Team Destiny and Archie's Apparition (Team Destiny Paranormal Cozy Mystery Book 2)

by Belinda White

Trevor nodded solemnly. “Maybe we should respect your Mom’s advice on this one, Amie.”

  I held my breath as he opened the lid to the aquarium. But Drakken didn’t seem at all interested in causing problems for Trevor. Once the first cricket dropped in front of him, he only had eyes for them.

  Poor little crickets. Their constant chirping could be annoying at times, yes. But summer nights just wouldn’t be the same without it, either.

  Yet another strike against Drakken in my book.

  Chapter 15

  I got lucky that Trevor was only slated to work a short shift the next day. Basically, all he had to do was cover lunchtime for the dispatcher. Other than that, he offered to spend the day with me.

  Needless to say, I took him up on it. We got the early morning feeding of Drakken out of the way. Well, I say early morning. It was early, considering the late night we’d had. And the little demon beast should have enough food in his system to last him easily until the next morning.

  All the more reason to do my dangdest to get this thing put to rest today. Not that I really thought that would be possible, mind you, but I was sure as heck going to give it my best.

  Having Trevor with me meant a lot. He was a dang good backup.

  We ended up leaving my car at Mom’s. It just made little sense to caravan to the house and then back again tomorrow. I could always just hang with him while he did his lunchtime shift at the station. Or he could pick me back up afterward. Either way worked.

  Once in the car, he looked over at me. “We have a couple of hours to kill before I have to go in. Where to?”

  Where to indeed? I’d already called Mom. The detailed circle was taking some time to get perfect, and the Shaman was very adamant about it having to be perfect.

  Not that I blamed him. It had been scary enough seeing that thing take over the man’s body. How much worse must it have been to be the body itself?

  I really didn’t think a simple shower would cut through that stink of evil. Maybe not even a lifetime of showers.

  But bottom line, they weren’t nearly ready for me yet.

  “How’s about we head home?” I had to think of my own skin a little too. Leaving Destiny home alone without being able to check on my current status wasn’t a good thing to do for long. She took exception to that. As it was, I’d have to pay for last night. “Maybe stop by the market on the way to pick up some canned salmon?”

  He nodded. “Good idea.” My man might be willing to tackle a magical dragon for me, but he drew the line at my little calico familiar kitty cat. Yeah. She was that scary when she wanted to be.

  During the drive, I filled him in on everything we knew. The whole Voodoo thing as well as the fact that somehow, somewhere, there had to be a human behind it all.

  He agreed, although he didn’t seem to be so sure about the Voodoo thing. Well, he hadn’t been all that sure about magic in general until a couple of years ago. Up to then, he’d thought we were just eccentric women who liked to dance naked around a campfire under the full moon.

  We were that, too, at times. But we were also so much more than that. He learned that pretty quickly once the trouble started ramping up.

  And then, too, he hadn’t been there last night when that thing had taken over the Shaman’s body. That would make a Voodoo believer out of anybody.

  I thought it was important that he not take this too lightly.

  “Look, I know we all thought Voodoo was just something that happens in the swamps, right? Or maybe even just on the movie screen. Well, come to find out, we all thought wrong. This is real, Trevor. And when that thing got a hold of Mom? It took all of us to pull her back.” I shivered. “We’re up against a possible Voodoo god here. It isn’t something to underestimate because of stories.”

  The car swerved a bit at the mention of a god. Oh, had I left that part out? Most likely had from his reaction to the word.

  “We’re up against a god?”

  “If the Shaman is right, we are.” And as it was his body the thing had taken over, he’d be the one to know, now wouldn’t he?

  Trevor swallowed. “Has the Goddess been in touch with you all on this one? How strong is she against VooDoo?”

  I really didn’t like to admit the Goddess had been silent on this one up until now, but it was the truth all the same. “No word from her yet, but then we haven’t exactly had the time to meditate to reach her, either.”

