by Tegan Maher
He grinned like the cat that ate the cream. "While I was pilfering, as you call it, I realized he was a decent man. Cheats on his taxes, but who doesn't? So I gave him the gift of apathy where his wife is concerned. He didn't love her; she's been playing on his pity and goodwill, so I broke that bond."
The scowl that clouded his face made me think it was a topic closer to him than he'd admit. "This wasn't the first time she'd cheated, and she was dipping into his till, too, though he hasn't figured out where she's stashing it yet. I may also have planted a few suggestions of where to look."
"And that's it?" I asked, eyes narrowed.
A lightbulb came on. "So that's what money he was talking about that night. Not Vanderveer's. The money she was skimming. He referred to it as his, and we misinterpreted it."
Alex nodded, but Sean's expression went dark and he stalked toward the door.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
"HOLD UP, THERE. WHERE are you going?" I asked.
"To get the woman who killed Charles," he said as if I were simple.
"We don't know she killed him. We only know she had the money and the watch. That could just mean she robbed him," Alex pointed out.
"Besides," I said, "if she ends up being the one who killed him, human law applies."
"We didn't agree to that," Sean said. We discussed terms for if it ended up being a shifter rather than a vampire.
I sifted back through our conversation and sighed—he was right. I'd made the mistake of assuming that if it were a human, we'd have to let human laws prevail. All he’d agreed to do was cross that bridge when we came to it. Nothing else.
"Sean, we have to. We can't intervene. Mom said she'd make sure the maximum penalty was handed down, but it has to be done through the human justice system."
His dark eyes had gone black. "And why is that?"
"For one," Alex said, "if somebody disappeared right now—especially somebody that close to the case, people would demand an investigation that would eat up resources."
"And second," I said, "they have a system in place for a reason, and the humans in this town are expecting me to uphold the law. That means finding the killer and making sure she—or he—goes to trial for it."
His lip curled, but he stayed in the doorway rather than rushing out.
My phone dinged with an incoming text, and when I glanced down, I wish I hadn't. It was from Colleen. Two sets of prints. One unidentifiable, one Carly Sue's. I ran my hand back through my hair, then held it back, trying to decide what to do. I had to tell him.
"That was Colleen. There were two sets of prints on the cards found on the body—an unknown pair, and Carly's."
"That's it then," he said, stalking off. “I see your point with the punishment, but she doesn't get one more minute of freedom."
I couldn't agree with him more, but I needed a search warrant to go through her personal effects. Lucky for me, the judge was right across the hall. I pulled open my laptop and opened up the form, then filled the details in. Within five minutes, I was in his office, explaining the details. Five minutes later, I had a signed warrant.
Carly was at her station at the Winn Dixie when we showed up. I convinced Sean to wait in the car when he refused to wait at my office or go run errands while we went and picked her up.
When I read her her rights, she started crying and denying it, but when I cuffed her, she started raging.
"Y'all see this—police brutality! The cuffs are way too tight! I have a right to a lawyer, but that's being denied me, and I want to make a phone call!"
I yanked on the chain between the cuffs a little, jerking her.
"Gwen," she said, bringing back the alligator tears. "We're friends. Will you get my purse and bring it to me?"
"You gotta be kiddin' me," the younger girl scoffed. "I wouldn't piss on you if you were on fire."
Shelly had come out from behind the customer service desk and reached beneath the register Carly Sue'd been manning. She pulled out a purse and handed it to me. Amid a ton of whining, I took her outside and stuffed her in the patrol car, tossing her purse in behind her.
Thank goodness it was a short distance between the store and the station because if I'd had to listen to her for another minute, I'd have been in jail for murder. Well, probably not, but I'd have needed Sean to make another memory alteration.
When we got there, Ms. Ellen had the cell ready and waiting. We only had eight and in all the years I'd worked there, I'd never seen them all full at once. Rather than take her straight to it like I wanted to, I stuffed her into one of the interrogation rooms, right along with her purse so she couldn't claim we'd done anything to it.
