She stared at me with those hawk eyes, like I’d just said the last wrong thing.
“Did he speak to you of those things?”
The way she said it, so measured and calm, was more frightening than if she’d yelled at me.
“No. I was just guessing.”
She shook her head, and some of the stiffness melted out of her body. “Let’s not waste time. Come inside. I can draw up the information you need.”
She strode up her carefully tended walkway, the rolling stone river garden on either side flickering with shiny glass orbs, clever little stone structures, and just the right amount of herbs and tough succulents mimicking waterside plants and flowers.
“Shut the door,” Bertie said when we’d entered the foyer. “Come back to my office.”
We did as we were told and were standing next to her tidy wooden desk in her tidy, but thoroughly modern, office.
“What do you need to know?” she asked.
“The schedules of anyone who would be willing to help me hunt down Cooper. I’m thinking some of the Rossis, the Wolfes, maybe Crow or Odin, or someone who has some kind of tracking skill.”
“With or without their power?” she asked.
“Easiest without. That’s where the vamps and weres come in. But if I can talk a god into taking on their power for a limited time, and talk Crow into releasing it for them, that would work too.”
“And you expect me to know each of these individuals’ current schedules and predilections?” she asked archly.
“Don’t you?” Myra drawled.
She sniffed. “Yes,” she said. “I do.”
Her golden-tipped fingers flew across the keyboard, and she’d plucked information out of a variety of folders, compiled it all into one document, and pressed “print” in less than a minute.
“Now, ladies,” she said, as she stood and smoothed her hand down her tailored suit jacket. “I wish you both good fortune in finding your prey.” She held the single sheet of paper out to me. It was a list of over two dozen people in Ordinary, ranked from most willing and able to assist to the least. “If you still haven’t found Cooper by this evening, do come see me again.”
She gestured to the doorway, and Myra and I startled back into motion and made our way to the front door.
“Thank you for this,” I said, pausing on the porch while she locked the door. “It will really help.”
“I know it will, dear,” she said, patting my arm. “Everything is going to be just fine.”
She brushed past us, and was in her car and headed off to the rally before we’d even made it down her front path.
“Remind me never to let her run for political office,” I said.
Myra chuckled. “Oh, I don’t know. She’d clean up the town in a week and be ruling the world in a month flat. Now that you have the list, what’s the plan?”
“We go to the station, get Jean in on this, and raise ourselves a posse.”
Chapter 31
“YOU WANT us to hunt down your ex-boyfriend,” Odin said matter-of-factly. “And kill him.”
“No!” I said for the third time. “Not kill him. Yes, find him.”
We had gathered at the station. Roy was here to hold down the fort, and Ryder had been given the day off. Until further notice. I was surprised Myra had been that gentle on him.
We’d gone down the list, crossed out a few people we knew weren’t really “team players,” and had settled on calling in an even ten.
Out of those ten, eight people had showed up: Ben Rossi and Jame Wolfe, who both still looked like firefighters even though they were in jeans and T-shirts, the twins Senta and Page Rossi, and the gods Odin, Thorne, Crow, and Herri.
