O’Toole House Chapter 18
Gabriella ended up spending the night. James didn’t come back out of his room, but she was tired enough to fall asleep on the couch after a little while, waking up to silence a few times during the night.
She woke up for good at seven and was encouraged to see James in the kitchen, eating toast at the table. As she got up, he turned. He didn’t quite smile, but gestured toward his plate. “Do you want breakfast?”
“I’ve got it,” she said.
She made herself some toast and sat down at the table with him. He was looking out the glass patio door at the cameras that were hanging on the railing, aimed into the kitchen.
“Did you guys buy those?” she asked.
They weren’t for birds, she knew that. They’d been for Adele, who had attempted to get into James’s apartment multiple times before disappearing off the face of the earth.
“Those ones are Bradley’s,” James said. “He lent them to us so that…”
He took a sharp breath. “I need to get them back to him, but I don’t know when he’ll be here.”
“You could just text and check,” Gabriella suggested.
“No.”
“Why not?” she asked. “There’s nothing to be afraid of. It’s just Bradley, is anyone afraid of him?”
She wasn’t afraid of him. She just found him intimidating sometimes. But James, and especially Bradley, didn’t need to know that.
“I’ll talk to him later,” James said, waving her off.
“He’d probably like to hear from you.”
Was it the wrong thing to say? Because now James’s eyes were bright and he looked like he might throw up what little he’d eaten.
“What?”
“I tried to kill him,” he said, looking out at the cameras that were watching him.
“I know.”
“No, I mean I tried to get him to come to headquarters so I could kill him.”
Gabriella was actually a little astonished that he was telling her this. “But it wasn’t-”
“I texted him,” James interrupted. “I told him there was an emergency and I needed him. But I was going to kill him when he got there. It’s still in there, Gabs.”
Finally, something she had a solution for. “I’ll take care of it,” she said. “Give me your phone.”
James frowned, but went to the counter, got his phone, opened it, and handed it to her anyway. Gabriella went to his contacts, ignoring the way the phone case reeked of weed, and pulled up his conversation with Bradley.
There it was, though that text wasn’t the most recent thing there. Like Gabriella, Bradley had texted him a few times since then and James hadn’t responded. She scrolled up just enough to find it.
JAMES
Come to headquarters, it’s an emergency. I need you.
She forced herself not to shudder, instead smoothly deleting the message from their chat. Then she permanently deleted it from his phone. “Done,” she said. “Let me just check real quick…”
She went back into his texts with Bradley and started to scroll again. She wasn’t actually trying to read any of them, just make sure that anything James sent while under Adele’s influence was gone. It all appeared to be, but she was slightly distracted by the messages anyway.
“James, do you guys just keep fighting over text after you get home from work?”
James looked at her and she realized he was already a little high. “What?”
“You and Bradley,” she said. “Look at this. When you get done fighting with him all day at work, do you just, like, go home, turn on some music, grab a beer, and start fighting with him over text?”
He laughed slightly and she felt triumphant as she handed him back his phone. “It’s all set,” she said. “Ask him about his bird cameras.”
“I’ll just…”
“James, it’s just Bradley. Ask about the cameras.”
As she watched, he sent a quick message, then set his phone down. “Good?” she asked with a smile.
He nodded, though he didn’t look particularly good. “I’m going to go back to bed,” he said. “Love you.”
“Love you too.”
She itched to hug him, but when he awkwardly touched her shoulder, then jerked his hand back, she took it as a win.
***
Gabriella got to work a little while later. James had been asleep in his room when she’d peeked in, so she’d portioned out some soup for him and left a note on the counter before walking over to work.
Bradley was in his usual spot at the computer bank when she got there, with Fang sleeping on the empty desk across from him. “We’re on O’Toole all morning,” he said. “And probably this afternoon. Though I have other shit to do, so some of it will be just you.”
“That’s fine,” she said. “Did James text you?”
Bradley looked away from his computer and frowned suspiciously at her. “Yeah,” he said. “How’d you know?”
“Because I basically walked him through it. He was struggling. That message he sent you when Adele was controlling him, when he tried to get you to come to headquarters?”
“Yeah, I remember.”
Of course he did. Why was she such an idiot? “I deleted it for him,” Gabriella said. “I got rid of it and then he was able to text you about the cameras. Do you…” How was she supposed to even word this? “Do you still have it?”
“Have what?”
“The text.”
“No. Why would I hang onto it?”
