There was a knock on the open door, and Elvira squeaked her way across the uneven floorboards to my desk.
‘Well, that’s going to be annoying,’ she said as she sat in my guest chair. ‘Sounds like mice with every step you take.’ She looked around at our somewhat shabby surroundings. ‘Looks like mice,’ she muttered.
‘There are no mice,’ I said firmly. I was probably telling the truth, but I couldn’t deny our new office had a somewhat musty odour.
‘If there are any rodents scurrying around, McCaffrey will let us borrow Miss Marple. She’s already promised.’
‘What’s up?’ I asked.
Elvira shifted in the chair. ‘I let you down,’ she said quietly, looking at her feet.
I snorted. ‘Fuck off. You clocked off. That’s it. That’s your whole crime.’
‘I knew Faraday had called off my replacement. I got the call to go home, and I knew there wasn’t another vehicle replacing me. And I left.’
‘Of course you did. You’d already put in a long-ass day. Put it to bed, Elvira. I don’t blame you. Not one bit.’
‘You got kidnapped!’
‘Yeah. It’s embarrassing.’ I shook my head in mock-disbelief.
It was Elvira’s turn to snort. ‘Notthatembarrassing. You came out guns blazing.’ She paused. ‘Well, knives stabbing,’ she amended. ‘Did you see the articleThe Mystic Informerran on you? It sang your praises. Whoever is writing these pieces has a crush on you.’
I shot her an ego-shrivelling gaze.
She grinned back, unrepentant kohl-lined eyes looking more like her usual self. ‘All right, so I was just checking that you weren’t holding a grudge.’ She shrugged like it was no big deal.
‘No grudges,’ I confirmed. ‘We’re good.’
‘Good.’
I stood, walked over to the door, and shut it. Then I sat on my desk and leaned close to her. ‘If you’re done having a wobble, I have something serious I need to discuss with you.’
‘No shit. You closed the door and everything.’
I ignored the sass. ‘Have you ever heard of an organisation called the Domini?’
She paled. ‘Well shit. That’s who took you?’
‘I’m not sure if they took me so much as an operative of theirs was part of the kidnapping team, but I can’t rule it out either. I don’t know for sure, but Beeks had their symbol on his shoulder.’
‘Fuck.’ She rubbed both hands over her face. ‘They’re bad news, Stacy. Even for us. Steer clear of them.’
‘That doesn’t appear to be an option. Got kidnapped, remember?’
She worried at her shirt cuffs. ‘All right,’ she said, voice low. ‘If you’re going to go hunting, then you need to know what you’re getting into. Truthfully, I’ve been looking into them for years. Really fucking carefully. Here’s what I’ve got so far. The Domini is an ancient organisation. They’ve existed for hundreds of years, way longer than the Connection. Rumour has it that some of the Domini leaders set up the Connection to help leverage other species.’
‘Does that mean the higher-ups in the Connection are Domini?’
She grimaced. ‘Isn’t that the million-pound question? I don’t know. Why do you think I’m tiptoeing so carefully with this shit? I came across them much like you did, I guess, in a case. A messy, horrible case that stayed with me. I found out the names of the people who pulled the strings to order the death, and that was The Order. That’s what the Domini call themselves, you know in a fanatical cult-like way.’
‘Beeks was Anti-Crea. Is there a connection there?’
Elvira shook her head. ‘We don’t think so.’
‘We?’
‘Bland and I have been digging into them in our spare time together.’
