in the way Mrs. Hendricks thought. Or perhaps, some latent magic warned her that the memento was not benign. That left Teag and me with a problem item to deal with, and no idea what to do about it.
And I had a nagging suspicion that whatever had come after Tad’s ghost would be back.
WE CLOSED THE store right at five, and even if Sorren was back in town, it wasn’t dark enough for him to be out and about yet, so Teag invited me to join him and Anthony at Jocko’s Pizzeria, our favorite place to grab a couple of slices and a cold beer.
Jocko’s is run by Giacomo Rossi, ‘Jack’ to his friends. Jack gave us a wave and a hearty “hello” from behind the counter. Just walking into Jocko’s makes me feel good. It always smells of fresh herbs, ripe tomatoes, warm cheese, and freshly-baked crusts.
“You want the usual?” Jack called. Teag shot him a thumbs-up and we went to our favorite booth in the back. Teag and I ate at Jocko’s at least once a week.
One of the things that makes Charleston such a foodie town is the fact that a large number of our restaurants aren’t chains. They’re one-of-a-kind places you can only visit here in the Holy City. We love good food almost as much as we love history and sweet tea, which is saying a lot.
The best restaurants have a history of their own that makes them special. In this case, Jocko’s had a mural on the wall that told the Rossi family history, and picked up with the turning point in Jack’s life that brought him to Charleston. Jack had been a stock trader in the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York back on September 11, 2001, and when he survived the attack, he decided that life was too short to spend behind a desk. So he quit his job, moved his family to Charleston and opened up Jocko’s using some of his mother’s recipes. The rest, as they say, is history.
We had just ordered drinks when Anthony joined us. Anthony Benton was the blond-haired, blue-eyed epitome of a Battery Row favorite son, and a partner in the family law firm. He and Teag were a long-time couple, and although Anthony didn’t know everything about our work with the Alliance, he knew enough to worry about both of us.
“Did I miss much?” he asked, slipping into the booth beside Teag and giving him a quick peck on the cheek. The waiter brought pale ale for Teag, a red wine for me, and a Chardonnay for Anthony.
“We’ve got a rampaging evil spirit that’s attacking ghosts,” Teag replied matter-of-factly. Anthony looked from Teag to me and back again.
“Seriously?”
I nodded drolly. “Yeah. All in a day’s work. How about you?”
Anthony took a sip of his wine. “Honestly, I’d trade you. This big case is running me ragged. And it’s tough getting anything done at City Hall right now, since the police are going crazy trying to track down two disappearances in as many days.” Anthony is a lawyer, and that means he talks to a lot of people in law enforcement. While he’s bound by confidentiality, in some situations, when he can, he passes along information that might help with what we do.
“Disappearances?” I keep an eye on the headlines and I’m pretty well connected to the grapevine. Teag’s Google-fu is strong, so between the two of us, we usually know what’s going on in town, and then some. This was new.
Anthony looked around, assured himself no one was close enough to overhear, and dropped his voice. “Yeah. They’ve kept it out of the news, but given the weird stuff you two deal with, I figured I should mention it. Two people walked down perfectly normal staircases and never reached the bottom.”
That was interesting. “Do the people have anything in common?” I asked.
Anthony hesitated. “Age, gender, location – all different. Other people walked up and down those stairs without a problem, before and after the disappearances.”
“When you say ‘disappeared’ –” Teag began.
Anthony met his gaze. “I mean up and vanished. Witnesses said they saw the victims start down the stairs and then just disappear before they reached the bottom.”
It had taken Anthony a while to warm up to the idea that Teag and I dealt with real magic. Teag believes that the ‘intuition’ Anthony uses so successfully in the courtroom is his own magic skill, but so far, he hasn’t convinced Anthony