…the ghost searches the decapitated goblin.
It seemed best not to say that part aloud, so I started over. “Let’s just talk. What were you saying earlier about the crew and the box from the pit? Did the men get it open?”
Bowman blinked at me again, but this time there was something behind his eyes. Confusion, maybe, which implied thought. He was coming around. Hehadto be.
“Did your men get the box open, Mike?”
“No.” He frowned, eyes narrowing as he thought back. “No. They couldn’t get it open. There were too many of them climbing on it. And it was still strapped to the crane.”
Behind him, Allen knelt by the larger piece of Berg, inspecting the goblin by sight for possession of a handcuff key. Orthus’s eyes followed him, flashing red when the light struck them just right. As I watched, his front right paw twitched. Then it twitched again. He was healing—not as quickly as Devich had mended his wounds, but a hell of a lot faster than I would have.
“The men didn’t get into the box. Good. So, what happened to it?” I leaned down to catch Bowman’s gaze again as it began to wander. “How did you end the riot? What did you do with the box?”
Mike Bowman was a pretty big man. Over six feet tall, and noticeably bulky, even under several layers of winter clothing. Yet when he looked at me, fear shined in his eyes like unshed tears. I couldn’t tell whether he was more afraid of what he’d just seen and done, or of whatever had happened in the same spot two days earlier. Or of the fact that he was about to admit to his fear in the first place.
He sighed and closed his eyes briefly. When he opened them again, his expression held a little less fear and a little more awareness. And quite a bit of resignation. He was about to ‘fess up.
“Itwasa riot, of sorts. The men went crazy the minute they saw that damned box. Before that, really. I had to hold several of them back from the edge while we were pulling it up. They were leaning so far over I was afraid they were going to fall in.”
Behind him, Allen had given up on the goblin and was now searching the ground around the body, trying unsuccessfully to run his fingers through clumps of snow. Orthus had lifted his head and was actively watching the search. He could obviously see the wraith, and for some reason, I didn’t find that surprising. Of coursea hellhound could see dead people. That stood to reason. The real mystery lay in the fact that I could too.
Was that because, technically, I was also dead?
Bowman was still talking, sounding more coherent by the minute. I nodded, encouraging him to continue.
“I held the men back, but not to keep them safe. Not even to protect Troy Devich’s investment. I held them back because I wanted to be the first to touch the box. The one to open it.” His gaze fell to my feet, then rose to my face again in jerky, embarrassed movements. “It sounds stupid, I know, but that’s how it was. At the time, it made perfect sense. We all wanted to open it.”
“So, you held them back?” I asked, choosing to emphasize what he’d done right, instead of the fact that he’d done it for the wrong reason. I was unqualified to throw stones at that particular glass house.
“A few of them, yeah. But several others got by me. When the box rose out of the hole, they jumped on it. Four or five at once, while it was still in the air. They hung over the pit, kicking their legs, trying to gain purchase with their feet. It’s a miracle no one fell in.”
At his back, Allen stood and shook his head at me. Either Berg didn’t have the key, or Allen’s incorporeal state had kept him from finding it. Which was just fucking wonderful.
I rolled my head on my shoulders, unable to get comfortable with my hands cuffed at my back. “How did you get them down?” I asked Bowman, forcing my attention back to him before he realized that his information was no longer the number one thing on my mind.
“I didn’t. There was one guy on the crew, this deep-sea diver we brought in last year, when the pit was still under water. He helped barricade those side tunnels, and after they pumped out most of the water, we kept him around in case anything went wrong, and we needed him again. But mostly he just hung around talking to everyone, pitching in where he was needed. Not a bad guy.”
I nodded, and he continued. “Anyway, the diver seemed to have his head screwed on better than the rest of us. He tried to get everyone to calm down, but the men just kept clamoring for that box. Finally, the diver climbed into the crane’s control booth. He lifted the box back into the air by about six feet, people still hanging all over it. A few of them fell off, and one smacked his head on the concrete around the pit. But there were still three workers on top of it when he swung the whole thing up over the control platform.”
“A diver?” I was sure I’d heard wrong, but Bowman nodded. “How would a diver know how to work the crane?”
“Beats the hell outta me, but I’m glad he did.”
Yeah, me too.
James Allen stood at Bowman’s back, but the foreman was completely unaware of his presence. He shrugged solid-looking shoulders at me and frowned apologetically. “Miss Walker, I think the key went over the edge with that last fella.”
I blinked at him, at once surprised by his statement and utterly convinced that it was true.Of coursethe key was with Hagen. They werehiscuffs.
“You okay?” Bowman frowned at me. He’d been nearly catatonic five minutes earlier, and now he was worried about me.
WasI okay?
I’d been fine while I was fighting. My increased heart rate had kept me surprisingly warm as I’d fought three goblins in a foot of snow, and there hadn’t been time to think about how bruised I’d be later. But now that the bad guys were dead and Orthus was evidently recovering, my right side throbbed viciously from the kick I’d taken to the ribs, and the back of my skull felt like it had more dings and dents than Rusty’s rear fenders. Also, I was freezing my leather-clad ass off. All of which was no-doubt more than Bowman wanted to know.
“I’m fine, all things considered. I need you to get me out of these, though.” Clenching my jaw to stop my teeth from chattering, I twisted to show him that my hands were cuffed together behind my back, in case he hadn’t already noticed my latest dilemma.
He frowned deeper. “Where’s the key?”
