by Melody Raven
He reached out to hold the elevator door open for her. “She lives right below me.”
“I lived right below you for years and we barely ever spoke.”
“She trusts me, and I think she’s lived the kind of life where she doesn’t trust a lot of people. So we get coffee a lot. Unlike you, she’s one of the sane people who needs the caffeine to function.”
Sam let out a laugh. “No, she doesn’t.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean she’s an eighteen-year-old who doesn’t have a job or any responsibilities. She doesn’t need to function, therefore doesn’t need caffeine.”
“You think she is faking to be around me?” Derek liked to think he was good at reading people, but he’d never picked up any vibes of attraction from the young girl. After the incident with Tommy, he had a feeling it would be a while before any guy got through to her.
“No. I think you’re her example of what normal is and that’s what she wants. Normal people have friends and drink coffee. She’s just going through the motions.”
Now that was something Derek could agree with. “Her going through the motions is exactly what makes her normal. That’s what we’re all doing.”
Sam looked up at him and her solemn, serious face showed a deep understanding. She, more than anyone, was used to going through the motions. Trying to figure out where she fit in, even if it meant putting on a stupid suit and trying to be something he knew she wasn’t. But he had no right to tell her what she should and shouldn’t be doing, even if he wanted to shake her until she realized that this wasn’t her.
“This way.” He led her out of the elevator. The basement had no windows and the beige laminate hallway always seemed darker than the light colors should’ve been. After two right turns and a left, they hit the evidence locker. He signed in at the desk; the officer at the desk said a quick hello but he didn’t introduce him to Sam. If the evidence officer didn’t ask, it wasn’t information Derek was going to offer up.
Once they were allowed back in the room, Derek led Sam through the rows of bins.
“This is pretty dreary,” she said as they went farther back.
“Evidence lockers are always like this. Windows make them easy to locate and break into, so they’re normally in basements. Besides, cops don’t want to work down here. They all want offices with at least a glimpse of natural light. So evidence storage always gets the shaft.” He reached where he’d been storing everything he had on Abigail Harris. “Here we go.” He pulled out the bin and set it on the floor. “Feel free to dig through.”
Sam stared skeptically at it. “Are you serious? I don’t even get a room to look through it?”
“There’s not much. I only kept the things I thought were useful.”
She pulled off the lid and started to dig through the papers. “What the hell is this?” She held up the small book.
“An old address book.”
“I know my mother, okay? She would never throw this away. Not even if her life depended on it.”
“Maybe she got a new one then. That thing is pretty full.”
Sam flipped through the spiral-bound book. The address book was only a bit bigger than her hand, so he’d assumed she’d traded up for a bigger model. “Knowing how well connected Abigail is, she might have moved everything onto her computer. I have all my contacts connected to my email.”
“Mom wouldn’t.... Her phone. She had everything moved to her phone.”
“Now do you believe I’m not a dirty thief?” said Derek.
“You pulled this out of her trash,” she pointed out.
“Only after she was done with it. That makes it legal.”
“Legal and right aren’t always the same thing.”
“That’s what people who break the law all the time say.”
She glared up at him before she turned her attention back to the little book. “What do you need her address book for anyway?”
“Considering I have no idea who in the city might secretly be a wizard, it seemed like a good thing to have.”
“Not everyone in here is magical.”
“Yeah, but it certainly narrows it down.”
She opened the book and frowned. “When’s the last time you looked at this?”
“About a week ago.”
“And how did you know the Abbot fire was suspicious?”
“Because I remembered their names were in it.”
“Look at this.” She handed him the book and he looked at the first two pages. “Shit.”
The first four names were Albert Abbot, John Abbot, Nathan Abbot, and Jennifer Barrett.
“The arsonist isn’t going after every witch. Just the ones in this book.” Sam stood and looked around the room. “Who has access to this room?”
“Any cop here. And guests, like you, if they are being escorted by an officer or detective.”
“I’d say it was a coincidence, but....”
“This is a murder. You’re right. It’s suspicious.”
“We need to figure out who saw this book. When you signed in, you wrote down what you were here to see.”
“It’s worth looking into, but if you were planning on killing anyone in the book, would you be honest about why you were here?”
“Shit,” said Sam. “I can’t stay quiet about this. I need to tell Bastian.”
“And he’s going to tell your grandmother. She’s going to think I’m the one doing this.”
“Are you?”
Derek gave her an annoyed look. “You know I’m not.”
“That’s the first thing they’re going to ask me. Give me some way to defend you.”
“I helped you find Janet Montgomery.”
“Or you were covering your own tracks.”
Derek sighed and ran a hand over his mouth and stubble. “If you are convinced someone is guilty, all the evidence is going to point to them. That’s what’s scary about having a biased police force, Sam. If they think I’m responsible, they’ll find some way to convince themselves they’re right.”
Sam stayed quiet and he could practically see her mind racing. “You don’t actually think I did this, do you? That I made Janet Montgomery start that fire? I’m human. I don’t deal in dark, light, or even fucking gray magic.”
