Kateri knew better. Lilith was one frightening woman and Kateri would never, repeat never, run afoul of her. Making Lilith angry was akin to poking a stick in the tiger’s cage in the belief that your reach was longer. Being wrong could leave you bleeding and possibly eviscerated.
The fact Kateri had to take a fortifying breath to walk into her own office irritated her. So she fixed an artificial smile on her lips, took that fortifying breath and walked in. “Lilith, how good to see you after so many years.”
Lilith didn’t get to her feet. She smiled with the same artifice Kateri had utilized—Kateri realized Lilith’s mother had taught them both that smile—and she looked her over from top to toe. “Darling Katherine, you really were battered by that big wave, weren’t you?” Which was Lilith’s less than subtle way of saying Kateri looked like hell.
With her words, Kateri immediately felt every ache and pain. “The bullet four days ago didn’t help, either.” She headed around her desk for her chair and hoped she didn’t pitch forward in a faint. It wouldn’t do to show this woman any sign of weakness.
“I heard the men out there saying that you’d hit a tree, too.”
Another less than subtle suggestion that Kateri was a lousy driver. “Officer Moen hit a tree. I was the passenger.”
“Ah.” Like the manipulative bitch she was, Lilith held out her arms. “Katherine, an embrace of sibling affection.”
Kateri paused, halfway into a seated position. Damn. Really?
Of course, really. Lilith had to establish her authority swiftly, and if she did not she would stretch out this whole wretched ordeal until she was satisfied she was dominant. With Lilith, it was simply easier to let her have her way.
Kateri leaned on her stick and her desk to straighten herself, walked around the desk and met Lilith as she half-rose.
Lilith offered her cheek.
Kateri kissed it.
There. Dominance established.
Lilith’s nose wrinkled. “This place smells like dirty socks. You should command your staff to get in here and do some serious cleaning. Then get an interior decorator in to improve the décor.”
Oh boy. People unclear on the concept. “The sheriff’s department gets its funding from the county council and the county council and the city council work in absolute opposition to each other until it comes to funding. At that point they agree that luxuries like excess janitorial staff and raises for public servants are unnecessary.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means I can’t afford an interior decorator.” Kateri retreated to her desk. “What can I do for you, Lilith?” For there was never a doubt she would be doing the favor.
“Katherine, I bring bad tidings.” Lilith donned her sad face. “Our father, Neill Palmer … is dead.”
“I know what his name is.” Kateri only wished she did not. “On the other hand, my name is Kateri. Not Katherine.”
“Isn’t Kateri the Native American version of Katherine?”
“Yes. They are as similar as Sean and John. One is not an acceptable substitute for the other.”
Kateri might as well be finger-spelling for all the notice Lilith displayed. Lilith said, “Yes. About our father…”
Kateri sighed. “Our father.” The man had twice ruined her mother’s life, once when he got her pregnant and abandoned her, and again when he had snatched his bastard daughter Kateri from the wilderness of Western Washington, took her to Baltimore and placed her in his bleak and glorious marble mansion. He cared nothing about Mary’s grief at losing her daughter. He had cared nothing about his wife and daughter’s horror at being saddled with a Native American savage. Most especially he had cared nothing for Kateri’s homesickness and unhappiness.
Now he was dead.
Kateri wished she could say she didn’t care. But every time she thought of her mother’s broken life, she burned with loathing. And to say she burned was not a metaphor; her hatred made her blood hot, her face flush, her stomach … burn.
Rainbow had lectured her about carrying that kind of destructive baggage, and in theory, Kateri agreed. But although she had meditated, prayed and lectured herself, still the mention of her father’s name made her remember … and burn.
Lilith said, “He departed this life as he had lived, a good man who fought a good fight—”
Kateri gave herself extra points for not snorting.
“—But in the end he could only succumb to the cancer that broke his body…” Lilith was watching Kateri all too closely. “You don’t seem surprised.”
“I suspected.”
“Why did you suspect, sister?”
“He sent me a package. Since I hadn’t heard from him since I begged him to get me into the Coast Guard Academy, I figured something was up. Imminent death. Sudden insanity.” Perhaps that was a little cold.
Lilith seemed not to notice. “What did the package contain?”
“The raven.”
“Edgar Allan Poe’s raven.”
“That’s right.”
“What else?”
What else? A photo album filled with pictures of her father and her mother taken during that summer when he romanced the Indian maiden named Mary and Mary fell in love with a man who didn’t exist. “Nothing.”
Lilith’s eyes narrowed. “Do you still have the raven and the box it came in?”
Did Lilith not know about the album? “No.”
Lilith leaned forward. “What do you mean, no?”
“I mean I wanted to toss the whole thing into the ocean—”
Lilith gasped in outrage. “That raven is of historical importance!”
“—but my friend took it so I could not.” Probably Lilith didn’t know about the album. Even if she did, why would she care about photos of her father and one of his affairs? The answer was clear; she wouldn’t.
“Your friend … your friend took it? The raven?” Lilith clutched the arms of the chair so tightly her stacked Tiffany rings lifted off her skinny fingers. “You allowed that?”
For the first time, Kateri began to enjoy herself. “One does not allow Rainbow to do anything. She is a force of nature.”
In that East Coast patrician accent that was for Kateri like nails on a chalkboard, Lilith said, “That raven is a precious artifact that belongs to the family as part of our noble inheritance. I would emphatically request of your friend that she give it back to you and you give it to the estate.”
Yes. This was definitely enjoyable. “That’s not possible.”
“Why not?”
“Rainbow took the box and didn’t tell me where she put it. I don’t know where it is.”
Enunciating clearly, Lilith said, “Go ask your friend where she put it.”
“She’s in a coma.”
“You’re joking.”
Kateri’s wisp of enjoyment evaporated. “Would that I were. Rainbow was shot in the same incident that put a bullet through me. She’s in a coma. She’s not expected to live.”
“Let’s search her house!”
There was the sister Kateri knew and despised. No compassion, no interest in another’s welfare, no kindness, only a determination to get her way at any cost. “Rainbow is still alive and searching her house would constitute breaking and entering.”