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I nodded, headed down the hall and peeked into the rooms until I found the one I’d been kept in. I made certain to step on the plastic paths, went to the doorway of the room I’d been held in, and gestured to it. “This is where I woke up. At the time, the door was closed and Madam Merorie asked me questions, mostly about being a brothel worker, which I’m not. I’m not a pilgrim, either. Well, intentionally.”
“You’re not a pilgrim,” the chief assured me. “You don’t classify using any of our definitions for it.”
That was something. “What do I classify as, then?”
“An unfortunate little hatchling,” he replied, and he winked at me. “We only tease the hatchlings for six months to a year. By then, some other unfortunate little hatchling comes along. But as you’ve had a rough week, we’ll tease the other unfortunate little hatchling more.”
“You really should tease him, else his ego will surely reach the bursting point. I don’t want to know what a bursting yellow dragon ego looks like.”
“A lot of strutting. The yellows know they’re pretty, and they’re not shy about it,” Captain Langley replied, and he rolled his eyes. “Those other yellows should know the Langley clan has the most beautiful dragons of all in it.”
“Nobody had warned me yellows were the egos of the dragon race.”
The three captains and the chief had a good laugh at my expense. Captain Langley stepped into the room, eyeing the bed. I worried he might start blowing smoke. According to his expression, the entire mansion offended him. “This room is enough to trigger most dragon-kin into sprouting scales, Robert.”
The chief nodded. “If I woke up in a prison cell like this with a crazed woman, I certainly would be thinking about how to get out using any means necessary.”
Captain Palmer, who was responsible for the northern portion of the Fringe, joined the chief in the room. “From our understanding of the situation, you were dressed in the same clothes you’d been kidnapped in, correct? We claimed the scraps for evidence.”
“That’s correct.” I spied some clean booties on a table in the lab, snagged a pair, and put them over my shoes before stepping into the bedroom. I walked the four men through how I’d woken up, what injuries I’d noticed first, my impression of the stitching job, and the madwoman’s first appearance.
Then, prepared to take a beating to my pride, I walked them through my escape path, noting how all the doors had been left open and the state of the bodies when I’d passed through. On our way upstairs, I’d explained I’d just picked a direction and stuck with it, figuring it didn’t matter either way.
In the room where I’d made my break for it, I discovered the screen was still out, the room remained untouched, and I wondered what had happened to the poker I’d made off with. I pointed to where the poker had once stood. “I stole a poker from there and used it to help pop the screen out before climbing out the window.” I then pointed at the tree I’d hidden behind before following the sounds of sirens and lights to the spot I’d been ambushed by my own father. “I don’t know what happened to the poker.”
“You dropped it when your father startled you,” the chief informed me, and after putting booties on his feet, he came into the room to examine the window. “We’d noticed the screen had been knocked out, but the dust hadn’t been disturbed.”
I stared at the floor, which we’d disturbed on our way in. “Clearly, I walked on air in my eagerness to get out of this murder mansion.”
With a low laugh, Chief Hawthorne shook his head and leaned out the window for a better look outside. “It’s either that or one of the mercury dragons did some sweeping. They were sweeping all the rooms and making more than a little dust. Honestly, we aren’t sure where all this dust came from. A lot of the windows were open, but there’s dust everywhere.”
While dust could accumulate in spaces people lived in, I’d never been in a place with so much of it. I crouched, eyeing the dust on the ground. “Has anyone grabbed a sample for the lab?”
Captain Palmer stepped outside of the room to ask, and a few moments later, a member of the forensics team came in armed with several vials and a toolkit used for gathering samples. I pointed at the places I’d touched, although I doubted much could be gathered with so much dust.
“I’ll admit, I don’t really remember it being quite this dusty,” I confessed.
“You were suffering from blood loss while under the influence of at least one drug. It’s more surprising you were as coherent as you were. With your injuries, how did you get out?”
I pointed at the chair, which was still located near the window. The screen was still on the bed, although a thick layer of dust disguised its presence. “Oh, the screen is still there. I mean, I remember getting dust on me from pulling down the screen, but I don’t remember it having been this bad.”
“How did you get through the window? Your leg was injured.”
“Very carefully.” I grimaced at the memory. “I made sure to put most of my weight on my good leg, and then I tried to pretend it didn’t hurt like hell. I was more worried about my side, though.”
“Both injuries were unpleasant. You’re feeling well now?”
“I’m mostly fine. I’m tired, but that’s to be expected.”
According to my parents, I would be tired for at least a week.
After a moment of thought and a shrug, the chief climbed out the window, making use of the same chair I had. “Well, let’s go have a walk and see what there is to see on the same rough path you took.”
Amused, I climbed out, appreciating his help on the other side. The captains followed.
An exasperated voice within exclaimed, “Seriously?”
I giggled, clapped my hands over my mouth, and decided to let the chief defend us all from a wrathful forensics staffer.