I nodded. It had to be. For all of his craziness, Xavier worshipped the ground Arkan walked on. He wouldn’t have murdered the Speaker of the Texas Assembly on his own. Arkan was behind him, holding on to his pet’s leash. He pointed at a target, and Xavier bit it.
“This is so . . .” I waved my hand at the body.
“Loud,” Alessandro finished with a grim look on his face.
It was unlike Arkan. He preferred to operate from the shadows. Was he sending a message? To whom? Why? Was it to someone close to Luciana?
Luciana Cabera had been a halcyon Prime. She specialized in soothing magic. Psionics incited crowds, and halcyons calmed them. Two decades ago, a riot raged inside the Ellis Unit, the most dangerous prison in Texas. The authorities sought a nonviolent solution, so they turned to the best halcyon mage in the state. Luciana walked into the prison unarmed and alone, and when the sheriffs followed her fifteen minutes later, they found the inmates sitting in rows along the hallway walls, quietly smiling. That day started her political career.
In her political life, Luciana had been aboveboard. She approached the Assembly with the attitude of a veteran middle school teacher, which meant she was stern enough to follow the procedure but flexible enough to make compromises where special treatment was required. In her day-to-day life, Luciana had run a clinic that treated people suffering from anxiety. She held a PhD in psychology from Harvard.
None of these things should have put her into Arkan’s crosshairs. I needed more information. Where the hell was Linus?
My phone launched into the Fistful of Dollars theme. Leon. Not texting, calling.
I took the call. Leon’s face appeared on-screen.
“I’m at Linus’。 The gate is shut. I entered the code, it didn’t work. I called. No answer on the phone or intercom. Also, there is this.”
He switched to the other camera. The keypad by the gate glowed with yellow. It should have turned green when he put the code in.
Linus had activated the siege protocol. Shit.
“Do you want me to jump the gate?”
“No! Do not go inside. Leon, everything is armed. The moment you step foot in there, the turrets will shred you.”
“Fine. No need to be dramatic.”
“Please wait there for me.”
“Inside the gates?” He opened his eyes real wide.
“Leon!”
“Don’t worry. I got it.”
A stray thought zinged across my mind. It was vague and formless, but very disturbing. “Can you show me the gates without touching them?”
The phone view swung and presented me with the wrought iron gates. The yard was pristine.
Alessandro looked at me. “What is it?”
“There are no bodies.”
For Linus to activate a lockdown meant he either expected an attack or one had already occurred. He had answered my phone call during an attack before.
“Leon, wait for us. Please.”
“I will.”
He hung up.
Mr. Gregoire reappeared, leading a team of five people onto the patio, each carrying a large duffel bag. They set the bags down, pulled out hazmat suits, and put them on. An older black woman approached me. We had worked together before. I didn’t know her name, but I knew Linus trusted her. She referred to herself as Team 1 Leader, and that’s how I addressed her as well.
“How long and where?” I asked her.
“Ninety minutes. A warehouse on Cedar Crest Street.”
She gave me the address and zipped herself into the hazmat suit. The crew converged on the body, spreading plastic sheets.
“I need a Ziploc bag and her purse,” I said.
One of the techs brought the purse and the bag to me. I unzipped it and looked inside. Pack of Kleenex, a glass case, a pink brush . . . That would do. I fished the brush out, slipped it into the Ziploc bag, and waved the tech on.
I sealed the Ziploc bag. I was probably wrong, but just in case.
I turned away from the team and looked at Mr. Gregoire. “Speaker Cabera was not here today.”
“Understood.”
“Will Simone be a problem?” Alessandro asked.
“Not at all. I chose my people very carefully.”
That left the Curtises, who would not talk for fear of being implicated, Xavier, who should be long gone by now, and whoever Cabera was meeting. That was our best lead. Over an hour had passed since this supposed lunch meeting, and her guest never showed.
Metal clanged as one of the crew members pulled a spike out of the wall with metal forceps.
I nodded to Mr. Gregoire, and Alessandro and I hurried downstairs. We exited the restaurant and marched to Alessandro’s Alfa. I would have preferred sprinting, but you never knew who was watching.