of your clothing and the pores of your hair after a big night out.
She commanded the kids to leave, and sat opposite me.
I was onto her. “What is it?”
The Link cocked an eyebrow.
She was a huge woman. As a child, I’d found her astonishing bulk reassuring among the noise and waste. But today she looked smaller, shrunken. I took a moment to quell the racing of my pulse, breathing like my trainer at the academy taught me when I was learning to shoot. Sweat was pooling in the deep grooves of her face and her eyes looked wide and wet, alert.
She didn’t pull any punches. “Dey know you here, mermaid. Dey know all about you.”
Thud, thud, thud. Time seemed to slow down as my heart rate sped up.
I’d forgotten. Forgotten that accent, and that way of speaking, full of portent.
“Who are they? What do you know?”
“Nothin’,” she responded quickly, and just as I knew she was afraid, I could see it was the truth. “But the kids tol’ me. Dey followed you here, mermaid. Followed you to me. The kids, dey saw dem. Dey’ve been in here too. I knows it. Dey been through all da papers.”
“Is that how they knew where to find me?” I could smell bitter fear over the sweetness of peppermint tea.
“No.” She eyeballed me straight on, challenge in her stare. “No records of you girls here. Yo Mama’s case too old.” She sighed. “But I real sure it’s how dey found Cleedaline.” She sighed again, the action causing her chin to wobble. “And I guess dey followed her t’ you.”
“How did you know about Cleedaline?” How could The Link know she was dead? She’d only been gone a heartbeat. No-one back in Aegira even knew yet. So how did The Link?
“We was supposed to meet, yestaday. You don’t break a date ’less you can’t come.”
“Because you’re dead?”
“Mm-hmm.”
The clock ticked noisily into my head. I could hear young children outside, singing a song about all falling down. They were chanting it, nursery rhyme style. It made me shiver and I shook it away. “Did you tell Cleedaline where to find me?”
“Nuh-uh.” She shook her head, quickly. “Nuh-uh, you know da rules. No-one knows where da watch-keepers are, unless dey placed at da same time. Sometimes dey get together, but only ever in twos. For company, like. Udderwise, we never tell, not allowed. Not to anyone.”
I looked around. “So whoever it was, they broke in here?”
She shook her head, and the long, droopy arc of flesh underneath her chin wiggled again. “No. Dey didn’t have to. I fink dey just hydroported right on in. Me, I was at church. Musta left on foot though. Because da whole file was gone.”
“Gone,” I repeated. She nodded. “Can you tell me where she lived?”
She hesitated, then obviously decided the code didn’t count anymore. “Over on Filmore,” she whispered. “Corner of eleventh. Da top floor.”
I went to leave, and The Link touched me. I could see her eyes were wet with tears. “I never lost one before, mermaid,” she said, breathing cigarettes and peppermint tea. “You know dat? I never lost one until now. And she was so…” She cast her eyes up and to the right, searching. “She was like moonlight.”
“I know she was,” I whispered, holding her hand briefly on her landing.
“Whatcha gonna do?” Her eyes cast about rapidly, wet and huge in her face.
“I’m gonna find whoever hurt her.”
“Den what?”
“I’m gonna kick their ass.”
She let me go, and I almost sprinted the short distance to Filmore.
As I ran, I could feel eyes on me. My skin prickled and my radar pinged madly.
They’d been following me, she said. Watching.
I ran harder as thoughts filled my brain of how they tried to kill me, and how they killed her. The girl like moonlight. My lungs were screaming when I arrived.
A few blocks, but a whole world away.
Cleedaline’s building had a doorman, and good security. But despite the show, I was a cop, and I’m really freakin’ devious, so I was taking the stairs two at a time before the guy with the uniform on could even wonder whether I really did look like a realtor. I used my skeleton key on her door, and it popped like a champagne cork.
Some security, I humphed in disgust.
Cleedaline’s place was beautiful. She’d done it in shades of blue and green and I realized with a sad jolt that she was desperately homesick. As I spun in an arc, taking in the walls and