He sighed. “I know you’re just doing your job, Andrew,” he said after a moment. “I wouldn’t ask you to do anything less. But be thorough, please. Be sure about this before you act. An awful lot rides on what you decide to do.”

Andrew Wren folded his hands in his lap and looked down at them. “I appreciate what’s at stake better than you think, Simon. That’s why I came to talk with you first. I wanted to hear what you had to say. As far as making any decisions, I have a lot more work to do first. I won’t be rushing into anything.”

He rose and held out his hand. “I’m sorry about this. As I told you earlier, I admire the work you’ve done here. I’d hate to think it would suffer for any reason.”

Simon Lawrence took his hand and shook it firmly. “Thank you for coming to me about this. I’ll do what I can to look into it from this end. Whatever I find, I’ll pass along.”

Andrew Wren opened the door and walked back down the hall to the reception area. There was no sign of Stefanie Winslow, who was probably out working on preparations for the press conference. He paused as he neared the front door, then turned back.

The young woman working the intake desk looked up as he approached, smiling. “Can I help you?”

“I was wondering,” he said, returning the smile, “if you know where I could find John Ross.”

Chapter 21

It was nearing two o’clock by the time Nest packed her bag, checked out of the Alexis, and caught a taxi to the airport. She rode south down I-5 past Boeing Field on one side and lines of stalled traffic heading north on the other. She stared out the window, watching the city recede into the distance, wrestling with the feeling that her connection with John Ross was fading with it.

She was riddled with doubt and plagued by a sense of uneasiness she could not explain.

She had done everything she had come to do and a little more. She had found John Ross, she had given him the Lady’s warning, she had persuaded him he was in danger, and she had extracted his solemn promise he would take whatever steps were necessary to protect himself. She kept telling herself there was really nothing else she could do—nothing else, in fact, that she could justify—but none of the monolog seemed to help.

Maybe it had something to do with the fact that Ariel and Audrey and Boot were still dead and some part of the guilt for that was still hers. Maybe it had something to do with her discomfort at having done so little to help them. She knew she was dissatisfied with the idea of leaving the demon who had killed them loose in the city of Seattle. But what was she supposed to do? Track it down and exact revenge? How would she do that and what difference would it make now? It wouldn’t bring back the forest creatures. It wouldn’t make things whole or right in any meaningful way. Maybe it would give her a measure of satisfaction, but she wasn’t even sure of that.