"Want to talk about it over lunch? I'm meeting Tibby for pizza at one," Farin said.
"I need to make some calls," I said. It was an excuse, but I did want to contact the Raven's daughters. I could skip home and call from there, so I'd have privacy. I suspected Milton was watching me already; I didn't trust his smile and friendly attitude for a moment.
So far, nothing he'd said was a lie, but there was more beneath his words and I hadn't had the courage to demand answers.
* * *
Kordevik
I considered that I may have been too abrupt with Lexsi. I hadn't heard from her. Anita let me know that Lexsi was short with her, too. I'd laid down an ultimatum, which, in retrospect, wasn't the smartest thing I'd ever done.
Weth, you should have said you'd take it slow so she wouldn't feel pressured, I mentally chastised myself. Instead, you let your cock do the talking and now she's not speaking to you.
After all, what woman doesn't want to jump somebody, knowing the male will put his teeth in her neck, marking her for life? Yes, my mental conversation was filled with sarcasm.
She didn't know it wouldn't be a painful memory; Li'Neruh Rath had seen to that. She'd only known me for a short time, too. Claiming marks meant forever.
Lexsi was barely twenty-three, and descended from a race where the women weren't fully mature until twenty-two. I was more than a thousand years old. I should have better sense.
You've never been engaged before, a small voice reminded me. Never been in love like this, either.
Perhaps I should apologize.
Better yet, apologize and send flowers. My hand was on my cell phone before I could talk myself out of it.
* * *
Lexsi
The house was quiet when I skipped into the kitchen; Klancy would be asleep in one of the bedrooms, but no matter how much noise I made, he wouldn't wake.
I still didn't intend to make much noise. Pulling out my cell phone, I scrolled through my contacts until I found Maya Raven's number. I'd added her and her sister Nela's numbers only that morning.
Punching the number, I listened to it ring three times.
"Maya Raven's office, how may I help you," she said, sounding completely professional. She should, she was a popular realtor, whose clients' homes were worth millions.
"Hello, Ms. Raven. This is Lexsi Silver from News Seventy-Four," I identified myself. "Is it all right if I ask a few questions about your parents?"
"I'm surprised you called," she said, assuming a less formal tone. "The police have given up on the case."
"So you don't think Reece Channing is responsible?"
"My father wasn't having an affair. That's ludicrous," Maya huffed. "I have no idea who Reece Channing was, and I doubt my father knew her, either."
"I think so, too," I agreed. "Did you talk to your parents before their murder?"
"I talked to them three days before," Maya said. "They'd just gotten back from a trip to Peru."
"Peru? Was it a vacation?"
"No. Dad said it was to check out an investment property. When I spoke with him after they got back, he said something sounded fishy about the whole thing and he'd decided not to invest."
"Do you know who the investment was with? Did he say?"
"No, he just said some friends told him about it. I didn't ask questions because I really wasn't curious. I only wanted to know how they were doing."
"I understand that," I said. "I'm merely concerned that the investment thing may be more important than you thought."
I did think that. The moment Maya said Peru and investment, my skin tingled. Something was going on, and I hoped I could put things together before more bodies piled up.
"I'll ask Nela," Maya offered. "Can she call you back at this number?"
"Of course. I'd be happy to speak with her, if she has more information."
"Thank you for calling, Ms. Silver. I was beginning to think the world had forgotten my parents' murders."
"I didn't forget, and I intend to get to the bottom of this," I said. "Thank you for taking my call."
* * *
I had no way of researching investment properties or sales of such in Peru, at least not through normal channels. That's why my next call was to Davis Stone, werewolf agent for the Joint NSA/Homeland Security Department.
"I hate to ask this," I began after he barked a hello. "But is there some way to find out if a corporation called DSG Enterprises has recently made a purchase of a business or land in Peru?"
"The same DSG that currently owns Tooth and Nail?" he asked.
"Yeah. That one," I agreed. I attributed Davis's shortness to the approaching full moon, which was two days away.
