Casino Witch Mysteries Box Set 2

by Nikki Haverstock

  I grabbed my mug and drank the cool and bitter coffee, getting some gritty grounds in my teeth. The coffee maker was old and probably needed to be replaced, but I was a man of habit and hated change.

  The numbers weren’t making any sense, or rather they made too much sense. Nothing stood out as questionable, but I knew something was wrong. I had had the sense of unease since Isadora’s son died of a Legacy overdose in the parking lot below.

  It wasn’t really a surprise to anyone. He had been on the skids for years, though I had thought he would get his life together before he reached that point. That was when I started pulling together all the information about Legacy.

  Then I remembered some private conversation James and I had before his murder. He was obsessed with Legacy and saw it as a part of a larger conspiracy. Not that he called it a conspiracy. That had been my assessment of his theory. He always thought there was a puppet master behind the scenes, and I had laughed him off at the time. But now…

  I used my channeling stone to unlock a compartment in my desk and pulled out a large leather file folder. On the front was a leather-tooled feather, the same design as what was stamped on the Legacy pills. It held all the information I had gathered, including the notes from my journal about the conversations James and I had shared.

  I gave a cough. My throat was suddenly sore, as were my gums. Probably too many late nights fueled by caffeine. I would flip through my notes then call it a night.

  I was pulling out a file with James’s name on it when the door opened, and a man entered.

  “What are you—” I cut myself off when a splitting headache stopped me cold. A wave of sickness rolled over me, and I realized what I had thought were grounds in my coffee was probably the base of a poison potion. With my final breath, the clues came together. “You’re behind Legacy,” I accused the hazy figure.

  There was a low chuckle. “And much more.”

  I slid to the floor, unable to catch my breath. First there was panic and fear. I did not want to leave my daughter behind. But then there was peace, knowing that I would be reunited in the afterlife with the wife I loved.

  Then there was darkness.

  CHAPTER TWO

  The drive with Bear was a short one. He had received a call from one of his security clients that the manager at one of their properties was dead and they wanted him to look it over. It was a few miles from Golden Pyramid Casino, where we had been, but things looked dramatically different than the bright lights of the Avenue.

  The strip mall was nothing compared to the glitter of the casinos on the Avenue, but the parking lot was clean and brightly lit. The stores, with their large windows and attractive signs, would probably be popular when they were open. Most were closed now.

  Peeking out from behind the strip mall was a small apartment complex. Probably only a dozen tenants there or maybe more if the families contained were particularly prolific. Nothing about the location screamed potential murder site.

  Bear had caught me up on the situation as we sat in the car. The dead landlord had been responsible for the tenants of the retail stores and the small apartment complex located behind the building. The landlord was found dead in his office when the owner of the karate studio tried to drop off his rent between classes.

  I got out of the car, pulled my jacket around me, and fastened the large glass buttons on my coat, which were meant to look pretty rather than be functional though they would do in a pinch. I was glad I had thought to grab it from the coat check at the casino, as the evening had turned from a little chilly to freezing. Winter was coming.

  There were more stores than I had expected, at least a dozen, but I couldn’t see anything beyond the flower store next to the office.

  A man stood guard at the door. He wasn’t particularly tall or bulky, but something in the way he stood told me that he was solid muscle. If someone took Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris and perfectly split the difference, it would make the man that stood in front of us. I was sure he could take on a horde of evil minions with one hand tied behind his back. As we approached the open office door, the man subtly shifted his weight, not blocking the door but making it clear that we needed to address him before entering.

  Bear slowed and faced the man. “Are you David Anno? I’m Lou Freeman of Freeman Security.” He offered his hand.

  The man shook Bear’s hand. At the moment of contact, I felt a quick pop of magic. Whatever spell the man had cast, his face smoothed a little as a small amount of tension around his eyes dropped. “Call me Dave. I run the martial arts studio. I need to return to my classes.”

