Indigo(56)

Symes frowned when he saw Nora.

Mayhew smiled. “Some days the universe is on your side. Know what I mean, Hugh?”

Symes nodded. “Doesn’t get much easier.”

Sam tried sitting up in bed and went pale, as if moving made him nauseated. “What can I do for you, Detectives?” he managed. “You can’t be here over a little assault case.”

Mayhew shot Sam a withering glance. “Somebody get assaulted?”

Symes stuffed his hands into his pockets. “We were actually coming here to question you about the whereabouts of Nora Hesper. Seems she’s not been seen at home for a couple of days, but then, here we are and here she is.”

Nora shook her head. “Why were you looking for me?”

“We have reports of you being seen at the scene of a recent crime, Ms. Hesper.” Mayhew moved closer, menace in her gaze. Nora’s instinct was to fight, but she was not about to reveal herself to these detectives—not unless they crossed the line. She believed Mayhew worked for the Phonoi, but as long as she was operating within the parameters of her job, Nora would have to behave.

“What crime?” Sam demanded. “Maybe you should explain yourself, Detective.”

Mayhew stopped just out of Nora’s reach and rested her hand on her hip, right next to her service pistol. “There was a recent multiple homicide at a warehouse. We have witnesses who claim you were there when everything went down. We’re going to have to ask you to come with us to the station.”

That smile again, as pretty as you please and filled with malice.

“That’s ridiculous,” Sam said. “Who are these supposed witnesses?”

Nora gave him a dark look, urging him to be silent. Better that he be ignored than dragged into the mess. She needed him doing the research she could no longer take the time to do herself.

“Do I need a lawyer?” Nora asked, pulling the focus off Sam. She wasn’t worried about herself, but she wanted any ugliness that might result from this encounter to unfold somewhere else.

Symes answered with a shrug of narrow shoulders. Mayhew might have a shady purpose here, but her partner was at least pretending to be nothing more than a cop doing his job.

“It’s just routine questions, Ms. Hesper,” Symes said. “No one is making accusations at this stage, but we’d like you to come down to the station with us. You’re a reporter. You know how this works.”

Nora looked at Sam, and he carefully nodded. He knew where she was going. He also knew, now, that she was Indigo and could handle a couple of police detectives if she had to.

She wondered if Mayhew had invented the witnesses, and if Symes knew about the cult. Were they working for Rafe Bogdani? She’d told Rafe her name was Shelby Coughlin, but he might have found out the truth. Just as it was possible that Shelby had been the one to tell him that truth.

You don’t even know if that’s her name, Nora thought.

Too many questions, and only one easy way to find the answers she needed. Demand them from the one person she could lay her hands on who might know something useful.

It was Nora’s turn to smile. “Happy to be of whatever help I can. Lead the way, Detectives.”

The police precinct house, she suspected, was the last place the detectives intended to take her, but Mayhew smiled and Symes nodded.

“I’ll talk to you soon, Sam.”

Sam smiled. “Count on it.”

“Jesus. It’s just some questions, kids,” Mayhew said. “Don’t worry, Mr. Loh. We’ll get her back to you safe and sound.”

Mayhew led the way, but Symes stayed where he was until Nora preceded him out of the room. Part of her wanted to run, but she knew the answers were here if they were anywhere.

“So what are these murders you’re talking about?” Nora asked as they walked along the corridor.

Mayhew shook her head and looked over her shoulder at Nora. “You’re a reporter, right? Where have you been? The murders that everyone is talking about. Some kind of cult thing gone wrong.”

“Cut her some slack. I never watch the news either. It’s too depressing,” Symes said with almost no inflection and certainly without malice.

Mayhew chuckled. “That’s what I like about you, Hugh. You have empathy. You always see the bright side.”

They reached the elevators in silence and stayed quiet all the way out to the unmarked police car. They’d left the vehicle in the no-parking zone and had a red-cherry light on the top of the car to warn away anyone who might think they’d earned a ticket.

Symes helped Nora into the backseat and even made sure she didn’t clock her skull on the low door. She wasn’t wearing cuffs. There had been no arrest.

Nora closed her eyes, still nervous. Indigo opened them again, calmer and prepared.

Symes drove and Mayhew looked back from the passenger seat. “So how did you miss the news? Were you out of the country?”

“I don’t watch the news much. I’m too busy following leads and writing articles.”

Mayhew stared at her, that damned smug smile still on her face, as if she were the only one in the car who understood the joke going down. “Investigative reporter, isn’t it? You should see the scene of the crime. It was grisly. Lots of corpses. Lots of blood. One minor marked and cut and murdered with a bunch of rich folks who were maybe out of their league.”