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“I don’t understand,” Ecaeris says, standing in Cotear’s bedroom doorway.
“He’s already proven that he can throw his tracks, though I haven’t figured out how he does it. I’m assuming he had some type of bag prepared, ready for his escape, once he realized Poko wasn’t coming back.” She shrugs. “He’s probably living on the land.”
Connak furrows his brow. “Why do you shrug like this is it, like we won’t find him?”
“We could all hunt him for weeks and not find him. We know very little about him, but—” She stops mid sentence, pursing her lips as she stares at the wall.
“But what?” I prompt.
She shakes her head. “He won’t leave yet.”
“How do you know?” I ask, curious why she would think he isn’t already on his way across the island by now.
“Cotear was at the palace today,” she explains. “He was waiting to hear what the announcement was about. And while we may know he’s the accomplice, no one else does. He won’t disappear forever. That’s not what people like him do. He’ll stay out of sight for a while, then come back to say he was camping or fishing or whatever you do for leisure.”
“Because he’s not done?” Talodus guesses.
“Because he’s not done,” Ada agrees. “Maybe he’ll come after me, or maybe he just needs one more piece of information from the catacombs... Or maybe he’s got a lover somewhere he’ll want to say goodbye to. Whatever his motive may be, we’ll see him again.”
I feel myself leaning closer as I try to understand. “But how do you know?”
She meets me halfway, a slight grin lifting the corners of her lips as she whispers, “I watched a ton of true crime documentaries on Earth.”
“Why are you so calm right now?” Ecaeris inquires before I can ask what she means.
“She’s not,” I reply to him without thought. “The storm inside her–”
“Is a hurricane,” she cuts me off. “The weather rages, but the eye is calm. That’s where I will stay until I no longer need the peace.”
“It’s your defense,” I point out. “Like playing meek, so Poko would underestimate you.”
Ada wobbles her head, telling me I’m both right and wrong. “Close. But I don’t need to hide anymore. Cotear seems intelligent; he’ll have caught on.”
“And if he hasn’t?” Talodus challenges. “Then what?”
“Then he’ll wait until I’m not with one of you,” she acknowledges, her slight grin growing. “And he’ll make the same mistake Poko made, thinking sweet little me couldn’t harm a fly, much less kill someone.”
“What about your stuff?” I ask, moving the conversation forward so we can leave.
She looks disgusted as she points to Poko’s room. “You mean my undergarments and my shoes?”
“Is anything else yours?” Talodus inquires. “None of us recognized the womens’ items.”
“No. The rest of that belongs to someone else.” Ada runs her hand through her loose vermillion hair as she thinks through the situation. “Now we need to find out who she is.”
Connak looks at me. “How did you know?”
“Know what?” Ecaeris leans against the door frame, settling in like we’ll be here all night.
“He said the same thing before I went to get you,” Connak tells the prince.
“Why wouldn’t we need to look for her?” I argue.
“If we find Cotear, we can find her,” Talodus states.
Ada shakes her head. “No. We find her first; she might be able to lead us to Cotear. She could also be a pawn in their plan, not knowing what she’s been helping with, or even doing it against her will. We already know they attacked Rin twice and me once after weeks of stalking... What’s to say there isn’t another victim too scared to come forward?”
“Is that what you think?” Ecaeris asks, attempting to piece everything together before we have all the information needed.
