Herne nodded. “I’ll check it out.”
Yutani returned as Angel was setting out the food. “Here’s a new tablet. I transferred all of your data. It’s good to go.”
“Thanks,” I said as Angel handed me a bowl of chowder and a plate of fish and chips. She knew I wasn’t all that fond of coleslaw. She added a couple biscuits to my plate before setting it down in front of me.
As I dug into the food, I was all too aware of the strained tension in the office. When everybody was settled in around the table, I decided to tackle it head on.
“I know we’re all on edge, but as for me, please—quit worrying. I’ll be all right. The doctor checked me out and I’m bruised up, cut up, and banged up, but I’ll live. I’ll need help for a day or two, but I heal fast so don’t treat me with kid gloves, all right?”
“If you’re sure?” Herne asked.
“Yeah. We have too much to focus on, and we’re in over our heads on this one, I’m afraid. As you said, we need all hands on deck, and I don’t want anybody distracted by my welfare. I’m all right. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time, but I lucked out and so let’s just move on.” Truth was, I was highly uncomfortable when people fussed over me.
“I’m checking on that license plate right now,” Talia said. “I’m in the DMV’s database and…bingo. The only Panther XL with the beginning four digits you saw belongs to… Well, this is interesting. It belongs to one Grimspound Mica.” She froze, then looked up from the screen. “He’s a Fomorian.”
I stared at him. “What?”
“I know what you’re thinking, Ember,” Herne warned. “But there’s no evidence to link them. Not yet, at least.”
I wanted to jump to conclusions. It made sense to me that the Fomorians might be involved, but Herne was right. If we approached this from the wrong angle, the collateral damage would be far greater than it already was. As I had warned Samantha, we had to move cautiously to make sure we had the right culprit.
“I hear you,” I said. “What else do we have?”
“Let me check. Okay, yes, Grimspound is actually a customer at the bank. Oh boy,” Yutani said. “A number of Fomorians have signed up with the credit union.” He shook his head. “That would just give the Tuathan Brotherhood more reason to bomb them, if it really is a group of renegade Fae behind the mask.”
“Fuck!” I didn’t want to accept that the Fae were actually behind this, but I couldn’t deny the possibility. The Fomorians were a group of giants who had been out to exterminate the Fae since the beginning of time and recently had made an attempt on the Fae race. And that would give any fanatics plenty of reason to target places that did business with them.
“You see, we have to walk softly. This could play out any number of ways.” Herne’s phone rang. “It’s Cernunnos. I’ll be back in a minute. Go on.”
“What else have we got?” I asked.
Yutani shrugged. “I’m looking over Jasper’s email that my program flagged. It looks like all this began when he contacted the Tuathan Brotherhood, offering to volunteer. But…” He sounded puzzled. “The documents they sent him aren’t about a hate group. What I see here portrays the Tuathan Brotherhood as an organization out to help Fae who are on the skids. They read like some homeless shelter–recovery center. There’s not a single word about supremacy or anything of that nature.”
“When is the email dated?” I asked.
“July 7. And it seems that Jasper volunteered to go stay with them for a week, in order to go through the necessary training. Actually…this isn’t a volunteer position. He was applying for a job with them.” Yutani scrolled through the email. “They told him they’d take him on for a trial period, including paid training. Then, if all worked well, he’d be hired on permanently.”
“So they were misrepresenting themselves?” Talia asked, looking perplexed.
“Very much so. And they say right here that they’ve ‘had multiple responses’ to their ad.” Yutani scanned through a few more emails. “Jasper accepted and made plans to go into training in mid-July. Isn’t his fiancée supposed to come talk to us today?”
I glanced at the clock. “Around three o’clock, she said, so she’ll be here in about fifteen minutes.”
“Then we need to ask her whether Jasper ever mentioned anything about the potential job.” Yutani paused, looking at me. “How are you feeling?”
