26. Twenty-Six #2
I gave myself three seconds to get it together, then forced myself to pretend that nothing weird had happened. I knew the story of Marinette. Most of it. I could handle this.
“Marinette was once human, according to the legend,” I offered, secretly grateful that I didn’t sound like a robot or a breathy teenager. I sounded relatively normal. Whew.
“She lived in the time of slavery, and her lover was killed,” I explained. “She was … violated … at the same time and then burned alive.”
“I guess I can see why she was angry. That’s a horrible story.”
“Yeah.” I bobbed my head. “Her anger was her defining feature. She is one of the Petro nation, and they’re all hotheaded warriors. She wasn’t feared because she was violent as much as because she was chaotic. She was, however, cruel.”
Knox was silent as he absorbed the story.
“She was a loa full of bitterness, and she didn’t get along with the other loas well,” I continued. “She was a solitary figure in their ranks, never really bonding with the others.”
“I kind of figured that today,” Knox said. “Baron and Papa have good poker faces, but they were both shaken when they realized who the statue depicted. For the first time since this case started, I was genuinely shaken.”
“They weren’t happy about what we found there,” I agreed.
“Why? If Marinette is dead, why were they so afraid?”
It was a fair question. “Maybe, just like Baron and Brigitte, there are human descendants of Marinette in the mix,” I mused. “And maybe, even though the fortune teller absorbed Marinette’s powers, there’s more magic out there for the descendants to claim.”
“We’re talking about someone who shares Marinette’s blood,” Knox said. “Is that someone in the Hayes family?”
I hadn’t gotten there yet, but I’d been circling the idea. “It sort of makes sense, doesn’t it?”
“It does. What doesn’t make sense is the Axeman attacks. What do they have to do with this?”
“Blood,” I replied. “There’s power in blood.” I sat straighter. “We were wondering if there was something tying the victims together.”
“I thought the detective said there wasn’t.”
“Maybe he didn’t look back far enough.”
Knox looked as if he might argue, but then realization dawned. “Oh.”
“Oh.” I bobbed my head. “He wouldn’t know to trace Marinette’s bloodlines.”
“You think all the victims were related to Marinette.”
“Why not?” I challenged. “I guarantee that Baron and Brigitte have a boatload of descendants. Maybe there was only the one who had the right … genetic makeup … to pull off what they wanted, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have other powerful descendants.”
“Right.” Knox nodded. “Do we think the Hayes family is a descendant of Marinette, or is it the victims who are the descendants?”
“Maybe both.” There was something there. I was close to clicking in. Then it hit me. “Sabine Hayes.”
“The mother?”
“The dead mother who was obsessed with powerful goddesses,” I replied. “Those were her paintings, and by all accounts she was loved by both her husband and son. She’s the only reason Archie didn’t cut Brett loose after her death. He made a promise.”
“He should have cut him loose,” Knox groused.
“Probably,” I agreed, pulling out my phone. “Maybe he couldn’t.”
“Listen, I understand making a deathbed promise, but sometimes you have to do the greater good for the kid. Brett is a lost cause. He’s a monster.”
“And he’s probably our killer,” I agreed. I’d figured it out. I was almost positive, but I couldn’t crow yet. “It was a promise to a dying woman who had Marinette’s blood.”
Knox’s eyebrows rose. “It wasn’t Archie who had the blood.”
“It was Sabine,” I said. “She was looking for a miracle cure. Brett knew about their ties to Marinette, and was determined to use them to his advantage.”
“Did Brett kill his father?”
“Maybe, or maybe Archie finally lost his cool and kicked Brett out, breaking the blood oath.”
“Resulting in Archie’s death,” Knox surmised. “We have no proof of any of it.”
“We have to get it.” I pulled up a text window and started typing what I needed Jack to do.
“What’s that?” Knox slid closer so he could read, his arm brushing against mine.
A shudder ran through me. He really was an imposing figure. When he was in my space, it took everything I had not to give him my entire focus.
“Jack has access to special search engines through his military contacts,” I explained. “He can go back far enough to find the common ties for our victims.”
“He can also run a background check on Sabine,” Knox guessed.
“Yes.” I looked up, and my heart stuttered. He was so close I could see the sweat on his cheek. I could smell his aftershave. I could … almost touch and taste him.
Stop! I wanted to smack myself for getting caught up in frivolous things. Focus!
“I think we have it,” I said, when I could form words again. “I think this is it.”
He nodded. If he was feeling the same thing as me, he didn’t show it. “If we’re right, all we have to do is find Brett.”
“Yup.”
“That’s good.”
“It is if we can find him before he kills whoever he’s targeted tonight.”
“We will.” He smiled. “I have faith.”
“I wish I had your faith. I’m afraid.” I couldn’t believe I’d said it out loud, but there it was.
“It’s okay to be afraid. You don’t let it rule you.” He was deadly serious. “If you don’t have fear, then you become the something terrible that people hide from.”
He had a good point. “I guess I’ve never thought about it that way.”
“You’re the most human person I know, Freya. It doesn’t matter what you are. It matters who you are. I’m guessing Brett lost that reality at some point in his life.”
“If he ever had it at all.”