Dark Rites

She got another pillow and let it fly.

“I just wasn’t expecting such a greeting!”

“Oh! Your friends! Your work associates. Your professional work associates!” Vickie said, shaking her head. “Oh, my God. What must they think? Oh!”

Griffin pulled her tight against him, smoothed back her hair and looked down into her eyes. And now he was smiling. “They’re thinking I’m the luckiest man in the world,” he told her.

He kissed her—a tender kiss, a great kiss. She wanted to forgive him.

Her level of humiliation was just a little too high.

“They’re still out there, right?”

“I think they’re standing awkwardly in the hall, maybe trying to leave...”

“You can’t...you can’t just leave people in the hall. Or make them leave. I mean, you—get out to the parlor. Go. Try to...oh, I don’t even know what you can try to do. When I can, I’ll come out.”

“They’ll leave. They won’t mind.”

“No!”

“But after everything you did for me, your preparation...”

“Out!”

“Got it. I’m on it,” Griffin assured her.

“I’ll never be able to face them if I don’t face them now!” Vickie said.

He left her, heading on out to the parlor. During the moments the bedroom door was open, Vickie could see that his Krewe friends hadn’t stayed in the apartment; they were out in the hallway waiting. Or they had left altogether.

She could also see that Griffin was still smiling. She felt like crawling beneath the floorboards.

But as much as she wanted to, she knew that she couldn’t hide out in her room forever.

Vickie slid into jeans and a T-shirt, and stood in front of the mirror again. Totally unsexy, she decided. Except for the flood of color that rose to her cheeks every other second.

She hesitated, then opened the door to her room. She could hear Griffin speaking, hear a female voice, and another male voice. Griffin was in the kitchen, making coffee, it seemed.

She paused, listening.

“You think that there are a number of people, all of them assigned to randomly attack people?” Devin Lyle was saying. Vickie had met her—and Rocky—just briefly, earlier during the day. She’d instantly liked Devin. They had a lot in common. Even if they’d grown up in very different cities, they had both been born in Massachusetts, steeped in the history of the state, come and gone, seen the good and the bad—and still loved it as home.

“I get how you figure it might be a number of people, but...why? I’ve been thinking about it since you were so convinced that the young man who died had to be one of many,” Devin finished.

“I don’t know. Gut feeling. I can’t help it. But from the beginning, someone has been making a statement. That poem. Attacking people without killing them...thank God they’re not dead!”

“Maybe the attacks are the statement,” Rocky said.

“Or the attacks might be a way to distract law enforcement from what is really going on,” Griffin said.

“If you believe that, what do you think is really going on?” Rocky asked Griffin.

Vickie heard plates being set on a table. She figured that maybe Griffin and his friends hadn’t quite gotten through dinner. She hadn’t had much of a meal herself.

And they weren’t talking about her, didn’t even seem to be thinking about her...

She had to get over herself and just step out into the room.

She managed to do so. It didn’t go quite as well as she’d hoped, but then again, she had no control over the flare of heat that rose into her face.

Devin Lyle was sweet and charming and tried to pretend that she’d seen absolutely nothing when they’d come in. Rocky was just as circumspect. But then she could see that the man lowered his head and turned away, and that he was trying to keep from smiling when he looked over at Devin. But then Devin shook her head and gave Vickie a tremendous smile and said, “Hey, hi! Well, let’s try to get a bit more comfortable here! We’re so sorry...”

“So, so sorry!” Rocky agreed.

“On so many levels!” Devin said with a grin. “And even now, well, we have to mention the elephant in the room. Only way to clear it out. We are beyond sorry!”

“And, wow, envious,” Rocky said.

“What?” Devin demanded. “Hey!”

“I’m referring to the fun of it, my love,” Rocky assured her. “What a cool thing to have thought of to do for someone after a hectic night,” he added.

Devin grinned and looked at Vickie. “There you go—the pressure is on!”

“So, anyway, we’re all good?” Griffin asked Vickie hopefully.

“Terrific,” she said, deadpan.

“That doesn’t sound good,” Griffin said.

“I’d leave it,” Devin told him sagely. “Take whatever you can get right now!”

“Yep, just leave it for now,” Rocky said. “Anyway, for the last time, please forgive us the invasion. We were going to head straight to Griffin’s apartment and go to bed. Then we figured we’d talk among ourselves, see if we got anywhere, over a midnight snack. We never ate. The night became very long and convoluted.”

“Because, of course, there’s what happened,” Devin said.

“And the fact that your friend Alex is now missing. You still haven’t heard from him, right?” Rocky asked.

“No,” Vickie said.

“We’ve made sure that we—as in the Bureau, and especially the Krewe of Hunters—are involved at every level,” Griffin told her seriously.

“FBI participation? In investigating the attacks, the death of the man tonight—or with the disappearance of Alex?” Vickie asked. “As far as I know, everything that has happened has happened within the state. And we’re not looking at murder here.”

“We may be looking at a kidnapping,” Devin said.

“Rules and protocol have changed,” Griffin said. “You know, Vickie, that all kinds of boundaries and jurisdictions changed after 9/11.” He turned toward the counter and she saw that he’d brewed coffee. It was late for coffee, but she doubted that it would keep any of them up.