Golem in My Glovebox (22 page)

So many people needed an ass kicking. The worst part was, some of the people responsible for mistreating this little guy had already been brutally murdered. That was a tad extreme in the big scheme of things.

“Can you tell me about the girl?”

He smiled, though it was hard to make out his lips when they were the same color as the gray wall behind his head. “Pretty girl. Shiny hair like sunshine. Crink wanted to take some of the shiny hair, but she walked away too fast.”

“How tall was she? My height?”

He shook his head. “No, small like Crink, but bigger.” The gremlin hopped off the bed and reached above his head to show me. “This big.”

The height he was showing me was about the height of my chest. Crink’s description confirmed my theory. Somehow, Kathleen Valentine had flipped over the hourglass and lost about a hundred years off her age.

But how was Kathleen—Katy—doing all this in the body of a child? She had to have help to accomplish the heavy lifting, or even to get her from one place to another.

And how the hell did she become young in the first place?

“Crink, what about the lady that visited the girl? What was she like?”

Crink shook his head, eyes wide. “The lady was not shiny like the girl.”

“Did she have short black hair?”

His head bobbed with enthusiasm. “Oh, yes! Black like the inside of a gnome hole! And it looked like this.” He patted his head all over, as if he were smooshing his non-existent hair in place. “And her shoes went like this.” He crinkled his face and sped around the room making a sound like “weeki-weeki-weeki.”

“They squeaked?”

He stopped his dash around the cell, face solemn. “Crink had to cover his ears.”

I was pretty sure the black-haired helmet-head look described Bernice. And the squeaky shoes sounded like the type of sensible footwear Bernice always chose.

“Nobody else ever came here?”

“No, lady. Crink didn’t see anyone else.”

I reached into my magic purse and felt what I was looking for jump into my hand. I held my palm out to the gremlin, revealing a shiny pressed penny from a trip to the zoo where I was nearly trampled by a polar bear.

Crink’s eyes looked like they were going to leap from his head out of excitement. “That shiny you have is so...shiny!”

I grinned. “It’s for you, Crink. You helped me.”

He reached for it and hesitated. I nodded to reassure him, and the penny flew from my hand and disappeared in his grasp.

“Crink,” I said. “Do you want to leave? Would you like to go home?”

He nodded, slow and solemn. “Crink is lonely here.”

I touched his arm. “I’m going to take you out of here, okay? If anyone tries to stop us, you just hold on to my hand. Don’t let go. Do you understand?”

“Crink understands. The robot people might be angry.”

“I will protect you.”

Crink waved his shimmery hand, his voice matter of fact. “They did not stop the girl.”

His words stopped me in midstep. “No, they didn’t, did they?”

That was fascinating. And possibly a litmus test to see how involved in this whole thing Bernice was. If we walked right out without the golems flinching, that was a flaw in their programming. If they quit what they were doing and came after us, that was a direct order from Bernice.

I opened the cell door and took Crink’s hand. “Ready?”

He nodded. “Crink is ready to see his brothers.”

We walked together down the hall and into the office. The moment we stepped through the doorway, three golem heads popped up from their paperwork.

“That prisoner should not be out,” one said.

“Please return the prisoner to its cell,” said another.

The third rose from his desk. “I will be happy to escort you in the return of the prisoner.”

Crink’s small hand squeezed mine, and I held it firmly. “I’ve taken this prisoner into my custody. Please sit down. He’ll be coming with me.”

All three automatons shook their heads and frowned in confusion, and the one standing took a step toward us. “This is unscheduled. Paperwork has not been filed.”

Art came to my rescue, putting himself between us and the golem. “Return to your work. You’ll receive the proper paperwork soon.”

They looked at him, then back at us. “We will return the prisoner to his cell. Please file the correct paperwork before proceeding.”

The three golems, now agitated, attempted to surround us and cut off access to the front door. Riley maneuvered himself in their way so we had a gap, and Crink and I made a break for it.

“I hate those things,” I said under my breath.

We ran for the car and jumped in. All my stuff was upstairs, but the car seemed the safest place to go. Of course, I didn’t have keys with me, but if necessary we could at least lock all the doors. Once Riley came outside, we could get out of here—as long as he had keys.

