Basil had more success than I did and was quick to point it out. There was one connection that had him grinning from ear to ear. Francesca Santoro just happened to be a distant cousin of Natasha’s.
“Do you think she knows about her connection to Francesca?” I wondered. “If she does, that would explain why she chose to move here.”
“She’d have access to the mob thugs,” Basil added. “That’s how she could afford to buy that house. I bet Fran put up the cash.”
“Felix said they were close at one time but she didn’t blink when we mentioned that he was murdered.”
“She looked everywhere except at us; can’t trust anyone who doesn’t look you in the eyes,” Basil concluded and after a pause he added, “She’s hiding something, I bet it’s the murder.”
The time to get ready for dinner was approaching. I was just as excited as Basil at the thought of spending hours with Natasha.
“Do we have to go?” Basil whined. “She’s evil, she’s gonna poison us.”
“Can you be killed?” It occurred to me that I’d never asked him that question before. I had just assumed that gargoyles couldn’t be killed, but if I was wrong, we could be in trouble.
“Not really,” Basil replied, propping his head up with a hand.
“No curses, poison or bullets then?”
Basil looked up at me and giggled. “Nope, the bullets might cause a few chips though.”
“Then why are you worried about getting poisoned? It’s just dinner, besides, I’d like to see what her house looks like. I’ve never been in the Hayward house. Guess it’s the West house now.”
Dinner was only an hour away and Basil couldn’t stop himself from whining. He really didn’t want to go.
The old Hayward house was charming, it was nestled in the trees that lined the front of the property. A roughhewn stone facade gave it a medieval castle look. I wasn’t sure what the architectural style was, but it worked. We pulled in the driveway and parked behind a huge silver Lexus. I couldn’t help but giggle at Natasha’s ‘snduon’ vanity plate, she actually had a sense of humor. Annie had wanted me to buy an Audi, just so she could get one that said ‘doodee’. She changed her mind, when I pointed out how dumb it would sound, on anything other than an Audi. I’d thought about getting ‘ur nxt’, but couldn’t justify the expense. Natasha greeted us at the door like she was the lady of the manor. She was dressed in a long low-cut gown that flowed like melted silver. A string of pearls circled her neck and a matching bracelet dangled from her wrist.
“Did we get the wrong day?” I asked, feeling completely out of place in my jeans and t-shirt.
“No, it’s the right day. My mother’s things arrived today and I couldn’t wait to try them on. Isn’t this wonderful?” Natasha smoothed her hair as she spun around. “I’m so lucky, she wore the same size as me.”
“Wonderful,” I replied, silently gagging—what a load of crap.
Basil pushed past Natasha and strode into the foyer, looking from side to side.
“How about a tour before dinner, Nat?” Annie asked.
“Of course, we can start upstairs.”
Basil declined the tour and stayed in the living room, where I was sure he’d spend the time snooping around. Annie and I were led through four bedrooms and three bathrooms, but the tour stalled when we reached the master closet. It was huge and stuffed with some of the most expensive clothes I’d ever seen—outside of Paris, that is. Annie stopped to ooh and aah over the dresses, shoes and hats that lined the huge closet. A velvet bench sat in the middle of the closet, so I took the opportunity to sit down as the two of them gush over the dresses.
“Was all this your mother’s?” I was just a tiny bit jealous. I wasn’t a clothes horse, but some of them were making me drool.
“Most of this belonged to my mom. Her estate was tied up for so long that I thought I’d never get them. The money wasn’t the problem, we both had trust funds. But my brother wanted all the clothes and jewelry. I don’t know where he thought he’d wear them, but he was just being a putz. He doesn’t even have a boyfriend. Dad helped sort it out. Even though mom left them all to me, I agreed that Henry could select a few of the casual outfits. I should invite him to stay for a while, I think you’d like him. He’s umm…different.”
Huh, is she trying to set me up with her brother? If he could stand up to Natasha, then he might be a good friend to have.
“Are those Jimmie Choos?” Annie squealed. “They’re the prettiest things I’ve ever seen!”
Ugh, I wasn’t into shoes that made your feet hurt. Some of them had five-inch heels, they were a broken leg waiting to happen.
“I’m going to see what Basil is doing.”
“We won’t be long, Zoey. Why don’t you check out my kitchen—it’s to die for,” Natasha stated, looking down her nose at me. Did she just imply that I’d be more comfortable in the kitchen than in a closet stuffed with expensive clothes? She was probably right, but not because of my cooking. I couldn’t justify spending time or money on clothes I’d never wear.
“Oh, and bypass the office, it’s a mess and full of empty boxes. I haven’t had time to clear it out.”
I found Basil in the kitchen snooping in the refrigerator, munching on grapes. “We should have one of these, Z—it’s huge. It even has an ice maker.”
“We already have one, it’s a tray you fill with water.”
The kitchen was beautiful and twice the size of ours. It had acres of gleaming marble countertops, a huge gas range and French door ovens. You could feed an army in there, but it was way too big for just one person. I guess with Natasha, everything had to be over the top.
“Let’s check out her office. She said to skip it but I’m curious.” As I turned toward the door, Annie and Natasha entered, giggling about something.
