Monster - A. Lee Martinez [61]
“I really don’t know. Doesn’t your spider-sense tell you anything?”
“I’m out of my depth,” admitted Chester. “I got nothing.”
“This is probably all just a coincidence,” said Monster, though even he was beginning to doubt that. He only told himself that because he was trying to stay out of this mess, whatever it was.
“You don’t think they’d hurt her, do you?”
“How should I know?”
Monster sat and drummed his fingers on the desk.
“Okay, let’s assume there is something going on,” he said. “It doesn’t really have anything to do with me anymore.”
“This isn’t just about you.”
Monster sighed. “Okay. Point taken. But I can’t really do anything about Judy. I’m not a cop or anything.”
The door opened and Detective York entered the room. He slid a form in front of Monster and Chester. “Sign these.”
Before putting his signature on his, Monster read it just to be sure it wasn’t a confession.
“You’re free to go, Mr. Dionysus,” said York. “I’m afraid they impounded your… car.”
Monster forced a smile. “Of course.”
“And, Mr. Dionysus”—York paused very deliberately as he glanced over the statement with a frown—“please don’t leave town. We might have further… questions.”
Monster’s smile dropped. “Yes, sir.”
He walked very briskly out of the police station with Chester perched on his shoulder. He found a bus stop bench and sat there, staring at his phone doll, trying to decide if he should call Liz or a cab.
He brushed away the blackened flakes, pieces of Chester’s scorched body, clinging to his shirt.
“Excuse me,” said a vaguely familiar voice. “Are you Monster?”
He glanced up at Greta. “No, I think you’ve gotten me confused with someone else.”
“Another golden man?” she asked.
“There are more of us out there than most people realize.”
A confused look crossed her face. The origami parrot on his shoulder should’ve been a dead giveaway, but it wasn’t hard to throw light cognizants.
“I’m sorry to bother you, sir,” she said softly.
“No problem. Happens all the time.”
She walked away.
“That’s not right,” said Chester.
“I don’t pay you to be my conscience, Jiminy,” said Monster.
“Just consider it a free service. This can’t be easy on her. She knows something has happened to her sister, but she doesn’t really get it. You know how the Reds are. They don’t bother explaining things to incogs. They just give them a plausible cover story and send them on their way.”
“Yeah, I know, but I don’t see how it’s my problem.”
“That kind of self-serving attitude is at least partially responsible for getting you into trouble. Who knows? If you’d handled Judy with more delicacy…”
“Karma, huh.”
“Karma is just a philosophical construct, a rather simplistic punishment/reward theory that satisfies your egocentric perception of your universe.”
“I was just about to say that.”
“You can dismiss my observation with levity—”
“I just did.”
“—or you can show some basic consideration and human compassion. Notice I join the terms human and compassion without irony, which isn’t always easy.”
Greta stood on the corner, waiting for the crosswalk light to change. Monster told himself the best thing he could do was stay away from her, allowing her to settle back into her comfortable obliviousness, but that wasn’t really an option. Just like her sister, Greta was obviously a light cognizant. If she’d been a full incog, then she’d be able to rationalize the magic she couldn’t accept. And if she’d been a cog, she could’ve dealt with it at face value. But, being light cog, she was stuck in a rough middle ground.
“Oh, hell.”
Monster reluctantly ran after her. He reached her just before the light changed.
“I know your sister. I was there when they took her, and I guess I kind of blew up your house.”
“My house,” she said distantly. “Oh my God, my house.”
“Now, that really wasn’t my fault…”
Greta looked through her purse. “I need to call my husband and daughter, let them know about the, uh, the thing.”
“Exploding hydra,” said Monster.
She paused and tried to absorb the idea.
“Crap. I don’t have my cell.”
“Here. You can use mine.” Monster