Robodroid pounded into the hallway after her. The ruse had only worked until his sensors heard her footsteps running away. He had turned his back on Searchlight and came after her. She had only enough time to turn around.
The EMP generator was the most obnoxious tool in Grim’s arsenal. There were too many switches to control the focus and the range. The trigger, on the other hand, was easy enough to find. She pulled it. Nothin visible emanated from the device, but Robodroid dropped like so much scrap metal. His system began to reboot almost instantly, but that would take about fifteen minutes, plenty of time to call in the Defender Squad to capture and dismantle the robot once again.
Grim looked up at her. He groaned with the effort of sitting up. “Lesson two about crime scenes: Guns and bullets can tell you a lot, but you might not have time to figure out what they’re saying.”
✽✽✽
Molly wasn’t surprised to see her mother still awake at two in the morning.
“Hi,” she said wearily as she put her keys down on the credenza.
Her mother was already on her feet and embraced her daughter. It was less a hug and more an attachment.
“Too close.” Her mother was nearly shaking. “Too close to losing you again.”
Molly said nothing. She simply hugged her mother tightly.
After thirty seconds, she made her reluctant mother release her. In another half a minute she would have resorted to ghosting.
“I am too exhausted, Mom. I’m sorry if I get snappy, but I’m dead on my feet. I’m going through this once, and then I’m going to bed.” She took a breath and then went to stand next to one of the chairs in her living room. She did not sit down, but she leaned against the chair. Sitting would have led to sleeping.
“As I said over the phone, the police have asked me to help them with the investigation. Matt Nelson was shot twice in the head. I have no idea who did it, but the weapon belonged to his chief of security.”
Lydia gasped. “Officer Baxter?”
Molly blinked. “You know him?”
Her mother nodded. “I shared a seat with him on the campaign bus.”
“Okay. I’ll file that away.” Molly sighed. “One more thing you should know, two friends of mine are probably going to come here in the morning. I may or may not be up. You’re in the guest room. They can split the couch and the mats downstairs.”
“Is anyone else hurt?”
“Officer Baxter is under sedation. He was healed by The Hospitaller, but his body is still coming to terms with the fact that he’s not in danger. Stomper is unconscious from some kind of inner ear trauma. They think someone shot him in the ear, but they’re not sure. And one of the men who will be coming over here has a broken jaw. I didn’t see anyone else hurt, except Nelson, of course.” She furrowed her brow, trying to remember what else needed to be said. “Did anyone call?”
Lydia nodded. “The phone rang, but when I picked up there was no answer. Caller ID said it was a private number.”
Could that have been Frank? “Okay. If the phone rings again, do not answer it. Let me get it. Hopefully he’ll call my cell phone. And now that I think about it, I should charge that tonight.”
“Who will call your cell phone?” asked Molly’s mother.
Molly winced. “It’s not important, Mom.”
“Please don’t keep secrets from me, Molly.”
It had been delivered with no reprimand, no pleading. It was a gentle request, which was why Molly granted it. “Hustle. One of my friends from the bad old days.”
Lydia looked like she’d swallowed a lemon, but she said nothing.
“Is there anything else I’m forgetting to say? Please make any questions brief.”
“Dear, I need to know if you’re all right.”
Molly closed her eyes. “Physically, yes. But I’m exhausted, I’m completely at a loss about this murder, and…” She felt tears in her eyes and angrily shook her head. “And in the past few hours I have been an absolute witch. To everyone. Things are spinning out of my control, and I’m not coping with it very well.”
Lydia nodded and gave her child another hug. “To bed then. You were always a grump when you didn’t sleep well. Mend fences tomorrow. Your friends will understand.”
✽✽✽
She woke to the smell of coffee along with bacon and fried potatoes. Molly was certain there had been no potatoes or bacon in her house the day before. When had her mother had time to shop?
When she rolled over, the first thing she saw was her cell phone on the nightstand. Her brain kick-started and she grabbed it, furiously punching in Frank’s number.
