Killing shade jonathan s.., p.1
Killing Shade (Jonathan Shade Book 15), page 1
KILLING SHADE
GARY JONAS
DENTON & WHITE
Copyright © 2024 by Gary Jonas
All rights reserved.
Cover design by Robin Johnson
Florida Girl Design www.gobookcoverdesign.com
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. If you’re smart, you’ll honor this because Kelly Chan doesn’t appreciate people who infringe on people’s rights. Just saying.
Created with Vellum
This one is for Oighrig Liadan who always has the right answer.
CONTENTS
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
what to read next
About the Author
Also by Gary Jonas
1
The June morning when my life went to hell began with Kelly Chan throwing me around the dojo like an oversized rag doll. Each time I landed, the all-female audience applauded from where they sat on the bleachers.
None of this was planned, of course. The idea was that I attacked Kelly any way I wanted, and she demonstrated to her class how to handle whatever I tried.
The dojo was set up with bleachers on one side, tatami mats in the center where we did our randori, and floor-to-ceiling mirrors on the opposite wall.
Esther liked to float around to see things from various vantage points, but she was careful not to be too distracting except when I flew through the air and crashed down on the floor.
“Oh!” she said. “That’s gonna leave a mark.”
I winced and stared at her for a moment. I didn’t want to speak to her because the women on the bleachers couldn’t see her, and if I started talking to a ghost they couldn’t see, they’d think I was off in La La Land. Who knows? After getting my bell rang so many times, maybe I was.
Esther smiled at me because she knew I wanted to say something. “The way you’re getting tossed about makes me think that before the day is over, you’ll be wearing a Chicago overcoat.”
Kelly pulled me to my feet. She leaned close and said, “You have to try to hit me, Jonathan.”
“I’ve been trying.” That was true. I’d given it my best from the moment we started, but I hadn’t even come close to landing any of my attacks. As Kelly was a Sekutar warrior, she was magically engineered to be incredibly fast, strong, and agile. She also felt no pain and healed from any normal injury in seconds.
“Try harder,” she said, and pushed me backward.
I staggered back a few steps then circled around her looking for any kind of opening.
I darted in to grab her, but she caught me, spun, and rolled me over her hip so I landed flat on my back.
The audience cheered.
“Stay down,” Esther said, motioning for me to stay put. “She’s making you look like a sap.”
But I ignored her. I was supposed to look like a sap. The women Kelly taught wanted to be able to handle themselves, so the more I fell, the more the students wanted to be like their teacher.
Also, a number of the women in the audience were checking out the dojo for the first time. I knew that after watching what Kelly could do, they’d line up to sign up for her classes. In fact, that’s what I’d dubbed these sessions, so when Kelly called me to come in to help, she always said, “It’s time for another line up to sign up.”
I loved that my terminology rubbed off on her. Kelly wanted to make most of her money from teaching as it fulfilled her. She worked with me part time, which she enjoyed because she often got to handle violent bad guys, and she took the occasional job from Dragon Gate Industries, some of which she didn’t talk about because they sometimes involved an assassination—usually some person or creature that came through the Dragon Gate. The damn gate had been on the fritz for months, though the wizards kept trying to fix it.
Meanwhile, I tried to kick Kelly, but she easily twisted out of the way of my foot then stepped forward. The next thing I knew, I was on my back with Kelly on top of me, which would have been pleasant if I could breathe. She quickly pinned me, then turned to the class, which allowed me to breathe. Then she explained the move and how it was accomplished.
“By avoiding the kick, but not moving too far,” she said, “I was able to step into his attack. Note that I stepped between his legs to put him off balance so as I drove forward, I simply rode him to the floor.”
I was thankful for a brief respite so I could catch my breath.
After going full speed to show how things played out in real time, we slowed things down for a demonstration that was both easier to see and to explain.
Later, we practiced with the women who were there to learn self-defense. They got onto the mats and Kelly and I would attack them. We kept things slow and simple to start because people have to learn.
One of the important things Kelly insisted on was that I never make it too easy for them to throw me or break a grip. It would be a disservice to them because out there in the real world, they’d be doomed, so they needed to work for the success. If they managed to throw me, they knew they’d really done it. If they got me in an arm bar, they knew that would likely work in a similar situation on the street.
Kelly and I had one rule. We would never hit them or hurt them. They might feel a bit of discomfort, but not actual pain. If you twisted someone’s wrist, you didn’t have to go so far as to cause pain. Just enough to show them they’d left themselves open for it.
The women, on the other hand, were allowed to hit us. We needed them to know what it felt like to actually hit someone.
We said a lot of things like, “Keep your wrist straight,” or, “Don’t overextend.”
