Ah, an attempt to discredit me. If she'd expected to fluster me, she didn't know me very well. Any female mechanic knows how to respond to that kind of attack.
I gave her a genial smile. "I've a degree in history and I read, Dr. Altman. For instance, I know that there was no such thing as a gremlin until Zee decided to call himself one. If you'd excuse me, I'd better get back to work. I promised that this car would be finished today." I turned to do just that and tripped on a stick that was lying on the ground.
Tony was there with a hand under my elbow to help me back to my feet. "Did you twist an ankle?" he asked.
"No, I'm fine," I told him, frowning at the fae walking stick that had appeared on the floor of my garage. "You'd better let go or you'll get covered with grease."
"I'm fine. A little dirt just impresses the rookies."
"What happened?" Dr. Altman asked, as if her blindness was something that would keep her from knowing what was happening around her. Which I was certain it did not. I noticed that her dog was staring intently at the stick. Maybe she really did use it to help her see.
"She tripped on a walking stick." Tony, who'd disengaged himself from Dr. Altman to catch me when I'd stumbled, bent down, picked it up, and put the stick down on my counter. "This is pretty cool workmanship, Mercy. What are you doing with an antique walking stick on the floor of your garage?"
Darned if I knew.
"It's not mine. Someone left it at the shop. I've been trying to give it back to its rightful owner."
Tony looked at it again. "It looks pretty old. The owner should be happy to get it back." There was a question in his voice--I don't think Dr. Altman heard it.
I don't know how sensitive Tony is to magic, but he was quick and his fingers lingered on the Celtic designs on the silver.
I met his eyes and gave him a brief nod. Otherwise he'd pick at it until even the blind fae noticed he'd seen more than he ought.
"You'd think so," I said ruefully. "But here it is."
He smiled thoughtfully. "If Dr. Altman is through, we'll just get out of your way," he said. "I'm sorry Zee is unhappy with the way you chose to defend him. But I'll see to it he doesn't get railroaded."
Or killed.
"Take care," I told him seriously. Don't do anything stupid.
He raised an eyebrow. "I'm as careful as you are."
I smiled at him and went back to work. No matter what I'd told its owner, this car wasn't going to be done until tomorrow. I buttoned it up, then cleaned up and checked my phone. I'd actually missed two calls. The second one was from Tony, before he'd brought the department's fae consultant. The first one was a number I didn't know with a long- distance area code.
When I dialed it, Zee's son, Tad, answered the phone.
Tad had been my first tool rustler, but then he'd gone on to college and deserted me--just as Gabriel would do in a year or two. He'd actually been the one to hire me. He'd been working alone when I'd come needing a belt for my Rabbit (having just blown an interview at Pasco High; they wanted a coach and I thought they should be more concerned that their history teachers could teach history) and I'd helped him out with a customer. I think he'd been nine years old. His mother had just passed away and Zee wasn't dealing well with it. Tad had had to rehire me three more times in the next month before Zee resigned himself to me--a woman and, he thought at first, a human.
"Mercy, where have you been? I've been trying to get you since Saturday morning." He didn't give me a chance to answer. "Uncle Mike told me that Dad had been arrested for murder. All I could get out of him was that it was related to the deaths on the reservation and that I was, under the Gray Lords' edict, to stay where I am."
Tad and I share a certain disregard and distaste for authority. He probably had a plane ticket in his hand.
"Don't come," I said after a moment's fierce thought. The Gray Lords wanted someone guilty and they didn't care who it was. They wanted a quick end to this mess and anyone who stood between them and what they wanted would be in danger.
"What the hell happened? I can't find out anything." I heard in his voice the frustration I was feeling, too.
I told him as much as I knew, from when Zee asked me to sniff out the murderer to the blind woman who had just come with Tony-- including Zee's unhappiness with me because I had told the police and his lawyer too much. My gaze fell on the walking stick, so I added it into the mix.
"It was a human killing the fae? Wait a minute. Wait a minute. The guard who was killed, this O'Donnell, was he a swarthy man, about five- ten or thereabouts? His first name was Thomas?"
"That's what he looked like. I don't know what his first name was."
"I told her that she was playing with fire," Tad said. "Damn it. She thought it was funny because he thought he was doing her such a favor and she was just stringing him along. He amused her."
"She who?" I asked.
"Connora...the reservation's librarian. She didn't like humans much, and O'Donnell was a real turkey. She liked playing with them."