Crowbones

CHAPTER 20

Vicki

Thaisday, Novembros 1

When I’d knocked on the door of the Cornleys’ suite, I found them packing for an early checkout.

Forgot about an appointment first thing tomorrow morning. Pressing business. Weather reports forecast snow next month, so they really should start heading home now.

Unless they had fibbed when they signed the register, they lived in a town that was only a few hours away from Sproing. Snow shouldn’t be an issue for a while yet—unless someone had ticked off Winter. I’d been told she was one of the scarier Elementals, especially when she was riding a steed named Blizzard.

I listened to the fibs about why they were leaving and wondered if I should make up some brochures that reflected The Jumble a little more accurately: Come to The Jumble for a relaxing—or possibly scary—adventure. Take a spin on the Eat or Be Eaten wheel of chance.

I told them I would be able to check them out in an hour, and went on to the other suite to see if anyone wanted fresh towels. Since the used towels had been dumped on the bathroom floor, I swapped them for fresh and eyed the rest of the suite. Ben Malacki and David Shuman sure wouldn’t win the neatest-guest award, but they also weren’t running out the door.

On the other hand, I wasn’t sure where they were.

“Miss Vicki?” Eddie stood in the doorway. He was dressed in his uniform of white shirt, black trousers, and black vest. He looked wan, but the only indication of stress that I could see were the feathers sticking out of his hair. “Chief Grimshaw wants you on the phone in your office. He has something to tell Aggie and he wants you to listen too.”

“The wastebaskets need to be emptied,” I said. “Can you do that?”

He nodded, so I went to my office by way of the laundry room and dropped off the towels before bracing myself for another chat with Grimshaw, who didn’t waste time on unnecessary words.

“I’ll be by later to talk to you and your employees, especially the Crowgard,” Grimshaw said. “For now, I’d like everyone to do a quick check on friends and see if anyone has left the Lake Silence area for any reason.”

I heard Aggie, who was on the kitchen extension, suck in a breath. “You found a body.”

A beat of silence. “We did.”

“Were the eyeballs squooshy?”

“No.”

Missing eyeballs didn’t squoosh, but I wasn’t going to say that, and I hoped the thought didn’t occur to Aggie since Grimshaw wanted a roll call. The Crows and I had watched enough cop and crime shows to know what that meant.

“Did you give Julian the message?” I asked.

“Not yet, but I will,” he replied. “And I’ll be wanting to talk to the person who gave you that message.”

“I’ll tell him. If you want to talk to all the guests, you’ll have to hurry. The Cornleys are doing an early checkout.”

“No, they’re not. You’re going to park your car across the access road to make sure nobody leaves before I get there.”

“But . . . Chief.”

“Aiden is already helping the academics staying at the Mill Creek Cabins understand why they need to assist the police in this inquiry. Should I ask him to send a friend to The Jumble to provide the same kind of assistance?”

Hey, I know a threat when I hear one, and I really didn’t want to know whom Fire considered a friend. Aiden and I were friendly, but we weren’t friends. Humans just weren’t important to the Elementals’ view of the world. “I’ll block the access road as soon as I hang up. I promise.”

“Ilya Sanguinati and I will be up to talk to your guests as soon as we can.” He hung up.

“You can hang up now, Aggie.” I waited until I heard the click, then called the bookstore.

“Lettuce Reed.”

It wasn’t Julian’s voice, but I recognized it. “Natasha? Is Julian there?”

“One moment.” It was more than a moment, and when I heard his voice, I wondered what he’d been doing. “Bad day?”

“You could say that.” He tried to rally and couldn’t quite get there.

I repeated the message about duplicity being at The Jumble last night but not this morning. And I told him about Kira somehow being connected with a honey trap.

“Okay, thanks,” he said. “I have to go.” He hesitated. “Vicki? Be careful, all right?”

“Sure.”

“Really. Be careful.”

It wasn’t a no-confidence vote like it might have been from someone else. This was Julian trying, not too successfully, to hide that he was scared. “Could I talk to Natasha again?”

“We used the Murder board for clues about what is happening,” Natasha said. “Mr. Farrow is still recovering. I will stay with him and liaise with the Bristol police.”

“Can a CPA do that?” I wondered what they would want to ask her.

“Right now, I represent Silence Lodge while Ilya is assisting Chief Grimshaw.”

I was busy doing my own kind of addition. “There’s something besides the body Ineke found.”

“Yes. That is why you need to be careful. All of you. Please tell the Sanguinati youngsters that they are to stay with you until we fetch them. They are not to leave on their own.”

We talked about her bringing the next handful of books about the Wolf Team when she returned to fetch the youngsters. The Wolf Team always bested the baddies, and right now we all needed to feel that we could win.

I hung up, took my car keys out of the middle desk drawer, and went out to block the access road before the Cornleys had a chance to scamper off.

I was so not going to get a glowing review from them.