Circle of the Moon (Soulwood #4)

High up in PsyLED meant Soul or the new man, FireWind. “Oh?”

“She asked me to do a little digging. As you know, I keep a watch on everything witchy in the county for familial reasons, so I take a lot of work home. I didn’t like what I discovered. Then you sent me a message. And then you got yourself abducted.”

She was laying out a timeline for some reason, but I had no idea why. I had discovered that when someone made an incoherent interrogative sound, people kept talking. “Mm-mm?”

“I had a meeting with the sheriff earlier today. He was busy, but he made time for me.” She meant that he was busy because of me, but made time for the FBI. It was a faint, professional dig. I didn’t react and Margot went on. “Seems there’s a young, para-hating detective who tried an end run around Unit Eighteen, not reporting magic and sacrifice. The sheriff called him into his office and took his badge, informing him and me that, pending an internal investigation, Detective Steff is on administrative leave. I don’t expect the investigation to result in Steff being dismissed, but it does place a black mark on his record.”

She tilted her nearly bald head to me and smiled. “FBI confiscated the detective’s official and personal computers, laptops, and tablets.” By her tone, I knew Margot meant she had done that in person. “I made copies of everything on external hard drives and transported the contents to PsyLED. Jones was overjoyed. That woman is a serious risk to PsyLED security, isn’t she?”

I looked at Margot innocently. “Beg pardon?”

“Right.” She didn’t roll her eyes, but I knew I wasn’t fooling her. In the church, her attitude would have been considered rude and antagonistic. In the world of law enforcement, it was just the way cops did things when they were fishing. “She was a known and respected force in the hacking world. That’s no secret. It’s also no secret that hacking is addictive to certain types of personalities.”

I didn’t know where Margot was going with this, but I was having trouble keeping innocence on my face and honesty in my heart. I was also truly impressed with the speed, breadth, and depth of her investigative work.

“If Jones happened to be drawn back into that world, she could be blackmailed, or her own hacking could expose her to other hackers who could then follow her trail back into PsyLED’s electronic systems. And through PsyLED into other government systems.”

A hollow place in my belly opened up, like a tunnel into darkness. The tunnel pathway Margot was drawing was scary.

“Last, but not least, if Jones gets caught dipping her toes into the hacking world, she can go to jail.”

I thought about trees and Soulwood and managed to keep my face at least semitranquil. Was Margot still fishing? Did she know things? Or was this a threat against JoJo?

“Anyway,” she said, “I downloaded everything into a dedicated system, so now she and I are on the same page as to the witch circles and the lack of reporting.”

Her meaning sank into me. She wasn’t going to tell on JoJo. Tension eased out of my body. “I thank you.”

“You’re welcome. I’d like to request liaison with PsyLED on the witch circle investigation. Do you think LaFleur or Soul would be willing to put in an official request?”

“I’m still a probie and just back from leave, so I don’t know how much it’ll help, but I can ask.”

Margot grinned at me. “You’re a troublemaker. I like troublemakers. We get things done way faster and more efficiently than the fence-sitters and scared-to-be-noticed agents.”

“Troublemakers. Hmmm. I reckon we’re talking about this morning now. How much do you know?”

“Girl, everybody in the state heard about this morning. You look pretty good for a woman with a concussion who refused to go to the hospital.”

I gave her a hesitant smile and pointed to myself. “Not human. Hospitals can’t help me.”

“Because you’re a one-off.” I had heard Rick use that term and understood it in general, but didn’t know how it applied to me. At my blank look she said, “A one-of-a-kind. As in, they broke the mold after they pulled you out.”

I thought I might have heard a gasp from upstairs. Little Big Ears was listening. And Margot had figured out a lot about me. “Pretty much.”

“Hmmm. You just told me an untruth, Nell Nicholson Ingram.”

“Not really. I told you what I hope, not what I fear.” Truth. No one in my family had grown leaves yet. So far as I knew. I hoped they never did. I feared they might.

“Okay. Copy that. Thanks for the coffee. Let me know when Unit Eighteen posts the liaison request so I can push it through.” She walked by me and rinsed her coffee cup, placed it in the sink, and moved toward the door. Just as she reached it she called out, “You have any problem in public school, Mindy Nicholson, you let me know. I have friends in places both high and low.”

“Thank you,” Mud shouted.

Margot winked at me and went out the front door into the heat of the day.

? ? ?

We got to HQ near dark and, together, carted Mud’s purchases up the steep stairs and dropped them in my cubicle. I refused to think about how much it cost to send a child to free public school, but I felt horrible for all the people who had multiple children and insufficient money. Mud started sticking her fingers into the soil of my plants. “When you get finished with the plants, check in with JoJo or Tandy,” I said. “Then take your tablet back and read your books. Last time I looked you still had three books for summer reading.”

“Finished ’em,” Mud said absently. “So I started on the required reading for eighth grade. They talk a lot about sex.”

“Oh.” I studied her from the corners of my eyes. “Does that bother you?”

“Nope. I think people are silly when it comes to sex.”

I wasn’t sure what to say to that so I settled on, “You have a point.” Leaving her at my desk, I went through the office, ostensibly searching for Rick LaFleur, but also looking for Occam, whose office cubicle was dark, though whether he was off work or on a case, I didn’t know. I found Rick sitting at his desk, his face green in the light of his laptop. He looked twitchy, tense, and very tired. I tapped on the doorjamb. “Got a minute?”

He glanced up and back down at his screen. “Maybe one. I just approved a request from the feds to have Margot Racer liaise with us on the situation involving Sheriff’s Detective Steff not following protocol. And since she managed to dig him out, I’m approving her request. We had a long conversation and I read her in on the circles, including my part in it. She wants to see all the circles ASAP and we need eyes on the ground, even though most of the circles are old and were worked up by the locals. You up for that?”

Margot had moved fast. So much for needing my input and my request. I wanted to read the ground at each of the witch circle sites for maggots, so yes, but I wasn’t the most important PsyLED agent for that job. “Why isn’t T. Laine going?”

“Kent is going out later with Tandy or Occam to do a full workup. I want you with the feeb. Your best pal. Chat her up. Bond.” Rick’s eyes were on the screen, not on me, and I frowned, not sure what he thought I was supposed to do.

“Fine, but Mud is here. Is it okay to leave her?”

Rick looked up. “You’re going to have to deal with child care. Soon. For now, make sure the weapons locker is secured.” His dark eyes returned to his screen. “T. Laine is working late and Tandy will be in the office all night trying to get caught up on the missing reports and doing research on the similar witch circles here, and some more that Racer found and sent us. Seems as though there were similar circles down south and one in Asheville.” A hint too casually, he added, “T. Laine will also be talking to the NOLA coven and the Asheville coven.”

I put the locations together with Rick’s personal history. The Asheville coven was predominately the Everhart coven. The Everharts were Jane Yellowrock’s friends. Jane Yellowrock was the Dark Queen of the Mithrans and Rick’s ex, and she had spent a lot of time in both New Orleans and Asheville. That explained why he seemed twitchier. “Okay. Interesting,” I said. According to the rumor mill, things had ended badly for them on a dance floor (thanks to Paka) and then ended badly again in a permanent way while I was a tree. I didn’t have an emotional context for Rick’s life, though I’d been brought up to speed on the facts of the breakup. My question toneless, I asked, “Is Yellowrock involved?”

Rick stared at his laptop, his hair glowing black and silver in the screen lights. When he answered his tone was lifeless. “Not that I know.”

I took a slow breath, fighting any kind of tentativeness. “Shall I find out?”