Give the Devil His Due (The Sanheim Chronicles, Book Three) (25 page)

“You fell in love with him,” Quinn said.

Elyssa just nodded.

“Trust me, that wasn’t the plan,” Elyssa said. “I never wanted that. I could see everything about him after that first night. I learned all his memories, all the good and evil he was capable of. When we fought off Aillen, his childhood fear, we did it together. We were a team. And if he loved another as well, that was all right. At least he cared about me.”

“But then Sanheim convinced Anne to kill herself…” Quinn said.

“And everything fell apart after that,” Elyssa said. “I was trapped in a play that I couldn’t escape, playing the role of mistress to a man who was no longer married, but enraptured with his dead bride. I was trapped that way for a century.”

Quinn heard a twig snap and turned to find Janus looking at them both.

“Uh, we’re having trouble sleeping because you guys are talking so quietly,” Janus said.

“Don’t you mean talking loudly?” Quinn replied.

“No, actually, that’s the problem,” he said. “We’re all straining to hear you.”

Quinn looked over to see Buzz stoking the fire and Carol sitting beside him, looking in their direction. He shrugged and got up, reaching a hand out to Elyssa to help her up.

“Come on,” he said to her. “Apparently this is going to be a group chat,” he added dryly.

They walked over to the fire and joined the others.

“I figured if there was a pity party for Elyssa, we’d all want to join in,” Carol said.

“Leave her alone,” Quinn replied.

“You’re defending her now?” Carol said. “She had me killed, do you remember that?”

Elyssa looked nonplussed.

“You were a threat,” she said.

“I was trying to get as far away from you as possible,” Carol said. “How was I supposed to know the next Prince of Sanheim would show up near me? It was a coincidence.”

“A pretty big one,” Elyssa said. “We assumed you were working with the next Prince.”

“She didn’t even tell us about the legend,” Quinn said. He turned to face Carol. “Thanks for that, by the way,” he added sarcastically. “It might have helped.”

“Don’t go blaming me for holding out,” Carol said. “I was trying to protect you.”

Buzz jabbed a stick into the fire and it let off a shower of sparks. Everyone turned in his direction.

“The past is done,” Buzz said quietly. “No sense re-fighting old battles. We all have things we would have done differently if we had known better. Personally, I blame myself for Janus’ death.”

Janus looked at him in confusion.

“How do you figure that?” he asked.

“If I’d gone to the police when I found out who Lord Halloween was, things would’ve been different, my boy,” Buzz said.

Janus shrugged.

“And if we’d scored more runs, we would’ve won the game,” Janus said. “The only person I blame for my death is Kyle Thompson, and he’s dead.”

“We need to work together,” Buzz continued, “If we don’t, we’re not going to make it.”

“Buzz is right,” Quinn said. “It’s why I saved you, Elyssa. If Sanheim wants you dead, you must be a threat. And if there’s one common enemy we have, it’s him.”

“And after he’s defeated?” she asked.

“That’s putting the cart before the horse, isn’t it?” Quinn asked. “But I have no intention of killing you, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“You say that now,” she said. “But I’ve seen how Carol looks at me. I’ve watched you whispering with her. She’ll turn you against me.”

Quinn looked startled.

“She hasn’t said anything about you,” he said. “All we’ve been doing is plotting against Sanheim.”

“Oh,” Elyssa said, looking almost put-out.

“Not everything is about you, honey,” Carol said.

Buzz stoked the fire, drawing everyone’s attention again.

“Look, we need to get a little more rest and in the morning — if it’s ever morning — we’re going to climb this damn mountain. Okay?”

Buzz looked at all of them. Elyssa was the first to nod and walk away. Quinn was relieved that at least she didn’t seem angry anymore. The last thing he needed was enemies within his own camp.

Quinn nodded at Buzz, who stopped poking the fire and lay down on the ground next to Carol.

Soon all five of them were silent again. Quinn thought it would be a long time before he nodded off. He was convinced he would lie awake thinking about all the ways this could go wrong. But even as he had those thoughts, he fell into a dreamless sleep.

Chapter 21

Kieran looked around nervously while Tim hacked the security system to the sheriff’s administrative office.

“I still don’t understand why you couldn’t just ask him,” Kieran said.

Tim swiped the card across the security terminal and waited for the pad in front of him to give results. His contact had promised him it would take less than 30 seconds.

“I don’t think Sheriff Brown would approve of stealing evidence,” Tim replied.

“Uh, he let a key witness and a suspected criminal get away,” Kieran said. “That doesn’t sound like someone who’s worried about proper procedure.”

“That was different,” Tim said, still waiting for the keypad. “He already knew he couldn’t contain Kate. God knows he tried several times. And I convinced him that keeping you would only lead to more harm to his officers and staff.”

Kieran shrugged.

“I don’t know,” he said. “Seems like it’d be worth a phone call.”

“And when he says no and it gets stolen anyway, who is he going to blame?” Tim asked.

“That’s a good point,” Kieran said. “But he’s going to blame Kate anyway. Which brings me to my next point. Why are we doing this instead of her?”

“Because in case you hadn’t noticed, she has more important things to do,” he said. “She’s off collecting spirits. We can handle the wet work.”

“I thought wet work was when you killed people,” Kieran said.

Tim looked at him.

“I thought it was just breaking and entering,” he said. “Stealing stuff, that kind of thing.”

“Well, aren’t we just the master criminals at work?” Kieran asked. “We don’t even know the names for the crimes we’re committing.”

As he spoke, the keypad in front of him flashed four numbers and beeped loudly. Kieran looked in several directions to see if they were being watched. Tim had already disabled the video cameras; Kieran wasn’t sure how. He watched as Tim calmly swiped the card to access the building, and then punched in four numbers. Kieran waited for an alarm to go off and lights to flash. Instead, the red light on top of the reader turned green. There was an audible click as the door unlocked.

