Chapter 4 #2
“Not quite.”
The fluffy white kitten hissed and swatted at my arm with an angry claw.
“Cute. Reminds me of myself at that age.”
Kaito uttered a word in Japanese and the kitten collapsed into a crumpled heap. He removed another sheet of paper, this time black, and crafted another image. Wings. Horns. I could see where he was headed with it.
“Maybe you shouldn’t finish that one indoors,” I advised.
Kaito looked up at me and smiled with crinkled eyes. “Not to worry. I have many years of experience.” He put the finishing touches on his creation and breathed life into it. A pocket dragon spread its wings and swooped around the room, skimming the heads of the poker participants.
“Show-off,” Buck muttered. “Are you gonna fine him for a violation of your precious code?”
“It’s precious to Judd, not to me.” My pocket vibrated and I fished out my phone. Justine’s name lit up the screen. Great. I knew it was only a matter of time before the HOA got wind of the situation.
“I need to go,” I told them. “Contact me if you think of anything.”
“We won’t,” Buck said, and continued with his game.
I waited to answer my phone until I was alone in the clubhouse lobby. “Hey, Justine.”
“Maya, would you mind coming to see me in my office?” Her tone was natural. Too natural. It was the kind of tone she usually reserved for Neighbors in trouble.
“Can it wait?” I asked.
“Can it wait? Evermore has a murdered mermaid and a missing security director. When were you going to inform me of these developments?”
The Evermore rumor mill churns again. “As a matter of fact, I’m about to speak to someone right now who might have information about Judd. I’ll swing by your office straight afterward.”
“You’ll swing by my office first, then you’ll speak to your next source. I shouldn’t have to hear about this from my Pilates instructor. It’s embarrassing.”
I closed my eyes and swore under my breath. “I’ll be there in ten minutes.”
“I’ll be waiting.”
My heart hammered as I tucked the phone back in my pocket. In terms of authority figures, Justine wasn’t remotely scary to me. My only fear was that she would use her governing power to fire me and send me packing to the mainland.
For me, that would be a fate worse than death.
Justine’s assistant Lionel motioned for me to go straight into the belly of the beast. He mouthed, “Good luck,” as I blew past him.
Justine Kaminsky was a wereskunk with black-and-white hair that looked like a Rorschach test, and she had the personality equivalent of a Brillo pad.
I wasn’t known as a soft and cuddly person, but a conversation with Justine made you want to rub your skin with aloe lotion afterward.
I was convinced she’d been given this job as a way of removing her from regular society.
She was midway through a tuna wrap as I entered. Spying me, she dropped the wrap into a container and dusted off her hands. “Make yourself comfortable, Maya. This could be a long conversation.”
I sat in the wingback chair across from her. “I doubt it. I don’t have much to report.”
“Tell me everything you know. Spare no details.”
I updated her on the autopsy and my conversation with Judd’s friends. “Audrina is my next stop.”
Justine picked up her wrap and took a generous bite. I waited for her to swallow and speak. “Do you think Buck’s theory has any credence?”
“Do I think Judd up and left the island without a word? Absolutely not.” I’d bet my life on it.
“And you’re sure about the fate-thread?”
“Yes. Zachariah confirmed it.”
“And how were you able to see this?”
“My father was a mage.”
“How did I not know this?”
“I’m sure I’ve mentioned it at some point. Regardless, it’s in my file.” I knew exactly what information had been included in my file because I was the one who’d created it.
“He’s dead, I assume.”
“Yes.”
She rolled up the paper that had contained her wrap and threw it in the wastebasket with a satisfying swish. “Have you ever seen a fate-thread before?”
“Yes.”
“Have you seen one removed before?”
A trickier question to answer. “No.” A bald-faced lie, but I had no choice.
“Then how can you be certain Belinda’s was removed and not snipped in the usual fashion?”
“Because it was extracted by the root. That’s not how the Fates do it. ”
“And Zachariah will confirm this if I ask him?”
“Of course.”
She swirled in her chair to face the window. “You’re right. It isn’t much,” she said. “Talk to Audrina first. If she’s in the dark, then I’ll ask Knox to form a search party to hunt for Judd.”
