Frost Burned (Mercy Thompson #7)(77)

Armstrong's mouth quirked. "Have you ever met the senator?"

"No, sir."

"I have. He might just take you up on your offer. He is not as anti-werewolf as he is painted. He just doesn't like it when they go around eating people."

Put like that, he didn't sound so bad. But I'd heard some of his speeches.

Adam nodded, but his voice was reserved when he said, "It would please me if he accepted. If something happens to him at this point, it will cause people to blame the werewolves. I'd rather he and his family be safe and sound for years to come."

"And that leaves the money man," said Kyle.

"Yes," said Adam. He looked at Armstrong. "Do you have any idea where the money is coming from?"

"No. Alexander Bennet - he was the man in charge, and probably the one who shot your man - Bennet's financials show nothing unusual and neither do those of any of the people who were likely associated with him. FYI, identifying those people is going to be a nightmare. Looking for people in Cantrip who have problems with werewolves and the current legislation is like looking for cheese in Wisconsin. Bennet just didn't show up for work one day, and there are two more like that. One of them had a heart attack and is in the emergency room of a hospital, the other is likely to be ashes here - unless she ran off and got married or something. We have to check out everyone who is working from home, on leave, on vacation - or used to work for Cantrip at some point in time. If you had left the bodies, it would have made that part of my job much easier."

Warren, who until that point had been silent, said, "I have driver's licenses for you - though we don't have any ID for the people that were buried next to Peter. You'll be able to figure out who they are from their bodies."

Adam looked at him.

"If you'll pardon me, boss, you weren't in any condition to be thinking of things like that. But it occurred to some of us that we might find it useful to know who our enemies are." He looked at Armstrong. "I'll give you copies and keep the originals."

Armstrong looked as though he'd like to argue, but under Warren's scrutiny, he subsided.

"Okay," said Tony. "One more thing. Adam, you are going to have to come up with a story to tell the press that will fly with my superiors."

Adam nodded. "Jim Gutstein is going to call in a few favors, and tonight I'll talk to the press out of Kyle's office. I'll take Mercy's story and run with it."

"Let me help," said Armstrong. "I have some experience in taking scary things and making them ordinary."

"This is all well and good," said Sylvia. "But you need to explain to me why Maia told me she rode here with a dead body."

"That is my fault," Asil said.

"More bodies?" said Armstrong.

"I thought there weren't any bodies at Sylvia's?" Tony was frowning.

"Someone sent a team of assassins after Jesse and Mercy," Tad said, and looked at me. "They were waiting for you, Mercy. Now that I've had time to think about it, I think they were in place before I even got to Sylvia's to watch over the kids."

Tad cleared his throat and gave me a sheepish smile. "I felt them when I got there. It's one of the reasons I got close enough that the kids spotted me. After a while, when nothing happened, I figured that there was someone like me living in the apartment complex - half-fae and not required to be in the reservation."

"I thought all fae were required to go," Armstrong said. "That was our briefing."

Tad shook his head. "No. Only those deemed powerful enough to be of use. But these assassins, like Agent Armstrong's people, were renegades - "

The door popped open, and a wet and bright green swimming-suit-clad Sofia Sandoval flew in. "Mercy, Mercy. Gabriel says come quick. Someone hit your car. Smooshed the trunk."

I was dead. Marsilia was going to kill me for killing her car, and I didn't really blame her at all.

Everyone in the meeting boiled out to look - as much to get out and move than because anyone else was concerned. It wasn't quite five o'clock, but this late in the fall, the sun had set while we'd been talking, and the rear of the car was beyond the streetlight. I have good night vision, but even my eyes need a minute to adjust between indoor artificial light and darkness.

But it didn't matter, because I didn't get to the car before Gabriel snagged me and pulled me aside with some urgency.

He spoke quickly and quietly. "I think we are in real trouble. We'd just finished getting the kids out of the hot tub in the backyard. Jesse and Mary Jo took everyone else upstairs to dry off and change, but Sofia stayed out to help me put the cover back on the hot tub. We heard a crash and came out front to see what happened. I thought at first someone had just done a hit-and-run on the car."

He gestured, and I could see the top of the trunk, which had a reverse dent rising from the middle. "I sent Sofia in for you so I could shut the trunk before she saw the body. I didn't see anyone driving off. Just a woman on the street. Looked like she was jogging, you know? Making good time, too. I thought about heading after her to see if she'd seen anything, but then I noticed just how odd the trunk was, so I took a better look." He leaned in, and said, very softly. "The body was gone, Mercy. And the sound we heard was her hitting the lid of the trunk so she could get out."