by R. L. Naquin
She waved the book at me and gave me a pointed look. “You can borrow it anytime you want.”
I returned her look with a scowl. “Or...you could just keep sharing with the rest of the class.”
She rolled her eyes and dropped the book into her backpack before swinging the bag onto her shoulder. “Someday I’ll be with a team that appreciates me.”
“We appreciate you loads.” I locked the truck and followed her toward the back door of the restaurant as we’d been instructed. “Don’t we, Tahm?”
I turned toward him, smiling, wanting to pull him into the teasing conversation, especially after my earlier attitude. It was my job to keep the team cohesive. The look on his face was nothing like what I’d expected.
His eyes were focused on Ash with an intense scrutiny. The look wasn’t angry—more disbelief mixed with amusement. I followed his line of sight and realized he was looking at a mark on Ash’s bare shoulder.
I touched his sleeve. “What’s wrong? You okay?”
He startled, like I’d woken him from a deep sleep. “What? Yeah. Of course. Everything’s fine.” The last words seemed to come from far away, as if through a hollow tube on the other side of the moon.
I made a mental note to poke him about it later.
Ash pressed the tiny glowing button to the left of the glass door. I’d worked in a lot of restaurants in my long past, and I’d never seen a doorbell on any of their back doors. They must have had it installed for the OGREs.
After a minute or two, something moved in the dark interior behind the glass, and a woman with a long nose, a bright red ponytail and lipstick that matched the hue of her hair opened the door. She eyed us one by one, tossed her head back in a familiar movement I couldn’t quite place and held the door open for us.
She spoke with a slight Southern lilt. “I’m Marlene. Glad to see you folks.” She locked the door behind us. “If you’ll follow me downstairs, please, Tyrell’s waiting for you.”
We walked through the kitchen and into a dark hallway. Marlene pressed a button on the wall, and an elevator door slid open. I raised my eyebrows in surprise. I’d expected rickety stairs to a basement.
When the doors opened to let us out again, I was even more surprised. This wasn’t a mildewy basement sharing storage space with bottles of sesame oil and sake glasses. This was an actual suite of offices.
Bright overhead lights lit the waiting area of blue carpet and white walls. Gray seats with metal fixtures were arranged in a half circle, and a currently empty reception desk stood watch.
“Please have a seat. I’ll let him know you’re here.” Marlene took a seat behind the desk, picked up the receiver and tapped the phone. “They’re here, sir.” She tapped it again. “He’ll be right out.”
We settled in to wait. Next to me, Ash coughed and elbowed me in the ribs.
“What?”
She squeezed her eyes at me twice in succession, then jerked her chin at Marlene.
Understanding, I narrowed my eyes and tried to see beneath Marlene’s human facade. I drew in a sharp breath and looked away, not wanting her to think I was staring.
Marlene was magnificent. The head toss I’d noticed earlier made more sense now that I knew she was half horse. Her face and torso were the same, whether she was Hidden or human. But the back half of her was a horse covered in the same scarlet as her head. She was so bright, it was almost difficult to look at her, and an excuse to look away was welcome.
“Wow.” I breathed the word so it would be too quiet for anyone but Ash to hear.
Marlene tossed her head again and shifted from foot to foot as she attempted to read the writing on the reports in front of her.
On the other side of me, Tahm let out a startled breath. His eyes were wide, and he made a small movement with his head toward Marlene. I nodded to let him know I’d seen it, too.
“You know, you folks aren’t nearly as subtle as you think you are.” Marlene didn’t look up from her paperwork.
“Sorry. You’re just so gorgeous. And I’ve never met a lady centaur before.” I grinned at her, as if that might remove the sting from our breach in etiquette.
She shifted from foot to foot and tossed her head again. “Well, thank you. That’s very kind of you to say.”
Tyrell showed up in time to keep me from blurting out anything that might make us all even more uncomfortable. “Thanks for coming so quickly. I’ve got Jyll Hampton in my office.” He waved at us to follow.
As I made my way down the hall, I passed several offices, a break room and a second hallway with a sign that said Lab and Morgue and pointed the direction we weren’t going. The place was seriously huge—far bigger than the tiny sushi restaurant upstairs. We had to be at least beneath the parking lot, if not all the way across the street under the coin-operated car wash.
Jyll sat in Tyrell’s office, clutching her purse with both hands and glancing around the room with round eyes and pale lips. She was tall for a dwarf. Her toes rested on the floor instead of dangling under her chair. But there was no mistaking the solid jaw structure and the button nose for what she was. She could have chosen a different look when going out among humans, but she didn’t need a disguise. I didn’t blame her for sticking with her own look.
Her name seemed familiar, but I couldn’t remember where I’d heard it. Or seen it, rather. Because I’d known the moment Tyrell had said it that it was spelled with a Y. How would I know that if I hadn’t seen it somewhere?
The minute she saw me, she hopped out of her seat. “You’re Kam.”
I blinked. “Yes. I am.”
“You were in the Great War.”
Oh, great. This again. “Yes.”
She glanced at Tyrell and swallowed hard. “I have some sensitive information. But I only want to talk to you. Is that all right?”
