“I don’t know who’s right about this one.”
“Fine, you have a desperate urge to save a girl? Surrender this battle and charge into another that saves more. Like the hospital.”
“That’s a segue worthy of your mother.” He swirled his wine. A thin purple sheen clung to the glass.
“I’m not lobbying. You know me better than that. All I’m saying is put your energies elsewhere while I look into things. Focus on the hospital. Pick a lowborn family for all I care, but find something else to do instead of obsessing about the oracles. It’s going to end your career.”
“Lots of things could end my career.”
“Yes, like promising a deal to the Randolphs in exchange for Oskar Kruger? What were you thinking, Father? You don’t think the matrons wouldn’t figure that one out in two seconds? You don’t have the political capital for these deals you’re trying to pull. No one does. I suggest you not waste what you do have by chasing children.”
“I just want a legacy, Lila. Is that so wrong?”
“You’re fifty. There’s time to worry about legacies later.”
“Is there? I can’t even eat bacon without a whole host of people muttering curses at me. If I don’t make councilman in the next few years, then I’ll be cast out of my position to make way for a younger prime minister. What do I have to show for it?”
“Fifteen well-placed children and the promise of grandchildren?”
“I mean professionally.”
“Gods, this is a midlife crisis, isn’t it?” Lila sighed. “Father, sometimes the best leaders can be defined by what they didn’t do, rather than what they did do. The war has not resumed. You could have urged Head Councilman Abbot to declare war after Peter Kruger tried to murder me.”
“I never wanted to be a quiet leader.”
“So you’d rather be a stupid one?”
He snorted and returned to his breakfast. “You’ll make a good matron one day.”
“No, I’ll continue to make a good chief. You can’t save everyone, and it’s not your responsibility to. You save who you can.”
“Where’d you learn that?”
“From Holly? From Commander Sutton? The Randolphs aren’t above domestic violence, you know. If I tried to take children away from their homes permanently instead of putting their parents through anger and relationship classes, we wouldn’t have had the success we’ve had in treating the problem. Sometimes you have to trust people if you want them to surprise you.”
“This isn’t domestic violence, Lila. Too many children have gone missing lately. Not only the oracles, but Oskar and his sister Maria. Someone even snatched Phillip Wilson a few hours after the auction on Saturday night. He never made it to the Hardwicke factory outside of town. There are too many children missing on my watch. I can’t suffer another one.”
“You can’t hold on to them so tightly that you break them, either. Trust me to look into the oracles and let Rebecca go back home to her parents.”
Lemaire rubbed his chin and returned to his wine, not giving her an answer.
Chapter 16
Lila parked her Cruz sedan in the same garage she’d used the night before. Rummaging in the back seat, she retrieved her satchel and trotted to Tristan’s shop. She didn’t slip on her hood until she’d darted into the alley behind the shop, waiting until the guard turned his back to slip through the door. The hallway smelled of sausage and biscuits and wine.
Creeping through the dim corridor, she slid into the garage, dodging the tangle of trucks and cars and motorcycles. Tristan and Fry called out to one another as they backed two trucks through the open
dock doors.
“Hey, Hood,” Shirley said, looking up from her perch. She settled a small motor on a table and waved her closer. “I heard you’re taking the boys out hunting.”
Lila nodded.
“Good. They’ve been driving me batshit insane the last few days. My team can finally get some work done without them hovering. I have four customers coming in at five o’clock, and we’ve barely started their repairs.”
“Does it matter? This is just a cover, isn’t it?”
“It’s still a business. Keep them out all day, will you? I’d consider it a personal favor.”