“At work, yeah,” Pellini said. “But he keeps his private life private. We go out for the occasional beer or watch football at my house.” He shrugged. “This last year he helped with the costuming for the contest, but that’s pretty much it.”
I watched the rain sheet across the road. “Do you think he knew what his stepdad was into?”
His mouth twisted beneath his mustache. “Every now and then he’d crow about McDunn and how the Child Find League recovered or closed cases on twenty kids last year or whatever. Never a bad word.” A wince flashed across his face. “Could be he knew about the ugly side and his talk was just a smokescreen.”
“You don’t believe that.”
Lightning speared across the sky. “I’ve been wrong about people before,” Pellini said. “And ninety-nine point nine percent of the world was wrong about Mr. Benevolent Saint Farouche. The press grabbed the story that most of the murders Farouche ordered were vigilante justice against child molesters and abusers, and now there are people singing his praises.” He paused as thunder rolled over the truck. “Even considering what happened to his kid, who knows how much of that vigilante story is true?”
Almost twenty years ago, Farouche’s five-year-old daughter Madeleine had been kidnapped and never found. Not long after that, Farouche formed the Child Find League and a number of other charities devoted to the welfare of juveniles—all of which had a stellar record for child advocacy. McDunn was Farouche’s right hand man for all of it. How did such a noble mission go so far off the rails?
“Bryce would know how much is true,” I said quietly. “He never talks about specific hits he made for Farouche, but he did tell me that Farouche had Jerry Steiner kill Paul’s dad for brutalizing him. Given Farouche’s personal history, the vigilante aspect makes a sick kind of sense.”
Pellini scowled and scrubbed at his mustache. “And Steeev got snipered by a dead man’s flunky.” He made a turn onto a blacktop road that ran through a mixed pine forest. “What are Steeev’s chances for, uh, surviving?”
“I told Jill they were high,” I said without pulling my gaze from the monotonous scenery of pines. “But to be honest, I don’t know.” Sighing, I rubbed my eyes. “Theoretically, chances are decent the first time through the void. Not so much for a second death. He’s never died on Earth before, so that helps his odds.”
The rain stopped as suddenly as it had begun. Pellini clicked off the wipers, and within a quarter of a mile sunlight blazed down onto a bone dry road. Louisiana weather. Gotta love it.
Pellini smacked the steering wheel. “Shit!”
I jerked, startled. “What?!”
“You! You died over there! In the demon realm!” His mouth widened into a pleased smile. “That’s why you appeared out of nowhere without a stitch on.”
I couldn’t answer for several seconds. “You saw me naked?”
His smile exploded into a grin.
Groaning, I dropped my head back against the seat. “Yeah. It was after I found out the Symbol Man was Chief Morse. I started the whole dying process here on Earth, but Rhyzkahl brought me to the demon realm to finish dying so that I had a chance of surviving it.”
His grin evaporated. “Fuck me. I went out on that scene. Arcane garbage all over the place. And the chief . . .” He didn’t finish the sentence, and I didn’t blame him. Rhyzkahl had torn the chief’s head clean off. It hadn’t been a pleasant sight. Pellini cleared his throat. “So, did Morse shoot you? Is that why you were dying?”
I gave him a long look. “No. A reyza who was working with Morse eviscerated me.” I paused, unsure if I should name names since the reyza in question was one of the demons Pellini said he knew. Then again, Pellini was bound to find out sooner or later. “It was Sehkeril.”
“Shit.” Pellini winced and shifted in his seat. “I feel like I should apologize.”
“Not your fault,” I said with a firm shake of my head. “I still don’t know why he was helping Morse.”
He chewed his bottom lip. “If Sehkeril was helping him, that means Kadir condoned what Morse was doing, right?”
“It means that Kadir condoned at least one facet that served his agenda,” I said. “I don’t know if it was the murders, the summoning and binding of Rhyzkahl, or an aspect I haven’t discovered.” An aspect I haven’t discovered. The phrase reverberated in my mind. Kadir was beyond clever, and his extended and subtle grooming of Pellini demonstrated his patience. What kind of long game was the creepy lord playing? More importantly, what else had resulted from the Symbol Man’s murder spree and summoning attempt?