It was past dawn. Breakfast time. I offered to find a place that would still serve soup if that's what Pepper wanted, but Melanie said she'd be fine with anything hot. We stopped at a diner. Pepper got a steaming bowl of oatmeal and a large hot chocolate, and settled into the corner of the booth, blissfully warming her insides as we talked to Melanie.
The first big question was, how'd she know who we were?
"Rina told me about you before she died."
"Rina--that's one of the victims, right?"
Melanie ate a mouthful of oatmeal before replying. From the bliss in her eyes as she ate, hot food didn't help just Pepper.
"She's one of the two girls who died. We call them girls. Or sisters. It's about assimilating. That's what Aunika's mom said. Use the human words so we fit in better. Talk like teenagers so we fit in better. Anyway, the two girls who died were Rina and Steph. We use human names, too. Like most assimilated fae. But I guess you knew that."
A long drink of her coffee. Then she continued. "You met Rina and Steph. Or they met you. You wouldn't have known what they were. It was months ago, back when that stuff about your parents came out."
"The girls outside the apartment. I was trying to find a place to stay, and I saw them by the street, and then in an alley, where they were threatening..." I trailed off, not wanting to speak ill of the dead.
"Threatening a bogart," Melanie said. "Rina told me. It was a territorial issue, and those two could be..." She shrugged. "Some of us are more aggressive with other fae. Rina and Steph would rattle their cages, which is what you saw. When Steph died--she was the first one killed--Rina came to me. The two of them stuck together. They were theegateers--from the same family--like me and Pepper. They kept apart from the rest of us. But then Steph died, and Rina wanted me to get Aunika to contact you."
"Me?"
"She knew who you were, after it all came out a few months ago. Other fae were talking, and she realized you were the one who'd caught them with the bogart. She wanted your help."
"Because I'm an investigator?"
"No, because you're Matilda. Rina thought you could intercede on our behalf with the Cainsville fae to get their help stopping the killer. Which I know you can't," Melanie added quickly. "So I put her off by saying I'd think about it. Then she disappeared, and we discovered she was dead. Before I could decide what to do, Aunika disappeared, and I heard you'd been to see her. When you left that message for me, I looked you up and learned that you're a private investigator. I'd been trying to decide whether to phone you back about Aunika and the murders, to see if that's what you'd been talking to her about."
"It was," I said. "The Cwn Annwn asked me to look into the deaths." Which wasn't completely true, but I didn't want to admit I'd seen it in a vision.
Melanie looked surprised. "Why are the Cwn Annwn involved?"
"Because it's the murder of fae," Ricky said. "That's what they do, right?"
"Yes. Sorry. I just...I didn't think they'd bother with us."
I asked what she knew about the murders. Even less than we did, it seemed. She had no idea the killer was Ciro Halloran. As for Lucy Madole...
"I don't know what Lucy was doing when she was killed. It's near our territory, where we hunt." She flushed. "I mean, where we work. One of our sisters thought Lucy might have been lured there by someone pretending to be us. Another wondered if she was mistaken for one of us. She's lighter-skinned than Aunika and looks young for her age. But now Aunika's missing, and there's no way the killer could make that mistake twice. And there's Erin..." Her gaze lifted to mine. "They're looking for us, aren't they? Going after anyone who can lead them to us."
"Did Erin know what you were? You said you knew her from the streets."
"We did. She was Aunika's first big success. She didn't know what we are, though. We'd discussed it--me and Aunika. There's only so long we could keep coming around before Erin would wonder why none of us got any older."
"Could Aunika have already told her?"
Melanie shook her head. "She'd have warned us. But if Lucy's dead and Aunika's missing and now Erin's dead...They're the three humans who knew us best. The killer must have thought they knew where to find us. We went underground after he killed Rina and Steph. We're being careful. We stopped working, but we can't do that for long. Some of the girls are already getting weak. No matter what I say, they're going to feed, and once they venture out, he'll be waiting."
"Is there someplace you can go?" Ricky asked. "Someplace safe?"
"There's no safe for us. He's found our haunts in the city, and we need to be around people. The only true sanctuary for us is the one we cannot enter: Cainsville."
"Cainsville?" I said.
"I tried to get Pepper in there after her attack. I pleaded through an intermediary for temporary sanctuary until she was stronger. The elders refused."
"On what grounds?"
"The only grounds that matter. Who we are. What we are."
"Lamiae? That's enough to deny you sanctuary?"