whiskey witches 01 - whisky witches

by blooding, s m

  PAIGE DECIDED TOO much sitting around had been done. Yes, it was great that everyone was on the same page finally, that they understood her gift—kind of—and were willing to accept it—not really—but she needed to investigate.

  Being a detective wasn’t about the high-speed chases. There was actually very little running either. However, it did require a bit more than just sitting around staring at case files.

  She talked to Fanny about setting Alma and Tru in another room. Apparently, the one right next to her was taken. She didn’t really care. Alma needed sleep. Tru had to set up for a paranormal investigation he’d lined up, which was another reason the overly pregnant Leslie had stayed at home with the kids.

  Dexx closed the door to her room behind him. “So, where are we going?”

  “We’re not going anywhere.” Paige stashed the room key in her pocket.

  “You’re kidding yourself if you think you’re going out there without me.”

  “I’m not going to be possessed. My gift is mine.”

  “Great. I’m excited. No. Really, I am.” His eyes dodged around the hallway. “So, where are we going?”

  She continued toward the main staircase. Dexx was the kind of man who would do whatever he wanted no matter what anyone else said. Usually, she could respect the ever-lovin’ shit out of that, but at that moment, all she really wanted to do was strangle him.

  The door to the room next to hers opened and Chief White stepped out, his shirt rumpled. He frowned at them both, his gaze unfocused.

  “I thought you were going to wake me up in four.” Dexx clapped the man on the arm as he continued to walk past.

  White grabbed Dexx’s arm.

  “Why didn’t you wake me?” “Figured you needed your beauty sleep. Besides, I needed to catch Alma up.”

  White’s tongue ran along his bottom lip, removing his hand. “Is she okay?”

  “Yeah. She’s fine.” Dexx bounced on the balls of his feet. “All’s right with the world.”

  “Then what happened?”

  “Miraculously cured.”

  “And . . . the people after her?”

  Paige spun on Dexx, pissed. “Are you freaking kidding me?”

  His eyebrows crept up. “No?”

  Her two worlds never met. She wanted the respect she gained in her profession. She couldn’t get that if her colleagues knew the details of the arcane side of her life. “You told him?”

  “I wasn’t supposed to?”

  “You know better!”

  “Let’s take this discussion into my room.” White dragged her behind closed doors.

  This room was arranged similarly, but with a different color theme. She’d call this one the Peach Room.

  “You owe me a night’s rental, Chief,” Fanny called as she hurried down the hall, her arms full of linens.

  “I know, Fanny.” He shut the door.

  Paige opened her mouth.

  White held up his hand, his attention on the door. After a moment, he nodded, stepping further into the room. “Fanny’s the town gossip, so be careful what you say around her.”

  “You tell me that now?” Dexx asked.

  “What have you been saying to people?” Paige demanded.

  His expression went purposefully blank.

  “Detective, I don’t know what your standard protocol is here, but let me assure you, I’m not your standard chief of police. I knew what I invited in my town when I called you in, and I was aware things could get pretty odd.”

  She mouthed the word “odd” with a dry chuckle.

  White perched on the arm of a chair. “Also, there’s the fact I saw the demon possessing you. That’s not something I can erase. Nothing but the truth is going to make any sense.”

  Paige walked to the window seat. “So, you’re okay with this?”

  “I have to be if I’m going to help solve this case. I’ve already had to relieve my own investigator from the case.”

  Something Balnore had said when she’d been in the dream state suddenly clicked into place. “Lieutenant Mike Jones?”

  “Yes. You saw his name in the files?”

  “Actually, I didn’t really pay that much attention to who signed them.”

  White frowned at her.

  “Did you check his alibi’s?”

  White expelled a surprised breath. “Why?”

  “Why’d you kick him off?”

  “His best friend had been murdered. Ashley Fort and him were best friends since Kindergarten, Detective. He was never a suspect.”

  Paige fingered the window pane. “The connection to all the victims is a coven.”

