Wild Card (34 page)

She sat back and looked away. I thought she wasn’t going to reply, but she did. “The Confederation is anti-emergence. Skylur doesn’t want that on his doorstep. Larimer’s at least more flexible.”

“Altau will push emergence too quickly,” Alex said.

“It’ll always be too soon, too quick for some,” Bian snapped back.

“It’s not Altau pushing,” I stopped them. “It’s human agencies getting a sniff of what’s been there all along. Like Melissa did. You both saw David and Pia go through the likely outcomes if it comes out accidentally. Nothing is too quick if it’s only quicker than discovery.”

“It is if Altau reveal the paranormal in the middle of a war which is all about Athanate politics.” Alex was not going to let this go.

“It’s not about politics,” Bian said. “It’s about behaving in a way that will be acceptable to the rest of the world. At least we have societies and rules that we follow. Your rules are just whatever the alpha makes up.”

We’d reached Melissa’s apartment in Glendale. Alex slammed the brakes on and killed the engine. He was furious.

Before he could get out, I swiveled in my seat and reached across to hug him. Both of us were stiff as dummies. I was scared of what might set my strongbox off again, scared if I didn’t do this he’d think I was moving away from him. And he was angry.

“Hey,” I whispered. The tension eased.

“Sorry,” he mouthed back against my ear, his anger fading like mist.

I knew it wouldn’t always be this easy, and that scared me. If I wasn’t able to control myself, how could I be sure of keeping it steady between me and my kin?

In the back, Bian mimed putting fingers down her throat.

“Come on,” she said. “Let’s go see Mel’s pad.”

Alex waited in the car while we went up the stairs. Melissa had a corner apartment on the third floor: small rooms, but light and plenty of space for one person.

She let us in and stood there looking around. I had a feeling that not many people came here. But we weren’t here to comment on the décor.

I elbowed her into action. “Box up all your files on this case, anything you think might be useful. And pack for a couple of weeks. Change the phone message. You’ve got ten minutes.”

She found her second pair of glasses and discarded the broken ones with an audible sigh of relief.

 “I’m not coming back here?” she asked.

“Not until the rogue is found.”

“But—”

“Melissa, some of the best suspects for being our leak or our rogue all heard you describing how you’ve been investigating this. Even if they’re not the leak, he finds things out quickly. It took him no more than a day to learn I was working the case. You’ve seen his work. You’ve heard about the murder in Wash Park. You want to wait around for him here? Or come help us find him?”

Melissa nodded, looking even paler, and disappeared into her bedroom.

“She needs healing,” murmured Bian. “And she’s kinda cute.”

“Stop it, Bian. Pia will take care of that, when we’re all back at Manassah. Until then, her injuries may actually bring it home to her how bad it could have been.”

“And then, Amber? After she’s healed? Kin?”

“I have my kin. Jen and Alex.”

“They won’t sustain you. Athanate need three or four kin.” She leaned on my shoulder, Leopard Bian body language mixed with Diakon Bian talk. “It’s not so bad for you as House. You have access to all your House kin.”

“Bian!”

“Just telling it how it is, Round-eye. Skylur’s only got a couple of kin. He feeds on everyone. The House is like a hive. It’s healthy for Skylur to feed widely. All those Altau pheromones need spreading around.”

“It works for him, fine. It’s not going to work like that for me.”

“Hmm. Not always going to be an option. And you’ll find the need changes you.”

“You’re guessing. Neither of us know how many I’ll need. I’m as much Were as Athanate.”

“Fair point. Anyway, at the moment, you should be more concerned for the rest of your House. David and Pia. Unless David’s gone out and hauled in some kin in a hurry, they’ll be sharing Pia’s kin. Again, not enough.”

“We’ll manage.”

“As long as you know what needs managing. I’m not teasing you, Amber. Well, not just teasing you. Keep talking to me and Pia.”

“That’s one thing Naryn has done which is good. He’s made you easier to get through to.”

We laughed.

“He’d so like that,” Bian said. “Seriously, it’s not always to do with Blood. Or sex. Vega Martine was partly right when she spoke to you before the Assembly. The marque does not always concern itself with love or desire. Sometimes, it does things for need. And House Farrell needs. Keep listening to your instincts.”

I shivered. “That sounds no better than Basilikos.”

“There’s a long way between that and Basilikos.”

