The last ten yards to reach the hole were steep, and I pressed closer to the side of the slope, almost clawing my way up. I could see the drag marks clearly now that showed something heavy had slid through the area.
“Those?” Viktor pointed them out.
“Yes,” I said. “The smell is getting stronger.”
Viktor took another sniff and his eyes lit up. “I can smell it too, now.”
We reached the hole and Viktor pulled out a flashlight. While I waited, he flashed it inside to make certain there wasn’t a coyote or other critter holing up in there.
“Uh oh,” he said.
I glanced over his shoulder.
Inside, were several prone figures, and the cloying scent of decay was thick around them. One was still recognizable as the corpse of a man. He was bloated, covered with flies and his skin was turning a mottled green. The other three were in worse stages of decomposition, their skeletons covered with tattered bits of remains.
I turned away, my stomach churning, and pressed my knuckles to my lips.
Viktor pulled the light away. “I’ll call Erica at the station. We can’t chance messing up a crime scene, and it has to be that. I doubt they all crawled in there and died together.” He wasn’t being flippant. He placed a hand on my shoulder. “You okay?”
I stared at the forest around us.
Was I okay? Death wasn’t foreign to me, and I had caused the death of a number of creatures—most of them trying to kill me. But it never got easier. From the time I had discovered my parents on the floor of our home to now, staring at yet more dead bodies—it was all a reminder of how frail life could be. Even when your life spanned a thousand years or more, all it took was one misplaced step, one blow to the head or heart, to cut that short.
I dropped back on my ass, leaning back against the sloping ground.
“Am I okay? I don’t know how to answer that. I’m better off than those poor souls, whoever they were.” I paused, then added, “Do you think we’ve found Ulstair? Do you think that’s him? He’s only been missing a week or so.”
“I think the freshest one could be him, but it’s hard to tell with a flashlight and with…” Viktor shone his light in the hole again, then turned back to me with a grim look. “I think we can assume it is. He has long red hair and I caught a glimpse of a gold tooth. I’ll call the cops now. Erica has me on the Where’s My Friend app. She’ll be able to track us to where we are. We’ll have to wait for her.”
I nodded. “Do you think she’ll be able to come? Won’t the cops in this jurisdiction get pissed if another precinct sends in people?”
“She can call them and figure something out. Either way, we have to wait to talk to them.” He scooted closer to me as I rolled up to a sitting position and wrapped my arms around my knees. “Hell of a job, isn’t it?”
“Oh, yeah. But then again, my life before I came to work for you guys wasn’t all that glam. I killed my share of goblins and other creepers. I was out in the field every week, chasing down sub-Fae, mostly. But until I came to work for the Wild Hunt, I really didn’t have to deal with more…humanish deaths. Goblins and some of the other sub-Fae liquefy after death. At least over here, they do. It’s easier to kill your opponent when there isn’t much of a reminder left behind.”
A thought occurred to me and I eased my dagger out of the sheath. “How do we know whoever killed them isn’t still around?”
Tensing, I glanced around, an edge of fear creeping in around the edges. Then, what I can only describe as a feeling of confidence washed through me, and I took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. Viktor and I could take on most opponents, and the half-ogre was mega-strong. If someone showed up with a gun, we’d figure out a way to deal with it.
Viktor scouted around the area. “I’m not seeing anybody, but there’s a good-sized huckleberry bush over there. Why don’t we hide behind it until the cops get here?”
Grateful for the cover, I followed him over to hunker down. As we squatted behind the brush, the rain began to pound down and I pressed further beneath the boughs of the huckleberry bush. Viktor reached in his pocket and pulled out two squares of folded plastic. He handed one to me and I shook it out into a very thin, lightweight, plastic rain poncho. Grateful, I slid it over my head and pulled the hood up. The ponchos weren’t warm, but they forced the rain to roll off, and kept us dry.
I closed my eyes again, trying to reach out to the forest Fae around me. The creatures of Elphame’s realm were watching us closely. I opened up more, trying to break down some of my barriers and walls.
“Do you know what happened? Do you know who the dead men are?” I whispered, forcing the question into a whisper on the wind.
There was a scurry to the left, and then another to the right. Someone had heard me. I waited to see if they would answer.
Follow us…
The thought entered my mind and there was a part of me that was uncertain whether I had imagined it or not. But I turned back to Viktor. “They want me to follow. Stay here.”
“No, you shouldn’t go alone—” Viktor started to say, then he stopped and nodded. “Do what you need to, but call me if you need help. The cops won’t be here for at least another forty minutes, given they’ll have to trek through the woods.”
Half-wishing he would have tried to persuade me to stay more, I skulked away from the cave in the direction the urging had come from. They were all around me now, the woodland sprites. I wasn’t sure what they were or what to call them, but that would work for now.
As I focused on the ground, I realized that I could see them. They were everywhere, in the shape of leaves and creatures wearing mushrooms on their heads, riding on the backs of dragonflies that darted through the woods, still alive even in the chill weather. They were rising up off the ground, looking like curling autumn leaves, which were actually massive sails attached to their backs. The world shifted and writhed with their movement.