“Maybe I should do it.”
She spun her chair to face me again. “Why? I’m the HOA president. It’s my job.”
“I know, but Knox doesn’t care for you. He says you talk down to him all the time.”
She blinked, unrepentant. “Is there any other way to talk to someone that stupid?”
Knox was unpleasant, but he was far from stupid. “Let me speak to him,” I reiterated. Justine was like a skunk in a garden. Her presence would do more harm than good.
“Fine. Tell him to round up all the best hunters.”
“I don’t think we should form a search party.”
Justine nearly choked. “I’m sorry. Do you not want to find Judd?”
“Of course I do, but I also don’t want the entire island to melt down. If there’s a large search party, it could cause pandemonium.”
She steepled the pads of her fingers together. “So you want Knox on his own?”
“He’s the best tracker on Evermore.”
“So Audrina, then Knox. What else?” Justine ticked them off on her fingers.
“I also need to find Belinda’s mystery man that Buck mentioned.”
“It won’t be easy to handle this on your own, Maya. Let me assign someone to work with you.”
“Absolutely not. ”
Justine’s face hardened. “I beg your pardon?”
“I appreciate the offer, but I would rather not have too many chefs in the kitchen.”
“I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to resolve this quickly.”
“I’m aware. Trust me.”
“I do trust you, Maya, but the Neighborhood can’t afford to have a murderer on the loose, even if that murderer is our own security director.”
“Judd had nothing to do with Belinda’s death, that I can tell you with the utmost certainty.”
She splayed her hands. “Where’s your proof? She’s dead. He’s missing. Maybe she broke a rule and sent him off the deep end. Judd was tightly wound. It’s possible he finally snapped.”
“Then why go into hiding? He would’ve known it would make him appear guilty.” This wasn’t like Judd. He wouldn’t run away at the first sign of trouble. He was someone who always stood his ground, no matter how difficult.
“I suppose you ought to find him and ask him.”
I refused to let anyone besmirch Judd’s good name in my presence.
“He had nothing to do with her death. How would a werewolf remove a fate-thread? If we’re going to spit out theories, at least make them sensible ones.
” I immediately wished I could snatch back my words.
It wasn’t helpful to rile Justine. I needed her on my side.
The muscle in her cheek twitched. “Need I remind you that I am the president of the Neighborhood HOA? You report to me, Maya. Not the other way around.”
“I understand. I apologize. I was out of line. I just don’t want to treat Judd like the only suspect and let the real perpetrator get away with it. ”
“I’m concerned, Maya. If not Judd, who would have the audacity to prey on elderly Neighbors?”
I leaned back against the chair in an effort to appear more relaxed. “Let me have access to the visitors log for this past week.”
“You think a mainlander might be responsible for Belinda’s death?”
I thought it was unlikely anyone on Evermore was capable of removing a fate-thread at the root, but I didn’t want to appear too knowledgeable on the subject. Instead, I said, “It’s possible Belinda’s mystery man was a visitor who’d come in Saturday for the party.”
“How would she have met him?”
“We have phone and internet service on the island, Justine.”
Justine squeezed her eyes closed and used her thumbs to massage the areas above her eyebrows. “I’ll have Lionel give you a copy of the log on your way out.”
“Thank you.” I rose to my feet.
“And hold on. I’ll save you a bit of time.” Her fingers moved swiftly across her computer keyboard. “Audrina swiped her card at the Terrapin pool ten minutes ago.”
“Any chance Judd swiped his card today?”
“I checked before you got here. Nothing since yesterday.”
“That’s what I figured. And Belinda?”
“Wouldn’t use hers. We even gave her a wristband to wear, so she didn’t have to carry a card in the water, but she wouldn’t use that either.”
“I don’t think she did it to annoy you. I think she just didn’t like the feeling.”
Justine tilted her black-and-white head. “It wasn’t uncomfortable. It was a stretchy, waterproof fabric. I approved it myself.”
“Not the feeling of the material. The feeling that she’d been tagged like those great white sharks in the Atlantic. The wristband would’ve been a reminder of what she wasn’t.”
“I don’t understand. What wasn’t she?”
My heart pounded in its cage. “Free.”