"I tried to tell her. They'd excavated the entire area. They'd brought everything to Mayfair Medical. She didn't seem to understand. I told her what she'd told me at the time. It was cartilage, cartilage of an infinitely more elastic species . . . that it wasn't even the scene of a crime! But she wasn't listening. She keeps pacing and talking to herself. She says I don't know who she is. She's always told me that. She started talking again about joining the Talamasca, retiring into the Order. As if it was a convent. She said she belonged there. In the Talamasca. In the old days, when women had done evil things they could be sent to monasteries. She said she would make a bequest to the Talamasca, and they would take her, they would take the Mad Scientist, because that's who she really was. Mona, she doesn't believe in my understanding. She doesn't believe in my power to forgive. "
"I know, Uncle Michael. "
"I'm a moral child in her mind," Michael said, his voice shaky. "And then she said the worst thing. "
"What?" asked Mona.
"She said that you were . . . you were dead. "
Mona didn't reply.
"I kept telling her you were fine. We'd just seen you. You were all right, you were cured. She kept shaking her head. 'Mona's not alive anymore. ' That's what she said. "
Michael looked at me. "Lestat, will you come?" he asked.
I was vaguely amazed. This man was highly intuitive, but he was seeing in me only what he wanted to see.
"Will you talk to her?" he asked. "You had such a soothing effect on her. I saw it with my own eyes. If you and Mona could come. Bring Quinn. Rowan loves Quinn. Rowan doesn't notice many peo
ple. But she's always loved Quinn. Maybe because Quinn can see spirits, I don't know. Maybe because Quinn and Mona love each other, I don't know. She loved Quinn from the first time he came to call on Mona years ago. She's always trusted in Quinn. But Lestat, if you could talk to her . . . and Mona, if you could come and show her that you're alive, show her that you're fine, just hold her. . . . "
"Michael, listen to me," I said. "I want you to go home. Quinn and Mona and I have to talk this over. We'll come to you or call you as soon as we can. Be assured, we're very concerned about Rowan. There's no other concern on our minds right now except Rowan. "
He sat back on the couch, closed his eyes and took a long breath. He looked defeated. "I was hoping you'd come back with me," he said.
"Believe me," I said, "our little consultation won't take long. We have strong obligations. We'll call or come just as quickly as we can. " I hesitated. "We love Rowan," I said.
He stood up, heaved a sigh and headed for the door. I asked if he needed a ride back home and he murmured that his car had brought him downtown.
He looked back at Mona. She'd stood up but she was afraid to embrace him, that was plain.
"Uncle Michael, I love you," she whispered.
"Oh, sweetheart," he said, "if I had my life to live over again and could just erase that one night. "
"Don't think about it, Uncle Michael," she said. "How many times do I have to tell you? I climbed in the back window, for God's sakes. It was all my fault, from start to finish. "
He was unconvinced. "I took advantage of you, baby," he whispered.
I was stunned.
"Michael, it was Oncle Julien too," Mona said. "It was Oncle Julien's spell. He made a big mistake. Besides, it doesn't matter now, don't you see?"
I was stunned again.
He stared at her, narrowing his eyes. I couldn't figure whether he wanted a blurred focus or a fine one. It was as though he saw her loveliness afresh.
"Oh, you do look so good," he sighed. "My sweetheart. " He closed the gap between them and embraced her totally, a bear of a man enfolding her. "My darling girl," he said.
I was afraid.
They rocked together, his arms completely enclosing her. He suspected nothing. He drifted in a dream. And she, newborn thing that she was, felt like a peach.
At last he broke away and said wearily that he had to return to Rowan, and I told him again that we would call him very soon.
He looked at me for a long moment, as though he was seeing me with new eyes, but it was only his weariness. He was seeing what he wanted to see in me, and he thanked me again.
"She called you Rasputin when she was angry," he said. "Well, I tell you, Lestat, you do have that sort of power and it's a good thing. I can sense the good in you. "