Page 53 of Speak of the Devil
“Thanks for coming by,” Robert said as he rose from behind the desk. He looked a little less casual than he had the last time they’d met, today wearing a black dress shirt and gray dress pants.
She went over to him and smiled. “It’s no problem. What did you want to show me?”
“One of my colleagues found something on the security cameras at Treasure Island,” Robert replied. “I thought you might want to take a look.”
“Sure,” she said, hoping she didn’t sound too reluctant. While she knew the chances of him or one of his associates finding anything truly incriminating were fairly low, she knew she also had to understand that she was in uncharted territory now…and all bets were off.
Robert had one of those insanely expensive Mac Pros and a matching cinema display, a setup she knew must have cost him upwards of three or four grand…mostly because she’d thought about getting one for herself and had decided she couldn’t really justify the expenditure no matter how much she wanted a shiny new toy.
Now he shifted the display just enough so it was facing more toward her. “One of the security cameras — the one near the men’s restrooms — picked this up. At first, I thought it must be some kind of degradation of the signal, a sort of glitch. But now I’m not sure, so I thought I should get your expert opinion.”
She wanted to argue that she wasn’t an expert at analyzing security footage and then decided to keep silent. Better to see what Robert thought he had found before she started getting too defensive.
He clicked the wireless mouse, and the screensaver that had displayed a series of desert scenes abruptly flicked off, instead showing what looked like every single hallway leading to the casino bathrooms that she’d ever seen. Yes, the pattern of the carpet and the color on the walls and the light fixtures might change, but they all felt slightly cramped and in person tended to smell of desperation.
The door to the men’s restroom opened, and a dark-haired man who looked like he might be around thirty, wearing jeans and a henley-style shirt, stepped out. He was very good-looking, but Delia doubted that was why Robert wanted her to see this footage.
No, it was the way that handsome face slipped for a split-second, instead showing the features of a much older Hispanic man, before the model-pretty visage returned.
“I…don’t understand,” she said, knowing she sounded a little shaken…although probably not for the reason Robert Hendricks might believe.
Neither of those faces had belonged to Caleb Lockwood, but she knew that it had to be him. She’d never watched him shift, and yet, who else could it be?
Another demon,she thought, but for some reason, that didn’t feel right. Caleb was the one who’d gone around changing his appearance so he could gamble and win money all over town without anyone being able to find a connection among all those winners, so it only made sense that it would be his slip-up that the security cameras caught.
Why it had happened, she didn’t know, but even with all his powers, she doubted he was infallible. Most likely, he hadn’t realized there were security cameras trained on him in that moment, and since the hallway had been otherwise empty, he probably wouldn’t have thought a little glitch like that was a big deal.
“So,” she said, glad her voice sounded steady enough, “you think that person is a demon?”
“Yes,” Robert replied. He didn’t seem too shaken by what he’d just shown here, but she guessed he’d already watched the footage multiple times and had had enough time to come to terms with its implications. “We’re fairly certain it’s the same one who’s been going around town and helping himself to some unearned winnings. Now that we know what he looks like, it’ll be easier to keep an eye out for him.”
Unfortunately for Robert Hendricks and his associates, the face they’d caught on camera wasn’t Caleb’s real one. Delia decided it was better to keep quiet about that particular point, though. She’d already decided that if she was forced to pick sides, she would be on Caleb’s…as unlikely as that scenario might have felt to her only a few days ago.
“I can see that,” she said, her tone neutral. “And if you know who to look for, I’m not sure you need my services anymore.”
Robert raised an eyebrow. “You thought I had you come all the way over here just so I could tell you that you were off the case?”
She shrugged. “Well, and to show me the footage, I suppose. But since all of the casinos have security personnel who can be given a screenshot of the guy, I don’t think my ghost-sleuthing abilities — or whatever you want to call them — are what you need right now.”
“Actually, they’re exactly what we need,” he countered. “Just because we caught a glimpse of the man doesn’t mean that he won’t keep changing his appearance whenever he wants to visit a new casino and bilk us out of more money. Our security guards obviously wouldn’t be able to detect when this demon shapeshifts…but you could.”
“I don’t know about that,” Delia said. “I’ve wandered around a number of casinos over the past week and never felt anything except the very slightest whiff that could have been something else entirely. Like I told you on the phone yesterday, I don’t think my talents — or whatever you want to call them — are what’s needed here.”
Robert Hendricks didn’t reply at first, only stood behind his desk and watched her with eyes that had narrowed ever so slightly. “I respectfully disagree. And you already told me that you’d be willing to keep working on this for another week.”
Yes, she had…a promise she now wished she’d never made. But because she couldn’t go back in time and tell her past self to just end it and walk away, there wasn’t much she could do about that now.
“I did,” she said steadily. “And I’ll keep trying. I just don’t want to exaggerate what I’m able to accomplish.”
“You haven’t exaggerated,” he replied. “If anything, you’ve underplayed your abilities. It’s unclear to us whether this demon has an unlimited repertoire of borrowed faces or whether hehas a set number that he likes to cycle through. If it’s the latter case, then seeing these two appearances might help you spot him when you’re out in a casino.”
Maybe that would have been helpful…if she didn’t already know exactly who Caleb was and exactly what he looked like.
“Yes, it might,” she said. At this point, since she was still stuck spying for Robert Hendricks and his cohorts, she figured she’d just go along with whatever he said and then get the hell out of there as quickly as she could. “And it’s definitely something I’ll keep in mind. Was there anything else?”
That last question might have bordered on rude. Then again, this wasn’t a social call. They were handling a piece of business, and since it seemed as if he’d passed the relevant information on to her, she didn’t see the point in lingering.
Especially since she knew she needed to let Caleb know about this latest development.