“’lo?” He murmured.
“You are the fastest man on the planet. How does ‘call me immediately’ present a problem for you?”
“Molly?”
She bit back the half dozen retorts that came to mind. ‘Yes, Frank. Now where is Damselfly? The police need her statement.”
“The police or Detective Cedar?”
Molly let out a disgusted sound. “If you pulled Damselfly out of that trailer just to spite Sean, I swear I’m going to cover you in honey and throw a bee’s nest at you.”
“Kinky.”
“Frank!”
“Oh, stop. Ticking off Sasquatch was a pleasure, sure, but I pulled the kid out because of the look on her face. She was freaking out. It took half an hour for her to stop babbling from the guilt. She didn’t mean to kill anybody.”
“What?!” Molly shouted into the phone. Any trace of morning exhaustion had disappeared.
“She made a mistake, Molly. I’m not feeding her to the wolves on this one.”
“Frank, this is a murder.”
“And maybe she’ll turn herself in for it, but I’m not forcing her into that. She made a decision in the heat of battle. I’ve made the wrong call before, and I’m not in a position to throw stones.”
“Throw stones?!”
“Thanks, I heard myself say that at a lower volume level. Look, Molly, after I left, there was an earthquake in Peru. I was putting out fires and doing search and rescue most of the night. I’ve only gotten about an hour of sleep so far. You have Damselfly’s number, don’t you? Talk to her yourself. If you’re right and she needs to go to the police, well, you’re better at saying stuff like that anyway.”
“Frank.”
“Goodbye,” he said pointedly right before disconnecting.
“You idiot!” she said into the phone even though the line was dead. That was, of course, when her mother walked in.
“Molly?”
Lydia stood in the doorway. She had sizable bags under her eyes, and she looked considerably frailer than she had the day before. Molly put the phone on the bed and looked apologetically at her mother.
“I’m sorry for shouting, Mom.” She sighed. “I just started the day with some news that was kind of horrible.”
“Can you talk about it?” There was an edge to the question.
Molly frowned. “I think I just found out that a friend of mine killed Matt Nelson.”
Lydia turned white. “One of the capes.”
Molly nodded. “I don’t know for sure. I need to talk to her.”
“Her?”
Molly winced. The only female cape at the scene had been Damselfly. She hadn’t meant to tell her mother whom she suspected. “I really don’t know what happened. It’s all hearsay, so far.”
“Why would Damselfly kill Matt Nelson? She was campaigning for him.”
Molly threw off the covers and swung her legs over the bed. “Mom, I can’t tell you all her secrets. I’m sorry, but that’s just not my place. Suffice it to say, Matt Nelson did some horrific things to Damselfly.”
“I can’t believe that.”
She regarded her mother for a moment. “Well, I can’t prove it. Let’s say instead that Damselfly believed he had done those things and leave it at that.”
Lydia took a deep breath. Sadness radiated from her. “Okay then.” She lifted her head a
nd looked at her daughter. “Was that the same Frank you were seeing all those years ago?”
Molly blushed. “Yeah. He’s my other boyfriend. Or at least he is when I don’t want to kill him.”
“What about that nice policeman?”
“It’s complicated, Mom.” She hated it when her life was a Facebook status. “Sean and Frank are both important to me. Right now, though, I don’t think either one wants anything to do with me.”
Lydia shook her head as she stared at Molly. “Two boyfriends. And all those years I thought you were a lesbian.” She hugged her daughter and straightened, all business.
“Get dressed, dear. The nice German man downstairs brought enough food for the Prussian army. And there’s a woman named Sandra who says she’s your lawyer.”
“Yeah. Sorry. I forgot to mention her.”
“You had a lot on your mind last night.” Lydia hesitated. “Do you need a lawyer?”
Molly smiled, happy to be able to relieve her mother’s concerns for once. “Don’t worry, Mom. I’m not under investigation or anything like that. Sandra’s just helping to smooth the waters. My VAA status makes working with the police a little complex.”
