Fear Her Wrath II: Crucible of Glass

Chapter 48

I shouldn't have been surprised by the uniformed police officer standing guard outside the Vang's apartment. I probably should have been grateful. Corrigan was really looking out for Benedict—doing a better job than I did, at least. Still, he made me feel incredibly self-conscious—like I wasn't supposed to be there. He looked me over suspiciously as I reached for the doorbell.

"Margaret Hunt," I said. "I'm here to see Benedict. He's—."

"Go ahead," said the officer. He entered my name in a small notebook as I rang the doorbell. The sharp buzzing noise made me wince. It took whoever was on the inside about 30 seconds of fumbling with the locks to get it open. The door opened just a crack, and a pair of dark, judgmental eyes peered out at me.

"Oh," said Bella, making no effort to hide her contempt. "It's you."

"Yeah," I said. "I... Ben said I could come over."

She jerked her head for me to come in. I stepped timidly through the cracked door and Bella almost slammed it behind me.

"Ben, your psycho girlfriend is here!" she called. I flushed. Ben's grandmother and younger brother were looking at me with unreadable expressions as I settled awkwardly onto the couch and waited. It felt like a really long time. I took out my phone and checked for messages from Ellie G. She had rigged up a little program to watch social media for new Deadstream links, but there was nothing. Benedict's younger brother had gone back to his homework, and I wasn't even sure if his grandmother spoke English, so there wasn't much of a risk of her interrogating me.

I heard the sound of footsteps on the stairs, and turned to see Ben's dad on his way down from the apartment's second floor.

"Hi, Maggie," said Mr. Vang, patting me on the shoulder. "Ben's getting the dressings changed on his hand. He'll just be a minute. Thanks so much for coming. He was... he really lit up when you called. It was good to see."

He sat down in the armchair next to the Vang's floor model radio and opened up his laptop. Mr. Vang was an adjunct professor at Marbrose Union Seminary and a minister of some kind in the Hmong church. I wasn't sure how to feel about him after what happened with Simon. I knew he was a respected figure in the Hmong community, and would eventually join the leadership of the Vang clan as an elder, but I couldn't help but feel suspicious of someone who encouraged Ben to testify against Simon. I checked my phone again, this time wondering if Corrigan's friends in forensics had found anything. Again, nothing. I was getting antsy. Luckily, I heard more footsteps on the stairs, and turned to see Ben, supported by his mom, hobbling down to the living room.

Everyone else stopped what they were doing to look at Ben. He flashed a self-conscious smile when he noticed all the eyes on him, and everyone slowly went back to whatever they were doing before. I had expected Ben to come right to me since I was the guest, but dutiful Hmong son that he was, he couldn't help but make the rounds. He stopped at the table where his grandmother was sitting and had a whispered conversation in Hmong. He looked over his little brother's shoulder at the homework he was working on and whispered something encouraging. He even leaned into the kitchen to say something snide to Bella. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, he sat down beside me, wincing slightly at the pain that even this simple action caused him.

He looked awful. He was wearing dark glasses in a futile attempt to hide his two black eyes. There were stitches on his left cheek where Deadstream had started work on a Glasgow grin. The other cuts left by the knife were too shallow for stitches, but they still looked painful.

And, of course, there were the two missing fingers on his right hand. There weren't even stumps—Deadstream had hacked them off at the knuckles. It was hard not to stare, and Benedict caught me looking.