The Burning Bush (47 page)

Rivera was happy to drop MeShack and me off at Harriet’s place. After Rivera told his boss about Judge Brass’s murdering his wife, he made a deal with Jacobi to shorten his prison time for tampering with evidence in exchange for Jacobi’s agreeing to be a witness in court against his father. And Rivera’s boss hinted that Rivera would get his promotion. This resulted in Rivera no longer caring about who killed Onyx.

But I still do.

We approached Harriet’s place in Rivera’s crappy car. Black smoke coughed out of the vehicle’s exhaust pipe.

“Thanks again.” I jumped out, noticing that most of the lights in the apartment were off. MeShack hopped out after me.
What the hell am I doing here? I could just go home and forget about it.

“And you say a violet limo will pick me up?” Vee asked again for the hundredth time as she sat in Rivera’s car.

“Yes,” I groaned.

Rivera sped off with Vee in the passenger seat. He’d promised to take her back to the warehouse. She still needed to make the potions and check on her kids. I’d called Zulu, and he’d updated me about the plans he made for going to the ball. But he hadn’t said anything about how he and my dad were doing and refused to answer me when I asked.

“Who lives here?” MeShack asked.

“The mother of the first victim, Onyx. She was a Mixie.” I tapped my foot against the sidewalk, taking in the whole scene of Harriet’s apartment with new and informed eyes.

The oil puddle that I’d spotted when I first came here still lay on the pavement right in front of the stairs. I’d thought it was weird when I came here with Angel and Cassie, but now it could be a clue. Especially since the garage was several feet to the right, and there wasn’t a single car parked in the driveway either time I’d been here.

Didn’t Jacobi say Ely had to give Harriet a ride home sometimes? If she doesn’t have a car, why would there be oil at the bottom of her staircase?
The banister to the staircase still had not been repaired. Rusty nails jutted from the posts. A tattered plank hung haphazardly from the top step.
Why hasn’t Harriet cleaned up the puddle or made sure the manager fixed the banister?

I turned to MeShack. “Use your super nose and smell that oil puddle for me, please.”

He leaned down and inhaled. “Blood and motor oil. It’s not Shifter or Witch.”

“I think it’s Onyx’s blood.”

“Well, it’s old.” MeShack sniffed again. “The scent is fading.”

“Okay. So if that is Onyx’s blood, then someone just poured oil over it to try and cover it up.” A rough sadness streamed through my veins, hardening my body. I wanted the answers to come easily, but I knew my luck. “This isn’t going to be good.”

MeShack clasped my arm as we stepped over the puddle. “I need to say something to you, and you’re not going to like it.”

“Lighten up. Zulu will go back into his core. Stop worrying.”

“No. This is about Mother Earth.” MeShack stopped at the middle of the staircase.

“Okay?” I looked up the steps, trying to get a glimpse of Harriet through one of the dark windows.

“You know when we were in the habbie station? That was the first time I’d ever been around habbies. I’ve seen them before, but I always go the other way. Even when you burned those girls and me, I reported it to a Shifter Council member, not a habbie.”

“Would you get to the point?” I was starting to get antsy.

MeShack narrowed his eyes at me. “Mother Earth and the habbies smell exactly alike. It’s that cooked meat scent. All the Humans reek of it.”

“MeShack, please don’t tell me you are trying to say Mother Earth is a habbie.”

“I don’t know about that, but she’s definitely Human.”

“No, MeShack. This is ridiculous.”

“I know but trust me.” MeShack wiped sweat off his forehead. “I think Humans can carry our scents for a little time. Vee and I tested the theory out on several habbies at the station.”

Oh my goodness.
I covered my eyes.

“Vee rubbed against a few unsuspecting habbies, and boom! The habbies smelled like a Witch for a few minutes.” I scratched my head.

“What does Mother Earth shift into?” he asked. “Does Zulu even know?”

“No. And I’ve never seen Mother Earth shift either.” I punched my fist into my hand. “As soon as I think things are getting easier, more crap piles up.”

