“We’re in the air again,” St. James said. “Keep me posted about Diesel. He tried to keep an eye on Reece when Cora’s thralls were tearing up the club; I like him and I owe him. But I’m about to lose my signal, so listen—Gretel Macy, theEyes on Empathsblogger, called Liam. She asked him for a statement on why Officer Stensby was at Stone Solutions last night.”
Grayson blinked. “First I’m hearing of that.”
“She says she has photographic evidence, but she won’t tell us how she got it.” St. James hesitated. “You remember that someone with your same Texas accent called me from Stensby’s phone, right? Someone who had gotten Stensby to confess what he’d done to Reece’s car—”
Her words were garbled for a moment, then she came back online. “—and now Stensby turns up at Stone Solutions last night. That’s a lot of empath connections. Could a corrupted empath be involved?”
“One who just happens to sound like me?” Grayson said flatly.
“Well—”
“I know where you’re trying to lead this conversation, detective,” Grayson said. “Except there’s no chance. He’s dead.”
“But are you absolutely sure? There’s no way your brother could—”
“I’m completely sure,” Grayson said, more quietly. “And I canbecompletely sure because I was there. If you take my meaning.”
St. James went eerily silent. “Are you implying—”
The line went dead.
Grayson waited a moment, gaze on his phone, but she didn’t call back. If she was flying up on the North Coast, she wasn’t likely to get a signal again for a while.
“You were where?”
He glanced up. Reece was standing less than a yard away, arms folded.
“Texas,” Grayson said, fingers tightening ever so slightly on the phone. “You learn anything?”
“There aren’t any Vietnamese manufacturers here,” Reece said. “There were transportation issues due to the weather and the company that was coming had to cancel like a month ago.”
Grayson raised his eyebrow. “So someone promised Mr. Lane a test drive of a vehicle that wasn’t going to be here?”
“Seems like it.” Reece frowned. “But why? Why would anyone lie to Diesel? And where did he go, if not here?” He nodded at the phone still in Grayson’s hand. “What did Jamey think?”
Grayson blinked. “How did you know who that was?”
“Your body language is more relaxed when you talk to Jamey than when you take other calls,” Reece said. “She’s probably the closest thing you get to a peer, isn’t she?”
Grayson blinked again.
“I think if Jamey were here, she’d be thinking that we can’t find Diesel, but we know someone shipped big empath gloves from Vancouver to that airsoft manager, the same guy who was bugging Diesel,” Reece said. “And she’d still want to search Stone Solutions Canada. I think we should go there next.”
He was looking up at Grayson from under the bear hat, eyes big and earnest, apparently unaware of how easily he understood people, even for an empath, or how damn dangerous he could potentially be, even as a pacifist.
But the Dead Man could not—and would not—forget.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
...of course the Empath Initiative has jurisdiction over the empaths, but the FBI needs to stay in the loop. If for any reason they need more manpower, we can back them up.
And since Stone Solutions is so deeply intertwined with EI, I just think it just makes sense formeus to stay close with Stone Solutions too...
—EXCERPT FROM INTERNAL FBI MEMORANDUM, SIGNED BY ASSISTANT DIRECTOR JACOBS
Before heading intoStone Solutions Canada’s high-rise, Grayson made them stop at a coffee shop across the street, where he ordered nine drinks, a baker’s dozen of pastries, and eight sandwiches.
“How hungryareyou?” Reece asked, as they stood to one side and waited for Grayson’s order.
