When she was safe inside, she realized that she was breathing heavily.
"Jeez, Mira," Ian said. "I'm sure the guy is good looking and all, but I wouldn't have expected that from you."
Gabriel gave him a death glare and put the car into gear.
"What?" Her voice came out squeaky as the residual fear began to break down.
"Nothing," Ian said. "Forget I said anything."
"You thought... you thought I liked him?" Mira said incredulously. "He scared the crap out of me."
"How?" Ian asked. "He didn't do anything."
"I don't think he did it on purpose. He wasn't lying when he said witches react to him." She felt heat rush to her face as the words came out, but she wanted to make herself clear. "If you two weren't there, I would have been gone the second he opened the door."
"Really?" Ian said.
It chaffed a little that Ian aimed the question at Gabriel, using him as a lie detector, when she was right there.
Gabriel nodded. "Apparently. We should drop by the station and check in."
"What could cause a witch to react like that?" Ian asked, ignoring his partner trying to change the subject.
"I have no idea," Mira said. "I'm not even sure I want to know."
"You were tripping over yourself on the way out," Ian said, sounding accusatory. "But then you stayed back to talk to him."
Mira pulled out her phone, trying to give herself something to concentrate on besides fear. "I offered to help," Mira mumbled.
"Help what?" Ian asked.
Mira shrugged. "It's not his fault that witches react that way. Maybe I could make something to stop people treating him that way. Instinct told me to run, but logic said I was being stupid."
"That was really nice of you."
Mira tried not to take offense that Ian sounded surprised. "The person in the hospital might be better off as well."
"What are you going to make?"
"Nothing," Mira said. "He probably thought I was trying to trick him or something."
"He's probably been cursed one too many times," Ian said.
The idea tumbled around. "I didn't think of that. You may be right. You’re getting to know witches."
"That's not witches," Ian said. "That's people. Most people, anyway. Human nature; hurt it before it hurts you."
"For a small earthquake, this one seems to have caused a lot more traffic," Gabriel said.
He hadn't taken much interest in the conversation about Levi, and Mira wasn't put off by letting the conversation go.
Chapter 9
"Maybe we should stop somewhere for lunch," Ian said.
"Sure," Gabriel said. "We're close to Harmon's and the lunch rush is probably long over."
"The day feels like it should be over," Mira said, stretching in the back seat. "It’s been going on forever."
"I think talking to Mary did that," Ian said. "You said she hates humans, too?"
"Like I said, she really hates everyone," Mira said.
"She knew John, didn't she?" Gabriel asked.
"I'm sure she did," Mira said, "but then, most of the community knew John."
"What can you tell us about him?" Gabriel asked. "I mean, before he became what he is now."
"He was fairly personable," Mira said. "It seems awful to say that now."
"Who was he friends with?" Gabriel asked, steering the conversation.
"Barney. Of course, you've heard about that." Mira sifted through all of her recollections about John. "He was also close to William."
"That still seems like something we should look into more," Gabriel said. "William's a witch hunter, after all, and witches are disappearing."
"It seems like a natural place to start," Ian said.
"Witch hunters today are just people that recognize witches. I've told you, it doesn't mean they actually hunt witches," Mira said.
"It doesn't mean they don't hunt them, either," Gabriel said.
Mira opened her mouth to argue, but closed it again. Gabriel wasn't wrong, but it was incredibly hard for her to believe William would hurt anyone. Then again, Mira had once thought the same about John.
"This all started with John, who happens to be human. It makes sense to dig deeper," Ian said. "John was one of the first people I interviewed, and he stayed pretty high on my list of suspects after talking with him."
"Why's that?" Mira asked, genuinely curious about what he’d seen that she had missed.
"The fact that he was being blackmailed by Sally was enough," Ian said as they pulled into Harmon's parking lot. "But he was also lying about what Sally was blackmailing him about."
"What did he say?" Mira asked.
"He rambled about lack of due diligence in an insurance policy. He said it cost the company a lot of money."
"I could see why he wouldn't want that to get out," Gabriel said.
"When I followed up, I learned the company didn't have to pay out," Ian said. “There’s no reason to put up with blackmail over that.”
"Makes sense he was high on the list," Gabriel said.
After the car was shut off, the three quickly made their way through the frigid air and into the blissfully warm restaurant.
Mimi was in the dining room and greeted them warmly before showing them to their seat.
"I was so sorry to hear about your store," Mimi said as Mira slid into the booth. "Ian mentioned it, and then your partner filled me in."
"Did she?" Mira said, surprised. She hadn't spoken much with her partner after their last visit to the store with the insurance adjusters.
It struck Mira that now she couldn't talk to her friend. If she’d still had the store, being shunned would have made it almost impossible for her to work.
"Her catering is picking up," Mimi said. "She's supplying my pies now and they've never sold better."
Gabriel sat next to Mira and her focus shifted to his close proximity.
"I'll send someone over to take your order," Mimi said.
Mira was too intent on the warmth generated by Gabriel to make much small talk. Once they placed their orders, the conversation returned to John, which distracted her.
"Did John have any other close friends?" Gabriel asked.
