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Chapter 28

I had finished a pot of coffee and ain One of those s

"Yeah," I said

"Ms Blake?" the voice sounded very uncertain

"Speaking"

"This is Karl Inger"

"Sorry if I sounded abrupt What&039;s up, Mr Inger?"

"You said you&039;d speak to ain if we had a better plan I have a better plan," he said

"For killing the Master of the City?" I made it a question

"Yes"

I took a deep breath and let it out sloay from the phone Didn&039;t want hier"

"Please, hear ht That "

He had er?"

"I&039;d rather tell you in person"

"I&039; to my office for some hours yet"

"Could I come to your home?"

"No" It was auto business home?"

"Not when I can help it," I said

"Suspicious of you"

"Always," I said

"Can we meet somewhere else? There&039;s someone I want you to meet"

"Who, and why?"

"The na to you"

"Try me"

"Mr Oliver"

"First name?"

"I don&039;t know it"

"Okay, then why should Ithe Master of the City"

"What?"

"No, I think it will be better if Mr Oliver explains it in person He&039;s muchokay," I said

"Then you&039;ll meet me?"

"Sure, why not?"

"That&039;s wonderful Do you knohere Arnold is?"

"Yes"

"There&039;s a pay fishing lake just outside of Arnold on Tesson Ferry Road Do you know it?"

I had an impression that I had driven by it on the way to two murders All roads led to Arnold "I can find it"

"How soon can you meet me there?" he asked

"An hour"

"Great; I&039;ll be waiting"

"Is this Mr Oliver going to be at the lake?"

"No, I&039;ll drive you from there"

"Why all the secrecy?"

"Not secrecy," he said, his voice dropped, e directions It&039;ll be easier if I just take you"

"I can follow you in my car"

"Why, Ms Blake, I don&039;t think you entirely trust me"

"I don&039;t entirely trust anybody, Mr Inger, nothing personal"

"Not even people who save your life?"

"Not even"

He let that drop, probably for the best, and said, "I&039;ll meet you at the lake in an hour"

"Sure"

"Thank you for co, Ms Blake"

"I owe you You&039;ve made sure I&039;m aware of that"

"You sound defensive, Ms Blake I did not hed "I&039; people"

"Visiting Mr Oliver today will clear the slate between us I proer"

"I&039;ll meet you in an hour," he said

"I&039;ll be there," I said We hung up "Daotten to eat yet today If I&039;d remembered, I&039;d have said two hours Now I&039;d have to literally grab so in the car But, heh, what&039;s a little mess between friends? Or even between people who&039;ve saved your life? Why did it bother er?

Because he was a right-wing fruitcake A zealot I didn&039;t like doing business with zealots And I certainly didn&039;t like owing my life to one

Ah, well; I&039;d meet him, then we&039;d be square He had said so Why didn&039;t I believe it?

Chapter 29

Chip-Away Lake was about half an acre of man-made water and thin, raised man-made bank There was a little shed that sold bait and food It was surrounded by a flat gravel parking lot A late-n that read, "For Sale" A pay fishing lake and a used car lot corass spread out to the right of the parking lot A small, rae industrial barbecue A fringe of woods edged the grass, rising higher into a wooded hill The Meraed the left side of the lake It see water so close to the man-made lake

There were only three cars in the parking lot this cool autuundy Chrysler Le Baron stood Inger A handful of fisher et people out in the cold

I parked beside Inger&039;s car He strode towards , hand out like a real estate salesman as happy I&039;d co, I didn&039;t want I was allad you caood-natured, insincere

"What do you want, Mr Inger?"

His ses "I don&039;t knohat you mean, Ms Blake"

"Yes, you do"

"No, I really don&039;t"

I stared into his puzzled face Maybe I spent too et that not everyone in the world is a slimeball It just saves so much tier I I&039;ve been spending toofor criminals It makes you cynical"

He still looked puzzled

"Never er; just take me to see this Oliver"

"Mr Oliver," he said

"Sure"

"Shall we take my car?" He motioned towards his car

"I&039;ll follow you in mine"

"You don&039;t trust uessbefore they&039;ve done anything wrong The law says innocent until proven guilty, but the truth is, if you see enough pain and death, it&039;s guilty until proven innocent

