“Have you apprehended the person or persons responsible for the death of Elayne Borden?” Stavros continued to smile. “No? Then Elizabeth is safer here. Ask your questions, if you have any.”
Whatever questions Scaffoldon really had, he didn’t want to ask in the presence of the terra indigene. He covered the same ground that Burke had covered in the initial interview with Lizzy, but Monty noticed Scaffoldon didn’t ask about anything that happened before Elayne and Lizzy’s arrival at the train station.
Had Burke sent the part of the interview about Elayne and Lizzy staying in a hotel the previous night, or about the phone call from Leo Borden that precipitated the flight from the hotel to the train station?
Had the transcript that had been sent to the Toland police mentioned finding the jewels inside the bear?
A strange thought bubbled up.
Was Scaffoldon wondering if the terra indigene were staring at him with such focused attention because of what he was saying or because they were thinking about dinner?
Scaffoldon ran out of questions about the same time the novelty of being the center of so much adult attention wore off for Lizzy. In another minute, she would start pestering or pouting, sure that whatever Sarah and Robert were doing at A Little Bite was much more exciting than talking to police officers.
Scaffoldon couldn’t read Lizzy’s signals, but apparently Vlad could.
“I think that covers everything, don’t you?” Vlad asked, looking at Stavros.
“Everything,” Stavros agreed with a chilling smile directed right at Scaffoldon.
“Mr. Denby,” Vlad said. “If you and Nathan could escort the Lizzy to A Little Bite, she can join the other children for a snack.”
Pete looked at Monty and Burke before putting his notepad and pen back in his briefcase. “Sure.”
Man, Wolf, and child left the conference room.
Burke slapped his hands on the table. “Now that that’s settled . . .”
“Nothing is settled,” Scaffoldon snapped. “The child needs to be returned to Toland and her family. She’s a witness.”
“To what, exactly?” Stavros asked. “As she just told you, she didn’t see who hurt her mother, and she’s already answered all of your questions. At least, she answered the questions you chose to ask.”
“Meaning what?”
“I, too, have a few questions. Not for the child, but for you.”
Scaffoldon went so pale, Monty wondered if the man would faint.
“I don’t have to say anything to you,” Scaffoldon said.
“Which says everything I needed to hear.” Stavros stared at Scaffoldon. “There is no reason for you to return to Lakeside. There is no reason for you, or anyone you work with, to speak with the child again. If you stay focused on her, the Sanguinati are going to become focused on you. And your associates.”
Oh gods, Monty thought, noticing the color draining from Burke’s face while Scaffoldon’s face filled with dark fury. Is Stavros threatening to have the Sanguinati square off against the Toland police force?
Getting to his feet, Scaffoldon looked at Burke and didn’t try to hide his animosity. “You’re backing the wrong side.”
“No, I’m not,” Burke replied.
“I’ll escort Captain Scaffoldon to his car and see him out of the Courtyard,” Elliot said, opening the conference room door in a silent command.
Giving all of them one last look, Scaffoldon walked out.
“Mr. Wolfgard.” Burke fished his car keys out of his pocket. “Captain Scaffoldon needs the box of evidence that is stored in the trunk of my car. Since he won’t be returning to Lakeside, we wouldn’t want him to leave without it.”
Elliot took the keys and walked out, and that left two vampires and two cops in the room.
Vlad looked at Burke and smiled. Burke, regaining some color in his face, returned the smile.
Monty breathed a quiet sigh of relief. Then he looked at Stavros. “Would the Sanguinati really attack the Toland police force?”
Stavros looked surprised. “Why would we? They have not provided sufficient provocation for such a decision.”
“You said you would focus on Scaffoldon and his associates.”
“I wasn’t referring to the police. Not all the police,” Stavros amended.
Burke nodded. “Humans First and Last movement.”
Stavros turned to Vlad. “Why did you and Captain Burke find that human’s departure amusing?”
Vlad smiled, showing a hint of fang. “Because he’s scurrying back to Toland with a battered toy bear he was sent to retrieve.”
“Why?”
“Because that bear has a bag of jewels hidden inside it,” Monty said, reminded of the most likely reason that Elayne was dead and Lizzy had been in danger.
“Ah.” Stavros gave Vlad a curious look. “Is that why Grandfather Erebus waved away any discussion of jewels yesterday? Because he was allowing the gems to be returned to Toland, despite . . .” He stopped, then studied Vlad and Burke.
“Where would a young girl get a bag of gemstones?” Burke said. “It’s more likely that she was pretending to be a jewel thief or some other such thing that she’d seen in a movie and had stashed a bag of colored glass inside her partner in crime.”
Stavros looked delighted. “Colored glass?”
“Such pretty colors,” Vlad murmured. “Blues and greens and ruby red.”
Stavros laughed, long and loud.
Monty felt queasy. “When the HFL find out . . .”
“The Wolves tore off an arm and a leg, but the bear’s torso was untouched,” Burke said. “Scaffoldon didn’t say one word, didn’t ask one question about jewels. He has no reason to think we found them. That being the case, he certainly wasn’t going to tell me about them.”
“Especially since there have been many reports of jewelry being stolen from the Toland elite,” Stavros said. “And news reports have droned on about a couple of jewelry stores also being robbed. Humans were trying to blame the Crowgard, which is ridiculous. If an earring or a ring is dropped on the sidewalk that borders the Courtyard, a Crow won’t resist claiming it. But they don’t go into human houses and steal—and they don’t remove the gems from a piece of jewelry and discard the setting.”
“The police have no leads?” Burke asked blandly.
“The police investigating the thefts all wear little HFL pins on their lapels. So do the humans who were robbed. So do the owners of the jewelry stores that reported the theft of loose gems.”
“Elayne might have been caught up in the glamour of being with Nicholas Scratch and rubbing elbows with society people who wouldn’t have acknowledged her otherwise, but she would not have stooped to stealing jewels, and she certainly wouldn’t have put Lizzy at risk by hiding them in Boo Bear,” Monty said hotly.
Vlad leaned forward and said gently, “She found the secret, and she tried to run. They had to stop her.”
He rubbed his face, suddenly tired. “She should have left the jewels. Dropped them in a closet, scattered them over the floor so someone would waste time finding them.”
“It wouldn’t have made any difference. She still had the secret. So did the Lizzy.”
“Unlike the Toland police, we don’t think anything has been stolen.” Stavros pitched his voice to be low and soothing. “We think these were arranged . . . donations . . . for the HFL movement.”
“With the added benefit of pointing a finger at the Crows and feeding the animosity growing between humans and terra indigene,” Burke said.
“Exactly.”
Sickroom voices, Monty thought. Do they think I can’t, or won’t, handle the truth, whatever it may be?
“Someone should question Leo Borden,” he said. He couldn’t picture Leo being able to pull off a jewel heist, but he could see the man as a courier—and he could easily imagine Leo thinking that Boo Bear would be a good hiding place for a fortune in gemstones. After all, who would look for them in a child’s toy, especially a child living under the same roof as Nicholas Scratch?