THE WITCH'S KEY (Detective Marcella Witch's Series. Book 3)

by Dana Donovan

  “What? Just sitting there?”

  “Under a blanket.”

  “What is it,” asked Dominic.

  Carlos handed him the paper. “It’s a spell she downloaded off the Internet to make her invisible.”

  “What!”

  “Well, it won’t really make her invisible,” I explained. “But if she can pull it off, the spell will make her invisible to the person under its influence.”

  Spinelli rolled his eyes back. “Wow! That’s incredible. So, that’s how she does it.”

  I snatched the paper out of his hand. “We don’t know that.”

  He snatched it back. “That’s evidence.”

  “No it’s not.” I grabbed it from him again and stuffed it back in my pocket. “First of all, I didn’t have a warrant to search her vehicle. Secondly, well, there is no secondly, but maybe we do want to get a warrant to search the apartment after I tell you what else I found.”

  “Oh?”

  I pulled out the witch’s key I retrieved from her closet. “You see this?”

  Spinelli nodded. “Looks like the ones we found.”

  “I found seven of these in her closet.”

  “The smoking gun.”

  “I thought you’d like that.”

  “Did you find anything else?”

  “Like what?”

  He pulled a small envelope from his pocket and held it upside down over the table. My mouth dropped when I saw what spilled from the envelope onto the pictures. “Find anything like this?”

  It was a ring; a silver ring with a medieval skull embossed on the face that made it look like a devil. The eyes on it burned crimson red, and two big horns protruded from its forehead. I had seen the ring before, and the look on my face bore testimony to it.

  “I see you recognize it.” Spinelli said.

  “Yes.”

  “Is it Lilith’s?”

  I picked it up and examined it closer. “She’s got one like it.”

  “So, are you convinced now?”

  I tossed the ring back onto the table. “It’s not up to me anymore. Is it?”

  “Say again?”

  “You have your circumstantial. Bring her in.”

  Spinelli gave Carlos a look like he might want him to take over. I know Carlos, and the grimace on his face told me that I was not going to like what I heard next. He cleared his throat and placed himself between Spinelli and me.

  “Listen, Tony.” He began fidgeting some. “About that.”

  “Yes?”

  “You see, we already have Lilith in custody.”

  “What!”

  “We tried to tell you over the phone, but you turned your phone off.”

  “Where is she?”

  “Down in holding.”

  “Where in holding?”

  Carlos gave Spinelli the look, but Spinelli would not have it.

  “Carlos, where in holding?”

  “We got her in eight.”

  “The padded room?”

  “Yeah.”

  I staggered back against the table and nearly fell to the floor. Probably would have if Carlos hadn’t caught me. I grabbed him by the forearms and shook him hard. “Tell me you didn’t put her in the jacket.”

  I watched that grimace cross his face again.

  “Carlos!”

  “Tony, she put up such a fight. It took five guys to restrain her.”

  “Oh, dear God!” I let go of Carlos and rocketed down the hall like buckshot. I remember hearing Carlos and Spinelli calling for me to wait up, but my feet were moving so fast my body would have snapped in two for trying. I got as far as the downstairs visitor’s corridor when a locked door prevented me from charging further.

  “Tried to tell you,” said Carlos, waving his keycard after catching up with me. “You’ll need this.”

  I snatched the card away and swiped it through the reader. “You better hope she’s calmed down by now,” I told him. “You know hell hath no fury—”

  “Yeah, yeah, I know, like a woman scorned.”

  “No….” I heard the lock mechanism unlatch and I pushed the door open. “I was going to say like a pissed off witch.”

  We quick-stepped down the hall, counting off odd numbered doors on the left and even ones on the right. When we got to number eight, I put my hand up to Carlos to stop him before either of us could see her through the little window in the door. “What’s wrong?” he asked. “You scared?”

  “Me? Oh no. You’re the one that should be afraid. I was just going to ask you if you’d like to be buried in your dress blues or in a suit.”

