The pleasant recording responded to my nonresponse. “I’m sorry, I didn’t recognize your entry. If this is an emergency, please hang up and dial nine-one-one. If it is a nonemergency, please enter the extension number now. To reach our company directory…”

I pressed a series of numbers from memory. I needed to talk to Alex.

She picked up on the first ring. “Detective Alexander.”

“Alex, it’s me.”

She gave a huge sigh. “Now what?”

“Gee, glad to know you’re happy to hear from me.”

“Celia, I like you. I really do. But every time you call, there’s trouble, and not just little trouble, either. Your trouble usually comes with a body count. So don’t be surprised if I’m not thrilled to hear from you.”

“Well, crap.” There was an uncomfortable pause.

She was the one to break it. “Well? What is it?”

“I have a problem.”

She gave a bitter laugh. “Of course you do. Tell me.”

I started with the hit-and-run attempt and kept right on going until I reached the present, with Okalani missing and Jan Mortensen wanting her dead. “I could be wrong. Hell, I hope I’m wrong. I like the kid. And I don’t ever like to think about there being crooked cops in the department.”

“Nobody does,” Alex agreed. Her voice was serious. “Rick’s not with the department anymore. He was asked to resign a couple of weeks ago.”

That shocked me. The PD doesn’t fire someone lightly. There are long, complicated processes involving internal affairs and board hearings. “He was asked to resign?”

For a long moment we sat in silence. I’d just come to the conclusion that she wasn’t going to answer me when she sighed and started talking. “Several very valuable things went missing from evidence. Everybody from the Chief on down had to take a polygraph. Anyone who refused would be put on suspension, pending investigation.”

“I take it the investigation went badly for him?”

“There wasn’t enough proof to satisfy the DA. But, yeah. He did it. We don’t know exactly how he did it. But we know it was him.”

I had a pretty good idea how he’d done it. I didn’t like getting Okalani in trouble with the cops, but this would give Alex a great excuse to bring the kid in for questioning if she found her. It might even save the girl’s life. She’d be safer, harder to get to, in police custody. Assuming of course she’d stay there.

“Did you know Clarke has a kid?”

“Had. He had a son. Kid got drained by vamps after a football game a couple of years ago.”

“Has,” I corrected her in turn. “A daughter, who was raised by her siren mom on Serenity. She’s the teleporter who helped us when we put Dahlmar back on his throne. She moved to the mainland to live with her father. She’s admitted to me that she can take things through magical barriers. You might want to bring her in and talk to her about it, and while you’re at it, you might ask her about her father’s anti-siren sentiments and their connection to Jan Mortensen.”

Alex’s breath whooshed out in a low hiss. “Why are you bringing this to me? You know the feds are going to want to talk to her.”

“So are King Dahlmar and Queen Lopaka’s people. I thought I had her stashed safely away, but she bolted. I think she’s trying to save her father. That’s the first place Mortensen and the others will look for her. She’s in trouble, a lot of trouble. You may be her best shot.”

Alex paused. “So, find Ricky and we find the girl?”

“I think so.”

The thumping I heard might be Alex’s fingers drumming on the desk. “I shouldn’t be telling you this, but I heard he’s gotten himself a job working security for one of the big movie studios outside of L.A. But we’ll check it out. No civilians on this one.”

“Thanks, Alex.”

“Whatever.” She hung up on me without saying good-bye. That hurt, but not enough to matter. Not today.

18

I went to see my aunt to ask her to be merciful. After all, the queen knew Okalani. The kid had been helpful during the whole situation with King Dahlmar a couple of years ago. Hiwahiwa, the queen’s personal assistant, was close to Laka and Okalani as well. I hoped that Queen Lopaka would take all of that into consideration and be lenient. My mistake.

“High treason is a capital offense.”

I was in my aunt’s hospital room, sitting in the chair beside her bed. It was a small room filled with lots of equipment and I was feeling a little claustrophobic, especially since equipment was hardly the only thing in the room. Flowers covered nearly every flat surface, towering arrangements from heads of state around the world. A saltwater aquarium burbled beside me, colorful fish swimming in lazy circles. The sound and sight were soothing. I needed to be soothed. Her Royal Majesty was not feeling the love right now. There was no mercy in her for a subject who’d conspired with terrorists.

