God's Eye (26 page)

With her hands planted firmly on her hips, she attempted to stare Margot down. It didn’t work.

Although she was answered, Katharine knew she hadn’t intimidated the woman.

“You said you had found a dead woman. And that she had been ripped open. That it looked like it was by the same thing that had cut your arms a week ago. And you said it so matter-of-factly that it made me go cold.”

Katharine wasn’t sure what to say to that. It was all true. It was all due to the drugs.

But she didn’t need to speak. Margot took up the conversation again. “I tried to reach you all day yesterday, but you weren’t answering. It sounds like you were out finding dead bodies. I got the translation of the last message, even though yesterday was already too late.”

“What do you mean ‘too late’?” Katharine waited, her hands on her hips putting forth the only power she had right now.

“The message says ‘I will come in the first vigil of the night.’” Margot picked up her purse from the couch and dug a scrap of paper out of her purse from where she had set it on top of her jacket. As though the paper was proof of the message.

Looking at it, Katharine asked, “What does it mean by ‘vigil’?”

“It’s a Latin term.” Margot was in her element now. She knew this stuff and wanted to share. “The night is divided into vigils; the first is from dark to midnight and so on.”

Katharine nodded, somehow not preparing for Margot’s next question.

“So, did he come?”

Katharine looked at Margot like she’d grown a second head. “What?”

“It said, ‘I will come in the first vigil of the night.’ You said you had gotten the message the morning that you saw me. So that would have been two nights ago. That’s why I know my translation was too late.”

“No. He didn’t.” Katharine turned around, but it didn’t prevent her from hearing Margot.

“You’re a bad liar, remember? So, he came.” There was a long pause. Maybe she was waiting to see Katharine’s face, but Katharine wasn’t going to give her that. “Are you okay?”

She caved. She had to give Margot something. “He came, yes. He just sat there, wanted to show me that he could break in. That’s all.”

“But he’s not human.”

Katharine’s whole body snapped around. She had no idea how a normal person would react to that, but she tried to fake it. Once again, she tried to lie her way out of it. She frowned at Margot as though the woman were suggesting they make mud pies in the street while wearing feather boas.

But her face was as bad a liar as her voice was.

Margot’s voice confirmed it. “I thought so.”

Neither of them had been prepared for that. After the instant of satisfaction at being right, Margot crumpled to the couch, landing in a ladylike position though she appeared to have no control over her limbs.

Katharine found herself grateful that she didn’t have to speak; Margot read her well enough that there was no need to say anything. So she calmly walked to the couch and sat herself on the other side. Her mind blanked. Although she knew she should be asking questions or throwing the librarian out, Katharine didn’t seem to be able to do either.

Quietly, she stayed still, hands folded in her lap, wondering whether the librarian could read her, whether she could see the thin stream of relief that was somehow widening to a river. Katharine could only guess the relief was due to the fact that now someone else knew, someone who, at least on the surface, seemed and sounded sane.

Long moments passed while the two women shared space but not thoughts, each as shocked by the revelation as the other. As they sat there, Katharine realized that Margot had thrown the crazy statement out there knowing Katharine was unable to lie. But she hadn’t expected to be right.

Finally, although she was uncertain when she’d decided to tell Margot everything, Katharine started speaking. “How did you know?”

For a moment there was only a deep sigh. “Seriously, I’ve never heard of a stalker who writes you notes in Latin but leaves no trace of his presence. Who would bother to threaten like that when you don’t even understand the messages and would have a really hard time finding someone who could even translate them? It’s not a curse or a spell, meaning it has no value other than as a threat. And you said something about a ‘thing’ that might have cut you. So either you are the target of a seriously deranged, overeducated, and black-ops-trained man or … Well, I tried to think of who could get through triple-locked doors and speaks Latin.”

Katharine didn’t say anything. What could she say? That she was impressed that she’d clearly given away too much information even in the little amount she had indulged?

“The only people who speak Latin these days are priests, and I figured I would go to the cops if I had a priest stalking me. But you didn’t.” She shook her head. “Anyway, a demon is the only thing that made all the pieces fit, as crazy as that sounds.”

Margot still didn’t look at her. This was some bizarre territory they were covering.

But somehow Katharine found her backbone and renewed her resolve to save herself. She’d need to know everything she could, including what Margot knew. So she forced herself to ask, “Why does a demon fit the profile?”

A long sigh came out before the words. In a way it was reassuring that this other woman found the subject as odd as she did. It indicated that Margot wasn’t a nut job out looking for evil and finding Katharine as a ready target.

But as fast as it soothed her, Katharine felt the chill seep in. If Margot wasn’t looking for demons, then it became more likely that was what she was actually dealing with. Sucking in a deep breath, she forced herself to wait until all the evidence was in before she panicked.

“It’s the Latin. In many texts, it’s the main language of demons and angels. Also, you had asked me if the first message was in Aramaic. So I thought that was what you were leaning toward.”

“I was.” Katharine didn’t know what else to say. She didn’t know where to put her trust, what would get her institutionalized, jailed, or killed. But if she had a demon, it was a lot stronger than she. And she had never been strong. Not physically, and certainly not in any other way.

Sitting on her couch, with the afternoon light filtering through the blinds she’d only partially opened that morning, Katharine surveyed her thoughts. She pondered the familiar condo that she was used to but not certain that she loved. The new boyfriend she felt passionate about, and the man she was cheating on him with. The job she had loved and only recently seen for what it truly was. The fact that, at age thirty-two, she was only just now realizing that she didn’t agree with everything her parents had taught her.

