THE CHINESE PEACH
by Lynn K. Hollander
Chapter 2 - The Usual Suspects
Barzilai put on his backpack and climbed up the cargo net. Just below the rim of the hold, he stopped and listened. The Sunnydale docks were not silent, docks rarely were, but there were no unexpected noises. He gained the deck and crossed it to the far side of the ship, the one away from the gangplank.
He lowered himself down to his little boat and unshipped the oars. Cautiously, he released the sleep spell he had cast on the ship; then he rowed north, towards the upper arm of the sheltering bay. When he was far enough away, he started the small outboard motor.
The motor was not small enough to remain unnoticed. The wizard coming up the gangplank heard it. He paid no attention to it at the moment, but descended to the hold.
***
Xander entered the Magic Box carrying a copy of the Sunnydale Evening Gazette. "Gore," he announced with great relish.
"Still?" Giles asked.
"And mayhem," Xander elaborated. "Sort of like the beginning of The Usual Suspects, down at the docks this afternoon. The crew of the La Garza, all dead. Docked late yesterday, dead today."
"'The la' is a lousy locution," Spike said.
Xander ignored Spike and handed the paper to Giles. Spike got up and, looking over Giles's shoulder, read the very short report. "Everybody," the vampire said. "Including the refugees being smuggled in shipping containers."
"Natural causes, though, Xander," Giles said.
"You believe that?" Xander asked.
"In Sunnydale? Certainly not. We're obviously dealing with that old standby, the hither-to-unknown-to-science poison."
"Or," Dawn said, "it could be one of the really bad curses, like in Harry Potter, couldn't it?"
"There aren't any witches that strong in Sunnydale," Willow said. "Except us, and Ann, and of course Filis, Siride, Beroule and the others, but they're not really witches. Ann isn't either, of course."
"But if she came in on the boat," Tara said, "she wouldn't live here. She'd just arrive, kill everyone around her, then leave, maybe."
"That bad a spell will leave echoes," Willow said. "We could scry; that's safe."
"Is there a picture of the boat?" Tara asked.
"Yes," Giles said.
"Scrying is passive?" Spike asked. "Not like radar?"
"What do you know about radar?" Xander asked.
"I watch JAG," the vampire said. "If the killer might be a witch, you two should be careful. We don't want some irate and powerful hag out for your blood because you were spying on her."
"I'll be cautious," Willow said.
The two Witches spread the paper out on the table. Willow opened her back pack and removed a large crystal ball which she placed on the picture of the ship.
"Is that one of Ann's?" Giles asked.
"No, I got it at the professional outlet in Pike Place Market in Seattle. Ann's crystals don't really work for anyone but her."
"They're too powerful," Tara said. "Ann can control them, but we can't."
"The phones?" Spike asked.
"She's told them to be phones, they're still doing what she wants them to do," Tara said. "Even Willow can't change that."
"Monstras," Willow said. The crystal turned black. "Privacy spell. I can handle that," Willow said.
"No," Tara said, and lifted the sphere off the picture. The sphere cleared at once. "I know you can disperse it, but that's like throwing a rock through a window."
"You're right," Willow said, reluctantly. "I think we can assume a witch, a very strong witch, is involved."
"You were quick," Spike said. "Did we get noticed?"
"I don't think so. What I said about scrying is true, it's passive. The privacy spell, that's more serious. It can be an active detector, even if I don't scatter it. I don't think I impinged on it."
"I don't think anyone was there," Tara said. "I think it was like a sign on an empty house."
"You two don't do anymore about this," Giles said. "Tara, where are your guardians?"
"Outside, in the Saturn," Tara said. "They're a lot more intrusive than Ann is. I didn't know how good I had it."
"Invite them in, and we'll explain the situation," Giles said.
***
"You what?" Filis demanded.
Spike handed her the paper.
"Was it that magician Gang Long knows?" Filis asked. "The one Beroule told us to look out for?" She handed the paper to Thierry.
"I don't know. We'll have to ask him. I got the impression he was a nuisance rather than a real threat, though."
Thierry glanced at the article and said, "I read this earlier. I thought it was human gangsters."
"We're not sure," Tara said. "We scried, using the crystal, and found there was a privacy spell around the boat. We backed off."
"But," Giles said, "we wanted you to know."
"In case we were noticed," Willow said.
"Did you sense anything last night?" Spike asked.
"Yes, of course I did, it's Sunnydale," Filis said. "The place is lousy with demons and vampires, plots and counter-plots. I didn't detect anything out of the ordinary. For one thing, the docks are on the other side of town from Ann's place. Maybe Lian and Siride did, they were at the Rosenberg house."
"They didn't mention anything when we relieved them. We'll assume you were noticed," Thierry said.
Tara sighed. "All right."
"If you want to go out, we'll go to San Francisco or Seattle."
"No, we'll just go home, OK, Willow?"
"Sure. I need to water Mom's roses anyway. House-sitting for your own parents is complicated. You feel so responsible, and yet so put upon."
"It works out really well--the dorm is closed, we're living at your house, and we have the extra bedrooms for the extra people we need to shelter, and I didn't have to go to the Philippines with Ann."