  After Dave left, I asked Bear about the spell.

  “Not sure but I think it was just to check that I was who I said I was. He’s a cautious man.”

  “Oh, duh!” I had learned the spell but hadn’t used it. Every time I thought I was nailing my training, something would pop up to show me how far I had to go. “Not a real friendly guy. This place is a mess. Police? Federal Order?”

  Every single surface was covered with stuff: files, plants, empty mugs, plates of half-eaten food. There were mystery stains on the carpeting that looked like no one had even attempted to clean them up before they dried into crusty debris. The air was heavy with dust and an odor that turned my stomach.

  There were filing cabinets that must have been mostly empty given how many files were spread in piles on the desk and floor. The desk was overflowing. The only thing clear was the chair behind the desk.

  “Ned was very messy,” Bear said by way of explanation. “I had to come here every so often, and it always looked like some variation of this. I think the owner sent out a cleaning crew from time to time because sometimes the stains would move between visits. I guess he just didn’t care. The human police have ruled it death by natural causes. The Federal Order said they will assign an investigator, but we all know that is code for ‘Give us some money, or this case will get shuffled to the bottom of the pile and never seen again.’”

  Patagonia leaped up onto the desk, knocking a full mug of some sludgy liquid onto the floor.

  I jumped back but not before it hit my leather boots. Grabbing a semiclean napkin, I blotted the liquid off my foot before it could stain. “The police think it’s natural causes, but the Federal Order don’t? And you don’t?”

  “For the right bribe, the Federal Order doesn’t care. They think it was a robbery because of this.” He nudged an empty cash box on the ground with his foot. I had missed it with all the junk scattered about. “But that doesn’t really add up. I don’t think he kept much in there except rent, and that was mostly in checks. But I’m not sure what I think. That’s why I brought you. Why not just break in when he wasn’t here? If it was a random stranger, then why go to all the effort and risk to use magic to kill him?”

  His phone rang, and after looking at the screen, his eyebrows flew up. He answered the phone, but before speaking into it, he turned to me. “Why don’t you do your reading while I take this?”

  Patagonia came to my side and pressed into me as I closed my eyes.

  It came to me bright and clean, a fresh vision that immediately confirmed that magic had been responsible for Ned’s death. He was already sitting in his chair, the mess around him familiar. He was reading a wine catalog when he reached out to grab his mug and took a sip. He placed it back on the table, and I realized it was the same mug that Patagonia had spilled a moment earlier. He continued to read before suddenly he grabbed his chest. His face went red, and he thumped a fist to his chest, then he slumped forward on his desk, and the vision faded.

  I opened my eyes and swayed a little unsteadily. Something seemed off. The vision had been short, much shorter than any I had seen. Not only that but I hadn’t seen a single clue. I closed my eyes and watched it again. Now that I had seen the vision, it would always be in my head waiting. Reviewing it, I found nothing new.

  Something was off, but I wasn’t sure what. While I thought, I tipped the mug right side up. Inside were
a few drops of the liquid, and maybe Bear could have it analyzed for the remnants of a spell.

  He slid back in the door, closing it behind him. “What did you find?”

  “Who called?”

  “You first.”

  I blew out a sigh. “I could pick up a vision, so his death was caused by magic. He was sitting in his chair, reading that wine magazine.” I pointed to a magazine on the floor. “He drank from this mug then grabbed his chest and died.”

  He waited for me to continue. “And?”

  “And what? That’s it.”

  “Did you sense any magic? What was the aura like? What did he feel? Come on, Ella. You know how this goes.”

  The pieces slid into place. “Hold on.” I closed my eyes to replay the vision, and it was obvious now that I knew what to look for. “I’m not getting any of that. No emotion. No magic. No aura. Maybe it’s not magic after all. Can I see visions if someone dies of natural causes?” My mind was spinning a mile a minute, trying to work out what this meant.

