Only Human (31 page)

And then I tried to do what I’d been teaching Lauren to do — look into his heart and see if I saw good or bad. He immediately realized what I was doing, and I was looking into Jerry Nelson’s heart instead of Xaephan’s. I already knew what was in my patient’s heart, so I pulled my awareness back and focused on the physical cues I could pick up from my foe, since he wasn’t going to let me look metaphysically.

The demon didn’t look angry though, he looked thoughtful. “I will give you a little bit of information because you are trying to see me as an individual, instead of just seeing a demon sitting before you. However, I have much more information if you wish to offer me something for it.”

I didn’t say anything, so he continued. “I was given a nice dose of your abilities when we last met. The last time I felt energy such as yours, it came from someone who was a god... with a little g, but still, a god. Humans are not to have these abilities, and yet
you
do. It is believed humans are not advanced enough to have such power without using it to rule the world, possibly even destroy the world.” He considered me a few more seconds and added, “You humans don’t live long enough to gain the knowledge needed to responsibly wield such power, but your talk of spiders tells me perhaps you are up to possessing such weapons responsibly. So here is your information: There’s a pattern to the killings, and if one has information from all of them, one can figure out the pattern and decipher where and when the next will happen. Ask your friends to get you all of the information, and not to try to shield you from any of it.”

Nathan didn’t move, but I could feel his unhappiness with this statement. I ignored him though, and kept focused on the demon. Xaephan looked about as friendly and helpful as possible as he said, “I don’t know if you can stop the killer or not. You’re powerful, but so is he, and he has thousands of years of experience wielding his weapons. You do not.”

I wasn’t being shy, I had a notepad and pen and I used them to take notes as he spoke so I’d be sure I got it right later. I also had my recorder going. I don’t often use it, but have it in case I feel the need to protect myself legally. In this case, I needed to be sure I remembered everything he said.

“Have you given me any information that’s true, but is meant to mislead me?”

He smiled, and if I wasn’t mistaken, he was impressed. “Yes.”

“But you aren’t going to tell me which piece, or pieces, of information, are you?”

He was still smiling; he was enjoying this way too much. “No.”

“Is our conversation over?”

“I believe it is. But Mr. Nelson’s session isn’t up yet and I’d hate to shortchange him.”

I really wanted to slap the cocky-assed look off his face, but I worked to keep my facial expression neutral as I told him, “He isn’t here, you are. And you aren’t paying for the session.”

“Under what circumstance would you feel you had a reason to kill one of my people?”

“If they come here on their own, without being called, and cause problems,
any
problems, then I reserve the right to kill them. However, if they are called and are here against their will, I agree this changes things, so I’ll be much more likely to send them back. This doesn’t mean I won’t still kill under those circumstances, it just means I won’t do it lightly and without a very good reason to do so.”

“And what might that reason be?”

“I’m not going to let you push me into an agreement to only kill under specific circumstances.”

He didn’t like that, and I saw a flash of anger before his face went back to neutral. “We shall see how this agreement works out. If I’m not satisfied with the results, we will speak again, Kirsten O’Shea.”

“We do
not
have an agreement. I’ve merely told you my intentions.” He didn’t look happy, and I stood as he did. Smokey also stood, but thankfully Nathan remained in his seat. I looked back to the demon and used my most firm voice to say, “Good day, Mr. Xaephan.”

“Not mister, just Xaephan.”

And he walked out the door.

I looked at Nathan and said, “Call Aaron, I want him here, in my office, with every scrap of information he has about every single one of the killings.”

He leaned forward, his face blank, as always. “We should go to him. He has a strategy room set up at the office, with all the information up on the chalkboards and bulletin boards.”

“Fine, call him and let him know we’re on the way, and make sure he knows we have Smokey with us.” I thought about it a minute and added, “I don’t think the chalkboards will help, I need to look through the files. If what he’s written on the chalkboards would help, he’d have figured it out.”

Chapter Twenty

When we arrived at the Drake Security building Smokey and I followed Nathan, since I had no idea which room we were headed to.

Aaron had bought a beautiful old school built around one hundred years ago, and the only thing he’d really done to modernize it was completely redo the electrical wiring, and gut the bathrooms and changing rooms for a modern renovation. And, of course, a state of the art security system had gone in when it was rewired. The hallways and repurposed classrooms have been painted, but that’s about it.

Which is why they use chalkboards and bulletin boards instead of white boards.

The old cafeteria/auditorium is now set up like your basic work out club with lots of weights and equipment. The old gymnasium no longer has the bleachers, in their place are a few boxing rings and a bunch of mats set up for sparring rounds. The court surface is still open for basketball games.

One wing of the old school is used for storage and stays locked up — rooms and rooms of guns, knives, explosives, rocket launchers, and other things used to kill people, along with extra bullet proof vests and no telling what else. So, of course, this wing was top-level secure, and it was here Aaron had used an empty classroom to lay out all the information about the murders. He was there when Nathan and I walked in, and I started speaking the instant I saw him.

“I want the times and dates of each murder, and the addresses of their houses. Dates and times first.”

I sat at the conference table, pulled my notepad from my bag, turned to the first blank page with my pen in hand, and looked at him expectantly.

Smokey took a look around the room and settled in front of the door.

Aaron started pulling folders and giving me dates, I ended up with:

October 9, 1:00 a.m.

October 10, 11:30 p.m.

October 12, 1:30 a.m.

October 15, 12:30 a.m.

October 16, 11:30 p.m.

October 17, 10:00 p.m.

October 20, 11:30 p.m.

I figured the number of days between and came up with:

1

2

3

2

2

3

Not a pattern. But if we could look at it and know when, then there should be a pattern. I looked at the times of death, all estimated to a half hour. Hmmm, what if....

