Joshua Unruh Y'all don't want to hear me, you just want to dance

Sneak Peek – Arcanoir: Lesatz for Hire

As previously mentioned, I have a short story coming out soon. It has been story edited but not copy edited so I'm going to brave the possibility of grammatical errors and typos and give everyone a sneak peek at the first chapter (roughly 1/6 of the story by chapter count). I don't want to tell you too much other than it's going under the heading of Arcanoir which basically means "the hardboiled 1930s but with magic and fantasy elements for no reason other than I want to." Without further adieu, here's the first chapter of Lesatz for Hire. By all means, rip it to shreds in the comments.

1

Sure, I’m Hob Lesatz. For hire. That’s what it says on the door, anyway. But good etching won’t get you a thing down on the waterfront in San Francisco. Not when you can get it just as nice on a tombstone. But if you’re going to make a living, it helps if people can find you without a locator spell. I do whatever I can to shake a couple nickels together and hope they mate, especially if it takes a strong back and a stronger stomach. But some days it doesn’t matter how much money you have because no doctor can vaccinate you and no mage can ward you against trouble. Especially when a dame straight out of your past comes sashaying in with a double helping of it. That’s what happened to me the other day when a slip of memory came into my office. A slip of memory I thought of as Roxanne Slatterly when I bothered to think of her at all. But she insisted on calling herself Roxy...Roxy Starlight.

“Are you just going to keep giving me the hairy eyeball, Hob, or are you going to ask a lady to sit down?” Roxy asked in that voice like a purring engine, all warmth and speed. I recognized the voice but the face it came out of was barely familiar. It looked like Roxy’s older sister, if she’d had one, and if big sis had been a Hollywood starlet. Part of that was because I hadn’t seen her in years and part of it was the glamour. She was painted bright with both cosmetics and a little magical help that made her look like the girl I used to love as seen through the smoked glasses of love and romance I’d worn as a kid. Only even better. That’s what a good glamour will do for you. No matter what my eyes told me, that voice shook me just like it had when we were kids. But I wasn’t that kid anymore, hadn’t been since I came off the Rock. And she needed to know that right from the start.

“Well?” She said, arching one of her downy eyebrows at me.

“My mistake, I wasn’t entirely sure that’s what I was seeing. A lady, an apparition from the past, or just another doxy looking to make a buck. I’ve got space for exactly one of those. If you’re the right one, have a seat.” I gestured toward one of the two ragged chairs that sat in front of my equally battered desk.

She didn’t like the insinuation at all and I watched those green eyes go flinty as she stepped around and took a seat. She removed her gloves in a tidy manner and then tidily place them in her handbag. Then she sat the tiny bag down in the chair next to her just as tidily. She met eyes with me again and gave me one of those smiles. I should have felt the smile in my hip pocket but the cold stare just above it was like a bucket of ice in my pants. I didn’t smile back, but she needn’t have been offended. I never smiled at anybody.

Once the production was over, I settled back in my chair, which gave a shrill squeak of protest at the weight. “So, what can I do for you Roxanne?”

“Can’t a girl come by and visit an old flame without there being something he can do for her?” Her tone was coquettish. It made me a little angry. I let her hear it in my answer.

“A girl can. But if you were that girl, I think I would have seen you a little before this. No, I think you’re no happier to be here than I am to have you. Which means you’re desperate and that there is something I can do for you. Something you can’t do for yourself. So shake it up and pour it.”

Her smile turned into a frozen, ugly thing for just a second before she caught herself and switched to a look of wounded innocence. It was nice to know I was throwing her off her game as far as she was throwing me off mine.

“If that’s the way you’re going to be, then perhaps I should leave...” She started to tug her left glove back on, but it was an unhurried gesture that radiated the hope I’d stop her. I had to admit I was pretty curious what would cause Roxanne to darken my door, so I gave her what she wanted. More fool me.

“Sit still, Rox, but let’s beg off the performance. Tell me what you need while I get us a drink.” I reached into the bottom drawer and brought out the office bottle and two pony glasses.

“It’s the Starlight, the--” she paused, unsure for a moment how to continue. I saved her.

“The nightclub and brothel you run.”

“Yes,” she said, and for just a moment she looked like the good Catholic girl I used to know, ashamed of how we spent our time together. “I’m being muscled out.”

