"Who are you?" she asked, staring at the ruined apartment in shock.
"I could ask the same of you."
"My name’s Doris. I’m Harry’s girlfriend."
"Then I’m sorry for your loss."
"What are you talking about? Where’s Harry?"
"My name is Malcolm Goodwill. Harry might have mentioned me. I’m his employer. Or was, to be precise."
"Why do you keep talking like that?" Doris suddenly put a hand over her mouth. "Has something happened to Harry?"
"He’s dead. I’d imagine if it were not already in the papers, it will be soon. He was cut up last night. Had more holes in him than a hunk of Swiss cheese."
"Oh my god." Doris looked as if she was about to cry but Goodwill tossed her onto the couch and her head seemed to clear. She looked around at the apartment, noticing how it had been rifled through. "What’s going on here?" she asked.
"Your boyfriend stole something from me. Eight pages from a very old book. I want them back. Do you know anything about them?"
"Harry wasn’t much for reading," Doris said, shaking he head. "I don’t know anything about… Oh." A strange expression passed over the girl’s face and Goodwill knew that she had just remembered something.
"Tell me!" he demanded, raising a hand as if to strike her.
Doris flinched and began to speak rapidly. "He said something about having seen somethin’ that he shouldn’t have. Said that he was gonna do somethin’ about it! That it was time to be a man. But he didn’t tell me any details! I swear it!"
"But you knew enough to know it had to do with my papers."
"Yeah. When he was telling me about it, I saw some old papers on his table. He’d bought a big envelope to put them in."
Goodwill narrowed his eyes. "Was he going to mail them to someone?"
"I don’t know. Honest!"
Goodwill turned away, seething internally. Had he misjudged Harry? Had the man not been so stupid as to hold onto the papers himself? He glanced back at Doris, catching her as she stared longingly at the door. She was going to either make a break for it or begin screaming soon. "Sazar," he said and Doris looked at him in confusion. "Feed."
The spectral form of a nude woman became visible at his side. Even Doris, as heterosexual as any girl could be, was forced to silently acknowledge the loveliness of Sazar’s form. But then Doris let her eyes travel up the long neck and settle on the horrific visage that was Sazar’s face. A scream died in her throat and Doris drew back as Sazar lunged for her.
Goodwill watched for a moment or two before looking out the window. The sounds of Sazar lapping at the girl’s spilling blood were nauseating.
Down below, he saw a black sedan pull to a halt in front of the building and two men emerge. One of them was very familiar to Goodwill, as he was to almost any citizen of Sovereign: Lazarus Gray, whose grim features were regularly depicted in newspaper photographs. As leader of Assistance Unlimited, Gray was a constant thorn in the side of the underworld.
Goodwill waited until Gray and Morgan had entered the building and then he yanked opened the window. The fire escape lay below and he nimbly swung his legs down onto it. The metal structure was slick from the morning rain but Goodwill held his balance well. Looking back into Harry’s apartment, he said, "Sazar, there’s two men coming up. When they get here, please take care of them and then come back to the house. Understood?"
Sazar looked up at him and grinned. Blood dripped from her chin in copious amounts and she allowed one hand to paw at the dead girl’s breast. Feeding always stirred her passions to dangerous levels. "I’ll devour their hearts," she swore.
Goodwill said nothing, descending the fire escape in silence. The arrival of Gray might be nothing more than coincidence but he didn’t really believe in chance. If Gray was here… and Harry had planned to send the pages to someone… then it all added together that he might have sent them to Assistance Unlimited. Everybody knew the group was housed on Robeson Avenue and Goodwill suddenly realized that if Gray were here, then the place might be abandoned for the moment.
Grinning, Goodwill moved to his car and slid behind the wheel. Perhaps, he mused, things might work out after all.
"So tell me again how you know it was Harry who sent us the papers?"
Lazarus Gray took the steps two at a time, forcing Morgan to hurry in his attempt to keep up. Morgan was a slender and fairly athletic man but he was in his forties and had enjoyed life to the fullest. His words were punctuated by gasps between nearly every word.
"I took the liberty of calling Sovereign Office Supply. Envelopes of that size aren’t particularly common. They remembered a man coming in a few days ago, wanting to purchase a single envelope. Most of the time, buyers purchase them in packs of 5-10. The man’s name was Harry Nance. The manager of Sovereign Office Supply knew him because Nance’s girlfriend worked at the diner next door."
"And now we’re gonna see if we can get him to talk?"
"I’m afraid it won’t be that easy." Gray reached into one of his pants pockets and pulled out the morning paper, which was rolled up. "I grabbed this on the way out of the office. Notice anything on the front page?"
Morgan slowed to a stop, grateful to have the opportunity to catch his breath. He saw only a few items of interest: The Monster, one of the leaders in the Sovereign underworld scene, was still Public Enemy Number One according to the police chief and an unidentified man was found hacked to death in the early hours of the morning. "I don’t get it," he admitted at last.
"I’m fairly certain that the dead man is Harry Nance." Morgan looked at his employer expectantly and Gray continued, "The murder took place down the block from a mail box. The postal stamp on the envelope shows that it was picked up at mail box # 5, which coincides with that street. I reason that he was murdered immediately after placing the envelope in the mail chute."
The two men resumed their trek upstairs, not taking much interest in the dingy surroundings. Harry had lived in one of the more squalid areas of town and the building stank of mildew and rat droppings. It was a far cry from the relative opulence of the Assistance Unlimited headquarters and reminded Morgan that it wasn’t so long ago that he was much like Harry Nance: a man down on his luck with no obvious prospects. A chance encounter with Lazarus Gray had caused him to reevaluate his position in life and he’d soon traded a life of crime for one of decency and hard work.
Gray stopped outside Harry Nance’s apartment, a strange look on his face. He held up a hand, indicating that he wanted silence from Morgan. He pointed to the dusty floor, where nearly a dozen footprints could be seen. One set, the most recent from the looks of them, belonged to a woman in heels.
Lazarus knelt in front of the keyhole and placed his eye up close. At first all he could see was a room in ruins, with papers and cushions overturned. But then he saw a red pool on the floor, along with the legs belonging to Doris. He stood up quickly and took a step back. He then threw his shoulder against the door, which popped open with a crash. Morgan had drawn his pistol as soon as he’d sensed Gray’s intentions and he followed his employer into the apartment, scanning for any signs of threat. He was the first to lay eyes upon Sazar. The demon was stepping toward him from his left, her arms outstretched. Her nude body immediately caught his gaze and held it but his eyes inevitably traveled up and his breath seized in his chest.