Today was my last day off, and I had no plans. I ought to be working at the house, but I was hesitant to return until we received the lab results on the plant samples and isolated the cause of our episodes. The arson cases would keep another day. The ubaste situation was handled. Miller had a bead on War, so I wasn’t needed there either.
A month ago, faced with a clear schedule and a surplus of energy, I would have dropped hints until Maggie declared a girls’ day out and kidnapped me for lunch and an early movie. She would have paper, rock, scissored me into watching her choice, and I would have sucked it up and lost myself in the latest dramedy to hit the big screen.
One thing would have led to another, and she would have ended up calling her fiancé, Justin, and inviting him to join us in town for a late dinner. He would pass, and we would hang out until dawn or exhaustion drove us back to our homes.
But my best friend was in isolation, in an unknown location, while Portia attempted to bargain with Maggie for the use of her body. That was assuming Portia had already healed the multitude of life-threatening wounds that led to her offering to merge with Mags in the first place.
Maggie returning with a dual personality was daunting enough. Factor in the possibility Portia might return in control of my best friend’s body while there was no spark of her consciousness behind those bright, hazel eyes? I wasn’t sure I could handle looking at her, talking to her, without a hint of Mags in her body language.
Maggie was going to despise me for the choice I’d made, for ruining the life she’d built, but as long as she was alive to hate me, there was a chance at redemption. I had to believe that. I would go crazy with guilt if I didn’t.
“You look thoughtful this morning.” Aunt Nancy joined me at the table carrying a bowl full of cereal with sliced fruit layering the top that she set in front of me. “Did that nice young man put this look on your face?”
Wu was not nice, young, or a man. “I was thinking about Maggie.”
“Oh, tater tot.” She reached across the table and covered my hand, hers chilled from the cold bowl. “You didn’t get bad news, did you?”
“No.” There had been no updates on the case. Kapoor was handling the fallout, which meant he would soon meet with Portia and Maggie to discuss what lie he could feed her family while causing the fewest ripples. More than likely, her case would be marked cold or an unclaimed body would be used to fake her death. Either outcome would gut her family, but one offered hope that normalcy might one day return while the other was a permanent solution. “I’m just missing her. Rixton is doing his best to fill the gap, Sherry is too, but they’ve got Nettie. They need to be focused on her, not me.” The truth of it was, “I wish there was more I could do.”
“We’re keeping her in our prayers, and Special Agent Kapoor is doing his best to find her. That’s all any of us can do.”
“At the risk of being put to work if I admit I’m bored – I’m bored.” I dug into the breakfast she’d made me. “I have work I could be doing, but I want to get out of my head for a bit.”
“You can’t work at the house today?” Not an ounce of censure threaded her voice. She wasn’t cracking the whip to get us gone. It was only natural that she would ask, considering I had spent all my spare time making repairs, which backed me straight into a white lie. “I’m waiting on an order to arrive. There’s not much left to do now that the bay window is in without those supplies.”
“Well, in that case, you can help me with the garden.” A broad smile stretched her cheeks. “If I had known I’d have a worker bee with me today, I would have picked up supplies yesterday. Would you mind driving me down to Mervin’s? I have the worst headache today. I don’t want to chance getting behind the wheel.”
Between shoveling in bites, I reassured her, “I’m happy to play chauffer.”
Migraines were no joke, and Aunt Nancy had suffered from the vestibular kind all her life.
“I bought some Confederate jasmine plants earlier this week. I would love a trellis for them to climb. Your eyes are better than Harry’s these days, your hands steadier too.” She indicated I should carry my bowl with me into the backyard as she outlined her plans. “The man won’t wear his glasses, and the last time I asked for his help, I ended up with the Leaning Tower of Pisa for tomato cages.” She indicated a few plastic trays filled with white flowers stacked on the porch. “Come smell these for inspiration.”
I did as I was told, and the perfumed sweetness filled my lungs. “They’re lovely.”
“Jasmine is my favorite flower. Always has been.” She smoothed the peeling label with its mason jar logo back in place. “When I saw these at the nursery, I couldn’t resist.”
A day of hard labor, where I could turn off my brain and follow orders, was just what the doctor ordered. We finished breakfast then hit the home improvement store, where I grabbed the supplies for what she had in mind.
More than a dose of much-needed normalcy, I relaxed into the work, feeling like I was earning my keep for the first time since arriving at the Trudeaus’. While neither my aunt nor uncle would see it that way, Dad had raised me to pull my own weight. While he might have meant it metaphorically, I was pretty sure as Aunt Nancy transformed her simple trellis design into a full-scale pergola, I hauled enough lumber to make it literal.
That night I fell into bed aching, sunburned and exhausted, and I slept better than I had in weeks.
Ungluing my eyes required more effort than I was willing to expend. So when my cell lost its damn mind around three in the morning, I groped on the floor until I hit cool plastic and brought it to my ear. “Hmmph?”
Rixton greeted me with “There’s been another fire.”
“Where?” Canton was running out of real estate fast.
“Madison.”
That woke me up enough to slit my eyelids. “That’s not in our jurisdiction.”
“Jill Summers, the arson investigator for MFD, heard about the Hensarling and Culberson fires and gave Dawson a call. He returned the favor, and I agreed we’d meet them.”
There was a weary resignation to his tone that set the hairs on my nape prickling. “What aren’t you telling me?”
“There are five bodies. Four kids.” He cleared his throat and started again. “The mother locked them in the basement with her, and the house burned down around them.”
All vestiges of sleep evaporated. “I’m getting dressed now.” I climbed to my feet and started looking for a clean uniform. “Where do you want to meet?”
“I’ll pick you up. I’m ten minutes out.”
Ending the call, I tossed the phone on the air mattress and suited up for work. A quick twist of my wrist got my hair out of my face, and I stomped on my boots. Unsure what we were about to walk into, I slung my backpack with the Culberson file and my electronics over my shoulder.
Dad was snoring as I crept past the living room and backed out the front door into a wall of hard muscle. I jumped at the unexpected contact.
“You’re leaving early,” Cole rumbled when I whirled to face him. “Rixton called?”
“Yeah,” I said, voice tight. “There’s been another fire. This one in Madison.”
“Anything we can do to help?”
Reflex prompted me to demur, but I was learning demons – charu – got huffy when their help was declined. “We’re trying to source the manufacturer on the drip torches used in the first two fires. The labels were burned off, but there should be serial numbers stamped on the bottoms. I’m not sure if the same device was used to start this fire, but it seems likely if we were called. I can get you that information in a few hours if you’re interested.”
“Text me when you know something. Any photos you can spare will help Miller pinpoint connections between the three.”
I worried my bottom lip between my teeth, aware I was crossing lines. Sharing information on an ongoing police investigation was a big no-no, but the department brought in consultants all the time. Human laws wouldn’t help us combat an inhuman crime spree. For that, we needed the charun perspective and all the help they could give us.