Peeping Tom (14 page)

Shelley Munro

Saber and Leo arrived to help with the search. They and their helpers, along with quite a few non-shifters, searched the area by grid, even areas previously searched. There was no trace of Sylvie.

Finally two hours later, the searchers met outside the school. Darkness shrouded the familiar landmarks. Security lights started to come on at the school and in the shops and houses farther up the road, sending shards of light into the gloom. Everything in Tomasine felt frozen and the chill kept growing. She shivered, hope surging as each group of searchers arrived only to plummet after seeing the clipped shake of heads.

“Has anyone seen any strangers hanging around?” Saber called out over the low, uneasy chatter.

Tomasine held her breath, not wanting the answer to be in the affirmative even though it would give them a starting point in their search.

“Tomasine and I haven’t seen anyone,” Felix said.

“Me neither,” Leo answered.

“I saw a blonde woman not long ago,” a man called from the back of the group. “A stranger.”

Saber held up a hand to halt the burst of worried discourse. “What did she look like?”

“A slender blonde,” the man said. “She wore black.”

Tomasine bit back a moan of distress. She leaned into Felix, unable to stop the tremors that racked her body. The assassins she’d seen or come into contact with so far had been men but a woman was capable of the job. Tomasine’s mouth tightened. She’d killed an assassin and if she could kill, any woman could do the same.

“Where did you see her last? Did anyone else see her?” Felix demanded.

“When I was driving toward the pub,” the man said. “About half an hour ago. Maybe forty-five minutes.”

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“No one else saw her?” Saber asked.

Tomasine scanned the faces in the crowd, praying for a lead of any kind but not one person spoke up.

“Let’s widen our search to include the whole town.” Saber directed each group to a different part of the town while some of the locals searched the school again. “Felix, why don’t you take Tomasine home?”

Tomasine baulked. “No. I’m staying here to look for my daughter.” She shrugged free of Felix’s grip and glared at Saber.

She tensed, waiting for him to strike her. A shuddery breath exited when she realized it wasn’t going to happen. In Africa, if she’d dared to speak back to her husband or a senior of the clan like that, she would have ended up flat on the ground despite her royal blood.

“God, Saber. You can’t make her go home,” Felix said in a fierce undertone. “What if it were Emily?”

Saber rubbed a hand through his hair, leaving his dark curls sticking up in all directions. “Sorry. You’re right.” He squeezed Tomasine’s shoulder in silent comfort.

“Look after her, Felix.”

Felix grabbed her hand and they hurried off to commence searching their allocated area.

“Where’s Gina?” Tomasine asked, another streak of fear piercing her chest. She stopped walking to stare at Felix in mute horror. She couldn’t remember when she’d seen Gina last.

“Don’t worry. She asked if she could search with her friend. I said yes because they were with Saul, one of my friends. I’d trust him with my life,” Felix said. “And Gina’s.”

The air whooshed from her lungs in relief. She gave a strangled laugh and wiped her clammy palms on the seat of her jeans. “Okay.”

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Part of the tenseness left Felix’s shoulders. “Come on. You search this side of the road and I’ll do the other. Keep me in sight all the time. Please.”

Tomasine nodded, her gaze already searching the shadows cast by three pines. A shadow moved. Her heart stalled before it jump-started again. A horse. A shape moved in her peripheral vision. Hope surged only to plummet at the soft bleat of a goat. God, Sylvie. Tomasine bit back a sob. Her chest hurt. Her eyes prickled and the lump in her throat threatened to choke her. Where was her daughter?

A hoarse male shout sounded several streets over. Tomasine’s head jerked up. She froze.

“Tomasine, they’ve found something,” Felix said. “Come on.”

Tomasine started to run, retracing their footsteps. Outside the school, a group of people rapidly formed. At the sober expressions on their faces she pulled up short, each breath coming in a panicked wheeze. “Sylvie?”

“What is it?” Felix demanded.

The man glanced at Tomasine before blurting, “They’ve found a body.”

“Sylvie?” Tomasine gasped again. She staggered, her vision narrowing to a long tunnel. A roar filled her head. They’d found Sylvie. A body. They’d found a body.
Sylvie
.

Felix’s arm came around her trembling shoulders. She heard a whimper, a cry. It took a while to realize the sound came from her.