I blinked, afraid to take a step. But the words Follow us echoed in my head again, and I began to wade through the undergrowth, trying to avoid thinking about how many of the tiny sub-Faefolk I was stepping on. I felt like a giant, a behemoth monster striding out of the water and onto a city.
The snaps and chattering sounds around me magnified till my head was awash in a whir of white noise. I crept along, balancing myself on the slope with my walking stick, trying to keep my balance. And then, as quickly as it had overwhelmed me, the noise faded and I was once again standing alone in the forest, all signs of the sub-Fae gone. I could still feel them around, but they had faded back into whatever in-between realm they lived in.
I sucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly as my gaze came to rest on a crow that was perched on a low limb in a cedar tree. It stared at me, then let out one long, low caw, and dropped something from its beak. As it flew away, I approached the cedar. There, on the ground, was a ring of silver. I picked it up. Pulling out my flashlight, I glanced at it more carefully. The ring was engraved.
Ulstair—All My Love—Raven
I stared at the ring, then clenched my fist around it. Ulstair was dead and one of those bodies back at the cave was his. I bit my lip, thinking that at least I had something tangible to give to Raven.
Returning to where Viktor waited, I showed him the ring.
“Should I give it to the cops? A crow had it in its mouth, so it could have come from anywhere.” I didn’t want to hand it over. I wanted to give it to Raven because I had the feeling she’d never see it again if we gave it to the police.
Viktor must have sensed what I was thinking because after a moment, he shook his head. “No, not right now. We’ll ask Herne when we get back to the office.” His phone jangled and he answered. “Erica and her partner are almost here. The medical examiner isn’t far behind.”
I pocketed the ring, and we stood back as the cops began to appear from down below. I stared at the hole, not wanting to think about the bodies inside.
It seemed such a cold way to spend eternity—hidden out of sight. How many more bodies were out in the woods, stuffed into caves and holes and buried in shallow graves? Wondering just who—or what—we were dealing with, I turned as the cops appeared and went into full steam.
Chapter 11
WE HEADED BACK to the office well before the coroner was done examining the scene and the bodies. Before we left, Erica pulled us aside and told us—unofficially—that Ulstair was one of the victims as far as they could tell. With the gold tooth and the red hair, identification was fairly certain.
Though Erica was Fae, she didn’t give me any side-eye, which surprised me. In fact, she seemed pleasant enough and, with a glance over her shoulder to make sure no one else was listening, she motioned for us to follow her over to one of the fir trees.
“Listen up,” she said in a low voice. “If these are the men who were missing, and I think they probably are, there’s a reason why their disappearances went uninvestigated. Look into their connections with Saílle’s court. Look for what caste they belong in. You’ll understand why we couldn’t follow up on the cases. We’ve got standing orders that anybody falling into this particular caste is a no-show. Meaning we don’t show up for their calls for help, if we know who they are, and we don’t follow up on any trouble they have. I know it sucks, but I don’t make the rules. I try to do what I can on the side, but—”
“Erica, get your ass over here. We need your help!” one of the cops by the dump site shouted, sounding grumpy.
“I’ve got to go. I’ll tell them I interviewed you and that I got all the info I could—that you were just out here scouting around for Raven.”
“True enough,” Viktor said.
“Yeah, but it will keep them from calling you down to the station.” She slipped her notebook back in her pocket and gave us the go-ahead to leave.
I jerked my head down the slope. “We’d better take her advice. I don’t think they’re happy about this and I don’t want to be around a bunch of unhappy police.”
We began to make our way through the undergrowth, leaving the cops to finish sorting through whatever they found in the hole. I hoped that Erica would come through with information on anything else they managed to find.
When we reached the car and were safely inside, I turned to Viktor, who had opted to drive back to Seattle.
“How did you two meet? You and Erica?”
“At a bar. She was working on a case that Herne had taken on, and it involved the Light Fae. Erica’s Dark, by the way, but she’s not tied to Saílle’s apron strings. She’s one of the few who seems to feel it would be better if the two sides worked together. She’s all right.”
He eased out of UnderLake Park. I realized we were near Raven’s house. “Should we stop and tell her about Ulstair?”
“Better ask Herne first.” Viktor shrugged. “You still have the ring?”
I nodded, fishing it out of my pocket. It was pretty—either silver or platinum, I wasn’t sure which. I sighed, realizing that the tenth anniversary of the engraved date was coming up shortly. “She bought this for him almost ten years ago.” I paused, thinking about relationships. “So, how’s Sheila doing? It was nice to finally meet her at your Labor Day picnic.”
“She’s fine. She was happy to meet you, too.” Viktor laughed, signaling before pulling over into the middle lane. “She’s a ripsnorter, I’ll tell you that.”
I smiled, grateful for the chance to laugh. “She seems it. That woman has no problem with speaking her mind.”
Sheila was forty-three years old, and she was a kitchen witch, one of the magic-born though not connected to the Force Majeure. She taught geology at a local community college and, according to Viktor—and borne out by the basket she had brought to the picnic—she grew the best tomatoes in town.
