PART FIVE
Friday ~ 5:57 PM
“So, what do you think?” Adele asked.
She and Angel had jumped right into the prospects of starting up the detective service. Both felt that the first order of business was to find a proper building that could serve as an office.
This abandoned building on Madison Street was the third they’d looked at. Located on a fairly busy street with shops, the post office, and a discount liquor shop, it looked to be primo real estate.
Angel delicately sidestepped some rays of the setting sun coming in through the windows of the main office. It was a fairly nice arrangement, Angel thought. The front door opened into a small lobby. An open doorway led into the secondary office. An adjacent door to the right opened up into a main office with stair access to the basement.
“It’s very nice,” Angel admitted. “The basement would be big enough for an apartment. It’s also got sewer access. It’s a great property. I’m just wondering why the asking price is so low.”
“I asked the agent about that. She says that Sunnydale doesn’t get high prices for real estate. Apparently the Hellmouth has an adverse affect on the local economy. It started with home sales before trickling into local businesses.”
“That makes sense,” Angel said.
“It does. So yay us for living on top of a mystical convergence.”
Angel smiled slightly. “Yay us. I think this is as good a place as any.”
“Cool. I’ll call Carolyn in the morning and tell her to start getting the papers ready.” The pair cast a last look at the office that might soon be theirs before moving to the front door and leaving. Adele locked up with the key Carolyn gave them and handed it to Angel. The vampire pocketed it.
“So how’s your night shaping up, Broody?”
Angel smiled at the nickname as the pair walked slowly along the twilight lit street. “Buffy’s wanting me to met her and the gang at the Bronze.”
“Again?”
“Yeah. I figure I should since I kinda walked out on her last night. And what about you? Any raucous plans for seducing some young and nubile teenage girl?”
Adele laughed and swatted his arm. “You make me out to be some corruptor of the innocents! I’m not that bad. And no, I don’t. The Palace is showing an Audrey Hepburn double feature. Roman Holiday and Charade. If I don’t get any visions, maybe I can enjoy them.”
“Sounds fun.” And it did. A lot more fun that spending a couple hours in that stupid club with a bunch of hormonal teens. Adele knew exactly what he was thinking.
“Why don’t you cancel those plans and take a young girl out to the movies? You really can’t expect me to buy my own soda and popcorn, can you?”
Angel sighed heavily. He would rather be watching a couple of old flicks with a new friend, but duty did call. Reaching into his pocket, Angel withdrew a twenty-dollar bill and gave it to Adele.
“Guess I can do both.”
“That’s not the same,” Adele pouted. “Fine. Go play nice with your girlfriend and her band of merry men. But if I get ravished by a marauding band of rapists on the way there, it’s on your conscious.”
Angel nodded and watched Adele trot off towards the old theatre. Sighing again, Angel went to turn around and head to the Bronze when he saw a figure exit a nearby shop. It was Cordelia and she appeared to be locking up the formal wears store.
“Cordelia!”
Cordelia looked up in surprise at the figure trotting across the street towards her. “Angel! What are you doing here?”
“I was in the neighborhood and noticed you. What are you doing here?”
“Closing for the night,” Cordelia stated obviously.
Angel was surprised. “You work here?”
“Yeah. Not everyone can have the luxury of waiting at Denny’s,” Cordelia snapped. The vampire recoiled slightly at the statement. Cordelia immediately felt bad. “I’m sorry. It’s been a rough day. I had to deal with some bitchy lady picking out bridesmaid dresses. The old tale is that they’re supposed to be bad enough to make the bride even more beautiful. It’ll be hard pressed in this case.”
The smile that crossed Angel’s face was quite genuine. And Cordelia really liked it. “How about I treat you to dinner? There’s a nice diner down the street that has a great lemon custard.”
“That sounds acceptable,” Cordelia grinned and nodded. The smile on Angel’s face widened at her happy expression. The girl was starting to grow on him. “Are you sure you don’t need to be anyplace else?”
“No, not really.”
And as Angel and Cordelia strolled down the street to Reggie’s Diner, the vampire’s plans of meeting his girlfriend seemed to be forgotten.
Friday ~ 6:40 PM
Angel was quite sure he’d never seen anyone scarf down a country fried steak as quickly as Cordelia. And he had seen some fast eating in his day. In fact, two nights earlier, Angel witnessed Adele devour a Tombstone pizza in a shade under eight minutes. Cordelia blushed when she noticed Angel smiling softly at her actions.
