Mortal Ties

TWENTY-EIGHT

“I guess you heard me coming,” Jasper Machek said. He shook his head. “I’m rusty, that’s what. Getting old and rusty.”

“Rule’s hearing is better than ours,” Lily said. “A lot better.”

“So I’m told.” The thought didn’t cheer him up. His face was tight, his expression abstracted. If he was bothered by the two very large wolves sitting in front of him, watching his every muscle twitch, it didn’t show.

Drummond was leaning against the wall, his arms crossed, watching and listening. Or that’s what he seemed to be doing. Could a ghost be supported by a wall?

Rule had assured Machek that the suite had been swept for bugs and Friar couldn’t eavesdrop here magically. Machek hadn’t believed him, but it was clear that either Rule was correct or it was too late to worry about it. Once he’d wriggled out of his hole in the wall, Rule had had Todd pat him down. Not that he could conceal much with all the Lycra in his clothes—they were skin-tight, even the handy-dandy vest he wore with its interesting pockets. All the better for crawling through very tight spaces, Lily assumed.

In the vest’s pockets Todd had found two phones, a set of lockpicks, and a small, top-of-the-line bug detector. There was also a wallet with five hundred in cash and an ID that claimed he was Richard Spallings. No weapons. Rule gave everything back to Jasper, then invited him to have a seat while he called Scott. He filled Scott in quickly, told him to alert the other guards—those with Cullen and the two Laban with Beth—and return to the suite. He said he’d call the guards at Machek’s house himself.

Machek sat bolt upright. “Don’t pull them off my house! If Friar knows you’ve pulled them, he’ll—”

“I need to know they’re alive and well,” Rule said.

Machek smiled bitterly. “Did you think I could overcome werewolves? I suppose I should be flattered. They’re fine. They didn’t see me leave because I used an alternative exit.”

“Did you, now? Perhaps you’ll tell me about that in a moment.” Rule tapped on the screen of his phone.

Lily was standing beneath the hole Machek had crawled out of, studying it. “I can’t believe you fit. It’s wide enough, but it’s not even a foot high.”

“Twelve point two inches,” Machek said absently. “Tight but doable.”

“You measured?”

“I did a job here once. That was years ago, but I took a chance they hadn’t refitted their ducts. People don’t, mostly. Costs too much.”

The hotel hadn’t cleaned their ducts, either. Jasper Machek’s black, stretchy clothes were covered in dust. Lily had hurriedly tossed a blanket on the couch before he sat down. They’d managed not to break any furniture so far. Why add a big cleaning bill to their tab?

Rule finished talking to whichever guard he’d called and disconnected. “Chris and Alan are fine, if chagrinned that you evaded them. They’ll continue to watch the house. What can I offer you to eat or drink? The bar here is reasonably well stocked.”

“Nothing.” After a moment he remembered to add, “Thank you.”

Rule looked at Patrick, who’d hastily pulled on a pair of jeans. “Have room service send up four pots of coffee and an assortment of—”

“Don’t call room service! They can’t know I’m here. If they—”

“Jasper,” Rule said, “There are eight adults registered to this suite, seven of whom are lupi. It’s barely past ten o’clock. Room service will not be amazed by an order for refreshments.”

“Of course.” Machek rubbed his face. “I’m panicking. I don’t usually, but this is…I need to tell you why I’m here.”

“You do, yes,” Rule said, and moved to sit in the chair facing his brother. “Has Friar called?”

Machek shook his head.

“Sandwiches and fruit okay?” Patrick asked, picking up the hotel phone.

“That would be fine. Jasper, am I to assume you came through the ductwork to avoid being seen, rather than from some hope of surprising and slaughtering us?”

“Absolutely.”

“It’s usually a bad idea to surprise lupi,” Lily said. “It can be a bad idea to surprise me, too.”

Machek glanced at her shoulder holster. She’d put her gun up when Todd didn’t find any weapons on him. “I didn’t have many options. I had to talk to you. The prototype is missing.”

Dead silence. Rule broke it to say dryly, “Does that mean it wasn’t missing before?”

“Yes. I mean no, it wasn’t.” He rubbed his face again. “Maybe I do need some coffee. I haven’t been sleeping well. I’ll start over. Most of what I told you was true, but even the true parts were carefully selected. I was given a script to follow. I did as I was told, and I’m not apologizing for it. He has Adam. You were right about that. He…they hurt him once, while I was on the phone. Friar wanted me to hear.”

Lily exchanged a glance with Rule. He nodded, meaning she could take it for now. “You’ve talked with Adam.”

He nodded. “Every day. I refused to do anything unless I spoke to him every day. I made sure they weren’t using a recording. I asked questions they couldn’t have anticipated.”

“When was Adam taken?”

“Nine days ago. That’s a hellishly short time to plan and execute the kind of job he wanted me to do, but it’s hellishly long in every other way.”

“How did Friar know you could do that kind of job?”

“I’ve got an idea about that, but—look, can I just tell you what happened without questions for a minute?”

“Go ahead.”

