Free Blood Kin by Maria Lima Page A

folder. “Thanks, Ben,” she said. “Please give my regards to your wife for me, yeah?”
    “Will do.” He started to turn away, but then stopped.“Hey, before I forget. You know that restaurant you like? Irish Heather? Heard it reopened last night after being closed for a while.”
    “Closed? They do great business and no way it was the health department. Why’d they shut down?” Liz asked
    “Nothing to do with business. Some homeless guy was found dead in their old storefront.”
    “Jiminy,” Liz said. “Poor Dan and Liss. They still own that old place, right?”
    Ben thought a moment. “I believe they do,” he replied. “Hope this doesn’t hurt business.”
    “Do you know what happened?” Liz asked.
    “Not yet,” Ben said. “I know a couple of homeless folks have been found dead around there and up on West Hastings recently. They’re being treated as suspicious deaths.”
    “Suspicious?” Tucker asked. “Something going on we should know about?”
    Ben scratched his head. “I’m not so sure on my end, but I don’t know that much, really. Just what I read in the papers, see on the news. Possibly malnutrition and exposure are the cause, but I heard one of the officers talking this morning that it may be a drugs case. Stuff like that gets involved, you never know what kind of folk show up in town.” He shook his head and tucked his ballpoint pen into his shirt pocket. “Cheers, all.”
    At Ben’s words, my jaw clenched. Great, suspicious deaths on the heels of arriving. Could it have anything to do with me or mine? Oh, dear powers that be, I certainly hoped not. Vancouver was a big city, right? Homeless people died all the time.
    “Ta then, Ben, and thanks.” Liz stepped back inside and gave the man a wave as he descended the steps. She waiteduntil he was out of earshot before pulling up the stairs and shutting the door and turning to me.
    “You okay?” she asked. “I could feel your tension even from outside.”
    “Yeah, I’m good,” I said and rotated my head down and around to loosen up my neck muscles. “Hearing about suspicious deaths so few days after—”
    Tucker rubbed the back of my neck. “It’s a city, Keira,” he said. “This sort of thing happens all the time.”
    “I know, I know,” I said. “I just …” I sighed and rubbed my eyes. “Sorry, it’s not exactly the first thing I wanted to hear on arrival.”
    “Not the first thing, actually,” Liz said.
    I gave her a puzzled look.
    “What about the weather?”
    “Oh, right, yeah,” I said. “Damn. This just blows. I guess we’re stuck here.”
    “Anyone want to try to call Gigi?” Tucker pulled his phone out and dangled it.
    “I suppose I should try,” I said and grabbed my own cell out of my pack. “Liz, can you punch up weather forecasts or anything? See what you can find out?”
    “Yeah, I’ll hit up satellite.” She went back into the cockpit.
    Tucker settled back into his own seat, throwing an arm around Niko, who seemed relaxed. Daffyd, once again, said nothing. What could be going on in his head? I suppose that in the grand scheme of life, a day or two delay was small potatoes to those who’d already lived centuries. Not that I wasn’t okay with staying in Vancouver overnight. I loved this city as much as I loved London—plus, it didn’t have the taint of my experience with Gideon as did the latter city.
    The phone rang once at the other end, then cut off. I pulled it away from my ear and checked the display. “Huh,” I said and pressed the end call button. “That was weird.” I tried again, this time getting nothing but the fast busy signal. “I think we’re hosed, gang,” I said. “I bet the phone lines are down.” I looked up toward the cockpit where Liz sat in the pilot’s seat staring at a screen. She had her headphones on so I wasn’t sure she’d heard me.
    “Heya, Liz, anything?”
    She didn’t look up, but waved her arm in a “hang on” gesture.
    After a couple of