Oak & Thorns

  Half listening to Viktor, half watching the game, Robert Chance shrugged. “Yeah, somebody called suggesting I keep my mouth shut and get on with my life. I didn’t have any problem with that, given the bitch was cheating on me.”

  I blinked, wondering if he had been this unfriendly while his wife was alive.

  “Do you know who called you?” Viktor asked.

  Chance shook his head. “No idea, and don’t care. And yes, I received a check from some insurance company that she had taken out life insurance with. She hadn’t told me about that, either, but at least it was a good surprise compared to the other crap she pulled on me. Too bad she hadn’t bought a higher policy.”

  I blinked. “How much was the payout? Three hundred thousand dollars?”

  At that, Chance’s gaze narrowed. “No. Fifty grand. Why, did they stiff me?”

  Viktor jumped in. “Do you remember the name of the insurance company?”

  As one of the players hit a home run, Chance let out a loud shout, pumping the air with his fist. Then, as if aware that he had shown some sign of life, he froze, slowly lowering his arm.

  “Yeah, actually I do. It was called the Spinosa Insurance Corporation. I remember it because I have a cousin named Vinny Spinosa.” He shrugged. “I didn’t even know the bitch had gotten herself insured, and I’m surprised that she named me as the beneficiary.”

  A thought kept poking me in the back of my mind. “Do you remember who she was having an affair with?” If Rebecca Douglas had been seeing a charming old-world man, perhaps Liza Chance had been fooling around with a charming old-world man.

  Once again, the thunderclouds rolled into his voice.

  “I don’t know his name, but he was a foreigner. Or maybe he was a SubCult freak. I know they were having an affair because I happened to catch them fucking in the garage loft. She was bouncing up and down on his dick like she was on a pogo stick, her tits flopping around.”

  I swallowed a knot that rose in my throat. Robert Chance was an angry man.

  “What happened?”

  “I was about to bust his head open, but then I must have got dizzy and fell, or something. The next thing I knew, I opened my eyes and I was lying at the bottom of the ladder and he was gone. I was filing for divorce when she vanished. At least her getting knocked off saved me the cost of an attorney. Then I got the payout for the insurance after the phone call, and decided to take the advice and move on with my life. The money’s gone, just in case you’re looking for any of it.”

  “Could you identify the man? Can you give me a description of him?”

  Chance’s eyes narrowed. “Why? She have another insurance policy stashed around?”

  I wondered if he had been this way when she was alive. “No. No more money. We’re just investigating similar murders and trying to see if there’s a common denominator.”

  He shrugged. “Too bad. I can’t tell you anything else. We had a big row and she drove off that day. The day she vanished. I never saw her again. And don’t you judge me,” he added. “Liza knew better than to ruffle my feathers. She knew that I’d beat the crap out of her if she ever snuck out on me. The bitch told me she had a low sex drive, and I find out she was banging some stranger? You can bet your ass I was mad.”

  We beat a hasty retreat, neither one of us wanting to stay in that atmosphere any longer. The man was so angry and so bitter that it almost turned my stomach. We hurried back to the car, where I tried to shake off the residue energy that clung like cellophane wrap.

  “Well, that was just lovely,” Viktor said after we got back in the car.

  “I don’t blame her for cheating on him, but damn. Why not just leave him? At least we have a name for the insurance company.” I wondered if the company was actually for real, but then shook my head. It didn’t seem likely that Liza Chance would have taken out an insurance policy and named her husband as the beneficiary.

  Viktor tapped away on his tablet. All of a sudden he froze. “Ember, the Latin name for blackthorn happens to be prunus spinosa.”

  “The Spinosa Insurance Corporation. That can’t be coincidence. So what do we do next?”

  “We head back to the hotel and fill in the others on what we’ve learned. At least we have something to report.” And with that, Viktor fastened his seatbelt as I put the car into gear and we returned to the road.

  Chapter 12

  WE GOT BACK to the hotel just as Herne and Yutani pulled in. Herne wrapped his arm around my waist as the four of us headed to the dining room.

