We were onto something at the place we found Tabitha. And someone from Checker’s past might be mixed up in all this, and—” I cleared my throat. He didn’t need to know about psychics or creatures or children becoming weapons. “We’ll figure it out.”
Diego’s head came up. “This has to do with Charles? Is he all right?”
“Oh, uh—yeah, no one’s given him trouble yet.” A thought occurred to me—Diego had clearly known Checker for a lot longer than I’d assumed. “Hey, would you know anything about a demolition expert named D.J.?”
Diego inhaled deeply. “That poor boy.”
“Who? D.J.?”
He shook his head. “Him too. But I was talking about Charles.”
Considering what I knew of D.J., and that he might have just tried to blow us to smithereens, I wasn’t inclined to feel the least bit of sympathy for him. Or patience. “Do you know anything Checker wouldn’t, then?”
“I don’t think so. I don’t know much at all, and mostly from Charles.” He said something unhappy-sounding in Spanish. “They were friends once. They ran on the same crew.”
“Wait, friends?”
“Once. Close enough that Charles tried to find him, after moving in with us. I don’t think they ever had luck.”
People and their fucking secrets. I was going to kill Checker and Arthur both. Telling me everything I needed to know, my ass.
“Thanks,” I said stiffly. I held up his card. “I’ll be in touch soon. Keep your phone on.”
He called after me as I stepped down onto the walkway. “Miss Russell. Have the police been contacted? About Arthur?”
I stopped and turned. “Oh. I’m—not sure. I don’t think so.”
Diego was backlit by the house light in the open door, so I couldn’t see his expression. “If you do speak to them, have a care,” he said. “Some of Arthur’s old colleagues may not be inclined to give you help.” One of his hands was gripping the doorframe very tightly.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” I said.
ten
I TROMPED down the ramp off the porch until I was out of sight of the front door. I’d taken Pilar’s burner phone with me, and I stopped there on the sidewalk to call Rio.
He picked up immediately. “Hello.”
“It’s Cas—the old phone drowned.”
“Cas. Are you well?”
“Yeah. Did Simon tell you what we ran into?”
“Briefly. I would appreciate more detail.” That was fair. He probably hadn’t gotten much detail from Simon precisely because I hadn’t given Simon any.
I took a breath, pressed my eyes shut for a second, and recounted everything that had happened at the wellness center. To my surprise and relief, I was able to do it without my consciousness juddering off the rails. Rio listened quietly until I wound down.
“Have you seen this kind of thing before?” I asked. “Either a binary explosive this destructive, or the … whatever those things did to Pilar and me?”
“No, in either instance. This is new technology, and troubling.”
I hadn’t realized how disconcerting it would be to hear Rio confirm that. He made it a point to have a vast level of global intelligence.
“This Willow Grace says she’s seen the binary explosive before,” I said. “You think she’s lying?”
“Impossible to say. She may truly have seen this somewhere, or she may have been able to recognize the likelihood without having seen the specific chemical capable of this level of annihilation.”
New bombs. And we still hadn’t figured out how D.J. might factor in. For some reason, I didn’t mention that to Rio—I wanted to talk to Checker again first.
“Do you…” I wasn’t sure what I wanted to ask. “When you were … years ago. Did you ever run into Willow Grace? Or Teplova?”
“I have not met this reporter, though I am familiar with her work. She has been a highly regarded force in more than one volatile situation. As for the doctor, I know of no one by that name, though it’s more than likely she would have chosen to change identities.”
Right. I should have taken her photograph with me or something.
“It sounds like they were trying to fight Pithica too,” I said.
“Perhaps. I shall look into it.”
Was I imagining the slight emphasis on the pronoun?
My hand tightened on the phone. “Don’t tell me to stop, Rio. Don’t you fucking tell me to stop.”
“I would hardly dare,” Rio said dryly. “However, it is only logical to point out that driving yourself into an altered state would hardly be the best use of the people available to you. I can pursue this angle.”
“But I remember them, Rio. There could be something—some information, something we can