After visiting the temple, he had taken Twyla and Lizzy out for lunch. They met up with the Denbys, who also wanted a day away from the Courtyard. All of them went to a beach on Lake Etu where the children could look for shells and play at the water’s edge. They picked up pizzas from Hot Crust on the way home and spent the evening at the Denby residence playing board games.
There were no lights on in Sissy’s apartment when Monty watched Twyla cross Crowfield Avenue and go up to her efficiency apartment above the seamstress/tailor’s shop. He heard no footsteps overhead while Lizzy got ready for bed. But he hadn’t thought much about it since it was the girls’ bedtime and Sissy might have turned in early too. His mama had told him that morning that Sissy didn’t need anything. He had taken that to mean she had come to some arrangement with Tess and Nadine to supply Sissy and the girls with some food before all the Courtyard shops closed for Earthday.
But this was a new week, a new beginning. He had followed Simon’s orders and not given Sissy any food on Watersday, and he’d stayed away from the Courtyard most of yesterday. But the “no food” command didn’t apply now, so there was no reason he couldn’t buy breakfast for Sissy and his nieces before he went to work. Maybe, having been given a day to herself to consider her actions and the serious consequences, Sissy would really talk to him about what kept happening between her and Jimmy. Or if she wouldn’t talk to him, maybe he could convince her to talk to Theral MacDonald, who had gotten away from an abusive relationship.
He raised his hand to knock on Sissy’s door, then realized the door was ajar, as if someone had stepped out for a moment.
Monty pushed the door open a little ways. “Sissy?”
No answer. No sounds.
Monty pushed the door open all the way and wished he had his gun. He stepped inside, cautious, listening. “Sissy?”
No sign of struggle. What was left of a package of crackers sat on the kitchen table, along with an open jar of peanut butter. Crumbs on the dishes, milk residue in the glasses. Was this from last night or early this morning? Had he misunderstood and Sissy had been left for a whole day without food?
He looked in the bedrooms. No one there. He checked the bathroom. Then he checked closets and drawers and the medicine chest.
And then he rushed back down the stairs.
“My sister,” he said, wondering if the Sanguinati could sense how fast his heart was beating. “Did you see her last night or this morning?”
“I saw her just after daybreak on Earthday,” the Sanguinati replied. “She and her young left in a yellow taxi. They had luggage.”
“Didn’t you try to stop her?”
“Why would I?”
A grown woman leaving with her own children. No reason for anyone to stop her. After all, the Sanguinati was there to prevent anyone who wasn’t authorized from entering the building, not to detain someone who lived there. “I don’t suppose she said anything about where she was going?”
“No, but you could ask Vlad or Simon. They kept watch that night. They might know more.”
“Thank you. I will.” Monty returned to his apartment. Pulling aside the sheer curtains, he studied the Courtyard stores across the street. No lights on in Howling Good Reads. No lights in the front part of A Little Bite, but Nadine would be there by now, making the breads and pastries that would be offered for breakfast.
He checked his watch, then pulled out his mobile phone. He would call Captain Burke and . . . tell him what? This wasn’t a manhunt where every minute counted. No crime had been committed—at least none he knew about.
But his sister had packed up and left without a word to anyone.
He looked across the street to the efficiency apartment his mother had chosen to make her home.
Maybe Sissy had told someone. Maybe that explained his mama’s sharpness until they were away from the Courtyard—until he wouldn’t have reason to notice Sissy’s absence for a full day.
Monty reined in his impatience when he saw the untouched food on Lizzy’s plate. Breakfast had turned into a weird little power struggle, with Lizzy dawdling and dawdling until he pushed back hard because being late meant missing the bus and having to spend money on a taxi in order to get to the station reasonably close to the start of his shift. Burke was willing to give him more leeway than other officers because the constant interaction with the Courtyard was like being on call 24/7, but it wasn’t fair to other officers and certainly wasn’t fair to Kowalski, who was his partner and would wait for him.
He didn’t have time for power struggles this morning. Lizzy hadn’t touched the two slices of the peach he’d cut up to share between them, and the half slice of toast had a single bite out of the soft middle.
This morning he wasn’t going to cajole or scold.
He picked up Lizzy’s dish, put the peach slices into a container, which went in the fridge, and dumped the toast into the sealed bucket that held scraps that would be used as food for the critters the terra indigene ate.
He poured the rest of her milk down the drain and heard her shocked “Daddy!” as he rinsed the dishes and left them in the sink—and was glad his mother wouldn’t see them.
He fetched his service weapon from the gun safe in his bedroom. Lizzy was still sitting at the table. At least she was dressed for the day. “Let’s go. You need to stay with Miss Eve until it’s time for school.”
“I have to brush my teeth,” Lizzy protested.
“You’re out of time, so you’ll just have to go to school with stinky breath and fuzzy teeth.” Monty walked to the door and opened it. “Let’s go.”
Lizzy slid off the chair and clutched Grr Bear as a column of smoke flowed through the open door. The Sanguinati’s head, chest, and arms shifted to human form; the rest of him remained smoke.
“Do you want me to stay with the young one until an appropriate human comes to fetch her?” he asked.
“Appropriate human” meaning someone who wasn’t Jimmy or Sandee.
No reason to think the Sanguinati would hurt Lizzy—or feed on her. He wouldn’t have hesitated if Vlad had made the offer, but he didn’t feel comfortable leaving his girl alone with someone he didn’t know well, human or not.
Lizzy settled things by rushing over to him and grabbing his hand. “Grr Bear and I want to go with Daddy.”
The Sanguinati nodded, shifted back into a column of smoke, and returned to his position at the foot of the stairs, guarding nothing.
Monty locked the door but left the screened windows open. Providing intruders with easy access to one’s residence was not what the police department recommended, but he knew the Hawkgard and Crowgard made use of the porch railings and the shade as they kept an eye on the activity in the Courtyard apartments—and watched for small furry meals.
He hustled Lizzy across the yards and up the porch steps. Pete Denby met him at the door, a question in his eyes.
“Hi, Monty,” Eve said too brightly as she joined her husband. “Lizzy, Miss Ruth hasn’t gone to the schoolroom yet, so why don’t you come in? Sarah is just finishing her breakfast.”
“Daddy poured my milk down the drain,” Lizzy announced as she and Grr Bear went inside.
“I should put a sign around my neck,” Monty muttered.
Pete forced a smile. “Don’t bother.”
They both heard the caws as Crows winged back to the Courtyard.