by E A Price
Colt strode toward the reception desk, manned by a pretty, young redhead who appeared more ornamental than all the antiquities in there. Melissa lagged behind studying the various pieces of… she wanted to say art. But to her, art was big, pretty pictures, preferably of sunflowers. All these things looked like ancient statues and tablets and…
Melissa’s jaw gaped. If it were physically possible for it to hit the floor, it would have. There, in pride of place in the midst of the collection was a gargoyle. The thing was massive, and to Melissa, there was no doubt that the creature was much more than just a statue. It had to be a real, live gargoyle. She circled the statue, wishing it were not behind glass, itching to touch it. It looked like the glass was alarmed too – if she touched it, goonish security guards would probably leap out of nowhere to grab her.
The creature was crouched, one knee raised and its chin was resting on one fist. Or should she say, his chin? It had to be a he – unless females looked exactly like males, though she doubted that.
He was certainly large. She would think he had to be about the same size as Gracchus. The two were quite similar, though his hair was long and flowing, his horns were more curled – more like a ram, and his ears were adorned with rings – six in one ear and seven in the other.
This wasn’t the gargoyle that attacked them the other night. This one was too big, and he looked older also. She wondered whether he was still trapped in his stone slumber. Given that he was behind glass, she supposed he probably would be – she needed to tell Gracchus about him. He would definitely want to help him.
Colt placed a hand on her shoulder. “Hey, Sanchez.”
Melissa looked up sharply. “Huh?”
He gave her a crooked smile. “I called your name like three times. You okay? You were kind of spaced-out there for a moment.”
“Umm, yeah, I’m fine.”
Colt looked at the gargoyle. “Huh, think this is our suspect?”
“Sure,” snorted Melissa, “shall I slap on the cuffs or shall you?”
He eyed the statue speculatively – a little too speculatively in Melissa’s apprehensive opinion – before he nodded. “C’mon, space cadet, we’ve got ten minutes with the boss woman.”
“Really?”
They had tried calling ahead but were distinctly told that there was no way they would get to see the boss – even though it was a Saturday, she was very busy. But, Colt was adamant that they should try in person. Melissa glanced back to see the redhead’s cheeks were glowing and she was flashing Colt a smug, little grin. No wonder he had been so confident; he had all but charmed the pants off her. She wished she had him around on her previous cases.
“Well done,” she whispered. “What’s this woman’s name again?”
Morgain wasn’t a public company. It was owned entirely by one woman, who barely seemed to have any kind of digital footprint. She had no social media accounts whatsoever. Heck, she didn’t even have a driver’s license. They couldn’t find any photos of her anywhere.
Colt checked his notebook. “Adelaide Marsters,” he replied.
“Well, let’s go see what Adelaide Marsters has to say.”
Twenty
Adelaide Marsters turned out to be a petite woman in her early thirties. She sported a beehive hairdo and a smile that could chill at a thousand paces.
“Kimberly really shouldn’t have let you in here,” she said, the moment they entered the opulent office. “I’m exceedingly busy. Whatever you have to say, hurry up and get it over with.”
“We’re sorry to take up your valuable time,” said Colt, in his smoothest voice.
“I should think so,” she retorted waspishly.
Unlike her receptionist, she was not susceptible to Colt’s charm. Melissa decided that she would take this one – Colt should save his charm for someone who would appreciate it.
“We’re investigating the deaths of two women. Gail Addams and Marcia Halliday.”
Adelaide raised an eyebrow in perfectly practiced surprise. “Indeed?”
Melissa paused trying to judge whether Adelaide was truly surprised, or if she had already known about both deaths. It was impossible to tell. It was like trying to find out which of her cats clawed her favorite boots – whenever she tried to find out she was just faced with five equally cute, blank little faces. Though, Adelaide wasn’t in any way cute.
“You knew both of them?”
Adelaide let out a derisive snort. “I did not know them. Dr. Addams occasionally did some consulting work for us – I believe we had her on retainer. I cannot say about the other woman.” Her eyes narrowed. “I would guess by your question that I have some connection to her. Perhaps she worked in one of our labs. Let me check.”
She turned to her computer, and in a few mere strokes of the keyboard, she turned back to them and shrugged. “Ms. Halliday worked as a nurse in one of our facilities. I’ll inform human resources that they will no longer be needing paychecks.”
Melissa and Colt exchanged a glance. Her concern wasn’t exactly overwhelming.
“What were they working on?”
Adelaide graced them with a supremely superior smile. “That’s confidential – all of our projects are top secret. All of our employees sign non-disclosure agreements to ensure that none of our competitors get wind of what we are doing.”
Very convenient thought Melissa.
“Very convenient,” said Colt almost with a sneer. “You know we could get a warrant.”
Her smile grew even wider, almost cracking her face. She didn’t look like someone who usually smiled. “You can try.”
“How come your company wasn’t paying either of them directly? Your company was…”
“I think we’re done,” Adelaide said crisply.
The door opened, and two goonish security guards appeared, seemingly out of nowhere. Melissa blinked at them. Huh, she was right – good job she didn’t touch the gargoyle’s glass case.
