“What happened?”
He shrugged and scraped one hand across his chin. “I don’t really know. One minute I was home, and the next I was flat on my face in a field the other side of Sunbury, near the landfill center there.”
“The elemental was heading back to where it was created again.”
“Yes.” He shook his head. “And it was close to getting there by the time I regained control. Up until that point I was —” He paused and a shudder went through him. He briefly closed his eyes, his voice breaking as he added, “I was nowhere. I was nothing. No matter what I did, no matter how hard I fought, all there was were flames and heat and endless agony. I think I’d rather be dead than go through that again.”
“Tao —”
His gaze hit mine. Fierce. Angry. “Don’t say it, Ris. Don’t you
I didn’t say anything. Couldn’t really, simply because anything I did say probably
Tao knew how I felt and what I believed. I’d told him often enough already. He knew we were there for him, no matter what. Just as I knew that, right now, he was angry and scared; who wouldn’t be, placed in the same position?
So I simply dropped a kiss on his ash-stained cheek, then stepped back, took the index cards from Azriel, and handed them to Stane. His gaze, when it met mine, was sympathetic. Maybe he’d tried comforting Tao as well, only to receive a similar response.
“Where did you get these?” He flicked through the cards with a slight frown. “It’s very old-fashioned to store information in this form these days.”
“They were stolen from the premises of a dead man. Maybe he didn’t trust computers.”
Stane snorted. “It’s far easier to steal information from these things than it is from computers.”
“Says the man who hacks for fun and profit.”
He grinned. “Well, yeah, but I’m an extraordinary individual. The common man generally isn’t as clever as me and my kind.”
His kind meaning hackers and black marketeers, not werewolves, obviously. “If we haven’t already overwhelmed you and your computers with requests, could you do a search through these and see if there’s any link – however tenuous – to Lauren Macintyre?”
“Sure. Could take a while, though. There’s a fair few names in here, by the look of it.”
“I know, and I’m sorry, but it could be the only way we’re going to track down our sorceress.” And maybe the only way to save Mirri. But there was no point adding that. Stane would do his best, as usual. “We need to know the minute you find anything.”
“Speaking of findings, I managed to get the autopsy results for the body parts and teeth the cops found at the storage place that blew up.” Stane reached over to the second of his desks and flicked a screen. Several documents flashed onto it. “Long story short, the bits
“Just like the real John Nadler.” My voice was grim. “It’s beginning to look more and more likely that we’re dealing with not only a full-body face shifter, but one capable of taking multiple male
“If that
I glanced at him. “Yes. Which means that cuff link might yet lead us to her, even if a search through the index cards doesn’t.”
He raised an eyebrow. “How? It is an inanimate object, and in and of itself can provide no clues.”
“To you and me, yes. But to someone who has psychometry skills, maybe it can. We have to go see Adeline Greenfield about her apparently resurrected brother; maybe she can point us to someone who can help.”
“Why not ask the Brindle?” Tao said, voice a little strained, but overall sounding a whole lot less tense than a few moments ago. “Surely they have witches capable of that there?”
“Yes, but their first priority has to be Mirri —”
“Fuck,” he said, cutting me off. “I’d forgotten. How is she? How is Ilianna?”
“Okay for the moment. Ilianna’s mom and Kiandra are both helping to try to get the threads unraveled before the deadline.”
He hesitated. “And have they any hope?”
“Who knows?” I half shrugged. “But Ilianna
“Fuck.” He thrust a hand through his tangled, matted hair. “We’ve made a right old cock-up of everything, haven’t we?”
“Not we,” I refuted softly. “Me.”
“Ris —”
“Don’t,” I cut in. “And for exactly the same reasons you gave me only minutes ago.”
He stared at me for several seconds; then the faintest trace of a smile touched his lips. “Fair enough. Although I will remind you that you can hardly be held to account for your father’s stupidity in losing the keys in the first place.”
“True, but that doesn’t absolve me of responsibility for everything else that has happened.” My voice broke, and I swallowed heavily. Damn it, I
I returned my gaze to Stane. “Any luck finding more information on Penombre Manufacturing?”
He shook his head. “For all intents and purposes, it’s a shelf company, as I said. I have no idea how they can own that Maribyrnong premises given it shouldn’t be possible.”
“So there’s no connection to either Genevieve Sands or Lauren Macintyre?”
“None that I can find. Doesn’t mean there isn’t one, of course.” He leaned across to another screen. “There is, however, a link between Sands and Macintyre. It’s tenuous, and I’m trying to uncover more details, but it would seem that twenty-eight years ago, Sands invested in a property that Macintyre subsequently purchased.”
My eyebrows rose. “The Maribyrnong warehouse was purchased by the shelf company some twenty-eight years ago, too.”
“Yeah. Odd coincidence, don’t you think?” He half smiled. “Macintyre no longer owns the property. According to records, she sold it five years ago.”
“And the new owners?”
“It went through several, and ended up being one of the properties purchased by the consortium owned by John Nadler.”
“And round and round the circle goes,” Tao commented. “Only it seems to stop at exactly the same spot.”
Stane glanced at him. “Yeah. I’m currently doing a search on all the owners between Macintyre and Nadler, just to see what I come up with.”
“It’s worth a shot.” If nothing else, it might give us some home addresses to search. I mean, sooner or later, we
“Anything else?” Stane said.
I smiled. “That’s enough, don’t you think?”
“Well, I am becoming accustomed to my crates of top-shelf champagne. Not sure how I’ll manage once all this over.”