The Coming | The House of Voices #2

Twenty Eight - Hiding

Hiding

When I went downstairs, I found Spade sneaking into the house through the kitchen door. It was a bit of a sight, really, watching a man of his height trying to tip-toe into the kitchen.

“Hey, you—” I started to greet him, but he cut me off with a sharp “shh” and a finger to his lips. Eyes wide at his sharp greeting, I walked over to the kitchen counter and started work on Parish’s pancakes while Spade quietly walked over to the kitchen entrance and peeped into the hallway. If I listened close enough, I could hear Ace arguing with someone in the foyer.

“Doyle’s here again,” Spade muttered darkly under his breath.

“Doyle?” I whispered, pouring batter into the hot pan. “As in the creepy lawyer that Ace firmly believes is D.C’s biggest assface?”

Spade chuckled. “The one and only,” he said.

“Why are you letting Ace deal with him by herself?” I asked, flipping a pancake. “He’s such a butt to her.”

“Believe me, I would love nothing more than to go in there and kick him out of the shop for her,” he leaned against the wall, angled towards the hallway so that he could keep an ear out for trouble. “But Gomez forbade me from speaking to the lunatic before he had a chance to do it himself. Doyle is a sleaze, but Ace can handle him. I’ll intervene if things start to get out of hand.”

I nodded, allowing. It was cool to see how much faith Spade had in Ace and her ability to take care of herself. He was clearly her superior – the way she obeyed his orders yesterday, like she was so used to him taking charge, proved it – and to see him put aside concern for his younger colleague and friend, and understand that she was capable of doing her job without his supervision was pretty great. I respected him for that.

“Are you hungry?”

“Hmm?” He turned to look at me over his shoulder. “Oh, no thank you. I ate at home before class.”

“Okay, then.” I turned back to my pancakes.

I jumped at the sound of a door slamming shut in the foyer. When I turned around, Spade had a dark, grumpy look on his face. I guessed he must have heard what happened. Ace stomped into the kitchen immediately after, an unhappy scowl plastered on her face. “I don’t care how much business Doyle and his pals give the shop,” She told Spade, crossing her arms over her chest defensively. “If that scumbag peaks down my shirt one more time, I will kick him in the nuts.”

“I’d gladly hold him down for you,” Spade said, pushing off the wall and straightening up. “If it does come to that and Gomez asks, tell him that I sternly disapproved, please.”

She smiled widely. While Spade’s smile was big and goofy, Ace’s was lopsided, with one side of her mouth lifting higher than the other. “Thanks,” Ace said, still smiling. “But I think it’ll be more fun without him being held back by someone. What does he want with you anyway?”

Spade sighed, rubbing his jaw. “I’m not at liberty to say,” he told her. “This is really something that is between Doyle and Gomez. I just happened to  walk into his office at the wrong moment.”

“The one time you don’t knock. Well, I hope he got the message this time and we stay away until Gomez gets back. He is really starting to piss me off with all these unexpected visits,” she said, shaking her head. To me she said, “Is Parish up?”

“Yeah,” I put the last pancake on a plate, which I put on the table. “Woke up on his own just as I finished my call.”

“Awesome. How’s the leg, do you know?”

“He said it was a little stiff, but that’s about it.”

“I think you might have used a tad too much intent when administrating that sleeping spell, Ace. He’s been out for almost twenty four hours,” Spade told her, stretching his neck from side to side in a way that made me jealous. I couldn’t even move mine.

“I know,” Ace agreed. “But I couldn’t help it. You saw the state of that leg. I didn’t want to risk him waking up before the salve started working.”

“I understand,” He said, moving to put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “I just thought it imperative that I warn you to be careful in the future. Using too much power unnecessarily makes you tired much faster, take it easy next time.”

“Yes Sensei,” she bowed her head in mock respect.

Spade narrowed his eyes at her. “Get back to work, Harley.”

She stuck her tongue out at him before turning on her heels and returning to the front of the shop. Shaking his head at her, Spade turned to leave too. “I’m going to ransack Gomez’s office again,” he told me. “I found a few of his old client journals last night, but none of them were from the year we’re looking for. Hopeful I’ll have better luck today.”

And then he left, leaving me alone in the kitchen. I sat down at the table just as Tubman wandered into the house from the yard and, catching the scent of the warm food, bounded up the table and leapt up onto it.

“No, no, Tubman,” I scolded the cat gently, picking her up and putting her on my lap, away from Parish’s breakfast. “That’s not for you,” I told her. She purred loudly as I scratched behind her ears and, every time I stopped, swatted my hand so that I’d continue again.

I was still petting her when Parish walked in, his hair damp and bringing the scent of soap and cinnamon with him. He flashed me a slow smile right before he noticed the plate of pancakes waiting for him at the table.

“Nice!” He said, sitting down and grabbing a fork and knife. Like a kid on Christmas morning, he looked at me and asked, “Do we have any syrup?”