Sam, who'd gone down to the Hook to pick up the footage of the mystery woman, made it back in time to go in with me to question her.
She was leaned back in the metal chair like a pouting teenager, glaring at me. Her mascara had run, giving her the appearance of a deranged raccoon.
"I wanna call my uncle," she said.
I nodded. "No problem. But I have a search warrant right here to search your purse." Without saying another word, I unzipped it and dumped it on the table. Everything from sticks of old Juicy Fruit to tampons and battered packs of matches fell out, but the two things I was looking for were nowhere to be found.
She smirked. "Lookin' for somethin' in particular, Sheriff?"
I ran my tongue over my teeth. There's no way she would have left that money at the house—not when there was the chance she was gonna come home and find her clothes in the yard.
I looked closer at the purse. It was a slouch bag with a stiff bottom, so the money couldn't be hiding unseen in the liner; there were too many bills. I peered closer at the bottom. I'd had one similar to it when I was in high school. I smiled when I realized what she'd done.
"Honestly, Carly Sue? We did this in middle school."
The smile slid off her face when I pulled the cloth-covered cardboard bottom out of the purse. As I suspected, it was way bulkier than it should have been. Sure enough, there was a slit in the short end of the fabric. I pulled the cardboard out, and found there were two thin pieces rather than one thick one. There was a stack of hundreds probably a half-inch thick in between them.
"Well, well," I said. "Lookie here, Sam."
He whistled and she bolted upright in her chair, her face crimson. "That's mine!" she said. "I've been savin'."
"Yeah, you've been saving all right," Sam replied, thumbing through the bills. "Must be ten grand here. All hundreds. Workin' part time at Winn Dixie, it musta taken you what—five years to put this much back?"
She squealed. "That's my escape money! You can't prove where I got it from."
Something sparkled at me from the top of a little cloth jewelry bag on the table. I reached in and pulled out a tarnished silver pocket watch with an engraving on the back that read, "To Marcus Hooper, for forty years of service."
"I may not be able to prove right off the bat where you got the money, but I can prove where you got the watch."
I stood up and motioned for Sam to follow me. "We're done here, Sam. Send Stan in and ask him if he'll escort her to call her lawyer."
"No, wait!" she said. "I did take it off Charles, but it's not what you think. He was already dead in the alley when I did it. I went out there lookin' for him because Clifford had just come in and busted us. I went to the ladies room and when I came back out, Charles was gone. I'd seen the wad he kept in his wallet, so I figured what the hell. He was dead anyway."
She stopped for a breath, all traces of tears gone. She was one ruthless bitch. "The watch fell out of his coat pocket when I rolled him over to get his wallet."
She wrinkled her nose. "He looked freaky layin' there like that, those cards on his chest. They'd slid off him, and I picked 'em up to put 'em back like they were, but I heard the bookstore door click and I hid behind the dumpster so I wouldn’t get caught. The little twit who came out turned her back to the body to use the phone, and I skedaddled."
My phon
e dinged with an incoming text: Sean. He'd been watching through the one-way mirror from the observation room.
S: Bring her out here.
Ut oh. That couldn't be good.
C: Why?
S: I'll test her, but there's a camera in there.
That wasn't a bad idea.
"Okay, then," I said to her. "Come on."
"Wait," she yelped when I grabbed her arm. "You believe me, right?"
"Maybe," was all the response I gave.
As soon as we were through the door and into the private hall where there were no cameras, Sean snatched her arm from behind, spun her around, and grabbed her by her forehead.
It only took him a few seconds before he popped his eyes open again and he gave a huge sigh. "The thieving, cheating hag is telling the truth. She didn't do it."
I handed him the cash and the watch, but he pushed them back toward me. "Give the watch back to the young man, and donate the cash to a good cause."
He turned to leave, but I put my hand on his arm. "We'll get them, Sean. Just let me do my thing."
