Grimshaw ignored him. “The latest incident involved two men who took a motorboat out on the lake, despite being told about the no-motor rule.” Lots of headshaking and muttering in the crowd. “The response to the motorboat was of sufficient force that I decided to close the public beach for a day or two. While I don’t believe anyone in Sproing is in danger of an unprovoked attack, I do believe allowing everyone to calm down is essential for public welfare. I’m in charge of this police station. Until that changes, I’m not taking chances with your lives.”

Murmurs of approval.

“When are you chucking Dane and his hoity-toity friends out of The Jumble so Miss Vicki can go back home and get all this straightened out?” Helen from Come and Get It asked.

He heard a couple of sharp female voices protesting Helen’s term for influential businessmen from Hubb NE, but mostly he heard rumblings of agreement. They wanted Yorick Dane out of The Jumble, out of Sproing, and far away from Lake Silence.

“That’s not my jurisdiction.” Before someone said the wrong thing and turned a crowd into a mob, Grimshaw held up a hand. “However, Ms. DeVine has an excellent attorney who is scrutinizing every document Mr. Dane presented.”

“Sanguinati.”

“Yeah, he’ll sort things out.”

He didn’t recognize the voices, but he found the sentiment unsettling. When it came to choosing between businessmen like Yorick Dane and the Sanguinati, the majority of people in Sproing seemed to be voting for the vampires. Was that a change in allegiance, or had enough of the people here always been aware of who controlled their village from the shadows and had they just pretended to be clueless?

“The beach will remain closed tomorrow,” he said. “Barring any unforeseen circumstances, you should be able to resume water activities the day after.”

Of course, Ames Funeral Home was currently filled to capacity with unforeseen circumstances.

The crowd dispersed. Grimshaw breathed a sigh of relief. But when the people scattered to return to their jobs or head home, he saw another crowd had formed in front of the bookstore.

Sproingers filled the sidewalk in front of Lettuce Reed, climbing on each other to see into the windows or cling to the screen door. Had Julian put out a treat this morning? Or were they focused on the store for some other reason?

“What’s going on over there?” Hargreaves asked.

“Don’t know.” Before he could decide if it would be prudent to investigate, Gershwin Jones approached him. The big man studied the Sproingers, then looked at him.

“I have a feeling they’re going to come for you soon, and when they do, you need to pay attention.” Jones nodded to Hargreaves and walked away.

“What did he mean about them coming for you?” Hargreaves asked.

“I don’t know. But Gershwin Jones is an Intuit, so if he has a feeling about this, I’m going to pay attention.”

CHAPTER 69

Aggie

Firesday, Sumor 7

“Those police humans,” Jozi said as she and Aggie followed the footpath to the main house, leaving Eddie to watch the cabin. “Why do they keep chasing after us? We haven’t found any scraps, and it’s not like they want the food.”

Aggie slipped an arm around Jozi’s waist. “The police are looking for clues.”

They wouldn’t find any—if the Elders left any scraps for the Crowgard and other small forms of terra indigene, they wouldn’t leave them on the shoreline within The Jumble. But the police kept watching the Crows, and every time a Crow landed to inspect something near the water, one of the police ran over to see what the Crow had found. Very annoying. How could anyone look for a snack when another predator was waiting to snatch it?

Of course, she and Jozi and Eddie hadn’t gone hunting for snacks because the police were paying special attention to them, with different men coming over to the cabin to ask if they had seen anything when the Hershel human ended up in the water. Didn’t humans talk to each other? Was that why they all asked the same questions? Or were they trying to . . . confirm . . . the information? Clearly humans weren’t as good as Crows when it came to remembering things. And the police here worked sooooooo slowly compared to TV cops, but Miss Vicki had said stories on TV had to condense all the time it would take in the real world, glossing over the waiting and thinking time in order to keep the story interesting for the viewers. Having spent the day watching the police scour the beach for clues, Aggie approved of glossing over.

“What’s she still doing here?” The raised voice sounded rough. Must be the bruised-throat female. “Things are bad enough now, but as long as she stays around, being here will only get worse. You have to do something! Force her out!”

Aggie retreated, tugging Jozi to come with her.

“That’s so sad,” Jozi said as they walked back to the cabin. “The Heidi human lost her mate, and now they want to force her to leave. Do you think the other females are afraid she’ll try to steal one of their mates?”

“I don’t think she wants one of the other males,” Aggie said. But the Heidi human wasn’t being included in the Dane flock anymore, had stayed alone in her cabin yesterday, not even venturing out to find food. And none of the humans who were supposed to be her friends had brought any to her.

As Jozi said, it was sad that the human females were so determined to drive the Heidi human away when they had been her friends the day before. But as the Crows spent the rest of the day watching the humans wander around on the beach, Aggie had the uneasy feeling that she had missed an important clue.

CHAPTER 70

Vicki

Watersday, Sumor 8

“Are you having trouble figuring out where to shelve these?” Julian asked, eyeing the books on the top shelf of the cart.

“No, no trouble.”

“Then . . .” He reached for one of the books.

“If you didn’t want me to look at the books, you shouldn’t have asked me to dust the shelves.” Helping Julian in the store for the past couple of days showed me why I could never work in the bookstore on a regular basis. I’d buy all the stock. “That’s the first pass. I’ll shelve the ones I’m putting back.”

He considered the books. “Do you have a prejudice against authors whose names begin with . . .”

I raised my arm and stretched as far as I could without falling off the top step of the three-step stool, demonstrating that some books were not within the reach of a short person, which was why I hadn’t selected titles written by authors whose names began with the first few letters of the alphabet.

Did Julian offer to find a taller stool or even a ladder? No, he did not. He just grinned.

“I’m going to the bank,” he said. “It’s a little early for lunch, but I could pick up a pizza while I’m out and about. Does that have any appeal?”

“That sounds good. Thanks. Oh. Could you stop at the general store and pick up more carrots? I cut up the last ones for the Sproingers’ treat this morning.” I glanced at the books on the cart. “I’ll put some of them back. Promise.”

“No need. If I paid you for helping me these past couple of days, I think we’d end up even.”

I wasn’t sure about being even, but I didn’t argue because I really didn’t want to put any of them back. They were an escape from a shaky future. Maybe I should throw away all caution and look into going out west where you could apply to live in a town that was being repopulated. You had to be willing to work with the terra indigene, but I could do that. And leaving the Northeast should put enough distance between me and Yorick.

Of course, I had no idea how a human applied to live in one of those towns, but Ilya Sanguinati might know. I’d slipped my medical information under his office door, including the name of the physician in Hubbney. No reason I couldn’t stuff the query about those towns under the door as well.

“I’ll be back as soon as I can.” Julian hesitated and rubbed the back of his neck. “Something doesn’t feel right today.”

“In the village?”

“On Main Street. I’m not sensing anything stronger than that. Don’t always sense more than that until the trouble is almost at the door, so to speak.” He looked at me, his gray eyes dark with worry. “I’ll lock the back door when I leave. You have your mobile phone?”