Gods and Monsters

VIII

A40 Road, London

The usual peach smell from Peggy's jelly bean air freshener had now fully dissipated, replaced instead by a mix of alcohol and body odour. She was still trying to wrap her head around the man sitting in her back seat. His website had appeared so professional, and he looked at least relatively sane in the pictures. Now he was sitting in the back of her car, staring aimlessly like a puppy on a long trip after she had filled him in on the details. Maybe Yates was right, a website isn't really enough to go off of for something this important.

"Mr Quinn," Peggy said "I need to know that you can perform this cure. We've got a lot riding on this —thousands of people could be in danger." Slowly, Charlie turned, looking into the rear-view mirror so that he could see Peggy's face. He began to speak, his voice slow and hushed.

"Detective, I've already told you, just relax. Everything is going to be fine." He began to fumble with his jacket pocket, pulling out a lighter.

"Mr Quinn, I'm going to have to ask you to not smoke in my car, please."

"Smoking? Oh no, I can't stand the stuff." With that, he lifted the lighter, igniting it, creating a ball of fire in his hands.

"Fucking hell! Put that out!" She stared, terrified until she jerked her attention back to the road and was forced to swerve into another lane of the motorway to avoid rear-ending the car ahead. Charlie began to chuckle at her reaction before breaking into uncontrollable laughter.

"Relax, it's just a little trick. I'm sorry if it frightened you, I was just a bit bored." Peggy rolled down the window, trying to get more air into the car. She was finding it hard to breathe, and she suddenly felt nauseous. C'mon Peggy, pull yourself together, she began to quietly whisper to herself, you're going to be fine, just breathe. You're going to be fine.

"Like I said, detective..."

"Please, ju-just call me Peggy," she spat out between shallow breaths. Her hands were sweaty and she was worried she'd lose her grip on the steering wheel.

"Okay, Peggy, like I said, it was just a little trick. I would've thought you'd have read my file and known about me doing a bit of magic on the side."

"Yeah, well, I was in a bit of a rush. You know, my partner dying in a hospital?" She looked pale, and Charlie swore he saw her hands shaking against the steering wheel.

"Hey, Peggy, are you okay?" he asked, sitting up in his seat. Charlie prayed she wasn't breaking down. For one thing, they were on a motorway, but Charlie had a feeling Peggy was a woman who couldn't afford to lose it quite yet.

"Yeah, let's just get this over with."

Continued in Part 9