“I am curious—what the hell would he need those logs for? But one, I can’t trust Tristan. Two, I don’t dare ask Gabriel to do anything right now. And three, I don’t trust Tristan.” I put the phone away. “I’ll ask Lydia tomorrow if she can get the logs. I don’t like going behind Gabriel’s back, but . . .”

“One, he’s being a dick. Two, you’re doing this to help him avoid jail time. Three, he’s being a dick.”

I smiled at him. “Exactly.”

Four hours later, we’d just returned from a late dinner when I got another text from Tristan.

Must talk. Big problem. Need privacy. Come 2 place we met 2nd time. Trust no one.

“Seriously?” I said, showing the text to Ricky. “Trust no one. Now fairies are watching X-Files?”

“He just wants you to believe.”

“No shit. Well, he’s officially piqued my curiosity. I’m calling back.”

I did, as we walked up the stairs to Ricky’s apartment. I called twice. Tristan didn’t answer. The first time, it went to voice mail, and I hung up to try again. That time, I got a “number not in service” message. I called a third time, in case my redial had screwed up somehow. It hadn’t. The number was no longer in service.

“Okay. Apparently, his number doesn’t work anymore.”

“So we’re still going?” he said.

“To an abandoned psych hospital? Once was enough. I’m not playing his game again.”

Inside the apartment, I slowly took off my shoes, so lost in thought that I didn’t realize Ricky was gone until I looked up and saw him coming out of the bedroom.

“Okay,” I said. “I know this will sound crazy, but—”

He handed me a new switchblade. “You’re going to need this.”

CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN

Yes, heading to that psych hospital suggested I might belong in one. I’d like to think I’m not the dumb blonde in a B horror movie, saying, “You’re a supernatural being with an agenda that might involve killing me, and you want me to come to an abandoned psych hospital at night? Well, okay, then!” It was almost certainly a trap, but I couldn’t sit at home, playing it safe, when taking a risk meant answering the question: What was Tristan really up to? Proceed with extreme caution and take what I could from the situation, because if I refused, then maybe next time he tried to trap me, I’d stumble in without realizing it.

I called Gabriel on the walk to Ricky’s bike. That was part of exercising extreme caution. Yes, he’d made it clear he didn’t want to hear from me, but this wasn’t Hey, I’d like to talk. For this, he would answer. I was sure of it.

I called and got his voice mail.