Chapter 258 Roses
ADRIANA
We cleared the board we’d used for Damien’s case and started fresh.
The old index cards came down, the strings came with them, and what was left was a blank surface that felt both like a relief and a pressure. All that open space waiting to be filled with things we didn’t fully understand yet. I stood in front of it with a marker and Hazel sat on the edge of the desk with her notes, and we went through everything we had methodically, pinning facts in order of certainty.
“Kyle told us he had a tattoo on his inner wrist,” I said, writing it up. “Red crown. Same symbol as the seal. And the rubbing alcohol smell, both Kyle and Damon independently confirm that. Two different people, two different encounters, same detail.” I stepped back. “That’s not a coincidence.”
“It’s occupational,” Hazel said. “That smell doesn’t come from washing your hands once. It comes from sustained exposure. A lab, a clinical environment, something medical.”
I pinned that beside the tattoo note and drew a line between them. “He also needs blood. A pint every three days, which Damon was providing.”
“Blood disease,” Hazel said. “Either his own or someone very close to him. That volume, that regularity, it’s not recreational.”
“So we’re looking for someone with a blood condition, a connection to a clinical environment, a red crown tattoo on their inner wrist, and a smell that doesn’t come off easily.” I looked at the board. “And Damon said he smelled like Elijah.”
Hazel was quiet for a moment. “We can’t treat that as definitive. Damon encountered him once, under stress, in poor condition. The smell could be old, a prior meeting with Elijah, or being in a space where Elijah had recently been.”
“Or,” I said, “he’s been in Elijah’s room recently. Close enough to carry the scent. Which would align with someone who has access to this house and has been using that access to administer the toxin.”
She didn’t argue with it. She just looked at the board with the expression she used when something was becoming real that she’d preferred to keep theoretical.
“The letter,” I said suddenly.
We both moved at the same time.
Neither of us had checked the camera feed since setting the watch. We went to the security room and I pulled up the gate feed and scrolled back, and there was the gate, and there was the letter visible on the stone pillar, and then a figure moved by it. The letter was gone in the next second.
“Freeze it,” Hazel said.
I paused the frame but the angle was bad and the the person had a hood on. The only clear detail was the hand reaching for the envelope, and then a second hand, dropping something small to the ground before pulling back.
“He sent Kyle,” I said, watching the frame. “Kyle picked it up.”
“And dropped something,” Hazel said. “Do you see that?”
I made a sound at the back of my throat, already standing up.
I drove to the gate rather than walking because I didn’t want to waste time. The guard opened the gate as I pulled up and I got out and crouched near the pillar where Kyle had been standing, moving slowly, scanning the ground.
“Mum.”
I looked up. Leo was coming through the gate from the road, school bag over one shoulder, looking at me with a confused expression.
He’d started walking home from school months ago after asking me to stop sending the car. I’d agreed reluctantly, partly because of the security concerns and partly because I understood his need to have something normal and unescorted. The guards tracked him at a distance he didn’t acknowledge.
“I need another pair of eyes,” I said. “Get down here. Look for anything that shouldn’t be here. I don’t know what exactly, just anything you see that seems out of place.”
He dropped his bag without argument and crouched beside me, and we searched in widening circles from the pillar in silence for several minutes.
“Mum.” His voice was careful. “Roses don’t grow here.”
I looked up. He was holding a single rose petal, dark pink, slightly wilted at the edges, between two fingers
“The soil here doesn’t support them,” he said. “We tried once, remember? When you wanted the front beds replanted. The gardener said the drainage was wrong for roses.”
I stared at the petal in his fingers. Pride and relief both bloomed in my chest.
“Kyle dropped it deliberately,” I said. “He was telling us where they are.”
Leo looked at me. “Where roses grow.”
I stood up. “Come inside. I need you to tell me everything you know about which packs in this territory cultivate roses.”
Leo sat with his phone and cross-referenced what he knew with what the pack maps showed. He came up with five locations. I spread them on the desk and Hazel leaned in and we looked at the list together.
Damon’s former pack was on it.
“He needs somewhere familiar,” I said. “Somewhere he knows the layout, the access points, where the roads go. He’s operated in and around Damon’s territory for months. He knows it better than anywhere else.” I looked at Hazel. “That’s where they are.”
“You could be wrong.”
“I could be. But we move now and we find out.” I turned to Leo. “You’re staying here. Take care of the kids. Lorain and the twins will be home soon, Lana’s bottle is already prepared on the kitchen counter. If she won’t settle, take her to Elijah’s room. She sleeps better there.”
He looked like he wanted to argue. He looked at my face and didn’t.
“How long will you be gone?”
“A few hours. Maybe less.” I picked up my jacket. “Hazel, get the team together. We leave in thirty minutes.”