  He shook his head. “We don’t have a coven in St. Francisville.”

  “Yes. You do. Or, at least, you did. Malika Moore led it.”

  The chief’s expression dead-panned. “Malika? She’s Mike’s girlfriend.”

  Paige didn’t ignore the fact White had dropped the lieutenant’s surname. They were close, probably friends. She waited for his own blindness to dawn on him without further prodding.

  “She owns the local magick shop.” His shoulders slumped as shock slackened his lips and eyes. “I didn’t think anything of it. It’s just candles and books and incense.”

  “And you didn’t suspect her? Not once? You didn’t ask for her advice?”

  “No.” A quiet dawning rose in White’s dark eyes. “Mike told me about you almost immediately.”

  Dexx narrowed his eyes at Paige. “Where did you get the information about the coven?”

  Paige drew her jaw to the side, trying to decide if Dexx was on her side before she spoke. “Balnore.”

  “I was there when you summoned him.”

  “But you weren’t when I dream-called him. Before I knew I could. Before I even knew what that was.”

  His eyebrows shot up.

  “Leave it, Dexx. Everything’s fine. Balnore’d been keeping watch on the situation, so he shared his information. That’s all.”

  “In a dream summoning.”

  She rolled her lips inward, her mouth open.

  “Hey, kids,” White interjected. “Could we get back to the case?”

  Paige scratched her face where her hair tickled it. “What did Mike show you that led you to believe you could call my chief and ask to borrow me?”

  White gestured with one hand. “The Pilmner case. There were too many similarities for me to ignore. It said you caught the guy, but Mike said if we had any chance of catching our man, we needed your expertise.”

  Paige dropped her gaze. “That’s too coincidental.”

  “You can’t suspect Mike.”

  “Let me guess. You’ve known him since Kindergarten.” She didn’t understand how anyone could be so blind. She nearly kicked herself when she reminded herself of what her blind trust had led her to.

  “No.” White took in a deep breath. “College.”

  Paige flared her hands. The small town had made him soft.

  “The suspicion is there.” Dexx paced. “What are we going to do to prove this guy’s innocent?”

  White sent Dexx a half-smile of appreciation. “Or his guilt.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Meet me at the station in a half hour.”

  Paige tipped her head to the side, question all over her face.

  “And be prepared.” White narrowed his eyes. “I’m going to give him the opportunity to interrogate you.”

  “Well,” Paige said dryly, “that should be fun.”

  PAIGE AND DEXX decided to get some prime stake-out time logged. They chose Paige’s rental since the silver sedan was a bit more low-key than Dexx’s. Though it was way more comfortable. They needed a good long road trip with Jackie. Her silver sedan paled in comparison. She couldn’t even recall what kind, but it looked like all the other silver sedans on the street, which were a few. Silver was a very popular color for a car.

  They parked down the block from Malika’s magick shop, located in downtown St. Francisville. Not much
to see. The shops exuded an old-town flare. People milled around as if they didn’t have a care in the world. Perhaps they didn’t. She envied them a little. That was the kind of life to raise a child in. Not the one she offered. The sun rose to its zenith, bringing the heat.

  “Are we going to talk about what we’re not talking about?”

  “There’s been a lot of talking, Dexx.” An older woman with blonde hair entered the magick store. “What are you referring to?”

  “Me telling the chief about the paranormal side of our investigation.”

  “Huh.” She didn’t have much to say, other than don’t do it ever again. Truth of the matter, though, it’d turned out to be the right call. So, maybe she had it wrong.

  “Look, he read like a sensible guy. I went with my instincts.”

  “What’s the one thing we never do?”

  “Tell flakes about what we really do.”

  She noted his word choice, the tip of her tongue pressed hard against the roof of her mouth. An older gentlemen followed his bow-legged dog past the café.

  “The chief? He seems on the up and up.” Dexx’s tone rose. “He didn’t flake. He wasn’t incredibly solid the entire time. He nearly broke when you did some demony thing back in the room, but when I met him at the precinct, he was professional.”