"I'll check into it," he said and hung up.
"Well, as short conversations go," I stared at my cell phone. The screen went black after only a few seconds.
Feeling somewhat defeated, I made a sandwich and ate quickly, so I could go back to work.
* * *
Kordevik
"Yes, delivered this afternoon, if possible," I said. I'd found a florist near News Seventy-Four's station, so the delivery wouldn't take very long. Lexsi would have two dozen red roses and an apology before the day was over.
* * *
Lexsi
When I got back to the station, I had an e-mail waiting from Dan Logan. He wanted to see me in his office before he went home late that afternoon.
On my way, I e-mailed back and left my cubicle.
"Hey, Lexsi," Dan offered a grin when I knocked on his open door. "Come in and have a seat. Oh, and close the door, if you wouldn't mind."
"Sure." I shut the door and moved to sit on one of Dan's guest chairs.
"I got this earlier today," he said and turned his computer monitor around so I could see. The e-mail was from someone at a Sausalito police station, who said they'd discovered a body inside a rent house. The man had been dead for a while.
"Who?" I blinked at Dan after reading the e-mail.
"Private detective," Dan said. "Everything has been removed from his downtown Sausalito office. Friends thought he was out of the country, working on a case. Turns out, he was dead and not far away the whole time. A neighbor reported the smell yesterday, at the empty rent house. Somebody went to check and they found the body inside. Had to ID using fingerprints and dental records."
"Wow. So he was working on something and somebody took offense?"
"Looks that way. His files, cell phone and anything else that may have been important were taken. Thing was, the office was locked up the whole time and a hall camera outside didn't show anybody going in or out of there. Windows still locked, too, and the camera from a business across the street shows nothing."
"You think this is worth reporting?" I asked.
"I'd do it, but you know what the edict is on high—or was," Dan shook his head. "Feed everything to Hannah, except Hannah broke the law and now she's dead for being a spiteful bitch."
"Yes, and Fiona is dead along with her," I sighed. Dan pulled the monitor back around and minimized the e-mail.
"Very true," he agreed. "This is a mess, no matter how you look at it. I don't know about you, but Milton Landreth gives me hives."
"I feel the same way," I said. "You heard he wants to move me to LA?"
"You gonna take it?"
"I don't think so, but I said I'd consider it and I will."
"I'll present this to Milton," Dan said. "I'll see what, if anything, he wants to do about reporting this death. Police are asking for information, and we have the jump on the other stations for now. If Milton drags his feet we'll be left behind, because my source will go to the other stations later today."
"Yeah, I get that," I said. "Thanks for the info. One more thing," I said as I stood. "Do you have any information on who owned the rent house?"
"Nothing yet; my source says they're still investigating. I'll let you know if I hear anything."
"Thanks."
* * *
"Lexsi," Farin's hea
d appeared over my cubicle wall.
"How was lunch?" I asked. "Isn't it time you went home?" I'd been doing research after I left Dan's office. Dead ends appeared to be my constant destination.
"Lunch was good, and yes, I'm leaving in a minute. Tibby's picking me up," she smiled. "But you had a flower delivery earlier. Milton said he'd see you got them. Where are they?" She surveyed my cubicle with an analytical eye.
"I didn't get any flowers," I said.
"Oh. Maybe Milton forgot. He took them to his office."
"Yeah? Who were they from?"
"Kory, who else?" Farin said brightly.
"I didn't get any flowers," I repeated, feeling numb. Something troubled me about the fact that Milton had taken my flowers to his office, when everyone at the station knew they were from Kory, and also knew who Kory was.
Granger had a price on Kory's head.
Granger knew the Romes.
Kory sent me flowers.
"I have to go," I said. "Make sure Tibby is careful driving you home."
"Huh?" Farin expressed her confusion as I slipped off my chair and headed for Lee's old office. For me, Milton hadn't earned it and never would.
