Confound It

by Maggie Toussaint

  While Mayes drove, I aired my fondest wish. “Must be a break in the case. You think they located Alicia Waite?”

  He shrugged. “Could be.”

  “If it’s not Alicia, do you think June, Doodle, or Todd Derenne confessed to the murder?”

  “It doesn’t feel settled.”

  To my annoyance, he didn’t continue. “Go on.”

  “When a case winds down, all the pieces connect. My gut says this one isn’t there yet.”

  “Hmm. I thought once we located Alicia Waite, everything would fall into place. We’d have the chain of command for her entire operation.”

  “Drug dealers are slippery, but the kingpins rarely have any direct link to the action. The ones who are sloppy don’t last long in the business.”

  “Their own people kill them?”

  “That’s right,” Mayes said. “All we have is a grainy video of someone in Ms. Waite’s car turning around at Mandy’s place. We can’t ID the driver, and a good lawyer will have her out on personal recognizance so fast it’ll make your head spin. I’ve seen it time and time again.”

  I hadn’t considered that aspect. If Alicia was good at the drug business, she’d skate scot free. Conversely, if she’d burned bridges with her connections, we might not catch her, but they certainly would. “We may never know who killed Mandy?”

  “Could be.”

  My jaw clenched. He seemed so pragmatic about the whole thing. “Not good enough. I want justice for Mandy, the kind that comes with prison time.”

  “Every cop gets a case like this, one that won’t hang together right. They become fixated on the case, but no matter what they try or how many times they go over the evidence, the leads don’t materialize.”

  I needed someone to pay for the childhood Doodle never had. I wanted to catch the bad guy or gal. My hand itched, so I rubbed it. “I don’t accept that. Every case I’ve ever worked has closed.”

  “Good for you, but open cases happen. You should prepare yourself for that eventuality.”

  “I won’t quit on the case.”

  “Not saying you will, but other cases will take priority. Mandy isn’t the only victim out there. She didn’t deserve what happened to her—no one deserves that—but the world is full of people who have to be stopped. Will you choose to work Mandy’s case over putting ten other criminals behind bars?”

  “I’ll do both.”

  He parked my truck, switched it off, and looked at me. “Cops who get tunnel vision don’t make it. They put in too many hours, neglect their families, and make a fatal mistake. All I’m suggesting is that you program flexibility into your mindset. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

  “Agreed.” I quit scratching my hand. Glancing down, I saw that I’d been rubbing the tattoo Rose applied to show our connection. I didn’t have the sense she wanted to meet, but the ink seemed different. “Look at that. The lines are blurring, from the inside. How’s that even possible?”

  Mayes lifted my hand to his lips. “A kiss to make it all better.”

  His touch lit me up inside. “Definitely better.”

  “Let’s go catch some bad guys.”

  Chapter Fifty-One

  The brisk vibe in the cop shop was gone. Instead of the pre-lunch optimism infusing these walls, a dark presence had settled on the place. Goose bumps prickled everywhere on my body as soon as we unlocked the employee door. I lowered my guard to shoot a telepathic message to Mayes. Something’s wrong .

  He pulled his gun, held it by his right leg. I feel it. Keep the link open, okay? We’ve got to stay sharp and work as a team.

  My gun is in the truck.

  You don’t need it , Mayes said in my head. What’s happening here won’t be solved by guns.

  I’m scared.

  You should be.

  We crept down the deserted corridor, our footsteps echoing, and the hairs on the back of my neck at full attention. Something was horribly, undeniably wrong here.

  The door to Wayne’s office was closed. I knocked. “Wayne?”

  No answer. I tried the knob. Locked. “Where are they?” I asked aloud. “Something happened here.”

  We checked each office, interview room, and even reception. Not a soul in sight. “Should I summon Oliver to track them?”

  “No need. By process of elimination, they’re not on the admin side. Must be on the jail side.”

  I thought about the double doors you had to go through to enter that side of the house. This place was set up like air locks to keep anyone from getting away. Only one door could open at a time, and someone from the centralized security area had to buzz you through. I had nightmares about getting trapped between the doors.

  “Let’s go outside and enter through Receiving and Booking,” Mayes suggested as if reading my fear.