"All right, you drive"

He looked very pleased Heartwar two knives, three crosses, and a gun Innocent or guilty, I was prepared I didn&039;t expect to need the weaponry with Mr Oliver, but later, I o aron, or vaer drove down Old Highway 21 to East Rock Creek Rock Creek was a narroinding road barely wide enough for two cars to pass Inger drove slow enough for the curves, but fast enough so you didn&039;t get bored

There were farmhouses that had stood for years and new houses in subdivisions where the earth was raw and red as a wound Inger turned into one of those new subdivisions It was full of large, expensive-looking houses, very ravel road

The pitiful trees treing to the spider-thin limbs This area had been a forest before they bulldozed it Why do developers destroy all the ood for decades?

We pulled up in front of a fake log cabin that was bigger than any real cabin had ever been Too ravel that ht in froravel was as red as the dirt

Inger started to go around the car, to open er seeet over it I&039;d never seen the sense in perfectly healthy people not opening their own doors Especially car doors where the man had to walk all the way around the car, and the woer led the way up the porch steps It was a nice porch, wide enough to sit on coe picture ith closed drapes in a barn-red design agon wheels drawn all over it Very rustic

He knocked on the carved wooden door A pane of leaded glass decorated the center of the door, high up and sparkling, h He didn&039;t wait for the door to be opened, but used a key and walked in He didn&039;t seem to expect an answer, so why knock?

The house was in a thick twilight of really nice drapes, all closed against the syrup-heavy sunlight The polished wood floors were utterly bare The mantel of the heavy fireplace was naked, the fireplace cold The place ser never hesitated I followed his broad back into the wooden hallway He didn&039;t look behind to see if I was keeping up Apparently when I&039;d decided not to let him open my door for me, he seemed to have decided that no further courtesy was necessary

Fine with me

There were doors at widely spaced intervals along the hallway Inger knocked at the third door on the left A voice said, "Enter"

Inger opened the door and went inside He held the door for ht by the door It wasn&039;t courtesy He stood like a soldier at attention Who was in the rooer toe the line? One way to find out

I went into the room

There was a bank of s to the north with heavy drapes pulled across the a large, clean desk A e chair behind the desk

He was a set or a dwarf I wanted to say dwarf, but he didn&039;t have the jaw or the shortened arms He looked well formed under his tailored suit He had al forehead, which drew attention to the wide nose and the pro familiar about his face, as if I&039;d seen it somewhere else before Yet I knew I&039;d never ular face

I was staring at him I was embarrassed and didn&039;t like it IHis dark hair was cut one hair at a time, expensive and blow-dried He sat in his chair behind the clean polished desk and smiled at er said, still standing stiffly by the door

He got out of his chair and came around the desk to offer me his small well-formed hand He was four feet tall, not an inch er than he looked A brief squeeze, and I could feel the strength in his small frath was there, in his face, hand, stance

He was small, but he didn&039;t think it was a defect I liked that I felt the saave a close-lipped sht a chair froer re by the now-closed door He was definitely at attention He respected theto like him That was a first for me I&039;m more likely to instantly mistrust than like so I felt war him, like he was a favorite and trusted uncle I frowned at hi toon?" I said

He s warmly at me "Whatever do you mean, Ms Blake?"

His voice was soft, low, rich, like crea warmth to your ears I only knew one other voice that could do siht only inches froht He couldn&039;t be Could he?

I stared at his very alive face There was no trace of that otherness that va, none of it was natural I&039;d never liked and trusted anyone instantly I wasn&039;t about to start now

"You&039;re good," I said "Very good"

"Whatever do you mean, Ms Blake?" You could have cuddled into the warm fuzziness of his voice like a favorite blanket

"Stop it"

He looked quizzically at me, as if confused The act was perfect, and I realized why; it wasn&039;t an act I&039;d been around ancient vampires, but never one that had been able to pass for human, not like this You could have taken him anywhere and no one would have known Well, almost no one

"Believe "

I sed hard Was that true? Was he so damn powerful that the mind tricks and the voice were auto could, too

"Cut the mind tricks, and curb the voice, okay? If you want to talk business, talk, but cut the gah to show fangs After a few hundred years, youlike that

He laughed then; it onderful, like ater falling froht You could have juood