I was surprised that Tandy would watch a horror film, but he seemed fine with Mud’s emotion. He paused the film and Mud tugged out her earbuds. I said, “You had to start her out withAliens? Why notAttack of the Killer TomatoesorSnakes on a Plane?”
“Creature from the Black Lagoon,” Margot suggested, sliding the donut box across the large table and plopping her gobag onto a chair. “Killer Clowns from Outer Space.”
Mud’s eyes went wider than I had ever seen them. “Really? Clowns are from space?”
“No. Not really,” I said severely. “These are movies, not reality. And my coworker—the empath—should have known better.”
“The empath”—he pointed at himself—“did know exactly what she needed to see. Something horrific that could be overcome. But no clowns. Never clowns.”
“Wimp. Scaredy-cat,” T. Laine said, coming back into the office.
“The weres may be scaredy-cats,” Tandy said. “I am not.”
“Right,” Margot said. “The weres. I need to use the ladies’ and stuff a few things in a locker. Who do I see about getting one?”
“Pick a locker with no lock and nothing inside,” T. Lainesaid. “Locker room is near the stairs you just came up. Sign on it says ‘Locker Room.’”
“Har-har.” Margot picked up her gear and headed back the way we came.
I pointed to the earbuds and Mud put them back in. The movie restarted. Quickly I updated them, saying softly, “Circles were all constructed in the waning moon. Maggots were at half of the sites. Vamps and witch are absolutely working together.”
T. Laine asked, “Any reason why we’re not telling our new feeb?”
I didn’t know why I hadn’t told Margot about the maggots. But... she had indicated a strange interest in Occam and Rick and the werecats’ sexual habits. It had felt oddly predatory and had aroused a protective instinct in me. I glanced at Mud, who was staring at the big screen as an alien burst out of a stomach cavity in an explosion of blood and goo. “No real reason,” I hedged.
Tandy looked at Mud and stood, stretching. “Come on, Mud,” he said, pausing the film. “I have a window that needs a window box with herbs. You can give me some suggestions. Then I think your sister will say it’s your bedtime.”
They left together. To our resident witch, I quickly detailed Margot’s odd interest in the werecats and shared her specific questions about Rick and Occam. T. Laine listened with narrowed eyes and a deep-rooted sense of suspicion. Then I added a few more details on the maggots, vamps, sacrifices, and the witch circles.
T. Laine said, “Noted. While you were gone, I think I put the runes together with the different sacrifices. The working where the white rats died had a single rune in an inner, tiny circle just big enough for the rats and the rune. Nauthiz. This one was the only rune not reversed. Nauthiz symbolizes distress, confusion, conflict, and the power of will and magic to overcome them. It’s both a recognition of one’s fate and an indication of self-initiated change. I think she’s using this circle to heal herself from something painful at the same time that she’s getting revenge. Or more clearly, using the revenge to heal herself.”
“Okay,” I said, glancing up the hallway. “What about the ones with the black cats?”
“They have Nauthiz merkstave, or upside down. That’s the curse part, intended to constrain freedom, bring distress and hard work that results in nothing. It’s intended for the recipient of the curse to feel deprivation, starvation, poverty, and extreme emotional emptiness and hunger. I think the spells start off without a cat in the middle and actually call black cats to the site to be used as sacrifice. If that’s so, then maybe Rick got caught in a calling. He’s experiencing some behavior changes that coincide with the black cat circles, but that doesn’t mean he’s the intended recipient. Or maybe I’m just in denial. I admit I’m guessing at a lot of it.” I didn’t reply and she went on. “It could be a kid trying to kill her bullies, or get back at an ex boyfriend. Maybe someone hates a football team that has a black cat for a mascot. It could be anything.”
“Let’s say you’re right and Rick isn’t the intended victim. What would happen if the witch caught Rick? Would Rick become the sacrificial victim?” I asked.
“I don’t know. And that scares me, which is why I’ve recommended that he play that infernal woodwind music twenty-four/seven.”
“Hard to do,” I said, “in a restaurant, in the shower, in meetings with the powers that be.”
“JoJo has requested a newfangled earbud that will work directly off his cell. Top-of-the-line Spook School device.”
“And Occam?” I asked.
“Occam is a spotted cat. He hasn’t been called. Either he isn’t as susceptible to the working or the curse, or spotted cats weren’t summoned. I’ll send a note to have him play the anti-shape-changing music just in case. Have you had a chance to talk to Rick about his tats?”
Margot came down the hallway and she had obviously heard the question. I stuffed a donut into my mouth and busied myself making coffee. I don’t think I fooled Margot at all.
•••
The clock read two a.m. I pushed away from my desk in my cubicle and went to the sleep room. I had confiscated Mud’s tablet when I put her on the mattress in the back room whereagents crashed when we were working twenty-plus-hour days. She was asleep, curled around a small clay pot of basil. Some girls would curl around a doll or stuffed animal. My sister chose a plant. I smiled in the dark and tiptoed toward the conference room.
T. Laine looked up from her laptop as I entered. I carried the old pot of coffee dregs to the break room and poured out the sludge before starting a new pot. No one had ever said that pots were to be started by the newest person in a room; it was more an unwritten rule.
As I worked T. Laine said, “I’m worried. Or may be worried. Might be.”
“Okay.” I added grounds and said, “You want to brainstorm?”
