Crowbones

CHAPTER 81

Grimshaw

Moonsday, Novembros 5

Using pliers to pull out his own toenails wouldn’t be as painful as listening to this college admin’s evasions and justifications and blah blah freaking blah as the woman tried to deny that his query was legitimate and she should give him the information he’d asked for, which should have been public information that could be found in the college’s catalog if he had time to request one and wait for it to be mailed.

But he didn’t have time and he lost his last shred of patience, so Grimshaw said, “Ma’am, I will say this once more. This is a murder investigation, and Richard Cardosa is a person of interest. I want to know what he teaches at your college, or what his field of study is if he doesn’t actually teach. Either you provide me with this information in the next five minutes or I’m going to hang up the phone, and the next people who are going to ask you for that information will be standing in your office, will have Sanguinati as their last name, and will be much less polite. Do you understand me now?”

Bleating and tears. And an odd refusal to believe.

He wondered if this was an example of brainwashing.

Grimshaw looked up as Ilya walked into the station. He waved the vampire over to his desk, then held out the phone. “Tell her who you are and that you’ll bite off her face if she doesn’t give me the information I asked for.”

Even with the receiver held between them, they heard the woman shriek before she started to babble.

Ilya took the phone. “This is Ilya Sanguinati. I will not bite your face off, no matter what Chief Grimshaw says. The Sanguinati have specialists who take care of things like that. Now, don’t hang up or we will be very unhappy with you. Simply scream for your superior and put him on the phone. The clock is ticking. Tick. Tick.”

Fortunately for both their eardrums, Ilya was in the process of handing him the phone when the woman screamed for help.

“Tick, tick?” Grimshaw said.

The next voice was male. Not calm but not in a complete state of panic.

Grimshaw repeated his request and emphasized that this information was part of a murder investigation.

“I see,” he said as he wrote down what he was told. “No, there’s no reason to acknowledge where I came by this information. I appreciate your assistance.”

He hung up the phone, sat back, and stared at Ilya. “Richard Cardosa’s contract with the college was not renewed because of some questionable behavior that might have been connected to the emotional deterioration of several students in his classes, including two whose deaths are still under investigation even though  the official verdict was ‘death by terra indigene.’” He continued to stare. “The woman on the phone. Did she remind you of anyone?”

Ilya shook his head. “But I’d have to be starving to spend more than a minute in the same room with her.” He paused. Considered. “Of course, if I was starving, I wouldn’t need much more than that before she lost enough blood to make her quiet.”

Grimshaw filed that bit of information away with the other things he’d rather not know about the Others but needed to know to do his job—and stay alive.

No reason for any of the Sanguinati to have encountered the village troublemaker. In fact, Grimshaw would bet Ellen C. Wilson made every effort to avoid being noticed by the residents of Silence Lodge while she manipulated her way through Sproing’s businesses.

Picking up the phone again, Grimshaw called Lettuce Reed. “Julian? I need you at the station right now. Make sure you’re carrying.” He hung up.

“Am I supposed to understand this?” Ilya asked.

“You will.” Grimshaw waited until Osgood walked into the station, quickly followed by Julian. “Officer Osgood, you and our deputized citizen are going to the home of Ellen C. Wilson to arrest her. You will also bring her son, Theodore, in for questioning.”

Osgood bounced as if he’d been stabbed in the ass. “Chief? Shouldn’t you do that?”

“No, you should do that because I told you to.”

“I’m not a cop,” Julian said.

“You’re a deputized citizen. Osgood needs backup who can move if he needs to move. My knee won’t hold up to that today, so you’re it.”

“I have a business to run,” Julian argued.

“Boris is sitting outside in the sedan. He can watch the store and answer the phone.” Grimshaw looked at Ilya. “Right?”

“Right,” Ilya replied. “Boris could even make up a new window display. Books about body trauma, perhaps. That would go over well when one of the Sanguinati is standing behind the counter.”

Grimshaw ignored the snarky tone, mostly because he was tired enough and hurting enough that the proposed window display held a lot of appeal—especially if it encouraged Sproing’s residents to behave.

“What am I supposed to tell Mrs. Wilson?” Osgood asked.

“Yes, Chief,” Ilya said. “What is Officer Osgood supposed to tell her that you haven’t shared with us?”

Grimshaw looked at the leader of the Sanguinati, then at the other two men. “You can tell Ellen Cardosa Wilson that she’s being brought in as an accessory to murder.”