“Last night; time stamp says six seventeen.”
Not long after Jack would have started his shift, then. Why would he list it as returned when he had to be aware that it was back in use? A careless mistake on his part? Or something else? Like Betty lying? “Don’t suppose you could contact him and ask, can you?”
“You surely can’t think he did it deliberately?”
“Regardless of what I do or don’t think, we still need to ask.”
“Well, if you ask me, he probably thought it was a simple glitch.”
A glitch was one thing. This felt deliberate. Lanie, Luke, and whoever the brains behind their actions was, be it Orion or someone else, obviously had someone on the inside feeding them information. If not Jack, then who?
“You want to do something else for me?” I asked. “Can you check the records to see if Jack did ring the guards at the hospital as I asked, and what their response was?”
“I will, but I’m not liking the aspersions you’re casting his way with these questions.”
“Neither do I, but they nevertheless need to be cast.” Innocent until proven guilty was all well and good until there were lives on the line. “You’ll get back to me the minute you’ve pinned down the tracker’s location?”
“I will. Shouldn’t take too long.”
“Thanks.”
I disconnected, then grabbed a set of gloves from my handbag and pulled them on as I walked across to the overnight bag.
Atticus followed me in.Magic lingers.
I glanced down at him.From the trap on the door or from the mage who set it?
And why hadn’t I noticed it?
Spells are not your forte; life energy is. This particular spell is little more than a fragmenting remnant, so you never stood a chance. It suggests a transport vortex has been used in the room.
The bastards who killed Francesca and Marnee used a transport spell when they leapt off the apartment building roof.
It is unlikely to be a coincidence, then.
No. And it’s obviously how they got both Monica and Ginny out of here.
Why take the winged one, though? Why not kill her?
Maybe we’re getting close enough for them to worry about needing a hostage.
I do not believe that to be true.
Neither did I, but it was better that than the other possibility—that they had taken her to feed her heart and her soul to whatever demon helped them.
After checking the bag to make sure it wasn’t spelled in any way, I carefully unzipped and opened it; inside was an assortment of the usual items needed for a hospital stay—undergarments, nightie, slippers, toiletries—most of which still had tags attached. Whoever had brought this bag in had simply purchased it all to provide a cover story, knowing the guards would likely check before they let him or her in. It couldn’t have been Lanie or even Luke, though, because we had alerts out on both, and the guards would have been advised about them.
The guards were human,and we have no idea when they were compromised,Atticus said.They also wouldn’t have sensed an image-altering spell had one been used.
Yes, but Monica should have.
It is possible that while Monica was awake, her magic remained restrained. Remember, we are dealing with at least one person capable of tripping through the thoughts of others.
True. I moved the bag and heard something drop to the floor. I glanced down, spotted the earwig, and bent to grab it. And in the process, saw Ginny’s phone tucked in behind the bag. I picked it up, and the screen came to life. I typed in the code—though we both had biometrics activated, we also knew each other’s security code, just in case our own phones became disabled and we needed to make an urgent call. But, more importantly, we both had an emergency contact app on our phones, set up so that either one of us could send a coded alert to the other.
I hadn’t received one, but that didn’t mean Ginny hadn’t tried to send it.
I opened the app, and there, unsent, was an 801 alert—the standard code for police in trouble. Either her phone had been taken before she could send it, or whoever had entered this room had telepathically frozen her movements.
