Chapter 71 #21
“It’s a discussion.” Lucas’s smile had the same feral edge she’d seen on Jack’s face. “We will listen to what she has to say and consider if there is anything the Arcana here can do to assist her.”
“We?”
“Yes, Beth. We.”
“Colin says you’re Wyrd’s Sorcerer King. That implies that other places like Wyrd also have Sorcerer Kings.” Did you have anything to do with what happened to Bonnie?
She didn’t think Lucas had heard her thoughts, but he answered as if he had.
“The Arcana here have never had an interest in Bonnie Wilson, and we only became aware of you the first time you crossed the river. To the best of my knowledge, she shaped her own fate. But other Arcana were aware of her—and you.”
“Do you think one of them killed her?”
Lucas looked toward the river. “All Sorcerer Kings are dangerous, but we’re not all equally dangerous.
The one who has been aware of you is older and not to be trifled with.
Did he kill Bonnie Wilson? Not directly.
But when she came to Penwych and caused trouble for you, I think he studied the possibilities of her fate and influenced small things that would cut the thread of her years. ”
“You can do that?”
“When required. More often, if someone is a threat to us, I banish them and keep them from returning to Wyrd.”
“Is that what you did to Yaron Kali?”
“No. I told him what payment would be due if he returned. Whether he returns or not is his choice, and his fate will be determined by that choice.” Lucas drew in a breath and let it out slowly.
“Enough. You need to find Colin Forrester and inform him that he will be working for Mia as an apprentice groundskeeper, and then you need to get ready for this discussion with the detectives.”
Beth drank her cold coffee and watched Lucas walk away. It would be better if Colin was unavailable when the Penwych detectives arrived. They couldn’t force the boy to go back with them. Still, it would be sensible to call Captain Forrester and get his official approval.
66
Charles Forrester listened to his cell phone’s ringtone and turned to his wife. “Why don’t you take the kids down to breakfast? I’ll catch up with you as soon as I can.”
Aisha gave him an anxious look but nodded and left their room.
He answered the call before it went to voicemail. “Forrester.”
“It’s Frost. It’s early to be calling.”
“Apparently, you’re the only one who appreciates that since you’re the fourth caller this morning. Colin was the first, laying out the whole plan to have a summer job in Destiny Park as one of the groundskeepers.”
“A job for the rest of the summer? I see.”
Charles stared at the ceiling. “This is news to you? Because Beth Fahey was my second caller. She thought it was a nifty plan. After the call from Detective Castelletti, I have to agree.”
“Oh?”
“The four men who vandalized Beth’s apartment are out on bail, and there is no guarantee they won’t try something else. Not giving anyone an opportunity to target Colin is sensible.”
“But?”
“Castelletti said that Yaron Kali had a psychotic breakdown and is currently in the hospital, secured to a bed and sedated. I’ve been wondering if Colin wanting to stay…” He couldn’t think of a polite way of voicing his fear.
“Your son isn’t addicted to experiencing the uncanny,” Frost said. “He was staying with unusual but gentle beings. I’m guessing he sees time in the park as a way to reacquaint himself with the pace of life on your side of the river.”
My side of the river. That says it all, doesn’t it? “All right. Summer job, park employee. I guess there are enough adults around to keep an eye on him.”
“He won’t stray. He has a crush on Beth.”
“Oh, God.”
Frost laughed. “Jack hasn’t given me a full report yet about their search, but Colin thinks Beth is awesome.”
Could be worse, Charles thought. Beth has a good head on her shoulders.
He ended the call with Frost and went to meet Aisha for breakfast. He’d break the news about Colin’s summer job—and then he and Aisha could figure out how soon they could do an overnight trip to Wyrd.
67
Beth tried to shake off the dragging fatigue that made her want to put her head on the table and sleep.
She needed to be sharp. She didn’t think Detective Gibson would try to trap her into saying something imprudent, but verbal stumbles could create an impression of instability.
Not an impression she wanted to project.
Detectives Amanda Gibson, Ian Kuhn, and Tom Castelletti were escorted to the conference table in Lucas Frost’s office.
Gibson sat between the two men. Beth sat opposite her, with Lucas and Jack flanking her and Ashley Laxton sitting slightly apart from them.
Ashley opened a steno pad and held a pen over the paper, ready to make whatever notes were needed.