  He gave me the side-eye on that one. Yeah, I knew as well as he did that if the Goddess had something important to say to us, She didn’t have to just sit around and wait for us to come to her. She could come to us. After all, She’d done it in the past. We had already established the precedent there.

  “Maybe that’s where you need to start when we get home. You can check in with her... and maybe siphon off a little excess magic in the Ether... and I can start the background checks on the facility’s employees. If the Shaman is right about that constant feeding thing, I’d say someone there would be the most likely culprit. Might be we can wrap this up fairly quick.”

  Sure sounded good to me.

  DESTINY SEEMED A LITTLE surprised by my request for a Goddess visit. She sat there and stared at me for a good long minute.

  “You do know it doesn’t exactly work like that, right?” she said. “The Goddess isn’t just sitting at home waiting for visitors. She has a major role to play in the world at large. The chances of catching her free are minuscule, at best.”

  I shrugged. “Well, it can’t hurt to try, can it?”

  For some reason, she didn’t seem too sure about that. But in the end, Destiny was my familiar, and I called the shots, dang it all.

  “Besides,” I wheedled. “I need to visit her realm anyway to drain off some excess magic, right?”

  Yes, Mom had sent Arc over with a few more crystals that needed filling, but that shouldn't stop us, should it? Destiny and I had a system in place to fill those crystals while I meditated. I couldn’t see her arguing about that one.

  But then, maybe I hadn’t thought it all the way through, either. I thought that might be the case, as Destiny was giving me the look.

  It was hard to believe that a cat could pull off the famous Ravenswind look, but Destiny did a dang good job of it.

  “Okay. What am I missing?” I asked.

  “Well, for starters, I happen to be a single cat. One. Meaning that I can’t be in two places at the same time. I can’t guide you through to the Goddess’s tree and still be here to help you fill up those crystals. You have to choose one or the other. Both aren’t going to happen.”

  “Hmm. Well, I think it’s important to get the Goddess’s take on this, don’t you? Maybe She’ll have some words of wisdom to help us?” And yes, what should have been a statement was definitely framed as a question.

  Destiny was still giving me the stare. “Don’t you think if She were allowed to do that, She already would have? I think you need to concentrate on preparation. Besides, if we waste time and go the tree and she isn’t there... well, that’s time we won’t get back, you know.”

  There was something about Destiny’s stance that made me think there was far more to this than what she was telling me. Unfortunately, her stance also told me that I didn’t have a snowball’s chance in July of her actually letting me in on it.

  So I did the only thing left to me. I caved.

  An hour later, I felt a touch on my arm. A human touch. Not a feline one. That wasn’t normal.

  My eyes shot open to stare straight into Trevor’s as I sat bolt upright in a split second.

  He hurriedly stepped back, his hands up in front of him. Okay, the surprise most likely had me locked and loaded for bear. I’ve been told I get scary when that happens.

  “Whoa, babe,” he said, taking another couple of steps back for safe measure. “It’s just me.”

  My eyes searched the room until I found Destiny. She was ignoring both of us and licking herself, with one rear paw high in the air. The message couldn�
��t have been any clearer. Next time, don’t fight me.

  I glared at her. Not that she noticed. Then I looked up at Trevor. “Sorry about that. I’m pretty vulnerable when I’m in trance mode. I’m used to Destiny’s touch to bring me out of it.”

  He nodded quickly. “No explanation necessary, though I’ll admit that’s good information to know.”

  A look at the clock told me it was still early. Too early for him to have been waking me from my meditation.

  “Please tell me you found something.”

  He grinned at me. “What can I say? I’m really good at my job. Maybe I should stop being a sheriff and start being a detective. The two of us could give Dad and Opal some real competition, don’t you think?”

  I grinned back. “Sounds great to me. Not that I think being sheriff is all that different from being a detective, mind you. One and the same kind of thing to me.”

