They hustled up the efficiency apartments’ back stairs. Figuring he didn’t have much time before Montgomery came looking for him, Simon shifted his front paws enough to have semi-human digits, then pulled the wallet out of the bag. He removed the money—lots of money—and dropped the wallet back in the bag.

If the police did the fingerprint thing on the wallet, they wouldn’t find anything useful that would identify him.

Not that it would matter if they could identify him.

He set the money aside, shifted all the way to human, and quickly dressed. Stuffing the money into his back pocket, he looked at Nathan. “I’ll deal with Lieutenant Montgomery.” He leaned down and sniffed Nathan’s mouth. “You should eat some grass or something before you go back to the Liaison’s Office. You have human-meat breath.”

Which meant he probably did too. Good thing human noses weren’t sensitive enough to make the distinction. Meg wouldn’t be able to tell either, but with Meg, it didn’t seem polite to breathe on her after munching on one of her species.

Simon grabbed the bag and opened the door. Nathan hurried down the stairs and past Montgomery. Simon came down more slowly and held out the bag.

“That’s what we found.”

Montgomery took the bag and opened it. “Nothing else?”

“There’s nothing left, Lieutenant.” Which didn’t quite answer the question, but it was the truth.

Montgomery nodded. “Katherine Debany is driving Theral to the MacDonalds’ family doctor. Welby Owlgard said he didn’t know human bodies well enough to tell if Theral had a concussion and thought it best for her to see a human healer.”

“That makes sense.”

There were things to be said, questions to be asked. But neither of them wanted to say or ask.

“I’d best get this evidence to the station and fill out a DLU form,” Montgomery said.

Simon nodded. He walked with Montgomery to the access way, then turned left toward the employee parking lot while Montgomery turned right toward Main Street.

He found Kowalski helping Theral into Katherine Debany’s car. His amber eyes met Kowalski’s dark, angry ones. Once Theral was settled, Katherine started her car. But when Kowalski rounded the car and moved toward him, Simon held up a hand, signaling Katherine to wait.

“If he’d gotten Theral out of the Courtyard, we wouldn’t have found her alive,” Kowalski said in a low voice. “It would have been hard on the MacDonald family to lose her at any time, but especially so soon after Lawrence being killed.”

Simon watched the police officer until he was out of sight. Then he pulled the money from his back pocket, removed four fifties, and handed them to Katherine Debany. “For the doctor and whatever medicine Theral needs.”

Katherine Debany studied his face and looked as if she wanted to ask where he’d gotten the money. Then she thanked him and took the bills.

Once she and Theral were gone, he went to the Liaison’s Office to find out what Meg knew.

• • •

Meg heard the chorus of neighs at the sorting room’s outside door. She looked at Merri Lee as she walked over to open it. “The ponies are here for the mail.”

“Does that mean it’s safe to go outside?” Merri Lee asked.

Meg thought about that, then shook her head. The ponies were a form of terra indigene, so their being outside didn’t mean it was safe for humans. She opened the door a few inches. A black nose immediately pushed into the opening.

Thunder, who was always the first pony in line.

She opened the door all the way and tried to lean out to look down the access way, but all she saw were the last wisps of fog and the ponies.

As she turned toward the table to fetch the stacks of mail for Thunder’s baskets, she realized what else should be on the table. Waving at Merri Lee to join her, she whispered, “I didn’t prepare any treats. See what you can find in the back room.”

While Merri Lee rummaged in the under-the-counter fridge and cupboards, Meg filled the baskets with mail going to the different complexes in the Courtyard. She was picking up the stack for the Wolfgard Complex when Merri Lee returned, holding something behind her back.

“All I could find was the box of sugar lumps,” Merri Lee whispered.

“Well, I’ll just make sure everyone knows this is an extra-special treat this week.” “Everyone” would include Jester Coyotegard, just in case the ponies didn’t want to believe her next week when she offered the regular treat of apples or carrots.

When Thunder was first in line again, Meg handed out the sugar lumps, to all the ponies’ delight. Not all. Three of the ponies were missing. The rest of them trotted off to deliver the mail, looking quite pleased with themselves.

As soon as Meg locked the sorting room’s door, she and Merri Lee hurried to the back room and looked out the window.

“Theral is in the Market Square,” Merri Lee said. “Maybe she can see what’s . . .”

“I saw a man running up the access way,” Meg said, rubbing her throat. “Simon was going the wrong way, going to deal with the argument at the apartments.”

The phone rang. They ran into the sorting room. Feeling breathless, Meg grabbed the receiver. “Hello? Vlad! What . . . ?” She braced a hand against the counter. “Is she . . . ? Okay. Yes. Okay.” She hung up and looked at Merri Lee. “A man tried to abduct Theral. She’s hurt, but she’ll be all right. Mrs. Debany is taking her to the doctor’s. Vlad says it’s safe for you to go back to Howling Good Reads—Tess and Nadine are in A Little Bite, so they’re nearby—but you can stay here a while longer if you want to.”