Nodding, he turned toward the front exit. I hoped with all my heart I'd be able to follow through on that.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
KAT WAS HOME WHEN I got there, smiling to beat the band. Giovanni was with her; they were watching a movie.
"Hey Cori, Alex," she said when we came through the door. "What's up?"
Normally, I would have given her a rundown of the day, if for no other reason than she was an excellent sounding board, but with her faux bro sitting there, I wasn't willing to spill. Alex didn't look impressed, either.
"Nothin'," I said, taking off my blazer and hanging it up. "Just another day at the office."
She smiled at me over the back of the couch and I tilted my head. Something wasn't right about her gaze; it was a little empty. Realization washed over me and I froze, trying to decide what to do. I smiled at Alex. "Are we forgetting something?"
He was confused. "I don't know. Are we?"
I rolled my eyes, for read. "Um, Charlotte. We were supposed to have a lesson this afternoon."
"Right," he answered. "We were. Can't we just skip it and hang out here?"
"Nope," I said. "I promised Sean because I've been blowing it off all week."
Then I realized something; Chaos was gone. "Where's Chaos?"
"Oh, Kat said, her attention on the TV, "she wouldn't quit yowling so I locked her in your room."
I sucked in a breath. Kat would have never done that. She wouldn't have ever even said it. I raised my arm toward my bedroom door at the top of the stairs and twisted my wrist.
The door slammed open, and Chaos rushed out, epithets rushing through her head that would have made a sailor blush with shame. I shot her a look and said through my link, she's being compelled. Look at her expression.
Chaos turned to look at Kat. Her eyes narrowed when she realized I was right. I'll kill him.
Follow us, I told her, and just act normal.
"We'll be back in a couple hours," I said, allowing irritation to seep into my voice. Because there's no way that wouldn't be normal to anybody else. "I'll take Chaos with me."
Alex's expression remained calm. "I need to change shirts. You know, into something I don't mind ruining if your fire spells go sideways."
"Okay," I said. "We'll wait for you in the car."
While we waited, Chaos started to talk, but I shook my head and held up a finger, telling her to wait. I didn't want Gio to pick up anything with that vampire hearing, and she’d just have to explain all over again when Alex got there if I used a dampening bubble, anyway.
Out loud, I said, "Alex will be here soon. Don't be so impatient."
Sure enough, Alex came skipping down the steps two at a time. "Ready ladies?"
"Ready," I said, but Chaos just scowled.
Once we were in the car and away from the house, I told Chaos to spill.
"Let's see,” she said, her expression thunderous. “First, they locked me in the room. Oh, and that's all I know," she spat, "Because, you know, I was locked in your room!"
The vindictive curl to her lip did not bode well for Gio if she ever got her claws in him.
"She's not safe, Cori,” she said. “We have to do something."
"Well, until we can figure out who he is, what are we going to do?" I felt helpless, and that wasn't something I was used to. If we were to attack openly, we risked him compelling Kat to engage.
"I'm calling Sean, that's what," Alex said. "We can't leave her alone for too long with him."
I felt like I'd been spending way too much time with that man, but in this case, it couldn't be helped. There was no way I was going to try the whole Jedi mind trick thing on him no matter how much I wanted to; if it failed, it would put us all in danger.
Since I was driving, Alex made the call. As was Sean's custom, before he even ended the call, Sean had already hung up and was, no doubt, on his way to the house.
"We should turn around and be ready to follow him in," I said turning the Jeep around so we were facing back toward the house.
I dropped off the edge of the road so I was out of the way. "Not that he's not powerful enough to take care of things on his own, but I'd rather be there just in case. And Kat's gonna come unglued when Sean releases the compulsion. I need to be there for her."
"No, I agree," said Alex. "And let's hope he tries to get a lick or two in, because I've been dying to punch him."
Rather than drive, Sean had opted for vampire speed. I about had a heart attack when he pecked on the window of the Jeep a couple of minutes later. I rolled it down.