“Sorry,” she apologized. “It’s not often I get to eat something quite this good.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Angel insisted. He pushed his plate with a half eaten pork chop towards her. Cordelia smiled goofily and accepted the offering. She speared the meat and dumped it next to what was left of her mashed potatoes. Angel pondered how he should approach the subject he wanted.
“I have to admit to be a bit confused, Cordelia. What’s a girl like you doing working in a clothing shop and living in an apartment?”
Cordelia paused a moment, a bite of pork chop inches from her mouth. She furrowed a brow and squinted an eye at the vampire. The look made him squirm a bit. “What do you mean a girl like me?”
Maybe he should have tried a different course. Too late now. “Well, you know, with your family. Your father is a prominent investment banker and your mother is descended from the Rockefellers. I guess I’m wondering why you’re on your own.”
“I don’t see how that’s your concern,” Cordelia responded coldly. “And how the hell do you know about my family?”
Angel shrugged. “I lurk. I read. I pay attention. And you’re right. It isn’t really my concern. Just curiosity. Sorry if I offended.”
Anybody else and Cordelia would stubbornly hold onto her anger. But the puppy eyes were weakening the defenses. “It’s okay,” she relented. “And in a way, it is your business. You have gotten involved.”
“I did?”
Cordelia mixed her corn and mashed potatoes together before lifting a forkful to her mouth. “Do you really want to hear this story?”
“Is there sex, violence, and drug use in it?”
“No.”
Angel sighed in a playful manner. “Well, if you must.”
“Oh, I must. I must.” Cordelia dragged the last bite of her biscuit through the gravy and stuffed it into her mouth. Washing it down with her root beer, she leaned back to recount her story as Angel indicated to the waitress to bring dessert. Lemon custard was placed before her and sweet potato pie before him.
“My parents skipped the country,” Cordelia explained. Angel raised his brow. That was a hell of an intro. “My father made a few bad business deals. You remember Nexion?”
Angel did. “They claimed to have developed a processor that would put Intel out of business. Turned out their design was basically a rip of Pentium. That was in September 1998, right? Their CEO was indicted on fraud and a few other counts.”
Cordelia grinned. “Not bad for an old geezer.” Angel tried to look offended. “But anyway, daddy was a principle investor. When Nexion went down, so did several million of his dollars. It was downhill from there. The Feds got curious and began to investigate his records. Turns out daddy forgot to pay taxes during most of the nineties. Come to think of it, most of the eighties too.”
“Shit.”
“Yeah, that’s what he said. After the indictment, he and mother skipped the country and went to Switzerland or some pansy country like that. You know, one of those stupid countries that doesn’t send back our criminals.”
“So how did I get involved in this?”
“Jameson. Daddy knew him for several years. He went to Jameson for help on clearing his record and getting the Feds off his back. When it didn’t work and he skipped the US, Jameson felt that I should help repay the debt.”
Angel chewed thoughtfully on his mouthful of pie. Now that her story was finished, Cordelia went to town on her custard. He was amused by how quickly it disappeared. When she eyeballed his pie, Angel rolled his eyes and pushed it to her.
“It’ll go straight to your hips.”
“Fuck it. I do aerobics.”
Angel’s snort of laughter drew the attention of a few of the diner’s patrons. Cordelia threw her hand over her mouth to keep from cackling. She had never seen the vampire laugh before, but it was a damn cool sight.
“You are funny, Cordelia,” Angel commented sincerely. He was still chuckling at random. Cordelia beamed at the compliment. Angel couldn’t help but grin and shake his head. Yeah, Cordelia certainly was amusing.
Friday ~ 11:50 PM
If there were still men in the world like Cary Grant, Adele might be half tempted to go straight. Or at the very least, bisexual. But alas, God didn’t make men like Cary Grant anymore, so Adele would settle for Willow Rosenberg. Oh yeah, Adele would wear the slight redhead down. No woman could resist her charms. Except Cordelia. But that was just a practice mack, so that didn’t count.
Adele walked slowly down the sidewalk and breathed in the cool night air. It was such a nice night. It was the type of night that just begged for a midnight stroll. Well, you know, if not for the abundance of vampires, demons, and teenagers. But every town had its assorted monsters.
She stopped suddenly. A cold feeling swept down Adele’s spine. She knew she was being watched. Glancing up and down the deserted street, Adele scanned for any possible threats. Even though nothing was visible, Adele thought it best to hole up and call Angel. She certainly wasn’t a coward or afraid of a fight, but shit, when you had a vamp for a best friend, why take the chance?