After all, we didn’t want them to hurt themselves either.
When the class ended, I was sweaty and tired.
I sat on the bleachers and drank a bottle of water. One of the women approached me. Her name was Sarah, and she looked to be in her late twenties.
“Thank you for helping us,” she said.
“My pleasure.”
“More like your pain,” she said and smiled. She was missing a tooth, so she quickly put a hand over her mouth. Her lip was swollen, too.
“Sometimes,” I said, “but it’s worth it.”
“Kelly told me you’re a private detective.”
I nodded. “Gotta pay the bills,” I said. “Getting my ass kicked from one side of the dojo to the other doesn’t put food on the table.”
“How much do you charge?”
“Oh, I don’t charge Kelly to kick my ass, though there are bound to be folks who would pay for that.”
She gave me a polite laugh. “No, I mean for the P.I. work.”
“Depends,” I said. “I’m not like Jim Rockford on TV. It’s not two hundred dollars a day plus expenses or anything.”
“I couldn’t afford that,” she said.
“Tell me what you need,” I said.
She looked at the floor. “Kelly said you can handle … weird cases.”
“Killer clowns, evil leprechauns who steal your Lucky Charms, and things that go bump in the night. Like Hellboy, I’ve been known to bump back. I’ll ask again. What do you need?”
“A new life,” she said. “I tried to win one on eBay, but I kept getting outbid at the last second.”
My turn to give her a polite smile. “They call those people snipers.”
“Probably better to be outbid than shot,” she said.
“Having done both I can tell you with absolute certainty that you’re right.”
I waited. She needed to tell me about her problem, but she had to find the courage.
Then she just came out with it. “My ex is stalking me.”
“Have you told the police?”
“They don’t believe me,” she said. “I mean, they used to, but well, Gage is in prison, so they don’t think he can reach me.”
“So he has someone keeping tabs on you?”
“No, he’s stalking me himself. Sometimes he just follows me to my car. Other times he waits for me in my apartment.”
“Have you told Kelly about this?”
“No. I know she sometimes works with you, but I don’t want to take any more of her time. I’m trying so hard to learn what she teaches, but it’s hard for me.”
“Okay, when you say your ex is waiting for you, do you mean he’s actually there?”
“Yes.”
“So he’s not in prison now?”
“Oh, he’s still in prison.”
“You’re saying he’s in prison, but at the same time, he’s stalking you?”
“I k
“I’m not saying it sounds crazy, Sarah. Kelly and I have seen much stranger things. I’m just trying to understand how he’s doing it.”
“Well, he doesn’t have a weekend pass or anything. The first time he waited in my apartment, I ran away, and when I got to a safe place, I called the prison. They said he was still in his cell.”
“Okay,” I said. My first thought was astral projection. “So he’s in two places at once? He’s physically in his prison cell, but spiritually in your apartment?”
“Physical both places,” she said. She showed me the missing tooth. “See? He punched me last night.”
She pointed to her swollen lip, then pulled it up to reveal a cut inside.
“That’s from the tooth he knocked out,” she said. “You can see why the cops don’t buy it.”
“Tell me about Gage,” I said.
She looked around. The other women were mostly gone. A few still talked by the front door. Kelly stood with them, passing out applications for her classes. Esther hovered near her. Esther had been spending more and more time with Kelly, and less and less with me.
She swore I hadn’t done anything, but I wasn’t so sure.
“Gage seemed nice at first,” Sarah said. Now that she was getting into it, I devoted my full attention to her. “We met at a bookstore. I was drinking coffee and reading a J.D. Robb novel, and he came in and sat at the next table. He was reading a book about the occult. He had really cool tattoos, long hair, and a black leather jacket. I’ve always been attracted to bad boys.”
“Many women are,” I said.
She nodded. “Anyway, Gage struck up a conversation. He pointed to my book, and asked if it was any good. I said it was. He recited the title, Secrets in Death then held up his book, and said the word occult meant secret or hidden. Next thing you know he’s at my table, and we’re talking about all sorts of things. I fell hard for him.”
“I understand,” I said.
“Anyway, we started going out. He was into some seriously weird shit. Rituals, and stuff. He had an altar in his basement. I mean, an actual altar. He claimed he and his friends performed the occasional human sacrifice, but I knew that was bullshit. Only it wasn’t.”
“Did you witness a sacrifice?”
She nodded.
“First, it was a chicken. Then it was a goat. Then it was a homeless man because Gage said no one would miss him.”
“You attended these sacrifices?”
“No. He showed me videos.”
“But you believed they were real.”
She nodded. “I called the police on him.”
“And they investigated and Gage told them it was for a movie.”
“Yes,” she said. “And that it was fake. Gage had the cops call one of his friends who claimed to be the actor in the film.”
