She thought about it for a moment. “Not the way you’re thinking. Our best bet is to—wait. I thought of something.” She pulled out her phone again and looked up something, then dialed a number. After a moment, Penn said, “Can you tell me if the meeting of the Tetrachordian Temple is still going on, and how long it’s supposed to run?” She paused, then said, “Thank you.”
“Well?” I asked, finishing my food.
“She says the mixer’s scheduled to end around eleven. It’s nine now, so we have about two hours before they break up the party.” Penn finished her burger. “Let’s go.”
“We don’t know if they have any guards or dogs or anything,” I said.
“You’ve got all that demon strength. I have magic. And if they’re reptilian, like I suspect, they’re not going to keep guard dogs around, even when they’re in human shape.” Penn tossed two tens on the table. “I’ll get this.”
We headed out, waving at the waitress. Debbie’s Diner had good food, I thought, filing away the diner on my list of joints for good eats.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
The I-90 bridge was relatively clear—the game hadn’t ended yet, and it had started a couple hours ago, so we zoomed across, then turned south on our way towards the Sammamish-Issaquah area.
Sammamish was a suburb city, like the other cities that surrounded Seattle on the north, south, and east sides of Lake Washington. Not far from the iconic lake, and eight miles east of Seattle, Lake Sammamish was seven miles long, and about one and a half miles wide. At its north end, the lake drained into the Sammamish River, which in turn, meandered north to where it eventually fed into the north end of Lake Washington. All the bodies of water around here seemed to come together at some point—Lake Washington fed into Lake Union, which opened into Puget Sound. They were all one, big, watery family.
The park itself was over five hundred acres, with almost 7,000 feet of waterfront property. During the summer, boats, water-skiers, jet skiers, wind-surfers, and swimmers filled the lake while families on picnics, corporate groups on day-retreats, bikers, hikers, joggers, and sunbathers spread out through the park, enjoying the limited season of sunny days.
Unfortunately, swimmers braving the waters during winter didn’t fare as well. And at one point Ted Bundy had managed to abduct two of his victims, on the same day. Neither one made it out alive, and their remains were found some months later, near Issaquah.
Some said the ghosts of those two women haunted the park, but there were plenty of other ghosts hanging around, so it was hard to tell whether they were among the parks’ spirit-bound populace. So the lake had history, and both accidental and deliberate deaths had left their mark.
Erik and Analee’s house was at the southern part of the park, off of NW Sammamish Road, just past Sövde Landing. I glanced at my watch. We were a little early, but we parked in the lot, and slipped out of the car, leaning against the trunk.
The sun had set at nine, the weather had cleared, and the temperature had risen enough to be comfortable. The stars were coming out and it looked like we’d have a good amount of light from the waning crescent to see by.
“How long till the others get here?” Penn asked.
“I don’t know, but it shouldn’t be long,” I said. “I want to head over to the house, but—” But as I spoke, a car entered the parking lot. I recognized it as Dante’s. “Dante’s here.”
He parked and hopped out, heading toward us. “Hey, so what’s going on?”
“Wait for the others,” I said. Within another ten minutes, Lazenti and Orik arrived.
“So, here’s what we think,” I said. I told them about the meeting. “We’re not sure why they’re attracting people—other than for money. That’s one hell of an initiation fee and even ten members a year would be a quarter of a million.”
“That’s not spare change, for sure.” Dante frowned. “But there has to be more. There’s no dedicated temple or church or anything, as far as I can tell. They always hold their meetings in rented spaces. But Carson couldn’t find any mention of any permanent structure owned by the group.”
“Maybe it’s in their name, and not under the temple’s name?” Orik suggested.
“Good idea. Text Sophia, would you, and ask her to check all the properties owned by Erik and Analee.” I glanced at the sky. “Let’s go. If they close out the meeting around eleven, it will probably take them half an hour to get home. It’s ten-thirty now, so we have an hour on the outside.”
We headed across the parking lot at a good jog. Even Penn could run faster than most humans, and we made pretty good time. The house was about three-quarters of a mile from the parking lot. By cutting across the park, it took us barely ten minutes.
We reached the tree-shrouded front of the house by 10:40, and swung around the corner into the driveway, slowing as we crept through the shadows. The house, which was only a few hundred feet back from the lake had its own private pier. Lit by dim lights, the driveway showed one car, parked to the side. It could be a spare car, or there could be somebody there.
“What do you think?” I asked the others as we neared the house.
“They have cameras pointing at the driveway, so avoid the pavement area. Continue creeping along the side fence here,” Dante said. “In fact, give me a moment and I’ll run in, in my wolf form. They’re not going to think much if they see that on the camera. I could be just a huge Samoyed, for all they know.”
We stopped, crouching beneath a massive maple tree that was out in full leaf. Dante shifted form, then—still skirting the edge of the driveway—padded toward the house.
“It’s handy, having a shifter along,” Penn said.
“Most definitely. Thank gods he heals up so fast,” I said, settling back on a nearby rock that was the size of an ottoman.
We waited for someone to come out, but everything remained quiet. A few minutes later, Dante came running back, shifting as he skidded to a halt beside us.