“There was an attempt to get the prototype from me last night. That part was true. Three men, one armed—at least I only saw one gun. It loomed large in my sight at the time, but I think it was a smallish 9 mm. They were waiting for me when I got home. The one with the gun was on the stairs between me and the door. The other two came up behind me, blocking me. They demanded the prototype. I’d allowed for the possibility that Friar would double-cross me, so I’d stashed it elsewhere. They assured themselves I was telling the truth about that, then demanded I tell them where it was. I refused. They made the obligatory threats. I refused again. They weren’t going to kill me, not when I was the only person who knew where the damn thing was, and we were on a public street. It was late, but we were too public for them to hurt me badly. Or so I hoped.” He paused. “I got lucky. Mr. Peterson’s dog had gotten out again. He’s a Great Dane with a low boredom threshold, thinks he’s a puppy. He came racing up, all excited at these new playmates, and jumped up on one of the men. It was enough of a distraction for me to get away.”

Lily had quietly retrieved her notebook while he was talking. “Where did you go?”

“At first I just ran. Once I was sure I’d lost them…there’s a little coffee shop on Bradbury that stays open all night. I was close enough, so I went there. They’d searched me, but they hadn’t taken anything. I still had both phones—”

“Both?” The door to the hall opened. A quick glance told her it was Scott; Rule asked him something using hand-talk, and he left again. Lily focused on Jasper.

“My phone and the throwaway Friar sent me. I contacted Friar.”

“You have his number.”

“No, he calls me. To contact him, I log on to a chat board and leave a message. I was told what name to use. They look for posts from handydog12 and for certain key words. That’s how I let him know I had the prototype—I used ‘success’ in a post. To get him to call me I posted ‘disregard my last message.’ Thirty minutes later he called me. I told him about the attempt.”

“Did you tell him the thieves weren’t successful?”

“Yes.” He leaned forward, looking at the hands he clasped between his knees. “I thought about lying, but if those were his men, he’d know, wouldn’t he? I couldn’t take the chance. If I lie, he punishes Adam. That’s why they hurt Adam before. Friar caught me in a lie.”

Drummond stirred. “I’ve got a couple questions for him.”

In a few minutes, she told him, if I haven’t asked your questions already, you’ll get a shot. It was getting easier all the time to talk to him this way. Out loud she said, “You told Friar what happened, but you didn’t go get the prototype and give it to him.”

“No.” He looked up. “Once I do that, he doesn’t need Adam anymore, does he? He…we were supposed to make the exchange that night, but I didn’t trust him. I told him so. I said he’d need to prove they weren’t his men. He laughed at me. He didn’t have to prove anything, but if I wanted to hang on to the device for a few days, why, he had plenty for me to do. That’s when he told me to call Rule and what to say when he got here.”

“He expected Rule to bring Cullen?”

Jasper nodded. “And you. And he wanted Rule to bring the Finder, but I couldn’t talk him into that.” Bitterly he added, “I wanted him to bring the Finder, too. If he had, I would have taken a chance. I could have passed one of you a note. Friar has my house most thoroughly bugged, so I had to follow his script when you were there, but I could have passed a note. If your Finder could have found Adam…but you didn’t bring her.”

“If your house is bugged, he must know you left it tonight.”

The twist of his mouth was meant to be a smile. “Now you’re impugning my professional abilities. I left recordings, of course. Several of them, because there are bugs in almost every room. No visual, but audio is damn near as tricky if it’s done well, and his people did a good job. But I’m better.”

“How long before your recordings end?”

He glanced at his watch. “I can stay another three hours, tops. The recordings will run out in four hours and seven minutes. Right about now,” he added, “I’m in the kitchen getting some nibbles from the refrigerator.”

“If he has someone watching—”

“The lights are on timers.”

A high-end thief would need to be good at fooling surveillance, she supposed.

“I don’t think there are watchers 24/7,” Rule said. “Chris and Allan haven’t spotted any. How did you leave your house without my men seeing you?”

“There’s a way to go from my basement to my neighbor’s. I go to the third floor in his house, out a window, and into that huge oak in his backyard. From that tree I connect with another one in the yard behind him, then down, out the gate, and away.”

“Your neighbor doesn’t mind you wandering through his house to get to his tree?”

“My goal is for him to remain unaware of it. Mr. Peterson is eighty-two, deaf, and goes to bed at nine every night, so this isn’t challenging. His dog has excellent hearing, but we’re buds, so he doesn’t object to me visiting.”

Rule’s eyebrows lifted. “Surely this is not the Mr. Peterson with the Great Dane.”

Jasper smiled faintly. “In fact, it is. Mr. Peterson is a remarkably fit eighty-two, and while Ajax has a bad habit of hopping over the fence when he’s bored, he behaves well on their daily walks.”

Drummond spoke from his spot near the wall. “Machek doesn’t sound all that retired to me.”

He didn’t to Lily, either. Jasper still had all the gadgets he needed to fool surveillance. He’d worked out a route to leave his house unseen and had apparently used it before tonight. “How long did it take you to make the recordings you’re using tonight?”

