“He thinks he’s infallible,” I said.
“Did he spill your Morton blood?”
“Yes, Grandmother.”
“Then kill him. That girl of yours, I’m seeing her nearby.”
“They drugged her.”
“And Garrett is correct—Lyon has an obsession with her?”
“Yes, Grandmother.”
“She did seem enchanting at Peter’s wake. Such bright, sharp eyes. We need to avoid a lengthy investigation into Dr. Lyon’s death. We don’t want his kingdom unraveling before we can take it.”
“An accident, then.”
“No, a murder. But a simple one for the police to solve. A suspect with motive.”
“Hiromi,” I said, staring at the windows of the resort.
“His obsession, his surveillance, and now drugging her at his own party.”
“She isn’t the type…to kill someone.”
“Jessica. We are all the type, under the right circumstances.”
“Yes, Grandmother.” I took a steadying breath. Hiromi was prey. She had always been prey. “She’s working on a piece, a mechanical arm that throws knives. I’ll kill him with a knife.”
Elizabeth’s laughter rippled beneath the joyous sounds of the party. “That’s my clever Jessica.”
“Thank you, Grandmother. Since Hiromi will be famous after this, Garrett might want to keep her. Should I make it look like self-defense?”
There was a pause, and time stretched out around me. I felt every scratch, every bruise, every patch of dried blood.
Finally Grandmother Elizabeth answered.
“With a man like that, what else would it be?”
Hiromi was exactlywhere her blue dot showed, in a small room on the second floor of the resort.
She wasn’t handcuffed or unconscious. No one else was in the room. She lay on a narrow bed, staring at her phone, a glass of water by her side.
I tapped on the window.
Hiromi startled, dropping the phone. But then she peered closer, recognition dawning, and came to the window.
She slid it open.
“Jess.” Her voice was heavy. “What the hell?”
I pulled myself inside. “Sorry. I got lost.”
“What about your family emergency?”
“That wasn’t me. Someone else texted you from my phone.”
Hiromi shook her head, confused. She reached out for me.