Spotting a gas station across the street, Adele decided to wait there. She reached into her jacket and retrieved a cell phone. She pressed speed dial one and lifted the phone to her ear. Adele heard a single ring before an arm wrapped around her waist and a hand covered her mouth.
If there was one thing Adele hated, that was resorting to fighting like a chick. But at the present time, Adele had no problem biting down for all she was worth. Her attacker howled in pain. It got much worse for Hal when Adele whipped around with a spinning heal kick to his jaw.
“Get her, Murph! But don’t damage her too bad! Boss wants her intact!”
Adele’s jaw dropped at the size and power of the muscle before her. Murphy had a foot height advantage and two hundred pounds on her.
“Holy fuck. What did your mother feed you?”
“Spaghetti-O’s,” Murphy grinned.
He then swung a massive paw and connected square with Adele’s head. Blood flew from her mouth as her head was snapped back. The impact whipped her around and Adele landed face first on the street. Murphy moved closer and prepared to lower a size 20 boot into the small of Adele’s back. But she felt it coming and quickly flipped over and executed a leg sweep. A section of pavement actually cracked when the big man toppled.
On her feet in moments, demon face firmly in place, Adele snarled viciously at her attackers. “I don’t really like it when guys try to slap me around!” She swung her foot up violently into Murphy’s face when the guy tried to get back up. The giant struggled up to his knees when he felt Adele land on his back, her hands wrapping around his head. She was moments from snapping his neck when a blinding electric charge crippled her.
Hal squarely hit the girl in the back with his taser gun, effectively sending a few thousands volts coursing through Adele’s body. She toppled onto the street and spasmed from the excess electricity. Hal tucked the gun back into his pants and smiled down at the unconscious form.
“This one’s got some spunk in her. I like that.”
“She broke my nose,” Murphy sobbed. Blood flowed freely from his nostrils and tears fell down his cheeks. The girl did a hell of a lot of damage, and the big man was in a world of pain because of it.
“Don’t worry about it. If the buyer only wants her eyes, which they probably will, Doug will let you remove them. Doesn’t that sound fun?”
Even through the pain Murphy was able to smile at that. He unceremoniously hoisted the limp body over his shoulder and followed Hal to their van. They had collected the last auction piece. And this one should rake in some damn good money.
Friday ~ 11:52 PM
Cordelia and Angel stood awkwardly in front of her apartment door. It had been a long strange evening. An enjoyable evening, but strange nonetheless. Neither was quite ready for it to end, but both were confused on how it could continue.
It had been ages since Cordelia had a real conversation with anyone. She certainly never had any meaningful ones with Xander. Most of the ones she had with her friends at school were pure fluff. But with Angel, it was remarkably easy to just yammer about anything.
They talked about her family, school, desires, ambitions. In essence, all the things she had never spoken to anyone about before. And it felt absolutely wonderful to do so. And it was incredibly refreshing to just be with a guy who she knew expected nothing in return. At least, Cordelia was fairly sure Angel wasn’t after the “goods”.
As for Angel, he had more meaningful discussion with Cordelia in the past five hours than in three years with Buffy. He told her things he’d never spoken to another soul. How he used to play with his sister in the meadows outside of Galway. He spoke of the party in which he suggested to Napoleon that an invasion of Russia wasn’t a good idea (and how Napoleon admitted Angel was right during his time in Hell). He even told how he followed Grand Funk Railroad on tour in the 70s. It was far more fun than he ever had with Buffy.
“Shit!” Angel moaned. “Buffy!”
Cordelia furrowed her brow in disappointment. “You know, it’s not really polite to bring up the name of a girlfriend when you’re saying goodnight to a lady.”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” he apologized. “I just recalled that I was supposed to meet her tonight.”
Cordelia gasped in fake shock. “You mean Vampirella ditched his girlfriend in order to spend time with me? I’m flattered, truly, I am. That doesn’t change the fact you will be thoroughly fucked the next time you see her.”
“Don’t I know it. Maybe I should just bail town.”
Both jumped in surprise when Angel’s coat began to ring. They laughed at their dual stupidity when Angel pulled out his phone and proved it caused the noise. Once more, Cordelia feigned shock.
“You have a cell phone? Somebody’s entering the age of electricity. You should go to Best Buy. They’re running a deal on pagers. It’ll complete the yuppie ensemble.”
“Oh hush. Or I’ll never buy you pie again.”
Cordelia grinned and made an exaggerated motion of zipping her lips. She politely allowed Angel to answer his phone.
