I’ve never felt so helpless. It’s been three days since Culebra fell under Burke’s curse. I’m afraid to call Frey for an update. He’s put his life on hold and his own health at risk. If I don’t come up with something fast, I may lose two friends.
Williams is at the elevator when I step out. The bank of telephone operators that occupies the center of the supernatural command center is bustling with activity. The telephones are manned by an army of psychics, real psychics, extraordinary men and women possessing heightened sensitivity to things outside the sphere of scientific knowledge. Their clients include the power brokers of the world.
Today, however, I detect a different timbre to the buzz of conversation. What’s going on?
He steers me away from center. I have our people working to locate Burke. If the witches can’t find her, maybe someone else can.
He’s set the psychics on Burke? His guilt that another night may have brought Culebra that much closer to death is showing. No matter.
I’ll take all the help I can get.
He pushes open a door to a side room. The same three witches I met two days ago are assembled around the same pentagram. A map is laid out and one of the women, Min Liu, dangles that diamond on the end of the silken string. As I watch, the diamond jumps and skitters across the map but it fails to light on any particular location. Frustration is painted on Min ’s face. The other two watch, each holding a candle and chanting in low voices.
Susan Powers looks up when we enter. She touches the young Hispanic woman’s arm. Ariela Acosta motions us in.
“It’s not working, is it?” I ask.
Min lets the charm drop. “I’m sorry. The witch is protecting herself.”
“She’s put up a powerful blocking spell,” Susan says. “There is nothing we can do.”
I sink into a chair and cover my face with my hands.
Culebra is fighting for his life.
Ortiz is dead.
It’s my fault.
I should never have confronted the witch at the restaurant. It only alerted her to the fact that I was on to her. Now she’s gone into hiding and I’ve exhausted any lead I might have had to find her.
There’s a knock on the door. Williams answers it and a man hands him a slip of paper. He opens it, looks over at me and shakes his head.
Even his army of psychics has drawn a blank.
Weariness washes over me. I feel the anxiety and unhappiness of the three women standing nearby. Their empathy only heightens my own sense of futility.
I can’t think of anything else to say. I pull the charm from inside my blouse. “You may as well have this back.”
Min stays my hand with a touch of her own. “No. Keep it.” Her eyes flash with determination. “Don’t give up, Anna. We don’t intend to.”
Williams is watching, too, strangely silent.
These women don’t know me, but he does. He understands how foreign this is to me.
For the first time in a long time I don’t know what to do. No idea. No plan. No way to save Culebra.
Williams leaves me alone in the room while he escorts the witches out. Jason is gone. The file is gone. Burke is gone.
I wish once again that I had done things differently —made a copy of the test subjects’ information instead of stealing the original file.
That act set in motion all that followed, including Ortiz’ death.
I have one last hope. Maybe Gloria has a contact number for Simone Tremaine.
But that hope is dashed when the operator at the Four Seasons tells me that Gloria has checked out—on her way to Europe for Fashion Week.
Gloria wasted no time coming up with alternative photo opportunities now that the launch party for Eternal Youth has been canceled.
Either that or she wants to distance herself, literally, from the fallout of an arson investigation.
Shit. Arson will be the least of Gloria’s concerns if the cream is linked to the murder of those test subjects.
Williams comes back. His black mood matches my own, partly because of the helplessness we feel and partly because of the guilt. It puts us both on guard.
“How is Brooke doing?” I ask finally.
“Barely making it. I wish I could do more. Ortiz will be buried with full honors on Friday.”
Buried is a euphemism. We both know there is nothing left of Ortiz to bury. I feel cold, suddenly, remembering.
“It’s a good gesture. Ortiz deserves it.”
My mind drifts back to Jason. I remember the syringe. I pull it out of a jacket pocket. “I don’t know what this is. I think Jason was about to use it on the girl he had in his apartment. The girls at Rose ’s all said they’d been sedated. Maybe this stuff is the reason they’re different.”
Williams takes it from my outstretched hand. “I’ll send it to the lab.” He steps aside when I stand and start for the door. “What are you going to do now?”
The only thing left for me to do.
“I’m going to see Culebra. And Frey.”
“What will you tell them?”
I close my eyes and turn away. I don’t know what I’ll tell them. I’m afraid it might be good-bye.
CHAPTER 37
THE LINE AT THE BORDER CROSSING IS LONG. I’M stalled behind twenty cars waiting to be waved through.
I don’t mind. I’m in no hurry.
I drum my fingertips against the steering wheel, replaying everything that’s happened since Sandra’s call Sunday night.
Every mistake. Every blunder. Every miscalculation.
Following Burke to that restaurant. Revealing myself to her.
Stupid mistake number one.
Breaking into the warehouse the first time. I could have copied every fucking file in the place. Why didn ’t I? Instead, I memorized useless information. Burke knew that I’d be looking for her. How could I have thought she’d hang around that house in Coronado waiting for me? Learning the names of her employees and those test subjects would have been far more valuable.
Stupid mistake number two.
A driver behind me honks. I restrain the urge to flip him off and roll a foot or so forward.
My head aches.
One hundred test subjects. Three dead. In all the confusion, I ’d forgotten to ask Williams if he’d seen the coroner’s reports. Maybe when I get back, I’ll call him.
Maybe.
If Culebra dies, I won’t really care what killed them.
The before-and-after shots of the three dead women flash through my brain like a slide show. The transformation was incredible.
Vampire blood had that effect? I wonder if they’d have been as happy with the results if they’d known the price those young girls paid for their vanity. Twelve vampires dead. Would they have cared?
I mentally sift through everything I found in Burke’s file—insurance forms, utility bills—there was something else, wasn’t there?
I slam into reverse, forcing the guy behind me to back up. He’s yelling and waving a fist at me, but I keep at him, pushing him back until I have room to make the U-turn.
When I pull out of line, I give him my sweetest smile and wave farewell.
I remember what else was in Burke’s file. There was a telephone number. No name. No address. Just a number.
I’m driving with one hand on the wheel, the other rummaging through my purse.
Where is that damned cell phone?
My fingers finally close around it. I let the number float to the surface of my consciousness and punch it in. It rings once, twice, ten times.
No answer. No machine.
Shit.
The next call I make is to Williams. I catch him on his way back to Brooke’s.
“I just remembered something that was in Burke’s personal file. Can you do a reverse search on a telephone number?” I ask. “Get me a name and an address?”