Night Broken

Page 10

So he gives me the numberhe continued in the same aggravated tonesthe freaking moron. And then I ask him where hes found fighting dogs, acted as though I might want to get in on the action. Damn fool was happy to tell me. As soon as he was gone, I called the police. Second dog-fighting outfit Ive turned in since Christmas. If it were up to me, Id shoot all those bastards, no trial, no nothing.
Or make them go fight it out in the pit with each other, Tad offered from the next bay over.
And shoot the last man standing, I agreed. Good for you, Joel.
Yeah, he said. You know what really chaps my hide, though? Someone told him to look at me for dogs. Someone, sometime got a dog from me and is involved in dog fighting. If I ever find out who it is, Ill take my dog back and hope he objects.
My cell phone rang, and Joel took a deep breath. Yeah, Ive got to get going anyway. He tipped his hat. Catch you later, Mercy.
Take care, Joel.
Bye, Tad. Dont do anything I wouldnt do.
Bye, Joel. Dont juggle porcupines.
Joel paused. Porcupines?
Tad grinned. One bit of obvious advice for another. If I tried doing something you wouldnt do, it would be jail or the morgue.
They exchanged a few more juvenile remarks while I peeled off the sweaty latex gloves I only wore because of Christy and her manicured hands. By the time I got them off, the phone had quit ringing. The screen told me Id missed the call I was hoping for, and I wasted no time calling him back.
Heya, Mercy, said Hanks cheerful voice. I got a message that you wanted to talk to me about finding Coyote. You sure you want to talk to him?
I glanced at the garage-bay door, but Joel was safely out of sight and presumably out of hearing range.
Talking to Coyote is on the top of my to-do list, I told him, and in the other bay, Tad straightened from under the hood of the car he had gone back to working on.
Mmmm. And you think to call me about this why? Unlike some I could name, I dont turn into a coyote when I get the urge, said Hank, whose other form was a red-tailed hawk.
He didnt leave a phone number for me to call, I said. And, all joking aside, I need to find him. If you cant help, do you know how to get in touch with Gordon?
Hank grunted. Gordons in the wind, kid. I havent seen him for a couple of weeks. I called around for you, but no one else has seen him, either. You serious about it being urgent?
I had a fae artifact, I told him. I gave it to Coyote, and now the fae want it back. Yesterday.
There was a short silence, then Hank said, I thought the fae were shut up in their rez for the foreseeable future.
Apparently some of them are still out and about, I told him after an on-the-fly decision that I owed no loyalty to Beauclaire and the rest of the fae folk. Besides, Hank wouldnt spread it around.
Hank huffed a laugh at my dry tone. Politicians never have to follow their own laws, right? Jeez, kid. Dont do trouble by half, do you? Let me ask around a little more pointedly, and Ill get back to you, tomorrow latest.
I ended the call feeling the sharp edge of panic. It looked like getting in touch with Coyote was going to be more difficult than Id anticipated. I hadnt really thought Hank would know how to contact Coyote, but Id been counting on talking to Gordon, who would.
Tad asked, Who wants the walking stick?
Alistair Beauclaire, I told him.
Tad blinked. Dad was wondering what he was doing flitting in and out and about the reservation without an apparent purpose. I wouldnt have thought that the walking stick was important enough for a Gray Lord, though.
I shrugged. Who can predict the fae? Not even the fae as far as Ive been able to see. Your dad knows that Beauclaire isnt a fan, right?
Tad gave me an oddly gentle smile. Beauclaire would kill my father in an instant if he werent too noble to take out the whole rez and Walla Walla at the same time. Outside of massive, wholesale destruction, my father is more than a match for him.
I took a breath. Did your father really kill Lugh?
Tad went back to the job at hand, but he nodded. As my father tells it, Lugh was old, powerful, and starting to get scary. Really scary. Started out as a hero and was turning into something a lot different.
He gave me a sly look as he pulled out the battery and set it aside. Of course, my father wasnt a white knight back then, either. He killed Lugh because he was more interested in making a cool weapon than killing someone who might be a danger to the worldbut, as he likes to point out, it served both purposes, so he is happy to take credit. The fae world heaved a sigh of relief, shook their collective and disorganized finger at my dad, and then went about their business.
My phone rang again, and the caller ID said it was Hank.
That was fast.
I have a name, said Hank. Gary Laughingdog. He is a coyote walker like you. Maybe he can help youword is that he has Coyotes ear when he needs it.
Do you have a phone number?
He is locked up at the Coyote Ridge facility in Connell. Youll have to go see him there.
In jail? I asked.
I heard the smile in Hanks voice. He is not a violent criminal, Mercy. But he has little respect for the law or personal property, and that lands him in trouble from time to time. This time it landed him in prison for two years, of which he has served eight months. He likes women, has a reputation with them. There was a little pause, and Hank said, Most of the coyote walkers have trouble with the law.
At least they dont have trouble passing elementary school like the hawk walkers, I said because Hank liked to tease and could take as good as he gave.
Hank was laughing when he disconnected.
Do you know how to visit someone in prison? asked Tad.
Do you?
He shook his head. No. When they locked up my dad, he wouldnt let me come home.
Adam will know, I said, and dialed him.
Adam Hauptmans phone, said Christy. Can I help you?
Is Adam there? I asked. There would, I knew, be a good explanation of why Christy was answering Adams phoneespecially since hed told her not to answer her own phone. Id noticed before, when she wasnt living in my home, that Christy always had good reasons for doing the wrong thing, reasons that made everyone look stupid for questioning her.
Yes, she said. But he cant come to the phone rightnow.
