Here Witchy Witchy Box Set 1

by A. L. Kessler

  Osiris meowed and laid his head on my shoulder.

  “I know, buddy. Once I know what’s going on with the house we’ll make things a bit more like home here.” I reached back and scratched his ear and selected a rock station on my phone. “Until then, we’ll just have to deal. I should hear back from insurance soon.” Of course, it’d have to be investigated to make sure I wasn’t just simply trying to collect the insurance, but at least with the magical coverage addendum to the policy, it would be covered.

  I leaned back on the couch and wondered now what. There was no Internet here yet, no cable, hell the television was even too old to get the local channels without a converter box. I glanced at my watch. I had time to start putting together a timeline for my parents’ murder before I needed to crash for the night, and if I worked until I was exhausted, then I’d probably sleep better.

  I stood, grabbed my phone, and then the bags by the door with the office supplies. “Come on Osiris, we’re doing this downstairs.” Chances were no one, like Levi, would randomly visit me here, but if they did, I didn’t want this stuff hanging around in plain sight. Someone was bound to question my sanity and what had caused me to start looking further into this.

  I went to the basement door and took a deep breath. Going down there and starting this meant there was no going back. I twisted the knob as nerves ate at my stomach. The door opened without noise, leading down the steep stairs. The last time I was here, I’d learned that it was the Cult of Ra who was responsible for my parents’ death, not witch hunters like I was originally told. I didn’t know if Levi knew it or not, but Simon and I had returned to find runes all around the basement that gave us clues as to what happened.

  Other than the night with Simon, I hadn’t been here since I was a child and my parents were killed. I took a step down and Osiris rubbed against me, encouraging me to continued down. I continued down, more determined with each step. The stairs opened up to a family room. My mother’s body had been discovered not three feet away from the stairs and my father’s had fallen over the couch. The couch and the blood stains had been removed long ago, but the coffee table and recliner still remained.

  An hour later, I had sticky notes and post cards laid out on the coffee table. Each had a person or an event listed on it. The timeline was filled out below those cards and events. I leaned over them and picked up the sticky notes with names, placing them on the events that I knew they had been present for. There were a few people involved that I didn’t know the location of during the actual murder.

  Looking at the timeline, there were a few things missing from what I could remember. Who was the witch that let me out of the circle my mother put me in? Levi had gotten one, but I couldn’t remember who it was. How many Cult members were involved? Who were the Cult members my parents had trusted enough to give them time to carve runes in the house? I leaned back on the couch and frowned at the holes. The biggest thing that was missing was the motive behind killing them. Levi had said it was over research, but to kill two people over the research of a coven language seemed a little bit extreme.

  My phone rang and it made me jump. I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath as I answered it. “Agent Collins speaking.”

  “Abigail Collins,” it was the male voice I didn’t know, the one who had called and left a voice mail the night my house had been destroyed. “I wanted to meet with you.”

  “Who is this?”

  “I can’t disclose that over the phone. I’d like to meet with you in person, tonight.”

  I didn’t really trust people who didn’t want to talk on the phone. “It’s been a long night and I’m not really in town. Can this wait?”

  “Not if you want to survive your week.” His voice dropped a bit. “I’m a friend of Levi’s. You can trust me.”

  “I need a name for that to happen. Last person who was connected to Levi that I thought I could trust nearly got me killed.” I looked down at my cards and notes. I put Agent Tomes’ name down on a sticky note.

  “I can’t give you that in case he’s listening.” Wow, that sounded extremely trustworthy. He continued. “What if I was to meet you at the PIB office? Public, secure, and a place you’re comfortable with.”

  I glanced at the clock. What I really wanted was to go to bed, but I had a feeling that this might help me out in my current mission. I’d have my gun and he was right, the PIB office was more secure than most places. “I can be there in two hours.”

  “Thank you.” The phone went dead in my hand and I looked at Osiris. “I must be crazy.” I glanced down at the cards once more before standing up to get dressed and prepare to go back out.

  For a moment, I debated on calling Levi, but the man had expressed concern that Levi might be listening in. Though how he thought the vampire wouldn’t recognize his voice was beyond me. With Levi being a vampire, his hearing was exceptionally well, of course maybe he meant someone else was listening in. Oliver had bugged my phones a couple of times, but I hadn’t seen him since I’d gotten a new phone. If the man was a friend of Levi’s, then why was he worried about Levi listening in?

  I pulled up to the PIB office. There were only a few other cars in the lot from agents that only worked nights and Kathy, our night receptionist. I got out and looked around. The empty shadows stared back at me, leaving me with nothing but the feeling of paranoia running down my spine. What on earth was I doing meeting this person at a PIB office if he didn’t want to identify himself over the phone? Why would he be willing to meet with me in public?

  I walked into the office and waved at Kathy. She held her hand up to stop me as she finished up on the phone. “Uh huh, I’ll make sure to pass on your message to the boss. Yes ma’am, without a doubt, uh huh, I promise that he takes all cases seriously.” She rolled her eyes. “No ma’am, I can’t say we’ve gotten a lot of calls about aliens, but I will pass on the message to my superiors.”