  I swallowed my anxiety. “Security could buzz us through, and it would be faster.”

  “If everyone’s over there, Security has been compromised.”

  “Right.” Heat rose to my cheeks as we retreated. Mayes had to think I was a complete dolt.

  Outside, with the sunshine warm on my face, I felt worlds better. “Let’s call for backup. Virg and Ronnie are on shift today. I have Virg’s cell.”

  “Call him.”

  I dialed Virg’s number. “No answer. They must be tied up.”

  Mayes looked at me. “Yes. Tied up. That makes sense. We need Oliver after all. Summon him, and let’s head to the jail.”

  “I’m getting my gun while we’re out here.”

  “Suit yourself.”

  I grabbed my gun, connected with my ghost dog, and nodded to Mayes. “Ready. What’s the plan?”

  He motioned me around the building, scanning the area with each step. “Rescue our people. Stop the bad guys.”

  I trailed him closely. Oliver beside me. “Duh. Get serious. Besides that, how will we proceed?”

  “You’ve got Rose on speed dial, right?”

  “Rose can’t help.”

  “She’ll help,” Mayes said. “Our problem comes from her world.”

  “And you know this how?”

  “I’ve felt this disturbance before.”

  “Something from the Other Side is here? In our jail?”

  He shot me a scary grin. “Not for long. We’re sending it back where it belongs.”

  My feet stopped, and my heart raced. Mayes looked like he’d been handed the best Christmas present ever. I wanted to run and hide. Except this was my job, and I had two supernatural helpers by my side and another one on call. My grip tightened on my gun, and I trailed Mayes through the door.

  Chapter Fifty-Two

  “Took you long enough, Dreamwalker. Come join the party.”

  The eerie gender-neutral voice came from Sister Cipriona, the palm reader. She wore another animal-print dress, but she’d left her hair down. Braid upon braid spilled over her shoulders and back. For a moment, I thought I saw the braids move independently.

  I blinked at the distraction and looked away. Like Mayes, I quartered the room and stepped over the three flashlights lined up side by side on the floor. A cluster of people stood in the drunk tank, the sheriff included. He was yelling something I couldn’t make out.

  Doodle knelt on the floor behind Cipriona, his hands in a prayerful pose. Escoe was flat on his back beside Doodle, only Escoe’s leg flared at an unnatural angle. I watched Escoe until I saw the slight rise and fall of his chest. Good. At least no one was dead, yet.

  Patchouli-scented candles burned on the reception desk, and a light dusting of powder made a path along the floor. Whatever was happening here wasn’t regulation. I was too scared to think, but I’d long since discovered courage was possible even in the midst of stark terror.

  “Put your hands in the air where I can see them,” Mayes shouted. “Now.”

  “I do not submit to your laws. Put your guns down,” the palm reader said, shaking a finger at Mayes. In that moment, Mayes struggled with an invisible force for his gu
n. He staggered a few steps and stepped in the powder. Then he froze.

  She’d done something to him. Not wanting to end up like a statue, I placed my gun on the floor. “What do you want?”

  Cipriona laughed. She seemed to grow taller and more statuesque than she already was. Her hair was definitely moving, and the swaying braids were mesmerizing. I closed my eyes and counted to three while I pinged Mayes telepathically. No response. I gazed at the floor by Cipriona’s glossy high heels and waited. She still wore that anklet with a dime on it, and if I could stand to look at her face, I’d bet she still had a mini-sack of herbs around her neck. Oliver leaned against my leg, grounding me with his chilly presence. My fingers automatically went to the rose tattoo on my hand, and I sent up a silent SOS signal to my mentor on the Other Side. Rose! Help!

  “Are you praying?” Cipriona asked. “That won’t do.” She clapped her hands. The noise jolted me as if she’d fired a gun. “Minion, fetch the weapons.”

  Fabric rustled. I glanced Doodle’s way, and sure enough, he was rising. His eyes looked feverish. Was he possessed? This was beyond my paygrade, and I was on my own.