“I just mean, if you hadn’t deleted it yet. I didn’t think you had it fucking framed.”
Bradley paused, clearly thrown off guard. Then he laughed and shook his head. “You are such an asshole,” he said, still laughing as he turned back to his computer. “Everyone thinks you’re so sweet and you’re a fucking asshole.”
Gabriella sat down at her own station and checked her email on her phone as the computer started updating. “I deleted it right after we got him out of the tub,” Bradley said after a minute.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah, it wasn’t him. I wasn’t going to keep that as a reminder, it was unnecessary.”
He paused for a second. “Plus it scared the hell out of me.”
Bradley stayed where he was, not typing, not doing anything but looking into the distance somewhere over Gabriella’s shoulder.
“Are you okay?” she asked after a moment.
“Yeah,” he said, shaking his head slightly. “Scariest day of my life. I’ll go get those cameras if and when I ever get out of work.”
***
An hour later, Gabriella could tell that Amelia was truly unsure how to handle the fact that they had two cases at the O’Toole House now instead of one.
“I originally thought I’d send both of you together,” she said as they sat in a staff meeting that was only the three of them, since Graham wasn’t in until noon and Madelyn was off. “But we have so much piling up. So I’m thinking maybe one of you takes the house with Mrs. Bana and one of you takes the demon deal with Mr. Bana.”
Gabriella glanced at Bradley. Neither of those seemed like his strong suit. “How long do you think the house will take?” Amelia asked Bradley.
He considered for a moment. “Forty minutes,” he said. “If it’s just readings. Though if O’Toole and his demons are still there, then that’ll throw everything off with determining Bana’s situation.”
“Let’s take the readings first,” Gabriella said. “We should both go together since neither Bana is at the house. But if it seems like a longer thing, then maybe we split it up? Otherwise, I feel like both of these are ideally two person jobs.”
She thought maybe she’d overstepped, but both of them seemed to seriously consider what she’d said. “We have both of you all day, so that could work,” Amelia said. “Elliot is taking the overnight tonight with Riley.”
“Holy shit,” Bradley muttered.
“Whatever,” Amelia said with an annoyed flick of her hand. “I’ll talk to her, I will. But I just can’t right now. She’s coming in so I can go home and sleep for a little while, but maybe I’ll just get some of these reports done so I don’t have to deal with them. Or I could talk to her tonight and-”
“No, you need to go home and sleep.”
Maybe now she had overstepped because Amelia turned to her with raised eyebrows. Gabriella’s face went warm. But no, she was in now, she might as well keep going.
“You’re it until James gets back,” she continued, aware that maybe she’d get in trouble, but not too concerned about that fact right now in the face of Amelia’s fatigue. “I’m not saying that I expect you to get eight hours of sleep, eat healthy, and feel great. But…” Gabriella hesitated, choosing her words carefully. “Everything with Adele we obviously couldn’t have predicted. But even before that, James was sleeping, like, two hours a night. We all talked about how he was going to crash at some point and he did. And none of us want to see the same thing happen to you because you’re taking on the enormous burden they put on him, along with the burden of becoming captain in an emergency.”
Amelia was looking at her with an unreadable expression on her face. Gabriella waited for her to yell, but continued to find herself not too concerned.
“Especially with Madelyn gone next week,” she added.
Amelia continued to look at her for a long moment and Gabriella held her eye, aware of Bradley watching them. “I want to be mad at you so bad,” Amelia admitted finally.
“It’s a common feeling.”
To Gabriella’s relief, Amelia laughed. “Fine,” she relented. “I’ll go home.”
“And sleep?”
“And sleep.”
“And-”
“Don’t push it.”
Now Gabriella laughed and Amelia smiled and shook her head. “Alright,” she said. “How about you two go check the house now, I’ll stay on comms with you, and then we’ll reassess.”
***
The readings at the O’Toole House were completely clear. “So Bana’s demon is out, which makes sense if it’s latched onto him,” Gabriella said as she wrapped up scanning the final section of the cellar. “And he better not be at the same hotel as his family.”
“He’s not,” Bradley said. “He made sure to tell me multiple times.”
He sat down on an overturned bucket and started fiddling with his comms unit, which had stopped working as they walked into the basement. He didn’t look sick, which Gabriella took as further proof that the demon wasn’t there. But that left them a puzzle regarding O’Toole’s demons.
