“Well, guilt can create blocks. Most empaths who’re blocked … it isn’t just self-protection, or they’d all be blocked. It’s guilt. But guilt can affect anyone, not just empaths. Some Gifted—especially those who were raised in a hellfire and brimstone theology—are never able to cast a spell. It makes them feel unclean. The feeling keeps them blocked.”
“I’m blocked? I’ll never be able to do it?”
“No, you’ve already done it, and more than once! Lily, you’re used to going at something you want to learn head-on. This isn’t a head-on kind of learning. It’s more circling back at something over and over until you get it.”
“I don’t know how to do that kind of learning.” Staring at a candle flame to find Sam there? That wasn’t her.
Cynna snorted. “It’s what you do every day. Investigations are all about circling in on a perp. Investigate mindspeech.”
But mindspeech wasn’t the perp. She was.
Lily turned that thought over in her mind. It felt right. It gave her the same kind of click she got when an investigation suddenly made sense, when she knew she was on the right track. She didn’t think she was guilty. She didn’t feel guilty. But some part of her was obscuring the trail, hiding things from the rest of her.
She’d track it down. Cynna was right—that’s what she did. “You’re pretty smart.”
“This is true.”
Lily looked at her friend’s smiling, decorated face. “Smug, too.”
“Pregnant women get to do smug. It’s part of the package, compensation for having our bladders reduced to the size of a pea. Speaking of which …”
“You need to go already? We just left!”
“Size of a pea,” Cynna said firmly, and pulled into a gas station on the outskirts of Del Cielo. Mariah Friar’s hometown.
“YOU’RE sure about this.” Rule leaned over Arjenie’s shoulder to look at the computer screen.
He’d spent some time with Toby early that morning, then sent the boy off to lessons. For now, Harold Spanner would homeschool him. Harold had taught Rule at one time, and he had a student already—Mike Rose’s son, Sean. Toby would spend the night with Sean tonight … and Rule already missed him. It was foolish, but he’d gotten used to having Toby with him every morning and evening. But with everything that was going on, it was simpler for Toby to stay with a friend. This way Rule didn’t have to keep sending Toby out of the room when they discussed things the boy shouldn’t hear.
He and Benedict had been going over security details for the meeting when Isen summoned them to his study, where Arjenie was ensconced with her computer.
“Not at all,” Arjenie answered. “Well, I’m sure that Friar had his old swimming pool taken out and a new one put in last year. The permits for that are clear. I’m also sure Friar made some odd purchases about that time and did his best to hide them, using a dummy corporation. I’m not sure all of that adds up to some underground tunnel or hidey-hole, but it’s suggestive.”
Rule looked over Arjenie’s head at Benedict, who stood on her other side. Their eyes met. “Can you show me those purchases?”
“Okay. What I’ve got is a single invoice, though. I, uh, sort of snuck in someone’s back door to find it.”
“Hacked in?”
“Hacking is illegal. I simply know how to find back doors sometimes … and some people don’t have much protection.” Her fingers flew over the keyboard. A new screen popped up. “Here it is.”
The invoice didn’t tell Rule a great deal. Some of the materials could have been for a swimming pool—there was a lot of cement—while others clearly weren’t. “I’ll have Jimmy look at this. He’s a contractor,” he added to Arjenie. “He’ll be able to give us an idea of what those steel beams might be used for.”
Isen stood behind Arjenie, smiling. “She does good work, doesn’t she? Did you notice the name of Friar’s dummy corporation?”
“Why?”
“Hernando, Hyde, and Way.” His father paused, his eyebrows wagging. “You don’t get it?”
“No, I don’t recognize …” Rule’s voice trailed off when his father hummed a few bars from an old song. “You’ve got to be kidding.”
Isen’s smile split his beard like a knife. “Our enemy has a sense of humor. He named his dummy corporation after ‘Hernando’s Hideaway.’ ”
“YOU were really good with Mariah,” Lily said, closing the door and reaching for her seat belt. “She liked you.”
Cynna patted her belly. “The little rider makes friends for me everywhere. Plus it turned out we had a lot in common.” She drew the seat belt back around her. “We head into the city now, right?”
“Right.” Lily’s arm hurt way more than she thought it should. She felt like crap. She did her best to ignore it.
“You going to take a pain pill? You look like you need one.”
“Not yet. They make me sleepy. I need to stay awake.”
“You also need to not keel over. I can’t help if you keel over.”
“I’ll be okay. I didn’t know you were a pole dancer back in your young-and-wild days.”
Cynna chuckled. “Hey, where I grew up, pole dancing was considered a great job, as long as you didn’t do it butt-naked. Butt-naked would be tacky, but as long as you had that G-string you were cool.”
“Hmm.” Lily dug out her iPhone. “I guess you have that in common with Cullen, too. He wore a G-string when he was dancing for a living. Not that he considers ‘naked’ to have any connection to ‘tacky.’ ”
“With a body like that, why would he? Besides, lupi don’t have the body issues we do.”
“No kidding.” Lily couldn’t make notes, but she needed to make a record of the interview, so she used the “record” feature on her phone. “Interview with Mariah Friar on September twenty-fifth. Subject was cooperative when questioned about her previous report concerning the unexplained absence of her father, Robert Friar, four years ago. At the time in question, subject was sixteen and was living with her father, who was gone from their shared residence from March thirteenth until March thirty-first of that year. Subject was told of his planned departure the night before he left. She was not told where he was going or when he would return, which was contrary to Friar’s usual habit.
“Subject received no explanation for this absence. Upon Friar’s return, subject questioned him about it. He became angry and she desisted. Subject arrived at these dates through reference to an old diary she kept at that time. She allowed me to look at it to confirm the dates, but she did not wish to release it to me.”
“Can’t blame her for that,” Cynna said.
Lily shot her a “hush” look. “Subject is convinced that, prior to this absence, her father did not possess significant magical abilities, and believes he was entirely unGifted. After his return, however, he possessed a shield or shields. Ah—due to the nature of subject’s Gift, Robert Friar’s new ability to shield was immediately apparent to her.” Lily had been careful not to mention the nature of Mariah’s Gift in official documents during her earlier investigation. She wasn’t sure if today’s oral notes would make it into an official report, but she wasn’t taking any chances.
“Subject was unaware of the nature of Robert Friar’s magical abilities, if any, aside from the shield or shields,” she concluded. “When it was suggested that those abilities might include clairaudience, however, she remembered events from that period in her life which seemed to support this possibility.” Lily touched the “end” button and paused before putting her phone up. “Anything you can think of that I should add?”
“Subject is one brave chick,” Cynna said promptly. “Subject’s father is one sicko bastard.”