“…Okay, well that’s good to hear.” Maria shifts her weight on the couch and clutches both of her elbows.
“We just want to be sure that everyone involved is getting the proper attention they deserve,” Roc cuts in, playing off of my lie.
“So you guys are doing an audit or something?”
“While I can’t say that we are, I will say that more details involving the situation will be explained later, by an official, should the need be necessary.”
“You’re in good hands, Maria,” I add.
“Okay.” Maria nods. “Thank you.” She chuckles nervously.
“So, can you tell us what happened? You were the one who called it in; the one who found her,” Roc leads.
“Um…” She hesitates to speak, but I hold my tongue while Roc has the floor. If she saw something—anything—we need to know.
“It’s okay. Take as much time as you need.”
“And no matter how odd it may seem, tell us. Every detail counts,” I stress. “Even the weird ones.”
“Okay, well, Creshell and I were supposed to be heading downtown, right? We wanted to catch a movie. She was closer to the theater, so I was going to drive to her place and she was going to drive me from there.” Maria’s voice begins to break and she pauses to regain her constitution. “When I called her…when I called her, she was fine. That was, like, ten minutes before I arrived. She had the door unlocked for me and everything. She sounded fine. Normal. But when I…” Maria places a hand over her mouth and turns away.
“Take your time. There’s no rush.”
Maria returns our way and blows out from her mouth as she fans herself. “When I showed up, the front door was open, so I walked in and saw her on the living room floor. Her hands were clutched around the knife, but by that point it was already in her. I loved Creshell like a sister. She was a great person, you know? Smart. Funny. Beautiful. She never seemed like she was sad or anything. But I mean, she killed herself, you know?” Maria sniffs. “Obviously something was wrong and she didn’t think to tell me or anyone else. Maybe if I wasn’t focusing on my problems all of the time she would have—”
Maria begins to tear up again and I can’t help but feel sorry for everyone involved. It’s heartbreaking to lose someone. But to have them taken away from you like this…so many questions, but no one has an answer.
In all honesty, Maria and Creshell were probably on great terms. Her premature departure was nothing more than being a victim to a witch’s game. Chances are that those Creshell loved most will get a different picture; that life’s hardships drove her to end her own. It’s unfortunate and most importantly, unfair.
“Was there anything that seemed off about Creshell? Any new stressors? Promotion at her job? A new manager? Relationship issues? Anything like that?” I ask.
“Even if she said it in passing; something that you would usually just think nothing of,” Roc adds.
“Work seemed fine. I mean, she had her stressors, but nothing that wasn’t normal. There was a new guy she had been seeing.”
“Oh, okay. This new guy, what did he think about all of this? I never heard anything about a boyfriend in the files or reports. Was he also going to the movies with you two?”
“No. He wasn’t,” Maria says as she wipes the side of her left eye with her palm. “It was supposed to be just the two of us. It was casual between them. She was trying to test the waters with him.”
“Can we get a name on him, by any chance?” Roc asks.
“Trevor,” she responds succinctly.
“Last name?” I ask.
“I…don’t know. Never really got that.”
“Okay, well what about online? Is he one of your friends on social media?”
“No, he doesn’t do that.”
I cut my eyes towards Rocco and he glances back. Definitely not a red flag, right?
“All right,” I say, returning my gaze to Maria. “How about a description? Uh, places he frequents? The car he drives? Anything that can help us get a hold of him on short notice?”
“He’s black, almost six feet tall. No facial hair. Um…late twenties…no older than thirty. Slim build, but he doesn’t look weak. He’s lean. I-I…hold up.” Maria stands up from the couch and adjusts her clothing. “I have a picture of him on my phone. Creshell sent it.”
“Perfect.” It’s a big win for our case. With a visual, we can track down this Trevor guy easier and do what needs to be done.
“Here it is.” Maria walks over to us, phone in hand, with the picture blown up in the center of the screen. “He’s the one in the middle talking to that guy.”
