Out of Sight (4 page)

He rubbed a hand over his chest and belly. Poppy followed his hand with her eyes.

“I didn’t know you were a social climber,” he said.

She threw up her hands and fell against the back of the chair. “I’m not. Don’t be so difficult. I’m going to crack the Embran issue wide open and I’m starting by finding ways into places I couldn’t go before. Or never tried to go before. Sooner or later I’ll get a lead that will take me to whatever the Embran come up with next. Marley’s talked a lot about it and they are going to come back. These past weeks when they haven’t done anything are only to make us all think they’ve given up.”

Speechless, Sykes could only wait to hear what else she had to say.

“I wish I’d had a chance to be around some of them already. I’m going to talk to that Nat Archer. You know, the homicide detective, and ask if he can get me into the jail to interview an Embran. If I can find common brain patterns in them, I could be able to start picking them out when they pop up.”

He wasn’t sure which would be more effective. To shake her or hug her until she couldn’t breathe. “You will not go near an Embran,” he said. “They aren’t pixies with bags of fairy dust. They are vicious killers.”

“I know that. We’ve all got to get together and bring them down.”

“I’m not having this conversation with you,” Sykes
said. “You mean well. But if you think this is a way to redeem yourself for…to redeem yourself, you’re wrong. You’d be in way over your head. I’m calling Liam and Ethan right now.”

“If you do, I’ll tell everyone you found another of those secret keys and you’re not sharing it with them.”

He closed his mouth. Between them, he and Ben had discovered three keys not more than an inch long apiece. He had found a fourth—this one in the fountain in the Court of Angels where he knew it could not have been before. This was another one with a carefully removed chip in the edge of the hole.

Sykes gathered himself. “How do you know that?” Denying it would be pointless since she obviously knew the truth.

“Marley saw you and told me.”

He began to think of ways to make sure Marley stopped confiding in Poppy. “I am collecting them. I have no idea how many there are or what they mean. And they’re nothing to do with you.”

“Two of them were in a little red stone griffin in the courtyard and one showed up with Willow’s dog.”

He couldn’t believe Marley had got so loose lipped. “Uh-huh.”

“You all think they’ve got something to do with a legend or something? An angel? Are the keys here?” She looked around.

Sykes groaned. “This is serious stuff, not some sort of kids’ game.”

“Ben feels something different in the courtyard. He told me that. The stone angels’ faces change sometimes. They glow green and he hears them laugh and whisper.”

Oh, great, Ben has spilled just about everything. Everything he knew that was; fortunately Sykes hadn’t told him much about Jude, although it didn’t help that Jude had appeared to Ben. Sykes looked away. Jude had needed Ben’s help otherwise he wouldn’t have shown himself.

“For Ben and me, I’m asking you not to discuss any of this with strangers.”

She made an irritated sound. “As if I would. Try to remember that it isn’t just the Millets who could be dragged into this. If it was only you, then Jude wouldn’t have talked to Gray and Ben.”

“So much for a little privacy,” Sykes said. “You could be right, but you could be wrong. And, in case you feel a need to go running to Ben or Nick Montrachet or anyone else right now, I haven’t had a chance to tell everyone about the keys yet but I do want to be the one to do it. Not that there’s any point since I don’t know what they’re for.”

“Okay.” She shrugged. “But I guess we can talk about it if it comes up?”

“I’d rather you didn’t.”

“And I’d rather you didn’t involve Liam and Ethan in my business. I’m not the little sister anymore.”

No, she wasn’t. “On one condition. You don’t make
a move without letting me know what you’re up to. Wiggle out of that one time and your brothers will know—all of them. And they’ll have to line up behind me to deal with you. You’re late to this party and you could make a mistake that would set us back badly. And maybe cause you a lot of pain.”

She gave him a sweet smile she must have practiced for such an occasion.

“Thank you, Sykes. I’ll remember everything you’ve said. I don’t expect you to like me, but I think we can make a good team.” She got up again.

Mmm, he could so easily wrap her up with him in his bed and they could both get the rest they had missed last night.

Another time.

Her cell phone rang and she looked at it. “I knew it was too good to be true that no one called for a couple of hours. I’m not answering it.”

“Who is it?”

She raised her brows. “Someone for me—calling on
my
phone. Okay, it’s Ward’s office.”

“Ah, well, you’ll want to go somewhere private to talk to him.”

