Witch Hunt(50)

“Finish your drink,” he said. “I have a phone conference I can’t miss.”
What was more important than a fugitive agent showing up at his door?
As if he could read my mind, Fritz said, “There’s been new evidence in your case. They’re debriefing me on it now.” He gave me a sideways smile. “With this new development, I’m sure the meeting won’t last long.”
I didn’t see anything amusing about it. My fingers tightened on the snifter hard enough that the pads went white.
Fritz followed his security guard or assistant or whatever into the kitchen. I could see through the doorway that Fritz’s kitchen was as nice as the rest of his house. Marble countertops, big island thing, cast iron cookware hanging from the rack. There was a freaking waterfall on the back wall.
I wasn’t sure how long it would be until the union     came to take me away, but I felt antsy, like I was going to get jumped at any moment. I paced the room, set the brandy on his antique bureau, checked my reflection in the mirror. The week had aged me. I was scruffy and sunburned and dirty.
I scrubbed my jaw and stared at the face of the man who had killed Erin Karwell. That guy deserved everything he was gonna get.#p#分页标题#e#
My hip buzzed.
I just about jumped out of my skin at the sensation. Patted my pockets. Felt something hard on the right side.
Domingo’s cell phone. I forgot that I’d been carrying it.
I glanced up at the kitchen. Fritz was still talking with his assistant, outlined in gold by the light through the window. They weren’t watching me. They didn’t notice when I stepped into the hall and answered the cell phone.
“You have to come back, Cèsar.”
Took me a second to recognize Isobel’s voice. She sounded like she was panicking. “Wait, what? Are you okay? What’s wrong?”
“It’s Agent Takeuchi—she did it, she was there—”
“Slow down, Izzy. What about Suzy? Where was she?”
“I grabbed some of Erin Karwell’s cremains before we ran. I’m sorry, I know it’s gross. But I used it to raise her again.”
“Why would you—”
“Cèsar, you’re as dangerous as a teddy bear. I needed more information.” Isobel plowed on without waiting for me to speak. The reception was bad—her voice crackled, faded, then came back. “—was there that night. At your apartment.”
What she was trying to tell me started to sink in.
“Suzy was there?”
“She was fucking there, Cèsar,” Isobel said. She didn’t seem to have heard me. I was losing her. “Erin saw her.”
It was impossible. No way Suzy would have been hiding that from me, not without a good reason. It didn’t mean she was a killer—it didn’t mean anything.
“Wait, there’s someone—” Isobel began.
The sound crackled, fuzzed, and cut off abruptly.
The call had died.






 
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CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Fritz’s front gate was closed. It was tall. And there were two black SUVs parked on the other side. The union     had arrived to arrest me, take me to a detention center, make me vanish.
They were going to be disappointed.
I veered off the path, hurtling through the gardens. “Sorry!” I shouted to a gardener as I pulverized his begonias.
There was a tree planted near the wall. It had been trimmed to keep the branches from hanging over the opposite side, but it was easy to climb from the gardens. Domingo and I had climbed a thousand trees to sneak out and party on the weekends, and my muscle memory hadn’t faded. I was over the wall in seconds.
I jumped over the side. Landed hard on my knees. Got up to run.
Hands grabbed my jacket from behind. I swung a right hook as I turned.
It was only Suzy’s lightning-fast reaction time that saved her from getting a face full of fist. She grabbed my wrist and twisted it behind my back. I felt my elbow pop.
“Suzy!”
She forced me to the ground with her grip on my arm. “Shut the fuck up, Cèsar,” she hissed under her breath. “They’re on the other side of that wall.”
Once she was sure I was quiet, she released me and leaned around the corner to look at the SUVs. Her hand rested on her hip where a holster should have been. For the first time, I wondered why she hadn’t been carrying her sidearm. I hadn’t seen her with it in days.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
“Looking for you.” She showed me a crystal filled with a faint turquoise glow. “Tracking spell. I used the clothes you left at my house as a focus.”