“It’s worth keeping him from ruling Seattle. Seton has been looking into what information he can find out about Ezerian—we don’t really have a lot to go on, except that he…my father…is from one of the nobility.” I paused, as my words actually sank in. “Good gods, I’m partial nobility in the realm of Demonkin. I have no idea how to feel about that.”
“You need backup at dinner?” Dante asked.
“I think that’s too dangerous. Okay, let’s move on. What’s on the agenda, Sophia? You say we have two pending cases?” I wanted to sidestep any idea of anybody following me. We couldn’t afford to fuck up this assignment.
Sophia cleared her throat. “I’ve already done an intake interview with the first client. Her name is Wendy Ryle. She’s looking for her husband, Mark, who’s vanished.”
I frowned. “Did he run out on her?”
“She doesn’t think so, though the cops do. They’ve been married for twenty-one years and she said they’ve never had any problems until recently. He left for a club meeting one night and vanished on the way home. He called her and said he was heading home, but never made it.”
“They check the hospitals?” Carson asked.
“Hospitals, morgue, police stations. The cops checked everywhere but found no trace. His car vanished, and his phone hasn’t been used since that afternoon. However, their mutual bank account was drained. The bank’s video surveillance shows Mark at the bank that very afternoon, where he emptied the account except for five-thousand dollars. He took twenty-five thousand dollars. So the cops think he's run off.” Sophia opened the file folder and pulled out a photo, setting it on the table.
We all leaned in. The man in the picture was handsome, though rather nondescript. He looked to be in his forties, with pale hair, a lightly tanned face, blue eyes, and no distinguishing marks, and he was wearing a white shirt with a brown tie.
“What’s his name again?” I asked.
“Mark Ryle. He’s forty-five, and he’s an accountant. From everything Wendy said, he’s never been in trouble, he doesn’t drink, no drugs, no affairs…” Sophia frowned. “They’ve been having a few problems, she said.”
“Did she say what kind of problems? I know she thinks he didn’t run off, but it happens more often than people think,” Orik said. “And usually, one spouse is totally blind to the issues.”
“I suppose, but I have the feeling that she’s right and that he’s in trouble,” Sophia said. “I had a flash when I was gathering her information.”
Sophia was an oracle. She had run away from Olympus when Zeus tried to put the make on her, and now she was hiding out on earth, trying to keep out of his sight. Hecate knew she was here, but had promised to say nothing.
“What kind of a flash?” I asked.
Sophia hesitated, closing her eyes. “I see…saw…a dark passage. I don’t think it’s in the Underground, but maybe the sewer. And I hear something growling. It’s not a lion, but more guttural. I smell…I smell ocean brine and I can hear the crashing of water. Everything smells rotten, like old fish left out too long on the beach.”
My stomach flipped, just enough to tell me she was onto something. “Anything else?”
After another moment, Sophia said, “The only thing I know is that Mark isn’t walking the world anymore.”
“He’s dead?” Dante asked.
Sophia shook her head. “Not dead…he’s still here, but he’s not here. That’s all I can see.” She opened her eyes. “I didn’t tell Wendy because I didn’t want her to be afraid. And if she told the cops about it, they’d only suspect her. We don’t know what’s really going on, and I could be wrong. I’ve been wrong before.”
“You don’t really think you’re wrong, though, do you?” Orik asked.
Sophia thought for a moment, then shrugged. “I guess I don’t. My gut says I’m right, but I wasn’t going to crush her hopes. Not until we have proof.”
“Well, where do we go from here?” I asked. “We have to check out the obvious possibilities even if they don’t align with our focus.”
“We check for girlfriends, for groups he’s been involved with. We check the hospitals and homeless shelters. Out of curiosity, are they both human?” Carson asked.
Sophia glanced at the intake form. “He’s human, Wendy’s a selkie.”
“A selkie?” My nail tech, who worked on the bottom floor of the building we were renting, owned a nail salon. And she was a selkie. “Maybe I’ll talk to Ami. Not that all selkies know one another, but they’re few and far between. Maybe she’s somehow heard of Wendy and can offer some sort of insight.” But even as I said it, I had the feeling that this was far out of Wendy’s realm and had nothing to do with the other selkies.
“Should we take the case?” Sophia asked.
I nodded. “Call her, get a retainer and make an appointment for Dante and me to visit her. Tell her we’ll look into it, and if we don’t find anything, we’ll let it go for the retainer. If we find anything that needs further exploration, we can discuss terms. There’s so much we don’t know, yet, and I don’t want to make promises we can’t keep. And if he wanted to vanish…we don’t have the right to step in.”
“Sounds good. Where do we start?” she asked.
I glanced at Carson. “Carson, can you research Mark and Wendy’s backgrounds? Sophia, check the hospitals and clinics for any mention of him. Dante and I will talk to Wendy. Orik, go over the intake form again. See if we missed anything. Now, what about our eleven-thirty?”