Tyrell nodded. “You can use my office.”
I went inside and closed the door. “Jyll, right? With a Y?”
She nodded. “Yes. That’s right.”
So, I wasn’t losing my mind, apparently. I had come across her name at some point.
Jyll sat again, and I chose the chair next to hers, rather than putting a desk between us. I turned it around to face her and sat. “So, what can I do for you?”
She pressed her lips together and her fingers clutched her purse so hard I was afraid either they or the purse would snap. “You have to understand, what I’m about to tell you is a huge secret. If people knew about this, it could ruin the entire convention. The cosplayers, certainly, would stop coming. Most, anyway.”
I crossed my legs. “Seems to me the cosplayers might not keep coming anyway, what with so many of them dying.” I rested one arm on the desk beside us. “Why do I know your name?”
She drew back, as if my question offended her. “I run CanDorCon. It’s my baby. My name is all over it.”
Ah. That was it. She’d signed the Guest of Honor invitations I’d seen. “I apologize. There’s been a lot to take in the last few days.”
“I understand.” Her grip loosened on her bag, and she slipped a piece of paper from it. “Here. It may not be complete, but it’s a start.”
I unfolded the sheet and examined it. Several names were written on it. Three of those names belonged to dead people. “What’s this?”
She swallowed again. “Those are the names of cosplayers who all use the services of the same person. She makes their costumes for them.”
I drew back, confused. “I thought they had to make their costumes themselves.”
“Well, technically they’re supposed to.” She pressed her fingers against her forehead. “You have to understand. We’re a small con. These are some magnificent costumes they’re bringing in. And that brings in guests. Paying guests. So, we look the other way.”
“But there’s a contest, right? How do you determine a winn
er when all the best costumes are made by the same person?” I didn’t understand what she was saying. I’d only discovered this wonderful world in the last few days, and now I was finding out it was rigged. I had to make a concerted effort to keep my face from betraying my disappointment.
“We take turns giving them the prizes.” She stared at the floor. “Please, please. Try to keep this as confidential as you can.”
“I’ll do what I can.” I frowned. “So, this person makes magnificent costumes and everybody else takes credit for them?”
“Well, from what I understand, they pay her very well.”
I took another look at the names on the sheet of paper. Every single one of them worked at the craft store. This costume scam all came from the same place. “Is her name on here? Where can I find her?” This was definitely someone I needed to speak with.
“Oh, her name isn’t on there.”
I snagged a pen from a cup on Tyrell’s desk. “Okay. What’s her name?”
“Sister.”
“Sister? Is she a nun? Sister what?”
“Just Sister. Nobody knows her real name.”
I sighed and wrote it down anyway. “Okay, but seriously. Somebody must know who she is. How can they do business with her if they don’t know her name? Is there a phone number? An address? Something?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know how they do it. I just know it’s all in secret, and no one ever sees her.”
I stared at her. “That’s ridiculous.”
She held her hands out, palms up. “That’s how it is.”
Good grief. Now I had to find an invisible woman named Sister and ask her if she’d killed anybody lately. It was a start, I supposed. Jyll had given me some idea of why it was happening. Either Sister was done with not getting any credit for her work, or somebody who was doing their own work was sick of people cheating.
At least I finally had a lead.
* * *
After a long chat with Jyll, during which I pretended to take notes but actually doodled because she wasn’t giving me anything more that was useful, Tyrell took my team down the hall to the lab.
“We’re still getting things back up and running, but the toxicology report is already done.”
Tahm held the glass door for us. “That was fast.”
“It helps when you don’t have to send anything out. I have a physician with a PhD in biochemistry. And since she’s a werewolf, she can sniff out a poison or hear a heart irregularity without any equipment. She’s worth her weight in gold.”
Ash turned to me, her brow furrowed. “I thought werewolves weren’t legal in this world. Don’t all infectious species have to stay in their own world?”
He nodded. “Yes. That’s true. But she has a work visa to be here. And since she’s on the OGRE squad, she’s been through several levels of security checks.”
Ash’s face turned pink. “I’m sorry. I hope I... I mean, I didn’t mean...”
He patted her shoulder. “It was an excellent question and showed you’re familiar with the law. Never be ashamed of not knowing something unless you ignored an opportunity to find the answers.” He took a file from the top of the filing cabinet and flipped through it. “Looks like Lenora finished the autopsy, too.”
I peered around the lab looking for the brilliant werewolf. “Where is she? I’d love to meet her.”
“Probably asleep somewhere. She pulled an all-nighter to get all this done for us.”
I brushed away my disappointment and eyed the folder in his hands. “What did she find out?”
He scratched his ear while he read. “Well, it wasn’t poison.”
“No?” I tilted my head. “Then what happened?”
“Venom. Lenora found multiple sets of puncture wounds on the victim’s arms under her clothing.”
Tahm leaned in, trying to read the report. “And we’re sure it wasn’t a vampire? Sets of puncture wounds sounds suspicious.”
Tyrell’s nostrils flared and he snorted. “If there were vampires in town, I’d know it.”
Ash waved the manual at Tahm. “They’d have to have work visas, too.”