  She didn’t remember being possessed, and that bugged her. If Lucius Kane was a human being, then how had he possessed her, and why couldn’t she remember it?

  “Do you have any idea how rare he is? The practicality of accepting magick things at face value?”

  “I do.” So much so, she wished she could call him “boss” for real. But he didn’t work in Denver. She cringed, thinking of the stories she’d have to tell again now that she knew everything. She recalled all the lies she’d told her captain in Dallas. Look how that’d turned out.

  But she wasn’t moving to Louisiana. The heat. Dear, God, the heat.

  “So, are we doing the mad thing?”

  “No.” They weren’t doing the mad thing, because she wasn’t five. Besides, too much warred inside her head to invest in the emotional drama he offered. She needed to concentrate on the case.

  Was Lieutenant Mike Jones capable of all this? She’d have her chance to find out soon enough.

  “NOTHING’S HAPPENING. LET’S just go to the station and wait there.”

  Paige turned her unimpressed gaze to Dexx. “How can you call yourself a hunter when you can’t even survive ten minutes inside a car?”

  He dropped his head against the gray headrest. “Come on. The most exciting moment occurred when the old man’s dog whizzed on the cat.”

  “This is how stakeouts work. How do you survive in this world?”

  “I wait for others to do the sitting and watching for me, then I come in, guns blazing and save the day.”

  She rolled her eyes, then sighed. Men “I want to meet Malika face to face. Get a read on her.”

  Dexx sat up in his seat. “Great idea. Let’s go.”

  Really, she didn’t need an escort or a partner on this one. She was going into a store. No biggie. She nearly told Dexx to stay in the car, but then thought better of it. When was the last time she’d had a partner? A real partner she could rely on in paranormal situations?

  Never.

  “Fine, but play it cool. No crazy backstories. If she really is involved in the case, she knows who I am. Does Jones know about you?”

  “Jones?” Dexx frowned. “Oh, right. Mike. You know, civilians use this little thing called first names.”

  Paige sent him a look that said she really didn’t care, then got out of the car, leaving her jacket behind. It was too damned hot, no matter the fact it hid her gun and her out-of-jurisdiction badge. She locked the car with a press of a button and crossed the semi-busy street.

  People actually drove the speed limit here. Amazing.

  She quietly slipped inside the shop. She saw the normal things she’d expect to see in an occult shop; candles, incense, pentacles, books. There was a book about deciphering dreams using the messages of angels on display at the counter.

  “How may I—oh, Detective Whiskey.” A lithe woman with clear brown skin stepped up behind the counter and sent her a warm smile. “I’d heard you were in town.”

  “I didn’t realize anyone would be talking about me,” Paige baited.

  The other woman’s large brown eyes lit up. Her full hair spilled over her shoulders in tight, dark brown waves. “It’s a small town. Everyone’s talking about your arrival. Are you okay? I heard you were poisoned at the crime scene.”

  Paige raised her chin, a smile on her lips. Reason number one why she didn’t want to live in a small town. Everyone knew when she’d messed up. “I’m fine.”

  “We were all worried. Fanny said you sounded possessed. What kind of poison was it?”

  Malika was nosy, but Paige had been warned Fanny was the town gossip, so that wasn’t cause for alarm. She needed something more. “We’re still waiting on the toxicology report.”

  “And you were able to counter it without knowing what it was first?” Malika’s smile tightened, bringing out her sharp cheekbones. “That doesn’t make much sense.”

  Malika’s smile was a little too tight. Was that her tell? “We got lucky. I guess I threw most of it up.”

  “It’s a good thing you brought your own doctor, then.”

  Paige held the other woman’s gaze a long moment. “Indeed.”

  Malika released an uncomfortable breath and looked over Paige’s shoulder. “Is this him?”

  Paige turned.