Lydia relaxed a fraction. “That’s good to hear.”
“Can you give me five minutes to get dressed and then send Sandra up here? I’m going to try to get in touch with Damselfly, and she should probably be here when I do.”
Lydia nodded. “Of course.”
Molly went into her bathroom and washed her face and underarms at the sink. She put on deodorant, brought a comb into her bedroom and threw on khakis and a green blouse. She would be working with the police today, and it was about the level of dressiness Sean usually wore to work.
Sandra came upstairs, but it was for nothing. Calling Beth yielded the same results as it had the night before. Molly shook her head at her lawyer.
“What’s up?”
“I got in touch with Hustle. Apparently, he pulled Damselfly out of the trailer because he thought she looked guilty.”
Sandra frowned. “That’s not good.”
“It gets worse. She apparently told him that she ‘didn’t mean to kill anybody.’”
“Oh, crud.” Sandra shook her head. “That kind of talk isn’t helpful. There’s no way this death is accidental, so it just sounds like she’s making excuses. Why would Damselfly want to kill Nelson?”
“Because she believes Nelson killed her parents and her baby sister.”
Sandra blinked. “Wait, come again?”
Molly nodded. “Nelson was one of the most corrupt men in the city, but he was good at hiding it. The Grim Detective told me he’s been unable to pin anything on Nelson.”
Sandra frowned. “If a master criminologist can’t establish proof, isn’t it possible that there’s nothing to prove?”
Molly glared at Sandra. “You’re my advocate. Stop being the devil’s.”
Sandra held up her hands. “Sorry. Occupational hazard. So you’re going to have to share what Hustle said with Detective Cedar.”
Molly nodded. “I’m going to try to reach Damselfly again after I have some breakfast, but I plan to tell Sean as soon as I get in to see him. Food first, though.”
They went downstairs. Fathi sat in the living room with a complicated brace around his head and a thick drink and a straw in front of him. He smiled at Molly. The effect was ghastly.
Wulfric and Lydia were in Molly’s kitchen. Lydia had just finished putting potatoes onto a plate, and Wulfric was flipping a few sausages still cooking. Molly accepted the plate from her mother.
“Did you sleep well, liebchen?”
“Give me coffee or I will stab you in the heart.”
Lydia looked shocked, but Wulfric chuckled warmly. He pulled a mug from the cabinet and poured a full mug. “Cream and sugar?”
“Sugar, yes, but there’s no cream,” she replied.
He smiled again, and looked to Lydia. She opened the refrigerator and pulled out a carton of half and half. Molly set her plate down on the counter and greedily turned her coffee into a sugary beige concoction.
“You’re spoiling me.”
Wulfric nodded, or maybe it was a bow. It wasn’t always easy to tell with him. “In the old country you brought food when you visited a home so the host would not bankrupt himself feeding you. I keep that tradition going.”
“Where are you from, exactly, Mr. Weiss?” Lydia asked.
Molly decided to confront this one head on. “Mom, this is Wulfric Weiss. You probably know him better as The Hospitaller. When he talks about the old country, he means medieval.”
Lydia froze. She still might not be a fan of capes, despite having a daughter who had been one. On the other hand, she was not a woman who could be rude to a man for no reason. Her brain seemed to stall trying to figure out how to react.
Wulfric saw the consternation, but he was a difficult man to offend. He smiled graciously and held out a hand for Lydia. She took it on autopilot, and he squeezed it warmly with a little bow and a click of his boots.
Molly played the exposition fairy a little more. “Wulfric, this is my mother, Lydia. She just found out about my other life last night.”
Wulfric looked down on Molly. “Liebchen,” he said disapprovingly.
Molly ignored the reproof. “Also, her house burned down last year because of a fight between the Defender Squad and Professor Skeleton. Were you involved with that?”
He shook his head. “I was overseas up until a couple of months ago, and I haven’t been an active member of the Squad for almost two years.”
“Okay. So, let me think, is there anything else I need to get out in the open to avoid awkwardness later?”
