Chapter 71 #3
She opened the door and pushed the wheeled suitcase inside. “In an hour?”
Frost gave her a look she couldn’t interpret. “I’ll tell them.”
Beth closed the door and leaned against it. An hour from now she might have some answers, but did she really want them?
38
Charles Forrester looked away from his computer monitor when Tom Castelletti knocked on the doorframe of his office. “Problem?”
“A patrol car making an early sweep around the river spotted Beth Fahey at the pier, waiting for the ferry. He thought we should know.” Castelletti hesitated. “She had luggage.”
Charles leaned back in his chair. “There is a very nice hotel across the river, not to mention a well-maintained park. Maybe she wanted to get out of her apartment for a day.”
“Why go there?”
Hearing something in Castelletti’s voice, Charles said, “Why not?”
“There’s been talk about how friendly Fahey is with the Arcana. With her going over there when she has time off…Which side is she on, Captain?”
“Are we taking sides now, Tom?”
“Not yet, but sooner or later, someone is going to ask about her.”
“If they do, refer them to me.” Charles studied his senior detective. “I’m going on vacation next week with my family. I’ll be away for two weeks, and you’ll be in charge of the team. Are you going to have a problem working with Detective Fahey?”
“No, sir.” Castelletti retreated—for the time being.
Charles pressed his fingers against his temples to ease a sudden ache. Sweet Jesus, since when did success make a person suspect?
Whenever the wrong person was successful.
Aisha and Jazz needed time away from Penwych and the daily turmoil the families of the dead boys continued to stir up. Never mind that Albert Palmer had shot those boys. The Arcana were being blamed for not preventing the boys from crossing the river and doing whatever they did while on Wyrd.
Like not allowing someone on the ferry would prevent a person from crossing the river and going ashore to face God only knew what.
Well, according to the Arcana, a person crossing the river and entering Wyrd came to face their destiny or try to change their fate.
His phone rang. “Forrester.”
“Charles? It’s Grace Russell.”
“How are you, Grace?”
“I’m doing okay. I still miss my father, but seeing him that last time, it’s different now. Better. What about you? Any news about your son?”
“Not recently.” He could feel her hesitating. “Something wrong?”
“Do you remember Sheina Kali, a detective in the Jackson police force? Her husband, Yaron, is an English professor at Jackson University, with an interest in mythology, folklore, and the supernatural.”
Charles knew where this was going, but he gave her time to get there. “So why is a police captain working in King’s Hill calling to tell me this?”
“Because the damn fool convinced someone with a boat to take him across the river so that he could explore on his own and see the real island instead of the tourist trap.” Grace’s voice was sharp with annoyance.
“That was a few days ago. Sheina wanted to keep it quiet for the first couple of days in case her husband made it home on his own—and because what cop wants to admit her spouse is idiot enough to ignore every warning he’d received about going anywhere in Wyrd except Destiny Park?
Hell, Charles, even I warned her.” Now she sighed.
“At this point, she’s filed a missing person report, which is being distributed to all the towns around the Fate River.
I wondered if you’d heard anything from across the river. ”
“Lucas Frost hasn’t contacted me to say they’d found someone, but I can call and ask if the Arcana have spotted anyone who looks out of place.”
“Will he give you a straight answer?”
“It depends on whether or not the person wants to be found.” He waited a beat. “Is Detective Kali sure her husband didn’t take a boat somewhere else?”
“Did he skip out on her? I don’t think so.
They moved to Jackson last year because he’d been hired by the university, and they seemed happy with their respective careers and with each other.
I don’t think he’s using Wyrd as a way to deliberately disappear.
Besides, the man with the boat went to Kali’s house that first evening and told Sheina he’d taken Yaron to Wyrd. ”
“I’ll make the call and let you know what I find out.”
“Thanks, Charles.”
Ending that call, Charles dialed Lucas Frost’s office number.
“Frost.”
“It’s Charles Forrester.”
Silence.
Are you wondering if I’m checking up on Beth Fahey? “I just received a report of a man who went ashore on your side of the river and has been missing for a few days. He’s the husband of a police officer in Jackson. I wondered if you’d heard anything on your end.”
“Near the end of May, four people came ashore where they shouldn’t have,” Frost replied. “Three men and one woman. They’ve all disappeared into the neighborhoods. If any of them found and used a moon gate, that person could be anywhere by now.”
