The Fire and the Veil (Veronica Barry Book 2) (29 page)

Daniel pressed his lips together and nodded.

“She’s lost her mother and her step-father… and he was no prize, but then Paul got a hold of her and who knows what he did to her.”

“It’d be great, actually, if you could figure out a way to give me more info about that,” Daniel said. “The SFD still likes Lola for the arson and I don’t have much to hold him on.”

Veronica stared at him. “You aren’t going to let him go, are you?”

“It’s just a matter of time. He’s going to get a public defender and despite what the movies say, not all of those guys are hacks. It’s not going to take much to get him cut loose.”

“But he burned down the building! He knocked his parents out and burned them alive!”

“You know that, and I believe that you’re right, but I have no way to prove that.”

Veronica let out a guttural cry of frustration.

“Anyway, Ronnie, that’s got nothing to do with my news.”

She blinked at him and he placed a glass in the dishwasher.

“It’s about Amani Ahmad. Or at least, her uncle Hamza and his business partner, Ghattas.”

“What about them?”

“I put some calls out a while back, you know? Well, a friend of mine in immigrations got back to me. He’s got a contact at the DEA. It seems they’re investigating Hamza for drug smuggling.”

“No,” Veronica said.

“Yes,” he said, giving her a firm nod. “So you see what I was saying about steering clear of that guy?”

Veronica shook her head. “I never thought he was a nice guy, Daniel. I just wanted to help Amani.” Something struck her. She thought about it, trying not to let her mounting excitement cloud her judgment. “That’s it.”

“What?”

“Amani can give Lola an alibi,” she said.

“What?”

“You said the fire started sometime on Thursday evening, right? Well, I saw Lola at the motel, and she ran into Amani Ahmad. I just have to get Amani to agree to make a statement, right? If she’ll say she saw Lola in Elk Grove on Thursday evening, the arson investigators will have to drop the charges and look at Paul.”

“Do you think Amani will remember Lola?” Daniel asked, holding a plate over the dishwasher.

“I bet she will. She saw that man throw Lola down. That had to have been memorable.”

Daniel gave a nod. “Yeah, that could work.”

“Will you drive me?”

“Now? Ronnie, there’s no point going now. It’s almost ten, and you said it’s in Elk Grove, so by the time we get there it would be closer to ten thirty. And no one is going to release Lola at ten thirty. You’d better avoid pissing off your witness and wait until tomorrow.”

Veronica leaned against the kitchen counter and sighed. “I guess.” She looked at him. “But I’m calling in a sub. I’m going over there first thing. Will you drive me?”

“As much as I like the implication that I’d be getting up early with you, I can’t,” he said. “Duty calls, and I can’t get a sub.”

“Well, Khalilah can,” Veronica said, pulling her phone from the pocket of her jeans.

Chapter 18

Daniel left Veronica at her door that night, giving her a kiss. Part of her wanted to invite him in—wanted to convince him he didn’t need to get a full night’s sleep before work—but another part kept worrying over Lola and Lei and wouldn’t relax. She knew that part would interfere with any attempts at intimacy.

Harry barreled in from the back yard when she opened the door and danced in circles around her as she greeted him. Soon Blossom and Binky appeared from the bedroom, yawning and stretching. She fed everyone and stroked the cats. Blossom perched on the counter and closed her eyes as Veronica ran her fingers over the cat’s soft head. Blossom always preferred affection to food. Not so with Binky.

They all went to bed and Veronica stared at the darkness for a while before going to sleep. A dream waited on the edge of her mind. She feared it might be from Terri and Owen Carver again, angry because Daniel said he would have to let Paul go soon.

“I’m doing the best I can,” she whispered.