“Dark magic can touch anyone,” said Sam softly. “And you were exposed when you fought Tommy.”
“I’m also not the only one with a bone to pick with your kind. You know that.”
Sam bit at her bottom lip. “You’re right. And I believe you. You’re not the one doing this. You wouldn’t hide behind others who did your dirty work.”
“So what are you going to do?” asked Derek.
Sam met his gaze and he could tell she was just as conflicted as he was. “I have no idea.”
Claudia tapped her finger on her desk as she looked pensively across her desk at Bastian and Sam. “You know I don’t trust your detective,” said Claudia.
Trust was an oddly specific word, thought Sam. She was willing to bet that Claudia didn’t trust anyone.
“I know, Grandmother,” said Sam passively.
“What do you think?” She turned her attention to Bastian.
The sentry next to Sam shrugged. He was in his normal suit and didn’t look the least bit worse for wear even though he’d probably only gotten a few hours of sleep, if any. “I don’t believe in generally nice guys.”
Sam narrowed her eyes at him.
“For what it’s worth, I think he is fond of your granddaughter. I think he has his own motives but those motives might just be getting in her pants.”
“What the hell?” snapped Sam.
“It’s hardly a secret, Samantha,” said Claudia patiently.
“Even if it’s not a secret, he doesn’t have to say it.”
“Witches are dying. Everything needs to be said. Did you find any possible entry points for the dark magic when tracing Janet’s steps?” asked Claudia.
“Nothing susp
icious.”
Claudia looked at Sam. “Which means you have the most promising lead. We need to get a better idea of who at the police department would want to make us their enemy.”
“I can ask around,” said Bastian.
“No. I think Sam can take care of this.”
Sam straightened. She could what? “I can’t influence answers out of people.”
“No, but you can get closer to them without arousing suspicions.”
Sam raised a brow. “Bastian can do that with mind control.”
“Dark magic is... strange. Its power comes from a very different place than mine. Which implies the means we rely on so often will be useless.”
Sam touched the charm lying against her breastbone. So she still sucked at magic and her normal protections were going to be useless. She was feeling more and more uneasy by the second. “What do you want me to do?”
Claudia pulled open a drawer and Sam could hear the papers rustling around as she searched for something. Then she pulled it out and set it on the desk, sliding it over to Sam. “I want you to go to this. If someone had to enter a police evidence locker to get to your mother’s address book, this is as good a place as any to start. Especially since it has to do with Tommy Collins.”
Sam eyed the simple invitation in front of her before she looked skeptically at Claudia. “You want me to go to a party?”
“They’re celebrating Tommy’s death. If there is someone who is truly attacking our kind, he should be there. It has to all be connected.”
“Not everything is connected,” said Sam.
Claudia’s eyes hardened in a way that told Sam she knew more than she was letting on. “You’d be surprised.” She stood and pushed away from the desk. “Follow me.” She started to leave before Sam had a chance to stand.
Apparently Sam’s agreement didn’t matter. One way or another, she was following her grandmother.
Bastian also got up as they went to the secret room off of Claudia’s office. She pulled a book off one of the bookshelves; the bookshelf slid forward and pivoted on its side, revealing a hidden staircase. Cliché, but still cool.
Sam glanced at Claudia and then at Bastian. “Did you know about this?” she whispered, even though Claudia was still close enough to hear.
Bastian nodded as both he and Claudia started to go down the stairs. Sam shook her head as she followed once again. She had been trying to figure Bastian out and hadn’t quite gotten there. She had a feeling not a lot of Claudia’s sentries knew about wherever they were going. But if Bastian and Claudia were so close, why had she never heard of him before? Sure, she and Claudia weren’t close, but she at least knew the faces of some of her closer sentries.
There was a lot that Claudia wasn’t telling her. Before today, Sam had been comfortable not being in the know. Because people who knew things were responsible for fixing things, and she didn’t want that responsibility yet. But Sam was starting to think that she was at a disadvantage now.
The spiral metal staircase wasn’t that big. It only took them down maybe nine feet. Bastian looked especially cramped in the small room, but Claudia was thin enough to look at home. The room wasn’t necessarily small, but the low ceiling made it feel cramped. There were three rows of shelves, all filled with various items.
Items important enough to be locked away, apparently. Sam glanced around but didn’t see any other entry point into the room. No windows, one small air vent. So it was only accessible through a hidden staircase in a hidden room in Claudia’s office. Not a magical lock, though. Strange. “What is all this?”
“Items of power.” Claudia studied the middle shelf as though looking for something. “Things I don’t want to fall into the wrong hands.”
“Why don’t you just destroy them?”
Claudia met Sam’s eyes through the shelf she was leaning over. “Because I want them.”
Hard to argue with that. Sam looked over at Bastian, who was silent but admittedly didn’t look too comfortable. Sam had always known Claudia was powerful, but she never gave much thought to how powerful. It was just a fact. But the idea that Claudia had a hidden room of what could be considered weapons gave her pause. If Claudia was so strong, what did she need to protect herself from?
