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She did the same with a star drive around Natalie’s wrist, lost amid a charm bracelet. “I knew her,” Lila said while she worked. “She wasn’t like Patrick. She never hid. She never pretended to be anything but what she was.”
“A sociopath?”
“A monster. If someone pissed her off too badly at school, she’d kill their pets, even a teacher’s once or twice. No one could ever prove she’d done it, though. Did you know her?”
“Not well, and for that I’m grateful. She didn’t visit the Beaulac compound very often.” He dropped the camera to his thigh. “When do you think they died?”
“No idea. We have daily wellness checks for the at-risk and elderly back at the compound. I’m used to fresher bodies. With this heat?” Lila considered the pastries on the table. “I’m guessing this morning from the food. It’s still soft. If I’d just gone home last night and finished the list, we might have—”
“Stumbled into an execution? No, thank you. I’m happy with how things turned out. She deserved what she got. She ruined more than a few lives.”
“I’d rather she be in a holding cell.”
“Why? So she can be hanged after a drawn-out trial? She deserved death for more than just Oskar, you know. Someone should have shot her a long time ago.”
Lila frowned, not sure whether she agreed with him,
the oracle’s words fresh on her mind. “You sound like you wish you could have done it yourself.”
Tristan shrugged.
As much as she wanted to pry, it wasn’t the time or the place. “Oskar was easier to track when we could follow Natalie. Now I don’t have the faintest clue how to find him.”
“You have a few palms and Natalie’s star drive. That’s a good start.” He showed her the photos stored in the camera, and she pointed out a few shots he’d missed. “They used bullets, Lila. You know what that means.”
“No, I don’t. I need to look at all the data first. Then we can draw conclusions.”
“You can draw a few already,” Tristan said as he snapped the last photo. “Few in the Allied Lands use bullets. That means that unless the purplecoats have gone into buying princes, then Natalie tried to sell Oskar to German mercenaries. The mercs surprised her, offed her and her people, then took the boy and everything tying them to the scene.”
“Anyone can use bullets.”
“How many people do you think stormed in here, Lila? I could see two or three risking the hangman’s noose for the promise of quick money, but not a dozen.”
“At least a dozen.” The pair tidied the scene and stepped through the back door. Lila tossed their gloves, booties, and the camera back into her satchel. “Just don’t jump to conclusions before I look through the data, okay?”
“Fine,” Tristan said as they stalked back to the truck, rubbing out their footprints. “How do you think they found her?”
“I have no idea, but I doubt they found her like I did. They probably followed her. Natalie wouldn’t have held a drop in the same place she was staying. She would have taken precautions.”
“They found her somehow.”
“Yes, they did.” Lila slipped into the truck and slammed her door. “I’m just not sure how yet.”
Chapter 17
Tristan parked a block away from the garage that held Lila’s Adessi and promised to call Natalie’s murder into Bullstow’s anonymous tip line when he returned home. He snatched her hand before she could disembark. “Don’t go. Come back to the shop with me.”
“I can’t. Time’s ticking for Oskar,” she said, unsure if she’d be able to say no if he asked again, but knowing full well she had to. If she and Tristan had not been together the night before, she might have found Natalie before the massacre. Oskar might have been saved.
She had to focus, and that meant staying away from Tristan.
“Time’s ticking for all of them. Let us help you.”
When she didn’t answer, Tristan rubbed the back of her hand with his thumb. “Is it that you don’t trust us, or you just think we’re too stupid to be useful?”
“You’re not stupid, just unskilled when it comes to militia business. When’s the last time you went through crime scene data?” Lila handed him an extra star drive from her satchel. “If you want to help, then give this to Toxic. It’s a copy of all the palm data. I don’t know who the devices belonged to, so I’ll be looking at Natalie’s star drive first. Message me if she finds anything. I put the crime scene photos on it as well.”
“Come back with me.”
