“No, he didn’t.”
Kowalski was one of a handful of people in Lakeside who knew about the jewels in Boo Bear. But word would get out. With a fortune sitting inside that bear, and the death of a police officer’s former lover added to the mix, word would get out.
“Do you think he knows?” Kowalski asked.
“He knows. He’s not interested in the bear . . . or the child. Elayne Borden got tangled up in some kind of mess, and I’d bet a year’s salary that it’s connected to Nicholas Scratch and the HFL movement.”
“She’s dead?”
“Yes.”
Kowalski nodded. “Hoped I was wrong, but I kind of figured . . . Lieutenant Montgomery asked me to check his messages when I went to his apartment. There wasn’t anything from Lizzy’s mom. You’d think, if she could, she would have called to make sure Lizzy got to Lakeside all right.”
“With the woman dead, the child is now in the middle of this. Until we have a better idea of what’s going on, we all need to stay sharp. You’re going to the Courtyard?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Then you tell Lieutenant Montgomery to keep his mobile phone turned off. I don’t want him hearing about Elayne from anyone but me. Tell him we have to take a formal statement from Lizzy, and I need to talk to him beforehand, so he’s to wait in the Courtyard until I get there. And find out if Vladimir Sanguinati will be available to talk to me.”
“Yes, sir.”
When Kowalski walked out, Pete walked back in.
“You think that Toland cop is compromised in some way?” Pete asked.
“Nicholas Scratch is linked to the Humans First and Last movement. Smear the reputation of one and you damage both. If Scaffoldon does belong to the HFL, I think he’ll do whatever it takes to make sure Scratch’s name isn’t connected with Elayne Borden.”
“Humans First and Last is a seductive idea. To have everything you need and also not be afraid of what’s out there because it isn’t out there anymore.”
Burke snorted. “You lived in a small town in the Midwest. How many terra indigene did you interact with?”
“You still know they’re out there.”
“You know there are human muggers and rapists and killers out there too. But you still leave your house and go to work. Eve is out running errands. The kids are in school. Some of the people you see in courtrooms are far more dangerous to your family than a Hawk soaring overhead looking for his dinner or a Crow perched in a tree, curious about something it spotted in your yard.”
Pete gave him a crooked smile. “It’s still a seductive idea.”
“The first humans and the last humans,” Burke said grimly. “The last humans in a city, in a region, on a continent? In the world?”
“That’s not what Humans First and Last means.”
Burke came around the desk and indicated that Pete should precede him out of the office.
But Pete stopped at the doorway and studied him. “That’s not what it means.”
“I think the meaning depends on whether you’re human or one of the terra indigene.”
CHAPTER 18
Watersday, Maius 12
Monty jackknifed to a sitting position, his heart pounding as he tried to shake off the dream that had scared him out of a fitful sleep.
Hearing the toilet flush and water running in the sink, he ran his hands over his head and tried to steady his breathing.