Jade shook his head. 'Don't know. Could be he wanted to get somewhere random to throw us. Widen the range of our search, make it less effective.'
'We have forty minutes between here and the first crime scene,' Travers said. 'That's a lot of room. It'll be a pain in the ass to cover an area that large.'
'McGuire said they were teachers,' Jade said, thinking aloud.
He always does that, Travers thought. Ignores whatever he considers a digression. Just moves right on to whatever he's thinking about. But it works, she reminded herself. That's how he does it.
'At a home school, whatever the fuck that is,' Jade continued. 'Educators. The second group Leah told you he talked about.'
'I hope to God there weren't more children.'
Jade swerved around a large pothole without slowing. 'Yeah, well,' he said.
When they arrived at the scene, the house was already swarming with FBI and press, among the latter the two men Jade had terrorized at the bar. The pack of reporters fought their way over to Jade, tripping through the tangle of cords and cameras.
Although they were still at least fifteen yards away, they started with the questions.
'The city's in a panic and-'
'Investigation dragging into the sixth day-'
'Are you sure it's Atlasia-'
Jade cleared his throat calmly. 'NO COMMENT!'
The group of reporters halted and looked at each other, trying to decide whether or not to proceed. They decided on not.
Travers spoke out of the side of her mouth as they walked past the frozen flock of reporters to meet McGuire at the front door. 'Excellent poise, Marlow. Just what we meant by handling the press tactfully.'
'Thank you, Travers. That's how it's done.'
'I was being sarcastic.'
'I wasn't.'
'Hello, McGuire, what do you have for us inside?' Travers's tone changed from grumble to greeting without missing a beat.
'Similar scene. Parents, one boy dead. Another boy survived-ten years old. Atlasia was going to kill him, but he managed to lock himself in a closet. Alex, I think his name is.'
'Let me guess,' Jade said. 'Ears cut off, 'H N E' written on the wall in blood.'
McGuire looked at Jade for a moment. 'Pretty close, Marlow. Tongues, and 'S N E' again.'
Jade raised a finger to brush the scar on his left cheek. That made sense, he thought, in light of the fact that the ears had been cut out of the picture of him that Allander had left on his back counter.
'Huh,' he said. 'So the teachers are the speakers. That leaves us with the lawmakers who can't listen.'
McGuire looked at Travers as Jade wandered trancelike into the house. 'What the hell does that mean?'
'It means,' Travers replied, 'that he's not as dumb as he looks.'
Jade headed through the entranceway, staring into the mirror splattered with blood. He wasn't looking at the blood though. He was watching the reflection of Allander as he moved through the house.
The scent of Allander lingered about the bodies. I just missed him, Jade thought. He walked around this house less than an hour ago.
He squatted over the mother's body, on the floor. Linda Johnson. The name, like the woman, meant nothing to him. Looking at her lifeless form, Jade could not even imagine her as having once been alive. The battering she had received from the iron had left her somewhere outside of reality. She was grotesque now, something out of a fantasy.
Jade turned his gaze to the bloody letters, and his hand absently went to the woman's face, brushing her cheeks. He felt his fingers dip into the pool that filled her vacant mouth, and a sticky warmth spread over them.
Some of the agents turned and looked at each other with raised eyebrows, but Jade didn't notice them. He inhaled the heat rising off the body as he felt the moisture of Allander's making. Even the air seemed to hold its breath during the long pause before he rose from his haunches.
The fingers of Jade's left hand dripped blood as they lifted from the mouth. He held them up before his face as the blood made its way under his cuff. The last three fingers on his hand had been submerged in the woman's mouth, and the line of the gory sheath ended neatly before his thumb and index finger.
With this ring, I thee wed.
He wiped his hand on his jeans. More agents scurried in.
Jade paced around the family room, walking laps around the woman's body and the forensics team working on her. He would have killed for a cup of ice right now.
The mother and older boy both had had their tongues cut out. The boy was past puberty, so Allander would have found him intimidating. He would have felt that any sexually potent male posed a threat. But Alex was young, like the children from the first house. Why had Allander told him he was going to kill him? Why would he want to kill a prepubescent child now, but not earlier?
'The boy,' he asked one of the other agents in the house. 'What was he like?'
'See for yourself,' she replied. 'He's out back.'
'He's still here?' Jade said in disbelief. 'Why the hell didn't you tell me?'
The agent shrugged, her eyebrows drawing together in a frown.
Jade stormed through the sliding glass doors that opened to the backyard. Rather than ending at a fence, the backyard sloped off into a grove of trees and the hills beyond. Jade felt as if he had just stepped into a forest; the lawn and a toolshed were the only indications that a home was nearby. He spotted a small huddle of adults on the far corner of the lawn by the toolshed. He assumed Alex was in the middle.
A woman turned and saw him coming, and she straightened up, blocking Alex with her body. She had bags under her eyes that Jade noticed even before he crossed the lawn. Brown curly hair, streaked with an occasional glimmer of white, fell randomly over her face. She did not look like she was familiar with a brush.
'Oh no, Mr. Marlow,' she said. 'I was warned about you. You absolutely cannot talk to him now.'
Jade was almost impressed with himself. He was practically famous.
'Look, Ms.'-he pulled the tag clipped to the front of her cheap suit so he could read it-'Perkins of the Emergency Children's Advocate State Agency.' He stopped and whistled. 'That's a lot of capitals.'
'They told me you were charming,' she said flatly. 'You can't talk to him. I'm sorry.' She waved some piece of paper at him. 'He has his rights.'
'Then why's he still here?' Jade asked, standing on his tiptoes to peek at the kid. Alex was sitting Indian style on the edge of the lawn with his arms crossed, refusing to be moved.
'Well… he doesn't want to go. We're talking things through.'
'I need to speak with him.'
'That's certainly possible, Mr. Marlow, just not now. We're trying to move him somewhere more neutral. After he settles down, if he's ready, you can speak to him then.'
Jade groaned. 'You'll dilute him. That does me no good.'
'I'm sorry. Those are his rights.'
What was it about this kid that made Allander want to kill him? Jade stared at the woman's determined face and considered busting past her. If he could just get the kid alone for a few seconds, he might see what Allander had seen.
'Then how come you're letting the agents interview the little girl in the house?' he asked.
'A little girl?' she asked dryly. 'Inside?' She looked fairly hesitant, but she was worried despite herself.
Jade nodded.
'This better not be a game, Mr. Marlow.' She walked vigorously across the lawn toward the house.
As soon as she was out of earshot, Jade walked through the group of adults gathered around Alex, hooked a hand under his arm, and hauled him toward the toolshed. It was only about five steps away, and the social workers and EMTs were so shocked they didn't even respond until he tossed Alex into the small room and swung the door shut behind them. Alex fell to his bottom and skidded toward the far wall.
Jade grabbed a hoe and slid it through the metal door handles. He turned back to Alex. Several hands