  I held my laughter in as she tried her best to get off the phone. She hung up and let out an exasperated sigh. “Sorry, Agent A. But I wanted to warn you before you went up. One of our vampire agents insisted that he was allowed in your office.”

  I raised a brow. “In the office?”

  “Yeah, I didn’t let him in. He had a badge so I let him go up to wait outside your office without a visitor badge .”

  Interesting, it meant that there was no paper record of him being here. “Is he actually one of our agents? Or is he from out of town?”

  “He’s from here. He normally works special assignments, so I’m not sure what he wants with you.”

  Special assignments were those that the government wanted under wraps. From my understanding it normally dealt with supernaturals in the government itself. “Interesting.”

  “Nick was up there earlier too, said he needed to do a few things.” She picked at her black nail. “Said you guys had a massive case you were trying to break open.”

  I pressed my lips together. “Nick left a couple hours before I did for the day.”

  “And look, here you are, back as well.”

  She had a point. “Thanks Kathy.” I walked to the elevator and wandered what I would find waiting for me.

  I got out of the elevator and a man stood there, except I knew better. He wasn’t a man; he was a vampire. I could tell by the feeling he gave my aura. He was just about my height, a fedora covered his head and shaded his eyes. He looked like he’d just stepped out of a 1920’s movie in his pin stripe suit and shiny shoes. He looked up and nodded to me. “Abigail, it’s nice to meet you face to face.”

  His voice matched that on the phone, but I didn’t know him on sight. “Can I have a name to call you now?”

  “My name is Grayson Yorkingson. I work for Levi and I work for PIB as one of their Special Assignment agents.”

  I unlocked my office and glanced at Nick’s empty desk. I wondered what he had come back for. I went to my desk and found my file opened. I know I had closed it when I left, after I showed Levi the picture of th
e vampire. I shuffled through the papers. That picture was now missing. My partner and I were going to need to have a talk about taking things off my desk and off property when I swore that I wasn’t going to take it off the grounds.

  “Something wrong, Agent Collins?” Grayson asked.

  I shook my head. “It’s just been a really long day. You said you could help me survive the week?”

  “You’ve had a rough one already, house imploding, car being taken out by poltergeists, falling into a pit of a basement.”

  All but two of those happened during the day. “Have someone spying on me?”

  “News travels fast in the PIB offices.” He took off his hat, revealing gray hair. He motioned to the chair. “Do you mind if I sit?”

  I shook my head. “Feel free. How can you help me survive this week?”

  “Step away from the cases. This is going to lead down a road you can’t turn back from.” He met my gaze and I tried to keep my shock to myself. One white eye stared blankly ahead while his brown one met my eyes. “Abigail, this case goes back to before PIB was founded.”

  “The thumbs are only ten years old.” I wasn’t going to give away the body count, not right now. If he was honestly worried about the vampire victim case, then he was probably involved in some way. “Grayson, I appreciate the concern, but I can take care of myself and my case.”

  “Your house, that wasn’t the Cult, or case related.” He shook his head. “That was a direct attack on your life.”

  I frowned at the change in subject. “We were talking about the case, not the attack.”

  “I was talking about both of them. I’m trying to warn you, Agent Collins. Step away from the case and consider retiring early to keep yourself safe. There are people you think are your friends who are not.”

  “You’re telling me someone is going to betray me?” I smirked. “Welcome to life.”

  “Haven’t you questioned why your house was attacked?” He put his hat on his knee. “Why Levi is suddenly being followed around by Mario?”

  Of course I had, but it wasn’t any of his business. “What road do you think this case is going to take me down?”

  “One you’ll be lucky to survive. You’ve got, what was it? Fifteen bodies? All possible vampire victims?” He leaned forward. “When people get hint of this, there may be a fight back on vampires and those associated with them.”

  I shook my head. “I’m a PIB agent, and those bodies are around a century old.” Or so I hoped. I glanced down at the file where the missing picture should be. Was Nick hiding something from me again? “What do you know about the rest of this case, Agent Yorkingson?”

  “I know that there’s two cases in one there and that the agents who crack the case will be the biggest PIB celebrities ever for the department and that Boss Man is chomping at the bit.”

  So my theory about Nick wanting all the glory to himself could be true, but again, I didn’t think he’d be willing to risk my life for it. “Boss Man thinks that about all cases.”

  “Especially ones concerning you, but this one means that people could fear vampires again. Your position could be compromised.”

  “So you want me to step away so Nick can have all the glory? I don’t think so. I’m not a vampire, no one is going to come after me because of this case. Nice try.” I shook my head. “I appreciate your warning, but I’m afraid your time has been wasted.” So was my time and my gas to drive down here.

  He stood and put his hat back on. “You are your father’s child. Stubborn without a doubt.” He shook his head.

  “You knew my father?”

  He just chuckled before disappearing from the office. I looked at the spot where he had stood and let out a long sigh. What the hell was going on here?

  Nick walked in just a second later and I glared at him. “Decided to take the picture, did you?”

  He gave me wide eyes. “I was going to have it back before you came in for the day. What are you doing here?”

