Chapter 14
Chapter fourteen
Hallie was surprised how easy it was to get ready for the day in a completely new space, and how comfortable she felt.
She had been in a lot of new places over the past two weeks - far more than ever before in her life - and all of those had felt slightly strange.
The apartment didn’t feel odd to her, though.
Instead, the quiet felt comfortable and welcoming and home-like.
Finding the fridge and freezer full of an amazing variety of prepared meals, all with clearly marked dates to use by, Hallie decided to have a proper breakfast. She made herself coffee and found a box in the fridge that someone - she presumed Alys - had labelled as breakfast hash.
She sat at the dining table, facing the windows, and thought she might never get tired of the view, even as it reminded her of how far she was from the familiar streets of low city.
This wasn’t even midtown, but all the way up in high city, where her neighbours would be hochlen.
Not the absolute elite, though. She’d picked up enough from what Cotovatre had said and not said to understand that the people living in these apartments worked for a living, possibly for the Conclave.
And Girard was one of the occupants, too.
Then she took a bite of the dish and was distracted again.
Apparently, breakfast hash was a mix of eggs, potatoes, bacon, onion and other things she didn’t recognise.
It was absolutely delicious, on a par with Rosalia’s cooking, which made Hallie wonder how her roommate was doing.
She dragged herself away from the food and very fine coffee to send a message to Rosalia, and also to Girard, checking when and where she should meet him.
As she was clearing away her breakfast dishes, she had a reply from Girard saying he’d meet her at the front door and giving a time which was only a few minutes away, so she loaded the dishwasher - a luxury she’d never had access to before - and then got her jacket.
At least her clothes were familiar. She had dressed in normal working clothes of boots, jeans and leather jacket, with the extra layer of a sweatshirt over her t-shirt.
The city was still in winter, even though the sun was trying to make an appearance.
As she was leaving the apartment, she remembered to pick up the notebooks she’d been using as well as the electronic tablet the investigators had provided.
As she’d been finding it helpful to take notes, she didn’t want to leave them behind, and she was sure that whatever car Girard was driving would have a glove compartment big enough for her to stow the notebooks and tablet.
She took the stairs down to the ground level and found a different watchman on duty. This one looked equally grey-haired and had the same sharp gaze. He nodded to her as she passed.
“Good morning, Miss Talbot. Master Abbott is just bringing the car around.”
“Thank you,” Hallie said, and headed out into the bite of a winter morning. She’d already seen that it was a grey day, with a brisk wind.
Seen in the morning light, the gardens around the building were even more impressive than the night before.
She wanted to go and explore, touch the silvered bark of a group of trees she could see not that far away, and brush her hands over the frothy leaves of a short plant to see if they were as soft as they looked.
Perhaps she’d get a chance to do that another day.
Thinking that made her unsettled all over again.
Being surrounded by vibrant plant life, even in the middle of winter, was not something she was used to.
For a moment she wished she’d stayed in low city, in the house that Rosalia had worked so hard on, waking up in her own, narrow bed.
It was only a moment. It felt ungrateful after the effort and expense that Cotovatre and her people had put into finding the apartment.
And staying in low city, in that house, would only have put Rosalia at risk of Wilona’s wrath.
Better for everyone that Hallie was here, even if she felt more like a visitor than a resident for now.
Before her mind could spiral any farther, a sleek, dark town car pulled up on the street a short distance in front of her and Girard got out, coming around the car towards her.
Happy to have someone familiar to anchor to, Hallie went to meet him and surprised herself by drawing him into a hug, holding tight for the space of three breaths, drawing in the familiar weight and warmth of him.
From the way his arms came around her and held her back, she thought he welcomed the contact as much as she did.
When she loosened her hold and took a step back, he raised a hand to touch her cheek.
Heat rose in her face. They might be standing alone for the moment, but they were outside an apartment building with the doorman not far away, and she still had a strong instinct to keep whatever was between her and Girard private, something just for them, at least for now.
“You look better,” Hallie said, almost involuntarily. The unhealthy pallor and sheen of sweat were gone, and there were no shadows under his pale blue eyes. His blond hair was tousled, as if he’d been running his hands through it, but that was normal.
He grinned, eyes bright, and a faint hint of colour washed over his face. “I feel a lot better. Sorry I wasn’t in touch overnight. I was actually sleeping right up until about an hour ago. I woke up to Lady Cotovatre’s message that you’d moved in here.”
“Should you still be sleeping?” Hallie asked immediately, concern spiking.
“No,” he said, the lack of hesitation reassuring Hallie almost as much as her truth sense. “The medics have cleared me. And I don’t want to lose any more time.”
“Right. We have work to do, and the Conclave starts tomorrow,” Hallie said, setting aside her relief that he was healed and turning her attention back to the job at hand.
Girard moved to the back of the car and took something out of the boot, holding it out to her. The gun and holster she had left in the investigators’ offices. “The admins are ordering up a gun safe and permit for you so you don’t need to leave this behind every day.”
“Alright,” Hallie said, taking the gun and settling the holster and extra ammunition onto her belt.
The move was becoming more familiar with practice although she thought she still had a long way to go before carrying a gun was second nature to her.
She shook her head slightly, remembering that she’d felt just as strange leaving the gun behind the day before as she did putting it back on.
“Lady Cotovatre didn’t tell me what happened to prompt your move,” Girard said, as Hallie settled the holster. “I can’t imagine that you and Rosalia had an argument. You don’t need to tell me, but I am happy to listen if you want to talk.”
“We’ve got a bit of a drive ahead of us,” Hallie said, opening the passenger door.
“I can fill you in on the way.” She paused before getting into the car.
His mention of Cotovatre had reminded her of something else.
