Murder by Magic

by Catherine Vale

  “Then do what you need to do, Euros. And I will do what I need to do.”

  With that Mixt turned in a swirl of white robes. She watched as he walked away. And then in the blink of an eye, he disappeared. She stared, blinked again, and turned to Euros.

  “Where…how…”

  “He’s not used to talking with mortals. I’m sorry about that. Normally, he just walks away like anyone else would. I think he was trying to show off.”

  “Like instead of leaving in a huff, he just vanishes?”

  “Something like that. For all his bluster though, he’s a good guy.”

  “So what does he do here?”

  “He’s a Gatekeeper, like I am. He works on this side of the portal. And I work on the mortal side.”

  “Gatekeeper?” She knew they didn’t have time for chit-chat, but the last thing she wanted right now was another magical trip through space. Her atoms and cells, or whatever, still felt on edge, still felt disjoined. Then she panicked; what if he had something else planned? What could be worse than what he’d already done to her?

  “Sometime, when the fate of our world isn’t hanging in the balance, I’ll tell you. But I need to see the Lansing scene. And I need you there with me.”

  Apparently, he wasn’t falling for her delaying tactic.

  “You said to Mixt that you need to prevent someone from entering the portal. So, someone is trying to get into this world – your world? Someone you don’t want in here?”

  “It appears so. I followed their trail of magic to the portal. They hadn’t passed through, but it looks as though they want to. I need to figure out what these murders have to do with all of this, and who is behind it all.”

  “I see. I’ll help you however I can.”

  She let him take her hand, and then let him pull her into a hug. She might have been imagining it, but this embrace seemed to have a little more intensity to it, something beyond the mere mechanism required to set her hurtling to the Lansing crime scene. In a way, she liked it, but it was also the last thing she wanted to feel from Euros. At least right now.

  “Do we really have to do this again?” She lifted her face to his. Against the backdrop of an impossibly blue sky, he smiled down at her.

  “There is a portal, right there.” He nodded over her shoulder. “Between the stone pillars. But if we suddenly appear out of nowhere on a busy street, it wouldn’t look good. I need us to arrive unobserved.”

  “Oh, right. I guess there are things like that you need to think about. Magic seems pretty complicated.”

  She felt the rumble of his laugh against her body. “You have no idea, Jess. No idea at all.”

  And then she was torn into a thousand pieces. But this time, through the scattering of her very being, through all that, she could still feel Euros, and the strength of his body against hers.

  Chapter Nine

  Having Jessica in his arms, even if it was necessary for getting them from one place to another, set off more emotions than he was prepared to deal with. Those emotions distracted him to the extent they materialized not where he’d planned, but in the backyard of the house next door. He was still berating himself, waiting for Jessica to get her bearings, when he noticed a woman on her back porch staring at them. Quickly, he waved his hand and she looked away from them. It was a weak spell, thrown at her more as a reflex than anything, but he didn’t have time for anything else. He hoped she would forget what she saw, but later, if she thought about it at all, she’d laugh at how silly she was for imagining people appearing, as if by magic, in her backyard.

  “Come on.” With Jessica’s hand in his, they ran through the tangle of brush at the back yard. Blessedly, there was no wall or fence, and they came out onto the sidewalk. With an effort, he slowed his headlong pace to a normal walk. If he got impatient, he got sloppy, like setting them down in the wrong place.

  “There should still be someone at the scene.”

  Jessica’s voice brought him back to the here and now. “Who? Police, or the private security?”

  “How did you know about…oh, never mind. Police. I told you about the guard, right?”

  He shook his head, and she shrugged. “The guy claims he fell asleep in the backyard. No one believed him, but I tend to think there’s some basis to his story. He was crying so hard during most of the interview, the transcriptionist had to mark whole sections as unintelligible. The guy was a total mess. But to get back to your question, the security company pretty much backed out of the contract, once they discovered their guard had fallen asleep on the job. It’s kind of poor form to let your client get killed on your watch.”