I frowned, assessing my condition. “I feel like somebody took a sledgehammer to me and then decided to play tic-tac-toe on my back with a knife. Other than that, I’m just dandy. My ears are still ringing, but it’s dying down. At least I can hear.” I shifted in my chair and my body protested. “I think I’m going to be a mass of sore muscles for a few days though. And I can’t even get a massage because of all the cuts on my back—they’re all the way down my body, back of the legs included.”
Herne let out a sigh. “I don’t care how important these cases are. I’m taking you home after Penny’s visit. You can afford one evening off. I’d tell you not to come in tomorrow, but I know how well that would go over.”
“You said it, not me.” I grinned at him, then sobered. “I’m just grateful to be alive. The crow saved my ass. If I had been facing the door when it blew out…I don’t even want to think about it.” I shook my head, trying to clear my thoughts. The glass alone would have killed me—or blinded me, or ruptured vital organs, or so many potential things. My jacket had taken the brunt of it, and still, the glass had been lodged in my skin, slicing right through the leather. “Hell, now I need a new leather jacket.”
“That’s the least of your worries, given what could have happened,” Talia said.
“I’d better get back to my desk and unlock the elevator, given Penny is supposed to show up soon.” Angel excused herself and headed back to her desk.
I finished my lunch while the others discussed both cases. I felt utterly exhausted. My thoughts kept slipping back to the moment when I found myself sailing over the steps, toward the pavement. That moment when you think, “What’s happening?” and then the fraction of a second when it turns into disbelief—“No, this can’t be happening!”
And then the aftermath sets in.
“Can we turn on the TV again? Find out what’s going on with the bomb scene now?”
Talia flipped on the remote. The all too perky announcer had been replaced by a more somber reporter who was announcing that there were now twenty confirmed dead, and sixty-three injured, eighteen of them critically. There were fourteen people missing that authorities knew of. The fire had been extinguished, but the inspection was going to take awhile.
My heart dropped. “So many. Who knew enough about the credit union’s traffic to know that this was a heavy-use time?”
“Remember, people in the apartments and gym above the credit union were also injured. There were a lot of people in that building. And the bomber planned for maximum injury. The credit union’s prime time is during mid-morning, and that wouldn’t be hard information to get,” Viktor said. “While I don’t like the thought, we should consider the entire city a potential target. Any place run by humans or shifters could be a potential target.”
“We can’t mention that,” Herne said. “It would induce a city-wide panic, which would lead to a backlash. Like the guy in the hospital this morning who yelled at Ember.”
“What’s that?” Talia asked.
I glanced at her. “There was a guy in the waiting room who blamed my ‘kind’ for his wife fighting for her life. Not the Tuathan Brotherhood, but the Fae in general. And you know the animosity toward the Fae is only going to grow.”
Angel popped her head through the door. “Penny Sanders is here. Should I bring her in here or into your office, Herne?”
He glanced around. “Give us a minute to clear off the table, then bring her in here. We all need to hear what she has to say, given the nature of the case.”
Talia immediately began clearing the plates and tossing the remains in the garbage. Sh
e washed the table, then nodded to Angel. “We’re good.”
Angel vanished, then reappeared a moment later with Penny in tow. The woman looked exactly like she had in the photograph, only the wide smile was nowhere to be seen. Instead, she looked haunted.
“Please, have a seat,” Herne said. “Thank you for coming down.”
“It’s been nonstop reporters at my door. Somehow, they picked up on the fact that I was engaged to Jasper, and they won’t leave me alone.” Her bottom lip quivered as she looked at me. “Were you one of the people that Jasper hit with his car?”
I realized that the various bruises and cuts that showed up all over my arms and chest were all too visible with the sundress on. I glanced over at Herne.
“Actually, Ember was caught in the bombing this morning.”
She stared at me for a moment, then hung her head. “I’m so sorry. And I’m so sorry for those people that Jasper killed and hurt. I don’t understand what happened. He was the most soft-hearted man I ever met.”
“Can you tell us if he ever mentioned a potential job with a group called the Tuathan Brotherhood?” Herne asked. “This would have been in early to mid-July.”