“She’s started volunteering at the Chapel Hill Homeless Shelter in the U-District every other weekend. She’s one of the cooks there, for the soup kitchen.” A light danced in his eyes that told me Viktor was in love with Sheila, whether he knew it or not.
“I’d like to see her again,” I said. “Angel and I will throw a party soon. Let me know what weekend is good for her.”
I was suddenly hungry to know my coworkers better. We had become friends, but there was so much to each person’s life that just six months was an impossible amount of time to get to fully know somebody. I wasn’t sure what was behind my desire to deepen our friendships, but whatever it was, I didn’t want to deny it.
As we headed back to the office, Viktor began to open up a little more, and I pushed the thoughts of the dead out of my mind for at least a little while.
BY THE TIME we got back to the office, Erica had called Viktor to tell him they had proof that Ulstair was the freshest victim out of the four. The other three would take longer to identify, but they found evidence on the body to prove it was Ulstair. The cops asked us to inform Saílle’s court and Ulstair’s family.
“I wonder why they won’t do it themselves,” Angel said, scowling.
“I know why.” Yutani pushed a button on his laptop. “I just sent you all the info I found. Looks like our missing Fae boys are all on the outs with Saílle. Two of them were found cavorting with Light Fae women, and while the relationships were nipped in the bud, they were added to her persona non grata list, so to speak. The third was caught pilfering from the royal coffers and was punished by being exiled. So when they went missing, since the three were on the bad-boys list, the cops were instructed to back off the investigations.”
“What about Ulstair? Was he on the list, too?” If he had been, then we had an answer as to why some cases never got picked up by the cops.
“Yeah, he is, because of his mother. His mother is dying. Earlier, she had the audacity to refuse a position as one of Saílle’s ladies-in-waiting. Apparently, she wanted to stay home and raise her children. That put Ulstair’s entire family on Saílle’s shit list.”
The more I learned about Saílle, the more I didn’t like the bitch.
“Lovely. All right, then. We have a connection between all four of the victims. They were all on the outs from the Dark Fae Court. Could their murders be retribution? Is someone targeting those on Saílle’s list?”
“I doubt it,” Herne said. “If the murders were officially sanctioned, the bodies would just vanish when the offense was made. The Fae Queens don’t tend to waste time.”
“I have another thought,” Angel said. “What if the killer is targeting them precisely because he knows the cops won’t look into it and neither will the Dark Fae?”
“True that,” Yutani said. “But I think we’re overlooking the fact that the four men looked a lot like each other. Serial killers follow patterns. All of the men had red hair, or close to it. They all had slender, strong bodies. And their bone structure in their face? Close. They aren’t exactly carbon copies, but there’s a pattern there.”
“Or, the choice to abduct them could come from a combination of things.” Herne stared at the pictures on his tablet, shaking his head. “Who knows why people do the things they do? We can reasonably assume that the police won’t actually investigate the murders. Viktor, care to ask your friend Erica for whatever info she can spare? We were hired to investigate this case. I suppose, technically, we’ve finished our work with it, given we’ve found Ulstair. Or rather, his remains. But I don’t feel right just dropping it, especially since the cops aren’t going to do anything.”
“I feel the same way,” I said. “I like Raven, and I don’t want to just walk away after we tell her that Ulstair was murdered. It doesn’t seem right.”
Herne nodded. “Right. It isn’t the right thing to do. We’ll stay on the case, and see what we can find. While I don’t want to step on the toes of the cops, if they aren’t going to bother, then we are going to do what we can. Yutani and Talia, interview whomever you can find who was close to the other three men. Ask them about their habits. What were their n
ames, by the way?” He glanced on the document that Yutani had sent us.
“Trey, Wirral, and the thief was named Rand.” Angel ticked off the names as I jotted them down on a notepad.
“Very well, look into their backgrounds. Find out everything you can. We know they all seemed to use the same trail in UnderLake Park, but why? Were there other runners as well? What kind of schedule did they keep? Were they out there randomly, or did they go to the park on specific days of the week?”
“They all seem to have the same physique so it’s quite possible they all jogged that trail,” Viktor said.
“I’d like to tell Raven the news,” I said.
It wasn’t that I really wanted to be there—that sort of news was never easy to deliver. But I liked Raven and it might help to hear it from someone she was comfortable with.
“I’d like to go, too,” Angel said. “I liked Raven, too. I’ve never been engaged, but I know what it feels like to find out someone you love has been killed. When the cops told me about Mama J., I was alone. I called Ember right afterward, but it’s really hard to handle when you first hear the news and there’s nobody else there.”
“Unfortunately, I found my parents after they were murdered, but Angel’s right. And the fact that her fiancé was murdered is going to make it worse. I’m not saying that one death is better than another, but hearing that somebody killed the person you love? Well, it doesn’t get much harder than that.” I glanced at the clock. It was going on six o’clock already. “I suppose we should go over there now.”
Herne nodded. “Ember, you and Angel and I will talk to her. Then I think we’re going to take the weekend off. We’ll pick the case up on Monday. Before we finish, speaking of Monday, can you all stay late? Charlie will be coming in that evening and I’d like everybody to be here to welcome him.”
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