Read Online Shadows Fall by J.K. Hogan - Free Book Online

their stories. I already cared about him, though we’d only known each other for a short while, so I knew I’d have to try.
    “That’s awful,” I whispered impotently. What could I, a young coffee shop owner afraid of the shadows that followed me, say to this man? In a way, we were the same, he and I. We both confronted death and sorrow on a daily basis—he in the living world, and me beyond the veil. Maybe we could help each other, if only I could find a way for us to do so without him finding out what a freak I was.
    “Yes, it is. We’re just waiting for him to slip up, to give us something—anything—to go on. There are still blood samples and drug tests to come back, but I’m not hopeful.” Charlie rubbed his big hands over his face and into his straw-colored hair. “Jesus Christ, I changed my mind. Let’s not talk about this anymore… let’s talk about anything else.”
    I let a wry smile twist my lips. “I could tell you about my current worry.”
    “Please do.”
    “My grandmother is coming to visit me.”
    “Your grandmother? I thought you were estranged from your family.”
    “Oh I am. I’m marime to them—impure, unclean, outcast.”
    “God, that’s appalling.”
    I shrugged. It was something I’d been raised with, part of the Rom culture. “I was taught that nothing comes above the community. Religious beliefs among the Rom are sporadic and varied to suit our purposes, mainly because the Rom—the people—are the religion. Anything done to pollute the blood or the body is wrong, as is anything that doesn’t further the continuing survival and procreation of the people. Obviously, homosexuality falls under that particular umbrella.”
    “But you can’t help who you are.”
    “My people view homosexuality neither as something you’re born with nor a choice that you make. It’s just something you do, an act, like stealing or adultery. As with many things to them, marriage is the cure. If I had agreed to marry a nice Romany girl, I could have stayed.”
    Charlie gave me a long, intense look and I wondered what was behind it. “Wouldn’t that have been… I don’t know, easier? To play house with some girl, but still get to keep your family, your life?”
    Oh, that poor, delusional, closeted man. I knew he was looking for absolution, for someone to tell him that he was right for protecting himself, for keeping his true nature hidden. I couldn’t do it, but I wouldn’t condemn him for it.
    “We all do whatever we need to do to survive, Charlie. I found that I couldn’t survive without love—without ever feeling attraction to another human being on which I was allowed to act. I couldn’t survive without my free will, and I couldn’t live with the social and moral blackmail of it all. So when they told me to leave, I did.”
    His eyes had taken on a faraway quality as I’d been talking. He swallowed convulsively, blinked, and licked his lips. When he looked at me, the depth of the loneliness I saw in his eyes consumed me. I reached out and placed my hand over his. “What do you need to survive, Charlie?”
    He leaned forward across the table, opened his mouth as if he might answer me. Then his phone rang. We both jumped as Carry On Wayward Son rang out from his pocket. I laughed at us and he smiled, pulling his phone out and checking the caller I.D. “It’s my partner. I have to take this. Will you stay?”
    “Sure, I’ve got nowhere to be. I kinda work here,” I assured him with a wink, and watched him answer the call.
    “Hey Sonny… They’re ready for us? No, no I’m just getting coffee… Sure, yes. Okay, I’ll meet you there.”
    As he ended the call, Charlie gave me a weary, regretful look. “I’ve got to go back to work. Our latest victim’s family is ready to be interviewed.”
    “Charlie, if I’m guessing correctly, you’ve been up all night. Shouldn’t you get some rest first?”
    He sighed, already pushing back his chair to stand. “I definitely could