Well, kicking one woman with both feet, which I did not remember doing. But she ended up on the floor and so had been safe.
There were several still shots of me with my face contorted. I knew when I saw them that I had been in the midst of fighting bloodlust. I had won that battle and kept my magic at bay, which should have made me happy. Except that it was more likely that the presence ofdeath and decayhad more effect than my own will. The footage played again, slower.
The woman with the broken leg had been on the way to the restroom and when I ran through the door shouting for people to get out of the way, she had stopped and looked around for the problem. Typical civilian. Once upon a time I might have done the same thing. Instead I followed orders and kept people alive. I blew out a breath that puffed my cheeks.
I met FireWind’s eyes. “Thank you. And thank you, Jo, for picking a place.”
“My pleasure, Ingram,” and “Anytime, country hick chick,” were spoken at the same moment, overlapping. FireWind said, “Let’s continue with Nell and me clearing the coffee shop and the arrival of the local police, ambulances, and later, the arrival of the local witches.”
The footage showed us clearing the coffee shop, FireWind lifting the woman with the broken leg and carrying her out back. Me making calls. Local PD and medic units arriving. A fire truck, in case the revving truck caught on fire.
T. Laine said, “Since no local coven leaders have been answering or returning my calls, and with the North Nashville coven so busy shielding multiple sites, I did an end run. I contacted Wendy Cornwall, one of the local witches who helped close the hellmouth. She got Theresa Anderson-Kentner, Suzanne Richardson-White, and Barbara Traywick Hasebe to help her, which gave us four witches. With the long-distance advice of Astrid Grainger, they managed, barely, to contain and shield thedeath and decayin the truck and not let it spread.”
FireWind said, “This why we need more covens on a consultation basis. You are wearing yourself too thin.” When Lainie stiffened, FireWind said, calm lacing his words, “It was not a complaint, Kent. It was an observation. I do not want you to fall apart. You are too important to PsyLED, to this unit, and to me.”
T. Laine blinked several times as if it took time for her to process his words. As if to cover her reaction, she said, “I headed back as fast as lights and sirens let me, but I was still ninety minutes getting to the coffee shop. Astrid talked Wendy through a new working that Astrid and her coven have been testing the last few days. It was moderately successful.” On the screen, I saw the local witches we had worked with in the past. The local covens had been resistant to working with PsyLED for a long time, but the recent misfortunes had driven some ofthem closer to T. Laine, close enough for them to trust her and work with her even when the coven leaders were recalcitrant.
“The circle they set up in the debris and the working that followed was enough to shield the decay of the man in the truck, and the truck itself,” FireWind said. “His body is now undergoing a postmortem examination inside the portable null room purchased yesterday from the North Nashville coven by UTMC.”
“They bought it?” T. Laine said, startled.
“Yes,” FireWind said. “It will be outfitted for first responders and can be transported off-site for emergency use at scenes.”
He shifted to me. “Nell, Dr. Gomez asked after you. The forensic pathologist with a minor in paranormal medicine?” he said, reminding me who she was. “I have the impression she wants to examine you.”
“Yeah. Probably looking forward toexaminingme on her autopsy table someday.”
Occam, still too close to his cat, went all catty-still and I realized I shouldn’t have said that. I patted his hand where it gripped the chair arm hard enough to stretch the fake leather.
FireWind tilted his head for me to continue, but I shook my head. I had been a patient at UTMC a few times before I stopped letting Unit Eighteen take me there when injured. The paranormal doctors became way too interested in me when they realized I wasn’t human and wasn’t anything they had seen before. I figured that patient confidentiality only went so far when a doctor was feeling nosy, and that Gomez had gotten into my records despite HIPAA.
“I got something,” JoJo said, interrupting us. “I got a name change,” she said, excitement in her voice. “Elizabeth Racine Alcock changed her name legally after she left the commune. She took the name Cadence Blue Thompkins. I show a new birth certificate, new IDs, new everything. She married four years ago and took her husband’s name, which changed it yet again. No wonder it’s been so hard to track her.
“She’s now Cadence Blue Thompkins Merriweather. She lives in Kingston, halfway between Knoxville and Cookeville. Her husband is a conservative businessman.” Her fingers flew, her lips pursed, and Unit Eighteen looked suddenly revived. “A CEO of a large, politically active, financially successfulcompany that makes...” Jo leaned in and read, “Ball bearings, sleeves, flanges, and thrust bearings, whatever they are, in bronze, copper, brass, iron, sintered products—again with the ‘whatever they are’—self-lubricated bushings and wearplate. I have no idea what most of that stuff is, but it makes them a lot of money. The couple are movers and shakers.”
“Dollars to donuts says her new husband doesn’t know about the commune years,” Occam said, sounding more his human self.
“If she changed her name there might be real good reasons why,” T. Laine said. “Privacy reasons.”
Jo said, “I’ve tracked the name change paperwork...” Tapping on the keyboard increased in speed. “She was born in Florida, Union County. And that leads me to check the Florida system aaaand... Yes! She has a juvie record under the name Elizabeth R. Alcock. Sealed. Hang on.” Her fingers flew. Files appeared on the screen and were just as quickly removed. “Yeah. Got you. She came from the middle of bumfu—fart nowhere. Family on welfare and food stamps.” She typed furiously, files flashing onto the screens.
“About six months before she was remanded into the system, there was a death in the area. A schoolteacher was shot and killed. Aaaaand yes, she was in his classes. Looks like someone tried to hush up reports that some of the kids had been abused.”
JoJo looked at FireWind. “There were complaints from social services that she should never have been charged, and should certainly never have been remanded into the juvie system.” JoJo leaned away from her electronics and pushed a loose braid back from her eyes. “She got a bad deal in court and even worse in juvie. There are reports...” Jo stopped and started under a different tack. “When she changed her name, she did it right. She’s probably still running from something. Privacy protocols should be followed. Sir.”
“We’ll approach her carefully, Jones. Quietly,” FireWind said. “When will Margot Racer and LaFleur be back from Chattanooga?”
“They’re halfway back now,” JoJo said. “They wrapped this morning.”
“Mmmm,” FireWind mused. “Divert them to Racine’s address. Ingram and I will meet them in Kingston.”
“Sending her address and the husband’s business address to your cells,” Jo said. “I’ll forward her contact info and cell as soon as I have it.”
I went to gather my things, knowing that FireWind had chosen me because of my background. Because I’d be the one to bond with a woman who killed her abuser, if that was possible at all.
***
As FireWind drove I studied up on Kingston, which was close enough to Knoxville to qualify as a bedroom community of the larger city. Tennessee was a long narrow state, and most of it was rich with water resources, with rivers and reservoirs created by dams and hydroelectric plants. Yet large swaths of the state were powered by coal. The Clinch River and the Emory River met in Roane County, practically in downtown Kingston, the water resources managed by dams. The farmland was lush, the mean income was somewhere in the midrange of the state, and the area’s power was provided by a huge coal power plant built in 1955. When I told that to FireWind he asked mildly, “And all this is important why?”
