Love, Laodice (Olympus Inc. #5)

Chapter Ten

T elfer was quiet after they went back to their room. Laodice was grateful. She was still trying to process what she felt, what the best way to help Hazel would be. If Hazel had written to Ask Cassandra, she knew exactly what Cassie would say: get a safety plan, get a lawyer, get gone.

But the people who wrote those emails had already made a choice to seek some sort of help, even if they weren’t admitting that to themselves or thought they weren’t worthy of it. Hazel was getting offers of help, but she hadn’t asked for it yet. The furthest she was willing to go was a tentative agreement that Jesse’s behavior wasn’t always exemplary.

And they were all working with limited information. What they’d seen of Jesse’s abuse was only what they’d overheard and what he’d let slip in public. What was happening out of earshot, behind closed doors, was probably much worse.

For what it was worth, she thought Hazel was telling the truth that Jesse hadn’t hit her.

Yet.

“Thank you for not being performative,” she said.

Telfer was fiddling with one of the lamps on the nightstand. “What do you mean?”

“You know, being all I hate men like that, I’ll punch him right in the face, I’ll protect you little lady, he-man stuff.” Laodice made a fist and puffed up her chest.

“I do hate men like that, and I do want to punch him in the face,” Telfer said calmly. “But I didn’t think it would be helpful to say so.”

“Right, exactly.” Laodice watched him for a minute. “What are you doing?”

“Checking.” The lamp came apart in his hands, and he picked over the pieces. A shock of dark hair flopped into his face, and he shoved it back impatiently.

“Checking for—oh. But I was here.”

“You were here last night,” Telfer said. “Who’s to say that there wasn’t…activity beforehand?”

“Good point.” Laodice rolled off the bed and started looking under tables and in dressers.

An hour or so later, they had to admit defeat. If there were bugs in the room, they couldn’t find them.

“I always lock the door,” Laodice said suddenly. “Do you?”

“Of course.”

“So, what, you were assuming I didn’t?”

“No. I was assuming that he’d stolen a master key. Remember when he went into the staff area during that couples quiz thing?”

“Huh.” Laodice sat back on her heels and regarded him. “Smart thinking, Mr. Terzi.”

“Thank you, Ms.…” he hesitated. “Evagora.”

“We’ve already talked about the story a lot in here. I think you can use my real name.”

“Laodice,” he said, his mouth carefully shaping the syllables.

Laodice skin tingled. She coughed, stood up, and rolled her shoulders back. “Do you feel kind of cooped up? Going into the gardens was nice, but I don’t like all this sitting around while we wait for Sarah to yell at us to start the next thing. Would you mind if I did some yoga?”

“Not at all. But if I may offer another suggestion?”

“Go for it.”

“Come with me on a real walk.”

Laodice bent in half and touched the carpet then rolled up, feeling her spine settle back into place. “Around the grounds?”

“I was thinking a little further afield,” Telfer said. “Out of the range of any speakers, or potential listeners. A nice long walk, where maybe we lose track of the time.”

“Telfer Terzi, are you suggesting we break the rules?”

He wasn’t precisely smiling, but there was a glint in his eyes, and the corner of his mouth was tilting upwards. “Can’t be yelled at if we can’t hear the yelling, right?”

Laodice felt temptation tug at her. “I should really attend whatever this evening’s thing is. I already missed the cocktail mixing yesterday.”

“You already know that’s not the story you’re writing,” Telfer said. “Besides, what are the odds that we’d be doing something weird and borderline intrusive and possibly a grift of some kind?”

“High,” Laodice said. “Well over fifty percent. If I want to write that story, I should be there for it.”

Telfer spread his hands. “Or, counterpoint, we stay away and give Sarah a chance to stew about it. Maybe it gives you a better chance to shake something loose from her.”

“You’re too good at arguing,” Laodice said. “This is how you get Miriam to turn down all my best ideas.”

“I don’t oppose—” Telfer stopped and leveled a look at her. “Walk, yes or no?”

“Yes,” Laodice said, and rummaged through her case to find her walking shoes. Telfer apparently meant to go walking in brogues, but if he was that desperate to escape whatever was planned for the evening, she wasn’t going to point it out.

After a quick debate about whether they’d alarm anyone if they disappeared, they left a brief note on the reception desk, which was, of course, unmanned. How many imaginary employees was Sarah drawing wages for? And how long did she think she could keep it up?

