KISS THE WITCH Read Online Free PDF

I owed him that much. But to hear Carlos
tell me I do not give him enough credit made me think. Perhaps he
was right. Was it a consequence of my return to prime? Being young
again, filled once more with all the spit and vinegar that I had
lost as an older man; had it eroded my patience, my sense of
compassion, my civility? I looked at Carlos. His hands remained on
the wheel at the ten-to-two position, his eyes unflinching on the
road ahead.
    “ Have I changed?” I asked
him. “Am I that different now?”
    He shook his head, still unwilling to take
his eyes off the road. “No,” he said, flatly. “You’ve always been
an ass.”
    “ What?”
    He broke up laughing, which started me
laughing. I felt instantly better, and thoroughly expected him to
tell me at any moment he was kidding. He is such a goof like that
sometimes, his sense of humor oddly refreshing. Surprisingly
though, he did not do that. He simply kept his focus on his
driving, and as his laugh wound down to a dull smile, we settled
into an uncomfortable silence.
    A mile or two down the road, I broke that
silence. “Spinelli said that?”
    Still not looking at me, he said, “Dominic.
Yes, he said that. He told me to watch for it, that you are quick
to razz me for slipping up, but slow to compliment me when I do
well.”
    “ But you know I think the
world of you, Carlos.”
    “ That’s what I told
Dominic.”
    “ Yeah?”
    “ Yes, but the truth
remains. You suck at handing out compliments.”
    “ Wow, what can I say? I’m
sorry.”
    He shook his head. “Don’t be. You can’t help
who you are. I just thought you should know.”
    That shut me up for another six blocks. At
the turn off on Lexington, I asked Carlos if he would not mind
swinging by the house. “I want to run in and get that promise stone
for Spin…. I mean Dominic.”
    He looked at me and smiled. “Sure. No
problem.”
    As we pulled up to the house, I felt a
strange compulsion to invite Carlos in to say hi to the girls. I
thought he would decline, knowing Spinelli would have Howard Snow
back at the precinct ready for questioning. I was wrong. Perhaps he
knew I expected him to say no.
    “ I’d love to say hello to
the girls,” he said. The wise-ass smirk he gave me proved I was
right.
    “ We’ll have to make it
quick,” I told him, keying the lock in the door. “I want to make
sure we have time later to visit both the Williams house and the
site of Delaney’s wreck.”
    I pushed the door open and stumbled blindly
into a darkened room, illuminated only by the daylight pouring in
from behind me. Carlos followed unusually close with his hand on
the back of my shoulder. “Did you forget to pay the electric bill,”
he asked.
    “ No,” I answered, brushing
his paw off my shoulder. “Back up, will you?”
    “ Close the door!” Lilith
shouted, her voice rolling down the hall like distant
thunder.
    “ Lilith. What the hell are
you doing? Why are the lights out?”
    “ Forget it, Ursula.” Again
Lilith’s voice, only now she was walking it towards me. “Turn the
lights on. Killjoy is home.”
    The hall light came on just as Lilith
brushed passed me. She headed straight for the front windows and
zipped the blinds open.
    “ Lilith.” I followed her
around as she continued opening blinds and flooding the room with
sunlight. “What are you doing? Why are you and Ursula running
around in the dark?”
    She turned sharply on her heels to face me
and I nearly mowed her down trying to stop. “Once again, Tony, we
were doing something you should do more often yourself, but
don’t.”
    “ Practicing
witchcraft?”
    She batted her eyes at me, clearly trying to
be cute. All I could see, though, was blatant mockery. Ursula
emerged from the hallway carrying what looked like a dagger, its
blade, long, narrow and waved like a crumpled fender. It took me
for a start; I will tell you that much. It had a hilt carved of
bone, notched for each finger and topped with a pommel of