There was no small amount of apprehension in Evie's eyes as Charlotte and I stepped into the room a few minutes later. The trip from one bedroom to the other had only been delayed by my need to check to ensure Toussant hadn't passed out on me. I read somewhere that seventy-two hours of sleep deprivation produced the same symptoms as the early stages of psychosis. My captive had recently surpassed ninety. His breathing had taken on a long, drawn-out, shallow timbre like his lungs were ratting just from the exertion of having to work. But if there was one thing more immediate than Toussant's need to sleep, I imagined, it was the pain. There was a sharp gasp from his lips as I jabbed the toe of my shoe into the burned, peeling flesh. The skin on his lower extremities looked like it was made of melted candle wax which had quickly and unevenly reformed, loosely clinging to the bone and muscle beneath but could be pulled free with little more than a tug.
"Yup, he's awake."
And then, I turned back to the task of introducing Charlotte to Evie. My closest friend had watched the macabre display with about as much compassion as I felt. Absolutely zero. For reasons which I couldn't adequately explain, I was surprisingly proud of her for that. Perhaps it was a knowledge that she would see this thing through to the end; perhaps it was because I knew that she would do whatever it took to see the job done - or at least allow me to. But I was also self-aware enough to know that maybe, just maybe, if she could excuse my behavior, then so could I. As long as she didn't turn away in disgust, I hadn't turned into the same animal I was hunting. At that moment, however, the part of me even considering the idea that my actions were crossing a line was incomprehensibly small.
Charlotte stepped into Evie's room with all of the grace, composure, and confidence I had come to expect from her. Evie rose to her feet. After hearing the wails, the sobs, and the heartbreak coming through the wall for the last half a day, she was doubtlessly under no illusions as to who this beautiful woman was. She was, in a very literal way, her judge and jury.
"Charlotte, this is Evelyn, Evie for short. Evie, this is Charlotte," I said coldly and calmly as I closed the door behind me. Evie couldn't have known it, but she had just passed a threshold. There was no going back now. She was either going to leave this room alive and well. Or she wouldn't.
Charlotte smiled one of those gloriously disarming smiles. "Evie, it's very nice to meet you. Please, sit down."
Evie returned the smile nervously and lowered herself onto the edge of the bed. Her fingers worked nervously against the surprisingly tidy sheets. "Please," she whimpered. "I just want to go home."
"I know," Charlotte said, still holding the smile as she pulled a simple wooden chair from its place against the wall, set it down in front of Evie, and sat on it. "I know you are frightened, and you are probably very confused about this whole situation."
"I am!" Evie almost sobbed, tears building in her eyes at the faintest hope that there may have been a new ally in the room. "I don't know anything. I don't know what is going on. All I know is that some men grabbed me, and then Pete rescued me, but they killed... someone... his friend, and now he... he thinks I am involved. But I'm not; I swear I'm not."
"Shhh, shhh, shhh," Charlotte whispered, calming the blonde, who was starting to get a little hysterical. "Evie, I want you to understand something. Pete has told me everything that has happened, but the people he is dealing with are...." She paused for a few moments, apparently trying to think of the right word. "Well, they're evil! There is no other way to explain it. We are talking about people who make the Nazis look reasonable. But he was wrong about something...."
I cocked my head to the side, listening carefully.
"He told you that you were either guilty or you were innocent. I'm afraid it isn't quite that simple. The truth is that you are either guilty or someone has gone to a lot of trouble to make you look like you are. Now Pete has been sucked into this war, it's sort of how he met me, and in a very short time, two people who were very important to him have been killed. And both of them really were innocent."
Evie cast a sympathetic glance at me.
"Now, Pete is an
incredibly
powerful man," Charlotte went on. "I don't think you are ever really going to understand what that means, but for the purposes of this explanation, let's just say he is a warrior who
scares the shit
out of our enemy. Pete is a blunt-force weapon; he is brute-strength, and he is far from subtle. But, to his credit, he has shown a
remarkable
amount of restraint when it comes to you. I will be honest, I am not sure many other people in his position would have. It may not be much, but the fact that you are alive for us to have this conversation, for us to find the truth, should show you how much he thinks of you. He really does
want
you to be innocent."
Evie took a deep breath and nodded.
"I want you to close your eyes." The tears started flowing again, and Evie's hands resumed worrying the sheets. A desperate, pleading look washed over her face. She looked like a woman who knew she was about to be executed. "Evie, calm down," Charlotte whispered. "Nothing is going to happen to you. It's an exercise to help you remember, that's all. As long as you tell us the truth, the whole truth, nothing bad is going to happen to you. I promise."
Evie took another deep breath and slowly closed her eyes.
"
You were right," her voice sounded in my mind. "She isn't human. I can't get a read on her at all. Do you have a way to use that fancy computer of yours?"
"Always," I answered levelly.
"Okay, great. I want you, Jeeves, and your computer to check everything she says. If you need to ask a question, tell me, and I will ask it. Without getting into her mind, we are going to have to do this the old-fashioned way."
"Let's start at the beginning," Charlotte said calmly and softly after a few moments' pause. "I want you to tell me what you were doing
before
all of this started. Were you at home?"
"Yes," Evie nodded. "I was putting the final touches to my project for college. I was actually thinking about Pete; he was the only person who seemed to understand it."
"Good, you're doing good. Then what happened?"
"I..." Evie frowned. "I heard a noise out my window. I went to see what it was. It sounded like breaking glass, and I wanted to make sure it wasn't Lori's car."
"Lori has gone home for Christmas, right?"
"Yes, she has taken Jimmy to meet her parents."
"Then why would her car be outside?"
"She didn't want to drive that far. They took the train."
"
Jeeves?"
"Confirmed, Sir. Train tickets were bought with Jimmy's bank card, and security footage shows them boarding the train."
I nodded to Charlotte.
"Okay. What did you see when you looked outside?"
