“Coordination. We’re getting better!” Evie watched him slip away, unnoticed. Fascinating how he did that.
Not sure how she felt about Jax showing up to take over, she tapped Loretta on the head. “Okay, beansprout, you watch bubbles while I see what I can stir up.”
Since the kid had her eye on the plates of homemade cookies, she didn’t complain about the delay.
Evie joined the crowd around the director. A truly efficient manager would have ushered out the extras to let the professionals work, then gone back to her busy day. Was Mrs. Murkowski that inefficient—or trying to keep an eye on what the police and security were discovering?
“Marlene wasn’t sweet,” the tall, slender man said, nibbling at a cookie as if he didn’t realize it was in his hand. “She was sharp.”
Evie thought she heard Granny murmur, “You sweet-talking old goat.”
Marlene was definitely not sweet.Sharp, remained to be seen.
“With all this security, did she suspect thieves?” Evie asked innocently, accepting a gingerbread cookie from a lady wearing pearls and a waist-length pink cardigan on her sturdy frame.
“She did.” Gray curls bobbed on the lady leaning on a walker. “She said the housekeeping staff harbored criminals, and we should all be careful. So I keep my jewelry locked up.” Not that she was wearing any.
“I called Ursula in HR. I’ve been assured all our staff has had background checks,” Mrs. Murkowski protested. “No one has reported criminal activity.”
“Before your time,” the professorial guy said. “Marlene had a housekeeper fired for stealing some damn fool female’s annuity. She’s been on the prowl looking for thieves ever since.”
“Well, I’m sure she hasn’t caught any or I would have known about it.” Mrs. Murkowski looked so indignant that Evie couldn’t resist opening up to read her aura.
Huh, yeah, something a little twisted there. Loretta was right. The aura of compassion was still present, the bewilderment was stronger, and a cloud of dark suspicion snaked through it all—or at least, that was how Evie interpreted it. She’d been known to be wrong. But given the situation and the director’s protests, that seemed the most likely interpretation. Mrs. Murkowski knew or suspected something.
While she was at it, Evie took a look at the three old ladies and the gent. Well, dang.
All four were murky with distrust and fear.
* * *
Ariel knewthe instant her guest departed. Even if she hadn’t seen Jax arrive on his motorcycle, she felt the sudden absence of... tension. Or atmospheric pressure.
She was weird as well as skinny. Old news. She saw Roark’s email in her box and checked it, just in case, but it said nothing she didn’t already know. She kept it anyway.
Determining there was nothing new she could access on Roark’s case without more information, she returned to her usual work tracing illegal cryptocurrency transactions. She’d started with porn sites years ago, feeding the trails to law enforcement so reliably that they now requested her assistance. She enjoyed the work and it provided a nice nest egg.
She sensed another presence even before the security camera binged. This was more a mental presence than the atmospheric pressure of someone close by—which meant Priscilla, Evie’s cousin. Now there was someone as weird as she was. Ariel acknowledged the intrusive tug by allowing Pris mental access to what she was doing.
Glancing at the camera view, she noted Pris wore red, white, and blue stripes in her wiry hair today. Ariel couldn’t read minds and had no idea what the colors signified. They didn’t really talk so much as reassure each other of their mental connection. She thought Pris might be lonely—or bored.
Today, her visitor was agitated, which was unusual. Ariel wondered how to calm her as Pris had mentally soothed her when she first moved here. Her routine didn’t allow interruption during work hours.
She sensed Pris’s cerebral tension almost as clearly as Roark’s physical pressure. That couldn’t be good. Pris was usually a pleasantabsenceof tension, while Roark was the extreme opposite.
Ariel tried to focus on her work, but these past days had already set her on edge. She had hoped that Roark’s departure would allow her to return to normal.
Except, she really wasn’t normal, was she? And yeah, she knew there was no normal but calling herdivergentsaid the same damned thing.
She almost reached for the phone to call her old therapist, until she remembered they no longer had health insurance. Stephen retiring from his law firm had removed that safety net.
She squeezed her chunky monkey toy and rocked in her desk chair. Priscilla didn’t go away. Her agitation became a question.
Pris was weird. Ariel understood weird. Could she hope... Understanding was out of the question, but perhaps, if she could help Pris somehow... They might be sort of friends?
She’d always dreamed of having friends. It didn’t seem possible.
It wouldn’t be possible unless she tried, the therapist had said.