“Here.” Claudia pulled a glass box from the shelf and handed it to Sam. The box was small, a three-inch cube. There was noticeably no dust on it. Sam didn’t know whether that was because the room was so closed off or because of something more mystical, but what seemed more important was what was inside the glass. The bracelet was very simple. A large rock surrounded by gold and a simple chain.
“It’s... pretty.”
“I want you to go to the policeman’s ball and wear this. It will lead you to the dark magic.”
Sam carefully opened the box and took out the stone. It felt... normal. Cool to the touch and had a pretty sparkle under the dim lights in the vault. “How is this going to lead me anywhere?”
Claudia didn’t answer. Instead, she turned around and picked another item off the shelves. A handheld mirror. Claudia moved it closer to Sam and the stone in her hand started to glow and rapidly heated up.
Reflexively, Sam dropped it to the ground. “What the hell was that?”
Claudia set the mirror on the closest shelf. “The mirror was made with dark magic. The stone will allow you to find anyone who has been in contact with the darkness.”
“Allow me to find?”
“It’s a literal game of hot and cold,” said Bastian. “When you find the person behind this, it will burn you.”
If the mirror was any indication, it wouldn’t be a subtle burn either. “What am I supposed to do once I find whoever it is? If they’re even there.”
“Nothing,” said Claudia. “Just report back to me with a name and we can decide what course you and Bastian take then.”
“Nothing? There’s probably going to be another attack tonight and you want me to just sit back?”
“Of course not. If this person is following your mother’s discarded address book like you suspect, we know the next target. Bastian will be there tonight.”
“Bastian is going alone?”
“You have a problem with that?” he asked.
Great. She’d offended him now. “No. You’re very bad ass, believe me. But we’re going up against something we don’t really understand. If I’m going to be playing dress-up, shouldn’t Bastian have some sort of backup?”
Claudia didn’t look as though she appreciated Sam’s second-guessing. “Whoever is doing this is using our own against us. It won’t be an army going after the next target. It will be one person who has been infected. Bastian can take care of them.”
Infected. Not influenced or controlled. Sam shuddered at the thought. “He can get the darkness out?”
“Bastian can take care of them,” repeated Claudia ominously.
“At least give him some sort of backup.”
Claudia narrowed her eyes. “If I see fit to change the plan, I will.” With that, she turned and started up the stairs. Sam knew she’d pushed her grandmother, but she couldn’t help the anger that coursed through her. Claudia was putting her and Bastian at risk. It wasn’t as if she didn’t have other people who could help.
“She’s worried,” said Bastian once Claudia was gone.
“I’m worried,” said Sam. “She’s something else.”
“She trusts us,” said Bastian. “Only us,” he added.
“She has dozens of other sentries.”
“And at least five of them were working against her. That’s five too many. Until she can determine exactly which sentries turned bad, she’s going to operate like we’re the only two.”
That wasn’t okay with Sam. She barely knew what she was doing on a good day. The fact that Claudia was putting her faith in Sam and some guy Sam barely knew didn’t exactly fill her with a sense of comfort.
But maybe she was needed right now. If Claudia was getting desperate, what would h
appen if Sam wasn’t there? She fingered the bracelet and turned her focus to the party that night. “I suppose I should call Derek and see if we’re going together.”
“Probably best if you showed up with him,” said Bastian, surprising Sam. “But careful with that one.”
“Because Claudia disapproves?”
“Because she feels threatened. And when someone as strong as her feels threatened, you don’t want to be the person they lash out at.”
Derek had managed two hours of sleep between work and the last minute he could wait before getting ready. Everything in him wanted to cancel the whole thing. Even if he wasn’t catching up on some much-needed sleep, he had to worry about a serial arsonist, and the knee surgery lead from the medical examiner had gone absolutely nowhere.
Which meant he’d spent five hours chasing a dead end. He was used to dead ends in his line of work, but not when he was also expected to dress up in a suit he couldn’t afford and have dinner with the mayor. The same mayor who would have him out of a job in a heartbeat if he didn’t solve this case before the press got rabid.
He should be annoyed that Sam was coming with him. If he showed up with Samantha Harris, people were going to talk. A guy like him didn’t casually bring a girl like that anywhere. There would be a big fuss. The guys would give him knowing looks as though to say “way to go!” and the women he worked with would start asking how serious things were. Well, a few of the women he worked with would probably give him the “way to go” looks too. And as much as he’d love to brag about having the most beautiful woman in the room as his date, it felt dirty to lie to his coworkers.
No matter what had happened in the past, he and Sam were nowhere near together. She’d made it clear over the phone that this wasn’t a date and her grandmother’s opinion of him hadn’t changed. Which was a good thing, he reminded himself. He was going to go as deep as he needed to in order to figure this out, and her family stood directly in his way.
So even if working with her felt like second nature, this was just like any other investigation. You didn’t fuck a person of interest, no matter how interesting.
