“So you don’t know either?”
Annoyance pulled the corners of Wren’s mouth down in a grumpy scowl. “I know more than you.”
“Not hard,” Ledger said. He pulled the folded-over envelope out of his back pocket and pulled out the creased sheet of old paper. There were probably archivists somewhere who’d felt a chill for no reason as he smoothed it out flat on the table. “But this? It gives me nothing. I might as well give up and see how far I can get from Sutton before the deadline.”
“Not far enough,” Wren told him absently. He chewed on the inside of his cheek as he tried to make a call. Finally, he made an annoyed sound and swung his feet off the table. The chair legs thumped against the floor as he leaned over to grab the deed. “OK. I’ll tell you what I know, but you keep this between us. The last thing I need is Earl deciding I can’t be trusted.”
Ledger stuck his hand across the table. “Done,” he said.
Wren looked surprised for a moment, then the line of his mouth soured, and he grabbed the offered hand. He gripped it hard, his fingers rough and warm, and dragged his thumb over the underside of Ledger’s wrist. The blunt scrape of his nail against the thin skin, so close to the raised blue veins, made all the things thatreallyshouldn’t be into that right now go tight.
“I’m not bound by deals,” Wren said. “I don’t have a soul. I’ve already told you once. How many times do I have to repeat it? I’m not human.”
Ledger could do with hearing it a couple more times, at least. Right now, his libido still had the upper hand over his survival instincts.
“Trust me, I got that when you ate those chicken bones last night,” Ledger said. He let his hand go limp and uncooperative in Wren’s grip. “It was more of a social shake than a supernatural one.”
Wren’s mood changed like someone had flipped a switch. His eyes relaxed, and his smile grew suddenly wide and oddly sweet.
“In that case,” he said as he gave Ledger’s loose arm a quick shake. “Done. We’re in this together now.”
CHAPTER6
WREN HAD SCAVENGEDa box of cured ham from the back of Bell’s fridge.
“I doubt that’s still good,” Ledger said. The electricity had been off for God knows how long, and it wasn’t likely Bell had been in the mood for a sandwich before he died. The cancer had, they’d assured Ledger when they called him, been quite advanced.
Wren peeled the plastic lid back and sniffed at it a couple of times.
“It’s fine,” he decided and sat back down at the table, the ham next to the padlock they’d levered off the front door. “I’ve got a strong stomach.”
Ledger didn’t ask. He tapped his finger on the bit of paper.
“What can you tell me about this?” he asked. “What does Earl want with it?”
“He doesn’t,” Wren said. He peeled off a strip of ham and tilted his head back to drop it into his mouth. “It’s just old paper. Hehasold paper. The name on the contract is what he needs.”
Ledger reached out and steepled his fingers on the paper. He turned it around and glanced down over the scratchy legalese.
“Hiram Perry?”
“No,” Wren said. “It’s the same day and the same notary’s office, but Hiram was born and died in New York. The only thing we know about whoever took possession of this property is that they came here. To Sutton.”
Which meant that whoever’s name was on the original document wasn’t really what Earl wanted. It was what they had.
Some way to die. Ledger couldn’t see the harm in bringing that to pass.
“So, what he wants is…,” Ledger paused to squint at the address, “twelve and a half Carroll Street?”
Wren looked uncomfortable. He picked up another slice of ham and slouched back in the chair, T-shirt pulled taut over his chest.
“I wasn’t there,” he said. “And I work for Earl, that’s all. He doesn’t tell me more than I need to know. Go here. Get that. Pay what it takes. Do what I’m told. All Iknowis that there was something in that house that he needs to die. Something that he believes is in Sutton, but he doesn’t knowwhobrought it here or who has it now.”
That was less concrete than Ledger had hoped for, but it was something.
“So, the only one who knew what was going on was Bell,” Ledger said. “He’d have enjoyed that.”
* * *