She stood to lose all of it, good and bad, solidified past and open future.

So she had to trust someone, because there was no way she could keep her own head straight about what was happening. In that split second, she chose Margot. The woman was the least involved, had no reason to lie, and could give Katharine objective advice–which wasn’t true of just about anyone else in her life. The people in her life were few, but even Lisa, whose only relationship to Katharine was as her assistant, held some sort of sway. Besides, for some unknown reason, Katharine found she already trusted Margot. “Promise you won’t tell anyone?”

The librarian didn’t speak right away. There was no childish, immediate swearing in. Somehow that made the answer more valuable. “I won’t tell unless you are in immediate mortal danger.”

That sounded fair.

Katharine began talking.

•  •  •

“They said you did something that made you look suspicious.”

Though Zachary’s voice was mellow and his tone soothing, his words were anything but. And he knew it.

Katharine wouldn’t dare ask him what she had done to catch the eye of the police. But he was certain she had a sneaking suspicion of her own–she was a bad liar and she
did
know more about the case than she should. He hadn’t seen her in the flesh since two days before when he’d taken her home from the police station after holding the snarling officers at bay. And it was only just now that he–her lawyer–was able to get back to her with any info about the case.

It took her a moment to shake her head and shrug in answer to his statement, as if she couldn’t fathom why the police would be suspicious of her.

Zachary responded in kind, “I gave them the usual runaround and they took it because they had to. But it bought you some time without them pestering you. The last thing I heard is that they have new evidence that takes you and your coworker out of suspicion.”

If he had his way, he’d shine the bright light on Allistair. Making that fool sit in jail for a night in human form would be fantastic punishment. It would take forever for him to recover from holding shape for that long. And if he failed at it–if he couldn’t hold form–he’d simply disappear from the jail cell. That he was a person of interest in a bizarre and grisly death would mean a massive manhunt for the man who could escape and leave locked doors behind. Which meant Allistair would have to at least abandon that persona and he’d have to start all over again winning Katharine’s trust.

Zachary smiled. What a nice, tidy move that would be–to take Allistair out of play by human rules. Unfortunately, that particular move was off the table.

Zachary knew exactly what had killed Mary Wayne. He understood far better than what Katharine suspected. But for now, he smiled at her and soothed her. He needed to let it be known that he was here to help and that he was helping. “Don’t speak to the police without me. Even if you just run into one of them on the street.”

She stiffened immediately in his arms. “I thought you said I wasn’t a suspect anymore.”

“You aren’t.” He laid his hand against her shoulder and, with a little pressure, brought her down to rest against him. “But they will still want to talk to you. You’re a witness, and they’ll want to know everything you saw and everything you know.”

She nodded at that, and he felt her relax into his arms before he told her his next piece of information. He needed to see how she would react. “While you’re off the hook, your father’s company isn’t, yet. And they’ll want to question you about that, too.”

He’d kept talking even though she’d stiffened again at the mention of Light & Geryon. She would have blurted something out, but he’d railroaded her just a bit. Then it came, exactly what he’d been expecting in his almost-human brain.

“Why is the company a suspect? Who in the company? I don’t get it.” She was turned to face him now, her warm little hands pressed against his chest to prop herself up, her confused and angry face looking to him for answers, for comfort. This was good. This was where she needed to be.

He smiled, again placating her. “Of course they suspect people at the company from which she stole hundreds of thousands of dollars–they have to. The question is: how many people knew she was a thief? That will narrow their scope a little bit.”

“Um …” It seemed to be all she could get out. She looked away, breaking eye contact with him, as though there were something to hide.

Interesting. He hadn’t thought she was capable of hiding much of anything from him. At the very least,
she
believed she could. Still, he used the fumble to remind her of the severity of the situation. “Look, I’m your lawyer. Anything you say to me as your lawyer, like now, is kept in complete legal confidence.”

He was curious what she would reveal now that she believed it wouldn’t go anywhere.

Katharine began talking. “There were only a few people who knew about her. My father alerted me to the missing money. My assistant helped me trace the missing funds back to Mary. There was a PI, but she’s not part of the company. It wasn’t her money that was missing. And I have no idea who told my father and Uncle Toran about the missing money in the first place. Maybe someone in accounting.”

Zachary nodded. He had made sure the accountant had spotted the missing funds, as he had been well aware of what Mary had been doing. To Katharine, he only said, “Don’t worry, we’ll get it taken care of. None of this is going to come back on you.”

She pushed farther away from him. “No, that’s not really what I’m concerned about. I didn’t kill that woman–”

“I know.” He smiled sympathetically and tried to pull her back, but she resisted.

“No! It’s not about me.”

He looked at her now, wondering what she was going to offer him, what juicy piece of humanity would float to the surface of her.

“There were only a few people who knew about the theft. And of those people, only four would be really upset. My father and Uncle Toran, because it’s their company. Uncle Toran’s nephew, who is supposed to inherit the Light side of Light and Geryon. And me. If it’s not me, who do they suspect?”

Zachary did his best to look concerned. Then he planted the seed.

“What about your assistant?”

“Allistair?” She frowned as if she hadn’t even considered it. “Isn’t he one of the people who knew?” “Yes, but … he has no vested interest in the company.” “But I thought … Never mind.” Zachary just smiled at her and nodded. He didn’t want to be too obvious. It was just a tiny seed. But that was the beautiful thing about little seeds. They grew.