A moment later, Riley and Art both backed out of the building and down the front steps. They stood in the courtyard watching the door for another minute or two before turning and walking to car.

The puzzled looks on their faces were almost comical.

Riley tapped on the window and motioned for me to come out. I patted Crink on the shoulder, unlocked the door and climbed out.

“Well? What happened?” I peered over his shoulder at the door to the prison, but it didn’t open, and no golems flew out shaking their fists and yelling at me to come back.

Riley and Art glanced at each other and shrugged.

“Nothing,” Riley said. “The minute you closed the door behind you, they looked all confused, then went back to their desks to do paperwork again.”

“What paperwork could they be doing?” Art scratched his chin in thought. “The place is empty.”

I tilted my head and looked at the main building where Bernice was probably eating breakfast. “Now what do we do? If we go in there, will we be attacked by her golems because we know the truth?”

Art shook his head. “I don’t think so. I’m convinced Bernice has no memory of what she did.”

“What she’s doing, you mean,” Riley said.

I frowned. “What else is there? Kathleen is gone.”

Riley shifted his feet. “Katy’s known where we were every step of the way. The last two murders occurred conveniently close to where we were already working on a Board-related problem.”

I leaned against the car and thought about that. “But which came first? Did we get sent to that location because that’s where the next murder would be, or did the murder occur there because that’s where we were located?”

Art shook his head. “The last one came directly from Randall in the call center. I think it’s more likely that Bernice is keeping Kathleen updated on your whereabouts, not that you’re being sent to where Kathleen is.”

All three of us stood in the circle of dirt, eyeing the main building and wondering what to do.

“What if Gris is a plant?” Riley asked. “Maybe he’s feeding information to Bernice, who then sends it on to Katy?”

“I can’t believe that. Gris wanted to get away from here. And Bernice hasn’t treated him very well. I’ve read his emotions—and yes, he now has those. His loyalties lie with us, I guarantee it.” I folded my arms and stared at my rhinestone-studded Keds. They were filthy. “We can’t stand out here all day. I’m going inside.” I took a step forward, and a small hand tugged the hem of my cutoff shorts.

“Crink is going home now.”

I’d forgotten all about the little guy. “Where do you live?” Even with me squatting, he was below my eye level, but it was better than making him crane his neck to talk to me.

He made a vague gesture with one hand. “Outside.”

That was no help. “How far away is it?”

“Far.”

“Do you trust me?”

He nodded. “The lady is kind to Crink.” He stroked the smooth side of his pressed penny.

“If you’ll get inside my car and lock the doors, I’ll be back later to help you get home. I want to keep you safe, and I’m not sure it’s a good idea for you to walk out of here on your own just yet. Will that be okay?”

The gremlin smiled and nodded, then moved in front of the open car door. His color changed to match the interior as he climbed inside. By the time I shut the door behind him, he was nearly impossible to see. A click told me he’d done as I asked and locked himself in.

A small handprint appeared on the darkened window, and I pressed my hand against it. “We’ll be back soon.”

The three of us strode up the steps and into the house. We agreed not to make any assumptions and to make an attempt to act like we didn’t know anything. If Bernice wasn’t aware of her own actions, tipping her off wasn’t the best idea. If she did know, she had a golem army in there she could bring down on us, so we had to be prepared to run if necessary.

Bernice was, in fact, eating breakfast. We found her in the dining room, sopping up egg yolks with her toast. “There you are. I thought everyone was still asleep. I didn’t want to wake you. I saw your car outside through the window.” She licked her fingers. “When did you get in? I didn’t even know you were coming.” Bernice waved her hand at a female-looking golem attendant in the corner and it went off to the kitchen to get us some breakfast.

My stomach gurgled. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d eaten.

I slipped into a seat across from Bernice and smiled. “We came in early this morning and didn’t want to wake you.”

“That’s sweet, but unnecessary. Although, I have to admit, I haven’t been sleeping well. I feel absolutely wretched when I wake up in the morning. I think the stress of all this is taking its toll.” She drained her coffee and set the cup down. “Did you just come in from outside?”