Melissa brought out a suitcase. She saw Bian draped over me, blushed and hurried back into the bedroom.

I laughed again. I had changed, I was different. Time was when I’d have gone scarlet too, if someone saw me standing like this.

“You have too many unbound, Amber. Victor, Julie, the colonel and his wife. Now Melissa. Even I couldn’t turn a blind eye to that. Think what Naryn’s going to say.”

“The hell with him. What’s he going to do about the whole Ops 4 group? Bite them all?”

“There’s a difference between them and your House.”

I had to concede the point. “What about Vera? Did you do anything?”

“I just healed her. But sometimes that starts the binding anyway.”

Melissa laid another small suitcase down and darted into a small study room.

I caught a glimpse of the equipment through the door. Presumably that was the forensics stuff she was talking about.

“Only the really important bits, Melissa,” I called out. “If you need it all, we’re going to have to bring a truck.”

She came out with a large box.

“Uhh. I’ll need all the rest of it. Just in case.”

Where the hell was I going to put all this? I needed Melissa right under my wing to keep her safe. That meant Manassah. But at some point soon Jen was going to put her foot down.

Tomorrow’s problem. “Right. Someone will come and get it.” I grabbed a pad of luminous yellow sticky notes. “Mark the ones that are delicate.”

Everything got a sticker. Bian snorted.

She changed her answering machine message and we carried her suitcases downstairs.

“No neighbors to inform? Boyfriend to call?”

Melissa shook her head silently.

“Back to Manassah?” Alex asked.

“We could go get a bite to eat,” Bian said. “I’m getting hungry.”

Melissa edged closer to me.

Oh, that’s a great decision, girl. Yes, Bian will bite you, but you’re safe with her. Apart from the all night leopard sex you’d end up having. But you’d rather come to me. I lose control and bite you and you’d end up rogue. If you survived.

There was a lot we needed to tell her.

∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

Alex headed for a restaurant he knew. Bian and I started briefing Melissa, but I let Bian take over. I was tired and unsure when I’d get another chance to think about the whole case. I’d be working tonight getting a schedule of operations ready for the bounty hunters tomorrow morning. Bian didn’t seem to mind.

Felix wanted it to be someone else’s problem. Despite what I’d said, I didn’t think he was the rogue and I didn’t think he was covering for the rogue. He couldn’t be the rogue and keep his pack sane. If he wasn’t the rogue, he had no reason to cover for him. I had issues with Felix, but from Alex’s comments, he deserved a slice more leeway from me. He was juggling the same kind of rocks and hard places as Skylur. And he was the alpha of the Denver pack, they couldn’t lie to him, so it wasn’t any of the pack, despite the clues of fertilizer dust or big green vans or blue coveralls.

That left some
thing
that could become a wolf, which had some Adept abilities. It either had a marque and covered it, or it had no marque to cover.

My gut was as empty of feeling as the boards back in the study at Manassah. That might change after I squeezed every drop of information out of Melissa, but before I had a chance to do that, I needed to organize the bounty hunters and the Denver pack to handle all the groundwork of finding the rogue and the remnants of House Matlal.

My cell startled me. Unknown number.

“Yes?”

“Ms. Farrell, it’s Bud from Victor’s team on the gate at Manassah this afternoon.”

I jerked upright. “What’s the problem?”

“Just a decision I want to run by you,” he said, hearing the tautness in my voice. “Ms. Autplumes has requisitioned me to leave the gate and do a stake-out for your firm on another case. Standing orders are to clear that with Sergeant Alverson, but she said she wanted you to decide.”

The only other case was Mrs. de Vries. How the hell had that progressed to a stakeout?

With the sinking feeling in my stomach, I knew I’d come to a point I’d anticipated, but expected to happen way down the line. Tullah was making a call here. She knew perfectly well what the guards on the gate were for and how vital they were. She thought she had something more important, even if it was only for one evening.

My cell beeped in my ear. Someone trying to get through. Probably Tullah.

I trusted her, but did I trust her judgment call on this? Whatever I chose would send a signal.

“Do what she says,” I said to Bud.

I ended that call and connected to the other.

“Amber, we need you now,” Tullah said. “I can brief you as we go.”

I could hear the excitement in her voice. Slam dunk, finish the job and put in the bill excitement. Do it right now.