***

In Laodice’s opinion, the strongest indication that Sarah was criminally incompetent was that she was holding all the classes indoors. At this time of year the city was a sweaty nightmare for anyone but the hardy or overly enthusiastic, too much heat shining from glass and metal skyscrapers, reflecting back from the streets. Sensible city dwellers spent their time scurrying between airconditioned buildings.

But at the top of this hill, with the seabreeze coming up from the bay to rustle through her curls, and the grass diligently soaking up the sun, Laodice was able to relax into the summer. She’d never been a nature girl. Cassie had settled into small town bucolism with shocking ease, and Xena was always off doing her hair-raising physical stunts in gorgeous locales, but Laodice was the city sister. She liked engines and bars and dancing. She’d loved clubbing, before her mid-twenties caught up with her and she couldn’t easily shake off a morning hangover anymore. But other than an occasional yoga class in Ida Park, she wasn’t into the great outdoors.

Birds she couldn’t identify were chirping. An occasional bumblebee buzzed drunkenly over to investigate her top, apparently fooled by the color and voluminous sleeves into thinking she might be a giant flower.

And Telfer walked beside her, in a silence that for once she wasn’t reading as irritated or judgmental.

She hadn’t been completely wrong about him. He could be irritated and judgmental. But she was beginning to think she’d defaulted to that reading too often. Sometimes, he was just quiet.

Without discussing it, they’d wandered out of sight of the main building, tracking through the gardens and following a small trail that led into the wooded area further down the hill. Well, Laodice thought it was a trail, maybe. She wasn’t sure how far the Halcyon grounds actually went, but as long as they didn’t climb over any fences or go through any gates, she figured they could at least claim plausible ignorance.

The air under the trees was delicious . She’d never contemplated whether air could taste good before.

Something rustled in the bushes. An animal, maybe. Squirrel? Snakes? Bears?

Probably not bears. But weren’t people supposed to make noise when they hiked through the woods, so the animals knew to get out of their way?

“Tell me something about yourself,” she said.

“All right,” Telfer said, after a barely noticeable hesitation. “My favorite podcast is called Dicing with Danger.”

“That doesn’t sound financey.”

“It’s not. It’s a long-running table-top role-playing game podcast by four friends.”

“What’s a…any of that?”

Telfer looked patient. “Like Dungeons and Dragons.”

“Do you play Dungeons and Dragons?” Laodice asked, her voice rising with incredulity.

“No. I like listening to other people play it. Well, not actually D he’s a lot like you. He didn’t exactly know what to do with me when my parents died, but he basically got everyone he knew to help him out. So I grew up with a lot of honorary uncles and aunts and cousins.”

“When—I mean, if you don’t mind telling me—”

“I was nine. It was a car crash, very fast, both of them together. Uncle Burak was 24. He probably wasn’t ready for a kid, especially not a nine-year-old who didn’t really talk for a year, but he stepped up.”

He said it so calmly. Laodice couldn’t detect even a tremor of pain in his voice. But he wasn’t looking at her when he said it, and she could feel a chasm opening beneath her feet.

She side-stepped. “What do you mean, he’s a lot like me?”

“He’s friendly, and he’s sincere about it. I mean, he really likes people. When he’s around, they feel good.”

“Oh,” Laodice said, not sure how she felt about that. Did Telfer mean that he didn’t like people? Maybe that made his liking someone more valuable. Then her brain caught up to the compliment he’d just paid her. “And thank you. But I’m not sure I could step up like he did. That honestly sounds heroic.”

“It was,” Telfer said, and then he looked at her directly. Four days ago, she would have thought he was looking down his impressive nose, measuring her against some rigid rubric of success and finding her wanting. Now it seemed like he was paying attention. “And you could definitely do it. You’ve known Hazel for five minutes, and you’re offering to help her.”

“That’s a special case. I mean, abuse is not special. There are a lot of abusers. But I’m seeing Jesse do it, and I can’t not do something.”

“Yes,” Telfer said. “That’s precisely my point.”

Laodice stopped, and braced her hands on her hips, breathing deeply. The woods had thickened, with more shade overhead. She could hear water gurgling somewhere. The trail did seem to be a real trail, and she didn’t think they’d get lost on the way back, but they’d been walking mostly downhill, which meant a mostly uphill return journey. “Let’s rest a minute,” she suggested, and perched her butt on a big rock that was jutting out of the ground.

It wasn’t nearly as comfortable as the furniture at a five star hotel, but it felt better in a different way. She hadn’t quite realized, until they’d gotten out of there, how confined and…corrupted Halcyon had begun to feel.