Saber appeared in front of them. “It’s not Sylvie. Tomasine, it’s not Sylvie.” His tone was fierce as though he knew he had to speak harshly to get through her rising panic, her rising self-recriminations.

“Who is it?” Felix asked.

“I don’t know. A stranger. A man. He hasn’t been dead long.”

“I want to see him,” Tomasine said. If it were an assassin, she might recognize him. 102

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“The police are on the scene. They’re not shifters. They’ve cordoned off the area and they’re not letting anyone close enough to see a thing,” Saber said in an undertone.

“We’ll have to wait until they move the body. We might be able to have access then.”

A phone rang and Tomasine’s head jerked up. She heard the low tones of Felix’s brother Leo when he answered. After a brief conversation, he disconnected.

“Saber, that was Emily.” Something in his tone snared Tomasine’s attention. Saber too.

“Is something wrong?” Saber asked.

Leo shrugged. “Emily said you should go to Storm in a Teacup right now. She said to take Felix and Tomasine. She wouldn’t tell me why, just said she had a problem.”

“Sylvie?” Please let it be her daughter. Tomasine glanced at Saber and caught the anxiety that flashed across his face. He really loved his mate. The shifters here in New Zealand didn’t operate a rigid clan system like those in Africa. The mates were more like equal partners. Tomasine sighed softly in envy for something she’d never had, something she’d never have. She drew herself up and prayed fervently that this call was about Sylvie.

“She sounded worried,” Leo said. “She told me to make sure it was just family who came.”

“Let’s go,” Saber said. “We’d better make it look casual so we don’t attract attention.”

They moved off toward Storm in a Teacup. Tomasine glanced across at Saber. His face was grim as if he carried the weight of the world on his broad back. Felix’s expression was similar. Leo as well. It made her want to bawl—the idea that three men, three strangers, would take her into their lives and care for her girls and her without any agenda that she could discern.

A man stopped them. “Have you found anything?”

“No,” Saber answered.

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“Tomasine is ready to drop,” Felix said, his strong arm curled around her waist supporting his claim. “We’re going to Storm in a Teacup for a cup of tea.”

“I could do with a drink,” the man said with a tired sigh. “Is Emily still open?”

“No,” Leo said. “She packed up early today.”

“Pity. I might pop home for a quick coffee before I rejoin the search,” the man said, with a tired yawn. “This is a worrying business. I have three kids of my own. Don’t worry, Mrs. Brooks. We’ll find your daughter.”

“Thank you,” Tomasine whispered hoarsely, once again humbled by the care and concern of the Middlemarch people.

They continued down the footpath, passing the Middlemarch Bed and Breakfast and the post office. Other groups of people stopped them on the way and Saber repeated the story they’d told the first man.

By the time they reached Storm in a Teacup at the other end of town, Tomasine’s stomach churned huge waves of bile and she thought she might throw up. She certainly wouldn’t be able to force down a cup of tea let alone eat.

“Emily said to go around the back,” Leo said.

They followed Saber through the gate leading to the outside dining area and to the rear of the café. He knocked on the door.

“Who is it?” Emily demanded.

“Saber.”

The door opened and Emily peered out, the anxiety on her face lightening when she saw them. “Oh good. You’re all here.” She stood aside to let them enter and hurriedly shut the door.

“What is it?” Saber demanded, instantly going to his mate and touching her as if to reassure himself she was okay.

“Um, I think I’ve found Sylvie,” Emily said.

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“Sylvie?” Tomasine demanded, whirling to check the kitchen. It was a cruel joke. She couldn’t see anything other than pots and pans and the contents of a working kitchen. A fridge. A freezer. A stainless steel bench workspace. Several boxes of supplies sat on the floor over to her left and a milk crate by the door. It looked as though they’d interrupted Emily in checking off her supplies and putting them away. A cry sounded, a cross between alarm and panic. It came from behind a pile of boxes.

Emily walked across the tiled floor and peeked behind the boxes. “Come out, sweetheart. We won’t hurt you.”

Another cry sounded along with the noises of stirring. Tomasine’s heart pumped out an uneven beat. “Sylvie?”

