Page 13 (1/2)

Chapter Twenty-Five

"We&039;ve got to call the cops on this one," I said quietly to Elaine

"No," she replied "They&039;ll want to question us It will take hours"

"They&039;ll want to question us a lot longer if so for us"

"And while we&039;re cooperating with the authorities, what happens to Abby, Helen, and Priscilla?" She stared at me "For that ht I&039;d been trying to avoid If Mouse was alive and capable, there was no way he&039;d let any of the women be harmed If someone had killed Anna when Mouse was near, it could have happened only over his dead body

But there was no sign of his At worst it rated by whatever had co as hell, it also didn&039;t getthat got in the way sure wouldn&039;t be pussyfooting around the way these White Court yahoos had been

Mouse wasn&039;t here There was nocan put up a struggle, as the vets found out when they misfiled his paperwork They tried to neuter hi his shoulder X-rayed where he&039;d bounced off of ato let e and leave it at that

It had tohad left with the others, and Anna had reot

Or maybe Mouse had played on everyone&039;s expectation that he was just a dog He&039;d shown e before, and it had been one of the first things that tipped me off to his distinctly superior-to-canine intellect What if Mouse had played along and stayed close to the others?

Why would he do that, though?

Because Mouse knew I could find hiuys carried him off to the Nevernever itself, or put hined to block suchspell could find him anywhere

That was the path to take, even if Mouse didn&039;t know anything rong He would have stayed with anyahead a little et the single s frohorn

"Can you find the dog?" Elaine asked

"Yeah But we should try calling their hoo"

Elaine frowned "You told them to stay here, or soood that they&039;re scared And when you&039;re scared"

" you want to go home," Elaine finished

"If they&039;re there, it&039;ll be the quickest way to get in touch If not, it hasn&039;t cost us more than a minute or two"

Elaine nodded "Anna had all the numbers in a notebook in her purse" We turned up the purse after a brief search, but the notebook wasn&039;t in it

There wasn&039;t anything for it but to make sure that Anna hadn&039;t slipped it into a pocket before she died I checked, and tried not to leave any prints al face or glazed eyes It hadn&039;t been a clean death, and even though Anna hadn&039;t been gone long enough to start deconore it

It was harder to ignore her face The skin had the stiff, waxy look that dead bodies get Worse, there was a distinct and unquantifiable quality of absence Anna Ash had been very much alive - fierce of will, protective, determined I know plenty of wizards without the force of personality she had She&039;d been the one thinking and acting when all of those around her were frightened That takes a rare kind of courage

None of which , since, despite my efforts, the killer had taken her anyway

I shookturned up no notebook Her willingness to face danger on behalf of her friends couldn&039;t be allowed to vanish silently into the past If soht to protect were still alive, then her own sacrifice and death could stillI could be bitter about her death later I would be doing a grave disservice to the wo but make me more motivated to stop the killers before they had finished their work

I ca at Anna&039;s body There was no expression on her face, absolutely none Tears, though, had reddened her eyes and streaked over her cheeks and down her nose Soets all blotchy and runny-nosed, and it brought out the dark, tired circles beneath her eyes

It didn&039;t look pretty It just looked like pain

She spoke, and her voice ca "I told her I would protect her"

"Sometimes you try," I said quietly "Soale as caustic enough to melt holes in the floor "Has it ever happened to you? Someone who came to you for help was killed?"

I nodded "Couple of tiirl I had trained to keep her talent under control Maybe a little stronger than the woot involved in bad business Over her head I thought I could warn her off, that she would listen to me I should have known better"

"What happened?"

I tilted"Sorave so her some flowers and sweep off the leaves To remind me of the stakes I play for To remind me that nobody wins them all"

"And after?" Elaine asked me quietly She hadn&039;t looked away fro that killed her?"

It was a complicated answer, but it wasn&039;t what Elaine needed to hear right then "I killed it"

She nodded again "When we catch up to the Skavis, I want it"

I put a hand on her shoulder and said, very gently, "It won&039;t make you feel any better"

She shook her head "That&039;s not why I want to do it It was ot to finish my job I owe her that ht the state before, and it can unbalance your tires pretty da to discuss it with her rationally Reason had left the building

"You&039;ll get him," I said quietly "I&039;ll help"

She let out one little broken, cawing sob and pressed against my chest I held her, warm and slender, and felt the terrible reh her I pressed htenedwith silent sobs More than anything, at that o away

I couldn&039;t Being a wizard gives you e your heart We&039;re all human

We&039;re all of us equally naked before the jaws of pain

Chapter Twenty-Six

Not a full et her breathing under control DuMorne&039;sus to discipline our eentle, but they worked Before anotherhad steadied, and she leaned her head against ratitude Then she straightened, and I lowered my arms She bowed her head toward Anna&039;s corpse, an alesture of respect or farewell

When she turned around, I aiting for her with a daently wiped her face clean "You have to uphold the guo out blotchy People will think we&039;re not hard-boiled Very important to be hard-boiled"

She watched e A very slad you&039;re here to tell ain before it slipped into a bourbon-tainted, lockjawed Huu spell led us to an apart," Elaine said as I pulled over The only close place to park was in front of a hydrant I doubted any industrious civil servants would be handing out tickets this late, but even if they were, it would be cheap co walk in the dark could cost me

"Which apartment?" I asked

"Ninth floor," Elaine replied She shut the door of the Beetle a little harder than she had to

