“That’s one of those Halloween things, right?” one of the EMTs asked. They’d followed me down from the house, and now one of them tentatively poked Ray in the cheek.
Ray’s eyes flew open. “Poke me again, and I’ll chew your finger off,” he said nastily. The guy scrambled back with a little scream.
I sighed. I couldn’t do mind control, at least not on the level needed here. They were going to have to get in line.
“But why kill Elyas?” I asked. “If Anthony was going to kill someone, he’d hardly make it a member of his own Senate!”
“Elyas was one of the five.”
“So better to lose one guy who would probably be defeated in a challenge anyway than his champion?” Louis-Cesare nodded.
From a strictly profit-and-loss standpoint, it made sense. If Louis-Cesare was convicted of the murder, Anthony could enslave him and never have to worry about his defection again. But if he just let him leave, Elyas was dead meat anyway as soon as he was challenged.
“But why Elyas?” I still wanted this to be about the rune. Otherwise, my task of finding it had just gotten a lot harder. There was a limited pool of suspects at the apartment, but anyone could have shown up at the club. Not to mention that, if Louis-Cesare was right, he was screwed. How did a person win a court case when the judge had set him up?
“He needed someone with whom I had a grievance, and he knew that Elyas had Christine. No senator would take on such a favor for another consul without first alerting his own. Such a thing could easily cause a rift within his own Senate.”
One of the EMTs was trying to make a call. I reached in the side of the truck, yanked out the CB cord and handed it to him. “Okay, but why tonight?”
“Anthony likely has spies within Elyas’s household, who could have informed him that I was expected.”
“But you were late. If Anthony set things up for your original appointment time, Elyas would have been dead before you arrived.”
“Yes, but he could have waited, concealed somewhere, and acted when he saw me arrive.”
I frowned. “But you said that you were only in the waiting room a couple of minutes at most.”
“About that, yes.”
“So in less than two minutes, Anthony kills Elyas, sets you up and has time to steal the rune he didn’t even know existed?”
Louis-Cesare shot me a frustrated look. “Why are you arguing so strongly against this?”
“Because it’s a worst-case scenario! Why are you so set on it?”
“Because I scented him when I first entered the room.”
“You scented Anthony?”
“Yes. It was vague, merely a trace. But that was most likely due to the window. It was open. The scent would not have lingered long.”
“Why didn’t you mention this?”
“I have no proof, Dorina! And there is nothing your father or Kit can do against a consul. I do not wish them to make an enemy needlessly on my behalf.”
“But . . . if it can’t be proven, how do you—”
“I did not say it cannot be proven, merely that they cannot do so. There is a chance—” His head jerked up.
“What now?”
“The Senate’s men. Where is Christine?”
“In the house, I guess.”
He licked his lips. “Dorina, it will be much easier to elude them if I do not have her with me. I know it is much to ask—”
“She can stay here,” I said, wondering about my sanity. “I’ll explain to Claire, assuming I ever find her again. But that’s not—”
“Promise me you will look after her, that you will not leave her alone. There is only another hour or so until sunrise, and she will sleep all day. I will arrange for her security by tomorrow night.”
“Why does she need—”
“Promise me.”
“Yes, fine. But you haven’t said what you plan to—” I blinked and realized I was talking to air. Louis-Cesare was gone.
Two large black vans screeched around the corner and skidded to a halt at the curb. They hadn’t even stopped moving when something like twenty guards piled out. I watched them with a strange sort of detachment. The night had reached the point where it would be difficult to get any worse.
Then a familiar curly head emerged from the front of the lead van.
Okay. It was worse.
“It’s that woman,” ’Du informed me. “She’s been back less than a day, and look at us. We’ll probably all be dead by tomorrow.”
“You’re already dead.”
“There’s no reason to be facetious, Dory,” he snapped, as a grim-faced Marlowe stopped in front of me.
“I knew it,” he hissed.
“Knew what?” I asked wearily.
“Knew you would be involved in this. Where is he?”
“By now?” I shrugged.
“Sir, should we—” one of the vamps began, then quickly shut up.
The rotating lights painted Marlowe’s hair with color and glinted in his narrowed brown eyes. “You’re hiding him.”
I waved the hand not holding Ray. “Yeah. Because this is where you come when you want to be inconspicuous.”
“You deny that he was here?”
“You can scent him. You know damned well he was here.”
“Yes, instead of standing trial to save his life!”