“Is this at a bar or something? Somewhere he frequents?” I ask as I grab her phone and pass it over to Roc.
I hear the camera on his phone go off.
“Yeah. Horizon. It’s a club. She wanted to speak to him, so she sent me that pic one night. Turns out he was eyeing her too and beat her to the punch. I know it’s not perfect, but it’s all I have.”
“It’ll do,” I affirm.
“I can send the picture to you guys if you want. One of you called me.”
“Yeah, do that if it’s not too much of a hassle for you,” I say as I hand her phone back. “My partner just snapped one, just in case things don’t work out, quality wise.” Maria reclines back into her couch and pecks away at her phone.
“You should have it now.” A few seconds later, my phone buzzes in my pocket.
“Got it. You’ve been a great help so far, Maria. Thank you. I do have another question for you, though…the marking, the symbols on her head, did that mean anything to you or to her? Was it familiar in any way? We have a picture if you need it to re—”
“No,” she says as she juts out a hand in front of me. “No, I…I don’t need a picture. I remember it just fine. She was my best friend. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to forget.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I haven’t seen anything like it before. I thought someone else had killed her at first, but then I saw that her fingers had her blood on it. It looked like she drew it before she died. She wasn’t the type to take drugs or anything, so I don’t know why she would draw something like that. And I don’t want to sound like an idiot, I know what I saw, but part of me thinks it wasn’t her who did this, like, a serial killer or something.”
“My partner and I are going to do another sweep of the house soon and see if that’s the case. But you’re right, there are some oddities surrounding this one. Usually people leave notes or messages of some kind if it’s intentional. Creshell worked at a pharmacy, which means she could have easily overdosed as opposed to stabbing herself. To be frank, we need more time to carry out our investigation, but we will get to the bottom of this. I promise. If you have a question or if anything comes to mind, something you may have missed out on, please call us. And that includes if you don’t feel safe for any reason. We’re handling your case from here on out.”
I didn’t want to explicitly say that there was a chance that she could be the next target, but I laid it out for her that the possibly remains and that she should be on guard. Our sights are on Trevor. I don’t think he would dip in the same pool twice, so she should be safe. Maria and Creshell lived normal lives. There’s a digital footprint of them being together, which would eventually lead the real cops to discovering a pattern. If Trevor is directly involved, he’d be smart to leave her alone and lay low for a while.
“Thank you.”
“And just to be sure we’re on the same page, this conversation is confidential both ways. We honor your privacy and we appreciate you taking your time to speak with us today regarding the situation concerning your friend,” Roc adds. “We’ll be in touch. Oh, and one last thing. Did you guys ever interact with any fortune tellers or psychics or anything like that recently?”
“…No, why?”
“There were a couple of cases of identity theft a few states over involving that line of work. Card scammers. Just thought y
ou should know.”
“…Thanks. I’ll be on the lookout.”
Roc and I leave shortly after that and I can only assume that Maria took the rest of the day off. I feel bad leaving her like that; a mess, but there is work to be done. We didn’t tell her about the paranormal nature surrounding her friend’s death. do without radically shifting her world. Losing a friend is enough. It wouldn’t have felt right to throw in the supernatural.
She already thinks that someone else might be involved with this. I don’t want her to consider something, as well.
“That was kind of rough,” Roc says to me once we enter my car and pull off. “To find your friend like that…” I catch him in the corner of my eye pulling out his phone. Presumably to put in the address for our next stop, Creshell’s place.
“Yeah.” I keep my words brief on the subject. We’ve all experienced loss. No need to elaborate. “So, I’m thinking Trevor is our guy. Like, ninety-five percent sure. Everything’s fine, Creshell’s doing her thing; new guy shows up, and boom.” I clasp my hands together.
“It’s fishy, but that’s quite the leap, yeah? People date. People also don’t have social media. Not everyone is glued to their phones.”
“I know. Those are the actual ones that are getting shit done in society.”
“What if this is another case of a jealous ex?”