She gritted her teeth and answered. “Hi, Ward? Joan? Yes, of course it’s okay. Is there something wrong?” She was quiet for a couple of minutes before she said, “Thank you,” quietly and hung up.

Sykes waited. Poppy kept her eyes on him but he didn’t think she was seeing him.

“Ward’s been arrested. A body was found at his place early this morning, and they’ve arrested him for it.” He noted that she seemed more bemused than upset.

“I’m sorry.” He was more than curious. “Who was it?”

“Sonia Gardner. She was the woman singing and playing the piano last night.”

F
rom the windows in Sykes’s spartan sitting room, Poppy could see about half of the courtyard below. She also had a good view of the back of J. Clive Millet, the antique shop, and the flats closest to the Royal Street side of the property.

She had promised to wait while Sykes took a quick shower before doing anything else about Ward.

In the very left corner of the Court of Angels, bamboo and giant fatsia plants crowded together. Poppy looked hard and counted three angels in that one area—and a palm tree with the upper half of its crown too high for her to see.

The squelch of wet footsteps preceded Sykes’s arrival and she started to turn away from the window. A small, bright patch of red caught her eye and she looked again, putting her nose close to the glass.

It must have been a trick of the light because there was nothing red there now.

“What’s so interesting?” Sykes walked in and Poppy faced him.

“The courtyard,” Poppy said. “Each time I come I see something I hadn’t noticed before.”

Sykes didn’t comment on that. “I’ve been thinking,” he said, slinging a towel around his bare shoulders. Water glistened all the way past his navel to the low waist of his jeans, ran down his face and dripped from his hair. “They’re not going to let you anywhere near Ward while they’ve got him in custody. You might as well wait until they finish questioning him.”

“What if they keep him there a long time?”

“I don’t know. They must have some strict visiting policies. We’d have to find out.”

“You said you’d see if Nat Archer could tell us anything.” If Sykes would not help, she’d go alone.

He shoved the fingers of one hand into his hair. Sculpting must use a lot of muscle. Sykes lean body redefined
defined.
Poppy concentrated on his face.

“What would be wrong with giving the cops more time before we go wading in there. This doesn’t apply to you, but some members of our families aren’t great favorites with the local police. Some of them think we’re either the problem they’ve been having in the past year, or causing it.”

“This doesn’t have anything to do with the families,” Poppy said. “As far as I’m concerned it’s personal.”

“Of course it is.” His features tightened.

Sykes didn’t like her involvement with Ward. Why he objected to a man who was no more than an acquaintance, she had no way of knowing.

“Ward is a friend,” she said. “If he hadn’t thought he could turn to me he wouldn’t have asked Joan to contact me.”

“I’ll get a shirt and shoes.” Sykes pulled the towel from around his neck. “I’d better make some calls myself and make sure where they’ve got him. If I can get to Nat, he’ll tell me that much.”

“I just want to get going.”

“I understand that,” he said. “But there’s no point until we know where to go. He could even have been released by now.”

“He’d have got in touch with me if he had.”

His long look made her uncomfortable.

“Hang in there, Poppy. I’ll be right back.”

“No.” She made up her mind what she needed to do. “You don’t need to bother with this. I’ll deal with it.”

“What does that mean—‘deal with it’?”

“I’ll go to Ward’s place on St. Louis Street and be there when he gets back.”

He bunched the towel in one fist. “The police will be all over it. You won’t get anywhere near the building.”

She turned away from him.

“I’ll try to call Nat now,” Sykes said.

He left the room and Poppy’s first instinct was to get out of the flat before he came back.

“If you do, I’ll be right behind you,” Sykes called out.

Startled, Poppy jumped. She marched into the hall
and followed him into the bedroom. “You aren’t supposed to do that.”

He smirked just a little and pulled on a gray T-shirt. “Do what?”

“You know what you did. You’re not supposed to get in someone’s mind.”

“Let me call Nat.” Sykes took up his cell and punched in a number.

“Don’t creep around in my mind,” Poppy said. He made her feel vulnerable.

“How about if I try to teach you to find your way into other people’s minds?”

“I’ve never managed it yet. You’re supposed to ask permission, aren’t you?”

He grinned. “Wouldn’t do much good if you can’t answer.”

“I can answer out loud, you heel. You’re messing with—”

“I can’t believe you haven’t dealt with this before. You’re surrounded by people like us. Can’t you feel when someone tries to make contact? Can’t you choose to stop them if you want to?”