She wandered over to the hole in the wall by the dryer. The energy readings had been intense here, but now they were silent except for a few meaningless blips as she walked the length of the cellar.
“I can’t find any solid proof about what happened to O’Toole though,” she said to Bradley and Amelia as she ran the sensor up the stone wall. “That’s what’s getting me here. Did he get eaten and then his demons just kind of left? You’d think that if they had this place in their grasp, they’d hang onto it.”
“O’Toole didn’t summon any demons. The fire was caused by rags.”
Gabriella stopped, then turned to Bradley. “How do you know that?”
He looked up from the malfunctioning comms unit. “Know what?”
“That O’Toole never managed to summon any demons.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You just said that O’Toole didn’t summon anything here.”
“No I didn’t.”
“No, but that…” Gabriella trailed off, looking around the damp cellar. “He tried to summon them and fucked up, maybe? And then coincidentally there was a fire that killed those particular neighbors and he…what, turned into mist? How do you know? Did you find anything? I’ve had no luck, so I was thinking about going to the Foundation archive in Boston and seeing what they have there. So maybe…”
Bradley stared at her as she spoke half to him and half to herself. “I have no idea what you’re fucking talking about.”
“Just a minute ago. You told me that O’Toole didn’t successfully summon anything and the fire that killed the neighbors was a fluke.”
“You did,” Amelia said over Bradley’s now-functional comms.
“I heard it too,” Graham said from somewhere just beyond her.
Bradley didn’t respond, he just scowled and stuck his comms in his pocket. “Let’s just get this done so we can go interview Demon Dad again.”
Gabriella sent the last set of readings back to Amelia. “I could keep going if you want, but everything has been clear so far,” she said.
“That’s fine,” Amelia answered. “You said something about going to Boston? Let’s talk about that before I leave.”
As they got back to the van, Bradley was silent while Gabriella got in the driver’s seat and pulled away from the house.
“What is it you’re so afraid of?” she asked.
As expected, he ignored her.
Gabriella wasn’t actually surprised to see Bradley come in the door. Sure, it was his first day off in a week, but Amelia must have told him what had happened. She’d been in the bedroom with James for a little while now, since shortly after Dr. Oliver and Graham helped him back there.
Gabriella had punched Adele. Maybe it was a risk, maybe this woman’s powers oozed out of her fucking skin. But the way she’d been talking about James, the way she’d talked about controlling him, how she’d wanted a hot guy to do whatever she told him to. How she’d told him to kill specific members of the team and driven him to a breaking point Gabriella hadn’t even realized was there.
She’d snapped. And yeah, she’d split her knuckles on Adele’s teeth. Whatever. She’d just grabbed a little ointment and gauze from the first aid kit and wrapped them up, it was fine.
But she felt things break under her fist and that felt good. Maybe Adele was spitting out teeth as she ran away into the pouring rain.
Bradley was soaking wet as he came up the stairs, not bothering to kick off his shoes. “Where is he?” he asked.
“Out back,” Gabriella said. “Amelia’s with him.”
“Is he okay?”
“No,” she said, swallowing around the glass that was suddenly in her throat. “He, um, she told him to kill certain people and she was able to make him forget, but still do it. And he remembered.”
“What do you mean?”
Each word hurt as she said them. “I mean, she gave him specific instructions to kill um, Amelia. And Madelyn. And, um…”
He watched her expectantly, as though he didn’t know where this was going. “And you,” Gabriella finished finally.
Apparently Bradley didn’t know where this was going, because he looked like she’d just hit him. “He remembered,” she continued. “And he just…broke. Dr. Oliver sedated him, he’s asleep now.”
Bradley nodded, still stunned. “He’s out back?” he asked.
“Yeah.”
Bradley hurried down the hall, going straight into the gray bedroom. Apparently he wasn’t concerned about getting killed. Gabriella stayed where she was, staring down at her injured hand.
There were footsteps a few minutes later and she looked up to see Bradley coming back into the living room, toweling off his dripping hair. He didn’t say anything until he was sitting next to her on the couch.
“What happened to yours?” he asked, nodding toward her hand.
“I broke her nose.”
“Good.”
She went into the kitchen to put some coffee on, tossing some extra grounds into the filter before she brewed it. As she waited for it to finish, she stood in the doorway, staring down at the front door as though Adele was going to knock again. When she tore her gaze away from it and up toward the living room, Bradley was still sitting on the couch. Alone in the room, he was staring out the window as he wiped his eyes.
