Night Call (Book 2): Demon Dei by L.J. Hayward Page A

pretty much said I would take the case and upon reflection, that decision might have been influenced, in a small measure, by Erin’s certainty that it wasn’t my sort of deal. Yeah, that touch of guilt I felt for Ivan suffering because of me played a part, too, but neither of them were sterling reasons for taking a case I should probably have left to the professionals.
    Shoving that conundrum to the side, I went onto the next potential disaster. “Who’s our local ghost expert?”
    Jacob whistled. “Imps, murders and ghosts. What aren’t you dipping your fingers in lately? Um, ghosts. Your best bet would be Tobias Waldbridge over at the St Lucia campus of UQ. In the history department. I’ll give him a call.”
    The ghost expert didn’t answer his phone and with little else to fill the rest of my day, I decided to spring a surprise visit on him.
    I boogied on over to St Lucia and the University of Queensland campus there, found the Michie Building and parked illegally as close as I could get to the front doors. There was no one manning the information desk, so I dinged the bell a couple of times and tried not flatten the poor thing.
    A minute or so later, a girl trundled out of a room and smiled at me. “Can I help you?”
    “I’m after Tobias Waldbridge. I need to talk to him.”
    Her smile turned a little vague. “Tobias…?”
    “Waldbridge. I was told he worked here. This is the history department, isn’t it?”
    “And philosophy, religions and classics, yes. But I don’t know any Professor Waldbridge.”
    I was going to throttle Jacob. “Maybe he’s new. Is there any way you can check for me?”
    “Give me a minute.” She went back into her room with more speed than which she’d left it. Her haste left the door open slightly and I could hear her talking. “Do we have a Tobias Waldbridge on staff?”
    Whoever else was in there with her didn’t speak very loud. I couldn’t make out any response.
    “There’s a man here looking for him.” A short pause. “I don’t know. Average. Bit cranky. Seems pretty anxious to find this person.” A longer pause. “Yeah, I guess.”
    There was a lot of silence for a long time. I started to think they’d brushed me off. About to go knock on the door, she spoke again.
    “Really? Wow, that’s strange. I’ll page him then.”
    After a moment, she trotted back out to me. “Found him for you. I just paged him. He shouldn’t be long.” She turned and went back into her room, closing the door completely this time.
    This day was shaping up to be about normal.
    Five minutes later, I sat down to wait. Five minutes after that, I pressed my face against a window to see if my car had been towed yet. Still there. Five minutes further and someone clattered down the stairs at the back of the foyer.
    Maybe I have high expectations or something, but when I’m sent to find an expert on a given subject at a university, I’m kind of inclined to think professor or PhD student or something. Tobias wasn’t any of those things. I knew because his name was stitched over the pocket on his dark-blue work overalls. He also carried a mop and a bucket.
    Tobias was probably my age, a bit heavier around the middle and completely unremarkable. Brown hair, brown eyes, round face. You’d look past him even in a crowd of fair haired, blue eyed people when you were looking specifically for dark hair and eyes.
    “You the guy looking for me?” He came to a stop well within my personal space.
    “I think so. You’re the ghost expert?”
    His face split into a wide, totally gleeful grin. “Sure am.” He juggled mop and bucket to free a hand. “Pleased to meet a fellow aficionado.”
    I took his hand. “Ah, not an aficionado. More like an interested novice. I’m Matt Hawkins.”
    Tobias goggled at me. “The Matt Hawkins? No joke?”
    “No joke.” Dear Lord. I was famous.
    “Hey, this is great. Afzal’s told me a bit about you.” He spun around with boundless energy and started