Author: A. L. Kessler
Category: Paranormal
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Merick and I got out of the Hummer and started toward the stairway entrance. A woman was at the bottom of the stairs, fighting with the door.
“Stupid, fucking, key,” she muttered and twisted the key and tried shoving the door open.
“Um, hi,” I said and gave a small wave.
She turned around and pegged me with a stare. “Go away.”
“My uncle sent me here to talk to someone about some information.”
The woman motioned to her door. “If you can get this open, we can talk.”
I chuckled and walked down the stairs. I gave the key a little jiggle, turned it almost all the way before twisting the knob and turning the key at the same time. It swung open, and she rushed past me to disarm the alarm.
“Thank you. What’s your uncle’s name?”
“Oliver Macintosh.”
“Abigail,” the woman said without any emotion in her voice. She looked me up and down. “You’re taller than I thought you’d be, and well… honestly, a bit more well-mannered than your uncle.”
Interesting. Oliver had wonderful manners unless… ”You pissed him off didn’t you?”
“He came in here demanding information on someone a year or so back. I told him to piss off, and he threatened me.” She shrugged.
“Yet he sent me to you for information?”
She gave me an odd smile over her shoulder. “We made up.”
“Luckily for me.”
She led us further into the club, and I looked around at the black walls and tiled black floors. It looked pretty big, but I was sure it would feel smaller when people were dancing around.
“I’m Sasha. I run this place, and I run messages between here and people in the underground.”
“Can you get me to someone in the underground who knows about Elementals?”
Her eyes flashed for a moment. “Depends on why you want to. Are you hunting them?”
I shook my head. “No, actually, I’m trying to hunt down a threat to them. We have at least one victim that is an elemental and agent gunghoe on putting another known one in containment.”
She hesitated slightly. “They won’t trust you if you go to them. Look.” She rubbed her eyes. “I can send someone a message for you and have them contact you, but I cannot lead you to them.”
“That’s the best I’m going to get, I’ll take it.” I didn’t give her my PIB card, instead I pulled one of her cards off the bar and scribbled my name on it and handed to her. “Thank you.”
She eyed the number and then looked at me. “I know you’re PIB. They won’t trust you.”
“I’m not working this as PIB. I can’t tell you my reasoning without giving away secrets.”
She nodded and tucked the napkin into her back pocket. “Okay, Abigail.” She motioned to the door. “Now go, I need to do inventory before tonight, and there’s a lot of liquor to go through.”
I nodded, and Merick and I went back to the Hummer. I sat in the driver’s seat. “Guess I should drop this off at the shop.”
“Probably, it needs some love.”
That was putting it lightly.
“I’ll pop you back home and then you can do what you can from there.”
I wrinkled my nose. “I do still have Ross’s files at my house. I can go through those.”
“Hopefully, Liz finishes at the morgue soon and can update you on that.”
I nodded. “I’m not thrilled. How Liz talked, the girl wasn’t in danger of dying. We were waiting for her to wake up.”
“Do you think foul play?”
“Yes. Ross was there trying to take me back into custody and the woman was screaming about her daughter dying?”
“You think Ross did it somehow?”
“She was hunting something, and I think that’s elementals.” I shivered at the thought.
Merick was quiet for a moment after I started the engine. He said nothing until I pulled on to the street. “How many elementals do you think are around here?”
“I don’t think it’s just here. The napkins and menus she gathered were from all over the US. I don’t think this is an isolated thing.”
Merick picked up his coffee from the cup holder. “I’m going to check Cult records. See if any of ours have gone missing.”
I never even thought about the Cult having Elementals, but it made sense since they were a collection of misfits in and of themselves. “Let me know what you find.”
We dropped the Hummer off at the shop and Merick brought me back home to go through the evidence box again. I settled down on the couch and started pulling stuff out while he made coffee.
My phone rang, and I answered it without looking at the screen. “Special Agent Collins speaking.”
“Hey, Abby,” Simon’s voice was low and horse.
“Simon.” My breath caught in my throat. I wasn’t sure if I’d ever be hearing his voice again, and suddenly all the emotions came back. “You’re awake.”
“For a little bit, yeah. I have a lot of recovering to do, and we do a lot of it either in wolf form or sleeping.” He sounded exhausted, pausing between every couple words.
I took a deep breath. “Simon, I’m so sorry. I never meant for you to get hurt like this.”
“Abby, stop, please. We both knew the risks of me being part of your security team and one of Levi’s allies. I wanted to let you know I was awake and healing. It’ll be a week or so before I can leave pack lands. The full moon will help. I’d like for you to come up for that.”
I pressed my lips together. “Travis doesn’t want me on pack grounds right now.”
Simon was quiet for a moment. “Travis blames you for this?”
“He hasn’t talked to you then?”
“No, he’s been calming the pack, doing his duties. I figured he’ll be down tonight to chat.”