  “Yutani, text Angel and Talia and have them meet us for dinner. It’s almost seven.” Herne brushed a stray strand of hair away from his face as the wind gusted past.

  Clouds were starting to drift in, but the rain wouldn’t start until later and the evening was a balmy sixty-five degrees. With the breeze, it felt cooler, but the weather was still comfortable, and we decided to eat out on the patio. The waitress brought our drinks as we gathered around the table, and began to piece together what we had learned.

  “You fared better than we did, at least at our first meeting,” Yutani said, after Viktor and I told them about Naomi Douglas and Robert Chance. He was already tapping away on the keyboard of his laptop. “Well, you’re right. There’s no such company as Spinosa Insurance. I can’t find any reference to there ever having been one. However, as Viktor indicated, prunus spinosa is Latin for blackthorn. That tallies with what we found out from our second meeting.”

  I glanced over at Herne. “What happened?”

  “Well, our first meeting, with the Roseland family, was a washout. They’re Fae, and they flatly refused to discuss the case. They have a very big dog, and he made a convincing argument that we should get off the porch.” Herne’s eyes twinkled. “I’m not sure if he sensed Yutani’s coyote nature or if he just didn’t like us, but any hopes we had of finding out anything vanished the minute Leticia Roseland called him out onto the porch. We barely made it out of there with everything intact.”

  The thought of Herne and Yutani racing off the steps, followed by a very big dog, almost set me to laughing even though I knew it wasn’t funny.

  “What about your second interview?”

  “It went marginally better. The Smiths—a human family—lost their uncle and their story was similar to the ones you heard. They received a phone call, warning them to quit looking into the homicide. Shortly after that, an insurance settlement check arrived for $500,000. Apparently their uncle had been well placed in society.”

  “Did they mention the insurance agency?”

  “Yeah. Once again, Spinosa Insurance. Most of the family didn’t care for their uncle, and they didn’t question anything too deeply. The cops told them it had become a cold case a few months after the murder. None of them seemed interested when we explained why we were there. In fact, I doubt if we would have gotten any information out of them, except for one of the family members—Mike Smith. He actually cared about his uncle to some degree. He’s thirty-five, and he was fourteen when the murder happened. Mike did tell us something else.”

  “What?” Viktor made room on the table for our appetizers when the waitress brought a massive platter of calamari and fried shrimp to the table. After she set it down and left, Herne answered.

  “Mike saw his uncle’s body. In fact, he’s the one who discovered the corpse. Not only was his uncle covered with puncture wounds, but Mike happened to see a couple large thorns poking out of two of the puncture wounds. By his description, I would place them as blackthorn spikes.” Herne glanced at the sky. “It looks like the rain’s going to hold off until later this evening. I think after dinner we should take a look at the park.”

  “What do we do with Blackthorn if he turns out to be the murderer? How do you arrest one of the Ante-Fae? Can you even do that?” It occurred to me that an ancient being who was almost as powerful as the gods wouldn’t respond well to being slapped in cuffs.

  “I’m not sure. I’ll
need to discuss this with my father, I think. But I want to find out as much as we can, as quickly as we can, because I have the nasty feeling that we’re going to be asked to leave the island. Probably sooner than later. If word gets out that we were inquiring about past homicides, you know that Astrana is going to be on our backs.”

  “Yeah, about that. Viktor, tell them what we found out about her.”

  Viktor told them about the loan from the vampires.

  “Great. Well, this is getting thicker than shit, isn’t it?” Herne said. “The park, then, tonight.”

  “Should we all go?” Yutani asked.

  “No, I don’t think so. The more of us out there thrashing around, the more attention we’ll call to ourselves.” Herne was about to say something else when Yutani held up his hand.

  “Hold that thought. I’ve got to go take a piss.” He headed away from the table, into the restaurant proper.