"What's the situation? What are they doing right now?" he asked.
"They were sitting on the couch watching TV when we left," I replied.
Alex ran a hand over his face. "I think it would be best if we went in, claiming we forgot something. Then you can follow us in."
Sean looked at me. "Do you think you can zap him like you did Clifford?"
My heart rate spiked, and he picked up on it. "C'mon now, Cori. You're powerful; you just lack confidence. Hit him with the spell as soon as you walk through the door. I'll be right behind you to crawl into Kat's head if need be to release her."
Alex squeezed my hand. "I'll be right there with you. I can freeze him, but I'm not so great at the whole mind thing. That's your gig."
"Even better," I said. "Can you freeze them both at once?"
He picked up a shoulder. I don't see why not. Charlotte's been making me practice on splitting my attention, and I'm getting good at it."
I snorted. He was splitting his attention into multiple directions, and I was learning how not to burn the house down. If that wasn't humbling, I don't know what would be.
Chaos spoke from the back. "I can help you focus your intent, Cori. That's what I'm here for, remember."
Just hearing her say that made me feel a little better.
"Okay, then," I said, "let's do this thing."
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
WE WALKED IN THE DOOR, making as much noise as we could without being too obvious in order to cover Sean's approach.
Kat turned around, the dreamy expression still clouding her eyes. "Forget something?"
"Yup," Alex said, and Chaos leaned against my leg. I pulled my power into a mental ball and felt her energy pour into me to help stabilize it. In just a split second, I was ready, and gave Alex a quick nod.
Rather than say the words, I gave intent to the energy directly, and since I wasn't sure how much it would take to put down a vampire, I flung the ball at him full-force.
He realized what I was doing a millisecond before I did it, but I was too fast. He'd barely made it three inches off the ground when both spells hit him at once. His eyes glazed over and he collapsed back onto the couch, while Kat sat there frozen, rage washing over her face.
As promised, Sean was right there, placing a hand on her forehead, and her eyes slid closed. The whole thing happened in a split
second, but it felt like forever. Every twitch was in High-Def, and adrenaline pounded through me.
Since we weren't sure how long Gio was going to stay down, I figured physical binding would be good too. I looked around, but all I could see were the rope cords holding the drapes back. Cheesy, and probably ineffective. Plus, Kat would kill me; those were French damask. Like, from France.
Chaos poked me and dragged my bicycle lock cable around from the table by the door. With a couple more flicks of my wrists, Gio was bound.
After what seemed an eternity, Kat's eyes fluttered open and I glanced up at Sean.
"It was a simple compulsion spell, he said, but I had to be careful; I wanted her to remember everything she's done since he showed up in case he got anything over on her."
Kat rubbed the back of her neck, and the rage that had been directed at us just moments before was now turned on him.
"Unbind him," she snarled at me. "I want him to see me kill him."
Sean took her by her arm. "We need to get him to my place and ... debrief him. Find out who he is and who else he's taken advantage of. Why you?" He shook his head. "I can't let you kill him until I know for sure you're safe."
She pulled in a couple of deep lungfuls of air even though she didn't have to, and the tension left her shoulders. Her eyes fell on Chaos and she bent down. "Oh sweetie—come here. I'm so sorry."
In true Chaos fashion, she stuck her tail and her nose straight in the air and gave a sniff. "Well, I suppose you were under a compulsion. Still, a steak for dinner will make me forget all about how hurt I was."
"Yeah," Kat said, raising a brow. "I just bet it will. But you're on."
CHAPTER THIRTY
SEAN CALLED HIS PEOPLE to come take Gio, and I didn't give two figs what they did to him. As far as I was concerned, they could use him for bait. It also helped that Sean had a distraction; it gave me time to do some digging into the murder without him staring over my shoulder.
Alex and I went back to the station to watch the security videos Sam had gotten from the Hook. Sam had already watched them once, and didn't recognize the woman, but we were going to go through them slower just to make sure we didn't miss anything.