Chapter 71 #16
Richard spun around and tried to spring for the door, but the garrote was around his neck before he had time to move. He scratched at his neck and tried to grab his attacker, but he couldn’t seem to get a grip on the man.
“Wyrd. Arcana,” he gasped as the garrote tightened.
“Nah,” the man replied. “The Arcana in Wyrd don’t use outside contractors, not with who they have in-house. But the bargain I made with another Sorcerer King allows me to take the occasional job—and I do enjoy my work.”
The assassin stashed the body in one of the stalls, stowed the garrote, and washed his hands.
Beyond the little he’d been told, he didn’t know what the man had done, and he didn’t care.
The Arcana didn’t interfere with humans most of the time, but when someone roused their anger enough to make some adjustments in someone’s life, well, fate could be a fickle bitch and send a bolting man right into the path of a predator.
After paying for his meal, the assassin left the restaurant and walked back to his hotel.
He’d been given a three-day leave to enjoy the physical world and, hopefully, fulfill this contract.
He was careful about not being seen in too many places.
It had been a couple of decades since he’d disappeared, but his face was still on wanted posters.
Even so, he had enjoyed good food and an evening with a woman who cost enough to give a man company as well as sex.
Now he went into the hotel shop that sold toiletries for outrageous prices, as well as books and magazines.
He bought a couple of thrillers, a book of crossword puzzles, and a book of sudoku.
Taking them up to his room, he packed his things, pleased that the hotel’s laundry service had returned his clothes on time.
As the clock on the bedside table passed midnight, he picked up his duffel, checked out, and assured the person at the desk that he’d enjoyed his stay. Then he walked down the street until he reached a dark corner. There, he waited for a particular bus to pick him up again.
59
Beth said nothing when Jack nudged her toast to one side and slid a third of his omelet and two slices of bacon onto her plate.
“You can eat while you’re brooding,” he said before he turned his attention back to his meal.
“I’m not brooding. I’m thinking.”
“You can still eat.”
She understood his reasoning. She just wasn’t sure her queasy stomach would keep down what she put in it.
But she’d thought and thought about what they were doing and why.
She thought about how they had driven through some very strange places yesterday—places that made no sense if they were still within the geographical boundaries of Wyrd.
And she thought about how she felt like she had jet lag to the nth degree—and how even Jack was showing some weariness this morning.
She ate a bite of the omelet, figuring he would be more willing to talk if she showed some willingness to eat. But she wasn’t quite willing to talk about what they needed to talk about, so she said, “What did the fishermen at Destiny Bay want to talk to you about yesterday?”
He refilled his cup of coffee from the pot on the table.
“A big game fish has made the Fate River its territory. It’s been spotted on and off for the past few months, but the fishermen weren’t after a trophy fish; they were casting lines to catch fish for their tables—and to sell any surplus to eateries around the bay.
Now that fish has started targeting the fishermen’s catch, seeing a fish on a line and biting it in half to avoid getting caught on the hook.
They’ve never seen a fish that looked like this one, so they wanted Lucas to know about it. ”
Beth ate a slice of bacon, pondering as she chewed. “Are they sure it’s a fish?”
“Instead of…?”
“Well, are the men you talked to sure that this fish started out as a wee little fish that avoided being swallowed by other fish until it grew up to be the bully in the river, or was it something else before it acquired fins and gills?”
Jack smiled. “It’s a good question. I don’t have an answer. But we can ask Lucas when we get back to the park.” A beat of silence. “You ready to tell me what you’ve been brooding about?”
She hadn’t been brooding. Not exactly. But she felt the weight of the conclusion she’d come to early this morning when she couldn’t sleep.
“People move around,” she said after taking a sip of her coffee.
“People do,” Jack agreed.
“So we’re following the trail of someone who keeps moving through neighborhoods.”
Jack inclined his head in agreement.
“But buildings don’t move. They don’t break loose from their foundations, grow legs, and wander off to the next town to see what it’s like there.”
“Well, there’s that hut that walks around on giant chicken legs, but yes, most buildings stay put.”
“That’s Baba Yaga’s house. That’s folklore.”
“Sure.”
The quick agreement meant the Arcana had a more flexible understanding of things like folklore.