  He ran his hand down his chest and belly and made a face like he just drank sour milk. “Tony,” he made a tsk sound through his teeth. “You know my blues don’t fit me anymore.”

  “I know. I just thought you might want to look as stupid in death as you will in about two seconds.”

  I swiped the keycard and then Carlos and I entered the room shoulder-to-shoulder. We expected to find Lilith restrained, but anticipated a feisty reception nonetheless. The straightjacket, I assumed, would merely even-up the odds. To our surprise, though admittedly I should not have been, we found Lilith setting in the lotus position meditating and humming like a Buddhist monk. I turned to Carlos, uneasy about what I saw.

  “I thought you put her in a jacket?” I said.

  If he had seen a ghost, he could not have looked any whiter. “We did.”

  “What happened to it?”

  He shrugged. “I don’t know. Ask her.”

  I looked at Lilith. She had stopped humming but remained seated, her hands resting upon her lap with palms splayed up and opened. I saw her peering through the corner of one eye, watching Carlos and me like a charmed cobra.

  What happen next, I can only describe in simplified terms, as I’m still not entirely sure what took place myself. I felt Carlos nudge me into the room when suddenly both her eyes sprang opened wide. Her fish-hooked brows arched high as if making room for a grand awakening.

  I fell back, grabbing Carlos’ arm and squeezing it to keep from falling again. He propped me up, but I heard him gasp, and for a moment thought that he might also fall.

  On many occasions I have likened Lilith’s eyes to objects of mystery and beauty. They have held me spellbound and left me subordinate to their bewitching charm. I have described them as black jewels and ebony pearls, and sometimes as the ardent matter of a midnight sky. But the demon-spun eyes that held us now flickered like fire and hissed like angry steam. They followed us as we started away, a pair of molten red orbs distorted by drafts of thermal waves. We watched them simmer before fading back into her head and giving way to glacier whites. With that, the room grew colder. The lights dimmed low before blinking out entirely and returning in a monochromatic blue.

  Behind the whites of Lilith’s eyes, rolled the familiar sable-brushed spheres that I had come to know so well. They fell upon us for only a moment before slowly drifting skyward. Carlos and I followed her gaze, up past the padded walls and the cobalt lights.

  It seemed impossible at first, until I reminded myself whom I was dealing with; but clinging to the ceiling, arms splayed wide in welcoming gesture, we saw the straightjacket that Lilith had somehow managed to shed. Carlos pointed to it and began uttering something befitting his bemusement. At that instant, the jacket vanished, appearing again only seconds later, this time on him!

  “Hey!” he cried, twisting in spastic jerking fits. “Get me out of this!”

  I turned to Lilith. She was smiling now, her eyes as beguiling as ever. I tried not smiling back, knowing it would only encourage her. But the justice of it all enchanted me so.

  “Lilith,” I said. “I’m sorry about all this. It wasn’t my idea you know.”

  Her smile faded. “That doesn’t let you off the hook.”

  Spinelli rounded the corner just then and began freeing Carlos from the jacket. He might have wondered what happened, but likely guessed as much without needing to ask. As
the two fell back into the hall, I went to Lilith and offered her my hand. “We still need to talk, you know.”

  She waved me off and stood on her own. “Get me some tea,” she hissed, brushing me aside as she headed for the door. “And not that instant crap from the break room either.”

  I watched her push past Carlos and Spinelli before turning right and heading down the hall. It was not the direction of the interrogation room, but it wasn’t the way out, either. So I let her go, figuring it best to meet her on her own terms. Besides, it wasn’t like I had much choice.

  I waited for Spinelli to finish freeing Carlos before the three of us caught up with Lilith again. We found her in the cafeteria sitting by the window. I sent Spinelli to the counter for some tea for her and coffee for us. Once we all settled in, the real fun began.

  “You know why Carlos and Dominic brought you in today,” I said, “don’t you?”

  She picked her teacup up and sipped it casually. “To trash my civil liberties?”

