Zack snorted, and I glanced over to find him watching me in amusement. “I could just go tell her.”
I rolled my eyes. “And what would be the fun in that?”
“All righty then. Charades over?” he asked with a smile. “Looks like it worked. I can see her on the phone.” He moved up beside me. “What do we have?”
I peered down at the corpse. Deep ligature marks on the wrists, flesh flayed in gruesome strips on abdomen and legs, bruising on the torso, various ugly blotches in different locations as though he had been struck repeatedly with a blunt object. “It’s a goddamn message from Farouche,” I said in a tight voice. “He’s telling me this is what he can do, and that he knows where our friends are.” I shook my head, teeth clenched. “I’m getting really sick of bodies being used as messages. Don’t the fuckers have email?”
“Sure, but it doesn’t have the same uumph.”
Jill emerged from the front door, phone in hand. “What the hell?”
I moved to her. “It’s the security guard who shot Bryce.”
She stared at me. “Why would he be killed, and why would he be dumped here?” Her eyes went to the grotesque form on her lawn.
“Courtesy of J. M. Farouche,” I said, glowering. “He wants his people back. He wants me to know what he’s capable of, and that he knows where the people close to me live.”
“Shit.” She pressed close to Zack as he slid his arm around her. “Now what?”
I gave her a sweet smile “Now you move in with us willingly so that we don’t have to go through the hassle of kidnapping you.”
“Yep. That’s what.” Zack looked down at her, gave her a squeeze.
Jill drew a shaky breath, exhaled forcefully. “All right. All right. I get it.”
I heard sirens in the distance. “Okay, chick, you need to deal with the cops. And best not to mention Farouche.”
“What do I tell them?”
“Easy,” Zack said. “And it’s true, kind of. I couldn’t sleep and called you, we were talking. You heard a noise out front, looked out the window and saw the body. We came over for moral support.”
She eyed him dubiously, then shrugged. “Close enough. Let me at ’em,” she said and headed down the drive toward the street to meet the arriving units.
I stayed put, looked over at Zack. “I had a thought. Because you know she won’t want to stop working, despite how dangerous everything is now.”
Zack folded his arms across his chest, his eyes on me. “What’s your diabolical plan?”
“What if Jill had her own syraza bodyguard?”
Zack regarded me for a long moment. He drew breath and released it slowly. “It is certainly a possibility.”
“I was thinking of either Zimmek or Steeev.” Both syraza dwelt primarily in Mzatal’s realm, and I had a friendship-type relationship with each.
“Neither has spent time on Earth,” Zack noted. “Steeev is better suited. Far older.”
I smiled. “He has a good sense of humor too. I think Jill would like him.”
“Yes,” Zack agreed, his eyes on Jill and the cops. “I think he’d be amenable.”
“I should be able to do it sometime later today.”
“You’ll need to ask Mzatal about it first,” he said. “Let me go be all moral supportive for Jill.” He stepped off the porch and headed for Jill and the two cops.
I stared at his back, mildly unsettled by the instruction to ask Mzatal. Was it to ask his permission to summon the syraza? Or to give the syraza permission to come here? I shook my head. Best to wait and hear what Mzatal had to say before going too far down that path.
When the detective’s car pulled up, I headed that way. Pellini emerged, surveyed the scene. He looked over to me as I approached. “This one weird?”
I dodged the “weird” question. “I’m not here on official business,” I told him. “I came over to give Jill moral support.” I gave him the basic information, but left out our suspicion that Farouche was behind it. Until we had a handle on the Idris situation, I didn’t want anyone else stirring that hornet’s nest.
It took a few hours for the cops to finish their investigation and clear out. I hung with Jill while she packed and fretted about leaving her house, though she did finally agree that it was for the best, especially with the baby. To my surprise she even called in sick. Hell, it wasn’t every day you could use dead-body-on-the-lawn as an excuse. Zack disappeared for a while, but came back as the last unit pulled away.
Zack and I drove back in his car, and Jill followed behind, having pointed out that she’d eventually need her vehicle for work. As we pulled up to the house, my gaze went first to the two pickup trucks, then to the brand new double-wide mobile home and the workers busy around it, about fifty yards from the house on the east side.
“Um, Zack?” I said, dragging my eyes from the sight to him. “It’s barely eight a.m. You had this ready and waiting, didn’t you.”
He glanced over, smiled innocently. “Did I?”
“Sneaky,” I said chuckling. “Jill will figure it out.”
“What’s wrong with being prepared?” he asked, wide eyed. “It’s not like I’d already moved it here or anything.”
“Right,” I said with a laugh. “That’s why they’re connecting plumbing and power that just happened to be running out by the woods.”
“Uh, it was put in earlier this morning?” he offered with a sheepish grin as he climbed out of the car. “I planned on putting an RV there and had the pipes and lines installed a month ago. I bought the mobile home yesterday, then scrambled people this morning for the installation. They still have a few more hours work, but I knew she’d be happier if it was in progress when she got here.” He paused. “Happi-er,” he emphasized, “not necessarily happy.”
“No,” I agreed. “But she’ll be okay. She knows the deal now, and if nothing else she’ll do it for the bean.”
“If that body had to be dumped, I’m not complaining about the location.”
“That’s the spirit!”
He snorted. “I’m going to go make sure everything’s in order, then I have to get to work.”
“Fun times.” I looked over at the mobile home and the deck being assembled in front of it. “Looks like a nice one. You did good, Zack.”
“With a little help from my friends.” He gave me a wink and a smile, then strolled off to prepare the nest for his sweetie.
Chapter 25
I left Zack to show off the mobile home to Jill, and headed into the house with breakfast on my mind, drawn by the delicious smell of something Jekki had cooking. I caught a glimpse of Bryce in the utility room as I entered the kitchen, ducked into the doorway and saw him gazing at the panel of our conventional security system. “Everything okay?”
Bryce winced as though he’d been caught overstepping guest prerogative and glanced over at me. “Should have asked before coming in here. Sorry.”
“It’s cool. I know you’re okay.” I peered at the panel I had yet to learn how to operate. “You know about this stuff from your work with StarFire? Anything wrong with how it’s configured?”
“Nope. Looks solid,” he said. “And Zack said there are also magic, er, arcane protections.”
“Around the whole perimeter and on the house.”
He nodded. “Only thing I’d like would be visuals on the fence.”
“We definitely want a surveillance system but haven’t had time to make a solid plan.” I tilted my head. “You interested in pulling together a concept for us?”
A broad smile lit his face, nicely breaking the tough-guy façade. “Sure! You have a budget?”