Or ready to stab someone with the pen.
“Why would Bonnie Wilson go to your apartment and try to see you after making inflammatory allegations against you?” Detective Gibson asked.
“A few days before she showed up in Penwych, Bonnie called me, wanting twenty thousand dollars. She said I would be sorry if I didn’t give it her.”
“Do you have that kind of money?”
“No, but Bonnie liked to gamble, and I think she made those calls when she was desperate to pay off debts.”
“Can you tell me where you were on the night Bonnie Wilson was killed in your apartment?” Detective Gibson asked.
“Not specifically. Jack and I were searching for Yaron Kali. We traveled a lot of miles in a couple of days.”
“A lot of miles? You’re on an island surrounded by a river. It’s not that big.”
Beth felt the room do one slow rotation. She rubbed her hands over her face, trying to stay awake. “The island is like Doctor Who’s TARDIS. It’s bigger on the inside.”
Gibson frowned. “Doctor who?”
“Exactly.”
Ian Kuhn looked away and struggled not to smile. Apparently, he was the only one who understood the reference.
“One of your neighbors indicated you had moved a lot of your things out of the apartment, almost as if you had anticipated a problem while you were allegedly out of reach.”
Jack made a sound that was close to a growl. Castelletti, who was sitting opposite Jack, shifted as if he wanted to push away from the table.
“I anticipated moving because I received another job offer and was going to be relocating. You’ve seen the size of my studio apartment, Detective.
Most of my things had never been unpacked.
Some friends helped me move those boxes into storage.
The last time I was in my apartment was the morning I reported in to the thirteenth precinct to turn in my firearm to Detective Castelletti.
Then I took the ferry to Wyrd and spent three days searching for the people who had gone missing.
We found three of them. I didn’t know about Bonnie or the vandalism until I returned to the park yesterday evening.
” Beth yawned. “That’s all I can tell you. ”
Gibson stared at her. “Your apartment has been released. You can come to Penwych and…”
“No,” Lucas said. “Beth will not be crossing the river. Since the men who vandalized her apartment are on the streets again, a law firm that works with us will look at the apartment and assess the loss of Beth’s personal property.
They will also discuss releasing Beth from the rest of the lease since she will no longer reside in Penwych.
If the landlord is unwilling to break the lease, we will continue to pay the rent, but we’ll also make sure the landlord doesn’t attempt to lease the apartment to someone else in order to collect double rent.
Anything that belongs to Beth that the law firm’s team deems salvageable will be packed up and sent here.
Everything that was damaged will be photographed and discarded.
The landlord can discuss any damage to the furniture with his insurance company since the furnishings belong to him. ”
Kuhn looked at Beth. “The landlord might try to sue you for property damages.”
“That would be unwise,” Lucas replied.
An uncomfortable silence filled the room.
“Thanks for your cooperation,” Castelletti finally said. “If we have any other questions, we’ll be in touch.”
After Ashley escorted the Penwych detectives to the ferry, Beth stood up—and braced her hands against the table as the floor seemed to rise and fall. “What the…?”
Lucas eased a hip against the table. “The first day you went out with Jack to find the missing people, making the circuit of static neighborhoods was like driving on a road along the East Coast, going from north to south. Geography changes. People have different customs. But you’re in the same time zone.
At the end of the day, you’re tired. While you were searching for Yaron Kali, you crossed into several of the roaming neighborhoods.
That was the equivalent of not only bouncing between time zones but also going back and forth over the international date line several times in the space of two days. ”
“Is that why we arrived in some neighborhoods several hours before we’d left the previous neighborhood?” Beth asked.
“Yes.”
“So that’s why my body clock feels so screwed up.” Which also explained why she crashed so fast between breakfast and the meeting with Gibson.
“What you did was dangerous, Beth. Even pure Arcana normally wouldn’t attempt to follow a line of intention that compressed so many places in such a short amount of time.”
Beth frowned at Jack. “Then why did you?”
“You needed to do it,” Jack said. “You needed to learn while there was someone with you to provide an anchor.”
“You’re one-quarter Arcana,” Lucas said. “That gave you enough protection while you were traveling with Jack. If you’d tried that kind of journey on your own, most likely you would have ended up lost forever or you would be like Yaron Kali—strapped to a bed and heavily sedated.”
She ran her hands through her hair—and noticed the tremor in her hands.