  “And Mrs. Lansing?”

  “Last I heard, she was staying with her sister in Moline. Can’t imagine anyone wanting to stay in a house where your husband was just murdered. Until the scene is released, everything stays the way it is. And then when the cleaners come in, they just rip up the stuff, and take it away. She’ll come back to a house with carpet torn from the floors, and everything else that may have been stained with blood. Sadly, it’s not like families come back to a pristine house.”

  They stopped at the back of Lansing’s property. He knew where the gate was, how he’d gotten through the opening, but he had no intention of sneaking into the scene. He wanted Jessica to walk in, as if she had every right to be there. He knew her well enough that if she felt any more like she was doing something she wasn’t supposed to, she’d either refuse to go in, or be so self-conscious, she’d give away the ruse.

  They walked around to the front of the building. The trail of magic was still there, faded in some places, but just as evil, and just as dark as it had been the day before.

  As she’d predicted, Euros noticed a police car parked in front of the house. The uniformed police officer climbed out as they came around the corner, and met them on the sidewalk. Or rather, the man met Jessica. Euros had cast a spell, correctly this time, and rendered himself invisible.

  “Detective.” The man nodded, as Jessica flashed her badge. Euros waited, inexplicably nervous, even though he knew the man couldn’t see him. The dark magic unnerved him, but staying invisible was easy, something he could do—and had done—in his sleep.

  But Jessica acted as if she did this every day. Well, he supposed she did, in some regard. He was sure though, that she didn’t disobey orders, and sneak back into crime scenes she wasn’t allowed to be at. But from the set of her shoulders, and the way she held her chin tilted up, he wasn’t worried about how she’d handle this.

  “I’m going back in. Has anyone else been here today?”

  “No, ma’am.”

  Euros waited, wondering if the man knew she was technically off the case.

  “Do you have the key?”

  The man nodded. “I’ll have to unlock the door for you.”

  Jessica strode up the sidewalk, Euros following behind. The officer unlocked the door, then stepped inside with them. Euros froze; if the man insisted on shadowing them—her—this would require more magic. In fact, that might be what was needed now.

  From his invisible state, Euros did a simple mental projection, telling the man he should wait in his car, there was no need for him to be inside.

  “I’ll just go wait in my car. There’s no need for me to be in here with you. If you need me, I’ll be just outside.” The man looked momentarily confused, but then turned and walked out, closing the door behind him.

  Jessica turned to Euros. “That was you, I take it?”

  He took a breath. He was still invisible, but she was looking right at him. “Can you see me?”

  “I can see…something. Like looking through wavy glass, or thin ice. You’re right…” She stretched out a hand, and touched his chest. “That’s really strange. I don’t like touching something I can’t see. Can you undo this spell of yours?”

  He did, reversing the spell, taking shape in front of her, although to him nothing physically changed, just the minor surge of magic through his body. He w
atched her face, eyes going wide, as she saw him appear in front of her. For a minute, the joy of casting magic came back to him, what it was like as a boy, during his training, discovering his abilities, testing them. Doing magic, just because he could.

  “You okay? Isn’t that hard?”

  He realized she was staring at him. “No. Not at all. Some magic is harder than others, but I’ve been doing it for so long I don’t really think about it anymore.”

  “Right. Practice makes perfect?”

  “Yeah. Something like that.”

  They were in a hallway, stairs rising to the second floor. He could sense the magic here, strong magic, mixed with the scent of death. It had been a long time since he’d been this close to death, but there was no forgetting that smell.

  “It’s down here…”

  “Wait.” He closed his eyes. “I need to do this my way.”

  He blocked out everything, the floor beneath his feet, the warmth of Jessica beside him, her scent, the sound of her breathing. He let go of the reality around him, and went into his mind, letting it move through the house, his body motionless.

