girl talk,” said Margo.

  “I tried to turn invisible,” said Maddy.

  Lamont raised an eyebrow. “And…?”

  “No go,” said Maddy. “I guess I don’t have the genes.”

  CHAPTER 52

  IT’S SUPPERTIME. WE’RE eating macaroni soup out of coffee mugs and drinking water from tin cups.

  “Lamont,” says Margo. “This cannot go on!”

  “Apologies,” says Lamont. “Fletcher didn’t leave a great assortment in the pantry.”

  “And no alcohol, I assume?” asks Margo.

  “Only some methyl hydrate,” says Lamont. “Intoxicating. But fatal.”

  The stove is crackling behind us and the sky outside the window is totally black. Bando is curled up beside me. Margo and Lamont are sitting next to each other on the other side of the crate. Margo’s wearing her freshly cleaned party dress, and Lamont is wearing his tux jacket and white shirt. If it wasn’t for the soup can and tin cups, they’d look like they were at a fancy party in the last century.

  I’ve tried to imagine what their life must have been like back then. Nothing like this, I’m sure. Earlier, when I was heating up the soup, I heard them bickering about invisibility. Now they’re at it again.

  “I’m telling you, Lamont, it’s mass hypnotism, pure and simple. You don’t actually dematerialize. You just create the illusion that you’re invisible. It’s all in the mind of the beholder.”

  “The power to cloud men’s minds?” says Lamont. He wiggles his fingers in front of his forehead. “Nonsense! That’s just some bunk the radio writers made up because they had no other way to explain it.”

  “So what is it, really?” I ask. “How does it work?”

  “Well,” says Lamont. “There’s technique, of course. Things that can be taught and practiced. But first you need the predisposition, like perfect pitch. ‘Being attuned’ is how the monks described it. Zokhikh yos.”

  “Now, don’t start throwing Mongolian at us, Lamont,” said Margo.

  “Look,” said Lamont. “You can call it the spirit of the universe, you can call it black magic, one of the dark arts—call it whatever you want. But I assure you, it’s physical. It’s real. And it’s been around for longer than you can imagine.”

  “Then explain something,” says Margo. She nods toward me. “Why can Maddy see you when nobody else can? Not even me.”

  “You talked about that?” he asks.

  “Among other things,” says Margo.

  Lamont looks at me.

  “The truth is,” he says, “I’m not sure yet. There’s a lot about Maddy that I haven’t figured out.”

  Margo gives me a little smile. “Don’t worry,” she says. “It took him a while to figure me out too.”

  “Years!” says Lamont, pretending to be serious.

  “And worth every minute!” says Margo. She leans over and snuggles against him. He puts his arm around her shoulders. For a second, their cheeks touch. I swear I can see actual electricity in the air. I start blushing. Suddenly I feel like a total third wheel. I put down my mug of soup and get up from the so-called table.

  “I think I’ll take Bando out for a walk,” I say. “Just down to the river.”

  Margo stretches her long arms out over her head and yawns. I mean, pretends to yawn. I can tell the difference.

  “I might just turn in early,” she says.

  “Me, too,” says Lamont. “I’m exhausted.”

  I snap my fingers. Bando gets up and follows me to the door. It just got a whole lot warmer in here. And not from the stove.

  CHAPTER 53

  THE SECOND MARGO heard Maddy close the latch, she moved her hand to Lamont’s lapel and pulled him closer. She tilted her head and closed her eyes. Then she kissed him. Lightly at first, then slow and deep. He pressed against her, one hand cradling her head, his fingers laced through her fine blond hair. He could feel the warm breath from her nostrils on his cheek. She broke the kiss off slowly and opened her eyes. Deep blue against her ivory skin.

  “I missed you,” she whispered.

  “Missed you, too,” he replied.

  Lamont pulled Margo close, one arm around her narrow waist. He leaned in to kiss her softly on the neck, moving up to a spot just below her ear.

  Margo trembled.

  “If you do that again,” she said. “I’m going to need to lie down.” He did it again. She intertwined her fingers with his and pulled him toward the abandoned office that was now their bedroom.

  As they passed through the doorway, Lamont swept Margo up in his arms. Then he knelt gently and laid her down on the big pile of blankets in the corner.

  Margo pulled Lamont’s jacket off. “How long does it take to walk the dog?” she asked softly.

  “Maybe he’ll find a rat to chase,” said Lamont. His hands went under the hem of her dress. She lifted her hips as he tugged it up. When it reached her waist, she leaned forward and pulled it over her head. It didn’t take long from there. Just a few more snaps and clasps and straps, back and forth. His pants. Her slip. His briefs. Her bra. Margo pulled a loose blanket over her naked torso. Lamont gently slid it back off.