“Yeah, well, he’s not happy with me. I don’t really blame him. Look, you need to focus on healing. If I can, and if Travis allows it, I’ll come up for the full moon.” I hesitated a little. “I love you.”
“I love you too, Abby. I’ll see you for the full moon.” He disconnected the call, and I sat there staring at my phone for a moment.
Merick came in and handed me a mug. “Having second thoughts about him?”
“Just the situation. I love him, but I keep hearing Travis’ words in my head.”
Merick just hmmed for a second and then sat in a chair. “Let him heal and keep him away from Samuel for a bit. You need to figure out Ross and Samuel.”
My phone buzzed, and I looked at the message. “Ugh, and apparently a council meeting tonight.” I leaned my head back.
“A busy life, being both PIB and Princess.” Merick sipped his coffee. “When are you going to sleep?”
“Meeting isn’t until sundown. I’ll have time after dinner to take a nap.” I went back to the files in front of me. “I’ve gone through this stuff twice now.”
“Nothing new?”
I shook my head. “No, not right now at least. Nothing that’s jumping out.”
“Then look at it from a new angle. You traced her trail?”
“Not physically. I have the locations written down.”
“Get out a map.” Merick shrugged. “I have to go make a couple phone calls. Maybe I’ll turn up some more information for you.”
It always came down to a map. I nodded. “Thanks for the coffee.”
“Of course, there’s more in the pot if you want it.”
We both knew I would. I went and grabbed the map and spread it out on the coffee table.
Slowly, I started putting dots where Ross had traveled and stopped for at least food. I drew a line between each location. Next, I went through the notes of the hotels we knew she visited, but it only added two more cities than what I had before. It was a good start, but I wanted to see if there were places in between that she hadn’t made notes using stationary from the location.
I pulled out my computer and sent in a formal request for Ross’s credi
t card statements and cell phone records. I sent the case number in with it as well. Chances were, it’d come back with a request for a warrant, but then I’d send it off to O’Donald to see if I could get it.
Merick walked back in and looked at the map. “You’ve been busy.”
“Yeah, have any news from the Cult for me?”
“We’ve had three new members disappear recently. Each high priest wrote them off as scared because they were young. They figured they slipped back into the shadows.”
He grabbed a black marker and put three dots on the map. “Here, here, and here.” Each one lined up with a place that Ross had been.
“It has to be her. There’s nothing that says otherwise.”
“You also haven’t asked around enough to see if there are any other suspects. I feel like you might just be after her because she has something against you.”
I leaned back and thought for a moment. Was that the case? After a few moments I realized he was right, I was being narrow minded. “Okay, so we dig a little deeper.” I glanced at my watch. A little after noon.
“I’m going to eat lunch and make some phone calls.” And hoped that someone from the club that could lead me to some better answers called me tonight.
I stood from the couch and stretched. Merick walked to the kitchen with me, and we both paused when the doorbell rang.
“Can’t be someone with intent to harm, not even a spark of magic.”
That was true. I looked through the peephole of the door. Liz stood there with a folder in her arms. I unarmed the alarm and let her in.
“I was expecting a call from you, not a house visit.”
She shrugged. “I got both autopsy reports for you while I was talking with Jason. I wanted to bring them down so you can tell me something about the marks.”
“Runes?” Merick asked from behind me.
“No, fire, scorch marks.”
“You need to talk to the fire marshal, I’m not an expert on paths.”
“Jason did, and the marshal said that the burn marks looked unnatural, but not like an accelerant was used.”
I wrinkled my nose. “I’ll look and see, but I’m not sure if I can tell you if an elemental did them or what.”
Liz shrugged. “All I can ask. Well, that and the ones on the ground from the woods. Do you think you can try to reproduce that? Without the victim, of course.”
I nodded. “Yeah, I can try to do that. I don’t think it was much different from the fire circle I used before.”
“Good, let’s eat, and then we’ll go over the files.” Liz jerked her head to the coffeepot. “You’ll want a fresh pot. This may take us a bit.”
Liz laid out the pictures of the body from the forest. “So, the official cause of death was suffocation. Jason thinks because of the smoke.”
I wrinkled my nose. “But this guy was probably alive for the burning.”
“Hopefully unconscious, but that means my original thought was right.” Liz sighed. “You said you’ve never seen a circle do this to someone?”
“Not one of mine. Mine are mostly a threat since I don’t kill people with magic.”
“Mason is bringing the Petersons in for questioning to see if they have any idea who might have been on their land.”
“Might want to ask them about those blood-starved vampires too,” I muttered.
Liz nodded and then switched files. “Now, the little girl, Lisa, her cause of death was a heart attack.”
Wait, what? I shook my head. “She was too young to worry about heart attacks.”
“Yes, the doctors think that something went wrong and are reviewing the charts with us to see if we can pinpoint what happened.”
“They’ll be facing a malpractice lawsuit if they find anything. I don’t think Martha is going to forgive something like that.” Images of the hospital in flames crossed my mind, and I moved Martha to the list of suspects for the other murders. She was the only other fire elemental around that I knew of and was involved in the case, but why would she harm her own daughter?