"The Philippines might have been interesting--"
"Considering the riots this spring, perhaps not," Giles said.
"--but my parents wouldn't have agreed at all, Anyway, we get to eat all the tomatoes we want."
"I'm just glad I'm not taking any summer classes," Tara said. "Well, except for the spell studies."
"I wish I weren't," Dawn said.
"You like the art class," Willow said.
"I made Giles a mug," Dawn said. "It gets its final firing tonight. It's blue."
"I look forward to using it," Giles said.
Tara, Willow and Tara's guards left.
"Willow left her back pack," Xander said.
"That's mine," Dawn said. "Tara bought us each one, but Anya doesn't like hers."
"Anya's just getting used to having ID and carrying a purse," Xander said. "She'll move up to back packs in a while."
"Let's go home, Dawn. Señora Rivera is doing that salad with the alligator pears," Giles said.
"Alligator what?" Xander asked.
"Avocados," Dawn said. "He gets so English sometimes."
As Dawn and Giles left, Anya arrived.
"Hey, honey," Xander said.
"We have no customers," the ex-demon said. "Why have we no customers?"
"Relax," Spike said. "We're about to get the after dinner crowd."
"Why are you hanging around?" Xander asked.
"I was thinking of going up to Ann's by way of the docks."
"You mean you're going to drive the Viper, a strongly magical artifact complete with fake ID, to a crime scene which is covered by a privacy spell cast by a very strong witch and which is probably still of interest to most of the Sunnydale police?"
"I was going to walk."
"Let's take the Xander-mobile. It's not much, but it's not magic, it's legal, and it does go faster than you can run."
"I can run pretty damn fast, Harris."
***
"Interesting," Spike said. "I don't want to go closer."
"Yeah."
"A repelling spell."
"I'm repelled."
"They're not," Spike said, indicating the crime scene technicians, still busy on the docks, the surrounding streets, and in and on the ship. "Do you and I feel it because we already know magic is involved or simply because we don't have a good reason for being here?"
"I'm getting really repelled," Xander said.
"Let's go around," the vampire said. "See if we can figure out the limits of the spell."
"OK."
***
"The spell boundary was mostly round--"
"Probably spherical," Spike said, entering the front door of the Magic Box.
"--even if we didn't get to explore out on the harbor," Xander said, following him in. "Hey, how could we tell if it were spherical or just round, just a circle?"
"Practically, it calls for levitation, I suppose."
"That doesn't sound all that practical, you know. "
"We'll get Willow to cast one in a multi-storey building, somewhere in the middle. You be on ground level and try walking up, and I'll be at the top and try walking down."
"OK, that is practical, but I'll be at the top and try walking down," Xander said. "Anya!"
Spike looked around. The shop seemed empty.
"Anya!" Xander called again. He ducked into the side office.
Spike went into the lower level. Anya was there, on the floor and starting to sit up. "Harris!" Spike called, going to the girl and making her lie back down. "Take it easy."
"Anya!"
"I hate being hit," the ex-demon said.
"Who?" Xander asked.
"Some human."
"I don't hear anyone," Spike said, standing up.
"He came in the back, I heard him, and he hit me as I went in."
"I'll check," Spike said, heading for the training room.
Giles hadn't changed anything, but then he also hadn't entered it after Buffy's death. The room didn't mean as much to Spike, who hadn't spent as much time with the Slayer here. He passed through it frequently after parking the Viper out back. The back door was open.
Spike looked around, then shut and locked the door. Coming back to the store proper, he looked behind the counter, then went upstairs to the bookcases. No one. He returned to the others..
"So were you really out, Anya? That's a bad bump."
"No one's here," Spike said. "Her eyes are the same size, which is good. Do you want to take her to the emergency room?"
"I think I will," Xander said.
"Spike, can you close up? Do you know how?"
"Anya, you've shown me how three times; I think I've got it."
"Oh, and would you pick up Filis from Willow's and take her back to Ann's? Thierry called. He's staying at Willow's tonight and wants to keep the car so he can get back in the morning."
"Sure, no problem."
"And call Giles and tell him, will you?" Xander said.
"Sure." Spike opened doors for them, and helped Anya into the car. Returning to the shop, he called Giles, who expressed concern and left for the emergency room at once. Spike performed the necessary rituals to end a commercial day, then locked the front door, turned off all the lights, then let himself out the back door and locked it.
Spike concentrated on extracting the Viper from the back parking lot without scratching the paint. He knew Ann's paint jobs were hard to mar, but he liked his car. He drove to the Rosenberg house, parked in front, and went up to the door.
Thierry opened it at his knock. "Hi, Spike. Thanks for the help. Beroule wants me to sleep down here tonight."
"I thought all you Alves ported around like Ann and Gang Long. I know Berengar does."
"With those two it's innate. We have to learn it, and I haven't yet, but then I'm only eighty-three. Also, it costs you, really wears you out, even Berengar, but that gets better as you age, too. Are you going to come in?"
"Can't. Willow never got around to inviting me. I do need to talk to her and you, though."
