it, clot breath,” she muttered, but the cop never looked back as he hit the hall and turned to the left. A sprinkling of pixy dust followed him, and I frowned. Ivy was still here.
“Hard morning?” I said as I pulled the curtain halfway.
Sandra’s chin lifted and color rose in her cheeks. “You can shove it, too,” she said as I took her wrist and rotated it to catalog the multiple scratches. “I’ve been pushed, threatened, interrogated, bullied.”
I let go of her arm and dropped back, pretending to look at her paperwork. These glasses suck. “And very busy,” I said, taking the glasses off and setting them on the rolling cabinet. “What were you thinking?”
“I—I—,” she stammered, and then, gazing at the cuffs, she began to cry, large tears spilling helplessly down her blotchy cheeks. “I don’t know,” she wailed. “I thought I was dreaming. I’d never hurt Gabby. I don’t even know why I was dreaming about it. I mean, jeez, we got married two years ago, why would I still care what flowers we had?” She sniffed, shoulders slumping. “Though at the time, I thought it was the most important thing in the world. Talk about a bridezilla. Is she okay? No one will tell me anything.”
“I don’t know. I’m sorry.” I handed her the tissue box. Worry tightened my gut as I took in her tears and confusion. If Dali hadn’t stopped Al, I might be the one in intensive care or worse. Hodin? I wondered again. But it didn’t make sense. He’d been free since late September. Why start causing trouble now? Especially when he wanted to remain hidden. Most serial killers wanted the notoriety.
“I need a blood sample,” I said as I rummaged through the drawers of the mobile cabinet until finding a band and a syringe pack. There were preprinted stickers on her paperwork, and I fastened one on her blood tube, hoping I was doing this right. “Show me how nice you are,” I said, and Sandra shifted her arm so I could tie it off. Her vein popped right up, and channeling my inner nurse, I stuck her. Almost freaky fast, the tube began to fill.
“What did you hit your head on?” I asked to try to get her to volunteer something.
“Gabby’s fist,” she said dully.
“Gabby has a mean right cross,” I said, trying to be funny, but no one was laughing.
“You have no idea.” Sandra blew her nose on the tissue she’d wadded up, then took another. “I swear I thought I was dreaming. I don’t even know why I was mad. It was just some stupid flowers.”
“Mmmm.” I pulled the syringe from her. Her cuffs prevented her from easily holding the cotton ball, but I was good and she hardly even bled. “Have you ever sleep-spelled before?”
“Not until this morning.” Sandra blinked, clearly worried. “Never.”
She went silent in thought as I dropped her sample in the bag with her paperwork, racking my brain for something to say to get her to open up. But I totally understood her worry. How could you trust yourself not to hurt the person you loved if you might spell them in your sleep? And with that, pity rose through me, and I believed her.
All the attackers had similar stories, the motives all having been carefully kept from the press. That Al had had a similar experience only made it more plausible. There had to be half a dozen things in our shared past that would trigger him wanting to kill me. Pick one.
“Let me look at your elbow. Hand, please,” I said, and she extended her arm. I took her wrist, wondering how much ley line energy she could handle. I’d never know with the band of charmed silver around her wrist, truncating her ability to tap a line. It had her name on it already, and if I couldn’t figure out who was doing this, she’d be wearing it for the rest of her life.
Remembering my own long-gone Alcatraz-stamped band of engraved silver, I tested the span of motion of her bruised elbow. “Sandra, have you ever been possessed?”
She stiffened in my grip and pulled away. “No,” she said, face pale. “I told you. I was sleeping, and I just . . . I was sleeping,” she affirmed as if trying to convince herself. “Is Gabby going to be okay? I didn’t even know you could spell in your sleep.”
Because you can’t, I thought, managing a smile as I said, “I’ve heard of