Call Of The Witch (36 page)

“
Yes, I know it, and you
know it, and the DA probably knows it too, but our hands are tied.
Incidentally, the DA’s mighty pissed at us for not calling in the
Feds.”

“
Screw the
Feds.”

“
We pretty much have. He’s
gone ahead and passed the case on over to them. Kelly Brewbaker is
their problem now.”

“
Good riddance I
say.”

“
I’ll drink to
that.”

We saluted a healthy goodbye to the Brewbaker
case and moved on to less emotional conversation.

“
What do you think of
Carlos giving away all his money?” I asked.

He laughed at that. “Couldn’t he have just
told her he gave it all away, instead of actually doing it?”

“
Yeah, I suppose. But you
know Carlos. He doesn’t always think things through all the
way.”

“
He doesn’t always think,
period.”

“
What about
Brittany?”

“
What about
her?”

“
What do you think about
her making detective?”

“
I think she should have
stayed in blue.”

“
How come?”

“
Look, she was a corporal.
With this last promotion, she could have made sergeant. Another
couple of years she could have been a captain. Now where is she?”
He took a sip of beer and shrugged pathetically. “She’s a
detective. That’s the end of the road, isn’t it?”

“
You’re a
detective.”

“
It’s what I do, Tony.
It’s what I love. I don’t want to be anything else. I never wanted
to be anything else…except maybe a dad.”

Oh boy, I thought. Here we go. I knew we
couldn’t avoid the subject for long, not that I wanted to. Getting
him to talk about it was the whole point of going out for drinks. I
suppose I was lucky that he brought it up first. That way he
couldn’t accuse me of prying open fresh wounds.

“
Dominic, listen. About
that. I wanted to––”

“
Tony.” He put his hand up
to stop me. “It’s okay. You don’t have to say anything. I know.
Ursula and I both know and we want to thank you and Lilith
for…well, for everything. For always being there.”

“
Oh, hey, you know you and
Ursula mean the world to us.”

“
You mean
that?”

“
I do.”

We both gestured another toast across the
table to that and drank some more beer. It seemed strange to me
then. I remembered having mixed feelings about Spinelli when I
first met him. I thought he was bright, confident and ambitious,
but it took me a long time to accept him as an equal. I remembered
how Carlos kept badgering me to call him Dominic when speaking
directly to him. But I couldn’t. I didn’t think he earned it. In my
efforts to accept him, calling him Dominic was the hardest thing of
all for me to do. But sitting there across from him, thinking of
all the things he’d done for Carlos and me, for the force, for
Lilith and especially for Ursula; for everything he’d been through,
I realized that he absolutely had earned it, and more. I realized
he was not just a fellow cop, not just a friend. Like Carlos, he
was my brother. His pain was my pain. His triumphs, my
triumphs.

I set my beer down and leaned in over the
table. “You’re going to try again,” I said. “Right?”

His brows gathered in a determined bunch. “As
soon as she’s ready.”

I eased back in my seat, nodding confidently.
“It’ll work out. I know it.”

“
Yeah,” he gazed into his
beer, watching the tiny bubbles break loose from the bottom of the
mug and wiggle to the surface. “Me, too.”

“
Lilith wants to have a
baby, you know.”

He looked up from his mug. “Get out!”

“
No, really. That’s what
the consummation ritual is all about.”

“
It is?”

“
Yes, oh, but it’s not
necessary every time she wants to get pregnant. It’s only for the
first time.”

“
I didn’t know
that.”

“
Yeah, well Lilith doesn’t
think I know it either. But you know, I’ve been thinking
lately.”

“
`Bout what?”

“
About how
maybe––”

“
Hey guys!”

Dominic and I turned to see Carlos standing
there in the aisle by our table, his arm slung loosely around
Brittany Olsen’s shoulder.

“
Carlos? Brittany? What
are you doing here?”

“
Sylvia at the bar told us
you were back here. Slide over. Let us sit down. I have some news
for you.”

I got out of the booth and slid in next to
Dominic, allowing Brittany and Carlos to have seats side-by-side
across from us.

“
This is a pleasant
surprise,” I said.

“
You think this is a
surprise?” He waved to get our server’s attention. When she came
over, he ordered up another pitcher of beer and a couple of mugs.
“I’ve got a real surprise for you.”

“
Don’t tell me. You and
Brit are dating now.”

“
We are,” she
said.

The two looked at each other and kissed. She
smiled. He smiled, and I could tell then that they already had a
better connection than Carlos and Lauri ever had.

“
We’re dating, yes,” he
said. “And although that is big news, it shouldn’t be a big
surprise to you.”

“
It is,” I said, “unless
you have bigger news.”

“
I do.”

“
Well?”

He reached into his coat pocket and pulled
out a multi-page fold of documents. “You see this?”

“
Yes.”

He held the documents over the table and
proceeded to shred them into tiny strips. “This was my money going
bye-bye.”

“
I don’t
understand.”

“
I just came back from my
accountant’s. He called me in this afternoon to sign
them.”

“
What are
they?”

“
They’re the documents
that would have finalized all my donations and left me broke. I
didn’t realize when we drew them up last night that they had to be
notarized.”

“
So you mean you’re not
broke?”

“
Nope.”

“
You still have your
millions?”

“
Yup.”

“
That’s wonderful!
Congratulations!”

“
Yeah, congratulations,”
said Dominic. “Does Lauri Shullit know yet?”

“
No. That’s the reason I
wanted to find you two. I wanted you to be with me when I made the
call.”