  “No, to ask you some questions.”

  “Is that why these dogs hog-tied me?”

  Carlos interrupted. “We restrained you for your safety. You went ballistic on us.”

  “You think that was ballistic? Listen, Fidel, you don’t know ballistic. The next time you lay a finger on me, I’ll—”

  I slammed my hand down on the table. “Stop it!” The three of them looked at me with more surprise than I intended to elicit, but at least I made my point. “Lilith, trust me. Carlos knows very well what you’re capable of doing once you get angry. Now, maybe bringing you in without consulting me was a mistake, he should have thought about that. But face it, you have some serious explaining to do.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “No, excuse me, for not making this happen sooner. There’s a few things connecting you to the recent deaths of transients in this town, and I’ve been too blind to see them for what they really are.”

  She set her teacup down and pulled back to assess me. “And what might they be.”

  “Let’s just say they incriminate you somewhat.”

  “You think I killed those men?”

  I leaned in over the table. “I didn’t say that.”

  She leaned in likewise. “That’s what I’m hearing.”

  “All right then, did you?”

  “Bite me.”

  I pulled back. “Lilith, explain to me what you were doing in the places along the tracks where those men were killed.”

  “Who said I was?”

  “We found this,” said Spinelli. He held up the witch’s key that he and Carlos found at that morning’s investigation.

  Lilith answered to me. “That’s not mine”

  “No?”

  Her expression remained unchanged.

  “How come I found seven others just like it in your closet?”

  That got a reaction. Her face grew suddenly flustered. Her eyes lit up in angry clouds of black on white, but then narrowed. “You,” she growled through gritted teeth. “You went through my stuff.”

  “I had to. I wanted to prove Carlos and Dominic wrong.”

  She snapped her head in their direction and both scooted back a foot or more in their chairs. Carlos threw his hands up in defense, but smiled to deflect his fear. “Hey, I didn’t tell him to do that. I respect a woman’s privacy.”

  Her glare fell to Spinelli next. He coiled back, swallowing down the lump in his throat. “Neither did I. Swear to God!” Honestly though, it came out in such a wimpy little squeak that I doubt if Lilith could have hit him if she wanted to.

  When her frosty glare came back to me, I thought I might need some serious back up. But by then she looked more frustrated than furious. I told her that the two of them were right about not putting me up to the search.

  “But the evidence suggested your complicity in the case,” I said. “They had a right to suspect you. I went through your stuff because I wanted to prove them wrong.”

  “You went through all my drawers, too. Didn’t you?”

  At once, my mind flashed back to the myriad of unmentionables that Lilith kept in her dresser drawers: the panties and thongs, the racy lingerie with spaghetti straps and paper-thin lace. I flustered just thinking about it, but I held my cool like a professional and told her what I needed to in order to maintain the integrity of the office and the department.

  “No!” I said, indignant, of course. “Why? Do you have something else to hide?”

  “I wasn’t hiding anything. You can find a witch’s key anywhere. Just check Ebay or Witchit dot com.”

  “Is that where you got them?”

  She pursed her lips some. “Am I under oath?”

  Spinelli blurted out, “No. This isn’t a deposition.”

  “Then, yes, that’s where I got them.”

  “Do you have a tattoo?” I asked.

  “What?”

  “You know, on your….” I pointed to her behind.

  “Excuse me?”

  “On your butt,” said Spinelli.

  Clearly he was still new at this. Carlos and I shot him a look that could have killed. He seemed confused at first, but eventually he got it. After that, I sent him upstairs to retrieve the items of evidence we left in the office. Carlos questioned the call, suggesting instead that we move to the interrogation room. “So that we can record the interview for proper documentation,” he reasoned.

  “You think?” I said, and the involuntary laugh that followed triggered a similar response from Lilith. Carlos looked both hurt and offended until I explained to him that previous attempts to capture Lilith’s voice on electronic media had inexplicably failed. Coincidence, maybe, but I like to call it the Lilith factor.

