“Well, you know,” Tony said with a deadpan shrug. “It’s all that NYPD sensitivity training.”
Surprise caught Margrit out and she laughed. “That must be it.” The laughter faded away as she glanced around the apartment again. “Tony, I’m worried about her. I’m afraid the neighbors who tore up her apartment came back to finish the job. If I’m going to pursue this injunction, I’m going to need her as the plaintiff, and to be there looking fragile and pathetic. Her and Deirdre. Dammit. Dammit!”
Margrit pulled away and stalked to the window, frustration and anger reasserting themselves as she spoke. “Russell may not even agree to go forward with this if we don’t have her. Cara’s a great victim.” Hypocrite, she told herself. Even hating to have her own physical aspects played on, she would still use Cara’s for every advantage they could provide. “Things are totally out of control.”
“It can’t be that bad.” Tony followed her, stopping just far enough away to not be intrusive. “Look. I’ll put out an APB on her, okay?”
“Yeah. Shit.” Margrit turned to slide down the wall, lacing her fingers behind her lowered head. Her fingers protested and she flexed them cautiously, trying to work some of the ache out. “This just feels like a last straw. You wouldn’t believe some of this shit, Tony.”
The detective slid down beside her. “Try me.”
“I would if I could.” She lifted her head enough to stare at her own feet. “Janx tipped you off about Alban being at my place the other night, didn’t he? That’s why you asked me about him.”
Tony didn’t answer. Margrit glanced at him, discovering his expression was tight. She lifted an eyebrow and he wet his lips, evading answering with a question of his own: “Why’d you go to him?”
“A friend of Alban’s said he might know something about the murders.” Margrit huffed a laugh at her fast and loose version of the truth, but shrugged it off. “It was the first time I’d heard of him, except when you’d asked me who he was. Your turn.”
“It was him.” Tony sighed. “We’ve always got somebody on him. He made a pay-phone call the same time the tip came in. Besides, I’ve listened in on enough of his conversations to know that voice. Sounds like a used-car salesman. Oily.”
Alarm clustered in Margrit’s stomach, making hairs stand up on her arms despite her sweater. “You’ve got him bugged?”
“No. We try, but the bugs never last for more than a couple hours. Something always fritzes ’em out, even in public places. It’s like he’s got some kind of antibug aura.”
Malik, Margrit thought, though aloud she said, “Great. Just what you need. An unbuggable bad guy. Is that how you found the room beneath Trinity Church? A helpful tip from the friendly neighborhood crime lord?”
Tony slid another glance at her, then looked away. “I lost you outside Huo’s on Saturday night.”
“Dammit! I knew it! You were following me!”
“You were my only lead, Grit,” he said without apology. “When we lost you I…” He exhaled a deep sigh. “I went to see Janx myself.”
“You what? Jesus, Tony, you don’t know what you’re dealing with there.” Margrit clenched her teeth, torn between wanting to protect her erstwhile lover and being unable to betray Alban and the Old Races’ secrets. Worry bubbled in her stomach and she wrapped her arms around herself. “You’ve got to be careful.”
He gave her another sideways look, a smile playing at his mouth. “You’re saying this to me? Janx and I go back a ways, Grit. I’ve been on him for years and he knows it. Cat and mouse game.” He shrugged. “Maybe he figures giving me a heads-up on a guy who might be killing women all over the city will commute some of his sentence when I finally make the arrest. So did he know anything?”
Margrit pulled her head down until her upper spine cracked. She sighed, feeling tension release with the popping nitrogen. “I wish.”
“You telling me the truth?”
Margrit smiled. “I thought you believed people were basically honest, Tony.”
“I do. I also know you’ve been keeping things from me all along with this goddamn investigation.” There was no heat in the detective’s voice, just weariness.
“You haven’t been exactly forthcoming yourself,” Margrit said, but nodded against her knees.
“I want this thing over with. I want our lives back, Grit. Just you and me and our breakups. Like it used to be, without your new friend in the picture.”
“Alban’s not…” She had no words for what Alban was or wasn’t. Not human whispered through her mind again, and she sighed. “It shouldn’t matter.”
“It does matter, Grit. I don’t know who the guy is and I don’t like that you’ve been covering for him. If there’s something going on, don’t I deserve to know?”
Margrit released her head, turning to look at the dark-haired man by her side. “Nothing’s going on.” It was as much an untruth as anything Janx or Daisani had said to her. “Nothing like you’re thinking.” Warmth crept up her body and she lowered her head again, hiding any telltale blush that might color her cheeks. “We’ll see what happens. Right now I’m going to see if I can find anything out about where Cara might have gone. I’ll talk to Daisani if I have to.”
“You think Eliseo Daisani disappeared your client?”
“Under the circumstances, I think it’s not beyond the realm of possibility, although I wouldn’t say it in a court of law just yet. If you’ll put out that APB…”
“Yeah.” Tony got to his feet and offered her a hand. “I will. It might take awhile. There’s a lot of shit to clean up after this murder. I’ll do my best, Grit, okay?”
“Thank you.” Margrit hesitated, then let him pull her to her feet. “I owe you one, Tony.”
“Yeah.” He crooked a faint, uncertain smile, still holding her hand. “We better?”
“Better than what, Tony? We’re not together. I mean, you can’t think we are. Not with…” She trailed off, unwilling to discuss recriminations and recognizing too clearly their same old pattern in her reluctance. “This still isn’t the time to talk about it. I’ve got to find Cara, and you…”
Tony whitened his lips, then nodded, expression unreadable. “I have to go explain to my boss why there’s another dead woman in the park.” He let her go without trying for a kiss, his face still drawn and serious. “Be careful, Margrit.”
“Yeah. You, too.” Margrit turned back to face the empty apartment so she didn’t have to watch him go.
CHAPTER 26
AFTER A LIFETIME of not knowing gargoyles hid in the city’s shadows, Margrit’s irritation at being unable to find the one she sought was blown out of proportion. Having Janx’s Cruiser made both her irritation and her inability greater: convenient as a car was, she couldn’t watch the sky while she drove. Fingers tapping against the wheel, Margrit guided the vehicle toward downtown, wondering if she might find somewhere to park it at or near the Legal Aid building on Water Street.
Work. A wince tweaked her. The weekend was gone and she hadn’t been near the office, much less spent the hours putting together supporting documents for the injunction that she’d promised she would. She thought of the Russell will kill you file folder and let a deep breath turn into a sigh. He’d have to kill her. There was no way to turn back the weekend and be in two places at once.
Besides, with Cara missing, there might be no case for the injunction anyway. Margrit swore under her breath and pushed away thought in favor of concentrating on driving. Minutes later she pulled into a downtown parking garage and took the ticket, trying not to think of how much the fee would be for overnight parking. Maybe she could deliver the stub to Janx and let him pick the car up himself.
The idea brought a grin to her face and she left the garage cheerfully, stretching her legs into a jog. Huo’s on First was close, and if anyone had a sense of where Alban might have hidden in the moments before sunrise, Chelsea seemed a likely candidate. Margrit came up the steps to the bookstore two at a time, cheeks pink from exertion. Chelsea appeared from the stacks with a look of amusement. “There you are. Who’s after you?”
“Nobody, I hope.” Margrit folded her arms over her chest. “I can’t find Alban. He suggested meeting here before, so I hoped…have you seen him?”
Chelsea tilted her head toward the beaded curtain at the back of her store, smile warming. “He’s waiting for