I finished climbing up the stairs, with MeShack behind me. “Okay. For now, let’s just file that away for later, until after we deal with Dante.” I knocked on the door. Unease rocked through my stomach. I held it with my right hand, hoping I wouldn’t throw up.
Mother Earth is Human? That doesn’t even make sense. Wouldn’t the Rebels have noticed eventually, even if she could carry their scent?

Harriet opened the door with bags under her red eyes and the stench of alcohol on her breath. She waved us in.

No hello or how are you doing? Someone must have warned her.
“Did Ely call you?” I asked, ready to get this over with.

“Yes. He told me about you being at the habbie station, questioning Jacobi.” Harriet sat down on her white couch. Darkness blanketed the living room. She didn’t bother to turn on a light for us. MeShack grasped my hand and led me to a chair since he could easily see in the dark.

“Ely told me you wouldn’t suspect anything, that you would think Jacobi did the murders, but I knew how smart you were from the first time we met.” Harriet turned on the lamp beside the couch. The pot of treranges still sat on the coffee table, but now they were wilting. The flowers lazily leaned over the clay pot. Brownish-orange petals had already dropped onto the coffee table.

“Ely gave you those treranges?” I asked.

“Yes.” She flashed me a weak smile as a tear dripped down from the corner of her right eye. “After he got rid of Onyx’s body, he returned with those flowers and told me to forget it all.”

Got rid of Onyx’s body?
At the moment, I was glad I was sitting down. I felt like I was going to pass out.

“But I don’t want to forget my baby.” She shook her head. More tears streamed down her cheeks. “It would be wrong. I need to remember. I want to remember it all.”

“What happened? Why leave Onyx’s body with Jacobi?”

“Ely said it was all Jacobi’s fault. Said he might as well take the blame.” She snatched a copper flask off her coffee table and gulped the contents down. MeShack and I exchanged worried glances.

“I’m not stupid. I knew Onyx and Jacobi were doing something. I’d spotted him making her laugh a few times when I cleaned at the Brass house.” She swallowed some more, dabbed the corner of her mouth with a napkin, and balled up the tissue. “Next thing I knew, Jacobi was volunteering to pick Onyx up from school.”

“What happened when you tried to stop it?” I asked.

“I didn’t try to stop anything. I was happy a rich Pureblood wanted my daughter.” Harriet sniffled and rubbed her face hard. “I dreamed of a day when Onyx would be living in that big house, not having to worry about bills and how she would feed her family.”

I cleared my throat.

“Onyx registered in his art class. They hung out some more, and then it all suddenly ended.” Harriet raised the flask to her shaking lips and took another swig. “She seemed different once he stopped hanging around her.”

Because he took advantage of her and broke her heart.
I gripped the chair cushion, squeezing it with my fingers.

“Next thing you know, Onyx is coming home with expensive jewelry and perfume.” Harriet set the flask on the table and began to stir on the couch. Her hands never rested on her legs. They just tapped and twisted around each other. “I found money in Onyx’s drawer twice, large amounts. I thought it was all from Jacobi, but it wasn’t. He’d rejected her by then.”

“Who told you that Jacobi rejected her?” I raised my eyebrows.

“Ely,” Harriet said. “He told me to watch out for Onyx, that he saw her running out of Jacobi’s art class crying one day.”

“Why was Ely there?”

“Ely picks up Jacobi whenever the Judge is having a big social event and wants to make sure his son gets there on time.”

So, Ely was definitely the limo guy. Kilo said Ely had come by the house warning Onyx and telling her to stay away from somebody. I wonder if Ely was telling Onyx to stay away from Jacobi. I looked up and blurted out. “How did Ely know she was prostituting?”

Harriet cringed back, as if I was about to lunge at her. “I was working three jobs. I asked him to help and look out for her.”

Harriet seized the flask again, shaking it and setting it back down. “Ely came to the blood factory when I was working the Vamp shift, dusk till dawn. He told me Onyx had men in this apartment, paying her for sex.”