If Mrs. Harriman was happy by the end of it, my little company was going to float for a good while more. If Tullah had misread it, she’d be back at college, and Jofranka and I would be looking for day jobs.

If I hadn’t wanted to make this decision, I shouldn’t have handed the case to her.

Trust and Jump.

I motioned to Alex to turn around.

“We’re coming back, Tullah. Hold on a second.” I turned to Bian. “If it’s okay with Jen, would you stay at Manassah until I get back?”

“Leaving me with all the cookies,” she said. “Of course.”

I had to grin and bear it.

“Meet where?” I said to Tullah.

Chapter 35

“Thank you for agreeing to meet us, Suzannah, especially at such short notice.” Ethel Harriman’s face gave no clue to what we were here for.

“Goodness, Ethel, such a mysterious message. Urgent, you said.” Suzannah de Vries laughed nervously. “I could hardly turn it down.”

We were at her house on Sunset Drive in the upscale Glenmore Hills Village suburb. The house was set back behind a veil of well-spaced spruce and pine. The sort of house that had a fountain in front with a drive that curved around it like a big lasso.

Mrs. Harriman—Ethel, as she reminded me I had to call her—had gotten us in with a phone call.

In the flesh, Suzannah de Vries was mostly what I’d imagined from her photo: small and well-dressed but not imposing. Her clipped South African accent had faded, but was still there under the surface. She showed us into the living room and we sat. Whether it was the unexplained meeting or her normal behavior, Mrs. de Vries was nervous. Her eyes darted back and forth and her hands twisted together briefly in her lap before she got them under control.

“I’m afraid it’s not pleasant.” Ethel looked as if she wanted to pace the room, but managed to remain seated and radiated a calmness I didn’t share. “We have one more guest to impose on you. He’ll be here at any moment.”

Mrs. de Vries suddenly looked alarmed and clutched the arms of her chair. “It’s not an accident is it? Forster?”

“Nothing like that.”

The doorbell chimed and Tullah slipped out before Mrs. de Vries could rise.

“Ethel, you’re scaring me.”

“I know, my dear, and I am so sorry. I couldn’t think of how else to do this.”

Tullah returned with Scott Borders in tow.

Borders was one of the big men of the Denver banking sector, and though he was in no way connected with the day-to-day running of any branches, he’d been a friend of Schalk de Vries and still managed the company’s financials at the bank. He’d fought to avoid this encounter, but Ethel was not easily refused.

“Scott! Hello. What a surprise.” Mrs. de Vries looked confused. “If this is about the company, I really must have Forster here. He’s handling all that for me.”

There was a long stare between Borders and Ethel, and then he nodded to her and sat down.

“That’s the reason we set this up in this way,” Ethel said. She took a deep breath and sighed. “Forster Sloan is the problem.”

“Ridiculous. If it’s about the business, Forster must be here.” Mrs. de Vries stood and gathered herself. “He’ll be back from his physical therapist shortly and then we can talk about it. Of course, you’re welcome to stay until then. I’ll just organize some coffee for us. We must discuss the December Swan Lake production, Ethel.”

I cleared my throat. “Mr. Sloan is not at the physical therapist.”

She blinked. “But it’s his weekly appointment.”

“He hasn’t been attending physical therapy sessions on Thursday evenings.” I pulled my files out of the briefcase. I’d had an hour to study Tullah’s notes and be briefed by her, but this felt frighteningly unprepared. And I couldn’t sugar coat the next bit. “But that’s not completely relevant to the purpose of this meeting. Please sit, Mrs. de Vries.” I waited while she did reluctantly, casting glances back and forth between me and the others in the room. “I’m a private investigator and I was hired by your minority shareholders, represented here by Mrs. Harriman, to investigate worrying trends in your business. I’m sorry to say it, but your company is on the brink of bankruptcy, and the investigations following that will reveal a pattern of illegal trading that you, as owner, will ultimately be responsible for.”

She sat back down abruptly. “That can’t be. The business is doing so well. We tripled profits—”

“Mr. Sloan tripled profits last year,” I interrupted. “A clever way to ensure that no-one asked questions this year.” I turned. “Mr. Borders, you can’t respond directly to me about the company’s finances, but, for Mrs. de Vries’ benefit, could you confirm that the various Auradamas accounts which held between one and two million in operating funds all last year are now holding insufficient for the wages at the end of the month?”