Maggie for Hire by Kate Danley

Author:Kate Danley
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Fantasy, female protagonist, Supernatural, Urban Fantasy
ISBN: 9781463762544
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
Published: 2011-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 25

Old Chinatown is a fun place. It was originally built as a shopping area by the local Asian population. Nowadays, the cobblestone courtyard and little trinket shops serve as a smoke screen for secret Mahjong halls and borderline sweat shops.

We walked down a particularly stinky alley to a tiny, little doorway squeezed tightly between two buildings. The red security gate had some newspaper stuffed in the lock and opened with a gentle push. We walked up the concrete steps to a landing where dusty California succulents sat baking next to two dog-sized lion guards.

I knocked on the aluminum screen door and could hear shuffling feet inside.

When the door opened, I met the eyes of a bitty old man, cigarette burning in the corner of his mouth.

“Xiaoming?”

His sunken chest sported a stained wife-beater and his blue striped boxer shorts had seen better days. You could tell he had dressed up for company, though, because he had managed to throw on a ratty old robe and open-toed slippers to show off his holey socks.

“Come in,” he demanded. “Take off your shoes. You get the dirt in here.”

He appeared to have one vocal level and that was shouting on the same note.

I introduced myself, “Father Killarney said you might be able to help us.”

Xiaoming sat down at the kitchen table and pounded his thighs. The room was filled with sweetly scented incense that made a migraine sufferer out of me. I blinked back the headache and came over, stooping beneath the beaded curtain dividing the kitchen from his sparse living room. Killian was busy looking at an altar over in the corner.

“Don’t touch that, elf!” shouted our host. “You mess up everything!”

Killian backed away, “My apologies.”

“You just a big fat elf with your big fat elf fingers. You sit here.”

He pounded on the seat beside him. Killian dutifully came over, realizing he was no match for this guy.

I pulled out a piece of paper with the sketch on it, deciding permanent Sharpie was probably a bit safer than trying to maintain the drawing through handwashings.

“We were tracking an object...”

“This bad,” Xiaoming stated.

“What?”

“This is bad symbol. What you tracking?”

“A jade lion.”

Xiaoming took a long drag on his cigarette and stared me in the eye.

“Do you know anything about it?” I asked.

“Jade lion cannot leave Other Side. Where you take it?”

“I didn’t take it anywhere!” I protested.

“This elf symbol. You, stinking elf, where you take it?”

Killian leaned forward, “On my family’s honor, we had no knowledge of this theft. This fair lady and I, we wish to restore it to its proper place. But we do not know who stole it or what it even is.”

“You get it back!” Xiaoming barked. “I tell you where it go.”

I gave him a sideways glance, “If you weren’t a friend of Father Killarney, I’d like to tell you where to go.”

He glared back at me, “I the only one who know the truth of jade lion.”

“Obviously not the only one. We’ve got vampires and elves and really shitty extended family after it, too.

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