Napier's Bones by Derryl Murphy Read Free Book Online

pocketing the keys to keep Jenna from suddenly getting cold
feet and booking while he still needed her and her wheels, but then just
sprinkled a few numbers over the hood to keep the thing from starting until he
came back. He headed for the pay phone, arms folded across his chest against
the cold.
    “I don’t think
you want to risk using your own change,” said Billy.
    Dom stood and
looked at the phone for a few seconds, thinking, then said, “Yeah. I don’t know
if I can cover up anything that’s been on my person when I haven’t been carrying
mojo.”
    “But you may
also not want to use numbers to make the call.”
    Dom rolled his
eyes. “Look, Billy, we were found last time because it was Jenna who made the
call. I’m a hell of a lot better at this than she is, especially right now.”
    In answer, Billy
leaned against the phone and reached behind, came out with change for the call.
“Old traveller’s trick,” he said. “Leave money behind when you can, take it
when you need it.”
    Dom blinked.
“Jesus. Can’t believe I’ve never seen that before.”
    “It doesn’t
always work, my friend. Especially when times are tough.”
    Dom dropped the
money into the slot, blew on his finger, then dialled the number. “It’s not
even five in the fucking morning,” said the voice on the other end; it had
taken eight rings before the phone had been picked up.
    “I know. Sorry
about the time, Sy.”
    There was some
shuffling and grunting. “Dom? That you?”
    “Is too. Sorry
to do this to you, man, but I’m in urgent need of some stuff. Are you able to
meet me down at the library?”
    “No can do, Dom.
Got a circular yesterday telling us that you’re a suspected book thief.”
    Dom closed his
eyes. “Sonofabitch. Sy, you know that isn’t true. Hell, I’m the guy who made it
pretty much impossible for anyone to walk out from your area with anything.”
    There was the
click of a lighter on the other end of the line, followed by a deep breath and
coughing. “Jesus,” said Sy. “I’ve gotta shake this nasty habit. Can’t even keep
myself from grabbing a puff at five a.m.”
    “Sy.”
    “I know, I know.
Dom, I trust you completely. But you know we have cameras everywhere, and the
memo said that you might be headed this way, so there are gonna be people
watching specifically for you.”
    “I can take care
of the cameras, Sy.”
    There was a
sharp laugh, followed by more coughing. “Listen, I don’t pretend to understand
everything there is to know about this special ability you have, but just the
fact that word has gotten out about you, right or wrong, tells me that you’ve
gone and gotten yourself good and fucked.”
    Dom took a
breath, unsure what to say. Sy remained quiet on the other end, except for the
distant sounds of sucking on his cigarette. Finally, Dom just shook his head.
“Don’t believe any of the shit you might end up hearing, okay?”
    “Oh, no doubt
about that, Dom. I hope you manage to get out of whatever scrape you’re in, and
I know that
I’ll
always trust you, but you’ll have to take it
somewhere where you don’t put me or my books in any danger.”
    “Right. Take it
easy.”
    “Done. You too.”
    Dom hung up and
leaned against the wall. “Well, it looks like this fucker is getting ahead of
us now.”
    “I don’t think
so,” replied Billy. “If he or she really was, then they would have responded to
our presence here in town with more than just a piece of paper. No, I think
that perhaps they managed to pick up some numerical spoor that you left behind,
maybe when you were unconscious, and is just sending out small packets of
search numbers wherever that scent leads. One of those packets found an old
scent of you here and created an alert that it had been programmed for.”
    Dom thought
about this for a moment. “Makes sense. Let’s go get breakfast and then hope
that my other stop in town remains unsullied.” He walked over to the booth to
pay for the gas, then