  “Kind of, yeah. I’ll give you that. But it sure would be nice to have our evenings back from being on constant call, wouldn’t it?”

  I sure as heck would not argue that one. And nice wasn’t the word I’d use for it, either. But none of that was going to happen overnight.

  “What did you find?”

  In an instant, his face changed. “You remember how you told me part of the stress that Martha had been under was because of her husband being abroad competing for a CEO position?”

  I nodded.

  “Well, what would you say if I told you that the daughter of one of the people he was competing with was a nurse at the facility? Second only to Karen, in fact. Has a full run of the whole darn place when she’s on duty. Which, for the record, happens to be when Karen isn’t.”

  Crapsnackles.

  “I don’t suppose that you could get a replacement for that lunch shift?”

  He nodded. “Dad offered to pinch-hit for me. I’ll need to figure out a way to make that work on the books, but I’ll deal with that later. I don’t think Dad would have volunteered if there wasn’t a way to cover my behind for having non-personnel covering the dispatch.”

  “He would know.”

  “I’m counting on that.” Then he brightened. “Then again, maybe the mayor will take exception to it and fire me.”

  I patted his arm even as I walked across the room to grab my purse. “Don’t count on it, sweetie.”

  “One can dream, can’t one?”

  Oh, yes. I agreed with that. One could indeed dream. And right now, my dream was to put this case to rest so that I never had to feed Drakken again.

  Chapter 16

  It rather surprised me to find Arc still at the facility when we got there. But, according to him, Archie really didn’t want Mom alone with—his words—that thing, and he was more expendable to the firm than Archie was. Hence, they elected Arc to babysitting duty.

  Not that he seemed to mind it. Although it was really bothering me that neither Ruby nor Opal had shown their faces here yet.

  Great. Something else for me to worry about. As if I didn’t have enough on my worry plate already. Still. Once I got through the day, I thought a call to Ruby was in high order.

  Just to check in, if nothing else. Surely if they were involved in something major, Arc would know and alert us, right? Then again, if they weren’t involved in something major, they’d be here with us, wouldn’t they?

  Aargh, but my family got complicated sometimes.

  As luck would have it, it was Karen’s day off. Not that it really meant anything to the woman herself. She was still there. Shoot, she lived there. Where was she going to go?

  But what it did mean was that we didn’t have to wait to interview our prime suspect. One Betina Dahl. It didn’t take long to find her, either.

  She was sitting behind the nurse’s counter on the third floor. Not far from Martha’s room. That station was the one that was hooked up with the most monitor viewing capacity. The kind of one station to rule them all mentality, to twist a phrase.

  She glanced up as Trevor and I approached. Then Karen stepped around us, and her eyes widened.

  And yes, we’d brought Karen into the fold before going to have a talk with Betina. Number one, we owed her that much. And number two, it would be a whole lot easier to do the interview if the woman wasn’t distracted by... well, working.

  “Betina, these people would like to talk with you about Martha.” Karen’s voice didn’t give anything away, but I rather thought her expression might. She wasn’t a very happy camper right now. I wouldn’t be, either, if I had just been given evidence that might suggest one of my worker bees was actually sabotaging a patient that I was responsible for.

  Or, you know, practicing black Voodoo magic in general. That would be enough for me right there. I was pretty sure it would be for Karen, too.

  “Can I ask what this is about?” Betina asked.

  I tried out a smile. “Absolutely. But I think it would be better if you did the asking in the lounge downstairs, don’t you?” I glanced around. “A little more private, don’t you think?”

  Her eyes widened farther. “We need privacy to talk about Martha?” Her gaze went to Karen. “What’s going on?”

  The problem with the situation was that the woman wasn’t moving. She was still sitting right there at the station in front of those monitors. In other words, she wasn’t taking us seriously.

  I rather wished that Trevor would have been suited up in uniform. People didn’t question us so much then. They just did as they were asked. Not so much when we were both in plain clothes.