Telfer elected to stand, idly shifting from one foot to another. She’d known the brogues weren’t the best idea.

He was looking at her again and made his making-a-decision expression, which was a degree off his paying-attention expression. Laodice wasn’t sure what it meant that she could now distinguish them. Maybe she’d only had to start paying better attention, herself.

“I think Jesse’s blackmailing Carrick,” he said.

Jesse being a blackmailer made perfect sense, but affable, rather sweet Carrick didn’t seem the type to have blackmailable secrets. “What about?”

“I have no idea. But I overheard them talking in the stairwell yesterday.”

Laodice felt her eyebrows pop, remembering the way he’d nudged her to silence. “Jesse was trying to blackmail Carrick in a public place? Where anyone could hear them?”

“I don’t think Jesse is the brightest bulb in the hardware store. Carrick was trying to get him to shut up and he kept going until they heard me coming.”

“Jesse’s a busy boy,” Laodice said sardonically. “Bugging Patrick and Samuel, blackmailing Carrick, being an absolute turd to Hazel…what’s he going to do to Erik and Alma?” She stopped. “Shit. You don’t think he knows about Erik’s romance author thing, do you? Maybe he bugged them too?”

“It’s a possibility.”

“Hm. I’ll warn Alma.

“See? Stepping up. Even though she’s blackmailing you .”

“That’s different. She’s trying to protect Erik. Did Jesse sound like he wanted to protect someone?”

Telfer snorted. “No. He wants a job at Argive, and he thinks Carrick can get him one.”

“Carrick does keep trying to sell you on a job there,” Laodice said. She’d hinted, but… “I don’t think you should do it. Dammond Argive is a shitty person.”

“I know that,” Telfer said. “I’ve met him. How do you know that?”

“Um, rumors,” she said, but when he gave her a stern look she said, “He tried to get my sister fired when she accidentally revealed that he’d treated people in his life badly. When his grandfather dies and he takes over the company, who knows what things are going to be like over there? He’s not a good guy, and I can’t think he’d be a good boss.”

Telfer stopped shuffling his feet and went dead still “Your sister is Ask Cassandra,” he said.

It had the flat tone of certainty, but Laodice tried a look of innocent surprise anyway. From Telfer’s expression, it didn’t succeed.

“I didn’t say that,” she said weakly.

“Of course she is. Dammond tried to get Ask Cassandra exposed and fired after she wrote that advice column for his ex- fiancée. Hera told him to go to hell and everyone was talking about it. People speculated about who Cassandra was for weeks. You speculated! But it was your sister .”

“Okay, but you can’t tell anyone.”

Telfer’s eyes narrowed as he processed the information. “I should have worked this out much earlier. Hell, she came into the office last year to use your archive access. She told me she was a freelancer.”

“Well, she is,” Laodice said. “She’s done some work for us and the Travel titles. She did that really cute story on wine country elopements this year.”

“But she’s also the anonymous author of Olympus’s most widely read advice column.”

“It’s the most widely read?”

“By a huge margin,” Telfer said. “Wasn’t she involved in that attempted murder case shortly afterwards?”

“That makes it sound like she was attempting murder,” Laodice said tartly. “She was the victim . Her boyfriend’s uncle tried to kill her and Manny. He’d murdered his own brothers, decades apart, and he was trying to cover it all up.”

“Right, I remember. You took three days off with no notice and I had to pick up all your deadlines.”

Laodice stared at him. “Are you seriously carrying a grudge because I went to be with my sister after she faced down a murderer ?”

Telfer looked taken aback. “Of course not. I’m saying that’s how I remember.”

“You don’t remember it because your co-worker’s sister was nearly murdered? You remember it because you were inconvenienced?”

“I remember the time period,” Telfer said. “I’m not dismissing your sister’s trauma.”

“It sure sounds like you are,” Laodice said. She jumped off the rock. “I don’t get you, Terzi, I really don’t! Every time I think you’re like, smart and reliable and maybe even good to be around, you go and do something stupid like abandon me in the middle of a dance class or tell me the time my sister was nearly burned alive was a real bummer for your workload!”

“That’s an ungenerous interpretation.” He was starting to get mad, but she was plenty mad herself.

“The problem is not me,” she snapped, angry that she’d ever thought it could be. “Go back to the hotel. I don’t want to be with you right now.” She started walking further down the trail, her anger giving her speed. Cassie had nearly died . They’d nearly lost her, and Telfer had been annoyed about deadlines?

“Wait,” he was saying behind her, and she didn’t listen, going faster until she heard hurried footsteps, racing to catch up with her. “Don’t walk in the woods alone, Laodice, that’s dumb.”