Just before I reached the office door, Milton walked out of it, my vase of flowers in his hands. A smile crossed his face as he held the vase out for me, then pulled the door shut the moment I accepted the flowers.
He didn't think I'd seen them—the people in his office. They hadn't come in the usual way, either, because I'd have seen them.
Somebody Milton knew could fold space or skip.
"Thank you," I said, pretending to sniff one of the roses. "Aren't they gorgeous?" I turned and strode back to my cubicle. A worry nagged at me as I set the flowers down on my desk.
There were two possibilities. The first, of course, was that somewhere, hidden in two dozen roses, was a tiny electronic bug that would track the vase wherever it went. I suspected that once it entered the perimeter Aunt Bree set around the house, it would no longer work.
The second was this, and it was ultimately worse. If the Romes had a wizard or warlock in their employ, whatever spell they'd placed on the vase hadn't worked the moment it came close to me.
Only one race in all those I'd studied had that ability, unless you were counted among the gods. High Demons nullified spells. At all times, a sixteen-foot diameter of spell-nullifying space surrounded me.
All a spell-wielder had to do was attempt to set off a spell around me to know what they were dealing with.
Yes, all this was conjecture on my part, but any wizard or warlock would run this test if they suspected anything.
I also worried that the spell would become active, once I left the sixteen-foot perimeter behind. It could explode in someone's face, as a worst-case scenario. At best, it could be a simple listening spell, meant to capture friends' conversations.
It broke my heart to consider it, but I'd have to get rid of Kory's flowers.
That's why I called Farin, and told her I was coming to her office for a conversation about weather.
* * *
"I need you to cover for me," I whispered, clutching the vase as tightly as I could. "Start talking about tornadoes, and explain in detail how they happen, okay? I'll be back in a couple of minutes."
Farin, her eyes wide in alarm, nodded, before opening with the standard about unstable weather in spring, fed by cold air from the north, which met with warmer, moist air from the gulf.
I skipped away.
Somewhere between LA and Las Vegas, there are empty stretches of desert. I landed there first, before searching for a suitable mountaintop. Somewhere I wouldn't be seen, and if the vase exploded, it wouldn't be seen, either.
Yes, the spell maker would be alerted that his intended target could also skip or fold space, but at this point, he was already aware.
If that's what this was.
A part of me worried that I was destroying Kory's beautiful flowers because I was paranoid. Another part chastised me for thinking it. If there were any chance of danger to someone else hidden in those lovely buds, then I had to get rid of them.
I gazed over the edge of the small space I stood upon, at the crevice far below. Setting the vase down carefully, I pulled the note off to read it.
Lexsi, I'm sorry for being such a troglodyte, Kory wrote. We'll work through this, I promise—Love, Kory.
I wept as I set the card among the roses again, before lifting the vase over the edge and letting it go. I skipped away the moment the vase exploded, sixteen feet down.
Chapter 17
Lexsi
It took another ten minutes to get a replacement bouquet from the same florist, with one of their cards. When I skipped back to Farin's office with the flowers, she looked as if she'd gone through a shredder.
By that time, she was talking about wind speeds and levels of destruction.
"Wow, that's really fascinating, Farin," I said.
"You've been crying," she hissed softly.
"I'll tell you why, later," I whispered. "Do you have facts and figures on some of the worst tornadoes?" I asked aloud. "I think I'd like to do a piece on that, sometime. I'd like your help to do it, too."
"Anytime," Farin agreed. "Thanks for bringing the flowers down to show me. They're awesome."
* * *
"The vase Kory sent exploded," I shook my head at Anita and fingered a replacement bud. Anita was at home already when I skipped in with vase of roses number two.
"Have you told Kory?"
"I haven't. How am I going to tell him this?"
"By opening your mouth and saying the words?"
"It'll make me cry," I admitted. "I cried when I dropped them off the mountain."
"He still needs to know," Anita pointed out.