Normally I would’ve agreed, which made me less than effective at arguing on Okalani’s behalf. But I was doing my best, playing up the young woman’s past service. “She saved your life, if you remember, and kept Dahlmar on his throne. Adriana wouldn’t have met him if not for Okalani. She ferried mages back and forth when the rift was chewing up the world. All while knowing she could die at any time. Really, she’s done a lot of good for the sirens.”

The queen sat rigidly straight—she would’ve been upright even if the bed hadn’t been adjusted to the sitting position. She was wearing a lovely peignoir the shade of pink you find inside the bend of a conch shell. Her color was good. Apparently her recovery was progressing rapidly now that the doctors had consulted with physicians from Serenity who were, naturally, more familiar with siren biology. “You act as though Okalani is still a child. Perhaps in your world she is. But in our world, she is not. I, myself, had been on my throne for three years by the time I was her age.”

“But you are … extraordinary. Most people are not.”

“I admire your compassion.” Her tone of voice contradicted her words. She heard that thought, or else she read my body language, because she said, more gently, “Truly. I do.”

One of these days I was going to have to learn to shield.

Yes, you will. In truth, you have much to learn. I understand your feelings. I even admire them. But I am queen. I have been so for hundreds of years. My first duty is to my people. Okalani betrayed us. That betrayal cost lives—siren lives and human lives. She worked willingly with people whose goal is to exterminate us like vermin. Even sincere contrition is simply not enough. She must pay for her crimes, and the law established by my people is clear. The punishment is death. But if she cooperates, shares everything she knows, I will allow her an … honorable death.

What the heck was that? I don’t understand.

Her actions have dishonored her entire family. Her mother, any siblings, the family for three generations in either direction will bear that shame in the eyes of my people. It is our tradition. But if she truly helps us to stop this madness, I will allow her to commit Akkana—ritual suicide. Nothing can save her, but it will at least spare her family the taint of her shame.

Ritual suicide? That was the good option?

I am sorry, Celia, truly.

I couldn’t tell if she was or not. I was just hoping something would change to make any action unnecessary. So am I.

The queen spoke her next words aloud, giving me at least the illusion of mental privacy. “Go. Think about what we’ve discussed.” She reached over, patting my hand. I’m not really the patting type, and neither is she. It seemed an odd gesture. Then again, she was in an odd mood—angry, regal, but also extremely tired and very worried. “Pack everything you will need for several days. My jets are busy today ferrying most of my sister queens home, but I will have Hiwahiwa arrange a flight for you tomorrow. I would that it were sooner, but we will simply have to trust the Secret Service a bit longer.”

“I could fly commercial.”

She smiled more broadly, her eyes lighting up a bit. “That won’t be necessary, but thank you for offering. Frankly, security would have a fit, and rightly so. No, tomorrow will be fine.”

I surprised myself by saying, “I wish you were coming, too.”

“As do I. I hate this more than you know. Chiyoko has kindly offered to stay and to advise Adriana.” The bitterness in the queen’s words was palpable.

“Oh, hell.”

“Indeed. I had hoped that using the video conference idea you had given me, showing her that I am recovering, would dissuade her from this unseemly grab for power…” She let the sentence trail off unfinished.

There was nothing I could say. From what I’d seen nothing, ever, would dissuade Chiyoko from anything. I had never spent more than a few minutes with her, but they’d been memorable. Besides, power-hungry people are never satisfied. It’s an addiction. Any addict always wants more.

I looked at my aunt. She was wearing out. Sirens might be tough, but they weren’t invincible, and the terrorists had very nearly succeeded in killing her, thanks to the information Okalani had provided.

Perhaps the queen was right. Or not. I just didn’t know. I did know there was nothing more for me to do here. “I’ll let you get some rest. Try not to worry any more than you have to.”

She gave a snort of amusement, then nodded, a silent gesture giving me permission to leave.

Taking my cue I rose, bowed, and walked away.

Baker led me down one of the back stairwells after notifying Griffiths that we were leaving and telling him where to meet us. I’d turned off my cell phone to meet with the queen and switched it back on as we went down the stairs. There were five missed calls, all from Laka.

I knew I should call her back. Maybe Okalani had come back. More likely, she hadn’t and her mother just wanted updates. Whatever, I didn’t want to deal with it. Not now, with my conversation with the queen so fresh in my mind. Later. I’d crush Laka’s hopes for her daughter later.