She whirled to glare at him, wishing she could shoot laser beams out of her eyes. “I’m not dumb, you arrogant son of a bitch. I can’t get lost. I have the phone. But if you stalk me one step further--”

“ Fine. Fates forbid you ever listen to reason or give me the benefit of the doubt.”

“Fuck you,” Laodice said, really meaning it, and gave him the finger with both hands, putting a lot of force into the motion. She turned to keep going.

She had too much momentum. Her anger, and her pace, and the huge gesture of her swinging arms had pulled her off balance, and she realized it only when her foot skidded out from under her. She was at a place where the trail curved, and she fell right through the bushes that hugged the pathway. The greenery had seemed like an impenetrable wall, but was really more like a very penetrable curtain that snagged and cut her on her way down the short, steep bank. She tried to catch herself, to halt her fall, and thumped onto her butt, then her side, as she rolled twice and crashed into something at the bottom of the ditch.

She’d discovered where the water sound was coming from. There was a little stream down there, so she wasn’t just shocked and sore, but wet through. She braced herself against the object she’d crashed into, and it gave awkwardly under her hand. She fell again, this time right on top of it.

It wasn’t a log or rock. She felt cold, weirdly plastic skin and wet cloth, and was scrambling backwards, already screaming before her mind could even make sense of what she’d hit.

It was Jesse.

He was dead.

***

Telfer had never moved so fast in his life.

Laodice’s scream rasped across his senses, a high note of pure terror that pushed him into motion before he could think. One moment he was standing at the edge of the ditch, cursing her name and preparing to climb down after her, and the next moment he was beside her, fists clenched, as she scrambled away from a huddled shape in the middle of the small creek.

“Are you hurt?” he demanded, and when he got no response he pulled her up, swinging her behind him and pivoting back to meet the threat.

“It’s Jesse,” she said, and gulped for air. “I landed right on top of him. He’s—I think he’s dead.”

Telfer steeled himself. The limp and unmoving body was a bad sign, but he knew the right thing to do. “Stay here,” he said, and yet was unsurprised when Laodice swallowed hard and followed closely behind.

Jesse’s skin was waxy and pale, and the eyelids were loosely closed. There was blood on the side of his head, matting his hair and smearing his face. Telfer was already certain, even before he touched the chill skin of the throat, that there would be no pulse. He kept his fingers there by an effort of will alone, counting to fifteen in his head, before he drew his hand back and convulsively wiped it on his pants leg.

“Is he…?”

“Yes.”

Laodice let out a shuddering breath. “For how long?” There was a touch of fear in her voice.

Telfer tried to remember what he knew about dead bodies. He was pretty sure that they didn’t lose all their warmth right away. And even if he was wrong, there was something in the crumpled posture that suggested whatever spirit had animated Jesse had long departed. “You didn’t hurt him. He was dead well before we got here.”

Laodice made a nauseated face. For a moment, Telfer thought she was going to cry. He found himself moving towards her, for any comfort he might be able to offer, and then she took a deep breath and pulled her burner phone from the pocket of her slacks.

“Poor Hazel,” she said, and dialed 911.

Telfer thought Hazel was, frankly, better off, but perhaps she wouldn’t think so in the short term. He looked Laodice over while she was distracted. That tumble through the bushes could have been nasty, but she seemed to have escaped with some cuts and scrapes.

His own chest was tight with tension. The adrenaline of their fight had turned into the adrenaline of panicked action, and he realized that he’d also damaged himself, coming after her. His shoes would certainly never be the same.

Jesse was lying mostly on his side, legs and arms at awkward angles. He was wearing, as far as Telfer could remember, what he’d been wearing yesterday. Dark slacks and a polo shirt with a logo on it. Brown loafers. Well, loafer. One foot was bare, a hairy ankle sticking out of his pants hem, mottled patterns on the exposed skin.

“Yes,” Laodice was saying. “Yes, I’m here with a friend. No, we won’t. Well, we did touch him—it—already. I fell onto him, and Telfer had to check his pulse. But we won’t anymore.” She pulled the phone away from her ear and checked something on the screen. “Seventeen percent left. Okay, yes. Yes, that’s the number. Thank you. Bye, Jane.” She lowered the phone and turned to him. “We have to stay here, and not touch anything. She wanted us to stay on the line, but I don’t have enough battery, so she’ll call back when police are closer.”

She sounded small and scared, and he hated it.

“Jane?” he said.

