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"Didn’t I fire you?" Betty said when she unlocked the front door to CCB’s to let ht

"You putroom, sat at the counter, and placed o on sabbatical"

Betty glanced pointedly out the front s to the dark night beyond, and I held up one hand to stop the lecture "I know It’s past sunset But I couldn’t stay in the house" I let out a whoopee-cushion puff of air "It’s been a rough day I had the Confessional with the girls this afternoon, and it took a bad left turn"

Betty ood to be had fro you that for years You’d think seventy-three years of wisdo Jeez"

I reached out and grabbed her hand "LetI proht I’ll sleep on your couch I just need sos"

"It’s all done You’re just lucky I was still down here What the hell were you thinking, walking over here at night?"

"What’s the difference?" I said "My house, out on the street, here If he wants to getto make much of a difference"

We both went silent for athe point

"I need chocolate," I said "You didn’t happen to zap up any chocolate cakes today, did you?"

She shook her head "Gotta place your order before sunset, sweetie" She watched"So, Millie told you girls about what happened with her and Nick, I take it?"

"How did you know about that?"

"Livvy, everyone knows She’s been blabbing it around town all day Nick’s gone into hiding, apparently; no one’s seen hiirl, but I wouldn’t want to be on the business end of that woo nuclear and take out a city block"

I let out a highly stressed sigh "Look, work or chocolate Giveof a car with a blown ot our attention, and Betty went to the front door to watch,curiosity "There’s no work for you to do, but I think I’ve got some Ho Hos in my cupboard upstairs"

I followed her "Ho Hos? Really?"

"Don’t e, you learn that sometimes life calls for bad snack cakes"

I stood on my tiptoes to try to see the source of the noise pollution, even though there was really only one possibility "Frankie Biggs, I’?"

"Gotta be," Betty said "No one else in this town drives a car that loud I can’t believe the da’s still on the" She trailed off, went silent for a moment, then said, "What the hell?"

"What?" I opened the front door to get a better look and saw the headlights of Frankie’s car swerving down the street, acco sound Betty and I both stepped out into the street to watch, just as Frankie’s blue ’72 Barracuda becaht at the end of the block

"Christ, is it s?" Betty said just as I took another step out toward the street,panic The Barracuda jumped the curb at the opposite side of the street, then swerved back onto the road, a cloud of whirling gray s very fast, maybe thirtyme at theat it, see off the car as it went down the street Pocker as shattered, and the front windshield was spider-cracked all through

"Shit, shit, shit, shit!" Ias I cah about Frankie Biggs to want to hurl pool balls at hi down the sidewalk Betty grabbed at rasp I could feel it, that saray smoke attack Peach alnuts outside h, because beside the blind panic there was now a new e fury I stomped as I headed down the sidewalk, pissed with Cain forhi unable to stop hi for the corner as the Barracuda swayed under the attack I glanced back in tier side , and even over the tragic muffler, I could hear hierously toward CCB’s

"Betty, call nine-one-one!" Betty darted inside, and I ran faster toward the corner The Barracuda juainst the concrete Another pool ball shot out froh the windshield, finally shattering it, and I watched in sickness as the ball cracked against Frankie’s forehead He slu off the accelerator but unable to hit the brake The car lurched straight for ot out of the way before it shot past me and crashed into the redbrick wall of the vacant corner building that used to be Decker’s General Store With the final collision, the gray san to clear, and I heard the fa as I ran toward the car

"Frankie!" He was slu, and definitely unconscious when I reached hih the busted driver’s sideand felt his neck for a pulse; it was there, and it was strong, probably still pounding from the adrenaline of the last few minutes Given that he was definitely alive, in no er, and I could already hear the distant whine of eht it best not tothe in of Amber, or Cain, but whoever had attacked Frankie seeray smoke

Which, honestly, was okay byto do about it, anyway?

"What happened?" Betty said as she caught up toin the front seat "Oh, crap"

I pulled her aside, toward the vacant general store, so we’d be out of the hen the EMTs arrived "Did you see it? The gray smoke?"

She stared atthe pool balls?"

"They were ot attacked withprojectiles"

"Walnuts?" Betty see nod "Millie?"

"Yeah How’d you know?"

"Her grandot hit in the head by one when she was four She had to go to the hospital and everything She’s been traumatized by walnuts ever since" She shook her head "But Millie’s not a Magical I would know And, even if she ould she attack Frankie?"

"She didn’t," I said "This was Amber Dorsey"

Betty shook her head "Now, I know Aone all Carrie-at-the-prom way before now if she had the power"

"I don’t think she has any" I raiseda conduits?"

Betty thought for a moment, then nodded "I’ve heard of it Never seen it But who?"