  I had to think. I had to neutralize this threat. If only I knew how or why she’d gathered this group of people together. Mandy’s son, sister, and boyfriend—they were all present. And Alicia Waite, the mall manager who’d cruised Mandy’s yard—she was locked in the drunk tank too. Since Doodle was the only person in earshot, I started with him.

  I waited until he was beside Mayes and yelled, “Why’d you do it, Doodle? Why’d you kill your mom? Why shoot the pigs?

  The loud noise startled him, and he jostled Mayes enough to knock him over. Both of Mayes’ feet ended up outside the powder trail. Progress. Oliver, bark at Mayes and keep barking until he wakes up.

  “The boy can’t answer you, Dreamwalker,” Cipriona gloated. “I own him body and soul.”

  “You don’t own anyone,” I shot back. “You may have taken advantage of a young man’s unhappiness, but he isn’t yours. He’s Mandy’s son.”

  “Not anymore. He removed her from the picture. These clowns don’t realize what they had, but I did. Secret meth labs are the wave of the future. I’ve got three ready to come online as soon as my adopted son trains more cooks.”

  I reeled from the news, so angry I wanted to throttle Cipriona, but knowing I needed to keep my distance and find a chink in her resolve. On the psychic plane, Oliver danced around Mayes, barking and nosing him. I sent Mayes another telepathic ping. Wake up. Mayes, I need your help. Wake up.

  Mayes remained mute and immobile. I could only hope he was fighting his way through the thrall to return to me. Meanwhile, I had to improvise. “What good is money to someone as powerful as you?”

  “In your world, money buys power. I’ve got a lock on the Warner Robbins market and I’ll take Macon next. If I feel like it, I’ll take on the Mexican drug cartel in Atlanta.”

  “They’ll kill you.”

  “They can’t get close to me.” Cipriona laughed, a horrible sound. “Thanks to you, I have an entire police force and a GBI agent who’ll do my bidding.”

  “They won’t.”

  “Sure they will. Everyone has a weak point. You, for instance. You’d do anything for your daughter. You’d make sure she wasn’t sold into sexual slavery and kept drugged for the year or so she’d live.”

  My marrow iced. “Stay away from my kid. I’ll kill you if you touch her.”

  “See, we understand each other quite well. You do my bidding, and your daughter won’t come to harm from my hands.”

  I didn’t trust her not to kill us all right here. The people in the drunk tank were shouting again. The sounds filled my ears until I couldn’t think. It wasn’t normal. Cipriona was doing this to me. I pushed the sounds from my head, from my ears.

  Cipriona laughed as Doodle crouched at her side with the guns and knelt. She reached down to pat him like a dog. Anger churned inside me. If I could shoot fire out of my fingertips like Rose, I would. I’d scorch that woman without a second thought.

  “Who are you?” I asked. “What are you?”

  Cipriona uttered an evil monster laugh that curled my toes. “You may call me Bezzy, slave. I will become your closest friend, your only friend.”

  I was no one’s slave, not in this world or the next. Bad enough that Rose had her hooks in me. At the thought of Rose’s name, my tattoos heated on my hand and on my back. Finally, she was paying attention. Since she hadn’t made an appearance, I must have more work to do. But what? Cipriona had originally come to me because her Granny was in prison for life for killing her father, who had killed her mother. When I visited the father on the Other Side, he said Cipriona wasn’t what she seemed.

  No kidding. Okay. If she was more than a person and bad to the bone, my next thought was demonic possession. Crap. Not another demon. The last one nearly killed me. Couldn’t dwell on that now. How long had Cipriona been possessed? Time to ruffle a few demon feathers.

  “You let your Granny take the hit for your father’s death,” I said. “That was you, wasn’t it?”

  Cipriona strutted around the room, careful to avoid the trail of powder. “Yes. You’re the first to figure it out. Dear old dad didn’t toe the line. He wouldn’t serve his daughter. Imagine that.”

  “Before your dad, you killed your mother.”

  “I did. Sucked the life right out of her. She wouldn’t serve me either.”

  I shuddered. “How’d you go so long between murders?”

  “Who said I showed restraint?” The air bristled with Cipriona’s boasts. “My Granny brought me souls to steal until I reached my full potential. There are always drifters coming through town, people no one misses. Think of me as a Bermuda Triangle for disposable people.”