I see.
Is this Mercy? she said brightly. I didnt know it was you. Hes on the house phone talking to the arson investigator. Can I give him a message?
I couldnt tell across phone lines, but I was pretty sure she was lying about not knowing it was me calling in the first place. My name would have scrolled across the caller ID.
No, I said. Its all right.
I hung up and stared at my phone for a while. Adam had gone to work this morning the same time I had. Hed called in some of the wolves to watch over Christy. So why was he home, and why did she have his phone?
Id make you some brownies, I told Tad. But shes always in my kitchen.
The expression on his face was compassionate. I expect that the jail has a web page with phone numbers of people who can help you figure out how to visit the guy you need to see.
Coyote Ridge Corrections Center is a minimum- and medium-security facility just outside of Connell, which is about an hours drive north of the Tri-Cities. Its a little town of about five thousand inhabitants, not including those who are incarcerated in the prison.
I didnt go alone.
I glanced at my passenger and wondered if Id made the right choice. Not that there were a lot of pack members whod have been free to head out on short notice, especially now that Adam was keeping four wolves at our house all the time.
Honey had lost weight since her husbands death, and she hadnt been fat to begin with. Shed cut her honey-colored hair into a severe style that framed her face with its newly hollowed cheekbones. With that and her body reduced to muscle and bone, she should have looked hard, but instead she looked fragile.
She hadnt said a word to me since I picked her up in my Vanagon. Not even to ask where we were going.
Id told her I needed someone to come with me on an errand, and she hadnt asked any questions. Id decided it was a subtle defiancefollowing the letter of the law that said I was in charge without actually making an effort to be useful. But either driving or twenty minutes of distance from Christy cheered me to more optimistic possibilities. Maybe Honey just didnt know what to say.
Or maybe she liked Christy more than she liked me, too.
I had a fae artifact follow me home, I told her. I couldnt remember if shed known about the walking stick. Id tried not to talk about it too much. It wouldnt stay with any of the fae I tried to give it to. Which would have been fine except that it started to get bloodthirsty, so I found a safe place for it. Night before last, I was visited by a Gray Lord who informed me that it would be a good idea if I retrieved it and gave it back to him.
You gave the walking stick to Coyote, she said. And when I looked at her, she raised a cool eyebrow. You were raised among wolves. Id think youd know well enough how fast and thoroughly gossip travels in the pack.
Okay, I said. I dont know how to get ahold of Coyote in a hurry. In my experience, he just shows up when he chooses. So I called around and got the name of another walker who might know how to find him before the fae decide to destroy the Tri-Cities in retribution.
She looked at me, frowned, and sat up straighter. You were trying to jokebut you really believe they might destroy the whole town.
Not they, I said, remembering that instant when the glamour thinned, and hed snarled at the cat. He. And yes, I think the fae are capable of anything. Id have given them the stupid walking stick a long time ago if it would have let me.
Was it Zee?
I shook my head. Zees not a Gray Lord. Close, I think, but not. This was Alistair Beauclaire, the man responsible for the fae retreat to the reservations.
Good, she said. I like Zee.
She was quiet for a few miles. Where are we going?
To Connell, I told her. To visit someone who might know how to find Coyote.
She glanced down at the clothes she was wearingrose slacks and a blue silk blouse. She buttoned the blouse another two buttons and began to shed jewelry. They wont let you bring a weapon on-site, she said. Not even in your car.
Interesting that she knew the rules for visiting someone in prison.
I left the gun in the safe at the shop, I told her. And they dont need to know that you are a weapon.
She smiled a little, and her eyes warmed.
The parking lot had a deserted feel. Coyote Ridge could hold nearly three thousand prisonersapparently none of them had family or friends who were visiting today. Prison wasnt like the hospital, I guess. Social obligation didnt cover visiting friends and acquaintances in prison.
Like the Tri-Cities, Connell is in the heart of the desert. Not a pretty desert with sand strewn with cactus and interesting, thorn-covered plants, but shallow rolling hills that look like they needed a shave for the stubbled growth of sagebrush and cheatgrass.
Set firmly in that stark and unbeautiful desert canvas, the prison was a hostile collection of plain, rectangular buildings with cement walls and steel doors, chain-link fences topped with rolls of razor wire, and atmospheric hopelessness that lay like a weight over it all. We left everything in the van except our licenses and the keys I used to lock up.
The guards in the entrance building were professional and not unfriendly. They gave me a quarter to feed the locker where I put the keys to the Vanagon. They kept our drivers licensesthe woman behind the counter did a double take at my name, but she didnt otherwise say that she recognized it.
Honey and I carefully avoided looking at Nat, one of the pack members who was a guard herethere were two wolves on staff, but I saw no sign of Luke. We signed in, and Nat took the clipboard from me, frowning when he saw the name of the man we were visiting. I dont think anyone else noticed.
We were escorted out of the building and into one of a series of parallel chain-link-enclosed paths into the prison itself. When the doors closed behind us, my pulse picked up, and Honey flinched. We showed our visitor badges to the guard behind the glass and walked into a room that looked like my high-school lunchroom.
Dozens of gray plastic tables were set out, each with four all-plastic gray chairs. They looked like adult-sized versions of those childrens outdoor picnic furniture, an effect that was not alleviated by the chessboard pattern on the top of the tables. I wondered if they could have gotten them in a less depressing color. I guess lifting the prisoners spirits wasnt a priority.
There was room for seventy or eighty people in the room, but Honey and I and four guards were the only ones here. We sat down as directed and waited for them to get Gary Laughingdog.