Trickster s Girl - By Hilari Bell Page 0,66

there," said Kelsa. "Everybody's got a picture somewhere in the net. Please, I know it's late and stuff, but if I could talk to him maybe he can tell me who to get in touch with about this bill. And when they get your link fixed, we could settle it without his father getting involved. Because trust me, that's the last thing anyone wants."

She could see they weren't completely convinced. A runaway rich kid fetching up in a Deese Lake jail was pretty unlikely. On the other hand, abuse was as possible in a rich family as in any other, and a boy who'd rather sit in a cell than give his real name ... Choosing between standing up to a powerful wealthy man and returning a teenager to an abusive situation wasn't a decision any cop wanted to make.

"Talk to him in private," Kelsa added firmly. "Mikes off." According to the lawyer vids, any visit to a prisoner would be recorded visually, but private conversations were a civil right. At least they were in the U.S., and surely Canada wasn't too different.

The two cops looked at each other.

"I don't see any problem with letting them talk," the man said at last. "If it gets settled, good. If nothing comes of it, there's no harm done."

"Mikes off," Kelsa insisted.

"Of course, Miss Phillips. That's standard for prisoner conversations unless we've got a warrant."

"Oh. I didn't know that. Please, call me Kelsa."

She'd expected an interview room, but the male cop took her down a flight of Sinoleum-covered steps to a linoleum-floored corridor with many doors off it. Two of the doors consisted of steel bars.

Raven lay on a narrow cot, frowning up at the ceiling. He must have been foolish enough to resist, somewhere along the line, because he had a black eye. The fact that he still bore those bruises told Kelsa something was seriously wrong. And if Charlie had done that, she no longer felt bad about sending him into the back country on a call that wasn't there.

"What are you doing here?" Raven demanded before she could speak. "You haven't ... ah..." He cast the cop who accompanied her a fierce glare.

"No, I haven't told them who you are," said Kelsa. "Or who your father is. Though you were an idiot not to carry enough cash to pay your bills!"

Raven opened his mouth and closed it without saying anything.

The cop suppressed a smile. "You can use this." He pulled a folding chair out of a closet, opening it in front of Raven's cell door. "And the mikes are off, but I'm obliged to tell you that you're being visually monitored at all times." He gestured to the cams at either end of the corridor, and Raven glared up at one corner of his cell. It must be monitored too, but as long as the mikes were off that didn't matter. Clearly something else prevented him from shapeshifting, or his bruises would be long gone.

Kelsa sat down in front of the barred door. The cop cast a final glace around and went back down the hall.

"Are you all right?" Even if the cop overheard, that question would sound perfectly normal.

"No." Raven rose from his cot and came to sit, cross-legged, on the other side of the bars. He peered through to make sure the cop was out of earshot before going on in a much lower voice. "All my abilities have been suppressed. Fenesic. It's one of the few things in this world that can affect us. But if my enemies managed to poison me, they must know exactly where we are! You've got to - "

"I've got to get you out of here," Kelsa told him. "Preferably before morning, because that's the soonest the drug is likely to wear off. It might last longer, but we can't count on that. What's this Fenesic stuff, and how could they poison you? We've been eating the same food, mostly from sealed packages, and drinking out of the public water supply."

"Who did you drug? And if they had you, how did you escape?"

"It was Otter Woman," Kelsa said. "And I was able to escape because, like you, she's not as smart as she thinks she is. I'll tell you about it later, but right now we need to get you out of jail! How did you get poisoned?"

"I think it was the perfume," said Raven. "Remember in that baggage car when we were getting the bike out? Fenesic is one of the