me, Cassandra marched into the parking lot. From the front of the building came the squeal of tires peeling into the lot.
“The search team?” I asked Lucas.
“I doubt they’d make their arrival so obvious, but they should be here by now. I should fill them in. Will you be all right?”
“I’ll get a speed-walk workout,” I said. “But I’ll be fine. You go on.”
I went after Cassandra. She’d stopped about twenty feet from the door.
“Can you—?” I began.
She started off again, darting between two minivans. I sighed and broke into a jog. She moved fast, taking a roughly diagonal path across the parking lot, weaving around cars. When I stepped behind her, she wheeled so fast I jumped back. Her eyes narrowed, and I was preparing a retort when I noticed her gaze was fixed somewhere behind me. I turned but saw nothing.
“Someone’s here,” she said.
In a hotel parking lot, that didn’t strike me as strange, but before I could say so, she strode past me and backtracked a row. Then she stopped and surveyed the lot.
“Maybe we should—” I began.
She disappeared between two cars. I looked around. Beyond the distant road noise, the lot was still and quiet. I cast a sensing spell. Nothing. Not even Cassandra, who should have been within range. Damned spell. I really needed more practice.
I stood on tiptoes. Sunlight glinted off Cassandra’s auburn hair as it bobbed between the cars. As I headed toward her, I heard the soft fall of footsteps behind me. I slowed, but didn’t turn. Instead I glanced at my reflection in the side of an SUV. The gap behind me was empty.
I was turning my attention back to Cassandra when a shadow flickered past, the metal side of the SUV darkening for a split second. I whirled, casting my sensing spell as I turned. This time the spell caught something, but farther off, to my left. At the same moment I heard the clack of women’s shoes to my right and the equally purposeful footfalls of the person approaching from my left. On my right, the footsteps stopped as Cassandra emerged from between two cars.
“There you are,” she said. “You have to keep up, Paige. I can’t be—”
I turned left. Again, it was who I expected. Lucas covered the distance between us, expression blocked by the sun.
“Strange,” I said to Cassandra. “I sensed Lucas, but not you.”
She frowned.
“With my spell, I mean. It didn’t pick you up.”
“Yes, well, your spells aren’t exactly foolproof, Paige.”
“Or it could be the whole undead thing, I guess.”
Her lips tightened. “Now, don’t you start on that, too. I am not…”
As she spoke, I saw Lucas’s face and my gut tightened. I didn’t hear the rest of what Cassandra said.
“They found him, didn’t they?” I said.
Lucas nodded, and I knew they hadn’t found Stephen alive.
Stephen had been killed in his car, shot in the temple, then placed in the reclined driver’s seat, with sunglasses on and a ball cap pulled down to cover his wound. To anyone walking past, it would look as if he was dozing in his car. Odd, but not alarming.
I told Lucas that I’d had the feeling I was being followed. Cassandra concurred, and Lucas deployed the team to search the lot while we stayed with the body. If I hadn’t said anything, would Cassandra have mentioned her suspicions? I doubted it, yet not because I thought she’d intentionally prevent us from finding the killer. Why would she? She didn’t care. And that, really, was the crux to understanding Cassandra. She didn’t care.
An hour later, the team concluded that the killer was gone. I’d have liked to stay, to hear their findings, but it’s difficult enough to conduct a clandestine crime-scene investigation in a hotel parking lot without having onlookers.
“You’ve been quiet,” Lucas murmured as we headed for our car.
“Thinking.”
When I didn’t go on, he said, “Share?”
I motioned that I’d discuss it in the car. I waited until we were on the highway before speaking. I told myself I was collecting my thoughts, but I think I was waiting to see whether Cassandra would speak first. She didn’t.
“He’s a hunter,” I said. “He strikes fast, leaves the bodies where he killed them, uses the most convenient method, and changes plans if things get complicated. An experienced killer.”
“Yes, as Esus said—” Lucas began.
He noticed I’d directed my comment to Cassandra, and stopped. She continued staring out the side window. Either she was ignoring me, which wouldn’t be surprising, or I’d drawn the