  Dexx took a step forward, careful not to bring down the glass shelf of crystal balls. “The place is tight. Dexx Colt.”

  “Doctor Colt?”

  Dexx cocked a grin to the side, taking the hand she offered.

  “Well.” She turned his hand over, exposing the palm. “Let me see what your hand has to tell me.”

  Dexx kept his expression pleasant as he waited. He glanced at Paige, but returned his attention to the top of Malika’s head.

  “You are a very driven man, Doctor Colt,” Malika said, her voice soft and silky. “Love is about to enter your life. As well as a new position at work.”

  He raised an eyebrow, pulling the corners of his lips down through his smile. He took his hand back. “It didn’t say who the lucky woman was, did it?”

  Malika beamed at him. “No. Tell me you’re looking for something. We have a wide array of candles that just came in.”

  “I was just looking for a toad candle,” Dexx said with a laugh.

  “Oh. Well, you should check the far corner of the store. I have all kinds of humorous gifts there.”

  Dexx gestured with his hand and headed where she directed him.

  “What about you, Detective Whiskey? Do you have a first name I can call you by? It seems so formal to call you by your job title.”

  “Detective.”

  Malika winced.

  Paige ground her teeth through her smile, reminding herself she was plying the other woman for information. Honey versus vinegar. “Paige.”

  “Excellent. What are you looking for, Paige?” Malika stepped around the counter. The light breeze of her passing caused her blue summer dress to swirl around her limber form.

  “My sister has a birthday coming up.”

  “Oh, the medium.”

  Paige narrowed her eyes. She really needed to know how much of this was Fanny’s gossip and how much Malika had discovered on her own. Damn gossips.

  Malika scanned her shop, oblivious to Paige’s scrutiny. “I don’t think she’d like any of this.”

  The area Malika referenced was filled with stuff Paige would never see in a west coast occult shop. If she had to wager a guess, she’d say it was probably voo-doo, but she wasn’t going to open her mouth and insert her foot. “No. She’s more . . .”

  “She’s white,” Malika said with a smile.

  Paige returned it. For as uncomfortable as this con
versation was, there was a lot of smiling going on. “Very white.”

  Malika meandered toward the front of the store. “Do you know what you want to get her?”

  “Mrs. Fort had a tarot deck I thought Les might like.”

  “Ashley?” Malika frowned and a second later, grief crept through her eyes. “Mike didn’t tell me you’d had a chance to review her things.”

  Delayed reaction. “I saw it in a photo.”

  “That’s odd, but anyway. She had two.”

  “I don’t remember what they were called. The one was very colorful, though.” Half of the decks on the market could be classified as colorful.

  “Oh, I know which one you’re talking about.” Malika’s expression darkened minutely as she turned away. “I like that one. Very simple, yet very deep.”

  “That sounds like something Les would be into.”

  Malika stooped to look at the decks located on the bottom shelf.

  “How are you holding up?”

  The other woman stood, a tarot box in her hand. “With the craziness that has struck our tiny town?”

  “With the fact your friends are being killed one by one.”

  Malika’s shoulders tightened.

  “Aren’t you scared you might be next?”

  “The coven was something we tried to keep hidden from the public.” Malika looked out the storefront window. “This is a very Christian town, Paige. Even in the twenty-first century, we have to be careful.”

  Paige nodded. “I’m well aware of that.”

  “You would be, wouldn’t you?” Malika moved away from the window to face Paige.

  “Yes.”

  “I’m doing fine, I think. I mean, I hope that you catch him.” Something flashed across her features, too fast for Paige to register what it was. “Whoever he is so I don’t lose anyone else.”

  “Do you know who might be targeting you? Anyone have a grudge against you? Or maybe someone who wants to, I don’t know, do away with the witches?”

  “Do you realize what a breath of fresh air you are, Detective? Someone on the force who understands what it means to be a witch?”

  Was she being diverted because she was getting too close or because her quarry was bored with the line of questions? “I’m here now. I can help if you help me.”