“Hello?” Angel frowned as he appeared to be listening intently. “Adele? Are you there?” He cursed profoundly and snapped the phone shut. He saw Cordelia jump slightly at his outburst and apologized for spooking her.
“Was that your friend? Is something wrong?”
“It had to be. She’s the only one who has this number. She bought the damn phone for me. And I think something is wrong. Adele didn’t answer and I heard fighting in the background.”
That was bad. “Call her back and double check.”
Angel turned the phone back on and punched in Adele’s number. “Busy signal.” Cordelia plainly saw that he was worried, and instinctually, she became worried. “Ok. I need to go. Maybe I can pick up her scent at the theatre. Not the greatest end to our evening, but I’m sorry.”
“This isn’t the end,” Cordelia answered. “I’m coming with you.” Angel was about ready to argue but was silenced by a hand in his face. “Don’t start. Two sets of eyes and ears of better than one. Now get your high-powered sniffer in business and let’s go. I’ll drive.”
Angel gaped a few moments in shock. After shaking the surprise away, the vampire had to run to catch up with Cordelia who was nearly to her car. The vamp had to hand it to her. Cordelia certainly kept things interesting.
Saturday ~ 12:14 AM
Cordelia parked her Lexus across the street from The Palace so that she and Angel could begin the search. Lingering behind, she followed Angel as he wandered over to the now closed ticket booth in front of the theatre entrances.
It was a fairly interesting thing to watch in a purely Discovery Channel fashion. Cordelia watched as Angel sniffed the air delicately around the doors, evidently trying to pick up the initial scent. She could actually tell the moment he found it. His eyes widened slightly and he took a couple quick breaths to keep the scent fresh in his nose.
“So everyone has different scents, eh?” Angel nodded a vague yes. “So what does Adele smell like?
“Tommy Girl and apples.” Now on the scent, Angel slowly meandered north along the sidewalk.
“That’s interesting. What do I smell like?”
Angel paused long enough to shoot a sheepish glance at her. Seeing that she held no ridicule or disgust, merely genuine curiosity, the vampire answered. “Lemon custard, oranges, and a slight hint of Fruit Loops.”
“Fruit Loops?” Cordelia was confused a moment before remembering she had them for breakfast. She continued to follow Angel down the block until he paused across the street from a gas station. “What’s wrong?”
“The scent is all over the area. I think this is where she fought.” He sniffed deeply again and shivered in what Cordelia almost thought was excitement. “I smell blood.”
“Is it…?”
“No, it’s human.” He again expected some snide comment from Cordelia. The few times he spoke of being able to scent blood around Buffy had created uncomfortable moments. He was surprised again to find Cordelia acting very mature. She was entirely focused on the situation, almost like a detective at a crime scene. Her next question caught him off guard.
“Do you still have your cell phone?”
“Um, yeah. Why?”
“Give Adele another call.”
Despite being confused, Angel nodded and pulled out his cell phone. As he hit redial, Angel watched Cordelia stroll over to a garbage can on the sidewalk and bend over. A second later he heard the sound of a cell ringing. Angel realized it was coming from near the garbage can. In fact, it was now coming from Cordelia’s hand.
“I spotted this.” Cordelia tossed the device to him. When he turned his phone off, the ringing stopped. “Wherever she is, Adele can’t call you.” When she saw his shoulder’s sag in a mix of anger and sadness, Cordelia did the only thing she could think of. She hugged him and tried to be supportive.
“Angel, we can find her. You said yourself that you smelled none of her blood. So doesn’t it stand to reason she’s still alive?”
She knew this would be hard for Angel. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to understand that he had a fragile sense of self-worth. He would be taking Adele’s disappearance as a personal failure to protect someone he cared about. But despite that, it wasn’t a time to be all broody and mopey. She was about to call Angel on it when she looked into his eyes. No brooding there. Just an undeniable sense of being extremely pissed off.
“Yeah. She’s still alive,” Angel agreed. “And she better be smiling when I find her.”
Cordelia had heard of anger radiating from someone before. But this was the first time she had met a being like that. Angel was a ticking time-bomb, and God help those in the blast radius when he went off.
“What do we do?” Cordelia asked warily. “How do we start searching?”
Angel breezed by her and made for the car. Cordelia had to jog to keep up with his long strides. “A Seer is a very powerful being,” Angel explained. “There are lots of people who would pay good money to have one. That means this was a specific target and that means prior planning and preparation. That means professional muscle.
And if someone like that is in town, there is one place to turn that might have some inside info.”
“Who? Where?”