"It occurs to uy and wanted to off a couple of intrepid hard-boiled wizards, Isomeplace like this"

"It occurs to me," Elaine said, her voice crisp, "that he would be exceptionally foolish to ether, quickly Elaine was tall enough to keep up withstep She&039;d slipped half a dozen coppery bracelets over each wrist, all of the olden energy played aht on metal - except that you could see them better when the bracelets were in deep shadows

By silent agreement, we skipped the elevators I hadwith leashed energy that ht and ic could have unfortunate consequences on electrical equipment, like elevator control panels

The doors to the stairs opened only froainst the pressure bar on the far side usingopen We slipped into the stairway Anyone waiting for us above would be watching the elevator first Anyone chasing after us would have a hard time with the locked doors, and would make noise on the open concrete stairs

I checked ic is groovy, but when it coular mortal kno can be just as ih to h not as hard as I once would have A faint ghost of a headache ca with the elevated heart rate Hell&039;s bells, I ht, back at the harbor Elaine looked a little strained, herself If she&039;d really smoothed away that much of an injury, she had more skill than she&039;d toldisn&039;t a ile than she appeared

I opened the fire door on Abby&039;s floor, and let Elaine take the lead She went down the center of the hallway in total silence, her hands slightly outstretched, and I got the sense that she was so around her - more so than hulittered htly Superior awareness as a defense, then, instead ofpoith power and stopping things cold Just her style

But neither hyperawareness nor irresistible force was called for Elaine reached a door and raised a hand to knock Just before it fell, the door opened, and a strained-looking Abby gave us a quick nod "Good, a little early, that&039;s good; come in, yes, come in"

I started forward, but Elaine held up one hand to halt me, her eyes distracted "Let lanced at "

"Mouse?" I called

The floor shook a little, and the big, dark grey dog nudged rather delicately past Abby and ca his head into ot a sloppy kiss or two on the face

I slapped his shoulders roughly a few times, because I&039;m supremely ht and still attached to his collar "Good to see you, too, furface"

Toto trotted out behind Mouse, like a tiny tugboat escorting an enorrowl Then he pattered over to me and sniffed me, sneezed several times, and evidently found me acceptable, underneath the save rowl to make sure I&039;d learned my lesson, and bounced around her feet until she picked hi in her arms and faced me with concern "What happened? I o, is Olivia - "

"Let&039;s go inside," I said, rising I traded a look with Elaine, and we all went into Abby&039;s apartment Mouse never left actual, physical contact withI was the last through the door and closed it behind me

Abby&039;s place was a ated into neatly compartmentalized areas She had a desk with a typewriter, a table with an old sewing machine, a chair beside a music stand with a violin (unlessniche with an armchair and overloaded shelves of ro like a shrine dedicated to ancestor worship, only in reverse, where the saints were all children with round cheeks and blond ringlets

Priscilla was there, seated in the coard andon the little table beside the reading chair, but it had apparently gone cold without ever having been touched She looked up at me, her eyes heavy and dull

"Olivia&039;s all right," I said quietly

Abby brightened a second before I started speaking, drawing in a sharp little breath The little dog in her ar his tail at me "Yes?"

"A someti woet of the killers out of the city He learned Olivia was in danger and urged her to leave with him when he took several women to a safe house"

Priscilla stared atmoment Then she said, "What else?"

Elaine spoke, her voice quiet and unflinching "Anna&039;s dead Back at the hotel rooagging sound She sat down very quickly in the chair by the violin Toto let out small, distressed sounds "Wh-what?" Abby asked

Priscilla shuddered and bowed her head "Oh Oh, no Oh, Anna"

"I need to know, ladies," I said quietly "Why didn&039;t you do as we instructed? Why did you leave the hotel?"

"It" Abby began Tears overflowed her cheeks "It was was"

"She said," Priscilla said in a quiet, dull voice "Said that she had to leave That she had to go to work"

Son of a bitch I knew it

Elaine was half a beat behind me "Who?"

"H-Helen," Abby sobbed "It was Helen"

Chapter Twenty-Seven

I stood there fu while Elaine coaxed the rest of the story out of Abby and Priscilla

"It was only an hour or so after you left," Abby told Elaine "Helen got a call on her cell phone"

"Cell phone?" I perked up "She had one that worked?"

"She doesn&039;t have a lot of talent that way," Abby said "None of us do, really Even runted "Means she wasn&039;t hiding a bigger talent, then That&039;s worth so"

"Harry," Elaine said quietly It was a rebuke "Please go on, Abby"

I zipped ot a call, and she went into the bathroom to talk I couldn&039;t hear what she said, but when she ca"

I liftedexposure to a killer to show up for the shift"

"That&039;s what I said," Priscilla said, her voice evenwas possible "It was stupid I never even thought to be suspicious of it"

"Anna argued with her," Abby went on, "but Helen refused to stay So Anna wanted us all to take her there together"

"Helen wouldn&039;t have any of it, of course," Priscilla said "At the ti her working so"

"We never really knehat she did," Abby said, her tone nuetic "She never wanted to talk about it We always assu in her ar us separate from the rest of her life in any case, Anna put her into a cab andin on the phone until she was safely around other people"

"You just let her walk?" I broke in

"She&039;s a sister of the Ordo," Priscilla said "Not a criminal to be distrusted and watched"

"In point of fact," I said, "she is a cri parole officer"

Elaine frowned at "