  I loaded up my plate with calamari, which I preferred over the shrimp. Angel handed me the cocktail sauce. As we began to eat, my phone dinged. I glanced down at the text. It was from Ronnie. It was a picture of Mr. Rumblebutt, who was on his back playing with a toy. She had texted me: mr. rumblebutt loves the feathers, doesn’t he?

  I texted back: every single time. how is he doing?

  he’s doing fine, she answered. i just thought you might like to see a picture of him playing.

  I thanked her, and feeling oddly at ease, set my phone back on the table. Angel glanced at me quizzically. I motioned to the phone, and she picked it up, glancing at the text and laughing.

  “Thank you very much for introducing me to Ronnie,” I told Talia. “She’s great, and Mr. Rumblebutt seems to like her a lot.”

  “She has a way with animals, I’ll say that for her. And she prices her services reasonably. I trust her in my house, and I don’t trust many people.”

  “It’s good to have somebody to check up on him. Mr. Rumblebutt’s been with me for several years now, and I can’t imagine trusting him to just anybody.” Mr. Rumblebutt was one of my closest friends, and even though we spoke entirely different languages, I had the feeling that we were meant for each other.

  Yutani returned to the table, a worried look on his face. “I just had a vision.”

  Herne set down his fork, glancing up at the coyote shifter with a concerned look. “From Great Coyote?”

  Yutani nodded. “Yeah, it was from Coyote, all right. I don’t know what to think about it. It feels like it was a warning. I was standing on the shoreline, and the next moment I was being sucked under the water and I couldn’t kick my way free from the waves. I heard his voice and he told me to go home. But I can’t do that. We’re on a case.”

  “What do you want to do?” Herne asked. He was taking Yutani’s vision seriously, and I had the feeling that this had happened before.

  “I can’t just up and leave you guys here. I’m needed.” Yutani frowned at the table.

  “Remember last time you ignored one of his warnings,” Talia said. “It wasn’t pretty.”

  “I know, but I’m not sure if this was an actual warning or…what. Maybe I’m just not supposed to go down by the water.”

  “You’re splitting hairs and you know it.” Talia sounded grumpy now. “Don’t come crying to us when something happens.”

  I wanted to know what they were arguing about, but it really wasn’t my business.

  “I’ll think about it. Meanwhile, can we just go on with the discussion?” Yutani set his lips, looking like he was spoiling for an argument.

  Herne rubbed his forehead. “Fine. Don’t say we didn’t give you the chance. Now, I think that you and Ember and I should go prowling around the park.” He paused as his phone rang, and he pulled it out, frowning as he looked at the screen. He answered, stepping away from the table.

  Angel didn’t seem to have my reticence, because she leaned forward, her elbows on the table, and asked, “So what happened last time you ignored Coyote’s warning?”

  “I don’t want to talk about it,” Yutani said.

  “That’s because you know we’re right,” Talia said. “You know what happens when you ignore Coyote. Bad things. Bad things happen to you and the people around you. It’s like a spillover effect. You know we’re all in this together, and if Coyote comes dogging your heels, chances are one or more of us are going to be in the direct line of fire.”

  “Just let it be for now,” Yutani said. “You act like I don’t know what I’m doing. Coyote has been dogging my heels for over two hundred years. Give me some credit, won’t you?”

  “Children, quiet.” Herne looked exasperated as he came back. “We can’t make you listen, Yutani, but please be careful. Meanwhile, I’ve decided that Viktor, Ember, and I will go explore the park. I have an unsettled feeling that we need to go as soon as possible. So finish dinner and let’s get moving.”

  Yutani sulked all the way through the meal, although we let it drop. When we finished, he, Talia, and Angel headed up to their rooms, while Herne, Viktor, and I headed out to Herne’s car. I rode shotgun, and Viktor slipped into the back.

  As we steered out of the parking lot, I asked, “How often does Yutani get warnings from Coyote?”

  Herne didn’t say anything, but Viktor answered.

  “Too often,” the half-ogre said. “Actually, he seems overdue, given the timing of the last few visions he’s had.”