“Some of these people were found far after the fact, right?”

“Yes, in some cases a few days later”

“So the time of death may be off.”

I figured it again, just looking at what night each had likely happened and not the exact date listed, and I wrote the number of days since the last murder out to the side:

• Oct 8/9
  
• Oct 10/11,   2
  
• Oct 11/12,   1
  
• Oct 14/15,   3
  
• Oct 16/17,   2
  
• Oct 17/18,   1
  
• Oct 20/21,   3
  

Bingo, a pattern, and it meant the next murder would happen on the night of October 22/23. Monday night. Tonight.

Now to figure out where, so I asked Aaron to read the addresses off to me:

• 2304 Apple Drive
  
• 14 Chestnut Drive
  
• 1806 Balsa Circle
  
• 8614A Dogwood Lane
  
• 1267 Figgy Way
  
• 4347 Elm St
  
• 5824 Gingko Street
  

I was looking at the street numbers for a pattern when it hit me that the names of the streets were all organic. They were all plants. Except Figgy, and a fig is a what, fruit? So, even Figgy.

“What does gingko grow on?”

“Trees,” Aaron said. “Gingko Trees”

“Then all of the names of these streets are tree names.”

“What was the last name of the person on Gingko Street?”

“King”

“Is that an Irish name?”

“Yes, though not obviously so.”

“I guess it was a stretch to find an Irish name on a tree street.”

As I kept looking at the names I realized all of the street names were from the first part of the alphabet.

I wrote:

A

C

B

D

F

E

G

And I saw it, clear as day.

“The next murder will happen tonight. Find someone who is single, with an Irish last name, who lives on a tree named street that starts with the letter I and we can stop this bastard.”

“Kirsten, these happened all over the place,” Aaron reminded me. “Fort Oglethorpe, Lafayette, East Ridge, Collegedale, Chattanooga, Jasper, Scottsboro. I’ll get my people on it, but we may not figure it out in time.”

I wasn’t listening, I was unlocking my tablet so I could research trees that start with the letter
I
. Aaron walked out of the room to get his people started on it, and I heard Nathan chuckle.

“What?”

“Aaron flew over Smokey instead of asking you to get him to move.”

I grinned and went back to searching the internet on my tablet. Some part of me recognized Nathan didn’t normally chuckle around me, much less make that sort of comment — he spoke to me only when he had no other choice. I didn’t have time to ponder it right then, though, so I dug into my research.

When Aaron came back he said, “We’re coming up short on trees that start with the letter
I
.”

“The Ironwood tree. It isn’t an official designation, but it’s the only one I’ve been able to find. Get some of your people started looking for a street with that name. I haven’t found one yet.”

“Maybe I should put you on my research staff.”

“Sorry, I already have a day job.” And then I found it, and exclaimed, “There’s one in Soddy Daisy, Iron Wood Trail, three words. I don’t think I can cross reference to find who lives on that street, but I’m betting your people can.”

Aaron sighed and picked up his phone. “Lou, do you have anything yet?”

“Yes, I know it’s only been a few minutes, but Kirsten has found an Iron Wood Trail in Soddy Daisy, and she tells me there is an Ironwood tree. Look to see if there are any Irish names on that street. Even better, get me a list of the people who live there, and double-check the other surrounding cities to make sure there isn’t another Ironwood street or drive or whatever somewhere else close by.”

“And make sure there aren’t any other trees that start with
I
,” I said, sounding more like an order than a suggestion, but I didn’t have time to be nice right now. I gave him my serious look, and said, “Do
not
tell me there isn’t time to figure this out. I’m going to go home and have dinner with Lauren and Xiaolan, and help my daughter with her homework. When I return I expect you’ll know the location and will have some sort of plan. I
will
be there tonight when we nail this bastard.”

Aaron must have talked to Nathan, because he quoted Xaephan from earlier today. “You are powerful, so is he, he has thousands of years of experience wielding weapons. You do not.” He gave me a few seconds and added, “He also told you this is someone who used to be worshiped as a god. No way are you going with us tonight.”

“Yes, and he
also
said he told me some truths designed to mislead. I’m
going
.”

“You are
not
. You will be home with Cora watching over you in your home while some of Abbott’s vampires keep an eye on things outside. Mordecai, Nathan and I will go, and I will pull in a couple dozen werewolves to help. If we can’t handle it, then having you there won’t be the thing that tips it in our favor. You may be powerful, but you’re human and much too easy to kill. You are
not
coming.”

He picked up the phone and called Abbott, keeping him on speakerphone so I could hear the conversation. Abbott was less than pleased to hear Xaephan had paid a visit to me.

I bristled when Aaron asked Abbott, “You offered help once before, if you could post several vampires around the outside of Kirsten’s house to make sure she’s safe, I’d feel a lot better.”

I spoke up, too pissed to worry about tact. “No, you mean to make sure I don’t sneak out and come join you.”

He ignored me and spoke into the speaker at the center of the conference table. “Thanks, Abbott. Nathan will take her home in a little while, and I’ll have two of my guys hang around until dark when your people can take over. Cora will be inside with her, but I’d feel better with people stationed outside.”

I knew I wasn’t going to win this one. Sulking and pouting and pitching a fit wasn’t going to change anything, so I may as well drop it.

I looked out the window long enough to rein my temper in, and finally looked back to him to tell him, “I’ll stay home if you’ll set me up with a live feed. I want cameras on at least three of you that I can cycle through. You’re going to have them anyway, you may as well fix it so I can patch in.”

I think he was so relieved I wasn’t fighting him, he agreed without thinking too much about it. “Sure. I’ll have Lou get you the information so you can patch in. Do you still have our software installed on your laptop?”