“That’s the emergency lady’s name. She said, hello, this is Jane, how can I help.”

And in the middle of her own horror and shock, Laodice had remembered that.

“You’re really something,” he said, and Laodice blinked at him.

“Thank you?” she said, and then they both remembered they’d been fighting ten minutes earlier and broke eye contact.

There wasn’t much to look at. Trees, rocks, water, and a dead man neither of them had liked.

“I missed my uncle’s 50th birthday party,” Telfer said. “When you went to be with Cassie, after the attempted murder. I had to take your stories, and one of them was a wedding out of town. I couldn’t get back in time. That’s why I remember. It wasn’t because I was, um. Inconvenienced.”

“Oh,” Laodice said, and her cheeks flamed red. “I am such an asshole.”

“No. You—I don’t always come across the way I’d like to. I said the wrong thing.”

“And then I interpreted it ungenerously,” Laodice said, and Telfer wished that she had a worse memory for phrases. But she wouldn’t be who she was if she did. “And picked a fight. Again.”

“Sometimes I put the fight there to be picked,” Telfer admitted. “Sometimes arguing with you makes everything, uh, more colorful.”

“Well,” Laodice said, staring at the ground. Her face was still scarlet. “Anger can be invigorating.”

They both inadvertently looked towards Jesse, who was definitely lacking vigor.

The initial shock was wearing off. Telfer could almost feel Laodice’s mind clicking into gear at the same time as his did.

“He’s not exactly dressed for a walk in the woods,” she said.

Telfer looked at his own shoes and decided to play Devil’s Advocate. “Neither am I.”

“Brogues are probably still better than loafers. He’s lost one. Do you see it anywhere?”

“No. But there’s lots of bushes around.”

“Mm. When Hazel said he’d left, I assumed she meant he’d taken their car.”

“Maybe she assumed that too, and didn’t check.”

“I’d check,” Laodice said. “I’d want to know how I was going to get home, if he didn’t come back.”

Telfer had only seen Hazel show that kind of initiative about architectural criticism, but he knew he didn’t need to point that out. “What’s the timeline?” he asked instead. “The last time I saw Jesse was on the stairs, when he was trying to blackmail Carrick.”

“I saw him right before that, in the foyer.”

“He didn’t go to the cocktail thing because of his 'headache.’ After the first round of drinks, Patrick went up to get his cardigan, and then he found Jesse in his and Samuel’s room.”

“Patrick said he found Jesse,” Telfer corrected. If they were going where he thought they were going, it was going to be important to separate fact from hearsay. And Laodice nodded, so he knew she was thinking along the same lines.

“So Patrick said he saw Jesse then. They argued, and he didn’t really accept Jesse’s apology or explanation, but Jesse left before they could get into it further. Patrick went and got Samuel, Samuel found the bug, and then they planned to confront Jesse this morning.”

“But Jesse wasn’t at breakfast, or lunch.”

“And Hazel said she hadn’t seen him at all last night.” Laodice blew out a breath, and he knew she was thinking the same thing he was. The thing they weren’t saying out loud. If it was that thing, then the most likely suspect would be Jesse’s nearest and dearest. And that was Hazel, publicly his fiancée and secretly his wife.

“So if everyone’s timeline is correct”—and if they were all telling the truth—“then sometime after the confrontation with Patrick, Jesse went for a walk in the woods.” Telfer paused. “It was dark by then. At least, it was dark when Patrick went upstairs to get his cardigan.”

“So, sometime after 7? 7:30?”

“We could look up a sunrise-sunset chart. But what I mean is, did he have a flashlight?”

Laodice scanned the creek, and the brush she’d fallen through. “I don’t see one.”

“Or the missing shoe.”

“Or his laptop!” Laodice said suddenly. “Remember? Hazel said he’d taken his laptop. That’s why she thought she could email him.”

Jesse could have stumbled into the woods along the same trail they’d followed, stupid enough to not bring a flashlight, and angry enough not to look where he was going. He could have fallen down the same bank Laodice had, or gotten lost somewhere else and wandered up or downstream. Perhaps the laptop and shoe had been discarded somewhere in the night. If he’d hit his head he might have had a brain injury. Then he’d stumbled into the creek and stayed there, while shock and hypothermia did their deadly work, only half an hour from the safety of Halcyon.

But if he’d lost a shoe and been walking barefoot, there should be physical evidence. Telfer walked a little closer to Jesse—to the body—and crouched down.

The waxy skin was mottled, with patches of red and purple forming a pattern he couldn’t interpret.