Mira pictured John at the conclaves, and everything he did took on a new sinister element in her remembrance. "It’s hard to think about John the way he was before. He talked to just about everyone. But I can't say he was particularly close to anyone else in the community."
"Well, at least we have a direction to go in. Do you know where William would be this time of day?" Gabriel asked.
"I'm not sure," Mira said. "I think he gets home around four. Want me to call him?"
"No," Gabriel said. "Let's just meet him there."
Mira didn't like the idea of surprising William like that, but she didn't say anything.
"I wish we knew what Sally had been blackmailing John about," Gabriel said.
"Did Martin know anything?" Mira asked.
"The boyfriend? Not that I’m aware of," Gabriel said.
"His interviews were all at the station, so I never asked about the supernatural," Ian said. "I tried to, but the interviews are recorded. I guess that counts as telling someone. He's human, right? Would he even know about the supernatural stuff?"
"I didn't think Sally would tell him about the supernatural. They hadn't known each other that long." Mira shifted uncomfortably in her seat. "Although, I also didn't think Sally was capable of blackmail."
"It's worth following up on—we can track him down later today. I'm sure we have his typical routines in the file. What makes you think he might know about the blackmail?"
"Someone had mentioned that Karen didn't like Sally or her boyfriend," Mira said. "If Sally had been blackmailing Karen, then it makes sense that Karen would hate her. But why Martin?"
"Association," Ian suggested.
"Maybe, but why mention him at all?" Mira said. "It's not like he ever came to a meeting."
"Good po
int," Gabriel said as their food arrived.
Once the waiter was gone, Ian picked the conversation back up. "What happens if Martin gets arrested? If he knows about the supernatural stuff, I mean."
Mira shrugged. "I know there're ways of dealing with it. It depends on the person, though. I've seen a supernatural get arrested and the local council decide not to do anything to keep him from talking, despite him ranting about all kinds of things about the community."
Ian stopped with his food halfway to his mouth. "That sounds like something they'd stop.” He dropped his fork. “I mean, christ, your community bound me and I'm a damned cop.”
"Oh, they bound his powers—they even let me help with that." Mira smiled at the thought of getting some of her bad karma released at the time. "But he couldn't prove anything. Not that anyone bothered to check. He sounded like a lunatic, so they let him keep talking."
"What happened to him?" Ian asked.
"He's in prison for another year or so," Mira said, not wanting to think of the day the man would be set free.
"But no one did anything about what he was saying?" Ian asked, unwilling to let it go.
"No," Mira said as she tried to keep her temper. She really didn't want to think about her college years. "I think he started out in the mental ward at prison, but I heard he was only there for a short time. He must have shut up at some point."
Ian didn't ask anything else, but he still didn't look very happy.
Gabriel broke the tense silence before it could build up steam. "So, we're seeing William and Martin. I'll pay, then we can go."
He reached for the check and bumped a glass of water. It wouldn't be right to say the water went everywhere as the glass fell—its direction was absolute.
Straight into Mira's lap.
"Oh, shit," Gabriel said, grabbing napkins to try and stop at least some of the spill, but it was too late. His face was turning red. "I'm sorry."
Mira tried not to sigh and counted herself lucky that it had only been water. "It's no big deal. I'll just... go clean up." Mira tried not to slide across the seat so she wouldn't get wetter, and then made a beeline to the restrooms, relieved to find hand dryers.
Once she was as dry as she could get without taking off her clothes, she joined Gabriel and Ian. The mad dash to the car outside wasn't fast enough for Mira, who was really feeling the chill.
In the car, she shivered in the back seat, keeping her discomfort to herself.
"I'm sorry again," Gabriel said, glancing at her in the rear-view mirror.
"It's my own bad luck. No big deal."
"Do you want to make a trip to Emmit's?"
"It's too far out of the way. Don't worry about it. I'll dry."
Gabriel looked as though he was going to say more, but Ian cut in. "Where are we going first?"
"We'll go see William," Gabriel said. "He lives with his parents, right?"
"Yes," Mira said.
"We can talk to them as well," Gabriel said. "Are they witch hunters as well?"
"Yeah, the witch hunter trait runs in families. Not always, but most of the time."
"But William’s human, isn’t he?" Ian asked. "In the same way Barney, Sally, and John are?
"Yes." Mira was surprised to find that talking about Sally didn't hurt quite as much as it previously had. Her friend, in the way Mira had known her, was slipping away.
If the others sensed her melancholy mood, they kept it to themselves.
When they pulled up in front of William's house, Mira had second thoughts about what she was doing. William was a friend. Sure he was closer to Tyler than to her, but he was still a friend. She knew what this might look like—the witch blaming the witch hunter.
She had to remind herself that it wasn't like that. Mira wasn't bringing the detectives here to interrogate him, only to get more information.
It wasn't until she had that sorted in her head that Mira was ready to follow Gabriel and Ian's lead and exit the car. As soon as she got out of the car, the two detectives headed straight for the door, talking low enough that she couldn't hear.
