Rick said, “Your liaison position hasn’t been approved.”
“No. It hasn’t. But it will be.”
A single word appeared on my screen.Uncertain.Thatmeant either that she was uncertain of the truth, or Tandy was uncertain. Rick hadn’t had time to finesse the communications with our resident lie detector.
A quote from Shakespeare rose in my brain. ’Tisbest to weigh the enemy more mighty than he seems.There was nothing about Loriann that looked dangerous, but Loriann had multiple motives and lots of secrets. I looked at the faces around the table. The unit knew that.
“Tell me what you know about the witch circle,” Rick said.
“Black witches commonly use Circle of the Moon workings three days of the full moon. The workings are a curse. From the photos, it’s one of the most complicated circles I’ve ever seen. It’s not only a curse, it’s a summons. It has properties of binding to it. And even though I don’t know all it does, I’m pretty sure if it’s invoked on the dark of the moon, all hell will break loose.”
True.Beneath it appeared the wordUncertain.Mixed messages from Tandy, resulting from mixed messages from Loriann. She was still standing in the doorway like a supplicant. This didn’t feel like the Reid interrogation technique. It felt like something else.
“Summons?” Rick asked. “For what?”
“I don’t know.”
Lie. Uncertain.
“T. Laine?” Rick asked. “Evaluate.”
“Nonspecific,” T. Laine said in her best cop voice. “Ambiguous. And comprising little we don’t already know. Who will be cursed? Who will be summoned? Who will be bound? And what part of hell will break loose?”
“I don’t know.” Loriann’s fists bunched.
Lie.
Loriann knew a lot more than she was telling us.
“We don’t need you here for this,” T. Laine said, her tone insolent, a shade from insulting.
“You do. You’re a lone witch. You need a coven to fight this, even if it’s only a small coven. A coven of two is better than none.”
True.
Rick said, “Step out into the hallway. Close the door. Wait.”
Loriann opened her mouth to argue, closed it. Followed orders. The door shut with a soft snap. “Secure us,” he said to T. Laine and JoJo. Our witch nodded, withdrew a small moonstone from a pocket, and tapped it three times on the table. A smallhedge of thornsleaped up around us, tingling on my skin. Thehedgemade sure our magical visitor couldn’t hear. JoJo switched off Clementine so there was no recording.
“I don’t know if she can be believed aboutanythingrelating to this case.” Rick sat back in his chair, relaxing for the first time since he woke. Thoughtfully, he shifted his eyes around the table. “Assessment. Kent?”
“If it was up to me, I’d set her tail on fire and put her on a flight back to New Orleans,” T. Laine said.
“I’m not rich, but I’ll pay her way myself,” JoJo grumped. “That girl sets my teeth on edge.”
“Occam?” Rick asked.
The werecat shook his head, his eyes still haunted. “We got some bad stuff happening, boss. Too much bad stuff. If she has a snowball’s chance in hell of helping out on even a portion of it, then let her stay.”
“Tandy?” Rick asked.
“Loriann Ethier is lying. She is so full of anger, guilt, and jealousy that the emotions swirl around her like a slow-moving, dark tornado. But—” Tandy looked at JoJo, and she nodded at him to continue, as if there had been some silent communication between them, question and answer. “But I think the tornado is destroying her inside, rather than a landscape outside of herself. I think she’s profoundly self-destructive and utterly, dreadfully dangerous.”
Rick nodded slowly, his head moving against the windows. “Yes. Yes. She has always carried those emotions, always been turned against herself. I think it started when she couldn’t protect her family from Isleen. Nell?”
“If she stays, someone has to watch her. And I don’t want her at Soulwood.”
“Why?” Rick asked.
