Fear Her Wrath II: Crucible of Glass

Chapter 6

I found Elinor Gan—aka Ellie G—the next day during lunch. She was eating with a small group of friends in the student commons—all fellow members of the Arts track, with that aura of bohemian nonconformity that I used to judge and slightly envy before I got to know them. Ellie herself was short, with black hair, tan skin, and a playful expression on her lips. She had purple nails, purple streaks in her hair, and purple laces on her shoes. As you can probably guess, she was the one who chose the color of my hood and cape.

Ellie's friends cleared off as soon as they saw me approaching. I wasn't sure whether she had warned them that our conversations were usually confidential, or they just didn't want to be seen with me.

Honestly, I didn't want to know.

Remember how I said I was the world's okayest detective? Ellie G was the person who kept me humble. Not only was she double-tracked in Art and Technology (with a GPA that, unlike mine, wasn't always hovering dangerously close to academic probation); she also tended to see things a little more clear-eyed than I did. She was just sharp that way.

And she never hesitated to call me on my crap.

"Corrigan wants me to look into the person sending bombs to Montagnese fronts," I grumbled as I took the seat across from hers. "By myself. Apparently we're 'taking a break' because she's getting pressure from the higher-ups or something. So I have homework."

"Did she tell you she's on unpaid leave?" asked Ellie, without looking up from her sketchbook.

"No," I exclaimed. "I had no idea. I just thought... Crap, this is my fault, isn't it? If I hadn't gotten so distracted trying to save Nick—."

"Maggs," said Ellie sharply. "You didn't know. You were just doin' what you thought was right, right? Corrigan can look out for herself. She's got friends. I know the district attorney likes her, and having a token good cop on the force has its benefits, y'know?"

"The key word there being 'token,'" I said glumly, propping my head on my elbows. "She's in trouble if they ever find another straight cop in the Fen."

"Let the grown-ups worry about themselves, Maggs," said Ellie. She finished the illustration she was working on with a flourish of her pen and snapped her sketchbook shut.

"Now... whaddya need?"

Feeling suitably chastened for my bad attitude, I glanced around to make sure we were really alone.

"So..." I said, leaning close to only Ellie could hear. "What do you know about cryptography?"

"Nightwrath, darling, you have come to the right place." said Ellie, rubbing her hands together. "Ya know, with all the detective work you make me do for you, I think I should get at least a small share of your glory."

She reached into her backpack and took out the tablet she used for all our vigilantism-related business.

"You want a code name?" I asked incredulously.

"Oh, all of your most devoted fangirls already know about me," said Ellie smugly. "But for the sake of the general public, I'll come up with something cool and mysterious. You got a profile for our mad bomber?"

I took out my laptop to review the files Corrigan had forwarded to me, which were mostly photos of what was left of the bombs and scans of the notes that arrived at police headquarters shortly after each explosion. They were all roughly in the same vein—"cleanse the city of their filth," "all scum will burn," "your masters will pay, " etc.—pasted together ransom note-style on small sheets of yellow paper. The letters, while garbled, were all taken from the same old book—I could tell that just by eyeballing the typeface. And they were all signed the same way.