"Yeah. I know. I just feel stupid, and I never want to go back to that station again. Somebody I didn't know was in Milton's office, and they didn't get there in traditional human fashion."
"They want to trap you, one way or another," Anita agreed. "Kory, too. That spells Granger to me."
"This makes me wish I were my mother. Or even Great Aunt Glinda," I said. "Both of them have experience taking down some of the worst people ever."
"Like who?"
"Well, the San Gerxon brothers, to name two," I shrugged. "Know about them?"
"Hmmph. Anybody from either Alliance knows about them," Anita huffed. "Quite the family, there."
"Yeah."
"Ask Kory to dinner. I'll help cook—you look worn out," Anita said.
"Yeah." I hunched my shoulders and made myself smaller on the barstool I occupied.
"Then I'll do it," she said.
"Wait," I held out a hand. It was already too late; Kory stood in my kitchen.
"Boy, do we have a story for you," Anita announced. "Have a seat. This could take a while."
* * *
Kordevik
"So they know."
"About me, at least." Lexsi hugged herself.
"Then that's that," I said. "You're not going back there. Send them your resignation by e-mail or go to the downtown office and turn it in. You're not going back to that station." I didn't stop the cloud of smoke that blew from my nostrils. This was more than upsetting; they'd tried to kill Lexsi or draw her out.
"But," Lexsi said. "Farin still has to go back there. George has put in his two weeks' notice because Lee hired him at Eighty-Two, but he's there, too. Anita works downtown. Officially, you still work for them."
"That will end shortly," I fumed.
"They'll go after somebody we know if they can't get to us," Lexsi wiped tears away. "The worst part? We still don't know what they're up to."
"Then let's make sandwiches and go take a look at Lexsi's corkboard in the study," Anita suggested quietly.
I sat on the edge of the desk, Lexsi in the crook of my arm as we walked through the points Lexsi had on her board. She'd added the news about a dead private investigator, too—off to the side with a question ma
rk beside his photograph.
"I really need to talk to some of those people on the Romes' guest list," Lexsi shook her head. "Maya Raven said her parents had recently returned from a trip to Peru before going to the Rome party. She said that they'd gone there to check on a potential investment, but decided it wasn't their thing."
"What sort of investment?" I pulled her tighter and placed a kiss on her temple.
"She didn't know, all she said was her dad, Abe Raven, said it sounded fishy."
"Fishy as in suspect, or fishy like the seals getting bitten in the Bay?" Anita asked.
"Surely he'd have said something if it was seal-biting fishy," Lexsi replied.
"We don't know that, onion," I breathed against her hair. "Has there been any connection made between Abe Raven and the private investigator? Was he having the investment thing investigated—quietly? Did somebody find out and have them both killed?"
"I don't think I can hack into financial records, but I know somebody who can," Lexsi said. "Should we call Davis and Thomas and let them know what's happening? I mean, if the private investigator was involved somehow, then somebody had to pay him, right?"
I called Davis.
"We've hit a dead end," Davis admitted. "We'll come by and take a look."
"If you tell me where you are, I'll come get you," I offered.
"Yeah—best if this happens tonight; tomorrow is the full moon," Davis agreed. "We'll be at the coffee shop near your condo."
"I'll be there in five," I said and ended the call.
* * *
Lexsi
I missed the warmth of Kory's embrace the moment he skipped away. The corkboard on the wall taunted me, too, while he was gone. I watched as Anita went through the whole thing, which looked to be random bits and pieces put together by an amateur.
There, in the center, was the piece of red paper with DSG Enterprises written in broad strokes with a felt-tip pen.
Peru, land of the Incas, was off to the side and near the private investigator's image.
At the top left, at the beginning, was Abe and Donna Raven.
Hannah and Fiona were at the bottom center, although I'd placed another question mark beside Hannah's name. I still doubted she was dead.
"Look who I found." Kory had not only brought Davis and Thomas, but Mason, too. That meant Klancy was up and guarding the house.
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