Part 4 (1/2)

Her big brother kept his mouth shut for once. Both of them retreated from the edge of the stairs. I'd forgotten how they both hated the bas.e.m.e.nt, but I was glad to remember it, even if I didn't understand it. I don't think it's haunted or anything, though I could be wrong, and no, there aren't any windows-but most of the windows upstairs are boarded up anyway, so it's not very different from any other floor.

Whatever the reason, I was glad they avoided it, and I was doubly glad now that I was hiding bodies down there. The odds were low that either child would take a spade and investigate a mushy spot in the wall even if they did find such a hole.

By the time I'd concealed Trevor as well as he was going to get concealed, the kids were getting impatient and I wasn't getting any cleaner. I shuddered to wonder what I looked like. I could take a guess, and that guess was gruesome.

At least my hair was dark enough not to show any splatter-and that was one more advantage to having it short: It stayed out of tasty open wounds.

There was no working washroom down in the bas.e.m.e.nt, but there was one on the first floor, and that was where my purse was still located, anyway. I wiped my face on the back of my sleeve, hoped I wasn't leaving some ghastly clot sitting on my cheek, and took the stairs back up to the cubbyhole where I'd tossed my personal effects.

Pepper was there, solemn and silent, with her hands folded behind her back. She could be a creepy thing sometimes. That's probably why I like her so much.

”Hey.” I gave her an awkward greeting. I didn't try to hide the cubbyhole, since it was busted wide open and the kids had surely seen it already. I reached inside and retrieved my bag, then told her, ”I'm going to hit the ladies' room. Give me a second, huh?”

Inside the narrow water closet the kids had stuck a piece of broken mirror up over the sink. The mirror told me I'd seen better days, but I wasn't about to instigate widespread panic with my appearance, either. I made a show of was.h.i.+ng up and pretending that I was an ordinary, civilized woman who was, perhaps, recovering from a bad date-and who had most certainly not not been hiding bodies in anybody's bas.e.m.e.nt. been hiding bodies in anybody's bas.e.m.e.nt.

My hands had gotten the worst of it. I scrubbed as much of the muck out from under my nails as I could, splashed a little water on my face, and left the restroom with what I hoped was a friendly smile.

”Hey guys,” I said to the pair of them, since they were both hanging out right on the other side of the bathroom door like a couple of cats. ”You two, uh. Are you all right?”

Domino answered with another question. ”What the h.e.l.l happened?” he demanded, his scruffy little almost-gonna-be-facial-hair swirling around on his chin.

My smile dissolved, to be replaced by an eye roll. ”Ask your sister,” I said.

”I did. She said some guy broke in here. Guys aren't supposed to break in here,” he informed me, as if it were a news flash. ”Who was he?”

I said, ”Trevor. He was just looking around. It's taken care of, and I'd like to consider the subject dropped.”

”Where is he?”

”Didn't I just say something about a dropped subject? He left.”

The boy fired off a frown that called me a liar. ”He left?”

”Yes. I threw him out. He won't be coming back.”

”You threw him out from the bas.e.m.e.nt?”

”No,” I lied. ”I threw him out through the first floor, before you got here. I went down in the bas.e.m.e.nt because I was looking for something. I figured, since Pepper had called me here with an alarm, I might as well be productive.”

Domino was not convinced. He folded his arms and acted like he wasn't going to let me past him until I gave him some answers, but I don't take orders from teenage boys, and I moved him aside by twisting his shoulder like it was the hot-water k.n.o.b in the shower. He squealed a protest and said to my back as I walked away, ”What was it?”

”What?”

”What did you get from downstairs?”

d.a.m.n him for being so sharp. ”Nothing.” And that was the truth, wasn't it? ”I couldn't find it. That's what took me so long. I was...digging around.” More truth. I was practically telling the truth! Look at me, a veritable choir girl.

”What were you looking for looking for?” He tagged along behind me, and Pepper tagged along behind him.

I led them Pied-Piper-style into the stairwell and up to the second floor, where they live. I said, ”That's none of your G.o.dd.a.m.n business, and you know it. What are the rules? Do I need to make a list of rules again? I know you thought they were insulting, but you're almost a man now. It's about time you learned how to take an insult from a woman.”

I was mostly being flippant, but I got a bit mean because if I could p.i.s.s him off, I could distract him from the original subject.

”You're a b.i.t.c.h,” he spit. I told you he was obnoxious.

”So go find another landlord, you little s.h.i.+t. Speaking of which, how are the accommodations holding up, my darling illegal tenants?”

”They suck,” he complained.

”They don't suck,” Pepper argued. ”They're fine. Everything's fine, like you said.”

”Good to hear, baby. Heat's still running all right?”

”No,” Domino groused. ”It's freezing downstairs.”

”But it's warm enough on this this floor, right?” I asked. floor, right?” I asked.

”Yeah, it's okay,” he sullenly confessed.

”Then I don't care about the rest of the place. I can see that the power's still working, though I owe you a new lightbulb,” I noted. The heat didn't work anywhere else in the building, by my own design. For one thing, heating that monster of a place was f.u.c.king expensive. For another, I kept my least interesting stuff on the second floor, so the less time they spent wandering the other levels, the better. If there weren't so much of it, I'd just haul it all down to the bas.e.m.e.nt and trust that they wouldn't touch it, but it's so hideously damp that nothing will keep. I already have to run half a dozen dehumidifiers upstairs to keep the contents from moldering into oblivion. That's where the rest of the power bill goes.

I put my hands on my hips and looked around, trying to see what-if anything-Trevor had disturbed. I didn't see anything opened or tampered with, and then I remembered that there was a short, beady-eyed witness standing right behind me.

”Peps, what did our uninvited guest seem most interested in?”

She shrugged and said, ”I don't know. He was just looking around. And climbing around. He could climb real good.”

”Yes he could,” I agreed. I hadn't seen him do anything special, but he hadn't made it to the machinery rail by teleporting. ”I wonder what he wanted.”

”You didn't ask him?” Domino said, naked skepticism dripping off his words.

”He wasn't very forthcoming,” I murmured.

Pepper asked, ”What does that mean?”

”It means I asked, but he wouldn't tell me. Listen, hang on, would you? Let me go get another lightbulb. I'll swipe one from downstairs.” I trotted back down there, removed the bulb, then returned, pus.h.i.+ng a crate underneath the contractor's cage with the long orange cord. I crawled on top of the crate and screwed the bulb into the groove. It came on, searing my eyes with the suddenness of its glare.

I looked away, and then back at the room underneath me.

Off in the corner, a mattress was lying on the floor, covered with a gorgeous silk and feather-down duvet that was intended for use on my bed, only it never made it there. I'd bought it in India a couple of years before; I'd been indulging in some retail therapy in an attempt to unwind from a difficult case when I spied the blood-red bedding with pretty, understated swaths of gold threadwork. I bought it, boxed it up with some other goodies for yours truly, and s.h.i.+pped it back to the States to the storage facility via a museum contact of mine.

That museum contact is another story. I'll get around to telling it later; I'm wandering far enough off topic as it is.

Anyway, I got home to Seattle and went looking for my box of goodies, and when I found it, it had been opened. It had been raided. And the culprits were still in the building. I rounded up Domino and interrogated him, because I couldn't find Pepper-who back then was just plain tiny tiny, and who has always had a gift for hiding in unlikely and inaccessible places.

Domino clearly didn't know s.h.i.+t. I figured out he was only squatting so I made plans for better locks and prepared to evict him...but I couldn't. He wouldn't let me, and he had a good excuse. His little sister was somewhere in the building and he couldn't find her. He couldn't leave without her, could he? No, no of course not.