  “I…” I had no idea what to tell him. “It doesn’t matter. I thought you went home for the day too.”

  He nodded. “But I wanted another look at the picture and yes, I did take it, but I wanted to compare it to the pictures of the press conference.”

  So he had a similar thought to Levi and I. “Any luck?”

  “Yes, there was a reporter there who looks identical to this guy. The name he gave his news station is most likely a fake though.”

  I groaned. “Let me guess, something like John Smith?”

  “Close, Johnny Smiths.”

  Yep, most likely a fake, seeing as it popped up before. “Does he happen to have a real address?”

  “Well, yes, but…”

  “What?”

  “It was set on fire right after the press conference.”

  I shook my head. “Okay, arson?”

  “It’s thought so and that he did it himself to cover some type of tracks. The news station had issues with people being fed from. Employees, visitors, random passersby.” He shook his head. “Who knows what he had been trying to cover up.” He took the picture and put it back on my desk. “Since we’re both burning the midnight oil, why don’t we grab some coffee and brain storm?”

  I nodded and closed the folder. “Let’s go.”

  “So what are you really doing down here? I thought you were staying at your parents’ place tonight?”

  I thought for a moment. “It was too quiet there and I couldn’t sleep. I thought since my mind was on the case, I would come back down and pull an all-nighter.”

  “You’re going to burn yourself out by the age of thirty, Abby.” He laughed. “And then what am I going to do for a partner?”

  “Find someone else’s territory to transfer to?” I offered and walked out of the office.

  He followed me to the elevator. “To be honest, I couldn’t sleep either. I kept thinking back to the basement.”

  I could relate to that; the faces of the bodies were haunting me as well. “Tomorrow we’ll go through pictures and see what we can sort out while we wait on Jason’s results.”

  “I’ll let you do that. I don’t want to relive that first thing in the morning.” He shivered. “Really, I don’t think I’ve seen anything so horrible.”

  “Do you think that’s where your poltergeists are coming from?”

  “I know so, Abby, there’s no way those souls aren’t connected to those bodies.”

  We got out of the elevator and went straight to Nick’s Charger almost out of habit now. He didn’t like me driving because my cars had the habit of getting destroyed. He opened the door for me and I climbed in, shut the door, and buckled up. I didn’t know what we were going to brain storm about over coffee if he didn’t want to think about the bodies, but maybe he just wanted company. Maybe he really was having problems sleeping and all he needed was a distraction from what was going on. Coffee with Nick beat sitting at home in silence until I fell asleep. Though at least the cat was there, I didn’t think Nick had a pet. Maybe he should get one.

  Nick and I stared at each other from across the table over our steaming coffee. Neither one of us wanted to start the brain storm session on the case and I was betting we were both thinking about all those bodies in the hidden basement.

  “So what about the thumbs? Ten years ago someone thought it’d be a great idea to steal ten of them.” Nick picked up his mug. “Do you think they really took them just to spit at the PIB?”

  “PIB had just been created then, but a lot of cases were still handled by the FBI. We were still just a baby department if that.” I leaned forward. “I want to know if they took the thumbs from the other hand too. Why just take the ones from one hand?”

  He laughed. “Does it really matter why?”

  “It might. What if there’s another set out there with another message.” I shrugged one shoulder and poured a packet of creamer into my coffee. “What if we’re missing that and it completes the massage?”

  Nick shook his
head. “For our sake, I hope that’s not the case. I’m hoping they are just egging us on. Taunting us, hoping to get something out of it.”

  “Maybe hoping we screw up and don’t actually catch them?” I took a sip, making a face as the bitter liquid hit my tongue. “More sugar.” I reached for another packet.

  Nick nodded. “Or maybe they just want some sick thrill out of it. We still don’t have bodies to go with the thumbs, but all of them have been identified and classified as deceased.”

  “And all of them are human.” I nodded. “So we have names, tomorrow let’s start talking to the families. Maybe that will open something up. Are we done at the house for the time being?”

  “We still need to open up that second basement, even if we don’t think we’ll find anything there.”

  “You don’t think that.” I pointed out. “I’m sure it was cleaned up from when they found her, but maybe there’s something else that they wouldn’t see.”

  He gave an exasperated sigh. “Like what, Abby?”

  “Magic.” I offered. “Hear me out on this. This woman has shown herself to at least one resident of that house, yes?”

  He nodded. “Which takes a lot of energy for her as a ghost, because as far as we know the person doesn’t have the sixth sense.”

  “Right. So why would she do that, especially when there are a bunch of bully ghosts hanging around the house who obviously have a very good reason to be reaching out to people?”

  Nick leaned back in his seat. “Because whatever is holding her to this world hasn’t been solved yet. She needed more than a proper burial. I had assumed that it was probably someone to solve her murder.”

  “Which means we probably don’t have all the pieces. Think about how many cold cases we’ve been able to solve just because we know how to look at paranormal cases. Look at the records for how many cases PIB closes in record time just because there was something the FBI didn’t understand or know existed then.” I tapped my fingers against the table. “Why don’t I go and open the basement tomorrow? I should be okay with the ghosts now, right?”