“What did Gage do to you after he convinced the cops there was nothing to see?”
“He brought me to the rituals.”
“And?”
She stared at the floor. “I don’t know if I can talk about this.”
“It’s all right,” I said. “Just share what you feel comfortable with.”
“Then you won’t understand.”
“Try me,” I said.
She closed her eyes for a moment.
“I went to one of the rituals,” she said. “We all dressed in robes and gathered in his basement. There were twelve of us. Six men, six women.”
“Like a coven,” I said.
“That’s what Gage called it, yes. A coven.”
Sounded to me like he wanted the trappings of the occult, but mixed things up to fit his needs since covens were generally for Wiccans.
“Tell me about that first meeting.”
“I didn’t want to be there,” she said, “but Gage insisted. They had a goat tied up in the corner. Candles burned around the altar. Some of the people spoke in languages I couldn’t understand. Then Gage called everyone to attention. We surrounded the altar. Two men brought the goat over, and lifted it onto the altar. It bleated and fought, but they held it in place.”
“Go on.”
“Then Gage threw off his robe, and told everyone else to do the same. I didn’t want to because I was embarrassed. I wanted to run away. But two of the women whispered to me that it was amazing and to go along with it because it would change my life. Everything would be better. It was a good time. All of that. And by then I was the only person wearing anything, so I dropped the robe.”
At that point, Kelly approached.
“I hate to break this up,” she said, “but I have another class in ten minutes.”
“No worries,” I said. I turned to Sarah. “I’ll walk you to your car and we can finish this up.”
She shook her head. “I don’t have a car. I took the bus. You can walk me to the bus stop.”
“All right,” I said. “There will be other people there. Are you sure you wouldn’t like more privacy?”
“You’re too easy to talk to,” she said and folded her arms over her stomach as if trying to hold herself in place. “I don’t know why I told you as much as I did.”
Kelly snapped her fingers. “Jonathan, may I have a word with you in my office please?”
“Sure,” I said.
“I’ll wait for you outside,” Sarah said.
“Okay.”
She headed toward the door while Kelly led me to the office.
Kelly closed the door, turned to me and said, “Watch yourself with Sarah.”
“What do you mean?”
“She was part of a cult, and she’s tried to recruit a few of my students. I told her if she tried that again, she’d need to find a new teacher. So she left for a few months. She came back a couple of days ago with bruises, a cut lip, and a missing tooth.”
“She said her ex is in jail,” I said.
“Yeah, he’s been in jail for almost a year. I know you can handle yourself, but she’s a tricky one. I took her back on a trial basis. So far, she’s been well-behaved in class, but I saw how she looked at you while I was throwing you around. She looked a little too interested in you.”
“She wants to hire me.”
“She wants to sleep with you, and she’s attractive, and you haven’t dated anyone since Heather, and I just wanted to warn you. But you’re a grown man. Do as you will.”
I had to admit, if Sarah had put off any signs of wanting me, I’d completely missed them. I know how that sounds. She talked about being in an occult group who performed sex rituals. But she hadn’t touched me, nor had she done the standard hair flip, so I just figured it was set up for the job of stopping Gage.
I left Kelly’s dojo and walked into the traffic sounds and smells of East Colfax. Exhaust fumes won the battle for most prevalent. A glance left and right, then I spotted Sarah leaning against the building by the next doorway.
She had her index finger in her mouth. She withdrew the finger, curled her lips into a seductive smile, met my gaze with a come hither and fuck me look, and I knew I was in trouble.
2
Sarah motioned for me to come closer.
I did.
She reached out and touched my arm. “I really appreciate you helping me.”
“No problem,” I said. “Which way is the bus stop?”
“Don’t you have a car?”
“I do.”
She moved closer and put her hand on my chest before looking up at me with bedroom eyes. “Do you think maybe you could drive me home? I’ll make it worth your while.”
I’d like to say I told her no. I’d like to say I was smart enough to realize that if she was coming onto me this strong on a public street, that all bets would be off if we were in her home.
In my defense, she was cute, she seemed interested in me, and it had been a while since I’d been with anyone, so my ability to think with my big head was severely diminished.
“All right,” I said. And then as if to justify my stupidity, I added, “We can discuss your case on the way to your place.”
“That rhymes,” she said with a smile. “I like it.” She slipped her hand around my arm as she turned sideways. She locked elbows with me, leaned in and said, “Lead the way to your chariot, good sir.”
It wasn’t a chariot. My Dodge Charger had been destroyed, and the insurance company fought the payout, but ultimately sent me a smaller check than they should have, and I used it to buy a Jeep Liberty because 4-wheel-drive is useful in Colorado.