  I wanted to throw up. “You enslaved your grandmother?”

  “She summoned me through a portal she stumbled across. But the damn thing closed before I could bring my associates through. I’ve been biding my time, waiting to make my move. The time has come for me to rule. You’re the real deal, easily crossing between worlds. Your task is to open the gates of hell.”

  And let destruction rain down on the Earth? No, thanks. “Visiting your father on the Other Side was a test of my abilities? You didn’t stick around for an answer.”

  “Couldn’t. Had to get over to Mandy’s place and watch the firemen go nuts over my handiwork. I knew you’d left this realm. I felt the emptiness of your human vessel. I could’ve taken possession of you right then and there, but this way is much more fun. Look at the prizes I collected, all these souls to torment.”

  Everyone in this room faced a hellish existence if I obeyed Cipriona’s command. We would be powerless to stop the atrocities we committed. “You’re a monster.”

  “That’s right, and don’t you forget it. Open the portal or die.”

  Chapter Fifty-Three

  If I did her bidding, civilization as we knew it would end. Cipriona, or Bezzy as she wanted to be called, would summon her closest buddies from the afterlife and wreak havoc everywhere. It wouldn’t be a slow death of drug addiction for humanity. It would be much, much worse.

  “No. I won’t do it,” I said.

  “You will.” Bezzy kicked Doodle, knocking him over. He cried out in pain. “Shoot her in the leg.”

  Doodle scrambled to comply. He put one gun down and aimed the other one at me. “Wait,” I said, making it up as I went along. “I meant I can’t do it with so much noise in the room. I can’t concentrate.”

  Bezzy raised her arms and pointed at the drunk tank. Every person in there dropped like dead weight to the floor. The immediate silence was worse than the noise.

  I gulped. All my work friends were in that room. What had I done? “Are they dead?”

  She marched over to me, and I crabbed away from her pointy-toed shoes. “Not yet. Open the portal, slave.”

  Mayes was almost within my reach. Oliver trotted to my side, standing between me and the d
emon, barking. I cowered on the floor as if too terrified to move. My tattoos heated to the point of discomfort. I shot my mentor an urgent summons across worlds. Come on, Rose, what more do you need?

  “Sit up,” Bezzy ordered in her creepy gender-neutral voice. “Sit up, or I’ll kill your friend.”

  I sat, scooching back until I was between her and Mayes. He was so close, I could touch him.

  “Don’t go getting any ideas,” Bezzy said. “How do I look? I haven’t seen my friends in ages.”

  I glanced up. Too late, I realized my mistake. The writhing hair ensnared me. And what was with the curled horns on her temples? I mentally recoiled. I would’ve physically recoiled, except I couldn’t move a muscle.

  “Open the portal,” Bezzy commanded.

  When I did nothing, she stepped on my hand. Terrible pain lanced my arm, wrecking my will, shattering my thoughts.

  She snatched my ponytail and yanked it hard. The contact burned and throbbed, and my will to resist waned. Her evilness coated me with a heavy layer of revulsion. Dark emotions stirred in my soul. Every slight I’d ever felt, every argument I’d ever lost, they all came racing into my head.

  “Obey me now, or feel the terror of eternal possession.”

  “Yes, master.” I quested through the drift, spinning and turning. I reached the gloom on the Other Side and awaited my next orders.

  “Yes,” Bezzy said from my side. “This will do nicely. Don’t move.”

  As she stalked away, Mayes joined me. “Shh. Don’t let her know I’m here. Oliver’s here too. Where’s your contact?”

  “Master!” I called.

  But Bezzy was too far away to hear me.

  “Snap out of it,” Mayes said. He worked my rigid arms, but they wouldn’t move on their own.

  “I know you’re in there, Baxley,” Mayes said. “I won’t let go of you.”

  “Master!” I called again.

  Rose popped before me in her biker duds, grinning. “You did it.”

  “You’re too late,” Mayes said. “The demon has her.”

  “Not anymore.” Rose placed both hands on my head and spoke words I didn’t understand. The darkness consuming me ebbed and vanished. She let go, and I sagged into Mayes. He snugged me in close, his belly pressed to my back.