Telfer stood up, abruptly nauseated. What the fuck was he doing? Playing detective over a dead man as if it were some sort of game or puzzle. Jesse was dead, and the fact that Telfer hadn’t liked him wasn’t relevant, because other people presumably had .

His wife. His parents. People had loved Jesse, and those people would be devastated by his loss. Whether it was an accident or the other thing. And Telfer was constructing a story in his head because it was a bigger distraction from the genuine tragedy of the death.

He stepped back, too fast, and stumbled into Laodice.

“Hey,” she said, putting her arm around his waist. “Hey, it’s okay. I’m here.”

He leaned into her, glad of her solidity and strength, and forced himself to breathe. “He’s really dead.”

“Yeah,” Laodice said, and leaned back, laying her head against his shoulder. Telfer’s own arms went around her, more or less voluntarily, and they held each other for a moment in the cooling evening air.

“I need to tell you something,” he said, without the least idea of what that would be, and then Laodice’s phone shattered the moment.

She answered it at once, without any visible response to what he’d said, and Telfer let go and fell back a couple of steps. Had he even said it out loud? Or was his brain playing evil tricks on him in the presence of death?

“Sure,” Laodice said. “Yes. We can do that. No .” Her voice went firm on the last word. “I’m sure it is. But no.” She listened again. “All right. Thank you.” She hung up and turned to him. “The police and ambulance crew are here. Well, they’re at Halcyon. They want us to hike out, then bring them back to—to this spot.”

“What did you say no to?”

“They wanted one of us to stay here.”

“Oh, fuck no,” Telfer said. Being alone with the dead man while the night crept in? Absolutely not.

“That’s what I thought. I didn’t want to do it, and I figured if I didn’t, you wouldn’t, so I said no.” She eyed the steep bank with no favor. “Okay. Let’s go.”

Telfer went up the slope behind her, in case she stumbled, but they both scrambled their way to the top with no further injury, and set off back towards Halcyon in silence.

The parking lot had been taken over by an ambulance and two police cars. Sarah was there, looking tense as she talked to one of the police officers. There were a cluster of people in the doorway to the foyer—no one else approaching the intruders yet, but the news that something had happened had evidently spread.

One of the EMTs spotted Telfer and Laodice first, and there was a confused moment where police and EMTs were pulling rank on each other about whether the injured people or the reported dead body took priority.

“I’m fine,” Telfer said, because he mostly was, so he was the one who got to meet Detective Bernard while Laodice sat in the back of an ambulance with a foil blanket over her wet clothes and had her scrapes cleaned and bandaged.

“Did you get lost? ” Sarah said, her smile striving for understanding, and looking psychotic. Obviously, the police hadn’t told her anything about why they were there.

“If you could return to the building, ma’am,” Detective Bernard said politely. He was a sturdy looking older man with close-cropped salt-and-pepper hair and tan skin. Telfer watched Sarah retreat with some satisfaction.

Then Bernard turned back to Telfer, man-to-man and all business, and Telfer felt his spine straighten automatically. His uncle had been very clear on how to handle the police. Be polite, be respectful, give them plenty of warning when you were reaching into your pockets or putting your hands out of sight, don’t tell them anything they don’t ask for, and never, ever forget that they weren’t on your side.

“Please show me to the body, sir,” Bernard said, handing Telfer a flashlight, and Telfer walked with him and a couple of uniformed officers back down the path. They were moving quickly, and he was really regretting his shoe choices. It was close to true twilight when they arrived back at the right spot, but the broken bushes were a clear marker.

Had the bushes been broken before Laodice went through them? As they would have been if Jesse had stumbled in the same place?

Telfer didn’t think so, but he couldn’t be sure. Everything in his brain was flattening out as the adrenaline finally drained away.

“Thank you, sir,” Bernard said, as a couple of his people gingerly picked their way down the slope with their equipment. “Now, a few questions, if you don’t mind. You knew the deceased? You can positively identify him?”

“We were staying at the same place,” Telfer said, rousing himself back to alertness with an effort. “I wouldn’t say I knew him well, but enough to recognize him. Unless he has a twin who’s also gone missing, that’s Jesse Heller.”

“Thank you.”

“His… Hazel is back there. Will someone be with her?”

“We have procedures for notifying people of these unfortunate incidents. When you say Mr. Heller was missing, what do you mean by that?”

Telfer privately cursed himself for stupidity. Hadn’t he just been reminding himself not to volunteer information? “I don’t mean that he was officially a missing person. But he wasn’t at breakfast or dinner, and Hazel hadn’t seen him since yesterday.”