Tim opened the door and gestured grandly to Kieran.

“After you,” he said.

Kieran gave him a dirty look and walked in. He stopped after walking a few feet, realizing he had no idea where he was going. He waited for Tim to tell him where to head next.

“We need to go to the basement,” Tim whispered and gestured toward the stairs. “Normal evidence is held in lockers on the first and second floors, but these were different.”

“I imagine they were,” Kieran replied in a normal voice. “I still don’t know exactly where the damn shield came from. It always unnerved me a little.”

“Shhh,” Tim said. “You want the guard to know we’re here?”

“There’s a guard? It’s past two in the morning,” Kieran whispered.

Tim nodded.

“Trust me, there’s a guard,” he said. “The question is whether there’s more than one.”

“If we get caught…” Kieran started.

“Then Kate will either break us out or she’ll go without us. But let’s not let it come to that.”

Tim pointed to the end of the hallway and gestured to the left. Kieran crept up and looked around the corner, but didn’t see anyone. He looked back at Tim and nodded. The two walked around the corner and Kieran then saw a small light at the end of the hallway. He thought he could even hear a voice talking to someone. That meant either a guard was talking on the phone, or he was chatting with another person. Kieran looked at Tim in alarm.

Tim shook his head and pointed to a door on the right. They ducked through it, with Kieran being careful to open the door as quietly as possible. Once inside, he saw it was a stairwell. Kieran wanted to ask how Tim knew the layout of the building so well, but didn’t want to risk speaking out loud. For all he knew, the guy had downloaded blueprints. He reminded Kieran a lot of MacGyver. He was certainly dogged about working through any obstacle.

When they reached the door to the basement, Kieran carefully opened the door in front of him. He peered around the corner, but didn’t see any lights or sign of a guard.

“Quickly,” Tim whispered.

They walked through the door and Tim flicked on a small flashlight. He gave one to Kieran.

“I’m not sure where they have it stored,” Tim said. “It might be in a big locker or a box. Look for labels.”

They passed a few sets of cubicles — Kieran pitied whoever worked down here — while Tim flashed his light around the room. It just looked like a normal office space, not the kind of place someone would keep important evidence. They walked to a door at the end of the corridor and pushed it open.

Kieran panned his light around the area.

“Shit,” he said.

His heart sank. Inside the door was a room the size of a small warehouse. It was stacked with boxes, most of which appeared to be placed there haphazardly. There was a set of oversized lockers on the wall.

“We’d better get started,” Tim said, pushing in behind him.

“You can’t be serious,” Kieran said. “This is Raiders of the Lost Ark-type storage, man. We’re never going to find it.”

“You wanted to know why we’re doing this instead of Kate?” Tim asked. “The simple answer is she doesn’t have the time to sort through all this shit. We do.”

“You know, they really should have a better system than this,” Kieran said. “You said this was unique evidence. But it’s sitting here with a bunch of boxes. Are you sure it’s even going to be down here?”

“The Loudoun police force has been hit with budget cuts,” Tim replied. “Do you think the evidence storage department sounds so sexy that the board of supervisors didn’t think they could pinch a few pennies? Besides, the case you’re talking about is solved. They know Kate did it. They aren’t too worried about having to prove anything in court. I’m sure it was just placed here temporarily while they sorted the situation out. Then they promptly forgot about it when it wasn’t immediately needed.”

Kieran sighed.

“I’ll start with the lockers,” he said. “You want to look through the boxes?”

Tim nodded and went to work. Kieran watched as Tim opened the first box he saw and flashed his light inside it. He hoped Tim might find something quickly and they wouldn’t spend all night sorting through junk, but that idea was quickly dashed. Tim went from the first box to a second, then a third.

He turned to face Kieran.

“You going to get started?” he asked. “Those lockers won’t search themselves.”

“Right,” Kieran said.

Kieran walked over to the lockers. The first few were empty. He was beginning to hope they would all be empty — it would at least make searching them faster — when he found something in locker nine. It wasn’t anything useful, just an extra-large umbrella wrapped in a large plastic bag. He thought the tip looked like it had been dipped in blood. There was a case number and name attached to it. Kieran put it back inside the locker and kept going. The next few lockers were similar, filled with items from crimes he couldn’t guess.

Kieran went as quickly as he could, but the work was still mind-numbing. A machete here, a stack of books there. He was aware he was looking at the worst side of humanity, but who was he to judge? Odds were that he had done far worse than most of the criminals whose evidence was stored here.

He’d stopped paying full attention by the time he opened locker thirty-three. By rote, he flashed his light around the locker, intending to move on quickly. His light caught a flash of red and Kieran nearly didn’t stop. He was, after all, looking for a sword and a shield.

But the sight of bright red caught his attention. The object sat alone in the locker — a space many times bigger than it needed to be. It was wrapped in a plastic bag, labeled with a name and number, but Kieran didn’t bother to look at them.

Cautiously, he looked over his shoulder and saw Tim still digging through boxes.

He looked back at the object in the locker. When he flashed his light on it, the red glass handle almost seemed to glow. Kieran reached forward and grabbed the bag. He slowly took the object out. With a glance to make sure Tim wasn’t looking, Kieran held the weapon in his hand.

It was an exquisitely crafted knife. Such a small thing, Kieran thought, yet it had so many large consequences. He remembered the last time he had held it, when he plunged the knife through the heart of Quinn O’Brion.

Kieran had killed before, of course, enough that he’d lost track. The face of Carol Cuthberson flashed through his mind. But killing Quinn felt different, even if he couldn’t explain why.