When Sally returned from the bathroom, she was back in her dress with new nylons covering her legs. Her makeup refreshed; her attitude was back to the businesswoman that I’m used to seeing.

“It’s an act,” she said.

“What is?” The statement confused me, and Sally grinned.

“I can become the professional upstanding citizen when I go outside that front door.” She took me by the arm and led me to the entrance. “But when I’m with you alone, I can be myself, a tramp who wants you to fuck me like we’ll never see each other again.”

I stopped her from opening the door.

“Don’t put yourself down like that.” I placed my hand on her cheek. “You’re never a tramp with me. Enjoying each other is the best kind of living, at least I think that way. You may have a body built for sin, but I think that you’re a noble person with a kind heart.”

Sally looked away.

“You’re too smooth with your words.”

Chuckling, I told her I’ve heard that before. She looked back at me, her expression serious.

“I like Adele and I don’t want to hurt her. She’s naïve but a good person. I know that you’re lucky to have her. However, I want you to find time for me, even if it seems too shallow like today. While you care for Adele, I also can sense that you want me as well. Am I asking for too much from you?”

I hesitated, but then brought her in my arms. Hugging her, I told her I would do as she asked. The turmoil inside me kept swirling right on like a dark tornado. I told myself that there were no morals in this world. Yet, that doesn’t mean there are no consequences for my actions.

On the drive back to her business, I kept glancing over at Sally. She smiled at me, then her expression grew serious after looking in the rear-view mirror again.

“I think we have someone following us.”

Now, the urge to turn back and look almost got me. I leaned forward and looked in the passenger side mirror to see a gray car behind us.

“I noticed that car pulled past us when we stopped at my place,” she explained. “I don’t think that’s a Fuller Brush salesman.”

Now, I didn’t get the reference, but I nodded in agreement.

“When you drop me off at my car, I’ll see if he follows me. Then we should know more about what’s going on.”

“You don’t think it’s Antonio’s guys, do you?” The heightened concern showed in her voice.

Shrugging, I told her not to worry.

“You stay inside your building and let’s see what happens. There was a guy monitoring my office, so maybe he followed me here.”

Sally pulled next to my car. I thought of giving her a kiss, but we just looked awkwardly at each other.

“Too many eyes,” she said, as if she read my mind.

With a nod, I got out and told her to keep her guard up.

“I’ll call you later.”

Standing by my car, I watched her pull up close to the building and casually slid into the driver’s side of my Hudson. After she goes inside, I pull out of the parking lot and notice the gray car following mine.

When I pull into a space in front of the Stull Junction Library, my tail keeps driving past, coming to a stop half a block away. Feeling like I shouldn’t have left my .45 at the office, my mind runs through several options. But I’m already late to see Adele, so I decided to see if the guy in the gray car was coming inside after me.

Taking the steps two at a time, I reach the entrance and go inside. Taking an immediate turn to my right, I position myself by the edge of one window. As I’m staring at the car, I notice the driver hasn’t made a move yet.

Come on, don’t just wait there!

While I’m waiting, I didn’t hear the footsteps behind me.

“What are you doing?” Adele leans in next to me.

I jumped back and glared at her.

“Are you trying to give me a heart attack?”

She frowned.

“You’re late, mister. I deserve an apology!”

After glancing toward my shadow outside, I realized he must be waiting for me. Turning back around, I apologized to Adele.

“You’re right, my bad. I think I picked up someone following me.”

Her eyes widened, and she looked out the window.

“Do you know who it is?”

“No,” I looked out over her head. “But I don’t think he’s coming inside. Let’s go talk about what you found.”

“Aren’t you going to do something?” Adele couldn’t believe my attitude.

“What can I do right now? Somebody’s sitting in their car. But I want to get a look at him when we leave.” I took her hand and forced a smile onto my face.

“Come on, beautiful. Show me what you what you came up with.”

“I swear...” she shook her head and pulled out her notebook as I continued to glimpse at the car through the window.

Adele handed me her notes, and I ran through them as she recounted her work.

“What little information I found pointed to Cora Elder, who arrived from the northeast US in the 1920s,” she said, which didn’t surprise me. “However, the strange part is I found a local history book stating that Stull Junction started in the mid-1800s right after the gold rush. Apparently, it was nothing more than a stopping point for the railroad, but it’s not on any maps.”

Nodding, I agreed, telling her I looked in the map room for the location of the city. Adele seemed surprised, then raised an eyebrow as she reconsidered what she told me.

“That makes no sense. How can the railroad train travel through and no map shows this city?”

“That’s just another fun thing about this place.” I made light of it. “Maybe the city didn’t pay someone a fee. Let’s get back to Cora.”

“Alright,” she continued. “I found out that she was a famous spiritualist before dropping out of sight for a while. Apparently, she had two attendants at the house, but I never learned their names or what happened to them.”

Again, no surprise to me that Cora hid the truth about her past, along with the facts about those demon lovers who lived with her. The fact of their presence still concerned me as much as the woman. Dealing with supernatural shit made me want a priest involved.

“Since the family history didn’t give me much, I checked the newspapers,” she continued as I kept glancing out the window.

“I’ll need more time to look through older papers if they have them here. I only found this article about her sudden disappearance. You can see all the details on that page.” She took the notebook and flipped over to the page for me.

“So, she attends the festival alone with the mayor and other dignitaries. The last place she’s seen is walking along the park path that leads to her mansion,” I summarized the article.

That must be the park where I met the judge.

“After that, there was another article about someone named Robert James Lees, another spiritualist who took over her estate.” Adele showed me the next note.

“Did you find out if he’s a relative?” Frowning, I scanned the details.

Adele shook her head.

“Nothing about that, just a column about Lees arriving on the train from San Francisco after arriving on a steamship. That was the day that Cora Elder disappeared.”

“That’s strange, but just like everything else in this city,” I winked at her. “You’re a natural at this stuff.”

She smiled and took me by the arm.

“Then you can buy me lunch.” She noticed my change when she mentioned lunch.

“Is something wrong?”

Looking out the window, I shook my head.

“No, just thinking about that car out there.” Luckily, my lie fit right into the events at the moment.

“I’m worried and I don’t want to risk your safety,” I put my arm around her waist. “Let’s go back to my office and I’ll have Alice pick us up a sandwich from across the street. I want to check on our mysterious follower, plus I left my protection in the office.”

The concern on her face came through again, but she took a deep breath before agreeing.

“It won’t be a restaurant, but I’m still with you,” she grinned.

“We’ll turn on the radio and it’ll be even better,” I winked again.

We walked out of the library arm in arm. As we went down the steps, Adele tried to change the subject. She told me of Lloyd’s arrival at her table, mentioning it as suspicious given he never mentioned going into the building. As she talked, I scanned the area, but nothing looked out of place. However, her unexpected encounter with Lloyd suddenly made me consider his involvement with the man across the street from my office and this vehicle following me.

After we got in the car, I told Adele that I would drive by the gray car, and I wanted her to write the license number.

“Don’t make it obvious and keep your notebook down,” I warned as I backed out of the parking stall.

When we drove by, I caught a glance of the man in the car, but the only thing distinguishing about him was the dark green fedora he wore. From my quick view, it didn’t look like the same person who watched my office. Adele wrote the number and mentioned the car had an out-of-state tag.

“That’s perfect. I’ll put my Baker Street Irregulars on the job when we get to the office.”

When she asked what I was talking about, I changed the subject.

“What sounds good for a sandwich? I’ll take anything but tuna.”