Elemental Assassin 02 - Web of Lies

of them set in the stone walls everybody knows he’s probably dead by now.”
    like tiny lamps. Dawson hit me. He wanted to know if I thought of Dawson’s pale hand sticking out the Warren had hired me to kill him. All the usual stuff.”
    mound of earth and stone—and the way I’d cut the
    “What did you say?” Warren asked.
    dwarf’s wrist just to make sure. “Yeah, Dawson’s dead I smiled. “I told him I was working for Mab Monroe. and buried.”
    That she wanted him dead.”
    “I’m just glad you didn’t end up the same way,” WarSomething sparked in Jo-Jo’s eyes, but she masked the ren said.
    emotion before I could figure out what it was. I stared at the wreckage on the television. The sound
    “Then what happened?” Jo-Jo asked.
    of the earth rumbling and the stone shrieking rang in my I shrugged. “I figured I wasn’t getting out of there alive ears. “Me too.”
    and that I might as well take Dawson and his goons with Jo-Jo went to call Finn and Sophia and tell them that I me. So I used my Stone and Ice magic to collapse the ceilwas finally awake, leaving me alone in the den with Waring. That’s why he needed your land, Warren. The cavern ren. The old coot heaved himself out of his recliner, bones was right under the creek, and the ceiling was too fragile cracking, and disappeared. I watched the news coverage for him to go ahead and mine the diamonds without you of the mine disaster.
    knowing about it.”
    Warren came back a minute later carrying a small picWarren nodded. ture frame. He stared at it a moment, then shoved it into
    “After the dust settled, I was still alive, and they weren’t. my hands. “Here. I know I can’t pay you for what you So I looked for a way out of the cavern, and I found one. did with Dawson and all that you suffered. But I’d like to End of story.”
    give you something, and I thought you might want this.”
    I didn’t tell Jo-Jo about my hands, about the fact I I stared at the picture. A fine layer of dust covered the seemed to have more Ice magic now than ever before. frame, which I wiped away with the edge of my T-shirt. That I could feel the cool power rippling through my The picture might have been in color at one time, but veins. There would be time enough to do that later. After it had long ago faded to a dull yellow. Two young men, I’d figured out for myself whether it was just a fluke. little more than teenagers, looked up at me. The shorter I jerked my head at the television. “What are they sayman was obviously Warren T. Fox. He’d stared into the ing?”
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    having his picture taken. The other man was Fletcher,
    “All right,” I said. “There’s an empty spot on the wall whose wide grin more than made up for Warren’s lack at the Pork Pit. I think this will go nicely there.”
    of one. They both wore work shirts and overalls. Fishing Warren nodded. I walked over, leaned down, and rods and tackle boxes lay at their feet, along with a string kissed his wrinkled cheek. He smelled of old Spice and of fish. Trees ringed the area behind them. peppermint.
    “Is this you and Fletcher?” I asked.
    “Thank you for this.”
    Warren settled into his recliner and started rocking He didn’t look at me, but a blush crept up the side of again. “It is. Taken a couple of months before he started his neck. “It’s nothing.”
    up the Pork Pit. Last photo we ever took together.”
    “No,” I said in a quiet voice, staring at Fletcher’s smil“Don’t you want to keep it then?”
    ing face. “It’s everything to me.”
    Warren shrugged. “I don’t need a photo to remind me of Fletcher. Never have.”
    Embarrassed, Warren made some excuse about checking He stared at the television, but I still spotted the sheen on the store, leaving me alone in the den. I sat there starof moisture in his dark eyes. In that moment, I knew ing at the photo of him and Fletcher until Jo-Jo Deveraux Warren missed Fletcher Lane as much as I did, even if came back in.
    he’d never admit it. And I knew the photo had to be one
    “What’s that?” she asked.
    of his prized possessions. Because it was a symbol of their I showed her the picture.
    friendship, of their childhood growing up together, and
    “Nice of him to give it to you,” the dwarf replied, sitall the good times and hopes and dreams they’d shared.