“That was shortly before he changed. Let me think.” She glanced at the coffeepot. “Do you mind if I have a cup of coffee? I’m exhausted.”
Talia crossed to the counter. “Cream, sugar?”
“Just cream, please.” After Talia handed her the mug, Penny took a long sip, then visibly relaxed. “I needed this. Thank you. Now that you mention it, I do remember Jasper mentioning something about getting a new job. I know it seems strange that I wouldn’t recall that, given we were engaged, but June was a crazy month for both of us. My mother was in the hospital, undergoing a hysterectomy for cancer, and my sister brought her kids to my place to stay for a couple weeks—her marriage was falling apart. Jasper was getting really tired of his job and he wanted to find more meaningful work. So we didn’t see much of each other for a couple weeks. But when I think back, yes, he did say he was taking some time off to go into training on what could be a fantastic new opportunity.”
“Did he tell you what it entailed?” Yutani asked.
“Only that it was a new organization that was focused on helping those members of the Fae community who had been ostracized to find a new path. Or something like that. He told me he’d call me when he got there, and he did, but after that, he never called again. I tried phoning him several times during that week, but then my mother needed me, and I figured that Jasper was just neck-deep in training. That he’d call me when he got back.” She twisted a ring on her right hand that looked like an engagement ring.
“You’re still wearing your ring?” I asked.
She gave me a sad shrug. “I couldn’t take it off, so I just put it on my other hand, hoping that whatever was wrong, would just…fix itself. I needed closure. I needed to know why he had turned against me. I suppose I’ll never get that.”
“We’ll try to figure out why.” I glanced over at Herne.
He cleared his throat and leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table. “Did Jasper have any good friends? Anybody who he might have told about the job? We’d like to find out where the organization is located.”
Penny finished her coffee and gently wiped her lips on a napkin. “He had a lot of friends, but if he were to tell anybody else, I think it would have been Warren. Warren Mossly—a shifter who owns a deli in Shoreline. The two were football buddies. If you’ll wait a moment, I’ll give you his number.” She glanced through her contacts list. “Here it is,” she said, turning her phone around for us to see.
Yutani immediately copied the number down and began searching on his laptop. “Warren Mossly, married to Larinda Mossly for thirteen years. Owner of the Veggie-First Deli in Shoreline. Deer shifter. Member of several local organizations—Audubon, Nature’s Helpers, Community Gardens. He’s a master gardener as well.”
“Warren’s won several awards for his participation in Keep Seattle Green.” A smile broke through Penny’s gloom. “He’s a good sort, and so is his wife.”
Talia stood. “I’ll go give him a call.” She left the room.
“When Jasper returned, what happened?” I asked.
Penny winced.
“I know the memories are painful, but we really are trying to find out what happened, and what could have led him to run down those people,” Herne said softly.
“I know,” Penny said. “All right. My mother was feeling better, and I realized that I hadn’t heard from Jasper in a while. I dropped by his place and saw his car parked near his apartment. I knocked, but nobody answered. I have a key so I tried to let myself in, but the inner chain lock was on and I couldn’t get the door open. I called out, and he yelled to leave him alone. I tried a couple more times, but he wouldn’t come to the door.”
“What did you do?”
“I left. After that, I kept calling, but he wouldn’t return either my calls or texts until he sent me a curt note basically calling me a slut and telling me to leave him alone. He said we were done and that he didn’t want anything to do with me. Finally, I quit trying. I didn’t know what was wrong, but obviously, he had changed his mind about marrying me. I left him alone, though I couldn’t bring myself to take off my ring. I really don’t know what happened.”
“Is that everything? Is there anything else that you can remember?”
Penny shook her head. “No, everything seemed like it was in limbo until I woke up to reporters calling me and pounding on my door on Monday because they found out we used to be engaged. That’s how I found out what he did.” She gave me a bleak look. “Why did he do that? Before he left, he went out of his way to help people. He wouldn’t even hurt a spider—always scooped them up and put them outside. For him to turn into a killer? It makes no sense.”