Colt rolled his shoulder and gave the security guards a look. It was a cocky look that said that if he didn’t have something better to do, he could easily whoop their butts. Melissa nearly rolled her eyes before she noticed that both of the men looked more than a little nervous in the face of that look. Jeez, Colt was a big guy, but both of them looked like walking slabs of meat – were they really afraid of him? Given the way they quickly stepped aside as he started to walk to the door, she would say they were.
Melissa shelved that away to ponder for another time. She started to follow Colt but paused.
“Interesting statue,” she commented.
“What?” asked Adelaide giving her a bored look.
“Out there – the gargoyle.”
Adelaide tried to look even more bored, but a glimmer of something shone in her eyes.
“Where did you get it?” asked Melissa.
“Oh that thing,” scoffed Adelaide dismissively, “it’s been in my family for years. My grandfather was a huge collector of stone statues, and he bought it at an auction in Paris I believe.”
Melissa glanced over to Colt who was watching her curiously.
“Must be worth something,” she commented.
“I don’t know about that,” said Adelaide evasively. “I have other items out there worth a lot more.”
Melissa tilted her head to one side. “It’s the only one behind glass,” she commented, “and the only one that has an alarm.”
Adelaide hesitated just a shade too long for it to be natural. “It’s just an insurance thing – my insurance insists on it.” She waved a hand as if it was all nonsense. “I don’t wonder at the details of these things. Also, it’s challenging to keep the thing clean. It makes life easier for my cleaners.”
Melissa smiled. Yeah, she seemed like the type of woman who was all about making life easier for others.
“Thank you for your time,” she said politely.
She followed Colt to the elevator, and in turn, the security guards followed them, though at a respectful d
istance. Melissa glanced back at the gargoyle, wishing she had taken a photo when she had the chance. She noticed the redheaded receptionist was giving Colt a forlorn look. Melissa was glad when the elevator doors closed, and she didn’t have to see her pouting.
Colt turned to her. “What do you think?”
“I think you pissed her off,” she said dryly.
“It was inevitable. She wasn’t going to tell us anything. The woman’s stone cold.”
“No,” agreed Melissa blowing out a breath. “Whatever is going on, she’s in it up to her beehive.”
Everything about the situation stank. It was too big of a coincidence that two people who worked for the mysterious Morgain company would be killed in the same strange way. Not to mention that the owner of Morgain appeared to own a gargoyle. Something distinctly fishy was going on. In fact, it was more than fishy, bigger than fishy – as Melissa’s nephew would say, something whaley was going on.
“Why were you asking about the gargoyle?” said Colt. “You don’t honestly think that thing is real, do you? Because I was just joking before.” His tone was lighthearted, but he was observing her carefully for her reaction.
Melissa shrugged, forcibly trying to appear nonchalant. It wasn’t easy – her limbs felt heavy and sluggish. “Just wondering what made that piece so special. Some of the other items she had on display looked older.”
Colt watched her for a couple of moments before accepting her response. “Yeah, hey, maybe it is a real gargoyle.”
He chuckled, and Melissa barked out a strained laugh, sounding more like a demented monkey than herself.
“We need to do more digging on Ms. Marsters,” she said, hopefully changing the subject.
“Definitely.”
Inwardly, she blew out a breath of relief.
*
Adelaide waited ten minutes until after the two agents left, sent her receptionist home with a flea in her ear and grabbed her phone. She called her contact at the FBI and grimaced as he related the details of the two deaths to her.
She slammed the phone down furiously. Two deaths in the space of a week and it took the FBI showing up at her door for her to know!
Dr. Addams hadn’t been missed because she didn’t keep regular hours. She was only called in to advise when they were having trouble with one of their specimens. As for the nurse, she had barely been dead for twenty-four hours. Yes, she had been missing from her night shift, but no one had given it much thought. Turnover of the staff was quite high at their facilities. They only hired the type of people who had no ties, no family, and no morals. To say they were flaky was an understatement.
Adelaide calmed herself and then dialed the familiar number, waiting with trepidation until –
“Blackthorne,” snapped the sharp voice.
“It’s Adelaide,” she said shortly, “I have a problem.”
She hated having to report to this man, but he was head of the Council of Magic. She was still a fairly new member of the council, having taken over her father’s place when he died. The council was made up of the last remaining members of the Noir Clans, and as dwindled as Blackthorne’s family magic was, he was still the strongest practitioner amongst them.
Blackthorne sucked in a breath. “I don’t have time for one of your mini-dramas, Adelaide. Deal with it yourself.”
“It’s about Dr. Addams…”
“I already told you, use Bell and his men to follow her if you think she’s up to something.”
Adelaide curled her upper lip. The last time she saw Dr. Addams, she believed she was acting strangely and had tried talking to Blackthorne about it, but the arrogant male was not interested, he just wanted her to pass it along to Captain Bell, but that man was a fool. Her late sister’s daughter had died while investigating the gargoyles under his supervision. The girl had been demanding and monstrous at times, but she had been Adelaide’s only living relative. Blackthorne didn’t care about her personal feelings though.
“Don’t bother me again about this; I must…”
“She’s dead,” said Adelaide flatly.
