Page 31 of Mistaken

Instead, she picked up the iPad and did her best to focus on the words on the screen.

“‘Ghost Ranch’?” Julia Innes repeated, sounding puzzled. “No, I’m pretty sure there aren’t any djinn out that way.”

Dylan had been down for his afternoon nap when Lindsay got back to Los Alamos, so she figured that was the best time to reach out to Julia and Zahrias to see if they could shed any light on the deepening mystery of Georgia O’Keeffe’s former home. Miles stood nearby, listening, although it seemed as if he didn’t feel the need to jump into the conversation, not when he hadn’t been on the expedition that had gone to that very spot a few hours earlier.

“No one?” Lindsay responded. Maybe the drone’s sudden radio silence really was thanks to mechanical failure and nothing else, and yet she still couldn’t help thinking something else must be going on here. “That is, I know most of the djinn have been settled in their homes for years now, but there’s no chance that someone might have come there recently? It would explain a lot.”

“We cannot say for absolutely sure,” came Zahrias’ deep, somehow smoky voice. “I can ask the elders. If one of your people truly has disappeared there, I believe further investigation is required. Because the elders are the ones who decide who lives where, then it makes the most sense to go to them directly.”

“That would be great,” Lindsay said. “None of us are really sure what’s going on, but with Sarah Wolfe missing and now our drone disappearing for no reason, we can’t help thinking it’s more than just a coincidence.”

Julia came back on the line then, sounding brisk and confident. “Well, whatever’s going on, we’ll just have to hope the elders clear it up. If they come back and say that no one is living there, then you can go in and search more thoroughly. In fact, I’m sure we could get a couple of our people to go along to help out. Air elementals can cover a lot more ground than us regular folks on foot.”

That was a generous offer. More and more, there had been open cooperation between the community in Los Alamos and the djinn/mortal group in the state’s former capital, but still, this wasn’t a matter that affected the people in Santa Fe at all. Sarah Wolfe was none of their own. Yes, they’d jumped in when Isla Dunbar went missing, but in that case, they’d been fairly certain that a djinn was involved, even if they hadn’t pinned down the true culprit right away.

This thing with Sarah…it was just a mystery.

“We’d appreciate that,” Lindsay said. “It could turn out she just wandered off and lost track of time, but that doesn’t sound like anything Sarah would do.”

“We’ll get to the bottom of it,” Julia replied. “Hang tight, and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.”

A little squawk from the speaker seemed to indicate that the other woman had hung up, so Lindsay put down her handset microphone and looked over at her husband.

“I guess that’s it,” she said. “Now all we can do is wait.”

After some ruminating and reflecting on all the various human dishes he’d consumed over the years, Abdul decided to make a large pot of cassoulet. Perhaps it was something Sarah had eaten before and perhaps not, but the hearty concoction of beans and sausage and chicken sounded like a fitting end to a day that had involved some exertion.

Besides, the clouds that had been slowly creeping northward for the greater part of the afternoon had now reached Ghost Ranch, and it seemed as if they might get a thunderstorm or two. It would be good to have the hearty dish with some wine as the rain fell outside.

So he summoned all the ingredients and busied himself in the kitchen. Sarah realized what he was doing at once and set aside her iPad so she could ask him if he needed any help, but he told her no, he had everything in hand.

Which, obviously, was the truth. He could have snapped his fingers and summoned the meal, but he enjoyed doing it this way. However, he wasn’t above using his powers to make sure the garlic was minced fine and the onions chopped into precise quarter-inch pieces.

Soon enough, the concoction was simmering on the stovetop, and he went to look out the window.

“Do you think it’s going to rain?” Sarah asked. She’d once again put down her tablet and had risen from the sofa, although he noticed she stayed a ways back, as though she didn’t want to intrude by coming too close.

“Probably,” he replied. In fact, he thought it was a near certainty, what with the way the clouds had now covered almost all the sky, how he could feel the way they were heavy with rain, pulsing with electricity just waiting to be unleashed. “It is a good thing we did not go for a sunset ride, for I am almost certain we would have been soaked by the end of it.”

“Good thing,” she said, then brushed a hand against the tunic she was wearing. “I think I’ll change for dinner — this outfit smells a little too much like horse.”

He hadn’t noticed, but then, she wasn’t standing close enough for him to sense such an odor emanating from her clothing. Tone neutral, he said, “If you think so.”

She chuckled. “Oh, I know so. I’ll be back out in a few.”

A brief pause as she leaned down to retrieve her iPad from the coffee table, and then she headed out of the room. Abdul watched her go, and couldn’t help wondering what she would select to wear for that evening’s meal. The shimmering teal tunic and pants that would bring out the unusual greenish-blue hues in her eyes, or perhaps the white dress, the one that was utterly simple when hanging but he guessed would be spectacular when worn?

Not that he should even be thinking about such things. He had conjured the clothing because it was beautiful in its own right, and he had always liked to surround himself with beautiful things.

Even if he could not see such beauty in himself, he could at least have it around him at all times.

No point in thinking about Sarah’s clothing, not when he still had work to do. The cassoulet bubbled gently on the stovetop, and time would turn it into the delectable concoction he had envisioned for their dinner. Now he needed to focus on making some crusty rolls to go along with it, as well as determining which salad would be best as an accompaniment.

He did not want to analyze too closely why he wanted to make sure this meal would be perfect.

Sarah surveyed the wardrobe Abdul had given her, trying to think what would be the right thing to wear to dinner. That white dress with the tone-on-tone embroidery around the neckline was gorgeous, but although she couldn’t tell for sure what he was making for dinner, it looked as though it was some kind of fancy stew, and she knew one splash from her spoon on the bodice of that dress and it would be all over. And all right, she guessed that his djinn magic would fix any kind of stain that occurred, but still, she didn’t really like the thought of sitting there for even a couple of minutes with a big blotch on her dress.

But there was one that was similar, also sleeveless and with some embroidery on the bodice, but it was a dark green, something that seemed much safer for slurping soup or stew or whatever they were having. Like almost everything he’d summoned for her, it was also made of silk, and felt cool and airy as she dropped it over her head once she’d discarded the tunic and pants she’d worn for most of the day.

---