  “So what do we do?” he asked.

  “What do you think?” I mimicked writing on a pad in the palm of my hand. “What did cops do before tape recorders?”

  “Oh, right.” He pulled out the small notebook and pen and began taking notes.

  I turned to Lilith, whose thin smile still dimpled the corners of her mouth. “You know what’s coming,” I said.

  “No.” Her smiled withered.

  “Where’s your ring?”

  She looked down at her fingers and then again at me. “What ring?”

  “Don’t play coy. I mean your devil ring.”

  “Oh, that.”

  “Yes, that.”

  “For your information, it’s Incubus.”

  “Who?”

  “Incubus,” said Carlos. “He’s a demon who partakes in sexual intercourse with women while they sleep.”

  “Oh?” I said, thinking now I had a Cuban version of Spinelli.

  “Yeah, and I get it,” he said. “She’s being sensitive, because in some respects, Incubus is like the male equivalent to the female demon known as Lilith. See, in rabbinical teachings, the notorious she-demon copulates with men while they sleep to propagate demon babies of her own.”

  Lilith and I looked at him in wonder. He took our silence as an invite to impress us further.

  “See, in Hebrew Scripture,” he continued, “Lilith and Adam were the first man and woman on Earth. It’s said that God created Lilith as Adam’s twin, but that Adam didn’t consider her his equal? Naturally, she resented that and in time, left Adam, angered over her denied equality. She found comfort in Satan, who demonized her for the promise of eternal life and the propagation of demon babies.”

  When he finished, Lilith and I could only shake our heads. Though I might have expected Spinelli to know such things, Carlos’ remarks proved curiously interesting. I let it go at that, however, if for no other reason than because I already knew all about Lilith the she-demon from our investigation into the Surgeon Stalker murders. I cleared my throat to get Lilith’s attention again, but merely blinked at her to convey my loss for words. She perked up in her chair and finished digesting it all with a shudder.

  “Wow! What can one say about that? I’m impressed, Carlos. You’ve done your homework.”

>   He smiled back. “Actually, Dominic told me that. He really boned up on the particulars of the Surgeon Stalker case last year. My interests were more narrowed, so I asked him just to fill me in on all the juicy stuff about you.”

  “Still, impressive.”

  I clapped my hands once. “Yes, Carlos, very nice. Now, if you’re done stroking Lilith’s ego, I’d like to continue.” I sat back and crossed my arms to my chest. “I have all day, Lilith, if that’s what it takes.”

  She waved her hand in splayed fashion as if presenting the floor. “Please, don’t let me stop you.”

  “So, about your Incubus ring. Where it is now?”

  She scoffed. “I’m guessing you have it.”

  “Well as a matter of fact we do. Do you want to know where we found it?”

  “No.” She shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. As far as I’m concerned you stole it out of my room when you searched it illegally.”

  “I didn’t search it illegally.”

  “Oh, I suppose you’re going to tell me you found it by one of the suicide victims.”

  “You know we did.”

  She started into a righteous defense about search warrants and Miranda rights, just as Spinelli returned to the cafeteria with the bundle of evidence stuffed into a large manila envelope.

  “I brought everything,” he said. “Where do you want it?”

  “Here,” I pointed. “Spread it all out.”

  Spinelli dumped the contents of the envelope onto the table. I watched Lilith’s eyes light up. She seemed to pay particular attention to the silver locket, dismissing the witch’s keys and surveillance photos entirely. As she stretched her hand out to take the locket, I quickly snatched it from her reach.

  “Uh-uh. That’s not yours anymore. It’s ours.”

  She fell back into her seat. “Where did you get that?”

  “Where did you lose it?”

  “I didn’t. It’s not mine.”

  “But you recognize it.”

  “You think so?”

  “Yes.”

  “I’ve never seen it before.”

  “Then how did clippings of my hair get inside it?”

  That brought her smile back. “Your hair?”

  “Are you surprised?”