  Magic swirled around him, dark and thick. It pooled in certain areas downstairs, heavier down the hall, behind one specific door. That was where it had happened, where the murder had taken place. They’d get there in a minute, but now he let the magic around him seep into his bones, letting it into his very pores, tasting it. Learning whatever he could from it.

  He knew it was dark, but with a wildness to it that he’d never encountered in his life, not even during his training. It coiled around him, acrid and thick, stronger than he’d ever imagined magic could be. Possibly stronger than his. And that was saying a lot.

  “Euros?”

  He came back to himself, and to Jessica, with a start. For a minute, the residue of that darkness flowed through him, and he took a step away from her. Something savage and cruel bubbled up inside, making his hand clench, his teeth slam together in a grimace. And for an instant, he knew what it felt like to want to kill someone.

  “Euros, are you okay?”

  Her voice held fear, and he could see it in her eyes, in the stance of her body. With an effort, more than he would have thought possible, he pushed that last bit of the magic from his system. It drained him, and left him shaky and weak. And for the first time, truly fearful. She can’t know this. Not now, not yet.

  “Fine. I’m fine.”

  “You don’t look fine. You look like you saw a ghost. What was it? Do you know?”

  “I…it’s…” How could he tell her what it was like? “It’s like swimming in oil, and trying to wash it off your skin.” That was as good as it was going to get, considering it had gotten beyond his skin and into his very core. There was no way in hell he was going to tell her he’d considered, even briefly, causing her harm. “It gets…into me.”

  “I’m sorry, Euros.”

  “I’ll be fine, don’t worry.”

  She didn’t look convinced, but he wanted to be rid of this feeling as soon as possible. He might have his passions, but violence wasn’t among them. He turned away, feigning interest in a picture on the wall, just for something to look at, or think about, to distract himself. It hung askew, and he straightened it, idly glancing at the four people in the photo. Something caught his attention, and he looked closer.

  “Do you know any of these people?”

  Jessica stepped up beside him. “Well, Lansing and his wife. The other two…” She leaned closer. “Not sure. I think it’s that basketball player and his wife, or girlfriend. I’m not really into sports, as you know, but I think I’ve seen him on TV.” She peered closer. “Oh, it’s autographed. David Hudson. I recognize the name. Yeah, that’s the ball player.

  Euros moved to the next photo. In it were Lansing, without his wife, and another couple. The photos next were repeats: the mayor, smiling, with either an individual or a couple, some holding small plaques or awards, others smiling at the camera with easy familiarity.

  “It seems the mayor enjoyed having his photo taken. I would imagine most of the people in these photos voted for him.”

  Jessica followed him down the hall, as they methodically examined each photo. It was clear they were all taken in the same location in the house. The background was the same, the space between two tall windows, their curtains creating a bracket for the subjects, a series of tastefully framed works, on the otherwise plain wall behind them.

  “Euros, what are you thinking?”

  He was thinking many things, but none of them were anything he was ready to share with Jessica. “Nothing really, still gathering impressions. Show me where you found the body.”

  They walked down the hall, and into what was clearly Lansing’s office. In the vast pool of dried blood, a square of carpet was missing, along with a section of the floorboards beneath. He assumed those were somewhere in the depths of the forensics lab. For a moment, he stood, breathing shallowly, the miasma around him choking in his lungs.

  “He was found here, on his back, a through-and-through, that went into the floorboards.”

  He looked to where she pointed, to the missing piece of flooring, the ripped carpet, and the blood-soaked area remaining. The violence to the floor seemed as intense as the violence in the magic he’d experienced, that magic that still swirled around him now. He tried to put up a shield, or blocking spell, but it was harder than he thought it should be. As if once he’d opened himself up to it, there was no going back, no closing that door. He was tainted, and he didn’t like that at all.

  “I would guess he bled out. Did they do the autopsy?”