No sense fighting sleep. They’d already shown her they could give her a waking vision, anyway. She rolled onto her side and tucked the blankets over her shoulder.

~~~

White-painted cement walls surrounded her. She lay on a cot bolted to the wall, and her roommate slept on the other, snoring faintly. Lola, then.

Her body felt tight and achy. She lay on her side, echoing the position Veronica had fallen asleep in, but her knees pulled in high towards her chest. She had an arm wrapped around them. Her cheek, nose, jaw and eye throbbed, and when she shifted, her ribs hurt, too. From the beating the night before? Or had there been another?

Lola did not move. Pain filled her, not from the outside wounds, but from within. Veronica couldn’t read her thoughts, but she could feel what she felt—the pulse of pain that traveled through her from her heart to her fingers, to her eyes, to her throat.

Her hand moved from its spot on her shin to the inside of her shirt. Her fingers touched something hard and flat there—possibly metal, although with the warmth of her body, Veronica couldn’t be sure. Her finger ran the length of it, then around the end and up again, and a slicing cut made her jerk her hand away. Metal, and sharpened.

Did she plan to cut her roommate with it?

Lola brought her hand up in front of her face. Barely visible in the gloom, lit only by faint light from the two panes in the door. Dark blood stained her fingers. Lola looked at them, but didn’t comfort herself by putting them in her mouth. She just watched herself bleed.

~~~

Veronica opened her eyes. She still lay on her side, but her heart pounded and she dug her fingers into the bedclothes. Suicidal. Veronica was sure of it. Lola was giving up. She wouldn’t last much longer.

“Please,” Veronica whispered. “Please, tell her I’m going to get her out. Tell her Lei is safe, and I’m going to get her released.”

She didn’t know if the spirits would hear or listen if they did. She didn’t know if they could do anything. But if they could engineer it so Lola wound up at the same hotel as Amani, maybe they could do something to keep Lola from hurting herself.

~~~

“I’m glad we’re doing this,” Khalilah said the following morning as she sat down behind the wheel of her sedan and Veronica settled into the passenger seat. “I’ve been wanting to go back there, you know, and talk to her again.”

Veronica couldn’t say the same. She felt embarrassed about tracking Amani down when she’d purposefully hidden herself. If Veronica could undo her part in all of it, she would. Going back to the motel meant facing Amani again, and she didn’t relish it. But Amani could help exonerate Lola.

They drove without much conversation to the Peach Walnut. Khalilah parked and they got out together, moving purposefully. When they knocked on the door to 137, no one answered. Khalilah’s eyebrows drew together, and Veronica could tell she was worried.

“She’s just out,” Veronica said. “She can’t stay in her room all the time.”

Khalilah gazed at her. “Are you sure? Did you see something?”

Veronica shook her head, looking up and down the walkway. No one was around.

“Can you make a vision come? I can’t leave until I know she’s safe,” Khalilah said.

“I can try. It usually works,” Veronica said. She pressed her right palm to the door.

~~~

Pounding. Veronica saw the inside of the motel room, and felt herself cower as the pounding got louder. The room lacked light—no lamps were on, but from the dark of the window she presumed it was night. She retreated to the bathroom and locked the door.

The thundering pounding stopped.

Amani—for Veronica felt certain she saw through Amani’s eyes—waited, her ear pressed to the bathroom door. After what felt like at least fifteen minutes, she unlocked it. She yanked open a drawer on a small dresser by the wall and pulled clothes out, stuffing them into a grocery bag. As she gather a small coin purse and started putting on a pair of shoes that she had to go under the bed to find, the door to her room swung open.

It was the man from another dream—the one who spit in someone’s face.

“
Amy Hamza
!” Amani gasped.

The man glared at her. So this was Uncle Hamza. His thick beard obscured most of his face. “
Sof taaten ma aee
!” he said.

“
Laa
!
Atrakny wahdy
!” Amani cried. “
Abtad any
!”

He charged in, and Veronica saw for the first time another man standing in the doorway, holding a cap in his hands. He twisted it. “Amani?” he called as Hamza towered over her.

“Baba!” Amani said.

