I’d let Bobcat figure that out.
“Best not to walk the trails alone today?” Michael asked.
“Best not,” I agreed.
“Karol and I could walk down to the beach with your guests,” Viktor offered. “It’s open ground from the house to the sand. Or the dock.” He looked at the men. “The dock at The Jumble has become a significant place in the stories about Lake Silence.”
“Umm . . . ,” I said.
“Ilya says it is permissible to recount those events as long as we don’t embellish.”
I would have one or two things to say to my attorney about recounting. “Go ahead. Show them the dock and recount.”
Viktor grinned at me, revealing a hint of fang. That startled the men, but they must have realized they weren’t in any danger, because they followed Viktor and Karol out the door.
I looked around. “Where is Lara?” Had I lost the vampire that required firmer authority?
“Jozi is showing her the library,” Kira said. “Ilya was going to take us to Lettuce Reed to choose books, but I don’t think that will happen today. Jozi said you had books Lara might like to read. That is permitted?” She looked anxious, which increased my doubts about Michael Stern’s feeling about the girl—and helped me believe that my interpretation of the look I’d seen Kira give Viktor earlier was mistaken.
“Yes, that is permitted,” I said. “I think she’ll like the Wolf Team books.” All the terra indigene enjoyed the stories about a group of adolescents with special skills who helped beings in trouble. I turned back to Aggie. “What is Eddie doing?”
“He is dusting the wooden floors,” Aggie said. “He was going to use the vacuum cleaner, but that is too noisy.”
“Because it would disturb the guests?”
Aggie gave me a look that chilled me. “Because you wouldn’t be able to hear someone coming up behind you.”
CHAPTER 16
Grimshaw
Thaisday, Novembros 1
While Grimshaw waited for Detective Samuel Kipp and his CIU team to arrive from Bristol, Osgood drove up to the station, found an unfogged parking space, and joined his chief.
“I checked the campers first thing,” Osgood said.
“They must have been thrilled to see you before the sun,” Grimshaw remarked.
“I wanted to get on top of things in case we had a situation.” He looked at the densely fogged space in front of the police station.
“We have a situation,” Grimshaw confirmed. “As soon as Detective Kipp arrives, we’ll need to figure out how to blow this fog off the crime scene.”
The hairs on the back of his neck rose as he heard a soft female laugh coming from somewhere nearby.
I guess Air is still keeping watch.
“Did you find out anything when you were knocking on doors?” Grimshaw asked.
Osgood nodded. “Four teenage boys from Putney of all places had rented one of the campers, wanting to spend Trickster Night in Sproing.”
Putney. A whole lot of trouble had come out of that human town a few months ago. “You get their names and home addresses?”
“Yes, sir, but . . . After they returned to the camper, one of them—Tom Saulner is his name—went back out and didn’t return last night. His friends just thought he’d gotten lucky, you know?”
It was possible, since there were a few teenage girls in the village. Not likely, but possible. Except he thought about all that attitude—and the dangerous vibes—those boys had been projecting when they’d come up to The Jumble, and the way they had looked at Vicki. And he thought about what had invited those boys to come and play.
He shuddered. “You get a description?”
“They claimed they couldn’t remember hair or eye color or what he’d been wearing, but his ‘costume’ had consisted of a hatchet buried in his skull.”
“I saw that boy last night at The Jumble. You call the EMTs and Doc Wallace. Ask if anyone reported a girl being assaulted last night.”
“You think . . .” Osgood’s brown eyes turned stone hard.
“Just ticking the boxes, Officer.” Grimshaw sighed. “I have a meeting with Julian Farrow and Ilya Sanguinati. I’m going to mute my mobile phone, but I’ll be across the street if you need me. This discussion shouldn’t take long.”
“Yes, sir.”
Grimshaw crossed the street and went around to the back of Lettuce Reed since the front door still had the Closed sign.
He had a college boy who had paid a dear price for a prank. Now he had this other boy, Saulner, who was missing and might never be found. He had Elementals detaining the academics staying at the Mill Creek Cabins and “assisting” him in shielding the evidence left at the police station from the residents and tourists. And the gods only knew what Julian would be able to tell him after they played Murder.
Could the day get any better?
CHAPTER 17
Ilya
Thaisday, Novembros 1
The Sanguinati fosterlings were intelligent and inquisitive and had the boldness of young who knew they were, on one level, apex predators. They had also recognized that Victoria DeVine was harmless, at least in the ways they could understand at their age, and curiosity had overwhelmed sense when they decided to cross the lake and visit The Jumble.
He was relieved they had been found unharmed.
As soon as he returned to Silence Lodge he was going to wring their necks for creating this panic among the adults. The Sanguinati did not breed as often as other shifters, so children were cherished and protected. To lose all four of their fosterlings, even for an hour . . .
“This is good practice,” Natasha said. “For when we have our own offspring.”
“Ours will be well behaved,” he growled as he helped her set up the Murder game in the bookstore’s break room.
She gave him a smile that said, With you as their father? Out loud she said, “Perhaps Chief Grimshaw and Julian Farrow can teach the older fosterlings how to play pool.”
“Perhaps.”
Julian returned to the break room with Grimshaw, who said, “Is there any way to make this a quick game?”
“I have given this some thought, and I do not believe we need to play the game as a game,” Natasha said. “From what I heard about the first Murder game, it was the combination of people and objects that triggered the reaction in Mr. Farrow that was, in fact, the warning that Victoria was in danger.”
Ilya eyed his mate. Natasha hadn’t actually been invited to this meeting, but it seemed she had taken charge.
“What do you suggest?” he asked.
“If Mr. Farrow would stand on that side of the table?” She pointed to the side of the game that had the blue paper representing the lake. When Julian moved into position, she began arranging the small figures. “Most of Victoria’s guests were in the large entrance hall that serves as the reception area in order to see the tricksters coming to the door, or they were in the rooms that had a view of the front of the main house.”
Natasha placed a bear and a golden cat at the front door, with teeny Victoria behind them. Teeny Julian was near the kitchen, and teeny Grimshaw was outside, beside the door. Several other human figures were placed in and around the hall and adjoining rooms, positioned to look as if they were conversing with one another.
Julian Farrow stuffed his hands in his pockets and said nothing.
Looking over the available pieces, Natasha positioned a black bird that was meant to be a Crow next to teeny Victoria.
Ilya watched Julian Farrow shift his feet, as if he wanted, needed, to move.