"Oh, don't be so harsh, old man," Myrnin said, and rolled his eyes. "She's a teenager in love. Let the girl have her moment. It'll hurt her more, in the end. Parting is such sweet sorrow, according to the bards. I wouldn't know, myself. I never parted anyone." He mimed ripping someone in half, then got an odd expression on his face. "Well. Just the one time, really. Doesn't count."
Claire forgot to breathe. She hadn't expected Myrnin, of all of them, to speak up, even if his support had been more crazy than useful. But he'd given Bishop pause, and she kept very still, letting him think it over.
Bishop gestured, and Michael paused on his way to the door. "Wait, Michael," Bishop said. "Claire. I have a task for you to do, if you want to keep the boy alive another day."
Claire felt a trembling sickness take hold inside. This wasn't the first time, but she always assumed - had to! - that it would be the last time. "What kind of task?"
"Delivery." Bishop walked to the desk and flipped open a carved wooden box. Inside was a small pile of paper scrolls, all tied up with red ribbon and dribbled with wax seals. He picked one seemingly at random to give her.
"What is it?"
"You know what it is."
She did. It was a death warrant; she'd seen way too many of them. "I can't - "
"I can order you to take it. If I do, I won't feel obliged to offer you any favors. This is the best deal you are going to get, little Claire: Shane's life for the simple delivery of a message," Bishop said. "And if you won't do it, I will send someone else, Shane dies, and you have a most terrible day."
She swallowed. "Why give me the chance at all? It's not like you to bargain."
Bishop showed his teeth, but not his fangs - those were kept out of sight, but that didn't make him any less dangerous. "Because I want you to understand your role in Morganville, Claire. You belong to me. I could order you to do it, with a simple application of will. Instead, I am allowing you to choose to do it."
Claire turned the scroll in her fingers and looked down at it. There was a name on the outside of it, written in old-fashioned black calligraphy. Detective Joe Hess.
She looked up, startled. "You can't - "
"Think very carefully about the next thing you say," Bishop interrupted. "If it involves telling me what I can or can't do in my own town, they will be your last words, I promise you."
Claire shut her mouth. Bishop smiled.
"Better," he said. "If you choose to do so, go deliver my message. When you come back, I'll allow you to see the boy, just this once. See how well we can get along if we try?"
The scroll felt heavy in Claire's hand, even though it was just paper and wax.
She finally nodded.
"Then go," Bishop said. "Sooner started, sooner done, sooner in the arms of the one you love. There's a good girl."
Michael was looking at her. She didn't dare meet his eyes; she was afraid that she'd see anger there, and betrayal, and disappointment. It was one thing to be forced to be the devil's foot soldier.
It was another thing to choose to do it.
Claire walked quickly out of the room.
By the time she hit the marble steps and the warm sun, she was running.
Chapter Three
Detective Joe Hess.
Claire turned the scroll over and over in sweaty fingers as she walked, wondering what would happen if she just tossed it down a storm drain. Well, obviously, Bishop would be pissed. And probably homicidal, not that he wasn't mostly that all the time. Besides, what she was carrying might not be anything bad. Right? Maybe it just looked like a death warrant. Maybe it was a decree that Friday was ice cream day or something.
A car cruised past her, and she sensed the driver staring at her, then speeding up. Nothing to see here but a sad, stupid evil pawn, she thought bitterly. Move along.
The police station was in City Hall as well, and the entire building was being renovated, with work crews ripping out twisted metal and breaking down stone to put in new braces and bricks. The side that held the jail and the police headquarters area hadn't been much damaged, and Claire headed for the big, high counter that was manned by the desk sergeant.
"Detective Joe Hess," she said. "Please."
The policeman barely glanced up at her. "Sign in; state your name and business."
She reached for the clipboard and pen and carefully wrote her name. "Claire Danvers. I have a delivery from Mr. Bishop."
There were other things going on in the main reception area - a couple of drunks handcuffed to a huge wooden bench, some lawyers getting a cup of coffee from a big silver pot near the back.
Everything stopped. Even the drunks.
The desk sergeant looked up, and she saw a weary anger in his eyes before he put on a blank, hard expression. "Have a seat," he said. "I'll see if he's here."
He turned away and picked up a phone. Claire didn't watch him make the call. She was too lost in her own misery. She stared down at the writing on the scroll and wished she knew what was inside - but then, it might make it worse if she did know. I'm only a messenger.
Yeah, that was going to make her sleep nights.
The desk sergeant spoke quietly and hung up, but he didn't come back to the counter. Avoiding her, she assumed; she was getting used to that. The good people avoided her, the bad people sucked up to her. It was depressing.
Her tattoo itched. She rubbed the cloth of her shirt over it, and watched the reinforced door that led into the rest of the police station.
Detective Hess came out just about a minute later. He was smiling when he saw her, and that hurt. Badly. He'd been one of the first adults to really be helpful to her in Morganville - he and his partner, Detective Lowe, had gone out of their way for her not just once, but several times. And now she was doing this to him.
She felt sick as she rose to her feet.
"Claire. Always a pleasure," he said, and it sounded like he actually meant it. "This way."
The desk sergeant held out a badge as she passed. She clipped it on her shirt and followed Joe Hess into a big, plain open area. His desk was near the back of the room, next to a matching one that had his partner's nameplate on the edge. Nothing fancy. Nobody had a lot of personal stuff on their desks. She supposed that maybe it wasn't a good idea to have breakables, if you interviewed angry people all day.
She settled into a chair next to his desk, and he took a seat, leaned forward, and rested his elbows on his knees. He had a kind face, and he wasn't trying to intimidate her. In fact, she had the impression he was trying to make it easy on her.
"How are you holding up?" he asked her, which was the same thing Richard Morrell had said. She wondered if she looked that damaged. Probably.
Claire swallowed and looked down at her hands, and the scroll held in her right one. She slowly stretched it out toward him. "I'm sorry," she said. "Sir, I'm . . . so sorry." She wanted to explain to him, but there really didn't seem to be much to excuse it at the moment. She was here. She was doing what Bishop wanted her to do.
This time, she'd chosen to do it.
No excuse for that.
"Don't blame yourself," Detective Hess said, and plucked the scroll from her fingers. "Claire, none of this is your fault. You understand that, right? You're not to blame for Bishop, or anything else that's screwed up around here. You did your best."
"Wasn't good enough, was it?"
He watched her for another long second, then shook his head and snapped the seals on the scroll. "If anybody failed, it was Amelie," he said. "We just have to figure out how to survive now. We're in uncharted territory."
He unrolled the scroll. His hands were steady and his expression carefully still. He didn't want to scare her, she realized. He didn't want her to feel guilty.
Detective Hess read the contents of the paper, then let it roll up again into a loose curl. He set it on his desk, on top of a leaning tower of file folders.
She had to ask. "What is it?"
"Nothing you need to worry about," he said, which couldn't have been true. "You did your job, Claire. Go on, now. And promise me . . ." He hesitated, then sat back in his chair and opened a file folder so he could look busy. "Promise me you won't do anything stupid."
She couldn't promise that. She had the feeling she'd already been stupid three or four times since breakfast.
But she nodded, because it was really all she could do for him.