“
What call?”

He held his finger up, took his phone out and
said, “This one.”

He hit speed dial, tapped the speaker button
and set the phone down in the center of the table. A woman’s voice
answered on the third ring.

“
Hello?”

“
Lauri, hi. It’s
Carlos.”

“
Carlos?”

“
Yeah, babe. How you
doing?”

“
Carlos, why are you
calling me? I told you to lose my number.”

“
I will, but I wanted to
call you one last time.”

“
Why?”

“
To tell you I missed you.
You know you really broke my heart.” Carlos was having a hard time
holding in his laugh at that point. I think Lauri could hear it in
his voice.

“
Are you
crying?”

“
No, I’m not crying.
Lauri, tell me what happened? I thought we were good
together.”

“
We weren’t good together,
Carlos. We were never good together and we never will be good
together. I don’t want you calling me again.”

“
Okay, if that’s how you
want it.”

“
That’s how I want
it.”

“
I guess this is good bye
then.”

“
I guess it
is.”

“
All right, I’ll…. Oh I
almost forgot to tell you.”

“
Tell me what?”

“
I just came back from my
accountant’s. Seems I forgot to sign some papers.”

“
Of course you did. You’re
an idiot. What did you forget to sign?”

“
I forgot to sign the
papers authorizing the distribution of all my money to
charity.”

“
What?”

“
Yeah, and since you
dumped me, I decided not to sign them after all. I tore`em
up.”

“
You still have
money?”

“
Yeah, millions. Crazy,
huh?”

“
Carlos, you know I might
have been a bit hasty.”

“
No, Lauri, you weren’t
hasty. You were nasty.”

“
Maybe we
can––”

“
Good-bye,
Lauri.”

He hung up the phone and we all had a good
laugh over the call. Even Dominic laughed, which was good to see.
It made me realize what was truly important in life: being with
people you love and care for. Then it hit me, as much fun as I was
having, I needed to be somewhere else. I slid out of the booth and
began shaking hands.

“
Everyone, it’s been fun,
but I have to go.”

“
Where to?” Dominic
asked.

I thought about it, smiled lightly and said,
“There’s something I have to do.”

When I got home, I could see right away that
the lights were off inside, but through the window I detected the
flicker of candlelight tripping off the walls and ceiling. Lilith
was expecting me.

I walked through the door and found her
standing in the middle of the room, her long black hair cascading
around her shoulders, her flowing see-through nightgown skimming
the floor where candles burned in a circle around her just out of
its reach.

She smiled at me, and the candlelight dancing
off her face sparkled like diamonds in her eyes. She extended her
arms towards me, I thought to offer a hug, but then she spread them
wide, tipped her head back and rocked up on tiptoes. I watched her
arch her back and raise her hands above her head as if reaching for
the stars.

“
Mothers of the Coven,”
she said, “I bare to thee mine, as thy wish, if thou wilt bear
witness too.”

With that, the eight candles at her feet
flared to life, spewing flames six feet high and returning again to
their wicks in sputtering thumbnail flickers too nervous to
settle.

“
So say the Coven,” Lilith
remarked. She returned her footing flat to the floor, lowered her
arms and said, “You’ve come to do the ritual?”

“
I have.”

“
You come of your free
will and sound mind.”

“
Well, I had a little
beer, but––”

“
Tony.”

“
Yes. I come of free will
and sound mind.”

She gestured a nod toward the bathroom. “Take
a shower and meet me in the bedroom.”

“
Right.” I pointed down
the hall. “The bedroom.”

“
Now! Tony.”

I hurried past her, stripped my clothes off
and hopped into the shower. I remembered the Coven ceremony that I
went through awhile back with Lilith and Ursula, and how I had to
shower before that ritual as well. Lilith made me rinse off in
ice-cold water when I was done. At the time, she said it was to
close my pores to keep my skin pure and free of contaminates. But
after what happened between me and Ursula, I figured she was hoping
to numb the parts of my body that were likely to enjoy the ceremony
more than other parts of my body.

It didn’t work.

This time she made no mention of rinsing off
in cold water. Not surprising, considering the nature of the ritual
I was about to partake in. I supposed the hotter the water the
better.

After my shower, I made my way to the
bedroom, soaking wet and free of towels and clothing. The bedroom
door was closed, as was expected. The consummation ceremony is all
about symbolisms, perhaps more so than any other ritual known to
witchcraft. Even though I studied up on the peculiar rite, I didn’t
honestly expect I would need to know it. I was glad then that I
did.

As I mentioned, the door was shut. That
represented Lilith’s autonomy and independence. I knocked five
times to represent the four essentials elements, (Earth, Air, Fire,
and Water) and the fifth or quintessential element, Love.

Lilith opened the door, by witchcraft of
course, from across the room.

I entered, again adhering to symbolism; my
naked, or pure body stepping over the threshold representing
penetration. Lilith stepped from the shadows and stood before me,
naked, her hair now tied back off her shoulders and flowing down
her back. She nudged me into a circle on the floor drawn in witch
dust, a glittery mix of sand and magic dust also used in the rite
of passage ceremony. I looked down at the circle, not remembering
that element of the ritual in the logs I studied.

“
Nice touch,” I said,
after realizing she had improvised that detail.

“
Thanks.” She raised her
hand and snapped her fingers. A candle in the north corner of the
room lit up. I immediately snapped mine, lighting a candle in the
east corner. In quick succession, she snapped hers again, I snapped
mine again, lighting candles in the south, and west corners of the
room nearly at once.