  He was slow to respond. “I don’t think that’s how it works. The magic is what imprints the death on a location, but maybe if there were strong magic… but you said you aren’t picking up any magic auras in the vision?”

  I shook my head. “Nothing. I’m not sure what that means.”

  “Me neither.” His phone beeped with a text message, and he checked it.

  “Who called?”

  He perked up. “Good news. Guess who just landed at the airport?”

  I thought of Thomas instantly, and my heart skipped a beat before my brain caught up. Thomas would never call Bear. In fact, I wasn’t sure if the two of them had ever met, and I had certainly never mentioned Bear or anyone connected to my training to Thomas.

  My heart was still thumping on adrenaline as I tried to think of who could possibly be flying in when I remembered who I had been waiting a year to meet. I bounced up and down while squealing. “Your great-great-aunt Colleen? Is she finally here?”

  “Yes, she just landed and will be meeting us at the Golden Pyramid Casino. She needs to greet the marshal and wants to say hello to a few other people, and since they are all at Vin and Tiffany’s pre-wedding party, she decided to meet us there.”

  “Let’s go!” I grabbed his arm and tried to drag him to the door. Colleen was a Monza and so far my only chance at getting answers to my questions.

  “Hold on. We aren’t done here. Is this the magazine he was reading?” He lifted it up off the table.

  “Yes, yes.” I thrust the mug into his hand. “And this is what he was drinking. I figured you would want to see if there was a potion mixed in there. Now let’s go!” I trotted for the door, tripping over Patagonia on the way.

  I couldn’t even get mad. Instead I scooped her into my arms and spun her around. She showed her emotions by biting my wrist when I slowed down enough for her to get her bearings. I had gotten quite used to her playful and not-so-playful bites and scratches. They always healed quickly without a scar, one of the benefits of her not being a real cat.

  What she really was was a mystery to me. She certainly looked like a cat and often acted like a cat, but there was no doubt that she was more, literally. She had grown since we were bonded together. I had been suspicious for a while, but since she avoided the camera like it was going to steal her soul, I couldn’t confirm it until recently.

  She had always been obsessed with a tassel that dangled from a lamp in the corner of my loft. She would stand on her toes and bat at it but had been at least a hand’s width short. Last week I had heard a plaintive meow from across the loft. I discovered her standing on the tips of her toes, one claw caught in the very end of the tassel. Once I confirmed that the tassel hadn’t stretched or lowered, I finally had concrete proof that she was longer than when we first met.

  She had been an adult cat then, and she had waited for years for her mage to come along, probably part of the reason that she stuck to my side a lot more than most familiars. But why was she growing?

  With more effort than it would normally take, and a dramatic grunt, I stood up. It was a question for another day as she walked to the door of the office.

  I followed Patagonia for a few steps before scooping her in my arms. I wanted to hold her close to me, and after a few seconds of fighting, she resigned herself to the contact and purred. My stomach was in knots at the idea of meeting Colleen. What if she didn’t like me? What if she didn’t have the answers to all my questions?

  “Hold up.” Bear stepped between me and the door. “I would like you to investigate this.”

  “Me? Why not you?”

  He gave me a level stare. “I will help as well, but this is what you do best. And it’ll help you.”

  I grunted. We had had this argument before, and I knew he was right in theory. Investigating murders gave me a great deal of satisfaction but also increased my skills. I debated for a minute. “Okay, you’re right normally, but not this time. With Colleen coming into town, I really need to focus on that. Once she agrees to train me, then maybe I can help out. But in the meantime, I think you should lead the investigation. I didn’t even find anything useful in my vision, so it’s not like I have an advantage you don’t. Can we go now?” I bounced on my toes, barely able to contain my excitement. Patagonia bit me on the shoulder and growled, but she couldn’t have been too upset because she didn’t break the skin this time.

  He let out a little chuckle and opened the door. “Fair enough. Let’s go.”

  I bounded out through the door and trotted to the car. I let Patagonia in first then shoved her into the back seat despite her protests.