I leaned forward. “So Ely—”

“You’re too focused on Ely.” She wiped tears from her eyes and shook her head. “Ely had nothing to do with it. I killed Onyx.”

My body froze.

“What?” My question came out as a screech.

“Ely called me at Linderman’s and told me she had a man in the house. I rushed home. I couldn’t think straight. My blood was boiling.” Harriet’s hands gripped her knees. “I ran up the stairs and couldn’t believe what I saw.”

Harriet shut her eyes. “My little girl was naked and on her knees in front of this old fat man dressed in leather.”

She placed her hand on her chest and whispered, “My little girl.”

We all sat there in silence.
Harriet killed her?
A chill raced up my spine.

“Ely kicked out that disgusting man.” Harriet opened her eyes and focused on me. “Onyx just laughed at me as I cried. She didn’t even try to cover herself up. Then she had the nerve to start yelling about how I was never there for her and that she had to raise herself. And that was it. I screamed ‘whore’ at her over and over.”

Harriet covered her mouth and scanned the living room with her eyes as if someone was lurking in the shadows, ready to jump out at her. Yellowish snot leaked from her nostrils. MeShack got up, went down the hall, and in a few seconds came back with a box of tissue. He placed it in her lap.

Harriet waved him away, turning her head as if embarrassed. “Her whole life was ahead of her. And there Onyx was, with this old man in our house like some drug whore, blaming me for working hard to feed and clothe her.”

“So you argued?” I asked.

“No. It was all me. I screamed that she was a whore, that she was nothing and no one would ever love her now that she was a slut.” Harriet’s voice squeaked. “I knew it hurt my baby, but I didn’t care. I was too mad.”

My eyes watered.

“But it hurt her to hear it,” she said. “She didn’t know I was just mad and angry. She didn’t know . . .”

“No. She didn’t.” I wanted to flee from her grief, but I forced myself to stay in my seat, to not judge her and only listen. But the condemning thoughts flowed through my mind anyway.
How could you? She was your daughter.

Now I understood what Angel meant when she said she never wanted to have kids. A parent had all of the power to crush or heal a child’s soul. I made a note to hold Ben tonight and tell him I loved him.

“She cursed and hit me. And I hit her back,” Harriet said in a low whisper. “Ely tried to separate us, but he couldn’t. Onyx said she was leaving and moving in with some guy named Kilo. She grabbed her purse, threw on a dress, and ran to the door.”

Harriet sat there for a minute. Silent.

“I just lost it. All that damn working for her well-being, and she just runs off to live on the streets. What was all that struggling for? All those lonely and exhausting nights. Why did I do it?” Her eyes left mine and focused on the floor. “When Onyx opened that door, I raced after her, slapping her. I yelled at her to go and pushed her outside. She shook her head and screamed, but I didn’t stop.”

Harriet hugged her arms. “Onyx backed out of the apartment, saying she was sorry. Her back hit the banister. It was old and worn out. That night the banister snapped under her weight, and she fell.”

Harriet reached out at something invisible. “I tried to grab her, but I couldn’t, so I tried to jump off the landing too. Ely stopped me before I could and dragged me back from the edge. My little girl lay on the ground, her neck bent the wrong way, her legs broken. She didn’t move.”

“So that’s your daughter’s blood on the sidewalk?” MeShack asked, speaking for the first time since we arrived.

She nodded. “Ely took oil from the back of his limo and poured it over her blood. He carried Onyx’s body and the broken banister away.”

“So Ely left Onyx in Jacobi’s bed?” I asked.

Harriet moved her head in agreement. “He kept saying it was all Jacobi’s fault. That Jacobi had used my baby until she thought she was nothing.”

“But it wasn’t Jacobi’s fault,” Harriet muttered and pushed the pot of treranges over to me. “And that’s why I won’t forget.”

“Okay. I’ve heard enough.” I stood up, holding my hand to my chest. “I’m so very sorry, Harriet.”