Elemental Assassin 02 - Web of Lies

men. I also made a quick circuit through the store and 18
    picked up a few items I thought might be useful. Flashlights, rope, gloves, binoculars. I left a hundred on the counter to cover everything. Then Donovan Caine and I left the others in the store and got into his sedan. The detective sank into the driver’s seat, while I took the passenger’s side. Unlike most cop cars I’d been in, this one was clean to the point of being pristine. No fastfood wrappers, no empty soda cups, no trash or debris of any kind littered the inside. The car even smelled like Caine—clean and slightly soapy. or maybe that was just the air freshener dangling from the rearview mirror. EiFinn was still digging for info on Tobias Dawson, so I left ther way, I breathed in, enjoying the crisp aroma. Mmm. him and the Foxes in Sophia’s and Jo-Jo’s capable hands. Donovan started the car and looked at me. “Where Violet was happy to see the older dwarf again and started to?”
    peppering her with questions about hot-oil hair treatI glanced down at the printouts Finn had given me. ments.
    Finn hadn’t found much on Tobias Dawson yet, but he’d To my surprise, so was Warren. Jo-Jo must have known been able to find several maps of the dwarf’s mine—inhim and his parents better than she’d let on because the cluding the building that housed his office. old man pulled up two rocking chairs, and he and Jo-Jo “Go to the stop sign and hang a left like you’re going proceeded to gossip about all the folks they knew up here back to the interstate,” I said. “There’s an old access in Ridgeline Hollow. Then again, Jo-Jo Deveraux was road that runs over the top of the ridge and overlooks more than two hundred fifty years old. I couldn’t imagthe mine. We can stop up there and see what’s going on ine how many people she’d met in her lifetime. Hard to below before we make our move.”
    keep track of them all, but somehow she managed it. She Donovan nodded and steered the sedan out of the seemed especially chatty with Warren.
    parking lot. He cruised to a stop, then made the approThat left Sophia with guard duty. I showed her the priate turn. We didn’t speak as the vehicle climbed up the various access points to the store and the house out back. twisting, winding road.
    once we finished, the Goth dwarf stuck an iPod in her As the tourist sign at the crossroads claimed, it was a Estep_Web of Lies_1P EP.indd 198-199
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    scenic stretch of highway, with dense woods that crowded land Police Department on the back. He offered the jacket to the edge of the road on both sides. A couple of weeks to me, but I shook my head.
    ago, the fall foliage would have been magnificent. But
    “You keep it,” I said. “You’re the one who brought it, the elevation was slightly higher here than in the rest of not me.”
    Ashland, which meant the maples, oaks, and poplars had The detective shrugged into the jacket. I stuffed the already shed most of their colorful leaves. Still, I found maps Finn had given me into my jeans pocket so they the curving branches of the trees enchanting in their own wouldn’t get too wet.
    way, ribbons of wood winding together to make artful
    “This way,” I told the detective.
    shapes.
    I headed out of the clearing. The drizzling rain had Through the bare limbs, I spotted the creek Warren already slicked the assorted weeds and fallen leaves unFox had mentioned, the one that curved around the back derfoot, so I walked carefully and slowly. I didn’t need a of his house and flowed past Country Daze. I didn’t know sprained or broken ankle tonight. Behind me, Donovan that I’d call it a mere creek, though. The rushing water did the same.
    stretched thirty feet wide in some places, tumbling over A sign at the end of the clearing read No Trespassing—
    unusual rock formations. Gravel pull-offs on either side Dawson Mining Company, but I ignored it. Trespassing of the road marked popular fishing and wading spots. was going to be the least of my crimes this evening. We I glanced at the map again. “Take the next right.”
    walked in silence through the wet woods for a few minDonovan nodded and did as I asked. utes before we reached the lip of the ridge. I crouched The smooth concrete fell away to cracked pavement as behind a tall pine on the edge, and Donovan squatted the car twisted and turned even higher onto the mounbeside me. Despite the rain, the detective’s