There wasn’t much more she could remember, so Viktor escorted her out. Talia followed him back into the break room.
“Did you find out anything from Mossly?” Herne glanced up as she entered the room.
“Only what Penny told us. Warren heard from Jasper as he was headed out of town. He was all excited about the new job, and he was worried how Penny would hold up if her mom didn’t make it. Sounded every inch the doting fiancé. He wouldn’t tell Warren where he was training—said he had signed an NDA about it.”
“That’s odd. Who signs a non-disclosure agreement about where they’re headed?” I asked.
“Somebody who’s desperate for a change. According to Warren, Jasper hated his job. He was on the verge of quitting, but according to Warren, he decided to hold on until he knew if this new position was going to work out. He took vacation to go to the training—he taught summer courses—and didn’t tell his boss where he was going. He just said he needed to get out of town. He was apparently worried that if it turned out to be a bust and his boss knew he was looking for work, he’d be fired.” Talia carried Penny’s mug over to the sink and washed it out.
“So he truly believed it was going to be a new opportunity to help other Fae members.” Herne glanced at me. “I think we need to pay a visit to Saílle and Névé. Are you up to it? And what about Marilee tonight?”
I groaned. “I forgot all about the session. Let me call her.” I eased my way over to the sofa, where I lowered myself into the soft cushions, groaning in both relief and pain. “Remind me to download my mobile banking app. I’m never going into a bank again,” I said as I pulled out my phone.
Marilee was home, and when I told her what happened, she sputtered.
“You’re not going to be working any magic or trance work tonight, my dear. Not in that condition. Let’s make it for Saturday morning. You have to have one more session before next week, and that way, you can still go to your dinner Saturday night.”
“I should be good to go by then,” I said. As I hung up, I glanced out the window. The break room overlooked the same street as my office. As I watched, the sun broke through the clouds for a brief se
cond, illuminating the entire block. I shaded my eyes, welcoming the light, but it faded and once again, gloom descended on the city.
“Do you think you’re up to the drive?” Herne said.
“You really need me there?”
“I don’t know why, but I think—even if they don’t like you—the Fae Queens respond better when you’re there. Maybe it’s a desire to prove they aren’t the bigots they are, or something like that. If you aren’t up to it, no worries. I’ll take Viktor.”
“I’ll go. But you get to help me out to the car.” I handed him my purse. “I’m not putting anything over my shoulder right now. Are you sure they’ll see us on such short notice?”
“Oh, they’ll see us. They’ve been on my back to meet ever since Jasper mowed down those kids.” He shouldered my purse, then gently steered me out to the waiting room.
“I take it we’re working late tonight?” Angel asked.
“Yep. We’ll be back within a couple of hours, if traffic is kind.” Herne held the elevator for me. As we settled into his SUV, I gingerly fastened my seatbelt.
“You know I’m just doing this because I love you,” I said, only half-joking.
“Seriously, if you need to go home instead, I’ll drop you off there.” Herne paused, his hand on the gearshift. “Ember, when Viktor called us, my heart almost stopped. He saw you blown into the street, and he called us as he was running over to you. All I could think of was that I might lose you.” His voice was strained. “I couldn’t bear that.”
I leaned my head back against the seat. “It takes more than a little bomb to get rid of me,” I joked, though it came out strained. Licking my lips, I said, “Herne? I want a piece of these jokers. I want whoever set off that bomb. I’ll heal, but a lot of people died today.”
“You don’t think the Fae are behind this, do you?” He eased out onto the street and turned right, heading toward the entrance to I-5.
I thought over my answer. “My gut says no. But I can’t deny that Jasper was Fae, or the guys who beat up those partiers. But there’s more to it than my instincts. The Fae don’t pay much attention to humans or shifters. Why would they suddenly divert thousands of years of hatred toward each other toward someone else? If anything, you’d think a Fae hate group would go after the Fomorians.”
The Hallowed Hunt Page 11