Shadow Magic, page 9
“I assume from her name that she married?”
Granny carried our empty dishes over to the sink to wash them. “When she was thirty-five. They never had any children, and she ended up being responsible for a lot of advances in technology. She insisted on going by her married name. One time she told me that it had taken her so long to find someone who would marry her—back then being smart wasn’t a virtue in a woman—that she sure as hell was using the title.”
“Well,” I said. “That’s quite the story.”
“But she can be mean, and that’s why I tend to stay away from her. But her birthday was Monday, so I made her lemon meringue pie and took it over to share with her. She doesn’t have many friends. Her husband died twenty-some years ago. She’s alone in the world, and for someone who gave the world so much, that doesn’t seem right.” Granny gave me one of those looks that strongly suggested I make friends with Mrs. Bronhurst, even though I didn’t want to.
“All right, I’ll manage to bump into her, and I’ll spend some time with her.”
“I think you’ll have more in common with her than I do,” Granny said. “And now, I’m for bed. Turn off the lights and make sure everything’s locked up before you head up to your room.”
I sat in the kitchen for a while longer, thinking over the evening. The cats were happy and seemed settled. And the story of Mrs. Bronhurst kept playing through my mind as I checked the doors, made sure the stove was off, and climbed the stairs to my bedroom.
Granny let me sleep in, and when I checked, I discovered she’d already fed the kittens. I was still in my robe when I brought them into my bedroom to hang out. Midnight was complaining that they wanted to explore the house, and I tried to appease her by promising that it would only be a day or two longer until we managed to make sure everything was safe for them, but that elicited a cat’s version of a raspberry. But she still let me pet her and both of them fell asleep on my bed after we had a rousing game of red-dot toy and chase-me/chase-you.
I carried them back to their room and neither one woke up more than to squint at me during the process. Making certain their fountain was full and their food was still plentiful, I scooped the box and then headed back to my room to get dressed.
I fixed myself a cup of tea and settled down at the kitchen table with the files. The files were thicker than I expected. But then, I wasn’t used to dealing with all the minutia of a case. When I was with the agency, I would receive a detailed mission, but all the background information had already been parsed and summed up for me. I was dealing with raw data here, the notes taken by the cops as they found the bodies.
Since she was the most current, I decided to start with Patricia’s case. Her file wasn’t as thick. The first thing I noticed was that none of her family or friends had been interviewed yet.
I glanced over her statistics. This was her first marriage, although it was her husband’s third. Since he was a shifter and she was human, he was quite a bit older than she was, and he had stepped outside his pack to marry her.
He was a wolf shifter, which seemed odd. Shifters and vampires didn’t get along well, not usually, so if he did have a vampire mistress, then he was bucking the odds. Patricia was twenty-eight, and human. Her husband, Reginald, was well over two hundred and fifty. Which meant he was on the other slope of middle age, even for shifters.
I sat back, thinking. What was an aging wolf shifter doing with a twenty-eight-year-old human to begin with? Most wolf packs did not approve of intermarriage. What could he offer her? Was she a gold digger? Or had she truly fallen in love with him?
Picking up my phone, I dialed Granny at the shop. “Do you know how long Patricia was married to Reginald? And do you remember when they got married? Did his family object since she was human?”
Granny paused, then said, “Hold on a moment. I’m slammed down here. Let me call you back in a few minutes when I can take a look at the ledger. By the way, those pumpkin spice pomanders you made? We’re almost out of them. People absolutely love them. Do you think you’d have time to work up a few more?”
“I can do that. Problem is, I’m going to need a whole bunch more mini pumpkins and fresh cloves from the farmers market. I wasn’t planning on coming downtown today, so either we drive to Bliss Farm tonight…or…if you could pick them up on the way home?”
“I’ll pick them up. And I’ll call you back in a few minutes when things calm down a little.”
I set my phone down again, and sipped my apple cinnamon tea. As I was going through the files, jotting down notes that seemed significant, I heard a sudden whoosh in back of me and then a light laughter.
“Hi, Dominique. What’s up?” I had gotten used to Dominique’s sudden appearances, and also her voice. She had talked to me when I was young, but that had been a long time ago.
They’re adorable. I love them. I wanted you to know that I’ll take care of them as best as I can when you’re gone. I can’t actually feed them or pet them, but I can talk to them. And I can let Granny know if something’s wrong. She can’t hear me the way you do, but I can alert her when something is amiss. We’ve had that bond ever since she was my ward.
“Does it seem strange, being here now? Since you were her nanny, when she was little? So much has changed since then.”
Sometimes, yes. And I do keep track of what’s going on in the world. To be honest with you, I’m grateful I don’t have to deal with the realities of living in this world, in terms of functioning in it. It’s quite different when you look at things from my side of the Veil. I have less of an attachment to it, except for those I care for. I’m less invested in what happens than the living. Although as long as there is someone alive in this world that I care about, I will always have some sort of connection.
I pushed my chair back a little, and put my pen down. “Is there anyone else alive besides Granny that you took care of?”
In a way, but it won’t be long before that person will be joining me.