Four people missing since May, and no one reported it? That would make Yaron Kali the fifth person—and the only one reported missing. “Could I send you the man’s details?”
“You can send them.”
There was a curtness to Frost’s answer that troubled Charles, but asking if there was a problem probably overstepped the line of civility he had established with the Arcana leader. “Thank you.”
Maybe this was a poor time to go away, but he’d learned years ago that if he allowed himself to feel that no one else could do his job, there would never be a good time to go away and give his family his undivided attention—and give himself some rest. He’d put in for this vacation time months ago, timed for the end of the school year.
And the very reasons it was a poor time to go away were the same reasons he needed to get his family away from Penwych and the river… and Wyrd.
39
Hugging the sketchbook, Beth walked to the pavilion. Entering the building, she put a gold coin in the box on the “admissions” table and took a bone disc. Then she walked into the room where the Ladies Three named the price required when a person wanted the Arcana’s assistance.
She put the bone disc into the bowl on the first table. The woman who reads the cards silently offered her a wand before spreading two decks of cards in arches.
Words have power. Intentions matter.
“Choose three cards from the first deck, two cards from the second,” the woman said.
Beth had intended to move the wand over the entire arch before choosing the first three cards, but the wand jerked in her hand like a divining rod, tapping cards.
The woman moved the cards out of position but didn’t turn them over. “Two more.”
Again, the wand seemed in command, since Beth couldn’t resist the tug toward two cards.
Was it supposed to do that? The wand hadn’t acted like that the first time.
The woman turned the cards over.
Beth stared at the cards. What did it mean that she’d chosen a person in a cell, then a cell with the door torn off the hinges, and a bridge partially destroyed by fire. The two cards from the other deck looked like the Tower from a tarot deck—and Death.
The woman behind the scales said, “What have you brought for your side of the scales?”
Turning away from the cards, Beth laid the sketchbook beside the scales. “This.”
The woman opened the sketchbook and studied several drawings. Then she looked up and looked past Beth, who suddenly realized Lucas Frost had come in and was standing behind her.
“Where did you get that?” Frost asked.
Beth held out her hand to show them the old ring. “The sketchbook and this ring are the closest things I have to family heirlooms.”
“Ask your question,” the woman said.
“Don’t you have to tell me what it will cost?”
“Not this time. Ask.”
Hard to breathe. Once the question was asked—and answered—there was no turning back. “Who am I?”
A weighted silence.
“You will join us for the evening meal,” Lucas Frost finally said. “You will have your answer then.”
Beth looked at the woman who balanced the scales. The woman nodded. She looked at the woman who had been sketching since she walked into the room.
That woman closed her cloudy eyes. When she opened them, they were clear. “What needs to be said will be said after the evening meal. Will be said in moonlight, in starlight. Until then, walk the safe paths in the gardens. You know which ones they are.”
Beth reached for the sketchbook, then glanced at the cards that had been revealed—and hesitated. “Is there somewhere I could leave this for safekeeping? Just for a while.”
“I’ll take care of it,” Lucas Frost said.
Nodding, Beth left the room and turned toward the archway that led into Destiny Park. She would walk the safe paths in the gardens. She would eat lunch at the hotel. And she would wait for the answer to her question.
Lucas waited until Beth had left the pavilion. Then he looked at Lysandra, who turned her sketchbook to show him and her sisters what had been revealed.
Destruction. A sacrifice of some kind, but he couldn’t tell from the image if it was supposed to be physical or emotional. Perhaps both. He could see clearly—they could all see clearly—who was going to be sacrificed. But not why.
“Tonight we will tell her what we know,” Justine said. “Once she has her answer, her destiny is her own.”
“Yes,” Lucas agreed. “Her destiny is her own.”
40
After dithering about what to wear, Beth finally chose the green handkerchief-hem dress and hoped it was appropriate for a dinner with the Arcana. Hoped she wouldn’t look too out of place. Hoped…
She didn’t know what she hoped for.
A knock on the door. When she opened the door, the woman on the other side smiled at her and said, “I’m Kia Dance. That’s a lovely dress. Did you bring a shawl? It might get cool later in the evening.”
“I have a wrap.” Beth fetched it, then slipped the strap of the small clutch over her wrist—a convenient place to carry a couple of tissues and her room key.