“I’m having a very strange moment here, Coop,” Giselle muttered.

“Me, too,” he said. He looked at Qaphsiel. “Let’s back up a minute. You’re an angel who just happened to stumble into this apartment—”

“I didn’t stumble in. As I said, the door was open, so I—”

“I mean, you were just strolling by and decided to come up?”

“No. I’ve been looking for you.”

“Why?”

“The box.”

Coop and Giselle looked at each other again.

“Coop is right,” she said. “We’ve seen a lot of funny things recently. How do we know you’re an angel?”

Qaphsiel thought for a moment. He’d forgotten about how hard it was for modern mortals to accept the concept of celestial creatures walking among them. The extent of their imaginations seemed limited to the certainty that cats were the best animals, extraterrestrials actually existed, Jim Morrison and Amelia Earhart were still alive and an item in Paris, and reptile people from the center of the Earth controlled all world governments. Only one of those things was true, but try explaining that to mortals. It didn’t help, Qaphsiel knew, that he was trying to prove his divinity in cheap plastic sandals and a used college jacket, all while sinking slowly into a beanbag chair. “Well, I just blew up someone,” he said. “That was a pretty good trick.”

Coop shook his head. “Not good enough.”

“All right,” said Qaphsiel. He stood and took off his jacket, letting his wings unfurl from his sides. In a voice that shook the whole house he said, “How’s this?”

“Pretty good. Especially the voice. Please don’t do it again,” said Coop. “I’m not saying I buy the angel thing, but you saved our asses and that makes you okay for the time being. Why don’t you put your jacket back on? You’re getting some Eddie on your wings.”

Qaphsiel looked and, sure enough, there were red smudges on the tops and ends of his wings. “I don’t suppose you have a shower?” he said.

“Can we do this somewhere else?” said Giselle, rubbing her nose. “The smell is a little strong in here.”

“I can make the remains go away, if you’d like,” said Qaphsiel. “Would that help?”

“If you can make Eddie go away, why did you give us cleanup money?” said Coop.

The angel shrugged. “Mortals like gold. And you’re a thief. It seemed logical.”

Coop held up his hands. “If you can fix this, wiggle your nose or blink or whatever and do it.”

“Of course.” A second later, the mess was gone. The room looked exactly the same as it had before Qaphsiel came in. Except for the smell. A subtle eau d’Eddie hung in the air. Coop went around the living room opening windows.

“How’s that?” said Qaphsiel.

“It’ll do for now,” said Coop.