Jasper’s lips thinned. “I’ve had plenty of time. Nine days. When he first took Adam I suspected he’d bugged the house. Never mind why for now—I suppose you’ll want to hear all about that, but later. I didn’t know about him being a listener, not then, so I looked for less arcane ways of eavesdropping. Once I was sure I’d found all the bugs, I started making the recordings. It seemed likely I’d want to leave without him knowing at some point.”

“Okay. How do you know the prototype is missing?”

“Because it isn’t where I left it.”

“But you weren’t going to make the exchange for the next few days. Why would you check on or move it? Isn’t there a chance you’d lead Friar to it?”

“Oh. Right. I see why you wondered.” He grimaced. “It’s hard to overcome the habit of secrecy. I’d followed my usual procedure, you see, so I needed to move it to a better hiding place.”

“Your usual procedure being—?”

“FedEx, in this case.”

“If you FedEx’ed it to yourself last night, it wouldn’t arrive until tomorrow.”

“No, I use their delivery trucks, but not that way. UPS vehicles work, too, but FedEx was closer.”

The front door opened. “—said I’d take it. Isn’t there someone else with vital and sensitive work you need to interrupt? No? Then you can guard my ass while I…oh. Hello.”

Cullen had entered pushing a room service cart, trailing his two guards. He stopped short when he saw Jasper. “Now that’s interesting. Not interesting enough to justify interrupting me, but I suppose you have questions you want to ask.”

“Something like that,” Rule said dryly. “I’m guessing the Find spell still isn’t working.”

“Not worth a damn. Weirdest thing I ever saw.” Cullen lifted the lid of one of the dishes. “That looks good. Did I eat supper?”

“Yes, but don’t let that stop you. Perhaps you’d get something for my guest as well.”

“If you mean me, I don’t want anything,” Jasper said.

“I’ll take a cup of coffee,” Lily said. “Jasper—”

“Oh, good, interrupt my spellcasting so I can play waiter.” Cullen did sarcasm so well. But he did pour a cup for her and drift in her direction while biting into the half sandwich he’d picked up.

“Are you going to keep interrupting me as some sort of payback?” she asked as she took the cup.

“Maybe. What am I interrupting?”

“Your prototype wasn’t really missing before. It is now. Jasper dropped by to tell us about it. He went to get it today, and it was gone. He was about to explain what that has to do with FedEx.”

“Um. Yes.” Jasper cast a wary glance at Cullen. “I prefer to avoid confrontation with those whose property I’ve appropriated. Some of them have nasty tempers and even nastier spells. My first goal is always to put as much distance as possible between me and the object’s previous owner. If I can hand it off to the person who ordered the job right away, fine. If not, I affix the item to a delivery truck. FedEx is my first choice. The trucks stay in motion and they—”

Cullen broke in. “Tell me you didn’t just duct tape the skull to the axle.”

“I did use duct tape. That takes a few minutes to cut through at retrieval, but it’s worth it to make the object secure. But don’t worry. The skull is in a bowling ball bag with plenty of padding. That did limit my options for where to tape it. I prefer to put objects near the engine, but a dry run showed that wouldn’t work this time.”

Cullen nodded. “Makes sense.”

Lily rolled her eyes. First Cullen bitches about having his spellcasting interrupted, then he compliments the thief who made it necessary. “Explain.”

“If you’re using a spell, it’s harder to find something that’s moving, and some Find spells—not mine, but some—are dispersed by large chunks of metal, like an engine. Doesn’t work against a good Finder, though.”

“True,” Jasper said, “but last night I needed to hide it from people other than your Finder. I was out of her range—or so I’d been told. Her limit is a hundred miles, right?”

Cullen scowled. “Told by who?”

“Robert Friar.”

“And you believe a vesceris corpi whose word is as rotten and rancid as that which he consumes?”

Jasper spoke admiringly. “That was a master-level insult. I agree about Friar, but in this case I think he spoke accurately. He wanted me to succeed.”

Lily yanked them back on track. “Tell me when you went to get the prototype, why you went at that time, and how you found the right truck.”

“To answer your last question first—GPS. I went to get it tonight at eight forty because it had been stationary for thirty minutes, suggesting the driver was done for the day.” He sighed. “Unfortunately, it was at a garage, up on a rack. The GPS tracker was still in place, but the prototype was gone.”

“You didn’t just look at the truck. You searched elsewhere.”

“In the trash, the Dumpster—everywhere I could think of.” He leaned forward intently. “That’s why I’m here. I don’t think Friar has it. Either one of the other people looking for it—”

“There’s more than Friar after it?” Cullen asked sharply.

“Yes, yes—I’ll get to that in a minute. Either one of the others somehow tracked it down, or one of the mechanics took it home with him. Either way…” He looked directly at Rule. “Seabourne can’t find it. He’s tried. We need your Finder now. You have to send for her.”

Rule’s face was tight. “Two things you need to know. First, she isn’t under my authority. Second, she’s a young mother with a new baby, and Friar wants to kill her.”

Hope drained from Jasper’s face as visibly as water swirling down the drain. “Then you won’t—you can’t—”

“I can’t send for her. I can ask her to come.” Rule looked at Lily for a long moment and sighed. “I will call her.”

“Like hell you will!” And Cullen sprang at him.