“Dinner will be ready in a sec. Why don’t you go through to the dining room?” Natasha said with a small smile.
I had to admit that Natasha was quite a good cook, the meal was thoroughly enjoyable. Basil was quiet and civil the entire time, totally out of character for him. He was watching every move Natasha made, probably hoping for disaster to strike.
By the end of the meal I was totally stuffed and excused myself to use the bathroom. On my way back, I peeked into the office Natasha had warned me about. It was a mess, but just behind a box, I spied an iMac. It had a distinctive unicorn sticker on the top edge, covering the camera lens. I was just moving the box when Natasha appeared in the doorway.
“What are you doing? I told you to stay out of my office.”
“I can see why now. That’s my iMac! It's stolen,” I yelled as both Basil and Annie raced down the hall. “What did I ever do to you? I could’ve been killed.”
“What’s going on?” Annie interrupted. “I know you have issues with her, but this is carrying things a bit too far.”
“Excuse me? She has my iMac, and I wouldn’t be surprised if my MacBook is in here too. I’m calling the police.” I spun to face Natasha, pointing my finger in her face. “You’re up to your neck in this Natasha, and you just got caught.”
“What are you talking about? The movers crushed my computer. I bought them from a secondhand store down on Bay Street. How was I to know they were stolen?” Natasha’s face turned a bright red as she clenched her teeth. “I was trying to be nice, change my ways, and this is what I get. I should have known better—you’re not worth it.”
“Oh, don’t try to make this about me. This is all on you. I’m the one you tried to kill.”
Basil shoved his way between us, unfurling his wings. “Felix was on to you, wasn’t he? That’s why you killed him. And you tried to kill Noah and Z,” Basil demanded, extending his claws as he closed in on Natasha.
“You’re all nuts!” Natasha scowled and threw her arms up.
“Don’t play innocent with me. We know you killed him. He implied that just the other day,” Basil countered.
“What? I didn’t kill anyone.
Are you crazy?”
I was still fuming when Harvey and Detective Morgan arrived. Basil had gone full gargoyle on Natasha, keeping her trapped in her office. He shifted and perched on my shoulder when the police cars pulled into the driveway.
The computers were taken as evidence and Natasha was carted off to jail in handcuffs. Annie was beside herself; she couldn’t believe Natasha had anything to do with the robbery, let alone a murder. She sat with her lips pursed and her arms crossed on the ride home. Basil made up for the silence by crowing about how he had solved the case.
Early the next morning, Annie and I arrived at the police station to give our statements. Harvey pulled me aside and sent Annie off with Liam. I hadn’t spoken to Harvey since the mess at Phineaus’ house, and I had figured he was just busy. I explained what had happened at Natasha’s house and confirmed that the computers were mine. The unicorn was distinctive, Annie had made it out of balsa wood when we were children. Someone had reformatted the computers—wiping out all the data—but the serial numbers matched my receipts and my initials were engraved on the bottom.
“She’s claiming that she bought the computers, but I think that’s only the tip of the iceberg,” Harvey said as he closed the file and moved it to the side of his desk. He reached into a drawer and pulled out a different file, clasping his hands on top. “Now—we also found one of those soul globes and a bullet when we searched Ms. West’s home. The globe is identical to the one you found in Mr. Pratt’s house. We didn’t find a gun, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t have one. The bullet matches the ones they pulled out of Noah and Felix. What’s odd is that both of them were engraved with strange markings—a curse. I called a friend of yours to verify it, Skye Plaines. I think you should start from the beginning and tell me everything you know.”
“It started when I was in Oregon.” I recounted the facts as I saw them, from meeting Natasha and Basil in Oregon, to the attack in the funeral home. The interview with Francesca and my hospital meeting Dante both seemed irrelevant, so I left them out.
“Condo?” Harvey glared at me. “What’s this about a condo? And where are the pictures you found?”
I pulled them out of my bag and handed them to Harvey. “It looked like someone cleaned out the condo. I found them on the back of the closet door.”
Harvey grabbed the pictures, sighed and leaned back in his chair. “Zoey, how many times do I have to tell you to stay out of police business? You got off lucky this time; you could have been killed,” he said pointing at the stitches in my head. “We’ll have this wrapped up soon, so I suggest you stick to reaping and the mortuary. And stop listening to that gargoyle, he’s nothing but trouble.”
It was a bit late to call us amateurs, after all, we’d solved the case, not him. “We didn’t do anything wrong, I was just doing my job when all this stuff started. It’s not like I decided to investigate, it just happened,” I grumbled. This was all Basil’s fault, my life had been uneventful until I ran into him. “So you think Natasha’s responsible?”
“Nothing wrong? You broke into a house and a condo, and you’ve probably destroyed evidence. Go home and stay out of trouble. We are quite capable of conducting this investigation without your help.”
Annie was waiting for me in the car. “Still not speaking to me?” I asked as I slid into the passenger seat and turned to her. “It’s not my fault that Natasha fooled you; I told you I didn’t trust her.”
“I still don’t believe she did all those horrible things.” Annie was deluding herself; she always tried to see the good in everyone.