"Cain, that guy I told you about, from the alley at Happy Larry’s? He’s a powerful conjurer With night ic"

Her expression darkened "That’s not good"

The ambulance screeched to a halt and EMTs popped out of the back, rushing toward Frankie’s car Right behind, a sheriff’s car pulled up, lights blazing, and Mickey Taylor hopped out, heading straight for us Betty srabbed her arm and stepped in close

"Wait, what do we tell him?" I asked, my voice low

"As much of the truth as we can," she said

Mickey walked us into CCB’s, where Betty told hi, and it looked like soht want to talk to Ah we didn’t actually see her Everything she said was absolutely true, and yet not at all supernatural I mostly just nodded and kepthe’d call us if he needed anythe door behind hi at the counter and sat down next to ood," I said "You were incredible"

"Not hed "Conduits? You’re sure?"

"Pretty sure," I said

She nodded acceptance, her expression gri on people with scores to settle, then we’ve got serious trouble You kno many people want to kill each other with pool balls and walnuts in this town?"

I sighed "I’ll hunt around town, see if I can find Cain Maybe I canI don’t know Talk to hiave me a dull look "Oh Good idea Go search out the man ants to kill you That can’t end badly"

"He doesn’t want to kill ic The fact that it’ll kill ic I’ll just look for hi the day"

"He can still knock you out and tie you up until it’s nighttiue, but she kind of had a point Hethe day, but he’d been strong and fast enough to pull et that there was basic hue that could be done, too

"Point taken So what do we do?"

"Tonight, we sleep You’ll stay onme with dark eyes

"What?"

"This Davina," she said carefully "Do you knohere she’s staying?"

I shook my head "No"

"But you trust her? Are you sure?"

The hairs on the back of ot no reason not to trust her Right?"

"If you trust her, that’s enough forsoht? I’d like to talk to her Compare notes, find out what she knows"

I hesitated for a moment, not sure hoould find Davina, but somehow certain that she’d show if I needed her "Yeah Sure I think that’s a good idea"

Betty reached out and in an atypical show of physical affection, put her palirl, Livvy Don’t you worry We’ll figure this all out"

I smiled She lowered her hand and started toward the side door that opened into the stairwell to her apartrateful to be led

"So, is this one of those life situations that calls for bad snack cakes?" I asked

"I’d characterize this asthe side door behind us, "but you ot"

I went ho, let Gibson out of his shoebox so he could wander around ht? - and took a shower It wasn’t until I’d dried off and changed that I realized Gibson wasI searched the second floor, then panicked at the stairs as I raced down the to comfort myself that there was that strip of carpet down the ive him a soft(er) fall, but still

"Gibson!" I hollered, hitting the first floor running I heard a clunk coainst the couch I grabbed hiers over hied to tu room with only a little chunk taken out of his handle Tail Whatever It twitched at h spot of bare white ceramic where the paint had chipped off

"Poor baby," I said, then wondered aloud, "Does it hurt?"

He didn’t seem to react at all when I touched the chipped spot, and I realized that what I had onbunny with no pain sensitivity, and no sense of self-preservation as a result If I didn’t figure out a way to keep him safe, I’d have a shattered Gibson on e cardboard box that they’d shipped my computer monitor in, and lined it with old towels I set hihtly off one side and then righting himself so he could bounce into the other

I sat back on the couch, watching hihto find Davina She wasn’t staying with Grace and Addie, we’d figured out thatat any of the places in town, talk of her would have filtered into CCB’s by now; no one new ca about it Yet both Davina and Cain had been here for over a week, and not a asthe rounds about either of the, it was either somewhere out of town, or in toith someone who didn’t talk

My bet was out of town Which, considering that Buffalo, Niagara Falls, and Erie, Pennsylvania, were all within an easy drive of Nodaway, meant it could be weeks before I’d find either of them, and I didn’t have weeks to kill

There had to be a way to get a e to Davina I closed my eyes and lay down on the couch, soothed by the ht

Then, it came to me

Peach’s crane

I reached over to the coffee table, grabbed the slightly crue crane she’d left the day before, inspected it, and decided there were crazier ideas than this one I found a pencil under the couch and used it to jot "My house" on the underside of one wing, and "Tonight" on the other I held it up towhat else it needed I went through the house, out the back door to the patio by arden of wildflowers, then closed ic buzz For a minute or so, I felt stupid and self-conscious, but then the energy started to build and I i up a decent flurry into my pal the ic into it Then I released it and, racefully out ofas if an invisible origan intended

"Cool" I laughed, full of accoic wasn’t so useless after all Of course, there was still part two to consider; I’d given it forive it function? I whistled for it to coo find Davina"

It fluttered around my head, bounced into my shoulder, and flapped back up to hover near my head