returned to the town center, the others had gathered in the gazebo.
“Anything?”
Alex’s face was pale. “Not unless you count the number of ways a person can die.”
“This is unbelievable.” Cam said grimly. “Where the hell was security?”
Richard scowled. “We did the best we could under the circumstances.“
“Yeah and look where that left you,” Ethan muttered.
Bernard stiffened. “It’s easy to point blame after something has happened —“
“Enough.” Bickering wasn’t going to solve anything. “We need to find what he left.”
Blaise leaned back and rested his hands on the railing. “Why are you so sure there’s something to find?”
Find me, Kendra.
“He left something,” I said firmly. “He wants me to find him. He want to show me he’s the one behind this.”
His narcissism wouldn’t let him do otherwise.
“Well, I personally have been through this square at least fifty times,” Bernard crossed his arms. “And I can assure you there is nothing —“
“There’s something,” I snapped. “We just haven’t found it yet.”
It was a matter of location. I knew it was here in Merbais, just not where.
Can you find me now?
I remembered the previous times he’d left something for me. On the bodies of an ondine and her gardinel. By a painting of me. In my car, my dorm room.
Each time had been a taunt of how he’d outsmarted me. Whatever the answer was, wherever the next clue was, he’d already given me the answer.
I just hadn’t figured it out yet.
The haiku. It had to be the haiku.
The numbers hang high
“Numbers,” I said slowly. Haikus fell into a five-seven-five pattern.
“Is there any street in Merbais that uses the numbers five or seven?” I asked Bernard. “Like a Fifth Street? Or a Seventh Street?”
He shook his head.
“What about an address?” I pressed. “A street number?”
He pulled out his tablet, accessed a map, and input the numbers. His eyes widened at the result.
“Elisa Perimeti’s place.”
“Where?”
Richard was already running down the steps. I was right on his heels.
“Out on the eastern border,” Bernard called out. “She makes custom furniture. A shop called Beginnings at 575 Crimson Road.”
The others tore after me, Richard leading the way. The main street of Merbais narrowed, glints of ice and cold hardening the ground.
The gardinel suddenly veered right, off the main street onto a dirt path winding past a sharp crevice of grey rocks.
The ocean’s scent strengthened. Wind whipped past us, freezing my fingers to popsicles.
Up ahead, moonlight cascaded through the thick cloak of night, illuminating a charming wooden cottage right along the cliff’s edge.
A hand painted sign dangled above the porch.
Beginnings Furniture
A start for your new home at the end of the road!
575 Cliff Road
In the moonlight, the cottage’s red paint glowed like crimson blood.
The numbers hang high
Where red towers over sea.
Can you find me now?
Richard abruptly stopped at the front porch and swore.
Elisa Perimeti, the store owner, lay prone on the steps, her neck twisted, eyes still bulging with fear. A sharp wooden dowel pinned a sheet of paper to her sternum.
My heart beat faster.
“What the hell?”
Cam leaned over and studied it. Even before he glanced up at me, I knew.
“It’s for you.”
I wrapped my fingers around the dowel and yanked. It emerged from her chest with a soft crunch, bright blood and chunks of flesh clinging to the sharp end.
Dried blood had hardened the edges of the note, the text presented in a stark, typewritten font.
S to S
Finding a path which
No one seeks, she flees for she is
In need of a way to him.
Feats divine shower from
Heaven, falling in rivulets down
To the sands of golden warmth
and to scintillating waters, bright with blood.
A sondaleur stands alone in the present as
the pasts and futures beckon, and the
First, read upon her
“Anything?”
Alex’s face was pale. “Not unless you count the number of ways a person can die.”
“This is unbelievable.” Cam said grimly. “Where the hell was security?”
Richard scowled. “We did the best we could under the circumstances.“
“Yeah and look where that left you,” Ethan muttered.
Bernard stiffened. “It’s easy to point blame after something has happened —“
“Enough.” Bickering wasn’t going to solve anything. “We need to find what he left.”
Blaise leaned back and rested his hands on the railing. “Why are you so sure there’s something to find?”
Find me, Kendra.
“He left something,” I said firmly. “He wants me to find him. He want to show me he’s the one behind this.”
His narcissism wouldn’t let him do otherwise.
“Well, I personally have been through this square at least fifty times,” Bernard crossed his arms. “And I can assure you there is nothing —“
“There’s something,” I snapped. “We just haven’t found it yet.”
It was a matter of location. I knew it was here in Merbais, just not where.
Can you find me now?
I remembered the previous times he’d left something for me. On the bodies of an ondine and her gardinel. By a painting of me. In my car, my dorm room.
Each time had been a taunt of how he’d outsmarted me. Whatever the answer was, wherever the next clue was, he’d already given me the answer.
I just hadn’t figured it out yet.
The haiku. It had to be the haiku.
The numbers hang high
“Numbers,” I said slowly. Haikus fell into a five-seven-five pattern.
“Is there any street in Merbais that uses the numbers five or seven?” I asked Bernard. “Like a Fifth Street? Or a Seventh Street?”
He shook his head.
“What about an address?” I pressed. “A street number?”
He pulled out his tablet, accessed a map, and input the numbers. His eyes widened at the result.
“Elisa Perimeti’s place.”
“Where?”
Richard was already running down the steps. I was right on his heels.
“Out on the eastern border,” Bernard called out. “She makes custom furniture. A shop called Beginnings at 575 Crimson Road.”
The others tore after me, Richard leading the way. The main street of Merbais narrowed, glints of ice and cold hardening the ground.
The gardinel suddenly veered right, off the main street onto a dirt path winding past a sharp crevice of grey rocks.
The ocean’s scent strengthened. Wind whipped past us, freezing my fingers to popsicles.
Up ahead, moonlight cascaded through the thick cloak of night, illuminating a charming wooden cottage right along the cliff’s edge.
A hand painted sign dangled above the porch.
Beginnings Furniture
A start for your new home at the end of the road!
575 Cliff Road
In the moonlight, the cottage’s red paint glowed like crimson blood.
The numbers hang high
Where red towers over sea.
Can you find me now?
Richard abruptly stopped at the front porch and swore.
Elisa Perimeti, the store owner, lay prone on the steps, her neck twisted, eyes still bulging with fear. A sharp wooden dowel pinned a sheet of paper to her sternum.
My heart beat faster.
“What the hell?”
Cam leaned over and studied it. Even before he glanced up at me, I knew.
“It’s for you.”
I wrapped my fingers around the dowel and yanked. It emerged from her chest with a soft crunch, bright blood and chunks of flesh clinging to the sharp end.
Dried blood had hardened the edges of the note, the text presented in a stark, typewritten font.
S to S
Finding a path which
No one seeks, she flees for she is
In need of a way to him.
Feats divine shower from
Heaven, falling in rivulets down
To the sands of golden warmth
and to scintillating waters, bright with blood.
A sondaleur stands alone in the present as
the pasts and futures beckon, and the
First, read upon her
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