“
Nazlty wehna al arad
,” Hamza shouted, slapping her. The blow knocked her against the wall, and she clasped a hand to her stinging cheek. He grabbed her bicep and force-walked her out of the room, slamming the door as her father watched, his eyes wide and glistening.

~~~

Veronica pulled her hand off the door and looked around, afraid she would see Hamza standing down the way. The only person with her was Khalilah, however, and she watched her, her eyebrows drawn together in concern.

“You—you moved as if someone hit you,” Khalilah said in a low voice.

Veronica grimaced and rubbed her cheek, even though it didn’t hurt anymore.

“Oh, Khalilah,” she said. “They found her. Hamza and Jahid. They came here and got her.”

Khalilah’s face drained of color. She put a hand to her mouth and leaned against the door.

“This is very bad,” she murmured. “She may be in danger. When did this happen?”

Veronica gathered her thoughts. She thought back to the dream she’d had on Melanie’s couch. “I had a dream on Saturday night. I can’t be sure if it showed the past, present or future,” Veronica said.

“A dream? What dream?”

“I didn’t know who it was then, but in this vision today—she called him Hamza.”

“You dreamt of Amani and Hamza on Saturday?”

“Yes. I think they were at home. Hamza spat in her face,” Veronica said.

“And?”

“And that’s all. It was a short dream.”

“You had it on Saturday night?” Khalilah asked, straightening.

“That’s right.”

“So if it was the present, it means they probably found her on Saturday.”

Veronica shook her head. “But it might have been the past or the future, Khalilah, I can’t be sure.”

“Well, there’s only one way to find out.”

Veronica narrowed her eyes. “Which is?”

“We ask,” Khalilah said, her dark eyes glittering. “We go find Amani and we ask her.”

Veronica considered it. It would mean another chance to talk to Amani about making a statement. But what chance was there of that? Amani was back in the tender care of her uncle Hamza, and according to Daniel, he might really be dangerous. “We can’t do that.”

“Why not? I already know where they live,” Khalilah said. “I want to see for myself that they haven’t hurt her, and if they have—we’ll call the police.”

Veronica crossed her arms. “But we can’t just go to their home.”

“Why not?”

“It isn’t safe,” she said. “Daniel checked out Hamza and his business partner. The DEA is investigating them.”

Khalilah said nothing.

“I don’t know if they’re really guilty, and I don’t know if Jahid is in on it too, but I can’t see us just walking into the home of suspected drug smugglers.”

Khalilah considered this, and then gave her head a shake. “I’m going,” she said. “You don’t have to come along. But I have to see if she’s okay.”

“Khalilah, these people could be seriously dangerous,” Veronica said.

Khalilah pursed her lips for a moment, then shook her head again. “Maybe so. But I can’t help feeling responsible.”

“Responsible? How?”

“Maybe they found her because we did.”

“What?” Veronica said, her stomach giving a little flip. “No. How?”

“I don’t know. Maybe they didn’t. But it seems like coincidence, doesn’t it?”

“Well, I’m sure they were looking for her, too,” Veronica pointed out.

Khalilah put her hands on her hips. “So how did they find her, then?”

“I don’t know, but unless they were following us, I don’t see how we led them to her. We were mostly going on my visions, and I didn’t tell anyone else about those.”

Khalilah took a deep breath and exhaled. “You’re right. But then how
did
they find her?” A breeze picked up and Khalilah’s hair swirled around her face.

Veronica tucked her own hair behind her ears. “Maybe one of Yesenia’s people slipped up.”

Khalilah nodded slowly. “All it would take was for someone to tell them Amani spoke with Yesenia more than once.”

“What do you mean?” Veronica asked.

“They needed someone to blame. What if they decided to blame Yesenia? They might have put it together without even realizing it. That she abducted Amani.”

Veronica frowned, trying to put it together. Khalilah had said that Jahid might be hoping to save his daughter with the loophole in their tribal law—she could live despite her abduction if they could find someone else to blame. “But why Yesenia? Why would they suspect her?”

“I’m not saying they
did
suspect her, Veronica. I’m saying that in looking for someone to blame, they may have chosen her.”

“Why?”

“Because she’s a modern Muslim woman and she had the audacity to meet with Amani at least twice, without a male present, in public places.”

“Seems like a stretch.”

“Okay, but what if one of them—what if Hamza decided to go talk to her about it? What if Yesenia slipped and let something out about Amani’s abduction?” Khalilah began to pace along the motel walkway.

Veronica caught a strand of hair that blew into her eyes. “Khalilah, we have no reason to believe that’s what happened.”

“Or one of the men who helped Yesenia—maybe one of them decided to spill the beans.”

“Or maybe someone recognized Amani around here and called her father. We don’t know.”

Khalilah nodded, pausing in her pacing. “You’re right. We don’t. We can’t know unless you get another vision or I go and ask Amani myself.”