Page 106 of By the Horns
No.
It makes no sense to me. I stab at an answer. “Do you think they hired someone to kill you, then?”
Yes.
Oh. Now we’re getting somewhere. “Do you know who it was who might have sent that person?”
Again, he taps my hand.Yes.
“And do I know this person?”
Yes.
A chill goes down my spine. “Am I their next target?”
He hesitates, then taps no. He gestures at himself, and then at me. Then at himself again.
“You were the one targeting me?”
Yes.
I’m confused. “Why would you do that? I was in your Five. My future was tied to yours.”
Hemmen’s ghost reaches out and, to my surprise, caresses my breast.
I rear back. “What are you doing?”
The spirit becomes agitated, and he gestures at the right hand that I’ve pulled away. He’s trying to say no. When I put my right hand out again, he taps it.No. No.
Then he reaches for me again, my skin shivering as he tugs at my bun of hair. I don’t understand…. “Wait. Because I’m a woman? That’s why you targeted me?”
Yes.
“So I was an easy target, then. You…wanted us to fail? Our Five?”
He taps my hand.Yes.
I’m starting to figure this out. “Because the thieves needed you as a repeater? Is that why you’ve repeated so many times?”
Yes.
So Hemmen was working with them for a long time. I ponder this, even as another ghost tries to push its way forward, his touch sending ice down my spine. “Stop it,” I tell the other ghost. “You won’t get your turn if you keep harassing me.”
It prattles frantically at me but retreats backward, going to hover closeto the bier at the farthest side of the room. I can feel its agitation in the air, and it makes me want to leave. I want to flee, but I force myself to stay behind, to calmly get answers from poor Hemmen, who only wanted to be lazy and read books all day and ended up in over his head. “Can you help me find the person who did this to you? The one you say I know?”
Yes.
I try to think how to approach this next. He can’t tell me the name. “Maybe a word game? Does the name begin with an ‘A’?”
No.
“A ‘B’?”
No.
I continue down the alphabet until I get to the letter where he saysYes.
Instead of brushing his fingers over my skin, he sinks them into my palm. Images flash through my mind, bleeding over from Hemmen into me. Frost coats me from inside, and I feel like I’m drowning. I make a choked sound, falling backward off the bench as Hemmen’s flurry of memories pushes through my head, one after the other. Suddenly, I know exactly who it is and how they’re working. I know how they’re slipping through the cracks and moving about unnoticed.