“And no one thought that was alarming?”

“I only heard about it a few hours ago, but no. He was apparently in the habit of abruptly leaving from time to time. Hazel was worried about him, though.”

“And you?”

“I thought he’d left to make Hazel worry about him,” Telfer said bluntly. “I’m sorry, but I’m—” dead on my feet “— exhausted. Now that you know where he is, can I head back?”

“A few more questions,” Bernard said. “When it became obvious that he was gone, why didn’t anyone try to contact Mr. Heller?”

“Halcyon is a retreat for couples who are supposed to be focusing on each other. We all gave up our phones at the start of the retreat and there’s no Wi-Fi available to guests.”

Bernard’s shaggy eyebrows popped. “But your girlfriend called us.”

“She had a spare phone.” Telfer didn’t bother to clarify the girlfriend part, or explain why. The whole cover story was probably going to be blown up soon, but he’d let enough slip today. And he couldn’t remember what name Laodice had given the emergency responder. He hoped it was her real one. “Elle Evagora” was all right for undercover journalism, but the police probably wouldn’t get the joke. “But even if she had Jesse’s number, it wouldn’t have done any good, because he didn’t have his phone. Though he left with his laptop. If he hadn’t come back tonight, Hazel planned to ask the hotel manager for internet access so that she could email him.”

“I see,” Bernard said. He wandered over to the edge of the bank and looked down. Telfer craned over his shoulder. The officers at the bottom hadn’t touched the body yet—they were conferring in low voices. One of them looked up and made a gesture Telfer couldn’t interpret, but Bernard turned quickly and his voice sharpened on his next question.

“When was the last time you saw Jesse?”

“About…four or five p.m., yesterday.”

“Can you be more specific?”

“No,” Telfer said, and then decided that alone was verging on impolite, which was against Burak’s Rules for Cops. “Halcyon doesn’t have clocks either. Britt, one of the guests, she has a watch. She might be able to give you a better idea.”

“Okay,” Bernard said. He didn’t have a notebook out, but Telfer recognized the look of someone filing away everything he said. “Any idea how Jesse might have gotten out here? Or why?”

“No,” Telfer said.

“Did you or Ms. Troiades touch or move the body?”

So Laodice had used her real name. “Yes, we both did. She fell down the slope and landed on him. I checked for a pulse.” He held up the two fingers that he’d used, in an gesture that felt stupid as soon as he’d done it. Of course Bernard knew how he’d have checked a pulse.

“She fell down the slope,” Bernard repeated, and scanned the bushes. “How did she do that?”

“She turned before that bend to say something to me, turned back, tripped, and went down.” Telfer looked at the body and swallowed hard. “Then she screamed. I thought she was hurt. I, uh, don’t really remember getting down to her. She was already moving away from him by then.”

“I see,” Bernard said. It might have been a trick of the flashlight, but it looked as if his eyes had softened for a moment. “But you didn’t see her land on the body? You don’t know if she might have shoved him away or rolled him over?”

“No. You’d have to ask her.”

“We will.” Bernard surveyed him for a long moment. It was the kind of silence that invited the other person to fill it. Telfer was familiar with that kind of silence. He said nothing.

This might have been the wrong move, because Bernard’s eyes sharpened again. “And what do you do for a living, Mr. Terzi?”

“I’m a journalist. With the Bridal department at Olympus Inc.”

“Ah. You’re media,” Detective Bernard said, in much the same tone that someone might have said, “ah, a dead rat.” “Well, I think you can head back now. I understand that you’re staying until Saturday?”

“That was the original plan, but maybe now—”

“Please do stay,” Bernard said gently. “In case we have further questions.” He gestured down the path, a polite, but obvious dismissal. “Thank you, Mr. Terzi.”

Telfer nodded back, but the other man was already turning away, preparing to climb down the slope after his officers.

It took longer than it should have for Telfer to make his way back to Halcyon.

To Laodice.

***

Laodice watched the police officers speaking urgently to each other and then into their microphones, feeling sore and sad and totally useless. She shouldn’t have let Telfer go with them alone. Her hands stung under their bandaids, and her left forearm really hurt, but—

A small, slender figure broke from the doorway and raced towards the ambulance. Even in her panic, Hazel was graceful, her brown hair dancing behind her like a banner.

“Elle,” she said urgently, and Laodice froze.

“Is it Jesse?” Hazel demanded. “I knew something was wrong! Is he hurt?”