If I told her where we’d been, would she react with guilt? Alarm? I decided a half-truth was the best way to go. “We went to the prison to check Kathleen’s cell for clues.” I threw open my filters so I wouldn’t miss her reaction.

Curiosity.

Worry.

Hope.

“Did you find anything we can use?”

“Nothing, really.” I waited. Her emotions didn’t flicker. She truly wanted this solved. She wasn’t hiding anything.

Not that she knew of, anyway.

I chose not to bring Crink into the conversation, not because I thought it would make a difference to Bernice, but because I was sure that whatever Bernice knew, somehow Kathleen would know it, too.

I was trying to avoid one of those terrible “I know that you know that I know that you know” situations.

Kathleen needed to remain ignorant that we’d figured out who her mole was, partly so we might later feed her misinformation if we needed to.

The golem servant came back with a fresh pot of coffee and clean cups.

“What brought you back so early?” Bernice asked, adding three spoons of sugar into her cup.

“This,” Riley said. He passed the crayon picture across the table. “We found it in our room when we got back.”

Bernice’s face went pale. “She was in your room?”

I nodded. “We left as soon as we could pack.”

Fear.

Worry.

Bernice wasn’t faking. She truly had no idea what was going on.

“That settles it,” she said, dragging a cloth napkin across her mouth. “You’re not going back out there. She’s going to kill you.”

Another servant came through the door carrying a tray laden with eggs, potatoes, sausage and pancakes. Knowing I was probably getting back in the car again in a short while, I dug in and ate as much as I could hold. The food wasn’t up to Maurice’s standards, but it filled the gaping hole in my stomach. Really, nothing was up to Maurice’s standards. I was spoiled.

We chatted about inconsequential things while we ate, avoiding the subjects of murder, dead bodies and psychopathic empaths.

“Where do the goblins sleep?” I asked, shoveling hash browns into my mouth. “There’s so many of them. It seems like it would be dangerous to let them come and go on the compound.”

“Oh, they go home,” Bernice said. “They’ve got bracelets to let them pass through the security spells.”

“Why don’t we need bracelets?” I asked.

Riley drained his glass of juice. “We came in through the front gate.”

“And the goblins don’t?”

“They live north of here. There’s no gate, just a gap in the fence.”

“What if someone tries to come in without a bracelet?” The idea that Kathleen, in the guise of a goblin-sized girl, could come and go as she pleased gave me chills.

Art pushed away from the table so a servant could clear his dirty dishes. “Zapped and detained until security gets there.” His voice was soft and reassuring. “Don’t worry, Zoey. Even if she stole a bracelet or tried to come in with somebody else, it wouldn’t work. She could leave, but she can’t get back in.”

I nodded. “Okay.” I paused, frowning. “Maurice never got zapped and detained.”

Art snorted. “No one ever thought about closet and under-the-bed portals before. The security breach has been mended.”

“He was here the last time.”

“He has clearance to come through, now.”

“Ah.” The servant took my plate away, and I finished my coffee. My phone rang, and I answered without thinking. The number was unfamiliar.

“Zoey, it’s Mina. Rob got a message to me on the wind, but it was faint. He’s in Michigan, and he’s in big trouble.”

Chapter Sixteen

I debated lying to Bernice about where we were going, but it might have tipped our hand to Kathleen that we were on to her. So, I told her the truth and hoped like hell we’d be able to use her connection to Kathleen later. We still had no idea what that connection was. If Kathleen couldn’t get into the compound, did she have a direct mental connection to Bernice? Smoke signals? A crystal ball or a scrying pool? Without knowing how Kathleen was getting information from an unwitting Bernice, we had to tread lightly.

At the very least, we didn’t want to trigger some sort of emergency programming Katy might’ve put in Bernice’s head that would send golems after us. And Art had to stay behind, so we didn’t want him in danger, either.

She fought like hell to keep me from going anywhere, which further solidified her complete ignorance of her role in all this. Kathleen wanted me in Michigan, not safely stuffed away at headquarters.