“Cotovatre is hosting an event this evening, something about the opening of the Conclave. She’s invited us both, if we’re free. ”
“That’s a great honour,” Girard answered, the serious tone and Hallie’s truth sense letting her know he meant it. “We should definitely make time, if we can.”
“Good. She also said she’d invited the director but hadn’t had a reply,” Hallie mentioned.
“I’ll text and remind him, and let him know we’ll be going,” Girard said. He met her eyes across the roof of the car and she saw the hesitation before he spoke. “I imagine it’s going to be very full of a lot of Conclave members and their spouses.”
Hallie grimaced, remembering the one hochlen event she’d attended in high city before now, at his parents’ house. She hadn’t enjoyed the experience. “I know. But it is for the lady.”
“Indeed. Where to?” he asked, getting into the driver’s seat.
Grateful for the change of subject, Hallie gave him directions while he started the engine.
As he drove through the quiet streets of high city, Hallie found herself distracted again.
She’d never seen this particular part of the city before, and as the car made a turn she caught sight of an enormous building, that seemed at least as large as the rail terminus in midtown.
It rose several storeys into the air, made of glass and metal and sleek curves.
There were mature trees around it, giving Hallie an idea of scale.
“Saints, what’s that?” she asked.
“The metal and glass building? That’s the Conclave,” Girard answered, “or, at least, that’s the Conclave building in Daydawn. The main meeting chamber is in there along with offices and support staff for all the Conclave members.”
“It’s enormous,” Hallie said, turning her head to keep track of it as Girard kept driving.
“It is. Only the one in Haagsfall has a bigger footprint, I think. But the Haagsfall base is really a complex of various buildings built up over time and not one single building like here.”
“You said the meeting chamber. Is that the one with the giant table and marble walls that gets shown on screen?” Hallie asked, brow wrinkling as she tried to reconcile the very grand, very large and almost old-fashioned meeting room she’d seen images of with the sleek and modern structure.
“That’s the one. The main meeting chambers are designed to be similar the world over so there’s no confusion about who sits where and so on,” Girard said, a hint of laughter in his voice.
Having met some of the Conclave members, Hallie could easily imagine that the seating arrangements might cause arguments.
“Do they ever let visitors in?” she asked.
“Not casual walk-ins, no, but we do go in from time to time. Conclave members expect people to go and visit them, not the other way round.” The laughter was still there, but faded as Girard went on, after a brief pause.
“And I am sure that Lady Cotovatre would sign you in if you wanted to see inside.”
“Of course,” Hallie said, suddenly feeling awkward.
The car passed through the checkpoint and onto the twisting road down to midtown.
“My mother turned up at Rosalia’s house last night,” she said abruptly.
“I told you that she’d cut me off the family vine and then decided she wanted me back.
She just turned up. Someone must have seen me.
” Hallie paused, trying to swallow down her anger and hurt and keep her voice calm.
“I’m not quite sure why she’s being so stubborn about this.
She won’t listen to me. Luckily, Cotovatre and Emmet were able to come.
After that, it seemed best that I not stay in Rosalia’s house.
” It was barely enough of a description to let Girard have any kind of impression of what had gone on, but Hallie found she couldn’t speak much more of it.
Not right now. It had taken her a while to tell Girard about her severance from the family vine, during one of their evening conversations on the other side of the world.
Somehow the distance, and the exotic location, had made it easier.
But now she was back in her home city and it was all sharp and real, with jagged edges.
“I’m sorry,” Girard said, warmth in his voice. He reached a hand across and clasped hers where they were knotted together on her lap. “That must have been really difficult. I’m sorry I couldn’t be there.”
“You needed to heal,” Hallie said firmly, turning her hand to return his clasp for a moment before he put his hand back on the steering wheel. “And, honestly, I am not sure even the whole tactical team would have done any good, the mood my mother was in.”
“Are you in danger, going back into low city?” Girard asked, sending her a sharp, sideways glance.
“No more than usual,” Hallie said, attempting to lighten the mood with some dark humour.
It didn’t seem to reassure Girard, so she went on.
“As long as I stay out of Talbot vine territory, it will be fine. She was embarrassed last night, which won’t have done her temper any good, but even then I can’t see her sending her thugs to snatch me up in the middle of the day.
The address we’re going to is far outside the Talbot territory. ”
“Would someone in low city turn you over to her?” Girard asked.
“Like a skip tracer, you mean?” Hallie asked, and half-laughed. “That would be more than a little ironic, wouldn’t it? Ah, no. Skip tracers don’t work for cheap, and my mother isn’t about to spend money on me.”
“I’m sorry,” Girard said again.
A dozen flippant replies danced through Hallie’s mind, but she took a careful breath and matched his sincerity.
“Thank you.” Then, because she didn’t want to sit with the pain, she brightened her tone.
“I was more worried about Rosalia, but it seems that half of low city is looking out for her. Even a couple of the local gangs. Her bakery has made her extremely popular.”
“Her skills as a cook are remarkable,” Girard agreed, matching her lighter tone. “And if anything can bring people together, it’s good food.” He paused for a moment and then changed the subject. “Remind me who were are going to visit now and what we know about her.”
“Zurine Halinburn,” Hallie answered promptly.
“Owns and operates a dress shop in the richest part of low city. Has been there for about a decade, from what I can tell. Nothing remarkable about her, from the city records I could access. Nothing to suggest she might be a master forger. But I trust my source.”
“It’s a good front for a criminal business,” Girard commented. “I’m curious as to how she’s managed to stay unnoticed for such a long time.”
Hallie agreed, and looked ahead as the car sped through midtown, on its way to low city and a forger who had apparently found a way of thwarting the power of the hochlen.