Eye of a Little God by A.J. Steiger

Author:A.J. Steiger [Steiger, A.J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Severn House
Published: 2023-10-09T00:00:00+00:00

SIXTEEN

The next morning, Eddie sits in a cramped office, in front of a cheap yellow pine desk covered with overflowing ashtrays. Sunlight slants through the blinds. He watches as a bored-looking, balding, ginger-haired policeman leafs through the notebook. Officer Peter Daniels, says the nameplate on his desk.

Officer Daniels closes the notebook. ‘You said you found this in the woods. After hearing a gunshot. You saw a woman, but she ran off before you could talk to her.’

‘That’s right.’

‘And this was what—a week ago?’

‘Almost ten days now.’

Daniels takes a sip from the mug of coffee on his desk, which is decorated with an image of an orange cartoon cat, smiling slyly with half-lidded, mocking, entropic eyes. ‘I’m not really clear on what you want me to do with this information.’

‘That’s up to you. It’s your job to deal with this stuff.’

‘This stuff meaning what? As far as we know, no crime has been committed. Firing a gun in the woods isn’t a crime. As for this, it’s—uh—’ he flips through it again, turning it sideways and upside-down. ‘I don’t know what I’m looking at, really. I don’t know what I’m supposed to make of this. Bird-women? Snake demons? All this … cowboy stuff?’

Eddie was prepared for the possibility that they wouldn’t take him seriously—expected it, more or less—but the man’s tone still rankles him. ‘Maybe you missed the last page. The one filled top to bottom with the words “help me”.’

‘It’s too vague. We don’t know what the situation is.’ He sets the notebook down. ‘Did you actually see her drop the notebook?’

‘No. I found it after she ran away. But it’d be a hell of a coincidence if she wasn’t the one who dropped it.’

‘Finding objects on the ground isn’t that uncommon.’

Just get up and walk away, Eddie thinks. This is him surrendering his quest, laying down his sword and shield. Isn’t that what he decided? He’s handing it off to the experts.

Maybe he would’ve been able to do that if the man was a little less audacious in his indifference. It’s the cat mug, Eddie thinks—the knowing, smug expression on the little beast’s face. He has seen this cat before. It smiles at him from newspapers, from store windows. It feels to him like a herald of the coming darkness, one of the Four Horsemen of kitsch.

‘Are you going to do anything about this or not?’ Eddie asks.

Daniels spreads his large, soft hands in a helpless gesture. ‘I’m just trying to understand.’

Eddie wonders if the problem is with himself. Maybe he’s not properly communicating the situation. When he first saw the notebook the urgency of it felt so real to him, so self-evident, and that impression stuck. But then, he was in the woods at night, under the influence of sedatives. Maybe it looks different under the bright buzz of fluorescent lights, in a cramped office with filing cabinets overflowing with papers.

He leans forward, trying to pour his conviction into his eyes. Officer Daniels leans back a little. ‘She was terrified,’ Eddie says.

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