Until now.
“I am waiting for Vicki,” Aiden said. “She asked to see me.”
Nothing. Not even the rustle of a leaf. Then one of the Five stepped up to the road and stood almost within reach.
“She is our friend too,” the fifth one said.
Hearing the warning, he nodded. “Vicki has many friends. She also has enemies.”
“Humans.” She made the word sound like something cursed.
Aiden nodded. “Humans, yes. But there might be enemies among the terra indigene too. It would be good if Vicki’s many friends remain close enough to hear a call for help.”
She stepped away from the road, gone.
He wondered how long it would take the Five to tell the rest of the Elders that there were humans, and possibly some terra indigene, who posed a risk to the Reader. He wasn’t sure what the Elders would do to any terra indigene involved in this trouble, but he didn’t wonder what would happen to any human in The Jumble whose actions weren’t easily understood. Not when the Five were among the Elders keeping watch.
When he heard the car, he stepped into the road far enough for Vicki to see him.
She stopped the car. He opened the passenger door and got in.
“I know we aren’t exactly friends, but we are friendly,” Vicki said.
“That is true,” Aiden agreed.
“It was suggested that I share some information with someone whose form could not be compromised by substances that might alter their behavior.”
“This is a trusting?”
Vicki nodded. She turned off the car, undid her seat belt, unbuttoned her coat, and then turned her body this way and that until she finally removed a piece of paper from her pocket. She handed him the paper and looked . . . flustered . . . and he wasn’t sure why. She did not have the sinuous grace that was common in so many terra indigene forms, but she was human, so no one expected it.
Perhaps not expecting it was considered rude among her kind?
Aiden opened the paper and read the list of words and phrases. Some meant nothing. Others . . . “Where did you get this?”
“Meg from Lakeside called me. She spoke. I listened and wrote down the words.”
He studied this human female who thought she was ordinary and didn’t understand how many things she did weren’t ordinary at all.
“Someone came into my office when I was unwell and tried to find out what I’d written down,” Vicki said. “They didn’t find out, but the fact that someone tried means I can’t trust anyone staying in the house or the cabins. But someone else needed to know about this in case . . .”
“Julian Farrow?”
“Human body. He would help me, but he could be hurt. Or compromised.”
cops. fangs. betrayal.
Her hesitation to show this list to Chief Grimshaw or Ilya Sanguinati made sense now. He didn’t think Ilya would betray Vicki, but there was that predator of predators staying in the area, and that suggested a fight among the Sanguinati. And this warning had come from Broomstick Girl.
Aiden pointed to the line that read, problem solver. ally. “His name is Stavros. He will help you.”
“How do you know?”
“I met him. He said he was a problem solver and that he would help you.”
She nodded. “I’d better get these groceries up to the house before my guests start thinking nibbling on dead donkey is a good idea.”
Even for a human, she said the most peculiar things. That’s why he found her appealing.
Aiden returned the list and got out of the car. Vicki did her gyration to shove the paper back in her pocket before she put on the seat belt and started the car.
He watched her drive away.
There were things he could have explained about other parts of that prophecy, but he thought the outcome, good or bad, would depend on Vicki’s ability to understand Broomstick Girl’s message on her own.
CHAPTER 81
Grimshaw
Moonsday, Novembros 5
Using pliers to pull out his own toenails wouldn’t be as painful as listening to this college admin’s evasions and justifications and blah blah freaking blah as the woman tried to deny that his query was legitimate and she should give him the information he’d asked for, which should have been public information that could be found in the college’s catalog if he had time to request one and wait for it to be mailed.
But he didn’t have time and he lost his last shred of patience, so Grimshaw said, “Ma’am, I will say this once more. This is a murder investigation, and Richard Cardosa is a person of interest. I want to know what he teaches at your college, or what his field of study is if he doesn’t actually teach. Either you provide me with this information in the next five minutes or I’m going to hang up the phone, and the next people who are going to ask you for that information will be standing in your office, will have Sanguinati as their last name, and will be much less polite. Do you understand me now?”
Bleating and tears. And an odd refusal to believe.
He wondered if this was an example of brainwashing.
Grimshaw looked up as Ilya walked into the station. He waved the vampire over to his desk, then held out the phone. “Tell her who you are and that you’ll bite off her face if she doesn’t give me the information I asked for.”
Even with the receiver held between them, they heard the woman shriek before she started to babble.
Ilya took the phone. “This is Ilya Sanguinati. I will not bite your face off, no matter what Chief Grimshaw says. The Sanguinati have specialists who take care of things like that. Now, don’t hang up or we will be very unhappy with you. Simply scream for your superior and put him on the phone. The clock is ticking. Tick. Tick.”
Fortunately for both their eardrums, Ilya was in the process of handing him the phone when the woman screamed for help.
“Tick, tick?” Grimshaw said.
The next voice was male. Not calm but not in a complete state of panic.
Grimshaw repeated his request and emphasized that this information was part of a murder investigation.
“I see,” he said as he wrote down what he was told. “No, there’s no reason to acknowledge where I came by this information. I appreciate your assistance.”
He hung up the phone, sat back, and stared at Ilya. “Richard Cardosa’s contract with the college was not renewed because of some questionable behavior that might have been connected to the emotional deterioration of several students in his classes, including two whose deaths are still under investigation even though the official verdict was ‘death by terra indigene.’” He continued to stare. “The woman on the phone. Did she remind you of anyone?”