Fathi waved to her from his chair. Molly nodded. “Ah, yes. Fathi is a cape as well, though he doesn’t use a codename. He works mostly on other continents, so I don’t know if you’d have heard of him.” She picked up her breakfast and carried it into the living room. “You guys can discuss all that if you like. I need to eat.”
She put her plate and mug on the coffee table and began to eat her breakfast. Wulfric had chosen an excellent brand of sausage. Even though Molly wasn’t generally a fan of breakfast foods, this hit the spot. She forced herself to eat slowly. Her day was going to be busy, but rushing would only give her indigestion and spoil what enjoyment she could get out of the food.
The silence in her house was a little overwhelming for the first few seconds. Wulfric broke it. “I am sorry to learn of your house, Mrs. Martin.”
Lydia stared at him, then surprised Molly by saying, “Lydia, please. You and my daughter are close?”
“We have not seen each other for some time before now, but she has been a staunch ally. She saved my life a time or two, and she is the best pinochle partner I have ever had.”
“Why do you call her liebchen? Doesn’t that mean sweetheart?”
Molly nearly choked on her potatoes.
Wulfric chuckled. “It means ‘lovely little one.’ I took to calling her that when we were searching some caves for evidence. She was the only one who did not need to stoop down.”
“Stupid short jokes,” Molly mumbled good-naturedly.
“She also reminds me of my niece, Froida. I used to call her liebchen as well.”
Molly looked up at her old friend. “You never told me that.”
He smiled. “The memories are bittersweet. Froida died while I was on Crusade.”
Sandra spoke up. “Sorry to interrupt, but we should probably talk game plans. It’s after nine already, so Molly and I should get moving as soon as she’s had breakfast.”
Wulfric nodded. “Fathi, you should get to sleep when you’ve finished your shake. It will help you heal faster.”
Molly looked at her mother. Lydia stiffened. “I’m not going anywhere.”
Molly held up her hands. “You’re welcome to stay, Mom, but there’s nothing for you to do. I have no idea how long I’ll be at the police station.”
�
�Nonsense,” replied Wufric. “Your mother and I can take down your Halloween decorations. That will keep us busy.”
Everyone looked a little puzzled by that suggestion. Molly wasn’t fond of the idea of someone else putting those decorations away. She’d never find anything next year. But one look at her mother’s face meant the argument was already over.
“Sounds like a plan.” She finished her potatoes and speared another sausage on her fork. “The boxes are in the crawlspace under the basement stairs. I’ll try to get back for lunch, but I’ll call if that’s not possible.”
✽✽✽
As she knocked on his open door, she realized she’d never seen Sean’s office before. It was much like his car. Sean kept no sentimental material in his Dodge Avenger, and his desk was likewise uncluttered with photographs or other keepsakes.
Unless of course he usually keeps a picture of me here but threw it in a drawer because he’s so disgusted with me.
Sean looked up from the computer, acknowledged her with a nod, then went back to typing. Molly and Sandra came into the office and sat across from him. Erasmus, who had met them at the station, came in behind them and stood. A moment later, Sean was done, and he gave them his full attention. Molly shuddered inwardly at his bloodshot eyes. Had he slept at all?
“Good morning.” She said sympathetically. She placed the to-go cup of coffee she had brought him on his desk. It was her peace offering. “You always say the coffee here is terrible.”
He didn’t quite smile. He looked like he was too tired.
Molly took a breath and jumped in. “I was an absolute shrew to you last night. I’m sorry.” When he simply blinked, she continued. “Everything just hit me at once, Sean. The murder, my mother, your idea of my being a consultant, and none of it was under my control. I know it’s no excuse, but it’s all I’ve got.”
He picked up the coffee and drank some. “Only you,” he began after he swallowed, “would use the word ‘shrew’ to describe yourself.”
“Does that mean you had other words in mind?”
Ex-Cape | Book 2 | Ex-Cape From A Small Town Page 14