“What did you want me to do, ignore the fact that she stole my computers? And they found a soul globe in her house.”
“A what? What the heck is a soul globe?”
I forgot that Annie didn’t know about the missing and undead souls, so I gave her a short explanation. “Souls went missing in Oregon and now they’re missing here. Natasha’s the only common factor. I found a secret room in the house where Felix died. It was full of globes and lava lamp things, but when we went back, there was only one globe left. We think they were used to hold souls, the ones that went missing.”
Annie turned toward me, raising one eyebrow. “So, this is not just about the robbery. You think she’s been stealing souls and murdering reapers? Are you kidding me? She is so not a killer.”
“The facts speak for themselves.”
“How do you know the souls are only missing from South Beach and Silver Falls? They could be missing in other places too. Did you check?”
“As a matter of fact, I did. There are no other reports of missing souls.”
I dropped Annie off at the funeral home, since she had to finish preparing Felix for the viewing tonight.
Chapter 15
I noticed Basil on the roof as I pulled up to the house; he was sitting on a chair looking at what appeared to be a book, in full view of the driveway. I’d have to remind him to be discreet—terrified mourners aren’t good for business. As I climbed out the attic window, I noticed that it wasn’t a book he was reading, it was a tablet and it looked like the one we’d found in Felix’s closet.
“You’ll have to move. I could see you as I drove up.”
“Huh. Oh sorry,” Basil said as he got up and dragged his chair to the back side of the roof. “Grab that for me.”
I picked up the footstool and sat down on the roof beside him. “I know Natasha’s locked up, but it doesn’t feel right. Annie’s still pissed at me; she keeps insisting that Natasha wouldn’t kill a fly, let alone Felix.”
“Well, I’m sure she’s the killer, everything points to her. But I don’t think she’s the one calling the shots. She’s not smart enough. The big question is, who wanted those souls and why?”
“It just means that she hired some thugs to do her dirty work. They found a soul globe and a cursed bullet in her house. The bullet matched the one Noah was shot with. Why would she get a witch to curse them?”
“Interesting,” Basil’s fingers blurred as he typed away at the keyboard. “I’ve been tracking the IP address of the email from that Dom person and…there, found him. What a doofus, it points to a private server in town. Now I just have to find out who owns it.”
“Dom? Who’s that?”
“Not sure,” Basil replied.
I’d been so focused on Natasha that I’d forgotten about Felix’s tablet. “What’s in it?”
“The ones from Dom are just a bunch of numbers, could be dollars, and a time.” Basil didn’t glance up as he spoke.
“Could it be a GPS coordinate?”
Basil peered at me and smiled. “Good guess, you’re tech savvy all of a sudden.”
“Not really, I heard it on TV last night,” I admitted. I knew GPS was a location, but I had no idea how it worked.
“The ones from Dante look the same as Dom’s, except for some yes’s and no’s. There’s one that says 6pm Dog and Duck.”
“I wonder if that’s the bar Flinders tracked Felix to?” I mused, gazing at the lake beyond the trees; the view was spectacular from up here.
“Ha, found ya!” Basil leapt up, pumped his fist in the air and almost dropped the computer. “Dom is Domenic Delgrosso, he owns the server.”
“That name sounds familiar.”
“It should, he’s Francesca’s fiancé. And he was arrested two years ago on a money laundering charge. They had to drop the case when all the witnesses disappeared. It was on the national news.”
“You’re right, I remember now. I still don’t understand what Felix was doing, hanging around with crime bosses? Those guys are all shoot first and talk later.”
Basil sat back, gazing at the birds circling above. “This case just keeps getting more and more involved. At least we got Nasty off the street, that should put an end to the reaper killings.”
“We’ll figure out what Dom has to do with it later. Right now I have to clean up the fingerprint powder in the office. Want to help?”
“Nah, I couldn’t d
o much as a bird,” Basil smirked as he closed the MacBook.
“That’s a pretty lame excuse.”
The crime scene investigators had left the office covered in a film of black powder—there wasn’t one surface they’d missed. After one swipe with soap and water, the door jamb looked like someone had been playing with finger paints. I tried some industrial cleaner, which worked really well on the walls and desk, but the painted woodwork was another matter. There were gray shadows surrounding the window and door, I’d have to get someone in to repainted them.
My phone rang just as I was putting away the cleaning supplies—it was Skye. They’d tracked down the witch who had crafted the curse, and her name was Hilda Southern. They had discharged Noah earlier that morning and was anxious to find out what the curse was. I took the silver broach with me, just in case Skye had time to check it.
The house where Hilda lived was close to the lake, in an older suburban neighborhood. The houses in that area were nondescript bungalows and ranches, and we found the house in question at the end of a cul-de-sac.
As we trooped up to the house, Noah pushed ahead and banged on the door. A small dark-haired woman peeked through the curtains; she looked like she hadn’t slept for a week. Her eyes were bloodshot and her hair was a tangled mess.
“Go away, I’m not buying anything you’re selling,” she said from behind the door.
With what sounded like a line from a bad horror movie, Skye demanded, “Open the door, we know who you are and what you’ve done.”
“I haven’t done anything. Go away.”
Grave Alchemy Page 13
