Mercy Thompson 01-05 - THE MERCY THOMPSON COLLECTION

help us.”
    I washed up, changed out of my work clothes and met him back in the office. Honey looked up when I came in. Last week, her second week of guard duty, she’d turned up in jeans (pressed) with a folding chair, small desk, laptop and cell phone. Working out of my office was almost as good, she claimed, as working out of her own. Ever since the incident with Black, we’d been treating each other with cautious friendliness.
    â€œI’m going to lunch with Tony,” I announced. “I’ll be back in an hour or so. Gabriel, would you call Charlie about his Opel, and tell him the price we got on that used Mazda RX7 engine? The cost won’t make him happy, but the RX will fit.”
    Honey looked up at me, but she didn’t protest me leaving, as I half expected her to.
    â€œI hope you don’t mind if we walk,” Tony said as we stepped out into the sweltering heat. “I think better when I’m moving.”
    â€œFine with me.”
    We took the shortcut into downtown Kennewick, over the train tracks and through a couple of empty lots. Honey trailed behind us, but she was good enough that I don’t think Tony spotted her.
    Downtown is one of the older sections of town, small businesses in old buildings surrounded by Craftsman and Victorian houses, mostly built in the twenties and thirties. Efforts had been made to make the shopping area look inviting, but there were a few too many empty shops for it to look prosperous.
    I expected him to talk to me while we were walking, but he didn’t. I held my peace and let him think.
    â€œIt’s pretty hot for walking,” he said finally.
    â€œI like the heat,” I told him. “And the cold. I like living somewhere that actually has all four seasons. Montana has two. Nine months of winter, three months where it almost warms up, then back to winter. Sometimes the leaves actually get to turn colors before the first snow hits. I remember it snowing on the Fourth of July once.”
    He didn’t say anything more, so I supposed he hadn’t been trying to make small talk—but I didn’t know what else he could have been trying for with his comment, either.
    He took me to a small coffee shop where we ordered at the counter and then were escorted into a dark, cool room filled with small tables. The atmosphere the owners had been trying for was probably an English pub. Never having been to England, I couldn’t tell how close they’d gotten, but it appealed to me.
    â€œSo what am I here for?” I asked him finally, after soup and a largish sandwich appeared before me, and the waitress left us alone. It was late for lunch and early for dinner so we had the room to ourselves.
    â€œLook,” he said after a moment. “That sour old guy who used to be your boss, the one who still comes in once in a while—he’s fae, right?”
    Zee had publicly acknowledged his heritage for a long time, so I nodded my head and took a bite of sandwich.
    He took a gulp of water. “I’ve seen Hauptman, the werewolf, at your garage at least twice.”
    â€œHe’s my neighbor,” I said. The sandwich was pretty good. I was betting they made their own bread. I’d had better soup, though, too much salt.
    Tony frowned at me and said intensely. “You’re the only one who always knows who I am, no matter what disguise I wear.” Tony was an undercover cop with a talent for changing his appearance. We’d become acquainted after I’d recognized him and almost blown his cover.
    â€œMmm?” My mouth was full on purpose because I didn’t want to say anything more until he got to his point.
    â€œThe fae are supposed to be able to change their appearance. Is that how you always know me?”
    â€œI’m not fae, Tony,” I told him after I swallowed. “Zee is. The fae change their appearance by magic—glamour, they call it. I’m not entirely sure that the fae can see through each other’s glamour—I certainly can’t.”
    There was a short silence as Tony adjusted what he had been going to say.
    â€œBut you know something about the fae. And you know something about the werewolves?”
    â€œBecause Hauptman is my neighbor?”
    â€œBecause you were dating him. A friend of mine saw you at a restaurant with him.”
    I looked at him and then pointedly around the restaurant.
    He got it. “He said it looked like you