“They’ll be facing a lot more than that, I think.” Liz shook her head. “The girl could have been the key to breaking this case open.”
“Do we have footage of who came in and out of her room to visit?”
Liz nodded. “It’s going to take some time to go through it, plus all the visitor logs.”
“Okay, that’s going to be our starting point. Let me get some coffee, and we’ll see what we can find out about our victims.”
I got up and Liz’s phone rang a moment later. I didn’t stay to listen, but went and poured myself a mug and fix the coffee. When I got back, she was shaking her head and laughing to herself.
“What was that about?”
“Nick wanted to know why your coffee was poisoned and got pissed when I couldn’t tell him. So now he thinks we’re handling a different case without him.”
“We’re handling the elemental case without him.”
“Not quite. All those boxes he’s going through? Those are previous cases that PIB could link to Elementals, so he’s helping in that way.”
“You should have just told him I was suspicious of my coffee and wanted it tested.”
“O’Donald doesn’t want him privy to a bunch of information. Besides that, you’re now classified information, remember?”
I wrinkled my nose. “I shouldn’t be. Levi is out as king, and most of that secrecy was to keep people in the dark about who he was.”
“A lot of those cases are still sealed.”
“Woohoo, I’m classified now.” I twirled a finger. “Anyway, the coffee was poisoned then?”
“Well, he said poison. The report said unknown additive.”
Well, that was never good. “I’m glad that Mario could warn me about it then.” Of course, he probably suffered at the hands of Hannah for that. I rubbed my eyes, trying not to think about it. I didn’t want to think about what either of them were going through.
“Abby?”
I shook my head. “My guess was that they wanted to sedate me so that it would be easier to convince me to go with them.”
“What did they want?”
“For me to go study under them.” I shuddered. “Oliver spoke once of the things that Ira and Hannah had him do. He said it gave him nightmares.”
Liz was quiet for a moment. “Hard to think about your uncle doing something that gives him nightmares.”
I nodded. “Yeah.”
“Okay, refocus.”
My phone rang right as I reached for the file. I raised a brow. “Nick’s calling.”
She motioned for me to answer it.
“What’s up, Nick?”
“Where the fuck is my file?”
I was quiet for a moment. “I have no idea what file you’re talking about.”
I glanced at Liz and she had some odd smirk on her face, but I didn’t dare ask about it right now.
“There was a file in my desk drawer about my dad and now it’s gone. You are the only person I would know that would want that file.”
“Nick, I haven’t been in Liz’s office and I certainly didn’t touch your desk and take a file.”
He let out a growl and disconnected the phone and I looked at Liz. “What on earth?”
“Sounds like O’Donald found what he was looking for.”
I snorted. “At my expense.”
“Nick will realize that it wasn’t you. He knows you’re not one for sneaking around other people’s offices.”
That was true. I stayed in my own office. It was protected, no one else’s was. “I’m sure I’ll be getting that file from O’Donald.”
“Oh, I’m sure.”
It would be pretty awesome if I also got some warrants for the house they kept us in too. Though I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go back there or not.
Liz tapped the file in front of her. “Back to this one.”
“I have a map of where Ross has been. I want to see if our victims had travel
ed there recently and who might have been with them.”
“Let’s get to work. We have one identified. I’ll work through missing persons to see if we can identify the other one.”
I sent Martha an email with locations to see if she could tell me if Lisa had traveled at all. Liz’s phone rang a few minutes into her search.
“Special Agent Jefferson speaking.” She pushed away from her laptop and leaned back on the couch. “Yes please, send over the videos. I’ll have our tech person look at them. Thank you.” She hung up the phone and looked at me. “The security team at the hospital thinks someone tampered with the footage outside Lisa’s room.”
I locked my jaw. “That means someone didn’t want to be seen.”
“Exactly. I don’t like it.”
“Me either. I want the footage of the trail cam from the Petersons as soon as we can.”
“I’ll shoot Mason a text and see how soon we can get it.”
“Thank you, there’s something weird going on with this. What about the visitor logs for the hospital?”
“I haven’t heard anything back on those yet.”
I didn’t like that. The paper logs should have been easier to go through than the video footage, quicker as well, but maybe they didn’t say anything because they didn’t know what names to look for. “Are they going to send them to you?”
“Yeah.”
So all we could do was wait. My email dinged as a new one arrived. Martha had answered me and listed dates for the three places they had been, including the name of the hotels they stayed at. I read over the email.
“Martha and Lisa had been traveling for a sports club, and they hit three of the same locations as Ross, and it looks like possibly the same hotels.”
“I’ll have Nick call hotels to see if they were at the same hotels on the same dates. See if Martha will let you know who else was on that sports team.”
I nodded as I was already mid-email back to Martha. Liz pulled her laptop closer, and I assumed she was sending Nick an email, because neither one of us wanted to talk to him in person in his current mood.
CHAPTER TEN