  “What is it with Yutani and Coyote? How are they bonded?” I still hadn’t figured that one out.

  Herne let out a long sigh. “It’s complicated. I have my suspicions, but even Yutani doesn’t know what I’m thinking and I’d rather he not know.”

  “Okay, I won’t say anything,” I said slowly, thinking that there were so many hidden secrets in the agency that even the secrets had secrets.

  “Yutani’s father vanished shortly before he was born. All that Yutani seems to know about him is that the man had been new to the village and had taken up with Yutani’s mother shortly before she got pregnant. He vanished before Yutani’s birth. When he got older, Yutani looked for him but in those days, well…it would have been futile if the man had been an ordinary human. The only name he had for his father was the one his mother gave him. But my guess is that Yutani bears Coyote’s energy directly.”

  I blinked. “You think Yutani is Coyote’s son?”

  “I don’t know.” Herne turned on the windshield wipers to sweep away the gentle rain that had begun to fall. “Sometimes the gods mate with the mortals. My father did—he’s the one who raised Morgana to goddesshood. It also keeps the divine spark moving throughout humans. I don’t know if we’ll ever know about Yutani. I don’t even know if he suspects anything. I think he believes that Coyote cursed him, and a part of him seems to hate Coyote as much as he reveres him. In some ways, Yutani is still very young. And if Coyote is his father, I don’t think Yutani is ready to face it. So don’t mention this to him. He has to come to the conclusion himself.”

  Herne took a right turn off of Smugglers Cove Road onto Park Road.

  “We’re going to have to walk down to the beach. There isn’t a drivable road that leads to the water. At least, not that I know of.” He pulled into a parking lot and stopped at the northern end. “Over there,” he pointed to an opening in the trees. “The trail starts there.”

  Viktor and I tumbled out of the car, stretching as we looked around in the evening air. The rain had already backed off again, and while we were still a ways from sunset, in the crowded growth of the forest the light had already started to wane. Herne led us to the trailhead and then, with him out in front, we plunged into the forest.

  The trail down to the beach was narrow, winding through the forest proper. The birds were singing their evening songs, calling back to their nests that they would be home soon. Overhead, an owl glided by, fresh on the hunt. And from here, we could hear the gulls at the edge of the water, their haunting cries echoing through the forest.

>   Herne paused, turning back to Viktor and me. “You know, I think I’ll have a look through the woods while you head down to the shore. I can go faster in my stag form.”

  Viktor and I stepped back, giving him room. I had never actually seen Herne turn into his stag form, and I wondered if he transformed like other shifters.

  As we watched, he held out his arms, stretched wide, and arched back, as a silver light began to emanate from his chest.

  Nope, not like other shifters.

  The light grew so bright it was hard to look at, and I blinked. In a brief, brilliant flash that echoed on the inside of my eyelids, he shifted. I could feel the transformation even with my eyes shut. It was as though the air rippled around us. When I opened my eyes, there he stood, luminous and shining.

  Herne looked like a red deer, large and imposing, with a magnificent rack. And yet his hair was a brilliant silver, illuminated against the darkening forest around us. Regal and haughty, he turned to stare at us, a puff of steam spiraling up from his nostrils. Without another sound, he raced off into the forest, a blur of movement.

  I caught my breath. That was how I had first met Herne, when I was searching for Angel’s brother. I hadn’t known who he was at the time, but even then I knew there was something godlike about the stag, otherworldly and divine.

  “He really does take your breath away,” Viktor said softly.

  “Don’t I know it.” I tore my eyes away from the vanishing trail of the stag. “Let’s get down to the beach before it gets much darker.”

  Viktor took the lead, following the trail as I kept close behind him. Somehow, everything seemed a little more nerve-wracking without Herne beside us.

  The trail led north, passing by several ravines until we hit a bend where it abruptly turned south, curving back around the other side of the ravine. Here and there, Viktor pointed out roots and stones that were jutting out of the trail, waiting to trip us up. I was grateful. His eyesight was better than mine in the deepening dusk.