“I didn’t rent to the three of them.”

“This new document says you did. If Aggie stays there alone, she’ll be too vulnerable, and the new caretakers can limit the amount of time any friends can stay with her. But three of them listed on an official document? One can always keep watch on the cabin.”

“So we’re going to forge a document?”

“Why not? They did.” Ilya smiled. “Besides, our document won’t be forged since you and Aggie will sign this one just like you signed the original. The agreement is merely revised. Something Mr. Dane doesn’t need to know.”

We turned off of Mill Creek Road—which was Main Street within the village limits—and drove down Mill Creek Lane. Like the access road to The Jumble, it was gravel, not paved. But it looked well tended.

“Why did you let them push me out?” I asked.

Ilya said nothing until the car pulled up at the second-to-last cabin and the driver got out and walked toward the water mill that generated the electricity for The Jumble as well as the cabins.

“Do you recall Julian Farrow’s reaction when you all played Murder?” Ilya asked.

“Something upset him.”

“His ability as an Intuit is to sense places. It’s one of the things that had made him such an effective police officer and also the thing that had saved his life. In that, his ability makes him—and other Intuits like him—an effective barometer for the health of a place.”

“But Julian is rubbish at playing the game,” I protested.

“But that night, the game was altered to represent The Jumble, even to the point that some of the players were represented by teenies. It turns out that was enough of a difference for Julian to get a sense of place.” Ilya looked me in the eyes. “He called me that night. When I met with him and Officer Grimshaw, Julian told me that once the businessman predator arrived, you would die if I didn’t get you away from The Jumble.”

I wanted to deny it, but Julian and Grimshaw had been acting weird since that night.

I shook my head. “Yorick would push me until he got what he wanted—he knows exactly how to push my buttons—but he wouldn’t kill me.” I couldn’t have married a man who would do that, could I?

“Yorick isn’t the dominant male. Vaughn is the leader of that pack, and he is a predator who could kill another human.” Ilya patted my hand. “But Vaughn is also a small predator who believes he is powerful and does not yet appreciate how many other predators are now watching him. He will appreciate it very soon.”

“And while you and Grimshaw and Julian get this straightened out for silly, incompetent me, I’ll just sit in a corner somewhere and do nothing, because that’s all I’m good at.” I’d meant it to sound humorous—don’t ask me how it could—but even to my ears it sounded bitter. Defeated.

“Can you kill a human, Victoria?” Ilya asked.

“No.”

“Then let those who can deal with these predators.”

“That’s your plan? Kill Yorick and those other men?”

“Not if I can find a better way to solve the problem.”

Oh, that did not sound good. I had a feeling that “better” meant a solution that was just as lethal but not as bloody.

“So while you’re dealing with Yorick, what am I supposed to do?”

Ilya laughed softly. “First, you’re going to sign this revised rental agreement. Then you’re going to figure out how you want the furniture from your suite arranged in the cabin. And then you’re going to decide which items you want stored in three of the other cabins that are available—we’ll leave the one closest to the main road empty. The larger items that won’t fit in the cabins will be stored in the outbuildings at Silence Lodge.”

“My suite was basically an efficiency apartment within the main house. Everything I had there will fit in the one cabin.”

He just smiled and escorted me into the cabin that would be my new home.

CHAPTER 52

Aggie

Sunsday, Sumor 4

As soon as she heard the front door lock and the cars start up and pull away, Aggie flew down to the hall and landed near the office doorway. She shifted to human form, pushed the door open, and watched the female Sanguinati quickly filling a box with file folders Miss Vicki kept in the cabinets.

“Those belong to Miss Vicki,” Aggie said.

“Yes, they do.” Natasha looked at Aggie, then looked past her.

Aggie held out her arms like they were wings as she left the ground and landed several feet into the room when Cougar gave her what was meant to be a nudge.

“What are we going to do about this?” Conan asked, coming in behind Cougar.

“Call in all the terra indigene living in The Jumble who are willing to help,” Natasha replied. “Fetch the packing boxes that are up in the attic. Fetch Miss Vicki’s luggage as well. Trucks will begin arriving soon, but we’ll need the donkey carts as well to take the items from two of the lakeside cabins down to the water. The supply barge will take those things to Silence Lodge.”

“The Crowgard will pack up Miss Vicki’s personal personal things,” Aggie said. When Natasha gave her a questioning look, she added, “We’ll be careful, and we won’t take any little treasures.” All the Crowgard would help Miss Vicki, who was not only their friend but the Reader. “And we’ll pack up the books. Miss Vicki says they’re a different kind of treasure, and she would want them in her new nest.”

Natasha nodded. “All right. But we need to move fast. Everything has to be done, and we all have to be gone before the humans return tomorrow morning.”

“How much are we taking?” Conan asked.

Natasha pointed to a thick file folder on the desk. “If Miss Vicki has a receipt for it, we’re taking it.”

CHAPTER 53

Grimshaw

Sunsday, Sumor 4

Grimshaw watched Officer Osgood enter the police station with a delivery box from Come and Get It.

“I heard you didn’t eat breakfast this morning,” Osgood said as he opened the box and pulled out a thermos and a covered dish. “It’s a bit early for lunch, but the meatloaf had just come out of the oven, so Helen made you a sandwich and coffee. There’s also some sliced fruit in there.”

Just the idea of having breakfast at the boardinghouse had burned a hole in his gut after Yorick Dane had waved that eviction notice in his face—not even having the decency to wait until he had gone to the police station and officially begun his workday. He’d walked out, saying they could meet him at the office. Since most of the residents in The Jumble woke up with the sun, he didn’t think Vicki DeVine would sleep in, but he wasn’t going to give Dane and his pals the satisfaction of rousing the woman out of her bed in order to kick her off her own property.

He’d toyed with the idea of calling Ilya Sanguinati and had come to the reluctant conclusion that that would be seen as taking sides and could get him called back to Bristol if Vaughn and his ilk complained to the right, or wrong, person. But he’d counted on there being enough of the Others up and about to see the cars crawl up the access road, forced to follow him at the speed he’d set. He’d counted on the couple of seconds of lights and sirens to draw attention to their arrival. And they had drawn attention, the best kind of attention. He’d breathed easier when Ilya had strolled in from the kitchen, as if he’d already been at The Jumble for an early-morning meeting.

He didn’t know what was going to happen now. He just hoped he’d enjoy it more than he had carrying out the law this morning.

Grimshaw didn’t touch the food. Not yet. One reason he had preferred to remain in the highway patrol division was that you didn’t have to trust anyone but yourself. “Sit down, Officer.”

Osgood sat in the visitors’ chair in front of Grimshaw’s desk. “Sir?”

“Something has been bothering me, and if we’re going to continue working together, I need an answer to a question.”

Osgood looked puzzled but not alarmed—and not too eager to be helpful. “What’s the question?”