Poppy pressed her lips together.

“Hey,” he said. “Those are straightforward questions.”

“I’ve never discussed it with anyone. I’ve always said I didn’t want to talk about it. End of story. If I hear someone entering my mind I think about a lot of things to shut them out.”

His lips parted and he stared. She heard him swallow. “You’re kidding. And you never talked to your brothers about this?”

“I don’t want to talk about it now. Some things are private.”

He raised his brows. “Not anymore. You just told me, and that needs fixing.”

“Please don’t say anything to my brothers. They’ll only—”

Sykes held up a hand. “Hey, Nat. It’s Sykes.” He listened for a while. “Yeah, and we can hope they stay gone. Maybe they’ve all died off in their Safe Place or Home Place…Lower Place or whatever it’s called. I like to imagine them lying in big, twisted piles deep in the earth.”

He listened, and smiled. “I’m starting to get lulled into boredom by all the peace. I like it. Hope it lasts. I wanted to ask you about Ward Bienville.”

He sucked in a breath and held the phone away from his ear.

The noises coming from his phone were obviously a man shouting.

Slowly, Sykes replaced the phone to his ear. “Yeah, buddy, I know it’s none of my G.D. business but it is the business of a…of someone I’ve known a long time. Poppy Fortune is pretty close to Ward.”

He could have called her a friend without compromising his principles, Poppy thought. She swallowed. He was certainly being a whole lot nicer to her than she
would have expected, but he had no intention of letting go of his anger with her so easily.

“She was,” Sykes said. “So was I.”

He held the phone away again and closed his eyes. Once the roaring ceased he tried again. “You can’t blame me because I was at a party and someone got knocked off in the same building hours later. And it’s sure as hell nothing to do with Poppy. All I’m asking is if you can help Poppy find out where they’ve got Ward. I don’t expect you to….”

More unintelligible noise came from the phone.

“Why are you thinking Embran?” Sykes said, not even trying to conceal his irritation. “This has nothing to do with them. If they were the only source of trouble in this town there wouldn’t have been any need for a police force in the first place.”

This time Nat apparently kept his voice down, and Sykes did a lot of nodding and grunting. His breathing calmed down visibly. “We’ll take anything you can give us. I don’t want to come there any more than you want me there. Yeah, why not meet at Fortunes? Bucky? Of course bring Bucky.” He put his hand over the receiver. “Okay with you if Nat and Bucky Fist—he’s Nat’s partner—okay if they stop by your place in about thirty for a cup of coffee.”

She just wanted to know what was happening to Ward but she nodded, yes.

Sykes’s face took on an expression of surprise that only increased by the second. “Yeah? I more or less met
her once. I think we got to wave from a distance. I kind of thought that was in the past.” He flinched. “Okay, okay. Not everyone talks a lot about their personal life. I get it. You’ll have Wazoo with you, not Bucky. Anything I should know about you two?”

Again he winced. “Like you’re getting married or something. I just don’t want to make any mistakes.”

The response must have been short.

“See you there,” Sykes said and dropped the phone in his pocket. He shoved his feet into scuffed loafers. “He shouldn’t be that mad.”

“The detective?” Poppy asked.

“Yeah. It was like he expected to hear from me and he’d been waiting to use me as a punching bag. Doesn’t make any sense. People get killed in this city. It’s no Boy Scout camp. We’ve been tied up with some ugly stuff, but this is different. Nope, don’t get it.”

“He’s bringing a friend?”

“His girlfriend. Lady friend. Hell, I don’t know what to call her. She comes from Toussaint and they’ve known each other at least five years. I’ve only seen her a couple of times. Maybe just once. He’s very private about her. I’ve never seen him look at another woman since they met but nothing happens.”

She smiled slightly. “How do you know that?”

“Touché,” he said, but he looked thoughtful.

“You don’t have to come,” Poppy said. “You shouldn’t have to put up with nastiness because of me.”

He took her by the elbow and shunted her ahead of
him to the front door and outside. “I know I don’t have to come, but Ben is my best friend. I’d want him to look after my sister in the same situation, so you’re stuck with me.”

In other words,
Nothing personal, ma’am.

Okay, he could keep that up but she had seen chinks in his armor and she didn’t think he was as unaware of her as a woman as he wanted her to believe.