“Those killings are clean. Last thing you’d see is occult symbology right out in the open. There are no coincidences with this one. She was compelled to make that sign, and we need to know why.”
“Maybe Creshell’s place will have some answers.”
“I don’t need more answers to know that Trevor is our guy,” I snarl.
“Last time I checked, we don’t kill people on hunches.”
“Yeah? Well, we sure as hell try. How else do we get from point A to point B? We pick up a case, do some digging, and pull the trigger. Bang.” I turn at the GPS’s instructions to make a right.
“You and I both know that it’s more complicated than that. A lot more. Do you want to corner the guy? Force his hand?”
“I don’t want a witch dealing with blood magic running amok, ruining lives and destroying families. You see that shit that Maria is going through? Now, imagine her parents.”
“We’ll get the right person, Blaze. Don’t lose your cool. We’re here for a reason.”
Roc’s words serve as a grounding rod and I find myself releasing the tension from my body. My hand eases up from its grip on the wheel and I sigh. I was out of line.
No. I’m still not okay with Sailor’s death, and yes, seeing Maria’s reaction after she lost someone so close rubbed me the wrong way. This line of work in general is bitter sweet. It’s hard to give closure when you’re fighting for your own.
“I’m sorry…I lost it for a bit.”
“I know. It’s cool.”
“How far are we away from Creshell’s?”
“…Fifteen minutes. We’ll make good time.”
“Good. Yeah, that’s nothing. We’ll be there soon.”
For the rest of the ride I don’t say much, because there’s nothing more to be said. I’ve already made a fool of myself and given Roc even more of a reason to be wary of my actions.
Hopefully things become clearer once we arrive at Creshell’s.
Chapter 8: To Catch a Witch
“We have to do this quick,” I say as I primp my suit. The door to my car swings open and I walk to the front entrance of Creshell’s place. I go for the handle to test my luck, but of course, it doesn’t budge.
Locked, just as I expected.
Roc catches my vibe and positions himself adjacent to me, allowing me to jimmy the lock with his body as a visual shield. I work at the lock and I’m allowed entry without too much of a fuss. From there, we step in and close the door from the other side. I do a quick scan of what I can see from the foyer while Roc goes deeper into the house. Everything in sight appears to be that of a normal home you’d expect from a twenty-something trying to be trendy and practical. Nothing too fancy, but the presentation is definitely there. She had an eye for design that I’m sure most of her friends appreciated…and out of the few pieces I see, none of them I see have anything to do with the occult.
“Creshell died right here,” Rock points out from the kitchen.
“Yeah,” I affirm from the foyer. “Anything catch your eye?”
“No. Nothing. I’m going to check the bedroom.”
“Okay. I’ll stick to the front and see what I can find.” Which of course, is bound to be nothing. I may have been harsh with Roc earlier, but I was right. I wasn’t going to find engravings or runes in the cupboards. A tome wasn’t going to be in her bedroom drawer. Creshell was normal. She was also a victim. And now, looking at this framed picture beside her sink, I know she was an only child, too.
Damn.
I hear Roc in the back as he makes his way towards me. “I’ve got nothing.” As he emerges, his eyes meet mine and then I trace them as they lower in the direction of the photo.
“Same. I think we’re done here. We have some time to research the mark before the club starts to pick up.”
“Right.”
“I’m not saying we shoot the guy on sight, but Trevor deserves to be prodded a little, given the stakes. Can we at least agree on that? He’s pretty much our only lead at this point that’s alive.”
“Sure. A light prodding, until otherwise noted… Just to see how he reacts. We make our move from there… And we still have to consider what we found in that other witch’s book—the meeting time that she was supposed to meet with Darius.”
“Right, the mystery man and the second address.”
“There could also be some stuff in there to cross-reference the mark as well. It’ll be easier to pull from that book with the symbol as a reference then scouring the web.”
“All right, well let’s get to it. There’s only so much time until things get rolling. The meeting is happening later tonight.”
