Page 39 of Fixer
I was relieved when Wade huffed a small laugh and settled, seeming less tense.“I could never do your job.”
“Well, remember when you tried to teach me to whittle?My rabbit lost its ears and turned into a mouse.”
“I’d forgotten.”When I glanced over, Wade had a faraway look in his eyes.“I guess, after Shawn, I pushed all the good memories of you down in a box where they couldn’t hurt me.”
“I’m sorry.”I reached across and squeezed his knee.
“Well, I can’t complain about how it worked out.”
“It’s been a lonely seven years for you, though.”
“Yeah.It was.”
“That’s the place.”I pointed.
Wade sat straighter.“We’re meeting in a house?”
“Yep.Rosswurn told his mistress he’d give her one of these extra cheap.”We’d reached a small under-construction development in a modest neighborhood.Six houses around a cul-de-sac, that Rosswurn had bought for a steal when the developer got overstretched and went under.The buildings were a month or two from completion, just finishing work still left inside.
I drove well past the dead end road, then parked the car on a side street.“Get the case from the back.And here— cotton gloves.Put them on before we go inside the house.”I lifted my duffel bag out of the trunk while Wade grabbed the slide projector off the back seat.Glancing at my watch, I saw we had thirty minutes, as long as Rosswurn didn’t arrive early.I hadn’t seen any cars near the development, and he didn’t seem like a “lie in wait” kind of guy, but I kept eyes, ears, and nose peeled as we approached along the sidewalk.
I could smell traces of the recently departed workmen, of coffee and fresh paint and sawdust and weed.Bad weed— someone was getting ripped off.After heading up the front steps like we belonged there, I slipped on my gloves, picked the lock, and let us inside.
The living room sat off to the right.I headed in there and set down my bag, then used a small, plug-in light to make sure we had power.I’d tested the outside outlet by the back door last night, but one never knew when the builders might’ve shut the electricity down for interior work.
All was good, so I covered the windows with my blackout tarps.Workmen had left a suitable cardboard carton to support the slide projector, a bonus since I’d planned to just put it on the floor.I set up my show-and-tell in the kitchen with an extension cord, and after a bit of fiddling, aimed the beam through the doorway to project on the fresh white living room wall.My test slide came into crisp focus, a black “1” on a white background.I’d brought a bedsheet in case I needed to create a screen, but the drywaller had given me a lovely flat surface.
“Okay,” I told Wade.“This is your job.This is slide 1.The others have a number in the corner and the carousel is preloaded.All you have to do is click through the numbers when I call for them.Here’s the forward and back buttons.”
“I can do that.”Wade knelt beside the projector and clicked through, grunting once at the first image of the unlovely Harvey Rosswurn naked, ending back on slide 1.“Got it.”
“I’m going to run the show from the dining room.I’ll use a kid’s voice changer.Here’s yours.”I handed him a red plastic mini-bullhorn.Elaborate vocoders existed, but these did the job when dealing with humans who couldn’t separate the sounds.“If you want to say something, do it like this.”I raised my blue bullhorn to my lips and pressed the button.“You will sound like a robot.”The cheap toy emitted a metallic-robot version of my words, losing a bit of clarity but not the meaning.
“Oh, fun.”Wade spoke into his.“Mr.Spock wants you.”
I laughed.“I would totally do Mr.Spock, just so you know.He’s cool.Or I would’ve before I found you.”
Wade twisted to peer up at me.“And now?”
Any temptation to make a joke was lost in the intensity of his gaze.“You’re the only one I want in my bed.Or anywhere else.”
“Me too,” he said.
Warmth flowed through me like a flood of melted chocolate, sweet and satisfying.I wanted to kiss Wade again, touch him, but I’d have to wait, so I said, “You ever think how lucky it is that we werewolves aren’t poisoned by chocolate like one-form canines are?”
Wade blinked.“That was kind of a leap of topic.”
You’re better than chocolate.“I’ll buy you some of the good stuff when we’re done.”
“We’ve never bought each other presents.”
“Yeah.I plan to change that.”The sound of an approaching car made me freeze, but the vehicle drove around the circle and back out, fading into the background traffic.Still, the interruption emphasized that this wasn’t the time and place for flirting.“For now, leave the slide on number one and hunker out of sight.It’ll be good if you chime in with a word or two, now and then, once we get started.I want Rosswurn to know he’s outnumbered and can’t get out of this by force.”
“Got it.”
“I’m going to control the lights, so the projector’s the only source.If you stay behind it, you’re hard to make out.”I disconnected the little lamp and headed to the entry, slapping a piece of duct tape over each light switch along the way, cursing under my breath at handling tape with cotton gloves.Then I waited, standing by the door.I wanted it ajar, but not until Rosswurn was near.Cops on patrol might check out an open door in an unoccupied building.
“You think he’ll come?”Wade asked after a couple of silent minutes.
