Taliesin Ascendant (The Children and the Blood) by Skye Malone, Megan Joel Peterson Read Free Book Online Page B

neighboring homes, he guessed some of the debris had made it into there too.
    “Hey you.”
    Harris glanced back. Beyond what remained of the chain-link fence, a boy stood, an artfully patched backpack slung over his shoulder and an expression of cultivated boredom on his face. A thick swath of purple hair flopped in front of his kohl-lined eyes, and his jeans were tighter than any Harris had seen since the seventies.
    Looking as he did, Harris found himself wondering if the kid got beat up a lot, living in a neighborhood like this.
    “What’re you doing?” the boy continued, tossing the question out like an accusation.
    “Did you know the old lady who lived here?” Harris asked, backtracking across the yard.
    The boy’s eyes narrowed. “You a cop?”
    Harris paused. “Not anymore.”
    The answer seemed to please the kid, and a wry grin twisted his face. “You get booted or something?”
    “Or something.”
    The grin spread. Half-glancing toward the wreckage, the kid gave a nod. “Yeah, I knew her. Total freak. Never left her house.”
    “Did you see what happened a few days ago?”
    A casual shrug answered him. “It was weird. Never seen the old lady have visitors before. And then a day later the house blows up? Totally wild.”
    “You saw her visitors?”
    A semi-bored nod.
    “What’d they look like?”
    Shrugging again, the boy kicked at a piece of explosion-warped chain-link fence near his foot. “Two guys and two girls who really didn’t seem the types to be visiting her. She never let anyone in besides that old guy down the street. And even he–”
    “Old guy?”
    “Norman or Norton or something. Lived about three houses that way. But he moved out in a real hurry about a day ago.”
    Harris’ gaze moved in the direction the kid pointed. “And the others?”
    The boy shrugged as though it was his default action before answering. “An old white man and a black guy who looked like, I don’t know, maybe fifty? The blonde girl with the dreads was pretty freaky looking, but the other might’ve been cute. I couldn’t see much of her though. She tucked up under a hood real quick when she got out of their van.” The shrug returned. “Dark-haired white girl. That’s all I saw.”
    The last would have been Ashley then. And as for the others…
    “Did you see what happened to them after this place blew up?”
    “Nah. My friends and I were inside my place when it happened. Shook the whole house though. Thought the walls were going to come down.”
    Harris nodded. He could imagine. “Thanks,” he told the boy.
    The kid shrugged.
    Ignoring the motion, Harris headed for his car, glancing to his watch as he went. It was still early, but the hour would have to do, because the kid’s descriptions had corroborated one thing. Just as in Monfort, she’d been on the run with a middle-aged African-American man.
    And according to the paper, a body matching that description, found only a few blocks from the apartment fire, was lying in the city morgue right now.
    Cranking the engine, he checked the street swiftly and then sped off, leaving the ruins of the little yellow house behind.
     

Chapter Three
     
    He’d originally intended to reach the morgue at a reasonable hour, and thereby appear more credible, but from the look the mortician had given him the moment he entered the door, Harris was glad he hadn’t bothered.
    “You’re from where, again?”
    “Monfort, Utah.”
    “And why do you want to see the body?”
    Harris suppressed a scowl. He’d answered the question twice, and was starting to suspect the mortician had a mental disability of some kind. “Because it may be related to a case.”
    “And you’re a cop?”
    “Yes.”
    “Where’s your badge?”
    “In my pocket.”
    This met with a suspicious look. Harris forced his face to remain calm.
    “So what’s the case?” the mortician persisted.
    “Homicide.”
    “And you think this guy might be