Blackthorne was silent for a few beats. “How?”
“Killed by an unknown beast. The DNA on the body doesn’t match any known creature.” She emphasized the word ‘known.’ “A few days later, a nurse from one of my facilities was killed in the same way.”
“A few days?” he repeated incredulously. “Why didn’t you report this immediately?!”
“I only found out when the FBI…”
“FBI?!” he snarled.
“They just showed up. It was that woman, Melissa Sanchez, and some new guy.”
“Sanchez,” grumbled Blackthorne.
The agent was known to them. Sanchez probably didn’t realize it, but she had come a little too close for comfort a few times over the years during the course of her various investigations. It had taken a lot of money and bribery to throw her off the scent, but thankfully, she was still in the dark as to the council’s existence. She had, however, actually arrested a number of their personal security team not very long ago due to the illegal weapons they were carrying – including the head of the team, Captain Bell. Thankfully, Blackthorne had excellent lawyers, and most of the team had the charges dropped. Those who didn’t, those who Blackthorne wasn’t willing to save, found themselves on the receiving end of various ‘accidents’ while in jail.
“What does the FBI know?”
“Nothing,” said Adelaide confidently.
She had grilled her contact pretty firmly, and he was sure that Sanchez and her new partner had nothing. Not that anyone would believe them if they did. The department was a joke – no one else at the FBI took anything they did seriously. Only crackpots would work in that department because it was specifically created to deal with crackpots.
“But someone is targeting your employees,” he said thoughtfully. “Perhaps someone with a grudge against you.”
Adelaide scowled at the delighted note in his voice. “Or a grudge against you,” she retorted.
Blackthorne could be as high and mighty as he wanted, but he seemed to forget that without her family’s company and resources – without her cooperation and her father before her, his little tests on supernatural creatures would have been limited to the garage Adler was working out of back when he was first recruited to the council. She winced as she thought of the old man. Adler had been an evil old goat, that was for sure, but he had his uses. He was killed during a gargoyle attack on one of their facilities. Their own security fence electrocuted him – he limped straight into it. Adelaide had seen the body. To say the least, it was not pleasant.
“That’s hardly likely,” he said dryly. “What about the creatures you allowed to escape?”
Adelaide pursed her lips. Just over a year ago, before the gargoyles attacked their smallest facility, their main facility was compromised, and many of their specimens got loose. Finding them had not been easy, though most of them did leave a wake of destruction that was not particularly easy to cover up. Not to mention how many members of staff they had to bury after the incident. That was another reason why turnover was so high – it was a hazardous job.
“They are all accounted for.”
“You’re sure about that?”
“My security team do not make mistakes.”
Blackthorne bristled audibly at the mocking rebuke.
“I will speak to Bell,” he said crisply. “He will deal with your… problem.”
“Then there is the firestarter and the psychic – they are both on the loose,” she taunted.
Those two were humans born with additional powers. They had been long-term patients of theirs for years, moving between various facilities. However, not very long ago, they had both escaped. Everything seemed to be happening at once. Adelaide supposed that was expected, given that they were nearing their goal. The supernatural creatures could sense the tenseness in the air.
“I will speak to Bell,” he repeated through gritted teeth. P
erhaps it is a gargoyle doing this, have you considered that?”
“The nurse was killed in the daytime. The chances of it being a gargoyle are pretty slim. Unless there’s another out there, who doesn’t sleep in the day.”
He grunted in agreement. They knew of only two gargoyles who could walk in daylight. One, the female they called Twenty-Six, was taken or rescued by the gargoyles during their attack. Luckily she was the only one of their specimens on site at the time, and given that she was not a particularly strong gargoyle, they did not worry about her loss too much. They had planned to breed her, but they could manage without her. The real prize was the male, Twenty-One. He was strong as a house and much more subservient than the female. As soon as they found a suitable female gargoyle, he would be bred. But, for now, he resided in a safe location.
They were almost positive Twenty-Six was still in Devil’s Hang, with Luc and his clan – at least their surveillance did not indicate otherwise. But it did not seem to be in her nature that she would kill these women, and Adelaide knew for a fact that Twenty-Six had never met either of them. Given that Twenty-One was still secure, it could not possibly be either of them.
“It was strange,” murmured Adelaide as she got up from her desk and walked out into the reception area.
“What was strange?” demanded Blackthorne impatiently.
Adelaide peered at her gargoyle. She believed his name to have been Rex in life, but he had been stone for a long time.
“The woman, Sanchez, asked me about my gargoyle. Do you think she knows the truth about them?”
“Humph. It wouldn’t surprise me. She has been seen by our surveillance team talking to the police officer from Devil’s Hang.”
“Christopher Wyatt,” she cooed with a certain relish. Adelaide was not one to take much notice of her baser desires, but she had seen the photos of him, and she could appreciate a handsome man. Much more preferable than that beast of an FBI agent who thought he could charm his way into her secrets.
“Yes. I wouldn’t be surprised if he told her the truth, given her line of work.”
Adelaide pouted at Rex. “Then she might tell him of my gargoyle, and they will come after him.”