  When Bear got the car into reverse, he still looked worried.

  I buckled my seat belt with an exaggerated motion and helped Patagonia settle into my lap. “I bet it was natural causes. He probably had a weak heart and was using some black market weight-loss spells. I’m sure it will be a simple case, and you won’t miss me at all.”

  He grunted as he pulled onto the street. “Famous last words.”

  CHAPTER THREE

  On the drive back to the hotel for Vin and Tiffany’s pre-wedding party, my nerves ramped up. Bear ran over some reminders about his great-great-aunt Colleen, who preferred to be called Colleen because “Great-Great-Aunt makes her feel ancient.” He was unsure of her exact age, but he was sure it was well over one hundred and twenty years. Mages had much longer life spans if they could avoid being killed by a rival, and mage females often had children later in life.

  Colleen was his favorite relative though he hadn’t seen her in a decade. They kept in touch through letters, phone calls, texts, and the occasional email though Colleen was suspicious of technology and claimed that for every email that made it through, two were eaten by the internet.

  Right as we entered the party, Bear grabbed my arm and pulled me aside. “There’s one last thing.”

  I listened with half an ear as I scanned the crowd, looking for the unfamiliar face of a mage well into her second century of life. Patagonia stretched up onto her hind legs and used my hip as a scratching post. I tried to detach her claws. “Am I not giving you enough attention or something? Ease up a little.”

  She narrowed her eyes in response, and I scratched under her chin in apology.

  “This is serious, Ella. She’s here to meet you, but I think she is a bit hesitant about training you.”

  “What?” I spun to face him. “But… I thought…” I swallowed hard as all my dreams about having my questions answered were put in jeopardy.

  “She didn’t say she would train you, but she didn’t say she wouldn’t. No, don’t look at me like that. I will talk to her more, but she said that these things are delicate and she might not be able to help you.”

  “Okay.” It wasn’t as bad as I had feared, though my nerves were now doubled. I could probably convince her. Old ladies always loved me, and I loved them. We could have some tea. I would listen to her stories, and she would see how good an apprentice I w
ould be. That’s it. We would click, and she would know I was worth training.

  “You sure you’re okay?”

  “Yes, of course.” I smoothed my dress down and cleared my throat. “Where is she?” I had not spotted a white-haired, wizened woman in the crowd except for the ones I already knew like Granner Santini, who was Vin and Vanessa’s great-great-grandmother, and Gertrude Preston, who stood next to her husband, Ralph. They were the casino’s seers.

  “She’s greeting the marshal and his men. She’s wearing the red dress.” He discreetly jerked his head off to a far corner of the room.

  “Her?” She was not even close to what I expected. She had the pale skin, dark hair, and intimidating presence of Morticia Adams. She wasn’t especially tall, even in her heels, but she seemed to intimidate the most powerful men in Rambler who surrounded her.

  She had on a sleeveless, knee-length red dress with a shawl draped over her arms. As she adjusted it to cover her shoulders, I could see the strength in her body. Bear had told me that she was a skilled fighter not just with magic but also physically, and I could believe it. I could picture her racing through a jungle like Lara Croft. It was probably the first time someone had been a mix of Morticia Adams and Lara Croft, but it fit.

  I swallowed hard and rubbed my sweaty palms on my hips. Even Marshal Felix seemed to pause before he replied to her. He scared me senseless as the most powerful man in Rambler and was also part of the reason that I was trying to keep my distance from Thomas.

  A grim-faced man in the group turned to face me and scowled. Victor Bruno looked like death warmed over on the best day. He was suspicious of me from the beginning, and his demand to the marshal was the factor that had me declaring myself a Monza in front of most of the Rambler population long before I knew what it meant. I would never forgive him for that.

  Colleen followed his look, and when she spotted Bear at my side, she excused herself to come over. I was able to get a better look at her as she greeted Bear first.