“Either his office or to meet his friends…are his friends aliens?” Gabby doesn’t realize how lucky she is not to have dated any of them.
“Without seeing them, it will be impossible to tell.”
“Can you make yourself look like him?”
He tilts his head. “What do you propose?”
“That we go to the restaurant, where he is supposed to be meeting them tonight, and find out.”
“Acceptable, as we are already following Doug.”
“So therewassomeone else here.”
“Shadow… We are the same being.”
“Thistle.” I say slowly. I’m not pronouncing it the same as him—or should that be them?—but it’s as close as I can get.
“Yes.”
“And you can see Doug, even though you are standing here talking to me.”
“We are also following Doug. It is hard for beings with only one body to understand how we function.”
Yeah, no shit. Because Thistle has a shadow, two because of the lights in the apartment. I point at the ground. “So they are different from what you call Shadow?”
He laughs. “Shadow is offended. We are Light and Shadow, because they are the things we can manipulate.” He doesn’t seem to move, and yet he does, morphing into Doug in a few seconds.
It’s super creepy because he could appear to be anyone, while the other half of him can hide in the darkness.
Thistle holds out his arm. “You said we had dinner. Shall we go?”
“He wouldn’t ask.” And he wouldn’t offer his arm either, but I accept Thistle’s. Beneath my hand he is solid, not made of light, which is what I was expecting.
A part of me is sure that I am asleep or dead or something. But the rest of me is rather too accepting. This explains a lot about Doug, though not what he saw in me. Did he think I was gullible? I don’t think I am.
Or did he like the idea of having a pet cop?
“Do you have a vehicle?”
“Doug does. I’m not allowed to drive it.” But Doug isn’t here now. My lips curve. “Screw that. I’ll drive us. I’m assuming you can’t?”
“We didn’t have the time to learn.”
Of course Thistle didn’t. “The keys are going to be in his suit. If you wouldn’t mind…”
I don’t want to touch that sticky mess. I put on shoes and grab my handbag. The gun I leave because it didn’t hurt Doug anyway and I don’t want to be talking about shooting aliens if other officers show up.
Thistle rummages through the clothing and shed skin and pulls out the car keys. Everything looks gunky, so I toss him a tea towel to wipe his hands and the key on. “Ready?”
“We believe so. If he is not attempting to meet with other aliens but humans, we will proceed to his office.”
I nod. “Does he have a spaceship?”
“He does.”
“Where is it parked? Why has no one seen it and reported it?”
Thistle, with Doug’s face, gives me a small smile. “It is parked on top the building next door.”
