Page 27

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“ N ow what?” Lucas demanded as Bodhi walked up to him.

Bodhi raised his hands in a conciliatory gesture. “I need to ask you something about Rory.”

“I already told you. I didn’t attack her in that cave.” He spat the words.

Bodhi took a centering breath and said, “The blood in the cave has unusual properties. It suggests a rare, and serious, medical condition. If Rory has this condition, we need to know. It could be critical to finding her alive.”

Lucas gave him a skeptical look. “What kind of medical condition?”

“One that makes her blood glow,” Bodhi explained.

He scoffed. “Glow in the dark blood? Sounds like science fiction.”

“It’s not. It’s a documented symptom of a rare, potentially fatal, disorder.”

“Well, I haven’t been with Rory in years and when we were together her blood didn’t glow.” He turned on his heel and walked away.

He may not have harmed Rory, but he certainly didn’t seem overly concerned about her either.

Bodhi was about to follow after him, when Aaron grabbed his arm. His eyes were wild.

“I heard what you said. Diana asked me the same question. I thought she was going to come down here so we could talk, but Sadie’s yammering at her. And I don’t want to say this in front of Sadie.”

“You don’t want to say what?” Bodhi pitched his voice low in an effort to calm the frantic man.

Aaron blew out a shaky breath. “I saw a bottle of pills in Rory’s bathroom. The one time I, you know, spent the night. I asked her about it, and she got weird and defensive. Shut me down completely.”

“Do you remember the name of the medication?” It was a long shot, but Bodhi had to ask.

Aaron rubbed his back of neck. “As a matter of fact, I do. Because the whole thing was weird. They were only glucose tablets. Which is no big deal, right? But like I said, she was really upset that I’d seen them. I think it’s part of why she ended things with me.”

Bodhi met his eyes. “Thanks, Aaron.”

“Does that mean she has it? The glowing blood thing?”

“It might.”

Aaron blanched. “We have to find her.”

Just then, Diana called down to them, “Bodhi, could you come up here? I’d come to you, but that’s a steep downhill and the ground’s uneven.”

He excused himself and went to join Diana.

“What did you learn?” she asked as approached.

“First, I didn’t get to tell this bit before. The glowing blood distracted me. Lucas and Tripp admit they came here to convince Rory to work with them again. They want to profit from the attention her guerrilla exhibition is attracting.”

“They’re vultures,” Diana muttered.

“Agreed. But I don’t really believe they harmed her. They need her alive and working. And Lucas says he doesn’t know about any medical conditions.”

“Hmm. Neither do Sadie and Julie. Although I did find out that Julie’s involved with my ex-husband. And Sadie told me Aaron lied about where he was this afternoon.”

He blinked at her, and she went on. “I know, that doesn’t have anything to do with Rory’s health. But it is further evidence that everyone in the search party has a secret.”

“Let’s leave that aside for now. Aaron saw glucose tablets in Rory’s bathroom. He says he asked her about them, and she got agitated.”

She shook her head. “Glucose tablets? Does that mean anything.”

“Glucose could be used to prevent or treat an AIP episode at home. The gold standard is hemin, but that’s injected intravenously, and it’s eye-poppingly expensive. Most people manage their porphyria through diet and lifestyle. I suspect that’s what Rory does—if she has AIP, that is.”

“Are there any glucose pills in her messenger bag?” Diana asked.

“No.”

She was silent for a moment. Then she asked. “Hypothetically, if she’s having an acute episode and she injured her head, how serious is it?”

He didn’t sugarcoat it. “Hypothetically, it could be fatal.”

Diana straightened her shoulders. “Then we need to find her. Tonight.”

“We need to think like Rory. She came here for a reason. The message of her exhibition was about displacement, about people being pushed aside.”

She twitched her lips to the side. “So, presumably she’d go somewhere significant to her theme, right?”

“It’s a reasonable assumption. One caveat though: if she’s having an AIP attack, she may not be thinking rationally.”

“We have to start somewhere,” Diana said firmly. “We’re running out of time. We’ll skip all the spokes in the bike wheel model and focus on the reflectors. It’s what my gut’s telling me to do.”

“Then that’s what we’ll do.”