“Besides,” he said. “I’m not missing the first time Nat’s willingly let anyone meet his Wazoo.”

“What kind of name is that?” Poppy said.

Sykes shrugged.

“Did Nat say where they’ve got Ward?”

“He’s at the precinct house on Royal Street. I thought he would be.”

They went down flights of green-painted metal steps to the courtyard itself. Redbrick walls and more steps leading to other flats surrounded the area with J. Clive Millet, Antiques taking up most of the side that faced Royal Street. Sykes’s uncle Pascal lived above the shop. Poppy had never seen that apartment, but was sure it would be crammed with interesting things. Pascal Millet was said to be an avid personal collector.

“How many flats are there altogether?” She must have known once, but she had forgotten.

“Nine plus Pascal’s,” Sykes said shortly.

An oversized marmalade cat sunned itself on the warm earth at the edge of a bed crammed with flower
ing shrubs and semi-screened by a stand of bamboo. “Whose cat?” Poppy said. The cat’s eyes were as orange as its fur.

“No idea.”

This was turning into an uphill conversation.

Poppy looked at the fountain angel, at her sweet face, and turned around to seek out some of the other angels that were mostly hidden in the shrubbery.

“Looking for anything in particular?” Sykes said, but although his face was remote, it wasn’t hostile. His blue eyes never failed to quicken her pulse.

Her smile was involuntary. “Smiling angels,” she said. “Smiling just at me. And I’d like to hear them whispering to me, too. It would be okay if they turned pretty colors as well.”

“Marley really does tell you things,” he said. “How come I didn’t even know you were back in town? You must have been hiding out. I thought you were away all these months.”

Avoiding the question, she turned to the planting bed where the cat stretched out and tentatively scratched her tummy. There were more angels in there and, barely visible, a small griffin made of some kind of reddish stone. If it weren’t for the gargoyles on lintels and glowering down from the roof, the griffin would look completely out of place.

In the next bed of plants over, she parted a cascade of philodendron draped over a figure with wings folded and eyes lowered. “I’m not proud of what I did before
y’know. It was only by chance that Ben and Willow got back together.”

“Not entirely,” Sykes said. “It was kind of a joint effort.”

“I’m sure it was and I’m glad you intervened. I was an idiot. I knew I wasn’t welcome here afterward so I stayed away. Marley wanted me to get everything out in the open with you and try to get past it, but I…well, I didn’t is all.”

“No laughing angels today,” Sykes said. He turned away from her and after making sure the angel she had found remained revealed, Poppy caught up with him.

They left the property through tall, wrought-iron gates at the side of the shop. Poppy noticed for the first time that there was a griffin in the center of those gates. Someone must have liked them a lot.

Fortunes was only blocks away on St. Ann Street. They walked fast through a midday hot enough to raise waves of trembling vapor from the pavement. Flecks of mica sparkled through a thin layer of dust.

A small boy in a stroller cried while a black Lab licked ice cream off the toddler’s face. The mom was too busy trying on sunglasses from a vendor’s cart parked at the curb to notice.

“Hope that’s not chocolate ice cream,” Sykes said to the woman, who spun around. He pointed at the dog and baby. “Chocolate is really bad for dogs.”

He reached for Poppy’s hand and pulled her along with him as his strides lengthened.

“You’re mean,” she told him, laughing.

“Got her to look after her kid, didn’t I?” He pointed ahead. “I see someone we both know.”

Poppy saw her brother, Liam, pacing outside Fortunes, a phone pressed to his ear. He saw them coming and raised both arms in the air. He wasn’t waving. Liam radiated anger.

“He’s going ballistic,” Poppy said unnecessarily. “Liam doesn’t lose it like that.” She broke into a run.

Sykes was faster and loped ahead fast enough to just about pull her off her feet.

“Whoa,” Liam shouted. “Where’s the fire?”

Sykes skidded to a halt in front of him. “You tell me. You’re the one waving his arms around.”

Liam turned red. He ran a hand behind his neck. “I couldn’t find my sister,” he said, looking from Sykes to Poppy. “No one saw you since last night when you went to that creep’s place. We heard what happened to that woman and Ethan’s gone over there with the band.”

“The band?” Poppy frowned at Liam. “You’re not serious.”

“They had an early session and you couldn’t keep ’em away. They’re protective of you, Poppy.”

Fortunes had its own regular band for backup and to play when they didn’t have featured artists.