  Karen’s lips thinned out. “There is some indication that Martha’s condition might not be a natural one.”

  If the woman’s eyes got any bigger, they’d pop clean out of her face.

  “Someone did this to her?” Betina looked from Karen to us and back again. “Who?”

  “That’s what we are trying to determine,” Trevor said with a smile. “We’re starting with all the people who work with her here. That’s why we need to talk to you.”

  Well, it was one of the reasons, anyway.

  Finally, there was movement on her part. She didn’t seem all that enthusiastic about it, but at least she was moving.

  “You’ll cover the station while I’m gone?”

  Karen nodded. “That’s why I’m here.”

  Nothing but the truth there, too. If it wasn’t for needing someone behind that desk in case of emergencies, Karen would be sitting at the table with us during the interview. She hadn’t been all that happy about missing that part.

  But then she had her job to do, and we had ours.

  We helped ourselves to coffee from the machine in the lounge and then settled in. That was one thing I’d have to say for the facility. They had excellent coffee. Not Flour Pot awesome, but close.

  “So, at the risk of repeating myself yet again,” Betina started. “What is this really all about? Why did you want to talk to me in particular?”

  “Well, we wanted to start out with the ones who knew Martha the best.” Trevor was still smiling at her. I was getting a tad bit jealous. Was this how he interviewed all his female suspects? If so, I was thinking I knew why he was so good at his job.

  My man was no slouch in the looks department. And when he turned on the charm, hubba-hubba. I knew in my heart he was using his gift for good, but that didn’t mean I had to like it.

  Not when I wasn’t always with him in case the woman he was interviewing got the wrong idea about the situation. I could see that happening.

  Betina nodded. “Okay, I guess I get that. I do know Martha. Though I’m not sure my casual acquaintance with her really means anything.” She took a sip of her coffee.

  I could tell she was stalling for time. Probably trying to get her story straight in her head.

  “Why don’t we start with how you know Martha?” I said sweetly. To be truthful, I wasn’t all that happy about the sly looks she was giving my man under those lowered lashes of hers.

  She lifted a shoulder. “Her husba
nd works with my mum. I’ve met Martha a time or two at company get-togethers. That kind of thing. I wouldn’t really call us friends or anything.”

  “I understand that your mother and Mr. Donaldson are both out of the country right now. Some kind of training competition for the CEO position of their company?”

  Trevor gave me a look. Sue me. I wasn’t one to beat around the bush. I wanted answers, dang it. Not a long, polite conversation.

  And no. Betina was no slouch in the looks department, either. And yes. That might have had something to do with it. So might the covert looks she was giving my man.

  My man, dash it all. Not that I could very well say that to her, now could I?

  She took a deep breath. “Yes, they are. For now, anyway.”

  I gave Trevor a triumphant look. “You think Mr. Donaldson’s going to be coming home soon, do you?”

  She shook her head and then something unexpected happened. A tear leaked out and traveled slowly down her face. An actual, honest to goodness tear.

  Not all that many people can cry on demand like that. At least, not with actual tears.

  “Actually, it would be Mum that would be coming home. I mean, Martha is stable and there isn’t a thing that Mr. Donaldson could do for her that we can’t. But Dad is a different story. Without Mom at home, he can go...”

  Heaven help me, but that’s when I noticed the bruise on her forehead. Surely she wasn’t saying what I thought she was saying.

  “Did your Dad do that?” Trevor asked, nodding toward her forehead.

  Her hand reached up and brushed her bangs to cover it better. “It wasn’t his fault. Not really. He’d been doing so well. It’s only when he’s drinking that he gets that way, and he’d been sober for a full year. He just got his one-year token.” She wouldn’t meet our eyes. “That’s the only reason Mom agreed to take the training. Yes, she wants that position, but not at the risk of losing Dad again.”

  “Did something happen to throw him off the wagon?” I asked. My witch’s intuition was starting to flare up. I thought that question just might be an important one.