Beth took a steadying breath—and tried not to imagine dumping her coffee on Jack.
There was so much she didn’t know about Wyrd, it was possible that folklore and myth cozied up to some of the neighborhoods.
After all, she’d seen a giant bird with a woman’s face, as well as purple cows, so what else lived here that she didn’t know about yet?
“The diner in the sketch. The Ladies Three said that was our destination, that we would find someone who needed our help when we found that place.” Deep breath in, deep breath out.
“I think we should change our intentions. I think we should look for the diner, collect whoever we find there who needs our help, and then go back to Destiny Park. Go home.”
Jack studied her. “We might not find Yaron Kali.”
“We tried. That has to be enough.” She wasn’t sure how she would explain that decision to Detective Kali, but every cop knew that sometimes search and rescue changed into an effort to recover a body—and the three people who were still missing could be anywhere.
“All right.” He looked pointedly at her plate. “Try to eat a bit more. Even changing our focus to find a particular building, it could still be a long day.”
She made the effort because her body needed fuel—and because she didn’t want to falter if Jack needed help.
60
“Why are we headed to Fahey’s apartment?” Ian Kuhn asked. “She’s not back yet, right?”
Tom Castelletti turned on the car’s siren when the flashing lights didn’t inspire the drivers in front of him to pull the fuck over. “We’re going there because Detective Gibson called and requested that we meet her at what she called ‘a multiple crime scene.’ ”
“What does that mean?”
“We’ll find out.”
Police vehicles of all kinds filled one side of the street. Officers were directing traffic and manning barricades to keep people away from the building.
“This is not good,” Kuhn muttered.
When they reached the second floor of the building, Amanda Gibson met them in the hallway, looking grim.
“Do you know where Detective Fahey is?” she asked. “I have a number for her, but she’s not picking up.”
“She’s on assignment across the river,” Tom replied. “I was told she might be in an area of Wyrd that doesn’t have cell phone service or phones of any kind.”
“Is that likely?”
“I wasn’t going to argue with Lucas Frost, especially not after he said his brother, Jack, went with Fahey to assist in her inquiries.”
“Could she have slipped away from him and come back here?”
Tom barked out a laugh. “Detective, I hope I never find out how much truth there is in the rumors I’ve heard about Jack Frost. No, she couldn’t have slipped past him.” He stared at the partially open door. “You want to tell us what’s going on?”
“My people are waiting to gather evidence at the primary crime scene. I asked that they not move anything until you had a chance to see it—including the body.”
Tom felt a shiver roll down his spine. “All right.”
Gibson pushed the door open and walked into the studio apartment.
“Shit,” Kuhn said softly.
“Fuck me sideways,” Tom said just as softly as he surveyed the damage.
“According to the neighbor across the hall, a woman showed up yesterday evening, pounding on Fahey’s door, demanding to be let in,” Gibson said.
“When no one answered, she began shouting that she needed money, that the spine crackers were looking for her, and she had to give them something. When Fahey still didn’t respond, the woman made threats and was verbally abusive.
By that time, the neighbor across the hall opened her door just enough to shout that she had called the police.
The woman fled before the patrol officers arrived, but they did question the neighbor, and the description of the woman seen through the peephole matched Bonnie Wilson. ”
“Why trash Fahey’s place?” Tom asked.
Gibson gestured to the living area and tiny kitchen.
“This vandalism was done by the fathers of the four boys who were killed by Albert Palmer. With Fahey being outed as an ‘Arcana spy,’ they wanted to cause her some grief. They said they found the lock already broken, so they came in and trashed the place, destroying her personal property. Hearing the noise, the neighbor called the police again, and officers from the twelfth arrived to apprehend the men before they had a chance to flee.”
“The men heard the sirens?”
Gibson shook her head. “They had found the primary crime scene and were afraid they would be arrested for murder.” A pause. “The body is in the bedroom alcove.”
“It smells like an outhouse in here,” Kuhn said.
“Two of the men pulled the books off the shelf and urinated on them. Another man made a bowel movement in the kitchen area.”
Tom moved toward the bedroom alcove, watching where he stepped. Four men in a small place like this? It didn’t look like Fahey had much to destroy, but they ruined everything they could until…