I laughed at her as I poured the whiskey. “Then why are you coming to me? If you were going to anybody from the old neighborhood, I’d expect you to see Owen. Isn’t protecting you from this kind of thing what you pay him for?”

Her eyes narrowed and she looked around the room furtively just like she used to do years ago when she told me a secret. “I don’t pay Owen McCrutcheon a thin dime. Nobody owns a piece of the Starlight but me.”

I sipped at the whiskey and rolled it around my tongue just like I rolled that statement around my brain. They both tasted bitter.

“That seems pretty damned unlikely, Rox, but let’s pretend it’s true for a minute. Why not call him in now?”

She shook her head, exasperation and fear warring on her face. “I built the Starlight up from nothing, Hob, and I did it without Owen McCrutcheon’s help or protection. I pay him a tax, but that’s it. He hasn’t forced the issue, probably out of respect for...what we all were to one another. If I ask him to come in and protect the place, the Starlight will be his no matter whose name is on the door. I’m desperate to keep it my own, Hob. Surely you of all people can understand that.”

She had me there and she knew it, but it didn’t answer all the questions.

“You’ve got a friend in that dowager madam, don’t you? Flowers?”

Roxanne shook her head and pursed her lips. “Francine is a friend and a mentor, but that’s it. She’s been free with advice and sent a few clients to me in the early days when I was just getting started. But she doesn’t have any pull in Sunset. She’s always relied on police protection anyway, and we both know that was never going to fly with Owen’s outfit. Not after...what they did to you two.”

She had me again, but only on points. “Fair enough. But I don’t think that’s any reason for us to get into bed together again.”

I chose my words specifically to hurt her and I must have hit the mark because her face got a little hard again. “It says ‘for hire’ on the door. So I’ll hire you to get into bed with me.” Her voice was brittle, like shards in my heart. Then she ruined the spell. “I’ll give you a thousand dollars.”

I was surprised enough it showed on my face. Nobody sitting in that seat counted my pay in thousands. They barely counted it at all. “Try the other one, Roxanne Slatterly, it has church bells on it. Anybody who comes in this office talking that kind of dough is either stupid, on the make, or both. Which is it with you?”

“What about a thousand dollars and a favor for the girl you used to love?” she asked, her eyes glistening.

I felt my eyes narrow. She flinched a little so God only knows what else was going on in with my face. I shook my head twice and pointed toward the door.

Then I saw what I’d never expected to see. I saw the bulwark she’d created as Roxy Starlight fleck away like cheap paint and leave only frightened, miserable Roxanne Slatterly. The tears started flowing and they seemed to startle her. She quickly reached for her purse, nearly knocked it to the ground, but caught it at the last second. She pulled out a silk handkerchief, dabbing it at her eyes to try and stop the flow, but it was too late for that. She stood up sharply, turned on her heel, her back ramrod straight, and stormed the few steps out of the office. She slammed my door so hard all the cardboard thin walls of my office shook.

Now it was my turn to be surprised. I didn’t think any of that was an act, it all had the air of something painfully genuine. I wondered what could possibly get past the Starlight armor and pierce the heart of young Ms. Slatterly. I didn’t wonder long, though. Before I could decide whether to go after her or not, she came storming back in. There was another woman beside her.

This woman was in an overcoat a size or two too big for her but still buttoned up close to her throat. It hung nearly to her ankles and made her a solid wall of brown except for the cream scarf she had tied around her head and face. Combined with the overlarge, owlish smoked glasses she wore, it left her totally hidden.

“If you won’t do it for me, Harold Lesatz, then maybe you’ll do it so nothing like this happens to another one of my girls.” Roxy turned her harsh stare toward the woman next to her and it melted.

Roxy put one hand on the woman’s shoulder and nodded at her. The woman’s hand came haltingly to her face, then stopped. I saw a dampness spread across the part of the scarf that crossed her face beneath the glasses. More tears, but silent ones. In my experience, a woman’s tears without any of the theatrics are almost always true. Roxy waited three heartbeats, but when it became clear the woman wasn’t going to remove the coverings, Roxy reached up gently and removed the glasses and scarf for her.

What I saw could barely be described as a face. But this wasn’t the ruin of birth defect, curse, or magefire. This was a physical thing, made by hands that knew their work. I felt my face and heart harden and I knew I was taking the case. I also knew I was going to regret it, but in that moment my white hot rage burned away all other concerns.

“Just tell me who did it, Rox. They’ll think the Golden Gate dropped on them.”