She seemed reluctant to talk about it, so I backed off of that subject. Another thought occurred to me. “Dominique, can you travel outside the house? I think you told me you could, but I can’t remember. Are you stuck here?” A thought had occurred to me and I wanted to see if it was viable.
Dominique took a moment and I could tell she was thinking over her answer. I can go places if I choose to. There’s a limit to how far I can travel, but I can wander around town if I choose. I am less ghost and more of a spirit guide for Granny. See, even I refer to her by that name. That woman was old when she was a child. Her whole family knew it, and so did I.
“If I took you to the scene of a murder, would you be able to tell me if there are any ghosts there? And if there are, do you think you’d be able to communicate with them?” It suddenly occurred to me that it would be extremely helpful to have a ghost on my side during an investigation. I also wondered if the Crown Magika had ever thought of it. Surely there had to be witch-ghost pairings in the agency.
Dominique hesitated. She showed up as a wispy, translucent version of who she had been as one of the living. Sort of like the old-time film projectors that flickered the faded images on screen. After a moment, she said, I suppose I could. I can try.
“If you’re game, I’d like to give it a go. But first I need to skim through the rest of these files. I’d rather go in with as much information as possible.”
Dominique drifted away from the table. Let me know when you want to go. If you call my name, I’ll be able to hear you.
“Say, if it’s none of my business, tell me, but why didn’t you go through the Veil? Why are you still here?” I had never thought to ask her when I was a teenager, and since I’d been back, the thought hadn’t come up. I didn’t have much experience with ghosts or spirits, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to learn answers to some of the questions I’d had over the years.
Once again Dominique hesitated. Then, she said, Those of us who know we have died are sometimes offered a choice. Don’t ask me who offers it to us—all I know is the option was there when I crossed over. I had the choice to stay for a while, to watch over people I cared about. I decided I wanted to do that. I wasn’t ready to die, but then again, who is? My death wasn’t sudden and I knew it was going to happen, but I felt like I’d left a few things undone in my life. Now, I’m doing what I can make up for that. So, when I do go through the Veil, I’ll be able to move on without regret.
“Does Granny know about this?” I wasn’t sure how much Dominique had talked to Granny. “You said she can’t talk to you like I can?”
To be honest, no. She knows I’m here, and occasionally we can communicate, but nothing on the scale you and I do. I was entirely surprised when you sent up such strong signals.
That confused me. “What do you mean, ‘strong signals’? I wasn’t aware I was sending anything.”
Dominique seemed as shocked as I felt. Are you positive? I thought you were trying to communicate with me. Your curiosity’s everywhere, and I thought you were trying to summon me. Not the usual way that I’m used to, but I felt pulled to talk to you and I thought it was because you wanted to talk to me.
I leaned back in my chair. First the cats, and now Dominique. But the cats were alive, and Dominique wasn’t. “Maybe I should call the Aseer. Granny wants me to. I can talk to the kittens, in a way that she’s never heard of any witch being able to. And now I can talk to you this clearly and I had no idea other people couldn’t.”
What was your ability when you were first assessed by the Aseer?
I thought back, trying to remember the exact wording. It had been thirty-six years.
“The Aseer said that I have a rare form of magic that’s found in less than 10 percent of the witchblood community. I’m very good with precognition and premonitions, but mostly, I can sense things. I can sense when ghosts are around, I can sense when certain shifters and vampires are around, and my magic seems based in the ability to be in the right place at the right time. That stood me in really good stead when I was working for the Crown Magika. I always seemed to stumble into situations with the right equipment, or when the enemy was least prepared. Well, there were a few exceptions, especially when I had the accident. But otherwise, luck’s always been on my side.”
You might find that your accident was actually a positive thing. Sometimes what seems like an interruption turns out to be a wonderful opportunity. I know that sounds like white-light New Age folderol, but it can be true. Maybe you weren’t meant to stay with the Crown Magika. Maybe your path was supposed to veer off to the side. Have you ever thought of that?
Several people through the past few months had mentioned this to me. It’d been irritating and I’d angrily shut them up, but now I wondered, were they right? Was I really supposed to take a different route? I had loved my job so much that it seemed laughable to even consider that I shouldn’t be doing it. But maybe they were right and I was being shortsighted.
“Oh, I meant to ask you, do you prefer being called a ghost or a spirit? Or is there some other term that’s more politically correct?” I didn’t want to offend her.
Dominique cleared her throat. Either, although I tend to use the word spirit. I made a choice to stay. Most ghosts don’t. And I think you should call the Aseer. Meanwhile, why don’t you finish going over those files. Then, if you still want me to go out to one of the crime scenes with you, I’ll do my best. This is the most interesting thing to happen to me in decades.
Laughing, I went back to the files, poring over them for another hour and a half. Then, realizing my stomach was rumbling, I decided to stop for lunch. I left my notebook and files on the table, made myself a turkey sandwich on white with provolone, and—carrying the sandwich and my water bottle—headed upstairs to play with the cats for a while.
CHAPTER TEN
After playing with the cats for a while—Sunshine was happy-go-lucky and laid back, while Midnight was chatty and hyper—I told them I would be back later and, after making sure they had plenty of water and food, I headed back downstairs.