"Oh, Gang Long says he doesn't think Barzilai is a mass murderer."
"Well, it would have been too simple to solve the problem first try. Too bad, I really dislike the guy."
Thierry left the door open as he went upstairs, saying, "Vampires have it inconvenient at times, don't you?"
"There are drawbacks," Spike admitted.
Thierry, Beroule, Filis and Willow came down the stairs. "Sorry, Spike," Willow said. "Come in."
"Thanks. Somebody got into the back room at the shop and whacked Anya on the head. Xander took her off to the emergency room, but she looked reasonably OK I just want you to know because it's another weird thing."
"And in a place we go frequently," Willow said.
"Exactly," said the vampire.
***
"I wanted to see if the repelling spell was still working. I can ask a friend about the police reports, but I like to see what they're talking about."
"You have a friend on the police force?" Filis asked.
"It's not that direct, but yeah. Feel anything?"
"No."
"This was the boundary earlier this evening. Let's go toward the dock."
"Now I do."
"I don't," said Spike.
"It's real faint."
"Human? Demon?"
"I can't tell. I can go forward."
"We'll leave the Viper here. We'll stop any time it bothers you."
"I'm fine."
Quietly, they walked toward the ship.
"Watchman," Spike said softly.
Filis nodded. "Just a minute, let me look."
"Privacy spell," Spike said.
"Hey, it's me." Spike looked wary and she elaborated: "I'm not violating the privacy spell. Willow wanted to go through it, I'm just looking at it, at its outside." She put her hand over her right eye. "OK. We have four spells here. Don't worry, they're all transparent, like colored bubbles inside each other. I can look at them all, and not jiggle the privacy spell. Well, actually we have two spells and the remains of two others. The repelling spell is still active, but fading. Then there are the echoes of a nasty death spell. The privacy spell is still active, and fading at a different rate from the repelling spell. I can also detect the remains of a sleep spell.. That's backwards, the sleep spell was cast first and the repelling spell last. At least two casters, both human, mostly human? One's human. The other is human, but different? I can't tell definitely about that, sorry."
"Neat trick with the eye, I wish I could learn it. Can you port us on board?"
"I can do either that or sleep the watchman. Hey," Filis said as Spike glanced sidelong at her, "I'm nearly forty years younger than you are. It wasn't even legal for me to enlist. I'll get better as I get older."
"We all do," Spike said. "I can't even do that much. Can you drive the Viper?"
"I don't know if it will let me. Ann said it was your car."
"It will. Take the key, and my wallet. How long will he stay asleep?"
"Depends. At least twenty minutes."
"When I say so, sleep the watchman, then go back to the Viper and move it to where you can see the ship. If I have to go over the side, I'll swim north. You get out of here and also go north, then west along the point. Aim the headlights south, back this way. I'll come ashore up there, or I'll come down the gangway."
"That's one long swim, Spike. Will you be all right?"
"Vampires don't drown, remember."
"Right. OK. I can do all that. You sure this will work?"
"Yes. Take my coat, too," Spike said, taking the small flashlight out of the interior pocket. "Now, sleep him." When Filis nodded, Spike went up the gangway.
***
Down in the hold, Spike looked around. The light from his tiny flashlight was enough for him to see the rows of containers filling the hold. He found the container where the refugees had died--the chalk outlines of the bodies were still present, as were the bedding and the basic sanitary arrangements. There was an outline of a body across the doorway. The wide doors had been swung open when the death spell had been cast. Spike didn't know if that was interesting or not. The bedding was all folded, not open. Perhaps the refugees had been getting ready to disembark. There were baskets and suitcases on the floor, some shoved back against the sides of the container, others inside outlines. All the baskets and suitcases were neatly closed and tied. No personal effects were left loose in the container.
He read the papers glued to the outside of some of the other containers. The refugees' container seemed to be the only one intended to be unloaded at Sunnydale, or maybe it was the only one left.
Spike looked around. He wished he had Ann's inner clock. If his time limit wasn't up, it was pretty close. He climbed the cargo net and walked off the ship.
***
"So what did you learn?"
Briefly, he told her, ending, "So I'll ask Paterson what he knows."
"No robbery? Just murder?"
"That's what it looked like. Everyone just lay down and died, or maybe died and lay down. Most of the disarray seemed to be caused by the police and coroners, afterwards."
***
In the Viper, on the way back to Ann's, Filis said, "Spike, are you seeing someone?"
"In what sense?" he said repressively.
"Are you sleeping with anyone?" Filis persevered.
"Why do you ask?"
"There were roses in the refrigerator when I went upstairs to change my clothes. When I came back down to the kitchen for some food and wine, they were gone. So were you. I assumed you were calling on a woman and had taken them with you."
"Not bad. Again, why do you ask?"
"Ann said you were grieving and we--Siride and I--were not to bother you. In fact she got pretty graphic about what she'd do to me, if I bothered you right now, but if you were no longer in mourning, I wondered if you were free."
"Living with people who can reason is occasionally awkward. The roses were for a lady, but I came back to Ann's and slept there. Alone. I'm not done grieving, and most of the time, I can't see an end to it."