At the porch, Gabriel stopped and turned to Mira. "Be careful on the ice." He took two steps toward her before losing his own footing and sliding into Mira, knocking them both to the ground.
Mira ended up on her back in the snow with her limbs tangled together with Gabriel's.
"Smooth," Ian chuckled. "Anyone hurt?"
Gabriel sighed and pushed himself up to his knees. "This doesn't work well if I'm the one you need to be protected from."
Mira sat up. She had landed softly in the snow and didn't mind finding herself on the ground with Gabriel. She smiled inwardly at the idea and let Gabriel pull her to her feet.
"Are you all right?" Gabriel asked.
"Yeah," Mira said, happy she could say that without lying to him. She brushed the snow off herself before joining Ian at the door.
Before Ian could knock, William was at the door. "Hi, I thought I heard someone outside." He opened the door wide. "Come in."
Mira dusted the last of the snow off her and kicked some of it off her boots as well before following the others inside.
"I have to say," William continued as he led them farther into the living room, "I'm surprised to see you all here."
"Sorry to stop in unexpectedly," Mira said. "It's nice to see a friendly face."
William gave her a wary smile. "Dad mentioned that you were having trouble with some of the witches. Everything okay?"
"As well as can be expected," Mira said. "It'll sort itself out soon." She wished fervently that she could believe what she said.
Apparently, Gabriel did as well. He was developing an odd tick each time she lied. It was as though he was trying to hide a wince by blinking rapidly.
"Can I get you all anything?" William asked.
"No, thank you," Ian said. "We just wanted to ask you a few questions."
"I still haven't seen Barney. Any word?" William asked. He gestured for them to sit
Mira wanted to tell him that Barney was safe, but the seer was in hiding and the fewer people that knew where he was the better.
"Actually, we're hoping you can tell us a little more about John," Ian said.
William’s concerned smile seemed to freeze on his face. "I'm not sure what I can tell you that you don't already know."
"Were you friends with John?" Ian asked.
William shifted. "I thought I was. I'm still having a hard time believing he's the one behind all this."
Mira felt sorry for William as the detectives peppered him with questions. It was interesting to see Ian asking most of the questions and seeing that each time William lied, Gabriel was able to add a few follow up questions that had William filling in more details. Mira could tell he was trying to distance himself from the memory of John.
She didn't blame him.
It wasn't until the questions came around to Sally that Mira also grew uncomfortable.
"They had some sort of falling out," William said when they asked if John and Sally were friends. "It happened months before Sally died, though. John never told me what happened, but he didn't like her afterward. After a few weeks passed they were at least able to be civil to each other."
"And you don't know what they fell out over?" Gabriel pressed.
"He never said, but I think it had to do with John starting to hang out with other people in the community," William said.
"What makes you think that?" Gabriel asked.
William shrugged. "He never really spent time with other supernaturals outside of the meetings. But around the time John and Sally started not getting along, John was spending time with Don."
"Who's Don?" Ian asked.
"I don't know his last name," William admitted. "He's one of the coven witches. They don't like being around me much."
"Were you surprised to see John become friends with the witches?" Ian asked.
William thought about that for a while. "John talked with pretty much everyone
at the meetings, but I had never known him to be friends with any of the other supernaturals in everyday life. That could just be me, though. We weren't really close, and I've only known him for a few years."
Mira was starting to feel uncomfortable hearing William talk about John in almost friendly terms. She was having a hard time picturing him any other way than what he had been that moment he’d shot Emmit in her apartment. To her, John was a monster even before he was possessed by one.
It was also difficult to see William become more and more uncomfortable. He was obviously relieved when the detectives were ready to go.
The only other thing he said to Mira was goodbye, and that seemed half-hearted. It was disheartening to see her ring of friends getting smaller.
She wondered briefly what it would be like when Tyler woke up. Even if he decided to side with the witches and not talk to her, she'd still like to see him open his eyes.
"We have the name Don," Ian said when they were back in the car. While Gabriel drove, Ian flipped through his notes. "I think I've seen the name Donald. Mira, does it sound familiar?"
"Not to me. Robin or Mr. Singer would know," Mira said.
"This might be him," Ian said, scanning the page. "Sybil's brother. His middle name is Donald."
"Let's call Mr. Singer and see if there's anyone else by the name," Gabriel said. "We can swing around and see Don tomorrow."
Traffic around them grew slower as they entered the smaller city streets.
"That leaves Martin for tonight," Ian said.
"We can drop Mira off first," Gabriel said.
"Are you sure?" Mira was surprised that she was being dropped off so soon.
"He's human," Ian reminded her. "You don't have to stick around for this one."
Mira had thought it would be her and Gabriel dropping Ian off tonight, not the other way around.
Honks bounced and echoed off the surrounding buildings as traffic came to a stop.
Mira leaned forward to see what was causing the issue. "Was there an accident?"
"Looks like," Ian said. "There's someone on scene."
Much like Levi's neighborhood, there weren't many people outside. Except for the cars and the people near the intersection ahead, the sidewalks appeared empty.
Spellbound Murder Complete Trilogy (Spellbound Murder Box Set Book 1) Page 57