“I—” Laodice said, and looked towards the nice blond EMT for guidance. The nice blond EMT had stayed with her while the police asked their questions, hovering in a way that indicated they’d happily step in if she needed them to.

“Ma’am, please go back inside for now,” the EMT said. “The police will tell us more when they can.”

“I have a right to know ,” Hazel said. “Elle! Elle, tell me, what happened?”

There was no denying that plea. “I’m so sorry,” Laodice said helplessly.

Hazel reared back. “But he’s just hurt, right? He’s going to be okay?”

“He—” Laodice said, and stopped, the words sticking in her throat.

It didn’t matter. She saw Hazel read the meaning in her silence, and watched the sudden, brutal understanding shatter her like a hammer.

“No,” she said, and stepped back, her skinny arms wrapped around her chest. “No.”

Yvette had caught up with her, and Laodice felt a shock of gratitude. “Hazel, come inside,” she said. “Come and—”

“No!” Hazel said, twisting away from Yvette’s comforting hand. “No, not you . You hated Jesse. You wanted me to leave.”

Yvette’s hand fell to her side and she swallowed hard. The police had arrived, and the EMT was stepping up with an emergency blanket and something in a little paper cup, but Hazel twitched away from all of them and hurtled towards the trail, screaming Jesse’s name.

She crashed right into Telfer, emerging into the light.

He staggered under the weight, and then caught her at the wrist and waist. She screamed, and tried to hit him with her free hand. Then the police were there. As far as Laodice could tell, they restrained her gently, but her own eyes were blurring with tears.

“Okay, hon, you’re all good,” the EMT said cheerily, and Laodice realized they were clearing the decks for their next patient, who was being guided towards them, now sobbing so hard she could barely walk.

“Right, thank you,” Laodice said, and stumbled away to stand by Yvette. The others were edging out of the building now.

“Someone should go with her,” Yvette said, her voice dead.

“Me,” Alma said, and climbed into the back of the ambulance to introduce herself to the medics. The ambulance drove away as another police car arrived.

Telfer made it to the little group of spectators and looked at her. He wasn’t quite frowning.

“Can we go to our room?” she asked.

“Wait,” Yvette said, shaking herself as if she were coming out of a dream. “What’s happened? What did you tell the police?”

“Yes, we can go to our room,” Telfer said, ignoring her completely. He held an arm out for Laodice, and she took it.

Sarah was waiting for them inside the door, her eyes glittering with barely suppressed panic. “You have a phone, don’t you?” she demanded. “You have to hand that in. It was in the terms and conditions!”

“Shut the fuck up, Sarah,” Laodice said, and went with Telfer up the stairs.

“Get clean and dry,” he said, and gently nudged her towards the bathroom.

Laodice closed her eyes tight as he closed the bathroom door behind her. She couldn’t cry until she fell asleep, no matter how appealing that sounded. Showering around the dressing on her arm was a little awkward, but the hot water did her good. And she emerged to find a box of cereal, two bowls, and a carton of milk laid out on their coffee table. Telfer was shaking cereal into his own bowl.

“I went downstairs and bullied Danielle,” he said, answering her unasked question. The muscles in his wrists moved as he prepared a bowl for her. He had really nice wrists.

“How’s she doing?”

“She’s upset.”

Laodice dug into the cereal. She ate two bowls, and briefly contemplated a third before pushing her bowl away.

“I was thinking,” she said.

“Yeah. I don’t think it was a simple accident. Detective Bernard was too interested in whether we might have moved the body.”

Laodice thought back to the moment Jesse’s mass had shifted under her hand, the moment she’d known without yet knowing that she was touching death, and shuddered. “I wasn’t thinking about that,” she said. “I mean, actually, I was, and that’s the problem. But I was also thinking about sex.”

Telfer put his spoon down.

“As a solution to obsessively thinking about finding a dead body, I mean. You know how sometimes when you have sex you just stop thinking at all for a minute? Like your body blanks out your mind so the only thing you can think about is how great you feel?”

“I’m familiar.”

“Okay, well, yesterday, you offered, and I understand if you’ve changed your mind or if this is too weird, but if the offer is still open…” she let her voice trail off and spread her hands.

Telfer was silent for a moment. “Your timing is very peculiar,” he said at last.

“I know,” Laodice said humbly. “Like I said, I understand that the answer’s probably no.”

“It’s not,” Telfer said, stern and unsmiling as he leaned across the table and tipped her chin up. He did loom impressively. “Are you sure?”

“No,” Laodice said, in complete honesty, and kissed him anyway.