  “My God,” he said. “You are so beautiful.”

  “You are too,” she said, lifting her lips to his. “Have I told you how much I love you?”

  “Actually,” said Lamont, “it’s been a while.”

  “I can’t believe how long it’s been,” she said. He kissed her shoulder and ran his palm down her body, following the curves. She was everything he remembered. Soft. Smooth. Warm. Perfect.

  Margo pulled him close and pressed her lips against his ear.

  “Lamont Cranston,” she whispered, “don’t you dare disappear on me.”

  CHAPTER 54

  EARLY THE NEXT morning, Margo woke up to the smell of freshly brewed coffee. “That smells heavenly,” she called out.

  “Warehouse blend,” replied Lamont from outside their alcove. “Only the best.” For a second, she imagined that she was nestled in Lamont’s four-poster bed on Fifth Avenue. Instead, she looked down to see that the quilted pattern on the packing blankets had left a matching impression on her thigh.

  “Terrific,” she muttered. “I look like a waffle.”

  Lamont poured a cup for himself and took a sip. Satisfied with the strength, he poured another for Margo, then added four and a half—not five—teaspoons of sugar, just the way she liked it. With a cup in each hand, he walked slowly back into the sleeping area. He handed the cup to Margo and settled beside her on the pile of wrinkled blankets. Margo cradled her cup in two hands, inhaled the steam, and took her first sip.

  “Not heaven. But close,” she said, tugging a cushion up to her neck. Then, lowering her cup, she said, “Lamont, darling, you know you can’t keep me in this place forever. I’m not some princess in a tower. We need to find Maddy’s grandmother. I can help. I’m a good detective, remember? But I need to get out of this warehouse and into the city. I know it’s different. But I have to see it for myself.”

  She was right, of course. But, as always, Lamont’s first instinct was to protect her. He didn’t even want to think about losing her again.

  “You can’t believe how dangerous the city is,” said Lamont. “The rich have gotten richer, and they all have their protected estates, but the rest of the city is in total chaos. Uncivilized. Evil everywhere.”

  “Is it really so different?” Margo asked. “We dealt with some pretty evil things in our day, remember?”

  Lamont did remember. He remembered ruthless crime lords, weapons dealers, mad scientists, and international spies. He and Margo had defeated them all. But all of them put together didn’t come close to the evil that he knew was controlling the world right now. The same evil that came close to killing them both. He’d been revealing things to Margo in small doses, but now it was time to tell her the truth.

 
“There’s something else you need to know,” Lamont began.

  Margo set her cup aside. “Don’t tell me we’re out of macaroni soup.”

  “Khan,” continued Lamont. “He’s here.”

  “Khan?” Margo tugged the cushion up to her neck again and shifted under the covers. Even with the warmth of the coffee, a chill shot through her. “I thought we outlived that bastard! I thought that was part of the plan—to wake up in a world without him. Better. Safer.”

  “I thought so too,” said Lamont. “But it’s almost like he’s been waiting for us to come back. And from what I’ve seen, he’s more powerful than ever. He’s got the whole damned world under his thumb. And people have no idea what he’s capable of. None!”

  They heard scratching on the floor, and then Bando hopped around the partition and into their space. He trotted over and crawled up onto Margo’s covers until his head was nestled under her chin.

  “Your replacement has arrived,” said Margo.

  “Maddy!” Lamont yelled. “Come retrieve your beast!”

  “Lamont, it’s fine,” said Margo. “He just needs a little morning attention.”

  Margo and Bando had known each other for less than forty-eight hours, but they were already very close.

  “Maddy!” Lamont shouted again. He walked across the wide-open floor to Maddy’s alcove. Morning light was streaming in from the window and dust particles were dancing in the bright rays. He tapped on the partition that separated Maddy’s sleeping space from the rest of the room.

  “Hello?” he said. “Maddy? I think Bando needs to go out.”

  Lamont peeked around the corner of the partition. He saw a pile of blankets. Rumpled. Empty.

  He walked briskly to the bathroom just behind Maddy’s sleeping area. He knocked on the door.

  “Maddy? You in there?” Nothing. The hairs on his neck stood up.

  “Margo!” shouted Lamont. “She’s not here!”

  Margo peeked out of the bedroom in her slip. “Maybe she went for a walk.”

  “Then she should have told us!” he said, sounding like a grumpy parent.