  “Yeah. The aorta was severed, probably the same with Parnell. Dr. Greene…the medical examiner…said there wasn’t enough blood in the body, that there should have been some blood pooling in the body cavity.” She glanced up at him. “This isn’t going to freak you out, is it?”

  “I’ve seen worse.”

  A fleeting frown crossed her face, and he knew without even trying to read her mind, that there were a dozen questions behind those eyes. Thankfully, she seemed to be willing to let that go.

  “Okay. Well, Dr. Greene said that the lack of blood was very unusual. Dr. Green said he’d never seen anything like it before, and he’s one of those been-there-seen-everything kind of guys. For him to be surprised was, well, a surprise.”

  A barrage of memories, and images, and impressions collided in Euros’ mind. Things came together, formed patterns and sparked ideas, and the more those ideas solidified, the worse things seemed. And the more he realized this was going downhill fast, he knew he wasn’t going to be able to share this with Jessica. At least not until he got back to Mixt, and talked to the Gatekeeper.

  And with that realization, he felt guilty for making her bring him here, for telling her he was going to help her solve these crimes. Or he felt guiltier than he already felt, for driving her away, and for almost ruining her career.

  But now…now the priority was these bizarre murders, and who had committed them. He just needed more information, more help from Jessica, and that excellent mind of hers, the ability she had for making sense of evidence.

  “Was there any reason for the murder? Revenge, robbery, any motive?”

  Jessica was looking at the mantle, frowning at a small crystal figurine resting on the polished surface. “Not yet. Mrs. Lansing was here for a short time, but she was too distraught to come down here, and look for anything. She said there was nothing missing from her room, or her husband’s.” She turned to Euros, one eyebrow raised. “You learn a lot about people when you have to pry into their lives.”

  “I’m sure you do. So, we can rule out robbery?”

  “At least the obvious. No money or jewels…obviously, no fur coats. As far as we can tell, all the paintings, and other valuables are still in place. I guess that leaves revenge. Lansing certainly had enemies.”

  Euros looked up from studying the floor. “He did. Many. When his predecessor stepped down unexpe
ctedly…” It was impossible for him not to notice the tightening between Jessica’s shoulders, the stiffening of the muscles in her neck, her jaw. Better not dwell on that.

  “He came into his office with baggage.”

  Jessica nodded, some of the tension leaving her body. He got the sense she was trying hard to push down a whole lot of emotions, a whole lot of things she wanted to say to him. But her professional persona was in full force. It frustrated him, because more than anything he wanted to take her somewhere quiet, and work all that out. But he had to admire her professionalism, her dedication to her job. He’d known for a long time that he’d been wrong about her, and now that reminder was like a slap in the face all over again.

  “He wasn’t the first choice in that election. There were claims he had his fingers into too many deals, that there were mob connections, the usual rumors. But some of them were true.” She turned to him with a piercing gaze. “You must have uncovered enough of that during your digging into his past. I remember reading an article you wrote about him. After the one you wrote about me.”

  A look of pain and anguish washed across his face at her words. “Yeah. I discovered quite a few reasons why he shouldn’t have even been on the ballot. But no one wanted to hear anything about that. He had a campaign manager that spun everything to perfection, and what he couldn’t spin, he buried. They tore apart the only candidate to come close. It was a blood bath.”

  Euros remembered the articles he’d written about Lansing, after Jessica had left, sitting at his desk late into the night, obsessively digging through archives, throwing himself into his work, in the effort to forget what he’d done. Or to somehow redeem himself by discrediting Lansing. But that hadn’t done any good, in either situation.

  “These photos though…there’s something wrong here.”

  Euros pulled himself out of his thoughts. Jessica was standing between the two windows, behind Lansing’s desk. He could see now they weren’t windows, but a set of patio doors that opened onto the backyard. Through the glass of one, he could see the garden, the view, one of a pleasant suburban backyard. But when he looked at the wall between the windows, he saw instantly what she meant.