The Dream Thief, Kari Kilgore [reading well TXT] 📗

But if he lost his temper, he wouldn't have to follow the horrible question that had just flashed through his mind. Or the other questions he'd thought of during the long night and day.

"We need to get one thing straight right now," he said. "You're not going to show up outside houses where the Builders I know sleep. One of the main reasons I'm here is to stop that from happening. Understand?"

"Of course, Karl. I don't want to hurt your family or anyone else. I hope you can help me figure out how to avoid that."

"I need to ask you something else," he said. "I'm not sure I want the answer. But I'm asking you to tell me the truth."

"You should never ask a question you're not ready to have answered."

"That's my concern, not yours," he said. "Have you ever used a Builder who isn't a client, Loretta? Does every house you visit have one of those collections?"

"Have a certain one you're concerned about?"

Karl shook his head. "I'm not giving you any new targets. Describe the house you were outside of the night before we met."

"I get the feeling you already know." She described Rethia's house down to the smallest detail. "Match what you expected?"

"Just tell me if anyone there is a client," he said. "That's a simple matter, isn't it?"

"I suppose it is," she said, shrugging. "No one in that house is a client."

"Either you're lying to me now, or you were lying to me last night. That's another simple matter that makes a very big difference."

She looked at him for several seconds, then she leaned forward and poured two more glasses full of whiskey. Karl surprised himself by drinking his down, and by managing not to stare at her breasts. When she sat back, her cheeks were flushed.

"I didn't say one way or the other last night," she said. "But I do sometimes use Builders who aren't clients. It's a little harder, for me and possibly for them, but I do it. Fair enough?"

"It will do unless I find out otherwise," Karl said. "So you already know whether they can Build something they don't want themselves."

"I didn't exactly lie about that either, but yes, they can. What I don't know is if it's harder on them or not. Now I need you to answer a tough question for me. How did you know I was at that house, Karl? If someone you care about lives there, I can't imagine you saw me and waited until the next night to join me at a different house."

Karl settled his hips lower in the chair, deciding to be as honest as he could whether Loretta was or not. Despite the situation, George's booze had him feeling decidedly more relaxed.

"This is part of the damage you might not know about," he said. "I noticed a pattern in some of our recent admissions, one that hasn't deviated for a while now. You've been busy lately. Couple of weeks on, couple of weeks off. Right?"

Karl was gratified when her blush faded away in an instant. He couldn't tell if she was upset by hurting Builders or by getting caught, but he didn't care about that yet. He was glad he'd managed to get to her, even a little bit.

"I had no idea that was happening," she said. "I truly didn't. I thought... I thought that wasn't a problem anymore. Did something happen to anyone at the house you told me to stay away from?"

"Luckily for your sake, no," Karl said. "The Builder in that house seems to be fine, at least so far. That doesn't mean using them like this isn't causing trouble none of us understand."

Glowing green baby's eyes and the heavy, sickening scent of burning flesh tore through Karl's mind. Suspicions or not, he couldn't know for certain whether the horrors she sent through his sister's mind, and perhaps through the baby's, were involved in the monster's birth.

"If they're not all clients," he said, "how are you choosing them?"

"What shape was the pattern you saw?" Loretta said. Karl blinked, not sure he understood the odd question. "You said you noticed a pattern. What did it look like?"

"It was a spiral. Bunches of them, really. I thought the house you were outside of last night would be next on the list. It was."

Loretta got to her feet quickly enough that Karl drew back. He could see both of her hands, but he was nowhere near trusting her.

"Wait here," she said over her shoulder. "I need to show you something."

She disappeared through a heavy wooden door beside the swinging door to her kitchen. Karl moved forward to the edge of his seat, hoping he wouldn't regret that second shot of whiskey if she charged back in with a weapon. She called through the closed door a few seconds later.

"You can come in. Everything is safe now."

Karl wondered if her last words were meant to reassure him as he opened the door. The small room looked like a study, with a desk, wooden chairs, and several bookcases. On the wall directly behind the desk was a huge map.

It was nowhere near as grand as what he'd seen in the Director of Public Relations' office, but no less effective. The pattern of threads on this smaller version made Karl's head swim. It was an exact match to what he'd seen in his mind.

"How closely did you guess my pattern, Karl?"

He stood beside her and touched the pin sunken into his sister's house. He didn't feel that vaguely magic tingle of the larger map. The green enamel felt like solid ice.

"None of this looks out of place to me," he said, his voice barely above a whisper. "I had it exactly right."

Loretta sighed. "I'm not exactly pleased anyone was able to track me like this, but you're certainly as observant as I'd hoped. A little more so."

He turned to her, unable to look away from those eyes.

"Why