“I’m not sure, but I think it is Sylvie.” As Emily spoke a cat poked its head out of hiding. “At least it had better be Sylvie,” she added in a fierce tone. “If this is one of the teenage boys playing a prank, I’ll make their lives miserable. And that’s a promise.”

Leo smirked. “Gave the cat a cuddle, did ya?”

“Shut up,” Emily said. “Come on out. Your mama is here.”

“Sylvie?” Tomasine’s voice croaked and she cleared her throat to try again.

“Sylvie.”

A small black cat crept from hiding, trembling all over. It was larger than a domestic cat but much smaller than Tomasine when she was in her feline form. The cat had a long black tail and familiar brown eyes.

Tomasine dropped to her knees. “Sylvie, is that you?” The cat let out a pitiful mew. The sound contained confusion along with fear and tore at her heart. She swallowed, frantically wondering what to do. Her daughter was years too young to shift. Felix crouched at her side and ran a calming hand down Sylvie’s back. “Can you change back, sweetheart?”

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“I didn’t think feline shifters could shift until they were around sixteen. Gina’s age,” Emily said.

“That’s normal. None of us changed for the first time until we were that age,” Saber said. “But it’s obvious that Sylvie is cleverer than all of us.” He crossed the tiled floor to crouch beside Felix.

Tomasine noticed her daughter was calmer due to Felix’s gentle handling and the trembling had ceased.

“Have you talked to Sylvie about the change?” Felix murmured. He scratched Sylvie behind the ears and a purr erupted.

“I…no.” Tomasine flinched. What sort of a mother was she? Dragging her child and Gina all over the world, only barely managing to survive life on the run. With all the other stuff going on, she hadn’t even prepared Sylvie for the part of her life that was a time of celebration. “I should have but she’s only five. I thought I had loads of time.”

Felix paused in his stroking of Sylvie. “Tomasine, don’t beat yourself up. Our uncle who looked after us after our parents died never spoke a word of the change until we turned twelve.”

“I’ve talked to Gina.”

“Of course you have,” Saber said. “You’re a good mother. No one could have foreseen Sylvie changing at this early age.”

His soothing words didn’t make Tomasine feel any better. “How do I explain to her how to change back? You can dress it up all you want but the change hurts.”

“What happened to her shredded clothes? Why didn’t we find them?” Felix asked.

“And why did she come here instead of going home? Or waiting for you. She would have known you’d be waiting to collect her after school.”

Felix was right. They should have found her clothes and school bag yet they hadn’t. Fear escalated in Tomasine again. Someone knew Sylvie was a shifter. Her hands shook violently and she must have made a sound.

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“Emily, can you make a cup of tea?” Felix asked. “Tomasine. Let me help Sylvie. She’s used to me and you know I wouldn’t do anything to cause her unnecessary pain.”

Tomasine lifted her chin sharply to glare at Felix. “But—” One look at Felix’s calm face and she knew he was right. Her shoulders drooped and her attitude fell away. Her whole body was wound tight with tension and her daughter recognized this. The poor kid was probably scared stiff thinking she was in trouble. None of this was her fault. If things were different… “All right.” She attempted a soothing voice for Sylvie but it didn’t quite come off, sounding angry instead. Sylvie whimpered and squeezed closer to Felix. It felt like a slap across the face. Tomasine inhaled deeply, trying to calm herself as much as her daughter. Slowly, she stood and moved away, stepping across the tiled floor toward the chest freezer.

Emily walked over to Tomasine and pressed her onto a wooden chair on the other side of the large double door fridge. “Trust Felix. He’s a good man.”

But Sylvie was her daughter. Tomasine didn’t answer, her gaze on the small black cat. Emily bustled around making tea while Leo picked up an empty green milk crate, sat it on its end, positioning it beside her and using it as a seat. He reached over and patted the hand she’d left on her thigh. Tomasine stared at her daughter as Sylvie concentrated on Felix, obviously listening carefully to his hushed voice. She tried to imagine Bernard or any of his family giving the same comfort and help. It would never happen. A snort escaped, loud enough that Leo looked askance.

“Sorry,” she muttered, her gaze intent on her daughter. Bernard had hated any perceived weakness, probably because her deceased husband bore the gene himself and had tried to overcompensate.

Felix smoothed his hand along Sylvie’s back. “Concentrate for me, Sylvie,” he said.