Inked

while she was at work. Since it’s believed Steve was killed at night…unless that has changed?”
    “I did get that much confirmed by Daly,” she said, irritated all over again. “Between eleven and three a.m., he said. Getting anything else is going to be like pulling teeth. I’ll pull them, but it won’t be fun. Why do I want to talk to Lupe? And what’s her last name?”
    “Lupe Valdez. You’ll talk to her because she’s Robert Friar’s nearest neighbor.”
    “Robert Friar? The guy who started Humans First?”
    “Yes. She tells me that Chief Daly is a member.”

4
    LUPE Valdez, the senior charge nurse in orthopedics, was around fifty and maybe twenty pounds overweight, with thin lips, an asymmetric nose, and a weak chin. Even in her shining youth, most people probably wouldn’t have called her lovely.
    But her hair was glorious—thick and black, worn long and pinned up. Her smile was warm, and she moved with the lightness of a dancer. To Rule, she undoubtedly was lovely.
    Lily wondered if Lupe smelled lovely, too. Lupi were a lot more scent-oriented than humans. “Ms. Valdez, I appreciate your willingness to talk with me.” She held out a hand.
    “Lupe,” the woman said, taking Lily’s hand without hesitation and giving a brisk shake. “Call me Lupe. I’m glad if anything I can tell you helps Jason. You want some coffee?”
    They were in the crowded alcove that served as a break room. Lily glanced at the coffeepot, thought it looked reasonably fresh, and decided to take a chance. “Sure. Thanks. Black, please.”
    While Lupe poured two cups, after making sure Rule didn’t want any—he didn’t, coffee snob that he was—Lily sat at a table slightly bigger than a handkerchief and took out her notebook and pen.
    Lupe Valdez had a hint of an accent and more than a hint of a healing Gift. Lily would bet her patients recovered faster than the norm. If she’d managed to find training for her Gift, some of her patients recovered more fully than their doctors expected, too. If she’d found another sort of training, she could have tattooed that design around Steve Hilliard’s neck.
    Rule parked himself against the wall, leaning there with arms crossed. Lily waited until the other woman was sitting across from her to begin. “I understand you and Jason kept in touch after he left town.”
    Her smile was small and private. “You could say that. He always stopped by to see me when he visited Steve…sometimes here, sometimes at home.”
    “But not on the night he was killed.”
    “Unfortunately, no. He dropped by here that day, spoke with me awhile, but I didn’t see him that night.”
    “For the record, I need to know where you were the night of Tuesday, April twenty-eighth.”
    “At home. My daughter was home, too, since it was a weeknight. Sarita has to be home by eight on weeknights.”
    “No other company?”
    “No. Well, one of Sarita’s friends was there until ten—Lori’s got a license and her mother lets her use her car a lot. I’m divorced,” she added. “I don’t know if Rule told you or not, but I’m divorced, so it’s just me and Sarita at home now that Annie is at college.”
    “Annie? Is she your other daughter?”
    She nodded. “Her full name’s Anna Maria after her grandmother, but she’s gone by Annie since she started school. She’s at UCLA. They’re on a quarter system there instead of semesters, did you know? She doesn’t get to come home till the end of the spring quarter. Not till June.”
    “You must miss her. How old is Sarita?”
    “Sixteen. She’ll take driver’s ed this summer.” She smiled wryly. “I’m not looking forward to that nearly as much as she is.”
    “I’ll bet. Did you know Steve Hilliard?”
    She shrugged. “Slightly. We’d met a few times. I knew he and Jason were tight.”
    “You knew they were both lupus.”
    “Yes. I knew about Jason before he…well, before most people did. And Steve was open about his nature.” She glanced at Rule. “That is, he was after you made your big announcement. That’s been, what—five years now?”
    Rule smiled. “Six.”
    Lily jotted down the names and info Lupe had given her. “You and Jason are good friends.” She kept her head down so she didn’t seem to be watching Lupe, but she was. She saw the glance Lupe gave Rule before she answered.
    “Good friends,” she said firmly. “He introduced me to another friend. Maybe you know her. Nettie Two-Horses.”
    Lily looked up,