“I know that. I just thought...” Tahm trailed off, then shrugged. “Never mind. So, if not a vampire, then what?”
Tyrell flipped through the pages. “Well, according to toxicology, there was a massive amount of venom from black mamba snakes. Far more than what one snake carries. However, anaphylactic shock killed her before the venom had done its job.”
I shivered. Snakes were not my favorite. “How the hell was she bitten by snakes in a craft store?”
Ash drew closer to me until her arm was touching mine. “That’s crazy. We would have seen snakes wandering around in there if there were several. How did they get in there?”
“And where did they go?” Tahm leaned against the wall, his expression deep in thought.
We were all quiet for a moment while we mulled over this new information.
“Anaphylactic shock.” I stood on my toes to try to get a look at the report. “Did Simon have puncture wounds on him anywhere?”
Tyrell shrugged. “I’m afraid that was right around the time Ziggy started shutting things down and making things too difficult for us to do our jobs. I’m not sure anyone ever did an autopsy.”
“How about the brushes and the makeup I gave you for testing?”
He slid a second folder from the top of the filing cabinet and flipped through it. “The bristles are made of synthetic fibers, including nylon and polyester. The hair in the various containers you brought was all from those brushes.”
“So, no dog hair?” I couldn’t believe these results. Nothing was making sense.
“No dog hair.” His cell phone rang, and he set the folders down on the cabinet. “But I’ll find out where the body went and we’ll see if someone got a look at it before his family claimed it.” He tapped his phone. “Reese.”
I watched his expression as he flared his nostrils and snorted responses. Looking at him through his human form was dizzying with his enormous height and bulk, plus the bull horns that would have scraped the ceiling had he been in his true form.
Even his human face did not look pleased when he hung up.
“What’s up?”
“That was Brody at the Craft Shack. One of his employees didn’t show up for work this morning and didn’t answer her phone. With everything going on, Brody had someone go over in person to make sure she was okay. There was no answer, and he’s worried.”
“Who is it?” I felt in my bag until my fingers grazed the edge of the list of names Jyll had given me.
“Jackie Summers.”
My throat tightened and my heart sped. “The gargoyle. I just talked to her yesterday. She was so scared.”
Tahm rested his hand on my shoulder, and a sense of calm drifted over me. “Maybe she’s hiding or made a run for it.” His voice was soft and reassuring.
“I hope you’re right.” I took a deep, shaky breath to clear my head. “There’s only one way to find out. Let’s go take a look.”
Chapter Twelve
The door to Jackie’s house was closed and locked, which gave me a little hope that she’d packed a bag, locked up and bolted for safer surroundings. Maybe she was already halfway to Canada. Maybe she was sitting in a boat in Disneyland visiting children from countries around the world. If so, she was never going to get that song out of her head. I envied that possible Jackie.
I hoped she was also eating a churro and wearing Mickey ears.
Tahm only made a small noise of rebuke when I used magic to pop the lock and swing the door open.
The inside of the house was dark.
“Hello?” I knocked on the open door as an afterthought. “Jackie?”
Tahm, Ash and I had come to investigate. We were still official
ly OGREs, and Tyrell had a dozen other, unrelated cases to work on, since nobody had been doing anything for the last few weeks. I’d called Brody on the way here and found out what little I could so we’d be prepared when we got here.
Jackie lived alone, didn’t have a boyfriend and was never late. Today, she hadn’t shown up for her shift, which was unheard of, especially without calling in. Something was definitely wrong. How wrong was up to us to find out.
Nothing was knocked over, so it didn’t look like there had been a struggle. We flipped lights each time we came across a switch, making the house grow brighter as we moved through it.
As we came to a dark hallway, it occurred to me what was missing. We looked like cops stepping carefully through the house, rounding corners slowly in case someone jumped out. But we didn’t have guns. Hells, we didn’t even have baseball bats or a can of pepper spray. Nobody had even suggested it.
Tahm, always the gentleman, shoved past me and went down the hall first. I rolled my eyes and followed. The first room we came to was a craft room—obviously the room where Jackie made the parts of her costume the mystery artist hadn’t made. Or maybe she used to use it before she figured out she could pay someone else, then take the credit.
Either way, the room didn’t look like it had been used in a while. Dust was thick on the sewing machine in the corner. We left the light on and moved to the next room.
The bathroom, though charming in its underwater theme, wasn’t interesting at first. I started to move on and stopped, retracing my steps. “Hey, guys?”
Ash poked her head in the room. “Yeah?”
Tahm hovered behind her in the hallway. “Find something?”
I held out a pink toothbrush I’d plucked from a slot by the sink. “Who leaves town without her toothbrush?”
“Maybe she had a spare.” Ash smiled hopefully, but I could see she wasn’t any more convinced than I was.
I rummaged in the drawers and pulled out a hairbrush, toothpaste and spare contacts. “She’d probably want these things, too.” I peeked in the shower and found all her toiletries still in there. The hairs on my arms prickled, and my muscles tensed in anticipation of coming across a dead woman around every corner. She was a nice lady. I so didn’t want her to be dead. And I didn’t want to be the one to find her if she was.