Instead I asked what we should do about this place. She said she’d file a report and let another peer check it out. We’d leave the circle intact to deter locals from coming up to investigate, just in case there was something we missed in the darkness. She put my cellphone into her pocket.
Then we crossed the circle. Talbot hurried out from under the cover of a stand of trees and came toward us.
“I tried to lead them away,” he said. Annalise laughed at him, but I didn’t have the heart. If I’d had two good legs, I might have run with him. Well, probably not, but that didn’t mean it was a bad idea.
He looked at me closely. “I saved your life.”
Before I could respond, a pair of headlights swept around the corner. Police lights flashed on the roof. I had my ghost knife ready, but Talbot’s hand moved toward the back of his waistband, a gesture I recognized immediately. As the driver’s door opened, Talbot drew a gun.
I slammed my left arm across his hand and nudged him off balance. His gun went off, the bullet striking the stony dirt in front of the car, and he stumbled. I would have fallen over completely, but Annalise had a tight grip on my shirttail. With my right hand, I flicked the ghost knife.
A normal piece of paper would have fallen at my feet, but my spell went where I wanted it to go. It fluttered upward and passed right through the space between the car and the open driver’s door just as the silhouette there drew a weapon.
He didn’t get off a shot. I couldn’t see him clearly, but I’d managed to hit him anyway. The gun fell from his hands, and he reached into the car and switched off the headlights. Annalise let go of my shirt, and I hopped toward the car, bracing myself on the hood.
“Put that away,” Annalise said. I knew she wasn’t talking to me.
I hopped around the front of the car. “I’m sorry,” the silhouette said.
“Turn around and close your eyes,” I told him. He did. “Did you get a good look at us?” I picked up his gun, a Glock, and tossed it into the car. My ghost knife was nearby. I
“I did,” he said.
“That’s all right. Just don’t do it again. Call in to the fire department. They’ll be responding to this fire soon, and you should warn them that ammunition inside the building is cooking off. Tell them to keep well away for now. And tell them there’s no one here.”
“Okay.” He did that while I turned to Annalise and Talbot.
I patted the roof of the car. “This is going to be our ride back to the beach.”
Annalise shrugged. It was all fine by her. Talbot stared down at the cop. “What did you do to him?”
We piled into the car. I couldn’t drive with my injured ankle, so Talbot drove instead, and I sat in the back with Constable Shayholter.
That was how he introduced himself. He was a little under six feet and built like a high diver. He had a thick head of black hair and the kind of face you see on the covers of romance novels. And he sat beside me, obediently keeping his eyes shut tight.
The drive back to the park was so quick we almost missed the turnoff. Talbot drove us into the parking lot and parked at a wooden rail. The weird stone beach and night water lay open before us.
Annalise and Talbot got out. I turned to the constable. “Don’t open your eyes yet. But listen carefully. I’m not going to cuff you or take your gun. In fact, I’m not going to do anything that would give you an excuse for letting us go. I want you to wait for a slow count of six hundred, then drive back to the fire and do your cop thing. Don’t tell anyone you saw us. You’ll remember all this tomorrow, but you won’t be able to explain to anyone why you let three suspects leave the scene of an arson. You certainly won’t be able to explain it to yourself. Think how it would look if you tried.”
“I understand.”
“Start counting,” I said. He did. I hobbled out of the car. Annalise led me down to the bay, and it was a relief to float out into the cold, cold water.
Captain was waiting for us. Annalise muscled us into the boat and we sped away. I lay back by Captain, stretched out on the padded bench, and let the cool night air blow my clothes dry.
After about an hour, Captain turned to me and asked if I would hold the wheel steady. “Don’t turn at all,” she said as if talking to a child. “Like this.” I struggled into the pilot’s seat, my ankle stiff and screaming, and did as she asked.
She went to the front of the boat to fuss over something. While her back was turned, I opened that cabinet beneath the wheel and took out the envelope in there. I took out the note Annalise had given her. It was printed on generic printer paper. I held it up to the lighted dials. It read: DO WHATEVER THE BEARER OF THIS ENVELOPE TELLS YOU TO DO IF YOU EVER WANT TO SEE YOUR SON ALIVE AGAIN.
Oh, shit.
CHAPTER TWELVE
The sun was rising when we docked in Everett. By that time, my ankle was swollen and unbearably tender. It had to be broken. Walking was impossible; Talbot and Captain had to practically carry me to the truck. They laid me in the bed, and Talbot sat beside me. He looked as though he wanted to talk but wisely kept his mouth shut.
We stopped off at a supermarket on our way to wherever we were going. While we waited in the parking lot, I closed my eyes and fell asleep almost immediately. I woke again instantly when we pulled out of our parking space.
Not long afterward, we were back in the plane and in the air, heading south. I wanted a chance to talk to Captain—to apologize—but I never got it. Then it was too late, and I knew I’d never get another chance. I didn’t even know her real name.
I sat on the plane, miserable and tired. I wanted to lie down, but there was no space.
Annalise sat next to me. She held a plastic bag full of sliced meat. “Remember how bad it was to heal those