I yawned, stretching, as I approached the table again. Picking up my notes, I sat down to look for anything that might shed light on the case. Even though he had acted blasé, I could sense that Dagda was truly hoping I could help him. While I had come to believe that he was a solid officer, it was easy enough to tell that he had never dealt with a case like this. I could almost smell the fear on him when we were talking about the cases.
In all of the cases, the victims had been found alone, exsanguinated, with only the bite on the thigh to account for it. All of a sudden, I stopped. I flipped back through the various files, searching. Sure enough, I saw no mention of any of the victims’ cars. Most of them have been found out in the woods surrounding one area of the town, and yet none of the cases mentioned finding their cars nearby.
I picked up my phone and call Dagda.
He answered on the second ring. “Hello? Chief Bruin here.”
“It’s Marquette. I have a question for you. I didn’t find any mention of how the victims got to where they were found. There were no signs of any of their cars at any of the murder scenes? And if not, were their cars at home? I’m not noticing a lot of the details filled in.”
He paused, then after a moment, cleared his throat. “I’ll be honest with you. We’ve barely scratched the surface on this situation. We’ve managed to interview a couple of the families, and have the rest on our list, but we’re strained to the limits now. These murders have happened so quickly that it’s thrown us for a loop.”
“So you’re giving me a case that you haven’t even investigated yet? Can’t you get in trouble for that?” I wasn’t sure whether he really could get in trouble, but it seemed odd. I wasn’t part of the police force and—even though I had worked for the Crown Magika—it seemed like a breach of protocol.
“Oh, we’ve taken the evidence and the ME’s on top of things, but I feel like we’re treading water and are about ready to sink. The last tax levy barely paid for the 911 system. Right now, the police aren’t exactly in favor around the nation. I get that. I truly do. There are bad cops out there and unfortunately, they do bad things, like kill innocent people. But taking away the money we have to investigate crimes like murder and rape isn’t going to do anybody any good. Our funding is stretched to the limit.”
I knew he was right. And I understood why he was doing what he was. In fact, if I were in his shoes and I had someone like me available, I’d probably hand over the stack of files as well.
“So, do you want me to interview some of these people? There are some questions I need answers to if you expect me to help. But in order to get those answers, we have to interview their families and friends. For example, why did they find Patricia Henson in Tiger’s Eye Park, and how did she get there? Where is her car? Do you even know that?” I was frustrated, and I was trying not to take it out on him because it really wasn’t his fault.
Dagda let out a sigh. “I suppose I can issue you a special investigator’s license from the department. Then, you’ll be official if you want to investigate the families and interview them. I certainly don’t want to turn down your help. But you do have to be discreet. I’m going to assume you know how, given the cases that you worked on over the past…” He paused.
“Go ahead and say it. Over the past thirty-some years. I went to work for the agency when I turned twenty. It’s been thirty-two years and I don’t lie about my age.” I stifled a laugh.
Dagda snorted. “Well, I would never peg you for fifty-two. I would have believed you if you said forty, but man, you’re in shape and you keep yourself fit. You also don’t seem to have any wrinkles.”
I laughed again. “Remember, I’m witchblood. I work out three times a week minimum, and it used to be five days a week before I hurt myself. I know four forms of martial arts, I can perform parkour with the best of them, and I can kill a man with my thumb to his throat. You don’t spend thirty-two years in the field chasing down vampires without keeping yourself in top condition. That’s what I miss most. That exhilaration when you’re on the chase.”
“I suppose that can help. So, come on down and get your license. I’m swamped and don’t have the time to bring it out.” He sounded tired and I suddenly felt bad for him.
“Sure, I’ll drop down in a little while. I think I’ll have a look at the murder sites first, or at least the dumpsites. I assume you’ve already been over them, but maybe there’s something I can pick up on.” I planned to take Dominique with me, but I wasn’t going to tell Dagda that yet. I could do that later if we found anything new.
“When you visit the families, please be discreet. You can tell them you’re a special investigator doing some quid pro quo work for me.” He paused before the bravado drained out of his voice. “I really appreciate this, Marquette. I’m caught between a rock and a hard place. The budget’s strapped. And…” I heard him sigh. He had been about to say something else.
“What? If you expect me to get tangled up in this, you need to tell me everything. If you expect me to go interview these people, I need to know what I’m getting into. And I need to know everything that I’m dealing with.”
“We found some conflicting evidence. First, as to your question how the victims got to the drop sites, we found absolutely no trace of any tire tracks. Now, it’s been rainy, so you would expect to find at least something in the mud. That’s one checkmark for potential vampire kills. However, my intuition is telling me that’s not what we’re dealing with.” He sounded uncertain.
“Me too. That’s why I’m asking. To be honest, I think this is a setup. Not for the police, but for the vampires. People are skittish about them, and with a good reason. But I can tell you, no rogue vampire I know would ever leave their kills out in the open. I have worked dozens of cases over the years, at least fifteen dealing with rogue vampires. And not one of them left their feeds in an easy-to-find place. Every single victim of a rogue vampire was found by odd chance. Every single victim was well hidden out of sight, or their bodies were destroyed.”