We make it back to our motel about thirty minutes later and the real fun begins. The research. Our timeline is rapidly coming to a close and there’s a considerable amount of information to consider. Two places, two bodies, two witches, one time. Simple enough, right?
Wrong. Cracking open my browser and going off of what I already know is enough to make me feel really dumb, really quick.
The pieces were starting to come together, but it was far from a complete picture. Even with hours of focus and two minds.
I should have been better with the first witch that I killed, Madam Woodrow. I was so focused on getting her and actually surviving, I didn’t have a chance to sweep the place like I wanted to. I was messy with my execution. The book I managed to pick up was a huge help, but I’m sure I could have found more information if I took her out with less commotion.
This thing is barely a book of spells. I lucked out and got essentially a bunch of drafts and concepts; nothing complete, and it’s really starting to bite us on this thing.
“So, what did you find?” Roc asks, breaking my train of thought. I look up from the book and at him.
“The symbol we found is used for a part of a ritual…it’s a component to give life to a bracelet.” The silence was so good, I had gotten into the zone. It’d been at least a few hours before we last had a meaningful exchange.
“A bracelet?”
“Yeah. It’s written in shorthand…like reminders, but essentially, one of the ingredients is and I quote, ‘corrupted blood of the fertile’. Poetic, isn’t it?” I muse.
“A female’s blood?” Roc asks, but it’s more of a statement. “What else?”
“The desires of the lost and weary,” I respond. “Woodrow’s business model.”
“Right, and Darius was responsible for the blood samples. I’m assuming it was a similar spell as Woodrow’s since Creshell was forced to mark herself.”
“Possibly.”
Roc shifts his weight in his chair and g
lares. “Yeah? What do you mean?”
“If Woodrow was responsible for her victims, wouldn’t it make sense that she had a log of some sort? She’s never around when it’s time to collect. It’s always been in a certain window after the deal was made. What if the time we have is when Darius bites the bullet?” I raise the book up and point to the address. “This can be where he’s supposed to be or something. It’s not a home, but it’s not entirely sketch. A hangout spot or something? Maybe a place she wants him to die at?”
“All warehouses are sketchy,” Roc affirms. “And why would he be around there past midnight?”
“They’re being manipulated. Same as always, Roc. This time, it’s just in a different way. You have the knowledge, you’re just thinking too small. We’re dealing with witches with psychic tendencies. Creshell was forced to stab herself to death. I’m sure there’s a spell that can prime a target for a location. What if they need his body there for a vessel or something? Creshell’s was disposable…no one but us would look into a suicide. If they need a body, it’d be better to have it transport itself, you follow? Less mess. A controlled space.”
“Right…yeah. Okay, that makes sense.”
“But it’s just a theory,” I add. This one isn’t as straight forward as the others I’ve dealt with as of late.”
“So, you think we should split up? Trevor is still on the table.”
“I don’t see how being in two places at once is possible, so yeah. We should. If someone is going to die at that time, and that’s all they need, it doesn’t matter where they are. Creshell’s blood is already accounted for by the second witch. If it wasn’t for me killing Woodrow, I could have probably ruled it out as a residual killing. Her spells work after she’s dead. She just sets it in motion. The details of the case along with the mark add a different layer. Location also steers it away from Woodrow. We’re more than three hours from her last kill.”
“And a different state,” Rocco adds. “Unless it was like a time-bomb scenario.”
“Doubtful. I’ll stick around Trevor, keep an eye on the clock. Maria said he likes to hang out at Horizon. I’ll find him and see what he’s up to. Darius Artenie is scrubbed clean online, so I don’t know what we’re looking for. I do know that if Trevor begins to move towards the first address at any point, I’ll stop him before he does whatever they need to do for the bracelet. You can stick around the second point and see what you can find.”
Blaze Monroe and the Shattered Heart: A Supernatural Thriller (The Hunter Who Lost His Way Book 2) Page 5