“This order comes from the top, so neither your opinion nor mine matters,” Lowell said. “Youwillmeet him.”
“The top as in Sophie Ashworth?”
“No, theverytop.”
“The board? Hell.”
It was very unlike the enigmatic board to issue direct orders, and that had to mean there was a whole lot more to this case than what we were being told. As soon as I finished speaking to Lowell, I was going to ring Michael. Even though he ran the night division and could well be home by now, he’d still be awake. He did have three kids under five—something that still surprised me, because we’d all thought that he, like Samuel, was a confirmed bachelor—and generally didn’t go to sleep until they were all off to day care.
“What about Ginny?”
“He requested you and no one else.”
“That doesn’t sound ominous at all, does it now?”
Lowell chuckled. “He is a man used to getting what he wants and, sadly for you, he also has the connections to enforce it.”
A fact I was well aware of. My father had spent decades on the High Council’s advisory board—a position he’d ceded to Owen some twenty-two years ago—and we’d mingled with many of the most powerful witches in Canberra at various officialandunofficial social events. Tane Ashworth had been a prominent feature at many of those events, though I’d always avoided being in his presence. Like many of the high-profile witches, he’d exuded too much power and energy for my liking, despite the fact every high-born witch shielded their output as a matter of routine. I might not have been aware of—or understood—the inner darkness back when I was a kid, but she’d nevertheless caused a restlessness that made such events unpleasant at best and excruciating at worst.
I scrubbed a hand across my face, wincing a little as I hit the cut on my cheek. “And the shard?”
“Head office is sending in a specialist to deal with it, but they won’t arrive until this afternoon, so probably best to keep it where it is for the moment.”
It would be far better tonottake that risk, but it wasn’t like I had any other choice. There was no way known I could get to the office and still make the interview with Tane in time.
I sighed. “What about Lanie? Did either of your teams find her last night?”
“We have her phone—it was in Levi’s car—but there’s no sign of her or indeed him.”
“Have you had the car towed?”
“Yes. It’s currently in the garage undergoing inspection.”
Hopefully, they’d find something. “Where was the car found?”
“Middle Park. Her last call was for an Uber.”
So why go to Middle Park if that was not their end destination? “What time was that? And do we know where she went?”
“The call was received at three forty-five, and she was taken over to Rocklea, near the airport there.”
Meaning there was a good hour or more of movement we couldn’t account for. “I suppose you’ve checked recent flights out of there?”
“Yeah,” he said dryly. “We have. Neither Lanie nor Levi went into the airport.”
“Where did they go then?”
“According to the Uber driver, she was picked up by an unmarked black car. We have the plate number; they were false.”
Of course they were, because why would anything be simple right now? Then I frowned. “That’s the second time you’ve said she. Levi wasn’t seen on either occasion?”
“The driver stated a man was with her on both occasions, but couldn’t give us a description.”
“That’s odd, don’t you think? Did he have security cams in his car?”
“He did, and the images are fuzzy.”
“Deliberately done, I would suspect.” There were, after all, concealment spells capable of fooling electronic devices. I even knew a couple of them. “If we have Lanie’s phone, what about getting a psychometrist to look at it?”
