The architect gathered her composure and squared her shoulders, fixing him with a withering look. “Technically, they were not forthcoming about the nature of the job. It was a bait and switch.”
That, at least, they agreed on. “You can’t go back to the sanctuary yet.”
“You said I shouldn’t run away like a scared bunny.” She picked up her purse. “So I’m not. I’m going to work. If I didn’t see anything, I wouldn’t be afraid of returning. If I skip work – which I never do – then what does that tell them?”
“Call in sick.” Dodge shook his head. “There aren’t enough people out there to keep them from trying to kill you and make you disappear.”
She exhaled in frustration. “I wasjustthere yesterday. Isn’t calling in sick going to tell them –“
“Call in sick.”
Her hands clenched into fists and she geared up for a hell of a comeback. He didn’t know how or what she intended to say, because before she could give him the piece of her mind, her phone rang. Persephone tensed as she looked at it, then held up the screen so Dodge could see the name: Bridger.
He wanted to break something. It was bad enough the notorious loan shark was somehow behind the animal sanctuary, but that Persephone actuallylikedthe woman added more complications on top of an already volatile situation. Dodge jerked his chin at the phone. “Answer it. See what she wants. Do not reveal you saw anything yesterday. You’re not coming to the sanctuary today. End the call as quickly as you can.”
Persephone’s lips thinned with irritation, but she answered the call and left it on speaker. “Ms. Bridger, good morning. I’ve got you on speaker; I’m getting ready but didn’t want to miss your call.”
A little too much information, but he couldn’t critique the set-up. Dodge held his breath. Bridger was too clever; she hadn’t survived a decade of loaning money and breaking knees to the worst criminal enterprises in the city by being stupid. Or altruistic.
The older woman’s smooth voice, with the familiar cut-glass accent he remembered from his youth in New England, slid out of the phone like a shiv to his ears. “Good morning, dear. You must be running late; we expected you a little while ago.”
Persephone frowned, though she reached out to rattle the grate on the stove, making noise to support her story of getting ready. Dodge wanted to smile and give her a thumb’s up, but didn’t dare distract her from the task at hand. The architect managed to sound flustered and irritated within socially-acceptable levels when speaking with her boss. “I should have left a note. Geordie called me midday yesterday and demanded I spend the afternoon moving a delivery around, and I was supposed to be working on a different job yesterday. I need to make up that time with my new client, so I shifted hours. I apologize for not notifying you; I thought Geordie had run it past you?”
There was a malicious gleam in her eyes when she said it, no doubt trying to draw attention to the asshole who’d ruined her day yesterday. Dodge wondered when that gleam would be turned in his direction.
Bridger paused for long enough that Dodge started to fear the call dropped, then that smooth, cultured voice once more broke the cozy confines of Persephone’s shabby kitchen. “No, Geordie did not mention it to me. I thought we had a construction supervisor to handle things like that.”
“So did I,” Persephone said, once more the efficient, professional habitat designer. She paced into the living room and carried the phone, moving around so the sounds changed. Dodge nodded to encourage her, but otherwise kept his trap shut. She could handle it. “Still, I went yesterday so we wouldn’t fall behind schedule. It took forever but the delivery was moved to the appropriate side of the new leopard habitat.”
“Forever?” Bridger asked. “Hopefully you didn’t stay too long, dear. I wouldn’t want a young lady like you to be out at the site past dark. It’s very isolated out here.”
“It’s fine,” Persephone said. “I didn’t have any issues.”
“That’s good to know,” the loan shark said slowly, measuring each word. “I’d hate to have you run into anything dangerous.”
Dodge heard the mild threat, the effort to fish for more information and provoke a reaction. She must have known what the meat-heads were doing, feeding someone to the tiger. He’d put money on the whole scheme being Bridger’s idea. Dead men didn’t pay their debts, but she couldn’t have the reputation for letting someone get away with non-payment. Someone had to be made an example of, and knowing that they’d end up tiger chow would convince even the hardest bastards to find a way to pay her back. He clenched his hands on the back of one of the kitchen chairs, and gestured for her to wrap up the call.
Persephone must have heard something different in Bridger’s statement, because she laughed it off. “Only thing dangerous out there is the tiger, and I wasn’t about to get close to him.”
“Of course.” There was still an odd touch to Bridger’s tone; Dodge tensed when he heard it. Maybe the loan shark started to wonder about Persephone being out at the sanctuary the day before, since she’d offered that tidbit up. Bridger managed to sound halfway interested as she went on. “I’m pleased to hear you found another client, although I hope that won’t distract from our work. I feel like I’ve invested some time in you, dear, and don’t want to lose my mentee.”
Mentee? Dodge’s eyes narrowed. Persephone looked too pleased, though, and nodded even though the other woman couldn’t see her. “Of course not. I appreciate all of your advice. Did you need me out there today? I was planning to return tomorrow to oversee when they move the tiger, hopefully away from...”
She stumbled over the words and cleared her throat. “When they move the tiger back to where he’s supposed to be. After the teeth cleaning. Wasn’t that today?”
Dodge wanted to end the call, though he couldn’t put his finger on where the architect had stumbled. He moved closer to her but she looked panicked, backed into a corner near the sofa, and held her hands up to ward him off. She smelled of fear and adrenaline, and the wolf got ready to protect her from whatever it was that drove her heart to racing.
Persephone’s rapid change to questions apparently also struck a chord wrong with Bridger, because the loan shark took a while to reply. “Why, yes. The tiger is in the medical building for the teeth cleaning this morning, although they moved him yesterday, I believe. Did you happen to see him yesterday while you were working?”
“N-no, of course not.” Persephone looked at him, her eyes wide with panic. “I was just curious.”
“Indeed.” Bridger drew the word out until Dodge cringed, wanting to leap through the phone to strangle the woman until she couldn’t hurt Persephone. “But you remember what they say about curiosity and cats, don’t you? Even tigers.”
The architect’s face reddened. “Cats do seem to get themselves into all kinds of trouble.”
“That’s true, and usually of their own making, hmm? We do hate to see that. Curious little cats poking their noses where they don’t belong and uncovering things that shouldn’t be messed with.” Bridger managed to sound disappointed and threatening at the same time. “Good thing our tiger is rather well-behaved, isn’t he?”
“I’ve always thought so,” Persephone whispered.
